A saintess? She's just a bad woman.

Page 174

Considering the other party is a sugar daddy, even though I didn't really want to chat, and since I had nothing else to do, I decided to just agree.

"I was played by my crush. I just broke up with her on WeChat. I'm the one who dumped her. That kind of jerk should just get lost."

"Forehead……"

"That woman only agreed to date me because she was after my family's money. Behind my back, she's been stringing around a few older women from the underworld. When she's chatting with people privately, she's been praising those older women for their 'that' kind of thing, keeping me up all night..."

"I understand, you've been emotionally deceived by a woman who's a player. If you want to get revenge, I suggest you flirt with all her older sisters. Or, win over the person she likes."

"This idea seems good, I'll write it down."

Wei Xin carefully wrote down the strategy in her memo, and then tearfully accused her ex-girlfriend, whom she had only been dating for a week, of being promiscuous, emphasizing the terrible experience of her first failed relationship.

Saint Karina was too lazy to understand the other person's feelings, because to her, this was just a world in a book, and Wei Xin was like an NPC. If she didn't want to take action, there was no need to flirt with girls or pretend to be all gentle. The original owner of the body, on the other hand, had never been in a relationship with a girl and didn't understand what heartbreak felt like.

What followed was Wei Xin's one-sided outpouring of emotions; when she got to the parts that made her feel depressed, she even threw herself into her arms to wipe her tears. Out of consideration for their working relationship, I didn't push her away.

Pushing away a crying, injured girl is rude. It hurts her already wounded heart a second time, and she keeps crying. The people in the villa will think she did something disrespectful.

Women are such a hassle, she thought to herself.

After crying until 10:30 p.m., Wei Xin fell asleep leaning against the sofa, probably exhausted from crying. Santa Karina asked the maid to bring a thin blanket to cover herself, and then sat down next to her to read.

The living room has several bookshelves along the wall that look impressive, filled with foreign language books that are actually rarely read.

The selection was more comprehensive than that of a public library, but it was better than nothing. One of the books, an English translation of Celtic mythology, was quite interesting and good for passing the time.

Before we knew it, it was midnight, and the air temperature plummeted.

Saint Karina closed the book and stood up to stretch her limbs.

"Di Di-"

A loudspeaker blared outside the door.

She didn't think much of it, assuming Mr. Wei had finished his errands and was driving home, honking his horn to signal the maid to open the door. A few minutes later, the horn sounded again, this time for a longer duration.

Wei Xin, who was sleeping on the sofa, sat up as if she had been electrocuted, and walked towards the door in an extremely stiff posture, as if she were possessed.

"Wei Xin, where are you going?"

"..."

Wei Xin acted as if she hadn't heard anyone call her name and opened the door. An old-fashioned bus was parked in front of the villa; its white metal shell was rusty, and the bus was slightly tilted. The number plate wasn't a lit-up LCD display; it was just a loose, rusty iron plate.

—Route 514.

This bus is a very old model, at least fifteen years old.

Logically, it should have been scrapped long ago after more than ten years; no bus line still uses such an outdated model. Besides, it's already strange for a bus to appear in an upscale residential area. Without a reservation and an invitation from a resident, ordinary people can't just come in, unless they climb over the wall from a blind spot in the surveillance cameras.

Saint Karina chased after her and found Wei Xin walking towards the front door of the bus.

The bodyguards and servants guarding the courtyard seemed to be drawn by something strange, and boarded the car in an orderly fashion.

"How to do?"

She tapped the black book to wake it up, pointing to the long line of people ahead.

[The others who got on the bus never came back. Knock them unconscious and throw them out. But Wei Xin must stay on the bus; she's the key to luring out the ghost. The rest of you should know what to do. You must kill the ghost today, or Wei Xin will still die.]

"understood."

Pulling the red thread on his wrist, Ye Shiyu instantly appeared. He knocked out several people who were about to board the car with the handle of the scissors and threw them off.

There is a large lawn in the yard, which is soft and gentle, so you won't get hurt if you fall.

The black book clearly stated that as long as they didn't get on the vehicle and be taken to the final stop, these people would be safe. The ghost that issued the warning didn't target these passersby; her only interest was in Wei Xin.

