Head On Combat

Crosscutting in front, Pro shredded two black mist monster pouncing towards him while stepping forward. With an upward swipe, each hand destroyed a black mist monster assaulting him from the sides.

With fierce eyes, Pro locked onto the apartment rooms that the black mist monsters were spawning from, apartments 884, 885, and 880. Black mist hounds came from apartment 885, black mist wolves came from apartment 884, and black mist hawks came from apartment 880.

A bronze horse with rusty green stains all over its body stepped out of apartment 883. Using its bloodstained hoofs, it galloped down the hallway and charged towards Pro. Holding a bronze spear, a rusty bronze Qin soldier with glowing red eyes marched out of apartment 886 and leapt onto the back of the bronze horse as it passed by. Meanwhile, apartments 889, 888, 887, and 882 still had their doors closed.

Dispersing two annoying black mist hawks in the air with a swipe of his claws, Pro focused his attention on the approaching bronze duo while he defended himself from the pestering black mist dogs.

As the bronze horse galloped up to Pro, the bronze soldier riding it aimed its spear at Pro like a valiant warrior. A smile arose on Pro's face as he saw this. Pro's knees bent a bit as he prepared to launch himself forward.

Neighhh! A horse's neigh echoed in the hallway as the galloping bronze horse suddenly slipped and toppled over! It was unknown when a pile of cow dung has appeared in its path, and it unknowingly stepped into it.

The bronze soldier reacted by leaping off the horse and got up after smoothly doing a roll on the ground. However, when it looked up, it was greeted by a fist smashing into his face.

Clang! The bronze soldier that had just got up was smashed backwards as a deep dent appeared on its head. With a grin, Pro reached out his hands and gripped onto the bronze soldier's foot to prevent him from being smashed away. Pro opened the stairway door with his other hand, and with a twirl, he tossed the bronze soldier through the door and into his domain.

Shing! Pro's claw popped out once more as he smashed the incoming black mist monsters. Leaping forward, Pro vaulted over the bronze horse that was trying to get up. Then, he raised his foot and gave the horse's booty and strong kick, sending the horse sliding towards the stairway door.

Thud! The bronze horse crashed into the door, but didn't manage to fit through. Pro dashed towards it and helped it get through by giving it a couple more kicks. Bam! The dented bronze horse smashed through parts of the wall and rolled into the stairway, knocking over the bronze soldier that had barely just got up.

Ignoring the self-inflicted damage to his domain, Pro excitedly chased into the stairway as the bronze duo tumbled down the stairs. The army of black mist monster chased after him, but it lagged behind due to Pro's speed.

"Hahaha!" Pro laughed confidently as he locked onto the bronze duo that was struggling up in the stairway.

Leaping off the stairs, Pro smashed down upon them like a comet and punched a heavy dent in the horse's body. While laying down, the bronze soldier waved its spear and pierced it at Pro, only to watch Pro easily grab his spear before disarming him. Then, his still recovering face was greeted by another fist, renewing the dent in it.

Thud! Feeling a force crash into his back, Pro twirled around and chopped behind him, destroying a couple of black mist monsters that chased him all the way here. Opening his mouth, Pro fired a couple of yin needles at the approaching black mist monsters. Unfortunately, there was no effect so he waited for them to approach before ending them with his claw.

Pro then turned around to add dents to the bronze duo behind him. The poor horse and soldier hugged each other and cried as they won a bronze medal for their valor, but was turned into scrap metal as a reward.

With 920 points from the soldier and 890 points from the horse, Pro easily gained 1810 points through about half an hour of brute force smashing. Of course, the double cut-scene was not missing, but it wasn't some courageous tale about a soldier and a horse at all.

Instead, it was just two antique smugglers who were cheated and killed while delivering the bronze antiques. They were clearly side characters that even authors won't bother to give them an extra word count for.

Climbing up the stairs back to the eighth floor, Pro stepped into the hallway once more and was greeted by the waiting black mist monsters. Clearing the area around him with multiple slashes, Pro charged forward towards apartment 885, one of the sources of this never-ending army.

Dispersing the pouncing hounds, Pro dived into the apartment and noticed another antique vase, but this time, the image that decorated it was dogs painted with black ink. Black mist rose out of the opening of the vase and created new black mist hounds that charged towards Pro after landing on the ground.

Clearing the black mist hounds that futilely tried to stop him, Pro dashed towards the vase and easily picked it up. Unlike the annoying illusion vase, Pro didn't have to worry that much about this vase and could easily bring it back to his domain before smashing it.

