Chapter 50: Where Lies the Opportunity
The moment Fang Shenyan realized his position had been exposed, he stepped away from the wall and headed straight for the little girl!
He had very little intelligence at his disposal. If the girl really carried a clue obtained by Ji Li, he had no choice but to take the gamble.
Li Xing's head looked like a screw missing its nut, the neck and skull unrestrained. As Fang Shenyan passed by, he caught a glimpse of Li Xing twisting his own head to adjust its facing.
This made him even more certain that Li Xing was completely dead.
Fang Shenyan moved with lightning speed. From the other side of the corridor, the two from Tongguan only saw a fleeting shadow, and in an instant, the little girl was taken away before disappearing up the stairs!
What truly revealed the intruder to Tongguan, however, was the figure that followed Fang Shenyan.
It was Yu Guo!
He followed Fang Shenyan closely, taking the same escape route. But as he passed Li Xing, he made a daring move.
Yu Guo's body ran swiftly in Fang Shenyan's direction, yet his eyes never blinked from watching Li Xing.
Watching Li Xing struggling to rotate his head, Yu Guo then did something very peculiar.
While running, he swung his fist and struck Li Xing's rotating left face with full force!
Li Xing had just been turning his head toward them when Yu Guo's heavy punch hit him hard!
Then, an even stranger scene unfolded…
Yu Guo, standing close by, heard the crisp sound of breaking bones and saw Li Xing's head fly off from a single punch!
Yu Guo shivered at the sight of Li Xing's headless body still searching for its skull.
He then looked toward the two from Tongguan, who had been watching from afar, and shouted loudly, "What are you waiting for? Run!"
After saying this, he quickly followed Fang Shenyan toward the rooftop.
Tongguan, who had witnessed everything, frowned. He grabbed Chang Nian's hand and ran up another staircase with her.
"Six hours! We've reached the six-hour mark!
Li Xing's interference has delayed our final timing."
Chang Nian shook off Tongguan's hand and said in a low voice:
"What if he wasn't the one bent over?"
Tongguan raised an eyebrow, a gleam of insight flashing in his eyes, but he said nothing.
Chang Nian continued, "Li Xing was always unique. Reporting three minutes late delayed the mission!
It seems the hotel deliberately allowed this. But why leave this window of time? We still don't know.
Could it have been to give that ghost time to create a false mission?"
Tongguan's eyes shifted as he reasoned along this line, speaking in a hushed tone:
"You think Li Xing himself is the ghost.
During the hours the mission was delayed, he fabricated a false mission and left traces of the curse on us!"
Chang Nian was startled. She looked at Tongguan's profile in silence.
But from his words, she recalled something he had once said…
"The curse's transmission method is…"
Tongguan looked at Chang Nian firmly, reading her thoughts, and nodded heavily. Then he took out the hotel phone and opened the task email.
The task content was still the same as before, unchanged.
"No matter if the ghost's true identity is Li Xing, we are at least eighty percent sure.
The remaining twenty percent… we'll know soon enough."
Chang Nian, quick to catch on, added:
"As long as Li Xing can track us, we can confirm the curse is on us!
And the likelihood that it is that thing is unprecedentedly high…"
...
"What did Ji Li tell you?"
Fang Shenyan held the little girl in his arms. Even while fleeing in panic, 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 Shenyan's scent—the same one she had sensed with Ji Li moments ago—but she remained surprisingly calm and didn't struggle.
Fang Shenyan, not in the mood for patience, muttered irritably and changed his question:
"Tell me about your meeting with that long-haired uncle."
Gradually, he began communicating with Xiao Qi, and Yu Guo caught up.
"So? Did you get anything out of her?"
Yu Guo pinched Xiao Qi's chubby little face, not affectionately but to test if she was really alive.
Xiao Qi shrank back, making Fang Shenyan even more annoyed.
"So, after parting from Ji Li, he probably went upstairs."
Xiao Qi nodded timidly. "That's all I know."
Fang Shenyan said no more, then glanced at Yu Guo: "Did you do something?"
Yu Guo looked guilty upon hearing this. Fang Shenyan had already figured out his style. He laughed awkwardly and said, "I just knocked Li Xing's head off. When I left, he was still searching for it. That should buy us a little time."
Fang Shenyan nodded subtly:
"The time won't be long. We need to get upstairs to find Ji Li, or at least meet up with Tongguan.
This mission has put us on the defensive from the start."
Yu Guo looked uneasy. While running, he pulled out his phone and called Tongguan.
The call connected but went unanswered.
"Again, no answer…"
Fang Shenyan glanced at Yu Guo's hotel phone and said in a low voice, "Same situation as with Ji Li back then?"
Yu Guo nodded. "Exactly. I'm not sure if the problem is with them or with us."
Fang Shenyan seemed to think of something and ordered Yu Guo to also call his phone.
But once again, there was no answer, not even on Fang Shenyan's pocket phone.
"Looks like the hotel-issued phones are malfunctioning.
So perhaps nothing has actually happened to Ji Li…"
Yu Guo rolled his eyes at him. "The focus isn't Ji Li anymore. Li Xing, neither fully human nor fully ghost, is chasing us.
And we still don't know the real mission or the direction to safety!"
Fang Shenyan's expression was grim. Though he stayed calm outwardly, his heart was pounding.
"I keep feeling the ghost is right beside us. Even the real mission is just a thin layer away. What we lack now is the chance to pierce through that layer!"
Yu Guo seemed to understand and instinctively asked, "Then, where is that chance?"
The eighteenth floor was just ahead.
Fang Shenyan looked up toward the top of the stairs, where a man and a woman were standing, seemingly waiting for a long time.
Without turning his head, he replied:
"Right in front of us!"
You can read Eerie Overseer ahead by 50+ chapters ad-free and for free at htt ps://ravenarchives. com/book/eerie-overseer]. Bulk uploads are a bit tricky, so updates here might be irregular, but they'll keep coming.