I was just making a wish. I heard that wishing in front of a burning coffin is even more effective than wishing upon a shooting star. I thought I'd give it a try.

Fatty snorted, "Women are just like that animal. Wishing is more useful than men." Ma Xiong looked at Fatty. Despite Fatty's often muddled appearance, this remark clearly showed that sometimes Fatty could turn into a philosopher.

Unexpectedly, under the intense fire, the coffin slowly turned to powder and vanished with the wind. Everyone stared blankly at the sight, utterly bewildered by the strange spectacle.

Lu Zong said, "I recognize this stone. This must be the legendary Firestone. Its density is much lower than normal, its main component is calcium carbonate, and it melts away slowly at high temperatures."

The others glanced at Lu Zong and said nothing more. Since none of them understood, they figured he could be making things up and they wouldn't know the difference, so who could verify if he was telling the truth or not.

However, after the coffin was completely burned, there was no sign of the person, only a pair of gooey substances stuck to the ground. Fatty tiptoed over and pressed down with his hand. Unexpectedly, he pushed a hole right through the white substance stuck to the ground, revealing darkness underneath.

Ma Xiong walked over and pressed too, creating several more holes in succession.

Ma Xiong frantically grabbed a nearby rock and smashed it down onto the substance. With a loud clanging sound, the top layer fell away, revealing a hole.

Ma Xiong looked down and shouted, "Hey buddy, come out! We won't kill you."

To his surprise, a voice echoed back from below, "Hey buddy, come out! We won't kill you."

Ma Xiong angrily looked up at Lu Zong, cursing, "Damn it, that idiot is copying what I say. He really has a death wish!" He then dropped to his stomach by the hole and yelled, "Hey, which one of you is the idiot?"

The hole responded, "Hey, which one of you is the idiot?"

Ma Xiong tilted his head up in confusion. He scratched his head sheepishly towards Lu Zong and said, "Oh, sorry. It was just an echo. I thought that idiot was mocking me."

Lu Zong walked over to inspect it and remarked, "From that 'idiot's' echoing voice, I guess this hole isn't small. The space below should be quite large. I wonder if it's an ancient tomb robber's tunnel. How about we climb down?"

Fatty measured his waistline and said, "I don't think that's a good idea, because if we do it that way, my stomach will definitely stick out first. Someone might snatch my belly later, and that would be bad."

Lu Zong looked at Fatty's large beer belly and said, "You all wait here. I'll be right back."

With that, he slid down. He then popped back up from below and said, "If I yell for help later, save me! Don't just stand there stunned."

Just as everyone agreed, Lu Zong suddenly scrambled out of the tunnel entrance, shouting, "Help... help me quickly... quickly... Fatty!" Everyone noticed that less than three seconds had passed since his previous sentence, and they all remarked on how perfectly timed his words were.

Lu Zong had two bizarre snakes on his back—one gold, one silver. Both snakes had three eyes on their heads, were nearly three feet long, and constantly flicked their tongues. Each bore a pair of thin, flapping wings on its back, vibrating rapidly.

"Damn it, in all my years, I, Ma Xiong, have never seen such strange creatures. Could the Queen of Loulan be trying to destroy me? Bring it on! After all, I'm one of Chairman Mao's kids, a man who's carried a gun and fought battles. There's nothing in this world that I fear."

Pat, pat... There was no time to think. He raised the handgun in his hand and fired two rapid shots at the leading golden snake.

The attacked golden snake arched its body, shot upward, spread its thin wings, and whipped its tail mid-air. The silver snake lunged directly toward Han Chong's face.

Fatty, quick as lightning, hurled the engineer's shovel in his hand toward the silver snake. The rounded head of the shovel seemed perfectly aimed, striking the silver snake directly on its central eye. The silver snake tumbled in the air, its thin wings flapping wildly, letting out loud screeches as it flew. Its tail constantly swept the surrounding sand, causing a storm of yellow dust to erupt in the concave pit. The golden snake suddenly reared its head and cried out twice. Astonishingly, the wildly thrashing silver snake stopped tumbling and responded to the golden snake. Then, the silver and gold snakes intertwined, resembling a twisted pretzel stick.

Just as everyone was lost in stunned amazement, the bodies of the gold and silver snakes mysteriously vanished. When the dust settled in the air, an enormous serpentine stone statue had appeared near the entrance of the tomb, where the cliff face had disappeared. The serpentine body was coiled and upright, its two three-eyed heads split in different directions, yet both angled upward, as if waiting for something or perhaps worshipping something.

Lu Zong and Han Chong gasped for breath, while Ma Xiong and the others collapsed onto the ground. Fatty gripped his engineer's shovel, his eyes fixed on the transformation, as if everything that had just happened were a dream.

