274 Pirate (1/2)

The blood was clearly something that had appeared over a long period of time. Some of it was fresh, some was very old, but all of it seemed grim under the light that illuminated the Soul Tower.

Bai Tianyi was frowning just as Xue Wei was, neither of them felt comfortable about what they were seeing. It seemed that something unspeakable was happening at the top of the Soul Tower, but if something like that was happening here, why was the floor not forbidden to access?

And even more puzzling, how did the people who had left the bloodied marks even manage to get there? It seemed that this made no sense, and both of them could not make any head nor tail of what they saw.

Apart from the bloody scratches on the walls, there were no other signs of terror on the entire floor, in fact, there was nothing else at all on the entire floor, it was completely bare.

”Let us leave,” Xue Wei said with a low voice, resummoning the Golden dragon spirit and then descending down the stairs. Neither of them spoke, both were uncomfortable with what they had seen on the ninth floor, and neither of them could get the thought of the ten missing people a day out of their mind.

As the two reached the seventh floor, Xue Wei made the golden dragon vanish back inside again. He instantly felt the pressure bearing down upon him, and he felt as if all blood in his body started flowing in reverse. A metallic taste appeared in his throat.

Suppressing the blood at the back of his throat, Xue Wei struggled towards the stairs leading down to the sixth floor, then slowly walked to the fifth and finally was able to exit the tower at a brisk pace.

Once again, their ascending to the ninth floor had caused panic and astonishment in the entire academy, but this time, the pair had not stayed for a long time, so all that had noticed were still rushing to inform others, and not all the people they had called for had appeared yet. Xue Wei and Bai Tianyi made use of the chaos to vanish from the Soul Tower and rush back to their courtyard.

While walking, none of them said a word. When they arrived in the house, they sat down in the middle of Xue Wei's room and looked at one another.

”Every day, ten people go missing in Yan Dalu,” Xue Wei muttered.

”The Soul Tower needs a large supply of soul power to be able to continue providing that power to all the people who are inside,” Bai Tianyi added.

”We cannot assume that there is some sort of connection between these two things,” Xue Wei said, ”but at the same time, we cannot say that there is no connection.”

”Right now, the best thing would be if we could figure out what exactly is the source of the soul power within the Soul Tower,” Bai Tianyi said, furrowing his brows.

”If they really kill ten people each day, then there would be a massive amount of corpses,” Xue Wei said. ”Also, there should be some other sort of traces other than those scratch marks. The floor was white, with not even the slightest trace of blood upon it; all the blood was only on the walls.”

”It is quite strange that the room is publicly accessible when there is that much blood on the walls,” Bai Tianyi could not help but say, ”it is as if they never expected anyone to enter the ninth floor. I think we are going to be in danger from now on.”

Xue Wei's face was dark as he nodded his head. ”Right,” he agreed, ”because we have witnessed the ninth floor's secret, those that are behind the bloody scratch marks will definitely not let us wander freely. They will try to shut us up, but this could also prove to be a fortunate encounter for us.”

”You mean we will lure the tiger out of its den?” Bai Tianyi said, raising an eyebrow.

Xue Wei snickered and generously admitted, ”yes.”

”So when they are out to track us, we will track them instead and find their base of operations, solve the mystery that we still don't know anything about, and live happily ever after until it is time for us to go to the Demon Phoenix Continent.”

”You understand me well,” Xue Wei grinned. Although he was slightly unsettled by the bloody scratches he had seen on the ninth floor, he had seen and done many gruesome things before. It could make him uncomfortable, but considering how many he himself had personally killed, he was not so squeamish anymore.

The thing that really annoyed him with the bloody scratches was his inability to figure out what exactly had happened. He was curious about what was behind the scratches, and he had to admit that he was starting to feel slightly curious about this mystery that was shrouding the entire Garden of Shadows too.

Even the usual carefree Bai Tianyi was curious about the source of the scratches, but he could not keep a dark gleam out of his eyes. Although Xue Wei made it sound like they had a plan, he was aware that the risk they were taking was immense.

Not only was the risk immense, the likelihood of things going as they wanted was also very low; the other party was likely very cunning and prepared.

Not to mention, Xue Wei and Bai Tianyi were out in the open while their enemy was shrouded in the dark, hiding in the shadow, possibly ready to strike at any time, and they could do nothing in return.

Xue Wei and Bai Tianyi were deep in thought while they were wondering how to move forward with their investigation.