“How is this possible?” I looked at Wen Jin, shaking my head in disbelief. The scent on Wen Jin was indeed the same as that of the forbidden woman, but to say that she would soon become one herself was simply unbelievable.

“I understand that you can’t accept it,” Wen Jin sighed softly. “When we first discovered this, we couldn’t believe it either.”

I continued to shake my head, unable to think clearly at that moment. Everything felt overwhelmingly chaotic. If the information I had pieced together before was merely fragments of events, then the information Wen Jin provided felt like a massive hammer, shattering those fragments into dust, leaving no possibility for reconstruction.

“So it manipulated you, preventing you from aging, but it will turn you into… into those… monsters?”

Wen Jin nodded. “Based on my experience, the transformation starts from within the body, and you will fully become that thing in just six months. We call it ‘corpseification.’ The first to undergo corpseification was a girl. We watched her slowly transform into that form, and it was terrifying. It felt as if your body skipped the step of ‘death’ and went straight from ‘living person’ to ‘corpse.'”

“But how does this happen?” I asked. “Is there any way to cure it?”

Wen Jin shook her head. “‘Corpseification’ occurs without any regular pattern. The only signal is this scent. We suspect that this strange change might be related to the ancient tomb beneath Xisha. At first, we wondered if it was an ancient disease that had been sealed in that tomb, and we got infected. However, after further research, we found that it wasn’t the case, but this phenomenon is definitely connected to Wang Canghai.”

“Is that the reason you are studying Wang Canghai?”

She silently nodded.

They had been trapped in a basement in Golmud for quite a long time, and the process of escaping was quite complicated. Although Wen Jin briefly recounted it to me, that is another story and I won’t elaborate on it here.

After escaping, they were initially pursued by a group of strangers, with nowhere to go. After a tumultuous journey, they returned to the sanatorium, only to find it empty. Everything had been cleared out, and they found no information at all, completely unaware of who had imprisoned them and for what purpose. To evade this inexplicable force, they decided to think outside the box, choosing the abandoned sanatorium as their hideout, investigating the history of Wang Canghai while avoiding the pursuit of those people.

And then the subsequent events unfolded.

At this point, I asked them, “So, do you believe there is any way to treat this ‘corpseification’ in this cursed place?”

“We speculate based on a wealth of details that Wang Canghai is investigating a technique related to immortality, as recorded in the Warring States period’s ‘Jinshu.’ However, it is evident that the technique he has resurrected from the ancient texts is not mature. We may become experimental subjects of this immature thing; although we can maintain our youth, the effects are very unstable, and in the end, we all turn into monsters,” Wen Jin said. “Wang Canghai’s lifelong pursuit must be to perfect this technique. I believe this is his final stop; the records in the Warring States ‘Jinshu’ originate from here, making this the most likely place. However, I had a disagreement with Huo Ling regarding this matter. She chose to enter here with her team, while I opted to wait. At first, I thought she was dead, but unexpectedly, she returned after a few months. Yet, it was clear that she had not succeeded; her transformation had already begun. She started to forget things, lost control of her emotions, and her metabolism accelerated. In the end, she turned into that state, and I was the only one left in the entire expedition team, waiting for an unknown fate.”

“I initially wanted to stay hidden, but a month ago, I finally caught a whiff of the scent emanating from my body, realizing that the final fate had arrived. I must put an end to all of this. Your third uncle, the ‘it’ behind Qiu Dekao.”

“But what does this have to do with me?” I recalled and asked, “Why did you send the videotape to me?”

“The one who sent the videotape to you is not me,” Wen Jin said seriously. “This is another missing link. I was quite surprised to see you appear in the team, so I had the main leader, Zhuoma, call you as well. From your appearance, I deduced that ‘it’ had infiltrated my plan, which is why I issued a warning to you. It sent the tape that I originally intended for Qiu Dekao to you.”

“Why did it do that?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps it does not want Qiu Dekao to succeed; it prefers a simpler team composed of Qi Ling, Jie Lianhuan, and you. I can only speculate. However, this time Jie Lianhuan used a very clever strategy, inadvertently allowing my plan to proceed. ‘It’ must also be judging which one of us I am among so many.”

I rubbed my face, feeling my thoughts becoming somewhat clearer, and asked, “How much time do you have left before the transformation? Do we still have time?”

She held my hand and said, “Don’t worry about me. Now that I am here, I accept all arrangements of fate, whether good or bad. After all, this is my endpoint, as well as Qi Ling’s and Jie Lianhuan’s. You need to consider yourself.”

I looked at them, thinking that they couldn’t just stay here. Just then, I heard a gentle knock on the stone outside our barrier, and someone coughed, saying, “Is anyone inside?”

I immediately became alert, and the oil bottle leaned closer. I shouted, “Be careful, it might be a snake; the snakes here can speak human language!”