The people hired by Wei Xin's family were just there as a side job; whether they could be taken away or not was irrelevant.

After settling all the other passengers in the car, leaving only Wei Xin, Saint Karina sat down next to her. The moment her bottom touched the chair, a bone-chilling cold seeped through her jeans and reached her skin, causing her to shiver uncontrollably.

This bus doesn't have air conditioning, but the temperature inside is frighteningly low, like a giant mobile freezer. My thin T-shirt couldn't keep out the biting cold, and my limbs almost froze.

Wei Xin's condition was even more serious than hers. She sat stiffly, motionless, with a blank stare and expression. Her eyes were unfocused and could not reflect the scene inside the bus, like a walking corpse whose soul had been ripped out.

Ye Shiyu lit a strangely colored bluish-green candle and rubbed the wick with his finger to ignite it. The flame was a darker color than the wick, a clear indigo with a hint of blue.

Once the candles are lit, the temperature in the carriage returns to normal around noon, returning to the muggy heat typical of a midsummer night.

"Is this some kind of powerful magical artifact?"

Saint Karina stared at the flickering indigo flame, her stiff body gradually thawing. Wei Xin, however, remained in a dazed state, her eyes empty and lifeless, unresponsive to her name.

"It's a kind of item that can suppress the spiritual infiltration of evil spirits. It's made by hitting people with water and extracting fat from drowned people. It can temporarily suppress the evil spirits around."

"What's the principle behind it?"

"Because water evil is even more dangerous than these things, candles made from the substances on water evil are extremely evil objects, and all evil spirits are afraid of them and naturally dare not approach them."

"As expected of you... this is a case of fighting fire with fire."

"Now that you are protected by the power of the ghost, this candle cannot harm you. Haven't you noticed that everyone else, besides you, was bewitched by the sound of the horn?"

Only after Ye Shiyu reminded her did Saint Karina realize that, just as she had said, ordinary people were powerless to resist the horn of the ghost bus. They were all bewitched and turned into mindless shells, willingly becoming its passengers.

There was no driver in the car, but the engine started on its own, and the roar sounded particularly abrupt in the silent night, completely out of place in the beautiful, upscale residential area far from the hustle and bustle.

Strangely, other residents nearby were not affected by the car, and no one complained about the sudden horn noise disturbing their rest. The view outside the car window was blurry; both the inside and outside of the glass were covered in years of accumulated grime, making it impossible to see what was happening on the other side.

Several windows were stained with bloody handprints, layer upon layer, easily conjuring up images of desperate people being torn apart by ghosts, futilely pounding on car windows for help, only to ultimately perish in a tragic scene.

The dried bloody handprints had long since turned dark brown, and drag marks of blood could also be seen on the interior walls, some seats, and the floor of the carriage.

"Bang bang——"

"Bang bang——"

Several dull knocking sounds came from the top of the carriage.

At first, the tapping frequency was large, about 10 times every half minute, then it quickly became 10 times every ten seconds, then 10 times every few seconds. The tapping sound became more and more frequent, and the force also changed from light to heavy.

The roof of the car was covered with dents shaped like palms, and the noise of objects hitting metal was extremely loud and irritating. The more you listened, the more uncomfortable you felt, creating the illusion that your eardrums were being torn, accompanied by bouts of intense dizziness.

Ye Shiyu picked up the blue candle that was fixed to the ground with candle wax. The aroma produced by the burning candle entered his body through the air and had a remarkable effect on relieving his abnormal condition.

Saint Karina initially found the candles eerie and dared not look at them for too long or get too close. Now, experiencing the convenience they brought, she asked to hold them.

The candle has a smooth surface and a cool touch, like a piece of soft, polished mineral without any sharp edges.

"This thing feels quite comfortable to the touch, like..."

My gaze couldn't help but drift towards Ye Shiyu's leather drum. I'd accidentally bumped into it this afternoon; the feel was very similar to a candle, but the candle wasn't as good.

"Forget it, it's okay."

