Leaving a Trail of Soul Crumbs

''We should hurry up and leave.''

Celyse said as she finished her creepy incantation after a few minutes of chanting.

As soon as she finished her incantation, all the stone boxes exploded, and the souls inside them rushed into a pitch black soul collecting orb she nimbly took out of her pocket, making it one shade lighter as countless dots of white appeared on its surface.

She seemingly couldn't find the orb when she was looking for something to give to Mayton, but when she needed to use it, she easily found it.

''You see, your little stunt back then probably alerted the ghost of our location. Tsk tsk, this place is full of ghosts and doesn't even get any sunshine, yet, you carelessly let out such a huge amount of fire qi. It is like lighting a torch while trying to sneak out at night.''

Mayton, who was sitting cross legged trying to absorb back some of the qi he let out, stood up in panic when he heard Celyse. He was too excited to test out his new skill and forgot that they were in a place with scant fire qi, thus unknowingly made a huge commotion.

''Why didn't you warn me before?!''

Mayton chastised Celyse angrily.

He knew that Celyse's answer was probably going to be rubbish so without giving her any time to reply to his question, he grabbed her hand and pulled her with him as he ran towards the first stairway he could find that led to the upper floor.

''Hehe, do you think I am that naive? Wouldn't you force me to leave behind my loot and escape as soon as possible then?''

Celyse said contentedly as she patted the orb in her pocket, exasperating Mayton in the process. What Mayton didn't realize at the time was a faint white dot vanishing from the orb when she patted it.

After a few hours, a scream of rage reverberated in the tower reaching even Mayton's and Celyse's ears who were many floors away from the place that stored souls, indicating that the ghost found out what happened in its storage room.

''Damn it. We have to go faster.''

Mayton was running through another dark hall when he heard the scream. He knew that the ghost had narrowed down the places they could possibly be, and they have to speed up if they wanted to avoid getting caught. Unfortunately, Celyse's cultivation was limited, forcing him to go slower.

After hesitating for a moment, he decided to do the only thing that came to his mind, carrying Celyse as he ran at full speed.

''Aiyo, what will your little girlfriend think if she hears of this!''

Celyse coquettishly said as Mayton held her in a princess carry while rushing to another stairway he randomly chose. Despite faking a protest, you could see that she enjoyed it quite a bit from her squinted eyes.

''Shut up or I'll leave you behind.''

Mayton tersely responded as he sped up even more, drawing from his already seriously expended qi reserves to boost his speed. He was in no mood to joke around right now.

He ran with Celyse in his arms for almost a whole day before getting forced to stop. In front of him stood an iron door like many others he encountered, but the room he stood in indicated that this door led to one of the main halls accessible via the stairs on the right side.

They were going through floors with only a single way upward for hours, and if they were to backtrack it would be a huge waste of time, possibly resulting in getting caught. But trying to pass through the hall this door led to meant leaving the safety provided by the other ghosts getting scared from the legendary ghost and getting entangled with the ghosts that resided there.

''Go through the door if you want to survive.''

Just when Mayton was in a dilemma, Celyse who was sitting cross legged behind him in a meditative state interrupted his thoughts, provoking a suspicious look from him.

''Up to you. I can't force you to do so, but I will go this way regardless of whatever you decide.''

Celyse replied with a shrug and moved towards the door.

''Stop right there! If you don't tell me what is going on, you can forget about leaving.''

Mayton forcefully gripped her shoulder to prevent her from proceeding.

''It is just a hunch. What, are you going to attack me over it? Do you realize what kind of situation we are in right now?''

Celyse said as she narrowed her eyes. For a moment Mayton didn't know what to do as he was indeed not willing to attack her. Not because he trusted her or anything silly like that, he simply couldn't waste time dealing with her.

He now regretted wasting his precious time carrying Celyse as he cursed his soft-heartedness. While Mayton was wallowing in regret, Celyse shrugged off his hand and opened the door as quietly as she can.

''Just follow me without a sound. I have a way to hide my presence from the ghosts, and you have your own way to hide yourself. What are you afraid of? Why would I risk my own life to harm you?''

Celyse turned towards Mayton and whispered before stepping into the dark hall silently. Mayton, after standing still indecisively for a moment, followed her into the hall.

As far as he was concerned, the worst decision was indecision. The risks were equal in going back to find another way upwards and going through this hall.

----- --------- ------- --------

Meanwhile, back at the storage room of the legendary ghost, a white robed blonde girl was scrutinizing the place as a white orb floating next to her illuminated the room dimly. If you looked at her eyes closely, you could see the recent events' reflections playing in fast forward.

She was, of course, Leyzhen who stabilized her cultivation, sealed it again, and rushed into the tower. She could see the route Mayton and Celyse took so it didn't take her too long to find them.

She didn't react in any way to the scenes she was seeing, even after seeing the new technique came up with until she saw Celyse's last action before they left which made her frown.

Then she saw the ghost enter the place and after an angry wail, find the soul piece Celyse left behind. It grabbed the soul piece and immediately stormed out of the storage room.

''Damn it.''

Leyzhen didn't waste any time too before she rushed out. Her eyes were still flickering with images from the recent past that happened at wherever she looked at while she was moving at top speed. What she saw made her face became grimmer and grimmer as she ran through empty halls.

She could clearly see that the ghost was following exactly the same route Mayton and Celyse did before it while collecting more soul pieces left behind by Celyse enroute.