Husband... have you truly forgotten me?

Yang Yong stole a glance around out of the corner of his eye, and his whole body instantly went cold-

Every last survivor of the convoy had been captured alive!

They were surrounded by the Eerie, their hands bound by invisible ghostly energy.

Their faces were ashen, and they shook like leaves, not even daring to breathe deeply.

Several who had never been mentally resilient had already wet themselves in terror.

Cloudy liquid trickled down their trouser legs.

An indescribable stench of urine mingled with a sinister chill in the air.

Life and death-

Even the toughest men could not keep their taut nerves from snapping before such boundless despair.

Yang Yong could barely save himself. He could only watch helplessly, anxious but unable to help at all.

An irrepressible urge to urinate surged uncontrollably within him. Only by gritting his teeth could he barely hold it back.

When all was said and done.

He was only an ordinary student who had gotten into university not long ago.

The fact that he had struggled to survive this long in an apocalypse overrun with Eerie.

Had already taken every scrap of his luck and courage.

An unknown amount of time passed.

The Eerie Bride, who had been lost in thought all this time, finally came slowly back to herself.

Her gaze on Yang Yong abruptly turned burning and greedy.

Those eyes did not look as though they were regarding a living person.

They were more like those of a vicious creature that had starved for decades, finally spotting a one-of-a-kind piece of prey.

Not good!

Yang Yong's heart sank, and he inwardly cursed his luck.

She's going to attack!

Yet the next second, the tearing and searing pain he had expected did not come.

Instead, he saw the Eerie Bride purse her lips slightly and slowly lean toward his face with an uncanny, girlish coyness.

"Fuck!"

Yang Yong's pupils contracted. He desperately turned his head to dodge, his heart pounding wildly.

"What are you trying to do?"

Suck out my yang energy?

Devour my soul?

Or bite my head off in one go?

He clenched his teeth and pressed his lips tightly shut, refusing to submit even if it killed him.

But the Eerie Bride seemed addicted to this game. Her cold, pink, lifeless lips rubbed back and forth across his face.

She persistently searched for his mouth, looking as though she would never stop until she kissed him.

"Are you ever going to fucking stop?"

Yang Yong was on the verge of breaking down.

This ghost bride's ways were completely beyond his understanding.

When she was vicious, she was terrifyingly vicious; when she went mad, she was outrageously mad.

When he dodged left, she pressed left after him.

When he tilted right, she immediately leaned right after him.

After several rounds of dodging and struggling, the Eerie Bride finally lost the last of her patience.

Her hand, its nails tinged bluish-black, abruptly clamped around Yang Yong's neck.

Her fingers tightened, forcibly twisting him around and making him meet her eyes.

The rotting, stinking hem of her bridal gown scraped across the floor with a teeth-grating rustle.

That bloodless face drew closer and closer.

A sickeningly thick, metallic-sweet smell rushed into his nose, choking him until he nearly suffocated.

She slowly split her mouth open, revealing blackened, sharp fangs, aimed at Yang Yong's lips, and bit down hard!

At the very last instant-

Hum!

A bone-chilling blue light suddenly burst forth!

A blue ring as thick as a bowl's mouth materialized out of thin air and slammed into the Eerie Bride's back with an overwhelming force that suppressed all evil!

Bang!

A dull, thunderous impact rang out.

As though struck by a massive thousand-pound boulder, the Eerie Bride flew backward uncontrollably and crashed hard against the cold temple wall.

Thick, blackish-red filth splattered everywhere, leaving her utterly bedraggled.

Still shaken, Yang Yong panted heavily and looked toward the source of the blue light.

At some point, a hunched old man in gray robes had appeared in the center of the main hall.

He wore a long gray cloth gown, his face withered but his eyes exceptionally sharp. In his hand, he held a jade bracelet glowing with a faint, cold light.

Yang Yong could never mistake that face...

It was the old man among the three clay statues he had seen when he broke into the Coffin Temple that day!

"Fear not, young master! This old servant has come to help you!"

The old man's low, hoarse voice rang out, his tone carrying unmistakable deference and an eagerness to please.

Yang Yong was completely stunned.

Young master?

Old servant?

Those two terms hit him with so much information that his mind went blank.

Since when had he inexplicably acquired an ancestor-aged figure who called himself his "old servant"?

But with his life hanging by a thread, this suddenly appearing old man was his only lifeline.

Yang Yong did not dare ask questions or have time to think. He could only suppress his shock and confusion and nod emphatically at the old man.

Boom!

Almost the instant he nodded, two violent auras, one red and one gray, crashed together!

The Eerie Bride rose from the floor in a rage, blood-colored baleful energy surging around her like waves, her ferocity almost overturning the entire hall;

Holding the jade bracelet, the old man spread out layer upon layer of gray light, meeting her storm of attacks head-on.

Deafening booms erupted one after another.

Violent shock waves spread in every direction.

They forced every survivor and low-level Eerie present to their knees, trembling all over, without even the strength to raise their heads.

Yang Yong seized this fleeting opening and immediately summoned the Little Golden Flood Dragon Scissors with a thought.

