The old woman with the inverted cross walked slowly down the aisle, a thick stench of rot mixed with blood assaulting the senses. As she brushed past Su Jiu, the newcor’s last line of defense crumbled, and she subconsciously blurted out:
"Gao Tian, please, do sothing!"
Gao Tian remained motionless, his hand gripping the Terror Blade, just observing.
The old woman with the inverted cross didn’t even glance at her and walked straight past, heading toward Gao Tian’s seat.
’The stench of death has beco almost tangible. Compared to Su Jiu, she seems more interested in ...’
Gao Tian’s hand rested on the hilt of the Terror Blade, his thumb twitching nonstop. The blade had been dormant for too long. In the hands of its new master, it too was eager to be drawn, to slay a ghost.
He didn’t draw the blade rashly. Right now, the old woman was also a passenger, and according to the bus’s rules, passengers were not allowed to fight amongst themselves.
Besides, the price of unleashing the Terror Blade was that one of the three living people on the bus—Su Jiu, Zhou Yan, or Ling Feifei—had to die as a sacrifice to it.
The situation hadn’t grown that dire yet.
The old woman with the inverted cross walked to the seat behind Gao Tian and sat down. On the back of her head, the bloody hole gouged out by the inverted cross was still trickling blood. She left a trail of faint and deep bloodstains behind her as she passed.
She just sat down, closed her murky eyes, and entered a dormant state. She showed no intention toward Gao Tian, who was only an arm’s length away.
Gao Tian inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.
’The bus’s suppression of ghosts is still in effect. Even at such a close distance, the old woman just sat down like a normal passenger, showing no intention of killing anyone. It looks like she’s still abiding by the passenger rules.’
At the sa ti, a new figure appeared at the front door of the bus.
It was a tall man in a trench coat. The inside of his clothes was stained with blood, his face was weary, and his hair and beard were a tangled ss, looking like they hadn’t been grood in so ti.
After boarding, the man didn’t exude the stench of a corpse, but rather the sour sll of sweat from soone who had been on the move for days without bathing. At this mont, that sll was actually reassuring—it was the sll of the living.
After boarding, the man’s gaze first fell on the tall male corpse, then shifted to the old woman with the inverted cross, and finally flickered back and forth between the living people—Gao Tian, Su Jiu, and Zhou Yan—as if trying to determine if they were his own kind.
Both sides froze for a mont, neither daring to speak first. They were afraid of mistaking a ghost for a human, starting a conversation, and triggering its killing chanism.
The man found a seat and sat down. Regardless of whether he was alive or not, the number of passengers on the bus had now reached seven. At the next stop, if no one—human or ghost—got off, and a new passenger got on, a vote for expulsion would be initiated.
Gao Tian glanced at the bus’s titable. The starting and ending stations were both "Reality." The nas of the stops in between were all bizarre: "Blood Gate Village," "Old Urban Area," "Blood-colored Nursery Hall," "Dexin Hospital"...
Pagoda Primary School was the eleventh stop. To get there, they would have to make nine more stops. There was no telling how many passengers would co and go along the way.
In the silent bus car, the first one to break the deadlock was the ignorant and fearless Ling Feifei:
"Hey, you up front, are you a human or a ghost? How did you end up on this bus?
"You’re not here on a mission like us, are you...?"
The man seed a little surprised that Ling Feifei had taken the initiative to speak. His sharp gaze swept over her once more:
"I’m looking for soone.
"I’ve been running around this godforsaken place for over a month and haven’t t a single living person. I didn’t expect to run into four of you at once today."
"The others on this bus... they’re your companions too, right?"
Gao Tian was stunned.
’Ever since we entered the Inner World, we’ve felt like we’re in constant peril, even with the bus’s protection. But this man in the trench coat has actually been in the Inner World for a month. Judging by how he boarded, he seems to be able to travel freely between different supernatural locations. His power must be substantial.’
’But I won’t be the one to strike up a conversation. The man looks human, but who knows if he’s a person or a ghost? Since Ling Feifei loves to talk so much, I’ll let her do the questioning.’
Sure enough, unable to hold her tongue, Ling Feifei blurted out everything:
"We’re from the ’Living Human Apartnt.’ That godforsaken place makes us carry out a mission every so often.
"This ti, our destination is Pagoda Primary School. You know Pagoda Primary School, right, mister? Oh, right, you said you were looking for soone. Do you have a relative here in the Inner World? Which stop are you getting off at?"
