Before long, ticket inspection began.
Yang Fan followed the line forward.
The passengers ahead had their tickets checked and boarded one by one. Soon, it would be his turn.
"Please show me your ticket."
The staff member checking tickets was unfamiliar to Yang Fan. She looked to be in her early twenties. She wasn't particularly beautiful, but she had a certain air of authority.
Yang Fan felt around in his pocket, took out the ticket Na'er had bought for him, and handed it over.
"Here."
After carefully checking it, the staff member let Yang Fan board the train.
The train bound for Shrek City soon filled up.
Yang Fan leaned toward the window and looked outside. He saw that many people hadn't managed to get on this train. But it wasn't a big problem. He'd been taking this route for months and knew its departure schedule and the staff quite well.
The train slowly started up and headed straight for Shrek City.
"Tsk."
Yang Fan habitually began practicing the spiritual meditation method Leng Yaozhu had taught him. To his surprise, he discovered that a few rats had managed to sneak aboard this Soul Guidance Train.
When he saw the ticket inspector pass by, Yang Fan beckoned to her.
She noticed him too and came over at a quick trot.
"Little brother, is there something you need?"
Mo Lan remembered the little brother in front of her quite well.
He was the cutest and most handsome child she'd seen on her first day of work. At a height of 1.7 meters, with a youthful face, he was clearly a little genius.
That was because genius Soul Masters tended to have certain traits: their youthfulness came from their young age, and their height from Soul Power stimulating their growth.
Now that he'd broken through to the third ring, Yang Fan finally looked a little more grown-up.
"Does this train serve boxed meals?"
Is there somewhere more private on this train? I have something important to tell you.
Mo Lan heard two voices, one in her ear and the other in her mind. Her pupils widened slightly, but she quickly calmed down.
"Yes, sir. Please come with me."
Perhaps out of fear, Mo Lan clung tightly to Yang Fan's arm.
Mo Lan had no Soul Power and was of average height for a woman. Wearing high heels, she was only a little taller than Yang Fan.
As a result, the gesture made Yang Fan feel an astonishing softness brush against his arm, as though he'd sunk into a warm cloud. Even his heartbeat skipped a beat.
The two of them went to the restroom between train cars and closed the door.
Just then, the Soul Guidance Communicator at Mo Lan's waist suddenly rang.
Mo Lan's face flushed. Only then did she realize how abruptly she'd acted.
"Miss Mo Lan, Miss Mo Lan, stay away from Carriage Five at all costs! There are criminals trying to hijack the train. It's very dangerous!"
Mo Lan was stunned. A train hijacking? That would be a catastrophe for a Soul Guidance Train!
"Miss Mo Lan, it looks like you already know what I was about to tell you."
Yang Fan had also heard the communicator in Mo Lan's hand, confirming her identity.
That extraordinary woman who had ended the tens of thousands of years of conflict between humans and Soul Beasts.
Most importantly, she'd done it as a human, despite not even having Soul Power.
"A few months ago, a train was hijacked in the west. The Soul Guidance Train exploded, killing or injuring more than five hundred people. The culprit this time is probably the same person. It's dangerous here. As a Soul Master, you should be able to jump off safely, right?"
The more nervous Mo Lan became, the calmer she grew. To run into something like this on her first day at work was terribly unlucky!
The first thing she thought of was getting the talented child beside her away as soon as possible. Children were the Federation's future.
"Train conductor, there are a lot of criminals. We don't know how they managed to bring Soul Guidance Ray Guns aboard. They have a lot of weapons, as well as Soul Guidance Cluster Bombs. They've already attached them to the train cars."
"Our staff are in position and confronting them. The bomb search is proceeding methodically from the rear of the train toward the car occupied by the criminals."
Mo Lan watched the messages coming through the group chat, her expression growing grimmer by the second.
