He focused his attention, his eyes fixed on the jar before him, and silently chanted in his mind, "Corpse, corpse, hurry up and turn into a jar, I beg you." To everyone's disappointment, the dried corpse still hadn't transformed into the jar. However, this was within everyone's expectations; after all, no one would ever believe that a corpse could turn into a jar right before their eyes.

Old Qian comforted them, "Everyone needs a little patience. After all, this kind of supernatural ability doesn't have a one hundred percent success rate. Otherwise, I wouldn't be stuck here unable to leave. But there's another reason we can't get out, which I can't tell you yet. For now, let's just deal with that corpse. We're running out of time."

With that, he pointed at Lu Zong's eyes and said, "In a moment, everyone use your hands to pull up your own eyelids. That way, looking at the corpse will be blurry. When our vision is muddled, maybe that corpse will really turn into a jar." Then he looked at Lu Zong and nodded encouragingly, telling him, You can do it.

Lu Zong naturally tried again. He used both hands to pull back the corners of his eyes, and indeed, the jar looked a bit hazy. Seeing Lu Zong ready, Old Qian looked at Ma Xiong and Ge Mei and said, "Come on, let's do this motion together. Hurry up; we don't have much time. There's no need to waste time here." Saying that, he took the lead in pulling his eyelids up, then stared unblinkingly at the jar in front of him. The jar actually began to change slowly, but because his vision was blurred, he couldn't tell if it was a distortion of his sight or if the jar was truly shifting. However, when Lu Zong finally let out a heavy sigh, he felt a miracle must have occurred, and he opened his eyes to look, but the corpse before him had not reverted to the original jar; it still lay there quietly, like a corpse. Lu Zong shook his head with some helplessness: "It's useless, useless. If I concentrate on it, it won't change at all. It must change when we think of it unintentionally. Let's just forget about it. I suspect it will revert to the original jar whenever I happen to think of it later. Besides, this place is deserted; no one will come. Even if someone did come, seeing this terrifying corpse, they wouldn't dare tamper with it. Relax."

Ma Xiong glanced at the corpse, which still showed no discernible change, and could only shake his head helplessly, saying, "Forget it, forget it. Since things are this way, let's stop worrying about it and focus on escaping first. At worst, someone might sneak a few naked photos of us and start some kind of... scandal. Our reputation might be ruined, but hey, we might become famous."

Lu Zong quickly nodded, "Yes, yes, that's what I think too. Look how famous Edison Chen and Ah Jiao became—they got to enjoy themselves and got famous too. Why not? I say we should take a few nude photos of you right now; we can be famous later." Ma Xiong gave the excited Lu Zong a helpless look and cursed, "Bastard, only you would take things so seriously; I was just making a casual remark, and you actually took it to heart."

Lu Zong laughed and said, "I was just joking too. Look how seriously you took it. Forget it, let's leave this place alone. Let's go quickly. By the way, does everyone remember the mission we came here for? Don't forget our primary objective."

Ma Xiong suddenly exclaimed in alarm, "Yes, our main mission here was to find the Demon Pagoda and lift our curse, but this place doesn't look like the way to the Demon Pagoda." As he spoke, he looked around; boundless sand stretched in every direction.

Old Qian suddenly looked at Ma Xiong with a hint of shock, asking in alarm, "How do you know this isn't the way to the Demon Pagoda? Do you perhaps know the way to the Demon Pagoda? Have you been to the Demon Pagoda?" While saying these few sentences, Old Qian appeared especially tense, as if he felt some strange entity was controlling his emotions; it was an involuntary terror.

Seeing the astonished expressions, Ma Xiong became a bit frightened and quickly explained, "No, no, I just figured since everyone else doesn't know, I naturally don't know either. I was just showing off my supposed abilities. You don't need to be so scared. Besides, what are you afraid of? Even if I knew the way, so what? Am I going to eat you?"

