I stood at the mouth of the cave on the cliff face, peering down at the scene below, my heart a knot of anxiety. Suddenly, a chill crept up my back, and I spun around quickly to look.

The sight that greeted me instantly froze my blood. Standing right behind me was a terrifying monster clad in white robes.

Though its form resembled a human, its entire face was foul, covered in thick, greenish fur. Its eyes were pits of absolute blackness, and its mouth, full of razor-sharp fangs, emitted a low, guttural sound.

The shock nearly made me wet myself; my legs turned to water, utterly refusing to move.

This is it, I thought. Today, I’m certainly going to die at the hands of this creature. With the sheer cliff wall at my back, I had nowhere left to run.

Just as this thought crystallized, the spiky green fiend lunged, extending a claw covered in vicious barbs.

Seeing ten black claws, sharp as daggers, reaching for my throat, a wave of pure despair washed over me.

Yet, the instinct for survival flared up. In that split second before impact, I ducked low and evaded the strike.

However, the momentum of the monster’s lunge was immense. Its body slammed into me, the sheer force rattling my chest and making me choke on blood.

My head swam as I pitched backward, the sound of rushing air filling my ears.

I knew my back was about twenty meters above the jagged rocks of the canyon floor. A direct landing would surely crack my skull open.

So, I clawed desperately at the air, and by some miracle, my fingers snagged the rope—the one they had left when they rappelled down.

Suspended mid-air, grasping the rope, my body still swung violently into the stone wall. My forehead slammed against a jutting piece of sharp rock. A ringing instantly filled my ears as hot blood began to stream down my face.

I bought myself a single second, knowing there was no time to rest. Clenching the rope with both hands, I scrambled downward as fast as I could.

But soon, a scratching, grating sound echoed from above. The monster was actually climbing down the rock face, hanging upside down, using its incredibly sharp claws. Its speed was terrifying.

Watching the creature rapidly descend toward me filled me with fresh dread.

At that moment, a gunshot cracked from the bottom of the ravine.

Crack! It struck the monster squarely in the back, making it recoil violently.

I let out a silent sigh of relief and turned back to see *holding the gun, standing directly below me.

His face, however, was grim, suggesting something terrible was unfolding. Just as I opened my mouth to ask him what was wrong...

The distinct scraping sound of claws on rock erupted from all directions around me.

My heart plummeted. A dozen pairs of eyes, glowing faintly green, flickered to life on the surrounding rock faces, closing in on my position.

Utterly horrified, I saw I was only two or three meters from the ground. I let go of the rope and dropped.

When my feet hit the earth, *gave me a steadying push, preventing me from landing hard on my backside.

I looked up and saw the creatures rapidly closing in. I shoved * and yelled, “Quick! Find cover!”

But * stood utterly still beside me.

Growing frantic, I demanded to know what was wrong. He just shook his head, murmuring, “Where can we run? We’re trapped with nowhere left to retreat.”

I glanced wildly around. Lying in a distant pool of blood were the few brothers who had followed * down. I gasped in shock.

“Damn this man-eating pit!” I spat, turning back to *.

gave me a tragic smile and pulled out a grenade. “We might as well follow the example of the Five Heroes of Langya Mountain. With all our brothers dead here, I have no honor left to live. This glorious bullet,” he patted the grenade, “is a gift for our brothers in the hereafter. When those things arrive, we’ll take them down with us!”

Hearing * speak those words filled me with equal despair. But the most maddening part was not knowing what entity we were facing.

These things—the locals called them Zongzi—were far more agile than typical corpses. Yet, their invulnerability and brute strength surpassed anything else.

Strangest of all, bodies bitten by these creatures actually reanimated. How could that be explained?

Could it be that the zombie virus depicted in Resident Evil truly existed?

I recalled old investigation files about the Russians cultivating new strains of human viruses in the uninhabited regions of Xinjiang.

As these thoughts raced through my mind, I instinctively looked at the area where the monster had struck me earlier.

On my shoulder, precisely where the impact had landed, I saw hundreds of tiny, dense green specks.

I extended a finger to gently touch one, but the moment my hand approached, the specks reacted as if startled, instantly retreating from the area of my shoulder.

I recoiled in surprise. What were these things? Insects?

They were smaller than the tip of a hair, impossible to discern clearly. They looked more like some kind of moss or lichen. And then, I formed a tentative hypothesis.

I noticed several specks crawling toward my elbow. This time, having learned my lesson, I didn't use my finger. Instead, I plucked a strand of hair to gently prod one.

Sure enough, I managed to lift a single green speck onto the hair.

But just as I tried to bring it closer to my eye for a better look, the thing suddenly sprang off the hair and dropped to the ground.

Though I couldn’t identify it, I had discovered one thing: these entities moved when they sensed heat. This behavior was entirely consistent with plant life.

I strongly suspected that the mysterious "Devil’s Sigh" and the movement of the corpses were connected to this substance.

I was certain because of an experience I’d had years ago.

In my third year of university, my research group was discussing biochemical viruses.

We conducted numerous experiments but never found a bacterium or virus capable of reanimating dead tissue.

However, one classmate mentioned reading in a Harvard University research journal about an algae that could control animal nerves and exhibited complex behavioral patterns.

The journal claimed that a remote Amazonian tribe had been infected by an algae called Tree Fever Algae, leading them to slaughter each other. Furthermore, bodies of those who died remained unrigor-mortised for seven days, continuing to move...

At the time, I dismissed his claims—first, because I hadn't seen proof, and second, because it defied conventional science; no algae had ever been recorded infecting humans before this supposed Tree Fever Algae.

If this algae was truly the culprit, it explained the disappearance of the wild camels. Camels, as mammals, generate body heat. If this algae gathered in large enough colonies, they could hunt by sensing that heat, dissolving an animal’s body instantly, leaving nothing behind, not even bone.

When these algae dissolve organic matter, they release large amounts of gas from the body, which explained the eerie "poof" sound heard earlier.

In that light, the person swallowed into the wall must have simply been consumed as well.

But the truly bizarre nature of this algae was its lack of fixed behavior. Once sated, they would form a neural network inside an animal or corpse, controlling its body to perform inexplicable acts—like the planned, premeditated cannibalism of the Amazonian tribe.

As a paleo-biologist, knowing the true nature of the enemy made the situation manageable.

Faster than I could articulate, these thoughts flashed through my mind. Over a dozen dark shadows were already closing in, encircling us.

and I stood shoulder to shoulder, sweat pouring down our faces. His pinky finger was already hooked around the pin of the grenade. If the monsters charged, he would pull the pin, and we would die together.

The dozen dark shapes rapidly advanced. Soon, I could make out several ferocious green faces emerging from the beam of *’s flashlight.

I knew these were just animated corpses controlled by the attached Tree Fever Algae. I quickly grabbed *’s hand just as he was about to pull the pin, and asked, “Do you have salt?”

blinked, confused. “Salt? What salt?”

Assuming he was too tense, I raised my voice. “Salt! The salt you use for cooking!”