Autophagy

"You're done..." The robed man muttered. Song Lei frowned as he heard the robed man's words. He dodged another attack of the twisted monster and jumped towards the robed man. For some reason, the robed man didn't seem like he cared about Song Lei. Using this chance, Song Lei used his knife to behead him.

Much to his surprise, the robed man kept his uncaring attitude and let Song Lei's knife penetrate his neck. His head was instantly sent flying. Even so, his face was still smiling. This made Song Lei incredibly nervous as if he had fallen right into his trap.

Disregarding this feeling, Song Lei decided to deal with the current situation as he turned towards the twisted monster charging at him. There were no feelings in its eyes. They were like two dark beads that were trying to swallow Song Lei.

Fortunately, Song Lei had all of his stats and his cursed knife back. He raised the knife in his hand and approached the twisted monster. They crashed into each other at high speeds. Even Song Lei who had inhuman senses wasn't able to properly follow the monster with his eyes. However, the monster was in the same situation as Song Lei. They were like two out-of-control trucks that crashed into each other.

At the exact same moment the twisted monster brought its claws down, Song Lei swung his knife in response.

*CLANG!

Their attacks hit each other as a shockwave spread out because of the noise made by the clashing. As the shockwave raised dust into the air, Song Lei jumped backward to get out of the dust cloud. If he spent more time in it, it would get into his airways and eyes, irritating him and reducing his fighting capabilities.

When Song Lei jump out of the dust cloud, the twisted monster chased him without letting him go. Song Lei kept swinging his knife from different angles.

Compared to the other times he got into fights with twisted monsters, this one was different. He had finished all the other fights in a single move, without giving the monster the chance to answer his attacks. However, this time was different. As they engaged in a close-range fight, Song Lei wasn't able to instantly finish the monster off. This had caused him to lose his tempo against the monster.

As Song Lei kept exchanging blows with the monster time after time, the anxiousness in his heart started rising more than ever. Suddenly, just as he was about to finish off the twisted monster, the whole corridor's temperature dropped. It suddenly got so cold that Song Lei could see his breath turning into vapor. Everything seemed to be a little darker compared to before.

Noticing the changes Song Lei quickly finished off the twisted monster.

[Congratulations! You've managed to exorcise a "Twisted Monster". You've leveled up and gained two stat points!]

Seeing the notification, Song Lei took a deep breath and looked around.

"Fuck..." He muttered with an anxious smile on his face. There were four more twisted monsters approaching him with rapid steps. He didn't have the chance to rest even a little bit before engaging in another fight. Seeing the disadvantage he was in, Song Lei decided that he couldn't be stingy anymore. He brought his stat sheet up and allocated two points on body, raising it up to 10.

[Body]:10

[Mind]: 8

[Soul]: 11

As his body stat reached 10, he felt an incredible feeling welling up inside him. It instantly covered all of his body. It was like the loving embrace of his mother that he hadn't felt for years.

All kinds of notifications appeared in front of him, telling him that he had gained a new skill. Unfortunately, he didn't have the time to sit and read what it was saying.

Feeling all the tiredness in his body disappear, he disregarded the notifications and charged at the nearest twisted monster. They were grouped as two, so Song Lei would have to quickly finish two of them before turning to the other two. He had to be quick and decisive in his moves.

He lowered his body and tensed his muscles. His body was oozing with power, supplying him with endless energy. He felt like he could topple mountains if he tried really hard to do so. Every single fiber of muscle in his body was doing its part, giving him unimaginable strength.

As he gathered all of his strength and jumped, he instantly found himself in front of the twisted monster. Fortunately, the system seemed to help him keep his body balanced and made him get used to it whenever he upgraded his body stat. If that wasn't the case, he would have to spend a good amount of time exercising to get used to his strength each time he raised his body stat.

Finding himself in front of the twisted monster, he swung the cursed knife in his hand. It made whizzing sounds as it traveled with incredible speed. The air looked like it was split in two by the swing Song Lei made. As soon as his knife slashed the monster's head, it smoothly split in two like butter.

Song Lei used the same momentum to instantly turn and slash at the other twisted monster. Sending its head flying too. As he landed on the ground, he raised his head and looked at the two leftover twisted monsters.

There seemed to be a white-colored ring inside Song Lei's pupils, giving off a radiance that felt rather empty. It wasn't the same divine golden color given off by the eye ability of Damien.

[Congratulations! You've managed to exorcise a "Twisted Monster". You've gained Exp!]

[Congratulations! You've managed to exorcise...

Dismissing the notifications in front of his face, Song Lei once again charged at the twisted monsters and finished them off without any other problems. As soon as he did so, the cold feeling in the hallway disappeared.

[Congratulations..!

After wiping the grey goo that had come out of the monsters off of his face, Song Lei sighed. He looked at the cursed knife in his hand.

'Shit...' He cursed inside his heart. The cursed knife had been the first special item he had found after he had entered the New World. Now, however, it was beyond recognition from being used too much. It was initially just a rusted knife that could be used against ghosts. After Song Lei cleansed it back in Isabel's mansion, it had become much usable against both humans and ghosts.

The chips and crack on it were prominent, making it look like it would break in no time. Song Lei frowned as he sighed once again. He put the cursed knife into his backpack and went to the side of the original robed man's corpse. The other monsters had disappeared after being killed, however, this corpse was still in the same place.

Song Lei crouched on the ground and flipped the corpse over.

"Fuck..." He muttered at the sight in front of him. The corpse of the robed man was completely empty. Just like the intruder back in room 1407, its eyes sockets were completely empty. This was a shell that had been left behind by the man.

"Huh..."

Song Lei looked at the jin sword lying on the ground, next to the robed man's shell. It was glowing in golden, enticing Song Lei to pick it up. The intricate designs on it with its jade-colored handle made it look absolutely heavenly.

Song Lei couldn't hold himself back anymore as he picked the sword from the ground.

[You've picked up a special item! The Banisher is a sword that was initially cast in the heavens. This one is a fairly well-made replica of the original heavenly sword! It can cut through both the wicked souls and shameless humans with its razor-sharp edges. It shall give its user the power to protect the weak!]

Holding the sword firmly in his right hand, Song Lei swung it around to get used to it. It was a bit heavier than he expected. He was expecting it to feel totally weightless, both because of how light it looked and how Song Lei was incredibly strong now. Much to his surprise, he could feel the sword weighing down on his arm. It was probably around four kilograms, which was much heavier than what a short sword such as this should be.

'It's fine I guess... I can utilize my superior arm strength more with this,' Song Lei thought while nodding to himself.

He searched the shell of the robed man and couldn't find anything other than the scabbard of the sword, hung on a belt. He took the belt and wore it, after sheathing his newly acquired sword, Song Lei, once again, started searching for the exit.

Fortunately, the sub-space amount in this place had lessened a lot compared to before, so he was easily able to find the exit. He raised his head and looked at the small window that opened to the outer world...