Volume One: The Awakening of the Dragon Soul Chapter 26: Crisis in the Rainy Night (Part Five) [Special Release]
Divine Arsenal Tower!
Seeing the red characters on the stone tablet, Mo Xing turned and ran back.
How fascinating! Everything in this world is intricately connected! That masked man from the morning took Senior Mian Hua away, and even harmed Shi Yan. Then, during the evening's new student assessment, a freshman went berserk after swallowing pills, not to mention the black-clad figure overheard at the hospital. All these events converge upon the “Dark Sect”! Who would have thought that this cult with such a melodramatic name would orchestrate such an elaborate scheme?
Mo Xing was grateful for the crucial clue Shi Yan had provided; otherwise, he truly would have missed the Divine Arsenal Tower entirely! Kasin, the Water Dragon God, possessed a powerful sense of perception, and now that Mo Xing had inherited that power, his intuition and sixth sense should be just as keen. Who could have imagined that one day he would become a detective, like Holmes, unraveling mysteries?
Mo Xing arrived at the base of the Divine Arsenal Tower.
The gate stood open, emitting a faint glow. Two stone pillars coiled with silvery-white stone dragons, their golden eyes shining like enormous lamps, illuminating the path to the entrance.
Mo Xing glanced at them and entered.
The interior hall was unlike the exterior; metallic walls intertwined with vines, incandescent lamps flickered overhead, and dust carpeted the floor. Clearly, no one had tended to this place for ages, yet the lights were still on. By all logic, shouldn’t this be a deserted tower?
Something was off!
Mo Xing looked around the first floor’s hall—nothing remarkable, just a vast empty room. He decided to head upstairs and investigate. He truly felt like a young sleuth, and the staircase before him was the road to the truth.
Wait!
Mo Xing noticed a footprint—a single shoe print on the dusty steps!
Strange, there was only one print.
Judging by its length, it belonged to a size forty-three shoe—a man, most likely! Mo Xing surmised the owner probably possessed some flight skill akin to “Dragon God’s Wing,” perhaps landing to rest mid-flight.
The net of heaven is wide, but nothing escapes! With the footprint here, could the suspect be far?
Mo Xing hurried up the stairs.
He searched all the way to the fourteenth floor, still without finding a clue.
Leaning against the wall, he gasped for breath. This was simply an empty tower! Nothing at all! No wonder it wasn’t marked on the school map!
A sudden mechanical clatter echoed from the wall behind him, sending a chill down his spine.
Could it be... a hidden space behind the wall? Thinking carefully, the tower looked immense from outside, and though it felt spacious inside, there was a sense that not everything was as it seemed. He was merely in a stairway corridor!
Mo Xing immediately stood, feeling along the wall for any mechanism.
To the right...
To the right...
Again to the right...
He traced his hand along, the sensation growing stronger, as though he was about to reach the truth.
“Would you like to enter?”
In the quiet corridor, a system prompt sounded suddenly.
Mo Xing’s hand paused as he took a deep breath.
As expected, there was something hidden here!
“Yes!” Mo Xing confirmed.
The section of wall beneath his hand suddenly lit up with blue light, the whole wall shuddering. From his palm, winding rays spread outward, their brilliance intensifying and illuminating his face.
This... this is a tree!
Mo Xing stared in awe at the tree-shaped light pattern on the wall.
With a thunderous sound, the tree split the wall, and a door opened right at Mo Xing’s position!
The scene inside stunned him even more:
Petri dishes!
Reagent cabinets!
Lab benches!
All sorts of experimental apparatus!
It was nothing short of a biochemical laboratory!
Who... who had built such a lab here?
Mo Xing weaved through the equipment, glimpsing biological bone specimens in the cabinets and tiny insects in the petri dishes, feeling a wave of nausea.
Hoo—
He suddenly heard faint breathing and immediately rushed toward the sound. The feeling was intense—a human’s breath!
Where?
Not here!
Nor here!
Mo Xing kept running, weaving around corners, searching for the source of the breathing. The lab was vast, cluttered with equipment, and though he’d run so long, he still hadn’t found the person! Yet he drew ever closer, the rhythm of the breath seemed to cry out:
“Help!”
He had to find this person; perhaps they were the breakthrough to the whole case!
He must find them!
He rounded another corner and was stunned by what he saw:
“Mian...”
“Senior Mian Hua!!!!”
Mo Xing broke down completely. Senior Mian Hua was chained to a crucifix, wrists and ankles bound by chains, his upper garment torn apart, countless red tubes piercing into his muscle.
Mo Xing rushed forward, pulling the tubes out one by one.
Senior Mian Hua should have been bantering with Senior Cai Hong in the dorm as usual!
He should have been boasting to Teacher Tianqi as he always did!
He should have been joking with Mo Xing, carefree as ever!
Not like this—so battered and broken!
Thinking of this, Mo Xing wept bitterly as he pulled the red tubes.
“I thought some lab rat had wandered in?”
A voice sounded from behind. Mo Xing spun around—it was the masked man!
“I’ll kill you!”
Mo Xing summoned his staff from the Ring of Titan and charged!
“Little ant, you’re no match for me!”
Before Mo Xing could cast “Pillar of Frost,” the masked man flicked his finger, sending him flying with an invisible force.
“You can still leave now. For her sake, I’ll spare your life—for now,” the masked man laughed.
“Leave?”
Mo Xing climbed up, wiping blood from his mouth.
“I’m taking my senior with me!”
He roared, gathering water elements and unleashing “Ice Blade”—a row of sharp ice spikes shot toward the masked man.
“If you insist on being difficult, don’t blame me for being merciless!” The masked man summoned a violet longbow, a blue-violet hurricane whirled forth, shattering the ice spikes and hurling Mo Xing against the wall.
“Haha, truly pathetic!” The masked man crushed his mask and tossed it aside. “Before you die, let me show you who wields such immense power!”
Mo Xing slowly climbed up from beside the wall, watching as the opponent gathered blue-violet energy in his hand, forming an arrow trailing ghostly shadows.
The opponent was—
Li Qingchi!