Cultivation Reconstruction in the End Times

Chapter 13 Decaying Aura

At 7 am, the whistle of the train in City Z sounded. Then the train slowly started and moved along the designated track.

Zhang He was standing at the back of Carriage 12 at this moment. He had rushed to buy a ticket just a few minutes before the train started, so most of the seats in the carriage were already occupied. Other people could only stand in the aisle. Probably this was the peak tourist season, so there were a lot of people, and it was quite crowded even just standing.

Next to Zhang He was a girl, around twenty years old, wearing a pink floral silk dress and pure white princess shoes. When Zhang He looked in her direction, she cast a look of disgust at him, then turned her head and moved aside. She would rather be squeezed a bit than stay too close to Zhang He.

It was no wonder the girl showed that expression. Zhang He had been in a hurry to walk at night yesterday, and his cloth shoes were already covered with mud stains, looking rather dirty. His light gray pants had also been wet by the dewdrops on the grass beside the dirt road on the hillside, leaving streaks of yellow mud stains and water marks on the cuffs and knees. His white shirt on the upper body had rubbed against the mountain wall for most of the night and was also extremely dirty. There was even black soil stuffed under his fingertips.

As for his face, Zhang He didn't need to look in the mirror to know what it looked like now. He had smeared the ashes of burned talismans on his face before, and with the sweat stains on top of that, fortunately it was daytime. If someone saw him at night, they would probably be scared to death.

After hesitating for a moment, he turned around and squeezed through the crowd to the toilet. After entering, he first washed his face and hands with water. He also washed his half-long black hair with water by the way. After drying it with a towel, while there was no one around, he took out a set of clean clothes and white shoes from the space and changed into them. He casually threw the old clothes into the space and decided to deal with them later when he had a place to stay.

At this time, he was wearing a light blue cotton yarn shirt on the upper body, white cotton and linen shorts on the lower body, and men's white sports cloth shoes on his feet. There were still water droplets hanging on his chin and sideburns. This outfit was quite suitable for his age now, and he looked completely different from the crazy appearance before, with black ashes on his face and his whole body dirty.

Since living creatures couldn't be put into the space, he put the kraft paper bag into the travel bag and placed it on the rack in the carriage. After coming out of the restroom, he took out the kraft paper bag from the rack. Because the kraft paper bag was not big and was the color of meat skin, with the cover of his arm and the crowd, he smoothly left Carriage 12 and went directly to the last carriage.

Compared with the crowded Carriage 12, the last carriage was obviously much quieter. There were almost no people in the aisle, and there were still some empty seats. Zhang He found an empty seat closest to him and sat down.

One bench could just seat three people. There was originally a man in his forties on the bench. When he saw Zhang He, he gave a familiar toothy smile and was just about to speak enthusiastically, but was stopped by Zhang He's cold and expressionless eyes. So he could only turn his head away awkwardly and look out the window at the scenery.

Zhang He casually put the kraft paper bag in his hand into the luggage rack above and then sat down by the aisle. His eyes had already looked around and at the opposite side.

Because there were fewer people in the carriage, the voices of people talking were not as loud as the noisy voices in Carriage 12. Opposite, besides a larger table for placing things, there was a bench similar to this side, and only one person was sitting there. It seemed to be a female college student in her twenties, who was playing with the latest model of a handheld smartphone. From time to time, there were a few beeping sounds of the QQ chat, obviously she was chatting with someone.

Then Zhang He leaned back on the chair silently and closed his eyes. Because he hadn't slept all night yesterday and had rushed along the mountain road in a hurry in the morning, there was already a hint of tiredness on his face. Taking advantage of the quiet moment, he wanted to close his eyes and catch up on some sleep.

The train was moving at this time. Three hours later, a fragrant smell of food came from the dining car. After a while, the waiter pushed a cart of boxed meals. The man in his forties immediately stood up and bought one box. He placed it on the opposite table, opened the disposable lunch box, and started eating. While eating, he also muttered discontentedly that there was too little rice and the dishes were also insufficient.

The disposable lunch boxes in the past were thick and big. Now they were thin and small. A small box of rice wasn't even enough for him to swallow in a few big mouthfuls. There were four dishes in the box containing the dishes, but each dish was only about one bite's worth. When eating, it was either too salty or too bland. And it cost ten yuan for such a box. It was really a rip-off. However, despite his dissatisfaction, he still ate the food clean.

Then he looked at the young man next to him and increasingly felt that this person was very strange. Since sitting down, he hadn't changed his posture for several hours. It seemed like he was sleeping, but his back was straight, so it didn't look like he was sleeping. If he was just resting his eyes, he hadn't moved at all for several hours. When he himself got up to buy food and eat, the young man didn't even lift his eyelids, and it seemed like he was asleep again.

