Sacrifice Blade Materials

"The passenger with the most votes will be stripped of their eligibility to ride this bus."

A mechanical female voice, devoid of emotion, crackled over the PA. It sounded as if it were pronouncing Gao Tian's death sentence.

Gao Tian, of course, hadn't forgotten the bus's most important rule:

Passengers must not kill one another.

But now that he'd been stripped of his passenger status as Ticket King, did that mean he could attack the other passengers without restraint, no longer bound by the rules?

Gao Tian's gaze first fell on Ling Feifei in the back row. The vicious woman still wore a smug smile, utterly unaware of what she'd done—or what kind of devil she'd unleashed.

For the first time in his life, Gao Tian felt such overwhelming rage.

He and this couple had been strangers, with no grudges between them, and they'd even been on the same side. If everyone had simply made rational decisions, they'd still have had a good chance of surviving this Green Text Mission.

Why? Why had they targeted him and voted for him? What did they stand to gain?

Gao Tian could think about those two mysterious brains for three days and three nights and still never understand their logic.

Bad people did evil to harm others and benefit themselves. Stupid people harmed both others and themselves.

That was why stupid people were even harder to figure out. He'd rather work with a bad person temporarily than have anything to do with a stupid one.

Gao Tian stopped dwelling on it. Whatever. The outcome would be the same either way. He'd planned to use Ling Feifei to test the blade, but for some reason, he suddenly changed his mind. The woman might still be useful. Sometimes, being alive was its own punishment—crueler than a clean, swift death.

Gao Tian activated the Terror Blade's ability—

He chose Zhou Yan as his sacrifice.

Just a moment ago, Zhou Yan had been lounging in his seat, watching with an easy expression. The next second, Gao Tian had no idea what happened, but Zhou Yan's whole body exploded with a bang. Only his head remained, rolling off the seat as gore splattered across the rear of the bus. Ling Feifei was still smiling when it sprayed all over her face. She hadn't even realized what had happened.

It had all happened so quickly that Zhou Yan's head was still alive. He only felt his body grow light as everything around him spun wildly.

"What's going on?"

At the same time, after paying the price, Gao Tian could clearly feel the invisible weight binding the Terror Blade temporarily lift. Its battered blade was still covered in rust, but the coldness and killing intent it radiated dropped the temperature in the bus by several degrees.

The instant Gao Tian raised the Terror Blade, five or six of the Multi-headed Ghost's more than twenty heads showed expressions of surprise, fear, and terror.

Once unsealed, the blade's aura was astonishing. With it in hand, Gao Tian managed to suppress the Multi-headed Ghost's presence for a brief moment.

All it had cost was a human life.

But it was worth it.

He took aim.

Gao Tian brought down the blade, and killing intent poured out like rain.

The Uncle Head, with its own arms and legs, was instantly reduced to dozens of chunks of flesh beneath that gentle spring rain. The pieces scattered across the bus, too thoroughly smashed to even pick up.

The Multi-headed Ghost stood directly behind the Uncle Head, the two aligned in a straight line. The force of the blade was immense. Even after crushing the Uncle Head, it didn't slow down at all, striking the Multi-headed Ghost head-on.

At the same time, with its clone's soul scattered, the Multi-headed Ghost suffered an invisible backlash. It writhed in agony. Blood poured from the noses and mouths of three or four faces on its body, while two others let out silent screams. They seemed to be enduring unbearable pain.

The whole bus shuddered slightly.

Only then did Zhou Yan's head roll to Gao Tian's feet. Completely bewildered, he looked up at Gao Tian, who was still sitting in his seat, and asked dumbly,

"What happened?"

"Why do you look so much taller?"

Gao Tian glanced down at him.

"Nothing serious. I just used you as material to test my Sacrifice Blade."

"Remember, in your next life, be a good person. Be someone who contributes to society."

He lifted a foot and kicked Zhou Yan hard in the face. Zhou Yan bounced away like a ball.

The last thing Zhou Yan saw before he died was Gao Tian's size-43 shoe, blotting out the sky as it came down toward him.

Only then did he realize that he was nothing but a head. He didn't even have time to beg before he died on the spot.

What a humiliating way to go.

One slash. One person sacrificed, one ghost taken down.

Because of Gao Tian's strike, the situation on the bus turned around in an instant.

After Zhou Yan died, the vote he'd cast became invalid.

The Multi-headed Ghost's clone had been dismembered. Once it lost contact with its main body, it also lost its passenger status. Its vote became invalid too.

The number of votes against Gao Tian fell from its peak of four to two.

At the same time, although he looked fearsome after that strike, as if he'd reached the pinnacle of his life, Gao Tian knew the recoil had been immense. The strain on his body, even his internal organs, was tremendous. Every inch of him felt torn apart.

It was like firing a large-caliber pistol: the recoil could deafen the shooter. For Gao Tian, that slash had cost him two hundred to take down a thousand.

Just then, a mechanical female voice rang out over the bus's PA.

"Passengers who do not belong on this bus, get off immediately. The bus is about to arrive at the next stop."

"Passengers who do not belong on this bus, get off immediately. The bus is about to arrive at the next stop."

The sudden announcement also meant the voting was nearing its end.

The bus was about to depart for the next stop, so the extra passenger had to be removed immediately. The rules were exerting their greatest pressure now.

The Multi-headed Ghost had the most votes against it. Gao Tian had regained his passenger status, while the ghost had lost its own.

