There was no time to worry about Su Jiu’s death, because Gao Tian could barely save himself now.

After pulling in, the 444 bus was moving so slowly that it would take about half a minute just to reach the stop.

The old-fashioned doors opening and closing would take another half a minute.

For Gao Tian, waiting in the terminal, it would take at least a minute to get on the bus.

The gray footprints from the path across the street were spreading so fast they would be inside the terminal in a matter of seconds.

Gao Tian absolutely could not die here. The foul things chasing him from Pagoda Primary School would drag any corpses back to the school grounds. If that happened, even if he revived using a Ghost Card, he would just respawn inside the school.

It would be like getting endlessly corpse-camped. He’d revive only to be killed again, a cycle of death and rebirth in the same spot. Not even a mountain of Ghost Cards could save him then.

’In a desperate situation like this, my sliver of good fortune is completely useless.’

All this time, Gao Tian had tried every way he could to save a black card on this mission.

’Looks like this time, I really can’t save it.’

’Can’t be too greedy. If I try to be frugal now, I’ll die right here.’

Without a moment’s hesitation, he pulled the black card from his pocket and activated its power.

The black card in his hand began to smolder at an incredible speed. Gao Tian felt the scene before him twist and distort, the world spinning around him. The trees on both sides and the bus station ahead began to recede. The spatial transfer had activated. A vast, unstoppable power was pulling his body out of this space.

But at that very same moment, Gao Tian watched helplessly as countless gray handprints swarmed across the ground beneath his feet. The spatial distortion didn’t hinder them in the slightest. They were legion, spreading over his body at incredible speed. His legs, his chest, his neck—they were all covered in those gray handprints.

The handprints were small, as if they belonged to children. Gao Tian had no more time to observe or react. Two gray hands clamped over his eyes, and his vision went gray. At the same time, several more hands latched onto his neck. A sharp pain shot through him as the small hands tried to twist his head off.

"Stay."

"Stay."

"Stay."

...

...

In the first-floor lobby of the Apartment for the Living, Xia Ta, who was leisurely enjoying her afternoon tea, was startled to see a mangled body materialize out of thin air beneath the chandelier and slam into the center of the floor.

The body’s silhouette was Gao Tian’s, but his condition was utterly bizarre. He was covered from head to toe in a dense layer of overlapping gray handprints, as if he had been pawed over and over by countless children with ashen hands. His limbs were broken, twisted outwards at angles that defied anatomy, and his neck had been wrenched back more than 100 degrees, on the verge of being snapped.

It took Xia Ta only half a second to process the scene. This wasn’t the first time she’d seen a resident on a Green-Text Mission use a black card to return home, only for a corpse to be teleported back.

’Life and death are ruled by fate.’

But the Gao Tian before her... was there still a chance to save him?

He had slammed onto the marble floor without even a cry for help. Now, the strange gray handprints on his back began to reappear, spreading toward his neck as if countless children were crawling on top of him, still struggling to snap his neck.

"Get off!"

Xia Ta was stunned, unable to believe her eyes. When a resident on a Green-Text Mission was killed in the Inner World, it was to be expected—that place was forbidden to the living. But Gao Tian had already been teleported back to the Apartment for the Living, which was a place forbidden to ghosts! How dare the things he provoked chase him here and try to kill him inside the Apartment?

’Are these things really that vicious?’

CREAK, CREAK. A sound came from Gao Tian’s neck. It had now been twisted to one hundred and twenty degrees.

The power of the Pagoda Primary School children had been weakened after entering the Apartment. Even so, they were still absurdly powerful.

Xia Ta reacted in an instant. She dashed to Gao Tian’s side and pinned his head down, preventing the gray hands from twisting it any further.

The new gray handprints appearing on Gao Tian’s neck couldn’t keep up with the ones that were dissipating; the total number on his body was rapidly decreasing. It seemed the Apartment for the Living was finally reacting, suppressing the invaders from Pagoda Primary School with all its might.

But according to precedent, any ghost that entered the Apartment for the Living should have been purged instantly. For the children from Pagoda Primary School to last for several seconds... was it because they were simply too vicious, or was the Apartment’s own suppressive power weakening?

Or perhaps, it was both.

CREAK... CREAK...

Black blood trickled from Gao Tian’s nose. Every inch of his bones and every one of his nerves screamed in a final, dying struggle. One force was trying to twist his neck, while Xia Ta, a woman of monstrous strength, desperately held it in place.

With two opposing, monstrous forces exerted on him at once, Gao Tian felt like he was about to be torn apart.

At the same time, the sickening CREAK of breaking bones came from his arms and legs as they were twisted into knots! 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"Quick, come help!"

Xia Ta roared, her voice aimed at the lobby entrance.

