As soon as the torch went out, the already dim space was suddenly plunged into darkness. I was so scared that I broke out in a cold sweat, nearly dropping the torch on the ground.

Master Liang, who had an even smaller heart, let out a scream and ran away. He had only taken a few steps when I heard a loud “bang,” probably from him bumping into something, followed by his cries of pain.

I pulled out my lighter and shone it on the torch, discovering that the wick hadn’t burned out. I wondered why the flame had suddenly extinguished—was it the wind? But there was no wind here.

Old Yang, taking pleasure in my misfortune, said, “Old Wu, your skills really aren’t up to par. This torch burns out too easily. It went out just like that—it’s like an African dad jumping rope—black (scary) and I jumped.”

I cursed, “What the hell are you blabbering about? Instead of wasting time on me, why don’t you check on Master Liang? We don’t want him to fall into a pile of corpses.” Saying this, I reignited the torch and lifted it up, only to see Master Liang collapsed on a skeleton, the bones scattered all around.

I went over to help him up, noticing his face was pale, clearly frightened. Old Yang gave him a pat and said, “Master, you’re quite the character. With your courage, you still want to dig graves?”

Seeing the torch lit again, Master Liang sighed in relief and said, “D-Don’t misunderstand, I’m not afraid of the dark. It’s just that just now, something seemed to be blowing cold air on the back of my neck. It was so chilling that I thought a zongzi (sticky rice dumpling) was coming out, and it scared me out of my wits.”

Old Yang laughed heartily, “What cold air? I think it’s just your cold sweat dripping down your neck. That zongzi behind you wouldn’t even peck you; it’s just blowing cold air on your neck. Do you think zongzi are all beautiful women?”

I added, “Yeah, Master Liang, calm down a bit. Don’t scare yourself.”

Seeing that we didn’t believe him, Master Liang got anxious and coughed, “You two, you must believe me! Someone was definitely blowing air on the back of my neck just now. It felt damn real! I think there’s more than just the three of us here; there’s something else!”

Looking at his expression and recalling how the torch had suddenly gone out, I felt that Master Liang’s words weren’t entirely unbelievable. Unlike a candle, a torch is hard to extinguish unless the wick is completely burned out. Something must have gone wrong just now. And in a place like this, it’s always good to be cautious.

With that thought, I signaled to Old Yang with my eyes, suggesting we should check for insurance. Old Yang nodded, and the two of us took out our guns, moving one in front and the other behind as we headed toward where Master Liang had been standing.

Just behind where Master Liang had stood, less than a foot away, was a stone figure. Its head was already dried up; it definitely wasn’t this thing blowing air. The only place to hide would be behind the stone figure.

Old Yang and I cautiously approached, first probing with the torch, then tilting our heads to take a glance, fearing something might suddenly jump out. Suddenly, Old Yang leaped forward and shouted, “Put your hands up!”

Nothing happened; there was nothing behind us.

I let out a sigh of relief, thinking that Master Liang must have just been scared out of his mind. But I couldn’t blame him; in such an environment, if someone had never been in a place like this before, fear was inevitable. I remembered back in the Lu Wang Palace; I was the same way. Courage is indeed something that needs to be built up through experience.

Old Yang shot me a glance and shook his head. The two of them turned around, just as they were about to put away their guns, suddenly there was a “whoosh” sound, and the torch in my hand went out again.

I was momentarily stunned. What was going on? The fire went out too suddenly. Just then, Old Yang in the darkness suddenly shouted, “Damn it! Old Wu, be careful! There really is something here! Quickly light the torch!”

I snapped back to reality and hurried to pull out my lighter. Before I could find it, I suddenly felt a chill on my back as a strong wind rushed toward me like lightning. I thought to myself, this is bad; in the pitch black, I couldn’t see what was coming. I quickly crouched down, and that gust of wind swept past my scalp. At the same time, I stumbled and fell to the ground.

The fall didn’t hurt much; I just bumped into a few stone figures nearby, causing a clatter. I had no idea what had fallen on my face, but I didn’t have time to feel disgusted. I hurriedly flicked the lighter and lit the torch as quickly as I could.

When the light illuminated the area, I saw that Old Yang and Lawyer Liang were both pale and lying on the ground. Lawyer Liang was so frightened he had lost his wits, repeatedly chanting “Amitabha.”

Old Yang, still shaken, said to me, “Quick, shine the light! What the hell was that just now? How could it be so fast?”

