Bang!
Gao Tian slammed hard into the ground. Even though he'd been mentally prepared and had deliberately aimed for the thickest patch of weeds, the impact still left him seeing stars. His entire back went numb. For a moment, he wondered if he'd damaged his spine and been paralyzed from the waist down.
From the Third Floor window, a slender neck extended outward, supporting a woman's face twisted into a smile. She kept calling down to Gao Tian:
"Zhao Qiang.
"Zhao Qiang!
"Zhao Qiang.
"Zhao Qiang—
"Zhao Qiang?"
The one thing that surprised Gao Tian was that the red pot he'd jumped with hadn't so much as cracked under the impact. It hadn't even developed a hairline fracture.
The pot's texture and toughness didn't seem ordinary. There was definitely something special about it. Xu Yuan must have hidden some kind of secret inside.
Gao Tian staggered to his feet and struggled toward the yard's exit.
Every step sent pain stabbing through him.
He'd arrived at the White House late at night with nine underlings. By the time he left, it was already dawn, and cuckoos called in the distance. Now, alone and covered in bruises and cuts, he struggled away from the eerie White House, clutching a red pot that looked as if it were bleeding.
Behind him, the woman's face at the Third Floor window kept calling "Zhao Qiang" at his retreating figure. Gao Tian couldn't be bothered to respond.
Although he'd escaped the White House alive, he hadn't used the Shattered Face Ghost's ability to copy the woman's Killing Rule.
The main reason wasn't that he'd been too busy fleeing through the house to make eye contact five times.
The Shattered Face Ghost had only three available slots, and the Memory Ghost occupied one. He had to choose carefully how to use the remaining two.
Gao Tian wouldn't choose a Killing Rule that did nothing but kill. Even if he gained the woman's ability, he couldn't kill someone by saying a ghost's name three times. Ghosts were immortal, after all. The ability was practically useless and would just waste a slot.
He flagged down a taxi by the roadside and got in.
The White House's female ghost had smashed his phone to bits. He had neither a phone nor any cash on him.
Zhao Qiang's memories did include tens of millions in cash, but Gao Tian didn't dare go get it just yet. First, he had to restore his own appearance.
Once Xu Yuan discovered that the pot hidden at his Old Home had been stolen, he'd surely come back for revenge. Anyone connected to "Zhao Qiang" would probably die.
Gao Tian gave the driver the address of the Living Person Apartment. After a great deal of persuasion, the driver agreed to drop him off so he could find someone there to pay the fare. Only then did the driver hit the gas.
The ride took three hours. Sitting in the back, Gao Tian was aching all over, and blood ran down his forehead, staining the seat.
The red pot in his hands weighed about three or four pounds. He had no idea what was inside. Looking through its mouth, he could see nothing but darkness. To make anything out, he'd have to put his eye right up to it.
Gao Tian suppressed his curiosity and chose not to look inside.
He remembered Shata's advice: any Supernatural Item had to be brought into the Living Person Apartment before it was examined. Many Supernatural Items contained terrifying forces that could kill anyone who touched them. The safest approach was to use the apartment's power to suppress them first.
The taxi waited near the apartment. After getting out, Gao Tian went up to the Third Floor and returned to his room. He put down the red pot, checked his wounds, and wiped them clean. Then he knocked on Jiangyang's door next door. Jiangyang answered bleary-eyed; it was only five in the morning, and he was still asleep.
In a frantic rush, Gao Tian borrowed two thousand yuan from him. He went downstairs and paid the taxi driver three hundred yuan, then returned to the apartment, changed his clothes, and wiped his face. The apartment had all the usual medicines in its cabinets. He applied antiseptic to the cuts that needed it and bandaged the ones that needed wrapping.
After dozing for a while and regaining some strength, he went out at eight to buy a secondhand phone and get a SIM card. Once he had a working phone again, he'd made it through that whole mess without anything worse happening.
Looking at the Black Card in his hand and the mysterious red pot in his room—
Gao Tian understood that he'd snatched the pot from Xu Yuan right under his nose without using the Black Card.
The only price he'd paid was having the Ghost Card draw a card and place it on his soul.
It had been worth it.
Just imagining Xu Yuan flying into a rage when he found out the pot from his Old Home had been stolen made it worth it.
Now, the only thing he was curious about was what the red pot contained.
[Living Person Apartment]:
Someone stole the pot from my Old Home.
[Ghost Infant]:
How is that possible?
[Ghost Cave]:
Didn't you keep a ghost in the house and open a Ghost Domain to trap the intruders? Shouldn't that have made it foolproof?
[Infinite Floors]:
To be honest, Xu Yuan, I'm beginning to doubt whether you're still capable of serving as President of the Jialan Society.
You hid a pot in such a remote place, and a bunch of Living People still managed to steal it. We've had so many complaints about that lunatic Burning Death Ghost in the group, yet you still insist on keeping him instead of kicking him out.
You founded the Jialan Society, but if you're this incompetent, the rest of us have the right to leave or choose a new President.
[Burning Death Ghost]:
Hey, hey, @Infinite Floors, I've been watching this group the whole time. I haven't taken my eyes off it once.
It's not very nice to badmouth people behind their backs.
