Chapter 56: The Fourth Persona
Below the elevator shaft, deep in the basement of the Broad Valley Building.
The raging storm outside had lasted for hours, yet it failed to stir any awareness in this corpse.
He remained dead.
A steel rod had completely pierced his thigh bone, blood had already poured down into the shaft below, nearly drained.
His head was twisted to an exaggerated, grotesque degree; even the veins in his neck were snapped, layers of skin compressed like a tightly wound screw.
He was one of the many corpses in Broad Valley Building—but also the most unique.
He was Ji Li. Ji Li was dead.
Yet in his mind lingered several souls beyond his control, writhing restlessly.
'He's dead… completely. Look at this one, still a trace of life left in the corpse… see it. Beautiful, isn't it?'
In the long silence, a chilling, ghostly voice whispered inside the body.
"Who… are you?"
The third persona had not dissipated with Ji Li's death. Instead, it had endured hours of torment in darkness and silence.
It had waited for Ji Li, the main persona, to awaken and rise from death, to return to the surface with it.
But when another voice spoke in its mind, the third persona felt fear.
This voice was unfamiliar—not the real Ji Li, not the second persona, but a completely new, strange male voice.
'I'm just asking if you can perceive the art this corpse represents…'
'What art?'
'Bloody, despairing, rigid, shivering beauty…'
The third persona realized immediately—this must be the fourth persona.
A harbinger of Ji Li's resurrection, the fourth unique persona manifesting after him.
And its nature instilled an indescribable terror.
'How does it feel? Do you want to try?'
'Try… how?'
'I am too weak to occupy the body, but you can.'
'You, third persona, can seize the host body while Ji Li is still dormant, rise to become the main persona!'
'Then, together, we will create and appreciate even greater art.'
'Do you… accept?'
The fourth persona's tone was insane, yet irresistibly compelling.
It planted a devilish lure in the third persona's mind. The third persona knew the words carried endless sin and unimaginable consequences.
Yet…
It felt a flicker of temptation.
The third persona had never imagined that when the real Ji Li's died, its mind could break the barrier, occupy the cranial space, and seize control.
It would become Ji Li.
'Can… I?'
The third persona asked tentatively. But the fourth persona's reply was tinged with anger.
'Too late. Ji Li has awakened!'
Boom…
The world fell silent again. The dialogue of the personas ceased, and Ji Li's soul fully awakened.
Eyes opened in the dark, life surging through the suffocating death aura.
A strange sound echoed as Ji Li forcefully freed his thigh from the impaled steel rod.
The pain was minor, insignificant compared to the tremor in his soul.
Ji Li slowly sat up from the shaft, his expression dazed—a side effect of resurrection.
This time, his pupils had changed.
Before this death, Ji Li's eyes had a faint gray glow. Now…
His pupils were fully gray-black, unevenly split.
Ji Li awoke slowly, lifting his head toward the faint light above the shaft.
But beyond the light, there was nothing.
"How long… was I dead?"
His voice was deeper, hoarse from long dormancy.
He received only boundless silence in response.
Ji Li frowned, cautiously asking again, "Second… third?"
Only then did the third persona respond, its tone slightly embarrassed:
'Uh… maybe two hours… or three…'
Hearing this, Ji Li felt even stranger. The third persona was acting somewhat different, though he couldn't pinpoint exactly how.
"Looks like the second persona has fallen asleep again. Things have worsened for him. Has the fourth persona appeared?"
The third persona was silent for a long moment, then lied:'"I haven't heard any sign of the fourth persona.'
Ji Li took a deep breath and stretched his limbs. His right leg still resisted extension; the previous injury lingered.
He set down his backpack, used the light from above to do a quick bandage, and recalled the photo he had seen before dying.
The photo had shocked him deeply and also held the key to unraveling the mystery.
It was taken surreptitiously from a corner, the camera capturing a hidden angle.
In the frame were the backs of Tongguan and Chang Nian, with several staff members walking down the stairs ahead of them.
Tongguan clutched his phone as if recording something, while Chang Nian held up the hotel phone, seemingly checking for signal.
But in that angle, the photo revealed a shocking detail: a bloodied hand emerging from Chang Nian's phone, reaching straight toward the photographer!
This was the secret behind the photo, the mystery connecting Xiao Li, Elder Xu, and Old Xue.
Xiao Li's surreptitious recording had drawn out the ghost from Chang Nian's phone.
Six staff, six phones carrying ghosts—but the ghost from Chang Nian was pulled out by Xiao Li's recording, entering his phone instead. This was also why Old Xue was killed despite having no staff nearby.
At this moment, Ji Li knew he was dealing with two separate ghosts.
One was the ghost originally in his hotel phone. The other was the ghost that, after passing through Chang Nian, Xiao Li, and others, had possessed someone and caused his near-death.
Now Ji Li's situation was more urgent than ever.
Yet things weren't simple. The ghost that had killed him earlier came from Xiao Li's phone. And he still didn't know where the ghost in his own hotel phone had gone.
After a long hesitation, the third persona finally asked in Ji Li's mind:
'Ji Li… do we still have a way?'
Ji Li snapped out of his analysis and began patting his pockets with urgency.
Finally, he pulled out a bent cigarette from a pack, placed it between his lips, and lit it.
After taking a deep drag, he exhaled and felt satisfied.
Amid the swirling smoke, Ji Li's gray-black eyes focused into the darkness. He spoke the plan for survival he had conceived in the moment before his death.
A second path, a special path, a path that only Ji Li himself could use.
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