Chapter 773 740: The Post Office with Lights Out

From the mouth of this person named Wan Xing, Yang Jian roughly understood what being a messenger entailed, which wasn’t very different from what he had expected.

Firstly, Wan Xing, as well as the group of Li Yue and others who appeared in his hometown, and even a person named Zhang Tao whom he had investigated before, were all messengers; this much was certain. However, before they became messengers, they were all ordinary people.

The reason they were chosen to be messengers was because of an accidental letter.

A yellow paper envelope without a signature or seal.

Each person became a messenger after opening that letter and then arrived at this post office in an incomprehensible manner.

Once they entered the post office, their task was to deliver the mail.

The letters that appeared in the post office were irregular, but as soon as they did appear, the messengers would be brought into the post office and had to deliver the letters to a designated location within a set time.

The task was very simple.

As simple as a regular courier—receive a package and deliver it, and that’s it, the task was complete.

However, this seemingly simple task hid many terrible things, as well as some rules that weren’t clearly reminded of.

For example, they couldn’t tear up the letters, or else they would suffer attacks from vicious ghosts.

For messengers, being attacked by a vicious ghost once could be fatal. But if they could withstand that attack, it meant they had rejected the delivery task. However, this act of tearing up letters couldn’t be repeated, as the ghosts that appeared would become more terrifying each time.

When Yang Jian was at his hometown, he encountered Li Yue and his group. He tore up a letter once, which indirectly completed a delivery task for them, but it resulted in a ghost invading one of their bodies.

Secondly, there was a time limit for delivering the letters. If the letters weren’t delivered within the designated time, all messengers on that floor would die.

No exceptions.

In other words, if you couldn’t complete the delivery task, your only choice was to tear up the letter.

“How many times have you delivered letters?” Yang Jian asked coldly.

Wan Xing still lay on the ground, his chest pinned by a golden cane that Sun Rui held. Wiping the blood from his face, he said, “I’ve delivered twice, and I’m about to do it for the third time. That’s why I came to this post office to wait for the letter to appear. That woman, Qian Rong, she appeared in the post office with me at the beginning. But most of the people from the same group are already dead. These seven rooms aren’t filled, but there’s still one more person.”

“I don’t know his name; I just know he lives in room number seven.”

“Just the three of you on this floor?” Yang Jian frowned.

“The others died during the last delivery. Normally, there should be new people joining now… to replenish the deceased messengers,” Wan Xing explained.

Sun Rui spoke at this moment, “Just the three of you in the entire building? I don’t believe it. What’s going on upstairs?”

“Messengers are also upstairs. After delivering letters three times, you will appear on the second floor and become a second-floor messenger. In the same vein, messengers from the second floor go to the third after three deliveries, and so on,” Wan Xing said.

His gaze shifted, “I also heard this from others; whether it’s true or not, I can’t be certain.”

He didn’t dare to speak too definitively, lest they think he was deceiving them and end up getting killed in confusion.

“Delivering three times to move up a floor, and there are five floors in total, with seven people on each floor, seems like a team,” Yang Jian mused with a contemplative look. “Sort of like a selection mechanism? Eliminate the useless messengers and keep the elite, select through each layer, and the messengers who make it to the fifth floor must be the ones with top mental acuity and intellect.”

“Without solid skills, they simply wouldn’t survive more than a dozen delivery tasks.”

At this moment, Sun Rui asked again, “What’s the benefit of going upstairs?”

“I—I don’t know. I only know that each floor has different delivery times. I’ve heard that the higher the floor the messenger is on, the longer the delivery time and the longer the intervals between tasks, which in turn means greater personal safety and a longer period of safety,” Wan Xing continued.

“For example, I generally have a delivery task about once a week,” he added.

“The number of disappearances doesn’t match the frequency of deaths,” Sun Rui frowned.

He had been investigating Dahan City, where approximately nine or ten people disappeared every day, and it happened daily. If there was a delivery task once a week, at the shortest, it should take seven days to kill off a group of people. Moreover, not every time would result in total annihilation; surely some people would survive.

“That’s all I know for now. I’m not clear on other information. If you all go upstairs, the messengers there will definitely know more,” Wan Xing said again.

