Master Tower

Clutching the amulet he had "borrowed" from Father Balin, Lin Qi stood before the cylindrical tower deep inside the campus, his forehead slick with cold sweat.

Built from massive blocks of dark gray stone, the tower before him was the tallest structure in the entire empire. Some called it the Master Tower; others called it the Madman's Tower. At the Fifth University, where Lin Qi studied, it had an official name: "Laboratory for Specially Appointed Visiting Professors."

The tower was home to a band of oddballs from every corner of the world, each with strange abilities and equally strange temperaments. There were Black Elves and Dark Elves who specialized in the dark side of the human heart, necromancers who loved rummaging through the entrails of all manner of creatures, dwarves who liked tinkering with lumps of metal and were masters of forging, and goblins who excelled at designing and studying all kinds of weapons, among others.

The tower rose three hundred and seventy meters above ground and descended two hundred and fifty meters below it. It had been built using special techniques provided by dwarves and goblins. Its base was fifty-eight meters in diameter, and each floor was spacious enough to let two or three reclusive "masters" freely research whatever caught their interest.

Ever since University City had been built, all sorts of strange materials had poured out of the tower. Some of the technologies had greatly strengthened the empire. For example, the tips of the six Stabbing Swords Lin Qi had sold to Cripple had been made using a special steel-dipping technique supplied by a dwarf master, giving them above-average piercing power.

"All right, I need a golden Ooh-ooh-call!" Lin Qi covered his chest with his right hand and silently prayed to every god in heaven and earth whose name and divine office he knew, hoping he could go in and come out safely this time.

In the eyes of the Fifth University's many students, the tower before them was no different from Hell. Every year, thirty or fifty students who served the tower's specially appointed visiting professors either died or were gravely injured. Others vanished without a trace, and no one ever heard from them again.

Lin Qi was one such "lucky" student. He had only just stepped through the university gates when he was chosen to serve one of the tower's visiting professors. He had been at it for three years. That wasn't all that long, but he had already teetered on the brink of death from severe injuries four times. He had lost count of his minor injuries. So whenever he entered the tower, Lin Qi treated it as a perilous adventure.

But great risks brought great rewards. The tower was full of dangers, yet Lin Qi had also found plenty of opportunities to make money there. Otherwise, he could never have built up the Iron Fist Brotherhood, with its hundreds of peripheral members, in just three years.

"For the sake of my darling Ooh-ooh-call! Dear mentor, please don't go crazy!"

Clutching the small amulet scroll in his hand, Lin Qi remembered how Father Balin, the scum of the clergy, had sworn that it had been made personally by the bishop of the Seine River diocese and possessed above-average defensive power. But Lin Qi knew Father Balin's character all too well. If he said the amulet had been made by the bishop himself, then its real maker was probably just an ordinary spell-priest.

An amulet made by an ordinary spell-priest could probably withstand three or five blows from an ordinary soldier. Hopefully it would do the trick. As long as his mentor didn't kill him the moment he walked in, Lin Qi figured the risk wouldn't be too great.

Taking a deep breath, Lin Qi carefully slipped into the tower.

The eyes of two bronze hyena statues flanking the entrance shone with a scarlet glow. Four beams of red light swept over Lin Qi. His body suddenly felt scorching hot, as if he'd been plunged into boiling water. Fortunately, the ordinary black iron plate at his waist flickered faintly, and an invisible ripple enveloped him. The hyenas' eyes gradually dimmed, and Lin Qi entered the tower without incident.

The first floor aboveground was completely empty. An ordinary twelve-pointed star formation had been engraved on the floor, with dozens of fist-sized rubies and sapphires gleaming upon it. Several cloaked men stood in a corner of the hall. The heavy cloaks revealed faint outlines of armor beneath. They watched Lin Qi warily, but once they recognized his face, they took their hands off their sword hilts.

Keeping his head down and not daring to make a sound, Lin Qi carefully made his way to a circular iron plate in the corner of the hall.

The men on duty in the hall were all high-ranking knights sent by the empire's War Office. Any one of them could easily wipe Lin Qi out, so he wouldn't dare act arrogant or show them the slightest disrespect. Unlike with Cripple, whom Lin Qi could openly treat with hostility, caution and humility were the first rules of survival around these ruthless, battle-hardened knights trained by the War Office.

The War Office represented the might of the imperial army, a force that lorded over the entire continent. No one dared act out in front of them.

Lin Qi pulled the iron plate from his waist and placed it on another metal plate beside him. Focusing his attention, he channeled what little spiritual power he had into it. A few dim characters slowly lit up on the plate. The iron platform beneath his feet trembled, then swiftly descended through a vertical metal shaft.

The specially appointed professor Lin Qi served was a monster. He lived alone on the deepest level beneath the Master Tower. Several years ago, an experiment had gone wrong, and the poisonous gas that leaked out killed everyone on that floor. Since then, no living thing besides him had set foot there.

Master Alchemist Ke Cha had been hired by University City five years ago at a lavish salary to serve as a specially appointed visiting professor. But his temperament was extremely peculiar, and he had spent the past five years living underground without ever going out. On top of that, his experiments with secret potions were always causing accidents, big or small. In the last two years, no outsider had dared go near his territory except Lin Qi, his full-time attendant.

The iron platform beneath his feet came to a slow stop. An arched doorway stood before him. Lin Qi pressed his iron plate against the metal door and cautiously opened it.

The amulet on his hand activated silently, enveloping Lin Qi in a hazy white light.

Lin Qi immediately relaxed. The amulet Father Balin had given him was actually a Dawn Amulet, borrowing the power of the God of Light of Dawn. It was the Church's most powerful defensive amulet. The God of Light of Dawn's divine power not only offered excellent protection but also had considerable healing power. It was the best kind of protective talisman.

Smiling, Lin Qi pushed open the metal door before him. A fist-sized crimson fireball, trailing terrifying heat, came roaring toward him. In the blink of an eye, it was right in front of him.

The fireball was intensely condensed, and its dreadful heat rapidly unraveled the layer of white light around Lin Qi.

"Sure enough, it's a dud! Balin, you bastard, you son of a bitch!" Lin Qi let out a shriek of terror, his voice hoarse.