Mysterious Resurgence: Starting with the Strange Bus

Chapter 116 The Arrival of Elder Qin
late at night.

The bright moon is in the sky.

A special person arrived at the Wanting Hotel.

He was a centenarian wearing a gray overcoat, with a wrinkled face and age spots on his body, who looked like he was already halfway to the ground.

The old man was still holding a cane.

As the old man walked, the cane in his hand struck the ground, making a series of crisp sounds that echoed around him.

Judging from appearance alone.

He seemed to be just an ordinary old man who was nearing the end of his life.

But in fact.

This old man is universally recognized as the number one ghost tamer in Dajing City!
As the years passed, almost all of the old man's contemporaries had died, and his real name was almost unknown. Those who knew him would respectfully call him "Old Qin"!
.........

Three o'clock in the morning.

Room 2023.

Li Hui, who was sleeping on the bed in the guest room, vaguely heard the sound of a door opening and then woke up.

By the moonlight filtering through the window, Li Hui could see that there was indeed a figure standing in front of his bed, but because of the light, he couldn't see it clearly and couldn't make out the figure's appearance.

"A vengeful ghost or a ghost tamer?"

The Wanting Hotel is exclusively for ghost tamers and no ordinary people stay there. Therefore, apart from the hotel staff, everyone else is either a ghost tamer or a real vengeful ghost.

"If it's a vengeful ghost, it's already at my bedside, which means it's targeting me. So why doesn't it attack me?"

"But if it's a ghost tamer, barging into someone else's room like that would be a blatant provocation, and it would definitely cause trouble. I don't think anyone would do that."

Li Hui's mind raced, and he immediately activated his Ghost Domain.

Instant time.

The gray ashes drifted in the air, and the ghostly realm enveloped the entire hotel in an instant. But within his ghostly realm, a blank area appeared, which was where the figure was located.

The ghost domain failed to envelop the figure. An unknown supernatural power permeated the figure, affecting Li Hui's ghost domain and blocking the paper ash from entering.

That is why Li Hui was unable to 'see' the figure clearly through his ghost domain perception.

But this is not important.

The vanished Li Hui reappeared right next to the bedside, where the room light switch was located.

next moment.

A 'click' sound followed, indicating that the light switch had been pressed.

The room suddenly brightened.

At the same time, Li Hui also clearly saw the figure standing on the other side of the bed.

"Mr. Qin?"

Li Hui looked stunned.

He was familiar with the old man in front of him. Back in Xiaozhou City, Old Qin had driven his ghostly bus through his ghostly realm, seemingly as a warning. Therefore, Li Hui had memorized Old Qin's appearance.

Take a thousand steps back.

Even though Li Hui had never met Old Qin before, he could still recognize him at this moment.

His signature gray overcoat, the cane he leaned on, his wrinkled face with age spots, and his supernatural ability to distort his own ghostly aura—all these clues combined suggest that Qin Lao is the only one in the entire Dajing City who fits this description.

"Xiao Cao said you want to see me?"

The old man in the room spoke.

His voice was slightly aged, and his deep voice carried a hint of coldness, giving people a very strange feeling.

Xiao Cao?

Cao Yanhua?

Upon hearing this, Li Hui's eyes flickered slightly, and he then said, "Yes, Elder Qin, I have some questions I would like to ask you. I thought headquarters would arrange for me to meet with you, but I didn't expect you to come directly here."

"Is it about that tattoo?"

Before Li Hui could ask any questions, Old Qin spoke first: "Everything has two sides. The difference between a human and a ghost is not in their physical form, but in their inner self. As for the tattoo, you will understand when you meet Zhang Dong."

See Zhang Dong?
Hearing Qin Lao's enigmatic answer, Li Hui inwardly rolled his eyes, but didn't show it. He was also somewhat shocked, because neither the human skin paper nor the ghost cabinet knew of the existence of cell phone tattoos, yet Qin Lao had revealed it in a single sentence.

This can only mean one thing.

That means that in the future, cell phone tattoos will no longer be a secret known only to oneself. Otherwise, even if Qin Lao could communicate with his future self, he would not know the secret of cell phone tattoos. At most, he would only know some information about Li Hui in the future.

After all, Qin Lao was talking to his future self, not directly predicting the future. Only what his future self knew could Qin Lao know. As for some secrets that had not been revealed, the future Qin Lao did not know them, so how could he tell the present Qin Lao?
Moreover, Li Hui came to see Qin Lao this time to ask about other things, and never intended to ask about the phone tattoo. This was information that Qin Lao had revealed on his own initiative, and it was not the question that Li Hui wanted to ask on this trip!

