46: Chapter 46 The Scavengers of the Outer City Walls of the Underworld

"Pshh—" The dilapidated No. 404 ghost bus let out a dull hydraulic exhaust sound.

The bus body shuddered with a violent mechanical tremor before slowly coming to a halt.

The doors folded open to both sides.

A thick, bloody stench, mixed with the foul odor of fermented aged algae, poured back into the carriage.

This wind was bone-chillingly cold, piercing straight through one's pores and into the marrow.

Fatty Wang's fat shuddered violently, and his teeth chattered together, making a crisp "clack-clack" sound.

He covered his mouth tightly, daring only to let out the faintest breath through his fingers.

Inside the carriage, that group of "passengers," who had originally sat as still as dead wood, stood up in unison the moment the doors opened.

There was no verbal communication.

The sound of stiff joints rubbing against each other rose one after another, like rusty gears being forced to turn.

These water ghosts, wearing yellowed raincoats and blue work uniforms, formed an eerie, long line and stumbled toward the front door.

Water droplets dripped from their bloated bodies onto the rusty anti-slip aluminum plates, making a monotonous "drip-drop" sound.

Lin Ye sat in the corner of the last row, holding his breath.

He gripped Leng Yue's icy jade-like hand tightly, while his other hand pressed down on Frost Star, who was sitting on his lap, afraid that this little girl would be stimulated by the dense Yin energy filling the bus and fly into a violent rage.

It took a full five minutes before the last water ghost dragged its broken footsteps and vanished into the rolling, dark red fog outside the bus door.

The entire bus was completely empty.

A silence capable of driving a person insane enveloped everything around them.

The bloated driver in the driver's seat remained with his back to everyone, head hanging low, like a wax figure that had lost its power.

Only then did Lin Ye slowly exhale a breath of murky air, his tense spine relaxing slightly.

He cast his gaze outside the bus window.

Through the murky water droplets condensed on the glass, deep within the thick fog ahead, a towering black city gate stood impressively.

The city walls were built from an unknown material.

The entire structure was as black as ink, and its surface was covered in shocking, massive cracks.

Deep within the cracks, green ghost fires flickered and wandered faintly.

Directly above the city gate hung a broken stone plaque.

Three ancient seal script characters seemed to be cast from semi-solidified black blood, exuding a monstrous ferocity that made one's soul tremble.

[City of Wrongful Deaths]

"Gulp." Fatty Wang swallowed hard, his voice as thin as a gossamer thread, carrying a heavy, tearful tone: "Yezi... this, this place, could it be the Underworld? Are we already dead people?"

"Shut your crow's mouth." Lin Ye lowered his voice, his eyes fixed firmly on the city gate that exuded endless death energy.

Feng Shui secret arts and Taoist classics raced through his mind.

"This city gate is definitely not an illusion. It is a relic of the ancient Underworld that shattered and detached from the depths of the Nine Serenities after the recovery of heaven and earth's spiritual energy." Lin Ye's tone was unprecedentedly grave.

"This is definitely not the work of those evil cultivators from the Yinshan Sect. The Yinshan Sect can at most detain a few vengeful ghosts or set up a Soul-Locking Formation. The city before us has gathered the monstrous karmic obstacles of countless people who have died with grievances since ancient times and could not be reincarnated. This is the purest embodiment of the uncanny in heaven and earth."

Leng Yue sat upright beside Lin Ye, her deep red eyes peering over the edge of her sunglasses, coldly watching the flickering ghost fires on the city wall.

As a half-step Drought Demon, her perception of danger was far superior to that of a living person.

"Husband is absolutely right." Leng Yue's voice was extremely low, laced with apprehension.

"Behind that city gate lies an ancient will that even I find heart-palpitating. If we were to force our way in, with my origin currently only restored to twenty percent, I fear I would not be able to protect Husband's safety."

Hearing such an evaluation from an existence like Leng Yue, who stood at the pinnacle of zombies, the last glimmer of luck in Lin Ye's heart was completely extinguished.

His current strength was simply insufficient to explore such a mythical-level ruin.

Let alone entering to slay demons, even just stepping over that threshold would cause him to be instantly assimilated into a withered skeleton by the extreme death energy within.

Just as Lin Ye was calculating whether to continue hiding in the bus or get off to investigate the situation, a ghostly light flashed across his retina.

The system's metallic, tingling notification sound rang out crisply in his mind.

"Ding! "My Lord, Please Behave Yourself" System notification: Detected that the host has arrived at a high-risk hidden map [City of Wrongful Deaths Outer Suburbs Ruins]. Crisis and supreme opportunities coexist. Please decide on an exploration strategy within three minutes to break the deadlock!"

Three options appeared on the light screen:

[Option A: Bravely Charge the Ghost Gate — Wave your hand and shout, "Are kings and nobles born with more worth?", then lead your two wives to charge directly into the City of Wrongful Deaths.]

[Reward: Obtain the limited edition title "Emperor of Death-Seeking". Consequences: Your family of three and Fatty will be crushed into powder by the ancient death energy within ten seconds. The end.]

[Option B: Steady as an Old Dog — Hold tightly onto the bus seat, refuse to get off even if killed, and quietly wait for the ghost bus to return.]

[Reward: Obtain the [Cowardly Turtle] achievement. Consequences: Gain nothing. Missing out on the peripheral opportunities of such a wondrous spectacle of heaven and earth, you will regret it for the rest of your life.]

[Option C: Peripheral Scavenger — Act according to your ability. Avoid the city gate and lead everyone to explore the ruins of the abandoned Ghost Market around the bus. Search for eerie items buried in the Yin energy.]

