Chapter 175: Blood Door Village, Shen Nian

Gao Tian sat on the sofa, watching the sky gradually darken outside the window. He was still thinking about Lan Zhu's final words from earlier that day.

Her tone and expression before leaving had been completely off.

She had seemed like a different person, terrifyingly calm and composed. That definitely wasn't the usual Lan Zhu.

And then there was that baffling sentence.

"I can leave the apartment?"

"Try not to smile?"

Had Lan Zhu seen through his connection to the Smiling Man? Was she hinting that the corruption had stopped, and he no longer needed to imprison himself in the apartment?

Gao Tian had a theory.

Back when her brain was intact, Lan Zhu had been a top-tier ghost hunter in the United States.

After part of it was removed, she had gone mad for a long time. But very occasionally, her normal personality and intellect would suddenly return, granting her a brief window of lucidity.

The person who had just spoken to him was the top-tier ghost hunter, Lan Zhu.

She had seen through the Smiling Man's issue at a glance and offered him advice.

It was just that with only half a brain, she couldn't maintain that state for long. She had quickly become delirious again.

Of course, it was also possible that it was purely a coincidence.

After all, Lan Zhu was insane; it wouldn't be strange for her to spout random nonsense.

She might have just stumbled onto the topic of smiling by chance, making Gao Tian naturally think of the Smiling Man.

But what happened next forced Gao Tian to seriously consider the option of leaving the Living Apartment.

Since the great battle in Minghai, he had been lying low in the apartment for over four months, not daring to take a single step outside.

The time for his sixth Green Text Mission had indeed arrived.

This left him in a bit of a dilemma.

Leaving the apartment could cause the slumbering Smiling Man to go berserk. But if he stayed, the Green Text Mission would expire, and the apartment would definitely execute him.

This forced him to seriously consider Lan Zhu's advice.

After all, the Smiling Man had been suppressed for a long time; the chances of its revival were under 50%. Meanwhile, staying in the apartment guaranteed a 100% chance of execution.

Once he died, the Smiling Man would run rampant again. And without Gao Tian holding the line, even the apartment might not be able to suppress it.

Both options carried huge risks. Forget it, he would head downstairs first to check the requirements for this Green Text Mission.

[Sixth Mission]

Mission Requirements:

Travel to Blood Door Village before July 7th.

Help Shen Nian find the real child.

Participant: Gao Tian. Blood Door Village was a stop in the Inner World. Every single door in that village was blood-red.

July 7th was only three days away. Time was running short.

Seeing the name Shen Nian made Gao Tian's temples throb.

No way. The guy was a legendary survivor. After all this time, he was still looking for his child in Blood Door Village?

Gao Tian naturally remembered who Shen Nian was.

He was the ghost hunter Gao Tian had met on Bus 444 during his third Green Text Mission. A highly capable man who, in order to find his lost child in the Inner World—

—had spent over a month traveling alone through various stops.

Back then, Hanged Man 57 had lured him into getting off at the Old District to chase it. Gao Tian had gotten a bit hot-headed; if Shen Nian hadn't spoken up to stop him, he might have actually stepped off the bus.

And if he had, he would have died early in that wretched place.

The last stop where they had parted ways was Blood Door Village. He hadn't expected Shen Nian to still be wandering around there after all this time. He had no idea what the man was eating to stay alive.

On second thought, Gao Tian realized he was overreacting.

The flow of time in the Inner World was not synchronized with the real world.

Over half a year had passed outside, but for all he knew, only a few weeks had gone by for Shen Nian in the Inner World.

This Green Text Mission was quite interesting. He already owed Shen Nian a favor anyway. Going to Blood Door Village and helping him out a bit would be the perfect way to repay it.

However, the green text contained a very strange piece of information.

Help Shen Nian find the "real" child.

"Real" implied the existence of a "fake."

There had to be a "fake child" in Blood Door Village. He didn't know what kind of thing was trying to impersonate Shen Nian's child.

Otherwise, the Green Text Mission wouldn't have specifically emphasized the word "real."

This was going to be troublesome.

How was he supposed to tell if the child was real or fake?

If Shen Nian had already found this so-called child and it turned out to be fake, but he stubbornly refused to accept the truth, how was Gao Tian supposed to convince him?

These were all dangerous variables.

Gao Tian stood there, lost in thought for a long time.

He was alone on this mission. Xia Ta and the others were gone; he didn't even have anyone to discuss it with.

Right at that moment, a second Green Text Mission slowly materialized on the apartment wall.

[Sixth Mission]

Mission Requirements:

Travel to Moonlight Asylum before July 15th.

Repair the broken bell in the clock tower.

Participant: Xia Ta. This mission wasn't for him.

But when he saw the participant's name at the end, the shock Gao Tian felt was no less than when he had seen his own Green Text Mission.

Xia Ta wasn't dead?

The apartment was still issuing her missions normally, which meant she hadn't died. Only the living could receive Green Text Missions. Xia Ta was alive!

Come to think of it, the time for her sixth mission had indeed arrived.

But if Xia Ta was alive, why hadn't she and the other residents returned since that night?

Were they trapped somewhere in Minghai City?

If she couldn't make it back to the apartment on time, then wherever she was, her faked death would become a real one.