She made a snap decision and spoke sternly into the chat: "Tell the cab to disconnect Cars Six through Sixteen as soon as I reach Car Five. Let the first five cars continue on their own. Have we sent a distress signal to headquarters?"
"Are you planning to draw their attention to yourself and sacrifice the people in those first five cars?"
Yang Fan raised an eyebrow and asked curiously.
"This is just a precaution, in case they're pushed to the brink and do something desperate. I have a special identity. It might be enough to save those people. Even if the negotiations fail, this will still minimize the losses."
Mo Lan took off her high heels and opened the restroom door.
"You're a Soul Master, and perhaps a talented one, but the people on the other side are ruthless criminals. Hurry and get away from here... If you can, try to look after the other ordinary passengers."
Mo Lan strode toward Car Five.
"Just go. No one will blame you."
Hearing Mo Lan's final words, Yang Fan smiled and lowered his head.
"So you really do look down on me."
The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility.
If he didn't want to get involved in this mess, why had Yang Fan gone out of his way to find a chance to warn Mo Lan?
Yang Fan summoned his Martial Soul. His First Soul Ring glimmered. Though his appearance didn't change, his presence faded considerably, and his face grew somewhat indistinct.
This was an effect of his Soul Ring breaking through the ten-thousand-year mark. It made up for the original weakness of his optical and psychological invisibility against technology, transforming it into a change that reached higher dimensions, such as quantum mechanics.
Unless the other side's mental strength far surpassed Yang Fan's, even electronic devices couldn't see through him now. If it had evolved sooner, perhaps Xu Chengxing could have searched high and low without finding a single trace of him.
He stopped less than a meter from Mo Lan and quietly watched her negotiate.
"Enough with the nonsense. You're just a low-level staff member. What are you doing here? Get the train conductor over here.
"Our demands are simple. Tell the Federation government to release the people they arrested twenty days ago. Once our people are safe, I'll let the hostages here go.
"I know you can detach the cars at the back. But let me tell you, we've planted Soul Guidance Cluster Bombs in every single car..."
Yang Fan's brow furrowed as he listened. Why was this so much like the plot Tang Wulin encountered years later in the original story? Why had it happened so much earlier?
By then, Mo Lan had already become a train conductor. But based on his careful observations of her Martial Soul, perhaps today was only her first day on the job.
Mo Lan called out loudly toward Car Five: "Don't do anything rash. I've already passed your demands along, and I'll do everything I can to mediate and help you achieve your goals. But I ask that you promise not to hurt the hostages."
The two sides went back and forth for a while. At last, the criminals inside hesitated. After a long moment, one of them spoke:
"Fine. I'll trust you this once. The bomb timer can be set to one hour. But if you deceive me, then in an hour, everyone dies together."
Mo Lan took a deep breath and said, "Then let's discuss the terms. First, let me introduce myself. My name is Mo Lan. I'm an ordinary person with no Soul Power. My father is the deputy governor of Heaven Dou City and a Federation council member, Mo Wu. So I'd like to negotiate with you. Please release the elderly, women, and children in the first five cars first. In exchange, I'll be your hostage."
Knowing that the criminals might not believe her, Mo Lan offered more convincing proof.
"You can search for my picture on the Soul Net. Add my name and my father's, and you should have no trouble confirming who I am."
Yang Fan couldn't understand Mo Lan's way of thinking at all.
Foolish woman. She'd just announced her identity in front of everyone. Even if she saved people this time, what about next time?
In the original story, after her identity was exposed, Evil Soul Masters seemed to be lurking anywhere she went.
Someone had even summed up the pattern of Evil Soul Master appearances in Legend of the Dragon King:
1. When Mo Lan appears, there's a one-in-two chance of an Evil Soul Master appearing.
2. When Tang Wulin appears, there's a one-in-two chance of an Evil Soul Master appearing.
3. If both of them appear together, there's definitely an Evil Soul Master nearby. If there isn't, that can only mean the Evil Soul Master is brewing up something big!