Chapter 33: Out of Control (12)

Wei Ling’s face paled slightly, a lingering fear filling her mind.

She dared not imagine what would have happened if Lu Jinzao hadn’t pulled her back and she had rushed out with the others.

True, she possessed a supernatural artifact, but that alone was far from enough to keep her safe through a long night under ghostly assault.

“The train brought us to this cursed place—aren’t they just sending us to our deaths?” Wei Ling couldn’t help but curse.

Lu Jinzao’s lips curled into a somewhat sardonic smile upon hearing this. “Do you know why I’m certain this place is relatively safe?”

Without hesitation, and seeing Wei Ling’s puzzled look, she explained: “Because the train dropped us off here at the start.”

They had been placed in the uncontrollable Qu Township, at its only safe point.

The train would never directly send passengers to die—no matter how difficult the task, there was always a way to survive. Once passengers entered the uncontrollable Qu Township, they were marked by ghosts, triggering forbidden boundaries, but the train wouldn’t do something so cruel.

At least, a Class C train would not.

Hence, it deposited them in the ancestral hall—a place of refuge, a path to survival.

But... without any warning, there was no way passengers would remain inside the ancestral hall for a full 24 hours until boarding! They would inevitably leave it!

Realizing this, even knowing the train’s cruelty and ruthlessness, Wei Ling couldn’t help but feel a chill in her heart.

To her, it was no different from being sent directly to death—only more veiled.

“…So, should we just stay here?” Wei Ling looked at Lu Jinzao, her heart heavy with unease. The remaining time was too long, and she felt there were still dangers yet unseen.

“No.” Lu Jinzao shook her head.

“Have you forgotten? We just came in from outside.”

“We’ve already broken the taboo.”

The ghosts would come to kill them.

“That’s right…” Wei Ling scolded herself inwardly, shocked enough to have overlooked such an obvious truth.

“But if we’re going to die, won’t those who leave here die first?”

Indeed, Lu Jinzao nodded.

“The ancestral hall offers some protection, but it certainly can’t guarantee our safety after breaking the taboo, letting us live calmly until the train returns.”

Something else would surely happen.

“Is what you’re saying really true?”

From behind them, a woman’s voice quietly sounded.

The sudden voice startled them both. When they turned quickly, they saw a figure standing where no one should be.

“Xu Ruolin?!”

Wei Ling’s voice trembled with fear and shock as she immediately looked toward where Xu Ruolin’s corpse had been—but there was nothing left.

Only pools of blood told the tale of the horror that had occurred there.

Lu Jinzao felt a chill crawl up her spine as she gazed at Xu Ruolin’s apparition. She knew things had taken a turn for the worse.

Illusions had silently invaded the ancestral hall.

And she could not distinguish reality from illusion.

The sticky sensation of blood on her hands was so vivid, the scent of spilled blood still hung in the air, yet the already dead Xu Ruolin stood alive before them.

Reason told Lu Jinzao that the corpse must be a hallucination—the ghost probably couldn’t kill directly inside the ancestral hall.

But who could remain completely calm faced with such a scene?

“…How are you still alive?” Wei Ling asked.

Xu Ruolin looked fragile, on the verge of tears, pale and trembling.

“I was fine when I came in… Suddenly, someone went crazy and ran out. After a while, a few more ran off. I sensed something was wrong and wanted to call you, but you… seemed not to see me!”

“You shouted my name into thin air and said I was dead!”

Her voice broke as she spoke.

“I felt something was wrong here. I wanted to run, but then I heard what you said…”

“So, what you said… is it true? What should we do?”

Her tone was desperate yet hopeful, as if seeking guidance from Lu Jinzao.

But Lu Jinzao only shook her head. “I don’t know.”

She truly didn’t.

Reaching this point in reasoning was all they could manage.

What followed was simply to act according to the circumstances.

Ghosts would make their moves; they would respond.

Staying inside the ancestral hall might still leave room for maneuver.

However, Xu Ruolin, hiding behind them, seemed to have suffered a severe shock in that moment. Her demeanor was no longer normal.

For the next while, she kept suddenly turning her head nervously toward some place, as if something terrifying might appear, or suddenly would cry out. When Lu Jinzao and Wei Ling turned to look, all they saw was her terrified face.

“Calm down, Xu Ruolin!” Wei Ling couldn’t help but say.

But Xu Ruolin only shook her head: “There’s something here… something’s here…”

Her madness bore a striking resemblance to that first woman who had fled outside. Lu Jinzao couldn’t tell if Xu Ruolin was seeing hallucinations or truly driven nearly insane by fear.

But then Xu Ruolin said something else.

“Everyone else is dead. It’s coming here.”

“It’s looking for us.”

She looked up at Lu Jinzao with despair: “No, no… it can’t be stopped here!”

“Please, think of something…”

“Please, think of something!”

As she spoke, she moved toward Lu Jinzao, trying to grasp her collar.

Lu Jinzao stepped back just enough to avoid being grabbed. After Xu Ruolin fell to the ground, she curled up trembling.

Lu Jinzao closed her eyes briefly, uncertain what Xu Ruolin had experienced to cause this breakdown, but having someone in such a state was certainly bad news.

Wei Ling, however, was not surprised. In her limited platform experience, she had seen no fewer than five passengers driven mad by terror.

Human endurance had limits. Even the brave Wei Ling had, during platform missions, been driven nearly to breaking point by fear, tempted to end it all to escape the torment.

Inside the silent ancestral hall, only Xu Ruolin’s occasional nervous murmurs broke the stillness.

Those sounds were meaningless—expressing nothing, offering no help—only adding to the mental strain on the remaining two.

The atmosphere was oppressively heavy.

Wei Ling even felt ordinary breathing required effort. At such a moment, she desperately wished Lu Jinzao would say something to break the suffocating silence.

But Lu Jinzao said nothing.

So Wei Ling sighed, truly feeling the weight of the moment: “If only we had a supernatural artifact that could break illusions right now…”

Her own artifact could only preserve life; in this situation, it was of little help.

Then, in the next moment, a trembling voice answered her hope.

“An artifact that breaks illusions?”

Xu Ruolin lifted her head from her curled-up position, looking at Wei Ling.

“I have one!”