Chapter 432: Next Station

"Lu Xing?" The conductor stood next to my seat. After verifying my name several times, she pulled out a Yellow Leather Notebook. She spent a long time checking off names inside it before looking up at me with a frown. "I did find your name on the list, but..."

Her unfinished sentence sent a jolt of alarm through me. If the conductor had found Lu Xing's name on the passenger list, didn't that mean Lu Xing was already dead?

"But what?" I strained my ears. This was a matter of life and death; I couldn't afford to miss a single word she said.

"Lu Xing should have boarded on October 29th, so why are you in the October 28th Carriage?" The conductor raised an eyebrow, hugging the Yellow Leather Notebook to her chest. "Are you truly Lu Xing?"

"Why would I fake that? I've been using this name for twenty or thirty years."

"You had better think very carefully before answering. A name is fused with the bloodline and engraved into your destiny. Even if people share the same name, they cannot share the same fate. If you are lying, I have plenty of ways to verify it, and by then, it will be far too late for regrets."

An incredibly dangerous aura radiated from the conductor. A flicker of worry hid in my eyes, but I refused to back down. "A true man never changes his name. I am Lu Xing."

"If you really are Lu Xing, someone who was supposed to board on the twenty-ninth, how could you have boarded early? Was there some kind of oversight?" the conductor muttered to herself, sinking into deep thought.

I struck while the iron was hot. "I did board during the very last seconds of the twenty-eighth, after all. Besides, right before I got on, I was being hunted by a Blood Fox. Anyone could tell that thing wasn't a mortal creature. It probably transcended reincarnation a long time ago—maybe it has the power to disrupt the natural order."

"A Blood Fox?" Seeing the conductor repeatedly muttering the name, I figured I must have hit the jackpot through dumb luck. The conductor of this bizarre train had likely seen the Blood Fox at the previous station as well.

"You boarded in the final second of October twenty-eighth. Looking at it that way, it's indeed possible that the Blood Fox's appearance changed everything." The conductor's expression grew ferocious as she spoke, her facial features shifting slightly out of place. Combined with her deathly pale face, the sight was deeply unsettling. "This is why I despise things that break free from Destiny and dare to defy the heavens."

It was a long time before she reverted to her original appearance, her features sliding back into their proper places. She yanked me up from my seat. "Your seat is in the October 29th Carriage. Come with me. We are arriving at the station soon anyway."

My heart pounded rapidly at her last sentence. 'Arriving at the station soon? Doesn't that mean I have a chance to get off?'

As long as I escaped this train, my streaming mission would be complete. This broadcast was extremely unusual. Given the choice, I would jump off and run for my life immediately.

Standing up calmly, I cast a parting glance at the remaining three people in their seats. The homeless man, Old Ge, and Liu Xin sat with their heads lowered in total silence, while Feng Minglong stretched his back with an expression of sheer relief, looking as if he had finally been saved.

'There's something different about this Feng Minglong.' Where There's Abnormality, There's a Monster, but I could barely protect myself right now. As long as he didn't try to harm me, I wouldn't go out of my way to investigate him.

I left my seat and followed the conductor, but I hadn't gone more than a few steps before I stopped in my tracks, a hint of surprise flashing in my eyes.

Liu Xin's parents happened to be sitting directly behind her. The small restaurant's owner and his wife sat shoulder to shoulder, their heads bowed in a deep sleep. The only thing separating them from their daughter was the back of a single chair.

To the naked eye, it was a distance of mere centimeters, but in reality, it might as well have been an uncrossable chasm. Neither side was aware of the other, and no matter how much noise was made, it was impossible to catch the other party's attention.

I thought back to the story Liu Xin had just told: the female college student sitting in a taxi, desperately making phone calls, frantically urging the driver to go faster. Right up until the final moment of her life, she was still clutching a phone with a shattered screen.

'Her calls probably never went through, did they?'

I wanted to point them out to Liu Xin, but the conductor was standing right beside me, keeping a strict eye on my every move, so I was forced to drop the idea.

Following the conductor all the way to the back of the October 28th Carriage felt like a long journey. The carriage was much longer than I had imagined.

"Wait here for a moment. We're about to arrive at the station." The conductor let go of my arm. Her action only strengthened my burning desire to make a run for the door. The exit was right in front of me. As soon as it opened, I would rush out, and today's broadcast would be a complete success.

