Chapter 231: Accidental Entrance
The bas.e.m.e.nt was filled with at least a hundred bookshelves, and needless to say, there were even more books on them. However, for many of these books, the paper on them had already started rotting, releasing a foul smell. Even if there were a few that managed to escape the rotting, they were probably torn into shreds by rats or insects.
Xia Fei furrowed his eyebrows. He did not expect the Seaview Tower to look like this. Technically, martial art secret manuals would never be written on normal paper and should have been through a special preservation treatment. The books in the bas.e.m.e.nt were in horrible states, obviously from age and negligence.
The narrow corridor led deeper into the bas.e.m.e.nt. It was not a big room, and it only took Xia Fei ten minutes to explore the entire place.
Xia Fei stopped in his steps and picked up a book that was in a better condition off a bookshelf. Xia Fei almost fainted when he made out the t.i.tle of the book.
“Bedroom techniques?” Xia Fei smiled and muttered to himself, “Phantom, do you people study this in your spare time?”
Phantom was left speechless. This was also his first time entering Seaview Tower. He had no idea what went on inside, and all his knowledge of the books here was purely from the word of mouth.
Xia Fei grabbed another book off the shelf, and upon closer inspection, it was secret techniques for growing plants and vegetables, such as shortening the growth period of tomatoes by half. He then tossed it and picked up something else. This time it made more sense but was completely useless. It described secret techniques never to get drunk, useful for a.s.serting dominance at the table.
Xia Fei felt helpless. Obviously, everything in the bas.e.m.e.nt was useless garbage, which was why they were dumped there without care.
He turned around to head out of the bas.e.m.e.nt and encountered the old hunchback, who was at the door smiling with his eyes.
“Elder, there isn’t anything I need. Can I pick somewhere else?” Xia Fei asked politely. Although he hated the fact that he was being toyed by the old man, he did noy show any of it on his face.
The old hunchback shook his head. “There are rules in the Seaview Tower; anyone who enters can pick whichever floor they like. Since you’ve already entered the bas.e.m.e.nt, you can’t enter the other floors. If you want to go to other floors, you’ll have to do so next time.”
“There are rules like that?” Xia Fei spoke somewhat angrily.
The old man moved toward the wall on the right of the hall. The wall was covered in a thick layer of dust, which resembled a grey cloth.
The old man revealed an alloy plate that was inlaid in the wall. There were a few lines of words on the plate that proved the old man was not lying.
Xia Fei curled the corner of his mouth, letting out a cold snort as he was prepared to leave. The old man was clearly having a go at him as he neglected to mention the rules earlier, leading him to the bas.e.m.e.nt full of garbage.
‘Whatever secret skill book you have, I don’t care about it; hide them as you like,’ Xia Fei thought to himself.
The old hunchback then stuck his arm out to stop Xia Fei in his tracks. “The sect master ordered us to let you grab a suitable book. You can’t leave without picking one.”
Xia Fei let out a bitter laugh. “These books serve me no purpose, I won’t pick one.”
The old hunchback shook his head. “That won’t do. Since you’re already here, you must bring one with you, or else I’ll need to explain that to the sect master.”
The meaning of his words was incredibly obvious. No matter what, he needed to pick a skill book; Xia Fei was not the one who made the rules here.
Luckily, Xia Fei was picking books, not women; although a bit pathetic, it was not too horrible. If the bas.e.m.e.nt was filled with horrible-looking women and this hunchback forced Xia Fei to take one of them home, that would make the ultimate tragedy.
Gritting his teeth, Xia Fei returned to the bas.e.m.e.nt and slammed the oily alloy door shut, swearing a bunch alone in the room.
He suspected that the old thing had gone a bit mad from staying in this deserted house for a long time. He would mess with whoever came here regardless of who they were in order to satisfy his twisted mentality.
Although he was back in the bas.e.m.e.nt, picking out a book from all these so-called secret manuals was a problem to Xia Fei.
In truth, be it the bedroom techniques or tomato cultivation, everything posed some uses for Xia Fei. There were probably benefits to be had if he learned bedroom techniques; his winsome appearance was just for looking, after all, and if a speed ability user such as him learned techniques like that, he could satisfy those wealthy ladies so well it would reinvigorate them.
Xia Fei then shook his head to get all those irrelevant thoughts out of his head. He then started looking through the bookshelves in hopes of finding something that was useful in the slightest bit. Even if he could not get a use out of it, it would not be bad as a gift, treating it as a souvenir from this nameless planet.
There was a mural in the room that featured an old man. It was not particularly intricate, but it gave off a fairly imposing aura. This old man was effused by killing intent as though he was about to kill a G.o.d.
Xia Fei happened to be looking at the books right next to the mural, and he was stopped in his tracks to take it all in.
