Chapter 294: Hell on Earth
During the second stop, Qiao Wan felt even colder all over, so cold that her teeth were chattering. It felt like there was an omnipresent chilling malice in the entire carriage.
This time, many men and women of all ages got off the car. As soon as they got off, they were escorted by the ghosts. These ghosts grabbed the naked people and put them on a grinding stone. They dragged the grinding stone and crushed them layer by layer. Looking at the accumulated minced meat and blood on the grinding stone, the crying and screaming echoed everywhere.
The snow-white skeleton still stood in front of the car, smiling and waiting for her.
Qiao Wan felt a surge of panic in her throat, like a startled rabbit. She immediately jumped back onto the car. Whether it was an illusion or not, it seemed like the snow-white skeleton was getting closer to her.
The wheels of the car passed through roaring flames, and the carriage continued moving forward. Recalling the laughing snow-white skeleton from earlier, Qiao Wan felt a chilling fear and silently clenched her clothes. A sudden feeling of uneasiness began to rise in her heart.
First, every time she walked out of the carriage and leaned against it to look outside, this skeleton would get closer to her, as if it wanted to "take" her to hell.
Even if she doesn't leave the carriage, the skeleton will always come closer to her, until it "takes" her to this hellish place.
The key point is whether "she leaves the carriage" or not.
So, at the next stop, she didn't get off the carriage and didn't look outside.
If each movement of the skeleton is "one step," and her first guess is correct, by the time she reaches the fourth stop, it should have only taken four steps.
When the beast carriage made its fourth stop, to confirm her guess, Qiao Wan nervously stepped out of the carriage, looked at the snow-white skeleton with a persistent smile that appeared before her once again. At that moment, her heart raced, and she felt frozen, as if she was nailed securely to the ground and couldn't move.
The white skeleton was now even closer to Qiao Wan than during the second stop! It took two steps forward! Its smile grew bigger and bigger, and its second foot stepped into the carriage with a much larger movement than before! It was clear that during the third stop, it had already moved.
Uh-oh.
Qiao Wan's heart suddenly dropped. It seemed like no matter whether she left the carriage or not, this skeleton would come after her.
The wheels started turning, and the beast carriage continued forward. Thinking about the skeleton near the carriage, Qiao Wan tightened her lips.
She felt even colder now, so cold that she subconsciously furrowed her brows and blew warm air into her hands, trying to warm herself up. Due to the cold, Qiao Wan even started to feel a bit drowsy. Sleeping in this place would undoubtedly be too dangerous. She could only pinch herself, just like when she was in class during her final year of high school, trying her best to stay alert.
The fifth stop.
The white skeleton appeared at the front of the carriage, its eerie smile growing bigger and bigger, its jawbone opening wide.
Qiao Wan tried her best to avoid looking at it.
There were only two options in front of her, get off the car or wait... wait until "he" personally comes to pick her up.
But when she thought about the mountains of corpses and the howling hell outside the carriage, Qiao Wan froze.
...
The beast carriage raced on, she didn't know how long had passed, and this snow-white skeleton was stuck right in front of her. Its hollow eyes met hers, and there was something strange about the curve of its mouth.
Qiao Wan's heart was pounding, but she kept a straight face and thought to herself, she was finished.
At this moment, the carriage was finally empty, not a single person left.
The candle flickered, and all that could be heard was the sound of the wheels rolling.
She took a step back, and the skeleton took a step forward. She turned her head, and the skeleton turned its head. From start to finish, it maintained a distance of less than an inch from her, as if it was stuck to her body, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't tear it off, and it always had that smile.
In the end, the whole "person" was lying on top of her, extending thin arm bones and gently wrapping them around her neck.
A sudden impulse surged in Qiao Wan's heart.
Shake it off, shake it off!!
So, she grabbed its arm bone and tried to pull it off.
The smile on the skeleton's face suddenly turned cold.
"Squelch—" a sound that made your teeth ache rang out.
She actually tore it off along with her own flesh!!
Qiao Wan couldn't help but scream in pain, cold sweat instantly flowed down, this thing had already grown into her body!!
Just as she tore off the arm bone, in less than a second, the next second, it once again affectionately stuck to her like a lover, grinning with a bright smile.
Tear it off, tear it off!!
In the final second before losing consciousness, the only thought left in Qiao Wan's mind was this.