The man in the trench coat pondered for a mont, then introduced himself:
"I don’t understand what this ’Living Human Apartnt’ is, but I imagine it’s so kind of curse-like chanism that forces you into the Inner World.
"I’m a bit different from you. I’m a Ghost Hunter by trade, and I’ve dealt with all sorts of supernatural incidents. I’d been retired for a while.
"But last year, a vicious ghost dragged my and my late wife’s only child into the Inner World, and their whereabouts are still unknown.
"To find my child, I’ve been using this bus to travel through the Inner World for over a month. I’ve almost died several tis, but so far, I still haven’t found any trace of my child."
He glanced at his watch, as if confirming the passage of ti in the real world.
"We’re all human. You want to survive; I want to find soone. We have no reason to be at odds. When it’s ti to vote, we humans must unite and help each other."
Just as he said, any normal person would know that the humans on the bus had to stick together, or they wouldn’t survive among the vicious ghosts.
"Right, my na is Shen Nian. My peers call Shen Sanqiang. You can also call Ah Nian."
the man said. His trench coat was lumpy and bulging, as if he were hiding several handguns underneath.
Inside the bus, the Ghost Hunter who called himself Shen Nian made idle conversation with Ling Feifei and Zhou Yan. The oppressive atmosphere was making everyone a bit drowsy. Just then, Bus 444 braked slightly, shaking off so of the living passengers’ sleepiness. The third stop, Dexin Hospital, had arrived.
As the front door opened, Shen Nian’s hand pressed against the guns under his trench coat, his whole body on high alert.
An experienced Ghost Hunter is always on guard when facing ghosts. Having spent a long ti in the Inner World, Shen Nian knew that Bus 444 was just another supernatural phenonon. It was entirely possible to encounter a greater terror, one that would board and start killing, completely ignoring the bus’s rules.
The Inner World was a completely indescribable place; being on the bus didn’t an they were absolutely safe.
At this stop, the gray fog outside was unusually thick for so reason. The bus doors had been open for less than a few dozen seconds before the strange mist began to drift in, drastically reducing visibility inside the bus.
Through the window, a gothic-style white hospital building could be seen in the distance, looming indistinctly in the sea of gray.
A long shadow fell across the front of the bus.
KLAK, KLAK.
The passenger boarding this ti seed exceptionally tall and slender. It was almost touching the ceiling of the bus.
As the eighth passenger boarded the bus, the red number on the screen changed from 7 to 8. At the sa ti, upon seeing the newcor’s appearance, Gao Tian’s pupils shrank to pinpricks from fear and shock. The veins on the back of the hand gripping his blade bulged, and it took an imnse amount of willpower to restrain the impulse to draw his blade imdiately.
’I never thought I’d run into *this one* in the Inner World.’
The one who boarded was also a tall "man" dressed all in black, but it was extrely tall. Its topmost head had to be kept bowed after entering the bus to avoid hitting the ceiling.
The second head, stacked below the first, was that of a middle-aged woman, her lips freshly coated with pink lipstick.
Below the woman’s head was the head of a haggard old person, so old and with so many deep wrinkles on their face that it was impossible to tell if it was a grandfather or a grandmother.
Below the old person’s head was that of a chubby little boy, who was constantly chewing on sothing, making a CRUNCH CRUNCH sound.
Below the little boy’s head was a soldier wearing tactical goggles, ard to the teeth...
...
This new passenger’s body was composed of countless heads stacked on top of one another.
Below one head was another head. Where others had a torso and legs, it only had more heads.
It walked with a crooked, swaying gait, like a twisted centipede made of human heads. A black coat was wrapped tightly around this body of heads, and from the silhouette of its back, it could still barely pass for a tall "man" with a strange way of walking.
When its coat opened, countless faces and eyes underneath would turn to look in unison. The sight was enough to shatter one’s sanity.
’Of course, I recognize this ghost. Or rather, I’ve never seen it in person before, but I’ve heard its na in legends. At Sapphire Mall, the one that killed Xu Yuan and took his head was a vicious ghost with four heads. This vicious ghost’s only hobby is to collect its victims’ heads after killing them. The first ti Xu Yuan saw it, it only had four heads. It’s been a while, and now the heads under its coat are so densely packed they seem to connect to an endless abyss, too nurous to count.’
At the sa ti, with the boarding of the eighth passenger, the first round of voting on the bus officially began.
All the vicious ghosts on the bus temporarily reawakened.
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