You made all the streamers on the internet kneel before you when you were asked to make a game.

"A living person?"

The lancet repeated those two words.

In this underground stomach filled with the stench of corpses, rotting entrails, and ancient ghosts, the word "living person" seems extremely incongruous.

"Thump."

The sound rang out again.

This time, there was no need for the experienced driver to relay the information; everyone present heard it.

The sound was muffled and deep, with a very slow frequency.

It didn't feel like the rapid heartbeat of someone in fear; it felt more like some sleeping behemoth performing the most basic life-sustaining procedures.

The source of the sound was indeed that palm-sized, bright red wooden coffin.

The monstrous mass of rotting flesh, composed of countless arms, had now crawled to the side of the wooden coffin.

Dozens of pale arms stretched out at the same time, reaching for the small red coffin.

"Don't let it touch it!"

Brother Long roared and picked up the half brick in his hand, ready to charge forward.

"etc."

Professor Chen grabbed Brother Long's arm.

"look."

Professor Chen only said one word.

Those dozens of pale arms stopped the instant their fingertips touched the red wooden coffin.

A plume of blue smoke suddenly emerged from the contact point.

Those arms were like candles melted by the high temperature, instantly going limp and liquefying.

Black bodily fluids flowed down the edge of the wooden coffin, but did not stain the bright red coffin body at all.

The crooked symbols painted with gold lacquer on the wooden coffin glowed with a very faint light.

The rotting flesh monster let out a piercing scream.

Its massive body contracted violently backward, and new flesh sprouted wildly from the melted wounds of its severed arms.

It is afraid.

It wanted to take that thing, but didn't even dare to touch it.

【waste……】

[A bunch of...useless trash...]

The old Taoist priest's voice boomed in everyone's minds, trembling with exasperation.

He stared at the retreating, rotting monster, the green flames in its eye sockets crackling and burning.

Take it!

The old Taoist priest turned his gaze to the willow-leaf knife, his withered fingers pointing intently at the small coffin.

You... have that madman's keepsake...

Only you... can touch it...

Take it... and I'll let you go... I swear...

"swear?"

Brother Long sneered and looked down at the broken brick in his hand.

On the broken surface of the brick, the half-sheet of cinnabar talisman was emitting the same aura as the wooden coffin.

"That old geezer's getting impatient." Brother Long looked at the scalpel. "What do you mean?"

Lancet directly raised the other half of the broken brick in his hand.

Sensing the presence of the broken bricks, the rotting flesh monster ahead simultaneously parted its countless arms to create a passage to the wooden coffin.

"The road has been opened," Lancet said calmly.

"Professor, if this coffin is a talisman, what will happen if we take it down?"

Professor Chen wiped the blood from his face.

"Once the protective object is removed, the corpse energy will erupt, and this place will instantly turn into a pressure cooker."

"That's death," Brother Long replied.

"What if we don't take it?" Lancet asked again.

Professor Chen pointed to the trembling ground beneath his feet and the slowly closing flesh wall above his head.

"The furnace is already being sealed up."

"If we don't remove it, we'll be digested by the stomach acid and become part of that pile of rotten flesh."

Either way, it's all the same – death.

Liu Yedao nodded and handed the half brick in his hand to Brother Long.

"Take it."

Brother Long took it instinctively.

The lancet was pulled from his waist pouch and a scalpel was drawn.

"Since I'm going to die no matter what I choose, I'll not choose."

Liu Yedao stepped into the passage cleared by the rotting flesh monster.

"I want to see what that madman left in the coffin."

"I'll go too."

Brother Long held the two broken bricks together in his hands, as if they were two talismans, and followed closely behind Liu Yedao.

Professor Chen helped the old driver, and the two of them stumbled along at the back.

The four of them trudged through the sticky, scalding ground, step by step toward the bright red wooden coffin.

The closer you get, the clearer the heartbeat becomes.

"Thump."

"Thump."

With each jump, visible ripples appear in the surrounding air.

The rotting flesh monster huddled on either side, its hundreds of eyes fixed on the four humans, their greed almost overflowing.

ten meters.

five meters.

one meter.

The scalpel stopped in front of the wooden coffin.

Only when you get closer can you see the material of the coffin.

It's not wood.

It's bone.

The bones, entirely blood-red, were polished smooth as a mirror and covered with lines resembling child's scribbles painted with gold paint.

The lines were completely irregular, yet they exuded a chilling sense of oppression.

"Shall we open it?"

Brother Long stood beside Liu Yedao, holding the brick in his hand in front of his chest, watching the old Taoist priest warily as he tried to pounce but dared not.

The lancet remained silent.

She extended her gloved left hand and gently placed it on the coffin lid.

The scalding heat came through the gloves.

The coffin lid under my palm was shaking, and the thing inside was really jumping.

【open!】

The old Taoist priest squeezed out a single word from his throat, leaning forward, the veins connecting to his waist bulging taut.

The lancet's fingers gripped the edge of the coffin lid.

Hard.

Not moving.

The coffin had no nails or locks, yet it seemed to be a single, seamless piece.

Use this.

Brother Long handed over the brick in his hand.

After taking the willow-leaf knife, he pasted the broken piece of the paper with the cinnabar talisman drawn on it onto the seam of the coffin lid.

"Sizzle—"

A soft sound.

