Chapter 448: Where to Go

This woman, who bore a striking resemblance to Lu Xing, stood blocking the carriage door. The situation was critical; her reaction would mean life or death for Wang Shi and me.

She recognized me, too. Frowning slightly, she kept one hand hidden inside her sleeve, as if preparing some kind of lethal strike.

"You two know each other?" Wang Shi had a sharp eye, picking up on the subtle dynamic between us with a single glance. "Number Twelve, who is this?"

I shook my head, having no idea who she really was. "We're both passengers from the October 29th Carriage."

"Since we're all passengers, it's only natural that we work together." Wang Shi offered a warm smile. Looking at him now, one would never guess he had just slammed an iron door shut, personally cutting off his own companion's only means of survival. "Give us a hand. This door is our last hope."

The train had not yet come to a complete stop, and the exterior doors were still closed. From within the October 28th Carriage, the conductress was sprinting madly toward us, drawing closer by the second.

We scrambled to brace ourselves against the iron door between the two carriages. After a brief moment of hesitation, the strange woman not only refused to help but deliberately backed far away.

Her actions annoyed Wang Shi and me, but this was no time to argue.

"Crash!"

The monster that had once been the conductress slammed solidly into the connecting iron door. The glass shattered. The deafening impact sent Feng Minglong stumbling backward until he landed flat on his ass.

"Useless trash! Get over here!" Wang Shi cursed. The train was slowly grinding to a halt, and in this life-or-death moment, every ounce of strength mattered.

"You can't escape! I'll frame you in portraits and hang you in this train for all eternity!" The conductress battered the door. The carriages behind her had already descended into absolute chaos. The passengers in the October 27th Carriage had been awakened to the memories of their own deaths, sprinting and screaming through the aisles. That deafening noise woke the passengers in the October 28th Carriage as well.

One broken, bloody figure after another stood up from their seats. Through the small window, the scene in the other carriage looked like hell itself.

As their memories returned, the passengers reverted to their exact state at the moment of death. Some had died of illness in a hospital, their flesh still peppered with the dense needle marks of frequent injections. Others had died in car crashes, their bodies mangled and altered beyond recognition as they ran through the carriage on twisted, unnaturally folded torsos.

There were simply too many of them. Complete chaos broke out across several carriages as panicked passengers fled down the aisles. Most of them had no idea they were already dead, and seeing the state of the people around them only sparked a second wave of terror.

I watched as some fled their original carriages and ran toward the deepest part of the train, toward the endless line of carriages hung with the memories of the dead.

"Crash!"

"Crash!"

The endless sound of the conductress battering the door rang in our ears. The iron door rattled loose. Half my body was numb, and Wang Shi was in the same boat, both of us looking incredibly wretched.

"Hold on!"

"Is she crazy? The entire train is rioting; why the hell is she still obsessing over us?" Wang Shi fumed. According to his original plan, the conductress should have been too overwhelmed by the chaos to bother with him. Reality had deviated massively from his calculations.

Her eyes burned with rage. Even though she had transformed into a monster, she hadn't lost her mind. Blood vessels bulged in her eyes as she locked onto Wang Shi and me, determined to drag us back.

"Damn it, I can't hold on much longer!" Wang Shi roared. Dense black cracks began to spiderweb across his body like ruined porcelain. His already bloated head—whether from rushing blood or sheer terror—swelled even larger, making him look completely horrifying.

I gritted my teeth. In this situation, all I could do was brace myself. I couldn't even fathom the consequences of giving up; if I fell into the conductress's hands, dying would probably be a luxury. She would likely torture me for a long time.

"Bang!" Just as Wang Shi and I were desperately holding the iron door, the train finally came to a complete stop, and the exterior carriage doors slid open!

Wang Shi and I acted in perfect, unspoken unison. Without a second of hesitation, the moment we saw the doors open, we let go, backed up, and jumped straight off the train.

As my feet hit solid ground, I almost wasn't used to it. Scrambling on all fours in deep, lingering dread, I backed far away from the train behind me.

Only after running over a dozen meters did I dare to look back.

The conductress stood in the doorway, her mutated body propped against the frame. It seemed she couldn't get off the train; she could only stand at the threshold, constantly roaring and shouting, "Lu Xing! Lu Xing..."

