Able to Eat

Time rewound to before dinner.

Never Forget Dwelling, first floor.

With the chance to fight for a place on the second floor gone, the rest gave up on the idea and found tables to sit at.

They chatted with their tablemates, all the while stealing occasional glances at the stairs, trying to catch any sounds from upstairs.

There were sounds, all right. They were just a little too loud.

Before long, everyone could feel the temperature dropping. A pervasive chill threaded through the darkness, raising goosebumps across their skin.

"Are the captain and the others fighting the ghosts?" Zhang Yu murmured. He turned and found Mo staring intently at the stairs. "Can you see something?"

But Mo seemed so absorbed that she didn't hear a word he said.

Xue Shouyun had agreed to protect them for a little while. She drew her whip from thin air, coiled it in her hand, and watched warily.

Lan Wu, who had joined their table, glanced over. His pale face, still not fully recovered from the pain, seemed to have grown even paler. "They're not fighting. The space between the first and second floors has been cut off. Look at that darkness."

Lamps were set into the walls on either side of the staircase. There was no reason for it to be pitch-black like this.

The darkness seemed alive. Without warning or reason, it had stretched across the top of the stairs, cutting off every sound and sensation.

A cracking noise came from the staircase. Some of the players got to their feet, ready to defend themselves or run.

The stairs were going to collapse!

The first and second floors would become two entirely separate worlds!

Who knew what they had triggered up there—

"Ahhh!"

Two figures suddenly tumbled down with screams and crashed