"That's odd," the Fatty muttered, "what could possibly move that fast? I honestly thought it was a bird taking flight."

Just as everyone was scratching their heads in confusion, Ma Xiong suddenly pointed at the ground beneath the Fatty's feet. "Fatty, look down! What is that thing?"

The Fatty looked down and saw, to his shock, a sticky trail of moisture passing right under his shoe. He turned around and noticed the slimy mark stretched across the floor, seemingly leading toward the multi-limbed corpse.

Lu Zong looked at the wet mark under the Fatty's foot and asked in disbelief, "Fatty, did you wet your pants?"

The Fatty cursed, "You're the one who wet his pants! Have you ever seen anyone leak that much? Besides, I have a prostate, you know."

Lu Zong nodded, conceding that the Fatty’s reasoning was, rationally speaking, sound. The Fatty then suggested, "How about we follow this trail and see what's going on?"

The others nodded in agreement.

The Fatty took the lead, followed by Ma Xiong and Lu Zong, then the Ge Mei sisters, with the Company Commander and his men bringing up the rear. It seemed the Company Commander’s group still viewed the Fatty’s party as potential adversaries.

A journey that should have taken ten minutes stretched out to nearly half an hour. Finally reaching the corpse, they found it lying there, seemingly undisturbed.

The Fatty looked around, puzzled. "There's nothing wrong here. What about that trail? I couldn't have dragged it with my own feet, could I? But there are no gaps in the trail; lifting my foot should have caused a break."

The more he thought, the more muddled he became, so he gave up. "Forget it, everyone. Let's just get out of here. This thing clearly doesn't want us to leave."

The Fatty turned around, taking the hands of the two girls, ready to move on.

But the moment the Fatty turned, Ma Xiong spoke up. "Fatty, wait a moment. Look at this trail—how did it manage to get inside the corpse's belly?"

Hearing this, the Fatty quickly turned back. Indeed, the slimy trail led directly into the cavity of the dead body. For reasons unknown.

The Fatty seemed to notice something else and quickly shook off the small hands of the two women holding him. He took a gun from Dongzi and prodded the corpse's abdomen. A bloody gash, easily half a meter long, opened up, spilling out the internal organs and structures—a mound of slimy, pulpy flesh, seemingly corroded over many years. Everyone quickly clamped hands over their mouths.

The Fatty declared, "It looks like this female corpse was pregnant. That creature just crawled out of her stomach. Look at the abdomen; it’s clearly been ripped open violently. Damn it, it was that strong even inside; if it had been fully born, it would be eating people alive."

Ma Xiong's face instantly turned pale. "Let’s go, quickly. We shouldn't stay here any longer. That thing will notice us sooner or later."

The Fatty scoffed, "Ma Xiong, don't you think you’re a little late saying that?"

Ma Xiong turned to the Fatty, confused. "What do you mean?"

The Fatty explained, "Actually, what attacked us just now was the creature from this corpse." He bent down and smeared his finger on the cuff of Ge Mei's trousers. "See? It has traces of the trail on its leg—left there when the creature passed by."

The Company Commander whispered, trembling, "Let's move. I have a terrible feeling this place is cursed."

As they turned to leave, they suddenly realized one of their men was missing from the rear of the formation. He urgently asked the man next to him, "Hey, where's the guy who was standing at the very back just now?"

They turned to look, their faces registering panic. "We don't know! He was right here, and now he’s vanished in the blink of an eye?"

The Fatty noticed the commotion and walked over to inspect the area. He wiped his foot on the floor, his voice tinged with genuine terror. "Holy hell, that thing is powerful. It dragged our man away without making a single sound."

It was impossible to tell if it was a monster or a human.

The Fatty urged, "Let's go, quickly! Don't stay here to be breakfast."

The group hurried after him, only to find themselves, without realizing it, back at the spot blocked by the coffin.

"What do we do now? Jump over it?" the Company Commander asked anxiously, clearly desperate to escape this area. Seeing the commander's flustered expression, the Fatty couldn't imagine how long he would have lasted if he had only brought his own team here.

The Fatty declared, "Jump! Jump! Damn it, I refuse to believe we can't dodge that thing."

With that, he was the first to climb onto the coffin lid. But as soon as the Fatty stepped on it, the coffin let out a grinding groan, and the lid began to collapse inward. The Fatty quickly jumped back down. "Forget it! This coffin is practically rotting! Why the hell would they use wood for a coffin lid? Are they broke?"

"Hey, what is this?" The Company Commander cautiously approached the coffin lid.

The Fatty asked, "What’s wrong? Did you find something?"

The Company Commander pointed. "Look, between the edge of the lid and the coffin body—there’s a cylindrical steel drum jammed in there. I don't see anything like it on the other coffins."

The Fatty finally noticed the steel pipe. He walked over and shoved the coffin lid aside, freezing instantly, unable to move. Ma Xiong, knowing the Fatty must have seen something bizarre, worried he was paralyzed by fear of what was inside, quickly shouted, "Fatty! Fatty! Get back here!"

But the Fatty remained motionless, staring coldly into the coffin.

Fearing for the Fatty’s safety, Ma Xiong grabbed him and pulled him away.

The very instant the Fatty’s face moved away from the coffin, the thing inside leaped out. It cleared nearly three meters in a single bound before vanishing swiftly between the coffin’s edges.

Seeing that the Fatty was still in a semi-conscious state, Ma Xiong tried to snap him out of it. "Fatty! Wake up! What the hell did you do? Snap out of it!"

Finally, the Fatty coughed, taking a huge gasp of air and drawing in short, ragged breaths.

The Company Commander didn't give the Fatty time to recover, stepping forward to demand, "Fatty, what did you see?"

The Fatty stared blankly at the commander and ignored him.

The Company Commander seized the Fatty by the collar, pressing him. "Fatty, what exactly did you see? Tell us now!"

Ma Xiong instantly yanked the commander's hand off the Fatty, cursing, "Damn it! Can't you see the man needs to rest?"

The moment Ma Xiong pulled the commander away, the commander's men immediately raised their weapons, leveling their guns at Ma Xiong’s group. Dongzi, Dawei, and Old He promptly raised their own firearms, aiming squarely at the Company Commander.

The atmosphere instantly grew intensely awkward.

Ma Xiong surveyed both sides. If a fight broke out now, both groups would suffer heavy losses, allowing that creature to destroy them both at its leisure—a perfect double play. In this situation, restraint was the better part of valor.

He turned back and signaled his own men to lower their weapons.