CH 37

YeXia was quickly brought up to speed in regards to the towers’ rules with QiLeren’s information. She cast a glance at the corpse on the ground – the girl looked to be a sixteen or seventeen year old girl, likely an NPC in the quest. Her eyes remained wide open in death but were clouded over with a veil of grey. From the greyish-green tinge of her skin, the cause of death seemed to be some form of strong poison.

Crouching down with a sigh, YeXia gently closed the corpse’s eyes. “There’s not much difference between NPCs and humans no matter how you look at it, is there?”

“Beautiful on the inside and out. I like that in a person,” LuYouxin made sure to appraise on the side.

QiLeren tried his best to pretend nonchalance and turned his head elsewhere. Just standing next to LuYouxin filled him with a deep sense of embarrassment.

“Someone once said to me that only the compassion of the strong can be called kindness.” YeXia’s smile was grim. “Compassion of the weak is nothing more than mourning for a death of their kind.”

YeXia’s words struck a chord within QiLeren as he looked, almost involuntarily, at the dead NPC. He obviously felt some form of grief at death, but it was at best a weak struggle of conscience – he didn’t even know how long this conscience would last.

“Alright, that’s enough about that,” YeXia said, breaking the sombre silence. “I’ll leave the matter of unsealing the tower to you two to decide as thanks for helping me. You might get something decent from the lucky draw.”

“I didn’t help very much, LuYouxin can do it.”

“Cool, thanks,” LuYouxin replied easily without a modicum of obligatory resistance, contrary to QiLeren’s expectations. With that, she scooped the corpse up, tossed it at the foot of the tower and placed a hand onto the tower wall. A soft glow began to emit from the emblem on her hand, diffusing into the air like a fine mist of light before sinking into the body of the tower. As QiLeren watched on with stunned fascination, a radiant beam of azure light burst from the top of the tower into the heavens, sending ripples across the sky at its contact with the clouds. The entire forest was bathed in its light, this brilliant pillar that remained aloft and visible in exchange for the body on the ground that had since disappeared.

“This beam is too conspicuous,” QiLeren noted, frowning.

“We’ll be long gone before anyone can get here, don’t worry.” LuYouxin retracted her hand. A chest had materialised beside the tower, which opened to reveal a card when she pressed a finger down on its lock. She raised a surprised eyebrow. “They might as well have given me a pigeon,” she muttered so softly that QiLeren might have missed it entirely had he not been standing close. The card was shoved into her bag without a second thought.

The chest remained. Confused, LuYouxin took another peek inside and pulled out a piece of paper. “A map?”

QiLeren snuck a glance. It didn’t look like a map of the forest, but rather…

“This looks like the map to the palace that’ll open once we unseal all four towers,” LuYouxin confirmed before smiling sweetly at YeXia. “This is probably gonna be pretty important, babe. You want a copy?”

“No thank you.” As if taken aback by her own answer, YeXia froze, bewildered.

LuYouxin clicked her tongue. “Looks like you still don’t really trust me, do you?”

YeXia’s elegant brows drew together into a frown as she pinned LuYouxin with a scrutinising gaze.

“Don’t worry, it’s just a harmless trick,” the culprit offered smugly, shrugging. “Every pretty girl I come across will have to honestly answer the first question I ask; I usually use it to get their bust/waist/hip measurements.”

So that was why she had seemed so surprised when he refused to answer her question, QiLeren realised. Sleazy questions like this were such a waste of a good skill.

“Well, if y’all don’t want it…don’t mind if I do,” LuYouxin concluded.

Hold on, he never said anything of the sort. Did males not hold rights in LuYouxin’s eyes? Perhaps the mournful bitterness in QiLeren’s eyes wasn’t as subtle as he thought it was, since LuYouxin looked him up and down before reluctantly offering for him to make a copy.

“I just need a quick look.” QiLeren was rather confident in his memory. True to his word, he passed it back to LuYouxin after half a minute.

The composition of the palace was a bit more complicated than he had anticipated. Unfortunately, only a quarter of it was mapped out; the rest would likely be at the other towers. He knew where Cave Tower was, so…

“It’s probably time for us to leave. Want to go together?” LuYouxin asked YeXia, completely ignoring QiLeren.

“No, but thank you.” Politely turning down LuYouxin’s offer, YeXia bid the pair goodbye and headed off on her own.

After a brief struggle, QiLeren decided to do likewise; he might not survive being in the presence of LuYouxin for extended periods of time, to which the girl just shrugged with nonchalance. “Well then be careful I guess, I’m not going to be protecting you like you’re a cute girl this time.

QiLeren was absolutely positive he didn’t need that kind of protection.

After leaving Swamp Tower, QiLeren made his way south. According to the map, he would arrive at Cave Tower in the south of the forest before nightfall if all goes well.

Trying to travel alone in an unfamiliar forest was, as QiLeren discovered, much harder than he had thought, to the point where he actually regretted turning down LuYouxin a little bit. Despite her general air of unreliability, perhaps it was because of her skill that she was able to display so much of her personality and quirks without fear.

There was no prickling feeling of eyes on his back this time. QiLeren suspected that LuYouxin had moved onto stalking YeXia considering she was an actual female, a thought that filled him with pity for the new victim.

The overhead sun after noon made its presence known with its sweltering heat. Wiping beads of sweat off his forehead with a sleeve, he lamented the terrible condition of his clothes. After a day of rolling on the ground, climbing trees and crouching in swamps, the previously pristine robes were now no more than glorified rags. The most damning thing about the whole situation was the system requirement to have them on at all times, leaving him unable to even wash them properly.

The sight of a trickling stream before him invoked a feeling akin to seeing the light at the end of a tunnel, something QiLeren basked in as he ran over and promptly washed his face. Cool splashes of water drew away some of the heat simmering beneath his skin. Unsatisfied, he waded into the stream and submerged himself entirely as he scrubbed wherever he could. He couldn’t take the robes off, but soaking in the water with clothes on never harmed anyone.

The stream wasn’t very deep, but it was clear. QiLeren could see schools of little fish no bigger than his thumb swimming through the water, as well as his feet – his petite, feminine feet. As with everything about his current appearance, he sighed.

Something upstream caught his attention. He rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. No, there was definitely something floating towards him. As the thing got closer, he realised with a start that it was a piece of torn fabric – and not just any piece of fabric, but the exact same fabric as his own robes!

QiLeren immediately stumbled out of the water, fabric gripped in one hand and skimming his knee in his haste. Unperturbed by how drenched he was, he smoothed out the fabric. Bloodstains had seeped into its threading, having spread into large, horrifying blotches of light red after being soaked in the stream.

That was his destination, QiLeren thought with dismay. What on earth could’ve happened upstream?

Unnatural squawking overhead sent QiLeren’s head whipping upwards. Perched on the tree in front of him was a familiar black bird – it was his goddess’s bird! Was she here as well? Before he could get a good look around him, a heavy coat fell from above and effectively swallowed his body whole. He could hear the sound of a body dropping onto the floor next to him in the darkness as he struggled to resurface, finally emerging to the sight of a face so icy it was hard to look at directly.

It was her!