A female college student who is pure of heart and desires, whose love for money outweighs everything else, would absolutely not have any physical desire for the female ghost who is draining her life.

Absolutely impossible.

A few minutes later, the tapping on the roof stopped and replaced by tapping on the windows. The windows, made of a different material than the metal roof, sounded dull yet slightly crisp when tapped.

By the candlelight, Santa Karina saw a writhing, twisting shadow outside the car window.

"Boom-"

The loud noise from the right-side window made her heart pound.

A pale, ashen face pressed against the car window. The face was incomplete; half of the head had been sliced ​​off by something sharp, the brain was mangled, and murky brain matter mixed with blood flowed down, smearing the face.

The glass was smeared with a disgusting mixture, leaving streaks of sticky residue.

Two rotting hands kept pounding on the car window, their movements rough and violent. Some of the fingers had turned to bone, and the hard bones scraped against the glass, making a sharp sound.

It was impossible for anyone to appear outside the speeding car window; those things outside were no longer human, but rather monsters with humanoid forms. Then, more and more of these monsters appeared. They displayed varying degrees of horrific damage, seemingly caused by an accident.

Ye Shiyu remained unmoved by this and pulled Saint Karina's hand to sit down.

"These are ghosts who died violently, just ignore them. Ghosts who died violently like to find substitutes on the night road. The one who delivered the letter to Wei Xin is probably a ghost who died violently with higher cultivation. These outside are at most some ghosts and vengeful spirits that look scary but are actually easy to defeat."

"I...I'm actually not that scared."

Saint Karina sniffed. "I just feel a bit disgusted by what's outside. The things they died in must have been horribly gruesome. Just imagining it makes me uncomfortable."

Ye Shiyu put his arm around her shoulder, and the two of them pressed close together.

“It’s alright, I used to feel that way when I cooked meat dishes. After using a knife so much, you get used to it. Ghost tamers always need an adjustment period. I can sense it; the ghost we’re waiting for is coming. She’ll get on the train where she died and take away the person she believes killed her, Wei Xin. The final destination of this train…”

She pointed to the route map on the car; the words "Tianying City Funeral Home" were stained with blood, as if someone had marked them beforehand.

"The destination is the funeral home. As long as the ghost is killed before the car arrives at the funeral home station, the body is found nearby, and it is sent to a specific place for burial, everything will be fine."

The ghost bus continued its journey along the dark night road. The low-level, violently deceased ghost outside knocked on the roof and windows for a while longer, making several attempts to break in.

Ye Shiyu cut Saint Karina's finger and sprinkled a few drops of blood onto the car window and door. The blood evaporated instantly, turning into strings of red runes that seeped into the car.

The runes affected the ghosts, causing them to howl shrilly as they tumbled or rolled off the vehicle, blending into the endless night. A strong stench of decay wafted in through the windows, and the exterior of the carriage was littered with the grime left by the violently deceased.

They finally enjoyed a brief moment of peace. But this peace didn't last long, only a dozen minutes.

As the bus left the city and drove into the desolate countryside, Wei Xin, who had been in a daze, suddenly convulsed, made incoherent sobs, and stared wide-eyed at the front door.

The vehicle slowed down and then automatically stopped at the roadside station.

The platform has been abandoned for a long time. Where the station sign used to stand, only a bare iron pole remains. The rain shelter is dilapidated, and the waiting seats are rusty and covered with layers of dark green vines, making them barely recognizable by their shapes.

A lone streetlamp stood beside the bus stop, its bulb a strange, bright red, casting a blood-like, blinding light. A disheveled woman stood under the lamplight, wearing a pale green dress and yellowed white canvas shoes. Her long, black hair, reaching to her waist, obscured her face.

She was the only one waiting for the bus, and it stopped just for her. The doors opened, the rusty hinges making a screeching sound. The woman walked onto the bus with her head down, took a few bills from her small black handbag, and stuffed them into the coin box.

By the blue light of the candle, Saint Karina saw the design on the banknotes—the Universal Bank of Heaven and Earth, with a face value of at least several billion; they were undoubtedly ghost money.

Those who throw in ghost money to hitch a ride are definitely not living people, because the passengers on this vehicle are either dead or living dead who are about to die.

