Terror Blade

Directly trying to take the Long Cleaver from the Male Corpse's hand would most likely result in death.

The Bus would suppress the Vengeful Ghost to its maximum, but that didn't mean the ghost's Killing Rule would become invalid. Provoking the ghost would still lead to death.

Otherwise, with people coming and going on the bus, and ghosts coming and going, this knife couldn't have been reserved for so long.

Inside the pot, "Gao Tian" had also performed a series of strange ritualistic movements on the Male Corpse before safely obtaining the knife from the latter's hand.

These rituals should have had a ghost-suppressing effect, allowing "Gao Tian" to get the knife alive and retreat unharmed.

The real Gao Tian took out the Ghost Transformation Spear tip from under his outerwear and thrust it straight into the back of the Male Corpse's head in front of him, forcing the spear tip a few centimeters into the Skull.

As he performed this action, Gao Tian felt his heart stop. He wasn't sure if the Pot Prophecy was absolutely correct or if some supernatural item was playing tricks on him with illusions. If it didn't seal the Male Corpse as intended but instead angered it, he would lose his life again today.

Gao Tian's sudden and terrifying actions on the seat once again shocked Su Jiu and Ling Feifei in the rows in front and behind him to an unparalleled degree. Zhou Yan even let out a strange cry:

"Hey. You lunatic, have you completely lost your mind?

"If you want to die, find a place to die by yourself, don't drag the other residents of the apartment down with you!"

Gao Tian ignored his words. After the spear tip was inserted, the Male Corpse in the front seat remained motionless, still in a corpse state, with no intention of turning around to kill.

It seemed the Pot Prophecy was, preliminarily, proven correct.

He had replayed "Gao Tian's" actions in his mind thousands of times. Seeing this, he no longer had any doubts and, at the fastest speed, stabbed the Male Corpse once in the left shoulder, once in the right shoulder, and once in the back. After confirming that the other party now had four holes in his body, he promptly withdrew his hand. After putting the spear tip back, he clasped his hands together and bowed piously, offering an apology.

Were these actions truly effective?

Su Jiu tightly covered his mouth, cold sweat streaming down his face as he watched Gao Tian. He didn't know why he was doing this or what he would do next.

Gao Tian ignored the gazes and confusion of the other three. Now, the sealing ritual on the Male Corpse was complete. He should be able to safely take the rusty Long Cleaver from his hand without any Vengeful Ghost backlash.

Although Gao Tian himself didn't understand the principle behind it.

He stood up, directly stepped over the Male Corpse's shoulder, placed one hand on the hilt of the knife, and pulled hard, attempting to wrench the rusty knife from the opponent's grasp.

The Male Corpse's strength was originally immense. Furthermore, its body had maintained this posture for too long, and part of its palm had fused with the Long Cleaver, making it extremely difficult to pull out.

Gao Tian dared not use too much force, fearing he might touch other parts of the Male Corpse. He tried several times in an awkward posture, and cold sweat began to bead on his forehead. Finally, the motionless blade began to show a slight looseness. With Gao Tian putting his entire body weight into it, a layer of skin connected to the Male Corpse was finally pulled out of its hand.

The Male Corpse in front remained motionless after losing the rusty knife, as if the four holes on its back had successfully suppressed it.

"You lunatic, you actually managed to do it."

Zhou Yan behind him muttered when he saw this.

As a resident who had completed two Green Text Missions and possessed some common sense, he naturally knew that the Long Cleaver in the Male Corpse's hand was most likely a supernatural item. But what normal person would covet it? This Male Corpse was clearly a Trap, and who would dare to touch it.

He hadn't expected that Gao Tian's seemingly suicidal act would actually succeed. He obtained the Long Cleaver without triggering the Male Corpse's Killing Rule. No one could witness this and not be envious.

Ling Feifei, standing beside him, comforted him:

"Husband, don't worry.

"Other ghost passengers will definitely get on the bus later. Since these ghosts aren't resisting, let's see if we can snatch items from other ghost passengers.

"We'll get a better one then."

Zhou Yan looked at Gao Tian in front of him with intense jealousy and nodded:

"Okay, let's do that."

He looked down on Gao Tian, a newcomer who had just entered the apartment, with utter contempt. If the other person could do it, why couldn't he?

At the same time, Gao Tian, holding the rusty Long Cleaver, carefully polished it in his hand.

After he claimed the Living Person Gloves from the Chat Group, a package truly appeared outside the apartment. Inside was a pair of thin gloves that didn't look like they were made of human skin.

When Gao Tian tentatively put them on, the gloves completely merged into his skin and disappeared. Simultaneously, a stream of information flowed into Gao Tian's brain. The Rule for using the Human Skin Gloves was very simple: as long as the user placed their hands on a supernatural item that needed identification, after 15 seconds, all known information about that supernatural item would automatically be transmitted to their brain.

Now that Gao Tian had obtained this Long Cleaver, he directly activated the Human Skin Gloves and placed both hands on the blade.

