**Chapter 22: The True Hundred Demons Walk**
That night, the sky was overcast with dark clouds, and a biting cold wind carrying a hint of moisture blew through, suggesting that the first snow of winter in Huacheng was about to fall.
On such a chilly night, Ding Yue sat alone on the bus stop bench at No. 13 Yuntai Road in the new area of Huacheng, staring blankly at the empty street where scraps of paper danced in the wind.
He had come here to wait for the last bus of Route 101, spurred on by a quarrel with his girlfriend and a dare from his childhood friends.
Recently, his girlfriend had become obsessed with urban legend videos online, growing close to a small internet celebrity who specialized in filming these short videos about urban legends, making Ding Yue feel as if his head was spinning with jealousy.
But after so many years in a relationship, how could he simply let go?
A few days earlier, he called up a few childhood friends, inviting them for drinks to brainstorm ideas to salvage his relationship.
After a friend who had never dated but claimed to be a relationship expert analyzed the situation, they reached a conclusion.
They believed it was the immersive first-person filming style of those urban legend videos that drew his girlfriend in, along with the thrilling content, and the fact that only that small internet celebrity appeared in those videos gave her a false sense of security.
Though Ding Yue wasn’t entirely sure if his friends’ analysis was accurate, at least it made him feel better.
Their suggestion was for him to imitate that internet celebrity and create some urban legend videos to show his girlfriend.
After hearing their advice, Ding Yue immediately dismissed it as a terrible idea, as he had really experienced real urban legends when he was younger.
That was also one of the reasons he firmly opposed his girlfriend getting too close to that internet celebrity who filmed urban legends.
However, people in love can often act irrationally and become easily consumed by extremes.
Ultimately, he came here to the place where he first witnessed an urban legend.
Earlier that day, his girlfriend insisted on attending a meet-up organized by that internet celebrity, wanting to spend the night in a place where urban legends were said to manifest.
In protest, he had a big argument with her, stormed out in anger, and unknowingly ended up here, where his family’s old house once stood.
When Ding Yue lived nearby as a child, he was only twelve or thirteen years old. The urban renewal project in Huacheng had yet to begin, and the new area was still filled with dilapidated old houses, with his family residing in a red brick house near the street. He often woke up at night from the noise made by passing vehicles.
Though many things had faded from his memory, he still clearly remembered the night he witnessed an urban legend.
That day, he was awakened by a loud honk from a bus, and upon glancing at the alarm clock on his bedside, he saw it was two thirty in the morning.
At that time, the last bus of any route in Huacheng had departed by eleven o’clock at night, meaning there shouldn’t have been any buses on the street at two in the morning.
Confused and annoyed at being awakened, young Ding Yue got out of bed and went to the window. Looking toward the bus stop not far from his house, he witnessed an unbelievable scene.
Beneath the cool, silent autumn night sky, wisps of white mist floated over the deserted street. An old 101 bus was parked at the bus stop, with no one on the platform and no lights inside the bus.
However, the old bus was packed with people standing shoulder to shoulder, even more crowded than during rush hour, yet they made not a sound and stood silently in the darkness.
At first, Ding Yue didn’t associate this sight with an urban legend; he merely cursed and returned to bed, plugged in his MP3 player, put on his headphones, and soon fell asleep to the music.
This incident was merely a minor episode in his life, one he should have long forgotten, but it wasn’t until he went to university that he stumbled upon a popular discussion thread in a forum, and that dusty memory was awakened, becoming clearer.
The first post that caught his attention was an introduction to various urban legend events related to buses. Out of boredom, he clicked in and scanned through the bizarre tales, feeling no emotional response until he read about the urban legend associated with Huacheng’s Route 101.
The post mentioned that the last bus departing at eleven PM wasn’t actually the true last bus.
Every night at exactly two AM, an unknown last bus quietly leaves the origin station, heading to a stop that doesn’t exist on any sign.
Besides a brief introduction, the post also included a link detailing the events of the urban legend.
As Ding Yue reflected on his childhood experience upon seeing the post about the Route 101 urban legend, he felt a chill down his spine. After reading the linked post, he struggled to sleep for several nights.
