Master of Kaidan
Chapter 577: Smoking is Harmful to Health, Secondhand Smoke is Even Worse

Chapter 577: Chapter 577: Smoking is Harmful to Health, Secondhand Smoke is Even Worse

It was probably because of the preconceived notions brought about by Kukulcan’s information that, upon entering this world, Feng Xue had instinctively treated it as a classic rules Kaidan and naively thought, "As long as I survive until the end, that’s a good outcome."

But after sorting out the four major systems of this train Kaidan, Feng Xue suddenly realized that perhaps this Kaidan didn’t even have an "end" to speak of.

The so-called seven-day and seven-night journey could very well be a false proposition.

Take, for example, the Egyptian Ten Plagues, if the Ten Plagues were a Kaidan, with one disaster each day and the need to survive ten days and nights, would it be enough to simply live through the ten days?

Of course not!

Because the ninth plague of the Ten Plagues is darkness; in other words, on the ninth day, the sun would not rise again, meaning that the tenth day would never come. (Of course, in reality the darkness of the Ten Plagues only lasted for a three-day eclipse)

If these series of speculations are true, it means that unless Feng Xue took active intervention, the train might never be able to reach its destination.

At this point, Feng Xue was very relieved, grateful that she had figured these things out on the second day. If she had waited until a heavy snow blocked the route or the train derailed, it might have been very difficult to salvage the situation.

However, speaking of which...

The four bandits seemed to have said...

Did the security guard disembark at the three-station stop?

Feng Xue’s expression suddenly turned cocky.

"What, what are you laughing at?"

Seeing Feng Xue suddenly laugh, the girl who was complaining about the bread suddenly felt a chill, but Feng Xue didn’t waste words and directly got up, went to Lin Jiaxin, and stuffed the admission notice with her name into her hand.

The next moment, the blanket wrapped around Lin Jiaxin suddenly emptied, and in the School Hell, a new student without pants appeared.

The bread girl, who was originally about to scream, paused in astonishment at the moment Lin Jiaxin disappeared, then continued to complain as if nothing had happened.

Feng Xue saw this and her lips twitched slightly because School Hell didn’t have any "perception shielding" or "existence erasing" features. In other words, under normal circumstances, if someone disappeared after Feng Xue sent them an admission notice, the others would not lose their memory of that person.

And the attitudes now displayed by the bread girl and the mango girl undoubtedly exposed their enemy detection mechanisms.

"Is there no actual intelligence, but rather an automation based on something akin to the ’Chinese Room’ principle, providing automated responses based on passenger interactions in the room?" Feng Xue mused internally, but then directly approached the mango girl, pulled out a coin, and stuffed it into her hand, asking:

"What’s your name?"

"Xu Ruyi, didn’t I say that earlier?" Mango girl said with a puzzled face, then picked up the handmade coin and played with it, asking:

"By the way, where did you get this coin from? It looks quite refined."

"Tsk..." Sensing that the Admission Notice bearing the name "Xu Ruyi" on the other party was ineffective, Feng Xue ultimately determined that the thing truly had no consciousness of its own, and might not even have a true identity.

Seeing this, Feng Xue couldn’t be bothered to probe any further. She reached into her pocket, pulled out a huge burlap sack, and shoved Mango Girl inside.

"What are you doing?!" Bread Girl, sitting on the other side, seemed to be shocked by this sudden turn of events, and immediately let out a piercing scream while reaching for the call button to summon the attendants.

Knowing full well that there was no train police on board at this time, Feng Xue paid her no mind. With a shake of her body, the "Yellow Robe" concealed by her Hermit Power abruptly appeared, wrapped tightly around Bread Girl. A strong tug, and she, too, was stuffed into the sack.

Feeling the struggle coming from within the sack, reminiscent of Santa’s bag, Feng Xue reached to her waist, drew a card, and declared,

"I activate the Magic Card, ’Sealed Golden Chest’!"

A massive Treasure Box emerged before Feng Xue. She shoved the sack containing Bread Girl and Mango Girl inside, closed the lid, and, as the Golden Cabinet was banished to another dimension, Feng Xue breathed a sigh of relief.

"At least before the next stop, there should be no problems," she reassured herself. She rechecked the state of the homestead tree, made sure the trash can, windows, and other facilities were intact, then finally opened the door and stepped out of the room for the first time.

...

The corridor outside the sleeper cabin was not spacious, just wide enough to let a dining cart pass through.

Here, too, were windows, but like those inside the rooms, they were all shut tight.

Gazing into the white expanse outside the window, Feng Xuexin had a foreboding feeling and immediately headed towards the front of the train.

The K7 train had thirteen carriages in total during its journey, nine of which traveled the full route. The remaining were the dining car and carriages that only circulated domestically. These carriages would be replaced by other countries’ carriages once crossing borders.

Her carriage was the seventh, with three hard sleeper and three hard seat carriages ahead, followed by one soft sleeper and one luggage carriage. Beyond that was the dining car and a Kent Country turnaround carriage.

A few steps brought Feng Xue to the link between carriages, where her expression darkened upon finding three women, appearing to be in their forties, puffing smoke there.

She intended to approach them but stopped in her tracks, drawing back her hands. The black cloak enveloped her as she activated her "Ghostly Stealth," entering the shadow dimension and passing directly through the women to the train’s linking compartment.

The moment she emerged from her "Ghostly Stealth," an icy wind cut to the bone. The windscreen in the linking area did virtually nothing to block it—white icicles had even seeped through the gaps and formed within the compartment.

"Looking at this, I wouldn’t be surprised if a sudden failure due to temperature changes occurred at any moment."

Seeing this, Feng Xue immediately opened the door leading to the forward carriage. However, just at that instant, a chilling chewing sound came from behind.

Instinctively looking back, Feng Xue’s eyes trembled slightly as she saw the exhaled secondhand smoke coalesce into monstrous figures formed from the smoke, greedily feasting on the bodies of the three smokers.

But what was truly horrifying were not these voracious beasts but the smaller monsters emerging from the smokers’ nostrils, mouths, and even bursting through their chests directly.

Despite being made of smoke, their bodies possessed exceptional strength, easily tearing apart flesh and bone, disintegrating the women from within and then eagerly merging with the larger smoky beasts in midair.

The whole process lasted about five to six seconds. When the smoke cleared, it was impossible to see any remnants through the transparent windows in the doors, leaving only bits of dust slowly drifting away.