The Old Man's Pointed Tower and the Mysterious Hooded Figure

Meanwhile, the few weeks old Chan was being carried in the arms of his old master while they were traveling.

He did not utter a single cry all this time, he remembered what his mother had said to him, she said that he shouldn't cry or his master would abandon him and let him be eaten by wild beasts outside.

Chan was extremely terrified at that time and even cried profusely at his mother's arms.

He had learned of the concept of time when he was reading books back home and he counted that they had already traveled for a whole month.

Then the carriage they were on stopped moving, his master carried him and exited the vehicle.

The carriage stopped in front of a tall and gloomy pointed tower, Chan felt the atmosphere was uncomfortable thus he scurried deep into his master's arms.

He unconsciously held the robe of his master and accidentally pinched the skin of his skin, his master exclaimed and viciously slapped his little hands away.

He was about to cry because of the pain, he wanted to go back to his mother, but he remembered his mother's words thus he kept his mouth shut but beads of tears still fell down his large golden eyes.

***

His master entered the tall gloomy tower.

The wide wooden doors swung open with a loud and shrill creaking sound that echoed in the deep recesses of the dark hallway of the tower.

As his master walked on a carpeted floor, the dark hallway slowly lit brightly by the incandescent lights etched on the walls of the hallway.

The door behind them abruptly closed and had completely barred the weak light of the moon from entering the tower further.

The hallway was grand and beautifully decorated with exquisite and expensive-looking items.

Chan could see an immensely resplendent crystal chandelier hung above the ceilings, it glittered brightly as if a whole cluster of stars were gathered on that single space.

The hallway floor was covered with an extravagantly thick red carpet, the carpet greatly helped his master to suppress the sound of his footsteps, he only produced soft muffled sounds as he took each step on the carpeted floor.

One could also see different kinds of beautiful and exotic plants every meter or so on the hallway, these colorful plants made the hallway feel classy and elegant.

It didn't take too long for them to arrive in front of a magnificent stone black staircase that leads upstairs as well as downstairs.

His master took the stair that leads the tower's underground, the atmosphere on the stairs was dark and chilly, to say the least.

His master's loud footsteps echoed down the spiraling staircase and a breeze of cold winds assaulted them as they continued to go down.

It was unknown why was there cold winds downstairs but this nevertheless made Chan feel restless and uncomfortable from the cold and darkness around him.

He shivered in his master's arms but he did not want to disturb him thus he just kept mum throughout the chilly journey down the tower.

His master did not walk down for too long as he had already stepped foot on a cold and flat surface.

It was all dark around the underground room thus his master had used his left hand to carry him while he used the other hand to make complicated hand seals.

After the last hand seal was made, rows after rows of incandescent candle lights lit up one by one around the room.

The dark appearance of the basement was gradually revealed in front of them.

The room had dark mossy walls, floor, and ceilings, the area was extremely large and there are various tables scattered around the room.

The scattered tables were occupied with different kinds of things such as large magical scrolls, strange types of equipment, bottles containing hideous and creepy materials, etc...

The four sides of the basement room were occupied with large wooden shelves, countless amount of bottles occupied the spaces of these shelves.

The sizes of these bottles greatly varied, some were as small as an insulin bottle some were as large as buckets.

No one knows of the horrific things that each of those bottles contains, as they were covered by a strange black shadow that prohibits anyone from seeing their contents.

Located at the center of the underground room was a tall and somewhat filthy huge black sharp circular pot that emitted dark and horrible smelling smoke.

It constantly emitted a thick stench of putrid and rotten smell and it's unknown what was being boiled inside that tall pot as it was covered by a huge lid on top.

Chan could not extend his small hands to pinch his nose so he could only inhale all of the smell around, his face turned green and purple in response to his disgust.

His master brought him around for a minute or two before he finally stopped in front of a large table and cleared it of its occupying items while gently placing him on it.

He then heard his master talk to him in a gratingly sharp voice and laughed.

"Be a good boy and don't make a noise, okay? Kekeke."

He then turned around and walked away while silently muttering to himself.

"The Prophet Child is finally in my hands... I have to handle him with care, he is an extremely precious top-notch ingredient for my wonderful concoction after all..."

Chan did not hear his master's creepy muttering and was still cluelessly waving his small hands around while innocently thinking to himself.

'Master said I should not make a noise, will he reward me if I followed his words? Heehee, I'm so excited.'

He silently giggled to himself after thinking of the possible rewards he could get from his master.

He did not think or rather he could not think that his master only treated him as a mere ingredient for his experiments, he's just an innocent few weeks old child after all.

He wasn't even guided by anyone before being brought out of his parent's embrace to travel on a journey.

He was only about to experience the viciousness of the humans by himself and of all people possible, it was his master himself who would show him how vicious a human could get.

The old man left the underground room and went upstairs to fetch something, Chan felt a fleeting warm breeze passed by him and he went to look but did not saw anything.

He did not say anything and only felt the comfort and warmth that the breeze gave him.

His eyes suddenly felt heavy and he could not prevent his sleepiness from taking over him before he finally dozed off to sleep.

***

A mysterious and hooded figure silently stared at the sleeping Chan in the shadows.

The eyes of that figure looked at him with pity and fondness then the eyes shifted towards the staircase.

A scrawny old man emerged out of that dark staircase, he held various objects in his wrinkly hands.

The figure could see a variety of items such as a large tail of a creature, a pair of large feathery white wings, and many more unknown exotic items.

He carefully placed each item on the table beside Chan, he occasionally looked towards the direction of the sleeping baby.

His eyes lit with an intense blaze of passion, after he finished with his arrangements, he went towards the black pot at the center, he removed the huge and heavy lid with his hand.

The hidden human figure in the shadows finally saw what was being cooked in that mysterious black pot, and the thing that she saw had given her a huge shock.

***

Meanwhile, after sending their son off.

Chan's father and mother continued on their journey to travel the vast desert it does not mean that they had to stop making money just because they had received a huge amount of money from the old man.

The mother was filled with longing while looking at the direction that her son's master had taken.

She had greatly regretted her rash decision at that time, she did not know what had gotten into their heads for them to easily give away their son with just a bit of money.

What they did not know was that they were deceived by the old man and got unknowingly influenced by the mystical powder that he had scattered.

The mystical powder was odorless and could not be seen with normal means, it would act as a stimulant to magnify the desires and greed of a normal human.

The effects of the powder would only last for a whole day, its effectiveness would gradually weaken and the affected humans would slowly recover from its effects the next day.

Her husband saw her being downcast and went to console and coax her saying that their son would surely remember and visit them.

The wife was doubtful of this but still chose to trust the words of her husband as it was better than nothing.

Their journey across the vast and endless desert resumed, they had joined the journey of the merchant's caravan.

Days passed, night came and in a certain small tent, one would be able to hear a muffled and silent sobbing voice of a woman inside.

The crying woman was precisely the mother of the Prophet Child Chan, as days continued to pass while traveling she increasingly felt sad and remorseful of the worst mistake that she had made in the past.

She felt her heart getting stabbed with countless sharp needles as she constantly thought of her son's cute and innocent appearance.

"Chan...my son... forgive me for giving you away...please...please come back to mother...I need you..."

She said this while sobbing, her eyes had long turned red due to crying endlessly, large drops of tears constantly fell from her eyes.

She once again thought of her son and a few minutes passed before she finally made a decision.