Chapter 129: The Ghost Arrives

“Stop chasing, Assisant Manager!”

Hu Li supported Qing, each step leaving a trail of blood across the floor, shocking to behold.

Tian Wen walked behind, offering no assistance.

Although Qing’s injuries weren’t fatal, she was weakened by blood loss, her limbs trembling, fully reliant on Hu Li.

“If we drag this out, she’ll die!”

Tian Wen merely sneered. Qing’s death would work in his favor; her death meant her Sin Artifacts would fall into his hands, furthering the rift among their branch members.

Ignoring the calls from behind, Xue Tinghai moved through the 17th-floor corridor, gun in hand, stepping on the bloodstained floor, tense and focused.

Tonight, he intended to kill Ji Li and his team.

Originally, he had dismissed the Seventh Branch—newly arrived, with no Sin Artifacts, barely equipped for a two-star joint mission. Yet, their strategy nearly left his team dead. The cunning and calculated planning instilled fear and respect in Xue Tinghai, a seasoned branch member.

Seeing the open windows on the 18th floor, he understood the Seventh Branch had switched locations to ambush and escape. He had to pursue them. Qing’s fate, alive or dead, mattered little to him.

The rest of the Fourth Branch had no choice but to follow Xue Tinghai down the corridor, each step leaving streaks of blood behind.

The trail extended from room 1714 to the far end of the hallway, leading to another exit.

Xue Tinghai paused at 1714, aware that Ji Li had escaped from the 18th floor into this room before moving onward. The cold wind howling through the open window intensified, carrying the stench of blood from several bodies lying inside—victims of the Seventh Branch’s silent killings.

He hesitated, then heard chaotic, panicked footsteps from the other hallway—clearly more than one person.

Xue Tinghai quickly left the 1714 doorway in pursuit, with Tian Wen and the middle-aged man trailing behind helplessly.

Meanwhile, Kondo Sei, following Ji Li’s instructions, moved with her hands and feet across the hard stairs, holding two shoes and striking the walls to mimic multiple footsteps. Alone, she created the illusion of several people.

When the Fourth Branch members passed 1714, a pair of bright eyes suddenly opened in the darkness—what Xue Tinghai had assumed were corpses came to life.

The door creaked open, and a man stepped out. Facing the backs of the Fourth Branch, he swung a knife with deadly precision.

The blade struck directly into Qing’s back. She had believed her only concern was when to ambush the Seventh Branch, yet now, in what she assumed was safety, she received a fatal strike.

She twisted her head desperately, eyes searching for the killer, but couldn’t see. With her last ounce of defiance, she gasped her final breath.

The Fourth Branch had only five members participating in the mission, yet one was already dead before it officially began—a veteran holding two Sin Artifacts.

Xue Tinghai turned his head and saw the scene: a glasses-wearing man, cold and precise, standing in the hallway, clothes fluttering. With a single motion, his branch member was killed.

It was then Xue Tinghai realized—after the initial ambush, there was yet another ambush waiting.

In his six months with the Fourth Branch, he had never experienced such a humiliating start. Blood rushed to his scarred face as he raised his arm, aiming at Fang Shenyan.

But at that moment, he noticed a long-haired man sitting against the doorframe at 1714, waiting patiently. That man’s gun was faster than his.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Bullets splattered wildly across the hallway. If Ji Li weren’t gravely wounded, barely able to stand, this ambush would have claimed another life.

But his hands could no longer hold steady; even leaning on the doorframe, he wavered. He fired four shots, hitting no one.

Still, his shots created a barrier between Tian Wen and Qing’s body, meaning the two Sin Artifacts on her remained unclaimed.

Under Ji Li’s suppression, Fang Shenyan lunged forward, aiming for Qing’s body.

Xue Tinghai sensed danger immediately. The Seventh Branch had no Sin Artifacts—he would rather see them destroyed than fall into their hands. He was about to act when he felt the hallway… something was wrong.

The intense, death-charged atmosphere triggered his instincts. Even without seeing Sin Artifacts, Xue Tinghai could sense the arrival of supernatural forces.

Tian Wen, seeing Fang Shenyan leap toward the Sin Artifacts, gritted his teeth. He was closest to Qing’s body and intended to claim the objects immediately, but Ji Li’s interference disrupted him.

By the time he reacted, Fang Shenyan’s hand had already grabbed Qing’s hair. Tian Wen let out a shriek, falling atop her body, losing all caution.

Fang Shenyan drew the knife from behind Qing and prepared to strike Tian Wen, who was entirely focused on seizing the Sin Artifacts.

At that moment, space and time seemed to freeze.

Xue Tinghai and Ji Li faced each other from a distance, guns aimed, fingers on triggers.

Hu Li crouched, head in his arms, paralyzed with fear.

Tian Wen’s hand touched a hard object in Qing’s pocket, a spark of excitement on his face.

Fang Shenyan, half-kneeling, knife in hand, glared ruthlessly. Of everyone present, only he could move.

A single eyeball appeared in his left palm, and a strange vision unfolded in his mind.

The entire 17th floor vanished, leaving only a hallway. Its edges dissolved into endless darkness, an abyss where one wrong step meant certain death.

Fang Shenyan saw himself, Ji Li, and Xue Tinghai…

Above their heads floated an enormous, icy-blue hand, too massive to view in a single glance. It seemed to dominate the entire hallway, covering all living beings below.

The hand hovered over them as if controlling their fates, its five fingers connected to countless thin threads.

Fang Shenyan was the first to notice: his limbs and head were entangled in these threads, like a marionette.

He stared at the hand, eyes wide with endless terror:

“No! Impossible! The mission hasn’t even started… How can it target me?!”

Even the slightest clench of that hand foreshadowed his fate—his flesh would be crushed.

In this moment, human conflict ended, and the ghost took over.

The beginning had arrived. The climax had begun.