Even though it was clearly daytime, the corridors of the Living Apartment were pitch black. Walking through them felt like strolling inside a giant coffin.
The young man named Jiang Yang had dyed silver hair and wore a black jacket. His eyes were narrowed into slits when he looked at people, making him appear perpetually half-asleep.
After Xia Ta and Yusheng left, he stayed behind to help Gao Tian pick a room.
"The currently available rooms are on the second floor and the Third Floor. Most residents choose the second floor, though, because the Third Floor is too close to the fourth. Even if the ghosts can't come down, not many people want those filthy things living right above their ceilings."
Gao Tian recalled Yusheng mentioning that the little girl had gone upstairs because she heard her "family" calling from the fourth floor.
He asked, "If you live on the Third Floor, do you occasionally hear the ravings of the fourth-floor residents?
"Can the ghosts use certain rules to bewitch the Third Floor residents who hear those sounds into wandering up to the fourth floor in a daze?"
Walking ahead of him, Jiang Yang suddenly stopped in his tracks.
He turned his head and shot Gao Tian a glance.
"Xia Ta, Yusheng, and I—all three Apartment administrators—live on the Third Floor."Sometimes during the day, Xia Ta and Yusheng say they hear activity from the fourth floor: footsteps, or people talking.
"Maybe it's because I sleep like a log, but I've never heard a thing.
"As for anyone being lured up to the fourth floor, that hasn't happened. The Apartment's rules are absolute. The abilities of any ghost on the fourth floor have no effect on the residents of the Third Floor.
"Rooms on the second floor are in high demand. If you want one, we need to go down right now. Otherwise, if another new resident picks one first, you'll be stuck on the Third Floor."
He fully expected Gao Tian to choose the second floor without hesitation after hearing about the strange phenomena on the Third Floor. To his surprise, Gao Tian thought for a moment before declining.
"I think I'll just live on the Third Floor," Gao Tian said.
"If the Living Apartment can guarantee that this floor is absolutely safe, then I'm quite interested in hearing what the 'residents' of the fourth floor talk about in the dead of night."
In the end, Gao Tian chose Room 313. After handing over the key, Jiang Yang flashed him a grin, offered a few words of advice, and left the Third Floor.
The rooms inside the Apartment were relatively spacious, featuring a single bedroom, a living room, an open kitchen, a bathroom with separated wet and dry zones, and a fully enclosed balcony. It had everything one could need, far surpassing the residential building Gao Tian usually lived in. The refrigerator was stuffed to the brim with food, and the cabinets were stocked with brand-new toothbrushes, toothpaste, towels, and all the other daily necessities.
Gao Tian walked over to the bed. A solid black, rigid card rested on the nightstand. It felt smooth in his hand, somewhat like a VIP card, though it was impossible to tell what material it was made of.
The back of the Black Card only had two small white characters deeply branded into it: "Gao Tian." Aside from that, there was nothing else.
This was the Black Card, the reward Xia Ta had mentioned for visiting the fourth floor once.
Gao Tian lay down on the soft, spacious bed, and a heavy drowsiness washed over him like a tidal wave.
From the previous night straight through to the day, he had consecutively faced two supernatural events. While confronting those filthy things, he had been in a state of extreme tension and hadn't felt a trace of fatigue. But now that he was certain everything had concluded and his surroundings were safe, his highly strung nerves finally began to relax, no longer able to hold on.
Gao Tian wasn't made of iron, after all; he still needed normal sleep and rest.
Very quickly, without even taking off his shoes, he fell into a dead sleep on the bed.
...
...
When he woke up again, it was already around five or six in the afternoon.
The sky outside the window had begun to dim.
It wasn't just his natural biological clock that woke him; it was the constant ticking notifications of incoming messages on his mobile phone.
Someone was sending messages.
Gao Tian instantly snapped awake. Without hesitation, he unlocked his mobile phone and checked the screen.
His greatest fear right now was that the ghosts in the Galan Society had started talking again. There were dozens of ghosts in this Chat Group, and he was the only living person mixed in among them. With Ghost Cave possessing such exaggerated intuition, he could be locked onto and dragged out at any moment.
He had claimed Ghost Cave's Black Envelope this time and barely managed to survive. He wondered if this would let him escape disaster temporarily and dispel Ghost Cave's paranoia.
With an anxious heart, Gao Tian opened the Chat Group.
[Ghost Infant]:
Hey, hey, hey.
@Ghost Cave
A whole day and night has passed. Why hasn't anyone died yet?
After all, everyone here tapped on the Black Envelope just as you demanded.
Where's the living person?
[Living Apartment]:
The Chat Group is full of ghosts. No living person has slipped in at all.
Every user who applied to enter the Chat Group was approved by me. If they were living, I would have rejected them long ago.
[Ghost Infant]:
Hahahaha. I'm dying of laughter.
So this guy spent the whole night matching wits with thin air.
[Ghost Cave]:
...
It's true. A whole night has passed, and no one has died.
Could it really be that I was just overthinking it, and everything in this Chat Group is normal?
[Ghost Infant]:
Well of course it is, you idiot.
[Ghost Cave]:
But I still feel like something isn't right.
No, this living person is still alive.
Believe me.
I can feel it. Right at this very moment, he is watching our conversation. Not saying a word, he might even be secretly rejoicing right now, mocking us like a bunch of fools.
Something must have gone wrong somewhere. Let me think, where is the flaw?
[Living Apartment]:
That should be enough.
