Recurrence at an Inconvenient Place

When they were done with interrogating the guard, they simply killed him off and continued on to the third floor.

What they found on the third floor was not much different than the previous two floors, an iron gate at the entrance, some formations here and there, even more ghosts, and a few guards.

Since it was only possible to enter the Tower of Screams in this specific date and it remained open for a single week, there was neither enough time to set a better defense nor there was a need to do so.

The main defensive line was the one at the entrance of the tower with numerous cultivators utilizing all kinds of formations to defend against enemies attacking to take control of the tower. The defenders inside the tower were only aimed to stall the people who sneaked in as the defender tried to run away and bring reinforcements.

Unfortunately, against the terror of Leyzhen's literally out of world power all their preparations were for naught as all of the defenders outside got decimated in a matter of seconds leaving these stragglers inside the tower without any backup.

''Now that I think about it, it really was a close shave that we always chose the right side.''

Mayton said as he contemplated the consequences they would face if they chose the left side.

''No need to thank me, really. I was just doing my best for the good of the group and coincidentally saved your lives.''

Celyse reproached as they moved towards the right door again after a challenging fight on the third floor. If not for her past betrayal in the Fair of Souls, Mayton would have thanked her earnestly but because he knew that she was doing everything she does for her own convenience, he simply ignored her.

When they got past the door, they finally encountered something different. This place had no guards. There was only a pile of gray stones heaped on top of each other. They were no different from the rocks that covered the ground, walls, ceiling, everywhere ever since they entered the Tower of Souls at first glance, but if you examined them for an extended period of time, you would see that they were far from normal.

The stones were shaking slightly from time to time with a white dot appearing on their surface. It looked like the white dot was imprisoned inside the stone as it rammed at its border in a bid to break through and escape, shaking the stone in the process. But after each failure the dot disappeared once more, making the stone look normal again.

''HAHA, so many soul stones! I am rich!''

Celyse, who was shaking way more than the stones ever since they saw them, shouted with excitement as she picked up a handful of the stones.

''Ehm. I mean we, we are rich. I understand, you don't want to reward someone who saved your life. Well, we can just share it equally. Half for you, half for me.''

She said begrudgingly as if she was suffering an injustice after seeing the glare of Mayton. Mayton didn't know what these soul stones were but he heard of spirit stones from Leyzhen before*. It wasn't hard to make a guess about the soul stones when you knew about the spirit stones.

And it turned out his guess was spot on. The soul stones were special kinds of stones with a piece of soul trapped inside them. They were pretty much the equivalent of spirit stones, the only difference was the type of cultivator who used them.

Spirit stones contained qi and were used by both divine cultivators and demonic cultivators alike while soul stones contained pieces of souls and were used by devil cultivators.

''Aren't we supposed to share it between three of us? How come Leyzhen doe-''

''Five people coming down the stairs. Get ready.''

Celyse interrupted Mayton's retort. As soon as she finished her words, without saying anything else they positioned themselves at the sides of the stairs, lying in ambush for the group of five. This was a testament to their teamwork becoming better as they continued to fight side by side.

''Getting experience my ass. We are just doing manual labor here.''

''Shh, we will be in trouble if anyone hears you.''

''Haha, that's the only good part of this place. Those f*ckers can't hear me!''

''Only six days left. Then we are out. What are you complaining about? Won't we get a soul stone for this? I think this is definitely worth it.''

The voices became closer and closer accompanied by the footsteps that confirmed there were five of them. Mayton was waiting with bated breath and clenched fists after signaling Leyzhen and Celyse to not kill all of them if possible.

At the moment he heard of Delun being in the tower, finding him became his main objective for this trip. These people sounded young, so there was a chance that some of them were involved in the attack on his village. Even Delun himself might be in this group thus it was important to capture them alive to interrogate.

''It's only experience for those top disciples. Weak disciples like us are better off staying away from the danger. Didn't you hear that even a few of the top disciples got lost, never to be heard of again, last year?''