Sun Rui gave a heavy thump against his chest, nearly breaking his ribs, “Heh, you want to deceive us into going upstairs so we’ll let you go, right? You’ve got quite the mind there, but we’re different from you losers. You’re just unlucky ordinary people; we’re professionals who deal with these ghostly things.”

“What we see as upstairs isn’t, in the traditional sense, upstairs—it’s a twisted Ghost Domain,” Yang Jian said, looking up at the floors above.

His Ghost Eye was peering.

Within the Ghost Eye’s view was pitch darkness, shrouded in blackness, with no second, third, fourth, or fifth floor—those were mere illusions, or rather, those floors didn’t exist where one could see, but in another Supernatural Space.

It was like… a Ghost Domain within the Ghost Domain.

Layer upon layer, overlapping and twisting.

Yang Jian’s expression grew grave. If this were true, he wouldn’t dare to rashly invade, for who knew if he’d end up on the second or third floor, or get lost within the Ghost Domain instead.

Thus, the safest method was to be pulled into the second floor.

“The person who built this Ghost Post Office is definitely not ordinary, all the loopholes are plugged, and the selection mechanism for messengers is surely for some purpose. Otherwise, messengers wouldn’t be made to ascend floor by floor. What I’m curious about is, whether there are any messengers actually on the fifth floor?”

Yang Jian looked at the highest level of the building.

Undoubtedly, the messenger on that floor was the one closest to the secrets of the Ghost Post Office.

The Door Knocking Ghost had fallen to his death from the fifth floor when he was alive.

Does that mean the Door Knocking Ghost was a messenger on the fifth floor before he died?

“I need to find a way to check out the fifth floor of this building,” Yang Jian decided in his heart.

But then his doubts emerged.

If his Ghost Eye’s powers couldn’t forcefully invade the fifth floor of this post office, what methods could he use to go up?

Delivering mail?

Don’t joke.

Sending one letter every seven days, how long would that take?

Yang Jian didn’t want to be a wage worker, laboring for half a year or a full year, faithfully delivering a dozen or so letters to slowly move up floor by floor.

At this moment, Li Yang came over, his face very somber as he spoke. “Team Yang, I feel there’s something not simple about this building. I can sense a very terrifying ghost in one of the rooms.”

“Hmm?” Yang Jian immediately became alert: “Are you sure?”

Li Yang said, “There’s no mistake, I can sense what’s behind the doors. It’s just that this place is strange, and it affects me, so I can’t identify the exact location. But I’m still certain that in one of the rooms upstairs there must be a fierce ghost, definitely not just an ordinary living messenger.”

Sun Rui squinted his eyes: “So you mean, among the thirty-five rooms, ghosts have already infiltrated? That’s interesting now, messengers and ghosts delivering mail together, how is one supposed to play this game? Team Yang, what do you think?”

“No, that’s impossible.”

Suddenly, Wan Xing became agitated: “These rooms are for messengers to live in. Once a person dies, the room will be cleared out and restored to its original state. It’s impossible for ghosts to sneak in. If there were ghosts, they would disappear along with the clearing of the room, which is why it’s the safest place.”

“Oh, so you, a first floor messenger, know this so clearly?” Sun Rui took a look and said: “And you say you haven’t hidden anything?”

“No, no, no, don’t misunderstand, I never intended to hide anything. This is information passed down from the messengers above, everyone is certain of it, it’s an ironclad rule, there can be no mistake,” Wan Xing said.

Yang Jian calmly said, “Perhaps you’re not mistaken, but that’s predicated on the normal operation of the post office. But what if this place has already lost control? What if some places have developed breaches, then it’s not impossible for ghosts to mix in. Moreover, having encountered the supernatural and still being so naive, to trust this place so much… “

“The inherently unreasonable rules of the Ghost Post Office are nothing but self-deceptive tricks.”

“Makes sense, if one needs to tear open an envelope to enter here as a messenger, then our very presence has already broken that rule,” Sun Rui said, nodding: “Nothing in this ghost place deserves trust; the more you trust, the faster you die.”

Yang Jian agreed with his viewpoint.

Trust the rules of a supernatural place?

This reminded him of the human skin parchment and the Ghost Cabinet.

They too had similar rules; while the parchment told the truth, it concealed terrible traps, and trading with the Ghost Cabinet bound the trader to a curse they couldn’t escape.

