I looked over and saw that Liang Qian had woken up at some point. I quickly asked her, "What is this thing? It's clearly metal, but why is it full of blood inside..."

Liang Qian clutched her forehead, her expression one of intense pain. After a few seconds, she managed to say, "That is an evil god worshipped by the Wei Kingdom people... Touching it means instant death..."

As soon as she finished speaking, we suddenly heard a mournful cry, like a ghost wailing, from outside. A rustling sound began on the roof, as if something were crawling on top of it.

Liang Qian’s face turned even paler. She turned towards the door and said, "It’s finally out..."

"Pop! Pop!" Two gunshots rang out in the distance, and I heard Da Xiong curse loudly, "Damn it, don’t come closer... what the hell is this thing..."

Although Liang Qian was heavily injured, she darted out the moment she turned, her movements still incredibly agile.

Xie Yuting had already drawn his knife and leaped out the window like a diving fish.

I was instantly left alone in the room, only to hear the intermittent pops of gunfire outside the door, accompanied by the persistent rustling coming from all directions. It seemed the enemy forces were numerous.

I pulled the semi-automatic pistol from my waistband and, in a decidedly amateurish stance, staggered out of the room.

The very first sight that met my eyes made me gasp in sheer terror.

Xie Yuting had barely rushed out when a "person" met him head-on. The entire body of this figure was as desiccated as kindling, its face twisted in a silent rictus of death, clawing and lunging towards Xie Yuting.

With Xie Yuting’s formidable skill, he rolled on the spot, executing a vicious sweeping knife strike that instantly severed one of the dried corpse's legs.

He sprang back up instantly, his blade slicing through to decapitate the corpse entirely!

I swear, this was the first time I had ever witnessed a person being cut down; the speed of that swordsmanship was undeniably brutal.

But for some inexplicable reason, I found the move incredibly cool.

A single blow from Xie Yuting should have instantly felled even a Zongzi, but a bizarre scene unfolded before my eyes. The severed head leaped up from the ground and lunged again at Xie Yuting, while the body, missing a leg, continued to scramble forward with outstretched limbs, refusing to yield.

I thought this was preposterous, impossible! I remembered seeing monstrous depictions in Fengshen Yanyi as a child where severed heads could fly and bite, but that fundamentally violated the laws of physics, and this dried corpse didn't even look like any sort of demon! Xie Yuting was clearly astonished too, hesitating for a beat. That slight lapse in concentration allowed the one-legged corpse to tackle him to the ground, and they began to writhe together.

The detached head missed its target and flew straight toward me without hesitation. My heart seized with panic, my legs started trembling uncontrollably, and my hand gripping the gun was slick with sweat. While I was frozen, the head was already inches from my face. Its distorted expression and wide-open mouth made me gasp, thinking, I’m done for, my first kiss is about to be ruined! Suddenly, there was a thwack near my ear, and the head exploded a mere dozen centimeters from my face, spraying me with a foul-smelling, black fluid.

The stench turned my stomach. While trying to wipe my face with my coat sleeve, I gagged and threw up loudly. Liang Qian rushed to my side, urgently asking, "Are you alright? You don't even know how to use a gun, get back inside!"

After spitting everything out, I wiped my face again and said to her, "What's the use of hiding inside? Are we supposed to let ourselves be choked to death by these things?!"

Liang Qian fired a shot behind me without further explanation, then kicked me back into the room. I crashed down in a clumsy face-plant, and as I struggled to rise, I saw another male corpse, dressed in a military greatcoat, lurching towards the doorway. I fumbled for my gun, but it was too late; the thing was already at the entrance.

But strangely, it stopped dead when it reached the threshold, as if wary of something inside the room.

Just then, a few shots and curses erupted outside. A large, portly figure leaped in through the window, followed by Xie Yuting, and finally, Liang Qian executed another graceful dive into the room.

"Damn it! What in the hell are these things? They can still attack even after being shot in the head!" Da Xiong gripped his gun tightly, aiming towards the window.

