Chapter 125: The Past World, Two Brides

These Coffins, for now it's better not to mess with them.

Although the ghost inside the Coffin may not be as strong as me, if it causes this place to go out of control, that would be troublesome.

After observing for a while, Zhang Hao ultimately still did not choose to move these Coffins.

It's not that he truly refuses to move them; he just won't move them before finishing what he wants to do.

Zhang Hao walked around the interior in a big circle; the entire first floor looked like a place dedicated to storing Coffins.

If it were the Republic Era, such a place might be called a charitable hall, right? "Spirit Road of the Dead, charitable hall, and the Spiritual Realm that can give rise to a world—how bizarre indeed."

Finding nothing, Zhang Hao looked toward the staircase leading to the second floor.

It seems that to find that Ghost Controlling Human elder, or to go to that special world, one must go to the second floor.

Just as Zhang Hao reached the stairwell, about to step onto the Staircase,

he suddenly saw that the upper floor of the wooden house lit up with yellow light.

The light illuminated the entire second floor, making it especially eerie.

The light appeared abruptly, clearly having just turned on; it definitely did not exist before.

Moreover, when Zhang Hao looked up, a silhouette appeared on the second-floor window.

It seemed as if someone in the second-floor room were sitting beside the light.

The silhouette remained motionless, as if frozen there, with no other movement; its shape was vague, and one could not tell from the silhouette whether the person in the room was male or female.

However, Zhang Hao was not panicked by this scene; instead, he took the ghost bride's hand and walked upstairs.

He wasn't afraid that the Spiritual Realm might have activity; he feared the lack of activity.

Activity allows for comparison, enabling analysis of the Terror Level of this Spiritual Realm to some extent.

A Spiritual Realm without activity is often the most terrifying, because you don't know where danger may appear, and how severe a sudden attack could be.

Zhang Hao's steps made the wooden staircase creak, as if it could collapse at any moment.

Nevertheless, the staircase's quality was still solid; despite its age, it was neither rotted nor broken, and could still bear sufficient weight.

However, when Zhang Hao reached the stair's turning point, what he saw was not a path to the second floor, but another flight of stairs.

It seems that the second floor seen from outside differs from the second floor inside.

The Spiritual Realm altered the wooden building's layout.

Such situations are common in Supernatural Incidents, so it's not particularly strange.

Continuing up the stairs, this staircase seemed unusually long due to some Spiritual Realm influence.

Zhang Hao and the ghost bride walked for a full ten minutes before finally reaching the second floor.

On the second floor, the yellowish light now shining onto Zhang Hao's body gave him an indescribable sense of discomfort.

It seemed that the area covered by the light was separated from him, with neither touching the other.

Zhang Hao quickly scanned the area, but he did not find the source of the light.

The second floor was empty, with not a single lamp, yet contrary to logic, the interior was bright.

"The light isn't a lamp; it must be a Spirit Phenomenon. This light resembles the flash of an invisible camera taking a picture."

Unbidden, Zhang Hao thought of a ghost camera.

Although the second floor had light, it eerily showed no human silhouettes, nor any source.

Even in the Black and White World, nothing that doesn't exist in reality can be seen.

"Perhaps we should first enter that room and take a look."

Zhang Hao headed toward the room where the silhouette had appeared earlier.

He reached the room's entrance, gave a slight push, and the door swung open without any obstruction.

However, as soon as the door opened, a gust of wild wind blew out, blurring everything around.

Even Zhang Hao could not see his surroundings clearly at that moment; not only his Gaze was blurred, but the surrounding light also began to flicker.

The nearby wooden doors and walls vanished from his sight.

Everything seemed to be disappearing.

It was as if some Spiritual Realm were destroying everything, yet Zhang Hao and the ghost bride remained unharmed under the raging wind.

However, when all the anomalies vanished and the wind subsided, Zhang Hao finally saw his surroundings clearly.

"Where... is this?"

