Hao Wenming had a small head; he stretched his head down through the hole and looked around back and forth. Just when I was beginning to suspect he might burst a blood vessel from brain hemorrhage, Director Hao pulled his head back, his face flushed red, and said to Xiao Heshang, "I don't see anything wrong. That bell is still down there, placed as before. Nothing seems abnormal."
Xiao Heshang was old; he couldn't imitate Hao Wenming's movements. He could only squat at the hole and glance down to get a rough idea. After hearing Hao Wenming's report on the situation below, he nodded but still wasn't fully convinced. He shone his flashlight down for a while. Sun Fatty squatted beside him, took out a cigarette, didn't ask anyone, and lit it for himself.
Xiao Heshang caught the smell of smoke, looked up at him, then flicked two fingers in front of Sun Fatty: "Give me one." Sun Fatty exhaled a puff of smoke: "Last one." Xiao Heshang didn't hesitate; he snatched the cigarette from Sun Fatty's mouth and took a few strong drags. Sun Fatty smirked, looking at the faint light at the hole, and said, "Old Master Xiao, not to be disrespectful, but shouldn't you, like last time underwater, light an incense and set up a formation or something?"
Xiao Heshang took one last drag of the cigarette butt—there was nothing left to smoke—and then tossed it into the hole, cursing, "That requires having something to burn, something to set up. Back then, I just wanted to mess around at sea for a few days, didn't bring any of that stuff. Didn't expect to really get on this cursed ship." Just as he said this, the flashlight in his hand flickered several times and then dimmed instantly. Sun Fatty couldn't help but say, "It's not out of batteries, is it?" Before he finished, Xiao Heshang's flashlight went completely dark. I sighed in resignation, "Great Sage, maybe now's not the time to talk."
Once the flashlight went out, the light coming from the floor's hole seemed to glow even brighter. We couldn't waste any more time. Po Jun borrowed Sun Fatty's short sword and cut a larger hole about a meter square, enlarging the small opening. After the hole was exposed, Po Jun turned to me and Sun Fatty and said, "I'll go down first. Don't rush; wait for my signal." He was about to return the short sword to Sun Fatty, but Sun Fatty waved his hand and said, "You keep it. I'll give it back when I go down." Po Jun nodded without objection, gripping his spear in one hand and the short sword in the other, then jumped down through the hole.
Po Jun's agility didn't match his tall stature. He landed with barely a sound. We waited above for more than three minutes before hearing Po Jun shout from below, "Come down, an—" The word "safe" was cut off abruptly. Then came a sharp gunshot: "Pop!"
"大军! What happened?" Hao Wenming shouted down. After several more gunshots, Po Jun shouted again, "Corpse mutation! Don't come down! It's the Red Hair!" More gunshots followed. Hao Wenming had already drawn his pistol and circled the hole, trying to spot the red-haired mutated corpse Po Jun had mentioned. Seeing nothing, Director Hao immediately jumped down too. After Hao Wenming landed, gunfire erupted again below.
"Great Sage, give me the crossbow," I mouthed to Sun Fatty. With some light below, I could hit anything visible. Without hesitation, Sun Fatty handed me the crossbow and a bolt. "Be careful, I've got the top covered." His last sentence made me roll my eyes—what's up there? Only a nearly seventy-year-old Xiao Heshang.
After cocking the bowstring and loading the bolt, I jumped down third. The moment I landed, I stepped forward and raised the crossbow. Every few meters in this ship's cabin, an oil lamp burned dimly—not bright, but enough to see. Gunfire came again from my left—Po Jun and Hao Wenming were shooting at a creature covered in red hair, but the bullets seemed hardly effective. Each shot made the creature pause briefly, then it kept advancing. They were forced to retreat step by step.
Hao Wenming ran out of ammo quickly. When he was changing magazines, he shouted at me, "What are you doing down here? Go back up!" Po Jun was also out of bullets, and with no more ammo, the red-haired creature was already in front of them. Hao Wenming and Po Jun had no choice but to retreat several steps.
Hao Wenming reloaded and fired three shots at the red-haired monster: "Pop! Pop! Pop!" Unexpectedly, the creature took all three hits hard and was already beside Hao Wenming. Just as Hao was about to fire the fourth shot, a crossbow bolt flew from behind him and nailed the creature's face.
I had fired the bolt. The red-haired creature screamed miserably, collapsed heavily, twisted around, and then stopped moving. The Bureau's special bullets couldn't harm it, but it died from a small crossbow bolt.
"Da Jun, what's going on? Last time when we came down here, we didn't see this thing. I'm not kidding — it's only been a short while. Where did this red-haired creature come from?" Hao Wenming said after looking at the corpse of the red-haired monster, directing his question to Po Jun.
