Though Chen Shouyi was forty to fifty meters away from the two, his sharp ears picked up on the conversation between his sister and her Martial Arts Teacher.

He couldn't help but smile wryly.

He understood his sister's awkwardness and embarrassment.

At sixteen, she felt she was already an adult, and with the strength to outshine all her classmates, she was naturally more sensitive about her image.

Having her brother accompany her at this time, if her classmates found out, would indeed be an embarrassing matter.

However, he still decided to protect his sister's dignity.

No matter how badly they treated each other at home, after all their quarrels since childhood, he did not want his sister to lose face outside.

...

Soon, his sister and a group of students set off on their bicycles.

Chen Shouyi waited until they were far away before getting on his bicycle, following not too far behind.

The funeral home was located not far from the Safe Zone, just a dozen kilometers away, and it wasn't too remote, being on the edge of a road, though far from the industrial zone, surrounded by farmland and with only one solitary building.

As they neared their destination, dusk was falling. In the distance, the funeral home exuded a sinister aura, and even the sunset seemed to dim slightly as it shone there.

A giant chimney spewed black smoke, and the air was filled with an indescribable, strange smell.

It was already evening but still quite busy here.

From time to time, police could be seen riding flatbed trikes, with bodies wrapped in white cloth on the back, delivered to the entrance of the funeral home. The police didn't enter. Soldiers took over right at the entrance, very strictly.

Since the mutation, the government had swiftly enacted a new funeral system.

As soon as someone died, the body was forcibly sent by the local police station to the funeral home for cremation, even in the middle of the night.

Four armed soldiers stood at the entrance, with a warning sign beside them:

"Family members are prohibited from entering!"

From Chen Shouyi's perspective,

these soldiers were not ordinary people, strong in build, each with a Martial Arts foundation, likely possessing the strength of Martial Artist Apprentices.

As soon as he reached the entrance, he was stopped.

Chen Shouyi got off his bicycle and took out his Martial Arts Instructor Certificate from his pocket.

One of the soldiers took it with a puzzled look, his hand trembling slightly as he almost dropped the certificate: "You... Hello, may I know why you are here?"

"Just here to take a look," Chen Shouyi said blandly.

The Martial Arts Instructor Certificate wielded significant power; unless it was a top-secret place, it allowed him unrestricted access, and the soldiers immediately let him pass.

Chen Shouyi rode his bicycle through the gate, finding that aside from the cement road and buildings, most of the site was still at the foundation stage, and not even a hint of greenery could be seen. The entire ground bore traces of recent burns, a completely charred scene.

He withdrew his gaze and found the parking shed to place his bicycle.

This place felt like another world.

Outside it was scorching hot, yet here was an inexplicable chill, carrying an eerie darkness.

"No wonder the Martial Arts Academy chose this place for courage training," he thought silently. "There are probably quite a lot of spirits here."

And it made sense, with a population of at least five or six hundred thousand in the Safe Zone and surrounding areas. Even in the peaceful past, an estimated two or three dozen people died every day, let alone now!

At this moment, he noticed several officers in the distance, striding towards him with enthusiastic expressions.

...

Inside the funeral home's meeting room.

An officer, a lieutenant, was explaining the precautions to the students.

The funeral home was practically a military camp. The army took over all operations, and each had at least Martial Artist Apprentice strength. In fact, in today's environment, ordinary people couldn't work here.

"Everyone must act together, even when going to the bathroom... At night, you might see some strange things, or hear bizarre noises, or even have hallucinations, but these are normal phenomena, don't be too curious..."

Chen Xingyue sat upright, clenching her fingers until they turned white.

Tap tap tap...

She glanced out of the corner of her eye at a twenty-something boy in the third row next to her, noticing his foot shaking non-stop.

The Martial Arts Academy was different from ordinary schools.

Even in the same class, there was a huge age difference, like in Xingyue's advanced class, the oldest was 27, already married with children, while the youngest was still underage.

"All of you are Martial Artist Apprentices, not ordinary people. With ample energy, generally speaking, nothing will happen."

This time, an older student stood up and asked, "Sir, do you mean that there are times when something does happen?"

The officer was silent for a moment: "Such cases are rare. Additionally, a final reminder, fear neither ghosts nor spirits!"

There was some concealment, in fact, the frequency of incidents recently had been increasing. Just two days ago, a soldier had gone mad in the bathroom and attacked his companion. By the time others arrived, the soldier was dead, and the mad soldier had also bizarrely committed suicide.

The higher-ups had already requested to decommission this funeral home and select another site for construction.

But this couldn't be resolved in the short term.

After the meeting, each student was given a pair of rubber gloves and a mask.

As the last rays of the setting sun faded, the entire sky had darkened, and gasoline lamps in the corridors were lit.

Chen Xingyue walked out of the meeting room, looking around, but didn't see the shadow of her brother.

"Did he not come?"

"Could he have changed his mind?"

Her heart became a bit restless.

A faint smell of corpses lingered in the air, and a gust of eerie cold wind made her skin break into goosebumps.

"Xing Yue, what are you looking at?" a female voice asked.

"No... nothing!" Chen Xingyue quickly replied.

