Chapter 255

The evolvers reacted quickly and moved fast; after hearing these key details, they immediately searched for other unoccupied rooms, confirming the room conditions within just a few seconds.

Of the seven rooms, four were occupied, while three were empty.

"Four people, three rooms? That doesn't seem enough," Qin Bing said immediately.

"So one of us won't get a room? Maybe two people share one?" Tao Yuan looked around at the others, then at Zhang Jing, and said: "I'll share a room with Zhang Jing; Qin Bing and Li Yi each take one room."

"Why make it so complicated? That guy just said rooms are for one person each—he never said who the person has to be," Li Yi's gaze suddenly turned icy as he scanned the group: "Just break open a room, throw the occupant out, and take it."

His words instantly snapped them to attention.

"Isn't that a bit too harsh?" Zhang Jing said.

Li Yi replied: "Do you care about niceties when survival's at stake? If you can't do it, I will—I'm naturally inclined toward darkness; doing this is as easy as eating and drinking."

With that, he walked straight toward a closed door.

This one.

Room 11.

But as he reached for the doorknob, a cold voice came from inside: "A new courier wants to take my room? Step across this threshold, and all four of you won't live to see dawn. I've already killed three newcomers just like you—fools who don't know their place."

Shuowan 。

The door suddenly swung open. Inside stood a middle-aged man, disheveled and unkempt, his eyes blazing with malice. In his hand he held a pistol, safety off, aimed directly at Li Yi outside.

"Since you're so bold, I'll make you give up the room," Li Yi said calmly, not retreating an inch despite the gun's threat—he stepped forward boldly.

"Then die," the middle-aged man said, seeing Li Yi's fearlessness, and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

Bang!

A gunshot rang out.

At this range, a miss was nearly impossible.

Yet Li Yi moved as if he'd foreseen the danger—he sidestepped instantly, dodging the bullet, then raised his fist and struck.

The punch exploded with force.

In an instant, the man's pistol and entire hand were shredded by a terrifying aura, metal fragments and flesh scattering everywhere.

At that moment, the middle-aged man froze.

Then searing pain erupted from his severed hand, stabbing his brain, forcing a scream from his throat.

"I've dodged sniper rounds—do you think this pistol can scare me?" Li Yi's voice was cold and merciless. He tapped the man's nape lightly, and the screaming man collapsed, unconscious.

He picked him up and tossed him outside the door.

"Hope you're still alive tomorrow," Li Yi said, choosing not to kill him—letting him fend for himself outside.

The other teammates said nothing.

Li Yi's actions were for the team's survival—if he didn't act, someone else would. In this hellish place, mercy was a death sentence; when action was needed, you acted.

"Everyone back to your rooms. We'll study this damned post office once daylight comes."

Li Yi immediately entered the room.

The others followed, closing the door behind them.

Inside, Li Yi noticed a lamp in the bedroom, casting a dim, grayish-yellow glow. Though weak, the light somehow brought him a sense of safety—he was certain now: being inside the room was safe.

"So is safety in this damned post office determined by whether the light is on?"

Li Yi stared at the lamp, recalling the man's earlier words.

"The ghost post office turns off lights at six—nights are dangerous?"

"So if the light stays on, the room is safe—meaning light equals safety?"

Unclear, but he'd remember this—look for a chance to test it later.

He set down his backpack, pulled out his phone to message the others, but found no signal—as if some force was blocking it. He checked his locator: it had signal. That eased his mind.

His world's tech still held up here—immune to this place's interference. That meant he wouldn't miss any cross-dimensional signals.

Li Yi then inspected the rest of the room.

Aside from an old bed and a bathroom, there was nothing else. The air reeked of mildew—any ordinary person would go mad from the suffocating dread.

He suddenly remembered something and pulled out the yellow letter he'd received earlier.

The moment he did, the yellow letter began dissolving at a visible rate, turning to dust, leaving not a trace behind.

It had fulfilled its purpose—and was now useless.

