Autophagy

"We'll keep going down," Old Wolf said. There wasn't much left until they reached the first floor.

Damien, Old Wolf, and Fu Ah were standing in a circle inside the 4th floor safe room. They had been answering Fu Ah's question for quite some time. Seeing that her questions weren't going to end, Old Wolf stopped her.

"That's enough for now. We've rested enough. Let's continue," Old Wolf said. Both Damien and Fu Ah nodded. After leaving the room, they picked up Yao Mu's corpse and brought it to the staircases. They threw him into the stairwell just like they did to Shi Feng's corpse.

*Thud

Weirdly, the corpse wasn't swallowed by the apartment like before. It just fell down to the first floor and hit the ground

"That's weird. Is it supposed to do that?" Fu Ah asked calmly. She had never seen a corpse being disposed of before so she had just heard of the method.

"No," Old Wolf said while holding his chin. Until now, no matter what happened in the apartment, the apartment itself would keep functioning normally. "The invaders must have done something. They may have already partly taken control of the apartment."

Hearing Old Wolf, Damien and Fu Ah frowned. No one would want to be thrown out of their home. And since they had arrived in the New World, this place had become their home.

They left the safe room and descended to the next floor. As soon as they entered the hallway, they were met with a hot gust of air hitting their face.

"Lu Peng?!"

Lu Peng had got down on his knees as he was spitting out flames out of his right hand. His left hand had been charred black and all of his body was covered in bruises and burn marks. His lustrous red hair had almost become all grey because of ashes flying around.

The flames he was spitting out were blocking the tide-like shadows from consuming him and the Gao Jing lying unconscious next to him. The shadow monsters had filled up almost all of the floor. Lu Peng was the only reason they hadn't fully covered the whole floor until now.

Seeing the state he was in, Old Wolf charged ahead.

"Stop!" He said. As soon as Lu Peng heard Old Wolf, he stopped using his ability and fell to the ground unconscious.

Old Wolf stood in front of Lu Peng. Because they had let the shadow monster swarm move for just a second, they were already about to get swallowed. Fortunately, Old Wolf was the best in dealing with these kinds of situations as he started sending out shockwaves out of his hands. As soon as the shockwaves hit the shadows, they started burning through them like the sunlight splitting the night.

As the darkness was split, a person appeared in between the shadows.

"It's one of them!" Old Wolf said. The person was wearing a robe. This was the same robe that the man on the 14th floor was wearing. He was holding an urn in his hands. This urn had a grey color with red triangular shapes on it. There was green smoke coming out of it. When this green smoke came in contact with the darkness, it made them avoid him. "Damien! You have to get to him!" Old Wolf shouted. "Damien?"

Old Wolf turned his head to the side and looked at Damien who was about to collapse. He was sweating bullets and his body was shaking like never before. Damien's eyes were empty as if his soul was somewhere else. Seeing the state Damien was in, Old Wolf cursed and turned his head towards Fu Ah.

"Fu Ah, you have to stop him!" He said.

"I can't. I'm out of energy," Fu Ah casually said. Hearing Fu Ah, Old Wolf started cursing at his luck. Even if Song Lei was here, he knew that he probably couldn't do much as he didn't have anything to do against ethereal beings.

"Damien! You have to help me!" Old Wolf shouted, trying to snap Damien back to reality. "Fu Ah! Wake Damien up!"

The shadow horde was coming down on them like a tsunami. Old Wolf was hardly able to keep them away. If he had all of his energy, he could probably destroy them in one go. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. He had been using up his energy since the shadow infestation had appeared.

"Okay," Fu Ah said. She went next to Damien and hold him by his collar.

*SMACK

Fu Ah started slapping Damien in the cheek. Damien, who was being hit square on his face, raised his hands to protect himself.

"Stop! What are you doing?!" He asked.

"Oh, you're back. Go help Old Wolf," Fu Ah said. Damien turned his head to the left and looked at the situation.

"That's bad..." Damien muttered. He stopped holding the wall and started walking towards the man wearing robes. Even though he was out of his daze, his legs were still shaking. Fu Ah was really puzzled about Damien's situation as she had never seen him in this situation. Normally, Damien was a battle junkie with a playful personality. Seeing him in this state was a first.

Damien took out a small knife from his pocket and stood next to Old Wolf. If he went any further, he would get caught in Old Wolf's shockwaves.

"How are we doing this?" Damien asked.

"I will use up my remaining energy and create a small opening for you. You have to rush in in that time span, kill the man and take the urn from him. That thing seems to be the way to keep safe from the shadow monsters. While you're doing that, Fu Ah will carry us out of this floor to the 4th floor safe room," Old Wolf said. He turned towards Fu Ah and made a sign with his head. Fu Ah had already guessed what Old Wolf was going to do as she had started carrying Lu Peng to the upper floor.

"Hey, geezer! About to go out of energy huh?! Maybe you should go back to the grave you came out of!" The robed man shouted. Seeing that his enemies were able to stand their ground more than he expected, he started talking shit to them.

However, this created a much-needed time for them as Fu Ah managed to carry both Gao Jing and Lu Peng to the safe room. Old Wolf didn't answer the robed man.

"Now!" Old Wolf gave the sign. He gathered all of the energy left in his body and released it in one go. As the shockwave traveled through the hallway, it shook the whole floor with its might. It was like a mighty earthquake shaking the land. Creating this big of a shockwave even with a small amount of energy left indicated how strong Old Wolf really was.

Old Wolf puked blood and collapsed to the side. Seeing this, Fu Ah quickly ran up and pulled him to the upper floor. Now, everything was left to Damien.

Old Wolf's shockwave had pushed the shadows out of the hallway. They were still coming in from the rooms of the floor but there was an opening Damien could use. He urged his legs to run.

'Run!'

He started picking up his pace, seeing the shadows and what was actually lurking in them was making his body shake in fear. Unfortunately, the shadows were about to reach them. He had less than three seconds left.

'Move!' He kept shouting inside his head. There wasn't much space left between him and the robed man. The robed man's eyes were wide open as he still couldn't believe that he was about to lose. His body had frozen up in shock.

Damien's eyes started shining in yellow and his pupils changed into that of a horizontal shape. He swung his knife towards the robed man.

"Reach him...!"