About five minutes later, Zhang Junyu finished his search and stood in front of the room where the paper figures were stored. He hadn't found any trace of the missing woman, which only made him feel more uneasy.

The door to the room was half-open, with no candlelight inside. Only a sliver of cold moonlight spilled in through the crack.

From Zhang Junyu's perspective, the moonlight fell perfectly on the profiles of a row of paper figures, making their faces appear even paler.

Taking a deep breath, Zhang Junyu slowly pushed the door open. The old door hinges creaked and groaned, making his teeth ache.

The room wasn't as dark as he'd imagined. It was filled with a slightly pungent smell of paint. Zhang Junyu twitched his nose slightly, and beneath the paint smell, he keenly detected a musty odor.

This instantly alerted him, because this smell… was very familiar.

It was the smell of a corpse just beginning to decompose.

But this place was full of paper figures. Could it be… that there was a corpse hidden among them?

Zhang Junyu served as the pathfinder in the entire tomb raiding team. He was highly vigilant, and his experience and mental fortitude were far beyond ordinary people. In a few breaths, he calmed down and began to squint as he observed the room.

Behind a pillar near the entrance was a wooden ladder. A white lantern was hung in the middle of the ladder, in a conspicuous position, but it was unlit.

Looking closely, there was also a small section of bamboo tube standing at the foot of the ladder.

Others might not know what it was, but Zhang Junyu immediately recognized it as a fire stick.

With a fire stick here, it seemed they wanted someone to light the lantern.

Zhang Junyu hesitated for a moment, but he still didn't do it. First, he could barely see in the room as it was, and second, he remembered the night watchman's words—"Beware of fire."

He slowly moved his feet, walking inside.

He had been here during the day, but it felt completely different now. The paper figures surrounding him seemed to be watching him, and in the dim light, their faces looked even more exaggerated and bizarre, as if they could come to life at any moment.

"Don't choose the standing paper figures, because you can't see their feet. Only choose the ones that are hanging."

Before coming here, Zhang Junyu and the other two had discussed it, and they all agreed that the path to survival was hidden among the hanging paper figures, and it had to be the female paper figures.

He had half a shichen (approximately one hour), and with the time spent on the way and the time wasted just now, he had at least half an hour left.

That was enough time to find the paper figure, paint its nails, and then take it out.

The room wasn't very big. Zhang Junyu's attention was mostly focused on the ceiling. In a few minutes, he walked around the entire room, and after this lap, he had made a new discovery.

There were a total of 44 hanging paper figures, and 17 of them were female.

And among these 17 female paper figures, exactly 6 had clean feet without any mud.

At that moment, Zhang Junyu felt confident. He knew that he had chosen the right direction. These female paper figures were the path to survival, and as for why there were 6, he could roughly guess.

Five of these 6 female paper figures were safe, which corresponded to the five of them who were looking for a way out. As for the extra 6th one… it was undoubtedly a ghost!

If anyone was unlucky enough to pick out the ghost, there was no need to think about it. Painting red fingernails on the ghost was basically the same as running to the閻王殿 (Yan Wang Dian, the Palace of King Yama, the ruler of the underworld) and clamoring to be reincarnated.

With a general idea, Zhang Junyu quickly returned and carefully examined the 6 female paper figures. The 6 female paper figures were of different sizes and shapes, but just by looking at them, it was impossible to tell which one was the problem.

Zhang Junyu moved a little closer and sniffed, trying to discern which paper figure the smell of the decaying corpse was coming from, but to his shock, every single one of them smelled of rotting corpse.

In the corner, there was a basin of scarlet paint, which looked like blood in this environment.

Zhang Junyu knew that he couldn't wait any longer. He hardened his heart, went behind the door, picked up the fire stick, opened it, and gently blew on it. A weak flame rose up, and then he lit the candle in the lantern.

Holding the lantern, Zhang Junyu slowly approached the female paper figures. Bizarre shadows appeared on the wall, and in the interplay of light and shadow, it was like a dance of demons. But Zhang Junyu's hand was steady, until he walked into the corner… and his pupils suddenly contracted.

By the light of the lantern, he finally discovered the anomaly. Behind one of the female paper figures… there was no shadow!

A female paper figure with clean feet.

This was the one!

Zhang Junyu immediately extinguished the lantern, mentally branding this female paper figure as dangerous, and turned around to pick out a normal female paper figure that was quite far away.

After identifying his target, he quickly moved the ladder, leaned it against the pillar, picked up the brush from the paint basin, climbed up the ladder, steadied his mind, and began to paint the female paper figure's fingernails.

One, two… Actually, the workmanship of the female paper figures' hands was relatively rough, and each finger was as thick as a club, but Zhang Junyu was very serious.

After painting them, he waited a few seconds and saw that the female paper figure didn't react. Then, he slowly lowered the female paper figure from the rope, carried her in his arms, and left the room.

Only when he stepped over the threshold did Zhang Junyu completely relax.

The night watchman had said that everything was safe and sound outside the door, and as long as he took the paper figure out of the room, he would be successful.

Naturally, he couldn't take the paper figure back. To be honest, Zhang Junyu felt uncomfortable looking at the paper figure with bright red fingernails. After thinking for a moment, he placed the paper figure outside the room, leaning it against the wall.

And he sat on the steps, waiting in the night wind.

Before long, a familiar clacking sound rang out. Zhang Junyu let out a long sigh of relief, stood up, glanced back, and walked towards the courtyard along the way he had come.

On the way, he met A Biao, who had come to meet him. The two had a brief conversation, and A Biao roughly understood the secrets of the paper figure room.

"After confirming the paper figure, painting the fingernails, and then carrying the paper figure out, how long does it take?" A Biao asked in his broken Mandarin.

"If everything goes smoothly, 10 minutes is enough," Zhang Junyu recalled.

"Understood." A flash of ruthlessness flashed in A Biao's eyes. After saying that, he strode towards the paper craftsman's house.

Zhang Junyu stared at A Biao's back, and he was also quite wary of this person. He wasn't a complete insider. It was said that he used to be a mercenary who lived a life of licking blood from the edge of a knife. He only listened to Jia Jinliang in the team.

He had heard many rumors about this person. The most sensational one was that this person had killed more than a dozen mercenaries with guns with his bare hands. As for whether it was true or not, he didn't know, and he didn't dare to ask.

Yu Chengmu had read his face and said that this person's life was dominated by 七杀 (qi sha, Seven Killings), an extremely fierce evil star.

Yu Chengmu didn't understand how Jia Jinliang was able to recruit such a person. The relationship between the two didn't seem like a simple money transaction. There must be a great opportunity in this.