Autophagy

As soon as Song Lei spent his last point on soul, raising it to 10, he felt an incredible feeling rising from his lower body. If he had to explain this feeling, he would probably call it warmth. It was like he was being covered by a blanket on a cold winter night. This warmth could make him cry if he didn't intentionally hold himself back from doing so.

As the warmth covered his whole body, another system notification appeared.

[The curse is being cleansed because of your high soul power.]

[Soul has reached 10! Milestone skill has been acquired: The Sense]

[Skill "The Sense" has been fused with "Ethereal Eye". You've acquired the skill: "Ethereal Senses". Please complete the acquirement of the skill!]

As Song Lei finished reading the notifications, a severe pain started creeping up from his insides. This pain felt like something was ripping his body from inside out, trying to break free. This sudden contrast in his body between the warmth and the pain made Song Lei squirm in his place.

Fu Ah quickly ran to his side and put her hand on his forehead, trying to take his temperature. Just as she was feeling his head; a black, gooey substance started pouring out of Song Lei's skin. It carried a horrible stench with it and looked very ominous. One could easily understand that they shouldn't come in contact with this substance as soon as they saw it.

Seeing the black substance pouring out of Song Lei's body, Fu Ah frowned and stepped back.

Shortly after, The pain in Song Lei's body subsided.

[The curse has been cleansed from your body!]

Seeing the notification, Song Lei opened his eyes and stood up.

"What is going on?" Fu Ah asked while looking at Song Lei. "You know what? Nevermind. You have to go and take a shower."

The black substance was incredibly disgusting. It could easily have some pathogens inside it. The last thing Fu Ah wanted to deal with was getting sick in their situation.

Damien woke up from all the commotion.

"Are you okay?" He asked Song Lei while wiping his eyes with his hand.

"Take him to the 1401st room so he can take a bath. I'll sit here and hope that the quake demon doesn't get angry," Fu Ah said.

Damien nodded and went to the side of Song Lei. He held his nose with one of his hands and supported Song Lei with the other. Song Lei's legs were still wobbly as he still hadn't recovered fully.

They quickly reached the 1401st room. Song Lei had to take a long bath to make the smell go away. Although he could somewhat bear with it, other people couldn't.

When he was thoroughly cleaned, Song Lei left the shower. In this time span, Damien had found some clothes for him. Fortunately, Song Lei and Xiang Yimu had similar body shapes. Song Lei could easily wear his clothes.

"Thanks..." Song Lei muttered. Although he was talking with Damien, his mind was somewhere else.

[Do you want to complete the acquirement of the skill "Ethereal Senses"?]

"No problem," Damien said. He, again, helped Song Lei back to room 1407.

"What happened back there?" Fu Ah asked. Song Lei had a weird smile on his face.

"That man put a curse on me before dying. I think that was because of the curse," Song Lei said.

"A curse? Well... We don't have much knowledge about those. The most I can do is to hope that you don't die," Fu Ah said while shrugging. Her unconcerned attitude in such situations would make any person angry. But because Song Lei and Damien had gotten used to it, they didn't take it to heart.

"I feel pretty good now. I don't think that it's going to cause any more problems," Song Lei explained. He sat down in a corner of the room.

"That's great. Aren't you going to sleep? I'll be keeping guard so you can sleep peacefully," Fu Ah said. Song Lei thought while holding his chin.

"You know what? You should go to sleep. I will take over your shift. When you wake up, we can swap," Song Lei said.

"Are you sure?"

"Pretty much."

"Well then..." Fu Ah said. She stood up from her chair and threw herself onto the mattress that was lying on the ground. Fortunately, the black substance hadn't gotten onto the mattress. If it did, they would probably have to throw it out.

Damien kept staring at Song Lei for some more time and sighed.

"I'm going back to sleep too," Damien said. "Be careful."

As Damien laid down, Song Lei took a deep breath and looked at the notification floating in front of him.

[Do you want to complete the acquirement of the skill "Ethereal Senses"?]

After readying himself, Song Lei agreed to the notification. The notification disappeared. Nothing out of ordinary happened for a few seconds. However, Song Lei started feeling a weird stinging on his face after a short time.

'Oh god...' Song Lei thought. He could feel what was coming from his past experiences. Whenever he felt this stinging, it would mean that an excruciating pain would come after.

Just as he guessed, the stinging changed places with a feeling of tension and pain. He felt like someone was trying to rip his face apart. Veins started bulging out of Song Lei's face. All the veins were leading to his eyes, feeding them with blood and fresh oxygen.

Eventually, those veins changed shapes and went to Song Lei's other sensory organs. They started glowing in golden and pulsating. They looked like rivers pouring out of the heavens into the lower realms.

With time, those rivers of golden calmed down, leaving their place to a calm flow. Song Lei was feeling very different from before. Even though his eyes were closed, he felt like he could see. He could hear everyone's breaths. He could smell and differentiate all the smells in the room. He could probably identify people by their smells if he tried really hard.

As the pain went away, Song Lei sighed a breath of relief. He slowly opened his eyes.

"Huff..."

[Skill fusion has been completed. The Skill "Ethereal Senses" has been acquired.]

Song Lei sucked air into his lungs. Out of the five of his senses, the one that had changed the most was his sight. He could see much clearer than before. He felt like a nearsighted person putting on glasses. Song Lei took a deep breath and focused his eyes as best as he could. When he did so, the dimly lit room became brighter.

'So I have something like a night vision?' Song Lei thought while holding his chin. Unfortunately, he couldn't keep this state of night vision for a long time.

Song Lei's senses got much better than before. He was hoping that this would help him become better at perceiving ghosts. Not being able to properly communicate with Isabel was a big disadvantage for him.

After finishing the enhancement, Song Lei got up and went to a mirror to take a look at himself.

'Great. Nothing changed,' Song Lei thought to himself. He was worried that there would be noticeable changes on his face. Fortunately, there was no such thing. The only small difference was that his eyes seemed to be a little bit deeper than before.

Unlike the pain that had disappeared with time, the warmth covering his body was still there. It was making Song Lei feel comfortable.

While Song Lei was feeling the changes in his body, he heard rustling noises coming from behind.

"Ugh..." Old Wolf groaned. Song Lei rushed to his side and helped him straighten up on the bed.

"Are you okay?" Song Lei asked. Although Old Wolf was still somewhat pale, he seemed much better than before.

"Yes... How did things go?" Old Wolf asked nervously. Although he was pretty sure that things had gone good, considering the fact that they were still alive, he still wanted to ask.

"Our situation is so so. I think this is all the people we have left in the branch," Song Lei said while glancing over everyone. Old Wolf, too, looked at all of them and sighed.

"Well... It's better than nothing I guess..." He said. "And the shadow infestation?"

"We dealt with it somehow," Song Lei said. "They seem like an organization. Their mastermind was actually talking about overthrowing the Heaven Alliance. Do you have any idea who they might be?"

Old Wolf shook his head helplessly, indicating that he, too, didn't know.

"You've done a great job, Lei," Old Wolf said with a wide smile on his face.

"Although I got a lot of help, I managed to achieve quite some things on my own," Song Lei answered. "You should go back to resting now. We might need your ability in near time. We don't know when another such thing will happen," Song Lei said. He sighed and sat on a nearby chair.

They were whispering to each other as they didn't want to wake the others up.

"Hearing that they were talking about overthrowing the Heaven Alliance, I'm assuming that they weren't their whole force. They might come back to avenge them," said Old Wolf.

Song Lei nodded.

"We'll have to be ready...."