[WTF, what kind of freak is this? Why does it have a flower-shaped hole on its face?]
[Ugh, I beg for a pair of eyes that didn’t see this.]
[Disgusting! I’m starting to think this thing’s face and butt got swapped! (crying gif)]
[Hey, village girl, step away before it farts right in your face.]
“Are you the new driver?”
The hole on the ghost’s flower-shaped face opened and closed, emitting a shrill and grating voice.
Qing Li turned her face away, genuinely worried that, just as the livestream viewers speculated, it might actually fart.
“Of course. I’m licensed.”
She proudly displayed her driver’s license, clearly marked female driver.
The flower-faced ghost leaned closer, its faceless visage seemingly scrutinizing the license. Dragging its body into the bus, it was about to find a seat when Qing Li suddenly stopped it.
“Excuse me, passenger, you haven’t purchased a ticket yet.”
“Ticket?” The ghost’s voice carried a chilling mockery.
This human dared to ask it to buy a ticket?
“Buying a ticket to ride is only natural. Judging by your, uh, unique looks, you’re not thinking of freeloading, are you?” Qing Li narrowed her eyebrows, her gaze sharp and unyielding.
The ghost’s face showed no expression, but black mist began to pour off its body, filling the bus with an overwhelming stench.
Qing Li wrinkled her nose in disgust and bluntly asked, “Did you just fart?”
That one question hit the ghost right where it hurt.
It hated when others mocked its face, which indeed looked disturbingly like a rear end. Words like “fart” and “poop” were its ultimate taboo.
“Say that again,” the ghost hissed, its sharp voice trembling with rage.
Qing Li looked at it with pity. “How sad. A ghost without ears can’t even hear properly.”
Out of nowhere, she pulled out a loudspeaker and shouted at the top of her lungs, “I SAID, DID YOU JUST FART?”
(A system-issued product, always top-notch.)
The loudspeaker’s power was so overwhelming that it nearly deafened the other passengers.
The commotion inspired murmurs among the ghosts on the bus.
“Ugh, the stench! I’ve had poop fermenting in me for 82 years, and it’s never been this bad.”
“I’ve been dead for a hundred years, my body’s rotted to maggots, and it still doesn’t smell this awful.”
“How can something this smelly even ride public transport? Can’t it afford a taxi?”
“Seriously, can’t you get off? You’re a public hazard!”
Hearing these complaints, the flower-faced ghost’s face turned a furious red.
Meanwhile, the livestream viewers were utterly entertained, learning something new: even in the ghost world, there’s a hierarchy of disdain.
Clearly, the flower-faced ghost was the least welcome presence on the bus.
“Die—!”
The ghost, provoked, let out a piercing roar. The hole on its face opened wide, revealing layers upon layers of jagged, sharp teeth. Its long, scarlet tongue slithered out, dripping with transparent saliva. As the saliva dripped onto the floor, it began to corrode the surface.
“If you dare damage my bus, let me tell you—without compensating for the repair costs, you’re not getting off!”
Seeing her bus being vandalized, Qing Li frowned deeply. Without hesitation, she launched a Palm Thunder straight at the ghost’s face.
“Boom—!”
The ghost clearly didn’t expect Qing Li to have such a move and took the hit head-on.
The power of thunder, pure yang energy, is highly effective against malevolent spirits and ghosts.
The flower-faced ghost was left charred and battered, its rows of jagged teeth crooked and broken, with several flying out.
“I wuz wrong… I’ll pay… spare me…”
The ghost collapsed to the ground, its voice muffled and garbled. If it had eyes, they would surely be filled with tears.
Who opens a fight by using such a powerful attack? No sense of fairness whatsoever!
“See? If you’d done this earlier, we wouldn’t have had to resort to violence. It’s so much better to resolve things peacefully,” Qing Li said, her expression suddenly turning warm and amicable.
The ghost, now crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, gritted what remained of its broken teeth. It then tore off one of its own arms and tossed it to Qing Li.
Qing Li blinked, momentarily stunned.
The system chimed in: “In the Horror World, ghosts trade using their body parts and flesh. The higher a ghost’s level, the more valuable its offerings.”
“So that’s how it works,” Qing Li murmured, a sly smile forming on her lips.
As a cultivator, Qing Li had always relied on spiritual energy from heaven and earth to enhance her strength and refine her skills. However, in the Horror World, there was only yin energy and ghost power.
For most cultivators, using ghost power to cultivate would inevitably lead to straying from the righteous path, resulting in heavenly retribution.
But Qing Li had previously practiced a unique cultivation method that allowed her to absorb ghost power and convert it into spiritual energy without suffering any backlash.
For ordinary people, the Horror World was a hellish nightmare. For Qing Li, however, these ghosts were nothing more than fat, juicy lambs ready for the slaughter.
Though the flower-faced ghost was grotesque and disgusting, it was of the Wrathful Ghost level. Its arm alone was more than enough to cover the bus repair fees and damages.
Unfortunately for it…
It had encountered Qing Li.
Qing Li, who never let a goose pass without plucking a feather, nor a beast pass without skinning it, and who wouldn’t cross a river without catching a few fish!
“One arm isn’t enough to compensate for my losses,” Qing Li sneered, her expression morphing into that of a greedy capitalist.
The ghost clenched its already broken teeth, losing a few more in the process. With trembling limbs, it yanked off one of its legs and tossed it over. Its sharp voice was now barely a whisper. “Is… is this enough?”
A ghost’s body could regenerate, but doing so consumed an enormous amount of ghost power.
Qing Li glanced at the bloody arm and leg, then leisurely said, “Considering you’re my first passenger, I suppose this will barely suffice.”
Hearing her words, the flower-faced ghost let out a long sigh of relief.
After settling the compensation, the ghost dragged its mangled body and prepared to crawl off the bus. Just as it reached the door, Qing Li stopped it again.
“Dear passenger, since you’ve already compensated for the damages, I’ll be generous and waive your fare. Rest assured, I’ll safely deliver you to your destination tonight,” she said with a cheerful smile.
The ghost’s hole-faced expression froze in terror, its “eyes” widening as if about to pop out.
It watched helplessly as the bus door closed with a creak, and let out a despairing wail:
“No! Let me off!”
“I want to go home!”
“Mom, save me—!”
[At this moment, I actually feel sorry for the ghost with a flower for a face.]
[Some people get on a pirate ship; this one got on a pirate bus.]
[An arm and a leg for fare? Even capitalism would shed tears.]
The livestream chat exploded with colorful commentary.
For now, Qing Li didn’t start the bus. Instead, she pulled out a massive trash bin from her mustard seed space and casually tossed the ghost’s bloody arm and leg inside.
From this point forward, this trash bin would serve as her toll box: ghosts would leave behind their body parts, and humans would pay in cash.
The system, watching her pull out such an oversized trash can, couldn’t help but ask, “How do you even have something like this?”
Qing Li raised an eyebrow. “As a cultivator, isn’t it normal to have a mustard seed space?”
The system fell silent.
Sure, having a mustard seed space wasn’t unusual—but who on earth carries around a giant axe, oversized scissors, a massive hammer, and what looked like a corpse disposal trash bin?
Was she really a righteous cultivator? Or was she actually some deranged serial killer?!