"Yes."
Doro nodded.
Jiang Lan patted Doro on the shoulder. "Not bad, not bad. You won't have to be a couch potato anymore."
Doro pointed toward the palace. "Little Guga, let's go take a look."
Jiang Lan followed Doro's short little arm with his gaze.
At the end of the alley, beyond several crooked streets, a dark red palace loomed beneath the dim sky in the deepest part of Slaughter City's inner district.
Its roof rose high, with a stone statue at each corner. Their features were indistinct, but their poses were hideous.
The palace was built entirely of dark red stone, its surface overgrown with black vines. From a distance, it looked like a giant nail driven into the city's heart.
Jiang Lan narrowed his eyes. For once, his little face turned serious. "I heard the ruler of Slaughter City lives in there. If you could absorb the aura the Asura God left behind, it probably has something to do with that place."
Doro looked down at the two strangely colored Soul Rings beneath her feet. Her little hand clenched, then relaxed.
"Then let's go."
"Let's go."
Jiang Lan scooped Doro off the ground and set her on his shoulder, then ran toward the palace on his short little legs.
Figures stirred in the shadows along both sides of the alley, but once the eyes hidden there saw a child in a penguin suit, most of them chose to stay put.
The people of Slaughter City might have been desperate, but they weren't stupid.
Anyone who walked around this place without a care was either mad or someone they couldn't afford to cross.
Jiang Lan didn't look like the former.
An open black-stone plaza surrounded the palace. Dark red stains seeped through the gaps between the paving stones, and