My whole body jumped, and I snapped back to reality. A glance at my left shoulder revealed only a thick layer of torn clothing; the flesh underneath was untouched. Relief flooded me—I wouldn't turn into a zombie. Strength instantly returned, and I flipped onto my feet. As I moved, Old Li immediately pulled the trigger of his rifle, bang-bang-bang, peppering the zombie’s chest with a furious volley.

The sheer force of rifle bullets is incomparable to a pistol; I figured with Old Li firing like that at such close range, the zombie's chest must resemble a sieve. I forgot my earlier fear, gloating internally, waiting for the creature's ribcage to be blown into a hollow void before it finally collapsed.

Unexpectedly, the zombie neither struggled nor resisted. When Old Li emptied the magazine, it didn't even spare a glance at its perforated chest. Instead, it swung its arm towards him. I saw it clearly. I yanked Old Li, who was fumbling to reload, out of the way, raised my dagger, and lunged. To my surprise, even under such severe trauma, its strength remained immense. It didn't bother dodging the thrust, simply catching the dagger I stabbed with, yanking it forward with an almost casual motion. Staggered, I stumbled and fell right at its feet.

The brute seemed to understand that my attacking power was inferior to Old Li’s. With a motion so rigid it seemed to defy anatomy, it bent over, extending both hands as if to tear me apart. Terrified, I quickly rolled aside. Its foot scraped the ground, sending a loud, grating shriek of iron chains echoing, effortlessly blocking my escape route, and its other hand reached for me again. I dodged sideways, only to slip directly into the path of its other hand. Seizing the perfect opportunity, it swiftly grabbed my shoulders and pulled outwards with tremendous force.

My shoulders felt as if they were being peeled away from my body, shredded strand by strand, gripped between two monstrous iron vices pulling in opposite directions. There was no room for maneuver. The pain nearly made me black out. Instinctively, I thrashed wildly, grabbing anything on the ground to beat its arm, but it was useless. Old Li, unable to reload, swung his rifle butt with all his might against the zombie's arm—still no effect. In desperation, I felt around my backpack, found something hard, and without thinking, hauled it out and hammered it against the creature’s arm.

With that single impact, something bizarre happened: the zombie’s movement hitched, lagging by half a beat, and the crushing force on my shoulders noticeably lessened. Seeing that this tactic worked, I didn't dare hesitate, pounding relentlessly onto the back of the zombie's hand gripping my shoulder, striking every accessible spot. Slowly, the tension in its grip eased, decreasing until it was almost gone. Old Li, perhaps realizing the change, seeing the zombie cease its tearing, quickly dragged me free from its grasp. Once I was pulled away, the zombie lost its counterweight and collapsed heavily to the floor, utterly still. Old Li poked it several times with his rifle to ensure it wasn't faking, and only when it remained motionless did he collapse near me, utterly drained—he was terrified too.

Only when the zombie seemed definitively dead did I regain my senses, realizing my shoulders were throbbing with pain and my back was drenched—soaked through with cold sweat. The air in my lungs felt vacuumed out; I gasped in huge breaths, my throat painfully dry. I tried to speak, opening my mouth several times, but no sound emerged. Looking at Old Li, I saw him panting just as heavily. Without turning on the light, the cave remained dim, obscuring his exact expression, but I guessed it wasn't much better than mine.

After a long while, I started to feel better, realizing I was still clutching a hard object—the thing I had used to finally bring the zombie down. Initially, I hadn't paid attention to what miracle weapon it was, but now, catching my breath, I examined it closely, met by an absurd urge to laugh and cry. It was the sutra book I had almost tossed away, the one pulped into mush and then baked dry. I couldn't believe it was so solid; it had taken just a few solid blows to subdue a creature that shrugged off rifles, daggers, and even Old Li’s sacred peach-wood sword meant to kill fierce ghosts.

Smiling, I tossed the brick-hard, papery sutra toward Old Li. "Old Li, look at this thing; it’s truly something else."

Indeed, Old Li was stunned when he saw it. He looked at me in disbelief. "Technician Luo, this was the thing that saved our lives?" I managed a wry smile. "Yeah."

Old Li hadn't fully recovered; his breathing was still ragged. He held the hardened pages, turning them over and over for a long time before speaking haltingly, piecing his words together: "Luo... Technician, are you certain this is the same type of ordinary handwritten sutra that the Faceless one carried?"

I lacked the energy for lengthy explanations. I nodded. "Absolutely certain."

