"Last time, I sensed a fleeting trace of Origin Fire here. I don't know whether it was an illusion, but Young Master Grewu, shall we go in and take a look?"
Grewu hesitated for a moment, but ultimately nodded. It had felt nothing here before, yet now that it had returned to Prey Hall, it had an inexplicable feeling... Grewu felt that its flame seemed livelier than before, as though it were faintly anticipating something.
Carrying that strange feeling, Grewu and Tandin entered Prey Hall.
They crossed the cold black-and-white checkered floor beneath dim, yellow candlelight. Grewu even felt a chilling draft sweep through the hall, making the flames on its body flicker like dying embers on the verge of going out.
Tandin frowned. Prey Hall's atmosphere was far too empty and desolate. It was nothing like an environment that could nurture Origin Fire.
Though it had been Tandin himself who suggested coming here, at this moment, he could not help asking himself: Did Origin Fire truly exist here?
Instead, Grewu, who had initially declared with absolute certainty that there was no trace of Origin Fire here, had its round, bulging eyes squeezed into inverted triangles by its tightly furrowed brows. It kept muttering, "This place is very strange."
It had an indistinct premonition that the Origin Fire Orucia sought might be here.
Yet as the last descendant of the Flame-Pattern Clan, Grewu could not sense even the slightest trace of Origin Fire, as if the premonition in its heart were nothing but a joke.
"Is anyone here?" Tandin's voice traveled through the empty hall. Other than his own echo, no one answered.
"Let's take a look in the inner courtyard." Grewu listened closely and vaguely heard whispers coming from that direction.
The farther in they went, the clearer that