"I get it now. The moment I received this letter, I became a courier of this ghost post office. My task now is to deliver letters—what kind, to whom, what dangers I'll face—none of it's clear. I must leave it to fate."

Li Yi connected all that had happened today, sorting through the threads.

The man in charge of Dazhuang, Wang Qiao, had sent him here to deliver letters.

And this ghost post office clearly had many taboos and rules.

Some information he'd have to discover himself; others he could ask the veteran couriers—they might know more.

Realizing this, Li Yi stopped rushing. He decided to stay in the room overnight, waiting for dawn.

Time passed slowly.

Until a certain moment.

Li Yi suddenly heard movement outside—footsteps. But they were strange: heavy, oppressive, not like a living person walking, more like a corpse dragging itself across the floor. Occasionally, a creaking sound echoed as the figure passed through the lobby.

"Is that the ghost wandering the post office at night?" he thought, yet felt no fear.

As a Qi-Aperture cultivator, Li Yi had fought many battles—his mental resilience was hardened, far stronger than those ordinary newcomers who'd entered the post office. These horrors couldn't frighten him.

If the post office's rules were absolute, then ghosts couldn't enter the rooms.

The evidence proved it true.

?

Within two or three hours, Li Yi heard footsteps circling many times. Once, they passed right outside his door—his glowing eyes caught, through the crack in the old wooden door, a thin, ancient arm flickering past.

Yet despite the ghost being so close, it never opened any room.

"Observe the ghost's pattern," Li Yi thought, for no reason, the phrase suddenly surfaced in his mind.

Perhaps ghosts here could only kill if certain conditions were met—if those conditions weren't met, even if a ghost passed right beside you, it wouldn't strike.

Otherwise, how else to explain what just happened?

Seconds ticked by.

At six a. ., the dim lamp in the room suddenly went dark—but lights flickered on elsewhere in the ghost post office.

"Daylight?" Li Yi had sat awake all night, neither sleeping nor cultivating, alert to danger.

Bang!

The next moment.

Outside, doors opened.

Qin Bing, Zhang Jing, and Tao Yuan had also stayed awake all night. The moment the lights came on, they stepped out of their rooms.

Li Yi followed.

Seeing their teammates unharmed, everyone exhaled in relief.

"The man from last night is gone," Qin Bing said, scanning the area.

"Not just him—the bloodstains are gone too," Li Yi said, glancing down.

The disappearance of the blood wasn't from cleaning—it was as if some force had erased it entirely. Not only the man and blood, but the black letter paper once visible on the floor was gone too.

"So the man was right—the ghost post office is indeed dangerous at night," Zhang Jing said, her complexion regaining some color. As a Spirit-Sense cultivator, she recovered quickly as long as she lived.

"It's dangerous, yet safe—if you stay in the room, even with ghosts outside, they can't harm you. Strictly speaking, this place is safer than outside," Li Yi said. "But now we're couriers of this ghost post office—I doubt it'll let us live here peacefully."

"Correct. All couriers must deliver letters. You're first-floor couriers—you must deliver three letters before moving to the second floor," said the man from last night, stepping out cautiously.

Li Yi stared at him: "There are rules like that? How many floors does this ghost post office have?"

"I heard from previous couriers there are five floors. Only after delivering all the letters can you escape and gain freedom. By the way, I'm Guo You," the man introduced himself, his tone filled with reverence for Li Yi and the others.

He'd heard everything that happened last night.

These people weren't ordinary—they had special abilities.

"Three letters per floor, five floors total—deliver them all and you're free?" Li Yi's expression turned grave. "That doesn't look like a high survival rate."

Fifteen letters.

Sounds few.

But the name "ghost post office" made it clear—this delivery task was anything but simple.

"You mean the letter you're talking about?" Zhang Jing suddenly pointed.

There, on the wooden counter in the lobby, lay a yellow letter.

Seeing it, Guo You visibly staggered, fear flashing across his face: "T-There's really a delivery task? And why is this letter appearing in the lobby? It always showed up inside the rooms before."

He'd searched his room earlier and found nothing—thought he was off the hook. Yet here the letter was anyway.