The Future

In the Nano World inside the pot, there was a passenger sitting on a bus. Though he was less than one percent the size of an ordinary human, it was difficult to make out his face clearly at that scale.

But from his clothes and the outline of his face, Gao Tian felt a powerful sense of familiarity. He could at least recognize himself.

There was no mistake. The passenger seated behind the mummified corpse on the bus projected inside the pot was Gao Tian himself.

What was going on? How had Gao Tian's projection ended up inside the pot, and what was the pot trying to show him?

The mummified corpse in the front seat wore a black leather jacket that had long since fallen to pieces, along with a pair of sunglasses. He looked like a modern man. For some unknown reason, he had died on this bus.

Judging by the state of the corpse, neither the driver nor any of the passengers in front or behind it had paid the slightest attention to whether it was alive or dead. They simply acted as if it didn't exist.

The Male Corpse was still clutching a Rusty Long Saber. Its blade had long since lost its gleam and chill, leaving only bumps and patches of rust. The corpse had rotted for so long that its wrist had turned to pulp, which had partly fused with the hilt.

One thing was certain: the pot's power wasn't simply replaying some moment from the past. Gao Tian knew for a fact that he had never sat behind a corpse.

In fact, when he went out, he usually took the subway. It had been years since he'd ridden a bus, much less chosen to sit behind a corpse after seeing one on board.

If something so horrifying had happened, there was no way it wouldn't have stuck in Gao Tian's memory.

If it hadn't happened in the past, then there was only one possibility...

Was this something that would happen in the future?

Was the pot showing him a prophecy through its projections?

It was just a guess. Gao Tian wasn't sure, so he could only keep watching and see what else the mirage conjured inside the pot might do.

If he'd been outside, he wouldn't have dared to keep watching. Who knew if the pot had some kind of curse ability? For example, if Gao Tian inside the pot died, would the real Gao Tian suffer the same fate?

But he was in the Living Person Apartment now. It wasn't necessarily one hundred percent safe, but it was certainly much safer than being outside.

As Gao Tian watched, the bus inside the pot continued down the Dark Road, driving toward an endless distance. In the places beyond the light, a few strange silhouettes flickered in and out of view from time to time, large and small. It was impossible to tell what they were. The bus didn't stop, leaving them far behind.

Inside the bus, the four passengers, including Gao Tian, sat motionless in their seats, muscles taut. They looked... incredibly tense, as if they were waiting for something to happen, or afraid of something that might happen.

In that unbearable silence, Gao Tian suddenly moved—the passenger Gao Tian, sitting on the miniature bus. He suddenly drew a sharp weapon from inside his coat. It was a Ghost Transformation Spear. He aimed it at the mummified corpse in front of him and plunged it into the back of its head.

The Gun Tip sank several inches into the corpse, but even then, Gao Tian still didn't seem satisfied. He stabbed the Male Corpse once in each shoulder and once in the back, then withdrew the Ghost Transformation Spear and pressed his palms together in a bow toward the body, now riddled with four holes.

After performing this series of baffling actions, Gao Tian slowly rose from his seat and did something even more outrageous.

He slowly reached over the corpse's shoulder toward the seat in front, resting his hand on the Rusty Long Saber as if trying to pry it from the corpse's grip.

Gao Tian tried several times. He was sweating profusely, as if he were trying to snatch food from a tiger's jaws.

Even after his fifth attempt, the Rusty Long Saber hadn't budged. Just as Gao Tian outside the pot thought that the Gao Tian inside would have to give up, he tried a sixth time—and the mummified corpse slowly loosened its grip, allowing the passenger behind it to take the saber.

Like its former owner, the blade was completely rusted.

After getting the saber, Gao Tian immediately sat back down, wiped away his cold sweat, and looked delighted. He couldn't bear to put the blade down, treating it like a treasure.

Gao Tian outside the pot couldn't understand what was so exciting about taking a rusty saber from a corpse.

Just then, Gao Tian on the bus laid the saber across his knees and, without warning, looked up toward the bus's ceiling, in the direction of the world outside the pot.

He cast a meaningful glance that way.

For an instant, the gaze of Gao Tian inside the pot met that of Gao Tian outside.

Gao Tian shuddered. Had the Gao Tian inside the pot sensed that someone was watching him?

All this time, he'd watched what happened inside the pot as if he were observing a documentary. But he'd never considered one possibility: the Gao Tian inside the pot was also a living person, with his own awareness, thoughts, and independence.

What was going on?

