Mystique Soul: A Cultivator's Flame
Chapter 119: The search continues

Chapter 119: The search continues

Feng Jiao Xue and the rest waited until daybreak, when the people started coming out to "clean" the street.

Despite the warnings from the locals... aged, dried up corpses can still be seen from here to there. Some of the shriveled remains of the corpses still lay slumped against walls or half-hidden beneath tarps and debris. Their skin clung tight to bone, cracked and dry like old parchment. Some were already being carted away in silence, but many were simply ignored too far gone or too disturbing to touch.

Xia Lian gulped as this scene reminded her of what happened to the people in the mist before, unconsciously clinging to Chen Rong.

Feng Jiao Xue noticed her actions but didn’t comment. It must be nice... to have someone to lean on. It’s clear that despite both being strong, they both can rely on each other to be weak instead of holding it on.

Xia Lian is clearly a capable individual, her strength is undeniable. Feng Jiao Xue herself how fierce she is in battle and yet she never hides her weakness by pretending to be strong. Instead, she turns around to where Chen Rong and her friends are standing behind her.

For some reason, Feng Jiao Xue couldn’t help but glance at Mo Tianze at the thought, his brows furrowed and tail hanging lowly behind him.

When they’re eyes met, Feng Jiao Xie simply nodded and they moved forward.

The group did not have the energy to talk at all so they simply slips through narrow passages and side streets known only to the desperate, the hunted, or the native-born thank to Mo Tianze’s previous scouting in the area.

Feng Jiao Xue led with Mo Tianze besides her while Chen Rong protects their back. her icy gaze sweeping each corner before they turned it, her footsteps almost noiseless on the slick stone. She wore her cloak tight around her body, the hood half-raised over her hair, blending in with the thick shadows.

"Creepy" Xia Lian muttered from behind her, though her voice was kept low. Her red hair was tied back into a high tail, bobbing with every step. "Doesn’t feel like a city anymore. Feels like we’re walking through a grave."

Chen Rong nodded in agreement "Or a ghost town. Honestly, the state of this place can be considered as one by this point"

"Ugh, don’t remind me. And this place stinks" Xia Lian added, wrinkling her nose. "Ugh. Something’s rotting."

"Yeah, humans" Lin Feng grunted, eyeing a corpse by the side. Eyes wide open, red and popping while it’s skin basically looks like it’s hugging the bones of its body. By the looks of it, the person seems to have been running for shade before the blood moon got to them first.

They paused at a junction where the alley split in three directions, the lamp above them flickering like it was about to die. Lin Feng stood apart from the others, his eyes sweeping the rooftops with quiet calculation. He pointed silently down the leftmost path, a narrow corridor boxed in by half-collapsed walls and choked with the scent of mold.

"This area was once part of the lower noble quarter," Chen Rong commented in a soft voice, his hand already resting on the hilt of his sword. "Many hidden routes were carved out beneath the houses for escape or secrecy. Wei Jian may have been lured here."

Mo Tianze lifted his nose to the air and sniffed. His beast senses sharpened beneath the moonlight. The muscles in his jaw tensed. "Blood," he muttered. "Sister, I smell blood" he murmured, brows drawing into a deep frown.

Feng Jiao Xue turned her head toward him, gaze sharp. "How strong?"

Considering how those that dies last night did not bleed, a smell of blood when everyone hid could possibly mean a lead.

"Not fresh," he replied, nostrils flaring slightly. "But strong. Concentrated. It’s... leaking. Somewhere down this way."

Xia Lian unsheathed the twin daggers strapped to her thighs. They gleamed faintly, catching the pulse of moonlight in thin, dangerous slivers. "We’re not alone, are we?"

Mo Tianze didn’t answer. Instead, he began moving forward, each step deliberate as his sharp eyes scanned the alley walls, sniffing again. The scent grew thicker as they walked. Cloying. Like copper mixed with damp earth.

The alley twisted into a sharp curve, opening into a derelict courtyard flanked by boarded-up buildings. A rusted fence ran along the side, choked with ivy and peeling paint. In the middle of the courtyard, a manhole cover sat partially ajar.

"There" Mo Tianze murmured, nodding at it. "It’s coming from below."

"You guys sure we can’t just go through the passage you two found?" Lin Feng asked in disgust.

"As Jiao Xue said, too dangerous. They know that Mo Tianze and Feng Jiao Xue saw that passage. Its no doubt either blocked or guarded by now" Chen Rong stepped forward, sword drawn with a fluid grace that seemed more like a dance than preparation for a fight. He knelt beside the manhole, brushing away old leaves and dust. His fingers hovered just above the surface.