Ye Shiyu stood in front of Saint Karina and drew a silver pair of scissors from thin air.

“She’s here. Take the candle, draw a circle on the ground with your blood, and protect yourself and this woman inside it. Leave the rest to me. This ghost isn’t strong, but it’s good at creating illusions. Be careful not to step out.”

"So simple?"

"The red-clothed ghost is not as weak as you think. You don't yet have the ability to fight ghosts, and you have a special constitution that easily attracts ghosts. Don't expect to play a role in the battle; protect yourself first."

"Hmm... Should I be happy or sad to be criticized like this by you?"

Saint Karina cut her other finger with a knife. Since learning about the special properties of blood, she has cut her fingers more times in the past few days than she has in the entire year due to cooking mistakes.

The black book might be playing tricks on her, but Ye Shiyu probably wouldn't. The wound from the last cut hadn't healed yet, and now there were new injuries. She squinted, feeling the skin on her fingertips being rapidly torn apart by the sharp blade. The areas covered in cuts on her body were pulled, producing a fine, throbbing pain.

If it's just one part, it's fine. But if there are dozens of parts all over the body, there are a few seconds when the brain's thoughts disconnect, separating from the body, and it's infinitely close to the soul leaving the body.

The female ghost in the dress drew closer, her unhurried steps carrying a piercing, deathly tone. Saint Karina tried to calm herself, regaining control of her body with her mind. Before the ghost reached the middle of the carriage, she used her blood-stained fingers to draw a closed circle.

The carriage was small, with limited space, barely enough for two people. Ye Shiyu's imposing presence remained unchanged, blocking the female ghost and the violently deceased ghost she had summoned.

The bus started moving again, but the front door remained open. The gruesome ghosts crawled in, and the night air, smelling of blood, rushed in through the doorway.

They scream, grin, and stick out their half-meter-long tongues, or they grin savagely, tearing their heads off their necks with their hands, revealing a bowl-sized, bloody, mangled cut. Countless maggots wriggle in the rotting flesh, a nightmare for anyone with trypophobia.

The female ghost in the dress held Ye Shiyu back, preventing her from paying attention to what was behind her.

Dozens of low-level, violently deceased ghosts, with clear targets, writhed in bizarre postures on the roof and interior walls of the carriage, extending fingernails about ten centimeters long and as sharp as knives towards Saint Karina.

"These ghosts are probably hallucinations."

She remembered what Ye Shiyu had said and stared blankly at the gray-black "tide." The writhing monster looked like a large patch of black sludge, covering the gray carriage.

Once you fall into a hallucination and become a part of it, there's no going back. The first time you faced a red-clad ghost, it also created a rather shocking hallucination. Injuries sustained in the hallucination would carry over into reality, so drawing a line with blood to prevent further injury was a good method.

The demon before me used every trick in the book to intimidate me, almost resorting to close combat, but I couldn't cross the boundary drawn with blood. Imagine the small space beneath my feet as a safe zone in a game, and the demon outside as regular enemies. Close your eyes…

When I opened my eyes again, the noise around me disappeared, and the scene changed to a very subtle place—a 24-hour love hotel. As the name suggests, this is a place for doing those things you love, sleeping naked.

The room's style was passable, not too vulgar, and more pleasing to the eye than Wei Xin's outrageously tacky decor.

The pale pink wall paint, heart-shaped bed, cute crystal chandelier, and pale pink curtains and bed canopy all overemphasize a girlish style.

A girl wearing a light green dress and with long, flowing hair sat on the edge of the bed, a faint smile on her face.

"Are you tired? Lie down and rest for a while, take a shower, and then... you know what I mean."

The girl was very beautiful, but unlike Ye Shiyu's breathtaking, stunning beauty, which could topple kingdoms, Ye Shiyu's beauty was more like a gentle breeze and drizzle.

Her beauty is gentle and memorable, not the result of empty, high-tech creations.

Saint Karina looked at the girl's face, pondering forgotten things.

Why am I in a love hotel room? And who is this girl? My memory is blank, I can't find any clues, and I can't remember anything before I came to the room.