...
Rolling, rolling—
The sound of the wheels spinning rapidly echoed once again, abruptly waking Qiao Wan from the darkness!
As Qiao Wan woke up, she looked around and saw men, women, and children sitting silently with blank expressions. None of them spoke a word.
She... Qiao Wan struggled and swallowed nervously.
She has come back again?
In the last second before losing consciousness, she desperately pulled at the snow-white skull, tearing the flesh and causing blood to flow, creating a blurry figure made of blood and flesh.
Just as Qiao Wan held her head, sweating profusely, the beast-drawn carriage stopped.
Qiao Wan pushed through the crowd, surprising the expressionless men, women, and children who glanced at her. She quickly rushed out of the carriage and looked outside.
There were flames shooting up into the sky, copper pots being set up one by one, busy little ghosts in green, red, and blue running around, and people crying and shouting.
And there, in front of her, was a smiling snow-white skull reaching out its hand to help her off the carriage.
Qiao Wan, in a sudden motion, rushed back into the train car. She took a deep breath and clenched her teeth tightly, pinching herself hard.
It wasn't a dream.
Thinking about that final scene and the excruciating pain, Qiao Wan sat stiffly in her seat, feeling her heart in turmoil.
Should she get off the train?
If she didn't get off, that ghostly thing would eventually come for her. But the consequences of getting off the train didn't seem any better...
She looked out the window at the rapidly passing dark night. Qiao Wan swallowed, closed her eyes, and tried to calm herself.
This time, she wouldn't get off the train, nor wait until the last stop.
She was going to jump off the train!!
With this thought in her mind, Qiao Wan stood up abruptly, picked up a skull-shaped candlestick, and jumped out of the window.
However, at that moment, Qiao Wan suddenly felt her ankle being pulled down by something cold, dragging her back into the train car!
Qiao Wan paused for a moment, then quickly turned and swung the skull candlestick she was holding towards the "person" behind her.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The person gripping her ankle was one of the "passengers" in this train car, an expressionless old man.
Qiao Wan breathed heavily, her face stiff, her eyes filled with a strong and fiery desire to survive! Her movements were mechanical as she continuously smashed the candlestick.
Another child came to pull her, with a wide smile on their chubby face, looking adorable.
Qiao Wan gritted her teeth fiercely, not missing a beat with her attacks. Warm blood splattered on her face, and she blinked and adjusted to the bloodstains in her vision.
Damn it! What a damn respect for the elderly and love for children!
And then came the second one, the third one, the fourth one...
All the "passengers" in the carriage stood up, some tall and some short, dressed differently and with different appearances, but all wore the same bright smile as the skeleton. They grabbed her and dragged her into the carriage.
The skull candle holder rolled to the ground, and she was pulled into the carriage, her limbs pulled apart, torn into pieces.
...
Rolling and rolling...
The sound of the wheels spinning rapidly resounded once again, and Qiao Wan abruptly woke up from the darkness!
This was the third time.
The second time, she didn't get off the train, nor did she reach the destination. Instead, she was torn into pieces by everyone here.
Her blood and torn flesh splattered all over the carriage. Before she died, the snowy white skeleton stood in place, still smiling faintly.
Recalling the agonizing pain before death, even if Qiao Wan was calm, she couldn't help but go a little crazy in this moment!!
This is a death loop, Qiao Wan thought painfully.
Either get off the train or die, those were the only two options.
Qiao Wan tried hard to control her jumbled thoughts. She looked around at the "passengers" sitting numbly, their faces expressionless as usual.
But just by looking at these people, Qiao Wan shivered in fear, recalling her previous experience of being torn into pieces.
This time, she still didn't get off the train. Unless there was absolutely no other choice, she would never consider taking this path.
Qiao Wan stood up and picked up a skull-shaped candlestick. With a cold determination, she swung the candlestick towards the closest "man," or rather, these things that were riding with her. They couldn't be called human at all!
She smashed it fiercely!!
This time, Qiao Wan killed everyone in the train car. When she jumped off again, it felt like falling from a great height, and she turned into a bloody mess.
The fourth time...
The fifth time...
The sixth time...
Next, Qiao Wan tried all sorts of methods, hoping to break free from this never-ending cycle. But every time she opened her eyes, there was the roaring beast-like carriage, the flickering and suffocating candlelight. Her deaths were different each time, but they always started the same.
