“Alright, let’s recreate the scene. A group of people built this place, stuffed a lifeless object into a living body, and then locked it up here. They poured in a substance similar to mud, and then what happens? Obviously, the living person quickly drowns, right?” I paused with the fat guy, feeling like I was finding a path and wanted to finish my thought in one breath.

Before I could finish, a voice came from behind: “Not necessarily drowning. The mud would fill his mouth and nose, continue to enter his body, and he would suffocate and suffer brain death. However, in many cases, human body cells do not die; they can still survive in such an environment for a long time.”

I turned around and saw Zhang Haixing walking out of the darkness, looking very tired and a bit unsteady on her feet. The fat guy exclaimed, “Damn, you’ve already crawled back and forth? So fast?”

“I gave up,” Zhang Haixing said. “Some changes have occurred outside.”

“What changes?”

“You can see for yourself.” After the fat guy left, Zhang Haixing sat down in front of me and said, “Wu Xie, your analytical ability is impressive. You can deduce this much from such little information; that’s quite remarkable. I knew of this method before. This mud can keep a person locked up here alive for a very long time. They have no consciousness, but their body is alive, and when this mud enters their stomach, their body can even absorb nutrients and grow.”

“If this person is alive, then what about the thing inside their stomach?”

“I have no clue about what’s inside the stomach, but it’s clear that after a long time, that thing crawled out. At that time, this place was filled with mud; it must have been in the mud and just got washed out.” I looked at her and suddenly realized something: “You weren’t trying to get out earlier; you were looking for that thing.”

Zhang Haixing gave a cold smile, and I asked, “Did you find it?”

She nodded. “I found it.”

“Where? Take me to see it.” I urged, “What is it?”

“Right here,” Zhang Haixing said.

“What? Where?” I turned to look around, and suddenly, Zhang Haixing leaned in, ripped off the bandage from my hand, and rolled up my sleeve.

I looked down at my wrist and was shocked to see countless black fibers appearing on it. “What is going on?” I exclaimed, immediately trying to wipe them off.

“We both inhaled a lot of that mud just now, but only your physique can merge with these mud particles. The components of the mud have already seeped into your body.”

“Why only me—”

“This is the reason you came here.” Zhang Haixing suddenly twisted my hand, turning my whole body around, and then, I didn’t know what she used, but she quickly bound my hands.

“What are you doing?!” I yelled angrily. “Zhang Haixing, what are you doing?!” I tried to break free, but this woman had incredible strength and pushed against my waist. I winced in pain, and she immediately went to tie my legs.

“Zhang Haixing, don’t think I won’t hit you just because you’re a woman. If you keep acting crazy, I won’t hold back.” I shouted furiously.

“I don’t have the surname Zhang,” Zhang Haixing said. “You really are naive to believe that the mysterious ways of the Zhang family would cooperate with you. Do you think that just because someone has long fingers, they must be surnamed Zhang?”

My heart sank as I suddenly understood what was happening. I shouted, “Who the hell are you, Fatty! Fatty! Help!”

“I set a trap for him outside. With his personality, he’s already dead,” Zhang Haixing forcefully pushed me to the ground. “Do you really think that the test at the lama temple was just to see your resistance to the bronze bell? Don’t you think it’s a coincidence that so many insects appeared in the hallucination?”

“Are you trying to see whose blood is problematic?” I screamed in terror. “Why?”

“Of course, it’s to take the things here out. Do you think it’s easy to find someone with that kind of blood in this world?” Zhang Haixing took off my shoes and leaned down. I couldn’t see what she was planning, but I felt her pressing down hard on my foot. My ankle felt cold, and a sharp pain shot through me as blood began to flow out uncontrollably.

“The pattern you see is not formed by the textures here. There is no technology in this world that can identify blood this way. The pattern formed by your blood is because that thing is right here in this hole; you just can’t see it. Only your blood will avoid the place where that thing resides. The squares you see are where it has been.”

She turned on a flashlight and set the beam to maximum. The light shone next to me, and I saw my blood spreading out again.