Gold and yellow light flashed. Gripping the scissors tightly, he slashed hard at the invisible yet clammy, bone-chilling restraints around him!

Crack!

A crisp snapping sound rang out.

The eerie power binding him immobile shattered at the sound.

Without another word, Yang Yong turned and sprinted toward the hall entrance!

The driver, Old Zhao, had been cowering among the Eerie, watching Yang Yong's every move and ready to flee.

The moment he saw Yang Yong move, Old Zhao instantly cast all fear aside and scrambled after him.

The remaining survivors snapped out of their daze, terrified screams rising one after another.

Shoving and jostling, everyone surged toward the doors like mad-

Run!

Run now!

Only by getting out was there any chance of survival!

No one dared look back at the center of the clash between red and gray light.

No one dared spare a thought for the unfortunate companions who were hurled away by the violent shock waves and reduced to drifting ash amid screams.

Staying alive was the only thought in everyone's mind.

With Old Zhao in tow, Yang Yong charged madly out through the Coffin Temple's doors in one breathless rush.

But the sight before him instantly froze the blood in his veins.

Outside was not the wilderness they had crossed to get here at all!

It was still that sinister, oppressive hall.

There were still those three clay statues with indistinct faces.

Was this... the real Coffin Temple?

Then what was the place where they had just fought for their lives and fled in such desperation?

An illusion?

A ghost domain?

Or one death trap nested inside another?

Countless questions churned through his mind like tangled threads.

But.

Yang Yong did not dare pause for even an instant.

Gritting his teeth, he picked the direction he remembered as being closest to the outside and sprinted again.

But he had barely taken two steps.

A soft, drifting female voice sounded behind him without warning.

It was gentle yet cold, each word slowly burrowing deep into his bones-

"Husband... have you truly forgotten me?"

Yang Yong stiffened. Goosebumps instantly covered his entire body, his scalp prickling so fiercely it almost felt ready to burst.

He did not dare turn around or answer.

He did not even dare slow down in the slightest.

He pushed off hard, practically scrambling forward on all fours!

The exit was right in front of him!

Once he crossed it, he could get away from this damned place!

He could live!

But at this most critical moment-

Hum!

Another azure ring materialized above the exit, hovering in midair with flowing light and an astonishing oppressive force.

The old man rushed out of the hall in pursuit of the Eerie Bride.

As it turned out.

At some point, the Eerie Bride had already caught up without a sound.

Her five fingers curled into claws, her nails sharp as blades.

With deadly savagery, she struck straight at Yang Yong's back!

"Shit!"

Yang Yong's pupils contracted as an overwhelming chill of death instantly engulfed him!

She was too close and too fast. He could no longer dodge at all!

In that instant of utter despair.

A scorching, violent tremor suddenly came from deep within his dantian!

Hum-

The Thousand-Hammer, Hundred-Refinement Furnace, silent all this time, abruptly broke free of every restraint and floated out of his body on its own!

The furnace spun in midair.

Its mouth opened, aimed at the blue ring suspended in the air, and sucked hard!

Gulp!

A soft sound rang out.

It actually swallowed that blue light, with its terrifying pressure capable of driving back even the Eerie Bride, in a single gulp!

Immediately afterward, the Thousand-Hammer, Hundred-Refinement Furnace shot straight toward the temple roof without slowing!

Boom!

An earthshaking crash rang out.

It smashed straight through the temple roof, opening an enormous fissure over ten feet wide!

The blood-colored daylight outside instantly poured in.

The furnace's mouth opened and closed once more.

It swept up a scroll-like, formless thing resembling a yellowed talisman and swallowed it completely into the furnace.

At that very moment, all the fixed directions of the entire small world began frantically returning to their proper positions.

Like a scrambled Rubik's cube being swiftly restored by an invisible hand.

Only after doing all this.

Did the Thousand-Hammer, Hundred-Refinement Furnace leisurely circle twice through the air before turning into a streak of light.

With a whoosh, it darted back into Yang Yong's dantian and fell silent again.

Yang Yong stared, dumbfounded, frozen where he stood.

But his survival instinct snapped him back to his senses.

He dared not pause for even a moment. Squeezing out the last ounce of strength in his body, he charged desperately toward the rift spilling blood-red light!

Outside lay the familiar wilderness he had not seen in so long.

Only when the cold wind blew over him did he realize he was already drenched from head to toe.

The survivors followed close behind, scrambling and stumbling like mad toward the bus parked nearby.

Old Zhao was the first aboard. His hands trembled as he frantically turned the key.

The instant Yang Yong rushed out of the rift, his gaze instinctively flicked upward out of the corner of his eye.

The blood-red moon hanging high above the Coffin Temple had quietly shifted its position at some point.

According to what Cao Xianming had told them earlier-

Only by following the direction of the Blood Moon would they have a way to survive.

The Blood Moon's shift meant...

They had finally made it past the Coffin Temple!

If they headed toward the Blood Moon, they could survive!

He glanced back at the ancient temple, sinister and unfathomable, with only one thought in his mind.

May we never meet again!