The golden graffiti on the coffin lid suddenly began to flow, converging towards the talisman paper on the brick.

Their auras instantly synchronized.

"Click".

A crisp snapping sound came from the spring.

The tightly sealed coffin lid suddenly popped open with a crack.

An extremely strong smell of rust wafted out from the crack.

The experienced driver suddenly twitched his nose.

"Alive!"

The experienced driver shouted, his voice sharp and distorted.

"It's really alive! And still bleeding!"

Lancet took a deep breath, inserted the scalpel into the crevice, and with a flick of his wrist, the coffin lid was completely opened.

In that instant, everyone held their breath.

The rotting flesh monster stopped wriggling.

The green flames in the old Taoist's eyes froze.

Inside that palm-sized, blood-red coffin, there were no gold or silver treasures, no peerless magical artifacts.

There is only one heart.

A bright red heart, still bleeding.

It is only the size of a fist, with blood vessels clearly visible, and you can even see the valves contracting and relaxing.

"Thump."

It throbbed powerfully before the lancet's eyes.

At the bottom of the coffin, a thin layer of blood had accumulated.

Lancet frowned.

Having dissected countless corpses and seen countless internal organs, she could immediately tell that the surface of this heart had extremely fine, regular patterns.

This is a heart made of paper.

A heart made of folded red paper, yet with real blood vessels, real blood, and a real beating frequency.

"Paper...paper offerings?"

Professor Chen was shocked.

Turning death into life?

Can paper be made alive?

【impossible……】

The old Taoist priest let out a mournful howl.

He saw the heart.

In that instant, it was as if he had seen the most terrifying thing in the world.

More terrifying than death.

It's more terrifying than your soul being scattered.

That was a complete denial and mockery of his lifelong pursuit.

He refined elixirs here for hundreds of years, killing countless living people, turning this place into a ghost realm, and transforming himself into a monster that was neither human nor ghost.

All they wanted was a sliver of hope, a so-called "immortality."

He couldn't even keep his physical body from decaying.

And that "madman".

The person who suppressed him here.

He casually folded a piece of red paper and threw it into a bone box, and... it came to life?

This paper heart has been beating here for three hundred years.

Not only did it not rot, but it also suppressed the corpse energy of the entire Yinshan Mountain for three hundred years.

It's all fake...it's all fake!

The old Taoist priest went mad.

His withered hands frantically scratched at his skull, tearing the layer of yellowish human skin to shreds.

He's lying to me... He's lying to me!

This is just a magic trick! It's an illusion!

The old Taoist roared as the fleshy mass attached to his lower body swelled violently.

He wants to destroy this heart.

If he doesn't destroy it, his centuries-long persistence will become a complete joke.

"roar--"

The monstrous pile of rotten flesh sensed its master's will.

It is no longer afraid.

Even though the aura emanating from the coffin made it tremble instinctively, it still raised hundreds of arms at the same time, smashing down on the willow-leaf knife in a devastating barrage.

"Get out of the way!"

Brother Long lunged forward, knocking the willow-leaf knife aside.

But he was a step too slow.

A giant hand slammed down, but it didn't hit Brother Long.

Instead, it struck the already opened coffin.

"Pfft."

A soft sound.

The paper heart that had been beating in the coffin for three hundred years was instantly crushed by that giant hand.

The bright red liquid splattered, and it wasn't paper ash; it was scalding blood that splashed onto Brother Long's face.

It also splashed onto the pile of rotten flesh monster.

Time seemed to stand still at that moment.

The heartbeat stopped.

The old Taoist priest's roar also stopped.

Only the splattered blood dripped slowly down the rotten flesh monster's arm.

"Sizzle..."

A drop of blood fell onto the fleshy mass below, just like a drop of strong acid falling into water.

A huge black hole was instantly corroded into the surface of the fleshy ball.

Immediately afterwards, the black hole began to expand and disappear.

Wherever this "blood of the paper heart" comes into contact with anything—whether it's rotten flesh, an arm, or the aura of death—it instantly turns to nothingness.

This heart is not meant for suppression.

This heart was left behind by that "madman"...

poison.

【No……】

The old Taoist priest watched as the fleshy mass attached to his lower body disappeared at an alarming rate.

That disappearance traveled along his blood vessels and spread to his waist.

He couldn't feel any pain.

He only felt emptiness.

You... destroyed... it...

The old Taoist priest raised his arm, which was now only half its original length, and pointed at the monstrous mass of rotting flesh.

The rotting flesh monster is also disappearing.

Its massive body was disintegrating, turning into a sky full of black dust.

"run!"

Liu Yedao got up from the ground and shouted at the few people who were standing there dumbfounded.

"This place is going to collapse!"

The ground beneath my feet is disappearing.

The once firm tongue coating has turned into a bottomless black hole.

The entire underground stomach of the Earth Immortal Temple is being completely erased by this tiny paper heart.

Professor Chen grabbed the old driver and ran desperately up the stairs woven with black hair.

But the stairs are also crumbling.

"We can't get up there!"

Brother Long looked at the broken black hair on his head and roared in despair.

Just then, inside the overturned red coffin, beneath the crumpled remnants of red paper, a white slip of paper was revealed.

With lightning speed, Liu Yedao grabbed the note.

The note was new.

A line of extremely messy writing was written on it in black ink.

"Have you had enough fun?"