Mysterious Revival

At the very last moment, Yang Jian and Li Yang rushed onto the Ghost Bus. The moment their feet stepped onboard, the bus doors slammed shut on their heels.

The Ghost Bus restarted its journey, carrying both people and ghosts in the carriage to an unknown destination.

At this moment, the Ghost Bus had vanished completely from the streets of Dachang City, as if the entire event had been an illusion, leaving no trace of the bus's existence.

"So this is the fabled Ghost Bus?" Li Yang remarked with some curiosity, not appearing particularly nervous.

After all, being a ghost-handler on the bus afforded some measure of safety.

Though ghosts were present, the environment of the bus seemed to repress them, preventing them from killing easily. This gave the bus a safer reputation compared to a perilous place like the Ghost Post Office.

The others who boarded earlier were also studying the bus's interior at the moment. Their objective was straightforward—find an empty seat. Other concerns could wait until later.

The Ghost Bus seemed fairly full, almost to capacity, but there were still a few vacant seats. After all, someone and one ghost had just disembarked earlier.

"There's an empty seat—perfect."

Qin Kai, up ahead, lit up with excitement. Without hesitation, he dashed to the nearest available seat and sat down.

The moment he settled in, he shivered violently, feeling an indescribable chill creeping from the side. He turned his head slightly, and his pupils shrank in shock.

Seated beside him was a woman. Her long black hair was disheveled, her clothes tattered, her skin coated in a thin layer of frost. Her body was unnaturally stiff, as if she'd just been pulled out of a freezer. She exhibited no signs of life.

A ghost?

As Qin Kai stared at this figure, the frozen woman's corpse twitched slightly. Her rigid neck creaked as it turned, her stiff joints emitting cracking sounds. A pale, lifeless face locked onto him.

"Damn it."

A surge of terror took hold of him. He quickly averted his gaze and prepared to stand up and switch to a different seat.

But as Qin Kai tried to move, he realized the options were dwindling—there simply weren't many empty seats left in the carriage.

Da Qiang had already sat down, Wang Feng had found a spot, and so had the man they called "Eagle." Even Yang Xiaohua, the one holding a red balloon, had managed to claim a seat.

Now, there was only one seat left.

This seat was near the window, but reaching it meant navigating past the passenger sitting on the outside.

That passenger was equally unsettling. Dressed in vividly colored clothes, their skin was waxy and pale, devoid of any vitality. Their face was obscured by a piece of yellow paper, which covered their eyes, nose, and mouth, plastered tightly to their face with no visible gaps.

Moreover, as seconds passed, there was no rise or fall to indicate breathing beneath the yellow paper.

In other words, this person wasn't breathing.

"Another ghost?" Qin Kai hesitated for a moment.

Between two equally terrifying options, his current seat seemed marginally better. At least it was closer to the aisle, giving him a chance to flee if something happened. The other seat, tucked in by the window, offered no such escape route—it would be a dead end if the ghost blocked his path.

With that thought in mind...

Qin Kai suppressed the urge to change seats. Gritting his teeth, he stayed put, shifting his gaze away from the frozen female corpse beside him, unwilling to look directly at it.

However, beads of cold sweat began to drip from his forehead.

Sitting this close to a ghost for three entire stops—it was a pressure few could endure.

Were it not for his belief that the ghosts on this bus wouldn't kill indiscriminately, he would've already bolted, regardless of the risks.

"It's lively on this bus."

Yang Jian, holding his cracked, elongated spear, walked forward step by step.

The Ghost Bus was in motion, yet neither he nor Li Yang had found seats yet. Whatever the consequences of standing would be, few on this bus likely knew—but they certainly couldn't be good.

Now, the priority was to find a seat.

"So Yang Jian, the wielder of ghostly eyes, finally boarded?"

His arrival subtly drew the focus of many passengers. For a brief moment, several pairs of curious eyes discreetly watched him.

Moments earlier at the bus stop, Ni Sheng had stepped off first, only for Yang Jian to kill him on the spot without hesitation—a memory still vivid in everyone's minds.

A ghost-handler with a ticket to leave was taken down just like that.