However, since Elder Qin mentioned Zhang Dong...

Li Hui then followed up with the question.

"Old Qin, since you know about the existence of cell phone tattoos, you must also be aware of its capabilities. Will my future self succeed or fail in controlling Zhang Dong's abilities?"

Regarding Zhang Dong's ability to erase everything.

Li Hui was naturally envious.

However, he did not dare to act rashly before he knew Zhang Dong's attitude, which is why he did not make any move when he passed by that old house from the Republican era on the paranormal bus.

It's important to know that Zhang Dong was still alive at this point in time.

If Zhang Dong thinks that "variables shouldn't exist in the world" and rushes there, then things could get really messy.

Therefore, Li Hui planned to go there after Zhang Dong died, before the vengeful ghost had revived, during the seventh day after his death.

But now that Elder Qin already knew about the phone tattoo, Li Hui didn't have many reservations and directly asked about the fate of the replica Zhang Dong.

This question was both to find out if Qin Lao had succeeded in the future he knew, and to get Zhang Dong's attitude from Qin Lao.

Upon hearing this, Elder Qin said, "I don't know if you will succeed. You'll find out when the time comes. As for Zhang Dong, you'd better go see him while he's still alive."

Old Qin did not tell Li Hui the answer, but he did reveal some information, telling Li Hui to go to that old house while Zhang Dong was still alive.

"..."

Then Li Hui asked other questions.

Old Qin, however, responded selectively.

He gave answers to some questions directly, left others ambiguous, and didn't answer some at all.

Time just passed by minute by minute.

It wasn't until after six in the morning that Old Qin got up and left.

.........

the other side.

7:20 a.m.

The bus, which had been traveling through the haunted place all night, entered the city again. It was a modern city that looked perfectly normal, with pedestrians on the streets and vehicles on the roads. Overall, there was nothing strange about it.

Will the ghost bus stop here?

See this.

Yang Jian, inside the carriage, subtly changed his expression, thinking to himself.

Although he only spent one night on the bus, his experience last night was extremely dangerous. The bus stopped five times, during which time ghosts got on and off the bus.

The most dangerous incident was the stop in the middle of the night. It wasn't a normal stop; instead, a vengeful ghost appeared in the middle of the road and blocked the bus, causing it to stall. It took a full twenty minutes to restart.

That experience was bizarre and terrifying.

It should be noted that there were 6 vengeful ghosts on the bus at the time. Although Yang Jian did not see two of them, he was certain that there were still 4 vengeful ghosts.

They are the woman in mourning clothes who boarded the vehicle from the mortuary; the old woman who was already sitting in the vehicle from the beginning; the cold, gloomy man who boarded the vehicle in a wasteland; and a terrifying, rotting corpse that crawled out of a grave mound, its gender indistinguishable.

Among them, the woman in mourning clothes who boarded the vehicle from the mortuary was the most terrifying, not only because she was the most horrifying, but also because her killing pattern was very easy to trigger.

It is a range class.

If you get too close to the vengeful spirit, you will be targeted and subjected to a supernatural attack.

Fortunately, Yang Jian had become an anomaly and withstood the first wave of attacks. After deducing the ghost's movement patterns, he began to maneuver and managed to hold out until the bus restarted.

Apart from the woman in mourning clothes, among the remaining vengeful ghosts, the old woman and the sinister man did not attack Yang Jian and his companions, but left directly after getting off the vehicle.

The rotting corpse, however, first targeted the two ordinary people dressed as students, and after killing them, it turned its attention to Lin Bei.

It was because of that engine stall that Yang Jian realized that the two people sitting in the last row were not vengeful ghosts, but ghost tamers.

One of them was Xu Feng, the head of Xiaochun City, who had been missing for several days. The other person's name was Lin Bei.

Then, through conversations with Lin Bei and the other person, Yang Jian gained a deeper understanding of the operating rules of this supernatural bus.

"A bizarre bus, a unique way of survival, using the bus's supernatural power to suppress the resurgence of the vengeful spirit within them—this path is not easy. The uncertainty surrounding the ghost bus is too great, and the probability of Lin Bei and his companions ultimately dying is very high!"

Thinking.

Yang Jian glanced at Xu Feng and Lin Bei, who were sitting in the last row of the carriage.

