Dao Qi Wu Zang Guan Guan: I became a Daoist Master in the 1990s

Chapter 30 Rural Automobile
"Damn it! Chase after them!" Zhang Qiang cursed, his voice filled with panic.

The four of them, catching their breath, immediately began to trudge through the mud, their steps uneven. Li Juan, on Qi Yun's back, could feel the tension in his muscles and the steadiness of his steps as he ran, which gave her a faint sense of security.

Zhang Qiang and Liu Wen, carrying their luggage, panted and exhausted, trying their best to keep up.

However, that halo representing the team was like a mirage.

No matter how fast they sped up or how much they shouted, the distance didn't seem to close at all.

The halo still swayed in front of me, as if separated by an insurmountable chasm of rain.

Time passed in the cold rain, and Zhang Qiang and Liu Wen's breathing grew heavier and heavier.

"W-what happened? We...we were definitely running!" Liu Wen's voice was choked with sobs.

"This is weird!" Zhang Qiang also felt a chill run down his spine.

Just then, Qi Yun, who was carrying Li Juan and running in the lead, suddenly stopped!
"Stop!" he shouted in a low voice, which, though not loud, carried an undeniable penetrating power that instantly drowned out the clamor of the wind and rain.

Zhang Qiang and Liu Wen were caught off guard and almost bumped into each other. They looked at him with surprise and doubt: "What's wrong, Qi Yun? Are you tired? Let me carry Li Juan instead?"

Qi Yun did not answer, but narrowed his eyes slightly, his sharp gaze piercing through the layers of rain, locking onto the illusory halo in front of him.

The Crimson Hunting Fire within him lay dormant, showing no unusual activity or warning.

But something just doesn't feel right.

Something's wrong! Something is very wrong!
The sense of distance in this halo... is too eerie.

"No...it's nothing," Qi Yun took a deep breath, suppressing the chill in his heart, and tried to keep his voice calm. "Catch your breath and keep going."

He lifted Li Juan up a little higher on his back and started walking.

Saying something is "wrong" now will only make the other two more panicked.

Not far ahead, a disheveled figure suddenly appeared in the rain.

The man was soaking wet and struggling to drag a large suitcase, cursing as he walked.

"Hey! You guys! You fell too? Hurry up and catch up with the group! They're just ahead!" The man shouted as he saw them.

It was a passenger I had seen in the carriage before!
Zhang Qiang and Liu Wen's tense nerves instantly relaxed, and their faces showed relief at surviving the ordeal.

"Great! I've finally found my people!" Liu Wen exclaimed excitedly.

"Go, go, go! Hurry up and keep up!"

Zhang Qiang urged him on, his previous fear instantly dispelled by this "normal" encounter.

Qi Yun also wondered if she was being too sensitive and overreacting.
After walking for about a few more minutes, the scenery ahead finally changed.

In the wind and rain, the outline of a dilapidated little train station came into view.

The station sign was rusted and blurred, and the platform roof had several large holes, allowing rainwater to pour in.

And right next to this dilapidated platform, a green old-fashioned bus was parked.

The car was extremely old, with severely peeling paint, revealing mottled rust on the metal underneath.

The car was an outdated model, narrow in size, with blurry windows and no headlights, making it look particularly bleak in the rainy night.

At this moment, only a few people remained on the platform, queuing up to board the train.

The train attendant is standing next to the open train door.

When Zhang Qiang and Liu Wen saw the car, they were overjoyed and hurried over with their luggage.

Li Juan also breathed a sigh of relief.

"Wait!" Qi Yun's voice rang out again.

The three of them were stopped by him, and they all looked at him with surprise and a hint of impatience.

Zhang Qiang couldn't hold back any longer: "Brother Qi! What's wrong now?!"

Qi Yun's gaze was fixed on the green bus and the blurry figure of the train conductor beside it, his voice low but clear, penetrating the sound of the rain.

"Each carriage holds at least forty or fifty people. Look at that train, how many people can it fit even if it's crammed in? Fifteen? Twenty at most!"

Just after the last few people got on the platform, the train doors were about to close.

But look at the carriages, don't they look like they're packed with people?

His words were like a bucket of ice water, instantly waking Zhang Qiang and Liu Wen. They stared intently, their hearts sinking to the bottom!

That green bus was narrow, but through the blurry glass, you could vaguely see the seats inside... all empty!
There was none of the crowds and throngs of people I had imagined!

The last few figures who went up seemed to vanish into the silence as soon as they entered the dimly lit carriage!
Just then, the "train conductor" who had been facing away from them and seemed to be tidying up something slowly and stiffly turned around.

He raised his arm toward Qi Yun and the other three who were stranded in the rain.

The movement of his arm carried an inhuman stiffness, like a rusty machine. He beckoned, the movement slow and eerie, silently urging him on.

