"It's here!"
Fang Ming's heart tensed. The creature was stopped at the door, its caution preventing it from entering immediately. Had it sensed something dangerous?
"Red cloth shoes, white cloth hat, a married daughter spells family doom, ten thousand families weep, princes smile, the sun rises and roosters are silent..."
Suddenly, a strange chant sounded from outside the room. In Fang Ming's perception, a cluster of weak, tiny resentful spirits gathered around the large creature.
"Stop it, you bunch of idiots! Why do you keep yapping all the time?" A man's low growl echoed from outside the door. "I think the guy in this room has at least 500 combat power. I might not be able to beat him."
As soon as he finished speaking, the chanting stopped abruptly.
"???" Fang Ming was utterly bewildered inside the room. What was 500 combat power? Was this Sha Zhong intelligent enough for that? He had always assumed that beings like Sha Zhong, barring special circumstances, were essentially devoid of reason. httpδ:/m.kuAisugg.nět
The Sha Zhong outside the door had retained its consciousness and was even thinking clearly. This piqued Fang Ming's interest. What caused it to maintain its sanity?
"It's coming in?" Fang Ming frowned. He could clearly sense the cluster of resentful spirits representing the Sha Zhong entering the room and was by the wall next to the door, but strangely, he couldn't see it at all.
Suddenly, Fang Ming felt a sense of imminent danger. The cluster of resentful spirits lunged at him rapidly. Without time to think, he immediately flipped over to dodge.
"Bang!" Fang Ming dodged, but the cabinet beneath him was pierced with a large hole by the unknown attack.
"You've got some skill, I see," a voice echoed from the void, belonging to the invisible Sha Zhong. "Where did you escape from, daring to trespass on my territory?"
"It can turn invisible," Fang Ming stared at the ceiling, where the creature was currently clinging.
"Who are you? How can you remain conscious after becoming a Sha Zhong?" Fang Ming asked in a deep voice.
"Since you've asked so earnestly, I'll tell you," the unknown Sha Zhong boasted. "I am the assassin who roams the eighteenth floor, kicks the King's power, and punches Li Gong!"
Fang Ming frowned, feeling a bit... odd. Who were this King's Power and Li Gong he spoke of?
He then asked, "Who are this King's Power and Li Gong you speak of? Why haven't I heard of them?"
"Wh-what?" the unknown Sha Zhong exclaimed incredulously. "You don't know King's Power and Li Gong? How do you survive on the eighteenth floor? Not knowing them?"
Fang Ming guessed in his heart, "Could they be people from upstairs?"
"Never mind whether you know them or not. Since you've trespassed today, you'll stay here!" With that, the unknown Sha Zhong let out a cold laugh and attacked.
Fang Ming became cautious, focusing on the invisible Sha Zhong's location. He flicked his tentacles, leaped up, and met its attack.
His scale blades closed into a sharp point, directly piercing towards the unknown Sha Zhong. The Sha Zhong had never seen anything like it. Since its birth, it had always been the one dominating others, relying on absolute invisibility for sneak attacks and breaching walls, always successful. To think it would be seen through today!
However... the unknown Sha Zhong let out a cold laugh.
"I am immune to ordinary physical attacks. Your attack won't harm me!"
"Clink." Fang Ming's attack missed, passing straight through its body as if attacking air.
"Can't hit it?" Fang Ming frowned. Was this creature's ability so peculiar? No wonder it dared to boast about punching this and kicking that.
"Hahaha," the unknown Sha Zhong laughed triumphantly. It loved the feeling of being unhittable. "Surprise, foolish outsider! Take this!"
A chilling sensation shot towards his forehead. Fang Ming quickly raised his tentacles to block.
"Bang!" The two collided.
Fang Ming stumbled back a few steps and looked at his tentacles. A thumb-sized bloody pit had appeared. It had broken through his defense, but not entirely. This creature wasn't as strong as he had imagined; most of its power was probably dedicated to its invisibility.
"Such powerful defense! I, Degulas Mondeski Aiji the First, acknowledge your strength. You've fought me to a standstill," the unknown Sha Zhong rambled on.
Fang Ming sneered, "I already know your weakness."
"What?" the unknown Sha Zhong was shocked. "What weakness could I possibly have? Bennygolas is invincible!"
Fang Ming was speechless. "Didn't you just call yourself Degulas? Now you're Nicholas?"
The unknown Sha Zhong awkwardly chuckled. "Ah, well... they're all pretty much the same. Don't sweat the details."
Then, it changed the subject. "Tell me quickly, what's my weakness? I've killed so many people, and not a single one discovered my weakness. How could you find it in just a few minutes of meeting me?"
"Hmph, attack me all you want. Your next strike will be your last!" Fang Ming snorted. This creature probably didn't realize that its body momentarily shifted from ethereal to solid when it attacked, which was the best time to strike!
However, if it didn't attack proactively, Fang Ming currently had no way to hit it. To a certain extent, it was truly invincible in its current Sha Zhong stage.
"So, you're saying you know my weakness?" the unknown Sha Zhong's eyes flickered. Even if it wasn't sure if the other party had truly discovered its weakness, the first rule of being an assassin (which it had just made up) was to retreat immediately upon exposing one's weakness.
