274 Pirate

The blood was clearly something that had appeared over a long period of time. Some of it was fresh, some was very old, but all of it seemed grim under the light that illuminated the Soul Tower.

Bai Tianyi was frowning just as Xue Wei was, neither of them felt comfortable about what they were seeing. It seemed that something unspeakable was happening at the top of the Soul Tower, but if something like that was happening here, why was the floor not forbidden to access?

And even more puzzling, how did the people who had left the bloodied marks even manage to get there? It seemed that this made no sense, and both of them could not make any head nor tail of what they saw.

Apart from the bloody scratches on the walls, there were no other signs of terror on the entire floor, in fact, there was nothing else at all on the entire floor, it was completely bare.

"Let us leave," Xue Wei said with a low voice, resummoning the Golden dragon spirit and then descending down the stairs. Neither of them spoke, both were uncomfortable with what they had seen on the ninth floor, and neither of them could get the thought of the ten missing people a day out of their mind.

As the two reached the seventh floor, Xue Wei made the golden dragon vanish back inside again. He instantly felt the pressure bearing down upon him, and he felt as if all blood in his body started flowing in reverse. A metallic taste appeared in his throat.

Suppressing the blood at the back of his throat, Xue Wei struggled towards the stairs leading down to the sixth floor, then slowly walked to the fifth and finally was able to exit the tower at a brisk pace.

Once again, their ascending to the ninth floor had caused panic and astonishment in the entire academy, but this time, the pair had not stayed for a long time, so all that had noticed were still rushing to inform others, and not all the people they had called for had appeared yet. Xue Wei and Bai Tianyi made use of the chaos to vanish from the Soul Tower and rush back to their courtyard.

While walking, none of them said a word. When they arrived in the house, they sat down in the middle of Xue Wei's room and looked at one another.

"Every day, ten people go missing in Yan Dalu," Xue Wei muttered.

"The Soul Tower needs a large supply of soul power to be able to continue providing that power to all the people who are inside," Bai Tianyi added.

"We cannot assume that there is some sort of connection between these two things," Xue Wei said, "but at the same time, we cannot say that there is no connection."

"Right now, the best thing would be if we could figure out what exactly is the source of the soul power within the Soul Tower," Bai Tianyi said, furrowing his brows.

"If they really kill ten people each day, then there would be a massive amount of corpses," Xue Wei said. "Also, there should be some other sort of traces other than those scratch marks. The floor was white, with not even the slightest trace of blood upon it; all the blood was only on the walls."

"It is quite strange that the room is publicly accessible when there is that much blood on the walls," Bai Tianyi could not help but say, "it is as if they never expected anyone to enter the ninth floor. I think we are going to be in danger from now on."

Xue Wei's face was dark as he nodded his head. "Right," he agreed, "because we have witnessed the ninth floor's secret, those that are behind the bloody scratch marks will definitely not let us wander freely. They will try to shut us up, but this could also prove to be a fortunate encounter for us."

"You mean we will lure the tiger out of its den?" Bai Tianyi said, raising an eyebrow.

Xue Wei snickered and generously admitted, "yes."

"So when they are out to track us, we will track them instead and find their base of operations, solve the mystery that we still don't know anything about, and live happily ever after until it is time for us to go to the Demon Phoenix Continent."

"You understand me well," Xue Wei grinned. Although he was slightly unsettled by the bloody scratches he had seen on the ninth floor, he had seen and done many gruesome things before. It could make him uncomfortable, but considering how many he himself had personally killed, he was not so squeamish anymore.

The thing that really annoyed him with the bloody scratches was his inability to figure out what exactly had happened. He was curious about what was behind the scratches, and he had to admit that he was starting to feel slightly curious about this mystery that was shrouding the entire Garden of Shadows too.

Even the usual carefree Bai Tianyi was curious about the source of the scratches, but he could not keep a dark gleam out of his eyes. Although Xue Wei made it sound like they had a plan, he was aware that the risk they were taking was immense.

Not only was the risk immense, the likelihood of things going as they wanted was also very low; the other party was likely very cunning and prepared.

Not to mention, Xue Wei and Bai Tianyi were out in the open while their enemy was shrouded in the dark, hiding in the shadow, possibly ready to strike at any time, and they could do nothing in return.

Xue Wei and Bai Tianyi were deep in thought while they were wondering how to move forward with their investigation.

After a few hours, Lin Xiao and Hei Gou returned to the courtyard followed by an entourage of people who were more than eager to win their attention in the hopes of getting something good in return.

