Inside the Tower

''You can't kill me! We are part of the same team! Did you forget your agreement with Herdis?''

Celyse screamed in panic after seeing Mayton angrily lunge at her. Mayton, remembering that it was his cultivation that was making him more and more irritable, forced himself to stop a step away from Celyse as he abruptly sat down cross legged to disperse the qi rushing around chaotically in his body.

''I did not agree to anything. I promised I will help if it's not too dangerous but seeing that you are part of this plan, it is definitely too dangerous.''

Calming down after a few seconds of meditation Mayton said as he got up.

''Hehe, I knew you wouldn't attack a defenseless weak woman. Sigh, such a chivalrous youth. I wonder which lucky lady will have your heart in the future.''

Celyse said teasingly without of a hint of her earlier panic as she glanced at Leyzhen and winked.

Mayton knew that this woman wasn't quite right in the head so he was expecting something like this to happen, but Zgar, seeing a confused impression flash for a moment at Leyzhen's face, couldn't help himself as he looked back and forth between Leyzhen and Mayton incredulously.

''Stop talking nonsense and tell me why I should trust anything you say.''

Mayton, oblivious of the small reaction of Leyzhen, said, completely ignoring what Celyse was implying.

''Sigh, how heartless. And here I thought you had what it takes to be a romantic person… What a waste... Okay, Okay stop! I will talk about proper business.''

Seeing Mayton was getting angry again, Celyse changed her intonation once more to make herself sound serious and continued on.

''You see, I had a deal with Grau and didn't I honor it? Didn't I put my life on the line to complete my end of the bargain as I clashed with you? What, could it be that you would be willing to trust me if I betrayed my ally to help you?''

''Yeah? Do you think I am a little chi-… Wait, never mind. Let me rephrase it. Do you think I am so simple minded to believe that? You obviously were afraid of Grau since he was stronger tha-''

''Haha, I won!''

Just when Mayton was completing his retort, Celyse threw her arms aloft as she shouted victoriously while glancing at Leyzhen once more. After a moment of contemplation, Mayton understood what she meant. They had Leyzhen in the group who was much stronger than Grau so if Celyse was afraid of Grau, she should be terrified of Leyzhen.

''Okay, I'll at least hear you out.''

Mayton said with a sigh as he rubbed his temples. This woman was really hard to deal with.

It turned out Celyse got a mission to end the Cult of Unity's monopoly over the Tower of Screams. Normally, she wouldn't accept such an impossible mission no matter how much she got paid but she deduced that Mayton had a vendetta against the Cult of Unity from the area Mayton's parents' soul got harvested from.

She also saw Leyzhen kill Grau effortlessly then vanish with Mayton as if they were never there to begin with.

''So I came up with a plan to use you and this miss over here to earn the rewards easily.''

Celyse finished smugly with her chin pointing upwards and her hands holding her waist.

''What the hell, I didn't ask that. I don't care what you get as long as I get what I want. Tell me what you know about the tower itself, the item Mrs. Herdis wants from there and the Cult of Unity.''

Mayton retorted. He almost facepalmed after listening to her blabbering on and on about how she wanted to scam them.

''Oh so you want to know that? The item is called the soul dew. It is the amalgamation of the soul fragments in liquid form. It can be found at 5th floor upwards. As for the tower, all I know are the limit on cultivation base, that it will be only open for a week and had untold dangers hidden inside. If you don't exit in a week, you won't be able to anymore. Also, I don't think you need to worry about the Cult of Unity with this Young Lady here.''

Celyse said, this time cheerfully and finished her words with a glance to Leyzhen again. It looked like she was happy with the outcome of their negotiation about cooperating. But, actually, she was already imagining the riches she was going to enjoy after her mission was complete before she even met them as she was sure of her ability to make Mayton agree.

Mayton, despite not being fully convinced, knew that Leyzhen was more than enough to protect them from any scheme Celyse could come up with so he decided to agree to cooperate. After all, he really wanted to exterminate as many members of the Cult of Unity as he can, not to mention Delun, the disciple who killed his father was also inside the tower.

When they ate their dried meats and made a plan about how to deal with the Cult of Unity, the sun had already set. Finishing packing up their stuff, they started to walk toward the Tower of Screams once more.

As they got closer and closer to the tower, the atmosphere became increasingly eerier. Their torches began to dim as the stars vanished completely from their vision.

Soon they were near the base of the tower but strangely they didn't run into any member of the Cult of Unity on their way. Mayton suspected that it had something to do with Leyzhen as she occasionally made an incantation gesture, and muttered some words to herself.

There was absolute silence around the tower, even when they tried to talk to each other, their voice didn't travel more than a few meters. Their vision was also severely limited by the darkness effusing from the tower getting more potent with the setting of the sun.

This made them feel like they were in a void, bereft of anything except for the ground they were walking on, the other members of their group and the Tower of Screams which was strangely still fully visible.

When they saw the entrance to the tower, Mayton and Zgar felt a chill crawl up their spines. The entrance itself was like an oval hole covered by a semi transparent black gauze. Behind it, hazy white humanoid figures of all sizes tried to tear open the entrance as they occasionally let out shrill screams.

While everyone was thinking about what the things inside could be, Leyzhen strolled in without a hint of fear on her expressionless face as if she owned the place. After a deep breath, Mayton gathered his courage and followed her inside.

When he was passing through the black gauze, he felt like he was drowning in tar as he gasped for breath and lost sight of the others in a sea of darkness but soon the feeling was gone and his vision returned.

He was inside a gloomy long tunnel, much longer than what you would expect from a tower, with rough stone walls that extended both ways with a gate at the end of each side and uneven surface. A few torches that were burning with blue flames were placed at the walls to illuminate the place. Overall this place looked more like an abandoned mine than the first floor of a tower.

After checking the place for a bit, the first thing Mayton realized was the lack of white figures or any screams waiting for him at the other side. There was only Leyzhen waiting for the group with her pure white robes and blonde hair forming a contrast with the black walls of the tower.

Before long Zgar and Celyse also came in one by one. Once everyone was inside it was time to choose which direction they would go so everyone looked at Leyzhen to decide for them. They were instinctively seeing her as the leader since she was the strongest in the group.

''I can't use my cultivation freely in this place. First of all, I sealed my own cultivation to enter and moreover this place also has a weakening effect on divine cultivators. So I am not in a better situation than you.''

Leyzhen said and went silent after that. Obviously, she was not interested in being a leader at all.

''Heee, so the rumors might be true after all. This place could really be a laboratory of some sorts!''

Celyse chimed in.

''Didn't you say that you didn't know much? What else did you not tell?''

Mayton said threateningly as he glared at Celyse. But before Celyse could answer a scream was heard and the blue flames on the torches got extinguished. Without the light from the torches, the tunnel plunged into darkness as Leyzhen warning reverberated in the tunnel;

''Get ready to fight. We are not alone here.''