We still have a lot to do. This Chat Group wasn't created just so you could satisfy your craving to catch a spy.
[Ghost Infant]:
Exactly, exactly.
...
Faced with this collective mockery, Ghost Cave stopped talking. It seemed he had given up.
Gao Tian had finally, barely, scraped through this crisis.
After a long silence, Ghost Cave finally sent a new message.
[Ghost Cave]:
Alright, maybe I really was wrong this time. There's no so-called living person in the group. I've wasted everyone's time.
But these are extraordinary times, so it's better to be a bit cautious.
...
The group owner, Living Apartment, sent out a Black Envelope.
...
[Ghost Infant]:
What's this for? @Living Apartment
Boss, you didn't say a word. Why did you suddenly send a Black Envelope?
[Living Apartment]:
Don't claim this Black Envelope carelessly. If you take it, you have to do something for me.
@All Members
My corpse is still kept in Sapphire Mall, and that Pot is back in my hometown.
If my corpse is left unchecked, it will undergo a corpse transformation very soon. It might even go to my hometown to look for that Pot.
[Ghost Infant]:
Why do you even care about such trivial matters?
If the corpse in Sapphire Mall transforms, just let it transform. If it wants to go to your hometown and take the Pot, just let it take it.
Our remaining time is running out anyway. In a few decades, everything will be over.
[Living Apartment]:
No, the corpse I left behind must be dealt with.
My death was rather sudden, so I only managed to deal with it hastily right before dying. Hiding it using special methods in such a crowded mall for two years without being discovered was already a miracle.
I'm afraid that if someone from the Apartment back then is still alive, they might recognize my true identity through my corpse. If they follow the trail from my corpse to the Pot in my hometown, we'll be in trouble.
[Ghost Infant]:
How tiny are the odds of that happening?
Didn't you say that, other than you, no one could make it out of that Apartment alive?
[Living Apartment]:
No matter how small the possibility, we have to nip it in the bud. There's still some time left before everything ends.
[Ghost Infant]:
What a pity. After taking your Black Envelope, within how many days must the task be completed?
Recently, my corpse has been sunken in a deep lake, so I can't rush to Shanghai City for the time being. If I were to carry out this task, it would take at least a month.
[Living Apartment]:
That absolutely won't work.
The faster, the better. It would be best to head out tomorrow and dispose of the corpse I left behind in Sapphire Mall as quickly as possible.
The best way to deal with it right now is to stab my corpse with the main weapon I used while I was alive. Feeling that familiar aura will seal it for another period of time.
[Ghost Cave]:
Brother Yuan.
In order to deal with the corpse left behind in the human world, you even sent out the item your teacher left you—something so important—in the Black Envelope?
(When he saw the words "Brother Yuan," Gao Tian's pupils shrank to pinpricks in shock.)
[Living Apartment]:
It's nothing too important. My teacher spent fifty years but never uncovered the secrets hidden within this Supernatural Item. My wisdom and experience aren't even a tenth of my teacher's. Even if I spent a hundred years, I wouldn't be able to figure it out.
As long as its secrets remain unraveled, this Long Spear is nothing but utter trash.
[Burned Ghost]:
I might have time in a week.
Old thing, where exactly did you place your corpse in the mall? How should it be handled once it's found? Just stabbing it with your main weapon will do the trick?
[Living Apartment]:
Ghost Cave, are you free these next few days?
[Ghost Cave]:
I do have time, but...
I've been rather lazy lately, and Shanghai City is too far away. I don't really want to go over there.
The main issue is that my body is highly decayed. If I move, chunks of flesh constantly fall to the ground. I can't take human transportation along the way, so simply walking all the way to Shanghai City isn't very realistic.
[Burned Ghost]:
Hey!
Hey!
[Living Apartment]:
If I can't find anyone for now, then forget it.
I still have about a week left where I can move around for a bit. I'll just go there myself when the time comes.
...
...
From this string of messages, Gao Tian deduced that Living Apartment's real name contained the character "Yuan." Xu Yuan's name also contained "Yuan." What's more, both of them had been to the Living Apartment, and both had made it out alive. It would be far too much of a stretch to dismiss all this as mere coincidence.
Gao Tian was ninety-nine percent certain in his heart that Living Apartment's true identity was Xu Yuan.
Furthermore, looking at the Black Envelope Living Apartment had posted in the Chat Group—which no one had yet dared to claim—Gao Tian's hands began to itch.
He wondered exactly what Living Apartment had placed inside the Black Envelope as payment to commission the other ghosts to complete his task.
But Gao Tian wasn't quite crazy enough to accept this Black Envelope in front of a horde of ghosts. Living Apartment had stated clearly that whichever ghost took the Black Envelope had to help him complete the task.
Suddenly, a rather risky, even insane, thought popped into Gao Tian's mind.
Why couldn't he?
He wanted to investigate the truth behind Xu Yuan—Living Apartment. Right now, Xu Yuan's corpse was practically placed in front of him. Was there any better opportunity than this?
Moreover, he was currently residing inside the Living Apartment. In the absolute worst-case scenario, even if Ghost Cave discovered him, what could they actually do to him?
Not to mention, what were this main weapon and Pot they kept talking about?
Gazing at the Chat Group's logs, Gao Tian fell into silence. The scales in his heart were gradually tipping toward taking action, but his cautious nature made him hesitate to make the move.
Just as he was still weighing the pros and cons, a knock echoed from outside his door.
"Are you there?"