Chapter 19: Ghost Type

The bus drove steadily along, while simultaneously, the sun was setting, and the golden glow reflecting off the surfaces of the skyscrapers was gradually fading.

"Jiyang Station has arrived. Passengers wishing to alight, please take your belongings and exit through the rear door," the electronic voice of the stop announcer suddenly rang out.

The number of people on the bus increased abruptly at this stop; not only were the seats filled, but five or six people were also standing.

After the bus had been driving for another three minutes, the Fire Fang Dog suddenly turned its head toward a nearby passenger and let out a bark without any warning.

Sitting next to Qiao Sang was a female student wearing the uniform of the 37th Beast Taming High School; she had boarded the bus at the same stop as Qiao Sang.

The female student glanced at the Fire Fang Dog but said nothing, merely shifting her body slightly to the side.

Qiao Sang turned the Fire Fang Dog around and asked, "What's wrong?"

The Fire Fang Dog looked toward the female student.

"Ya?"

It tilted its head, appearing equally confused.

"You know this might scare others, right?" Qiao Sang said, stroking the Fire Fang Dog's head.

"Ya."

The Fire Fang Dog gave a curt response and turned back toward the window to resume admiring the scenery.

Seeing this, the female student gave Qiao Sang a friendly smile and said, "I'm fine."

Qiao Sang glanced at the distance between them, which had increased by more than ten centimeters compared to before, and was about to say something.

At that moment, the Fire Fang Dog turned around again, baring its sharp teeth toward the female student with a fierce expression.

The female student was startled and instinctively tried to stand up.

"Can you please put that Fire Fang Dog away? Are you going to take responsibility if you scare people?" a male voice spoke up discontentedly.

The speaker was standing right next to the female student.

Qiao Sang looked over to see a man with a square face wearing a gray tank top.

"Yeah, this Fire Fang Dog clearly hasn't been properly tamed yet," an auntie in the adjacent seat added immediately.

"Everyone on this bus, hurry up and put it away," another voice chimed in.

Hearing everyone say this, the female student looked at Qiao Sang expectantly, hoping she would put the Fire Fang Dog away.

Qiao Sang frowned but ignored them.

It was common for Beast Tamers to carry their pets with them; there was nothing wrong with that.

It was also common for pets to act on their own.

These people were simply taking advantage of her young age; if she were slightly older, they wouldn't have dared to voice such opinions.

However, this was indeed the first time a Fire Fang Dog had caused such a scene on a bus...

"What's wrong?" Qiao Sang asked, turning the Fire Fang Dog to face her.

"Ya."

The Fire Fang Dog turned its head away arrogantly, choosing not to look at Qiao Sang.

It had heard the people around them and thought its Beast Tamer was also going to blame it.

"Fire Fang Dog." Qiao Sang grabbed its head with both hands, forcing it to look at her.

The Fire Fang Dog's watery eyes looked both stubborn and aggrieved.

Staring into its eyes, Qiao Sang said seriously, word by word, "I believe you, and you must believe me too. If something is wrong, you can tell me. You know I can understand what you mean."

Hearing her words, the Fire Fang Dog became instantly emotional.

"Ya ya ya!"

"Ya, ya."

"Ya ya ya ya, ya!"

The Fire Fang Dog gestured with its small paws as it spoke.

Qiao Sang confirmed with it, "Are you saying that something suddenly appeared on her body and then suddenly disappeared?"

"Ya!"

The Fire Fang Dog nodded vigorously.

"That thing appearing suddenly scared you, didn't it?" Qiao Sang patted its head.

"Ya." The Fire Fang Dog buried its head against Qiao Sang, letting out an aggrieved whimper.

The female student sat nearby, watching their interaction, stunned for a long time.

*Is this actually the Fire Fang Dog's personality...*

*It's actually quite cute...*

*Maybe I should try contracting a Fire-type pet for my second slot...*

"It's okay now, it's okay," Qiao Sang soothed it. She then turned to the female student and said, "You heard everything just now."

The female student snapped back to reality and asked uncertainly, "Are you saying something suddenly appeared on me?"

Qiao Sang nodded.

"But..." Before the female student could finish, a voice interrupted her directly.

"Listen to her making up nonsense. That's just an excuse because she doesn't want to put the Fire Fang Dog away. I'm warning you, put that dog away immediately, or if someone gets hurt, don't blame me for dealing with you!" the square-faced man standing next to the student said viciously.

"Yeah, put it away quickly. It'll be too late if someone gets hurt," the auntie in the next seat echoed.

"Put it away, no one feels safe," someone else added.

"I don't think this girl looks like a liar. Maybe there's some wild Ghost-type transcendent creature on this bus," a different voice suddenly emerged.

The noisy atmosphere on the bus instantly fell silent.

If one were to speak of the most eerie transcendent creatures, it would be the Ghost-types. Any supernatural event became "rational" as long as a Ghost-type creature was involved.

Things like objects mysteriously vanishing or rooms suddenly losing power and turning cold were minor issues.

Ghost-type transcendent creatures were unpredictable and possessed eccentric temperaments.

Take the Spirit Possession Ghost, for example.

It loved to possess different people. The possessed person would remain conscious but would lose control of their body, forced to watch helplessly as their body performed all sorts of bizarre actions.

Long jumps, dancing, or diving were one thing, but if you encountered a Spirit Possession Ghost that liked to streaking, you were truly out of luck.

Among those who both loved and hated the Spirit Possession Ghost were the members of the police force.

The Spirit Possession Ghost didn't just possess the living; it loved possessing the dead. Two years ago, unidentified corpses would appear out of thin air in front of the Guang City Police Station every few days.

Upon inspection, some had been dead for a day, some for a year, and some for ten years. One of them was even Lu Baiqian, the school beauty from a high-profile missing person case three years ago.

When the police checked the surveillance footage, they saw the Spirit Possession Ghost controlling the corpse to walk to the police station entrance.

At first, they didn't know, but later, when the Spirit Possession Ghost floated out of the corpse, revealing its own short, stout form, they realized what it was.

To say they "loved" it was because the Spirit Possession Ghost could inexplicably help the police find corpses they couldn't locate.

To say they "hated" it was because it would possess corpses that had only been dead for a day or two and bring them in, which was pure destruction of the primary crime scene in a murder case.

Then there was the Soul-Sucking Lantern, which would appear beside lost people to guide them in the right direction, but the price for this exchange was the consumption of a certain amount of their essence.

It sounded like a Ghost-type creature that understood the concept of exchange, but that wasn't the case.

A while ago, a woman in Nankou City came out of a bar late at night and waited by the roadside for a taxi. Perhaps she was staggering from her walk or her vision was blurred from drinking.

The Soul-Sucking Lantern simply decided she was lost...

Before the taxi could even arrive, it forced her home and sucked her essence, leaving the woman to think the next morning when she looked in the mirror that she had been drained by someone.

The various behaviors of Ghost-type transcendent creatures were truly too numerous to list.

If you encountered one that just liked playing pranks, it was one thing; but if you ran into an evil, wild Ghost-type creature, you wouldn't even know how you died.

For a moment, everyone on Bus No. 66 felt a sense of peril.

(End of Chapter)