Two blood-covered men danced joyously in place, continuing to urge their companion to hurry down into the tomb.
This eerie and terrifying scene left all the men in the trade frozen with shock.
They were veterans in this line of work, had raided many tombs, and encountered some incidents, but never anything comparable to what was before their eyes!
After opening the tomb, there was no mist, no poison, and no sign of a corpse. They had just been sharing their joy when this horrifying sight abruptly appeared.
Secretary Jin gave the order, then quickly turned away from the edge of the cave, jumped over the fish pond, and went to find Ding Dalin.
"Something’s happened, boss!"
Secretary Jin saw Ding Dalin hunched over, leaning against a clump of soil, his voice hoarse but still muttering, "It’s out... it’s out..."
"Something’s happened, boss, come take a look."
Ding Dalin ignored Secretary Jin’s words and continued to repeat what he had said earlier.
"I told you something’s happened!"
Secretary Jin kicked Ding Dalin in the back.
With a crisp sound of tearing skin and flesh, Ding Dalin’s Daoist robe and the skin inside were left intact, his scalp still attached with gray hair, while a blood-soaked man was kicked out, rolling on the ground where dirt and small stones embedded into his flesh.
Yet even so, this blood-covered man continued to crouch on the ground, muttering:
"It’s out... it’s out..."
Secretary Jin took two steps back, watching everything in disbelief, because she realized that Ding Dalin had been outside the fish pond. If even he had ended up this way, then what about the others...
Secretary Jin turned around and looked towards the pit inside the fish pond, where blood-covered men were crawling out one after the other, running circles in the drained fish pond.
Her face was full of fear as she raised her hand and touched her face.
At that moment of touch, her skin cracked.
Just like taking off clothes, the skin and clothes on her body all fell to the ground.
The evening breeze, like a knife, cut into her exposed blood vessels. She crouched down and started screaming.
This all happened within less than a minute, really.
Li Zhiyuan and Run Sheng both widened their eyes, turning their heads to slowly meet each other’s gazes.
Run Sheng had imagined scenarios based on movie plots, while Li Zhiyuan had mentally played through them in his mind. In any case, they had both envisioned various developments of tonight’s events, but never had they expected it would reach this stage.
Little Huang Ying didn’t appear, but the scene below was far more terrifying than her appearance could ever be.
Even though they were raiders, deserving of a grim fate, they were still a group of living, breathing people, stripped cleanly like peeling shrimp, leaving them exposed?
Of all the corpses they had previously encountered, which one could have resulted in a scene like the current one?
At this moment, the blood-red Secretary Jin stopped screaming. She staggered to her feet and took a flashlight from her clothes, turned it on, and began to rotate it, signaling above her head.
She was sending flashlight signals.
Soon, lights from six high points around them responded, and during the response, the lights were moving downward.
Li Zhiyuan suddenly realized, she was deliberately signaling to call her allies outside over.
And the result of calling them over would be...
*Why was she doing this?*
Li Zhiyuan suddenly thought of a possibility: this thing wanted everyone who knew what happened here to forever keep the secret.
So was his current position still safe?
"Xiao Yuan, what’s happening to them? I didn’t see who..."
Below, Secretary Jin, who had been facing away from the house, lowered her arm and began to move.
Li Zhiyuan shouted, "Run!"
Run Sheng was stunned for a moment, then immediately moved to the lid, ready to lift it, but was stopped by Li Zhiyuan, who slapped his back several times:
"Brother, there’s no time, just jump down, there’s a pile of firewood behind the house."
Run Sheng didn’t hesitate, got up, and rushed over, leaping down.
There was indeed a pile of firewood below, but it wasn’t very high. The drop from the roof was still significant. After landing, Run Sheng couldn’t maintain his balance, falling to the side and scraping his skin in several places.
Yet not a single sound of complaint escaped him. He quickly forced himself back to his feet, face turned upward, just as Li Zhiyuan jumped down as well.
Run Sheng raised his arms to catch Li Zhiyuan.
Even so, Li Zhiyuan still felt a sharp pain in his chest, ached ribs, and scraped his nose against Run Sheng’s arm, now feeling a warm liquid dripping down.
Forced to descend so abruptly inevitably came at a cost.
"Xiao Yuan, are you okay?"
Li Zhiyuan pointed forward. Run Sheng nodded, immediately hoisting the boy onto his back and jumping down from the pile of firewood, quickly making his way through the village path, then disappearing into the field ahead.
At this moment, he no longer needed to worry about being seen by those on lookout outside, as they had left their high positions and were running toward Big Beard’s fish pond.
With Li Zhiyuan on his back, Run Sheng dashed through the rice fields, the grains whipping against his face painfully, giving a sensation of being cut.
This feeling was terrifying now because he couldn’t be sure whether it was caused by the grains or if his own skin was about to rupture.
Li Zhiyuan was bleeding, wanting to tilt his head back to stop the bleeding, but couldn’t due to Run Sheng’s running.
Run Sheng was also bleeding, terrified, not daring to stop at all.
Since he started remembering things while accompanying his grandfather on corpse recovery, he had never seen a scene as frightening as this.
Finally, Run Sheng ran out of the field, onto the road, and then sprinted home, arriving breathlessly at the yard.