When that truck flashed past us, my right eyelid started twitching uncontrollably. That was odd enough, but what surprised me even more was how Sun Fatty suddenly became restless. He leaned out the window with a strange expression, staring at the road ahead. After just one glance, he abruptly pulled his head back in and shouted at Xiao Heshang, "Stop the train!"
"What?" Xiao Heshang was momentarily stunned, not reacting right away. Sun Fatty grew anxious and yelled again, "Stop the train! Something's wrong!"
Only then did Xiao Heshang grasp the urgency. "What happened?" he asked, already moving to the window. Just like Sun Fatty, he leaned out, using the locomotive's headlights to look ahead along the dark tracks. "Fatty, what did you see? I don't see anything out of—Damn it!"
Before he could finish his sentence, Xiao Heshang's expression changed drastically. He rushed to the control console, grabbed the microphone, and shouted, "Stop the train! Immediate stop! The tracks ahead are gone—someone ripped them out!"
Fortunately, the train was moving slowly. After braking, it came to a steady stop. I leaned out the window to look, and about 300 to 400 meters ahead, one of the parallel rails had completely vanished. The conductor had already disembarked to inspect. Thankfully, we caught it in time—any further and the train might've derailed. That's when I realized—the truck we saw earlier had been carrying a piece of rail.
Xiao Heshang's brows furrowed deeply as he glanced at Sun Fatty. "How did you know the tracks were missing?"
Even Sun Fatty looked a bit puzzled now. Hearing the question, he blinked and replied, "I mean, back when I was a cop, I worked undercover for a few years. Maybe I wasn't great at much else, but when it comes to vigilance, I'd place myself second in the Bureau—nobody dares claim first."
Xiao Heshang snorted in disbelief. He clearly didn't buy Sun Fatty's nonsense and was about to say something when his phone rang.
While Xiao Heshang was on the phone, I turned to Sun Fatty and said, "Dasheng, your eyesight's gotten sharp. At that distance, and from a moving train… Even I'd need a minute to see what's going on."
"Sharp eyesight, my ass," Sun Fatty muttered. "Before Old Xiao yelled about the tracks, I had no clue what was wrong. Just now, when you and Old Xiao were chatting, I suddenly got this wave of dread out of nowhere. I figured opening the window for some fresh air might help, but once I opened it, I felt even worse. That feeling—I've only had it a few times in my life, and every single time, people ended up dead—no exceptions. I felt something big was about to happen, so I told Old Xiao to stop the train."
Hearing that, I started seriously considering whether I should talk to Gao Liang about switching partners after this mission.
By now, Xiao Heshang had finished his call, and the conductor phoned in with an update: the rails ahead were too damaged to continue the journey.
Looking at the missing section of rail, Xiao Heshang was both exasperated and amused. "What kind of people are these? First we've got folks hijacking trains to rob souls, and now we've got people stealing the tracks. I'm almost seventy and I've never heard of anyone ripping up train rails. That thing weighs over a thousand pounds—what the hell are they gonna do with it?"(The case of the stolen rail was cracked the very next day by the local police. Turns out the mastermind wasn't a stranger—he was a relative of the three men who previously tried to snatch a Wronged Soul. The guy had been eyeing that mostly-abandoned railway for years, assuming no train would ever pass through again. Who would've thought the moment they pried up the tracks, a train would come along on their return trip.)
Just then, the front door of the carriage opened, and Min Tianyuan entered, limping in on his cane. His face looked tense, and he didn't even bother knocking. Completely ignoring Sun Fatty and me, he marched straight up to Xiao Heshang and asked, "Advisor Xiao, why are the tracks up ahead missing entirely? It'll be daylight in a few more hours. Is your Bureau's mission going to be called off?"
Xiao Heshang glanced at him coolly. "Who said the mission's canceled? We're nearly at our destination. You think we came all this way for nothing?"
Min Tianyuan didn't quite catch Xiao Heshang's meaning. The latter continued, "We've already passed the range of the Dispersing-Yin Zone. Once the souls disembark, they'll no longer be affected by it. Less than two kilometers ahead lies our destination. Two kilometers—at your pace, that should take half an hour, right?"
