Chapter 113: The Old Comrade from the Supernatural Disaster Bureau

A harsh creak rang out.

The yellow lights far down the alley gradually grew larger until the battered Bus 444 came to a stop in front of everyone. This was their second time boarding this vehicle. Internally, Gao Tian felt far calmer than the first time.

Their luck seemed pretty good. Aside from the four of them, there wasn't a single ghost passenger on the bus.

While choosing a seat, Gao Tian reached into the Mirror he carried and pulled out a stack of smaller ones.

He tucked one into every possible corner and beneath every seat inside the bus.

This was preparation for any accidents on the road ahead.

As the four settled into their seats, the red sign displayed the passenger count as 4. The dilapidated bus's engine ignited and set off once more, driving toward the boundless gray sea in the distance.

The atmosphere among the four in the carriage was heavy. Although Jiang Yang and the others didn't know about the Future Urn's prophecy, they instinctively felt that the setup and requirements of this task were bizarre.

Gao Tian unscrewed the Luck Jar, releasing a portion of his Ghost Luck.

Although the prophecies from the Future Urn were fragmented, one detail remained consistent: the exact moment of his death would absolutely take place inside a Buddhist temple, not on a broken-down bus.

That meant whatever was going to kill Gao Tian would be waiting for him at Longshu Temple. The probability of an accident happening on the bus was slim.

"I've ridden the Supernatural Bus more than once, and I don't ever recall the schedule having a stop called Longshu Temple."

Jiang Yang shut his mouth right after saying that.

Because between two of the stops, an extra stop had actually appeared out of thin air—Longshu Temple.

This temple was truly special, actually capable of making Bus 444 adjust its route just for it.

"How fun."

Lan Zhu toyed with the Dog Leash, looking extremely excited. "When are the ghost passengers getting on? I can't wait to vote."

Just then, the emotionless broadcast inside the bus rang out: "Moonlight Asylum, arriving soon.

"Passengers who need to disembark, please gather your personal belongings and exit through the rear doors."

The vehicle pulled into its first stop.

Through the windows, Gao Tian couldn't see the outside scenery clearly, but in the waiting room of this stop, a crimson dot kept flashing.

It looked like a ghost passenger was about to board. The good news was, there was only one.

Clack, clack. The sound of heavy leather shoes stepping onto the floorboards approached step by step.

Appearing before them was a rustic old man wearing a military overcoat. The fiery dot they had seen in the waiting room earlier was nothing more than the lit Smoking Pipe in his hand.

A human?

Gao Tian, Jiang Yang, and the others observed him. This old man had no signs of rot on his body, nor did he possess any malformed organs. Outwardly, he looked entirely human.

Anyone who dared to come to the Inner World single-handedly was the most ruthless of the ruthless. Take that man named Shen Nian, for example; to find his child, he had actually wandered the Inner World for over a month.

Who knew how Shen Nian was doing right now, or if he was even still alive after entering Blood Door Village.

He glanced at the old man but did not speak. You couldn't judge a ghost by its cover. Who knew what this old man was hiding beneath his overcoat, or if speaking to him would trigger some entity's Killing Rule.

While the group was still carefully observing this new passenger, the old man smiled, his face wrinkling up, and found a seat. He pointed to himself and proactively introduced himself. "Me? I'm an old comrade from the Supernatural Disaster Bureau. I ate too much after dinner, so I came to the Inner World for a stroll.

"My name is Wang Jianguo, but you can call me Old Wang. What are your names, kids? Which stop are you heading to? Let's see if we're going the same way."

Gao Tian had no impression of this old man. Why would someone from the Supernatural Disaster Bureau appear in the Inner World?

From what he recalled, weren't they a group of people in black uniforms moving in perfect unison? How could they be like this old man, acting so undisciplined?

He didn't look like a well-trained ghost hunter at all.

Could it be—that person?

The name was wrong.

Was it because big shots liked to use fake names?

Several possibilities flashed through Gao Tian's mind, but he didn't jump to conclusions.

Regardless, the upcoming Longshu Temple was the most pressing matter. The probability of Old Man Sun riding the same bus as him was so low it was practically zero.

Jiang Yang stared fixedly at this strange old man who claimed to be from the Supernatural Disaster Bureau, fully on guard and not saying a word.

He wasn't a three-year-old child. If the old man said he was from the Supernatural Disaster Bureau, did that mean he definitely was?

In the Inner World, the probability of bumping into a ghost was tens of thousands of times higher than running into a living person. What kind of Supernatural Disaster Bureau personnel would run into the Inner World for a post-dinner stroll without any preparation whatsoever?

It was far too abnormal.

Among the four of them, Lan Zhu, who had the lowest guard, actively struck up a conversation with him. "Hey old man, you're this old and you still come to the Inner World for a walk? If you run into bad guys, can those old legs of yours even get away?

"We're going to Longshu Temple. Have you heard of Longshu Temple? It's a newly added stop—it wasn't there before. It was set up specifically for us.

"Isn't big sis amazing?"

Unexpectedly, upon hearing the words "Longshu Temple," the old man's cheerful, relaxed expression vanished in an instant. "You're going to Longshu Temple? Why didn't you tell me you were going to Pagoda Primary School?

"A bunch of unlucky fools rushing to your deaths. Once we reach the Old District, I'm getting off. You can go wherever the hell you want."

Gao Tian couldn't help but chuckle.

Just the name of the Longshu Temple stop scared the old man this much?

Was he playing the fool, or was he hinting at something?

The old man on the bus clamored to get off. Right at that moment, the Supernatural Bus, which had been driving through the Inner World for some time, began to decelerate. Simultaneously, the female broadcast announced, "Corpse-Sewing Alley, arriving soon.