Anything to do with the supernatural couldn’t be pure and harmless.

“But dealing with this ghostly place won’t be easy with just the three of us. Blow it up? If there are ghosts in the building, they could escape. But if we leave it be, this place is bound to continue to spiral out of control. By then, I guess I’ll have to take charge, which is just another headache to deal with,” he pondered.

Cane in hand, Sun Rui limped forward.

“Moreover, since this Ghost Post Office is already involved with the Ghost Domain, even if we did blow it up, it definitely wouldn’t work. Team Yang, you’re in charge of this investigation, so make a decision,” he said.

Yang Jian’s gaze carried a hint of contemplation.

Indeed, this Ghost Post Office was very special, and dealing with it was almost unrealistic.

“I want to go to the fifth floor and have a look,” Yang Jian said seriously.

“Go to the fifth floor? That means delivering letters, but when would that end? I’m not up for this, Team Leader Yang, it’s not that I’m afraid of death, it’s just that this is too troublesome,” Sun Rui paused, then shook his head.

Yang Jian said, “I know, but the important information is hidden upstairs. On the first floor, asking these newcomers won’t yield anything.”

He glanced at Wan Xing.

Having delivered letters just twice, still a first-floor messenger, he indeed counted as a newcomer.

Wan Xing’s complexion changed, and he dared not respond.

At this moment, he could somewhat see that these three were not newcomers brought in by the Ghost Post Office, but were purposefully targeting the post office for an investigation.

They were specifically dealing with this issue.

“Who exactly are you?” Wan Xing couldn’t help asking.

“Hey, not so arrogant now, huh?”

Sun Rui smirked teasingly, “I am Sun Rui, the head of Dahan City, and this is Yang Jian, the head of Dachang City, one of the captains at headquarters, specially in charge of supernatural events. Did you really think you could bully us as ordinary folks? Even daring to use a gun, you’d be dead ten times over if you did this outside, just like Team Leader Yang said.”

He finished speaking, and lightly lifted his cane to tap on Wan Xing’s gaunt cheek.

“Cooperate honestly with us, and perhaps you will have a way to survive. Don’t deliver letters; you might not die, but if you offend us, death is certain.”

“With two heads visiting the post office, it seems this place has finally caught the attention of the outside world. You want to go to the fifth floor? I have a way that doesn’t follow the post office’s rules and can quickly get us to the fifth floor, but it comes with significant risks. I don’t know if you’d dare to take them,” said Wan Xing.

Suddenly,

another voice abruptly rose.

Unnoticed, room 17’s door had opened, and a youth who looked no more than twenty, even a year or two younger than Yang Jian, stood at the door, calmly watching them.

“Are you the messenger from room number seven that Wan Xing mentioned? What’s your name? It seems you know a bit about the supernatural circle,” Yang Jian immediately turned to look at him.

The youth said, “My name is Wang Shan. Before coming here, I was a student, still in high school. Due to some people, I had entered the supernatural circle and learned a few things, but not much. Later, I was unfortunate enough to be brought to this damn place by a letter and became a messenger. However, I arrived a bit earlier than him and have only delivered two letters so far, just one more and I can go to the second floor.”

“I may not know you all, but I am aware of the status and position of a head.”

“A high school student, coming to this cursed place and remaining so calm, and successfully delivering two letters, you are stronger than many,” Yang Jian stared at him.

This man’s mental state was very good.

Wan Xing’s face was gaunt, and his nasty and ruthless nature was clearly due to severe mental torment, after all, not everyone has a big enough heart to ignore the impact of supernatural events.

“Just luck, compared to you heads, I’m really nothing,” Wang Shan smiled, becoming very modest.

Yang Jian said, “Let’s not waste time, tell us your method.”

“Now’s not the time to talk, six o’clock is almost here. After six in the evening, the post office will turn off the lights, and if anyone lingers in the post office without returning to their room, they’ll be killed by the ghosts wandering inside.” Wang Shan reminded them.

“Ghosts wandering inside the post office? Didn’t he say there were no ghosts?” Yang Jian frowned and glanced at Wang Xing.

Wang Shan said, “I suspect they exist, but they aren’t like what that brother said before. This ghost has always been present in the post office, not hiding in any room, and it only moves after the lights go out, continuing until six o’clock the next morning.”

