Gray Eyes

"The fifth floor was an extremely important place.

At the time of the incident, Xiao Qi and Lao Xue should have been in adjacent locations. Text Message Man's whereabouts were still unclear.

Do you remember the sound of someone crashing into the door back then?

There were only impacts, no footsteps. We guessed it was caused by a ghost at the time, but now it seemed more likely that Xiao Qi had done it."

Ji Li had already taken the staircase on the other side and hurried down toward the fifth floor.

Third Personality spoke rapidly in his mind. Everything had returned to the abnormalities on the fifth floor back then.

After sending Li Xing away, Ji Li did not understand why he had agreed so readily, but at least there was one less threat at his side. He could search for clues to survival more freely.

Hearing this, he took Lao Xue's phone from his pocket. Without the password, he could not unlock it and could only stare at the missed call displayed on the lit screen.

"Did Xiao Qi not know that Lao Xue was dead...?"

Ji Li could not make sense of it. According to Third Personality, Xiao Qi should have been the one crashing into the door back then. But why had she done it, and why had there been no footsteps? He still could not figure that out.

If Xiao Qi was still on the fifth floor, then she could not possibly have missed Lao Xue's corpse.

Why would she call Lao Xue's phone? That already went against the thought process of a normal person...

"Perhaps we will only know the specifics once we find Xiao Qi."

Ji Li concealed his tracks as much as possible. He was still uneasy about Li Xing's abnormality.

He always felt that, from some point onward, something about that man's aura had changed. The feeling was vague, more like an instinct.

Sending Li Xing over to Tong Guan had also been a form of testing.

If things did not go smoothly on his end, Tong Guan could at least help him test Li Xing's abnormality.

So far, he still knew nothing about the true content of the mission. Li Xing was certainly suspicious, but before the final moment, he might still prove useful.

"The fifth floor is very quiet. The opera singing from before has stopped, which means someone is there."

Ji Li had entered the fifth floor's area when Third Personality warned him in time.

Listening to his footsteps, Ji Li stood with his back to the Light Source and watched his shadow stretch long across the floor. For an instant, there seemed to be three shadows on the ground.

Only then did Ji Li realize that Second Personality had not spoken for a long time.

Even when the mission had been issued, he had sounded exhausted when he spoke.

Ji Li frowned. He had always been confused about his own physical condition. If something had happened to Second Personality, he did not know whether it was good or bad.

"Second, why have you been so quiet lately?"

Ji Li asked, yet still received no answer from Second Personality. This had never happened before, and it filled him with a faint sense of dread.

Especially when he raised his eyes toward the deep corridor. In the dimness at its end, some supremely evil force seemed to be waiting for him.

That strangely familiar instinct toward ghosts surfaced in his heart again, and his footsteps immediately stopped.

"Second?"

Third Personality also realized that something was wrong and began calling for Second Personality in his mind.

"Has he disappeared? Or fallen asleep?"

Ji Li did not know what would happen next, but a major change had occurred within his body.

The little finger of his left hand began twitching uncontrollably, very much like what had happened in the hotel lobby before the mission began.

Suddenly, a miserable, savage roar rang out in Ji Li's mind. He had never heard that voice before, yet it felt strangely familiar.

"I... There's something else inside my body!"

Ji Li was accustomed to enduring pain, but this time, the sensation of his soul being torn apart was far too intense.

He clearly felt as though a massive axe had split his skull open, and something was frantically forcing its way into his mind!

At the same time, something hidden in the deepest part of his body was resisting that foreign force!

The two forces began a frenzied struggle, using Ji Li's body and soul as their battlefield.

He dropped to his knees with a thud, clutching his head tightly with both hands, his face bloodless and pale!

"Ji Li! Ji Li! I saw a figure..."

"Who?!"

"He looked very much like you... but not quite...

Was he... us?"

Tormented by the pain of his soul splitting apart, Ji Li unconsciously listened to Third Personality's words and slowly raised his head.

The corridor before him was empty, filled only with endless darkness.

But through his blurred vision, he heard footsteps...

They were the sharp clicks of high heels striking the floor. Something was approaching him!

Ji Li did not notice that as he tilted his head back, the color of those eyes, filled with a deathly aura, gradually began to change at Third Personality's words!

From their original pure black, a trace of gray slowly emerged...

A color where solitude and indifference coexisted revived in his pupils!

But!

The next second, a hand landed on Ji Li's shoulder!

Boom!

Ji Li's world fell silent. The struggle inside his skull seemed to have abruptly withdrawn the instant that hand arrived, or perhaps it had already ended!

Third Personality was dead silent at his ear, having long since stopped speaking.

Yet Second Personality's voice quietly arrived, exhausted but carrying his usual irritability:

"Damn it, how did I fall asleep again? How are Main Personality and Third doing now?

Huh? Who's this little girl?"

Ji Li recovered from his struggle, but he could clearly feel the weakness in his body. His Qi and Blood had seemingly collapsed during that illusion-like ordeal.

He blankly raised his head, long hair falling over his forehead, and saw the person standing before him, one hand resting on his shoulder.

She was a pretty little girl, hugging a gray teddy bear, only about four foot five.

She looked only seven or eight years old, her hand still touching Ji Li's shoulder.

The scene made it seem as though she were the composed adult, using her palm to comfort Ji Li, the child kneeling on the ground and lost within himself.

"Uncle, have you seen my Father?"

The girl's voice was like a clear spring. It echoed through the corridor like a flower bud that soothed the heart, and her innocent face reflected in Ji Li's eyes.

But after saying that, she took half a step back in fright. She had seen Ji Li's eyes...

A flicker of red light passed through them!

"Was everything just now really an illusion?

I sensed that, besides the two of you, another soul seemed to be hidden inside my body!

Just now, he was fighting another force for control!"

Ji Li narrowed his eyes at the retreating girl. Rather than dealing with her first, he quietly questioned Third Personality.

"I don't know. Perhaps, as subsidiary personalities, we do not have such a deep understanding of what is within this body.

I only saw a man in a black robe who looked almost exactly like you.

Except his eyes were gray!"

"Uncle, have you seen my Father?"

The little girl, who looked only around ten years old, hugged her teddy bear tighter and tighter. She was very afraid of Ji Li.

Yet she still timidly asked the question, as though Ji Li was the only person she could ask.

Only then did Ji Li carefully examine the little girl before him. Understanding dawned on him, though he remained somewhat startled.

"What is your name?"

"My name is Xue Qi... Uncle can call me Xiao Qi..."