"Die, die," Qiao Wan thought. But as she neared the end, she began to feel calm, adapting to the various ways in which she died.
Once again, sitting in this bumpy carriage, Qiao Wan thought maybe she had to get off. The problem was deciding which stop to get off at.
Recalling the situations at each previous stop, Qiao Wan clenched her teeth without showing any expression.
Did she not want to choose any stop at all?!
Time ticked away little by little, and the people in the carriage gradually became scarce.
The next stop would be the last stop. She turned her head and saw a snow-white skeleton half a meter away from her. It smiled as if waiting to merge with her.
The final stop arrived.
Qiao Wan stood up, stepped forward without hesitation, and dashed off the carriage, plunging into the vast cold night!
She stood on the train, silently watching her. The wheels rolled, carrying the snow-white skeletons into the endless darkness.
As soon as Qiao Wan got off the train, she noticed a strange change in her body.
She stared firmly at her own hands, her breath suddenly stopped.
These hands shouldn't be called hands anymore. Somehow, the bones in her body gradually stretched, piercing through the flesh and turning into a pair of iron claws.
Looking ahead again, Qiao Wan was deeply shaken. No language could express the shock she felt from the scene before her.
In the distance, there was a blood-red expanse of sky and earth that seemed to have no end. The sky and the earth merged into one, inseparable from each other.
Countless naked men and women were waving their iron claws, fighting and killing each other, their eyes filled with hatred and animosity. The claws cut into each other's bodies, causing them to shed blood.
The broken and dirty organs, along with the remaining flesh, hung on the shiny white skeleton, like a set of ragged clothes being blown around by the cold wind.
When their bodies were reduced to mere bones, the cold wind blew and they grew new flesh again, continuing their fight.
These men, women, young and old, looked desperate, crying and sobbing uncontrollably, with tears streaming down their faces. However, they couldn't change the hostility in their eyes towards each other. They could only keep on attacking, until they were eventually cut into bloody skeletons.
And among this crowd of naked people, she unexpectedly saw Xiao Boyang and Fang Lingqing looking confused and shocked!
In that brief moment of eye contact, Qiao Wan paused. Xiao Boyang and Fang Lingqing turned their gaze towards her, causing her face to blush immediately.
Without thinking too much, Qiao Wan quickly stretched out her iron claw and pierced the throat of a nearby ghost messenger with a "puchi" sound, crazily tearing off the ghost messenger's crotch cloth and quickly putting it on herself.
In an instant, the gazes of the two brain-damaged boys changed from "=口=" to "= =???"
What?! Fang Lingqing quietly made a funny face at the ghost-catcher =.=
Then, the two honest young boys, with serious faces, quickly and skillfully overpowered the other two ghost-catchers, just like Qiao Wan did.
The crying here was so loud that the other ghost-catchers obviously didn't notice the commotion. Qiao Wan ran as fast as she could, and finally caught up to the two boys. Suddenly, she felt dizzy and angry for no reason.
The two boys across from her were clearly affected too.
Xiao Boyang muttered a curse and couldn't control himself, swinging his iron claw towards Qiao Wan first!!
Clang!
Qiao Wan quickly blocked the attack, but couldn't help but speak with a mean expression: "Aren't you supposed to be powerful, senior brother? You're just trash, a useless younger brother."
The boy was so angry he jumped three feet high: "Mind your own business!"
"Qiao Wan, you stupid idiot, do you think you're so amazing? Do you really think you're a big deal??"
"Oh no!" Qiao Wan said with a serious face, talking without stopping, "You have been irritating me for a while now, Mu Xiaoxiao seems to enjoy being your follower. But remember, a follower without anything in the end will see their ashes scattered in the rising flames."
Wait... Qiao Wan's heart sank, Mu Xiaoxiao and Xiao Boyang?
Did she... remember something? Technically, this is the first time she's meeting this person, but their exchange of words feels so familiar and natural (╯#-_-)╯~~
After thinking for a while without coming to any conclusions, Qiao Wan decided to give up. She thought, "Never mind, I shouldn't think about it. The most urgent thing is to find a way out."
Fang Lingqing looked confused.
Seeing the situation was getting worse, Fang Lingqing immediately used a special technique he had developed over the years. He reached into the minds of Qiao Wan and Xiao Boyang, pulling out their consciousness.
