The inside of the white square building was more modern than he had thought. Before entering, they were forced to wait for about thirty seconds in a small chamber where a mist—likely a disinfectant—poured into the room. From there, they were forced to walk through a long room where veins of glowing blue light covered the walls. In this room, the mist that clung to their bodies evaporated, along with dirt and other grime. When they came out, the rotten smell was gone, and the air in the white corridor ahead carried a sterile scent he had only ever experienced in hospitals on Earth.

  The girl—Thirty-Three—pouted. "All of my makeup is gone. And what is this smell? It's bad."

  The man instead inhaled deeply, letting out a satisfied "ahh," and then chuckled. "I'm sorry. While your makeup would make you taste sweeter, the one who wants you is a bit of a clean freak. He wouldn't eat you if you're not sterile."

  "Ahh." The girl nodded, understanding the situation.

  The man began to walk again, the girl followed, and Liu Xing walked several steps behind them.

  As he followed, Liu Xing considered how he could kill the man. The facility seemed to operate on its own. As far as he could tell, besides the three of them, there was no one else in this place. If the rest of the island was the same, there would likely only be a few Nether Lotus Sect disciples scattered about. But that was not good news. This facility looked modern. The energy operating this place was qi, and the mechanism used array formations. However, it was an automated facility. If there was a surveillance mechanism here, then it did not rely on humans. This meant there was a chance a centralized system ran the place. If that's true, then there's a chance that if he killed this man carelessly, the mechanism might instantly notice.

  Liu Xing looked around the corridor, expecting to see surveillance cameras.

  "Elder," the girl said suddenly, gaining the attention of the old man as well as Liu Xing. "Who is the person who will eat me?"

  From behind, Liu Xing could not observe her expression, only glimpse her side profile

  "He is someone important," the man replied. "So important that there is only one man within our organization who could stand side by side with him."

  "That is good," the girl said. She looked at the old man and smiled. "That means I am worthy enough to be eaten by a person of such high status."

  The old man chuckled. "Our sanctuary indeed only produces high-quality people like you and your friends. In fact, our sanctuary is famous for producing such high-quality delicacies. You know there are other sanctuaries on this island, right?"

  She nodded. "But I've never visited them."

  "You don't need to," he said. "They focus on quantity instead of quality, unlike our sanctuary. Their living conditions are horrible, and their meat tastes bad. Some are so bad that their meat isn't eaten at all, but rather used for other things." He tapped her shoulder. "As far as I know, you and your friends are the highest quality. Some people even eat you just because you taste great, not for the benefits."

  At that, the girl stood prouder and walked faster. "Let's go, Elder. We need to hurry. We can't make such an important man wait, can we?"

  "Patience, girl," he laughed. "Have you forgotten that impatient people taste sour?"

  The girl smiled embarrassedly, and the two of them began chatting. Their conversation drifted to the weather, to the other "sanctuaries," to the afterlife—which, Liu Xing deduced, the children were brainwashed into believing was accessed by being killed and eaten—and returned to the person who would later eat her. While neither of them uttered a name and spoke of him vaguely, Liu Xing knew they were talking about the master of this place, one of the elders of the Purple Moon Sect who had decided to back the Nether Lotus Sect. And while he felt uncomfortable with their conversation, he gleaned some information about him.

  First, he was a clean freak. No one could come close to him unless they had been cleaned thoroughly. That was why there were not many people on this island. Instead, the island was filled with puppets that he controlled directly and lent to some of the Nether Lotus Sect disciples. In fact, the man said that this entire facility was run by him.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "Does that mean he can see us, right here and right now?" the girl asked innocently.

  "He could, yes, but as far as I know, something like that is beneath him. There are so many more important things for him to do than observe us. Remember, he is an important person."

  However, the old man then stated that there were some places where the elder from the Purple Moon Sect could not peer. One of them was the private chambers allocated for visitors. The old man implied that if the girl accepted his proposal, they would head directly to one of those chambers right now.

  "Also," the old man said, pinching his chin, "there are rumors about blind spots, though I never bothered to investigate them. The other people in my position don't like being constantly observed, but I don't mind. The man in charge of this place is important, and he could kill us as easily as snapping a flower's stem, so we mustn't offend him. However, from my experience, he never meddles in our private affairs. I've bent the rules several times, and I'm still alive." He chuckled.

