Chapter Fifty: The Black Tower

I never expected that monkey to possess such immense strength. With a single punch, it felt as though a massive iron hammer had struck my forehead; darkness engulfed my vision, and I immediately collapsed into unconsciousness.

When I regained consciousness, my first instinct was to struggle against the rope that had bound me, only to realize it had already been removed. The demon-faced marquis stood motionless before me, and perched upon his shoulder, the monkey glared at me with blood-red eyes, baring its sharp teeth.

Truth be told, I did not particularly fear the demon-faced marquis at that moment; rather, it was the monkey on his shoulder that filled me with trepidation. I could not predict when it might pounce at me.

Although I did not understand why the demon-faced marquis had suddenly appeared to carry me away, my intuition told me he would not kill me. Otherwise, he would not have gone through the trouble of rescuing me from the scholar of Yin and Yang.

"Where is my brother?" I demanded as soon as I awoke, anxiety gnawing at my heart. If Wang Feiyang and Lu Liliuo had fallen into the hands of the scholar of Yin and Yang, their fate would surely be dire.

The demon-faced marquis did not reply, remaining still as a statue. The monkey, however, squeaked at me, mimicking a human gesture for silence, as if urging me to hold my tongue.

Perhaps out of instinctive fear for the monkey, I dared not speak further. I understood well: since the demon-faced marquis had taken me from the Temple of the Son of Heaven, nothing I said or demanded would change my situation. Though I worried for Lu Li and Wang Feiyang, at that moment, I could only submit to fate.

The demon-faced marquis slowly turned away, hands clasped behind his back, gazing thoughtfully into the distance.

Only then did I begin to survey my surroundings. I found myself outside the City of Wrongful Death, amidst a vast desert of swirling yellow sands. Unlike before, there were no bone-chilling skeletons littering the ground, but the sky was a gloomy yellow tinged with a thread of blood-red.

Three or four hundred meters ahead stood a nine-tiered black tower, shrouded in a faint mist of darkness. Its surface was covered with countless arcane spells and scriptures, unfamiliar to me.

"What is this place?" I wondered, gazing at the towering black edifice, nearly twenty meters high. My heart churned with unease; I could not fathom why such a strange tower existed within the City of Wrongful Death.

My question went unanswered. The demon-faced marquis stared at the black tower for a long time, lost in contemplation.

Even the monkey quieted, crouching motionless on the marquis’s shoulder. In front of this black tower, even its savage nature was subdued.

"Senior, I have brought the man to you." After a long silence, the demon-faced marquis spoke, his voice resonant and powerful, echoing toward the tower.

There was no answer from the tower. Only the creak of a door as the massive gate swung open by itself.

Inside was pitch black, obscuring all sight. My skin crawled with unease—who dwelled within that tower? What did the marquis mean by his words?

"Go in," the demon-faced marquis suddenly ordered, startling me. Instinctively, I stepped back, demanding to know why I must enter.

The previously calm monkey grew ferocious again, its posture threatening to leap at me. Fear surged through me; I dared not defy the marquis. I had witnessed the monkey’s power—if even the scholar of Yin and Yang could be torn apart so effortlessly, I, lacking his ability to reassemble my body, stood no chance.

Despite a thousand protests within me, I could only walk toward the black tower, glancing back every few steps. The marquis and his monkey made no move to join me, standing rooted in place, their gaze fixed upon me.

The three-hundred-meter journey felt like a trek across ten thousand miles. My mind raced with questions: why had the City Lord sent the scholar of Yin and Yang to hunt us, and why had the marquis, himself a subordinate of the City Lord, rescued me at the critical moment?

Such a betrayal could not go unpunished. Why did he dare? What was the black tower, who lived within, and what was the true face beneath the marquis’s ghastly mask? Who was he, and what was his connection to the tower—and to me?

My head was filled with tangled speculations. By the time I reached the gate, confusion reigned within me.

Even standing at the tower’s entrance, I could not see anything inside. An invisible pressure emanated from within, nearly suffocating me. At the same time, a powerful force seemed to draw me irresistibly forward.

As soon as I stepped inside, the door slammed shut behind me, sending a shock through my heart. In that instant, the darkness within the tower gave way to blinding light.

Instinctively, I glanced around. To my astonishment, the tower was hollow, and I stood at its very center. Looking up, I could see all the way to the pinnacle.

From the tip of the tower to the walls at my level, countless murals and inscriptions were engraved.

The murals depicted a fierce and brutal battle—legions of spectral soldiers clad in black armor, grotesque generals, and a host of mythical monsters and demons, all rendered in vivid detail. Judging from the creatures and the setting, this was not a battle of the mortal world, but of the underworld.

Suddenly, memories of Fu Yi’s tales surfaced—stories of the great upheaval in the underworld two thousand years ago, the war between the Yin Emperor and the current lord of the realm, Emperor Yama. I was startled: could these murals depict scenes from that ancient conflict?

Below each mural were inscriptions, but I could not decipher them, for they were written entirely in funerary script. My heart stung with regret; if only Wang Feiyang were here, he would surely understand these writings.

Interspersed among the murals and scriptures were various spells and totems, each emitting a faint radiance, as if sealing the black tower with their power.

"Nine Yin Severed Veins, you have finally arrived!"

As I was lost in contemplation, a hoarse, ancient voice echoed in my ear, startling me. I turned, and there behind me stood an old man, his entire body shackled in iron chains.

I was bewildered; when I entered, I had seen no one. How had he appeared so suddenly?

His face was lined with deep wrinkles, resembling the bark of an old tree. He was bound by more than a dozen chains, not merely shackled, but pierced through his flesh and bone. I quickly counted: eighteen chains in all, each one penetrating his body and anchored in his bones.

The other ends of the chains stretched upward and downward, connecting to every level of the tower—two chains per floor, nine floors, eighteen chains in total. Each was as thick as a child’s arm, resembling the internal organs of a living body. This chained old man was like the beating heart of the black tower.

I needed no guess to realize this was the "senior" the demon-faced marquis had addressed outside, and he seemed to know I was the one with the Nine Yin Severed Veins. From his words, I sensed he had been waiting for me for many years.

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