I can rewind time to prevent death

Yuan Dingzhou looked for a moment before reaching behind him, touching Fang Zun, and quickly shaking him, "Tell me, that coffin is not the Red Coffin we saw just now."

Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, Fang Zun produced a harsh, hoarse voice from his throat, "It seems... to be that coffin?"

His gaze, like Yuan Dingzhou's, was firmly fixed on the moderately sized coffin. Although it was too dark to see clearly what color the coffin was, there was at least a fifty percent chance that it was the Red Coffin they had seen on the street before.

"Should we go take a look?" Yuan Dingzhou pulled out a small flashlight, ready to turn it on and shine it on the semi-large coffin.

Fang Zun grabbed his hand hastily, "Are you crazy? Let's leave here, no matter whether this coffin is the one from before, we can't stay here any longer."

As he spoke, he turned around to twist the door handle, only to stiffen as he did so, adding more strength to his grip and turning it forcefully a couple of times.

"What's wrong?" asked Yuan Dingzhou in surprise.

"It won't open," Fang Zun said, breaking into a cold sweat.

"That can't be, I didn't lock it from inside," Yuan Dingzhou replied, somewhat in disbelief, walking over and trying to turn the door handle with force.

Sure enough, there was no response, whether pulling or pushing, the door did not budge.

The two men exchanged looks, then instinctively turned around to look at the semi-large coffin quietly lying there in the dark.

Fortunately, in the thick darkness, the semi-large coffin still lay in place, showing no signs of abnormality.

"See if the windows can be opened," Fang Zun recovered and suggested.

Together with Yuan Dingzhou, they went towards the large windows on either side.

They had chosen this house earlier precisely because of its large and bright windows, which allowed them to easily monitor the surroundings from inside; hence, now that the door could not be opened, it was equally feasible to jump out through the windows.

The windows could be opened, but they were secured with steel bars, a common anti-theft measure in rural homes where the bars are welded and cannot be removed directly.

After staring blankly for a moment, Fang Zun went back to the door and tried again to open it. Enjoy new adventures from My Virtual Library Empire

Still no luck.

At that time, Yuan Dingzhou tried bending the bars with his bare hands to find that it was virtually impossible, then promptly took out his magnetic knife.

Turning his head to check, seeing that the coffin was still untouched in the darkness, he felt a bit relieved.

Fang Zun also produced his magnetic knife.

The two men, one slicing at the steel bars with his magnetic knife, the other inserting his magnetic knife into the gap between the door and the lock, worked feverishly to pry.

Both exerted all their strength, and after about ten seconds, Fang Zun felt an inexplicable chill surge up within him.

He stopped prying and turned to see that the coffin in the dark seemed to have moved.

At that moment, Yuan Dingzhou was still diligently cutting the steel bars with his magnetic knife, which emitted a faint blue light. The light wasn't very strong, but during the cutting process, there was a slight sound similar to electromagnetic noise.

In the quiet night, it stood out all the more.

"Stop!" Fang Zun called out in a lowered voice, urgently telling Yuan Dingzhou to cease cutting.

Yuan Dingzhou was taken aback, turned his head, and saw Fang Zun had turned on his small flashlight, casting its beam towards the coffin in the dark.

With the illumination from the flashlight, the front of the coffin was finally clear—it was indeed that medium-sized Red Coffin.

The craftsmanship of the coffin was very intricate, with a streamlined beauty to it. If it weren't for the age, resulting in much of the red paint peeling off and holes appearing on either side of the coffin, in modern times, it would be considered a highly collectible antique.

But at that moment, the lid of the Red Coffin... had been shifted aside.

It was unclear when it had moved; Yan Dingzhou and Fang Zun were too busy earlier, one prying at the door, the other cutting at the window bars, both making noises, so they did not hear any movement from behind.

Now there was no time to think about that. Yuan Dingzhou also turned on his small flashlight, shining it at the Red Coffin, providing more light and further reducing the darkness's interference with their sight.

The opened Red Coffin lay eerily silent, with not a sound emanating from it.

While Yuan Dingzhou had yet to react, Fang Zun couldn't remain still any longer as the creepy feeling inside him intensified.

After a moment's hesitation, Fang Zun stepped towards the Red Coffin, while saying to Yuan Dingzhou, "We can't let the lid stay open, or it'll cause great trouble. Just now when I tried prying the door, it had already loosened somewhat. Keep at it and pry it open, as soon as the door is open get out immediately."

Watching Fang Zun's retreating back, Yuan Dingzhou blurted out, "Hurry back, it's dangerous!"

"Leaving the lid to open, both of us are in danger!" Fang Zun did not hesitate and quickly approached the Red Coffin.

Anxious, Yuan Dingzhou had no other choice but to turn back, insert the magnetic knife into the gap in the door, and pry with all his might.

With that, the door indeed loosened significantly.

Yuan Dingzhou simply pulled out the magnetic knife, took a step back, and with a strike toward the gap in the door, he slashed down.

The magnetic glow flickered, and with a clatter, the door panel was split, but it was still not opened.

Just then, Yuan Dingzhou felt a series of strange noises coming from behind him.

He immediately looked back, but there was nothing behind him. The strange noise had come out of nowhere, as if… something was crawling on the ground.

Yuan Dingzhou quickly shone his flashlight everywhere, clear about everything visible, and found nothing out of the ordinary.