The voice outside replied, “Isn’t that a bit naive?”

The muffled voice reassured me, saying that the snake wouldn’t talk to me. As he spoke about removing the barrier, I immediately saw a face covered in mud—it was the Fatty. Looking closer, I noticed several people behind him, all of them were my uncle’s associates, including the one with the dark glasses.

The Fatty, with a face full of mud, said, “So you really are here. Hey, Little Brother, you’re also here. Did you get caught?” I thought to myself, stop making so much noise. The Fatty then asked what was going on, and I replied that it was a long story, and asked them how they found us and where my uncle was.

The Fatty sighed and said, “We saw a gap stuffed with a bra. Man, that was a bizarre sight! When we stumbled in, we found the gap and the mud inside. I taught them to protect themselves, but your uncle didn’t make it in time and got bitten. He got the antivenom right away and is behind us. We heard voices and came to check it out; I thought it was those snakes.”

Although Wen Jin said that my uncle was impersonating someone else, in a moment of crisis, I still didn’t feel he was fake at all. I glanced back at Wen Jin, wondering what she planned to do. She nodded at me and said, “Let’s go take a look.”

The few associates didn’t recognize Wen Jin and asked who she was. I replied, “She’s the Third Master’s sweetheart.” The Fatty immediately chimed in, “Call her Big Sister Head.” The others were startled and actually listened to the Fatty, calling her that. Wen Jin shot me a glance, signaling me to stop talking.

They were gathered near a water reservoir not far away, which was larger and had almost no branches, similarly covered with root-like fungi. This time, there were at least half as many people, and all of them looked pale. Wen Jin instructed them to block the only opening. I wondered, could this reservoir be the endpoint of this water system?

I went to check on my uncle and saw blood marks on his neck and arms, his face was ashen, and his mind seemed a bit hazy. “He was bitten after three people were killed. The venom has dried up, but it’s still potent,” said the person taking care of him.

My uncle slightly opened his eyes. I wasn’t sure if he saw Wen Jin, but he probably did. I noticed he trembled slightly and looked at me, unable to say a word. My heart ached as I looked at his face; I simply couldn’t imagine him being the impersonator. Ever since I grew up, I had been with him, and even if he were really the impersonator, most of my memories of him came from my experiences with him. Nothing could change that.

Wen Jin walked over and sat beside him, looking at him without speaking. They just stared at each other. Suddenly, my uncle struggled to reach out his hand toward her. Wen Jin took his hand and softly said, “Xiao Xie knows. You don’t have to hide it anymore; we don’t blame you.”

He moved his lips, and I saw tears streaming down his face. He looked at me, then at Wen Jin, desperately trying to speak. Wen Jin was also moved; she leaned in closer, pressed her lips to his, and after listening, she tightly held his hand: “I understand. You’re back with us; this isn’t your fault.”

He looked at me, and I held his hand too. I didn’t know what to say; everything was happening too fast. Just yesterday, I was chatting with him, calling him uncle, and now he had become like this. I couldn’t help but call out, “Uncle!”

Upon hearing me call him “Third Uncle,” he suddenly became agitated, moved a bit, and slowly lost consciousness. I thought he was done for and immediately called for help. The person next to me came over to take a look and said, “Don’t worry, he just fainted.”

I let out a sigh of relief, and at that moment, I heard someone behind me shout, “There’s a stone door here!”

We went over to take a look. Third Uncle’s several companions had discovered a stone slab at the bottom of the reservoir, which had two iron rings on it. They shouted and pulled on the iron rings with all their might to lift the slab, only to find a hole underneath.

Black Glasses and Muffled Bottle went down to explore, and soon returned. Black Glasses said there was a whole new world down there, completely natural and not man-made, resembling a karst cave. There were many stone doors around, as if they had been discovered and utilized while excavating the water reservoir system. The air inside was fresh, and it seemed there were no signs of snakes. It appeared to lead to other places as well.

The path we came from might be filled with snakes, and returning the same way would take at least until dark. Perhaps there was a way out from below, and Fatty suggested we should go down and take a look.

Upon hearing there seemed to be no snakes, everyone wanted to go down. I told them that the situation was unclear and that we shouldn’t all rush down at once; the place we were in was still relatively safe. There could be traps down there, and it would be worse than getting bitten by a snake.

After I said this, no one was willing to go down. In the end, it was just a few of us who decided to go down first. The others were a disorganized crowd, and they wouldn’t be of much help, so they stayed behind to take care of the injured and wait for our return.

Muffled Bottle and Black Glasses went down again, followed by me and Fatty, and then came Wen Jin.

Below was a huge circular cave. With the mine lamp illuminating the area, we could see many stone doors. Fatty tossed down a rope and walked to one side, saying, “Wow, this is really a hidden paradise!”