Chapter 298: The Soul Reaping Formation (1/2)

The forbidden area was much like it had been the previous time they had entered.

It was dark and filled with old houses that were so worn out that many of them had collapsed long ago.

The place was ages old and had been left to the mercy of the passage of time without anyone to maintain or repair it—it was like entering a decrepit time capsule.

At first glance, there was nothing special about these worn-out houses, but upon closer inspection, Xue Wei noticed that they were all placed in weirdly precise geometric pattern relative to one another.

They were formed in a star shape, with a building at each of the five points of the star, and the house that Luoluo had resided in situated at the center of them all.

“The soul power is incredibly dense here,” the King mumbled as she looked around. The closer they got to the house that had belonged to Luoluo, the denser the energy became. It became so dense that every breath they took poured soul power into their bodies at a speed so rapid that their refinement could not even keep up.

“This is like being on the eighth floor of the Soul Tower, but without having any pressure,” Xue Wei observed. “The eighth floor had a heavy pressure as the soul power was being poured into my body, but even then, that amount of energy did not feel as overwhelming as this does.”

“Something is gathering all the soul power from the surrounding area, and it is not Nebula Stones,” the King remarked, quite surprised from the events happening here. It was quite different from how it had been when they last visited.

“It seems that the center of this heavy soul power is in the house that belonged to Luoluo,” Xue Wei said with narrowed eyes. His mind was clearer than it had ever been before as it was being bombarded with dense amounts of soul power, but he felt a sudden sense of danger as he walked forward.

“Don’t go any further,” Xue Wei suddenly called out, alarmingly. “It feels as if something is wrong. Although the dense soul power is pouring into my mind, it is as if something is wrong with our surroundings. Could this be a trap?”

Hei Gou and the King both stopped in their tracks as they heard Xue Wei’s warning, and their expressions turning solemn and grave.

“Let us look at the surrounding houses first.” The King was not sure if Xue Wei was correct when he assumed that it was a trap, but the fact that he wished for them to be careful was reasonable enough.

The forbidden area had always been out of bounds for everyone—even the academy leaders did not enter the place, so no one had any real understanding of what could have happened within.

“Could it be that all the energy that was usually sent to the Soul Tower has gathered here instead?” Hei Gou voiced his concerns and theory, but Xue Wei just frowned. Something told him that it was not that simple.

“Let us see what we can find in the other houses,” Xue Wei said, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with Hei Gou’s hypothesis. It could be that he was just overthinking the situation they had landed themselves in.

They continued forward towards a house that had long since collapsed. The roof had once upon a time been made from straw, but nothing was left apart from rotten beams that would have held the straw in position.

Most of the beams had cracked and fallen into the house itself. Similarly, the brick wall had crumbled in many places due to the passage of time.

Entering the house was rather difficult as it had mostly collapsed, and it contained some danger to enter as no one knew when any remnants would collapse as well, but none of them considered this danger at the moment as they climbed over the rubble and entered what, once upon a time, had been a living area with a small kitchen to the side.

Looking at the house, Xue Wei frowned. His frown was not only because of the fact that it had become a ruin but also because there was no furniture.

Although the house looked as if it had been built for the purpose of having someone inhabit it like most houses, there were no marks, no signs of wear or use underneath the thick layer of dust and rubble in the living area.

The kitchen also looked old and broken down, but it did not look as if it had ever been used either. What was the point of building a house but never letting anyone live within it?

Xue Wei continued to the second house of the outer houses that made up the star pattern, finding the same thing. This continued in each building.

Not only were they old and in shambles, but there were no signs that anyone had ever lived within them.

“This is somewhat wrong. Even though Luoluo’s home was old and worn out, at least it was worn out from being used. These houses seem as if they were never needed in the first place,” Xue Wei mused. He could not help but feel perplexed and confused; he had spent quite a long time examining the houses, and all he had realized was that they were useless.

“Maybe they were placed there to hide something,” Hei Gou muttered with a quiet voice, but since there was no other sound in the forbidden area, both Xue Wei and the King could still hear it, and they looked at one another.

“Underneath them!” the both of them exclaimed at the same time, and then rushed towards the closest building.

“What do you mean, underneath them?” Hei Gou asked curiously, but neither Xue Wei nor the King responded. Both of them just began to move the bricks and rubble away and stack it in a pile on the side.

Hei Gou shook his head resignedly before he too began helping. They broke up the floor and the walls, and everything was moved out of the way as quietly as they could. Fortunately, it was done rather fast with their strength, as it was much higher than what moving some stones and wooden boards required.