[Living Person Apartment]:
@Ghost Cave @Ghost Infant
This is definitely suspicious. Even a professional Ghost Hunter would have a hard time escaping a Ghost Domain while under attack by a Vengeful Ghost.
How did these ordinary people get out of the Ghost Raising House unharmed without the help of any Supernatural Items?
I suspect one of them was a master pretending to be weak.
Fortunately, I went back to my Old Home an hour ago and investigated the people who broke into the house.
They were a bunch of thugs. The ghosts I keep there killed all of them. Only one survivor escaped, and he must have the pot. As long as we find him in the real world and kill him, the pot will come back to us.
Ghost Infant, you're the best at traveling through Cyber Space. I'll have to leave this to you.
[Ghost Infant]:
Unbelievable. I have to work overtime again.
All right, all right. Give me the survivor's name, and I'll kill his whole family as soon as I can. I'll search and find out where he hid the pot.
[Living Person Apartment]:
Thanks.
The person who stole my pot was called Zhao Qiang.
[Living Person Apartment]:
@Infinite Floors
It's not time to kick Burning Death Ghost out yet. We'll have to put up with him a little longer.
If you can't stand it, you can leave the Jialan Society yourself.
Your ability is strong, but we haven't reached the point where we absolutely need you for what comes next.
[Infinite Floors]:
Heh.
I'll stay for now and keep watching your abilities, President.
You've made your experiences sound incredible, but I haven't seen what you can actually do. Is this really the judgment of someone who completed ten Green Text Missions in the Living Person Apartment while still alive?
When I finally run out of patience with you, it won't be as simple as me leaving the group.
I'll contact the others and demand a new President.
[Living Person Apartment]:
Be my guest.
[Ghost Cave]:
The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that there's something wrong with Burning Death Ghost.
Why did he suddenly go crazy in the group and spell out the only way to escape the Ghost Domain?
Maybe the thieves trapped in the Ghost Domain saw the chat logs and figured out how to escape.
[Ghost Infant]:
You mean Burning Death Ghost is the Living Person hiding in the group?
Does that mean I have to crawl through the internet again?
Sigh. I've got a lot of work to handle this month. Do I get overtime pay?
[Ghost Cave]:
No, Burning Death Ghost isn't a Living Person. He's a ghost.
I mean there's another Living Person hiding in the chat group.
He probably saw the President's earlier messages and found out there was a pot at his Old Home.
He went to steal it, got trapped between the Vengeful Ghosts the President kept at home and the Ghost Domain, then saw Burning Death Ghost's message in our chat group and figured out the Ghost Domain's weakness. That's how he managed to escape.
[Ghost Infant]:
Sigh, here you go again, making things up.
Last time, you suddenly claimed that one Living Person was mixed in among dozens of us ghosts. Didn't we all collect a Black Packet at your insistence? Even if there had been a Living Person, the curse inside the packet should have killed them by now.
Besides, the President already said the only person who escaped with the pot was called Zhao Qiang. I just have to follow the trail, kill everyone named Zhao Qiang in Shanghai City and Hengzhou City, and that'll be the end of it.
There isn't any so-called Living Person in our group. You really need to stop being so paranoid, okay?
[Ghost Cave]:
Sigh. I hope so.
[Living Person Apartment]:
@Ghost Infant
I'll send you the information on the person named Zhao Qiang in a private message. His whole family, distant relatives, and some friends add up to about a hundred people.
Find them one by one and torture them slowly, forcing them to tell you everything they know.
Skin them alive and break their bones. Make them wish they were dead, and teach them not to meddle with things they should leave alone.
Then, whether they tell you where the pot is or not, keep torturing them even if they hand it over. Otherwise, I won't be able to quench my rage.
[Ghost Infant]:
Got it.
Wait, no.
How come I still have that office-worker feel even after becoming a ghost?
That was the end of today's chat in the Jialan Society.
Gao Tian watched silently from the sidelines, feeling both pleased and worried.
The funny part was how ridiculous they all were.
When Xu Yuan said he'd already figured out who the sole survivor was, Gao Tian's heart jumped. He'd genuinely thought Xu Yuan had found him.
In the worst-case scenario, he'd have to stay in the Living Person Apartment from now on, leaving only when he had to take on a mission.
He'd be facing the relentless pursuit of dozens of ghosts from the chat group.
In the end, Xu Yuan also believed that the person who'd escaped was called "Zhao Qiang." The Shattered Face Ghost's ability really was high-priority. Even Xu Yuan couldn't see through the identity he'd stolen.
Zhao Qiang's family had taken the blame for him. None of his parents or friends would escape. The Jialan Society would soon launch an unprecedented retaliation.
The worrying part was that Ghost Cave had a dog's nose.
Even though all the other ghosts had let their guard down, he still hadn't given up on the suspicion that there was a Living Person in the group.
Gao Tian didn't know if Ghost Cave would conduct an investigation on the side and trace it back to him.
There was nothing he could do about that. All he could do was grow stronger, so that when Ghost Cave finally came after him, he'd have the strength to fight back—or even turn the tables.
After dealing with the chat group, Gao Tian sat on the apartment's big bed and looked at the quiet red pot in the corner.
Now that he was back in the Living Person Apartment, it was time to examine the pot he'd risked his life to steal—the one Xu Yuan couldn't stop thinking about.
Before you continue