Heat Sense

As soon as Mayton made eye contact with the thing in the seal, he felt a stinging pain in his head. He fought off the compelling force that was trying to stop him breaking the eye contact with difficulty and ended his meditation.

''Hmm, I wonder if that counts as living...''

When he opened his eyes he saw Celyse scrutinizing him closely as she muttered while stroking her chin.

''What do you mean?''

Mayton asked while wiping the beads of sweat on his forehead with his robe's sleeves.

''I mean, can you still be counted as alive after your sweetheart left you alone with another lady? Wouldn't you rather die?''

Celyse said as she winked saucily.

Knowing that she would never divulge information she didn't want to, Mayton decided to keep his suspicions to himself. Right now, driving a wedge between himself and Celyse needlessly was unwise as it might prove fatal in their current situation. He still didn't have a way to locate ghosts after all.

''If you are ready, let's get a move on!''

Mayton nodded to Celyse to indicate he was ready to go and got up. With that, they randomly chose a way and started walking.

The left stairs led to completely random halls unlike the right side. There were occasionally some links between the two with a door in between, but most of the time the halls at the left side weren't linked directly to the halls you can access without taking any stairs at the left.

They only tried to move up blindly because according to the plan, the ghost should be looking for them starting from the lower floors after it chased Leyzhen. Their advantage was that the ghost had to look at every nook and cranny while they directly moved up unlike Leyzhen who knew that they would be going up.

But they had a huge disadvantage too, the tower was where the ghost spent its entire life. They didn't know it half as good as the ghost, forcing them to take many detours.

''Can you sense what is different about this hall?''

Celyse whispered under the dim light of the candle that floated next to her as she stopped Mayton.

Currently, they were in a hall no different than the others as far as Mayton was concerned. It had uneven surface, rough walls and was bereft of any living being except for the duo. The hall was shrouded in darkness with an eerie silence present but all the halls they have been to in tower was like that anyway.

''Sense what?''

''The souls. Concentrate. Don't you cultivate fire qi? You should be able to sense the cold aura they radiate from behind that door.''

Celyse answered disdainfully as she pointed at the iron door that stood the end of the hall.

Mayton tried to focus on the door. There was indeed a slight coldness seeping out from the other side of the door.

''Wait, does it mean I can sense ghosts this way?''

''Yeah you can. If they are prepared as food and got piled up in huge numbers that is.''

Celyse said as she licked her lips.

''Food? Food for the one chasing us?''

Mayton immediately understood what was going on. They didn't encounter any other ghost here at the left side because it was the territory of the strongest one. But know there was a bunch of souls ready for consumption.

''Don't even think about it. We are not going inside.''

Seeing the avarice in Celyse's eyes, Mayton positioned himself between her and the door to prevent her from rushing in carelessly. Since this place had the ghost's food stored in, it ought to have something to keep intruders out or even worse, something to alert the owner of the place.

''Hehe, you are thinking too much. How can a ghost who never left the Tower of Screams all its life know how to set formations or traps? At worst, we would face some of its servants. His servants can't be too strong either or they will simply eat everything and escape. What's the big deal?''

Celyse tried to convince Mayton by downplaying the risks but Mayton didn't budge as he firmly stood between the door and her.

''Come on, I already lost a lot of soul stones because of you back then… Oh, I see! You want something in return! Of course, how can I forget that the souls inside are useless for you?''

Celyse said excitedly as she lightly hit her head. But after rummaging through her pockets, she found nothing of use to give except for some gold coins.

''Hmm, it seems like I don't have anything on me right now...''

Celyse said embarrassedly. But Mayton wasn't listening to her anyway. He was in a daze. When he sensed the coldness getting more intense as he got closer to the door, he began to think about what Celyse said about him not being able to sense ghosts.

'Why is it so? The ghosts are obviously yin in their nature, they should have an intense cold aura accompanying them but I can't sense their aura at all despite my higher sensitivity to anything to related to fire qi, including heat.'

It was normal that he couldn't sense people or beasts via their body heat at his current cultivation level as their bodies didn't have such a huge discrepancy in terms of temperature with their surroundings but the ghosts were different. He should be able to sense them roughly at least.

'They must be using a way to adjust their aura to blend in. Their technique can't possibly take effect instantly though… So if use the Fire Manipulation Art to disseminate some fire qi, enough to markedly change the temperature in a short time...'

''This is worth a shot!''

Mayton exclaimed excitedly when he came to the end of his thought process. He was really aggrieved because of his helplessness against the ghosts recently, so even a tiny possibility of successfully sensing them was like a ray of sunlight that pierced the dark clouds, filling him with hope.

''Hehe, I knew you wouldn't refuse to help a lady in need. What a chivalrous lad!''

Celyse said cheerfully.

Mayton wanted to say she misunderstood him at first but after a moment, he decided to go along with it. He wanted to test his theory on some ghosts. He also felt that Celyse had a part in him coming up with his theory, so thanks were in order. After all, if she didn't point out the souls' aura, he wouldn't think of it. Helping Celyse now would accomplish both of his wishes at the same time.

''Okay, let's go then, but don't forget, we can't let any of the ghosts present there run away or else they might alert their master.''

Mayton cautioned even though he knew for sure Celyse was aware of it too as they got ready for combat.

When they opened the door, what greeted them was a dark cave full of stone boxes with an eerie atmosphere. Mayton was ready as he didn't let the emptiness fool him. He was sure that there were some ghosts present here.

He immediately used the Fire Manipulation Art to disseminate one third of his total qi. With his peak qi gathering phase cultivation, one third of his qi was enough to boil a pool full of cold water in winter. Then he focused completely on the cave to sense if there was anything that didn't get hot instantly and indeed it worked.

There they were. One of them was just a few steps to his right while the other was at the other end of the cave.

''Haha! Gotcha!''

With a loud laugh, he punched towards the ghost, using the Fire Manipulation Art to power his attack. Letting out a shriek half of the ghost dissipated into nothingness.

Fire qi was the bane of all the yin creatures as it was yang in nature. Ghosts were especially vulnerable against it since they lacked a physical body to negate at least some of its effects.

Meanwhile, Celyse completed an incantation gesture as one of the stone boxes opened up. From inside a torrent of souls rose up as they trapped the other ghost in between them, and violently chipped at it. In no time the ghost was shredded to pieces and swallowed up by the previously trapped souls. After they completed their mission they obediently returned to the stone box under control of Celyse.

Mayton, knowing that the ghost he attacked survived albeit with heavy injuries, used his newly thought up technique once more, this time using half of his qi. After using it once, the place was already contained a lot of fire qi so if he wanted to increase the amount present without controlling them outside of his body, he had to pump out even more qi.

It worked once more as he sensed a slightly colder aura rushing toward one of the boxes to hide. But it was greatly weakened because of its injury and Mayton easily crushed it to nothingness before it can blend in with the souls.

''Haha! This time I won't leave this place no matter what before collecting the spoils.''

Celyse guffawed as she rushed to the boxes and started chanting a sinister incantation to collect the souls. She completely ignored Mayton's new technique as she was too excited to care right now.

''Hmm, this needs a name… Lets keep things simple and call it the Heat Sense.''

Mayton muttered to himself. He was feeling wonderful as he enjoyed his first success in his cultivation journey without outside help.