Without waiting for a reply, Xiao Heshang turned around and activated the intercom to all carriages. "Track failure ahead. All investigators, lead the souls in your respective cars off the train…"
Investigators and the souls from each carriage began disembarking one by one. Just then, Xiao Heshang's phone rang again. The call was from Xiong Wanyi in our carriage, and his booming voice was so loud I could hear it from where I stood: "Advisor Xiao, I've still got three 'precious ones' with me. What do I do?"
Recalling the pathetic state those three were in, Xiao Heshang couldn't help but chuckle, a touch of schadenfreude in his tone. "Bring them. Bring all of them. Let's see how your Director Gao deals with them."
As more and more Souls gathered outside the train carriage, I noticed that once they disembarked, their forms began to fade into a translucent state. If even I saw them this way, they must appear even more ethereal to the average person. Most of the investigators had already formed a perimeter around the area. Sun Fatty and I were about to disembark to lend a hand, but before we could open the door, Xiao Heshang called out, "You two wait a moment—there's something else we need to bring down."
As he spoke, Advisor Xiao pulled back the curtain in the center of the carriage. Behind it were a few crates and countless red cloth strips, each as thick as a thumb, hanging from the ceiling all the way to the floor.
I grabbed a handful of the cloth strips and examined them. The red dye on them was unevenly applied, making it look as though they had been stained with cinnabar paste. Each strip was densely inscribed with Daoist scriptures. Now I understood why Xiao Sanduo had been placed in this carriage. I had seen similar strips at Ouyang Pianzuo's place. He had mentioned they were used to bind Souls and other spiritual entities. Unfortunately, I hadn't asked him for specifics at the time—surely they weren't meant to tie up ghosts with no physical form?
At Xiao Heshang's signal, Sun Fatty and I pulled down all the cloth strips and carried them outside, distributing them to the other investigators. Clearly, this wasn't their first encounter with such items—none of them asked any questions. They simply took two strips each, tied them end to end, and got to work. Xiao Heshang then brought out a small box filled with hundreds of old copper coins strung with red thread. At the knots where two strips were joined, they tied a coin. After that, the combined strips were divided into five large loops. Each loop was left open at one end, through which the Souls were herded. There was nothing Sun Fatty and I could do to help at this point, so we simply stood aside and watched.
Just then, a few people came walking over from the rear carriage. At first, I didn't pay them much attention, but when they got closer, I saw it was Xiong Wanyi, accompanied by the trio of nephew and uncles. The three of them looked completely different from earlier. The terror on their faces was gone, replaced by what could only be described as excitement. Their wounds—caused by stray bullets earlier—had been bandaged and no longer bled, but they still walked with strange, staggering steps, like drunkards. Their limbs didn't move in sync, and they occasionally stepped out of rhythm.
Seeing them approach, Sun Fatty grinned and said to Xiong Wanyi, "Hey, Xiong Wanyi—you give those three a dose of stimulants or something? They wake up from a nap and forget to be scared?" Xiong Wanyi gave him a sideways glance. "Sun Fatty, stop saying you're with the Bureau of Paranormal Investigation. You're embarrassing us."
Sun Fatty was about to retort, but I stopped him. "Dasheng, don't make a scene. Those three are possessed." I had already noticed that each of the three now housed an additional Soul—one of them was the water ghost that had nearly taken over my body years ago. Their bodies were now being piloted by outsiders.
"Kidneys? What does being scared have to do with kidneys—wait, you're saying they're possessed?" Sun Fatty's Heavenly Eye wasn't sensitive enough. He took a step back and stared at the trio, trying to see what I had seen.
I pulled out a pack of cigarettes, handed one each to Sun Fatty and Xiong Wanyi, and was just about to reach for my lighter when the one called Bangchui called out, "Sir, I've got a light!" He had already fished out a lighter from his pocket and lit our cigarettes one by one. "Sir, if there's any dirty work that needs doing, just say the word…"
Being addressed so politely by a ghost-possessed person was unsettling. I turned to Xiong Wanyi and asked, "Old Xiong, is it really okay to let them be possessed like this?"
