Find This

He stared at the hand reaching out of the coffin.

"Hiss—"

Zhang Hao and the others sucked in a sharp breath, holding it without thinking.

The back of the grayish-blue hand was covered in black hair, but what truly sent chills down their spines were its long, black fingernails.

The hand groped along the edge of the coffin, its nails scraping against the wood with a grating sound that made their scalps crawl.

"Get lost!"

Just then, Li Bo knocked Xu Tong's hand away and glared at him. "Get the hell away from me! Touch me again and I'll chop you up!"

Xu Tong's expression turned cold. Without a word, he backed away.

Li Bo then looked at the hand reaching through the gap in the coffin. To everyone's surprise, he grabbed it without a trace of fear. A grin spread across his chubby face. "We can joke around, but don't mess with your big brother Bo. Get the hell out!"

As he spoke, Li Bo planted one foot against the coffin and yanked hard, trying to drag out the staff member inside who was dressed as a zombie.

But the moment he pulled, the sneer on his face froze. He was much stronger than the average person, yet not only did he fail to pull the other person out, the hand clamped tightly around his wrist instead.

The grayish-blue hand was withered and shriveled, like that of an elderly person, but its grip felt like an iron shackle. Five black nails sank straight into his flesh.

"Ah!!"

The pain hit him a moment later, twisting Li Bo's features into a grimace. Before he could even struggle, the hand inside the coffin yanked him back with tremendous force, pulling half his arm inside.

"Ah!! Ah!! Help me..."

Li Bo's bloodcurdling screams and cries for help rang out from inside the coffin, setting everyone on edge. Zhang Hao instinctively started forward to save him, but a hand yanked him back hard.

When he turned around, Zhou Yu was looking at him with a cold expression and shaking her head. "There's no saving him. Run while you still can!"

With that, Zhou Yu ran off without looking back.

"R-run... wait for me!"

Wang Shaohui hurried after her, afraid he'd be a moment too slow.

"Don't run! Help me, save me... You... don't leave!"

Watching Zhou Yu and Wang Shaohui leave without a backward glance, Li Bo panicked. He wanted to curse them and their ancestors, but still clung to a faint hope and didn't dare open his mouth. The veins on his forehead throbbed as he held it all in.

His desperate gaze turned to Zhang Hao, silently begging him not to abandon him.

Zhang Hao hesitated and started to move toward him, but then he heard a cold laugh beside his ear. "If I were you, I'd run without looking back."

Zhang Hao froze. When he turned, Xu Tong was crouching nearby, with no intention of running or saving anyone.

Li Bo couldn't take it anymore. He endured the excruciating pain in his wrist and glared at Xu Tong as if he wanted to devour him.

"You little bastard, Xu... Ah!! I'll curse your ancestors for eighteen generations!!!"

Xu Tong picked at his ear with his pinky, ignoring Li Bo's cursing. Resting his chin on one hand, he looked like he was watching a show. "I guarantee you won't be able to pull your hand out. And you'll end up as its last meal before you die. Believe me?"

Now even Zhang Hao's expression turned grim, and Li Bo's did too. He hurriedly raised his other hand and swore an oath.

"Brother... don't listen to him... I swear, if I drag you down with me, I'll... I'll get hit by a car the moment I leave here!"

"Where's a car supposed to come from out here in the middle of nowhere?" Xu Tong crouched nearby, looking around as if searching for one.

Li Bo was so furious his teeth ached. He quickly came up with an even harsher oath. "If I'm lying, may my whole family die!"

Xu Tong grinned even more broadly. "You're your whole family. You can die as many times as you like."

"You son of a—!!!"

Li Bo was so furious he felt his lungs would burst. His face, already covered in rolls of fat, now looked like that of a rabid mastiff.

Zhang Hao lost his nerve. Xu Tong might have just been talking, but given Li Bo's behavior earlier, it was entirely possible he meant it.

He couldn't risk his own life for a stranger, no matter how convincing that stranger sounded.

With that thought, Zhang Hao turned to catch up with Zhou Yu and the others. But Xu Tong called out to him.

"Hey, lend me your knife!"

"My knife?"

Only then did Zhang Hao remember he was holding a knife. But Xu Tong's request made him wary. "What do you want it for?"

"To save him, obviously. What else?"

Xu Tong looked completely relaxed. It was hard to associate him with the urgency of saving someone.

"But you..." Zhang Hao started to say.

"Or you can stay here with me, and we can see what the zombie looks like together in a bit." Xu Tong tilted his head at him.

At the word "zombie," Zhang Hao's face darkened. He shook his head repeatedly, dropped the knife, and ran.

Watching Zhang Hao disappear into the distance, Li Bo stared blankly for a moment, then stiffly turned his head toward Xu Tong's obnoxiously smug grin.

For a moment, they stared at each other.