Xie Yuting held his knife, frowning as he looked out the window. Several bloody gashes marked his arm, likely from the creature earlier. He was silent for a moment before turning to Liang Qian, asking, "Have you encountered Zongzi like this before?"

Liang Qian shook her head, her face growing paler still. She kept clutching her forehead, her entire body trembling slightly, covered in sweat beads. After catching her breath, she said, "I only know these things won't enter a house... When I woke up alone in here earlier, one was already standing guard by the door."

We all fell silent. I thought something was off; there was nothing particularly special in the room, and the disk Liang Qian had called the God of the Wei Kingdom was smashed to pieces.

Using the brief respite to catch our breath, I washed my face with the mineral water Xie Yuting had finished, then stood up. I saw that the doorway and the window were now completely blocked by those creatures—there must have been dozens of them.

These things surrounded us in the room, silent and deathly still.

Under the lamplight, I could see that the face of the male corpse in the greatcoat at the door was half-rotted, sickeningly grotesque. Its death pose had been agonizing, and it was even uglier as a Zongzi, emitting a pervasive stench.

I looked at it a couple of times and felt there was something dissonant about the creature, though I couldn't articulate what.

After some thought, I seemed to find a clue: this thing was too rigid, like a plank of wood, entirely devoid of spirit.

I had seen genuine Zongzi when we first entered the cave a couple of days ago; they possessed immense strength and could emit sounds like screeching night cats. I felt they were at least things retaining some characteristics of life. This thing before me, if I had to describe it, was a puppet—no breath, no heartbeat, not even any superfluous movement. Even the direction its eyes faced was the exact direction it had been looking when it died.

I shared my observations with the others. They pondered for a while, and then Liang Qian exclaimed in surprise, "A puppet..."

Then she concentrated deeply, stood up, and announced, "I know what this is! It's a Corpse-Carrying Centipede Spider!"

Da Xiong was momentarily confused and asked, "What Corpse-Carrying Five Princess?"

Liang Qian ignored him, pulled a flashlight from her bag, took a rifle from Da Xiong, and fired two shots toward the roof, tearing away the thatch to create a large hole.

Liang Qian turned on the flashlight and aimed the beam up through the hole towards the cave ceiling, seemingly searching for something. The three of us followed the light, peering up with curiosity.

The cave roof was draped with massive stalactites. Their surfaces were coated in frost due to the low temperature, and their sharp angles refracted the flashlight beam into an eerie glow.

As the light swept across the ceiling, a flash of iridescent light suddenly streaked across our vision, as if we had seen a vast, serpentine figure moving quickly overhead.

We all started, remembering the enormous monster we encountered by the underground river.

Liang Qian clearly tensed up, slowing the sweep of her hand. The circular patch of light cast by the torch moved slowly across the ceiling and finally settled on an area reflecting a multi-hued gleam.

Oh my God, my scalp instantly erupted in chills!

Da Xiong whispered quietly, "Damn, that’s a huge centipede, this thing must have attained sentience!"

Liang Qian shook her head and murmured, "It's not a centipede; it's a Corpse-Carrying Centipede Spider..."

Indeed, following the beam of the flashlight, we saw that the spot reflecting the colorful light was the creature's torso. On either side of its body were legs over a meter long, covered in black hair like a spider's—no wonder it could move so fast.

Most bizarrely, only a few of its legs were gripping the ceiling; the rest were curled backward, reminiscent of the graceful 'orchid hand' posture of a Bodhisattva.

Da Xiong stared for a moment, cursing, "This centipede spirit is such a damn girly one; it must be female!"

Liang Qian shook her head and whispered, "Quiet down, these things have excellent hearing and high intelligence."

She continued scanning the ceiling with the flashlight, and I immediately sucked in a sharp breath. This Corpse-Carrying Centipede Spider was at least two meters long. A rough sweep showed at least a dozen of them directly above us, clustered densely on the ceiling, enough to make one's scalp crawl.