“The only safe place is your room.”

“You know all this so clearly?” Yang Jian asked.

Wang Shan said, “I’ve also come into contact with messengers from upstairs, so I know this. There are only ten minutes left. Perhaps some things would be better discussed tomorrow?”

As if to confirm his words,

inside the old post office, where the lighting was already yellowing, the lights began to flicker, and appeared even dimmer, about to go out. In addition, where one could usually see the balcony of the fifth floor by looking up, now it was entirely shrouded in darkness, no longer visible.

The darkness spread down from the upper floors, engulfing the fifth floor before shrouding the fourth, and it was quickly approaching the third floor.

At this rate, this place was about to plunge into a completely eerie darkness.

“Team Leader Yang, it’s better to leave here for now. There are many inexplicable mysteries in this place, and since we’re not messengers, there’s no need to stay and risk unnecessary dangers,” Sun Rui suggested in a low voice.

“Safety first is indeed correct, but I have a purpose for coming here. I don’t want to leave without finding the answer. And with the three of us joining forces, if we really get attacked by a ghost, does it mean we’re certain to die? You are too timid. We’ll stay here tonight and decide what to do tomorrow.”

Yang Jian made a decision to stay.

He was fully prepared and had a certain level of confidence.

Moreover, he believed that although this place was mysterious, the level of danger was definitely limited; after all, ordinary people could survive here.

Additionally, the purpose of the post office was definitely not just senseless murder.

If they really wanted to kill, why would they bother creating a messenger for delivering letters?

“Alright, you’re the leader, you make the decision,” Sun Rui said, shrugging his shoulders, not arguing with Yang Jian.

Better not to argue and end up fighting, and in the midst of fighting, end up dead.

When he thought about it, what a wrongful death that would be.

“We forced our way into this post office without having received any letters, so it’s best for the three of us to stay in one room to ensure we can deal with any emergencies that arise,” Yang Jian said, his gaze shifting.

“Tonight, the three of us will stay in your room,” he directed at Wang Shan.

Wang Shan’s complexion changed slightly, and he hurriedly said, “This, this won’t do, gentlemen. It’s not that I’m refusing you, but it’s best to have only one person in a room. If there are more people, some horrifying things are said to happen. When I first arrived here, I heard that if two people stayed overnight in the same room, one of them would die mysteriously the next day, as if something unclean in the room was causing trouble.”

“It’s decided like this.”

Yang Jian said flatly, “If something bad happens, we’ll deal with it, and it’s none of your concern.”

He was adamant, leaving no room for refusal.

Wang Shan did not speak further; he knew he had no say before these few decision-makers.

In the time this discussion was going on,

The ten minutes were almost up.

The darkness had already invaded the second floor and was creeping towards the first floor. The lights inside the post office had dimmed to the verge of going out, and around them, only some wall outlines and architectural features were visible. Any darker, and it would truly be pitch-black.

“The lights are about to go out, hurry, gentlemen, I don’t want to be targeted by the ghosts wandering in the post office,” Wang Shan said anxiously.

Yang Jian didn’t say a word, just gestured.

The three of them immediately headed for Room 7.

As for the blood-covered Wan Xing and the girl named Qian Rong, who stood by, not knowing what to do, they hurried to their respective rooms as soon as they realized what was happening.

“Bang!”

With the sound of the door closing, it took less than a minute for the lights in the post office to completely go out.

Darkness enveloped the entire post office, and all five floors fell into a deathly silence.

Even the neon sign next to the entrance went dark.

However, at that moment,

An eerily quiet post office echoed with the dull thud of footsteps.

It was the sound of a corpse stepping on wooden planks, one after another, creaking, drifting over, faint yet distinct, and the sound was strange. When it was on the fourth floor, it echoed only there, while not a hint of movement was heard below, even if one strained their ears.

But occasionally, the footsteps would appear on the second floor, skipping an entire floor directly as if materializing out of thin air.

In the end, those dull footsteps emerged on the first floor.

Elusive and incomprehensible,

It seemed that just as Wang Shan had mentioned, there existed a malevolent spirit in the post office that roamed the darkness, appearing only after the lights went out at six in the evening.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by novlove.com

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