Its countless murky, bloodshot eyes, each with clearly defined black and white, stared silently at Gao Tian, as if they were countless people all pointing their fingers at him.

It seemed to be trying to memorize his face.

Gao Tian knew ghosts held grudges too. Though he'd blasted one of its heads with a single slash and dealt the Multi-headed Ghost a devastating blow, he couldn't kill it for good.

If an S-level Vengeful Ghost completely lost control, it might still try to kill him tonight despite the bus's suppression. And the bus might not be able to hold it back.

Now it came down to which would give out first: the bus or the Multi-headed Ghost.

He stayed on guard. If the Multi-headed Ghost truly went berserk, he'd pay whatever price it took to deliver a second slash and cripple it for good.

The standoff lasted only a few seconds, but it felt as long as a century.

Shen Nian, Su Jiu, and the other onlookers hardly dared to breathe as they watched to see what the Multi-headed Ghost would do.

At last, after its dozens of eyes had pierced Gao Tian with countless stares, and with the mechanical voice urging it on from behind, the monster, its body piled together from heads, slowly turned around. Enclosed in a black coat, it walked stiffly, with a slightly twisted gait, step by step toward the rear door.

Under the bus's suppression, it chose to get off.

With the Multi-headed Ghost gone, the number of passengers on the bus dropped to six. The requirement had been met. With a creak, the bus's front and rear doors closed, and the engine started as it prepared to pull away from the stop.

Outside at the stop, the severely injured shadow of the Multi-headed Ghost stood alone.

At the same time, the bus's suppression of the ghosts inside took effect again. The Tall Male Corpse slowly fell asleep, and the cross on the Inverted Cross Old Lady's head went dark and still.

Gao Tian slumped into his seat. Cold sweat broke out almost instantly, soaking through all his clothes.

In that brief clash, he'd won by relying on the bus's rules.

But the fear and pressure the Multi-headed Ghost had brought still lingered in every cell of his body.

The bus drove along the road in the darkness. As Gao Tian watched the scenery outside the window change, he knew the passengers were safe as long as the bus was moving.

It wasn't over.

Don't forget, Ling Feifei was still alive in the back row.

He would never let her off.

With the danger gone, Shen Nian, who'd been watching from the front, stared at the rusty blade in Gao Tian's hand in shock. That slash had clearly stunned him too.

"What an overbearing blade. It actually forced an S-level Vengeful Ghost to retreat, at least temporarily."

"This blade looks so familiar. Wasn't it originally on this bus?"

Before Gao Tian could answer, a woman's wail came from the back of the bus, her voice breaking with tears.

"Gao Tian, you killed Zhou Yan, didn't you?"

Ling Feifei wasn't stupid. Zhou Yan had suddenly exploded and died right beside her, and Gao Tian had unleashed that astonishing slash at the same time. She had no idea how the two events were connected, but instinct told her Gao Tian had done it.

Her first reaction was still to accuse him.

"Gao Tian, we're both residents of the Living Person Apartment. We had no grudge against each other. Why did you kill my boyfriend? Have you no conscience?"

Gao Tian had never met anyone so shameless. He nearly laughed.

"No grudge?"

"We had no grudge?"

"Then who was it that voted for me?"

"Who teamed up with the ghost that got on the bus and tried to kick me off?"

"I'd love to know: if I had no grudge against you, why did you two vicious little scumbags go to such lengths to kill me?"

"And you have the nerve to talk about conscience?"

"Since you're so eager to see your boyfriend, want me to send you two star-crossed lovers down to reunite with him right now?"

After seeing how terrifying Gao Tian was, Ling Feifei had completely lost the upper hand. The arrogant woman he'd first met was nowhere to be seen. Under his barrage of questions, she gradually broke down, dropping to her knees in the pool of blood with tears streaming down her face. Then she began begging for mercy, as if she'd become a different person.

"I'm sorry. I know I was wrong. I really do. I regret it. I shouldn't have voted for you."

"Zhou Yan put me up to it. He was a bad person. Please be the bigger person and let me live now that you've killed Zhou Yan."

"Brother Gao, I'm just a weak woman. Tell me who to vote for, and I'll vote for them, okay? Please let me go. Please."

"I'll do anything for you. Once we're back in the real world, I'll do whatever you ask. Just spare me this once..."

It was hard to imagine that the same person could be so arrogant one moment and so meek the next. But after Gao Tian had forced the Vengeful Ghost back with a single slash, Ling Feifei was completely terrified. Her mind was blank, leaving her with only a tiny instinct to survive and a trembling urge to submit.

Sitting in his seat, Gao Tian couldn't even be bothered to taunt her.

Did she regret it now? Wasn't it a little too late?

He didn't kill Ling Feifei outright for two reasons. First, the bus's rules forbade him from attacking other passengers now that he'd regained his passenger status. Second, she might still be useful in a little while.

Those two holier-than-thou hypocrites had made him sick for long enough. He might as well get some compensation out of her and put her to use.

After a long while, Ling Feifei clutched her chest, stood up with a pained expression, and forced herself to her feet.

Sorry.

I originally intended to use these two holier-than-thou hypocrites as fuel for the protagonist's Sacrifice Blade, which would also be a good way to test the new weapon's power.

I didn't expect to go so overboard and make everyone hate them this much.

It's my first time writing, and I don't know the ropes yet. I'll be more careful in the future.

Let's leave this plot here for now. Ling Feifei will still be useful later—as a stepping stone for the protagonist.