Meeting with an Acquaintance

A group of three people was traveling on foot with two of them carrying huge backpacks as they chatted about miscellaneous things under the surprised looks and occasional shouts of panic from other travelers whom they moved past. It was their speed that prompted the reaction.

There were people with carts and horses but none of them were not even close to the running speed of the trio.

''Don't forget to use the traceless talisman. We are no longer playing around.''

Zgar reminded again. Mayton used to leave it away from himself for their game but now was not the time to play any games. If the map Mayton got from Herdis was to be trusted, they would be at the Tower of Screams in less than a day's time with their current speed.

''Right, will do right now.''

Mayton answered as he took out the traceless talisman from his backpack and placed it in a pocket he sewed inside his robe beforehand without stopping. Since the group was adjusting their speed to match the slowest one, Zgar, it was effortless for Mayton and even more so for Leyzhen.

''Brats, I am afraid you are lost. Why not return to your mom?''

A skinny old man with a genial smile on his face and a wooden staff at his hand who was sitting on a rock at the side of the road jumped in front of them as they were passing to block their way and said. Contrary to the smile on his face, his tone of voice was domineering and threatening. It was obvious he was used to behaving like the superior.

Just when Mayton's group was going to ignore this man and continue on as they did to all of the bandits that tried to waylay them, Mayton saw something which made him stop abruptly. With him stopping, Leyzhen and Zgar also followed course.

The old man had a red ouroboros symbol shining under the sun on the gray robe he wore. Seeing Mayton's reaction, the old man puffed up his chest to make the symbol more visible as he sneered.

''Boy, it seems like you are not ignorant of the cultivation world. Since you know of Cult of Unity, be smart and leave. I don't want any trouble.''

Hearing the old man and ascertaining that he was a part of the Cult of Unity, Mayton and Zgar looked at him with hate, while Leyzhen was looking like she didn't hear the old man at all.

''We can have more time to rest after arriving if you be quick.''

Leyzhen said disinterestedly. It would take less than a second for her to kill this man but she knew that Mayton and Zgar wanted to take their revenge themselves and she respected it.

After waiting for a little and seeing that no one in Mayton's group was reacting the way he expected, the old man pulverized the rock he was sitting on a moment ago with a punch to scare them away.

The old man was no fool. He knew that if someone dared to defy him even after seemingly knowing about the cult, they probably had something to depend on. Encountering a suicidal fool was a really low possibility since those kinds of people didn't tend to live long.

''Let me do it.''

Zgar leaped towards the old man without waiting for an answer as he brandished his short sword. Seeing the smallest kid in the group charging at him, the old man snorted and used his staff to parry. Surprisingly, despite looking like a crude wooden staff, Zgar's short sword couldn't even chip a bit of it as they clashed.

The old man looked like he was in the mid qi gathering phase and when you compared it to Zgar's early qi gathering phase cultivation, the old man got a clear advantage in terms of raw power. But Zgar was able to skillfully dodge every attack of the old man, while having enough time to unleash attacks of his own.

It was like Zgar knew what the old man was going to do next beforehand and was positioning himself accordingly. Actually the truth was not far from it. Thanks to practicing his battle technique to the extreme, Zgar was able to sense the qi flow of the old man, and thus deduct his next move from it.

''Damn brat you are forcing my hand!''

The old man roared and pulled out an orb similar to the soul collecting orbs. He retreated a few paces while touching the ouroboros symbol on his robe as he threw the orb at the ground near Zgar.

With a crashing sound the orb shattered and a white mist sprang out of it. After an incantation gesture from the old man, instead of scattering around, the mist concentrated together to form the vague shape of a human and lunged at Zgar while letting out a soundless scream.

''Get back!''

Mayton shouted and got in front of Zgar before he made contact with the mist. This mist reminded him of the white mist that bore into him when he saw his parents' last moments back in the city. So he concluded that this was a soul attack. The kind of attack he was least afraid of was soul attacks thanks to his overly powerful soul and the even more powerful seal on it.

And just like Mayton expected the white mist, after entering Mayton's body, didn't do anything except for making Mayton feel a prickling at his glabella.

''If I were you, I would run away immediately. I already called for help. Do you think you can fight against all the disci-''

The old man shouted in a bid to save his life after seeing that his trump card was ineffective. But Mayton didn't let him finish his sentence. In a flash he was already holding the old man from his throat.

''Answer me and I will give you a painless death.''

Mayton said to the old man. He had no sympathy for the members of this vile cult who killed countless innocents.