The conductor and I stood in the connecting area between the two carriages. She didn't notice anything unusual about me, her attention wholly focused on the Yellow Leather Notebook in her hands as she continually crossed out one name after another. Standing off to the side, I stealthily peeked at the pages from the corner of my eye.

'Lu Wenchang, Lu Ming, Fei Xiao, Chang Feifei, Lu Xing...'

She moved quickly. Just as she crossed out the final name, the train began to decelerate. Through the window, I could vaguely make out the scenery outside. The thick, oppressive darkness broke, giving way to the blurry silhouettes of buildings.

"We've arrived."

Without a single broadcast announcement, the train rolled to a steady stop, and the doors slowly slid open.

My throat bobbed, and I instinctively edged toward the doors. But I only made it half a step before my back went completely stiff, as if a sharp awl were pressed right against a vital point on my spine.

"What... do you think you're doing?"

The conductor's sinister voice hissed right by my ear. I offered a sheepish chuckle and quickly stepped back. "I was just curious about where we had stopped."

"I will assign you a seat, but you need to remember one thing: once you board this train, you can banish any thought of getting off. There are many carriages here, and every single one serves a different purpose. If it weren't out of respect for that three-lifetime virtuous person, you would have already been relocated to another carriage."

I had no idea what her mention of "another carriage" implied, nor did I have any desire to find out. Suppressing a shiver, I nodded emphatically, not daring to make another reckless move.

I watched the doors fully open. One by one, silhouettes that had been waiting in the darkness filed inside, shuffling into the October 29th Carriage under the conductor's guidance.

The figures moved with astonishing speed. Even with my Judging Eye activated, I could barely make out their outlines. 'Why are there so many disabled passengers boarding at this station?'

Paraplegics, one-armed individuals, dwarfs—they supported one another as they entered the carriage. If they hadn't been slowed down by their need to assist each other, I wouldn't have been able to track their movements even with my Judging Eye.

'Strange. Did some major incident happen in Jiangcheng on October twenty-ninth?' My mind raced, but I quickly realized the flaw in my logic. The train had been traveling steadily north through the tunnel; we should have left Jiangcheng a long time ago. 'Further north of Jiangcheng... then this place must be Xinhu.'

I covertly peered out the window. The worn, dilapidated facilities on the platform looked as if they had been abandoned for ages. Pushing my Judging Eye to its absolute limit, I finally managed to make out the three words written above the station entrance: Shuangfo Station.

'This is the Xinhu Double Buddha District!' A flash of realization hit me. 'If we're in Shuangfo District, that perfectly explains why there's such a high proportion of disabled passengers boarding.'

I had been to Shuangfo District before. Walking down the streets there, it was common to see disabled people everywhere. Even then, I had found the sight bizarre, but looking back on it now, it felt increasingly unnatural.

'Shuangfo District is the Two-Faced Buddha's stronghold, and it's also where Li Changgui, the former richest man of Xinhu, lived in seclusion. For so many disabled people to appear in his territory...' I narrowed my eyes. 'Let's look at this from another angle. Maybe these people weren't originally disabled, but ended up this way due to the Two-Faced Buddha's influence.'

The more I considered it, the more alarmed I became. My gaze toward the boarding passengers slowly shifted. 'The answer lies with them. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!'

My urge to force my way off the train faded significantly. The Underworld Live Show would never assign me a meaningless task. The crucial clue to breaking this deadlock had to be hiding among these disabled passengers.

I stood in absolute silence, watching them file into the October 29th Carriage. Slowly, the figures lingering outside the train dwindled, and the long line grew shorter and shorter.

Just as the train shuddered, preparing to depart, my eyes shot wide open. At the very end of the boarding line, I suddenly caught sight of an incredibly familiar face.

'Lu Xing!'

My mind reeled in shock. Keeping my head lowered, I ducked half my body behind the conductor, carefully observing Lu Xing's every move.

He wore a baseball cap, the brim pulled low to obscure his face—one half hideously scarred, the other strikingly handsome. His expression was dark and sinister. He didn't notice me watching him from inside the train. Instead, both his hands were tightly wrapped around that half of the Fate Manipulator Token. The veins bulged on his arms, making it obvious just how tense he was in this moment.

'Half a token? Could that be the key?'