Downstairs.
Shen Heng raised a hand and pressed lightly against his headset, rapidly updating them on the Calamity Beast's movements:
"The Calamity Beast's coming down, extremely fast. Twenty-second floor, twenty-first, twentieth..."
"Nineteenth!"
After that report, Shen Heng stopped.
The captain and the others were on the eighteenth floor, and the Calamity Beast was still coming down. The two sides would meet any moment.
If Shen Heng kept reporting its floor now, it would serve little purpose and might even interfere with Wang Hai and the others' fight.
So Shen Heng stood straight in place, his entire body taut, silently waiting for the sounds of battle to erupt upstairs.
A moment later, Shen Heng's brow suddenly furrowed, a trace of astonishment flashing across his face.
The fierce sounds of fighting he had expected never came. Instead, the eighteenth floor fell into an eerie silence.
The two sides seemed less like natural enemies and more like old friends, quietly staying together on the eighteenth floor.
Were they facing off? Could it be a fourth-tier Calamity Beast that the captain and the others couldn't beat, so they didn't dare attack first and were stuck in a stalemate? ...Shen Heng couldn't help wondering.
Soon, however, sounds came from the eighteenth floor again.
First came the dull thuds of the Calamity Beast's feet landing on concrete, followed by its low, even breathing.
The Calamity Beast had started downstairs again!
He wasn't attacking first, but going downstairs? What was going on?
Shen Heng couldn't help looking up, his gaze fixed on the building before him as though he wanted to see through its walls.
He slowly raised his hand and pressed lightly against the headset by his ear.
"The Calamity Beast... is heading downstairs now..."
The voice from their headsets made everyone on the eighteenth floor exchange looks, their eyes filled with shock and confusion.
"Uh, do you think it could be a ghost?" Wu Cheng couldn't help asking.
"If there is a ghost, it'll attack you first. You're so burly, you must have plenty of yang energy. Just right for him to suck up!" Han Ling shot Wu Cheng a glare.
"If it's the Xiaoqian sort... I guess that'd be okay!" Wu Cheng said, looking somewhat conflicted.
"Hah... Xiaoqian? If it's a ghost, it'll be the drowned-ghost kind, with pasty white skin all bloated up, dripping-wet hair stuck together, eyes practically bulging out of their sockets, and long, sharp nails!" Han Ling said irritably.
"Oh, that kind? Then never mind, I guess?"
"Enough. Cut the nonsense!"
Wang Hai rebuked them in a low voice, then asked:
"Did any of you hear or see anything just now?"
The three exchanged looks and shook their heads.
"Could this Calamity Beast have a skill that conceals its movements?" Wei Leyang offered his view.
"What kind of ability could do that?" Wu Cheng asked.
"Invisibility, mimicry, concealing its presence-any of those could do it!" Wang Hai explained.
None of their abilities were perception-based. In this dim environment lit only by moonlight, if the Calamity Beast specialized in concealment, they really might fail to detect it.
"Shen Heng, where's the Calamity Beast now?" Wang Hai asked again.
A reply soon came through the headsets.
"Ninth floor."
"Move. Downstairs!" Wang Hai ordered decisively.
Everyone nodded, quickly turned, and strode downstairs.
Seventeenth floor, sixteenth, fifteenth.
Shen Heng's voice sounded in their ears again.
"The Calamity Beast's moving again. It's heading up!"
At those words, Wang Hai stopped abruptly. Now, one thing was beyond doubt-the Calamity Beast had definitely heard them!
"Captain?" Han Ling said softly, looking at Wang Hai.
"Don't go any farther down. Wait here and get ready to fight!" Wang Hai replied in a low voice.
Everyone prepared for battle once again.
"Eleventh floor!"
"Twelfth floor!"
"Thirteenth floor!"
Silence hung over the floor, broken only by Shen Heng's reports coming through their headsets one after another.
"Fourteenth floor!"
Shen Heng's voice sounded in their ears again.
