Chapter 76: The Silent Train

The night was like ink; the massive train seemed completely swallowed by the darkness, sitting silently upon the tracks in the wilderness.

In the hollow carriage, despite the interior lights being on, they seemed obscured by some kind of black curtain, casting the long, narrow train corridor into a strange, eerie gloom.

It was as if the entire world had gone dark.

Lin Xian stood where he was, his gaze stunned; at this moment, he seemed able to hear only the sound of his own heartbeat.

Everyone was gone.

A hair-raising sensation surged from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head. Lin Xian's eyeballs slowly rotated, scanning his surroundings, his entire body not daring to move a muscle.

The three people who had been behind him just a moment ago seemed to have vanished into thin air. He swept his gaze toward the distance of the driver's cabin; the corridor was pitch black.

There were clearly lights there, but the light seemed ruthlessly swallowed by the darkness, leaving only a faint trace of orange glow that could not reach into the depths.

Lin Xian turned his head back again, looking toward the direction of Carriage No. 2; the far end was pitch black.

A chill spread across his spine. He tensed his focus and called out.

"Chen Laoshi?"

No one responded.

"Shasha... Da Lou?"

Silence.

Lin Xian's gaze darted rapidly; this sudden situation left him unable to react for a moment.

*Hoo~*

He tried taking a deep breath, steadied himself, suppressed the fear in his heart, and took two steps forward.

*Di~~ da-da-da*

The sound of a glass marble rolling suddenly came from behind him. He whipped around, and in the darkness of the distant carriage, a delicate glass marble slowly rolled out.

"Who is it!?"

Lin Xian shouted, his voice echoing through the carriage.

No response.

He walked over, his gaze fixed on the glass marble.

It was crystal clear, with a trace of colorful patterns inside, much like the kind children played with.

Lights, on!

Lin Xian refused to believe it; he controlled the entire train, and he had clearly turned the lights on!

The overhead lights seemed to receive a massive surge of current for a split second, their brightness intensifying slightly, but they were quickly suppressed by that thick darkness again, their brightness dimming significantly.

He walked to Carriage No. 2; in the distance, Kiki's computer screen was full of static, the faint fluorescence flickering in the darkness.

Lin Xian's heart tightened. He turned around again and headed toward the driver's cabin, which had large portholes that allowed for a clearer view of the outside.

*Thump~ thump~ thump*

The clear sound of footsteps echoed in the carriage. He walked faster and faster, then suddenly stopped again.

His peripheral vision suddenly caught something.

In the corridor ahead, something seemed to be floating in the air.

Lin Xian walked over, his gaze narrowing, and discovered that there were actually dozens of things resembling hair floating in mid-air above the corridor, swaying slightly.

Lin Xian frowned and immediately reached out to grab them, but the dozens of strands suddenly flashed with the wind and vanished.

Eerie events occurred one after another. He took out a flashlight; *snap*, a beam of pale white light pierced the darkness, illuminating the various mechanical instruments in the middle corridor of the electric locomotive.

Lin Xian walked quickly through, heading all the way to the front; the light shone, but there was no one there.

He held the flashlight and looked out the train window; outside was a vast expanse of snow, and ahead was a long, gloomy track.

Suddenly, as the light flickered, Lin Xian saw a red human figure standing on the tracks ahead.

He widened his eyes; there was indeed a human-shaped black shadow standing motionless in the very center of the tracks in front of the train. Lin Xian frowned and immediately shone the flashlight at it, but the white light swept past, and there was nothing there.

The black shadow had vanished again.

Lin Xian felt a chill in his heart.

At this moment, the sound of the marble rang out behind him once more.

*Di~~ da-da-da* And this time, the sound was likewise only a few steps away from him.

A cold breath brushed lightly against the back of Lin Xian's head. His expression changed instantly, and he slowly turned around.

Pitch black, empty.

But under the shadows of the lights in the narrow driver's cabin corridor, a short black shadow seemed to have appeared.

"What is that!"

Lin Xian felt the hair on his body stand on end. He clenched his hand in mid-air, a steel blade quickly forged into existence, and he steeled his heart.

I don't care if you're human or ghost!

Flashback!

*Swish! *

Lin Xian gritted his teeth hard, suppressed and unable to vent due to this eerie scene, and without another word, he slashed directly at the shadow.

*Clang! *

A shadow flashed past, and the sound of flesh being cut rang out. Lin Xian's pupils shrank, knowing he had hit something, and he immediately turned back.

But at this moment, the short figure slowly walked from the shadows into the light, and he saw a little girl anxiously clutching her neck as blood spurted out, looking at Lin Xian with terror in her eyes.

!

Lou Shasha!

Lin Xian saw this, and his expression changed drastically. In the blink of an eye, he saw Shasha falling to the ground in fear, large amounts of fresh blood gushing out.

"Sha..."

He had just opened his mouth when his heart trembled; he suddenly sensed something and whipped around.

Behind him, a female ghost in red had appeared!

Beneath her black hair, a pale, rotting, eerie human face was grinning at him, seemingly only half an inch away.

*Hiss! *

Lin Xian gasped, reflexively recoiling violently. He raised his left index finger, ready to fire a Wind Gun!

*Bang! *

But in the next instant, his left index finger suddenly burst open at the nail, the finger bone snapped and flipped back, the flesh tore, and only a layer of skin remained attached to his hand.

"Urgh!!"

Lin Xian gritted his teeth and let out an angry grunt, looking at his finger in horror. When he looked up again, the red-clad female ghost had vanished from before his eyes.

In the distant Carriage No. 2, the red ghostly shadow stood eerily there.

*Thump-thump! Thump-thump! Thump-thump! Thump-thump! *

His heart pounded violently. Lin Xian felt his adrenaline surging, and a wave of intense pain and fear washed over him.

The terrifying scene before his eyes repeatedly assaulted his inner psychological defenses.

*Hiss! *

Lin Xian looked at his burst finger in horror, then turned back to look at the small hand lying on the ground in the shadows and the blood all over the floor, his heart filled with extreme shock.

He had killed Lou Shasha?!

"Shasha?!"

Lin Xian clutched his finger and called out tentatively, but there was no response.

He couldn't believe the scene before him and took a step forward, but in the shadows behind the frail body that was still bleeding, a pale ghostly hand slowly reached out, grabbed Shasha's foot, and yanked it with great force!

*Whoosh! *

It dragged Shasha's corpse directly into the darkness.

Leaving behind a trail of bright red blood.

Lin Xian's scalp tingled. He kept reminding himself to stay calm, but the intense fear was rapidly devouring his reason.

The armor, the Ice Shield—after being so busy for so long, it seemed nothing had been able to block it. In this instant, endless despair grew wildly from the bottom of his heart.

The intense pain in his finger made cold sweat stream down, attacking his last shred of reason.

"Something's wrong, something's wrong!"

1542 Radio Station, mysterious disappearance, supernatural phenomena, red-clad female ghost...

Jiang Yun's words echoed in his ears.

"However... be careful, this thing doesn't just receive the movements made by people..."

"Where exactly is it wrong?"

*Hoo... *

A trace of cold wind blew through the carriage, and the surrounding lights grew even dimmer.

Lin Xian turned around and looked at the ghostly shadow in Carriage No. 2. As the brightness of the lights faded, the ghostly shadow seemed to get closer and closer.

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(End of chapter)