45 Planning for the Future

After a few seconds of silence, Mayton calmed his emotions and asked the question that bugged him for a while now.

''What now? How are you going to ensure that I won't renege on my promise to help you?''

''Haha! You are really thinking too much. Do you think I will put a curse on you or something? While that little girl is waiting at the door for you? No way. Don't forget I can read your mind and it gives me an idea about your personality. I trust you. Even if you decide to not keep your end of the bargain, so what? I didn't lose anything helping you anyway.''

The soul slave dismissed Mayton's worries, convincing him of its goodwill in the process.

Contemplating the soul slave's words for a moment, Mayton agreed that what it said made sense. But now he knew that the soul slave genuinely wanted to help him, he decided to shamelessly ask for more.

''Hey I have to be strong to help you get free right? So can you maybe help me out a bit? Don't you have any wonder pills for example?''

Mayton asked expectantly. If he could get his hands on something to boost his cultivation that would be perfect.

''Unfortunately, I can't help you with it. I am bound by my late mistress' orders and can't willfully give away her belongings. Of course if one day you are powerful enough to free me, you can claim everything in here for yourself.''

The soul slave's answer dashed Mayton's hopes. He knew that if one day he was powerful enough to free the soul slave, the items here would mean much less to him.

''Hmm, maybe I can't give you any items, but I can still teach you all I know about the technique you used on your soul, the Soul Razor. What you saw in the dream was the fruit of the research we conducted when my mistress was still alive. After she passed away, I continued on with the research...''

The soul slave began to impart all it knew about the Soul Razor to Mayton.

When the owner of the tower was still alive, their research was mainly focused on curing her lover which meant the main emphasis was on not harming the soul while cutting away pieces of it. But after she passed away, the soul slave didn't have to focus on a particular aspect of the technique as its research became wider in scope.

Before long, it found a way to use the Soul Razor in an offensive manner by using it to attack someone's soul directly. When you shifted the focus from preventing harm to the soul to dealing as much damage as possible, it became an effective way to attack.

''That's all well and good, but I am cultivating fire qi. How can I possibly use a devilish technique?''

Mayton interrupted the soul slave's explanation in a skeptical tone.

''Hmm… You can use soul stones to power it. Cultivators on your level rarely get in touch with anything related to souls other than the basics, so they tend to be quite defenseless against decent soul attacks. It will be a bit weaker but it will still be passable for someone with low cultivation like you.''

Then the soul slave proceeded to teach Mayton a simple formation used to quickly extract power from soul stones. All Mayton had to do was carving the formation on the soul stone beforehand and activate it when he finished the incantation gesture of the Soul Razor.

''This leaves one last problem. What do you want to do about the little girl trying to break in? I know you don't want to be at her mercy, but it's highly unlikely for you to be a match for her in a short period of time.''

The soul slave asked. This was also what Mayton was thinking about. He, with the help of his luck, got rid of one of the obstacles in his quest to be the master of his own fate, but the biggest ones, Leyzhen and Yeqin still remained.

''I can teleport you far away from her if you want me to. But then again, it will only be delaying the inevitable. Someone as powerful as her will definitely find you sooner or later...''

After waiting a few seconds for Mayton to answer, the soul slave offered to help him escape.

''Haha, of course, you can stay here for a while if you want to. In fact, it will be good if you stayed for at least a year. You can practice the Soul Razor to your heart's content and since it counts as research on the Soul Razor, I can give you any materials you need for your practice. But you can't hide here forever. This place is not suitable for fire qi cultivators and will hinder your growth.''

The soul slave knew what Mayton was thinking, so it was directly answering his thoughts before Mayton said them out loud. It gave a few seconds to Mayton to think about what it said then started talking again.

''I can help you with it. Your little friend might be strong but I can see that she is not really well versed in souls from the crude seal she used on yours. I can place a similar looking seal and then use this to imitate the ancient demons consciousness trapped inside.''

The soul slave answered Mayton's silent inquiry about the feasibility of hiding what happened here from Leyzhen as it threw one of the white orbs in its hand to the air and caught it back.

''Let's do it like that then. I will stay here for a year but can you please stop reading my mind? It's annoying and confusing. Even if you want to continue reading my mind at least let me articulate my thoughts before you answer to them.''

Mayton said exasperatedly.

--- - --- – - - -

Meanwhile, Leyzhen was attacking the iron door that separated the living quarters of the owner of the tower and the rest of the tower, ignoring her less than stellar condition. But despite her continuous effort, she couldn't even leave a little dent on the door.

''Damn it. Damn that Celyse. I will find you and make you regret being born if anything happens to him.''

Leyzhen gnashed her teeth angrily in an out of character show of emotions. She was calm and collected most of the time, unfeeling even, but her parents' fate had always been her reverse scale. Anyone who touched it had to face the consequences.

'There is still time until the one week is over. I should recuperate and try to breach this door when I am in top condition. Who knows maybe he will be out by then before I took this door down.'

Leyzhen thought to herself and sat down cross legged to recuperate in front of the door as her anger subsidized, leaving its place to anxiousness.

Leyzhen's injuries were really heavy. If not for the numerous invaluable pills she swallowed like candy, she wouldn't even move around not to mention attacking repeatedly at the door. But the pills also had their limitations. Without spending time on her recovery there were only so much they could achieve.