The post linked to was very old, its timing aligning closely with Ding Yue’s sighting of the strange bus that night.
The author was a man named Wang, who wrote about getting drunk and stumbling to the Route 101 bus stop in a daze, managing to board the bus.
He often took this route home.
After riding for almost twenty minutes, the man was gradually sobered up by the cold wind blowing in through the window. When he regained his senses and checked the time, he was horrified to discover that he had boarded a bus that should have already stopped operating.
The bus was very quiet, lights off, and no other passengers were present. It was pitch black, and the man wasn’t even sure if there was anyone in the driver’s seat.
Confused and terrified, the man posted online seeking help, hoping for responses from netizens. However, possibly due to the late hour, he didn’t receive many useful replies.
His second post came over an hour later. He claimed he had crossed an unfamiliar tunnel and arrived at a station that didn’t exist on any sign and found it deserted. Even after exiting the station, the street outside was desolate, and his phone’s location service utterly failed.
He had tried seeking help from his family and the police, but after detailed questioning about the situation, they dismissed it as a prank since that station didn’t exist in Huacheng.
As the night grew later with no sign of dawn, the man continued chatting with the gradually gathering netizens under his post, as if it could ease his growing fear.
Just after four in the morning, he posted again, stating that he heard the sounds of gongs and suonas nearby, and a group of indistinguishable figures appeared on the distant street, holding white paper lanterns and carrying something unusually large.
Although the man carefully avoided mentioning the word “coffin,” some netizens realized the situation was wrong and urged him to leave the vicinity of the bus station quickly.
Heeding the netizens’ advice, the man bravely crossed the dark tunnel and indeed encountered others, who kindly offered him a lift.
After a considerable struggle, the man was too exhausted to ignore the netizens’ warnings and got into the stranger’s vehicle.
At four forty, the man posted once more.
He said, “The driver is taking the car up a mountain. I’m trying to stop him, but he’s ignoring me. What should I do? I’m going crazy!”
“My name is Wang XX, ID number 5104XXXXXXXXXX0912. If I disappear or d*e, please report this person to the police [image][image].”
The phones of that era had low pixel quality, and the dim light made the photos the man took blurry and eerie.
A careless glance at the photos would evoke a sense that the driver’s face was pale and green, the lifeless eyes twisted at an exaggerated angle, and the corners of his lips were curled up in a stiff grimace that seemed to mock.
That gaze seemed to be looking at the man in the back seat as well as every netizen behind the screen, frightening many.
“This driver isn’t alive! I just pushed him, and his body is cold and hard like stone! There’s no way out! I’m planning to jump from the car!”
At four forty-four, the man left his final post, after which he never appeared on the forum again.
People today are quick to forget.
That eerie post was hot for a while but soon faded from memory. A concerned netizen had reported the situation to the police, but there were no follow-up actions.
Now we live in an age where entertainment reigns supreme.
As Ding Yue scrolled through that long-forgotten post, while people lamented the man’s fate, their comments turned half-joking.
In the end, all that was left was a phrase: “Light an incense.”
However, after reading that old post with its subtly timed appearance, Ding Yue quickly recalled the eerie scene he had witnessed during his youth, surprised at how vividly that memory was awakened, as if it had happened just yesterday.
That memory haunted him for a long time; he once worried that on a certain night he would be taken away by a strange bus, only managing to temporarily shake off the fear months later.
—
Now, sitting on that deserted midnight bus platform, memories from his youth and the contents of those two posts surged in Ding Yue’s mind, and he felt his body temperature gradually drop with an unsettling chill rising from the depths of his heart.
“Hiss—!”
Ding Yue lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and then stubbed it out forcefully on the ground.
After waiting for a long time, the rumored last bus of Route 101, which prowled through the midnight city, still hadn’t arrived, and he prepared to leave.
Maybe he should go find her and see what they were up to?
Ding Yue thought this as he pulled out his phone and texted his girlfriend.
Ding Yue: “Dear, how’s the fun over there? Is it over? I’ll come pick you up once it’s done.”
Ten minutes later.
Baby: “[image][image] It’s great. They said it’s best not to use your phone while investigating spirits, so I won’t say more for now.”
