His peach-wood sword streaked through the air like ten thousand points of starlight, describing perfect arcs before landing steadily upon the fiends, whereupon rents appeared in their bodies, from which white pus and blood welled out. Ge Mei could only turn her head away, retching. Fortunately, Lu Zong was there to offer comfort. Fatty’s heart burned with impatience; here he was, fighting for his life, while the credit for saving the beauty seemed destined to fall to Lu Zong. This was simply unacceptable.

Though he cursed Lu Zong inwardly for his lack of integrity, he dared not speak too loudly. After all, he was currently battling thousands of corpse fiends; losing focus for even a moment could have dire consequences he dared not imagine. Still, he conceded, a man like Lu Zong was bound to have his less honorable moments.

The corpse fiends around him fell one after another, yet those behind them surged forward relentlessly to replace them. Fatty was slick with sweat. Though the fiends moved with stiff, mechanical motions, their strength was immense; had he tried to meet their force head-on, Fatty would surely have already met the King of Hell. However, as more fiends fell on his side, the rest began to focus their assault there. Soon, Fatty could no longer manage the onslaught. Just as he parried an attack and sliced a fiend, a palm struck him squarely on the cheekbone from behind. With a sharp cry of pain, Fatty tumbled to the ground, baring his teeth as he watched the fiends rush toward him.

In less time than it takes to speak, Lu Zong, seeing Fatty on the verge of collapse, abandoned any pretense of playing the hero saving the damsel. He launched himself forward with a heavy kick that slammed into the charging fiend. The corpse fiend was sent flying by Ma Xiong’s powerful kick, crashing to the ground and shattering into two pieces.

Ma Xiong grinned at Fatty. “Well, Fatty, what do you say? In the crucial moment, you still need me, Ma Xiong, to save you.”

Fatty managed an awkward smile, unwilling to admit defeat. He retorted gruffly, “Who says? I was just tired and needed a break. I was staging a trick to draw the enemy out. You’ve ruined the whole thing.”

Ma Xiong scoffed good-naturedly. “It’s fine. When I save people, I usually don’t bother with accolades. Consider today my moment to shine in front of the beauty.”

He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a Swiss Army knife.

Lu Zong looked at the familiar handle and the gleaming blade, his eyes lighting up. “Ma Xiong, you truly are a good man, not one to forget old attachments. If I’m not mistaken, this is the very same knife from last time, isn’t it?”

Ma Xiong nodded. “Your eyesight is terrible. Did you need to look that closely? This is clearly the same knife as before; anyone with a small brain could figure that out.”

With that, he ignored Lu Zong and threw himself wholeheartedly back into the battle.

Lu Zong watched Ge Mei cling to him, resembling a small bird that had never seen the world, and his heart filled with tenderness. He held Ge Mei tightly against his chest, feeling the warmth radiating from her face and the slight fragrance left by her delicate hands sweeping across his coat.

In that moment, Lu Zong felt only one thing: happiness. If he allowed himself to savor it more deeply, another emotion mingled in: baseness. Of course, the happiness was directed toward Ge Mei. To have a woman outside worrying for him and another woman nestled in his arms being cared for by him—this was the only true antidote to male impotence in the world. The baseness was directed toward Ma Xiong and Fatty. Others were fighting for their lives to save them, while he was enjoying a pleasure fit for a brothel visitor. It was profoundly shameful.

Watching Ma Xiong and Fatty fight, with dense layers of corpses scattered around them and endless waves of fiends pressing from behind, Fatty looked utterly dejected. It seemed the corpse fiends here were a renewable resource; as soon as some were killed, reinforcements immediately appeared. He glanced at Ma Xiong, who was currently fighting with fierce momentum. Lu Zong’s expression of guilt grew more pronounced, and Fatty yelled, “Lu Zong, you cultured hooligan! Hurry up and help! Can’t you see the battle is raging hot, yet you have the leisure to play with a blossoming flower? Have you no conscience?”

Lu Zong saw that the other two were truly struggling. He moved closer, gently setting Ge Mei on the ground. “I’ll stand guard here. The fiends won’t attack this spot. Rest well here; I promise I’ll take care of everything.”

He then looked at Ma Xiong and asked, “Ma Xiong, do you have any other weapons left?”

Ma Xiong glanced down at his trousers and replied sheepishly, “I have one more ‘weapon.’ Do you want it?”

Lu Zong glanced at the prominent protrusion beneath Ma Xiong’s trousers and ignored him. Although Lu Zong was an intellectual, he had spent time in the military before. Besides, while these corpse fiends were strong, their movements were quite slow; Lu Zong could handle one or two.

Before long, corpses piled up around them, along with splatters of blood-red and pale white gore. Ge Mei felt nauseous watching it. After a while of fighting, although none of them were seriously wounded, their strength was significantly depleted.

Lu Zong suddenly shouted, “Damn it, Fatty, I have a feeling these corpse fiends aren’t trying to kill us directly, but deliberately trying to exhaust our stamina! Look how many more are coming from outside!”

Fatty gasped, “You’re right, I noticed it too. I don’t know what these things are trying to achieve. Maybe we should find a gap and slip out now. How long can this fighting last? In the end, we’ll just run out of strength and die here.”

Ma Xiong nodded. “Right. Everyone, retreat quickly to Ge Mei’s side. We’ll reassess the situation from there.” He was the first to withdraw his weapon and fall back near Ge Mei.

Fatty couldn't hold on any longer and retreated as well. Lu Zong cleared the fiends immediately around him before falling back.

Fatty, panting heavily, stared at the endless stream of approaching fiends and cursed, “Damn it, these things are inexhaustible! Fighting them head-on clearly won’t work. Ma Xiong, do you have any gunpowder left?”

Ma Xiong patted his pocket, then looked at Fatty and stated slowly, word by word, “That’s right. Our gunpowder isn’t just for show.”

Saying this, he surprisingly pulled out a bundle of detonators from his pocket and placed them on the ground. Borrowing Lu Zong’s lighter, he lit the fuse and tossed the bundle into the densest cluster of fiends.

Instantly, the horde erupted in chaos. Large numbers of corpse fiends were blown skyward, swirling like snowflakes in winter before slowly drifting back down.

Ma Xiong felt momentarily dizzy. It was only after the noise subsided that he fully registered what had happened. He cursed, “Damn, I bundled too many detonators together! I nearly blew myself out!”