Chapter 99: The Realm of the Dead (Part 1)

After arriving outside the underground office, Wu Zui looked up at the night sky. Tonight’s darkness was far from beautiful; thick clouds obscured even the moon. It was rare for him to come out, and this gloomy weather was quite a mood dampener.

*Damn He Ping, does it really take this long to translate just one sentence?*

In a foul mood, Wu Zui silently criticized someone’s inefficiency. If He Ping hadn’t told him to wait before heading out, he wouldn’t have lingered so long in Xiao Anguo’s underground office.

*Anyway, judging by the current information, nothing has happened all month. It should be fine to check things out now.*

While thinking this, Wu Zui took out a special spiritual investigator’s phone from within his magnetic energy protective suit. The mission target displayed was a bus—Route 444—frequently seen near Tianliang Street in Yanjing City.

Normally, such route numbers were taboo in Huaguo, so they wouldn’t exist. Wu Zui found no record of this bus in Yanjing’s official system. Yet, many night-shift workers in the city had indeed seen it.

Some fearless citizens who dared to board the bus ended up disappearing.

Among them was a civilian three-star awakened individual who streamed live encounters with ghosts and monsters. The Bureau’s first two spiritual investigators sent to investigate also vanished after boarding. That was why Wu Zui, a peak four-star spiritual investigator, was called in to check the situation.

Meanwhile, Wu Zui, who had been watching the news in the underground office, wanted to confirm some suspicions of his own. Piloting the upgraded Sky Dragon One from the Research Institute, he left Xiao Anguo’s underground office and headed straight to the target location.

Soon, Wu Zui stood quietly under a bus stop sign on Tianliang Street, waiting for the troublesome Route 444 bus.

Though the bus stop had no information about the strange bus, this was the place it appeared most frequently. Many nearby workers had seen it, but now, at night, they all took detours. Wu Zui was the only one there.

Carrying a small backpack and a golden long sword at his waist, Wu Zui leaned against the advertising board, waiting patiently. Before long, it neared midnight. Winter was approaching in Huaguo, and the night air was particularly chilly.

A cold wind blew—

Just as Wu Zui pulled his coat tighter, an old blue-and-white bus suddenly appeared and stopped right in front of him, opening its front door.

Wu Zui glanced at the bus’s front, where three glowing red ‘4’s shimmered. Simultaneously, the bus stop sign beside him updated to display Route 444’s name and details—exactly matching the mission description.

Peering through a broken window, Wu Zui saw pitch-black darkness inside. The white and blue body of the bus seemed to block all the dim yellow light from nearby street lamps. He could see nothing beyond the darkness.

Through the open front door, Wu Zui spotted a figure in a blue-black uniform gripping the steering wheel, head bowed. The poor lighting prevented him from discerning its face or even its gender.

Wu Zui’s magnetic energy sensed a thick aura of resentment enveloping the entire bus, but from outside, he couldn’t determine the ghost’s rank inside.

As if aware of Wu Zui’s scrutiny, the malevolent energy surrounding the bus began to detach and creep toward him. Thick black smoke, alive and writhing, engulfed his figure.

Wu Zui immediately shielded himself with blue magnetic energy, forming a barrier that blocked the invading resentment. Both sides drained energy in this standoff; Wu Zui didn’t rush to board, and the bus didn’t hurry to close its doors and leave.

Through the energy clash, Wu Zui sensed the ghost inside was likely three-star level, though its specific abilities remained unknown. Having slain several four-star ghosts before, Wu Zui felt no fear toward this comparatively minor threat.

He resolved to confront the ghost on the bus directly, to understand how it had trapped two spiritual investigators and one awakened individual—and if possible, rescue those trapped inside.

*Since you’re such a gracious host, I won’t hold back!*

Wrapped in magnetic energy, Wu Zui broke through the resentful aura’s grasp and dashed toward the bus’s front door. In a single leap, he entered the vehicle, causing the dark energy to retract immediately.

Once he stepped inside, the bus’s front door shut instantly. Under the dim streetlights, the white-blue bus silently sped into the distance.

Inside, Wu Zui began his inspection. Rusty iron seats, dilapidated broken windows, hand-drawn route maps stuck to the walls, and several shadowy figures sitting rigidly with bowed heads.

