I fabricated myths to guide the revival of spiritual energy.

Jishou Old Railway Station.

This station, built in the 1970s, was abandoned long after the high-speed rail opened. Unidentified vines climb the tracks, the concrete floor of the platform is cracked, and only a few dim streetlights are still struggling to survive, casting swaying ghostly shadows in the rainy night.

It was 11:55 p.m.

"Family members, follow me so you don't get lost! This is your Brother Qiang!"

A man in a windbreaker shouted into his phone camera, trying to dispel the eeriness around him with his booming voice, "Rumor has it that this place is haunted lately, and they even say you can hear the whistles of trains that haven't been running for thirty years. Today, Brother Qiang is here to debunk that myth! If there really is a ghost, I'll eat it right here!"

The live stream chat was filled with comments, mostly mocking and jeers.

"Brother Qiang, someone's behind us!"

"Don't look back, or the lights will go out!"

"This place looks really eerie..."

As A-Qiang watched the comments, he felt a little uneasy. Jishou was unusually cold tonight; even though it was summer, his breath was misty.

"Where's anyone? Don't scare me..." Ah-Qiang said, turning around subconsciously.

When he turned around, the hairs on his body stood on end.

There really was a person standing at the entrance of the abandoned waiting room not far from him.

A tall, thin figure in a black raincoat stood silently in the rain, holding a black cloth umbrella. The streetlights couldn't illuminate his face, only his eyes, faintly visible in the darkness, were fixed on the dark end of the railway tracks.

"Holy crap..." Ah Qiang swallowed hard, secretly pointing the camera at the strange man. "Brothers, is that a person or a ghost?"

Gu Qing ignored the loud and boisterous anchor.

In his view, the system's countdown was reaching zero.

[Scene loading countdown: 00:00:03]

【00:00:02】

【00:00:01】

[Scene started.]

"Ugh—!!!"

A piercingly mournful whistle suddenly tore through the silent night sky.

The sound wasn't the crisp whistle of a modern electric locomotive, but rather the dying roar of some enormous, ancient steam monster. A hissing sound, mixed with electrical crackling, seemed to be squeezed out from an old radio broadcast from decades ago.

Ah Qiang's hand trembled, and his phone almost fell to the ground.

"Did you hear that? Brothers, did you hear that?!" His voice was distorted.

The ground began to shake.

The rust and weeds on the tracks trembled with the vibrations. In the distance, two beams of stark white headlights pierced the rain like swords in the darkness.

Accompanied by a heavy, suffocating mechanical clanging, a train slowly pulled into the station.

It was a typical green train.

The car body was already dilapidated, the green paint peeling off to reveal dark red rust underneath, like dried blood. The windows were dark, like rows of unseeing, lifeless eye sockets.

The strangest thing was that on this rainy summer night, a visible chill lingered around the carriage. When the wheels rolled over the rails, they didn't splash water, but instead stirred up a thin layer of white ash.

The live stream chat exploded.

"Holy crap! There really is a train?!"

"Didn't the old Jishou station stop operating a long time ago? Even the tracks are broken!"

"Why does this car look so much like... a paper effigy?"

"K444! Look at the train number plate!"

Ah Qiang mustered his courage and zoomed in with the camera.

The nameplate on the first carriage clearly reads in red: 【K444】.

The starting and ending stations below were blurred by the rain, and only a few words could be vaguely made out:

[The Realm of the Living] ——＞ [■■]

"laugh--"

With a piercing screech of the air brakes, the train came to a steady stop in front of the man in black (Gu Qing).

The car door slowly opened.

An indescribable stench of decay emanated from the carriage, a mixture of moldy bedding, stale tobacco, and...formalin.

Gu Qing put away the black umbrella.

He pulled the yellowed train ticket from his raincoat pocket with the elegance of someone heading to a grand banquet.

"Brother! Don't go!" Ah Qiang shouted, emboldened by some unknown source of courage. "Something's wrong with this car!"

Gu Qing paused in her steps.

He turned his head slightly, and his face, hidden in the shadows, was revealed to the camera for the first time. It was a pale face devoid of any color, but a gentle yet eerie smile played on his lips. Of course, this was not his original appearance, but rather one that had been altered by the system; even his parents wouldn't recognize him as their son.

"This train does not lead to the human world."

Gu Qing's voice was soft, yet it clearly pierced through the sound of the rain and reached the ears of A-Qiang and hundreds of thousands of viewers in the live broadcast room.

"If you don't want to die, don't follow me."

After saying that, Gu Qing stepped onto the moss-covered platform and entered the dark carriage.

"Clang!"

The car door slammed shut.

The next second, the train started moving again. There was no whistle, no acceleration; this massive steel behemoth vanished into the darkness like a ghost.

Ah Qiang stood there blankly, his back soaked with cold sweat.

He turned the camera toward the railway tracks, his hands trembling.

It was completely empty.

On the broken railway track, which was originally overgrown with weeds, there were no traces of trains passing by, not even a dent. Only a few round pieces of paper money with holes in the middle were slowly soaked and rotted in the rain.

"Was that... a special effect?" Ah-Qiang muttered to himself.

The chat room was going crazy, and the popularity instantly soared to the top of the entire site.

But amidst this chaos, a bright red comment at the top stood out starkly; it was a recent post from the official Huaxia account:

[WARNING: All residents of Jishou City are urged to immediately evacuate the abandoned train station area. This is not a drill. Repeat, this is not a drill.]

……

Inside the train carriage.

Gu Qing sat on the hard, right-angled chair, watching the darkness rushing past the window.

This place is not empty.

Although the carriage appeared completely dark from the outside, the interior was dimly lit, with lights flickering on and off. The carriage was filled with "people."

Some were dressed in Zhongshan suits, some in Miao ethnic costumes, and some in funeral clothes. Their faces were pale, their heads were bowed, and they did not utter a word.

[System: The Ghost Train scenario is running stably.]

[Current passenger count: 44 (all low-level phantoms generated by the system).]

[Returns on credit rating are skyrocketing...]

Gu Qing pulled out a non-existent train timetable from his pocket and lightly ran his finger across it.

"First stop, we've arrived."

He looked ahead.

The door at the connection between the carriages was pushed open, and a train attendant in a dark blue uniform with a stern face pushed a small cart over.

There were no instant noodles or drinks on the cart, only bowls of red liquid that smelled fishy.

"Beer, soft drinks, mineral water... move your leg..."

The train conductor's voice was hoarse and monotonous, repeating himself mechanically.

As the trolley passed by Gu Qing, the train attendant stopped, his eyes, with only the whites and no pupils, fixed intently on Gu Qing.

"Where are you going?" it asked.

Gu Qing smiled and held up the ticket in her hand.

"I want to go to the Falling Flower Cave."

A flicker of fear crossed the train conductor's otherwise expressionless face. Instead of collecting tickets, it pushed its cart and sped away from the carriage.

Gu Qing turned to look out the window.

The train is passing through a tunnel that is not marked on the map.

But at the end of the tunnel, Jishou is not the next stop.

There lies the endless, rolling mountains of the Ten Thousand Mountains, and deep within those mountains, there is a Miao village shrouded in mist, existing only in legends.

"Resource library updated."

Gu Qing issued the command in his mind.

"Unlock map: [Silent Miao Village]."