The implications were clear to everyone.

After stealing a few glances, most passengers quickly averted their gazes, unwilling to draw Yang Jian's attention. Everyone planned to survive on this bus for some time yet, and provoking someone like him was absolutely inadvisable.

Yang Jian walked to the middle of the carriage and glanced at the electronic board above.

"11."

The glaring number displayed on the screen read "11."

Yang Jian's expression shifted subtly, a trace of astonishment crossing his face.

This number signified the presence of eleven ghosts on this small Ghost Bus—a figure that didn't even account for the one ghost that had disembarked earlier. Without that, the total would have been even higher.

"Excluding the driver's seat, there are thirty-five seats in total on this bus. So the ratio of people to ghosts is more than a third—no, even greater, since we also need to subtract the seats occupied by the fourth-floor couriers who just boarded."

Yang Jian quickly calculated. If he excluded the Eagle, Leuk Qingqing, Qin Kai, Yang Xiaohua, and the others from the tally, then the ratio of people to ghosts on the Ghost Bus had already reached a terrifying one-to-one.

Every other seat was occupied by a ghost.

Frighteningly close to equal numbers.

"Captain, there's only one seat left. What now?"

Li Yang's gaze swept the carriage, ultimately landing on the sole remaining seat.

Yang Jian's eyes darted around, scanning the faces of several passengers.

"This Yang Jian is short one seat. With his methods, he'll likely grab one by force. As long as we don't respond to him, we'll be fine. Even on this bus, he's suppressed like the rest of us. And with this many ghosts here, the chances of him picking me are minuscule. As long as I don't show any weaknesses, he won't be able to tell if I'm human or ghost."

Someone on the bus clung to this line of thought, maintaining an eerily ambiguous demeanor that was impossible to interpret.

As long as they stayed silent and didn't look around recklessly, no one would dare make the first move against them. If the wrong target was chosen and turned out to be a ghost, the consequences would be fatal—not only might the seat remain unattainable, but they might also lose their life.

Yang Jian's sharp gaze continued to sweep over the carriage.

No one dared meet his eyes. In this volatile situation, making eye contact was as good as asking, "What are you looking at?"—an invitation to be taken down and have your seat grabbed on the spot.

After an almost oppressive pause, Yang Jian's stare moved on, momentarily lingering on the fourth-floor couriers.

The couriers who had boarded earlier immediately felt as if they were sitting on pins and needles, their nerves on edge, fearing Yang Jian might go after them and take their seats.

Most worried of all was Yang Xiaohua.

As an ordinary person, she had almost zero ability to resist. If Yang Jian demanded her seat, she'd have no choice but to comply. In that scenario, she'd be the only one left without a seat, a situation virtually equivalent to a death sentence.

Yang Xiaohua's body tensed up completely, avoiding even the briefest glance at Yang Jian, as if she hadn't heard Li Yang's earlier comment.

When it came to life and death, everyone acted selfishly. No one was willing to willingly give up their seat.

Yang Jian's lips curled into a cold, faint smile, but his gaze moved on, stopping on no one else.

"Li Yang, take the last seat."

"What about you, Captain?" Li Yang asked.

Yang Jian replied calmly, "I'll manage."

With that, he turned and walked toward the front of the bus. Without hesitation, he reached out and pulled at the driver's seat.

The driver tumbled to the ground instantly.

"What the hell? Yang Jian wants to take the driver's seat? He's going after the Ghost Bus driver?"

The move shocked everyone.

All who boarded the bus assumed there was an unspoken rule: Do not disturb the driver. To them, anything capable of driving such a terrifying bus was surely an exceedingly dangerous ghost.

As such, the driver's seat was considered a forbidden zone.

But Yang Jian unceremoniously dragged the driver aside and sat down himself without the slightest hesitation.

The driver, who many suspected was a fearsome ghost, now lay on the floor like a lifeless corpse, entirely motionless.

There wasn't the slightest hint of anything strange occurring. No ominous transformations, no violent retaliation—nothing attacked Yang Jian for occupying the driver's seat.

Everything remained eerily normal.