Chapter 8: The Perilous Journey (Part 1)

  This bus is a double-decker, and we sat on the top floor. The bus can hold about 100 people, although it's not one of those with sleeper berths. I was already quite satisfied, and dozed off in my seat. When I wasn't sleeping very soundly, I heard two young men next to me discussing something.

  A bespectacled person said, "Have you heard? My relatives live around the Taklamakan Desert. I've heard that strange creatures have been appearing in the desert recently. Several villagers have seen them with their own eyes. The creature looks particularly disgusting, it's probably an ancient lost species."

  Another dark green birthmark on his right cheek said: "What kind of monster is this? Has anyone ever seen it?"

  "It's said to be a toad that grew spider legs, anyway it's extremely disgusting." The glasses-wearing man said with a wave of his hand.

  "It's probably just something made up by locals to develop tourism, this thing, nobody has ever seen it..."

  As I listened to them talking, I fell asleep completely and didn't hear what they said afterwards. I don't know how long I slept, but I felt the car had stopped. I opened my blurry eyes with a start, and found that outside the sun was already setting. The car had stopped at a service area on the highway.

  Yang Cangcang walked over and said, "Are you guys hungry? Let's eat first." Everyone nodded, Xiao Lao and Fu Ma had just woken up, Wu Zihan was staring into the distance in a daze, occasionally glancing at Hongtian. I went to the bathroom and when I came back, Cangcang handed me a few boxes of instant noodles, telling us to go get some hot water from the service area. There were only a few people left on the bus, everyone else was outside chatting, the bus would be stopping for half an hour.

  I brought back the bowls of noodles with Fuma, everyone was hungry and started eating while chatting. "How did Dairei appear here? Who is chasing her sister?" I asked vaguely with a mouthful of noodles.

  "I'm afraid they're the only surviving Array Spirits, they must know some secret. Didn't someone kill Ze Array's Array Spirit before? And what about that half- crocodile person, don't you remember he said he wanted to tell us something?" Yang Cangcang pulled out a chicken-flavored sausage from her bag and dipped it in the noodles.

  Xiao Lao said with a mouthful of oily words: "In my humble opinion, it must be related to Wu Huang. As for what it's about, we can't know."

  "Oh, right, Old Xiao, how's your comprehension of those two Zen phrases from Tianji Old Man?" I asked.

  "The heavens are changing, the mysterious mother is opening up to the early world's calamity!" Fu Ma repeated in a low voice.

  Xiao Lao rolled his eyes and said, "The so-called heavenly machine is not something that ordinary people like us can easily understand. However, I do have some thoughts on this mysterious mother." We all stared at him with wide eyes, waiting for him to continue, but Xiao Lao started to act mysteriously again, slowly pulling out one noodle after another, seemingly enjoying our gaze.

  Yang Cangcang started to look impatient, Xiao Lao hastily swallowed the noodles in his mouth and said: "In my 'Tao Te Ching', there is a sentence that says, 'The Valley Spirit does not die, it is called the Mysterious Female, the gate of the Mysterious Female is called the root of heaven and earth.'"

  "What does this mean?" Yang Cangcang hastily asked, she was the most impatient person who couldn't stand waiting.

  "Valley spirit? What kind of spirit?" I chimed in.

  Xiao Lao said slowly: "This 'Tao Te Ching' is also called 'Five Thousand Words'. Although the entire text has only about five thousand words, it thoroughly expounds the heavenly way of the origin of all things, which is the essence of Taoism..."

  Yang Cangcang gritted her teeth and said: "Get to the point!"

  Xiao Lao stood up, still looking displeased, and continued: "The Valley Spirit is another name for the Dao. Everyone has their own understanding of this phrase. Originally, in the Daodejing, the Mysterious Female's gate does not truly exist as a gate. However, in Tianji Lao's Zen words, I believe that this gate truly exists, and within it, one can transform and create heaven, earth, and all things."

  "What place is this? Could it be Gui Yu?" I ventured a guess.

  Xiao Lao shrugged: "I don't know either, for now I only know this much, what's the hurry, let's take it one step at a time."

  Wu Zihan did not participate in our discussion, nor was he absent-mindedly listening on the side. He muttered under his breath in a voice that couldn't be any lower: "Ying Su Shi Jie..."

  Outside, a group of young men laid out a tablecloth on the ground in the service area and had a picnic. There were chicken, duck, pig hands and all sorts of things on it, making me drool. Among them were the glasses man and the birthmark man who were discussing next to me earlier. Yang Can-can came over and slapped my head hard: "What are you looking at? You only know how to eat."

  I helplessly rubbed my head and said to the nine worms on my shoulder: "Next time she approaches me, freeze her." The nine worms tilted their heads to the right and ignored me, and I suddenly felt isolated.

  The night color is revealed, and the driver starts shouting loudly: "Get on the bus, it's going to start." The young people under the car begin to pack up their things, and in a short while, the bus is almost full. The driver stands at the middle of the stairs, sticks his head out and asks: "Is everyone back?"

  The man with glasses looked around and said: "Dachao hasn't come back yet, he said he was going to the toilet before getting on the car, Master please wait for a while."

  "What have you been doing for half a day?" The driver muttered and walked away. After waiting for a while, almost everyone on the bus was present, and there were fewer people in the service area. The driver shouted loudly downstairs: "Has that person come back?"