The two of them returned to their original appearance. The former was wearing a trench coat, arms crossed and head down, while the latter was wearing a baseball cap and a long-sleeved shirt, also head down and leaning against the car window.

The two people sat on opposite sides, motionless, stiff as corpses, exuding an eerie atmosphere. From their appearance, they were almost indistinguishable from real vengeful ghosts.

At this time.

A screech of brakes followed.

The bus came to a smooth stop at the bus stop on the side of the road.

"It really stopped at the station?"

Yang Jian glanced at the time displayed on the bus: 7:25 AM. Then he looked at the black electronic display screen, where a group of red lights were flashing across the screen.

Current number of passengers: 3.

There were three vengeful ghosts, but Yang Jian could only be certain of one of them: the ghost that boarded the bus at its last stop.

That happened more than two hours ago.

Around 5 a.m., the ghost bus passed by a special, eerie place—an abandoned village. After stopping, a thick white fog drifted over, and after boarding, the fog coalesced into a human figure—a somewhat ethereal, naked middle-aged woman.

Then the ghost bus never stopped again, and it hasn't stopped since.

"The bus will stop for about five minutes each time it enters the station. This is the rule for buses, just like how they stall when a ghost blocks their way..."

While thinking.

Yang Jian stood up.

Then I got off the bus through the open back door.

As for Xu Feng and Lin Bei, they have their own choices. They want to use the Ghost Bus to suppress and solve the problem of their own ghost resurgence. Yang Jian is not sure if this path will work, but it is their choice, and he will not interfere.

Almost the instant Yang Jian got out of the car.

Some passengers waiting at the bus stop boarded the bus through the open front door. Yang Jian was about to warn them when he saw this, but he quickly stopped talking.

The bus parked at the platform was not the ghost bus they had ridden before. This bus was already full of passengers, and the people sitting in the back row were not Xu Feng and Lin Bei, but several young men and women.

Although the overall shape of the buses is similar, they are not the same model.
That ghost bus has disappeared without a trace...

at the same time.

Li Hui, who was in Dajing City, also left the Wanting Hotel and boarded a special car sent by the Ghost Riders headquarters to head to the headquarters.

Through conversation with Mr. Qin.

Li Hui confirmed many things and also learned about Elder Qin's attitude, ultimately choosing to join the Ghost Tamer Headquarters.

But unlike others.

To be precise, Li Hui joined the headquarters as a collaborator, nominally but not under its jurisdiction. He neither obeyed orders nor decrees, possessing absolute autonomy, though nominally a member of the Ghost Tamer Headquarters.

This was something Old Qin had agreed to.

Old Qin didn't care about this. At his age and with what he had experienced, he had a broad perspective. In his view, things like power were all fleeting. As long as the final result was what he wanted, that was enough.

As for some of the higher-ups at the Ghost Riders headquarters, they were happy to agree to Li Hui's request. Even if he was not under their control, as long as he acknowledged that he was a member of headquarters, that was enough.

After all, the Captain's Plan is about to begin.

At that time, the power and status of any captain will be equivalent to that of a vassal king or a regional governor in ancient times. The headquarters will serve the captains, rather than govern and command them. Therefore, Cao Yanhua sees Li Hui's requests as perfectly acceptable.

Therefore, as soon as Cao Yanhua received the news, he immediately sent someone to pick up Li Hui. He even promised on the phone that he would give Li Hui a spot as the team leader.

This is something that can't be helped. Both Li Hui's 'achievements' and the strength he has shown deserve him to be a captain!
And most importantly, this can avoid potential conflicts later on.

After all, in a sense, the headquarters serves the captain, and other non-captain ghost tamers need to obey the captain's orders and cooperate with the captain's actions to a certain extent. So if Li Hui is not the captain but has absolute independence, he has already created a conflict with the captain to some extent.

soon.

The car then drove out of the city.

The Ghost Riders' headquarters were located in a mountainous area on the outskirts of the city.

A wide, straight road stretched into the mountains, but it wasn't shown on the navigation map, as if it didn't exist.

As the vehicle moved forward, it passed several checkpoints along the way, where the guards were all special personnel armed with live ammunition. Even special vehicles had to go through several checks before being allowed to pass.

The vehicle then continued deeper into the area.

About ten minutes later, Li Hui saw various buildings gradually appearing in the mountainous area. On the mountaintop, there were many satellite communication devices, which were flashing lights and in operation. There were also sentry posts nearby, with dedicated personnel responsible for their protection.

(End of this chapter)