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The entire head looked several sizes larger than the girl's chest cavity, appearing bizarre and nauseating.
At this moment, this person had no idea what was happening to them.
The girl opened her thin, translucent lips and screamed.
Dou Tang shook his head, his long, black eyes slowly narrowing and elongating, as if he were squinting.
Meeting the girl's terrified gaze, he slowly extended his hand.
A huge, broad hand enveloped the girl's head, slowly applying pressure. The girl's scream turned into an indescribable whimper, sounding extremely miserable and desperate.
"puff--"
With a muffled thud, the swollen head burst open like a water balloon, spewing out clear, foul-smelling pus that gushed onto the ground.
Dou Tang moved his palm, feeling something was wrong. He shook the pus off his hand and looked at what he was holding in his palm.
That was... a brain.
A complete human brain.
Dou Tang had seen many brains before, both human and evil, but he had never seen one so... bizarre.
The brain is a moist, emerald green, as if carved from jade, and as hard as jade. It cannot be crushed even with slight pressure in the hand, just like an exquisite work of art.
This was just extracted from the brain of a young girl corrupted by evil spirits...
Before coming here, Mikazuki the Black Cat had told him that the characteristic of a human-headed genius is that it can bewitch humans and turn them into giant monsters that are hostile to normal people. It seems that this girl is one of them, but... what's with this jade brain?
Is it that a normal person's brain has been transformed into this state by evil spirits, or is this kind of brain one of the core elements of evil spirits?
And... if no soul was collected, where did the girl's soul go? Is it trapped inside this jade brain?
Pink particles drifted away as Dou Tang exited his Fall Guy form. He was now more adept at using the Fall Guy's power, and his skin could switch back to its original state more freely.
Dou Tang squinted at the jade brain in his hand, and finally shook his head.
"Meow--"
A meow came from the darkness not far away. The black cat Mikazuki walked onto the platform with a small cat backpack on its back and looked at Tou Tang.
Dou Tang waved the jade brain in his hand at it and said, "Do you know what this thing is all about?"
Black Cat Mikazuki shook his head: "No, we never went to the Headless Temple through Kisaragi Station, nor did we kill any of the corpses inside the Headless Temple..."
Dou Tang hummed in agreement, then beckoned. The black cat Mikazuki stepped forward, and Dou Tang placed the jade brain into the backpack on Mikazuki's back.
Mikazuki the black cat glanced at the train beside him, clicked his tongue, and said, "Kisaragi Station... you just smashed it like that? How can this train still run?"
Dou Tang glanced at the train and said coldly, "If you can move, turn on the lights twice. If not, I'll dismantle you."
The car headlights, which had been shattered, lit up eerily, as if in response to Dou Tang's words.
Mikazuki immediately choked up, and said in a strange tone, "You...you can communicate with this guy?"
Dou Tang did not respond, but simply walked off the tracks, retrieved his sword, and sheathed it.
Holding his sheathed sword in one hand, he and Mikazuki stood in front of the door of the second carriage of the train. The train reacted a beat slow, as if it was considering whether or not to let the two of them on board, but in the end the door opened anyway.
Mikazuki was clearly a little scared and asked, "Are we really going to take this car to the headhunting place?"
Damn, Kisaragi Station! This is one of the most famous ghost stories in Japan. Don't be fooled by how well-behaved the train seems now; when it first appeared, it literally devoured a whole trainload of people.
This strange tale, which originated from a forum post in the early 2000s, has come true, causing many people in the underworld to break out in a cold sweat. After all, compared to those evil spirits and monsters that can be communicated with, these evil spirits that exist solely for fear and the unknown are the most troublesome.
The inability to communicate, understand, or even figure out the reason for their existence is the true root of the horror of ghost stories.
But now... emmmmm... it seems that this Kisaragi Station has been suppressed by Toudou?
Dou Tang strode into the carriage and said, "Why walk when you can take a car... bang."
Before he could finish speaking, the train doors slammed shut, separating Dou Tang from Mikazuki.
Mikazuki smacked his lips, then his eyes turned playful.
Before Dou Tang could speak, the train had already started to accelerate. It seemed that this train was determined to separate Mikazuki and Dou Tang, but no one knew why.
Dou Tang sighed and said, "Let's settle this with our heads!"