Everyone's eyes instinctively widened a little, afraid they would miss the Calamity Beast just as they had before.
A few seconds later, Shen Heng's voice came again.
"Fifteenth floor!"
Still, there was no response. Dead silence filled the headset channel.
Wang Hai and the others stood where they were, staring in bewilderment at the empty stairwell before them.
The Calamity Beast had reached their floor, yet they couldn't see it...
Through their headsets, Shen Heng continued reporting.
"Sixteenth floor!"
"Seventeenth floor!"
"..."
After a long while, the reported floor finally settled back at twenty-three.
"We didn't see the Calamity Beast. What do you make of that?" Wu Cheng turned to look at the others.
"Do you think Shen Heng could have misheard? Maybe the sound he heard wasn't the Calamity Beast?" Wei Leyang said.
Wu Cheng nodded in agreement.
"But the wind wouldn't go downstairs when we went up, then upstairs when we went down, would it?" Han Ling said.
Wu Cheng and Wei Leyang fell briefly silent, unsure how to refute that.
They didn't really want to doubt Shen Heng, but despite following his reports, they truly hadn't seen the Calamity Beast.
If Shen Heng hadn't struck them as fairly reliable during their time together, they might even have thought he was messing with them.
Wang Hai fell silent for a moment. He slowly drew a deep breath, clenched his fists, and said:
"We'll try again. Wei Leyang, stretch your threads across the middle of the stairwell and cover the entire way down!"
Wei Leyang paused briefly, then immediately understood what the captain meant.
As long as the stairs were covered, whatever ability the Calamity Beast possessed, he would have to run into the threads eventually.
"Understood!"
Everyone went upstairs again.
It was much the same as before, except this time they only heard Shen Heng say the Calamity Beast had started downstairs when they reached the twentieth floor.
Wei Leyang stepped forward, spread his fingers against the wall, then sharply drew his hand toward the opposite side. Five slender yet tough threads emerged, firmly connecting the walls on either side of the stairwell.
The threads gleamed faintly with a cold light beneath the dim moonlight.
As a trap, these threads weren't up to standard, but Wang Hai no longer cared about that. His main objective now was to drag this Calamity Beast out of hiding!
"Twenty-second floor!"
"Twenty-first floor!"
Shen Heng's voice kept echoing in their ears. Their attention instinctively turned to the thread-covered stairwell, wanting to see whether it could catch the Calamity Beast.
Several seconds later, Shen Heng's report arrived right on cue.
"Twentieth floor!"
"Nineteenth floor!"
After that, there was nothing. The building fell into dead silence.
Wu Cheng turned to look at everyone, gave a light cough, and said:
"See? We still couldn't find the Calamity Beast. Shen Heng must have misheard! Of course, I'm not blaming him. After all, anyone can have a little mishap when they first start using their ability. How about we go back and search the original building?"
Han Ling hesitated, then turned to Wang Hai.
Although deep down she felt Shen Heng shouldn't have made a mistake, and she wanted to trust the man the captain had personally invited into the Supervision Bureau, the reality was what it was...
Between Shen Heng's words and the reality she had seen with her own eyes, she still instinctively trusted reality more.
At that moment, even Wang Hai couldn't help wavering, beginning to wonder whether Shen Heng's lack of proficiency with his own ability had led to a mistaken judgment.
Just then, Shen Heng's quiet yet exceptionally firm voice suddenly rang out in everyone's headsets.
"Captain, I request permission to go upstairs!"
Wang Hai hesitated, then asked:
"Are you sure?"
Shen Heng tilted his head up and gazed at the abandoned building before him. Its dilapidated walls loomed indistinctly in the moonlight, giving off an air of deathly stillness.
Whatever Wu Cheng and the others thought, he truly had heard those abnormal sounds just now: the dull thuds of fleshy paws striking the ground and the Calamity Beast's low panting. Every detail had been utterly clear.
He raised his hand, pressed lightly against the headset hanging over his left ear, and replied softly:
"Yes, I'm sure!"