Autophagy
Chapter 11 - Divine Talisman!? | 11

'I will never do this again...' Song Lei got up. It was 8 p.m and he had slept for an unknown amount of time. 'Humans are considered animals. The thing that separates them from other animals are humans' cognitive abilities. Ghosts have a developed cognitive ability too. Even if humans pose an imminent threat, they still keep their basic human rights. I don't want to go around killing possibly innocent ghosts unless they really intend to kill me. I- I could've prevented her from dying...'

To be honest, Song Lei didn't know why he was so attached to the ghost. They at most had been together for a few hours but he couldn't forget her voice. 'I'm a bad father aren't I?' Song Lei chuckled awkwardly. He tried to get up but he quickly sat back down.

"Fuck!"

Song Lei realized that the wounds from Ai swinging him around was still there. Back in room 1408, his body was constantly pumping out adrenaline. But now, because the adrenalin's effects were over, he felt an incredible amount of pain while trying to get up, so much so that he screamed and had to sit back down.

'I think spending points on the body stat helps me heal to some degree. Back when I spent my first point, it had healed the wounds on my hand.'

Song Lei quickly brought up his stat sheet.

[Body]: 2 +

[Mind]: 5 +

[Soul]: 5 +

He pressed the plus sign next to the [Body] and closed the stat sheet.

"UGH..!"

Song Lei bit the bed's sheets. He felt a burning pain in his legs and chest. After squirming around a bit, the pain faded. He swept the cold sweat from his forehead with his hand and got out of the bed. Although he could still feel the pain, he could at least stand up.

Song Lei quickly grabbed some of the food he had gotten from room 1401 and ate it. After eating, he laid back on the bed and kept sleeping. Song Lei woke back up at 11 p.m. His legs had already healed to a degree where he could walk without limping.

'I don't have time to waste,' Song Lei thought. Every second he spent effectively raised his chances of surviving in this place.

Song Lei quickly left room 1407. He opened the door of room 1408 and looked inside. The wall that was blocking out the light from entering had dissipated after Ai was exorcised. Although it still was dark, Song Lei could leave the door of room 1407 to use light coming out of it. He quickly entered room 1408 and picked up his phone. Much to his surprise, it was still working.

'What is this thing made out of? Adamantium?'

Song Lei quickly backed off the close the door of room 1407 and went back into room 1408. He turned on his phone's flashlight. The room was illuminated.

"Ugh..." Song Lei sat down on his knees. The scenery was too grotesque for him. He was hardly holding himself from puking everything he had just eaten. 'How can this..? And why is there no stench?'

The walls were all covered in bloodstains and mold. Countless cockroaches were crawling around. There were different kinds of body parts scattered around the room ranging from limbs to clumps of hairs and nails.

Song Lei looked on top of the small wooden floor table in the middle of the room. There was a plate filled with water. There were no ingredients or anything in it.

'Was this the thing Ai made me drink? At least there aren't things like fingers or cockroaches in it.'

He got up and started looking for something that could be useful to him. He searched all around the room but he couldn't replace anything. 'Was it really for nothing?'

Song Lei couldn't accept this. He had gone through a lot of things to get to this point. After searching for almost an hour, Song Lei found an eyeball glowing in purple.

[You've found an EYE. It's an EYE. When certain conditions are met, It will help you evolve your Ethereal Eye skill.]

'Why is it written in all capital letters? And what are the conditions? Well, it looks like something very important so I will keep it.'

Song Lei carefully grabbed a relatively clean jar. Because it was empty with no insects infesting it, this glass jar was the perfect candidate to encase this eyeball in.

After throwing the jar in his bag, Song Lei left the room to never come back again. He took out the map of floor 14 and drew a cross on top of room 1408.

'I want to stop doing this. Can't I just keep living in room 1407?' Song Lei thought while sitting in his bed.

*Smack!

Song Lei slapped himself in his cheek. "I can't think like this. I have to get out of this place and somehow get back to the old world to replace my sister. And how do I know? Maybe this is just a trial to test my resolve! If I manage to pass it, I will suddenly replace myself in my old body! Hahaha!"

'I'm going crazy.'

In his previous body, although he never lived a relaxed life, he always had his sister by his side. Whenever he was depressed, his sister would come and cheer him up.

Song Lei suddenly felt his chest heating up.

'What!? What is going on?'

Song Lei searched his shirt and found the divine talisman. The Chinese character written on it had lit up. The talisman was slowly but surely turning to ashes.

"It's activating! Why is it activating? Someone or something is trying to attack my soul!"

Song Lei quickly searched the room using his ethereal eyes. If he really focused, he could see the quake demon lying in the corner of the room without moving.

'It's not doing anything! Then what is attacking my soul?' Song Lei's eyes suddenly lit up with understanding. He quickly grabbed the cursed knife and ran out of room 1407.

'Someone must be using some kind of spell on my soul!'

He quickly went to room 1401.

'I assume that the person using the spell can't easily target me.'

Song Lei opened the door and looked inside the room. A man wearing Buddhist monk robes was sitting in the middle of the room chanting weird words.

'If someone needs to target me, they would probably need an intermediary item! And that could probably only be found in room 1401 other than room 1407.'

In front of the monk, there was a small bloodstain on the ground. The bloodstain was giving off a faint golden shimmer.

'Who dares to make me use up my divine talisman?!'