“Don’t mind them — move now!” Diao Zhuo shoved the gun in his hand to Da Qin for self-defense. The other two seized weapons were held by Ba Yunye. Although no one could clearly see what was happening inside the mushroom cluster, they all simultaneously felt a surge of dread. The only course was to run.

Before they had taken two steps, the ground began to tremble. The grave-cap mushrooms all turned bright red at once, slowly swelling and heaving upward — as if something beneath the earth was about to break the surface. No one had time to investigate what was happening. They broke into a run, but one by one — just like the criminals — they were tripped by white bones suddenly jutting up through the soil.

The number of grave-cap mushrooms surged, multiplying like some rampant strain of bacteria, spreading outward in every direction from the densest cluster at the center. Within seconds, nearly the entire mountainside was blanketed by grave-cap mushrooms — shifting from ashen white to vivid red. Whatever grass, trees, or sulfur-yellow rhododendrons had been there were all smothered under the swelling red tide.

This impossible development left everyone stunned with fear. Ba Yunye rubbed her eyes, unable to believe what she was seeing. Diao Zhuo stared at the scene around him in equal disbelief, his eyes filled with confusion.

Something impossible was happening again — and no matter how many warning signs there had been before, no one could make sense of it now.

This cannot be real. Diao Zhuo told himself again — yet what stood before him was a sight that inspired genuine terror.

The original mass of grave-cap mushrooms had been heaved into a small mound from below, then burst open with a bang. Several blood-drenched humanoid figures toppled outward like a flower blooming to the ground, their hands and feet twitching faintly.

This was beyond anyone’s decades of accumulated understanding. Though no one believed their eyes, those grotesque and terrifying things began hauling themselves upright one by one — no faces, no features, reeking of intense putrefaction.

“Japanese soldiers are crawling up from underground?!” Xiang’an cried in terror.

Da Qin, clutching his wound, felt certain he was dreaming and kept shaking his head. “How can this be — this… isn’t scientific!”

“The teacher never covered this topic!” Ba Yunye said, backing away. “Diao Zhuo, your assessment!”

“Assessment nothing — run!” Diao Zhuo waved a hand, and everyone released the hold they had on the subdued criminals and bolted.

The creatures were closer to the red-bearded man and the others, who naturally caught the first attack. The criminals were no easy prey — having survived the carnivorous rabbit ordeal, their psychological resilience may have been somewhat hardened. They opened fire immediately. But these things were not human to begin with — even with bullets punching several holes through their bodies and heads, nothing slowed their advance. They were in fact more troublesome than the carnivorous rabbits.

One criminal was knocked flat by a creature. He felt a mass of soft, rotting flesh cover his face — instant darkness, unable to breathe, the strength draining from his limbs. He wanted to move but could not. Unlike the carnivorous rabbits, the creature did not bite. It simply pressed itself against you, as if — like something from certain novels — absorbing your spirit and will until you were entirely hollowed out. The criminal struggled a few times, then went still. Everyone watched his skin shrivel rapidly until he became a mummified corpse. The creature that had been attached to him then assumed the criminal’s face — though the eyes were unfocused, staring into nothing — and extended both arms, moving on to find its next target.

Diao Zhuo’s group had barely run a few steps when the grave-cap mushrooms directly ahead swelled high and erupted, releasing another swarm of the fetid creatures that blocked their path. The mushrooms were already numerous — now they were multiplying geometrically, more and more mounds rising, one swarm of creatures after another bursting out in every direction.

“Into the trees! Into the trees!” Ba Yunye tried the tactic they knew, but looked up to find that the trees, now overgrown with grave-cap mushrooms, had several creatures crouching in them. The instant she looked up they plunged down from above — what might be loosely called their heads were masses of bloody pulp and flesh, gaping like the suction cups of a giant octopus.

She reacted quickly and leapt aside. The creatures missed her, but seemed to scent blood, and split off to converge on Da Qin and Pang Hou instead.

Diao Zhuo thrust Da Qin aside and kicked one creature away, but another immediately clamped itself around his throat. He swung his elbow back hard into it, but the thing had no skeleton — it was soft all over — so even a powerful strike landed on it like hitting a bag of cotton wool and just got absorbed. He drove his elbow in again. The creature crumpled to the ground, but his neck stung sharply. He touched it and found the skin there wrinkled and sucked dry of moisture.

What in the world was going on? All of this violated every law of natural science. He continued fighting while his mind raced — there could be no such life form in the world, and certainly no example of the dead rising. Whether those buried here were invading Japanese soldiers or innocent villagers cut down unjustly, there was absolutely no way they could emerge from the earth.

This is wrong. Something is deeply wrong… but from what point did everything begin to go wrong? The forest illusions? The carnivorous rabbits? Long Ge appearing and vanishing? The erupting grave-cap mushrooms?

Were the creatures also illusions? No — all of this felt entirely real. Every blow he landed was solid and physical. What kind of trick was this?

To his right, Ge Mingliang fired at the creatures, which staggered for a moment before continuing unimpeded toward Pang Hou. The mass of rotting flesh seemed to flow like liquid — bullet holes in it sealed almost immediately. Pang Hou’s leg was injured and he could not run as nimbly; more creatures converged on him. Everyone, heedless of their own safety, forced a path through and rushed to save him — but it was too late. Pang Hou’s gaunt body dried out in an instant. And the creatures that had attached themselves to him — one acquired his eyes, another his lips — lopsided noses and eyes embedded in featureless masses of rotting flesh, as repulsive as they were horrifying.