An indescribable impulse, a mixture of intense attraction and inexplicable fear, instantly seized the minds of Zhang Qiang and Liu Wen!

It was as if a voice was shouting in their minds: Go! Get in the car!
Their eyes instantly became vacant and blank, and their bodies involuntarily began to walk towards the eerie bus!
"Buzz!"

At this critical moment, the dormant Crimson Hunting Flame within Qi Yun suddenly leaped up!
A surge of scorching heat erupted from the heart and spleen acupoints in an instant, like an invisible barrier, violently shattering the strange temptation that had invaded the mind!
Qi Yun grunted, a fierce glint flashing in his eyes!

"There really is something fishy!" A warning screamed in his mind, and he no longer hesitated!
"Wake up!" Qi Yun roared, his hands flashing out like lightning.

They dragged the few people who had come out directly into the mud!

"Ouch!"

"what!"

Zhang Qiang and Liu Wen felt a surge of immense force, and their bodies spun around. With two thuds, they fell solidly into the cold mud and water!

The biting cold and pain instantly dispelled the confusion in their minds, forcefully pulling them back from that strange temptation!

"Qi Yun! Are you fucking crazy?!" Zhang Qiang was both shocked and furious, struggling to get up.

"What are you doing?!" Liu Wen was also dumbfounded.

The other person who fell behind was also cursing and swearing!

"Shut up! Look ahead!"

The three of them instinctively followed his cold gaze and looked again at the figure waving at the car door.

This time, without the interference of that strange temptation, they finally saw clearly!
Under the dim yellow light of the train headlights, that was hardly a train conductor!
His dark-colored "uniform" was already rotten and clung to his body, damp and revealing... a patch of gray, dry, and cracked skin underneath!

No, that's not skin, it's more like... dried leather!

His face! That waving face!

His eye sockets were two bottomless black holes from which murky muddy water slowly flowed, mixing with rainwater and carving two dirty furrows into his withered and emaciated cheeks.

All that's left of the nose is a collapsed hole.

At this moment, the skin and flesh were being torn upwards in an extremely unnatural arc, forming a silent, chilling "smile".

Several yellowed teeth were exposed to the air, their crevices filled with black sludge.

This is clearly a corpse that has been dead for who knows how many years, swollen from being soaked in rainwater and dried out by the wind!

A mummified corpse dressed in a tattered uniform, attracting living people in the desolate wilderness on a rainy night!
"Heh...heh heh..." Zhang Qiang made a sound like a broken bellows in his throat, his eyes were wide open as if they were about to burst, and the blood in his body seemed to freeze instantly.

Extreme fear gripped his throat, preventing him from even screaming; all that remained was the frantic chattering of his teeth.

Liu Wen collapsed into the muddy water, a warm liquid uncontrollably flowing down his trouser leg, mixing with the cold rain. He was oblivious, staring intently at the hollow eye sockets of the dried corpse, his whole body trembling violently, his stomach churning, and he couldn't help but vomit with a "waaaah".

Li Juan lay on Qi Yun's back, covering her mouth tightly, her nails almost digging into her flesh, just to suppress the scream that was about to burst from her throat. Her body trembled like a leaf falling in the autumn wind.

The desiccated "train conductor" seemed to sense the prey's lucid fear and resistance.

Its waving motion stopped, and its dark eye sockets seemed to pierce through the rain, precisely "staring" at Qi Yun.

A chilling, viscous malice, carrying a strong stench of decay, permeated the air as if it were a tangible force, making it hard to breathe.

Qi Yun's eyes were as cold as knives as he fearlessly stared back at those empty eye sockets.

Although the Crimson Hunting Fire within his body had not yet burst forth, it was burning fiercely in his heart and spleen acupoints, poised to erupt.

The standoff could happen in the blink of an eye.

The desiccated "train conductor" seemed to sense Qi Yun's extraordinary nature, and then it slowly and stiffly lowered its beckoning arm.

Then, he turned around and, step by step, climbed the steps leading up to the door of the green bus.

"boom!"

The heavy car door closed.

Immediately afterwards, the eerie bus, without turning on its lights or making an engine noise, silently glided into the endless darkness and rain ahead, disappearing completely.

Wherever they were, only the raging wind and rain, the icy mud, and four survivors, their hearts pounding with fear.

Zhang Qiang lay sprawled in the muddy water, the warmth of his incontinence long since washed away by the icy rain, leaving only bone-chilling cold and deep-seated fear. Liu Wen was still retching, vomiting only acidic fluid.

Li Juan lay on Qi Yun's back, and her suppressed sobs finally broke out intermittently.

Qi Yun slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, his back muscles still taut.

He glanced in the direction the ghost car had disappeared, then looked around at the endless darkness and rain, his expression extremely solemn.

(End of this chapter)