The illumination flare in the sky extinguished, and darkness quickly enveloped the area. Panzi immediately fired another flare, lighting up the night. Then, everyone below opened fire, and dozens of tongues of flame shot up into the sky. Soon, several of the flying shadows in the celestial realm were hit and fell from the sky.

The bright light could create a temporary illusion, much like how a bear might confuse a person for a duck when you mimic a duck’s quack and waddle in front of it. But this was only temporary. If I remembered correctly, this was our last illumination flare.

With so many strange birds around, once this flare went out, we would face the ruthless slaughter in the darkness. The bizarre birds flew lower and lower, some even swooping right over our heads. We didn’t have enough bullets for such intense firing, and soon several guns ran out of ammunition. The situation for the fat guy was extremely critical; if no one went to save him, no matter how tough he was, he’d be done for this time.

Just when I was at a loss, the fat guy shot right at my feet, startling me. I looked up at his lips and understood he was signaling for us to run!

I made up my mind and said to Panzi, “You take Uncle San and the others to run to the end of the ravine. This is their nest; they must be flying out to forage along the ravine. Just follow the direction they came from and keep running. Don’t worry about me; I’m going to save the fat guy!”

Panzi grabbed me and said, “Are you sure? What if I go save the fat guy and you take Uncle San away?”

I replied, “I can’t carry that old man!” I raised my hand to show him my wound. “I’ve got precious blood; I’ll be fine!”

Seeing my wound, Panzi felt a bit reassured. He nodded firmly and said, “Be careful; we’ll wait for you outside!” He then picked up the immobile Uncle San and shouted to the others, “Follow me and run!” and retreated toward one side of the ravine.

I caught the gun Panzi threw to me, and with a “click,” I checked the bullets—three rounds. Damn, that was generous. Others were running past me, shouting for me to keep up, but I ignored them. At that moment, I saw An Ning standing still, her face pale but not moving.

I went up and tapped her to hurry away, but she shook off my hand and, with a “click,” raised her gun, seemingly with some plan of her own.

I knew it was pointless to persuade someone like her, so I ignored her and ran toward the stone platform with my gun raised.

Fortunately, even in such a chaotic environment, the enormous centipedes lurking around the coffin platform remained dormant. Perhaps after so many years of slumber, these giant insects had long since perished.

At this moment, I couldn’t care less about anything else and shouted, “Fat guy, give me your Type 56 bullets! I’ll cover you!”

The fat guy had a Type 56 gun and was loaded with Type 56 bullets, but he hadn’t brought his gun while climbing to lighten his load, so he was using Kirk’s M16 instead. However, the M16 didn’t have many bullets left, and if he ran out, he’d be finished up there; only by getting to the ground would he have a slim chance of survival.

The fat man heard me call him and immediately held his gun in one hand while using the other to tear off a few bullets and throw them to me. I caught one, discarded the others, loaded the magazine, raised the gun, and started shooting. Under my fire cover, the fat man frantically crawled along the chain until he reached the spot where he had climbed up, then he quickly slid down and waved at me to run.

I turned to look for An Ning, but she had vanished, and I didn’t know whether she had run away or had been snatched by the monstrous bird. I couldn’t help but sigh internally about why such a stunning beauty had to be so persistent. Then I looked at the coffin platform and saw that the coffin lid had been flipped to one side, revealing a gigantic black male corpse standing up, dressed in faded and decayed Jurchen armor. To my astonishment, this male corpse had twelve hands arranged in a circular pattern behind it, all of which were twisting and moving, resembling the thousand-handed Guanyin in a temple.

I immediately recalled the twelve-handed wax corpse I had seen in the underwater tomb and was filled with shock. Could it be that the royal family of Dongxia was not human? Was this twelve-handed male corpse the legendary Wan Nu Wang?

While the fat man fired bursts to fend off the diving monstrous birds, he came over to pull me and shouted, “What are you daydreaming about?”