“Pang Hou!!” Ge Mingliang cried out in anguish. Distracted, he was struck by a creature. He curled both legs up and when the creature bore down on him, he kicked it flying with both feet, narrowly escaping.

With the first comrade fallen, the rescue team and mountaineering association members were deeply shaken. A wave of confusion and numbness washed through all of them, and on its heels came a mounting despair. Before anyone could recover their fighting spirit, the injured Da Qin, unable to fend off the cluster of attacking creatures, was also knocked down. A creature pressed its face against his, leaving him unable even to cry out. He struggled once and seemed to lose all strength.

“Kick it off, Da Qin!!”

“Don’t let it pin you down!!”

“Da Qin! Don’t give up!!”

“Da Qin!!!”

Everyone fought the creatures swarming onto their own bodies while helplessly watching Da Qin become a dried-out corpse.

Seeing Pang Hou and Da Qin fall one after another, Ba Yunye’s heart was flooded with grief. A crushing weight of despondency and fury pressed on her chest, pushing her nearly to the edge of losing control and lashing out blindly. She had no time to look for Diao Zhuo or even to call out Da Qin’s name. Four creatures had surrounded her from all sides, every one of them lunging and clawing, each trying to claim a portion of her body. Their weapons had been confiscated by the criminals. She gripped the only entrenching tool she still had. The pistol she had seized she had already discarded — that much was clear: the entrenching tool could at least push a creature back two steps, while a handgun not only failed to stop them but risked injuring a comrade.

The creatures’ fighting power and lethality far exceeded the carnivorous rabbits. The best strategy was to avoid all contact with them, but with so many of them, avoiding contact entirely seemed impossible. The red-bearded man’s people were firing wildly with their pistols, and more than one criminal was hit by friendly fire, becoming easy prey for the creatures. Creatures that had drained criminals began to sprout arms or grow hair — half-human, half-rotting cadaver, freakish enough to rival anything extraterrestrial.

Ba Yunye swung and slashed with the entrenching tool and failed to notice a creature that suddenly erupted from the ground behind her and leaped up. Both its hands grabbed her by the shoulders. She dropped low and slipped between its legs, then raised one leg and kicked it. The creature sprawled on the ground, crushing several vivid red grave-cap mushrooms.

“Master Ba, watch out!!” A familiar male voice. Ba Yunye instinctively spun a roundhouse kick and indeed struck a creature plunging down from the trees above. Before she could identify whose voice that was, both her feet were grabbed from below. She looked down: a pair of rotting-flesh hands had pushed up through the gaps between the grave-cap mushrooms and locked around her ankles.

She hammered it several times with the entrenching tool, but the grip did not loosen. At the same time, her feet went numb and tingly — as if half her blood were being drawn out. Then, a pair of putrid hands landed on her back.

Damn it — I’m done for, she thought.

“Bang!” The creature behind her was sent flying by Diao Zhuo, who came charging in. She didn’t hesitate — she drove the shovel blade down hard into the rotting hands clutching her feet. With no bones inside, the flesh broke apart after several blows. The moment her feet were free, she ran. Diao Zhuo fought with absolute ferocity, using his entire body as a weapon, and carved a path through for her with sheer brutal force. She ran ahead and shook off several more creatures.

Before she had gone far, more creatures just emerged from beneath the grave-cap mushrooms blocked her way. She gripped the entrenching tool sideways and slammed it down repeatedly on those creatures’ heads — the sensation was like hitting bundles of cotton, with no effective impact. The creatures merely paused for a moment, then continued charging forward with outstretched arms.

Diao Zhuo’s situation was equally dire. Creatures poured ceaselessly from beneath the grave-cap mushrooms, growing in number geometrically — just like the mushrooms themselves. More terrifyingly: they could not be killed. Smashing their heads, stamping their feet — it only delayed their assault at most. Within a minute, the rotting mass would reconstitute itself.

While fighting, Diao Zhuo’s mind kept working — if Long Ge had ever passed through here and searched for a signal among the grave-cap mushrooms, he would also have encountered these creatures. Was Long Ge alive or dead? If dead, where was his body? Before they arrived, where had the creatures been? If he was alive, how had he escaped?

“Ahhh—” In the distance, a criminal was knocked flat from behind. Screaming and struggling, he quickly fell silent and became another dried-out husk.

Diao Zhuo kicked a creature down and instinctively looked for Ba Yunye — and inadvertently noticed that the tattooed-snake man, who had been felled by the poisonous mushrooms, was still writhing and moaning pitifully — yet had not been attacked by a single creature. They were stepping on him, trampling over him, but not one had pounced on him.

Was it that the creatures didn’t prey on the poisoned? Or was there something else at work?

Before he could think further, Xiang’an let out a shout. Surrounded by a large swarm of creatures, his face white with terror, he was knocked down. Diao Zhuo rushed toward him but was blocked by two creatures attacking from left and right. He cursed under his breath, threw both off, and looked again — helpless to stop it — as those pale clean hands turned to dark-yellow bone.

“Xiang’an!!” Diao Zhuo’s eyes went red. He slammed his fist into the ground, overcome with guilt.

There was no time for grief. Lao Bao and Tan Lin fell in quick succession, dying where they stood despite their desperate struggles. Even worse, the will to fight and survive was beginning to drain from everyone as comrade after comrade was lost.

“At this rate none of us will make it!” Ge Mingliang shouted.

No — there has to be a way. There must be a turning point! Diao Zhuo gritted his teeth and knocked away a creature that came lunging at him.