At that moment, Sun Fatty and Xiao Heshang also jumped down. They all came over to listen to what Po Jun said. "When I came down, I already saw a corpse on the ground. At that time, I checked it out and didn't find anything unusual. It was just when I was calling you guys down," Po Jun paused, catching his breath, then continued, "I saw that black cat — the Nyeh — suddenly appear from nowhere. It jumped over the corpse's body, and then the corpse started changing. Red hair sprouted all over it, it jumped up from the ground and charged at me."
"The Nyeh is out again?" Hao Wenming and Xiao Heshang simultaneously looked around. "Where did it go?" Po Jun turned to scan the surroundings and said, "Back then, I was too busy to deal with it. Who knows where it went now?"
Sun Fatty frowned deeply and said, "Why does it always come at us? We just sealed the door, and now this corpse has turned. Is it ever going to stop?" As he spoke, a mouse head peeked out from his pocket. Wealth Rat looked alert and glanced cautiously around outside, suddenly as if he saw something, and began squeaking chaotically toward the front.
At that moment, a black cat emerged from the shadows not far ahead and stopped about twenty meters away from us. The five of us and a mouse stood off against this black cat.
"Nyeh…" The black cat called out to us, showing a mouth full of jet-black teeth...
Xiao Heshang looked at the black cat, then at the direction of its gaze, and told Sun Fatty, "Little Fatty, it seems to be looking at you." Sun Fatty realized something was wrong and shifted a few steps left and right. The black cat's eyes followed his movements. While staring at Sun Fatty, it occasionally licked its tongue but didn't seem in a hurry to act. After watching him for a while, the cat's gaze suddenly grew lazy.
Xiao Heshang caught the meaning: "Little Fatty, you really have a way with animals. Last time you got Wealth Rat for free, now even the Nyeh is after you. What kind of fate do you have, kid?"
Sun Fatty snorted unhappily, saying, "Don't be polite. I have a mouse, that's enough. Old Master Xiao, if you want, you can take this Nyeh home and raise it." Before Xiao Heshang could retort, the black cat suddenly raised its head and called out, "Nyeh…"
Looking again, the black cat's gaze had shifted from Sun Fatty to Xiao Heshang. Xiao Heshang was stunned for a moment as the black cat walked several steps closer, stopping about three or four meters away. Unlike before, the cat's eyes looked very impatient. It stared straight at Xiao Heshang and called out again: "Nyeh…"
"What do you mean by calling me? What's going on?" Xiao Heshang seemed at a loss. The cat grew agitated, calling out "Nyeh… Nyeh… Nyeh…" repeatedly, each cry sounding piercing, like a sharp blade scraping glass. Having just heard stories about the Nyeh, the cries unsettled us deeply. Po Jun was the first to lose his temper, raising his handgun and aiming at the cat: "One shot, let's see if you still cry."
Sun Fatty was startled and quickly grabbed Po Jun's arm: "It's not calling you, and Old Master Xiao hasn't even done anything yet. Why are you in such a rush?"
"Da Jun! Put the gun away, I know what's going on." While the black cat opened its mouth to call again, I noticed a missing tooth inside its mouth and immediately realized: "Black Fang! Old Master Xiao, it wants its Nyeh tooth!"
Xiao Heshang reacted quickly, pulling the black tooth out of his pocket and waving it in front of the black cat. The cat shrank back, then kicked off the ground with both hind legs and jumped towards Xiao Heshang.
Seeing the cat charging at him, Xiao Heshang hurriedly tossed the black tooth. The cat caught it in midair, then quietly landed. It held the Nyeh tooth in its mouth, grinding its jaws back and forth. When it opened its mouth again, the gap where the tooth had been was filled, showing two neat rows of small black teeth.
"How is that possible? Could its whole mouth be dentures?" Sun Fatty said in amazement, then looked at Hao Wenming. "Hao, does the bureau's files on the Nyeh mention this?"
Hao Wenming shook his head: "I've heard of regeneration—lost limbs growing back, lost teeth growing back— but never teeth falling out and then finding and reattaching themselves."
At this moment, possibly because it got its tooth back, the black cat's mood greatly improved. Its cries of "Nyeh" were no longer so piercing. It sauntered a few steps forward, ignoring Xiao Heshang and coming to Sun Fatty's feet.
Sun Fatty was surprised and took a few steps back; the cat followed him a few steps.
Xiao Heshang said, "Little Fatty, don't move. See what it wants." Sun Fatty rolled his eyes: "Easy for you to say — I'm the one getting tangled up with it." Despite this, he stopped and watched the cat's actions closely. The black cat rubbed its head against Sun Fatty's pant leg, looked up at him, called out "Nyeh" once more, then kept staring at him.
