Autophagy

"I- I'm weak," Song Lei muttered to himself as he sat on his bed dejectedly. "T- That wasn't an actual attack. It was just an illusion..."

Thinking about it more caused Song Lei to sigh deeply.

'I think the voice came from floor 13,' he thought. Plopping back down on his bed, he hugged the cover of the bed and rolled back up into a ball. 'What was that? It must be a sentient being... It told me to face him on my own and stop eavesdropping. Should I really do that? But what if he is a sealed evil being or something..?'

Thought after thought popped inside Song Lei's head, causing him to roll around on his bed. After scratching his hair roughly with two of his hands, he pushed himself off of the bed. His body still showed signs of being scared. Although it seemed like the threat had passed, his body was still in alarm mode, trying its best to stay alert against any dangers that might come his way.

Jumping in his place for some time, he did his best to relax his tense muscles.

'Whatever that thing was, it was incredibly powerful,' Song Lei deduced by gathering all the knowledge he had into one place. 'It's impossible for a normal being to be able to scare me anymore, hence the amount of soul stat I have. Rather, I should be radiating an aura of being a ruthless predator to the others that have weaker souls.'

'Since that's the case, there's only a single explanation.'

'On the 13th floor, there's something that can't be trifled with. Its soul is leaps and bounds stronger than mine. Looking at the degree of damage just a casual illusion sent by that being caused, the difference should be much more than I can handle with petty tricks.'

'Fortunately, it doesn't seem to be directly hostile towards me...'

"*Sigh"

As countless thoughts about his situation ran through Song Lei's mind, a genuine sigh escaped his mouth. walking to the bathroom, he decided to take a quick shower before getting ready for the gathering he had arranged with the newbies. He had about two and a half hours left.

After showering, he put on a white shirt and folded its sleeves up to his elbows before wearing black trousers to match it. Although he was used to wearing comfier clothes, this was good to create a certain image of himself in the minds of the newbies.

Looking at himself in the mirror, Song Lei felt somewhat satisfied.

'I should quickly open my spiritual eye. I probably can't see Aston and Isabel like this. Nor could I see anything supernatural. This puts me at a certain amount of danger...' Song Lei muttered to himself. Deciding that he had enough time, he brought up his system shop.

'I have slightly more than three thousand blood beads left. With this, I can buy three more pages. However, I have to keep at least a thousand for emergencies. That leaves me with two pages to work with,' he made a quick calculation.

'The question is, would two pages be enough for the author to tell how I can completely open my spiritual eye? The eye-closing ritual took more than that...'

'I have already gone too far. There's no turning back now...' He guessed. With time, he felt more and more like Aston's theory about him being mentally influenced by a greater being was correct.

Bringing the system shop up, he bought the next page of the Origin Shamanism of Soul Guidance.

Fortunately, the pages didn't seem to have an increase in their price for now.

Quickly taking out the page from his system, Song Lei started reading.

"Closing your eyes has been a meddlesome job since the start of shamanism. It requires a lot of tools and a specific place that is pretty rare throughout these planes."

"Now that you are done with it, your next goal should be to open them completely, to have control over them."

"This time, you aren't going to seek the help of the great Sky God."

"You have to turn towards yourself."

"Try to sense your spiritual eye. It may be hard to do so, however, there isn't an easy way around this. Everybody has to spend the same amount of effort to achieve this stage."

"Close your eyes, turn inwards, do your best to feel your spiritual eye. Remember that this can only be done in near-absolute silence and complete darkness. It's still possible to do so without these, however, it will be harder by leaps and bounds."

"With this, you should be able to open your spiritual eye in about a few years of meditation."

"Having your spiritual eye open will make you able to see the ethereal, while also allowing you to see the weak souls freely."

"Normally, you should be able to see somewhat strong ethereal beings even without opening your eyes, however, for a shaman, that's not enough. You should be able to see, hear, and sense the weakest of souls so that you can guide them towards the afterlife perfectly. Having your spiritual eye open will help you do just that."

After reading through the whole page in one go, Song Lei sucked in a mouthful of breath. For some reason, seeing the benefits of having his spiritual eye open made him shiver in excitement. He was also happy that buying a single page would be enough for now.

'With this...' He muttered inwardly. However, didn't complete that line of thought.

After putting the page on top of the stack of the old ones, Song Lei stretched. Reading the page hadn't taken longer than a few minutes. This left him with more time in his pocket.

Not wanting to waste any of it, he sat down on his bed cross-legged. Room 1401 was the perfect room for him to practice meditation. There was no sound, no light, no other disturbances that could lead him astray. All he had was himself.

Closing his eyes, he turned his consciousness inwards. If he hadn't awakened his soul yet, he would never be able to do such a thing.

After meditating on his bed for about two hours, Song Lei was unable to make progress. Sighing deeply and putting the matter aside, he decided that it was finally the time.

'Let's go....'