"How can it be this fast!"
There was almost no time to react. Ji Li's mind went blank—his hand was still gripping the man's shoulder, but the man's head had already begun to twist.
Everything happened so suddenly that Ji Li froze for an instant, then leapt up, grabbing both of the man's elbows and yanking backward with all his strength.
"Li Xing! Bring everyone here, now!"
In truth, Ji Li and Li Xing's group weren't far apart. By rights there were eight people here; this shouldn't have happened.
Yet it had, without the slightest warning.
Sweat broke out on Ji Li's forehead. Barely a second had passed before his own arms started to stiffen.
It felt as if he were clutching two steel rods, cursed and unyielding. Just holding them made him feel the curse spreading.
Bit by bit, he saw his palms turning bluish-black, as though something was seeping from the man's shoulders into him.
A shiver ran through Ji Li—this was a discovery he'd never made before. He instantly released the man.
His hands trembled uncontrollably, as if covered in frost, an icy aura lingering around them.
At that moment Li Xing arrived with the others, just in time to see Ji Li leaning against the wall, his hands an unnatural black, like they'd been poisoned.
"What's going on?"
As Li Xing spoke, a sharp cracking sound echoed—the sound of bones breaking.
Taking a step forward, he saw past the corner: a living man's head was twisting at an impossible angle.
"What are you standing there for? Tackle him!" Ji Li roared, eyes bloodshot. His hands, stiff and freezing, reached for the gun at his waist.
*Bang! Bang!*
Two shots rang out, hitting the dying man's legs—but he didn't fall.
Li Xing and the workers behind him were almost petrified. They didn't understand.
They saw a coworker about to kill himself, Ji Li inexplicably attacking him, and worst of all—the man, though bleeding from two bullet wounds, remained standing.
Blood streamed from the holes in his legs, dripping toward the floor, yet he didn't move.
Only his head, on the verge of snapping, kept twisting past the limits of the human body.
Li Xing's eyes were shot with red. He clenched his fists, wanting to rush forward, but he knew the truth:
the man still looked alive, but there was a ghost inside him.
If he charged now, would the ghost kill him too?
And besides, he wasn't stupid—if rushing in were safe, Ji Li would've done it already.
Ji Li saw the man's death approaching fast. Ignoring the strange pain in his hands, he lunged, slamming his left shoulder into the man's back.
The impact felt like smashing into a truck; Ji Li's bones seemed to shatter.
The man didn't budge, while Ji Li's whole body went limp. His left shoulder went numb, throbbing painfully.
Seeing death draw near, Ji Li ignored the agony in half his body, pulling a short blade from his pocket.
Madness flickered in his eyes as he slashed again and again at the man's wrists, desperate to sever them before he died.
Behind him, Li Xing and the others were stunned by Ji Li's brutal *rescue*.
Li Xing was terrified. Nothing they did could shake a man possessed by a ghost.
How could they protect him? They couldn't stop what was happening.
The workers behind them began retreating, ready to flee.
Before, Ji Li's killings had been coldly rational, leaving them afraid to resist.
But now, seeing him shoot and stab a *living man*, they finally saw him as a madman who killed without hesitation.
The five staff members ran. Li Xing tried to calm them, barely holding them back.
He couldn't help Ji Li at all; if those five escaped, he feared Ji Li might turn his rage on him.
Ji Li was utterly spent. The man's arms were riddled with wounds, especially the wrists, yet no matter how many blows he struck, they cut only flesh.
The bones of someone possessed were too hard for Ji Li to break.
Defeated, Ji Li watched as the man's head twisted further and further, about to snap. He couldn't utter a single word.
*This is… a killer that can't be stopped!*
The third persona's voice rang in his mind, shaken to its core.
A killer that can't be stopped.
Ji Li saw it too: once possessed by a ghost, no rescue could succeed.
Death was certain.
"Is there no *isolated* rule after all…"
Ji Li turned toward the five workers members Li Xing was holding back, then at the man standing dead where he was.
"No… impossible. Absolutely impossible…"
His dim eyes were filled with doubt and shock.
Since the workers had entered the building, nearly two hours had passed.
After several encounters with the possessed, Ji Li had discerned only one thing about the killings.
Workers members near the staff would be possessed and killed when an unknown number of them were left alone.
But…
The first conclusion still seemed valid: every dead worker had been near a staff.
Yet the theory about being alone was completely overturned.
There had been eight people crowded around the corner, filling the space. Calling anyone *alone* no longer made sense.
But if killings didn't depend on isolation, why hadn't anyone died on the first floor, where so many had gathered together?
Ji Li watched the people wrestling nearby, though the doubts were still too many.
One worst possibility had already emerged—the work of the past two hours was wasted.
They had chosen the wrong direction for survival.
Ji Li sat on the ground, looking at the six people beside him. His vision blurred for no reason.
It was as if something disturbed his optic nerves. When he came to, he saw an even more despairing sight.
Li Xing let out a piercing scream. He himself was unharmed, but the other five staff members huddled together…
At the same moment, they all froze.
Some were half-kneeling, some leaning against the wall, some mid-sprint toward the stairwell—but every one of them was locked in place.
Under Ji Li's and Li Xing's horrified gaze, each put both hands on their own head.
No blood, no screams—only a scene so bizarre and grotesque it resembled an image of purgatory.
On the eighteenth floor, apart from the staff, every living person was possessed and killed at once!
You can read Eerie Overseer ahead by 60+ 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.