The unique feel of the man's hand sent a shiver down my spine.

This is definitely not an illusion; from any angle, his arm doesn't feel like that of a living person.

I lost my footing, and everyone around me saw what happened and started to help me.

The other people's hands gripped my arms, still icy cold, as if they could chill me to the bone.

With their combined efforts, I was finally pulled to the edge of the cliff.

The man pulling the rope waited until I was steady, then looked me over and asked, "What happened to you? Why are you covered in blood?"

"I tripped and fell while looking for my way down there, and cut my skin."

While answering, I casually shone my flashlight on these people.

I hadn't noticed it before, but now that I look again, all of these people's clothes are soaking wet, and everyone has a shadow.

It wasn't a spirit, and it even managed to pull us up from the bottom of the cliff, so it didn't seem like a ghost.

"Xiao Duan, are you alright?"

At this moment, Song Laosan also asked me a question. When he saw me looking at him, he gently shook his head, indicating that I should not say anything out of line.

As soon as I saw Song Laosan's expression, I knew that he must have also discovered something, but I haven't figured out the situation yet, so I don't dare to make any rash conclusions.

Upon hearing my reply, the man glanced at Song Laosan again, then waved his hand and said, "Regardless, it's good that we managed to rescue them. This isn't the place to talk. Let's go, everyone, back to the village!"

When I heard the man say that, I raised an eyebrow at him and asked, "Do you know how to leave this cave?"

The man took the lantern from his companion, gave me a complicated look, and then turned around: "Come with me."

After speaking, they began to lead the way with lanterns in hand.

Seeing that no one was paying attention to me, I deliberately slowed down and said to Song Laosan, "Don't you think these people are a bit strange?"

"Their bodies are so cold!"

Song Laosan lowered his voice: "When I touched their skin before, it felt like touching ice. How could a normal person have such a body temperature? I suspect they are human corpses, which is why I signaled you not to talk nonsense."

The term "human corpse" originates from ancient mythology and refers to a person who is actually dead but is unaware of their death, and who manipulates the corpse with the mind of a living person.

The Judge's Records contains a story about how, in the early Ming Dynasty, although Zhu Yuanzhang was diligent in his duties, corruption was still rampant among his subordinates. A farmer from the frontier, unable to accept the various exorbitant taxes, chose to lead his fellow villagers in a rebellion.

The outcome was, of course, failure. Their group of several hundred people opened the granary to provide relief to the disaster victims, but were subsequently suppressed by the arriving government troops and all of them were taken to the execution ground to be beheaded.

Because of these people's rebellion, the imperial court also learned about the darkness in the region and replaced all the corrupt officials.

The local people were thus given a respite, and even the executioner was grateful to these righteous men, fearing that killing them would diminish his good karma, so he went to a Taoist temple to seek help from a wise man.

When the wise man heard about these people's righteous deeds, he felt a pang of sympathy and devised a plan for the executioner.

On the second day, before the executioner arrived, the executioner pasted a talisman on the back of each prisoner's neck and told them that he would pretend to be beheaded. He instructed them to close their eyes and play dead, and to flee the place after dark, but to hide in the mountains, otherwise they would implicate all the executioners.

The group of prisoners, who thought they were doomed, were extremely grateful when they suddenly found a way to survive and all agreed.

That night, the group of prisoners escaped from the graveyard before the officials could bury them.

These people were wanted criminals by the imperial court. They had no legal status and dared not live in other cities for fear of implicating the executioners who released them. So they had no choice but to live in seclusion in the mountains and become hunters.

Several years passed, and a herb gatherer who had gotten lost in the mountains was rescued by several passing hunters when he was on the verge of death. They took him to their village.

The hunters were very hospitable and offered the herb gatherer a sumptuous meal. The only strange thing was that the hunters ate cold food and did not eat anything warm.

The herb gatherers assumed it was a local custom and didn't think much of it, remaining grateful to the hunters for saving their lives.

The hunters were very excited, constantly asking the herb gatherers about the outside world, as if they were completely isolated from it.

As they chatted, they discovered that the herb gatherer's hometown was the same county where the hunters lived, so they asked him about his hometown.

The herb gatherer was quite talkative. He said everything was fine back home and even talked about a group of righteous men from his hometown. He said that if those men hadn't opened the granaries and made a big fuss that alarmed the imperial court, they wouldn't know when they would have been able to live a good life. It was just a pity that all those righteous men had been beheaded.

When the hunters saw the herb gatherers' sorrowful appearance, they burst into laughter, saying that they were the righteous men who had been beheaded.

The herb gatherer, upon hearing this, naturally refused to believe it. So the righteous men recounted how they had been rescued by the executioner and had gone into hiding in the mountains.

Upon hearing this, the herb gatherer loudly retorted, saying that he was at the execution ground on the day of the execution and watched as the prisoners' heads fell to the ground, blood splattering everywhere. However, a strange thing did happen in the county that night: the bodies of all the beheaded prisoners disappeared.

Upon hearing this, the righteous men were immediately enraged and wanted to kill the herb gatherer. At that moment, the herb gatherer noticed that all of them had a distinct scar around their necks.

The strange occurrence terrified the herb gatherer, who fled for his life. The hunters, of course, were not going to let him go and all began to chase after him. However, they had not run far before they all collapsed on the ground and rotted at a visible speed, turning into bones.

These living dead, whose physical bodies are dead but whose souls remain, are called "human beetles," and they are recorded in many tomb-raiding records.

It is worth mentioning, however, that none of the recorded human remains were the tomb owners; they were almost all people who were dragged down to be buried with the deceased. These people were driven mad in the tomb and tried every means to escape. Even at the moment of death, they were still thinking about how to escape. Combined with the special feng shui and magnetic field of the tomb, they would become human remains under the blessing of strong faith.

It is said that the human bi will constantly wander in the tomb. Once a tomb raider encounters this thing, it will warmly welcome the tomb raider, ask the tomb raider for food, and even lead the tomb raider to avoid traps and take the treasure in the tomb.

However, the most important thing when dealing with human bi is to never let them know that you are dead. Otherwise, the thing will lose its mind and turn into a demon, just like the hunters in the legends who chase after herb gatherers.