Chapter 105: Ending Tonight

Ji Li fled with the portrait in one hand, escaping as fast as he could.

He had seen the middle-aged man die a gruesome death, and he had seen the ghost.

It was indeed useless!

The middle-aged man had died holding the portrait, proving that Ji Li’s earlier hesitation had been justified.

The fleeting thought of exploiting a loophole for survival had made him pause, but he quickly realized that the man would inevitably use the portrait for the sacrifice. Observing for a moment confirmed it: even with the portrait, the middle-aged man still perished.

Ji Li once again understood the hotel’s meticulous planning.

Yet the complexity of the situation left him momentarily stunned. He had thought he understood the mistakes made, but seeing that ghost confused him again.

He now guessed why, despite having sacrificed four men and one woman, the ritual had still not been completed.

The numbers had been miscounted all along.

The intended total was ten men and eight women—eighteen funeral rites. Over the past half-month, they had performed thirteen sacrifices. In Chen Fu’s and the middle-aged man’s memory, only the final four men and one woman were missing.

But among the thirteen sacrifices, one had gone wrong. One person’s soul had not been absorbed by the portrait.

That was why Ji Li had only seen twelve shadows within it.

The middle-aged man’s final words—“one is missing”—reflected this truth.

They had thought they roughly understood the situation, but ignorance of the ghost’s nature and partial knowledge of the portrait led them to assume the numbers were correct.

Perhaps that was why the ghost had not acted against the middle-aged man immediately.

Now, with the man dead, Ji Li stepped in. He would perform the final sacrifice himself.

At last, he had discerned the path to survival.

Survival lay in completing the sacrifice. Using the ghost bride to suppress the other murderous ghost, the true threat they faced was clear.

Of course, this plan carried enormous risk, but several experiences served as hints for survival.

First, the ghost bride had approached him but left him unharmed.

Although it was a ghost and had shown lethal intent, it never struck.

Within the portrait’s space, his arm had been severed, yet the ghost bride’s contradictions were clear. If it had truly wanted to kill him, there would have been no escape.

It had intended to act but stopped at the final moment—a hint: the ghost bride would not kill the store staff.

Second, the severed arm itself was an attack, but also a hidden signal: the shadows of those sacrificed belonged to the ghost and could attack the staff.

This hint tied directly to the one missing clue.

The truth of the situation began to align.

Clutching the portrait, Ji Li ran, piecing together the mission’s full scope.

Half a month ago, Chen Fu and the middle-aged man had obtained a strange portrait along with a fragmentary manual. From these, they learned methods for restoration, poisoning, and the sacrifice ritual.

They intended to exploit supernatural powers to achieve their goals and began the sacrificial ceremonies within the Li Mansion.

Over the past two weeks, they had used funerals as cover to kill thirteen maids and servants.

Everything had gone smoothly—until one sacrifice went awry.

Ji Li could not determine exactly what happened, but the sacrificed soul had escaped from the portrait as a shadowy ghost and strongly interfered with the mansion’s funeral process.

This had slowed their progress and forced Chen Fu and the others to perform the final sacrifice of five people simultaneously today.

Ji Li now realized that the shadow ghost had escaped because the hotel had allowed it. The hotel had helped it flee, creating the mission so that the staff would attempt to capture it.

This approach reminded Ji Li of his earlier theory at Tiannan Academy: the hotel treats ghosts in two ways—either forcibly capturing them or negotiating with them.

Clearly, this mission fell into the latter category. The difficulty of such a task far exceeded simple capture.

This implied the existence of an exceptionally powerful ghost, capable of negotiating with the hotel.

Looking down at the portrait in his hands—the ghostly, exquisite bride—Ji Li understood: this was the strongest ghost. Constrained by the hotel’s rules or agreements, it had paradoxically become the path to survival.

Ji Li ran at full speed, constantly glancing over his shoulder to check if the ghost was pursuing him. His left pinky finger still showed no movement.

This confirmed that no ghost was nearby.

Yet he did not slacken his pace. He urgently needed to return to the Li Mansion within the limited time to complete the final sacrifice.

This was the path to survival.

He had to complete the ghost bride’s sacrifice. The missing one was likely a woman. Once Ji Li found a female and offered her to the portrait, the ghost bride would awaken and suppress the murderous ghost.

This would mark the completion of the promotion task.

But Ji Li was struck with confusion—why did the murderous ghost resemble the ghost bride exactly?

This puzzled him endlessly.

Amid the urgency, he suddenly heard the voice of his third persona in his mind:

Eh? Why does the elderly woman seem so dispensable in this mission according to your assumptions?

The speaker had no intention, but the listener caught the meaning.

Ji Li immediately realized he must have overlooked something.

Although he had pieced together the full scope of the task and identified the path to survival, the elderly woman’s role still had no correspondence.

She looked exactly like the ghost bride.

And she was a key figure in the Li Mansion—Chen Fu was essentially her subordinate.

Subordinate

The word struck him like a jolt. A realization clicked into place. Every action of Chen Fu had been under the elderly woman’s influence.

What role had she truly played in this mission?

He recalled the moment he had rushed out of the portrait space. Despite all the commotion, the elderly woman had slept so deeply that she remained completely unaware.

At this thought, Ji Li turned his head sharply.

Behind him was empty. A gust of wind swept through, briefly blurring his vision.

The ghost seemed to be scattered by the wind as well.

A more astonishing idea arose in Ji Li’s mind:

“If that’s the case, perhaps the path to survival doesn’t require me to kill for the sacrifice…”

Whether by luck or coincidence, the tall horse that Chen Fu and the others had abandoned earlier had neither been killed by the spirit rain nor had it run away.

It stood quietly in the mud, seemingly waiting for something.

Ji Li’s eyes lit up. He removed his backpack, pulled out a rope, and secured the portrait to his back.

Then he leapt onto the horse, flicked the reins, sending mud flying and his long hair streaming behind him.

Dusk was approaching. Ji Li rode forward, determined to conclude this long-awaited promotion task tonight.