"Passengers who need to disembark, please gather your personal belongings and exit through the rear doors."

Gao Tian frowned.

He remembered that the last time they came here, Corpse-Sewing Alley was a stop much further down the line, right before Pagoda Primary School.

Why had it been moved to the front this time?

He raised his head and double-checked the schedule on the bus.

Sure enough.

The order of every stop had been scrambled.

The Inner World was truly a chaotic place beyond comprehension. The order of the bus stops here changed every single time.

Watching the old man make a racket, Jiang Yang worried he might attract something nasty and said softly, "Old sir, the Old District is just the next stop.

"Longshu Temple is still a long way off. Just bear with it a little longer; no one is forcing you to get off at Longshu Temple—"

Internally, he felt even more certain that this old man either had senile dementia or was hiding a major problem.

Halfway through his sentence, Jiang Yang's voice jammed like a misfiring pistol.

Heavy footsteps echoed from outside the bus stop. As a shadow gradually expanded, a "passenger" dragged its massive frame, struggling to board the vehicle.

The entire carriage tilted toward the right.

When they managed to get a slightly clearer look at the boarding passenger, all the living people in the bus silently sucked in a breath of cold air.

Only that lunatic Lan Zhu, despite gasping in shock, didn't forget to pull out a mobile phone to snap pictures.

It truly lived up to coming from Corpse-Sewing Alley.

The first things to grip the front of the bus and pull themselves up were five arms sewn together, followed by three legs hoisting themselves aboard. Four heads attached to a single chest peeked around as they squeezed into the carriage. "Its" body was simply too colossal. Stuffing the remaining fifteen arms, eight chests, four backs, and six pairs of thighs from outside into the bus was clearly an extremely difficult task.

The angle of the carriage tilting to the right progressively increased. The floorboards of the bus began to groan in agony.

One could easily imagine just how enormous this "passenger" pressing down on it was.

Which morgue had let its corpses out for a team-building exercise? Even before it fully entered the carriage, Gao Tian could already smell the thick stench of rotting flesh that not even a dense scent of formalin could mask.

Fortunately, this was only "one" passenger.

Gao Tian could only comfort himself with that thought.

The first to let out a cry of alarm was Wang Wenbo. When Gao Tian saw the red sign recording the passenger count continuously ticking upward, the last trace of a bitter smile froze on his lips.

5

7

12

14

21

Good lord, it really was out for team-building.

Corpse-Sewing Alley really only turned out top-tier goods. With such a massive fatty stitched together from so many corpse pieces, there was no way it would count as just one ticket after boarding. The Supernatural Bus directly ruled that this guy counted as over a dozen passengers.

By the time the red sign jumped to 33, only a third of this stitched abomination's body had barely squeezed into the bus, while a mound the size of a small hill dragged outside. Dozens of heads, arms, and stomachs still hadn't been pulled in.

From amidst the mountain of corpses, countless hands slowly reached out through the thick layers of fat. At the very least, dozens of arms pointed one by one at Gao Tian, Jiang Yang, Lan Zhu, Wang Wenbo, and the old man.

Even if all the living people on the bus added their numbers together, they wouldn't amount to as many as this single stitched abomination.

Red crosses appeared above their heads one by one; they had undoubtedly lost the vote and were stripped of their passenger qualifications.

It seemed today's Fortune was truly terrible. Under these circumstances, Gao Tian didn't bother wasting words; he directly activated the Mirror Ghost and pulled himself into the Mirror World.

At the same time, Gao Tian had long since placed a small mirror behind Jiang Yang, Wang Wenbo, and Lan Zhu, precisely to prevent a moment like this. Bloody hands reached out, instantly pulling the three team members inside to hide them.

Having already left the bus and entered behind the mirrors, Gao Tian looked through the glass at the carriage outside. He hesitated for a second before reaching out with a bloody hand once more. This time, he grabbed toward the old comrade from the Supernatural Disaster Bureau who called himself Wang Jianguo.

Regardless of who he was or whether he was hiding his true strength, since they were all humans, it was better to help out in times of danger if possible. "Old sir, there's no room for the living to stand in this carriage anymore. I'm pulling you into the Mirror—"

The blood-red hand pressed against the old man's military overcoat. The old man clearly heard Gao Tian's voice but still struggled. "What are you doing, young man?

"A perfectly fine human being, why are you making yourself look like a ghost?

"Let me go! I don't want to go into that godforsaken place. Who knows if you're even a good person."

With the power of the Mirror Ghost, it was entirely possible to forcefully drag someone into the Mirror.

However, since the old man was so resistant to being pulled into the Mirror World, he might have had his own plans. Gao Tian didn't force it; the hand slowly retracted into the mirror surface, leaving him be.

At the front doors, the body of that stitched monster, made up of countless corpses, still carried a terrifying sense of oppression as it continuously squeezed toward the back of the carriage.

Behind the mirrors, Gao Tian and the others watched as the outside carriage was gradually stuffed full.

Good lord. If he had encountered this on the bus before mastering the Mirror Ghost, there was a high probability he would already be dead.

This thing was composed of so many corpses and possessed such thick layers of fat. Even if he hacked at it with the Terror Blade, he wasn't guaranteed to cut through its outermost ring.

The old man shook out his military overcoat, evidently very dissatisfied with the bloody hand that had pressed down on his shoulder.

The next second, he felt some kind of shadow slowly surging closer.

He raised his head. The amalgamation of countless corpses, with its four pathfinding skulls at the front, turned in the old man's direction and simultaneously bloomed into twisted, radiant smiles.