It was all too bizarre. First, the moving eyes in the center of the gold and silver coffins, and now these gold and silver snakes... Scenes flickered incessantly in Lu Zong's mind.

After resting for about the time it takes to smoke a cigarette, everyone finally recovered.

"Lu Zong, what should we do?" Rosa seemed unable to fully recover; her speech was slightly hazy and slurred.

Lu Zong surveyed their surroundings. "Let's check if there are any other exits. If we find one, we'll leave through it." He led the search, circling the area twice. His breathing was still heavy; he had been in real peril just moments ago, with those two snakes right on his back. A slight misstep and he could have been swallowed whole.

But after searching for a long time, they couldn't find any other exit. It seemed this hole was the only way out. Everyone was extremely reluctant to accept this harsh reality, but eventually, they gathered around the opening of the shaft of their own accord.

Lu Zong declared, "Now, this is our only way out, whether we succeed or fail. I still have some dynamite. I'll blow the area inside first. Maybe we can even have roast snake later."

With that, he tied several sticks of dynamite together, lit the fuse, and tossed them down. He then told everyone to move far away from the opening and lie flat.

With a loud boom, after the explosion, a cloud of black smoke erupted. Everyone rushed over to check, patting their chests and sighing in relief. The small hole had expanded to be as wide as Fatty's bucket-like waist. As they joked, Lu Zong said, "When we go down, the men will wait outside, and the girls will stay inside, so we can look out for each other."

Fatty, being the most enthusiastic, declared, "No problem! They can even stay in my arms!"

He led the way down, and the others followed Lu Zong.

Ma Xiong and Lu Zong each turned on the powerful flashlights they had salvaged from the corpses. "Damn it, if it weren't for those shamans, we wouldn't be stuck in this godforsaken place," Lu Zong thought bitterly.

"Giggle... giggle..." Just as everyone was deep in thought, a series of strange sounds echoed from a corner of the tomb. The sound was bone-chilling, making everyone tremble, as if it originated from hell itself.

Everyone stopped moving and strained to pinpoint the source of the noise. But the sound instantly ceased. As soon as anyone moved, the sound would resume.

Uncanny! Extremely uncanny! They stood back-to-back, all facing outward, gripping their weapons and observing every corner.

"Click, click..." Suddenly, a sound came from right behind them. They whipped around to look.

They saw a golden coffin.

Behind the golden coffin was a white skeleton. No wonder entering this tomb felt different from the passage they had just used. The skeleton was walking with a chilling gait, its two seductive red eyes forcing everyone to stop breathing. At the center of its chest, where the heart should be, was a black sphere the size of a pumpkin. This sight made everyone feel the presence of death growing stronger.

The skeleton was walking closer and closer to them, and following behind it were seven more skeletons, marching in perfect unison. The black sphere in the chest cavity became clearer; it was a tangled mass of flesh-crowned black snakes, each one flicking its tongue. Even more terrifying were the two red eyes flickering on and off within the skull.

Han Chong's hand was tightly clasped in Lu Zong's, her palm slick with cold sweat. Lu Zong could clearly feel her inner trembling and fear.

"Oh my god, what kind of snakes are these? The dynamite couldn't even kill them," Ma Xiong muttered, then stepped forward and fired several rounds at the snakes.

After the gunfire, the snakes were severed into several segments that rolled onto the floor. Ma Xiong blew the smoke from his gun barrel and said, "My apologies, I showed off a little."

Seeing Ma Xiong's comical display, everyone burst into laughter. Only Lu Zong didn't laugh. He looked down at the ground.

The severed snakes were slowly crawling back together, their wounds rapidly knitting. After a few minutes, the snakes had perfectly reattached the broken halves of their bodies.

Everyone stared, dumbfounded by this strange phenomenon.

Suddenly, a sound emanated from the skeletons. Everyone frantically looked over, only to see the skeletons slowly beginning to move. They were all frozen, watching this bizarre scene unfold. Han Chong's breathing grew ragged; Lu Zong could feel it distinctly, so he pulled her into his arms and slowly began to back away. Fatty was stunned by what he saw in front of him and forgot to retreat until Ma Xiong grabbed him and pulled him back.

The eight white skeletons advanced relentlessly, their eyes glowing with terrifying crimson light. A gust of wind blew through, carrying endless fear, and in that wind, one could almost hear unending weeping and screams...

Everyone's bodies instinctively shuddered, unsure how to face the current situation. Lu Zong, however, felt a primal fear—a fear rooted deep in his soul, a fear that did not belong to this world.

"Brothers, raise whatever you've got! Everyone be careful!" Lu Zong kept a firm grip on Han Chong's hand with one hand while preparing to pull the trigger of his handgun with the other, determined to wipe out these damned skeletons.