Chapter 10: Chapter 10: Return to Reality
As soon as the third corpse rose, the bus lights cut out completely, plunging them into a darkness thicker than ever before.
This darkness was different from the others—they weren't alone. There were now vengeful spirits moving through the blackness.
"Damn it, we're done for this time…" The man in the black hat felt a pang of despair. He could smell a putrid stench nearby, coming from the second corpse that had risen.
The stench grew stronger, and he felt a tightening pressure around his body—his ghost coat's price for fending off the spirit. But he knew it wouldn't hold out much longer.
On the other side, Zhang Tiantian wasn't faring much better.
In previous rounds of darkness, there had been absolute silence, but this time was different. The corpse's raspy, lifeless voice echoed in the blackness:
"Are you… also going… to Red Moon Village?"
The sound made Zhang Tiantian instinctively want to respond, and to her horror, she realized her lips were trembling. In the past, the darkness had dulled all physical sensations. But now she could feel her body, a sign that the power of the corpse surpassed that of the surrounding darkness.
"Are you… also going… to Red Moon Village?"
The voice returned, louder this time, and her lips trembled more violently, as if an invisible force were prying them open. She knew she couldn't hold out much longer.
But Jiang Yan's experience in the driver's seat was completely different.
Far from being engulfed in darkness, he could see the bus clearly—clearer than he'd ever seen it before. It was as though he and the bus had merged, and he could sense everything within it.
In his vision, the corpses of the tour group were still seated, kept in place by the bus's lingering rules, despite the stop.
The driver's corpse lay crumpled on the floor, a fist-sized dent at the back of its skull.
The bus had tried to unleash the driver's ghost on him, but he'd struck it in time with the emergency hammer. Jiang Yan had won; he had control of the ghostly bus.
Looking over at the man in the black hat and Zhang Tiantian, Jiang Yan saw they were in distress, clearly under some kind of attack.
"I need to act fast," he realized.
Now that he was in control, Jiang Yan could command the bus's rules with a single thought.
"Drive."
At his command, the engine hummed to life, the dim yellow lights flickered on, and the darkness faded.
Relieved, the man in the black hat and Zhang Tiantian turned to look at Jiang Yan.
Sitting in the driver's seat, Jiang Yan glanced down at the driver's corpse on the floor. There was no doubt now—he had succeeded in taking control.
"I can't believe you actually took control of the bus… but it doesn't look like those two corpses have stopped," the man in the black hat gasped, his voice strained as the ghost coat constricted around him.
Zhang Tiantian, though visibly relieved, was still too afraid to make a sound, fearing the ghost's question might still be in effect.
"Don't worry," Jiang Yan said, calm and assured. "Now that I'm in control, I can suppress the corpses."
He wasn't exaggerating. With the bus under his control, he felt like its master, sensing every presence within it.
In his mind, an instinctive understanding of the bus's rule system emerged. Smiling slightly, he turned and shouted at the two restless corpses:
"What do you think you're doing? We're driving! Sit back down!"
At his command, the two corpses began trembling violently.
The corpse that had been harassing Zhang Tiantian closed its mouth, while the rotting stench around the man in the black hat dissipated as his ghostly assailant retracted its aura. Obediently, both corpses returned to their seats.
The man in the black hat and Zhang Tiantian breathed a sigh of relief, astonished that Jiang Yan had resolved the issue with a single shout.
But Jiang Yan wasn't surprised. He'd expected this result. As the driver, he could enforce the rules to keep the "passengers" in line.
The bus's system of rules, after all, was simply an extension of its normal operations—and he was now the one in charge.
However, as the corpses sat back down, Jiang Yan sensed a slight weakening in the bus's hold over them. It seemed that the bus's suppression power wasn't limitless; its rules weren't absolute.
At that moment, the man in the black hat staggered over, looking exhausted.
"Since you're in control, you'd better seal up that broken window," he said, out of breath. "My ghost coat's at its limit."
Jiang Yan glanced over, noting how tightly the coat constricted him, nearly cutting into his bones.
"Withdraw your coat," Jiang Yan said calmly. "I'll repair the window—and I'll get us out of this place altogether."
The man hesitated but finally retracted the coat's sleeve. Although he believed Jiang Yan could seal the window, he doubted they could truly escape.
After all, the bus was traveling within the fog-ridden ghost realm. If they tried to leave, they'd be like prey thrown to wolves, surrounded by vengeful spirits in all directions.
In a twisted way, the bus was both their trap and their shield.
As soon as the coat withdrew, the dense white fog outside began to drift in through the broken window.
But Jiang Yan focused, and the window repaired itself instantly, sealing the gap entirely.
Just then, their vision grew blurry. The tour group corpses appeared to double, like an overlapping image shifting out of focus.
Slowly, Jiang Yan realized it wasn't just the corpses—it was the entire bus. The vehicle was becoming transparent, as if it were fading away. At the same time, the mist outside was also dissipating.
Moments later, both the bus and the fog vanished, leaving the three of them standing in the middle of a mountain road, bathed in pale moonlight.
The man in the black hat blinked in astonishment, then turned to Jiang Yan with a look of disbelief.
"We… we actually made it back. How did you do it?"
Jiang Yan gave him a faint smile. "I simply reabsorbed the bus. It seems to have the ability to travel between the real world and the ghost realm."
The man froze, struck by the implications of Jiang Yan's words.
This college student had not only managed to control a bus full of vengeful spirits but also wielded its power to traverse realms. The sheer scope of Jiang Yan's achievement was terrifying.
But Jiang Yan didn't dwell on this; he was already thinking of what to do next. Turning to Zhang Tiantian, he asked, "Where to now? Straight back to your village?"
"Let's just head home," she replied, shivering as she glanced at the shadowy trees surrounding them. "It's too cold out here."
"Alright, let's see if I can call a cab," Jiang Yan said, taking out his phone to open a ride-hailing app, while Zhang Tiantian looked over his shoulder.
"Oh, by the way, what's the name of your village?" he asked.
"Gong Yue Village," Zhang Tiantian replied, eyes still on the phone.
Jiang Yan's heart skipped a beat.
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