With black mist hounds spawning in his face, Pro constantly dispersed them as he ran back to his domain. As soon as he stepped into the stairway, he slammed the door shut behind him and smashed the fragile vase onto the ground.

This time, Pro watched the cut-scene show three thieves silently stealing three different vases with black inked designs from what seemed to be a museum. Then, the scene skipped to a warehouse where the three thieves stabbed each other to death. Their blood rained down upon the nearby vases before the scene faded away.

[Host has eliminated an intruder in your domain. Domain is now absorbing the remains of the intruder ...]

[Absorption completed. Intruder was determined to be a Mid-Level Baleful Spirit. System Library updated with new info.]

[After absorbing a powerful spirit, host gains 950 life points.]

"One down, two more to go," Pro muttered as he swiftly turned around and charged back into the battle.

Clearing his way through the army of black mist spirits, Pro eventually managed to retrieve the remaining two vases and harvested a total of 2140 points from them. He also got two fairly similar cut scenes, but the one from apartment 884 actually had a message that the other two didn't have.

"They must die for the cult!"

As for which cult it was, Pro didn't know, but probably guessed it was the Black Death Society. Well, it didn't matter anyways as they seemed to be side characters A, B, and C.

Returning to the eight floor hallway that had now returned to its gloomy silence, Pro decisively went to harvest apartment 882 and 887, where the lingering spirits were expected to be. To his surprise, he actually earned 480 points, just like he did in the illusion. Pro couldn't help but doubt for a moment if he was still in an illusion.

However, Pro thought for a bit and knew that it's not that easy to trap him in an illusion for so long, unless the strength of the spirit completely outclasses him. That means that they must be beyond blood spirit, and Pro doesn't even know if there is such a spirit in this spirit farm. Even if there is, it would probably be in the mysterious fourteenth floor, and not in the lower floors.

Strolling over to apartments 889 and 888, Pro decided to handle the two final baleful spirits on the floor. In the end, the door of apartment 889 did not escape its fate and was sent flying by door smasher Pro.

Glancing inside, Pro was able to notice a tall, rectangular floor mirror with brown edges facing the doorway. The door that was sent flying towards it actually sunk into the mirror when it made contact, disappearing and only leaving a couple of ripples before the mirror returned to normal.

As soon as Pro appeared at the doorway, the mirror reflected his image. As a spirit, normal mirrors usually don't reflect his image, but it was not surprising that a baleful spirit mirror could.

Pro's mouth twitched a bit as he watched his reflection in the mirror sadistically smile back at him. Pro kind of expected to see this once he saw the mirror. It was a cliche that can't be missed in horror stories.

When Pro tried to move forward, he felt that his body was a bit stiff as if it was out of his control, but he still managed to walk forward slowly as the curse didn't full affect him. His reflection in the mirror frowned a bit before it sneered back at him.

His reflection then raised its hand with sharp claws. It then grinned at Pro as it placed the claws against its own neck. With a swipe, the reflection drew its hand across its throat, intending to give Pro a blood cut on his throat.

Then, the room descended into awkward silence as the reflection froze in place and stared back at Pro. Pro blinked his eyes and stared at the reflection that didn't have any cuts on its neck.

"Uhh ... did you just fail to cut your own neck? Is my skin too hard to cut through?" Pro chuckled in mirth as he crossed his arms and stared back at his reflection in the mirror.

His reflection frowned and glared back fiercely. It then put one of its arm in front of it, and slashed down hard with the claw in the other arm. Pro silently watched his reflection trying to cut off its own arm, but barely left white scratches that didn't even break through the skin layer on it.

Glancing at his own arm, he also noticed the faint white scratches on it, which reflected the image in the mirror. Pro kind of understood how this evil spirit kill its prey. If it was a normal human, they might have died at the start, and even a mystic may have its own body damaged from the reflection self mutilation, but unfortunately, it met a blood spirit way beyond its level.

Blinking his eyes in mirth, Pro chuckled as he cracked his knuckles. His reflection froze in place as its eyes swiveled around in panic. Its face also distorted in fear as it backed up a bit.

Pro felt an intangible force try to force him to walk backwards as well, but he easily resisted it. Clang! He sneered and with a punch, he shattered the mirror.

Screeeee! A high pitch scream echoed in the room as the glass shards of the mirror lifted into the air and spun around the mirror like a storm. The shards tried to penetrate Pro, but didn't even leave a scratch on him.