The world seemed to have changed; Zhang Hao didn't know when, and neither did the ghost bride, they had already left that eerie room.

It seemed to be an Old Mansion.

Zhang Hao looked at everything inside; the house contained many old-fashioned pieces of furniture, all red, resembling a Wedding Room.

But these furnishings lacked any Supernatural Aura; they were ordinary items that just happened to match the red room's décor.

"It looks like I have entered that derived world because of some Spiritual Realm."

Seeing this, Zhang Hao understood internally.

He realized that he should now be in the time before the ghost bride boarded the bus, when she was still in the Dried Corpse Bride period.

After all, Zhang Hao himself has no past in this world; the only memory of a past is the moment another Zhang Hao was killed.

"The ghost bride shouldn't have any abnormal changes, right?"

Zhang Hao figured it out, that his and the ghost bride's time was... and hurriedly looked at the ghost bride.

Fortunately, the ghost bride still retained her previous appearance.

The hand she held was still the same—delicate, pale, like white jade porcelain, not the decayed, yellowish palm of a Dry Corpse.

"Directly replacing the Dried Corpse Bride's existence in this world? No, that's not right."

"Yang Jian, riding the Ghost Eye into this world, still encountered another Ghost Eye; this shows that Fierce Ghosts cannot be replaced by outsiders, at most they can replace the living."

This inexplicably derived world's ghosts all seemed to be genuine Fierce Ghosts, possessing the trait of being unkillable.

"If we go by this reasoning, doesn't that mean there's another Dried Corpse Bride in this room?"

Zhang Hao glanced at the red room, but he saw no trace of anyone.

Logically, that Dried Corpse Bride should be in the room.

"Where did she go?"

Zhang Hao went to the bed and turned over the whole red quilt, yet found nothing.

Instead, in the middle of the house, Zhang Hao discovered a red Coffin.

A thick layer of dust covered the Coffin's lid, and a crack had opened, dust falling to the ground.

It seemed that something had just crawled out of the Coffin not long ago.

Zhang Hao leaned in and saw that the Dried Corpse Bride was not inside.

"Could she have left the house?"

Zhang Hao headed toward the main door.

Just as he approached the door, Zhang Hao seemed to hear a sound.

It sounded like a car engine and a horn.

"Is that the Spiritual Bus?"

Zhang Hao pushed open the door, and indeed, at some unknown time, an old bus had stopped at the end of a muddy path outside the house.

On that muddy road, a red figure was walking step by step toward the bus.

"No wonder, so that's it; the moment my Ghost Bride and I arrived is just when she left this house."

"By the way, after leaving that room is when the Ghost Bride truly begins to act."

Zhang Hao, seeing this, grabbed the Ghost Bride and left the room, following the Dried Corpse Bride ahead.

But before leaving, Zhang Hao turned back and took a deep look at everything inside the room.

If everything in this room is a replica of the red room, then the missing puzzle pieces of the red room should be visible here.

A mirror representing the Ghost Mirror, a cabinet representing the Ghost Cabinet, a Red Canopy Bed, a set of Red Bedding, a Red Candle on the Candle Stand, and an easel.

Red Tables and Chairs, and on the table lay a pair of Ghostly Puppets of the bride and groom, as well as a Paper Flower Sedan less than twenty centimeters tall.

Additionally, on a beam hung a red cloth, and in its center was tied a Red Paper Bouquet.

At the same time, Zhang Hao glanced toward the wardrobe, where a Red Cheongsam was placed, not a Groom's Robe.

Other than that, he saw nothing else worth noting.

"They should all be under that dressing table."

But that's fine; there should still be a Ghost Cabinet here, and we can ask it later. Zhang Hao has already made a deal with the Ghost Cabinet and the red room, and until he completes the deal, he cannot use the Ghost Cabinet again.

However, in this world, there is no such restriction.

According to everything Yang Jian has encountered in this world, he can use a second Ghost Eye to temporarily boost his Ghost Power.

