Many people lay scattered on the ground, some already mummified, others still twitching slightly.

Dark red pus and black hair covered a large area like a carpet, and were still slowly wriggling.

The crack in the painting of a beautiful woman on the wall had widened, and half of the woman's face was now visible, her eyes filled with venom as she stared intently at the long table where we were hiding.

A chill ran through me; she had discovered us!

"Creak, creak..."

Just then, the body of the man who had died on the criminal record, the one we had pushed outside, suddenly made a slight grinding sound from his neck.

His head slowly turned at an angle impossible for a living person, his gray eyes staring straight at us.

The moment the dead man's head turned around, my blood ran cold. His gray eyes stared intently at me, yellow pus still clung to the corners of his mouth, and the lividity on his face was rotting, with live maggots wriggling inside.

"Damn it! When will this ever end?!"

Luo Tianhe cursed under his breath, gripping the baton tightly, his knuckles turning slightly white from the force.

Li Huai was so frightened that he immediately closed his eyes, his teeth chattering.

My body stiffened, my palms were sweaty, but my eyes didn't move; I stared straight into his eyes.

There's an old saying: "If the dead open their eyes, you won't accept them or see them off."

This means that if you encounter a corpse that suddenly opens its eyes or turns its head after death, you should never touch it or run away. Instead, turn your head away to show weakness and try to calm it down!

If you run away, it will think you are easy to bully and may rush up after your yang energy.

If you touch it, you're likely to be plagued by its bad luck.

"Don't move, don't make a sound, and don't breathe heavily."

I lowered my voice and practically squeezed out the words through clenched teeth.

The dead head remained there, motionless as if it understood our words, with only its eyeballs seemingly moving extremely slowly in sync with our breathing.

The air was deathly still. Even the sounds of pus, blood, and hair wriggling outside seemed to have stopped. The only sounds in the tea room were our suppressed, faint breathing and the venomous gaze of the female ghost in the painting on the wall.

This situation is even more terrifying than the chaos we just witnessed.

When they were causing chaos, there were scapegoats, but now they're trapped in a corner from both sides, and they don't even know where to run.

"Yan, Brother Yan..."

Li Huai spoke with a sob in his voice, his voice as thin as a mosquito's buzz.

"Staying down here forever isn't going to last."

"Shut up!"

Luo Tianhe gritted his teeth and said, "Going out is the same as dying, unless you have a better way!"

Professor Tan had remained silent until suddenly he moved and pulled something out of his pocket.

I glanced at it subconsciously. It was a flat copper coin with smooth, shiny edges. A red string with a square hole in the middle was threaded through it. The string was a dark color and it must have been handled frequently.

He held the copper coin close to his eyes and examined it carefully by the faint light coming through the crack. His expression immediately turned even more grim.

Then he handed the copper coin to me and pointed to a certain spot on the edge with his finger.

I stared intently and saw a ring of extremely fine black stains around the edge of the coin, as if it had been soaked in something for years. In a certain small section, the stains were particularly dark, almost black.

"Is this money for exorcising spirits?"

I asked in a low voice.

Some sorcerers who practice spirit communication, or people with special destinies, use specially made copper coins as a medium to communicate with the underworld or for protection. They wear these coins year after year, and the coins will absorb the owner's aura.

The old man nodded approvingly, his gaze toward me growing increasingly profound.

“This was passed down from my ancestors, and I’ve worn it for fifty years! Normally the color of the marks on the edges is even, but look at it now, the color here is black.”

His voice was hoarse and somewhat dejected, as if he were pessimistic.

Although I recognized this thing, I really didn't know how to read it, so I asked in a low voice, "What does this mean?"

"The gloom and resentment representing the entire botanical garden are converging on us, and this case won't last much longer."

He let out a long sigh, as if he had already given up all hope of living.

His words made my heart sink, and I understood why he had seemed so pessimistic before.

We're like a lighthouse in the dark, being watched by those filthy things, and there's no use hiding anywhere.

"What can we do? We can't just wait to die, can we?"

Luo Tianhe's forehead veins throbbed.

The old man ignored him and instead looked at me: "Young man, you make your living from the dead. Besides sewing corpses, Erpijiang should also know some ways to suppress corpses and send away souls. In the current situation, ordinary talismans will probably have limited effect."

My heart skipped a beat; he had actually seen through my disguise.

But that's a very crude way of putting it; what does it mean to "eat the food of the dead"?

But at this point I was too lazy to correct him, so I nodded and said, "That's right."

Upon hearing this, the old man managed a forced smile on his stiff face: "Second Cobbler, I've heard people say that your trade involves sewing the skin of the dead, suppressing unfulfilled wishes, and traversing the boundary between the living and the dead."

Skill in hand, courage in the heart; the living fear the dead three parts, the dead fear the craftsman seven parts.

"You flatter me, sir. It's not as mysterious as you make it out to be."

I gave a wry smile. The old man spoke nicely, but the situation was far more complicated than it seemed.

"Hehe. Hold this coin for exorcising spirits and calm your mind."

Old Tan spoke up.

I held the copper coin with a mixture of belief and doubt, concentrating my mind.

Suddenly, I realized that the world had changed before my eyes.

"This yin energy is not a convergence."

I opened my eyes, returned the copper coin to Professor Tan, and spoke in a low voice.

"It is to trigger."

"This place itself is a large burial pit, with things buried underground. The flowers on top, the family members, and even the layout of this house are all locks and triggers."

The man surnamed Wu took out the soul-summoning incense, which, combined with the yin energy of the dead and the fear of the living, acted like a key, temporarily opening a gap in the lock, and the filth underneath was gushing out through the opening.

Our yang energy was at its peak, and we happened to be near the keyhole, making us an easy target.

A hint of surprise and understanding flashed in Professor Tan's cloudy old eyes: "No wonder I kept feeling something was wrong. This place is a Yin-nourishing formation, and we are right in the eye of the formation!"

"more than!"

I shook my head, my gaze sweeping over the dead man's head still staring at me, and the ghostly woman in the painting on the wall, seemingly ready to move.

"Nourishing Yin is for use. This 'eye' is probably a funnel, or rather a sieve. The Yin energy and resentment are drawn up, not just scattered, but something below is waiting to collect them."

If we die here, our souls and life force will probably become fodder.

This is probably the purpose behind their so-called salon!

Luo Tianhe's face turned ashen: "Damn it, what are we waiting for? Let's fight our way out!"