Looking at the picture of the hotel corridor sent by his girlfriend, Ding Yue furrowed his brows tightly.
While many urban legend events in Huacheng did happen in hotels, the fact that his girlfriend chose to visit the hotel where urban legends manifested rather than other places with that internet celebrity made him feel an uncomfortable knot in his chest.
As he picked up his phone to question his girlfriend about why she went to the hotel with that small internet celebrity, a series of “creaking” noises suddenly came from the other end of the street.
Following the sound, an old 101 bus, rusted and weathered, seemed to roll out from his memory, wobbling and stopping right in front of Ding Yue.
“Whoosh—!”
The door opened, and the driver sat still in the driver’s seat, quietly awaiting Ding Yue, as if waiting for him to board.
Facing the dark, empty bus interior, Ding Yue gritted his teeth and snapped a few photos to send to his girlfriend before begrudgingly hopping on the bus.
Ding Yue: “You enjoy yourself! I’m going to play some urban legend games with someone else! [image][image]”
On the other side, in a big bed room of a hotel, Ding Yue’s girlfriend and the man lying beside her turned pale upon seeing the paper bus in the photo.
Afterward, they tried to contact Ding Yue but could never reach him.
—
Unbeknownst to when, it had begun to snow lightly in the sky. Tiny snowflakes fell on the glass, melting into a string of water droplets.
The buildings on both sides became unrecognizable, appearing particularly strange. The streetlights had also gone out, enveloping everything in darkness. The 101 bus Ding Yue was on felt like a tiny boat floating on a black ocean, unsure of where the wind and waves would take it.
He sat in his seat, looking ashen.
I shouldn’t have gotten on this bus just for that unfaithful woman!
d*mn it, if I d*e, I won’t let her go even as a ghost!
Feeling slightly calmer now, Ding Yue harshly gripped the handrail until his knuckles turned white.
He clearly remembered the 101 bus had passed by at least ten other stops since leaving the entrance of his family’s old home, yet now the bus had been driving for nearly an hour without stopping even once.
He tried calling out to the driver to stop, but there was no response at all.
He didn’t dare rush to the driver’s compartment to force the driver to stop either because on the ground beside his seat lay a pair of eerie high heels blocking his way.
They were a brand-new pair of red high heels, with very thin and long heels that, despite the bus’s bumps and sways, showed no sign of toppling over.
Ding Yue did not know when the high heels appeared; perhaps it was during those few minutes he inadvertently fell asleep. In any case, as soon as he opened his eyes, he saw those shoes quietly resting on the ground next to his seat.
This scene filled him with fear as his anger subsided, leaving him momentarily hesitant to act.
He remained locked in a standoff with the high heels, and the atmosphere grew increasingly cold and oppressive, as though something was sitting beside him, as if a woman occupied the empty seat next to him.
He didn’t know how much time had passed. Just as he felt his sanity on the verge of breaking, the bus suddenly came to a halt.
Without time to think or confirm what was outside the window, he hurriedly stood up, ready to get off. Yet, just before moving, the sight before him caused his legs to weaken, collapsing back into his seat.
Those high heels had moved before him, as if worn by an unseen person, striding gracefully towards the open door.
“Tap—tap—tap—!”
The light sound of the heels striking the ground seemed to pound on Ding Yue’s nerves. He watched helplessly as the high heels walked away, gradually disappearing into the darkness of the bus. It took him a while to regain his senses and remember to get off the bus, and he hurried to the bus door.
Arriving at the door, Ding Yue froze again upon seeing the scene outside.
Before him lay a patch of overgrown wasteland, where some burnt paper money soaked by melted snow hung from the bushes, bending the limbs of the plants. In the distance stood a cluster of high-rise buildings he had never seen before, completely dark, looking like a cemetery from afar.
While Ding Yue stood dazed at the door, hesitating whether to disembark, a woman entered his line of sight.
Outside, snow was swirling in the air, and a woman in a red raincoat stood alone in the middle of the bus stop. Snowflakes landed on her head, melting into droplets that slid down the brim of her hat, wetting her hair, and then, like bl**d, dripped to the ground, staining it red.
