Autophagy

Song Lei opened his eyes with hardship. He felt very tired even though he had just woken up. After a few seconds, he realized that his hands were tied up behind him with what felt like a rope. He was in a dark room that was devoid of any kind of furniture. It looked like he had been taken into some kind of custody.

'Oh right...' Song Lei thought. The memories from before he had fainted came pouring in. When his divine talisman got activated, he rushed to room 1401 after making some quick deductions. He saw a monk chanting some weird words there while sitting in front of his bloodstains left from his fight with Xiang Yimu. He had quickly charged at that monk. Unfortunately, he had to fight another lanky-looking man and fainted while doing so.

Song Lei gulped. He was pouring cold sweat.

'I was caught...' he thought. Considering the fact that he was not dead, he considered himself lucky. Although he was not in a favorable position, he still had a chance. 'That monk must've brought me here after finishing those chants. I wonder what he was doing to me. There doesn't seem to be any problem with my body right now...'

Song Lei quickly brought his system up and started looking for a sign. There were no problems with his stats.

'This system of mine is very weird. It doesn't have anything besides some notifications and a minimalistic stat screen. I feel like it's incomplete.'

Song Lei gave up and closed the system panel. He had messed with it before in room 1407 and realized that he could control it with eyes rather than his hands.

He then started struggling to see if he could get out of the rope.

'This rope was knotted well. I probably couldn't unknot it even If I tried to do so for hours,' Song Lei thought. He sighed and closed his eyes.

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'If they tied me here instead of killing me, they must have a reason. It's either that they want to murder me slowly like Xiang Yimu or they want to have some talk with me,' he guessed. 'I hope that it's the latter.'

While he was waiting, Song Lei heard the door creak and quickly opened his eyes. After his eyes got used to the bright light coming from the door, he saw a man wearing a white t-shirt. He looked to be over 30 years of age and had black hair. Overall, he had a seemingly friendly aura to him.

"Oh..? You're already awake huh?" Giggled the man. He looked to be very happy about it. "It's great that you are already up."

Song Lei looked at the man for some time without saying anything. He was prepared for a lot of stuff but he wasn't prepared for this kind of easy-going person. After calming himself down a little Song Lei bragged while smiling, "Well, a lot of people used to say that I am a tenacious person."

*Smack

Song Lei felt a heavy slap landing on his cheek. He couldn't comprehend what had just happened. The man was standing in front of him just like before, smiling. This made Song Lei frown.

"I think so too young man! You're really tenacious. You killed 2 people of our own. I don't know what to say about that. Do you think that you have the right to murder my men and come laugh at my face?" The man asked. His smiling face was long gone, replaced by an emotionless one.

Song Lei remembered the situation he was in and got serious. "I'm sorry but they were the people that tried to kill me," explained Song Lei. The man looked at him for a few seconds and sighed.

"I understand that Xiang Yimu had tried to kill you but I don't know Tao Cai might've tried to kill you. He's a pretty timid person and he wouldn't start conflicts without any reason," the man questioned while raising one of his brows. It was obvious that he didn't believe Song Lei.

Song Lei looked at the man's face for some time and thought about what he should say.

"Is that so? Maybe you're right. Then why was that monk trying to attack me?" Song Lei asked. It was technically true that Song Lei had been the one on the offensive but it wasn't without reason.

"What do you mean by attacking? I'm sure that I told him to cast a search spell on you. Are you sure that you're not just making stuff up?" The man sneered. Although he was quite good at keeping his facial expression, he was slowly letting out some anger unintentionally.

Song Lei raised frowned and looked at the ground for a moment. Then suddenly, his eyes lit up with anxiousness.

"Does that search spell you mentioned get blocked by talismans?" Song Lei gulped.

"What talisman? It depends on the type. For example, the ones Xiang Yimu used to make do block search spe-..." The man exclaimed. "By any chance did you..?"

Song Lei couldn't look at the man in the eyes. He knew the mistake he had made. If he could facepalm, he would do so.

"Look... I'm new here so I don't kn-" Song Lei's words were cut off by the man.

"You don't need to speak anymore. I kind of understand the situation but that doesn't change a lot. How are you going to pay back the life of my men?" The man demanded. Although he had softened quite a bit, the strict aura he had around him was still there.

Song Lei's brain was working non-stop but he couldn't find an answer. After waiting for some time, the man sighed again.

"Stop thinking. we both know that the only way you can pay with is by paying with your own life," the man said. He started slowly getting closer to Song Lei.

"What? No! I mean... Isn't that a bit too brutal? You should at least give me a chanc-! Huh?"

The man pulled a knife out of his pocket and raised it up. Song Lei lost all hope and closed his eyes.

'This person is going to kill me!'

*Stab

Song Lei waited for the excruciating pain but it never came.

"Huh?"

Song Lei slowly opened his eyes and realized that he was not stabbed. Rather, the rope that was binding him was cut open.

"You were just acting weren't you?" Song Lei smirked. The man smiled at him. This slightly relaxed Song Lei.

"Well young man, this is not a place for softies. Anyways... Welcome to the Hammer Branch of the Heaven Alliance. You can call me Old Wolf. It has become my real name at this moment...."