Chapter 130: Object in the Palm

Human conflict ends with ghosts taking over!

The world had already turned upside down long before the snow began.

The living and the evil ghosts had become complete opposites.

While humans schemed against one another, a pair of eyes hovered high above the Sky Scar, overseeing everything, watching this petty infighting among ants.

To Ji Li, Xue Tinghai, and the others, the Cube Tower was a skyscraper that pierced the clouds.

The moment Ji Li stepped into the building, he sensed something was wrong.

A building with thirty floors, standing alone with no village in front or shops behind—why was it isolated on empty land? And yet it appeared to be a residential apartment?

It made no sense, but he only felt suspicious and didn’t dwell on it.

Even Xue Tinghai, along with this group of veteran staffs who prided themselves on their experience with the supernatural, all made the same preconceived error at this moment.

They assumed the mission would officially begin on November 5, and until then, they would not face any attacks from ghosts.

This assumption wasn’t wrong in itself, but they overlooked one key point:

What if… the ghosts didn’t strike actively, but the humans walked straight into traps the ghosts had laid in advance?

Then, who would hold the power to decide life or death?

From the moment they boarded the plane, everything had already quietly begun.

The ghosts had never attacked the staffs before—they had only killed an inconsequential Japanese person.

With the staffs’ investigative habits, they would inevitably trace the events in advance and end up at the Cube Tower.

And the tower had long been the ghosts’ home ground.

The hotel naturally imposed limits and offered conveniences for the staffs, but the ghosts had arranged everything within reasonable bounds.

After all, no one had ever said…

That ghosts couldn’t manipulate humans.

They simply had the overwhelming power to suppress others, making strategy beneath them.

But not using it didn’t mean they lacked it.

Now, humans would reap the consequences of their arrogance.

They thought themselves superior, battling for hours, yet it was an external force that would ultimately decide life or death.

When Fang Shenyen saw that hand through the Ghost Eye, his blood ran cold and his body trembled.

He understood everything.

Why, despite all the killings and gunfire in this building, no other residents came out to investigate.

Because this was a dead building, destined to bury corpses.

Thud, thud, thud…

Doors all over the building swung open on their own, as if confirming this grim thought.

Fang Shenyen, the only one who could still move, saw the horrors inside each room with the help of his cursed Ghost Eye.

Every living person had been turned into a corpse.

But their deaths were absurd, just like Fang Shenyen’s current predicament—every movement he made, controlled by those threads, looked comically awkward.

The dead were frozen in place, each in exaggerated and awkward poses.

This was the death of the Cube Tower’s residents. As for why Fang Shenyen and Ji Li had only encountered living victims on the seventeenth and eighteenth floors, it might have been an illusion, or the ghosts’ toys left for them.

Fang Shenyen could feel the threads on his limbs closing in, while the cyan hand above seemed intent on converging.

In a few seconds, he would likely share the fate of the corpses.

The only hope now…

His bloodshot eyes snapped toward Qing on the floor.

Tian Wen was immobilized; no one could compete with him now. As long as there was a Sin Artifact, there was still a chance.

He still had a chance to escape the Cube Tower.

Fang Shenyen’s movements were agonizing. The threads, sharp and fine like steel wires, cut through his clothes and scraped his flesh as he bent down.

The pain penetrated to his very core.

Just as his outstretched hand was about to touch Qing’s body, another person broke free…

It was Xue Tinghai, his scar reddened, making his face even more menacing.

A man with more than two Sin Artifacts naturally had ways to escape.

But the cost of that step was a single white hair among his dense black hair.

He had used a Sin Artifact, sacrificing a bit of his lifespan.

He intended to stop Fang Shenyen from obtaining the Sin Artifact, confident even at this moment.

Xue Tinghai had walked through mountains of corpses and rivers of blood; he regarded the hand above his head as nothing.

The threads sought him automatically, yet his eyes remained filled with unwavering confidence.

But at this level, it still wasn’t enough to kill him!

Absolutely not!

Among the five present, the only two with Sin Artifacts had already broken free from their restraints.

Yet, one more person slowly rose from the ground.

Ji Li felt dizzy and thought he was about to die. The wound in his lower abdomen had fortunately avoided vital organs due to the close-range bullet.

The bullet passed through skin and flesh, but the proximity caused internal shock to his organs.

Still, he knew he wasn’t at death’s door yet.

As long as he could leave within twenty minutes, he still had a chance.

So he climbed up. Strangely, he was an ordinary staff without any Sin Artifact, yet he remained completely unharmed inside the barrier of such a powerful ghost.

Ji Li, without a Sin Artifact, could achieve the same effect as Fang Shenyen and Xue Tinghai.

More precisely, his ability resembled Fang Shenyen’s Ghost Eye: a passive effect that activated without cost.

He didn’t know why, but he could roughly understand.

It was because the gray soul within him, though not fully awakened, showed just enough of a trace to partially neutralize the ghost’s barrier in this mission.

How powerful could it be…

That wasn’t something Ji Li could ponder now. Xue Tinghai, across from him, seemed shocked to see Ji Li rise suddenly.

He glanced at Fang Shenyen, then at Ji Li, and halted in his tracks.

“They haven’t done guidance missions at any branch; they must have just reached two stars. There’s no way they should have Sin Artifacts! How can they walk through a supernatural barrier without any cost?!”

“Ah!!!!”

While Xue Tinghai was stunned, Fang Shenyen’s body convulsed like never before.

Ignoring the threads entangling his fingers, he used brute force to snatch the Sin Artifact from Qing’s arms.

At the moment he grasped it, he felt his left ring and pinky fingers on the verge of being severed.

Fang Shenyen roared toward the sky and could only violently fling the porcelain vessel backward!

It flew straight toward Ji Li, who had already staggered to his feet.

In Ji Li’s eyes, it wasn’t just the porcelain vessel flying toward him—it was also Fang Shenyen’s two fingers from his left hand…