freenovelworld Chapter 464 [Train] Tunnel (2)
Chapter 464 [Train] Tunnel (2)
This belongs to the woman next to Bat!
Chen Ji's gaze sharpened slightly: "Where did you find it?"
The monkey pointed to the opposite side of the platform, into the shadows beneath the tunnel.
Did they get off the train and not even go onto the platform?
Chen Ji roughly understood. He put the ribbon into his pocket and said to the others, "Bat and the other two followed the ghost."
The purpose of these two is also unknown, but now it seems very likely that it overlaps with the ghost's goal?
"The tunnel is only this long."
Han Bing frowned: "Where could they go?"
Now everyone has confirmed that after they left Zhangzhai, the time became 1985.
In other words, even if it were possible to get out, it wouldn't be a reality.
Considering the darkness outside the train window, and the fact that the station staff, as Tian Qinghe had told them, were ghosts, the group could almost certainly conclude that their activity area was limited to this tunnel at most.
Otherwise, the ghosts in the station would have invaded the outside world long ago, instead of being trapped here.
Chen Ji climbed down from the platform and looked into the tunnel, squinting involuntarily.
He couldn't see the end.
Unlike the experience of everyone else on the train, this tunnel had no idea how deep it was; it stretched straight ahead, seemingly with no end in sight.
Meanwhile, the group of people were not seen in the tunnel.
Chen Ji suspected they had entered through the doors on either side of the tunnel.
He noticed the iron doors along the tunnel walls while on the train. This wasn't surprising, as tunnels usually have emergency exits for safety reasons.
But at Montenegro station, the places these doors lead to... are far more complicated than that.
Behind them, the others also got off the platform, and their gazes sharpened as they looked around.
"It seems the only way out of here is by train."
Tian Qinghe's heart sank, which meant they would have to wait almost another day for the earliest bus to arrive.
The group cautiously probed forward, and soon they saw the first iron gate, but they couldn't push it open.
move on.
I don’t know how long it took.
To prevent being trapped in a maze, they leave marks on the wall every so often.
But it turned out that this was an overreaction; the tunnel continued to extend, and the group never saw the marks they had left behind.
Chen Ji silently calculated the distance. After they saw the figure, they arrived at the station in a few minutes.
By this calculation, the group had already moved far beyond the location where they first met the group.
None of the doors I saw on the road could be opened; they were all fixed to the wall like stickers, completely immovable.
Could it be that... he guessed wrong?
Chen Ji hesitated unconsciously. Perhaps the ghost that the prayer beads had transformed into had a way to leave the tunnel?
But if that's the case, why has it remained in the station hall?
Even the monk ghost's other incarnation, the photograph, needed a train to leave; and by the time the return train started moving, the ghost and the group were already far away...
While he was thinking, he suddenly saw a dark, indistinct thing lying next to the railway tracks in the distance.
Chen Ji's expression changed. This was the first time they had seen anything other than emergency lights, stone walls, and railway tracks after traveling for so long!
The group quickly stepped forward, but as the distance closed, a strong smell of blood suddenly filled their nostrils.
Tian Qinghe's face turned pale instantly.
That was a corpse?
Who died?
Faces flashed through his mind: Da Bao, Zhang Xuan, Wei Lan, the elderly couple...
soon.
The image freezes on an aged face.
He saw a pair of worn-out old cloth shoes next to him.
These shoes belong to the old man.
"and many more."
Just then, Chen Ji suddenly realized something was wrong.
There's still blood ahead!
No, to be precise, they are traces of people crawling!
The road winds its way, finally ending a few hundred meters away.
The group immediately followed the trail of blood and soon spotted the old man in front of an iron gate!
Everyone's gaze froze.
Han Bing couldn't believe his eyes. He didn't know how a man in his sixties or seventies could drag his legless body and crawl little by little to the iron gate.
The train ran over his body below the knees; at this moment, only two-thirds of the body remained beside the iron gate.
Tian Qinghe stared at the corpse with a full head of white hair and fell silent for a moment.
Normally, there is a large open space on both sides of the tunnel, so there is no reason for it to be run over by a train.
It was obvious that the old man was pushed onto the tracks by the ghost when the train turned around and left.
Afterwards, perhaps because his wife was taken away by a ghost, he climbed all the way to the iron gate.
But he ultimately bled to death.
"why?"
He muttered, "That ghost had no reason to kill him..."
"Don't we still need to keep them chanting spells...?"
Tian Qinghe didn't even know his name, only that he worked in the south and had finally returned to his hometown after a lifetime of hard work, and wanted to visit Tianhai.
But in the end, the train did not reach Tianhai.
It's only a few dozen kilometers away.
The most despairing thing is that the old lady is still alive.
There was no trace of her around here.
This suggests that she may have witnessed her husband's death firsthand.
Thinking of this, Tian Qinghe closed her eyes tightly, feeling as if a stone had fallen into her heart.
Just then, Chen Yuetan, who was standing next to him, suddenly looked at him:
"Tian Qinghe".
"How many others are there?"
“...Four.” Tian Qinghe paused for a moment, then answered subconsciously.
Did the Thirteenth Bureau not notify the number of missing persons?
“Four,” Chen Yuetan repeated.
He paused, looked deeply at Tian Qinghe, and then said, "Let's go. There are four more."
"......Um."
Tian Qinghe was silent for a few seconds, then understood what the captain meant.
The dead are gone, and no one can protect everyone, not even those who enter the realm.
But as officials, all they can do is minimize the losses.
Chen Yuetan turned around and gently pushed the door open.
It can be pushed away.
He didn't go in immediately, but turned around, as if he was thinking about something.
A moment later, Chen Yuetan returned to the spot where the old man had been run over by the train and poked around in the mangled flesh.
Then, he pulled out a silver-white screw from inside.
"Bone nail".
Chen Yuetan said, "He has had knee surgery."
"Tian Qinghe, have you ever noticed before that his walking speed is slower than others?"
Tian Qinghe was taken aback. After thinking about it carefully, it seemed that this was indeed the case.
He hadn't noticed before that it was normal for older people to walk slowly, but now that he thinks about it, the old man's walking posture was indeed unnatural many times, and he always lagged behind in the group.
"You mean... he died because he walked too slowly?"
This is utterly absurd!
If that's the case, then the ghost's behavior cannot be judged by normal human logic at all, and it doesn't match the clues!
It is known that the rosary ghost needs someone to chant a spell to connect with its body and achieve a certain purpose.
And unlike Tian Qinghe, the old man was not cursed.
He most likely recited the Six-Syllable Mantra.
So, does that mean that for a ghost, how fast it moves is more important than achieving its goal?
"Do not."
Chen Yuetan corrected, "It's not that we're walking too slowly."
"They've fallen behind."
"Moreover... I think it was because he fell behind that he broke a taboo."
"Or rather, he has no use to ghosts anymore."