The fat man made a gesture to be quiet, and crept towards the stone platform with his gun, while Rou Yi and the others cautiously followed behind.

　　Halfway there, the strange noise stopped abruptly, and the fat man's heart jumped into his throat. He couldn't be sure what had happened at the stone platform. Had something noticed them?

　　The fat man swallowed, trying to embolden himself, and whispered, "Damn it, Fatty here isn't afraid of you."

　　With that, the fat man quickly adjusted his posture, switching to a side stance with both hands holding the gun, and rapidly approached the stone platform in a C.A.R. shooting position.

　　Arriving at the stone platform, the fat man was stunned by the scene before him. He couldn't be sure if what he was seeing was a hallucination, or if the current situation was dangerous, or whether he should open fire.

　　Rou Yi and the others came up behind the fat man, and they were also stunned by the sight on the stone platform.

　　There were two people on the stone platform.

　　To be precise, one person and one corpse.

　　The corpse was sitting upright on the edge of the stone platform. The drag marks in the dust on the stone platform showed that the corpse had been artificially moved to the edge.

　　In the center of the stone platform sat a living person, wearing the most mysterious iron mask in the underground city.

　　The person wearing the iron mask was motionless, as if the fat man and the others didn't exist.

　　What was most eerie was that the clothes worn by the person wearing the iron mask were exactly the same as those worn by the fat man and Rou Yi.

　　Clearly, the person wearing the iron mask was one of their group, a member of the security team.

　　Professor Chen wiped the sweat from his brow, looked at the fat man and Rou Yi with suspicion, and asked, "What... what is going on here?"

　　The fat man and Rou Yi also didn't know what was going on.

　　At this moment, Rou Yi noticed that the person wearing the iron mask had a slingshot tucked in his waist, and she was shocked. She leaned close to the fat man's ear and said, "The person wearing the iron mask is the one in the team who used a slingshot to fend off the wolf pack."

　　The fat man clicked his tongue. "It's him."

　　Even knowing that the masked person was a member of the security team, the fat man didn't know if he was friend or foe.

　　The person wearing the iron mask sat calmly on the stone platform, completely ignoring the fat man and the others.

　　"Maybe the iron mask is the main body, and the person is just a host. Could this person be possessed by the iron mask?" the fat man said, stating his wild guess.

　　The strange behavior of the person wearing the iron mask did fit the fat man's hypothesis. Rou Yi and the others felt their hair stand on end, and they harbored resentment toward the iron mask and the person beneath it.

　　"Hey! Can you hear me?" the fat man said to the person wearing the iron mask. "I'm going to shoot if you don't say anything!"

　　The person wearing the iron mask still didn't respond to the fat man, and the fat man didn't dare to pull the trigger casually.

　　In the midst of the anxiety, a commotion suddenly came from outside the hall. The fat man couldn't focus on both ends. He thought that the person wearing the iron mask shouldn't do anything, so he decided to check the situation outside the hall first, and quickly rushed out.

　　Outside the hall, someone walked from the back of the crowd to the front row. Wherever this person passed, people made way. Before long, this person reached the very front of the crowd, holding a fluorescent crystal skull in his hands, but his hands were not burned by the skull. He possessed a majesty and eeriness that made people want to flee immediately.

　　This person was in his early thirties, with typical Western features. His trimmed beard made him look quite stylish, and his pale blue pupils seemed to be clouded with sorrow. He wore a brocade with gold silk embroidery, which, although weathered by time, still stood out in the crowd with its unique sense of luxury.

　　It was not difficult to guess that this person was the leader, Vukusimo.

　　Vukusimo walked step by step toward the main hall of the temple. The fat man raised his gun at him and shouted, "Don't come any closer."

　　Vukusimo ignored the fat man. Rou Yi walked out from behind the fat man and said something to Vukusimo in Tocharian, meaning "Stop, do not advance."

　　Vukusimo looked at Rou Yi in surprise, seemingly wondering how this foreign woman could speak his native language. Rou Yi repeated the Tocharian phrase she had just said, telling Vukusimo not to approach the temple any further.

　　After hesitating for a moment, Vukusimo ignored Rou Yi and continued to walk forward.

　　Just as Vukusimo was about to reach the crowd, the person wearing the iron mask dragged the corpse that had been sitting on the stone platform and rushed out of the temple.

　　Vukusimo's expression was very complex when he saw the person wearing the iron mask and the corpse. It was unclear whether it was anger, fear, or some other emotion.

　　The person wearing the iron mask threw the seated corpse in front of Vukusimo, confronting him.

　　Vukusimo broke his silence and roared a few words in Tocharian at the person wearing the iron mask, but the person wearing the iron mask only replied with one sentence.

　　The fat man hurriedly asked Rou Yi what they had said.

　　Rou Yi said to the fat man, "Vukusimo asked the person wearing the iron mask who he was, why he was here, and why he was wearing an iron mask that didn't belong to him. The person wearing the iron mask replied to Vukusimo, saying that he was a god..."

　　The fat man saw that the atmosphere between Vukusimo and the person wearing the iron mask was tense, and a conflict seemed likely to break out at any moment, but he was stuck between the two and couldn't do anything, so he scratched his head anxiously.

　　The person wearing the iron mask took off the slingshot from his waist and showed it to Vukusimo. Vukusimo didn't pay attention at first, but when he took a closer look, he was drawn to the slingshot, and his expression changed.

　　Vukusimo pointed to the slingshot and said something in Tocharian.

　　The person wearing the iron mask grunted and also said something in Tocharian.

　　Rou Yi showed a look of realization on her face and said to the fat man, "The slingshot in the hand of the person wearing the iron mask is made from a nine-section staff. Vukusimo discovered this."

　　The situation now clearly favored the person wearing the iron mask. Although Vukusimo had the advantage in numbers, the person wearing the iron mask had two magical artifacts, which Vukusimo seemed very wary of.

　　The person wearing the iron mask pointed to the fluorescent skull in Vukusimo's hand and said something. Vukusimo looked nervous and protected the skull in his hands.

　　This time, even without Rou Yi's translation, the fat man knew that the person wearing the iron mask wanted the skull in Vukusimo's hand.

　　The person wearing the iron mask pressed closer and closer, and Vukusimo retreated again and again. Finally, when Vukusimo had nowhere to retreat, he glared at the person wearing the iron mask and said a series of words, seemingly threatening him.

　　Rou Yi tugged on the fat man's arm and said, "The situation is not good. Vukusimo seems to want to fight to the death with the person wearing the iron mask."