Though uncertain if using the emergency hammer now would trigger more dangerous changes, Jiang Yan could no longer afford to wait—the numbing cold was steadily creeping up his body.
Once his hands were completely numb, he wouldn't even be able to swing the hammer.
With a surge of determination, Jiang Yan raised the red emergency hammer and brought it down hard on the bus's control panel.
Unlike smashing the window earlier, this time the impact drained him, leaving him feeling completely weak and powerless.
It seemed this was the hammer's cost—proof that it was indeed a supernatural item.
Sure enough, as soon as the hammer struck the control panel, the entire bus jolted, and the speed gradually slowed. The overhead lights began to dim and flicker erratically, as though they might go out at any moment.
"Are we stopping again?" Zhang Tiantian asked, her voice tense as she glanced nervously around.
But the bus didn't stop; although it was moving slowly, it continued to inch forward.
Meanwhile, the corpses in their seats began to stir.
"The corpses are moving," the man in the black hat muttered, sensing something ominous. He could feel the corpse he was sitting on trembling, and the shaking was growing more violent by the second.
"Did the emergency hammer trigger this change?" he speculated, realizing that the hammer must have weakened the bus's power, causing the corpses to go out of control.
In other words, the bus's rules were deteriorating.
In the driver's seat, Jiang Yan could feel the cold receding rapidly after swinging the hammer. Within three minutes, the chill had retreated down to his calves.
But at that point, it slowed to a crawl, as if settling into a new stalemate.
"It's still not enough…" Jiang Yan felt a twinge of disappointment, fully aware of the bus's terrifying power.
Even with his willpower, the black coat, and the emergency hammer, all three forces combined couldn't suppress the ghostly bus entirely.
This revelation made the bus's power all the more frightening—far surpassing that of the black coat, which the man had once controlled with sheer will alone.
Just then, the man in the black hat shouted, "Get off your seat, now!"
He was speaking to Zhang Tiantian, who looked bewildered. Hadn't they just decided that sitting on a corpse was their lifeline? Why was he telling her to move now?
But seeing the urgency on his face, she didn't hesitate. She quickly scrambled off her seat and rushed to Jiang Yan's side, joining the man in the black hat in watching the violently trembling corpses.
"Damn it, these corpses are all vengeful ghosts!" the man cursed.
"Vengeful ghosts?" Zhang Tiantian murmured, staring at the corpses in horror, unable to believe it.
"Yes! Each one of these corpses is a vengeful ghost, and the bus's rules have been suppressing them. Now that those rules are weakened, the ghosts are awakening!" the man replied, his voice trembling as he looked at the corpses with hollow, lifeless eyes.
He was sure of it, having just felt an eerie, supernatural force rising from the corpse he'd been sitting on.
"Damn it, kid, are you done yet?" he yelled at Jiang Yan.
"Almost there," Jiang Yan replied through gritted teeth, feeling the cold continue to recede, albeit slowly. At this rate, it would take another half-hour for the chill to disappear completely.
Jiang Yan was also stunned by the revelation that these corpses were all vengeful ghosts. He'd thought the ghostly tour group was part of the bus itself. Now, it seemed that the bus's purpose was to keep these vengeful ghosts contained.
As he processed this disturbing thought, he couldn't help but shudder. If the bus's main function was to keep these corpses under control, then he had only been dealing with a fraction of its true power.
Just how terrifying would the bus be if it unleashed its full strength? Could he really handle such a monstrous entity?
But before he could dwell on his fear, the man in the black hat urged him again, his voice strained with panic. "Hurry! Or we're all dead!"
Almost as if to punctuate his words, one of the corpses in the back row abruptly rose to its feet.
The pale corpse stood upright, its stiff face twitching, its jaw creaking open as it muttered in a raspy voice, "The sky is so… blue today. Are you also going to Red Moon Village?"
The seemingly harmless question rang out like a thunderclap in their minds, sending chills through them.
Zhang Tiantian froze, feeling the corpse's empty, black eye sockets fixed on her as if it were speaking directly to her.
She glanced at the man in the black hat, who pressed his finger to his lips, signaling her to stay silent.
Understanding the gesture, she clamped her hand over her mouth, afraid to make even the slightest noise.
The bus fell into an eerie silence. It was as though their senses had been dragged into another dimension, and not a single sound dared to break the stillness.
"Are you also… going… to Red Moon Village?"
The corpse spoke again, its voice louder and more alluring, as though trying to draw a response from them.
Both Zhang Tiantian and the man in the black hat instinctively opened their mouths to reply, only to catch themselves at the last second, forcing their lips shut with sheer willpower.
Just as they breathed a sigh of relief, another corpse rose to its feet.
As this second corpse stood up, a foul stench began to fill the air, and the seats around it started to corrode under its toxic influence.
With two corpses now standing, the bus emitted a dreadful creak, and cracks splintered across every window, threatening to shatter at any moment.
The man in the black hat gritted his teeth, feeling the pressure mount. With two vengeful ghosts now fully awakened, the bus was barely holding together. If a third ghost revived, the windows would shatter, and they'd be overrun by the fog and the ghosts alike.
"This isn't working. We can't hold out much longer!" He looked at Jiang Yan, pouring more energy into his ghost coat in hopes that Jiang Yan would gain control of the bus soon.
Strangely, Jiang Yan, far from panicking, seemed almost excited.
Because as each corpse stood up, the power of the bus weakened further, and the cold was retreating even faster.
"Just a few more seconds…" He summoned all his mental strength, preparing to seize control of the bus.
Then, the third corpse rose. And it wasn't just any corpse—it was the driver.
All three of them stared in shock, especially Jiang Yan, who had been sitting right on the driver's lap. Now that the driver had risen, Jiang Yan was unceremoniously dumped onto the floor.
In that instant, he realized what was happening. The bus, unable to stop him from taking control, was cheating—by unleashing the driver's ghost to deal with him.
But Jiang Yan wasn't the type to sit around and wait for death. The moment the driver's corpse stood up, he swung the emergency hammer without hesitation, aiming directly for the ghostly driver.
At that exact moment, every window shattered, and the bus lights flickered out, plunging them once again into complete darkness…