A moment later, a stream of information truly lit up in Gao Tian's mind:

[Terror Blade]

Effect: Sacrifice one human life to dismember one ghost.

Origin: Unknown

Remarks: None

This was the effect of the Terror Blade.

Simple, and terrifying.

To activate it, one needed to kill a living person.

Such a harsh price yielded astonishing power. Even though ghosts were Immortal, the Terror Blade could hack a ghost into pieces with a single strike.

The effective range of the Terror Blade was about ten meters.

Furthermore, the living person chosen as a sacrifice did not need to give their consent.

Gao Tian looked at the long saber in his hand. Although he had been mentally prepared, he was still somewhat shocked.

This saber itself... exuded evil from every pore. It actually used living people as a price.

But its power was undeniable.

At the very least, it was definitely better than the Ghost Transformation Spear, which had purely negative effects. Gao Tian carefully put away the Long Cleaver. Now, he finally had a main weapon to fight ghosts, and didn't have to run around in various Supernatural Instances holding an abstract Ghost Transformation Spear.

After dealing with the male corpse, Gao Tian began to observe the situation inside the carriage.

The next stop was approximately three minutes away.

In the driver's seat sat a Pitch Black Silhouette. Its arm movements clearly indicated it was turning the steering wheel. It looked no different from a normal driver.

If not for the fact that its hands were Wooden.

Controlling the bus in front was actually a Humanoid Puppet. Manipulated by Invisible Threads, its arms and fingers were very flexible, capable of performing all the actions of a human driver.

The Puppet Driver itself was not counted among the passengers.

Although the bus only restricted passengers from killing each other, no one dared to court death by attempting to attack the driver. They didn't even dare to approach the driver's seat.

Just then, Gao Tian suddenly thought of something.

Would his actions just now be interpreted as the Pot Prophecy by the next iteration of Gao Tian, and be carefully observed?

In other words, in the process where he just appeased the male corpse with a strange ritual and successfully obtained the saber, the unseen world outside the bus had a pair of giant eyes constantly watching him. Just like how he had watched the bus inside the pot from outside the pot back then?

If that were the case, it meant Gao Tian had fallen into a Space-Time Vortex of Self-Loop. Each generation of Gao Tian was doing the same thing, heading towards the same ending.

Gao Tian instinctively wanted to raise his head and look outside the bus.

He wanted to see if those giant eyes outside the pot were still looking at him, as small as an ant, inside the carriage.

But the moment he wanted to raise his head, Gao Tian restrained himself, still looking straight ahead, not doing what the "Gao Tian" of the previous time loop had done.

As much as possible, he had to change something slightly in each time loop.

He was not a Puppet of Fate, an Actor of Time.

At least, in this Time Loop, the act of looking up was forcibly restrained and changed by Gao Tian.

With a creak, the bus began to slow down before the next stop.

At some point, the bus had already carried everyone into the boundless Wilderness. Although its four wheels were still on the road, in the Field outside the road, Gao Tian saw countless Humanoid Silhouettes impaled on Tree Stumps. As the Night Wind blew, they swayed left and right, making rustling sounds.

Those were Scarecrows.

It seemed they had arrived at the Rice Paddy.

It was just that the number of Scarecrows in the Rice Paddy outside the road was enormous. A casual glance revealed hundreds or even thousands of them.

Would a normal Farmhouse have thousands of Scarecrows in its Rice Paddy?

This definitely isn't a normal place. Less than ten minutes after boarding, the bus had already driven out of the city center. There absolutely wasn't enough time; the bus had quietly brought them into the Inner World.

"Scarecrow Dock, next stop.

"Passengers needing to disembark, please gather your personal belongings. Please exit through the back door."

A mechanical female voice crackled intermittently from the somewhat malfunctioning old-fashioned radio.

Gao Tian gripped the Terror Blade in his hand, because he saw the bus's front door creak open, casting a long shadow as a new passenger boarded.

The number of passengers on the screen, in red text, jumped to 6.

At Scarecrow Station, the new arrival was a slow-moving Old Woman. She was hunched over, holding a Cane, and her walk looked labored.

From her appearance, she looked no different from a normal Old Woman.

If it weren't for the Black Cross impaled upside down on her head.

The cross was about half a meter tall, embedded extremely deeply into the Old Woman's skull, certainly piercing completely through to her Skull. As soon as she entered the bus, the other end of the cross touched the ceiling of the supernatural bus, making a metallic clanging sound.

Everyone, including Gao Tian, held their breath, watching the Old Woman slowly approach down the Aisle. Although the bus suppressed all Vengeful Ghosts within the Carriage, who knew if the ghosts would abide by the Rule. They were Immortal; what would happen if they really killed someone?

The old woman, with a cross embedded in her head, looked toward Gao Tian with her Misty Eyes and walked directly towards him.

Click.

On the red text screen at the Car Head, the passenger count, which had just jumped to 6, now jumped to 7 again.

Before the Old Woman could even take a seat, a new Passenger had boarded.