The look in those eyes truly sent chills down my spine. I stared back at him, momentarily at a loss for how to react. I felt like a sausage hanging there, unable to escape; all I could do was pray and think of ways to break free. However, after hanging there for fifteen minutes, that armored corpse showed no signs of movement, not even a blink. I couldn’t help but wonder if it was just my imagination. But that eerie gaze continued to fixate on me, making even a deity feel uncomfortable. I decided not to look at him anymore and thought I had to come up with a plan to get down quickly. Hanging upside down like this was making my head feel like it was about to burst.

I mustered all my strength to lift my head and noticed the state of my body—it was a mess, almost completely covered in bruises. My foot was entangled by a vine, and when I turned to look, I couldn’t help but gasp in horror. Everywhere my eyes could see was filled with various corpses, with no end in sight. This was definitely not a scene created by just dozens or hundreds of bodies; I estimated there were at least tens of thousands. These corpses swayed in the wind, resembling wind chimes made of bones, which was an incredibly uncomfortable feeling.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed there were both human and animal remains among them. Most had completely dried out, while a few were in various stages of decay, emitting a foul odor from time to time. Countless corpse flies swarmed around, densely packed, feasting on these bodies. I felt a surge of relief, remembering that I had specifically obtained some blood from a sealed bottle from Panzi and smeared it on myself. It seemed to be working after all. Although it felt a bit unethical to do so, being unethical was better than losing limbs.

At that moment, I thought of the chubby guy who, like me, was also caught by the ghostly vine. I couldn’t help but worry about him, but looking out, all I could see were vines, and nothing more. As I fumbled around my body, I only found a digital camera—nothing else useful. Just as I was feeling frustrated, suddenly the vine on my foot loosened, and I sank down, almost thinking I would fall. I quickly raised my hands to protect my head, but to my surprise, it only loosened for a moment before stopping again. When I opened my eyes, my face was almost touching that of the female corpse. If I moved down just a bit more, our lips would be nearly touching. Terrified, I quickly pulled my lips back and tried to retract my neck. Just then, I caught a glimpse of a small dagger at the waist of the armored corpse beside her. I couldn’t help but feel overjoyed, thinking, “Dear lady, I’m in a bit of a predicament here; may I borrow this little knife from your friend? Surely he won’t mind?”

With that thought, I twisted my waist and stretched my hand toward the dagger with all my might. After a few attempts, I suddenly exerted force and grabbed the hilt. To my surprise, the knife was stuck so tightly that not only did I fail to pull it out, but I ended up yanking the entire belt off the armored corpse instead.

As soon as I looked, I thought, oh no, how did I pull off someone else’s belt? Wouldn’t this make them turn against me? In a hurry, I clamped the sheath with my legs and pulled hard, drawing out the knife. The blade glinted coldly, and I knew it was a good knife. I thought to myself, heaven is helping me! Then I summoned all my strength and flipped over, cutting through the vine with a single stroke. At that moment, I was only focused on severing the vine and didn’t consider what was below. When the vine snapped and I fell, it was too late to regret. In just a fraction of a second, I found myself sprawled on top of the female corpse.

To be honest, I was lucky that I managed to control my strength at the moment of landing; otherwise, I might have crushed the corpse to the point of making it excrete. However, the inertia was too great, and it was impossible for me to maintain any distance from the corpse; my face was pressed right against hers, feeling icy cold, sending shivers up my spine. I was momentarily stunned, thinking, would a tongue suddenly extend from her mouth and go straight into my throat, sucking out my internal organs? At this thought, I felt a bit relieved that it was a female ghost, and not an ugly male ghost, or else it would have been truly disgusting.

After being dazed for a while and not seeing any tongue come out, I thought, finally, my luck isn’t too bad; I’ve encountered a reasonable spirit. I slowly raised my head, hoping to slip away. However, just as my head was halfway up, a fragrant breeze wafted by, and the female corpse’s arms suddenly draped over my shoulders. I froze, completely terrified. At that moment, the corpse beside us made a creaking sound. I thought this was bad and internally shouted, “Buddy, it’s your wife who won’t let me go, not me disrespecting her, so don’t get it wrong!”

Turning to look, I realized it was because I had pulled off his belt, causing a piece of armor to fall off. I couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief; the only thing I could be thankful for was that it was this female corpse and not the monster next to her. Otherwise, I would have definitely wet my pants.

So we remained in this tense standoff for a few seconds. Seeing that she made no further moves, I thought about sneaking my head out from under her arms. But as soon as I moved, her hand followed my neck. When I moved forward, she moved forward; when I moved back, she moved back. I steeled myself, suddenly lifting my neck, thinking I would just break free from her grip and roll away. But to my surprise, her grip was so tight that when I lifted my head, I actually pulled her up to a sitting position. Moreover, with the movement, the female corpse’s mouth opened, revealing something she had been holding in her mouth.