Seeing that Sun Fatty did not react, the cat called again and slowly turned around, strolling toward the exit.
"Is that really necessary?" After seeing the cat disappear completely toward the exit, Sun Fatty finally said, "You guys scared like that over a cat? It's just a Black Fang cat. What harm can a Nyeh do?"
"Da Sheng, enough nonsense. You should have said that a minute ago." I handed the crossbow back to Sun Fatty. "Instead of talking, we should first see what's going on here."
Xiao Heshang and Hao Wenming ignored Sun Fatty. After whispering to each other, they both approached the red-haired creature's body. It was then that I noticed the red hair had fallen off at some point; lying on the ground was a human corpse.
I leaned over for a closer look. The corpse was bald, appearing about thirty or forty years old, lying naked from head to toe. The most striking feature was his body: nearly all his blood vessels had burst to the surface of the skin, and from the top of his head down to his feet, clear red vascular patterns showed on his skin.
"Lazi, Da Sheng, come over and check this out," Hao Wenming called back to me and gestured to Sun Fatty. "You probably haven't seen one like this. It's a rare specimen. Not many in the Bureau have seen this kind."
Sun Fatty came over and glanced, saying, "A zombie?"
Hao Wenming gave him a look and said, "Strictly speaking, it's not a zombie. It's a living person turned into a corpse — a living person infused with dead Qi. That's why you see the blood vessels can't bear the dead Qi and appear mutated on the skin."
"That doesn't sound right." I glanced at Po Jun and said, "Da Jun told me he checked the corpse when he came down. The person was already dead, and he didn't find anything unusual. It doesn't seem like what Hao said — a living person infused with dead Qi."
"Da Jun's check was correct, and what Lazi said is also correct," Xiao Heshang looked up at me and said, "When a living person is infused with dead Qi, on the surface they appear dead. Unless special methods are used, or until after the corpse changes, it's impossible to tell. Back then, Da Jun didn't have the conditions to distinguish whether it was a living corpse."
I was confused. "Old Master Xiao, once it's already a corpse, is there really a difference between a living corpse and a dead one?"
"There is." Xiao Heshang pointed to a corpse with a hole on its forehead. "It's still alive now..."
"You're saying it's alive? Right now?" Not only Sun Fatty but even I widened my eyes. The guy on the ground was missing most of his head. If he wasn't considered dead, then what about all those buried in the graveyard — are they all alive?
"Watch closely." Xiao Heshang pulled out his "knitting needle" again, stabbing it into the corpse's head. The needle, made of some unknown material, pierced through the hard skull without resistance. The over one-foot-long needle was completely embedded in the corpse's head, leaving just a few inches of the tip exposed.
Then Xiao Heshang started endlessly pacing around the corpse. Sun Fatty watched for a while and sighed, "Old Master Xiao, is this circle-walking really meaningful? Watching you go round and round makes me want to throw up. Can't you change your posture occasionally? At least make it less boring."
Xiao Heshang ignored him and kept pacing.
Just as I thought this would go on forever, Xiao Heshang suddenly slapped the corpse across the face. The slap was crisp and loud. Except for Hao Wenming, Sun Fatty, Po Jun, and I were all startled.
"Old Xiao..." Sun Fatty barely said the two words before he froze stiffly in place. Not just him — Po Jun and I both stepped back, startled, as we saw the corpse that had just taken a slap suddenly stand up straight, imitating Xiao Heshang's figure, then begin pacing in a circle.
If it weren't for the fact that he wasn't wearing any clothes, with dense blood vessels crawling all over his body like countless earthworms, and the exposed wound on his forehead where the skin and flesh had turned outward, you'd think he was just a normal living person moving around.
But after about a minute, the corpse suddenly collapsed with a heavy thud. This time, as it fell, the bursting blood vessels on his body slowly started to fade. Although some still remained visible under the skin, at least it looked much more normal than before.
"He really is alive..." Sun Fatty muttered. "So what do we do now? Master Xiao, how do we save him?"
Unexpectedly, Xiao Heshang shook his head and said, "There's no saving him. The only thing we can do is to help him transcend. What we can do is to let him die properly, and then he can reincarnate sooner."
Saying that, Xiao Heshang pinched the tip of the knitting needle sticking out of the corpse's head with two fingers, then pulled hard and removed the "knitting needle." He then wiped the needle carefully several times with a tissue before putting it away.
"So what about him now?" Sun Fatty pointed at the corpse lying on the ground.
Xiao Heshang said, "He's dead now. I just released the death Qi that was restraining him. Without the death Qi binding him, his soul can go to reincarnate."
At that moment, Hao Wenming walked up to Xiao Heshang's side and whispered something in his ear. Xiao Heshang's expression shifted slightly: "Something's still gone wrong after all."