Can the Ghost Bride also gain an increase this way? There's no time to think further; the Dried Corpse Bride is now less than a hundred meters from the Spiritual Bus, and if they don't hurry, the bus may start moving.

At this moment, inside the bus.

As the bus pulled up at the stop, Yang Jian surveyed everything outside.

In the distant woods, two lights glowed, the illumination from two red Lanterns.

"B‑Brother, look outside,"

A girl's voice trembled beside him, pointing at the window; the fear in her eyes seemed about to erupt.

Through the bus's front lights, one could vaguely see a winding forest path behind the platform, the earthen road overgrown with weeds.

At the end of that road, an old house faintly appeared.

The house was of wooden construction, and it was unclear how long it had stood there.

Outside the courtyard, several sections had collapsed, overgrown with wild grass, looking abandoned, showing no sign of habitation.

Yet in front of the old house hung two red Lanterns, emitting light.

When the bus had been stopped for about two or three minutes.

The distant wooden house changed.

A silhouette suddenly stood under the red Lantern, seeming to look toward here.

"Never get on the bus," thought Yang Jian.

He was certain it was a Ghost, mysterious and unknown, its terror level indeterminate.

But things refused to follow his expectations.

The figure beneath the Lantern swayed and walked along the desolate path toward the bus.

"Brother, can we get off now?"

A young man, not noticing the scene, only wanted to leave quickly.

Yang Jian said, "Getting off now would be courting death; this place is stranger than that field tomb hill we just passed."

As he spoke,

the silhouette had already reached the side of the bus; it was a person wearing a Red Cheongsam with a red head covering.

She looked like a bride about to be married.

However, Yang Jian saw that the Red Cheongsam woman's exposed hands were dry, stiff, the dark brown corpse skin tightly wrapping the bones, like a Dry Corpse.

"Damn."

Yang Jian muttered under his breath; seeing this Dried Corpse Bride board the bus, an inexplicable dread rose in his heart.

Ghost Eye gave him a dangerous warning~!

It was certain that this Dried Corpse Bride's terror level far exceeded that of the previous Crying Tomb Ghost.

The Dry Corpse, covered with a red headscarf and wearing a Cheongsam, did not choose to sit nearby; instead she walked several steps forward and finally sat in the row in front of Yang Jian.

Seeing this scene, Yang Jian let out a sigh of relief; this Ghost hadn't finally fixed its gaze on him, and while relaxing, he looked outward.

However, not looking is fine; but once he looked, he was startled.

After the Dried Corpse Bride boarded, at an unknown time, two silhouettes appeared.

Moreover, although those two silhouettes seemed to advance slowly, they reached the side of the Spiritual Bus after only a few steps.

They were two figures, one Hong Bai Shuang Sha and one white.

The white figure wore Funeral Clothes, looking much like the Crying Tomb Ghost on the bus, but a strange White Curtain was tied around its waist like a belt.

And this white figure, entirely white in voice and body, nonetheless gave an eerie pallid impression.

The hands exposed beyond the Funeral Clothes were eerily ashen, colorless, like people on a black‑and‑white TV.

As for the Hong Bai Shuang Sha figure, its attire was similar to the Dried Corpse Bride just now, except it wore an extra pair of embroidered shoes.

Moreover, this newly appearing bride's hands were fair and delicate, unlike the Dried Corpse Bride's dull‑yellow, gaunt look; she seemed like a normal bride.

But in a place like this, could there really be a living person?

In this regard, Yang Jian did not believe it.

Even more eerie was the fact that the Hong Bai Shuang Sha and white figures held hands, looking extremely terrifying.

"Brother, what do we do now?" the man who had spoken earlier looked at Yang Jian, his eyes full of terror.

Outside, two Fierce Ghosts arrived, and the white figure's attire matched exactly that of the Crying Tomb Ghost that had Ghost's Killing on a whole busload of people; its Face-Covering Cloth also bore a crying face.

