The mold corpse's claws remained lodged in Erzhu's chest as Lao Wu pressed a shotgun against its skull. The 12-gauge roar shook loose ceiling debris. Feng's left shoulder burned—ricochet carving a furrow below his collarbone.

  "Aim properly, damn it!" Feng staunched the wound. Through blood haze, he saw Lao Wu's last henchman dragged toward the coffin by fungal tendrils. The entrenching tool wedged in stone bore "Zhang Ironworks" in moonlight.

  Lao Wu's second blast obliterated half the corpse's skull. Fungal growths tripled instead, climbing the barrel. Feng's UV light revealed coin fragments in the tendrils—his buried Guangxu series.

  The camera captured the bronze key rotating in the deity's eye socket. Each turn spawned more fungal flesh. "This thing's a fate-altering compass..."

  Lao Wu's sudden barrage sparked overhead. Mold tendrils grazed Feng's neck, embedding in stone.

  "Even." Lao Wu spat a broken tooth, tossing detcord. "Blast east wall—thin strata."

  Feng traced the triple-serration mark—black market demolition code. The Bagua projection had dissipated, but tendrils avoided specific bluestones.

  "Kun position exit." Feng recalled Annals page 159. His kick cracked the stone—black ooze formed an arrow toward explosives.

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  Simultaneous detonations hurled mold remnants skyward. The key arced through air, sketching an occult trigram. Fungus retracted instantly.

  "Move!" Lao Wu dragged Feng through new fissures. In collapsing rubble, Feng's final shot captured the deity's cracks forming a child's grinning face—silent curses in stone.

  Moonlight pierced the escape route. Feng hauled Lao Wu clear—his tibia snapped at 45°, bone shards piercing fatigues.

  "Quit whining." Feng applied止血粉(hemostatic powder)mixed with temple ashes. Lao Wu's scream became black vomit splattering stone.

  The flashlight revealed their location—Zhang ancestral backyard. The locust tree rustled with burial robes. Half-exposed roots revealed red-stringed radius bones—his reburial site.

  "Karmic cycle..." Feng laughed bitterly. The camera focused on aerial roots—a faded crew leader's ID entangled.

  Lao Wu's satellite phone alarms blared. Roof tiles quivered as if rat hordes fled beams.

  "Not done." Lao Wu reloaded. "The key..."

  "Temple." Feng tightened the tourniquet. "Mold corpse swallowed..."

  Chain snaps echoed from the well. Moonlight revealed a headless bride climbing out—bronze key in right hand, rotting cat head in left.