One of the young men said with envy as he descended the last step. These were the last words he said before his head got blasted open by a swing of Mayton's staff. Mayton didn't want to kill the man, but he couldn't take the risk of making his attack totally ineffective and losing the element of surprise if somehow the young man was too strong. From the result, the victim seemed like pretty weak.

Without giving any time to react to their enemies, Leyzhen made an incantation gesture as the stairs straightened, making the other four lose their balance and slid down. Simultaneously, Mayton hit one more of them with his staff, this time with just enough strength to make him pass out.

When he raised his staff once more, Leyzhen gestured him to stop. Mayton looked at the young men, he saw that they were covering in fear with no fight left in them.

''W- we surr-surrednder! Do- Don't kill us!''

One of the survivors stuttered as he got encouraged by Leyzhen's gesture. This teenager wore the gray robes of the Cult of Unity like all the others and had freckles on his face.

''Drop all your weapons and don't make any movements. You, tell me what are you doing here.''

Mayton said as he pointed at the freckled teen. Afraid that Mayton may kill him if he didn't comply, the freckled boy began to answer all his questions without even wiping the blood of his fellow disciple splattered on his face.

This group of people was disciples with poor aptitude and no backing, so when they heard they were selected as part of the disciples who got to explore the Tower of Screams, they thought that their fortunes were finally turning for the better. But their hopes got dashed as soon as they started to explore the tower.

It turned out that the cult only brought them here to carry the loot others gathered back to there. When Mayton started to ask questions about Delun and the massacre back at his village despite denying any knowledge of them other than saying that Delun was here in the tower, one of the teens began fidgeting. This didn't escape Mayton's notice.

''You, just tell me what you know before I make it hurt.''

Mayton said with a savage glare terrorizing all of the captives.

''I- I didn't kill anyone! I was guarding the perimeter. I was forced to go with them. I swear I didn't k- kill anyone!''

The teen blurted as tears began to roll down his cheeks. He was just a normal disciple in the cult with a little accomplishment in cultivation. He was only present in the tower because he buttered up Delun.

He had no desire to suffer for the cult or Delun, so he began to tell all he knew about the incident.

He told them the day they were returning after making a delivery to a frequent customer of the cult.

He told them the strange actions of the leader of their party, Supervisor Bartolomeo and his subsequent order.

Then, when he was talking about the massacres they committed in the villages near the area to make it faster for them to find their target, Mayton wasn't listening to him anymore as he stood still in a daze.

He already suspected that he was the cause of his parents' demise, but he always denied it in his heart. There wasn't any evidence supporting his suspicion after all.

But, when he learned the exact date they got the order, he began connecting the dots as he started hearing a humming sound in his head.

How could he forget the day he became a cultivator? How could he forget the strong pressure that swept over him, making him afraid for days?

Then he learned that they were searching for a soul with fire attribute. At this point, there was no way to keep denying it.

When Mayton came to this conclusion, the humming sound in his head was so strong, despite seeing the teen talking, he couldn't hear anything he was saying anymore.

The faces of the villagers that died were appearing in front of him one by one as he was to blame himself for everything.

He caused the deaths of most of the villagers. He caused the deaths of his parents. He doomed his sister to live a life without any parental love.

The humming sound was starting to drive him crazy when he heard someone whispering in his head with a voice that sounded exactly like his own. With each word the voice whispered, the humming sound decreased as his vision began to darken.

If only I didn't cultivate…

If only I didn't reincarnate in this world…

If only I didn't die in the first place…

If only I was whole again...

''AARRGH!''

Mayton's loud roar of pain reverberated in the room as he collapsed in to the arms of Leyzhen who held him before he fell to the ground.

Before anyone could react to Mayton's situation, a low pitched scream was heard that sent chills up the spines of everyone who heard it.

''We are in trouble.''

Leyzhen muttered as she began playing with her hair.