I ignored him and said, “Look… what does he want to do?”

The thousand-handed Guanyin corpse was moving its twelve hands but showed no interest in us. It quickly jumped down from the stone platform and walked straight towards the bronze giant door.

The fat man exclaimed in surprise, “Could it be that he wants to enter the giant door?”

I suddenly remembered the last line of the inscription on the dragon fish in Wang Cang Hai’s tomb: if the timing is wrong, opening the underground giant door would incur divine wrath, and the hellfire from below would pour out through the giant door, burning the entire sky.

At that time, we thought this prophecy of disaster was merely Wang Cang Hai’s imagination after entering the giant door and seeing the volcanic interior, but it was also possible that the creator of this bronze door had set up some powerful mechanism to prevent the secrets inside from being discovered.

At this moment, we were right in front of the bronze giant door. If there were any mechanisms, we would certainly be the first to bear the brunt and become the first batch of victims. Regardless of whether it was true or not, we had to stop this grotesque corpse.

I chased after the thousand-handed Guanyin corpse and fired several shots, but the bullets hitting the corpse felt like they were hitting rubber—neither penetrating nor exploding, as if they had fallen into the sea of mud, with no reaction whatsoever. The most infuriating part was that it showed no reaction to us at all. I shouted to the fat man, “Explosives!”

The fat man suddenly remembered that he still had a few detonators on his waist that he had planned to use to threaten An Ning and the others. He rushed forward, leaped onto the back of the thousand-handed Guanyin corpse, and stuffed the detonators into the corpse’s mouth like a black donkey’s hoof before quickly jumping down.

I squinted and fired a burst, not knowing which bullet hit the detonator’s fuse, but suddenly the detonator exploded, and the head of the thousand-handed Guanyin corpse, along with part of its shoulders, was blown apart. The shockwave knocked us to the ground, and debris and shockwaves hit us in the face, making our chests feel heavy and our ears ring with buzzing sounds.

The monstrous birds above were stimulated by the intense sound waves and went completely mad. I hurriedly got up and saw that the thousand-handed Guanyin corpse had fallen to the ground, and I couldn’t help but feel overjoyed—indeed, explosives were invincible!

I never expected that the fat guy would look so terrified and shout at me. I couldn’t hear anything, only saw his mouth moving rapidly. After a long time, I finally understood: “Run! The illumination flare is going out.”

Before I could react and start running, the light above us suddenly disappeared within seconds, and darkness enveloped us like a thick fog. Instantly, the only light left was from the flashlights in our hands.

The surroundings fell eerily silent; the gunfire from those who had fled into the depths of the ravine gradually subsided, leaving only the sound of our heavy breathing and heartbeats that echoed like thunder.

The fat guy and I leaned back against each other. I unwrapped the bandages on my arm, revealing a bloody wound, praying that my blood would be of some use. Didn’t that professor say that this Kirin blood only works on things that eat corpses? I had no idea what this strange bird fed on. The fat guy raised his gun, and with a click, he loaded a bullet. He looked up at the sky and asked me what to do.

I replied, “If you ask me, who should I ask?” Just as I finished speaking, a strange bird suddenly fluttered down, landing about ten meters in front of us. This bird was enormous, standing taller than I was. After landing, its ugly head turned a few times before it fixed its gaze on us, seemingly assessing the two of us. I caught a glimpse of its sharp teeth glinting in the dim light and quickly raised my hand, presenting my wound to it, but the strange bird showed little reaction, remaining expressionless and still.

Then, two more strange birds flew down, one landing to our left and the other behind us. I turned my wound towards them, unsure of their intentions.

Gradually, more and more strange birds descended, one after another, until we were surrounded by them. Yet, none of these birds moved; they formed a dark mass around us. I began to sense something was wrong; these birds seemed completely uninterested in my blood, and their lack of immediate aggression suggested some kind of conspiracy.