Chapter Fifty-Five: The Rules of the Train

The three raccoons were all baffled by his words, yet as they looked down, they saw the floor was covered in a dense web of tally marks. Shocked, they started to count them: "One, two, three..." Only after a long while did the Dull Bird utter a voice of disbelief, "Three hundred and seventy—have you really been locked up for an entire year?"

All three of them arrived at the same chilling possibility: Fan Tianxing had deceived them all, and this train had appeared more than a year ago.

Seeing their astonished expressions, the priest laughed again.

"Hahaha, you must have realized it by now, haven't you? Time flows much slower here than in the outside world. I came here on my way to report to the Daoist Alliance and happened to encounter this train. I thought I would just get on and exorcise a ghost, but who would have thought..."

After listening to the priest, they finally understood—it wasn't Fan Tianxing who had tricked them, but rather that time in this space was far slower than outside!

A chill crept over them. Did this mean that even if they stayed here for just a day or two, they'd have to endure years of torment?

Despair sank in. They had hoped that the Bureau of Anomalous Investigations would notice their disappearance while investigating the ghost train and send reinforcements. Now it seemed they'd starve to death before help ever arrived.

But wait—how had the people in this carriage survived without food or water?

Raccoon couldn't help but ask, "So, how did you all manage to survive?"

At this question, everyone in the carriage, except for the few otherworldly beings, turned to look at them. It was as if the topic was taboo—even the two priests' faces darkened.

At that very moment, the train suddenly screeched to a halt. The priest leaned back comfortably in his seat. "You'll soon find out how we've survived."

Before Raccoon could press further, a food trolley rolled eerily down the aisle, laden with blood and various severed human limbs—a grisly, horrifying sight.

At that moment, the five otherworldly beings stood up and strode over to the trolley.

Instinctively repulsed by these creatures—neither quite human nor purely monstrous—the raccoons shrank away, trying to put as much distance between themselves and the beings as possible.

Yet, the five beings simply pulled out several lunch boxes from the trolley, packed them with pieces from the pile of severed limbs, and handed five boxes to Raccoon.

Raccoon stared at the box in front of him, knowing full well what it contained. Forcing back his nausea, he prepared to teach the beings a lesson, but the priest stopped him.

Raccoon scowled in annoyance. “What are you doing? We may all be Class A, but as Spirit Tamers, it’s nothing for us to deal with these so-called otherworldly beings.”

The priest took the lunch box without ceremony. “This is how we survived—by eating this,” he said, opening the box and grabbing a chunk with his hand to eat. The other priest did the same.

Seeing this, Dull Bird nearly vomited. What kind of people were these, to eat... that?

The priest swallowed a mouthful of meat, then said to himself, “It’s all right. I didn’t want to eat it at first, either, but if you don’t, you die. Your life is in your own hands—do as you please.”

With that, he resumed eating.

Dull Bird couldn’t take it any longer. He pounded on the window in a rage. “Let me out! I want out!” No matter how hard he beat the glass, the window didn’t budge an inch.

“Don’t waste your strength. This train isn’t an ordinary anomalous creature. There was a Class S Spirit Tamer from Sakura Nation—he died here after depleting all his energy.”

What? The three Spirit Tamers froze. Sakura Nation was now ruled by anomalous creatures, but humans still survived there—especially Spirit Tamers, who were incredibly powerful due to the harsh environment.

Yet an S-class Spirit Tamer from Sakura Nation had died here after exhausting all his energy. That spoke both to the strength of this train and the utter despair that must have gripped him.

“Hurry up and eat. None of us could stomach it at first, but when we saw those five eating so heartily, we just followed suit,” the priest said, gesturing at the five otherworldly beings now feasting as if savoring a rare delicacy.

“Captain, those things are just... ugh!” Dull Bird couldn’t hold it anymore and vomited right onto the floor.

Raccoon’s stomach churned as well. He hadn’t expected those beings to be so revolting. He patted Dull Bird on the back and took several deep breaths.

“It’s all right. We’ll find a way out,” he said, though it was little more than self-comfort. If escape were that easy, none of the people in the carriage would have been trapped for so long.

Suddenly, Skinny Turtle seemed to think of something. He slapped his thigh. “Wait—the Doll forced its way into this space, didn’t it? That means it controls the power of space itself. If we find it, maybe we can get out.”

His words were a revelation. Raccoon fell into deep thought.

“This train is just too bizarre. That Doll seems incredibly intelligent. If we could get everyone in this carriage to catch it, maybe... but the problem is, where is the Doll now?”

Raccoon stroked his chin. “The Doll was just at the rear of the train. Maybe it’s still in the last carriage. We can go look for it ourselves.”

The other two immediately agreed. They feared the Doll, but the prospect of cannibalism terrified them even more.

As they prepared to head to the last carriage, the priest stopped them again. “You’d better see what’s in that carriage before you go.”

Heeding the priest’s words, they curiously looked toward that carriage. The moment their eyes landed there, a blood-red eye met their gaze, and a crushing sense of oppression nearly suffocated them.

“What is that?” Dull Bird stumbled back two steps, his face pale with terror.

He felt as if that eye was staring directly into his soul, battering him with an overwhelming dread.

“That’s an anomalous creature. There are five carriages on this train. The first is the engine, home to an unimaginably powerful being who rules the train.

The second is our carriage—all humans. Here, the anomalous creatures’ powers are weakened, so if any of them dare to enter, we can kill them.

The third is the carriage you just saw—it’s filled with monsters from the Sunset Kingdom. Those monsters are the anomalous creatures of Sunset Kingdom. Any human who enters that carriage is plunged into endless terror. I don’t know about the other carriages.

Every carriage is isolated by a ward, just like the barrier between the first and second carriages. If you try to go there, you’re courting death.”

This information had been paid for with the lives of countless passengers, and the priest himself had endured untold torment to learn it. He was already being generous in telling the three raccoons, so his tone was gruff.

Once again, the priest’s words shook the three to their core. They exchanged glances, each realizing the same dreadful truth: this ghost train actually possessed the power of rules.

Fan Tianxing had told them about it once—the power of rules was the force that governed the workings of heaven and earth, something elusive and intangible. Yet now, it had appeared on a train.