Chapter 26 Part 2

Little Sister’s Family: Excellent point.

University Student Ghosts: Absolutely correct.

The gazes the two groups of ghosts directed at each other grew more ferocious by the second. The little sister threatened, “Her Yang energy is so blazingly hot! You guys can’t even get close to her. I suggest you wise up and don’t interfere with our hunt!”

The braided girl’s eyes were red, as if about to drip blood. “Anyone can make threats! Getting the permit depends on real ability!”

Ghosts, especially Fierce Ghosts, often grew more malevolent and obsessive the angrier they became. Just as Zhu Ming said, both groups knew the other wouldn’t give up easily.

The little sister crunched down on her lollipop. As the male university student ghost doubled over, clutching his stomach uncontrollably, she lashed out with her sharp claws, directly tearing open his chest and abdomen. The university-student ghost screamed, scrambling backward on all fours. More than anything, he desperately needed to find a bathroom!

The little girl let out a grating, cackling laugh. No one knew better than her what consequences eating her candy would bring. It wouldn’t just work on the Awakened, but even on other ghostly competitors. Of course, everyone was well aware of each other’s tricks and would never normally eat another ghost’s food. For this, they had that fussy, troublesome big sister to thank.

“In your current state, you think you’re worthy of fighting me? Get lost!”

The braided girl’s mouth was a mess of razor-sharp teeth. She’d known the consequences of eating the candy but still chose to take the risk. She hadn’t done all that just to be scared off by a few words of a threat.

As the little sister gloated, the braided girl lunged, tackling her into a tumbling roll.

The two immediately became a tangled brawl.

They were all ghosts, and their basic fighting methods were similar. The little sister had been an Awakened in life and retained her abilities in death. But she was, after all, a child, and not as ruthlessly cunning as the braided girl. For a moment, neither could gain the upper hand.

The intellectual beauty wife-ghost, whose current countenance was anything but intellectual or beautiful, now had her face crisscrossed with fissures, just like her husband. From the corner of her eye, she noticed that at some point, Zhu Ming had moved to the seat closest to the door and was watching the fight with great amusement, legs crossed.

The wife-ghost hurriedly cried out, “Stop fighting! If we miss the time, she’ll escape! This person isn’t as easy to deal with as you think! Let’s kill her first, then discuss the permit’s ownership afterwards!”

A valid point.

The little sister and the braided girl glared daggers at each other, finally releasing their now-battered opponent. In an instant, several pairs of baleful ghost eyes swiveled simultaneously toward Zhu Ming.

The little sister ghost, despite having no eyes, had no trouble seeing her. “Big Sister, you’re so wicked, instigating a fight between us.”

Zhu Ming was even more wicked than she suggested. “Not at all. Don’t you think a dog-eat-dog show is incredibly entertaining?”

The ghosts were enraged. Already brimming with resentment, this provocation was all it took. Without any further need for discussion, they all lunged at her with claws and fangs bared.

Zhu Ming, who had just a moment ago been so “weak” and “twisting her ankle,” rose from her seat. “I was getting stiff from sitting so long. Time to loosen up a bit.”

The family of three ghosts charged at Zhu Ming in a pincer formation. The braided girl attacked her lower body. And those two male university-student ghosts… ahem, had already made a desperate, unstoppable beeline for the restroom, completely abandoning the fight.

Zhu Ming cracked her knuckles. She didn’t have her crowbar handy for long-range attacks, but that was fine…

Under the murky yellow light, the woman in black was as agile as a cat. Her hand hooked the luggage rack, her waist and back arching as she sprang into the air. Still airborne, she twisted at the waist to orient herself, landing with pinpoint precision behind one of the ghosts. In a flash, Zhu Ming’s left and right hands struck simultaneously—hooking one ghost head in each arm—and then, BAM!, she slammed the two heads together.

The two adult ghosts slid limply toward the floor, a searing, piercing pain radiating from the back of their skulls. The woman’s Scorching Yang Energy was terrifyingly potent!

In that instant, the two ghosts collapsed on top of the braided girl. The little ghost, however, was swift and agile, having lunged first. She had just missed, crashing into the window glass. Bouncing back, she shot straight for Zhu Ming’s face.

