Chapter 134: The Shattering of the Barrier

The ghost assigned to the joint reception mission was extraordinary.

It could set traps in advance, forcing staff to walk into them and die.

Now that the Fourth Branch had left, only Ji Li and Fang Shenyan remained.

If the ghost hadn’t theatrically opened all those doors for Ji Li to see the supposed corpses, he might never have figured it out.

The supernatural barrier was not merely meant to block the hotel’s awareness.

The ones erased from this world were not the seventeenth floor—the missing ones were Ji Li and Fang Shenyan.

Once Fang Shenyan activated his cursed artifact for the first time in this mission, the truth was exposed completely.

The ghost was furious. It had just healed every wound on their bodies, and now it intended to reclaim everything with its own hands.

Ji Li was the first to sense that his body was slipping out of his control.

The threads were biting into his skin, ready to pierce into his flesh and merge with him entirely.

This would become the anchor for the ghost to take over his body.

It was a method of killing that Ji Li had never experienced before.

Even he had to admit that this ghost killed with a kind of grotesque artistry.

Fang Shenyan fared no better.

That bone-deep agony was something he had only recently endured, and now he had to experience it again.

Yet he would rather struggle to death than become one of those puppet corpses.

Before the threads could fully pin him down—before the ghost could completely seize control—Fang Shenyan let out a muffled groan.

Clenching his fists, he fought the deadly threads with nothing but flesh and sheer will.

His gaze locked onto the gap before him, his arm reaching out as far as it could.

That was the end of the barrier.

In the real seventeenth floor, the watching residents also saw Fang Shenyan.

Bleeding from head to toe, kept upright only by his will to survive, each step he took left a trail of blood behind him.

Finally, a man could no longer bear to watch. With panic on his face, he reached out, grabbing Fang Shenyan’s hand.

He spoke a line of Japanese Fang Shenyan didn’t understand, kindness plain in his expression.

Even terrified, he still chose to help.

Unfortunately, the person he tried to save was Fang Shenyan.

And the result of this kindness—

Fang Shenyan, seeing hope for survival, seized the man’s hand and pulled him into the barrier.

Once an outsider entered the supernatural barrier, the hotel would become fully aware of the ghost’s actions.

And the killing trap would end.

But the well-intentioned Japanese man was instantly entangled by the threads for disrupting the ghost’s plan.

A heavy impact rippled through the air.

Light burst forth, darkness receded, and Fang Shenyan suddenly stood in the hallway of the seventeenth floor.

He knelt on one knee, drenched in blood, looking as if he had crawled out of hell.

Before him were bewildered residents—some fleeing, some calling the police.

With a long exhale, he steadied himself. His wounds looked terrifying, but they were mostly superficial.

He turned his head toward Ji Li, who had remained completely still through the ordeal.

Ji Li now leaned against the wall, pulling a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. He was about to light one when he noticed Fang Shenyan looking at him. He took out another cigarette and tossed it over.

He hadn’t moved earlier because he knew Fang Shenyan alone was enough.

Another person struggling would only mean another person getting hurt, and the mission was about to begin.

The chaos involving the Fourth Branch wasn’t over—and the ghost’s cunning and difficulty had become even clearer.

Aside from Fang Shenyan’s blood, the seventeenth floor now looked spotless.

Sister Qing’s corpse and the Japanese man’s body had vanished. The traces of conflict with the Fourth Branch had disappeared with the barrier.

As if the battles with people and ghosts alike had never happened that night.

Yet the sharp pain still lingering in Fang Shenyan’s body reminded him of the truth.

“Let’s go.”

Ji Li held his cigarette between his lips and lightly patted his bloodstained abdomen. The bullet wounds had already been healed by the ghost.

Which meant their operation hadn’t failed.

It had been a complete success.

Although Fang Shenyan’s injuries looked severe, they barely affected him, and Ji Li could be considered nearly unscathed.

What they had gained, however, was firsthand information about the Fourth Branch—its distribution of cursed artifacts and the effects they carried.

Most importantly, they now had crucial intel on the true main force of this mission: the ghost.

These were things that could only be obtained by risking their lives.

To call tonight’s results abundant gains would be perfectly fitting.

When Kondo Sei appeared at the far end of the seventeenth floor, she was accompanied by a girl in convenience-store attire.

The two girls stared blankly at the blood-soaked, battered forms of Ji Li and Fang Shenyan.

It was hard to imagine that, despite such a miserable appearance, their presence hadn’t changed at all—calmly smoking as if nothing had happened.

“You—”

Ji Li stopped Kondo Sei before she could speak, nodded lightly to the girl beside her, and offered a quiet thank-you.

Supporting Fang Shenyan, he walked past Kondo Sei and murmured:

“It’s settled. Go back and wait for the mission to start.”

The night’s clashes—infighting among the living, the ghost’s deadly finale—had finally come to an end.

Ji Li stood in the snow as the cold wind dried the blood soaking his coat, adding a faint scent of iron to his already frosty aura.

He remained still, gazing up at the Cube Tower.

Fang Shenyan hadn’t heard the cat’s meow—only Ji Li could hear and see it.

Thinking back, perhaps the tabby cat truly had come to help him.

The place it appeared wasn’t meant to guide Kondo Sei, but to indicate the weakest point of the supernatural barrier.

Twice now, since the previous mission.

That mysterious gray cat.

Every time Ji Li was gravely wounded or on the brink of death, it would appear.

Last time, it had guided him to a room where he could recover. This time, it revealed the direction of survival.

It was certainly no ordinary cat—perhaps not even a cat at all.

But clearly, it was connected to the supernatural.

What exactly was this creature?

“If you don’t start moving, I’m going to die.”

Fang Shenyan shot a glance colder than the snow itself at the dazed Ji Li, his words sharp as a blade.

Ji Li ignored him. Since he couldn’t figure out the cat, he simply stopped thinking about it.

Distant police sirens were already heading toward the Cube Tower. Ji Li took Kondo Sei and Fang Shenyan down another narrow street and disappeared into the night.

All he wanted now was a proper night of sleep.