Near the handrail of the staircase, a wooden sign was hung, with the words "Staircase Dangerous, No Entry" scrawled on it in a bug-like script.

"Jiang-ge," Wen Liangshan reached out, his hand trembling as he pointed to the corner behind the caution tape, "look quickly... what is that?"

Getting closer, they found a large puddle of water on the floor, with a clump of wet hair in the middle.

The hair was messy, long and short, as if it were a mixture of many people's hair.

Most importantly, a strong, pungent odor emanated from the hair.

It was the smell of formaldehyde.

Turning on the flashlight on his phone, he shone it up the staircase. The darkness above seemed even denser, the light seemingly suppressed, the visibility compressed to a few meters.

From their angle, the staircase seemed to lead into nothingness.

But within that visible range, they saw a scene they would never forget.

The steps here were wooden, dilapidated, with several large holes.

The holes were pitch black, giving the impression that a hand could reach out from them at any moment to grab their feet.

The stairs were littered with garbage, including shards of glass – the kind from specimen jars, as if someone had deliberately broken many specimen jars here.

But more common were things piled up in the corners, neglected, dark, some in clumps, others mixed together, covered with black hair.

Seeing this scene, Huai Yi couldn't help but grip the iron hook in his hand tightly.

Jiang Cheng stepped forward, tore down the caution tape, and tossed it aside. "Let's go."

The road was rough and looked dangerous. They were careful with their steps. Wen Liangshan, not particularly welcome, walked alone along the edge.

Staring at the large holes appearing under his feet, he felt uneasy, afraid of seeing something he shouldn't.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed him. "Follow me," Jiang Cheng said. "Step in my footprints."

Wen Liangshan was flattered and thanked him repeatedly.

The staircase seemed endless, and its dilapidated state was obvious.

The handrail was full of cracks, the metal bars supporting the wooden handrail were twisted strangely, with some notches that looked like they had been cut with a knife.

Finally, they reached the 5th floor.

Standing in the corridor on the 5th floor, they felt as if they had stepped into a piece of history. No longer needing the flashlight, everything around them was shrouded in a layer of gray light.

It was as if a filter had been applied.

It wasn't crystal clear, but it was enough for Jiang Cheng and the others.

"Wait a minute." Huai Yi strode forward, leaned closer to Jiang Cheng, and said, "Jiang-ge, I know I shouldn't say this, but I have to. I feel like something is following us."

"It started on the 2nd floor. It's been hanging behind us, neither too close nor too far. If we walk fast, it follows fast. If we slow down, it slows down too."

"I don't know what it wants to do, but you know this is the last floor. Should we deal with the trouble behind us before going in?"

Based on the dangers of the 3rd and 4th floors, the 5th floor would only be more terrifying. If they were attacked from both sides at a crucial moment, they would be finished.

But to Huai Yi's surprise, Jiang Cheng shook his head. "Ignore it. Focus on finding the last registry."

"Ignore it?" Huai Yi didn't understand.

Jiang Cheng took out his phone, lit up the screen, and showed it to Huai Yi. The time displayed was 12:33. At most, they only had 11 minutes left.

And they needed to leave time to escape.

There was no time...

"That thing didn't just start following us from the 2nd floor," Jiang Cheng said finally. "I noticed it as soon as we entered this building."

Huai Yi's eyes widened.

The group walked along the corridor. There were no doors or rooms on either side, only bare walls.

Occasionally, they saw water stains and black mold spreading across the walls.

Jiang Cheng stopped, took the iron hook for retrieving bodies from Huai Yi, and scraped the wall with the hooked end.

A whole piece of the wall fell off, revealing the damp bricks behind, covered in a large patch of disgusting mold.

They discovered that even behind the intact wall, everything was soaked with an unknown liquid. The entire 5th-floor corridor was like an apple that looked only slightly blackened on the surface, but when cut open, would be found to be rotten inside.

"There... there's a door here," Wen Liangshan suddenly said.

Following the direction Wen Liangshan was pointing, they saw a dark green door embedded in the wall. If it hadn't been opened a crack, it would have been easy to miss.

This was the first room they had encountered since arriving on the 5th floor.

Fatty looked up at the sign hanging above the door, which read "First Exhibition Room" in black ink.

They had been to the Second Exhibition Room on the 3rd floor before, and now they were at the First Exhibition Room. Although they were scared, they were also curious.

What would be inside this First Exhibition Room?

As the door slowly opened, their doubts were finally answered. Wen Liangshan's eyes widened. If Huai Yi hadn't covered his mouth in time, they probably would have heard a scream.

They saw a person with wide eyes standing less than 3 meters behind the door, looking down at them.

Of course, it wasn't a living person, just a corpse that had been dead for who knows how long.

The corpse was immersed in a large glass container. What was frightening was that, unlike the previous heads, this corpse had its eyes open and was facing directly toward the door.

"Doctor," Fatty said nervously, "I feel like this brother calculated that we'd come in at this time, and he's just waiting for us."

"Fu-gui-ge, please, I'm begging you, can you shut your mouth?" Wen Liangshan seemed to have exhausted a lot of effort to say those few words.

The Second Exhibition Room contained various organs, severed limbs like arms and legs, and heads. It seemed reasonable that the First Exhibition Room would display entire corpses.

Taking a few steps inside, they found that the space was larger than they had imagined. Along the wall were rows of corpses, men, women, old, and young.

Jiang Cheng counted sixteen in total, all placed in identical glass containers.

Unfortunately, they didn't find the registry.

Near the door, Jiang Cheng found a sign that read in black ink: "Every body donor is worthy of respect. We hope that those who visit here will have a sense of reverence for them.

At all times, they should be treated with respect, and do not make loud noises, so as not to disturb their sleep."

Below that was a line of smaller characters, a brief introduction to each body donor.

Jiang Cheng glanced at it quickly, and was about to leave when he suddenly stopped, as if realizing something.