Pro picked up the broken mirror that was still struggling and walked back to his domain while ignoring the glass shards shredding his clothes. Once he made it into the stairway, Pro didn't even give the mirror a chance to reflect on its wrongdoing and smashed it to pieces.

The glass shards that were swiftly spinning around Pro slowed down and regathered into a rectangular screen that displayed a silent moving image to show Pro a cut-scene, reflecting a scene of a well-decorated bedroom.

Pro blinked his eyes and looked around. Seeing that he didn't get transitioned to some different scene, Pro grinned, ignored the cut-scene in front of him, and returned to the eighth floor hallway to hunt the final baleful spirit.

"Since I'm not restricted to watching it, then why should I watch it," Pro muttered as he kicked open the door to apartment 889.

In here, he found an plain, brown ceramic pot filled with murky, black water. Pro wasn't too sure if it was an antique or not because its design was too plain. Not noticing any danger, Pro went up to it and intended to pick it up.

Suddenly, a pale, soaked hand reached out from the murky water and gripped Pro's wrists. It then tried to pull Pro into the pot, but Pro didn't even budge. The hand suddenly froze in place as if it realized something was wrong. Just when it wanted to retreat back into the pot, Pro's hand twisted over and gripped the wrist of the hand, preventing it from escaping.

"Nice to meet you, too. Your beautiful hands feel comfortable to hold, so let me hold on to it until we go back to my place. Then, I will make sure to give you 'special' treatment," Pro stated with an evil grin as he picked up the ceramic pot.

The hand struggled violently, but it was futile in the face of Pro's strength. Returning to his domain, Pro tugged a naked woman's corpse out of the murky water of the ceramic pot. Pro didn't know how an entire corpse fit in the small pot, but he didn't care. Pro also didn't care about the naked beauty in front of him, and violently smashed both her and the pot into pieces.

With the sound of running water, Pro was forced to watch a cut-scene from the perspective of the pot. Through the layer of water, Pro was able to noticed a familiar well decorated bedroom.

"No ... why are you doing this to me? "

"No ... not inside! Nooo!"

"P-Please let me go ... Let me go ... I promise to not tell anyone."

Pro's mouth twitched as he heard some very R-rated stuff.

"Only dead people can keep secrets."

Then, Pro watched a woman's face get plunged through the layer of water, disturbing the scene and causing it to shatter. Pro then returned to the stairway and glanced at the recent system notifications.

[Host has eliminated an intruder in your domain. Domain is now absorbing the remains of the intruder ...]

[Absorption completed. Intruder was determined to be a Top-Level Baleful Spirit. System Library updated with new info.]

[After absorbing a powerful spirit, host gains 1540 life points.]

[Host has eliminated an intruder in your domain. Domain is now absorbing the remains of the intruder ...]

[Absorption completed. Intruder was determined to be a Mid-Level Baleful Spirit. System Library updated with new info.]

[After absorbing a powerful spirit, host gains 880 life points.]

"With that, the harvest of the eighth floor is complete! I now have a total of 17000 points! I only need about eight thousand more points before I reach my goal!" Pro clenched his fists in excitement.

Returning to the fourth floor, Pro hesitated a bit. He was inwardly debating whether he should go harvest the ninth floor. Although it would guarantee that he would be ready for promotion, the risk is extremely high.

After all, right above the ninth floor is the tenth floor, and there is a high chance that he may accidentally disturb a blood spirit if they fight spreads upwards. Not only that, the ninth floor will also have stronger baleful spirits in both quantity and quality. If there was an evil spirit with an illusion ability, he may end up capsizing if there are too many top-level baleful spirits or if there is a blood spirit.

"Hu ... I have almost reached my goal. I shouldn't rush too much or I might end up ruining everything. Let's rest up first, and see if I can lure a large group of humans or some mystics to come. That's much less riskier than disturbing an upper floor."

Pro then went to the bedroom to schedule more appointments for the next day. It didn't matter if the times conflicted as he didn't plan to let anyone go once they stepped into his domain.

"After killing off this batch, I just have to wait to see if will be any nosy investigators of justice."

Hopping on the laptop and checking on the chaos of the outside world, Pro discovered more and more weird, non-explainable cases that popped up on the news. It seemed that the government is too busy to deal with it.

"The world outside is growing more chaotic every day ... does it have anything to do with the prophecy?"

Pro calmly strolled over to the window and observed the stormy weather outside.

"Wait for me to come out. The real chaos has yet to come."