The only good news was that Xia Ta had more leeway with her mission timeframe—it wouldn't expire for another ten days.

He still had ten days to spare.

Gao Tian stood before the wall, struggling internally for a moment.

His most pressing priority now was to confirm whether he could step out of the apartment.

Provided he could leave, he would head to the Inner World to execute his mission in Blood Door Village.

Assuming he made it back alive, he would then search for Xia Ta's whereabouts and try to get her back in time for her sixth Green Text Mission.

Three tasks, one by one. The order couldn't be messed up.

If he died at any point during these steps, he wouldn't need to worry about the rest anyway.

Moreover, once he entered the Inner World, Gao Tian had a few other things to take care of along the way. Blood Door Village wouldn't be his only stop.

He needed to visit Longshu Temple. Yusheng had played too ruthlessly this time; there were some things Gao Tian had to ask him face-to-face.

He also had to make a trip to the Old District.

Hanged Man 57, who could confiscate Ghost Cards, had last appeared there. Gao Tian still held the item plucked from the Divine Tree—the Ansheng Stone.

Its effect was simple and brutal: slap it onto the Hanged Man when they met, and he would instantly seize control of its ghost domain.

Hmph. That was what it got for trying to lure him out last time.

The Ghost Cards weighing on Gao Tian's soul had already reached nine.

He was dangerously close to the execution threshold.

Not to mention, during his fierce battle with the Artist, he had burned through more than half of his Ghost Luck. After taking the Black Leather Shoes back to the city center, his Ghost Luck was practically nonexistent.

If he didn't capture the Hanged Man, he would have essentially zero chance of resurrecting the next time he died.

Before leaving, Gao Tian had one last thing to do.

He needed to find himself a few powerful bodyguards to guarantee his safety on this trip into the Inner World.

His life no longer belonged solely to him. If he accidentally died, the Smiling Man would break out of his body again.

The first bodyguard who came to mind was Xu Yuan.

After all, the two of them were still in the same group chat. Theoretically, Gao Tian could easily contact him.

Xu Yuan still owed him ten favors for Ghost Cave and Ghost Infant taking action. It was just that one of those two was confirmed dead, and the other's whereabouts were unknown. There was no way he was letting those ten owed favors slide.

It was only reasonable for Boss Xu Yuan to pay up on their behalf, right?

—

When the time came, if Gao Tian got trapped at any stop, he could just drop a message in the chat: "Old Xu, I'm going to die. Don't miss me too much after I'm gone."

To prevent the Smiling Man from losing control, Xu Yuan would most likely rush over like a madman.

Of course, the King of All Ghosts was only the ultimate failsafe. He absolutely couldn't use it casually.

The other option was the Shunjin City Supernatural Disaster Bureau.

But if he got in touch with the Supernatural Disaster Bureau, they would probably start haunting him relentlessly again. Especially that thick-skinned Ye Jiu.

After a brief internal struggle, Gao Tian sent a message to Ye Jiu anyway.

He didn't dare risk even the slightest mistake. It was one thing if he died, but he couldn't drag the entire world down with him.

Gao Tian: "I'm heading to the Inner World for a mission in the next few days."

"Do you have any suitable ghost hunters to recommend? To act as my bodyguard."

"I can pay a commission. Just deduct the money from the hundreds of millions Old Man Sun left me."

Ye Jiu actually replied very quickly. His mobile phone buzzed just seconds later.

Ye Jiu: "We're brothers; there's no need to talk about money. It hurts our relationship."

"What level of ghost hunter do you want as a bodyguard? Is the Eighth Young Master good enough?"

"He can arrive at the Living Apartment tonight. He'll be at your door to contact you in half an hour. How does that sound?"

Forget it.

The Eighth Young Master was the core of Shunjin City's entire defense system. How could he possibly travel all the way to Minghai for a nobody like him?

Whatever. It was human nature for Ye Jiu not to want to help him, especially since Gao Tian hadn't done him any favors in the past either.

He took the Future Pot out of the Mirror World to check a fragment of the future regarding his trip to Blood Door Village.

When he saw that the bottom of the pot was completely empty, fear crept up his spine like an invisible, icy hand.

He was gone.

Master Yunshan, who had originally been meditating at the bottom of the pot, had simply vanished.

On the eve of the great battle in Minghai City, Gao Tian had noticed that the skeleton's posture was wrong. It had shifted slightly—from sitting to standing, from the edge of the pot to its center—looking eager and ready to walk right out.

It was just that back then, all of Minghai City had been teetering on the brink of survival. Gao Tian's mind had been entirely occupied by the Woman in the Rain; he simply hadn't had the energy to worry about the changes at the bottom of the pot.

In the four months following the battle of Minghai City, Gao Tian had been constantly suffering from the Smiling Man's corruption, leaving him no time to deal with the Future Pot.

Now, had Master Yunshan inside the pot actually escaped?

Where had he gone, and what did he plan to do?

Was this a good thing or a bad thing?

Gao Tian didn't know.

He only felt a sense of unease.

This pot held many secrets, not just prophecies. It was beyond Gao Tian's understanding.

The only person in this world who had any real understanding of the Red Jar was Xu Yuan.

But unless it was a matter of life and death, Gao Tian truly didn't dare bother Xu Yuan over nothing.