The Nine-Deaths Astonishing Armor wrapped around the mountainside, though its roots were severed, the remnants clinging tightly to the rock face scraped against the strata, lodging Coffin Mountain in the narrow confines of the underground cavern. The earth-shattering tremors of this moment had rarely ceased. I heard Shirley Yang speak, her meaning escaping me, and shook my head hard, still seeing stars swimming before my eyes, vaguely asking, "Could the apocalypse foretold in the Earth Immortal Tomb's stone prison not be real?"

Shirley Yang said that at least what had already happened had come to pass, but what followed might not be what we had previously imagined. The murals in the dungeon were drawn according to hexagram numbers and astronomical signs. I recalled you once saying that all things in the world are born from numbers to create images, and in the final apocalypse, it was the Corpse Immortal lying upon the Robber Star, departing the mountain...

I nodded, "The calamity of the Robber Star must surely befall our group. From the looks of it, we are powerless; no matter what we do, the Corpse Immortal in the ancient tomb will eventually escape the mountain."

Shirley Yang continued, Professor Sun said that before the Corpse Immortal emerged, we wouldn't die no matter how great the danger. But have you considered this: although the murals recording the apocalypse are obscure and abstract, there is only one Robber Star, and it's impossible to judge whether the departure from the mountain means life or death. Perhaps all of us died in the mountain, and the Corpse Immortal will simply attach itself to the corpse of one of us. Of course... before the Earth Immortal Village entered the canyon, all our speculations were groundless. What I mean is, this matter cannot be judged by common sense; don't jump to conclusions based on preconceived notions.

Hearing Shirley Yang reach this point, I understood her implication: things would not unfold as Old Man Sun had determined. We could lose our lives at any moment before we even left Coffin Mountain, and even total annihilation would not reverse the cosmic order. The Corpse Immortal of the Earth Immortal Village would inevitably escape the mountain, but the true situation could not be deduced until the final moment.

At this, suspicion arose in my heart. I turned to look at Professor Sun. I saw Yaomei tending to his wounds, spraying potent hemostatic gel onto the through-and-through wound on his shoulder. Old Man Sun’s expression was blank; despite such a severe injury, he seemed not to feel any pain at all.

It suddenly occurred to me: Old Man Sun's behavior was no different from that of a moving corpse, and he claimed he couldn't explain why he was shrouded in corpse qi and plagued by corpse worms. Could this man have deeper schemes? Was it possible that Professor Sun himself was the Corpse Immortal?

A string of questions spun like a revolving lantern in my mind, quickly churning into a massive vortex. The deeper I thought, the more irretrievably stuck I felt. All possibilities seemed illogical; the mere existence of Professor Sun, this person showing signs of corpse transformation, was already far beyond the scope of my common sense and understanding.

Seeing me stare, Old Man Sun tugged at me and said, "It wasn't my intention to let you all die when I locked the secret passage door before. After Miss Yang spoke, I understand now. Whether the five of us live or die, we cannot change the disaster that the Earth Immortal Village is already destined to bring. I hope you don't take it to heart. You must know... everything I did was focused on the situation, not the person. I've never held a grudge against you; I only wanted to use all my ability to prevent the Corpse Immortal from escaping Coffin Mountain."

I looked at Old Man Sun. Although his actions were extreme, he seemed to have said everything he was willing to say. Arguing further with him was pointless. Now, the only thing to do was to guard against him secretly and find an opportunity to draw the snake out of its hole. I said, "Don't talk nonsense to me. I don't understand what 'focusing on the situation, not the person' means. Deeds are done by people; addressing the situation is addressing the person. However, sorting out our issues will take time, and with imminent disaster looming, figuring out how to escape is the priority."

Old Man Sun sighed and said, "You, Hu Bayi, are magnanimous. I’m afraid I can never repay what I owe you in this life. If Feng Xue-wu had a next life, I would repay you by serving as a beast of burden. But Coffin Mountain has been moved toward the gorge by the torrent. A few of us trying to stop this world-shattering force is like a mantis trying to stop a chariot. I’ve seen it clearly: the arm cannot twist the thigh, and man cannot fight destiny. Let's just close our eyes and wait for death here."

