https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-308-Ascending-Tower-Chronicles-Part-8-/13547709/
Chapter 309: Ascending Tower Chronicles (IX)
Chapter 309: Ascending Tower Chronicles (IX)
“This staircase should lead to the fourth floor… or somewhere else. Either way, it’ll keep us moving forward,” Feng Bu Jue said, shining his flashlight upward.
Before the four stood a spiral staircase made of stone, its design oddly defying architectural logic. Structurally, it shouldn’t have been possible—the lack of support points made its existence questionable. But given this was a game with intentionally nonsensical scenarios, no one dwelled on it.
“Hmm… There are footprints on the steps,” Ji Chang observed, leaning closer.
“And they only go upward,” Hong Hu added.
Qiu Feng muttered, “Unless they walked backward to return here… Scarecrow and Iron Man must’ve gone to the fourth floor without coming back.”
Feng Bu Jue nodded. “I circled the entire third floor’s perimeter and calculated the area. It’s significantly larger than the two illuminated floors below. Clearly, there’s spatial distortion—no illumination devices here likely mask this anomaly.” He paused. “I think the clue guiding us here is the smell. If you detect the stench of a corpse while exploring, you’ll find one of the two murder scenes. Following the blood footprints from there will lead to the other scene and the staircase to the fourth floor.”
“So you’re saying there are no other clues on this floor besides those three locations?” Hong Hu asked.
“At least none worth mentioning,” Feng Bu Jue replied. “Of course, we could explore the central area in detail, but in this dark, expansive environment, it’d take too much time with uncertain results. For now, we don’t even know how many floors are above or whether they have lighting. We’d better conserve our flashlight power.”
“I agree this floor’s been fully explored,” Qiu Feng said. “Feng Bu Jue has already checked the perimeter and found three key locations forming a complete information chain. If we split up to explore further with only two flashlights, one group’s efficiency would drop significantly.”
“Seconded,” Ji Chang added.
Hong Hu shrugged. “No objections… but who’ll open that trapdoor? What if an axe is waiting up there?”
“Let Qiu Feng use the broom to push it open,” Feng Bu Jue suggested. “The axe would hit the broom first.”
“You’re such a genius…” Qiu Feng retorted, the slang slipping through the system’s filters. Still, he sighed and led the way up the staircase.
Feng Bu Jue shrugged at his teammates, exchanged smirks, and followed.
The staircase wasn’t long—after a turn and a half, Qiu Feng reached the ceiling’s height. He raised the broom, pressing its wooden end against the trapdoor, and shoved upward. With a creak, the door swung open.
A sliver of light spilled down. Peering up, they saw the fourth floor—a high-ceilinged space with a curved wall nearby. The light came from the side, though its source remained unclear.
“Ugh… What’s that smell?” Qiu Feng grimaced as he pushed the door open.
“Probably another corpse,” Feng Bu Jue replied flatly from behind.
“You sure it’s safe for me to go up?”
“If it’s already dead, what’s there to fear?”
That was debatable. While most feared corpses, others found living threats more terrifying.
After a few deep breaths, Qiu Feng sprang upward. He knew that if an axe lurked in the shadows, hesitating would be riskier—better to charge head-on and face the threat directly.
Feng Bu Jue followed with a relaxed grin, while Hong Hu and Ji Chang trailed behind him.
Once all four reached the fourth floor, they finally saw the trapdoor’s surroundings.
They were inside a windmill.
The walls were brick-and-timber, curving in a circle. The light came from small windows on the windmill’s upper frame—sunlight, it seemed.
As for the foul odor… it came from Scarecrow.
On one side of the windmill’s interior, the players found Scarecrow’s corpse—impaled on a rusted spear that had pierced the wall from outside. Their body hung like a sausage, suspended by the spear.
Since Scarecrow’s straw head had contained the witch’s brain, and the spear had pierced their skull, gray matter now dripped down their torso.
“Where do I even start complaining…” Qiu Feng muttered.
“We’ll figure things out once we go outside,” Feng Bu Jue said, already heading toward the windmill’s door.
The others followed without protest.
Outside, they found a space resembling a theater stage.
The fourth floor matched the first in size, with a ceiling over ten meters high. No support pillars stood in the open space. The ceiling was painted with blue skies, clouds, distant mountains, and rivers.
In a corner where the ceiling met the walls hung a “Sun” suspended by four steel cables. About three meters in diameter, it seemed paper-made yet emitted light indistinguishable from real sunlight—warming their skin as it bathed the room.
“Each floor gets weirder,” Ji Chang remarked.
Feng Bu Jue circled the windmill, uncovering Scarecrow’s killer. “Hmph… Just as I suspected.”
The others looked. Outside the windmill, the spear’s rear half jutted midair. The assailant—the knight—lay dead below.
The corpse wore standard medieval knight armor, but its head and helmet had been cleaved off. The neck wound was clean, another axe’s handiwork.
(End of Chapter)
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