At first, the old man gave him a defiant glare and didn't answer, but when Mayton's hands became scorching hot, after a gasp of pain, he indicated that he wanted to talk. When Mayton let go of his throat, the old man started to answer his questions in a hoarse voice while trying to waste as much time as he possibly could.

The old man was just a low level enforcer in the cult tasked with preventing outsiders from getting near the Tower of Screams so he didn't know any of the core secrets of the cult. Nonetheless, even the things he knew were of immense value to Mayton.

He knew the location of his branch of the cult and even marked it down on the map Mayton got from Herdis. It was at the outer parts of the Demonic Forest but quite a distance away from their current location. He also knew of various operatives of the cult and some of the more common techniques they used. But what excited Mayton the most was the things old man knew about the disciple named Delun*.

According to the old man, Delun was a well known demonic cultivator using beast qi in the Cult of Unity. Despite being a relatively new disciple, he was especially successful in a powerful battle technique that made his body stronger than his peers by a notch. His battle prowess, coupled with his good flattery skills, made him one of the favorites of Supervisor Bartolomeo.

With the support of Supervisor Bartolomeo, Delun had a meteoric rise in status among the disciples of the cult and he was now one of the captains to lead a squad of disciples in to the tower for practice.

Mayton asked questions about the tower and Bartolomeo too but the old man didn't know anything Mayton didn't know and before long there was nothing else to learn from him. So Mayton did as he promised and killed the old man in a single move by crushing his neck.

After killing the old man, Mayton searched his body for treasures but other than a few gold coins and soul collecting orb, he didn't find anything. 'Well, at least I now have a better weapon than the dagger of the hunters' Mayton thought as he destroyed the orb to free the souls inside. He wasn't sure if the souls could reincarnate after getting harvested, but he still wanted to do it just in case they could.

''Lets go. I want to eat a decent meal before we go into the tower.''

Leyzhen said casually as she didn't mind the way Mayton killed the old man at all. She saw lots of people dying as the Goddess and became indifferent to death long ago.

On their way, just when Mayton was wondering if the old man bluffed about calling help or not, they saw a dozen corpses wearing the gray robes of the Cult of Unity littered around. From the looks of the corpses, they were murdered instantly without being able to struggle.

Mayton knew that there was probably only Leyzhen capable of doing it but he knew Leyzhen didn't like people thanking her so he only gave her a grateful glance and didn't say anything as they passed by the corpses.

Soon there was a pitch black tower visible in the horizon. It had a sinister aura that could be felt from even far away as the darkness it radiated blurred its edges.

''Lets camp here. I have to do some preparations.''

Leyzhen said coldly as she looked at the tower in the horizon seriously. No one objected, especially after seeing her serious expression.

Mayton started to light the bonfire to cook dried meat, while Zgar was setting up the tents. Leyzhen, who usually entered his portable house in times like this, began setting up a small formation instead.

Before long everyone was done with their tasks. While Zgar and Mayton was eating the dried meat, Leyzhen sat down cross legged in the formation and warned Zgar to get ready for cultivating. She then started chanting incantations while pressing down her dantian** with her hands as she began emitting copious amounts of pure qi. The qi was so concentrated, all they could see was a blob of white.

Seeing that, after a moment of shock, Zgar immediately sat down cross legged and started cultivating near her. It was way more effective than the formation he used back in the village. But unfortunately for him, it didn't take too much time for Leyzhen to be done as the qi around her dispersed and she became visible once more.

''Huh? I- I can sense Milady.''

Zgar opened his eyes and said. He was now using his sensing technique subconsciously when he closed his eyes and he suddenly sensed Leyzhen. This surprised him greatly because he normally couldn't sense her at all.

''I sealed my cultivation. This tower has a strong formation preventing anyone above the qi gathering phase from entering. I can undo the seal in a moment of danger, but after that I can't stay inside for long. So be careful while inside.''

What Leyzhen said gave Mayton a scare. He already began to see her as omnipotent but it seemed like there were things she couldn't deal with too. 'That's good as well. This means I have a chance to be free of the seal on my soul when the need arise.' Mayton thought after a moment of contemplation.

Then they ate their meal, rested for a few hour and just when they got ready to move, Leyzhen frowned as she made a grasping motion.

''Hey, let go of me, I am not an enemy! Mayton did you forget how I helped you back in the Fair of Souls?''

A panicked voice was heard as a woman wearing a strange mask that looked like a distorted crying face with a crack at its side flew over to them. Mayton felt anger rising up in him as he recognized the woman as soon as he saw the mask.

''Damn you Celyse!''

Mayton shouted as he lunged at the woman.

How could he forget someone who almost got him killed.