"Stay inside the bus for now; Fierce Ghosts won't kill on the bus."

Yang Jian said gravely to Zhang Hao.

(The original character killed by the Dried Corpse Bride, let's call him "Human Zhang Hao" for now) "Alright."

Human Zhang Hao nodded; now he understood nothing, and whether he could survive depended solely on the big brother beside him, Yang Jian.

As the Hong Bai Shuang Sha and white figures boarded, Yang Jian keenly sensed that the Crying Tomb Ghost and the Dried Corpse Bride on the bus seemed to undergo some change.

After these two ghosts boarded, the previously motionless Crying Tomb Ghost and Dried Corpse Bride both turned to look at the Hong Bai Shuang Sha and white Fierce Ghosts that had boarded.

Yang Jian looked toward the front of the Spiritual Bus, and the Fierce Ghost count on the passenger number display changed from three to five.

This undoubtedly indicates that both the Hong Bai Shuang Sha and the white are Fierce Ghosts.

As these two ghosts boarded, Yang Jian felt his Ghost Eye involuntarily close at that moment.

The Ghost Eye, instinctively fearing this ghost, dared not even open.

This is a terrifying phenomenon; even when confronting the Starving Death Ghost before, the Ghost Eye never failed to open at all.

"A bizarre thing; hopefully nothing untoward will happen later."

Yang Jian steadied himself; his Ghost Eye dared not open, nor to look at the two ghosts, and he himself dared even less to look, only praying silently in his heart.

After the Hong Bai Shuang Sha and white figures boarded, they sat directly in an empty double seat behind the driver.

The Hong Bai Shuang Sha ghost bride, after taking the seat, lowered her head onto the white Funeral Clothes ghost's shoulder, as if falling asleep against it.

This scene made them appear like a loving couple.

However, the few who knew they were ghosts—Xu Feng, Lin Bei, and Yang Jian—only felt terror.

Yet the terrifying events were not over.

Although the ghost bride leaned on the Funeral Clothes ghost as if asleep, the Funeral Clothes ghost at that moment eerily turned its head to look at the people behind.

Accompanied by that ghost's gaze, whether Yang Jian, Xu Feng, or Lin Bei, all felt a chill down their spines.

It seemed some terrifying supernatural force was affecting their bodies.

"What's going on? This is the Spiritual Bus! This ghost can't possibly attack me inside the bus, can it?"

Xu Feng was terrified inside; he leaned against the window, feigning sleep while secretly observing the interior.

At that moment, seeing the Funeral Clothes ghost's stare, his heart involuntarily felt fear.

"What's happening? Didn't you say these ghosts wouldn't act on the bus?"

Accompanied by that Funeral Clothes ghost's stare, the entire Spiritual Bus carriage grew dim and colorless at that moment, the air faintly feeling stripped of all hue.

"How would I know?" Lin Bei's expression was equally grim.

"I've never seen anyone capable of acting on the Spiritual Bus; the bus cannot act, that's this vehicle's rule."

"If it does act, there's only one possibility: this ghost is too terrifying, even—"

"This ghost's terror even surpasses that of the bus?" Yang Jian's voice was hoarse, his heart full of unease.

One ghost disregarding another ghost's rules within its domain indicates the two ghosts' terror levels are not vastly different.

Fortunately at that moment, the bus emitted a horn, and with the horn, the interior lights lit up, dispelling the darkness.

"Looks like this ghost ultimately didn't force an attack; hope this ghost can get off the bus soon."

Lin Bei breathed a sigh of relief as the Spiritual Bus set off again.

He almost thought he would die here; but thinking of the Spiritual Bus's possible engine stall, his heart was inevitably uneasy.

At this time, after the bus set off, the Funeral Clothes ghost, unlike the other Fierce Ghosts, did not remain motionless.

The Funeral Clothes ghost still stared behind; now the person it fixed its gaze on had changed from the three Ghost Tamers earlier to the ordinary boy—Zhang Hao.

(End of chapter)