Until he finished his meal, the young man was still in a state between sleeping and waking. The man in his forties looked at him again and then stood up and threw the lunch box into the trash can.

As for the female college student opposite, the beeping sounds of chatting on her phone had stopped, and she was concentrating on looking at something on the phone. While looking, she took out a sausage from her bag, opened the package, and ate it while looking at the phone.

After the meal, it was already noon. Even with the air conditioning, the carriage was a bit stuffy. The voices of people talking around were also a bit lower, and everyone seemed a bit drowsy, including the girl opposite and the man in his forties next to him, who all seemed to lack energy.

At this moment, several people entered Carriage 16. When they passed by Zhang He, he suddenly opened his eyes without warning while he had been keeping his eyes closed all the time. His body involuntarily tensed up. When he raised his eyes, he saw a man in his fifties and two men in their thirties, each holding two old-fashioned travel bags of an earthy color. They even stopped for a moment when they walked past him.

Probably seeing that there were seats here, they were about to come in and sit down. Maybe it was a woman's natural intuition that was more sensitive. The girl opposite reacted first. Before the three men came in, she immediately stood up and sat between Zhang He and the man in his forties.

The man in his forties had been dozing off. When someone sat next to him, he took a look. Seeing that it was the female college student opposite, he was about to make some teasing remarks, but then he saw the three men coming in and was stunned for a moment.

People came and went in the carriage all the time, and it was normal to look for seats. There was no need to make a fuss. But what made the female college student and the man in his forties stunned for a moment was that these three men all smelled extremely bad. It was impossible to tell the original color of their clothes anymore, and even their shoes were covered with mud.

There were people from all over the country on the train. Some were clean, some were slovenly, and there were even those who didn't change their clothes even when they were greasy, and there were quite a few people whose stinky feet could knock someone out. But it was rare to see three people dressed as if they had climbed out of a cesspit.

After the three of them put the two bags of things on the top, they sat down. At this time, the girl didn't look at her phone anymore but stared at her bag with a bit of panic.

The man in his forties also looked at the three men opposite with a strange look in his eyes. At this time, the girl turned to look at Zhang He. Probably because Zhang He's expression was too cold, she turned to the man in his forties for help.

The meaning was to ask him to help take the bag on the opposite seat. The uncle naturally agreed readily when facing a beautiful woman. When he stood up to take the pink handbag that the girl pointed at, he might have accidentally touched the travel bags of the three men, and there was a heavy metallic collision sound. The three men couldn't help but look at the man in his forties at the same time.

Stared at by their strange eyes, the man felt a bit timid for a moment. He quickly took the bag in his hand and retreated to his seat. After the girl took the bag, she thanked him profusely. When she looked at the three men opposite again, she had already averted her gaze, not looking as scared as before with her eyes wide open.

Adhering to the good thought of ladies first, the uncle gave the window seat to the girl and sat in the middle himself.

At this time, Zhang He half-lowered his eyelids and watched the three men opposite warily. The stench they emitted wasn't ordinary body odor, and it wasn't the stench of feces either. It was the putrid smell from the tombs and caves.

Zhang He was all too familiar with this decaying aura. In the future apocalypse, it filled the air everywhere, in the tombs, on the decaying vines, and on the bodies of the living dead.

At this time, besides being pale, there was nothing else noticeable on the faces of the three men. They seemed to be sitting there with heavy thoughts, not having any conversation at all. They didn't even care about the faint or intense scrutinizing gazes from the opposite side.

After watching for a while and seeing that the three men didn't make any move, the girl by the window still took out her phone and continued to look at the content inside. The man in his forties, however, turned his gaze to the luggage bag above, deep in thought.

Zhang He immediately raised his eyes to check if there were any other empty seats in the carriage. But it was just after noon, and many people came to look for seats to rest. The carriage was already full of people.

Then he noticed that the young panther in the kraft paper bag above had been extremely irritable since the three men sat down. Zhang He had to stand up first and pretend to take some food from the bag. He casually threw two pieces of cured meat into the bag to soothe the young panther. From morning to noon, both he and the panther hadn't eaten much.

Taking the opportunity of standing up, Zhang He glanced at the three men twice. From the standing height, he saw the wrists of one of them exposed, with several traces of being pricked by thorns. Suddenly, his heart sank. There was also a faint blue color under that person's eyes and around his mouth, although it wasn't very obvious yet.

Slowly pulling the bag closed, Zhang He casually grabbed a handful of smoked beef jerky from the space and sat down. He didn't eat the food immediately but held it in his hand with a suspicious and uncertain expression. Just as he was about to decide to stand up and leave this place immediately.

The uncle next to him suddenly whispered to him, "Hey, young fellow, I didn't eat enough at noon. Could you spare me a handful of your beef jerky?"