Zhu Ming crouched down onto the backs of the three piled-up ghosts, her knees applying steady force to pin them down. She didn’t dodge or retreat. Instead, she spread her five fingers wide open and met the little sister’s attack head-on, their fingers interlocking in a solid clasp.

The little sister froze. It was the first such experience of her ghostly existence.

Zhu Ming smiled. “Don’t worry, I don’t have that kind of fetish.”

With that, the fingers and wrist twisted and wrenched simultaneously, rotating the ghost claw and snapping it downward!

A violent wave of agony hit. Everywhere they made contact with Zhu Ming, plumes of darkness billowed out. The little ghost let out a shrill, piercing scream, frantically trying to claw at Zhu Ming with her other hand. Unfortunately for her, Zhu Ming also had a free hand and caught it perfectly. Crack! With a brutal twist of the wrist, ten razor-sharp claws, too long and unwieldy for dexterity, were aimed down with deadly precision and driven straight into the ghost back beneath Zhu Ming’s knee.

The innocent husband-ghost, the unlucky pincushion: “AAARGH!!!”

A truly heart-piercing, mind-blowing experience. Black smoke rose from the wound at the husband-ghost’s back, merging with the smoke sizzling from his contact with Zhu Ming. In the blink of an eye, the husband-ghost’s expression froze in terror and he died on the spot. His ghostly body, just like a human corpse, displayed large swathes of horrific burns and mutilated, bloodied flesh. A pool of dark, crimson gore spread across the floor.

Zhu Ming released the pressure from her knees, hooked a foot under the husband-ghost and flung him aside, still holding the little ghost’s hands.

The little ghost’s face was a mask of terror. Seeing her own mother was likely next, she flailed wildly, yanking her entire body backward.

Her claws were fiendishly sharp and slippery. Zhu Ming’s grip slipped for a split second, and the little ghost broke free. Just as she was about to go after the fleeing specter, a grating creak echoed near her ear.

She turned her head. The carriage doors, which had been shut tight the entire time, were finally opening. Countless doors, at the front and back of multiple carriages, all opened simultaneously.

Zhu Ming blinked, looking forward and then back.

Ahead was Car No. 17, behind was Car No. 19. Both were empty of ghosts.

A single participant, looking utterly miserable, threw himself into Car No. 17. He’d come from Car No. 16. The ghosts chasing him hadn’t followed; they stopped at the doorway of Car No. 16, unmoving, tracking him only with their eyes.

And through the now-open doors, Zhu Ming saw that Car No. 20 was a scene of carnage, splattered with blood. The person inside was likely dead. Further carriages showed signs of human activity, but the specifics were hard to make out.

Zhu Ming rubbed her chin, considering whether to change carriages.

The one pinned beneath her knee was now the wife-ghost. The area of contact hissed and sizzled like meat on a grill. The wife-ghost shrieked in agony, but wasn’t dissipating just yet.

Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through Zhu Ming’s ankle. Looking down, she saw the braided girl had viciously thrust her head out from under the wife-ghost and sunk her teeth into Zhu Ming’s leg.

Zhu Ming raised an eyebrow. A moment later, the blood dripping from Zhu Ming’s ankle onto the wife-ghost burned several bloody holes into her spectral flesh. Simultaneously, the braided girl’s mouthful of sharp, pearly, beautiful teeth… vanished.

Braided Girl: “…”

Seizing the moment Zhu Ming was distracted, the little ghost, trembling with fear, grabbed her mother’s arm and began dragging her away. At the exact same time, Zhu Ming’s sharp eyes caught the crucial detail: the doors, open for barely a minute, were slowly, silently, starting to close!

There was no time to waste. Zhu Ming pressed her hand against the back of the wife-ghost’s skull. A surge of blazing Scorching Yang Energy, accompanied by a tiny flicker of flame, burrowed inside. Puff! A muffled, small explosion. The wife-ghost bled from all seven orifices and stopped moving.

Watching the show had wasted too much time. There was no opportunity left to deal with the remaining ghosts. Zhu Ming lunged straight for Car No. 17, slipping through just before the door sealed shut.