He then looked towards Fang Zun, who was about to close the lid of the coffin. At that moment, Fang Zun stood by the side of the coffin, reaching out to move the displaced coffin back into place to cover it again.

For safety, Fang Zun didn't stand directly in front of the open side of the coffin, but at the bottom, ready to react if anything went wrong.

At least it should be easier to escape.

Looking from Fang Zun's direction, the inside of the coffin was pitch black and he could see nothing.

Fang Zun intended to shine his flashlight inside the coffin, but then he thought better of it. Suppressing his curiosity, he forcefully quelled the impulse and grabbed the coffin lid to close it.

"Did you hear something just now?" Yuan Dingzhou asked.

Fang Zun stopped what he was doing and looked up at him, "What?"

"I feel... like someone was crawling on the ground," said Yuan Dingzhou, his face showing fear.

Fang Zun was taken aback, then glanced at the size of the coffin in front of him and shook his head, "I didn't hear anything."

He reached for the coffin lid again, ready to pull it shut.

Just then, Fang Zun's body shuddered, halting the attempt to close the coffin, as he brought his head closer to it.

Just as Yuan Dingzhou was about to ask him what he saw, Fang Zun's right hand moved, seemingly flicking off a Hidden Buckle. The Red Coffin emitted a soft "bang" and a burst of white light appeared.

But at almost the same moment, in Fang Zun's eyes, a withered arm reached out from inside the coffin, grabbed his collar, and violently pulled him into the coffin.

The flashlight fell to the ground.

However, from Yuan Dingzhou's perspective, there were no arms reaching out. Instead, Fang Zun suddenly became motionless, as if drunk, and toppled headfirst into the coffin without even a chance to make a sound.

In the nick of time, Fang Zun twisted his right hand, the magnetic knife now in his grasp. With force, he wedged the magnetic knife against the edges of the coffin, preventing himself from being entirely dragged in.

But to Yuan Dingzhou, watching from outside, all he could see was one hand desperately propping against the coffin. The next second, the magnetic knife was snapped in two, accompanied by the breaking sound of bones. Fang Zun's hand that was outside the coffin, along with the broken knife, was quickly pulled inside, disappearing without a trace.

The little flashlight that had fallen just now was still spinning on the ground, but its owner would never see it again.

All this might sound like a chain of sudden disasters, but it happened in a very brief moment. By the time Yuan Dingzhou, standing at the doorway, attempted a rescue, Fang Zun had already vanished right in front of his eyes.

At almost the same instant, the crawling sound echoed again in Yuan Dingzhou's ears.

At this moment, Yuan Dingzhou was certain there was something crawling on the ground.

Perhaps, this thing had crawled out the moment the coffin lid was opened.

He wanted to go and save Fang Zun, but the sound was obviously advancing quickly towards him in the darkness, which, after just witnessing Fang Zun's bizarre disappearance, caused Yuan Dingzhou's heart to go numb.

He turned and took another swipe at the stubborn door that wouldn't budge.

Just then, something tightened around his foot. Yuan Dingzhou quickly looked down and, with the help of the moonlight coming from outside, saw a man with only the upper half of his body, ragged clothes clinging on, hugging his right foot on the ground.

This man seemed to have just experienced a horrific explosion, his lower half likely blasted away, with copious amounts of blood and viscera spilling out.

This sight sent Yuan Dingzhou's mind reeling inexplicably, a memory he thought long forgotten, buried deep in his heart from years ago, suddenly flooding his brain.

A fear that was indescribable and peaked at the very core of his being swept over him like an invisible demon, crushing the three-star Exorcist named Yuan Dingzhou in an instant.

A primal terror from the depths of his heart made Yuan Dingzhou scream heartrendingly, at which point the half-bodied man had already climbed on top of him.

The man looked face to face at Yuan Dingzhou, whose face was now exceedingly distorted from fear.

...

"Kill her!"

Yan Junze shouted loudly.

Standing under the moonlight, with his shadow stretched long behind him, a dark figure slowly crawled out. As the figure revealed about half of its body, Yan Junze's reminder exploded like a bombshell.

Zhang Xiaomo, whose presence had been concealed until now, pounced from her hiding place not far under the eaves. She moved swiftly, the magnetic knife utilizing the force of her leap to strike at the shadow that had crawled halfway out and was about to pounce on Yan Junze's actual body.

Clang! The magnetic knife struck the ground, sparking a string of fireflies. Fang Ning's shadow merely trembled slightly and then froze, quickly retracting back into Yan Junze's shadow and disappearing from view.

"I think you should have just stabbed the ground directly with the magnetic knife. Maybe you could have pinned Fang Ning's shadow down, then I could have run away with elegance and ease, possibly leaving Fang Ning's shadow behind and breaking free from my own. Alas, a missed opportunity," Yan Junze shook his head and sighed.

"Do you look elegant and easy when you run?" Zhang Xiaomo put away the magnetic knife. "I've seen you chased around by Resentful Granny, flailing about in all sorts of styles—from duck-footed to pigeon-toed, yellow dog peeing to old donkey rolling. Elegant and easy?"

"Speak nicely, how come there are so many comparisons with dogs and donkeys? Zhang Di, don't listen to her, you can't believe a word women say," Yan Junze looked towards Zhang Di.

The latter was counting his fingers, head bowed.