Was this Gao Tian from some point in the future, or a copy created by the pot?

Fortunately, the Gao Tian inside the pot didn't seem to mind. He glanced outside the pot, apparently seeing nothing, then looked away. Most of his attention was clearly focused on the rusted saber he had taken from the corpse after surviving the Nine Deaths, One Life.

The more Gao Tian watched, the less his doubts were answered. Instead, the mystery only deepened.

The bus occasionally stopped at a station, letting passengers on and off. Each time, the darkness of the world inside the pot surged forward like an endless mass of maggots, making it impossible to see what was boarding.

Gradually, the bus's once semi-transparent shell became solid. Gao Tian could no longer see inside the vehicle and couldn't tell whether the Gao Tian who had taken the saber was still alive.

The story inside the pot ended without a beginning or an end.

The bus stopped at a station. Though most of the scenery outside the road was shrouded in the Nameless Black Fog, he could still make out one corner of a School Building. The School Gate Sign bore four golden characters: Pagoda Elementary School.

As the doors opened, Gao Tian stepped off, his clothes covered in blood. He still clutched the rusted saber he had taken from the corpse, and limped as he walked.

He had no idea what had happened on the bus.

A female passenger followed him off. Her clothes were neat, and she didn't seem to have suffered any serious injuries.

Could that female passenger be Su Jiu?

At first, Gao Tian had been entirely focused on the Gao Tian on the bus and hadn't paid attention to the other tiny figures. Now that only two people had gotten off, he took a quick look and thought the woman's clothes and hairstyle looked a little like Su Jiu's.

Su Jiu was a new girl from the Second Green Text Mission. She hadn't made much of an impression, but she was fairly obedient. Whenever seniors like Jiangyang or Shata told her to do something, she did it.

The tiny figures inside the pot weren't very clear. Gao Tian could only make a rough guess from the woman's outline and clothes that she was Su Jiu. He couldn't be a hundred percent certain.

Just as he approached the mouth of the pot to get a better look, all the projections and illusions inside vanished in an instant. The scene returned to what it had been before: the Cave Mansion and the skeleton.

The pot's prophecy had vanished.

Gao Tian slowly stood up, his thoughts returning to the room he was in.

Now, he was about seventy percent sure that the scene inside the pot had shown a snippet of something that would happen in the future.

He couldn't possibly have boarded a bus with a corpse and found Su Jiu on it too. Those two things could only happen together under one circumstance: they were carrying out a Green Text Mission.

If they were on a Green Text Mission, then everything Gao Tian had done on the bus made sense.

If the pot really could "predict the future," that would explain why Xu Yuan had cared so much about it even after becoming a ghost.

They could develop the pot's power: learn how to predict, how to make its predictions of the future more precise, and how to interpret the scenes it showed. If they could deepen their understanding of the pot, they might really be able to use its power to survive all ten apartment missions.

Gao Tian had a vague feeling that the pot's true power went even further than that.

Yunshan Zhenren had sought the path to immortality, but he had undoubtedly failed. Otherwise, he wouldn't have died and been turned into a figurine that someone left here. In later generations, the supernatural had not been suppressed. If anything, it had grown worse.

As he was examining the pot, his phone vibrated again. Two messages arrived at once.

He opened his phone. One message was from Shata, and the other was from the Jialan Society Chat Group.

Gao Tian hesitated, then opened the Jialan Society chat first. After confirming that someone had sent another Black Packet and that there was nothing especially important, he switched to his conversation with Shata.

[Rabbit King]:

Gao Tian, are you in your room right now?

[Gao Tian]:

I'm on the Third Floor.

[Rabbit King]:

Please come downstairs. Your Third Green Text Mission has appeared.

These two Green Text Missions have appeared rather close together, but the sooner you complete the third one, the sooner you can return and join our Ascend Team.

[Gao Tian]:

Just a moment. I'll change my shoes and come right down.

Gao Tian's heart skipped a beat. The mission had come at just the right time.

He would soon find out whether the scene in the pot had been a prophecy of the future.

Once he completed this mission, he could join the Ascend Team. But what if he failed?

Shata hadn't brought it up, and Gao Tian hadn't asked.

Everyone in this apartment was struggling with all their might. If a mere third mission took Gao Tian's life, that would mean Shata had misjudged him. He wasn't capable of accompanying the other administrators to the Fourth Floor to investigate; he'd only be dead weight.

Completing at least three missions was also how Zhao Zhenjia and the others assessed his abilities.