[Reward: Husband Points +300, all members' Luck stats temporarily increased by 200%. Note: Please pay close attention to the countdown, do not be greedy!]

Lin Ye saw the options clearly and had a plan in mind.

"I choose C."

Fortune favors the bold.

Since he had arrived at the edge of such an ancient ruin, returning empty-handed was definitely not his style.

He could not go inside the city, but this vast area of thick fog outside the city must surely contain many rare treasures stained with the aura of the Underworld.

"Prepare to get off the bus."

Lin Ye stood up and grasped the lightning-struck peach wood sword on his back in his palm.

Fatty grabbed Lin Ye's trouser leg, his face deathly pale: "Yezi, are you crazy? The fog outside is as red as blood; who knows what monsters are hiding in there!"

"Staying on the bus is more dangerous." Lin Ye pointed to the bloated back on the driver's seat that had remained motionless the entire time.

"This driver is currently in a deep sleep state. When it wakes up and finds living people on the bus, what do you think it will do?"

Fatty looked in the direction of Lin Ye's finger and happened to see black mucus slowly oozing from the edge of the skin on the driver's neck.

He immediately gasped, scrambling and rolling as he sprang up from his seat.

"Let's go, let's go! Get off!"

Lin Ye picked up Frost Star, who was sitting on his lap, and gently placed her in the aisle.

Afterward, he gave Leng Yue a look.

Leng Yue understood immediately.

She stepped out first with her long legs, sliding out of the bus door like a black ghost.

After confirming the surroundings were safe, she nodded slightly toward the inside of the bus.

Lin Ye followed closely behind, with Fatty trembling and following at the very end.

The moment his feet touched this land, Lin Ye immediately noticed something unusual.

The sensation under his feet was soft and elastic.

Looking down, the ground was not ordinary soil or asphalt, but was covered with a thick layer of strange, grayish-white powder.

Stepping on it, it made a sticky "creak, squelch" sound.

"This is a sedimentary layer formed by bone ash mixed with corpse wax." Lin Ye frowned and explained in a low voice.

Hearing this, Fatty Wang instinctively swallowed, looking down at the place he had just stepped on.

With this look, he felt his scalp instantly explode.

He saw that in the depression of the footprint he had left when raising his foot, the grayish-white powder did not naturally collapse or scatter, but was slowly wriggling like a living thing.

As the powder intertwined, it briefly bulged into the outlines of tiny, painfully twisted human faces.

Those human faces opened their mouths, silently screaming at the sole of Fatty's shoe.

Only then did they shatter with a "pop," like melted wax, flattening back into a patch of dead, silent bone ash.

Fatty covered his mouth tightly, forcibly swallowing his scream. When he stepped down again, he felt as if he were stepping on a dense quagmire of flesh and blood.

Moreover, the dark red fog rolled all around, and the visibility was less than five meters.

The air was filled with an indescribable sorrow and deathly silence.

The atmosphere was oppressive, and time seemed to have stopped flowing in these ruins.

They avoided the direction of the city gate where the water ghosts were heading and, following the outer edge of the city wall, cautiously groped their way deep into the thick fog.

They didn't go far before a patch of broken building ruins appeared on the grayish-white ground ahead.

Most of these buildings only had half-broken stone pillars or collapsed wooden frames left.

Scattered among the ruins were stone platforms resembling ancient stalls.

The surfaces of the stone platforms were covered with mottled green verdigris and dried black bloodstains.

"Ghost Market ruins." A flash of brilliance crossed Lin Ye's eyes.

In ancient metaphysical legends, lonely ghosts and wild spirits often gathered to trade on the edge of the Underworld, forming a Ghost Market.

Since this City of Wrongful Deaths was a fragment of the Underworld, the ruins of the Ghost Market from that time must surely remain outside the city.

"Split up and look around to see if there is anything useful. Remember, do not make too much noise. If you encounter any items you are unsure about, call me immediately." Lin Ye instructed in a low voice.

The four of them dispersed and carefully searched among these stone platforms.

Leng Yue was responsible for keeping watch.

She stood silently atop a broken stone pillar like a perfect black sculpture.

Her deep red eyes vigilantly scanned all directions in the fog.

A cold draft blew through, lifting the hem of her trench coat.

Lin Ye was bending over, searching through a broken pottery jar, when he suddenly felt a cool sensation on his wrist.

He straightened up and discovered that Leng Yue had arrived at his side, though he didn't know when.

She did not speak, simply extending her two slender fingers and gently resting them on the pulse point of Lin Ye's wrist.

A trace of gentle Yin energy silently transferred into Lin Ye's meridians through the contact of their skin.

This Yin energy was like a clear spring, instantly dispelling the slight dizziness in Lin Ye's brain caused by inhaling too much red fog.

"This fog contains a delusion that disrupts the mind." Leng Yue leaned close to Lin Ye's ear, her breath fragrant like an orchid.

That cold scent of Manjusaka flowers enveloped Lin Ye, isolating him from the foul stench of the outside world.

"Husband, do not breathe deeply. This trace of my origin power can keep your mind clear."

The two were very close.

When Leng Yue spoke, the warm air brushed against Lin Ye's ear.

Her deep red eyes reflected Lin Ye's face, a softness exclusive to him hidden in the depths of her gaze.

Lin Ye turned his hand to grasp her cool fingertips and squeezed them gently.

"Thank you, my wife."

Without too many words, this tacit understanding flowed through the dead, silent ruins, bringing a comforting warmth.