45: Chapter 45 The City of the Unjustly Dead

The four of them arrived at the long bench in the last row of the carriage.

The seat was barely enough to fit three people.

Fatty Wang slumped into the seat on the far right by the window, eyes squeezed shut, silently reciting the "Great Compassion Mantra" he had heard from who knows where.

Leng Yue took her seat to Lin Ye's left.

As soon as she sat down, she extended her slender left hand, firmly covering the palm Lin Ye had resting on his knee.

A stream of pure Drought Demon Yin Qi flowed from where their skin touched, wrapping around Lin Ye's entire body like flowing mercury.

This aura was not bone-chilling; it carried the cold, faint scent of Manjushage, perfectly masking Lin Ye's Pure Yang Qi, which stood out like a torch in the dark night.

Frost Star looked at the occupied seats, her heterochromatic eyes shifting.

A sly smile curled the corners of her lips as she walked straight up to Lin Ye and, without a hint of hesitation, sat on his lap.

"There aren't enough seats, so Frost Star has to settle for sitting on your lap."

Lin Ye's body stiffened.

The atmosphere inside the carriage should have been terrifying and oppressive to the extreme.

Surrounded by dripping vengeful spirits, the driver was a monster whose face was impossible to make out.

Yet at this moment, he was forced to endure a different kind of torture that pushed his sanity to the brink of collapse.

A petite, mutated White Zombie was sitting on his lap.

The bus bumped along the road, and the hem of Frost Star's dress swayed slightly.

His left hand was held tightly by a Thousand-Year Red Hou with a fiery figure and a cold, alluring aura.

The pads of Leng Yue's fingers felt cool to the touch, occasionally caressing the back of his hand to soothe his taut nerves.

"Behave, stop fidgeting," Lin Ye warned in a low voice, whispering into Frost Star's ear.

Frost Star stuck out her little tongue and curled her body tighter against him.

Yet her eyes, peering over Lin Ye's shoulder, were locked onto the Water Ghosts in front, who emitted the enticing scent of "food."

"Creeeak!"

The bus doors slammed shut.

The bus let out a gasp like a dying beast before slowly pulling away from the station.

The thick fog outside the windows grew denser, like a white wall, completely isolating the carriage from the outside world.

The light from the streetlamps vanished, and the surroundings plunged into a deathly silence.

The bus wasn't moving fast, but the jolting inside the carriage was unusually violent.

From time to time, the crisp sound of bones being crushed came from beneath the chassis; there was no telling what kind of nether-road this ghost bus was traveling on.

Time seemed to lose all meaning in this cramped space.

Suddenly.

The "passenger" sitting in the single seat directly in front of Lin Ye moved.

It was a figure wearing a yellowed white raincoat.

Its shoulders began to twitch stiffly, as if rusty gears were being forced to turn.

Drops of thick, black liquid dripped from the hem of its raincoat, landing drip-drip in the aisle in front of Lin Ye's knees.

Then.

The head that had been buried deep against its chest began to snap backward a full ninety degrees.

A pale, bloated face covered in green algae appeared upside down in the line of sight of Lin Ye and the others.

There were no whites in its eyes; there were only two bottomless black holes.

Its mouth hung wide open, with waterweeds and silt pouring out from its oral cavity.

It just hung its head upside down, staring fixedly at Lin Ye and Frost Star, who were sitting in the last row.

An intense, unshakable malice and probing intent spread like a festering sore.

The temperature inside the carriage plummeted again, and even the air they breathed out turned into ice crystals.

Fatty Wang, in the seat next to them, was already rolling his eyes in terror, on the verge of passing out.

Lin Ye's heart tightened.

He understood that this was the Water Ghosts on the bus testing the background of these few "living people."

Once they showed any flaw, it would immediately invite a frenzied counterattack from all the vengeful spirits on the bus.

Just as Lin Ye was secretly channeling his Pure Yang Qi, ready to strike at any moment.

The system's notification sound rang out crisply in his mind.

"Ding! "My Lord, Please Behave Yourself" System notification: Detected that the host is encountering a face-to-face probe from a ghost bus passenger. The current atmosphere has reached a terror critical point. Please make a decision within three minutes to break the deadlock!"

[Option A: Scream – Play the part of a qualified horror movie cannon fodder, scream at the top of your lungs, and try to smash the window to escape.]

[Reward: Dolphin voice proficiency +100. Consequence: Triggers the bloodthirsty instincts of all the fierce ghosts on the bus. You will be torn to shreds, and Leng Yue will be forced to flip the entire bus early to save you, cutting off the clues.]

