The Mountain Peak Among the Flames

''Take him with you and run to the left stairs. Don't go to the lower floors instead rush to the higher floors. As long as you don't leave the left stairs, other ghosts won't notice you since they are probably too afraid of this one. I'll distract it to buy you some time. Just try to survive until I came back to save you.''

After playing with her hair for a few seconds Leyzhen decided to give Mayton to Celyse to carry as they ran together to the center of the hall, leaving the disciples of the Cult of Unity behind. Leyzhen was hoping that the ghost would kill them first, buying them a little more time. Even a single second was important as it could be all that separated life and death.

''The ghost can't track him. Didn't you realize he has a traceless talisman?''

Leyzhen tried to convince Celyse since Celyse didn't answer her. Leyzhen was starting to lose her cool. She knew that if they got caught together, Mayton and Celyse would definitely die. She didn't care about that crazy woman at all, but Mayton was absolutely not allowed to die.

''I will kill you right now if you don't go. I will also kill you if you survive this alone.''

Seeing that they were already in front of the stairs that go down and Celyse was still hesitating, Leyzhen did the only thing she could do, threatening her.

''Aiyo, no need to get aggressive!''

Celyse shrieked as she rushed to the left door with Mayton on her shoulders, no longer hesitating. As soon as they were gone Leyzhen went down the stairs as she began to unseal part of her cultivation while masking her pure qi with a battle technique, making it look like fire qi. She wanted to use her cultivation fluctuations to attract the ghost to herself.

She trusted that with the help of the traceless talisman on Mayton, the ghost shouldn't have realized the full extent of the situation and logically should assume that its target is the strongest one with fire qi. After all, what it sensed was an ancient fire demon.

But if she let out too much power the tower would eject her almost instantly. So she was unsealing her cultivation slowly.

Just when Leyzhen arrived on the second floor, she heard the scream of the ghost once more. This time the scream was coming from right behind her. She heaved a sigh of relief as she ascertained that the ghost indeed came after her first.

''Die!''

A pale white claw with fresh blood dripping from it was closing on from her behind when Leyzhen suddenly yelled and slashed with her fingers made into a finger sword. While she was attacking, she also unsealed all her cultivation at once to power her attack.

In a moment a brilliant sword light lit up inside the second floor, destroying everything in its path. Even the rocks covering the surface of the tower was ripped up as a glossy smooth surface appeared under it.

When the sword light reached the bloody claw, the claw dissipated in no time as the ghost let out an unearthly scream which reverberated in the now empty floor.

It had not encountered a being stronger than itself and long since considered everything inside the tower its prey. This tower trapped it, yes, but it also protected it from powerful cultivators. So when it was subjected to Leyzhen's full power attack, it was caught off guard and would have lost its life if not for the Tower of Screams interfering in the last moment.

Leyzhen was feeling the pressure from the tower ever since she started to unseal her cultivation, but she still could resist this level of pressure for a fairly long time.

Unfortunately, her sudden unsealing of the rest of her cultivation brought an abrupt increase in the power the tower was exerting on her, interfering in her attack.

''Damn it!''

With a warp of space, Leyzhen found herself out of the tower as soon as she unleashed her full power attack, not knowing if she succeeded in vanquishing the ghost or not.

''No time to dawdle.''

She muttered after absentmindedly looking at the dark silky entrance of the Tower of Screams. She had to stabilize her cultivation after the instant unsealing and then seal her cultivation again in a bid to enter the tower once more to look for Mayton.

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Meanwhile, Mayton was back in the world of flames. With flames everywhere, there were no changes in this place since his last time here, except for the lofty mountain he saw last time being absent.

When he thought about the mountain, he felt a strong yearning to see it once more. Since he didn't have anything else to do here, he decided that he might as well go find it.

''Hmm, as long as I search for it, I am sure I won't miss a mountain that huge.''

Mayton thought out loud as he started to travel among the ever burning flames of this desolate place. There were lots of sketchy things he was feeling right now, but he didn't question any of them for some reason.

He didn't know what this place was or why he was here, but he felt at home here.

He didn't know why he was looking for the mountain, but it felt like it was a matter of course.

He didn't know why he chose the way he did, but he was somehow sure he was on the right track.

So he traveled on and on. From time to time, despite not seeing the mountain, he felt its presence near but when he tried to locate it, the presence vanished once more.

Mayton lost his sense of time in this place as he continued his search. Just when he was losing hope, he saw a white barrier rising up to the heavens in front of him. On this barrier, he saw a reflection of himself, and after a closer look, gasped at what he saw.

A relatively handsome thirteen years old boy wearing green robes with his long black hair with a tint of red at its rims tied behind. He had a fit body and was a bit taller than people his age but other than that he was a normal teen. If he didn't look into his eyes that is.

There were flames raging in his eyes looking like they would spill out soon and consume everything. What made him gasp wasn't the flames though. He saw that many times before. What surprised him was the blurry mountain peak becoming visible among the flames from time to time.

The more he looked at his eyes' reflection, the more corporeal the mountain in them became. When the mountain was no longer flickering in and out of existence, Mayton felt a splitting headache as his vision darkened once more.

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''Sigh, I just wanted some easy money and have a bit of fun doing it. I definitely didn't sign up for this.''

Mayton heard Celyse's complaining as his arms hit the ground with each of her steps. She was carrying him on her shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

After gathering his thoughts for a few seconds, Mayton groaned because of his headache and opened his eyes. What greeted him was the black surface of the Tower of Screams, illuminated faintly by a tiny candle floating above Celyse.

''Ooh good! So you are not dead!''

Celyse cheered as she heard Mayton's groan and placed him down on the ground to check out his condition.

''Hey what's with that glare? I saved your life twice in a single day you know. You should be more thankful.''

Celyse said begrudgingly as she saw Mayton glaring at her.

''What happened? Where is Leyzhen?''

Mayton ignored Celyse's nonsense as he asked impatiently. He couldn't see Leyzhen around, and he was fearing that something untoward happened to her.

''Hehe, your little lover abandoned you as she ran away in fear. Now all you have is me.''

Celyse cheerfully replied. But after seeing that Mayton was getting ready to assault her despite his less than stellar condition, she told everything happened after he passed out.

''It has been about three days since you passed out and I was carrying you since then. Now we are at… let's see… the seventh floor, I guess.''

She finished her words. The stairs at left side worked differently than the ones at the right. The right side was pretty consistent with going up one floor each time but on the left side, there were stairs with all kinds of lengths.

Some of them were consisting of ten stairs while others had more than fifty. There were also some that forced you to go down, so it was pretty hard to keep track of your location using them.

''Can we stop running for a while? I need to check my condition before we continue on.''

Mayton said. Seeing that Celyse didn't object he immediately sat down cross legged to meditate.

First, he checked his qi reserves and was pleasantly surprised. He was brimming with qi and was only a step away from breaking through to the foundation establishment stage. A step he could take in a single cultivation session. Unfortunately, this was not the time for it.

Next, he decided to check out his soul. But, despite being a little dimmer, Leyzhen's seal prevented his access to his soul like before. When he was looking at the seal with mixed feelings, he realized that there was a tiny crack on it.

From the crack on the seal, an eye with raging flames in it was looking at him. Among the flames stood a lofty mountain peak.