38: Don't pretend to be some aristocratic superior or saintly mentor.

The morning light filtering through the thin black mist of the Weeping Wall Canyon brought little warmth; instead, it looked like a layer of moldy orange peel draped over the roof of the bus.

Su Chen was jolted awake by a sticky, sizzling sound.

He propped himself up, his gaze falling on the spot where he had just been sitting.

On the originally smooth alloy floor, the bloodstains Lin Mengyao and Qin Ya had left last night had been licked clean by those fuel-tank lips.

However, those two iron-sheet lips were now writhing frantically as if they were about to vomit.

A sour, acrid liquid smelling of aged vinegar spewed from the gaps, slithering across the floor like a snake.

Finally, as if it were alive, it corroded the floor to form the character for "Jealousy," written with sharp, deep strokes.

Because the purity of the Yang Energy had dropped, this broken-down bus was starting to throw a tantrum.

This bus hadn't just come to life; it had freaking gained sentience!

"Yang Energy... its purity has dropped..."

Zhao Wanting's voice sounded like a rusty steel wire, drilling into everyone's eardrums along with the vibration of the engine.

Her phantom flickered at the front of the bus, with half of her face still retaining a cold, hard metallic texture.

"Because there are... thorns in your hearts. They are pricking it, and it hurts very much."

The atmosphere inside the cabin instantly dropped to the freezing point.

Qin Ya subconsciously wanted to explain something, but her fingertips involuntarily rubbed against her collarbone.

There was once a charred scar left by a tracking talisman there; though the wound had long since healed, the sense of shame from being manipulated as a monitor by a plutocrat family burned in her heart like a branding iron.

"Thorns? Who doesn't have a few thorns in their heart?"

Lin Mengyao let out a cold laugh. She sat on the opposite bunk, clutching a dry compressed biscuit in her hand.

She watched as Qin Ya knelt beside Su Chen, her movements gentle as she re-bandaged the palm he had cut open the previous night.

With a sharp crack, the hard biscuit was crushed into powder in Lin Mengyao's hand, rustling as it fell to her feet.

"Teacher Qin, stop acting like a saint."

Lin Mengyao's gaze was like a knife, scraping over Qin Ya's gentle profile.

"When the Lin Family sent you to the school as an undercover agent to create a file and collect samples on Su Chen, if you had really been willing to take action, you'd probably have been pregnant with his child by now, living as a young mistress in the Lin Family mansion. Why would you be here squeezing into this broken bus with us?"

Qin Ya's fingertips jerked violently, and the roll of snow-white bandage slipped from her hand, rolling across the carpet and leaving a long white trail.

She instinctively pulled her hand back, and her sleeve slid down, revealing a bright red dot like cinnabar on the inside of her wrist.

It was the palace maiden mark.

On the eve of the apocalypse, to prevent these 'researchers' from stealing the samples for themselves, the Lin Family had forced all female teachers to consume a specially made chastity drug.

This red dot was the last shred of dignity Qin Ya had as a teacher, and also the most profound shackle she bore as a tool.

This woman is actually still a virgin.

The corners of Su Chen's mouth curled slightly; this was an unexpected pleasant surprise.

Although he was a staunch egoist, he still had a somewhat obsessive pickiness regarding the quality of his 'exclusive items.'

Taking all of this in, he leaned against the window, feigning a headache.

In reality, he was using the instincts of the Sacred Yang Divine Body to frantically grasp the stray magnetic fields in the air.

In his vision, the aura of jealousy emanating from Lin Mengyao manifested as an eerie ice-blue, much like crushed ice in the deep sea.

The guilt and struggle radiating from Qin Ya, however, were a gentle, warm gold.

The two auras collided and intertwined in the narrow cabin, eventually converging at Su Chen's fingertips into a faint, purplish-red flame.

Is this the 'Dual Heart Flame'?

Su Chen felt a surge of secret satisfaction.

This was a rare fuel mentioned in the Survival Manual, a top-tier item specifically used to upgrade a vehicle's defense system.

Normally, it might not even drop after killing hundreds of monsters, yet he had managed to farm it just by watching these two women bicker.

Zhao Wanting's voice rang out again, tinged with a morbid excitement.

"Quick... it's the core fuel for upgrading the defense system. Give it to me!"

"Since you both like bringing up the past so much, let me help you clear your heads."

Su Chen suddenly let out a muffled groan, his body lunging forward as if he could no longer support himself.

"Su Chen!"

Two cries of alarm rang out almost simultaneously.

Qin Ya instinctively reached out to support his waist, while Lin Mengyao subconsciously lunged to grab his shoulder.

Now.

A sharp glint flashed in Su Chen's eyes. Using the momentum of his fall, his left arm brashly wrapped around Qin Ya's slender waist, while the fingers of his right hand clamped like steel hooks onto the back of Lin Mengyao's fair, elegant neck, slamming the two heads—currently at the center of an emotional storm—against his chest.

"Since you both want me, then stop pretending to be high-and-mighty socialites or holy teachers here."

The three of them collided heavily, tumbling onto the large bed covered with a silk quilt.

Su Chen whispered in their ears, his breath fanning against their flushed earlobes as he felt their bodies instantly stiffen and then rapidly go limp.

"The ticket to survival is in my hands. Those who want to stay on the bus must hand over their loyalty."

Because the three of them were pressed so tightly together, the lava-like Yang Energy of the Sacred Yang Divine Body instantly exploded, forcibly crushing and fusing those two auras of ice-blue and warm gold.

In that instant, Su Chen felt the Inner Qi within him ignite, and an unprecedented sense of control welled up.

Gulp—!

The strange mouth at the fuel tank let out an extremely greedy slurping sound, as if it had just tasted the most mellow wine in the world.

At the same time, the ceiling of the bus emitted a bone-chilling sound of twisting metal.

Two rusty bronze bells dangled from the cracks, hanging right above the heads of the three people.

"Sincerity... no strife... only then can there be resonance."

Zhao Wanting's phantom dissipated, replaced by the crisp clanging of the two bells.

Two twisted seal script characters slowly emerged on the surface of the bells.

The one on the left was carved with 'Yao,' and the one on the right with 'Ya.'

As the bells lightly collided, the outer walls of the entire bus suddenly lit up with dense runes. They were the patterns of the Lin Family's ancestral marriage contract, crawling across the entire body of the bus along the paint.

However, at the edge of the name Lin Mengyao, a bright red, wet bloodstain appeared exceptionally eerie.

It looked as if someone, just before death, had tried desperately to wipe away this marriage contract.

Su Chen released his grip and looked coldly at these two goddesses, each with her own hidden motives. Before he could voice his sarcasm, a strange sound of braking suddenly came from the front of the bus.

The bus came to a screeching halt in the wilderness.

In the mist outside the window, a rusty sign had appeared at some point: 200 meters ahead, Red Star Gas Station.

What made his pupils contract even more was that in the shadows of the collapsed gas station, countless stiff, bent figures seemed to be slowly writhing.

Those figures were dragging heavy, rotting gift boxes wrapped in festive red cloth, slowly converging toward the center of the road.

This 'grand gift' seemed to have been waiting at the intersection for a long time.