"You think I wanted this?" Xiong Wanyi exhaled a puff of smoke and pointed at Bangchui, who was grinning foolishly. "That one pissed his pants the moment he woke up. Might've been scared stupid—was bawling and begging to go home to his mama. With nerves like that, how's he supposed to rob a train? The old guy and the doofus weren't any better—so terrified they couldn't even stand. But Advisor Xiao insisted on bringing them along, so I had no choice. I picked three relatively mild-mannered Souls and let them possess the bodies just so we could move them."
Sun Fatty watched Bangchui in fascination. "Not for nothing, Xiong Wanyi, but this guy calls you 'sir' like a trained butler. How's he so polite?" Xiong Wanyi replied, "He was a thief. Got sentenced to five years. Didn't even last one—tried tunneling out, but hit a water main. Real unlucky bastard. Probably the first guy in history to drown while digging his way out of prison."
Just as we finished our cigarettes, nearly all the Souls had been herded into the five cloth circles. The openings had been sealed. Around the perimeter, investigators stood spaced every three or four meters. The circles had been lifted—ready to march.
Min Tianyuan had now gotten off the train. He didn't cause any fuss and simply stood near the front, waiting for the next step. Xiao Heshang went around inspecting everything. When he came near, I stepped over and asked, "Old Xiao, what about Lin Feng? And Old Mo—his heart's weak. Can he keep up?"
"Don't worry, I've made arrangements," Xiao Heshang replied as he walked. "Xiao Mo is fine—I've left him to look after Lin Feng. I also called Gao Liang—he's sending people over." I lowered my voice. "Lin Feng's completely defenseless right now. If anything happens again… and it's just Old Mo watching him…" Xiao Heshang suddenly stopped, glanced at me, and then looked toward Lin Feng's carriage. He whispered, "As long as we're not there, Lin Feng is safe. If someone wanted him dead, he'd already be dead." Then, raising his voice again, he addressed the group, "Let's move. Keep walking—less than an hour to go!"
To any ordinary person, this was an eerie procession. Over a hundred people split into five groups, each holding a rope that formed one of five massive loops. The groups walked forward in unison, and occasionally someone would bark into the circle, "Stay in line! You want to miss your next reincarnation?"
To be honest, I suspected that the Prohibition Formation used to bind the Souls wasn't even necessary—they seemed surprisingly cooperative, showing no desire to escape. Even the three possessing the nephew-uncle trio weren't part of the circles, yet followed closely behind us. It was clear they were eager to reach the destination.
Xiao Heshang and Min Tianyuan led the way, while I, Sun Fatty, and Xiong Wanyi brought up the rear. After walking for a while, a car approached from the opposite direction. Inside were Qiu Bulao and several of his investigators. When the car got close, Director Qiu hopped out and exchanged a few words in hushed tones with Xiao Heshang, then joined our ranks. The vehicle continued toward the train—presumably to retrieve Lin Feng and Old Mo.
As we walked along the tracks, the surrounding land grew increasingly desolate. The further we went, the more barren it became—soon the land around us was completely lifeless.
"We should be close now, right?" Sun Fatty said. "I mean, even if it is winter, there's not a single tree around. Everything looks dead—it's creepy. Lazi, look at that patch. Not even weeds—just bare earth covered in frost."
"Sir, that's not frost—it's alkali," Bangchui carefully corrected him. Seeing that Sun Fatty wasn't offended, he seemed encouraged and added, "Sir, this kind of alkali is called Ghost Alkali. It only appears in places thick with Yin energy, and melts in the morning sun like frost. When you see Ghost Alkali, you know you're near the Gates of the Underworld."
I had never read anything about Ghost Alkali in the archives—this seemed to be common knowledge among the Souls themselves. Sure enough, after another twenty minutes of walking, we reached the end of the railway.
Our group finally came to a halt at the foot of a mountain—or more precisely, at the base of a sheer cliff. Just like the terrain we had passed earlier, the ground here was completely barren. The cliff face, made of what looked like limestone, stretched straight up. Gao Liang and his team were already waiting there. Along with several other department heads, he stood at the base of the cliff. A few vehicles were parked nearby, and some investigators were burning joss paper while others worked to erect massive black tents. Two had already been set up, and judging by the materials, more were on the way. Embedded in the cliff face behind them was a door. Ouyang Pianzuo knelt before it, muttering something under his breath—though we couldn't make out the words.