When the pair saw that Xue Wei and Bia Tianyi were both there, big smiles appeared on their lips and their moods immediately lifted. Hopefully, they were now closer to the solution of the mystery they were trying to solve, but when they saw the contemplating expressions on their two companions' faces, they understood that things were not as simple as they'd hoped.

"What happened?" Lin Xiao was the first to ask about what had happened when he saw their puzzling and concentrated expressions. Xue Wei quickly briefed them on their discovery of the marks on the ninth floor's walls.

"Do you think it has something to do with the ten missing people a day?" Hei Gou asked. It made sense that they had something to do with one another, but it was not something they could prove unless they managed to get their hands on some evidence.

Silence descended upon the room. All of them were deep in thought, pondering what to do with their next step.

"I think we have to enter the forbidden area," Bai Tianyi finally said, breaking the silence. "Who knows, the forbidden area might be one big mass grave for the people who are sacrificed in the Soul Tower."

This was Bai Tianyi's wish. If they could find out that the daily ten missing people were sacrificed for or at the Soul Tower, and that the dead bodies were dumped at the academy, they could quickly announce their findings and finish the detective work that had been dropped onto their laps like a hot potato. If it proved to not be a mass grave filled with corpses sacrificed for the Soul Tower, then Bai Tianyi would truly start to get scared.

Lin Xiao and Hei Gou had not personally witnessed the scratch marks on the ninth floor, so they did not know how bad it truly was, but both Bai Tianyi and Xue Wei were aware that whoever had been up there had been extremely desperate, their actions completely disregarding their wellbeing. The scratches were deep, and the blood wasn't a light pattering but rather large trails.

After contemplating for a bit, Xue Wei considered Bai Tianyi's suggestion and nodded his head. "We should. If the people who go missing every day truly have something to do with the Soul Tower, then the corpses have to be dumped somewhere."

"Since they have to be dumped somewhere, the easiest explanation would be in the forbidden area as everywhere else would be far too risky."

Lin Xiao and Hei Gou were both fine with the suggestion. They looked at one another and shrugged their shoulders. They had spent every day together and had turned into very good friends during this period of time.

They found that their thought process was actually quite similar, so they could get along quite well. As one of the traits of their personality, they both wished to be in the center of the hurricane, they wanted to experience the storm together with their friends, and they wanted to find out what exactly could be hidden in the forbidden area too.

They had previously tried to find out more about it, but everything they had tried had been for naught so far, the only thing they knew were the rumors of the legendary figure that had built the Garden of Shadows. But even if the forbidden area had been for her, it should be impossible for her to still be alive, and thus the forbidden area was likely to have been turned into something else entirely.

"When do we set out?" Hei Gou questioned, as he straightened his back and looked at the rest of them with eagerness in his eyes. He had, indeed, been bored recently, and needed something exciting to keep his reflexes sharp.

"We will go tonight," Xue Wei decided as he looked out the window. The sun was starting to set, but although it was turning night, that did not mean that the academy would quieten down.

These people were all cultivators, and thus almost never really needed to sleep—only if they felt completely mentally exhausted. This meant that no one wanted to waste time and thus they continued to rush back and forth through their residences and the training facilities at the academy throughout the night.

Although the night was almost as busy as day-time, it was still easier to move around without being noticed as the darkness was a great cover from prying eyes.

With the plan in mind, Xue Wei and the others rested up for a few hours until it was soon approaching midnight, where they then settled together inside Xue Wei's room once more.

"We will be leaving shortly," Xue Wei reminded them. "We cannot be noticed sneaking into the forbidden area. Although we were told to solve this mystery, they will not approve of us solving the case this way so easily."

A different voice suddenly came from the door, "The mystery is not the worst problem in Yan Dalu. In fact, the biggest problem is the intrigues, schemes and so on. You are likely to be in deep trouble now that you are here.", The voice was much less masculine than that of any of the four young men who were seated in the room,it was clearly the voice of a woman, and Xue Wei frowned as he looked at the door.

Shockingly enough, it was the King who stood outside the door. Her eyes were focused on Xue Wei, her lips drawn into the beautiful arc of a smile as she leaned against the doorframe.

"Oh, the King is so free that she is capable of escaping to the Garden of Shadows?" Xue Wei asked with a slight smile on his lips as he got up to clear a chair for her.

"I was so busy that my head was about to explode," the King said before laughing slightly, "I never liked working much, but it is, unfortunately, necessary if one wishes to be a King. Truth be told, I never really wanted to be the King though, I always had ambitions about becoming a pirate."

Xue Wei's eyebrow rose, and he could not help but chuckle when he heard the King's words. Being a King was not good enough; she wanted to be a pirate instead