Old Li fell silent again for a moment, then muttered to himself, "Traditional Tibetan handwritten sutras are made with paper derived from wolfsbane..." Hearing that reminded me of something, but I feared speaking while lying down might attract another zombie. I staggered to my feet, hauled my backpack up, and managed to pull Old Li up. "We should probably take shelter in that small niche we found earlier. There’s something... I think I might finally understand..." Old Li shakily got up and followed me toward the recess. Given our current weakened state after that fight, if it hadn't been for that wretched sutra, I'd likely have been torn into bloody shreds, and Old Li might not have escaped either. Even many years later, recalling this event sent shivers down my spine, leaving me with a lingering sense of dread.

Once Old Li and I stumbled into the small niche and leaned against the cold stone wall, I began recounting everything about the Faceless King Wei Cheng to him in meticulous detail. I emphasized his diary, especially the part where his companions, incarcerated later than him, fell ill, and he seemed to have finally discovered an antidote—a pity, a terrible pity, that Director Liu destroyed it before I could finish reading. Moreover, Wang Weicheng mentioned the sutras multiple times in his diary, even mentioning drinking water steeped with some unknown herb. I wondered if these facts were connected to why he fell ill so much later than the others...

Old Li listened to my account, murmuring thoughtfully. After a long silence, he spoke slowly, considering each word: "Technician Luo, do you remember the herbs I asked you to throw into the fire that night Commander Wang went mad?"

I genuinely hadn't paid attention to those details, so I honestly replied that I didn't.

Old Li pondered a bit more before continuing, "That was just the common medicinal herb Tibetan locals burn as incense. You see those large incense burners in Lhasa? That’s what people burn in them... Master Banqin said the Buddha specifically commanded Tibetans to use this herb—which the demons of hell greatly fear—as an offering of incense to drive away those very devils."

I was first stunned that ordinary incense could possess such efficacy, then my face lit up with excitement. "Then we can go down the mountain and gather a lot more! Couldn't we use that to subdue the zombies in this cave?"

Old Li gave a bitter smile. "If only it were that simple. The Tibetan incense only works on living beings freshly infected by hellish entities when they first become ill. A creature like the one we just faced—a corpse—the incense is ineffective against it... However, based on what just happened, that sutra book truly seems to be the zombie's bane. The question is whether it’s the power of the scripture written on it, or some other factor."

The answer that had been flickering at the edges of my mind became instantly clear upon hearing Old Li’s words. "Old Li, could it be that the book itself possesses inherent properties? For example, because it’s made from wolfsbane, it carries some medicinal characteristic?" I strained to suppress the ecstatic rush of finding the answer.

Old Li nodded, but with reservation. "That's a possibility. But... if it were that simple, why wouldn't Master Banqin have told me?"

Hearing that, I immediately felt deflated, discarding my own theory. Right—if it were that easy, wolfsbane isn't rare; how could nobody else know of such potent effects, allowing these zombies to run rampant? Speaking of zombies, I suddenly recalled that before I engaged in close combat with the one we killed, two other zombies had shambled past the cave entrance. I wondered if the sutra book would work on them too. If not, our chances of getting out of this cave alive would be slim. Those dozen or so iron chains must be locking up at least five or six zombies... My mind became a mess of worry.

Looking at Old Li, I saw his brow deeply furrowed in thought. "Technician Luo, I feel like there are several things that don't add up..."

I gently patted my temples, trying to clear the chaos in my head. "What doesn't add up?"

"Many things don't add up. Let’s ignore the strange things like the skull lamps for a moment. Look at the iron chains locking the zombies on the floor, and the one we just fought. Why did all its companions leap past, but this one specifically stopped on the only path leading out of our hiding spot? And though its movements were swift, in my estimation, it was still sluggish and clumsy compared to a normal zombie. Furthermore, if it were a truly fierce ghost-zombie, why did my peach-wood sword and the lightning-struck wood have no effect? Lightning-struck peach wood is the ultimate Daoist artifact for exorcism; any fierce ghost pierced by it is immediately annihilated, its soul scattered forever. How could this thing be completely unfazed and continue attacking us? This means this zombie is definitely not a ghost. Moreover, when I fired into its chest, I could feel the bullets pass through its body with remarkable ease; it didn't react at all. I suspect the only reason it froze was the sheer impact force keeping it momentarily immobilized, not because the bullets themselves inflicted damage..." At this point, Old Li shook his head vigorously. "Oh dear, I've confused myself now..."

To be honest, I was confused too. In the panic, I hadn't bothered to observe what the zombie was wearing, what clan it belonged to, or whether its physical components were intact... According to Old Li’s assessment, this thing was neither a ghost nor a living human, nor did it resemble advanced technology. Could it be a new species? Or perhaps a creature infected by a virus, like something out of Resident Evil? And the most critical question: how could such a powerful zombie be constrained by iron chains around its ankles?

It seemed we needed to go back and study that corpse closely.

After resting for a long time and regaining some strength, fearing another zombie attack might interrupt our thoughts, we seized the moment of apparent calm and hurried out of the niche with Old Li to examine the slain creature.

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