Old Qian stammered anxiously, "Forget it, forget it, let's not talk about that. Everyone, let's leave here quickly. I have a strange feeling about this place. Let's hurry." With that, he was the first to walk up to the curtain, lift it, and step out. Ma Xiong followed suit, and Ge Mei naturally trailed behind. Seeing everyone else leave, Lu Zong turned back with a lingering gaze, wanting to see what the corpse he had conjured looked like. But as he turned, he suddenly felt that the corpse's position seemed to have shifted. Before he opened his eyes, the corpse's feet were clearly near the shattered jar on the ground, but why did it now look a bit shorter, a bit smaller? Had the corpse moved?

He cautiously walked closer, wanting to see what was going on. He slowly and gently turned the bronze-colored corpse over, but when he finally saw the corpse's face, he was so terrified he sank to the ground and screamed! That sound was filled with sheer horror; it seemed Lu Zong had witnessed something truly dreadful.

Just as the others stepped outside the tent, they suddenly heard a shriek from within. They rushed to turn back and re-enter, but when they tried to lift the curtain, they were shocked to find that the curtain had become rigid, no longer resembling soft cloth but a thick, solid iron door. They desperately tried to force their way in, but the iron door was too formidable, completely immovable. Ma Xiong, worried about Lu Zong, went around to the area where the tent cloth was, intending to cut a hole in the cowhide tent and crawl through.

But when he reached the side of the tent, he couldn't help but be stunned. He discovered that the thick, dark cowhide tent, for some unknown reason, had become rock-hard, as rigid as the door curtain. No matter how much he slammed against it, it wouldn't budge. He could only stand outside, shouting anxiously, "Lu Zong, Lu Zong, are you alright? What on earth happened inside?"

Although the tent had separated them completely, with no visible gaps, Lu Zong could somehow still hear his voice. Lu Zong stuttered, "Ma Xiong, I saw the corpse... the corpse... it actually..."

At this point, he was too frightened to speak further, only trembling all over and repeatedly calling for Ma Xiong to hurry inside. But Ma Xiong couldn't get in. He could only shout from outside, "Lu Zong, go to the door and check if there's any mechanism or anything inside that can open this door. We can't open this curtain!"

"What? You can't open it? How is that possible? This door is just a curtain, so soft, how could it be unopenable?" Lu Zong naturally thought they were joking with him and replied with a playful tone. But he wasn't smiling at all at that moment, because seeing the bright red corpse at his feet and its changed appearance had drained him of all energy for laughter.

He followed Ma Xiong's instructions and walked over to the curtain, reaching out a hand to pull it aside.

Because he performed the action unconsciously, he paid no attention to the curtain, and coupled with his tense emotional state, his reaching hand moved quickly and with great force, fueled by his agitation. Unexpectedly, when his hand reached out, it didn't encounter soft canvas but something as hard as concrete. He looked up at the canvas before him in surprise, only to find that the canvas was now utterly still, as if frozen in place.

He was even more astonished. He leaned his head closer to look again, this time seeing more clearly. He saw that the curtain had turned a dull gray color, as if covered in a layer of dust. He reached out and touched it; it felt ice-cold and extremely hard, somewhat like cement now. He couldn't guess what material it was made of.

But this only increased his shock. How could the soft curtain from before now look like this hard cement? Could this thing be changing on its own? But how could that be? The curtain was an inanimate object; how could it change?

However, the concept of lifelessness immediately reminded him of the jar. If that jar could turn into a human corpse, why couldn't this tent turn into something else? But the jar had transformed because his consciousness had thought of it. Could it be that someone was deliberately trying to harm him by turning this door curtain into this cement-like substance?

He could barely contain himself and frantically searched the area around the doorway for a switch. He still wasn't sure if this was man-made or a trap. He had to search the surroundings to see if this was a pre-set switch. In fact, he had long suspected that there was a mechanism in this tent.

But the area around the doorway was completely sealed off from the surrounding cowhide-colored tent, showing no gap at all. His hand touched it; it was also cold and hard, as incomparably rigid as the door. He frantically felt all around, but everywhere looked the same, showing nothing amiss. He could only shout, "This is bad, Ma Xiong! This place is completely sealed off inside. I can't see outside at all, and I can't find any mechanism. I think someone is trying to frame me. Damn it, who the hell is this vicious?"