The moment he pushed it open slightly, he felt the door hit something and get blocked. Then, he looked up and saw a bloated, pale, large face peering through the crack of the door. Most of the face was covered by wet, black long hair, revealing only one swollen, lifeless, dead fish-eye.
The eye was completely devoid of life; the pupil was almost invisible, leaving only the white of the eye.
This pale, swollen large face was like a zombie straight out of a movie. Even more eerie and terrifying was a layer of fuzzy white hair growing on its surface.
The incident was so sudden that Su Li never expected to encounter such a bizarre and horrifying face. He was scared out of his wits and couldn't help but let out a shriek of terror, instinctively trying to turn and flee.
With a loud "bang," the door was violently pulled open. Su Li, who was just turning around, felt something wet pounce on him. The force of the pounce was immense, causing him to lose his footing and fall heavily, tumbling to the ground. His forehead slammed into the floor, making him see stars and immediately causing blood to flow. Immediately after, he felt a heavy weight pressing down on him.
In a life-or-death moment, Su Li forgot his fear and immediately struggled violently, using his hands, feet, knees, and waist all at once. With a sudden flip, he managed to throw off the thing that was pinning him down.
It was then that he finally saw clearly.
The thing that had pounced out and pinned him down was actually the female corpse he had previously seen immersed in the stairwell water.
Her face was pale and bloated from being soaked, her body was swollen, and large amounts of flesh on her chest, abdomen, and legs had been gnawed away, exposing the white bones. He could even vaguely see sticky internal organs. Water was constantly dripping from her soaking wet body and hair.
The most terrifying thing was undoubtedly the layer of pale white fuzz growing on the exposed skin and face, making her resemble the white-haired zombies of legend.
She possessed immense strength, but her joints seemed stiff, lacking the agility of a living person. Having been tossed aside by Su Li, she fell next to him and stretched out a pair of fuzzy, hair-covered hands, trying to crawl up and grab Su Li. However, her movements were relatively sluggish.
Su Li scrambled to his feet, swinging the cleaver and the hammer down onto her head.
Flesh and blood immediately flew, splashing onto Su Li's face.
He couldn't understand why this female corpse was moving or attacking him. The only thing he could think of was a transformation into a zombie-like monster.
Though the female corpse looked terrifying and was quite strong, her movements were stiff, and she did not know how to dodge. She was quickly hacked in the face by Su Li's cleaver, and the iron hammer smashed down on her forehead, immediately followed by a crisp "crunch" of a shattering skull.
Su Li used nearly all his strength in that blow. In the midst of extreme fear and panic, he erupted with unprecedented power. The hammer strike instantly caved in the corpse's head, and even her brains splattered out.
Su Li wildly continued to swing the cleaver and hammer like a madman. By the time he stopped, panting heavily, the corpse's swollen face was completely deformed. Her face alone had been chopped seven or eight times, each blow deeply embedded into the facial bones, and the hammer was covered in blood and gore, half her head having been smashed away.
Watching the unrecognizable female corpse slowly fall and become motionless, Su Li finally let out a huge breath.
Strangely enough, as the female corpse fell, the layer of fine white hair on her body rapidly receded and disappeared, as if shrinking back into her skin. Immediately after, Su Li saw a white spherical object, about the size of a thumb, emerge from her chest, where most of the flesh had been gnawed away. The surface of this white sphere was fuzzy, seemingly formed by countless white filaments clustered together.
This ball of white fuzz shot out from the corpse's chest as if it had a will of its own, leaping up fiercely.
Su Li's heart jolted. Could it be that the true reason the female corpse suddenly turned into a monster, was able to move, and grew a layer of white hair was this ball of white fuzz? Was it the real culprit?
Seeing the ball of white fuzz leap up, Su Li brought the flat side of his cleaver down, intending to smash it.
At this point, he suspected that the white ball of fuzz might be some kind of unknown insect-like creature that had been parasitizing the female corpse.
With a "slap," the cleaver struck the corpse's chest, but the jumping speed of the white ball of fuzz was far beyond his imagination. The cleaver missed, and in a flash of white light, the ball of white fuzz darted onto his face.
Su Li felt an itch on his forehead and was greatly alarmed, knowing something was wrong. His reflexes kicked in, and he immediately swatted at his face with his hand.
He struck nothing. Su Li hurriedly ran his hands over his face but felt nothing. He quickly stood up and searched everywhere, shaking his clothes. The ball of white fuzz had vanished without a trace.
"What's going on? How did it just disappear?" As Su Li was bewildered, he suddenly felt a message surge into his mind, as if a piece of completely foreign memory had been directly inserted into his brain.
"Spiritual Source: 1/5."
Su Li couldn't help but clutch his head, his face filled with shock: "Spiritual Source 1/5? What does that mean? What is a Spiritual Source?"
Immediately after, he suddenly felt an intense heat rush through his forehead. This heat, like warm currents, suddenly spread out in all directions throughout his body, reaching his fingertips. His entire body quickly became hot.
However, the heat came and went quickly, disappearing suddenly in a matter of a few seconds.
After this mysteriously arriving heat disappeared, Su Li felt something was different about his body. First, the stinging pain from the bleeding wound on his forehead, where he had hit the floor, vanished. The wound area now felt cool.
Not only that, he had previously been swinging the cleaver and hammer so furiously at the corpse that his arms were sore and his whole body felt weak and exhausted. But now, the soreness in his arms and the fatigue in his body were gone. He felt refreshed and full of energy again.
All these changes happened too quickly, leaving Su Li stunned for a moment. But he soon took a deep breath to calm himself down. Sensing the extra information in his mind, he faintly began to understand.
The fuzzy white spherical object had not mysteriously vanished. Instead, it had merged into his body the instant it darted onto his forehead.
"This sudden message in my head must be the information that came with this thing merging into my body: Spiritual Source: 1/5. Could it be that this fuzzy spherical object… is this 'Spiritual Source'? This Spiritual Source seems to be able to change my physique, making the wound on my forehead stop hurting, eliminating fatigue, and even making me feel a bit stronger."
Su Li held the hammer and lightly swung it. He felt the swing was easier; this wasn't an illusion, it was real. His strength had indeed increased slightly.
(End of Chapter)