The person depicted on this mural made no efforts to conceal the evil within his heart. His eyes were faintly glowing as though he intended to kill anything that lived. However, his eyes were at an angle. Usually, the characters would look forward or toward the sky, but this mural was weird; his angry eyes were trained on the ground beneath Xia Fei’s feet.
Xia Fei unconsciously followed his gaze toward the ground underneath him. All of a sudden, his incredible perception allowed him to notice that the ground beneath him was different. Everywhere was tiled using slates with a red undertone, yet this slate had trails of blood, which were barely noticeable. It was as if there really was blood seeping into the stone.
“Huh?” Xia Fei lowered his head and wiped off the dust from the ground. The oddities of this weird piece of rock was now clear as day.
Upon closer inspection, the thin lines of blood looked almost as if they were flowing. Xia Fei then rubbed his eyes using his sleeve. Were his eyes playing tricks on him? Why would there be blood flowing in a rock?
The truth was clear as day; Xia Fei’s eyes were not playing tricks on him but were incredibly sharp, instead. Under Xia Fei’s guidance, Phantom also noticed the same incredible phenomenon.
The person in the mural was looking at this specific rock, and this rock was different from everything else in the room. Everything had become incredibly interesting.
Xia Fei investigated the rock thoroughly using his fingers, hoping that he could find a trigger or something. Unfortunately, the slate was as smooth as a mirror; it was nothing like a trigger.
Xia Fei furrowed his eyebrows and thought for a second. He then shut his eyes and gently placed his finger on the rock to feel for its aura.
Slowly but surely, a violent killing intent was transferred from Xia Fei’s fingertips to his brain. It was as though the rock was alive, trying to force Xia Fei to let go using its aura.
Xia Fei smiled and used his killing intent to fight against it. It was just a piece of rock, after all; even if it obtained killing intent for one reason or another, its weak killing intent after the pa.s.sage of many years was no match for Xia Fei’s
Without much effort, Xia Fei surrounded it using his killing intent.
Suddenly, a clicking noise was heard nearby. Xia Fei quickly stood up and saw a gap in the wall that would fit one person. His killing intent had actually triggered something.
There was nothing else coming from the slate beneath him; even the fierce character in the mural regained a normal angle of view and was now looking forward.
Xia Fei and Phantom had their mouths hung wide open from their shock. They had never heard of anything so strange. Rocks with killing intents, murals with changing eyes… What was going on?
Xia Fei was in no hurry to go through the gap in the wall. He curiously approached the wall to inspect the mural first.
He was shocked to see that, not only did the focus of their eyes change direction, even the killing intent disappeared; in the blink of an eye, he went from a killer to an ordinary old man.
Xia Fei whirled his finger around the mural. The paint felt warm, and the areas with paint were noticeably thicker and more delicate than ordinary walls.
Gritting his teeth, Xia Fei decided to prod away the layer of paint to take a closer look.
At this moment, the door that opened slowly started closing.
It only gave Xia Fei 0.01 second to react. He stomped on the ground and dashed into the dark just before the door closed.
A dense *thud* was heard. The door finally closed itself, and Xia Fei had entered a totally unknown s.p.a.ce.
Xia Fei then blinked a few times and spent some time getting his eyes used to the darkness here.
It was a flat pa.s.sageway that was narrow and damp; who knew where it led?
All his equipment on him had been taken away. He did not have a weapon, no means of communication, and even no way of illuminating his surroundings. It was probably unwise to explore this dark and long pa.s.sageway alone.
“What now?” asked Phantom.
Xia Fei smiled. “Since we’re already here, let’s relax a bit. Perhaps there are some secrets hidden here; how can we rest easy if we don’t go exploring this?”
Phantom furrowed his eyebrows. Xia Fei was an extremely curious person, and he got himself into all sorts of trouble because of that. Nevertheless, his intuition was correct; Xia Fei surrounded himself in trouble once again. Most importantly, despite Xia Fei not knowing what trouble he might encounter, his heart was telling him to proceed.
Xia Fei smelled his finger and said in a deep voice, “The paint used on the mural had human blood mixed in.”
Phantom was shocked. “Human blood? Are you sure?”
Xia Fei nodded as he flicked the small piece of paint on his fingertips into the dark. “Yes, although the paint changed the smell, it never completely got rid of the scent that was unique to human blood.”
Phantom was left speechless. Although Xia Fei was still quite young, he had taken many lives. In combination with his incredible sense of perception, it was not that hard for him to tell that there was blood mixed in with the paint.
Xia Fei continued along this old pa.s.sageway. The air was cold and moist, and it was so quiet here that only his footsteps could be heard—truly an environment that would make anyone nervous.