I gritted my teeth and stood up, turning the torch around. I found that aside from knocking over a few more stone figures, there were no changes around us; not even a footprint could be seen. My heart sank. That gust of wind had been as swift as lightning, indicating that whatever it was had been very close. Yet, the area was filled with stones and corpses, and in the time it took to light the lighter, it was pitch black. Even if it had fled quickly, it shouldn’t have left no trace at all. I thought again, could it be that we really encountered a ghost?

The torch had gone out twice. Did this ghost want to imitate “Ghost Blows Out the Light” and treat my torch like a candle? Damn, that’s just unprofessional. If it wanted to blow something out, it shouldn’t be my torch!

I pressed the torch against my shoulder to prevent it from going out again and then tried to prop up Lawyer Liang, who was already in a daze and couldn’t stand straight, like a pile of mush. I pulled him a couple of times, but he just wouldn’t budge. Old Yang had no choice but to step up and slap him twice across the face.

I was worried that Old Yang might be too rough, so I quickly stopped him. At that moment, Lawyer Liang finally reacted. He looked around and began to wail, “Oh my God, why am I such a busybody? It would have been so good to just stay at home! Why did I have to learn to dig graves? Now I’m doomed, dying far from home—”

Old Yang, seeing that he wouldn’t stop, covered his mouth and scolded, “Will you ever be quiet? At your age, aren’t you ashamed? If you keep shouting, we’ll just leave you here, and you’ll have to crawl back on your own.”

Lawyer Liang was emotionally overwhelmed. After we scared him a bit, he quickly wiped his face and dared not make another sound. Old Yang turned to me and asked, “Old Wu, what was that just now? Did you see it clearly? Was it a zongzi?”

I waved my hand and said, “No way. We just had a brief encounter, and we didn’t even see a hair of the other side. Zongzi aren’t that fast.”

Old Yang replied, “Look at all these corpses here. If you say there are no zongzi, no one would believe you. I heard that zongzi come in different levels. Could it be that we were unlucky this time and ran into a master of lightness skill among the zongzi?”

I didn’t want to argue with him. I walked over to the few corpses that had been knocked apart by the cool master and used my handgun to poke at the things inside, saying to him, “The environment here is so damp that most of the corpses have turned to bones, and there’s black mold growing on them. These can’t possibly turn into zombies. I’d bet my head on it.”

At this point, the cool master finally calmed down and sniffled as he said, “Brothers, this has nothing to do with us. I think while we still have the torches, we should hurry back up to the cliff. We can figure out the rest later.”

I knew he couldn’t handle the stress and was starting to have second thoughts, so I patted him and explained that the enemy was in the dark while we were in the light. If we tried to climb the cliff now, who knows when another wave might come? We wouldn’t be able to avoid it, and we’d end up crying to the King of Hell, so it was best not to act rashly until the situation was clearer.

Old Yang said, “Old Wu is right. We’ve got guns, and even if they are real zongzi (sticky rice dumplings), we’re not afraid of one or two of them.”

The cool master was crying and shaking his head, “Brothers, don’t comfort me. With just these two guns, if we encounter zongzi, we’re done for. It would be hard to even leave behind a complete corpse.”

I had never encountered a real zongzi, so I didn’t know if guns would work on them, but since they were made of flesh, I didn’t believe they could withstand bullets. Thinking of this, my expression relaxed a bit, and I wasn’t as tense as before. After considering it, I felt just waiting here wasn’t a solution; we still had to move forward. If it really came to it, we could step on the corpses since quite a few had already been knocked over. There was nothing to fear, and as for the moral dilemma, I couldn’t worry about it if my own life was at stake.

When Old Yang heard this, he also thought it was the best option under the circumstances. We helped the cool master up, and loaded our guns. Old Yang took the lead while I brought up the rear. The three of us gritted our teeth and followed the small path deeper into the sea of corpses once again.

The traces we left the last time we passed through were still there. I remembered that Old Yang had stomped particularly hard in a few places, leaving some footprints in the mud. We followed these marks, and sure enough, we didn’t find any forks in the path. As we walked, I suddenly felt something was off. Why were the corpses decaying so unevenly? Some had rotted away to the point that even bones were missing, while others still had flesh. Just as I was about to call for them to stop and take a closer look, suddenly, with a loud “bang,” a skeleton on the ground suddenly collapsed, and the skull rolled off to the side. I was startled, and as I turned around, I heard a “whoosh” as my torch went out for the third time.

Having learned from the last experience, I immediately crouched down. At this moment, I heard a commotion beside me, and Old Yang shouted, “Damn it! I’ve got it!”