Fatty and I have always operated by the principle of 'fearing the weeping Liu Bei more than the fierce Li Kui.' Since Old Man Sun had spoken so plainly, it was awkward to press him further. But I certainly didn't intend to wait for death. Since Coffin Mountain was temporarily blocked by the underground strata, it meant our Ancestor was watching over us, leaving a sliver of hope for the grave robbers. The celestial workings are subtle, and the heavenly omens obscure; who can say for sure if the final disaster will happen? What if the guardians of the Black Sheep King miscalculated, and us waiting here to die would be missing the perfect opportunity?

Fatty and I conferred briefly and decided to first hear the opinions of Shirley Yang and Yaomei: whether we should risk escaping the mountain or wait trapped here to die. After all, Comrade Lenin once said: From the experience of all liberation movements, the success or failure of a revolution often depends on the degree of women's participation in the liberation movement.

Yaomei didn't have much insight, but when faced with a choice concerning life and death, she naturally wanted to live. Shirley Yang also felt that action was possible. The prisoners in the Earth Immortal Tomb’s stone prison suffered terrible torture; perhaps the celestial signs they calculated for Feng Shigu held a hidden danger. Although the possibility was small, how can one gain tiger cubs without entering the tiger's lair? No one could know until the final moment.

Seeing that everyone's opinion—except for Old Man Sun’s—was unified, I decided to take advantage of the moment Coffin Mountain was stationary underground to climb over the cliff and escape Coffin Mountain. Just then, the corroded copper pieces that had been falling from the air stopped. It was the perfect moment to act. Without another word, Fatty and I grabbed the reluctant Old Man Sun and squeezed out of the rock chamber hiding the coffin, beginning our ascent along the narrow paths carved into the stone wall.

Coffin Mountain and the uncovered stone coffin had many fissures and holes in their four walls, concealing countless hanging coffins, most of them small containers for the organs of ancient corpses. Bird paths and plank roads crisscrossed between the cliffs, and the rotting moss growing in the rock crevices emitted a stench that stung the brain in the deepest parts. Looking from afar, it resembled the patterns of dragons and phoenixes climbing on the surface of an ancient coffin. Traveling within it, we were as insignificant as coffin worms crawling in the cracks of the coffin boards.

Part of the connected passages within the sheer cliff was an ancient plank road paved with stone slabs set onto wooden wedges. Far more were bird paths recessed into the mountain fissures. Most of the plank roads made of stone piles and wooden boards had collapsed in the previous earthquake, leaving only rotting wooden stakes jutting out into the air. We had no choice but to wind our way upward through the discontinuous bird paths, navigating around various rock hollows.

Climbing halfway in the darkness, I raised the Langyan flashlight to illuminate above. We could already see the dense Nine-Deaths Astonishing Armor covering us overhead. Though many pieces had shattered and broken during the collisions, these were only minor fragments. The main body of the Astonishing Armor wrapped around Coffin Mountain remained intact, densely covered with copper thorns, leaving no gaps to exploit.

Earlier, everyone had thought that most of the Astonishing Copper Armor had fallen off and that they could escape while Coffin Mountain hadn't yet been swept into the gorge. Unexpectedly, it was wrapped so tightly that escape was impossible. It seemed the plan to climb over the mountain had to be shelved.

Helpless, and fearing a fatal slip from such a height on the sheer cliff, everyone decided to retreat the way they came. Who knew that countless streams of pitch-black groundwater erupted from the Pangu Vein inside Coffin Mountain? It turned out the base of the mountain had the most fissures torn by the copper armor. Groundwater surging in from all sides mixed with the blood spring from the mountain veins, turning into surging, turbid currents. The water level inside Coffin Mountain was constantly rising, already swallowing nearly half of the Earth Immortal Village, filling the mountain with a stench of decay.

