Chapter 50: Where Lies the Turning Point?

The moment Fang Shenyin realized his position had been exposed, he stepped out from beside the wall and charged straight toward where the little girl was.

He had too little information at hand. If the girl truly carried the clue that Ji Li had obtained, he had to take this gamble no matter what.

Li Xing’s head resembled a screw missing its nut; his neck and head were no longer connected. As Fang Shenyin passed by him, he caught sight of Li Xing twisting his head to adjust its facing direction.

This only strengthened Fang Shenyin’s belief that Li Xing was already dead.

Fang Shenyin moved with decisive swiftness. From the other side of the corridor, the two from Tongguan only caught a fleeting shadow before swiftly snatching the little girl and disappearing up the stairs above.

What truly revealed the intruder’s identity to Tongguan was the figure following Fang Shenyin.

It was Yu Guo.

He trailed closely behind Fang Shenyin, following the same escape route. But when passing by Li Xing, he took a remarkably bold action.

Though his body moved quickly in Fang Shenyin’s direction, his eyes never blinked as they stared unflinchingly at Li Xing.

Watching Li Xing desperately twisting his head, Yu Guo then performed a strange act.

As he ran, he swung his fist and struck Li Xing’s spinning left cheek with great force.

Just as Li Xing was about to turn his head towards them, Yu Guo’s powerful punch hit him hard.

Then an even stranger scene unfolded.

Yu Guo, standing close by, heard a crisp crack of bone. To his disbelief, Li Xing’s head was knocked clean off by the punch.

Yu Guo watched as Li Xing’s headless body still groped blindly for his severed head, sending a chill down his spine.

He then glanced towards the two from Tongguan, who had been watching everything unfold, and shouted, “What are you waiting for? Run!”

With that, he quickly followed Fang Shenyin’s footsteps, sprinting up to the rooftop.

Meanwhile, Tongguan, having witnessed everything clearly, furrowed his brow. He grabbed Chang Nian's hand and dashed up a different staircase.

“Six hours! The six-hour mark has arrived!

We were delayed in the end by the bent-over Li Xing.”

Hearing this, Chang Nian shook off Tongguan’s grip and spoke gravely:

“What if he wasn’t bent over?”

Tongguan raised an eyebrow, a sharp gleam flashing in his eyes, but he said nothing.

Chang Nian continued:

“Li Xing was always unique. He was three minutes late reporting in, and the mission was subsequently delayed.

It seems the hotel tacitly allowed this. What was the purpose of leaving that time window? We still don’t know.

But could it have been to create a false mission for that ghost?”

Tongguan’s eyes shifted as he pondered this theory, his voice low:

“You think Li Xing himself is that ghost.

That the hours of delay were used by him to fabricate false tasks and plant the curse’s means of transmission on us!”

Chang Nian was startled; she looked at Tongguan’s profile silently.

But from his words, she recalled something Tongguan had once said…

“The means of curse transmission is…”

Tongguan gave her a resolute look, reading her thoughts, and nodded firmly. Then he pulled out the hotel phone and opened the mission email.

The mission details remained unchanged.

“No matter if the ghost’s true form is Li Xing or not, we are eighty percent sure.

The remaining twenty percent will be confirmed soon.”

Chang Nian’s mind was clear; she immediately picked up the thread:

“As long as Li Xing can track our location, it confirms the curse is on us.

And the likelihood that it’s that thing is unprecedented…”

…

“What did Ji Li tell you?”

Fang Shenyin cradled the little girl in his arms. Even amid their frantic escape, he tried to extract clues about the escape route from her.

“Ji… Xiao Qi doesn’t know that person.”

The little girl seemed frightened by Fang Shenyin’s scent—the same scent she had sensed before when in contact with Ji Li.

Yet she remained remarkably calm, not struggling at all.

Fang Shenyin’s patience wore thin; annoyed, he muttered and changed his approach:

“Tell me about your meeting with that long-haired uncle.”

Gradually, he began communicating with Xiao Qi, with Yu Guo trailing behind.

“Anything? Did you find out anything?”

Yu Guo immediately pinched the plump little face of Xiao Qi, not out of affection, but seemingly to test if she was alive.

Xiao Qi shrank inward, which only irritated Fang Shenyin more.

“So, after parting ways with Ji Li, he must have gone upstairs.”

Xiao Qi nodded timidly. “That’s all I know.”

Fang Shenyin said no more. He glanced at Yu Guo and asked, “Did you do something?”

Yu Guo looked sheepish. His habits were well known to Fang Shenyin. He awkwardly smiled:

“I just knocked Li Xing’s head off. When I left, he was still looking for it. Should buy us some time.”

Fang Shenyin nodded without a word:

“The delay won’t be long. We have to get upstairs to find Ji Li, or at least rendezvous with Tongguan.

This mission has put us on the back foot.”

Yu Guo looked a bit uncomfortable. As he ran, he took out his phone and dialed Tongguan.

The call connected but went unanswered.

“Nothing again…”

Fang Shenyin looked at Yu Guo’s hotel phone and said gravely, “Same as Ji Li’s situation?”

Yu Guo nodded. “Yeah. I don’t know if it’s them or us having issues.”

Then Fang Shenyin seemed to have an idea and ordered Yu Guo to call his phone as well.

But the result was the same—no one answered, and Fang Shenyin’s phone remained silent.

“Looks like there’s an anomaly with the hotel phones.

So perhaps Ji Li isn’t necessarily in trouble…”

Yu Guo rolled his eyes at Fang Shenyin.

“The focus isn’t Ji Li anymore. Li Xing, neither man nor ghost, is chasing us.

And we still don’t know the true mission or the escape route!”

Fang Shenyin’s expression darkened. Though he showed no panic, his heart pounded in his throat.

“I have a feeling the ghost is right beside us. The true mission details are just a thin veil away. What we lack now is the opportunity to pierce through that veil.”

Yu Guo seemed to catch on and instinctively asked, “Then, where’s the opportunity?”

The eighteenth floor was right ahead.

Fang Shenyin looked up toward the end of the staircase above, where a man and a woman stood waiting, seemingly for some time.

Without turning his head, he replied:

“Right in front of us!”