Third Floor Guardians

A head silently poked out from the third floor's stairway door and glanced around at the silent hallway. Seeing that apartment 338 had no reaction, the owner of the head sneaked into the hallway with an evil glint in his eyes.

"My name is Pro, the pro of sneaking, assassination, and all that good sh*t to do with being badass," Pro confidently thought as he skirted around apartment 338.

Passing apartment 339, 337 and 336, Pro paused between apartments 335 and 334. According to his speculations, these two apartments should both have guardians. Seeing no reactions from the room, Pro snickered inwardly as he tip toed pass the doors to arrive at apartment 333.

Pro silently, but swiftly phased through the wall and entered the apartment. Then, he began his quiet hunt in the apartment.

Right beside the sofa in the living room of apartment 333, Pro found a pair of hopping, corpse legs. Watching it stomping on his own foot, Pro didn't even feel it breaking through his defense. So, Pro took pity on the legs and stomped it to pieces.

In the bedroom closet, Pro found a set of floating, corpse arms that tried to grab his balls. Unfortunately, the arms seemed to belong to a male so Pro angrily neutralized it with yin needles.

Unfortunately, it seemed there was only two lingering spirits to harvest in this apartment. Pro then quietly sneaked pass apartments 334, 335, and 338 in order to return to his domain.

Although he could harvest more at once due to the 1800 total seconds available to him per trip, Pro wanted to bring the possession object remnants back to his domain as soon as possible because the yin qi is always dissipating from the yin object after it was destroyed. Of course, one hunt per trip is also much safer because it would help reduce the risk when accidents occur.

[Ding! Object with yin qi detected. Absorbing remnant yin qi. Host gains 20 life points.]

[Ding! Object with yin qi detected. Absorbing remnant yin qi. Host gains 5 life points.]

[Ding! ...]

Checking the additional 50 points he got, Pro happily went back to the third floor for a second harvest.

This time, apartment 332 met with misfortune. To Pro's shock and admiration,, apartment 332's living room was like a tiny library. There were many bookshelves filled with books while books scattered messily on a table.

Although Pro respected the former tenant of the room, he had no sympathy for the dead book spirit in the room. After being ambushed unsuccessfully by a black book, Pro happily tore off its pages one by one while he watched the spirit condensed by the book angrily attack him.

Even though books are great, all books must eventually come to an end. After keeping the destroyed possession object in his clothes, Pro swiftly entered the bedroom and found a pen scribbling away on a piece of paper on top of a desk.

Without hesitation, Pro destroyed the pen spirit which was halfway through with drawing his face. Pro didn't know what would happen after the drawing finished, but he didn't care nor will he want to know.

Finally, Pro went to the bathroom and finished off the cliche spirit in the mirror. Collecting the shattered pieces of glass into his pocket, Pro softly mocked, "Well, at least you are free and not trapped in the mirror anymore."

Pro then cautiously sneaked back to his domain. It wasn't known if he was fortunate to not be discovered or if the baleful spirits aren't willing to 'discover' him, but Pro had no problems the entire way.

[Ding! Object with yin qi detected. Absorbing remnant yin qi. Host gains 5 life points.]

[Ding! Object with yin qi detected. Absorbing remnant yin qi. Host gains 10 life points.]

[Ding! ...]

With another 60 points in his bank, Pro grinned happily as he skipped back to the third floor. Strolling towards the end of the hallway, Pro happily harvested the three security uniform spirits in apartment 330, which was the security office for floor 3.

Glancing at the three beds, Pro was extremely temped to bring it back, but he will need to clear the floor first. Returning to his domain, Pro watched his points go up by 60 once more. His total harvest is already a whopping 170 points!

"Now that all the lingering spirits are taken care of, it's time to deal with the guardians. There's no need to hide anymore, it's time to make a ruckus," Pro grinned as he cracked his knuckles in anticipation.

Stepping into the third floor hallway once more, Pro's eyes swiveled towards apartment 338, "Well, let's just start with the BDS member. I got some bribes from your cult, so I might as well take good care of you."

Walking up to apartment 338, Pro smiled as he knocked on the door in a civilized manner. Although he could start with a sneak attack, he will still make a ruckus during the fight. Hence, there was no need to hide anymore.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

The knocks echoed in the silent hallway and it seemed to have disturbed the remaining spirits on the floor. Pro then heard two doors on the floor creak open at the same time!

Hisss! At the other end of the hallway, a train of human corpse bodies, that were meshed together like a snake, slithered out of the door of apartment 331. Raising the decaying human corpse head at the front section of the string of bodies, it hissed at Pro threateningly.

Hehehe! A melodious, yet creepy girl's giggles echoed in the hallway as apartment 334's door creaked open a tiny gap. A small girl doll with long, brown hair and wearing a tiny pink dress wobbled out from the gap. Then, it turned to look at Pro with its button eyes and bloody grin.

Glancing at the two baleful spirits who came out to greet him, Pro glanced back at apartment 338's door. It was still shut in his face. Pro couldn't help but curse silently, "Do you have to chicken out to his extent? I thought you BDS members liked feeling pain? Well, even if you want to hide, I won't allow it."

Ignoring the two other baleful spirits who were threatening him, Pro grinned and wildly smash his yin claws onto the door of apartment 338.

BOOM!

The entire door was easily bisected in half. Pro then gave it a kick and watched the door launching itself into the gloomy living room of apartment 338 where a small, white altar was surrounded by a circle of candles. Bam!

