"Doctor," Fatty said, pointing at the things closing in, "do you need me to distract them?"

The path to survival must be related to the stone plate, but the Doctor needed time more than anything.

"No," Jiang Cheng said bluntly, "I need you to help me activate the stone plate."

"Alright."

Using the dagger, he cut Fatty's hand. Fatty shivered for a moment and then stilled. He took a deep breath and pressed his bleeding hand onto the stone plate.

In an instant, the red halo he had seen before burst forth, enveloping the stone plate, Fatty, and Jiang Cheng.

The moon in the sky also turned into a blood moon.

The ritual... had begun.

Upon seeing the red halo, the eyes of the surrounding monsters turned red. A human-like ecstasy spread across their eyes, which bulged from their sockets and were covered with a white membrane.

They rushed forward, scrambling over each other. The moment they touched the crimson barrier, they collapsed as if poisoned.

No, not poisoned!

But... as if splashed with concentrated acid.

Their skin began to melt, followed by their textured muscles. They rolled on the ground in agony, their stark white, thick bones gradually exposed, creating a bloody scene.

But those behind them continued to surge forward.

The joy and madness in their eyes almost overflowed.

But Fatty had no time to pay attention to them because... he watched in horror as a slender figure appeared on the stone plate.

The old woman!

The old woman who released a huge, bizarre entity that devoured teammate after teammate!

She actually appeared...

It seemed the Doctor was right. It was indeed a cycle of inheritance. The reason the old woman hadn't died like her previous teammates was simply because she had been chosen as the new vessel for the bizarre entity.

This curse was unsolvable.

One wave of new "invaders" slaughtered the "natives," then became the "natives" themselves, waiting in pain for the next wave of invaders to come and free them.

It was like cycle after cycle.

Endless, and the bizarre creature attached to the old woman was the key to starting the cycle.

Now... the next cycle was about to begin.

"Doctor," Fatty turned his head. "Next..." He paused, then gritted his teeth and said, "Will I need to be eaten too?"

Jiang Cheng looked at him, silent.

"I understand," Fatty nodded. As he looked away, he leaped onto the stone plate. Fresh blood dripped from the wound on his hand, falling onto the pure white surface.

Like a touch of cinnabar, blurring on rice paper.

The old woman still wore that twisted smile. Her snake-like, slender tongue flicked around her lips. Fatty had seen that look before, when Chen Ran was eaten.

He just never thought it would be his turn so soon, barely an hour later.

A huge shadow appeared beside the old woman. The space where her shadow should have been became increasingly distorted. Although nothing could be seen, a huge shadow with horns and a tail appeared on the stone plate.

Something huge and bizarre was right in front of him.

But Fatty couldn't see it.

He could even feel the coldness emanating from it.

"Goodbye, Doctor," Fatty said, his back to the Doctor, slowly closing his eyes.

"Goodbye," Jiang Cheng said softly.

The next second, Fatty's large body was snatched up as if by something. Only his legs struggled for a few moments in the air. Then, with a series of cracking sounds as bones broke, his legs went still.

Then he was swallowed whole.

When it was over, the old woman turned her gaze to Jiang Cheng. She licked the corner of her mouth in satisfaction. One Fatty... didn't seem to fill her belly.

Jiang Cheng turned around and looked at the guys rushing into the crimson barrier, their flesh turning into pus, leaving only pale white bones. A look of disgust crossed his face.

It was almost over. Only a dozen monsters were still struggling in the bloody water.

The next second, Jiang Cheng suddenly smiled. He turned around, looked the eager old woman up and down, and exhaled, saying, "Forget it, you can have it all."

Then, in front of the old woman and the invisible monster, he destroyed his own eyes with a knife, and leaped onto the stone plate.

A moment later, the terrifying chewing sounds rang out again.

But the old woman was no longer smiling.

Her twisted face was as gloomy as if it could drip water.

...

One hour ago.

"Huff..."

On a large, carved, solid wood bed, someone opened their eyes.

It was a young man who was handsome to a certain degree. Fine bangs lay across his forehead, and he possessed a gentle and refined temperament.

A pair of light chestnut eyes were not only non-aggressive, but almost weak.

He looked like he had walked straight out of a youth pain novel.

He didn't rush to get up. First, he moved his numb neck slightly, then squinted at the pitch-black ceiling. After a few minutes, he slowly sat up.

This was an extraordinarily large bedroom.

But one could not glean anything about the owner's identity or interests from it.

Because... the room was almost empty.

Apart from a bed, the enormous bedroom was almost bare.

The man left the bed and walked towards one side of the bedroom, where a 3-meter-high double wooden door stood.

Placing his hand on the handle of the wooden door, the man suddenly smiled, but no one would have thought that such a gentle man could smile so ferociously.

The corners of his mouth curled up exaggeratedly, revealing a set of stark white teeth.

"Creak—"

The wooden door, painted with magnificent patterns, was pushed open, and faint, ghostly light spread out like a net. The man squinted. Outside was a huge space, with a dozen rows of specially treated seats arranged in order.

The mournful sound of a piano echoed in his ears.

It was Chopin's Moonlight Sonata, already at the final soothing part of the second movement, with the tension of the third movement about to strike.

About a dozen meters in front of him, a grand piano was placed, bathed in the faint light of the stage. A luxurious atmosphere reminiscent of the late Baroque era wafted over him.

"You're back," a soft female voice said after the piano music stopped.

Chen Ran grinned exaggeratedly, tilted his head to look at the woman in front of him, and squinted, saying, "Am I the only one who thinks... this piece is only suitable for funerals?"

Her slender fingers danced across the black and white keys. The woman seemed to be showing off her skills, or perhaps just pointlessly killing time. "It's all the same to you anyway," the woman said softly.

The smile on Chen Ran's lips grew even more exaggerated.

"The Master is waiting for you," the woman said, turning her head to look at him for the first time.

In the faint light, her face was ordinary. Her plain attire didn't match the expensive piano in front of her. The only thing that matched... was her temperament.

"Is it... to ask about that person?" Chen Ran raised his eyebrows exaggeratedly, then smiled and said, "The Master is really concerned about him."