"This place feels so terrifying, I feel a chill in my heart—could we really encounter ghosts?" Wu Huifang said nervously.

Wu Huifang was only a year older than Chen Xingyue, and due to their close age, they had the best relationship.

"It's not that bad!" Chen Xingyue tucked her hair and disguised her fear: "That officer just said, 'Fearless in your heart, ghosts and spirits won't harm you; as long as you're not afraid, it's fine.'

"Xing Yue, you really have a lot of courage."

...

After chatting for a while, they heard their Martial Arts Teacher clapping his hands and shouting, "Alright, gather up! Now follow me to the morgue."

The students talked and laughed, their faces a mix of fear and inexplicable excitement, as they followed the Martial Arts Teacher toward the nearby morgue.

Once inside, everyone instinctively shut their mouths, and silence fell abruptly.

The room was mostly filled with corpses.

The bodies were covered with white cloths, tied up with ropes, and some of them were still oozing blood, dripping down from the carts with ticking sounds.

The smell of blood, corpse stench, and the scorched odor from the neighboring incineration room blended into an extremely unsettling scent.

Just then, a steam truck marked with a red cross stopped at the door.

Two soldiers quickly got off the truck.

"How many?" a few soldiers inside quickly approached.

"Eighteen," one of them said.

"Are they all due to parasitic worms?" a soldier asked quietly.

"Only one isn't!"

Upon hearing this, the soldiers' faces grew serious. Since last night, when a corpse infected by parasites was brought in, deaths had started to surge. Just today, more than fifty bodies were sent from the hospital, and there were even more that hadn't made it there before being directly sent to the morgue.

The truck's compartment was soon opened, revealing the bodies inside black body bags.

"Put on gloves and masks, hurry over and help." The Martial Arts Teacher instructed.

This was part of the curriculum, helping the students overcome their fear of corpses and become more accustomed to facing them.

These students, fortunately, were much braver than average, and there were no signs of retreat. Even Chen Xingyue, though her skin prickled with goosebumps, managed to suppress her discomfort as she and Wu Huifang carried a corpse onto a cart that still had traces of blood.

Once the bodies were moved, the hospital's truck quickly departed.

Quiet settled once more.

...

Chen Xingyue discreetly smelled the plastic gloves, feeling a wave of nausea; earlier, while moving a corpse, her hand accidentally touched the cart's blood, and the gloves now emitted a faint stench.

She wanted to wash up but didn't want to appear overly squeamish in front of her classmates and teacher. As the class president and the strongest in the class, she felt compelled to set an example and hold herself to high standards.

Corpses continued to be brought in from outside.

The Martial Arts Teacher discussed with the soldiers, and so all the bodies were left for the students to transport in a systematic queue. Many corpses were not placed in body bags, requiring direct contact during transport.

The class consisted of thirty-two students, and in just over an hour, everyone had taken a turn.

There were too many corpses, and they couldn't be incinerated fast enough.

The morgue quickly became overcrowded.

The night grew deeper, and the air became increasingly chilly.

The numerous gas lamps illuminated the morgue with a bright, ghastly white light.

Chen Xingyue sat on a row of hard wooden chairs, looking around with suspicion, feeling as though the room had become darker, filled with shadowy figures.

"Stupid Chen Shouyi said he'd come, yet he didn't show up in the end—always flaking out on me," she cursed silently in her heart.

"Tap! Tap! Tap!"

Suddenly, the clear sound of tapping echoed through the morgue.

"What's that sound?" a student asked.

"I'll go check it out!" remarked a particularly brave male student, standing up and walking through the gaps between the bodies.

Soon, he let out a cry of surprise: "What the heck is that!"

All the students promptly rushed over, and the next moment they saw a fourteen to fifteen-centimeter-long red worm, resembling an earthworm, bouncing powerfully on the floor.

A few soldiers noticed the scene, quickly pushed through the crowd, and one stepped on the worm, grinding it underfoot.

"Don't touch it! Everyone step back!"

Another soldier lifted the white cloth from a corpse, and with just one look, he felt chills run down his spine. Countless parasitic worms were crawling out of its mouth, nose, ears, and even skin.

He quickly covered it back up: "Handle this corpse first; check if there are more problems elsewhere."

With that, the soldier pushed the cart toward the incineration room.

Since the power outage, the chemical industry had shut down, leading to an extreme shortage of plastic materials, and body bags became critically scarce. Besides the hospital, places like police stations had long run out; most corpses were covered simply with white cloths and delivered over.

No one expected this to happen.

Of course, the sheer number of corpses unable to be incinerated contributed to this situation.

The rest of the soldiers immediately started checking each body, discovering several more infected.

All in a single morgue, such things couldn't be concealed.

All the students looked shaken, feeling chills on their scalp.

"Why do corpses have these things?"

"It's surely parasitic worms."

"Parasitic worms? We just handled those corpses, could they be infectious?"

The Martial Arts Teacher coughed, reassured them: "It should be fine. Everyone wore gloves and masks, without direct contact with the bodies. Besides, soldiers process corpses every day, they definitely know what's going on."

ps: Sorry, there's no time left.

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