Master of Kaidan-Chapter 584: The Disappearing Sinner

"Uh, the train hasn’t left yet..."

Early in the morning, as the lights inside the train lit up again, the good friend from the lower bunk also vanished.

Feng Xue activated the self-cleaning feature of the Masked Rider System, drew back the curtain, and glanced at the station through the window.

Around three o’clock in the morning, the vehicle had arrived at this station named Kishuna, where they transferred and rotated carriages, changed the train’s head, and waited for new train police.

The boarding of Bell Country’s train police signified a transition from certain unspoken rules — if unnoticed, there were no issues — to being strictly enforced formal rules; alarmingly, Feng Xue had no idea what these rules entailed.

He took out his phone, brought up the camera’s popup, and under his Hermit Power’s coverage (similar to how Mr. Li turned his villa into a container, which wouldn’t revert back unless cancelled, even if left unattended), these devices had escaped the train inspectors’ notice.

As the station lights and train simultaneously switched on, figures began to appear on the tracks in the darkness, moving from one room to the other, peddling their goods. Meanwhile, the conductor’s voice once again echoed through the carriage:

"Ladies and gentlemen, please note that this train reached Kishuna Station last night. This location is now under Bell Country’s territory, please abide by Bell Country’s laws and regulations..."

"Exactly, but at least give me a copy of the Bell Country’s code!" Feng Xue sighed silently, tossed some salt by the bedside, and continued to observe the situation in front of the train through the camera.

Although the route seemed ancient, neither the train nor its accompanying mechanical devices were outdated, as evidenced by the anti-slip sand and visibly cleared snow tracks; yet, it was precisely because of this that Feng Xue felt uneasy.

After all, at the moment when the vehicle started moving, he distinctly detected the ambiance of an old-era station — but why did the more they moved forward, the more advanced it seemed?

If Bell Country was somewhat more advanced, that was one thing, but why would Kent Country, located on the plains, possess such transformations? Could it be that Kent Country wasn’t just home to the Seven Martial Seas, but also had actual territorial waters?

As he watched the "women" selling items back and forth outside the train, Feng Xue felt slightly odd inside. Although they still exuded a sense of danger, it was strange that today none came knocking on the window, a striking contrast to their previous approaches. Just as Feng Xue was pondering this, the door handle suddenly turned without any prior indication, making him instantly tense up.

"I’m freezing, I thought there would be new scenery in Bell Country, but this place is no different from hone!"

As the woman grumbled, sitting discontentedly on the edge of the bed, Feng Xue casually pulled out a pack of Milk Chocolate saying,

"How about some snacks to warm up?"

"Thanks, I was just thinking of having something sweet." Lin Jiaxin, reappearing, took the chocolate with an air of familiarity that momentarily unsettled Feng Xue, until she actually started munching on the Ghost-specific Milk Chocolate. That confirmed it for him — the absurd Kaidan had fixed another bug!

However, he wasn’t disheartened but, with a flick of his hand as if it had always been there, produced a business card and said,

"I just found it under the table. It has your name on it."

"Oh? Let me see!" Lin Jiaxin said, immediately reaching for the card, then frowning and said,

"That’s strange, this isn’t mine!"

After speaking, she crumpled the card into a ball and threw it into the red trash bin under the table.

"Interesting."

Feng Xue lightly tapped the Pardon Bell at her waist, whose sound could only be heard by members of Libra and Sinners, but to her surprise, a faint Pardon Mark arose from Lin Jiaxin’s body.

Of course, that was secondary. Almost instantly, several gazes were simultaneously cast from outside the window.

Turning her head somewhat stiffly, Feng Xue was startled to see that outside the window, densely packed, the Pardon Marks were layered thickly, reddening to the point of darkness.

"Damn! How on earth are these things identified as independent entities?"

Feng Xue had always thought that the vendors outside the train and things like birds were part of the "Third System", that is, the part of the system dealing with "sudden situations". In the story element, they played the role of an "event", but at this moment, the marks above their heads clearly meant that either they could be identified as individual "Sinners", or they possessed the concept of an "individual".

It might sound trivial, but on closer thought, one would realize the seriousness of the issue—

There is inherently a difference between an individual and a group. Even as derivatives, group derivatives differ from individual derivatives. In Feng Xue’s own terms, group derivatives were similar to creations like Poisonous Insect Body, bamboo armor, Masked Rider Cards — mass-produced items that could be easily recycled and recreated without any distinction.

However, individual derivatives had already acquired a concept referred to as "uniqueness". Once gone, it was impossible to manufacture exactly the same individual again.

Even Feng Xue herself only had that kind of trait in the Cyberpunk World where she rolled out the gambler, but to be precise, it was more like a branch of group derivatives turned into a Kaidan through human cognition.

But this was unrealistic for this train because so many vendors themselves lacked distinctiveness; even if there really was a large group of people who knew about this story, they couldn’t accurately construct each vendor.

Feng Xue thought she had already grasped the secrets of this train quite well, but now it appeared she had been premature.

Connecting to the Oathkeeper’s Appearance, Feng Xue tried to sense these transportation coordinates, attempting to determine whether those Pardon Marks were merely illusions produced by the train fixing a bug, or if they were indeed authentic and usable for transportation.

But as her gaze met each in turn, Feng Xue’s expression also turned rigid.

"They’re all real... uh, wait a minute, why are there fewer coordinates now?!"

Feng Xue didn’t have time to ponder the nature of these vendors outside and instead re-sensed the coordinates stored by this world, feeling a chill run down her spine.

She didn’t know when it started, but on this train, the marked "living people" had diminished by two-thirds!

Among this two-thirds, a very small part was right at this train station, and the rest, she could no longer sense at all.

The Pardon Mark of the Pardon Bell essentially materialized sin, and theoretically, there were only two ways to eliminate such sin.

Either they received a merciful relief from Feng Xue herself, or they underwent legal punishment, entering a process where one couldn’t be punished twice for the same crime. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Beyond that, even death wouldn’t cause the mark to disappear, because sin doesn’t end with the sinner’s death.

"So, in this short time of entering the station, did the train police of Bell Country take those people away?"

Just as Feng Xue was pondering the issue of these vanishing passengers, suddenly an odd, overlapping chorus of countless voices came to her ears:

"Sir, may I ask what you need?"