Chapter 88: Strange Tales of Jinhai Building

In this Apartment, Yusheng wasn't the only one who could predict the future.

There was also the Future Urn.

Speaking of which, he hadn't touched the thing in a long time, not since he came down from the fifth floor.

Gao Tian opened his wardrobe and rummaged behind a pile of clothes acting as camouflage until he found an object wrapped in black cloth. It was the Future Urn. He pulled it out into the light of day and removed the cloth.

Inside the urn sat the Skeleton Master, the ant-like text on the stone wall, and the small stream flowing at its feet. Not much had changed.

Gao Tian's pupils shrank to pinpricks.

There was only one difference. The very first time he saw the skeletal corpse, it had been sitting cross-legged before the stone wall in earnest meditation. Now, that posture was gone.

At some unknown point, Master Yunshan's skeleton had stood up completely. It was now standing on the rocks at its feet.

That wasn't right.

Gao Tian wasn't an idiot; he couldn't possibly misremember something so simple.

How could it have slowly stood up on its own when no one had touched it? Was this Master Yunshan not actually dead, but merely hibernating inside this urn?

Gao Tian was momentarily at a loss. The original owner of the Future Urn was Xu Yuan. Aside from Xu Yuan, no one knew the correct way to use it.

He had no idea whether the skeleton's change in posture was a good omen or a bad one.

But just as Gao Tian was pondering his next move, countless wisps of gray mist swirled up inside the urn once again. At the same time, the scenery at the bottom of the urn shifted. It was generating a new future for him.

Amid the glow of fire, thick plumes of black smoke billowed upward. In the distance, red warning lights flashed incessantly—he couldn't tell if they belonged to fire engines or police cars.

Beneath his feet lay a shattered marble floor, surrounded by the ruined walls and broken remnants of reinforced concrete. It looked as though a massive earthquake or some catastrophic accident had just occurred, and the disaster scene was severe. Faint cries could be heard in the background.

Medical workers in white coats carried stretchers, weaving through the black mist. Amid the bustling crowd, Gao Tian immediately spotted two very distinct figures.

One was "Gao Tian," standing amid the ruins. He didn't seem to be injured, his hands shoved into his pockets.

Although Gao Tian couldn't make out his expression, for some reason, the aura this "Gao Tian" exuded was extremely cheerful, carrying an uncontainable sense of ecstasy and arrogance.

On the other side, a programmer in a plaid shirt was squatting next to him, bawling his eyes out. He cried so hard that he started dry heaving, vomiting all over the ground until he was almost entirely drained of strength.

—

From his appearance, the man in the plaid shirt hadn't suffered any injuries. He had just narrowly escaped death, and due to his poor psychological resilience, he was experiencing a violent convulsive reaction.

Right then, "Gao Tian" began speaking to someone unseen in the black mist. He reached out one hand to display an Urn, and then extended his other hand to reveal a second Urn.

Two Urns?

The glimpse of the future dissipated right there.

At the bottom of the urn, Master Yunshan's skeleton remained in a standing position, inconsistent with the meditative posture it had initially appeared in.

From the fragment just shown, Gao Tian could extract a few pieces of information.

The programmer vomiting after his narrow escape was Wang Wenbo. Something truly terrible had happened at his building. If Gao Tian hadn't forcefully intervened, Wang Wenbo would have died there that very day.

Because Gao Tian arrived in time, Wang Wenbo didn't die, and Gao Tian himself came out completely unscathed.

At the same time, the future "Gao Tian" had obtained a new Urn.

If this was a prophecy of the future, should he still take action?

Gao Tian mulled it over repeatedly.

The fatal tribulation in Yusheng's prophecy might not refer to this excursion.

It was also possible that something even more terrifying would happen next, something the prophecy hadn't shown.

But if he didn't go, with Jiang Yang trapped in the subway station, it was highly likely that Wang Wenbo would actually die.

He considered it for a moment, then dialed Wang Wenbo's mobile phone.

Unsurprisingly, he once again heard the prompt: "The number you have dialed is currently busy."

How strange. Who was Wang Wenbo talking to, and why was the conversation taking so long?

After thinking it over carefully, Gao Tian decided to head out and take a look.

The prophecies in the Future Urn were difficult to alter. If he didn't take the initiative to leave the Apartment, something else might happen to force him out anyway.

What was more, he had so many life-saving Supernatural Items on hand now. The moment he ran into danger, he could return to the Living Apartment at any time.

Before setting out, Gao Tian sorted through the Supernatural Items he possessed.

Offensive types:

Terror Blade, Ghost Transformation Spear (meaning unclear)

Wind Attendant Buddha. Defensive types:

Ghost Card Black Card (x2)

Mirror Ghost. Auxiliary types:

Shattered Face Ghost, Memory Ghost, Black Tie, Future Urn...

.

With more and more items in his possession, it was becoming extremely difficult to bring them all along on every mission.

If only he had one of those spatial nano-rings from the cultivation novels he used to read. Whenever he picked up a bunch of heavenly treasures, he could just toss them right inside to store them. That would be perfect.