"It was moved recently," he said. "Something, or someone, went in."

"Wei Jian?" Xia Lian asked, voice hopeful but tense.

"No" Lin Feng took a piece of cloth dangling on a lose metal. "This smells like a females perfume, flowery and fruits. The kind of perfume favored by Ladies of high society"

"I’m not going to ask how you know that" Xia Lian muttered making Lin Feng flush up.

"It’s just based on my observation, okay?! I don’t go around sniffing ladies!" He defensively explained himself.

"She didn’t say you did" Mo Tianze pointed out with his head tilted cutely making Lin Feng even more flustered.

Feng Jiao Xue crouched beside the opening, her hand touching the edge of the stone with slow precision. She closed her eyes briefly. Her spiritual sense extended just faintly down into the darkness.

She opened her eyes. "There’s movement down there. Not just blood. Not just rat. Something’s alive."

"Yeah, I can feel several weak presence" Xie Lian commented too.

Lin Feng moved forward, drawing a narrow talisman from within his sleeve and pressing it to the flat of his palm. A gentle glow emitted from it, enough to illuminate the opening below. Stairs. Cracked and soaked in something dark that had dried into black crust.

"We’re going down," Feng Jiao Xue said. Her voice left no room for argument.

The descent was slow, careful. The narrow stairs groaned beneath them, wet in places, slick with moss or something less innocent. The air grew colder with each step, and heavier too, like it was trying to press them back up the stairs.

At the bottom, the tunnel opened into a corridor. Crumbling stone walls stretched outward, wrapped in iron piping and old crystal sconces, most of which had lost their glow. The smell was unbearable now. It clung to their lungs. Blood, yes, but more than that.

Loss.

Pain.

Grief soaked into stone.

Xia Lian stepped carefully around a puddle of something dark. "What is this place?"

"Something that should have been better off forgotten," Lin Feng answered simply.

They pressed on. Mo Tianze took the lead this time, his senses leading them deeper through the maze of underground paths. At one point, Chen Rong paused to press his hand against a wall. He pulled back, his palm stained with something sticky. "It’s not just blood. Something’s been bleeding through the walls."

"Magic?" Xia Lian asked.

"Maybe" he said. "Or something worse."

Feng Jiao Xue eyes narrowed at the roots. She could have sworn she saw it move. She stared at it longer before frowning. Was it just her imagination?

A noise rang out, soft, like the dragging of cloth or skin against stone. Every member of the group stilled, weapons raised, eyes locked in the direction it came from.

Feng Jiao Xue gestured silently. Chen Rong moved forward, his steps soundless. He rounded a corner then stilled.

They all followed, one by one, and what they saw forced them into a taut silence.

A figure lay slumped against the wall. A girl, perhaps in her teens, her hair matted and skin pale as milk. Roots had begun to grow from her limbs, twining up her arms and across her face. Her eyes were wide open, but glassy, lifeless.

"She’s not dead," Mo Tianze said, crouching beside her. "But she’s not awake either."

"They’re being used," Lin Feng murmured. "Connected to something. Like vessels."

Feng Jiao Xue stared down at the girl, her heart tightening. Her gaze moved beyond, to the hallway still ahead.

"Wei Jian is here," she said. "I know it. We keep going."

The tunnel veered again, this time sloping downward. The further they went, the more twisted things became. Roots burst through walls. Strange humming lights pulsed in uneven patterns from the ceiling, casting strange shadows that danced like puppets.

Then they reached the chamber.

It was enormous, at least compared to the tunnels they’d passed through. A dome-like space with broken machinery at its edges, the air filled with the sickly-sweet stench of rot. And in the center...

Bodies.

Dozens of them.

All lying on the ground, as if in sleep. Roots curled around their limbs, pulsing faintly with a greenish glow. And among them...

"Wei Jian!" Xia Lian gasped, already running forward.

He was there, face pale, hair damp with sweat, his breath shallow. The roots had twined around his chest and limbs, but not fully. Not yet.

Feng Jiao Xue reached him seconds after Xia Lian, dropping to her knees and touching his forehead. He was cold.

But alive.

Barely.

Xia Lian gasped and dropped to her knees beside him. "Wei Jian! Hey! Wei Jian, can you hear me?"

Chen Rong crouched beside her, face grim. "He’s alive. Barely. Pulse is weak."

"Too weak," Feng Jiao Xue said, scanning the room. "This wasn’t meant to kill him outright. They were trying to extract something."

Behind them, Mo Tianze’s ears twitched. "Somebody’s coming."

"Well," the figure said in a low, amused voice, "what do we have here? The rats find their way into the lion’s den."

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