A bunch of candles and trinkets were all knocked out of place as the altar was knocked over by the force of the door.

Screeeee! An angry screech came from the altar as black mist exploded out of it to form a floating black robe. The black robe then swam towards Pro and when it approached, a suction force came from the empty hood as if the black robe wanted to suck away Pro's life force.

Unfortunately, Pro only felt his yin qi tumble a little before he easily suppressed it. Seeing the black robe politely delivering itself up to him, how could Pro not give him a greeting. With a couple of quick swipes of his yin claws, the robe was torn to shreds.

The black robe dissipated into black mist as another black robe formed by the altar. Finding his real target, Pro didn't even bother going into the room as he simply shot yin needles at the altar from afar.

Black mist exploded out from the altar to form a barrier around the altar, but it was ineffective against the penetration power of the needles! Like a gun, the yin needles pierced holes throughout the altar as the poison from the needles swiftly corroded the altar, turning it from white to black!

Screee! The black robe trembled as it deformed into a ball with spiky edges that randomly grow and shrink from the ball. If the baleful spirit can't solve the poison on its possession object, it is just as good as dead.

Knowing this, Pro then turned his attention towards the other two baleful spirits who had been dashing over to reinforce the baleful spirit of apartment 338. Seeing the ready made targets coming at him in the narrow hallway, Pro had no scruples as he fired yin needles at them.

Pew! Pew! Pew!

Like a machine gun, Pro condensed one yin needle after another in his mouth and shot it out. He had plenty of energy to spare, and his targets were good practice dummies.

Seeing the needles flying towards them, the little doll smartly hid behind the giant snake. Meanwhile, the snake dully charged forward and was pierced by a bunch of yin needles. The poison from the needle rapidly corroded the corpse head of the snake.

Hiisssss! Writhing around angrily, the snake hissed in pain before it actually separated its head from its body. Letting the rotting, poisoned head go, a different human's head was revealed as the new head of the snake. The snake then slammed back to the ground and continued to slither over!

"Eh ... guess all baleful spirits are tricky to deal with in general," Pro muttered as he continued to fire needles, trying to hit the sneaky doll hiding behind the snake because he felt that she should be the most dangerous.

Unfortunately, the little doll was too hard to hit. After the snake tanked most of the needles and shed almost half of his body length of corpses, the duo finally arrived near Pro.

Seeing closing in within attack range, Pro grinned as he raised his claws and ... swiftly retreated.

Pro chuckled in mirth as he hollered, "Why fight you in close range when I can kite you to death?"

Then, Pro shamelessly opened the door to the stairway and went out while continuing to fire needles at the snake. The snake continued to hiss in pain as it had to stop once more to shed its corpse head.

Although it want to spring forward to bite its target, it couldn't catch up to the target's speed at all! With the physique upgrade from becoming a mid-level blood spirit, no baleful spirits can catch up to Pro if he so desires.

On the other hand, the doll actually paused in place. After it tilted its head as if in deep thought, it actually wobbled back towards apartment 334. It's bloody grin was now a sad, bloody frown. It's already unlucky for their floor to encounter the invasion of a powerful blood spirit, but why is she so unlucky to encounter one with no shame?! How to fight this? Please reply, it's urgent!

As for who she was communicating with, who knows. The little doll scurried back through the gap to apartment 334 and slammed the door shut.

Meanwhile, the snake that was left behind was now already at the end of its rope. It had less then a fourth of its original body length left, and the baleful spirit's instinct finally kicked in. The snake then tried to escape by slithering away, but Pro continued to chase after it from behind while firing yin needles.

With its remaining body being turned into a porcupine, the snake slithered back into apartment 331 as it slammed the door shut with a flick of its tail. Glancing at this from afar, Pro knew that none could escape in the end.

For now, he returned back to apartment 338. Glancing inside, he noticed the black altar that was already completely black. A tattered, black robe laid silently on top of it. Sensing no danger, Pro walked forward and reached his hand towards the altar.

With a gentle touch, the altar actually turned into black dust that collapsed to the ground. Pro's eye twitched as he couldn't help but complain, "How the f*ck am I going to collect all this black dust?"

However, Pro suddenly noticed that all the black dust began to tremble and flowed towards the black robe laying on top of it. As the black robe absorbed the black dust, a breeze seemed to blow in the room as a lot of black dust were lifted into the air.

The black dust were then gathered by an invisible tornado as they portrayed a scene with their black particles. In the scene, a man in black robe was praying towards an altar as if he was conducting some ritual. On top of the altar sat a little doll.

"Oh lord of the underworld, the god of death, please heed my call and return my daughter to me ..."

The chant repeatedly echoed in the room for a while. Then, as if something answered the man's call, a tornado of black particles gathering around the doll and lifted it up. Then, the little doll twitched a little before it came alive!

"My daughter! You're back!"

A happy voice echoed in the room as the scene formed from the dust particles began to break apart.

"N-no! You are not my daughter! Who are you?! Where is my daughter?!"

An angry scream echoed before the room faded back into silence. All the dust particles were now absorbed by the black robe that now silently lay on the ground.

Pro glanced at the robe in silence as he scratched his head in frustration, "Do I really need to watch all these cut-scenes every time I slay a spirit that is ranked baleful spirit or higher? Seriously, I need a skip button."

Picking up the black robe, Pro glanced at the silent hallway before he marched back to his domain while muttering, "Don't worry, I will be back."

The silent hallway seemed to tremble in fright behind him, but alas the inevitable will still come eventually.