The ancient tombs buried beneath the Earth Immortal Village, and the countless corpses in the Wood Spirit Star Hall, were all washed out by the water and floated up with the continuously rising black water. We couldn't see the scene in the distance, but the water surface within the beam of the spotlight was almost entirely covered with ancient corpses and burial artifacts, all swirling in the water vortexes. A chill ran down my spine; what I was witnessing was the image of a sea of blood and a mountain of corpses. Our situation was now a deadlock: the exits leading out of the mountain were blocked by the Nine-Deaths Astonishing Armor, and the water level inside the mountain was rising rapidly. If we fell into the water permeated with corpse qi, there would be no chance of survival. Being caught in Coffin Mountain’s inescapable net, we truly had no way out.

Just as we were at a loss, a deafening roar, like tearing copper and breaking iron, erupted overhead with continuous crackling sounds. It turned out the Nine-Deaths Astonishing Armor, layered around Coffin Mountain, finally could not withstand the force of the rushing water, but encountering the blockage of the surrounding narrow rock layers, it was violently ripped away from the mountainside.

The Nine-Deaths Astonishing Armor, shaped like metallic thorns, was intricately intertwined, its barbs biting into each other. As part of the copper armor detached from Coffin Mountain, it also stripped the remaining armor off the mountainside.

The volume and weight of Coffin Mountain instantly decreased, and it was struck by the surging underground river, immediately smashing through the weak rock layer ahead, continuing to move forward in a tilted, trembling motion.

When the Nine-Deaths Astonishing Armor was stripped away, the mountain shuddered violently. We, sheltered in the gaps between the rock peaks, were almost thrown into the water. Shockwaves followed one after another, like waves moving mountains and overturning seas, giving us no respite. The underground Wizard Salt Cavern slid downward at an angle, and Coffin Mountain constantly moved along the terrain.

We took refuge in a narrow hanging coffin tomb chamber. Our internal organs rose and fell with the mountain's fluctuating movements. We felt dizzy, losing balance in our limbs and bodies, our minds a complete blank, utterly unaware of where we were.

Unsure how far Coffin Mountain had traveled underground, it finally stopped abruptly. We heard the roar of water like thunder and saw a blinding white light before our eyes. I thought it was a hallucination, but a cold wind hit my face, sobering me slightly. Focusing my sight, I realized this hollow stone mountain had entered the high-water canyon of the Coffin Gorge.

It was the flood season. The Coffin Gorge walls were steep and imposing, and the water currents in the high mountains and deep gorges roared like dragons and tigers. The diverted underground flood, near the bottom of the gorge, carved a waterfall out of the cliff face above the riverbed. Coffin Mountain rushed down with the current, its front end slamming into the opposite cliff face, while its rear end remained lodged at the mouth of the waterfall cave, suspended halfway in the air.

Though Coffin Mountain, which housed the Pangu Vein remains of the Earth Immortal Village, was not small, it seemed insignificant in this vast canyon. Only because the canyon walls were steep and narrow did Coffin Mountain not plummet directly into the great river. But the mountain body, battered by the water currents and corroded by the Nine-Deaths Astonishing Armor for centuries, was now riddled with holes and covered in wounds, like a millennium-old hanging coffin, shuddering in the storm, ready to shatter into pieces at any moment under the torrent.

Outside the mountain, it was daytime. Still shaken amidst the cliffs, we checked our legs, feet, and heads—all were in place—and secretly rejoiced. But our minds were still a chaotic mess, with only the thought of escaping this place remaining. We hurriedly climbed to the top of the tilted rock face and looked around. Above, the sky was a thin line, with wispy clouds floating between the thousand-foot cliffs. Coffin Mountain hung in the air like a horizontal coffin, the river below surging and roaring with astonishing power.

I leaned over the top of the coffin wall and looked back into Coffin Mountain. Only then did my scattered thoughts begin to gather. At this moment, the Earth Immortal Village built on the corpse-shaped mountain of the Pangu Vein was already collapsing, and the Pangu Vein itself was shattered. The blood pooled at the front of the mountain had not yet been completely washed away by the flood. Because the mountain was tilted, the front end of "Coffin Mountain" was wedged against the opposite cliff of the gorge, while the rear end still hung in the waterfall cave where the groundwater erupted. The dark, murky current flushed countless corpses from the underground tombs to the surface and pushed them toward the cliff face.