To prevent accidents, they used the remaining spirit threads to tightly bind the wrists of the three people and quickly tied a butterfly knot.
One stumble, their consciousness was dragged into Fang Lingqing's mind, and Qiao Wan and Xiao Boyang looked at each other.
Qiao Wan was surprised, "What is this?"
Fang Lingqing looked proud, "I call it the 'Soul Summoner', it's a new move I came up with. So, how cool is it?"
The so-called Soul Summoner's main purpose is to pull someone's consciousness into their own mind. Unfortunately, its duration is short. In this brief moment, the three individuals regained their clarity and didn't waste any time. They immediately squatted down, forming a circle and quickly discussing a way out.
The situation now is quite complicated. Before they could figure out what was going on, their consciousness was ruthlessly expelled again before even half a moment had passed.
Fortunately, their wrists were securely bound, so despite their strong dislike for each other, they could still move and search for an exit together.
So, for the next part of the journey, it turned into a war of words.
Xiao Boyang, feeling disgusted, said, "Qiao Wan, your bow tie is so ugly!"
Qiao Wan replied, "Hasn't your mom ever told you not to criticize someone's taste? Oh, I forgot, your mom has passed away."
Xiao Boyang exclaimed, "Damn!"
Feeling extremely angry and embarrassed, he retorted, "Qiao Wan, you're just jealous! I used to like Mu Xiaoxiao!"
Qiao Wan fired back with a cold expression, "Liking Mu Xiaoxiao? No, you're just lusting after her! You're despicable!"
Fang Lingqing felt a bit uncomfortable and as a disciple of Chongde Ancient Garden, he knew he should not speak disrespectfully. With his face turning red, he held back his words and finally managed to say, "Enough, you two!"
However, this only fueled the fire, and Qiao Wan and Xiao Boyang united to mock him relentlessly.
Fang Lingqing clenched his teeth and his young heart was hurt. He quietly held his chest in pain and closed himself off.
Perhaps this trio of keyboard warriors who don't engage in fights caught some attention, and soon a ghostly messenger noticed something was off and chased after them.
Qiao Wan, Xiao Boyang, and Fang Lingqing all cursed under their breath in agreement and quickly turned around to run!
Even Fang Lingqing, who wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, was starting to feel overwhelmed. Despite the situation, Qiao Wan and Xiao Boyang were still arguing with each other!
"Damn, damn, damn! Where can we run now? Did you really have to strip this guy's clothes so eagerly? Did it have to be this infuriating?"
"What kind of strange creature are you? Is your brain only for looking pretty?"
With the ghostly messenger getting closer, just at that moment, a beastly vehicle stopped right in front of them.
The three looked at each other, without a word, they immediately climbed onto the vehicle!
As they got on the vehicle, the malicious thoughts in their minds gradually subsided, and their ten fingers finally returned to normal.
Fang Lingqing retrieved the spirit thread and thought about the scene just now, still feeling scared. "What's next? Where do we go next?"
As the most experienced one here, Qiao Wan didn't hesitate and decisively said, "Get off the car."
"I've tried more than ten times, it's a never-ending loop."
Xiao Boyang frowned in surprise. "Never-ending loop?"
So, Qiao Wan repeated the ten or more ways she had just died.
Xiao Boyang opened his mouth, with a complex expression. "Qiao Wan... you... you're really talented."
Qiao Wan remained calm. "You flatter me."
When the beast car stopped again, the three of them immediately jumped off the car.
In the distance, the sky and ground were still burning red. There were countless iron nets spanning nearly twenty miles between heaven and earth, with sword trees growing everywhere. The ground was filled with blades, and there were thousands of iron worms between the blades and sword trees.
These iron worms look like piles of heads stacked together, with dense mouths growing on top, each filled with countless squirming worms that spew out hot excrement.
At just one glance, Xiao Boyang immediately felt a tingling sensation on his scalp, exclaiming, "What the heck is this?"
Fang Xiaotong, the talented student from Chongde Ancient Garden, froze for half a second and said dully, "This is probably the legendary Hell of Hot Excrement, right?"
Xiao Boyang, who had always lived a comfortable life, hesitated for a moment before his composure finally crumbled, and he cried out in despair, "Darn it!! Someone save me! Master, master! I don't want to eat poop!"