She wore a mask that covered her face, revealing only her eyes, but even so, those eyes still conveyed the beauty of a stunning woman.
Yet, why would such a beautiful girl appear in a place like this? Ding Yue thought to himself, feeling increasingly uneasy.
“Whoosh—!”
The moment the woman appeared at the door, the driver seemed unwilling to let her board, promptly closing the door before accelerating forward.
Caught off guard, Ding Yue was thrown to the ground, dazed and confused as he got back on his feet. Glancing outside, his pupils dilated in terror.
Due to the bus’s high speed, the scenery outside the window blurred, but the woman in the red raincoat appeared to be flying, relentlessly chasing the bus, behind her a swirling red mist coalescing into various grotesque and terrifying shapes.
Her delicate fingers traced the exterior of the bus, accompanied by a grating sound and dazzling sparks, causing the bus to erupt with a foul-smelling black liquid.
Then, the woman removed her mask, revealing crimson lips as she let out a distorted, monstrous shriek.
That scream was like the dying wails of a thousand people, overflowing with extreme negative emotions.
Just hearing it for less than a second, Ding Yue felt a chill throughout his body as if he had fallen into an ice cave, every part of him—body, soul, will, and spirit—trembled in fear.
The pain felt like a cold steel spike stirring viciously in his brain, spreading all through him, and his consciousness seemed to detach from his body, flying toward that woman.
His vision began to blur.
After several seconds, he slumped down, mouth and nose spilling forth boiling thick bl**d-like liquid. In the final moment before losing consciousness, he heard a series of nonsensical conversations.
“Grave carver, the one who attacked me a few days ago, was it you? Do you really think you can organize my Hundred Demons Walk?” a woman said, her tone icy.
“Muse, you’re going too far! I’ve already turned a blind eye to the things you’ve done; don’t try to come up with baseless excuses,” a coarse voice came from the driver’s compartment.
“Moreover, do you really think you can succeed? The true Hundred Demons Walk is not just a gathering of urban legends running rampant at night, occupying territory.”
“Ha, I know what you want to say.” The woman sneered, “To dominate the hundred demons, to make them follow, parading on a moonless night, interconnected with the essence of the land, that is the real Hundred Demons Walk.”
“But now, how many urban legends can achieve that? I only need to do the superficial work!”
“And now, what I want to do is hunt!”
—
After that, Ding Yue heard a series of violent explosions he could never have imagined, as if two enormous terrifying monsters were fighting for their lives somewhere beyond his sight.
Then, he felt something crawl out from his pocket where his phone was, something cool all over, crawling up to his face, pressing against his ear, whispering like a devil’s bargain.
“Kid, considering the current situation, you may not live; while your life force hasn’t faded yet, how about making a deal with me?”
A deal? What deal?
Ding Yue wanted to ask, but found he couldn’t open his mouth, yet the source of the voice seemed to know what he was thinking and continued, “Offer me ten years of your lifespan, and I’ll help you fulfill your wish.”
“…”
After a long silence, Ding Yue squeezed out a “Good” through clenched teeth.
“Alright, the deal is done. I’ll have someone teach your ex-girlfriend and her current boyfriend a lesson.”
Not knowing if it was the phrase “ex-girlfriend and current boyfriend” that provoked Ding Yue or if he was too severely injured and running out of strength, as soon as the little creature finished speaking, his body convulsed violently.
Then he felt something siphon out from within him, and he completely lost consciousness, his breath ceasing in less than ten seconds.
In the darkness, a small white bug crawled onto Ding Yue’s forehead and peered at the two figures battling outside the bus, letting out a gentle sigh.
“Ah! They’re really fighting fiercely! Finding Li Kui and killing Li Gui just because he has the ability to create explosions is such bad luck for the grave carver.”
“I wonder how Wang Buliu will handle this situation in the end.”
“Hopefully, she can deal with it perfectly. I hope she doesn’t d*e; we all share similar fates as urban legends. I still hope to observe her choices for future reference to avoid pitfalls on the road ahead!”
After muttering to itself, the little white bug crawled over Ding Yue’s corpse and disappeared into his phone.