"Scream, go on and scream. If you want revenge later, go find Lu Xing. I'm just an imposter," I muttered. Only when the train started moving again did I completely relax. This livestream task was finally done.

"Ding!" Just as I ran off the train, the Underworld Live Show Phone received a text message: "Livestream task to enter the Jiangcheng Northern Suburb Subway Station at midnight and board the final train under the identity of Lu Xing completed. Reward: one point."

With the livestream task complete, a massive weight finally lifted from my chest. Escaping the Death Special Train this time had been a terrifying ordeal, and a large part of it came down to luck.

'In the October 27th Carriage, Xu Qin appeared and saved me; in the October 28th Carriage, the homeless man took the brunt of a disaster in my place; in the October 26th Carriage, Wang Shi showed up and helped me out again. The seeds I sowed while they were alive became the fruit that saved me on this train. Without them, I wouldn't have had a single chance of escaping. But conversely, it's precisely because of me that their fates turned out so differently.' I pulled my thoughts back to the present and patted my pockets. The Brocade Bag that Old Mrs. Wen had given me was still there. Feeling it carefully, I realized there seemed to be something else inside.

'The old woman helped me immensely. I will definitely deliver this Brocade Bag to her descendants.' Resisting the urge to peek inside out of curiosity, I patted the dust off my clothes and stood up. My hand suddenly brushed against something hard. The ceramic bowl full of Sorrow-Forgetting Water was still stuffed inside my jacket. Miraculously, not a single drop of the water inside had spilled. 'How did I end up bringing this out with me? Now that I think about it, was the conductress hounding me so relentlessly because I stole this bowl?'

Whatever the answer was, it no longer mattered. I carefully tucked the bizarre artifact away, resolving not to let anyone see it easily.

"Mr. Lu... where are we?"

A familiar male voice came from behind me. I turned to see Feng Minglong standing next to me with a helpless expression.

"Why did you get off too?"

"That monster looked ready to eat someone. I was forced by the circumstances..." Feng Minglong looked around. The sky was as pitch-black as ink, with no stars or moon, not even a wisp of cloud in sight. The only source of light around us was the Large-Screen Phone in my hand.

Feng Minglong's words left me not knowing whether to laugh or cry, but deep down I still harbored a sliver of suspicion toward this man. I didn't completely trust him.

"Number Twelve, is this station the Land God Temple you mentioned? Where should we go from here?" Wang Shi was out of ideas at this point. "Since you know the name of this stop, you should know how to get back to Jiangcheng, right?"

"Get back to Jiangcheng? You're dreaming." I spread my hands. "I know this station is called the Land God Temple, and I know someone once got off here. As for where this place actually is, or which direction Jiangcheng lies in, I have absolutely no idea."

"The train was traveling underground, yet after getting off we found ourselves above ground. Bizarre... too bizarre." Wang Shi wrote suspense novels and excelled at plotting and logical deduction, but no matter how hard he thought about it, he couldn't make sense of this.

The most crucial point was that, to him, time and space were completely disordered. Any logical deduction requires a basic axis of comparison—time and location act as the coordinates. But Wang Shi was clear on neither of these.

"You don't need to agonize over it. If we want to find a way out, the key lies with that woman." I pointed at the Double-Faced Woman, who was walking away alone. "When we ran to the doors of the October 29th Carriage, she was already waiting there. That proves she originally planned to get off at this stop. She definitely knows some inside information."

"So, the three of us grown men are going to go restrain her?" Feng Minglong stared at the Double-Faced Woman's retreating back. Her graceful figure was certainly evocative, and he hadn't seen her face on the train.

"Don't underestimate anyone. In a completely unfamiliar place like this, it's better to be cautious." I had my own misgivings. Wang Shi and Feng Minglong might just be wandering ghosts, but the Double-Faced Woman's identity was a mystery. If we could avoid provoking her, it was best not to.

"Makes sense. Let's follow her first and play it by ear," Wang Shi said. The three of us quickly reached a consensus. Using the light from the phone, we trailed far behind the Double-Faced Woman.

The world was devoid of light, swept by gusts of gloomy wind. Walking through this bizarre place, it was impossible to tell whether we were underground or above it.