79: There is no ferryman; you have to ferry yourself.

Lin Que's finger hit the Enter key heavily.

The document was uploaded, and the chapter was published.

Almost at the same time, the screens of countless readers' mobile phones lit up with a dim light.

"The Ghost Bus has stalled.

In that S-class supernatural zone known as 'Dead Silent Village,' the bus carrying the last glimmer of hope seemed to have its throat choked off by some terrifying force; the headlights suddenly extinguished, and heavy darkness flooded into the carriage like a tide.

Inside the carriage, the survivors' breathing was heavy.

Yang Jian stared fixedly out the window.

There, a figure wearing a red wedding dress was slowly approaching.

It had no feet and floated in mid-air; wherever it passed, bright red blood seeped from the ground.

That was an unsolvable ghost.

"There's no escaping this."

In the corner of the carriage, Old Man Xu, who had been silently smoking his dry pipe, suddenly tapped it.

Sparks scattered in the darkness, faint yet scalding.

Old Man Xu was a highly popular supporting character in the book.

He was an old ghost-controller who had lived for over sixty years, eccentric, greedy, afraid of death, and never had a good word to say, yet when Yang Jian was at his weakest, he had repeatedly used his rotten lungs—parasitized by 'Ghost Smoke'—to block fatal curses for Yang Jian.

Readers all thought this shrewd old man would survive until the grand finale.

But at this moment, Old Man Xu stood up.

Beneath his dirty zhongshan suit, his skin began to writhe violently, as if something was about to burst out from his body.

"Yang Jian, the bus door is open."

Old Man Xu pointed to the front, his voice hoarse, revealing a sense of resolute calm.

"This ghost thing's target is the Ghost Smoke on me. It's hungry."

Yang Jian's pupils shrank sharply: "Are you crazy? If you revive the ghost inside you now, you'll die without even a scrap left!"

"Die?" Old Man Xu grinned, revealing a mouthful of broken yellow teeth.

"From the day I started controlling ghosts, I never thought I'd be able to lie in a coffin."

The red wedding dress was already pressed against the bus window. The glass began to crack, and countless pale arms reached in through the fissures.

"Go!" Old Man Xu let out a sudden roar.

The next second, his chest exploded. There was no blood, only thick, impenetrable black smoke.

That black smoke seemed to have a life of its own, surging madly towards the red wedding dress outside the carriage, forming a pitch-black wall that forcibly blocked the S-class ghost three meters away.

And at the source of the black smoke, Old Man Xu's body was shriveling and weathering at a speed visible to the naked eye. His flesh and blood were being devoured by the Ghost Smoke to trade for this brief burst of power.

"Yang Jian! Don't look back!" Old Man Xu's voice echoed in the black smoke; those were the last words he left for the human world.

"This world is just a hell; there are no saviors. I'm tired, old man, I'm going to sleep for a while... You kid, you have to live on for us old folks!"

Boom! The Ghost Smoke erupted completely, submerging the red wedding dress along with Old Man Xu himself.

The bus door opened. Yang Jian did not look back; he gritted his teeth, blood and tears bursting from the corners of his eyes, and controlling his ghost shadow, he rushed out of the bus and into the vast wilderness.

Behind him, the stalled bus started up again, carrying the old man who had stayed behind forever, driving into the depths of the darkness. There was no longer an Old Man Xu in this world."

[End of Chapter]

The entire internet fell into a complete frenzy within an hour after this chapter was published.

The book review section was instantly flooded with a sea of white candle emojis, followed by a sky full of razor blades.

"Ahhhhh, give Old Man Xu back to me!"

"I've read countless web novels, but that line from Old Man Xu, 'I never thought I'd be able to lie in a coffin,' completely broke my defenses."

"This is what a ghost-controller is! Not for some bullshit immortality, but to carve out a path for the living! Wuwuwu, my Uncle Xu..."

"The author wrote this so well; send me your address, I'll send you some local specialties!"

The readers' emotions were pushed to the peak. Anger, sorrow, and lingering resentment.

At this moment, Lin Que looked at the skyrocketing data in the backend and nodded.

Tragedy is the destruction of beautiful things for people to see.

If Old Man Xu hadn't died, he would just be a supporting character. Since he died, he became a monument in the readers' hearts.

But this wasn't enough. This fire needed to burn even brighter, preferably reaching that "Jian Shen" teacher next door.

Lin Que tapped his fingers on the keyboard and published an Author's Note at the end of the latest chapter of *the human world is like a prison*:

"Some people ask me, why not give Old Man Xu a peaceful ending? Why write it so desperately?"

"Because this is the real world."

"Here, there is no waiting at the end of the wasteland, no Tristan who can take you through life and death."

"The human world is a hell; there is no the ferryman, only crossing yourself."

Click publish. Boom!

If the previous plot only made readers sad, then this single chapter was simply throwing a match into a powder keg.

This was no longer a hint; this was a naked declaration of war! It directly named *the ferryman*, confronting the healing core of "Jian Shen."

For a time, the entire web novel circle and even the literary circle were in an uproar.

#Hell Dream Weaver angrily confronts Jian Shen#

#the ferryman is a fairy tale, the human world is like a prison is reality#

#Only cross yourself#

These three entries shot up the Microblogging platform trending searches at rocket speed. Following closely behind were comments from various standpoints.

"You Jian Shenchen: Low to the core! You got a sense of superiority from writing a bizarre novel? Stepping on our Jian Shen's kindness and warmth to climb up, your behavior is too ugly! #Hell Dream Weaver get out of the web novel circle#"

"Dream Weaver Yan Kong: Hilarious, is the holy mother white lotus anxious? Reality is just this cruel; the world doesn't become peaceful just because you close your eyes! Where was Tristan when Old Man Xu died? In a dream?"

"Double Fan Flour: (Trembling) Um... is there a possibility that both Great Masters are right? One faces reality, the other gives hope, I... can't I like both? (Please don't scold me)"

"Literary Floor Sweeper Monk: Hehe, just the web novel circle getting high on itself. One is cheap chicken soup, the other is bloody gimmicks; both are essentially selling emotions. When will a real literary work come out?"

The storm of public opinion grew larger and larger. That night, a senior book reviewer on the Microblogging platform with millions of followers, "Midnight Reading Notes," published a long article with the striking title: *"When Web Novels Start Thinking About Life and Death: Looking at the Power of Tragedy from <the human world is like a prison>."*

The article wrote: "... For a long time, we have thought of online literature as just fast food. But the death of Old Man Xu under the pen of 'Hell Dream Weaver' has let us see a kind of tragic sublimity never seen before. The author's line, 'No the ferryman, cross yourself,' is even more of a profound reflection and deconstruction of the currently popular healing culture. This is not only progress for web novels, but also another echo of literature in this era..."

Lin Que scrolled with his mouse, watching the "Jian Shen fans" and "Dream Weaver fans" tearing each other apart on the screen, the curve of his mouth silently widening.

"Scold, argue." He whispered to himself, his gaze shifting to the screen. Since he wanted to pursue extreme reality and despair, then let this nightmare be more thorough.

With a click of the mouse, [Final Chapter: Funeral] was scheduled for publication, success!