  The conversation continued, this time turning to the flowers and their alleged health benefits. However, Liu Xing only half listened. Instead, he focused on sensing the qi around him.

  What the man said about blind spots was absolutely important. If there were blind spots in this facility, then that was where he needed to kill the man.

  As he walked and observed the girl's back, Liu Xing thought that if she accepted the man's offer and they were headed to the visitors' chambers, things would be easier. There, he could carry out his plan to kill that old man secretly. However, he dismissed that thought. It felt wrong. Instead, he tried to sense the qi all around him. The qi clumped in several spots along the corridor and moved as if pushed by a gentle wind. He tried to find a blind spot, wondering about the surveillance system in place. Was it merely visual, like security cameras? Or was it something more elaborate that used the flow of qi to detect presences?

  Before Liu Xing could figure it out, the three of them reached a fork in the hallway.

  "Where do we need to go, Elder?" the girl asked.

  "This way," the man said, pointing left. "To the right are several visitors' chambers and a resting area. It's certainly a pleasant place; however, we're not going there, are we, or have you changed your mind?"

  "No, I haven't changed my mind. I wanted to be pure." The girl said. The man nodded and walked to the left. She followed him. As they walked, she asked, "Why is this place like this? Why is the place of offering located so deep inside?"

  "Ah, there are reasons, of course. One of them is that we're not using the shortest route. Instead, we're taking a scenic route." As he said that, he tapped the wall to his right. The qi around it shimmered, and the wall transformed into glass. Behind the glass was a beautiful garden not dominated by the color red. Instead, it was blue and purple. A small river flowed from one end to the other, and several trees with green, blue, and purple leaves dotted the garden. Butterflies of various colors danced atop the flowers, and several spots of light danced above the river as if they were fairies.

  The girl was in awe of the view, and the man smiled, proud of this little garden. The garden was indeed beautiful, but Liu Xing had no time to focus on it. Instead, as he took slower and slower steps behind them, he focused his senses in the opposite direction, toward where the man had said the visitors' chambers and resting area were located. The man had said the bedrooms were one place with no surveillance, and Liu Xing needed to know what the difference was between those rooms and this place.

  Liu Xing tried to sense the qi around him and compare it to the qi in the opposite direction. However, whether the place was too far away or his qi sense was not sharp enough, he could not tell the difference.

  Frustrated, Liu Xing stopped walking and turned his body, hoping it would make a difference. He sensed only the qi that suffused this place and the ambient qi. It was abundant, as dense as the Purple Moon Sect's training ground, and its variety was also great. He could feel qi that felt like blood, ambient qi that felt like fire, even the lightning qi he could cultivate, and much more. It was hard to pinpoint a specific location amidst the amount of qi here.

  At that moment, the girl and the man finally arrived at another room. Liu Xing continued with hurried steps, wondering whether he could leave them for a moment to check the visitors' chamber himself.

  The room was quite small. In its center was a chair that looked like it belonged in a dentist's office. Several cable-like objects hung from the ceiling and connected to the chair. Around it, small white pillars formed a dome that looked like a birdcage.

  "This is it," the girl said, her eyes shining as she looked at the chair.

  "This is it," the man repeated, nodding. "This is where you'll be killed. The chair's mechanism will ensure your flesh is in the best possible condition. Not only that, but it will be painless and quick. I heard that it feels like drifting off to sleep. It's certainly a good way to go to the afterlife, although not all of you want to use it." The man snapped his fingers. The qi in the room reacted, and a wall on the side of the room slid open. Many weapons hung there; axes, scythes, swords, and more. On the floor, Liu Xing saw a guillotine with a glimmering blade under a white light, a chair with two antennae, a box that looked like a coffin—though Liu Xing was sure it was not, and many other tools and pieces of equipment, all intended for killing people.

  "So," the man continued, "do you want to do it the intended way," he looked at the chair in the middle of the white cage, "or the more adventurous way?" he asked and smiled, as if he were offering an amusement, not a method of execution.

  joining us!