[Option B: Pure Yang Explosion – Take out the Three Yang Subtle Fire Talisman, slap it onto that bloated face, and shout, "Die, monster!"]

[Reward: Obtain the title "Reckless Man." Consequence: The battle breaks out early, violating the host's original intention of "investigating the destination in secret," and it is easy to accidentally injure Fatty Wang in the narrow space.]

[Option C: If the enemy doesn't move, I don't move; apply counter-pressure – Remain still, and use the rank-based pressure of your zombie wife and your own mental fortitude to give this ignorant Water Ghost a minor shock.]

[Reward: Husband Points +200, obtain Mystical Artifact [Breath Concealment Talisman] x4.]

Lin Ye naturally wouldn't choose wrong when faced with an option that tested his composure.

"I choose C."

His intention settled.

Lin Ye leaned back against the seat, his face devoid of any expression, without even a muscle twitching.

He returned the gaze of the horrific, upside-down Water Ghost face with indifference, as if he were looking at a piece of lifeless, worn-out furniture.

Feeling Lin Ye's calm, Frost Star, sitting on his lap, became even more unbridled.

The little girl lifted her head from the crook of Lin Ye's neck.

Her originally clear left eye was instantly swallowed by an abyss-like darkness, while her right eye erupted with a scarlet, blood-red light.

A corner of her mouth split into an exaggerated arc, and her two sharp fangs glinted with a chilling light.

Frost Star stared at the Water Ghost, stuck out her pink tongue, and slowly licked her lips.

She didn't release any aura; relying solely on that gaze of extreme hunger, she pierced directly through the Water Ghost's remnant intelligence.

In the Water Ghost's empty black eye sockets, a trace of human-like, extreme fear flashed eerily.

Its upside-down head made a "click-clack" sound and retracted as if it had been electrocuted.

Subsequently, its whole body, like a frightened quail, pressed tightly against the back of the seat in front, not daring to move a single inch.

It wasn't just it.

The passengers in the carriage who had been subtly restless and attempting to turn their heads seemed to have simultaneously felt the absolute crushing pressure from the back row, and one after another, they buried their heads lower.

The carriage returned to a deathly silence.

Only the roar of the aging engine echoed lonely in the thick fog.

"Husband has great composure."

Leng Yue's voice came through their mental connection.

She tightened her grip on Lin Ye's hand slightly, her fingertips brushing lightly against his palm, bringing a tingling sensation.

Lin Ye squeezed her hand back, remaining outwardly composed, though his back was already soaked in a layer of fine sweat.

In this claustrophobic and terrifying space, sharing a room with a group of earth-bound vengeful spirits of unknown origin was a test of mental fortitude far greater than a direct magical battle.

"Ding! Option task completed, Husband Points +200, current points: 2450. Mystical Artifact [Breath Concealment Talisman] x4 has been issued to the system space."

With a thought from Lin Ye, two yellow paper talismans, as thin as cicada wings, appeared out of thin air between his fingers.

He flicked his finger, and a Breath Concealment Talisman stuck to Fatty Wang's back, helping this fatty, who was about to be scared out of his wits, completely seal off the leakage of his Yang Qi.

The other one he kept in his palm for emergencies.

"Clunk!"

The bus violently rolled over a huge pothole, and the vehicle shook intensely.

The thick fog outside the windows began to change.

The originally white fog gradually became tinged with a dim, dark red glow.

The scenery on both sides of the road was no longer desolate weeds; rows of strange architectural ruins vaguely emerged.

Those buildings looked like ancient memorial archways, their surfaces covered in mottled moss, with green ghost fires faintly drifting around them.

Lin Ye narrowed his eyes, staring intently through the window at the changes outside.

"This is not the scenery of the outskirts of Jiangzhou City."

Lin Ye's brows were furrowed deep.

This No. 404 ghost bus had clearly pierced through the barrier between the living and the dead, driving into a ghost realm space constructed entirely of dense Yin Qi.

What made him feel even more uneasy was:

As the vehicle drove deeper, a huge black city gate appeared at the end of the road ahead.

Above the city gate, three large characters were carved in an ancient seal script.

Even through the thick fog, the monstrous resentment radiating from those three characters still made one feel a palpitation of the heart.

That was a place from legend that had only ever appeared in ancient, fragmented texts—

[City of Wrongful Deaths]

"These Water Ghosts actually found the entrance to an abandoned city of the Underworld." Lin Ye clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white.

The destination of this "free sightseeing bus" was far beyond his expectations.