……

Fatty and Rou Yi witnessed this scene.

An Wenshan's swift beheading of Han Dongsheng had already startled Fatty and Rou Yi, but the fact that Han Dongsheng could still speak after his head had been severed terrified them even more.

Fatty immediately understood what was happening. He quickly pushed Shi Yong away from him, kicked Cole Mormon hard, and pulled Rou Yi away from Cole Mormon, shielding her closely behind him.

After Fatty, Rou Yi, Shi Yong, and Cole Mormon had distanced themselves from each other, the expressions on Shi Yong and Cole Mormon's faces suddenly changed. In a split second, their warm expressions turned to stony indifference, devoid of any emotional fluctuations. The two of them stood motionless, silent and unresponsive, like wooden posts.

An Wenshan seized this opportunity, raised his blade, and effortlessly decapitated Shi Yong and Cole Mormon.

Their heads, like Han Dongsheng's, fell to the ground and rolled away.

What was eerie was that the eyes of both heads were wide open, with Cole Mormon's head staring directly at Rou Yi and Shi Yong's head staring directly at Fatty.

"Heh, you found the loophole," Zhao Chenguang said with a wry smile, as if mocking himself.

Han Yu remained expressionless. "Do you think appealing to emotions will work in this environment? Besides, their appearances and ages are stuck in their thirties. Don't you think that's jarring?"

Han Yu's words struck a chord with Fatty. It was one thing for Rou Yi to act impulsively, being a girl with a soft heart, but it was very wrong for a tough man like Fatty to lose his composure in the face of emotions.

Perhaps Fatty was too eager to see his father. Throughout his life, Fatty had imagined his father's image countless times in his mind. Until the moment he saw his father, his heart was instantly touched, and all his vigilance disappeared. Fueled by a surge of emotion, he disregarded everything.

Only then did Fatty feel a wave of fear.

"I know you don't want to join the 'Kindling,' so if soft tactics don't work, we'll have to resort to hard ones," Zhao Chenguang said expressionlessly.

Then, Zhao Chenguang raised his hand – "Snap," the sound of a finger snap echoed again.

The three beheaded "corpses" suddenly melted like wax, merging into the surrounding mangrove branches that stretched out. In no time, the three corpses disappeared into thin air.

Protected by the mangrove branches, Zhao Chenguang slowly retreated, and Fatty and An Wenshan could only watch helplessly as Zhao Chenguang disappeared into the darkness before their eyes.

The meteorite emitted a dim, yellowish light, like a perpetually lit warning lamp.

……

As Zhao Chenguang's figure slowly disappeared into the darkness, the surrounding enclosed mangroves made "crackling" sounds, as if they were being ignited.

From the spot where Zhao Chenguang disappeared, a faint voice drifted out, "You have to survive, you know. The dead can't be absorbed by the 'Kindling'..."

These words sent chills down the spines of Fatty and the others. They had no idea what would happen next.

The "crackling" sound grew more intense, coming from all directions, as if something was entering from outside the mangroves.

Fatty and An Wenshan stood back-to-back, blades outward, protecting Han Yu and Rou Yi between them.

Time ticked by, and the crackling sound made them wait anxiously.

Gradually, the things making the sound slowly "tore open" the mangrove barrier, surging inward from the outer perimeter.

"Holy crap, this..." Fatty exclaimed—

The creatures that surged in were the asexual humans they had seen in the "womb"-filled plaza, the ones that had failed to develop properly. Now, they swarmed towards Fatty and the others like zombies, driven by some unknown force.

Some of the zombies were missing parts, missing arms and legs, but they still surged towards Fatty and the others as if they had been injected with stimulants.

Fatty swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing violently.

Leaving aside whether they could defeat them or not, the foul-smelling green mucus and rotten flesh hanging on the zombies alone made Fatty feel nauseous.

As more and more zombies poured into this previously enclosed space, the entire area filled with a stench of dead rats mixed with stinky socks and feces, almost causing Fatty and the others to pass out.

Fatty had never imagined that he would suffocate to death in a pile of dead bodies reeking of excrement.

An Wenshan methodically took out a bottle of lamp oil, poured a large circle around them, and then lit the lamp oil on the ground with a fire starter.

The lamp oil burst into flames, the flames instantly reaching half a meter high.

The zombies, while gathering towards Fatty and the others, were still somewhat wary of the circle of fire, and their speed gradually slowed down.

Seeing that this method was working, An Wenshan poured lamp oil on his and Fatty's blades, quenching them in fire and lighting them.

Fatty and An Wenshan, each wielding a flaming sword, stood in the circle of fire, confronting the zombies outside the circle.

During the confrontation, Fatty also saw the Taoist-like figures. They were no longer sitting in their previous places.

Under the control of the meteorite, these Taoists who were trying to comprehend the "mysteries" had come here. Dressed in plain white mourning robes, they were scattered among the zombies, their presence extremely discordant.