Mikazuki nodded, licked his paws, and shook them, as if bidding farewell to a friend.
The train slowly accelerated, its damaged locomotive screeching against the rails. As Mikazuki watched the brave warrior depart westward, Tou Tang gradually disappeared into the distance with the train.
The lights of Kisaragi Station grew smaller and smaller until they disappeared into the distance. The train drove into the dark night, and blurry tree shadows began to flash past the windows around the train, like thin, bony ghost hands.
Dou Tang sat imposingly in his seat, yawning as he watched the blurry scenery passing by the window.
"Since you've decided to oppose me, then go all the way. After the fight, make sure you get me properly taken to my destination."
He muttered something, which sounded like a warning to this eerie and malevolent train.
He placed the scabbard on the ground, crossed his hands, and braced them against the end of the hilt, quietly awaiting the attack from the evil train.
Chapter 94 The Crown of the Moon
The already damaged front of the car slowly deformed in the night.
The repaired, gleaming silver car body drove under the moonlight, yet not a single trace of reflection could be seen on its metallic surface.
Dou Tang sat in the middle of the carriage. The carriage lights hissed and began to flicker, as if there was a problem with the connection.
Dou Tang nodded as if in agreement: "Darkness is one of the sources of human fear, so flashing lights like this is a classic scene. Keep going, keep going..."
Such mockery seemed unbearable for the Kisaragi Train. The overhead lights went out completely, plunging the entire train car into darkness, with only the moonlight shining in through the windows.
The darkness was filled with hushed voices, like many people whispering, much like a crowded train during rush hour, filled with human voices.
But the entire train carriage remained empty, making the scene somewhat eerie.
"You're doing this again, aren't you?"
Dou Tang cleared his throat and began to recite with a smile.
The voice was clear, loud, and resonant.
"We will fight with our blood against the mighty. If we are not heroes in life, we will be ghosts in death."
The lyrics, brimming with Eastern flavor, seemed to startle the train. The soft whispers in the air suddenly stopped, and then the voice abruptly rose a few decibels, as if it were challenging Dou Tang.
Dou Tang shook his head, his eyes wide with anger, his hands on the hilt of his sword in the manner of a military officer. He pursed his lips and spoke again, his voice righteous and awe-inspiring, the lyrics and melody turning in cycles, yet carrying a fierce and unyielding force.
"Banners flutter in the breeze, singing of righteousness; swords flash, dancing like cold stars."
As he sang, he stood up, drew his longsword sharply, and the blade gleamed with a cold, bluish light.
He held his long sword level and looked at the empty space.
The Kisaragi Train probably wasn't a threat to him at all; he was just using it as an excuse to recapture a past feeling.
His tone shifted, becoming ruthless and vicious: "I will wipe out all of you human tigers and wolves, ghosts and monsters, treacherous villains, one by one."
As he sang, the entire carriage froze. Black resentment seeped out from the seams of Dou Tang's clothes and spread throughout the carriage. Looking in from outside the window, one could see that all the resentment was gradually filling the entire carriage. In the blackness, everything inside the carriage could no longer be seen.
The train continued its silent journey, but its speed gradually decreased.
The train slowed down more and more, until it came to a near stop after about ten minutes.
"Only then can we see that the world is bright and clear, and that peace prevails throughout the land."
Dou Tang's whisper came from within the black mist, and at the same time, a faint blue light appeared. The illusory scars on Dou Tang's face and hands emitted a faint light, which then slowly faded away.
He then shook his head, clicked his tongue, and sat back down in his seat. The black resentment slowly dissipated, and the train came to a complete stop. The place where it stopped was a dark platform, with the eggshell-colored platform standing quietly.
Dou Tang yawned again and looked to the side of his seat, where a golden crown quietly awaited its new owner.
...To be honest, do I sound that bad when I sing Hebei Bangzi?
It's so awful it could kill, right? I always thought it was just a joke, but it actually happened to me, it's just outrageous...
Dou Tang reached out to pick up the crown, but the crown, which was originally solid, turned into a stream of light and disappeared the moment it touched his fingers.
And new information also emerged in my mind.
Congratulations! You've won a crown! Keep up the good work and strive for final victory!