Inside the Apartment for the Living, the gray hands had less than a tenth of their power in the Inner World. But Xia Ta didn’t dare use too much of her own strength either, afraid that one careless slip would be enough to crush Gao Tian’s skull.

The two forces were locked in a delicate stalemate.

Jiang Yang and Zhao Zhenjia, who had been sunbathing at the first-floor entrance, heard the commotion and rushed into the lobby at top speed. They arrived to find a bizarre scene. Many of the gray handprints shaking loose from Gao Tian’s body were even trying to crawl onto Xia Ta.

"This is insane! He made it back to the Apartment, but these ghosts won’t let up? Are they really trying to exterminate him?"

Zhao Zhenjia had never been to Pagoda Primary School. He had no idea how vicious the things there were.

Jiang Yang recognized the gray handprints at a glance, and his heart sank.

The last time he’d gone, the things inside Pagoda Primary School couldn’t even leave the school gates; their range was limited to a few meters from the entrance. The spot Gao Tian had to reach should have been completely safe.

Now, they could not only chase people beyond the school gates but all the way to the Apartment for the Living. It was impossible to know how many times stronger they had become in such a short period.

The two men rushed to Xia Ta’s side. One grabbed Gao Tian’s arms and the other his legs, preventing the gray hands from twisting him in two.

Gao Tian was suspended in mid-air, held between the three of them, as countless ghostly hands pulled and tore at him. In that moment, he truly understood what it felt like to be drawn and quartered. The pain was enough to make one regret ever being born. For a fleeting second, he even wished he would just die from the agony and end the torture.

The stalemate felt like it lasted for ten thousand years, but in reality, less than half a minute had passed.

The countless gray handprints began to recede from Gao Tian’s body. The sounds of children crying echoed in the air, along with pleas for mercy like, "I’ll never do it again!" and "Spare me! Let me go back!"

It seemed the Apartment’s suppression, though slow to arrive, had finally and completely subdued the foul things from Pagoda Primary School.

For the moment, the inside of the Apartment for the Living was still safe.

The gray handprints on Gao Tian’s body slowly faded away like an ebbing tide.

After another five minutes, once they were certain Gao Tian was safe and the gray handprints wouldn’t return, Xia Ta and the others carefully lowered him to the floor.

By now, Gao Tian had been twisted into a limp noodle. His arms and legs were completely broken, his limbs flopping uselessly. It was impossible to tell how many of his bones had been snapped.

In his condition, it was a miracle he was still alive.

Zhao Zhenjia knelt and examined Gao Tian’s arm.

"Completely shattered. It’s a good thing you held his head down, or his neck would’ve snapped long ago."

Gao Tian opened his mouth, trying to say something, but only hollow, meaningless gurgles came out.

Xia Ta reassured him.

"This is the Apartment for the Living. Residents here heal dozens of times faster than in the outside world."

"As long as you don’t die outside, you can recover from any kind of fracture or internal injury. Just apply some medicine and rest for three days, and you’ll be fine."

Jiang Yang helped lift Gao Tian’s upper body again.

"Are you the only one who made it back from this mission?"

"I really want to ask what happened in the Inner World, but looking at you now... let’s just get you to your room to rest. We can talk after you’ve healed."

"Your room is 313, right?"

At this, the expressions of Xia Ta, Zhao Zhenjia, and the others present all froze, as if something terrible had just been mentioned.

A brief silence fell over the lobby. Xia Ta was the first to break it.

"Jiang Yang, don’t you have a spare room?"

"Let’s take him to your room for now."

"We’ll figure out the arrangements for the third-floor room later, once Gao Tian is mobile again."

Jiang Yang had no objection.

"Alright."

As the two carried him toward the elevator, a question sparked in Gao Tian’s mind.

’I have my own room, so why are Xia Ta and the others putting me in Jiang Yang’s room for now?’

’Why can’t I stay in Room 313 anymore?’

’Did something happen on the third floor while I was in the Inner World on the mission?’

’Judging by the way they changed the subject, something didn’t just happen in Room 313—it was something so serious that the room itself has become taboo to even mention.’

’Unfortunately, I don’t even have the strength to speak right now. I can only let them move me as they see fit.’

...

...

Lying on the large bed, Gao Tian was still immobile, but his mind was unharmed. He could still think clearly.

’We won this mission, but it was a pyrrhic victory.’

’All the other residents are dead. Everyone except me.’

’I gained two Supernatural Artifacts.’

’I can finally stop relying on the Ghost Transformation Spear as my main weapon.’

’I also used a black card. I died once, which cost me a Ghost Card. But since I revived, you could say I broke even on lives.’

’So, was this whole operation a net loss or a net gain?’

’Overall, my offensive capabilities have increased significantly.’

’But my life-saving options have been weakened. I used up my most crucial black card.’

DING.

His phone lit up with a new message.

’It must be the Green-Text Mission, announcing the rewards.’