"So, the empty spot on the stone platform must have held the stone coffin we saw in the desert!" Fatty exclaimed, suddenly understanding.

"Not only that," Rou Yi added, following up on Fatty's words, "If your assumption is correct, then the 'Iron Mask' was very likely lying in this empty coffin. But I don't know how he managed to escape from here."

"Hey, that's actually possible." Fatty's face showed conviction and admiration for Rou Yi's reasoning. "Now that I think about it, the 'Iron Mask' in the underground city and the person we saw in the desert stone coffin look almost exactly the same!"

"If the assumption holds, your so-called symmetry regarding the funeral arrangements is well-represented here."

Rou Yi explained.

Just as Fatty and Rou Yi were discussing heatedly, Jennifer suddenly shouted, "Fatty! Fatty!

"Come quick, look at what's happening to Dodge!"

The three of us looked towards Jennifer's voice.

Jennifer was desperately pulling on Dodge, but Dodge remained unmoved. His upper body was already reaching into the black jade coffin, and he didn't know what he was doing.

"Dodge! Dodge! Dodge!" Jennifer shouted hoarsely as she pulled on Dodge.

Dodge was like a statue. He bent over, maintaining this difficult posture, seemingly connected to the black jade coffin. No matter how Jennifer pulled him, he didn't move.

I thought to myself, "This is bad. Could it be that the Queen Mother of the West is resurrected and wants to eat people?"

So, Fatty and I rushed forward and, together with Jennifer, tried to pull Dodge out of the stone coffin.

Dodge's body was stiff, like a piece of wood. We struggled to pull his upper body out of the stone coffin, but who would have thought that as Dodge was pulled out, the corpse in the coffin also sat up with him.

Upon closer inspection, I realized why the corpse was rising with him.

It turned out that Dodge's arms were wrapped around the upper body of the corpse, and the two were tightly embracing. Dodge's lips were pressed tightly against the corpse's lips.

One small detail was very noticeable: the mask that had been covering the corpse's face was now in Dodge's hand.

Obviously, Dodge had taken off the corpse's mask.

Fatty felt nauseous and said with some disgust, "What kind of weird hobby does this old Dodge have? Necrophilia?"

Seeing that the situation was not right, I quickly said to Fatty, "You're still joking at this time! Dodge's condition is very abnormal, there might be danger. We need to separate him from the corpse quickly."

I recalled when we first opened the coffin, I was driven by some inexplicable force to stare at the corpse's hand for a long time.

I guessed that Dodge might be encountering the same situation now. Something must have happened while Dodge was observing the corpse.

Fatty and I, one grabbing the corpse's shoulders and the other pulling Dodge's shoulders, pulled in opposite directions at the same time.

With all our might, Fatty and I finally separated Dodge and the corpse. When they were separated, a long, tongue-like thing from the corpse's mouth was pulled out of Dodge's mouth. This tongue-like thing was covered in mucus, and it was unknown whether it was Dodge's secretions or the corpse's own fluid, with a slightly fishy smell.

After the tongue-like thing was pulled out, it slowly retracted back into the corpse's mouth. The scene was disgusting.

After separating the corpse and Dodge, I could finally see the corpse's face clearly—the corpse's eyes were actually open.

No, she wasn't a corpse, she was a living person.

She was a living, stunningly beautiful woman.

Oval face, a fair and slender neck. She was dressed in a plain robe, exceptionally elegant. Black and silver intertwined hair cascaded down like a waterfall, reaching her waist, making people couldn't help but imagine.

She had curved eyebrows, a high nose, and thin lips. Her face was like a beautiful painting, captivating, a rare beauty in the world.

Her eyes were very beautiful, with light brown pupils tinged with a bit of green, sparkling with an exotic, mysterious light, as if they could see through everything, making people want to explore her origins.

Her eyes were full of wisdom and spirituality, as if she could see the distant future, making people want to explore her identity.

Could she be the Queen Mother of the West that Rou Yi mentioned?

Was she the Queen Mother of the West from ancient Chinese legends?

Just as I was observing her, her eyes suddenly moved slightly, looking at me tenderly.

Then, the corners of her mouth turned up slightly, and her crimson lips parted, revealing white, even teeth—she was smiling at me so gently, like a rainbow after the rain, the first ray of sunlight after the clouds parted.

Her smile healed me, I saw it in my eyes and felt warmth in my heart.

Thinking of all the hardships and displacement along the way, seeing her made it all worthwhile.

Her smile turned into a faint smile. At the same time, she slowly raised her hand, palm up, fingers pointing towards me, as if wanting me to hold her hand.

My gaze was once again attracted to her slender hand, her hand was like a small piece of natural mutton fat jade, so white, so warm.

I swallowed, clenched my fist, but hesitated, not moving for a long time.

Probably shy.

If it meant pulling this snow-white hand, I would be willing to lose ten years of my life.

At this moment, her brow furrowed slightly, and the hand she extended slowly retracted a bit, as if expressing her dissatisfaction with my hesitation.

My heart suddenly felt a little anxious and restless.

Hesitation? What are you still hesitating about!

My heart itched unbearably, and I finally made up my mind.

I took a step forward and reached out to take her hand.