[Crown: 4]
[Congratulations! You've captured the soul of a real evil spirit! Real evil spirits can only be purified through the Fall Guys game! Call your friends and embark on a fun-filled ultimate elimination tournament against the real evil spirit!]
Each crown brings unexpected blessings! Open the crown to gain new power!
【Kisaragi's Ghostly Car Crown】
Awakening from urban legend to reality, Kisaragi Station stands silently in the dead of night, not in the material world, while its own train plays a captivating melody, until it hears an even more terrifying sound.
【Sounding the Horn for a Thousand Miles】
As the inhabitant of Kisaragi, you will have the ability to travel through the night using any means of transportation, with a top speed of 603 km/h (the speed limit of the Shinkansen).
Does that mean you can move quickly at night as long as you have a means of transportation...? Wait, what's going on with this explanation?
Is Hebei Bangzi opera really that bad?! What do you mean by even more horrifying sounds?!
Dou Tang scratched his head, clicked his tongue, and then stood up and walked to the train door.
The train, which no longer seemed strange, did not open its doors. Dou Tang had no choice but to pry the doors open himself. With a screeching sound of metal scraping against metal, the train doors were forced open, and Dou Tang jumped out.
silence.
The place I was in was a small train station, painted entirely in a striking white color, with no lights, and further away, there were dark mountains and forests.
In the mountains and forests, a village seemingly immersed in darkness and silence can be vaguely seen.
It seems that this is what is known as the "human head talent"... another eerie village that is also part of urban legends.
The train at Kisaragi Station seems to possess its own consciousness, and the evil spirit within the human head should also have its own consciousness. However, judging from the lost girl evil spirit at the station, some people...
The evil spirit that became like this did not do so by its own will, but rather... someone was playing tricks on it behind the scenes.
Those guys must have injured Mikazuki. He once said that this place is a haunted place that even great demons are unwilling to approach, and it seems to be very deep.
Hmm... then let me test the waters myself. No matter how much water there is, it can't compare to me.
...Something seems off.
Dou Tang, with a long sword at his waist, strode forward, stepped off the eggshell-colored platform, and into the darkness.
………………
This village seems to have no daytime; it is always a silent night.
The boy let out a long breath, carried his backpack, and walked through the village. He carefully walked to a secluded detached house, found a ladder in the roadside weeds, propped it against the wall, and climbed up the wall step by step.
He straddled the wall, pulled the ladder up again, propped it up inside the wall, and carefully climbed down without making a sound.
"Who?"
A male voice suddenly came from inside the house. The boy stood in the courtyard and whispered back, "Brother Yuelian, it's me, Pingxin."
"Come in quickly," the boy said, and the sliding door to the front hall opened, revealing the figure of a weathered and decadent man.
The young man nodded and went into the house.
The living room was dark, with some bedding spread on the floor. Two women were resting on the bedding, one of whom was holding a fox in her arms.
"I found some food, Pingxin, Jingrou, you two eat first." Pingxin said the two women's names and opened her backpack. Inside were some food she had scavenged from the village shops. Although it was past its expiration date, it was better than nothing.
These four were originally planning to go fishing at the beach, but they unexpectedly ended up being brought to this place by the train.
This is their fourth day of struggling to survive here.
Chapter 95 Entering the Village
Dou Tang has visited many villages in the mountains for various purposes, but most of the time he has only seen silence, just like now.
There was no wind, no chirping of insects or calls of birds; the mountains and forests surrounding the village seemed to have been dead for a long time, becoming a silent and pitch-black backdrop.
This in itself is abnormal, foreshadowing the extraordinary nature of the village before us.
The village is built in a flat valley between two mountain peaks, with the station at the foot of the mountain. Looking into the distance from the station, the houses in the darkness are sharply defined, and the rugged architecture that is completely contrary to the natural curves is very eye-catching.
Dou Tang walked slowly forward, along the cement road strewn with fallen leaves, until he arrived at the reception station in front of the station.
The reception hall was deserted. Looking through the shattered windows, the hall was a mess, with suitcases and benches overturned everywhere. It seemed that a large-scale riot had taken place here, and perhaps someone had tried to escape the village from here, but whether they succeeded or not was unknown.
There were no evil spirits or resentment, so it seems that the evil spirits associated with the human head did not appear here.
Dou Tang turned his head and walked towards the village without stopping.