Then, another thought struck Gao Tian.

Didn't he already have something similar to a spatial ring?

He pulled a small Mirror from his coat pocket. Ever since he obtained the Mirror Ghost ability, Gao Tian had carried a Mirror on him, allowing him to enter the Mirror World at any time to evade enemies.

He placed the messy pile of items on the floor and willed it with a single thought.

From inside the Mirror, a blood-red arm slowly reached out, grabbed the Ghost Transformation Spear, and gradually pulled it into the glass.

Following suit, he sent each of his Supernatural Items behind the Mirror, one by one.

Just to be safe, Gao Tian carried the Mirror with him as he walked all the way from the Third Floor corridor down to the first-floor living room.

At the same time, he issued another command to the Mirror Ghost inside the glass.

"Take out the Terror Blade I use most often first. Let's see how this works."

The blood-red arm moved incredibly fast. In less than a second, it pulled the Terror Blade out of the Mirror and pressed it into Gao Tian's hand.

The experiment was a success.

To his surprise, this derivative effect of the Mirror Ghost could be used as a portable inventory. From now on, no matter how many Supernatural Items he had, he wouldn't have to worry about not being able to retrieve them.

This added even more flexibility and tactical options for actual combat.

Of course, he still wore the Black Tie around his neck. Just in case.

After a half-hour bus ride, he arrived. The resplendent office building standing before him was one of the landmarks of Shanghai City: Jinhai Building.

Wang Wenbo truly lived up to his status as a senior corporate worker at a major firm. To be honest, if it weren't for the Living Apartment, Gao Tian probably would never have had much contact with someone of Wang Wenbo's social class.

Now, in this supernatural era, Wang Wenbo had become the vulnerable one, forced to seek help from Gao Tian, an ordinary high school student.

He wondered what kind of supernatural incident had taken place inside the building.

Gao Tian watched the endless stream of white-collar workers flowing through the first floor of the building. The order here seemed perfectly normal; there was no sign of any commotion caused by a terrifying incident. Most of the corporate workers didn't even have the slightest sense of danger.

For now, it seemed the scale of this supernatural phenomenon was relatively small. Only a fraction of the people inside the building had noticed it, and it hadn't impacted the overall operations of the tower.

However, the situation would gradually escalate. Perhaps, just as the Future Urn had prophesied, the entire building would ultimately collapse, resulting in countless casualties.

Before entering the building, Gao Tian made one last attempt to call Wang Wenbo's mobile phone.

Unsurprisingly, it failed again.

Then there was no other way. He would just have to find the man himself.

Everyone entering the building had to swipe their cards at the access control turnstiles. Two uniformed security guards kept a hawkish watch, refusing to let any suspicious individuals slip into the corporate headquarters.

Gao Tian slowly walked over. One of the security guards wearing sunglasses lifted his head, clearly having noticed this suspicious person approaching.

"I'm looking for Wang Wenbo. Check which floor his department works on for me, and open the gate while you're at it."

Without any introduction or pleasantries, Gao Tian spoke in a direct, commanding tone.

The guard looked at him with a baffled expression. "Who are you? Who referred you here? Do you have an appointment?"

"If you don't have an appointment, get out right now. Where did this brat come from, spouting nonsense? If you don't leave, I'll throw you out."

Gao Tian sighed, then dropped the name of the Jinhai Group's general manager. "I'm part of the advisory group arranged by Old Boss Zhu."

"Did you two forget? Didn't your supervisor tell you about this morning?"

Simultaneously, he activated the Memory Ghost's ability.

Beneath their sunglasses, the two guards' expressions slowly shifted—from disgust and suspicion to sudden realization. They slapped their foreheads, seemingly annoyed with themselves for forgetting.

"Right, right, right! That did happen. Wait just a moment, young man. Go have a cup of tea on the sofa over there."

"You're looking for Wang Wenbo, right? We'll look him up for you right away."

"He's in the technical department, Zone B on the eleventh floor. Do you want us to take you up there?"

The access gate swung open, and Gao Tian walked through.

Before heading up into the upper levels of Jinhai Building, he confirmed one last thing. "Let me ask you, did anything strange happen on the eleventh floor today?"

The two guards exchanged a glance. "Something strange?"

"No one told us anything. It doesn't seem like anything happened."

"However, we're only responsible for the first floor. If you want to know what exactly is going on upstairs, we'd have to ask our captain."

He picked up his two-way radio, ready to make the call.

A moment later, after speaking with someone in the security office, the guard lowered his two-way radio and walked back toward Gao Tian. "Hello there, young man."

"This morning, something quite strange did indeed happen in Zone B on the eleventh floor."

"An extra staircase appeared on that floor."

Gao Tian blanked, as if he hadn't understood what the guard was saying. "An extra staircase?"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Is there a problem with my comprehension skills, or is there a problem with your ability to articulate?"

The guard repeated himself. "It means exactly what it sounds like. An extra, unaccounted-for staircase has appeared."