Li Bo's face went from white to blue, then from blue to red. His neck swelled like a toad's as he endured five agonizing seconds.

His expression finally crumpled. Like a deflated ball, he pleaded miserably, "Brother Xu, Master Xu, Ancestor Xu, please be the bigger man and help me. I'm begging you."

The more vicious Li Bo had been with his insults earlier, the more miserable he was now. Each jolt of pain in his wrist made the fat on his face twitch.

He had hardly any strength left to struggle. Worst of all, dusk seemed to be drawing closer, and the light in the woods had grown dim and gloomy. The man in front of him had become his only lifeline.

Xu Tong toyed with the short knife in his hand. Hearing Li Bo beg, he raised an eyebrow and gave him a teasing once-over. "Sure. What's the payment?"

"Payment?"

Li Bo froze, staring blankly at his own rolls of fat. He couldn't help picturing a scene from a movie where the heroine's hand was stuck in a tree hollow. A wave of goosebumps rose all over him.

Seeing Li Bo's constipated expression, Xu Tong rolled his eyes and mimicked the look Li Bo had given Wang Shaohui earlier. "Don't bother. I'm not interested in all that fat. Give me the Underworld Banknotes in your pocket."

"Fine, fine, you can have them. Just hurry up and save me!"

Li Bo had no idea what Xu Tong wanted the Underworld Banknotes for, but they weren't useful to him anyway. It wasn't as if he could use them after he died.

He readily took them out and set them by his feet. He didn't dare throw them over, afraid Xu Tong would take the money and run.

"All right, here I come!"

Xu Tong stretched languidly, tucked the dagger into the back of his waistband, and sauntered over to Li Bo. Just as he reached for the Underworld Banknotes, he suddenly stepped back and looked up at Li Bo warily. "You're not going to ambush me, are you?"

Li Bo's eyes tightened. He gave a firm nod, in too much pain to speak.

Only then did Xu Tong reach down and pick up the Underworld Banknotes. He stuffed them into his pocket without even looking at them, then went to the coffin and peered carefully through the broken opening.

Unfortunately, it was pitch-black inside. He could make out only a vague human-shaped silhouette, which left him rather disappointed.

"Hurry up and think of something!" Li Bo urged him from nearby.

"There's nothing to think about. I'll cut it off for you."

Xu Tong glanced at Li Bo's wrist and saw that the flesh around it had started to turn black.

"Cut it off?!"

Li Bo looked at his own hand, despair rising in his heart. But when he glanced over, he saw Xu Tong standing there at his leisure, which made him hate him even more.

He took a deep breath and tried to steady himself before speaking. "Try pulling it out again. If you can't, then cut it off."

"No problem!"

Xu Tong nodded, stepped forward, placed both hands on Li Bo's arm, and pulled hard.

Li Bo's gaze drifted to the dagger at Xu Tong's back. A murderous look rose in his eyes.

While Xu Tong wasn't paying attention, Li Bo suddenly lunged forward, pressing his massive body against him. One hand quickly found the knife handle at Xu Tong's waist, yanked it free, and drove it hard into Xu Tong's lower back.

"Take that, you bastard! Why would I need you to cut off my arm when I've got a knife? Damn your ancestors, you son of a ****!"

"Die! Die! I'm losing an arm, so you can pay for it with your life!"

Eyes bloodshot, Li Bo roared, pouring out all the fury in his chest. Clutching the knife handle tightly, he stabbed Xu Tong in the lower back again and again without restraint.

Xu Tong struggled weakly a few times, then braced himself against the coffin before collapsing sideways to the ground.

His eyes stared blankly at Li Bo, his face frozen in shock, like a man who couldn't rest in peace.

Li Bo raised his head, closed his eyes, and let out a long breath. Killing someone didn't seem to make him feel nervous or guilty.

On the contrary, he felt completely relaxed, as if he had released all the negative emotions inside him—fear, remorse, anger, everything.

"Much better!"

With a long sigh, Li Bo slowly opened his eyes. But the instant he did, they flew wide open. The Xu Tong lying on the ground before him was slowly sitting upright under his gaze.

"You're not dead??" Li Bo froze. He had stabbed him so many times. How could he still be alive?

"I didn't like how death felt, so I got back up."

"Do you think lying down like this works? Or like this? This?"

Watching Xu Tong change poses over and over in front of him, Li Bo stared in bewilderment. It took him a good while to come to his senses. "Are you fucking crazy?"

Li Bo raised the knife, intending to chop the man's head off. But when he lifted his hand, he realized he was holding nothing but the knife handle. There was no blade.

"Looking for this?"

At the sound of Xu Tong's voice, Li Bo's face stiffened. He slowly turned around to find Xu Tong already back on his feet. Xu Tong swung the knife down at him.

"Splurt..."