-130- Inside the Seven-Raven Pagoda (Please subscribe!)

Tongsi slowly ascended the stairs, moving with cautious, tip-toed steps. Upon reaching the broken section, he stopped. The distance to the second floor was about a meter. Tongsi could have reached it with his hands, but the floor above was uneven and jagged, offering no stable grip.

"Ele-kid!"

Ele-kid lifted Tongsi’s foot and gave him a powerful shove upward, allowing Tongsi to scramble onto the second floor. One had to admit, Ele-kid’s arm strength was truly astonishing, and the angle of the toss had been perfect.

"Ele-kid, you come up too." Tongsi reached down and pulled Ele-kid up.

In truth, Tongsi could have easily recalled Ele-kid into its Poké Ball. The only reason he kept it out was to bolster his own courage. Venturing into the high tower alone made him feel uneasy, but having Ele-kid by his side provided a sense of security.

Tongsi and Ele-kid continued forward. The tower had no lights, relying entirely on the faint moonlight filtering in from outside. The second floor was much like the first: spacious, yet utterly dilapidated. The staircase here, however, was intact. As Tongsi stepped onto it, he suddenly noticed something strange. Given how long it had been since anyone had walked here, the stairs should have been thick with dust. Yet, the dust on these stairs appeared surprisingly thin. And... there seemed to be traces of something on them.

Tongsi instinctively looked upward, but all was pitch black; he could see nothing.

"Shh..." Tongsi gestured to Ele-kid. At a time like this, he had to be extremely cautious. He suspected that there was someone in the tower—not someone who had just arrived, but someone living here long-term.

"Ele-ele..." Ele-kid followed behind Tongsi, treading lightly to avoid making a sound.

Tongsi led Ele-kid up to the third floor. It differed from the second. While the first two floors were dirty and cluttered with debris from the tower’s past, the third floor seemed far more organized. There wasn't much trash, and there was even a desk. Tongsi approached the desk and saw a photo frame.

"This frame looks quite modern!" Tongsi didn't touch it; a thick layer of dust obscured the photograph inside. However, the frame itself looked like something one would buy on an online shopping site in the modern era. If what the old man had said was true—that no one had lived in the tower since it was struck by lightning thirty-one years ago—such a frame should not be here.

That afternoon, Tongsi had searched online for specific information about the Seven-Crow Tower. The construction date and the builder matched what the old man had described, as did the timing of its destruction thirty-one years ago. As for the cause, there were many versions online: some claimed the tower's master at the time had offended the heavens and drawn down lightning; others whispered that an elder had brought a cursed woman into the tower to commit illicit acts, and upon discovery, the tower was burned down. There were countless such rumors, but the real reason was never revealed.

Regarding the old man’s claim that everyone who had entered or tried to destroy the tower in the last thirty years had met a bad end, there were indeed such incidents, but they were not absolute—only a handful of cases. Tongsi had even categorized these deaths as mere coincidences. What curse? If a curse truly existed, the tower would never have survived. The only reason it still stood was that the Lin-Hu City Pokémon Association treated it as a historical monument, much like an ancient tree in a city. City officials rarely destroyed such artifacts of history.

Tongsi didn't linger and chose to keep moving up. The stairs from the third to the fourth floor were intact, though a bit dirty, with far less dust than the levels below.

*Tap... tap... tap...*

As he walked toward the fourth floor, Tongsi heard the rhythmic sound of a wooden fish being struck.

"Someone is here!" Tongsi immediately concluded. There was no doubt about it; someone had to be inside the tower, or how else could the sound of a wooden fish be ringing out?

The fourth floor was similar to the third, though instead of a desk, there was a cabinet. Tongsi continued upward. By the time he reached the fifth floor, the sound of the wooden fish was even louder. Tongsi held his breath, his heart racing. Ele-kid remained by his side, showing no fear.

"The fifth floor..." Tongsi whispered to himself. The third floor had the desk, the fourth the cabinet, and now the fifth, which was furnished with a sofa.

The sixth floor...

Before even stepping onto the stairs, Tongsi stopped. The staircase was clean, devoid of dust, as if it had been swept. Above, a faint light shone down.

"Caw!"

Just then, a bird’s cry rang out.

Tongsi recoiled two steps in alarm, pressing his back against the wall, his heart pounding.

"Ele-ele..." Ele-kid tugged at his pant leg, as if asking if they should continue.

"Go! Let's take a look!" Tongsi whispered. Having come this far, there was no reason to retreat. Regardless of who was up there, he had to find out.

"Kuh-zhi-ma-ji-li-niao..." As Tongsi slowly stepped onto the stairs leading to the sixth floor, he heard a gravelly, aged voice from above.

Peering through the light, Tongsi saw candles burning against the wall—two of them, one on each side. On the sixth floor, a painting hung on the wall. Tongsi saw an elderly man with a somewhat grim expression, standing before a massive Honchkrow. In the painting, there were also several Murkrow flying about.

"Four, five... five Murkrow!" Tongsi counted. There were five Murkrow in the painting. "Five Murkrow? Is there some meaning to this?"

He didn't understand. The sixth floor held nothing else but the painting and the two candles. Tongsi looked up; the floor above seemed even brighter. The seventh floor!

He didn't know how many floors the tower had in total, but after reaching the sixth level, the old voice and the bird cries sounded even closer.

"They're right above!"

Tongsi hesitated, debating whether to go up. He was certain now that someone was there. Was it worth the risk? Although he didn't believe the old man he’d met earlier, those fragmented warnings echoed in his mind.

"Is this... a black feather?" Tongsi leaned down, spotting a black feather on the ground, and crouched to pick it up.

*Pat...*

At that exact moment, a hand rested on Tongsi’s shoulder. He felt a shock run through his entire body as if he had been struck by lightning!

... (To be continued)