The little ghost, having lost both parents in quick succession, was consumed by hatred so fierce her ghost body warped and bristled like a hedgehog. She threw herself against the door separating Carriages 17 and 18, shrieking insanely. Even though the door hadn’t fully sealed, an invisible barrier blocked the little ghost from entering Car No. 17.

Zhu Ming narrowed her eyes. “Want to go reunite with your parents? Let me help you.”

She stepped forward, ready to send the little ghost to her final death, only to discover she too was blocked by the invisible door and couldn’t return.

Unable to perform this last good deed, Zhu Ming felt a flicker of regret.

Turning around, she found a strange girl staring at her with extreme wariness. “Hello, I’m a participant. You are too, right?”

Zhu Ming nodded, showing her Invitation Letter by way of confirmation.

The girl’s expression eased somewhat, though fear still lingered. She initiated a friendly gesture. “You’re amazing. An attack-type supernatural ability, right? All those ghosts ganging up on you couldn’t win. You’ll definitely pass this dungeon for sure.”

Zhu Ming blinked. “What about you? What type?”

The girl said, “My ability is a speed boost.”

It was by relying on this ability, kiting the ghosts, that she had survived until now.

“That’s pretty impressive too,” Zhu Ming said politely, then picked a seat to rest in. Although she’d relieved the braided girl of her teeth, that mouthful of razor-sharp ghost fangs had still left a deep, severe wound on her ankle.

The girl sat down in the four-seat row across from Zhu Ming and introduced herself. “Because I run fast, my friends gave me the nickname ‘Gazelle Legs.’ I said that was too ugly, couldn’t they call me ‘Leg Spirit’? They said that was false advertising. ‘Miss Legs’ was acceptable, but ‘Leg Spirit’ was a no-go. Over time, ‘Miss Legs’ became my nickname. You can call me that, too.”

Zhu Ming asked, “Do you want to team up?”

Miss Legs nodded eagerly. “The dungeon just started. Even though I’m not much of a fighter, I might be useful later on.” Fighting wasn’t her thing, but running? She was the best.

Zhu Ming said, “My name is Zhu Ming. Teaming up is fine, but I have a companion in this dungeon. I need to find her.”

Miss Legs didn’t hesitate. “These carriages are all more or less the same. I’ll go with you.”

“Then, can you tell me what happened to your finger?”

Miss Legs’s face paled. She nervously raised her left little finger. The finger was a mangled, bloody mess, the nail completely gone.

If a ghost had torn it off during the “nighttime,” the injury shouldn’t have been confined to just one little finger.

“I traded my fingernail for Food Tickets,” Miss Legs said. “What did you use to trade? You look… fine, nothing’s missing. Wait, you didn’t trade away that Ride Permit, did you?! Don’t! That thing is clearly super important!”

Zhu Ming looked at her, shocked. “I didn’t trade it. I’m only now discovering… you can’t judge a book by its cover, and you can’t measure the ocean’s depth with a bushel.”

She never would have guessed. Miss Legs seemed so timid, yet could be so ruthless to herself.

They’d only exchanged a few sentences when the murky yellow overhead lights began to flicker again. Both immediately stopped talking, their vigilance snapping back to the surrounding environment.

Zhu Ming leaned against the small table to peer out the window. Ahead of the train, a dazzling, blinding white light, like the midday sun, was swallowing the speeding locomotive. It looked like they were about to exit the tunnel!

Sure enough, as they burst out of that white light, the scenery outside transformed abruptly. Gone was the pure darkness, replaced by deep forests and lush summer foliage. The temperature inside the carriage also shifted drastically, quickly soaring upward.

At the same moment, a cacophony of lively, bustling sounds filled their ears. The people who had vanished during the “nighttime” had reappeared.

Next to Miss Legs sat three dark-skinned, tall men in tattered clothes and straw sandals. Next to Zhu Ming were three chatting, laughing men… wearing Magua jackets and sporting long braids.

Well. The passengers in this carriage were certainly dressed in a vintage style.

Perhaps because they were remnants from the Qing Dynasty, men and women were seated separately. Even as ghosts, they followed the old rules—showing just how deeply social conventions can be ingrained in a person.