"I will definitely find an opportunity to kill you..." the unknown Sha Zhong said ominously, then whispered to the resentful spirits beside it, "You sing to him. I'll retreat first. I'll leave you here to scare him to death."
With that, it turned and phased through the wall, fleeing. The resentful spirits beside it began to surround Fang Ming and sing.
"Red cloth shoes, white cloth hat, a married daughter spells family doom, ten thousand families weep, princes smile, the sun rises and roosters are silent..."
"It ran away?" In Fang Ming's perception, this unknown Sha Zhong had uttered threats and then fled at an incredibly high speed. One would think it had been defeated.
However, Fang Ming couldn't understand why it had left these small entities behind to sing.
"This..." Fang Ming suddenly thought of a possibility, his mouth twitching. This creature probably wanted to sneak away while leaving these little things to scare him. What a peculiar, twisted sense of humor.
Meanwhile, on the other side, the unknown Sha Zhong was smugly fleeing, already imagining Fang Ming cowering in fear and remaining motionless for a long time.
But it also wondered, "What's happening today? Why have both humans and Sha Zhong come here? There haven't been any new creatures here for so long."
Ever since they had killed some humans in their building more than a decade ago, there hadn't been any new humans. More importantly, how had that new Sha Zhong gotten in? It could move freely within this building.
As one of the first batch of Sha Zhong created by the Professor, it had witnessed the entire process of this building's rise and fall – of course, their actions were the cause of its decline.
It naturally knew many secrets about Sha Zhong. It could understand the arrival of humans, as there were always people courting death. But how had this outsider Sha Zhong gotten in? Why could it survive here?
After all, on the eighteenth floor, outsider Sha Zhong would quickly dissolve and disappear. Otherwise, with the concentration of resentment here, who knew how many wandering fierce spirits and Sha Zhong would be attracted.
The unknown Sha Zhong couldn't figure it out, but it couldn't be bothered to think about it. In its own words, an assassin only needed to kill; thinking was the Professor's job.
Just as it was lost in thought, a sudden commotion pulled it back.
"Let's flee quickly! There's no great tomb here at all, only monsters!"
"Yeah, what kind of tomb gets higher as you go up? And this building is teeming with all sorts of monsters. We've already lost half our people. Isn't that enough?"
"Sixth Master, please, let's go back. We're not earning this money anymore."
...
The unknown Sha Zhong quietly moved along the rooftop towards the source of the sound. It saw Lao Liu's group again, but their condition was rather miserable now. Their team, originally sixteen strong, was now only nine, most of them injured, and some were on the verge of collapse.
Lao Liu, smoking a cigarette, leaned against the wall in silence. His arm was also bandaged; this was an injury from a recent encounter with a swarm of gray resentful babies.
Everyone looked at him expectantly, hoping he would make a decision.
"Lao Liu, no, Sixth Master, you can't abandon the young master! If he doesn't find the Resentment Gathering Bead to absorb the resentment in his body soon, he'll die within three days!" the man in the jacket exclaimed emotionally. "As long as we save the young master, what wealth and honor won't you have? We just need to find the Resentment Gathering Bead and leave immediately, and I promise each of you one million!"
"Shut up! It's all because we had to save your damn young master that we lost several brothers. We were told there was a great tomb here, but where is it?" an emotional man cursed.
"Enough, stop arguing! Let me think," Lao Liu stopped them, and everyone fell into silence.
The unknown Sha Zhong, hiding in the shadows, chuckled. It enjoyed this kind of "dog-eat-dog" infighting among humans. Why not add fuel to the fire?
It quietly approached the "young master" the group was protecting. It observed his condition: his face was ashen, his skin had a strange gray pallor, and he looked like a walking corpse.
"He's been invaded by resentment," the unknown Sha Zhong's eyes lit up. It chuckled inwardly. "This is going to be good."
With that thought, it placed its finger on the young master's forehead and injected a stream of pure resentment into him.
"Done." After injecting the resentment, the unknown Sha Zhong immediately climbed onto the rooftop, ready to witness the grand spectacle that was about to unfold.
Below, everyone was still waiting for Lao Liu's decision. Without his approval, these people lacked the ability to escape.
"Brothers, I know this journey is very dangerous, and the number of these monsters far exceeds my expectations. But think about it, why did you all come here? Wasn't it for money? We just need to find that monster that looks like a human and get the Resentment Gathering Bead, and we'll be millionaires when we get out!"
Lao Liu persuaded the crowd, then continued, "We've already lost so many brothers. Are you just going to return empty-handed? Moreover, if the young master has an accident, with his family's influence, it will be difficult for us to survive even if we escape."
The crowd fell silent. Lao Liu was right. They had all come here for money. It was just that the sudden appearance of a large number of monsters had shattered their psychological defenses, causing their emotions to fluctuate.
"Sorry, Sixth Master, we were presumptuous," everyone apologized. "What do we do next? We'll follow your lead."
"Next..." Lao Liu pondered.
Suddenly, a series of bone-cracking sounds drew everyone's attention.
"Young master?" the man in the jacket exclaimed in surprise and rushed to the young master's side. "Are you awake?"
Seeing this, Lao Liu's heart leaped. "Be careful!"
But it was too late. A sharp claw pierced the man in the jacket's chest. The man in the jacket looked down in disbelief. "You... master... you..."
"Swoosh." The claw was withdrawn, and the man in the jacket collapsed to the ground.