Those dark silhouettes sat perfectly upright, but their bodies seemed unnaturally stiff, as if unable to bend. Cloaked in black resentment energy, Wu Zui couldn’t discern their strength.

While observing them, Wu Zui also felt countless hateful gazes fixed on him, even though none of the figures raised their heads.

Everything inside the bus was decayed and ancient, as if sealed away for ages. Yet, after careful scrutiny, Wu Zui found no trace of any spiritual investigators or awakened individuals having been there. Those who had boarded seemed to have never existed.

As time passed, the bus’s resentment energy thickened and continued to corrode Wu Zui. His magnetic energy’s blue glow was the bus’s sole light source, but the boundless darkness was gradually draining it.

Wu Zui paid no mind; the magnetic energy of a four-star investigator was not so easily exhausted.

Moreover, in his backpack were three high-explosive magnetic energy bombs he had charged over recent months. Although transformed into spiritual flames, it took three of them to fully replenish his magnetic energy, but they sufficed to deal with a three-star ghost.

With a thought, Wu Zui brightened his magnetic aura, blocking the prying eyes of the shadows. Standing in the aisle, he continued his observations. Many seats remained empty, though he wisely refrained from sitting.

Since the missing individuals hadn’t appeared here, Wu Zui’s focus shifted to the bus’s route map.

Besides searching for the missing, if he couldn’t resolve the bus’s evil thoroughly and had to escape using his Heart-Seeking Sword, he could instruct the Bureau to warn citizens to avoid all stops on this route to minimize casualties.

According to the hand-drawn map on the bus wall, Route 444 had only eight stops. Tianliang Street—the stop where Wu Zui boarded—was the starting point, and the only one within Yanjing’s urban core. The remaining seven stops headed toward the city outskirts. Based on two known locations, even the next stop lay beyond the Fifth Ring Road.

Perhaps due to age, the names of the stops became increasingly unclear toward the end. The final terminal was marked only by a vivid red dot, without a name—merely indicating a stop.

*Still seven stops to go?*

Lost in thought, Wu Zui’s gaze shifted to the broken window he had seen outside.

From inside, the scenery rushed by at great speed, but no wind entered. The bus engine was eerily silent. An invisible force seemed to envelop Route 444, isolating it from the surroundings.

As Wu Zui pondered, the bus reached the next stop. It smoothly halted by the roadside, and both front and rear doors opened simultaneously.

A cold breeze swept in, as if something boarded or disembarked, but none of the shadowy figures on the seats stirred.

Wu Zui glanced outside the rear door, seeing what appeared to be an abandoned, unfinished building. Unfamiliar with Yanjing’s streets, he didn’t recognize the place, but the bus stop was named Nanshan Construction Site.

*Clang!*

Both doors slammed shut simultaneously. Standing amid the bus, Wu Zui suddenly felt a bone-chilling cold creeping from behind, as if something tried to crawl inside his clothes. This must be whatever had boarded at the last stop.

Without turning around or igniting his spiritual flames, Wu Zui simply drew his golden long sword with his right hand. Swiftly spinning, he unleashed a magnetic energy slash from the sword, striking behind him in an instant.

The blue energy blade flashed—

*Wooo—*

A hellish wail echoed through the bus. The shadowy figures on the seats lifted their heads in unison. Their eyes glowed a fierce scarlet, fixed upon Wu Zui. Grief, helplessness, and confusion surged in Wu Zui’s heart.

Under the gaze of so many ghosts, a mental pollution akin to that of high-level spirits took hold—a stench of decay emanated from Wu Zui’s body. It was the scent of the dying, like a rotting coffin in a graveyard.

Wu Zui roared fiercely, igniting his magnetic energy into blazing red spiritual flames. The foul stench vanished instantly. The ghost behind him, attempting to strike again, was blasted away by the spiritual flame bomb.

A monstrous black shadow resembling a giant octopus crashed against the window, howling in agony. Its black tendrils writhed, but it was quickly consumed by the spiritual flames, turning into black smoke. As a three-star ghost, it had no resistance to the fierce spiritual flames.