The corpses of the burial victims developed black spots as soon as they were touched by the mountain wind outside the ancient tomb. I cried out, "This is bad! The dead in the Earth Immortal Village are about to transform into 'Black Fierce Ones'!"

Old Man Sun wailed, "These are not zombies! Zombies cannot hear the rooster's crow, nor can they transform during the day, and certainly not without a coffin! These are the Corpse Immortals refined by Feng Shigu!"

In folk legends, ancient stiff corpses were revered as fierce beings that could pounce on people and suck marrow. Whether flying zombies or walking zombies, they would fall like deadwood when the rooster crowed at dawn. Furthermore, zombies only transform inside a coffin. The dead in the Earth Immortal Tomb's Wood Spirit Star Hall, apart from Feng Shigu, had no coffins to contain them. So many corpses suddenly developing black spots in the mountain was extremely abnormal. Therefore, Old Man Sun believed they were Corpse Immortals that had manifested their physical forms.

Previously, everyone thought there was only one Corpse Immortal, Feng Shigu, in the ancient tomb, but unexpectedly, there were so many. Having witnessed the great catastrophe foretold in the heavenly signs, there was no way back for our group.

Old Man Sun said, "The Corpse Immortals haven't fully manifested yet. We should get closer and see exactly what they are. Even if we have to risk our lives... we must destroy them all."

Fatty, perched high up, had already lost seventy percent of his courage and quickly said, "It's not that Fatty isn't loyal, Old Hu, but those dead things are impervious to water and fire—what can we do against them? Let's just mind our own business—each for himself—and hurry up and leave, Old Hu."

I looked around and immediately made up my mind. I told everyone, "This mountain could collapse at any moment. The rear of Coffin Mountain is stuck in the waterfall torrent. The only way to leave is to climb along the cliff from the coffin's head." With that, I led the way along the stone wall toward the head of the coffin. Shirley Yang and the others called out to each other and followed behind me.

Under the waterfall's impact, Coffin Mountain vibrated throughout. All the earth and stone structures at the rear of the mountain mass were gradually being washed into the gorge. Anything that fell into the rapid current, big or small, vanished instantly. Only the shell of the rear half of Coffin Mountain remained. It could completely crumble and scatter at any second. Walking within it felt like being on a tilted river of heaven—incredibly perilous.

We barely reached the coffin head where Coffin Mountain was wedged against the cliff when the mountain's disintegration intensified. The sheer noise was world-shattering, making the sun and moon change color. I saw Old Man Sun still wanting to climb down to inspect the corpses covered in black spots and quickly pulled him back. Coffin Mountain would collapse into the great river in an instant. Whatever was left of the Earth Immortal Village would be swept away by the river. It seemed we wouldn't need to labor further; Feng Shigu's brilliant calculations were about to come to naught. It was a blessing we hadn't completely trusted the omens in the apocalypse. If not now, when should we run for our lives and escape?

Old Man Sun remained unconvinced and showed no concern for his own safety, insisting on going to see for himself. I originally intended to let him be, but many things still depended on this man. So, I had Shirley Yang take Yaomei to climb the bird path carved into the cliff first. Then, Fatty and I forcefully dragged Old Man Sun away.

After climbing more than ten meters up the cliff, we figured Coffin Mountain should have plummeted into the great river by now, but we both felt something was amiss, not thinking it could end so easily. We also sensed something strange about the mist in the gorge and couldn't help but look back down. If only we hadn't looked! That glance nearly shocked our souls out of our bodies.

We saw that the cliff beneath us was crawling with countless corpses that had floated up from the ancient tombs of the Earth Immortal Village when they met the water. Those buried with the Earth Immortal Feng Shigu were all covered in moldy corpse hair. A black mist permeated the bottom of the gorge, and the remaining ruins in Coffin Mountain flickered faintly in the fog, resembling a ghost realm emerging from a flood. The scene was exactly like, "The gates of Fengdu (Fengdu, the Ghost City, legendary underworld) opened for a moment, releasing one hundred thousand evil ghosts."