"Gagagaga!"
The mouth on the skeletal, shriveled face opened slightly, letting out a sharp, grating cackle as thick, disgusting saliva splattered everywhere.
Qin Ran frowned and was about to take two steps back to avoid the revolting spittle.
But several withered hands burst through the ground and clamped tightly around his feet.
Not only did they pin him in place, they also dragged him downward with all their strength.
More astonishingly, the hard gravel beneath him had somehow turned into a mire.
The blood-red mire swallowed the surrounding corpses like a swamp.
Within a few breaths, it had swallowed dozens of bodies.
Qin Ran's legs, too, had been dragged into the mire up to his calves.
But the transformation did not stop there.
Foul-smelling bubbles churned through the mire. Each time one burst with a pop, one of the swallowed corpses was spat back out.
The corpses, thoroughly soaked in blood-red liquid, came to life again.
They let out roar after roar like wild beasts.
Then they charged at Qin Ran like mad.
Within moments, dozens of corpses piled over Qin Ran like a pyramid, burying him beneath them. The blood-red mire began spinning rapidly, like a gaping mouth, swallowing all the corpses along with Qin Ran.
Once everything had been swallowed, the red faded away, and the gravel ground returned to its original state, including the corpses.
A blood-red pearl the size of a thumb tip rose from the pooled blood. Trailing a streak of light, it flew into the shadows nearby and landed in an elderly man's palm.
"You arrogant fool, I won't kill you!"
"I'll make you wish you were dead!"
With those words in his aged voice, the man turned to leave.
But the moment he turned, the elderly priest froze in place.
Before him, Qin