Information Exchange (Seeking Follow-up Reads)

"I don't know."

Gu Xi ignored the conductor. He had figured out what had happened just now—these conductors all knew what those pieces of luggage meant, yet they had insisted on making people take them off the bus.

They were shifting the disaster onto others.

Gu Xi looked down on that kind of behavior.

So when the conductor came over to ask him that question, Gu Xi could not even be bothered to respond.

He walked over to the Ghastly Head he had thrown out earlier and reached down to pick it up from the ground.

The instant he picked up the head, Gu Xi could not help but sigh.

The enhancement had failed.

Corrupted Head (Gray): A head influenced by multiple forces that ultimately failed to achieve balance. This head has lost its proper function, but it still retains a trace of ghastly energy within. If properly handled, it can still serve as good material for crafting equipment.

Looking at the head's attributes, Gu Xi could not help but curse inwardly.

However, if the head had not nearly exploded due to its upgrade failing when it was disrupted by the fluctuations caused by the Ghoul Shadow Cultists' appearance, Gu Xi would not have noticed the enemy approaching.

That had also caused Gu Xi to miss the chance to save the head.

Now, it seemed that this head could only be used as crafting material.

After putting away the Corrupted Head, Gu Xi searched the bus carriage again.

He did all of this right in front of the conductor.

Yet the tall, burly conductor did not dare utter a single word, merely watching from afar.

Gu Xi ignored him. After searching through the carriage and finding nothing unusual, he pushed open the door and jumped off the Steam Bus.

Standing before the door, Gu Xi looked outside and discovered that the Steam Bus had stopped at the large bus station in the outskirts of Victoria City.

There were six Steam Buses of this kind parked at the station, while many carriages were parked outside it.

Gu Xi glanced at the carriages, and the coachmen immediately noticed him.

"Sir, heading to Milida Farm? My carriage is the fastest."

"Sir, mine's a light carriage. It's the fastest one around."

"Sir, what are you looking to buy? I know this area well."

"..."

"Sir, Cairns Town is holding a flea market today. How about I take you over to have a look?"

Just as Gu Xi was about to leave, he suddenly heard those words and turned to look at the coachman.

The moment the coachman saw that, he knew he had a customer. He immediately stood up and said, "Sir, you must have heard of the flea market in Cairns Town, right? It's the biggest flea market around here.

Every time, people from all the nearby towns and villages come there to buy and sell things.

Sometimes even professionals put up things they no longer need for sale.

I bought some good medicine at that flea market last time."

As he spoke, the coachman even winked at Gu Xi.

Gu Xi immediately understood what the coachman meant. With a flip, he jumped onto the carriage.

"No time like the present. Let's go take a look, then."

Hearing this, the coachman hurriedly said, "Sir, just sit tight. I know a famous apothecary there. If you mention my name, you can get an even lower price."

Gu Xi frowned. "I'm not that kind of person. I'm just going to take a look."

"Come on, we're all men. You don't need to say it. We all understand."

Gu Xi was rather speechless before this overly familiar coachman, but fortunately, he knew exactly how to deal with people like this.

"By the way, uncle, you travel all over the place every day. You must have seen a lot, right?"

"Of course. I'm out and about every day—what haven't I seen? Let me tell you, one night while I was driving, I saw a young woman by the roadside waving for a ride.

I really wanted to give her a lift, but I've got sharp eyes. I could tell at once that something was off about her. Her face was pale and blotchy—she clearly didn't look like a living person.

So I didn't pick her up and just drove on past. It wasn't until I got home that I realized that thing definitely wasn't alive. It was one of those strange things in the forest, the kind that lures people into the forest and eats them."

"Your eyesight really is impressive. If it were me, I might not even have been able to escape."

Gu Xi offered a polite remark, but unexpectedly, the coachman actually believed him.

"Of course! Take a look at me—I've been driving here for nearly thirty years, and I've never run into any danger."

"So that means there really are strange things that can happen on the road, right?"

"That's true." The coachman hesitated for a moment before finally saying, "But don't worry. As long as you don't leave the main road or wander into the forest, you'll be fine."

"What if you accidentally enter the forest?"

"What else can you do? If you don't go too far in, you can still make it out alive. But if you go too deep, you might not even leave a corpse behind.

Let me tell you, if you accidentally enter the forest, scatter some bread crumbs on the ground. That way, even if you get lost, you can follow the crumbs back out.

Also, I've heard old folks say that you must never lower your head in the forest. The moment you do, other strange things will notice you. Keep your head up and your eyes forward. Even if you run into something strange, you mustn't run."

The moment you ran, it meant you were afraid of him. After that, he would keep chasing you.

"Sir, have you just been affected by an Abomination? You've been marked. At a time like this, you need to be careful.

"If you have an Abomination's mark on you, it's easy to attract other Abominations."

Thinking of how, after leaving Westminster Abbey, he had encountered a cultist's Abomination setup just by taking a bus, Gu Xi nodded firmly.

Seeing Gu Xi agree with him, the Coachman happily went on to say more.

Along the way, the Coachman kept talking about various bits of common sense for 'surviving' in the wilderness.

Gu Xi did not mention his strength or profession, merely listened.

From time to time, he would add a few words, steering the Coachman toward certain topics.

The Coachman truly knew quite a lot. Some of it was from his own experiences, while some was hearsay. No matter the situation, though, he could always come up with some explanation.

Using those conversations, Gu Xi also subtly asked about the cultists.

Everyone knew about the Mirror Dungeon, but as for who was imprisoned in that exiled city, opinions varied wildly.

Still, there was one thing that most people both inside and outside the city could agree on: the person who had been tricked into that city was called the Great Lord.

The more rural the place, the more people believed in such powerful big shots.

In some villages, people would even make wishes to the Great Lord through mirrors, hoping to gain great power.

Whether the information was true or false, Gu Xi committed all of it to memory. After all, no one could say whether it might prove useful later.

By the time Gu Xi and the Coachman arrived outside Cairns Town, Gu Xi's mind was filled with information about rural Abominations. Of course, there were also a few folk remedies the locals used against Abominations, though Gu Xi was not sure whether those methods actually worked.