  The bespectacled man was also a bit puzzled and asked the birthmark man, "How did you go for half a day?" Just then, a loud shout was heard. The bespectacled man was taken aback and said, "It sounds like Dachao's voice." A few young men were about to get off the bus to investigate what had happened. We all looked at each other, and I leaned against the car window to see clearly. All I saw was that the Dachao they mentioned limped out of the toilet.

  The man with glasses quickly got off the bus and rushed to help Da Chao up, asking in a hurry: "What's wrong with you? What were you yelling just now?"

  Dah Chao rubbed his head, saying apologetically: "I accidentally strained my waist, it's killing me." For some reason, although Dah Chao's head was clearly turned towards Glasses Guy, I felt like he was keeping an eye on us out of the corner of his eye.

  Several young men let out a sigh of relief, and the bespectacled man helped Da Chao onto the car, half-jokingly saying: "You're like Lin Daiyu, even going to the bathroom is such a big deal, are you guys masturbating too much lately?"

  When Da Chao walked past us, he deliberately glanced in our direction, his gaze finally falling on Hong Tian. He said with a hint of meaning: "This girl can really sleep, from the moment she got on the bus until now, it seems like she hasn't woken up." His voice was very low, and only we could hear it apart from Glasses Man.

  We all remained silent, the bespectacled man hesitated for a moment, seemingly not noticing anything, and walked past us. A young guy behind them was making jokes and teasing others along the way, so it wasn't quiet either. Wu Zihan sat in front of me, turned his head to us and said: "Be careful with him, he's got issues."

  Before, I didn't notice it, but when Da Chao came out of the toilet, I vaguely felt that he was emitting a black aura. Xiao Lao said this is called Ling Jue, but my seal has just been lifted and I'm not proficient in using it yet.

  I quietly peeked through the gap between the seats to take a look at him, but found that he suddenly looked back at me too, startling me. The old man Xiao sitting next to me seemed to have noticed something and quickly nudged me, lowering his voice to say: "If someone is staring at a psychic, they can sense it. There are many people on the bus, don't make any rash moves without understanding the other person's intentions, use stillness to control movement."

  I nodded, and outside had already turned completely dark. Xiao Lao had traveled all over the country in his younger years, so he was very familiar with the roads everywhere. He said that the big bus we were on would drive for more than ten hours to some place or other - I didn't remember what it was called - and then transfer to another vehicle to go to Inner Mongolia. Anyway, with him leading the way, I didn't make a point of remembering. There were two drivers on the bus, taking turns driving day and night. The interior lights flickered on, illuminating the dark outside like a mirror. The ride was very smooth, and after eating my fill, I started to feel drowsy. As I sat there, I dozed off again in a daze.

  It wasn't long before I was startled awake by a noisy commotion, Yang Cang and the others were all poking their heads out at the stairwell looking down, I couldn't help but be curious and went over to ask: "What's going on?"

  Yang Cangcang gave me a glance and said: "Hey, you're awake, Junyang Pig."

  I was taken aback, "Hey, I'm saying, when did I get this nickname?"

  Yang Cangcang made a face, "Apart from eating and sleeping, what's the difference between you and a pig?" What she said was very reasonable, I was speechless.

  "The driver said it seems we've taken a wrong turn." Fu Ma said briefly.

  "What?" I exclaimed, "Can this also be wrong? Xiao Lao, are they reliable or not?" Xiao Lao shrugged, indicating it had nothing to do with him. I stuck my head out the window and took a look. Outside was pitch black, surrounded by wasteland on both sides, with wild grass almost as tall as my waist. In front of us was a dirt road, with no cars in sight on either side. Those young people, including the bespectacled man, the birthmark guy, and Da Chao, were chatting with the driver about something.

  "They were arguing with the driver because they took a wrong turn?" I asked.

  "No, they all said they had eaten something bad and wanted to go to the toilet. They asked the driver to open the door, but the driver was afraid it wasn't safe and took a wrong turn instead, making them wait." Fu Ma said with a furrowed brow.

  I noticed that the big super didn't seem to be as miserable as the other young people, with a look of urgent need to go to the toilet, he was also pretending to hold his stomach, constantly looking out the window, as if searching for something.

  The bespectacled man let out a few stinky farts, causing everyone else to cover their noses. He said beside him, "Master, I beg of you to stop this for now, I'm about to suffocate."

  The passengers downstairs also advised to pull over first, and then find a way out after they have solved the problem. The driver thought for a moment and agreed, pulling over to the right side of the road and opening the car door. He shouted: "You few quickly go and come back, don't go far." About seven young people quickly got off the bus and ran towards the wild grass under the road.

  The driver driving said: "Strange, we've been running on this road for over a decade and almost never got it wrong. Today I made a turn and somehow ended up here?"

  Another driver also wondered: "I didn't notice, what place is this? It seems I haven't been here before. Never mind, I remember you drove straight here, just head back along the road later."

  About ten minutes later, the driver yelled out of the car window: "Aren't you guys done yet?"

  "It's on the horse—" A voice came over.

  After a while, the driver impatiently said: "Are you done yet?"

  "It's on the horse—" The same voice came again.

  It seems like half an hour has passed, and the driver is standing at the entrance, scolding loudly: "You guys are constipated?"

  A moment of silence... The driver was suddenly stunned.

  Wu Zihan glanced at us and whispered: "It's bad, they've had an accident."