He glanced around the room and blurted out instinctively, "This... could this be SCP-002..."

"What's that?" Long Aomin asked, puzzled.

"Ah!" Wang Tanzhi suddenly shouted. "Don't ask! He'll prattle on about it for hours!"

Ignoring him, Feng Bujue replied, "It's a collaborative science fiction setting created by fans on an online platform."

"He actually summed it up in one sentence!" Wang Tanzhi exclaimed. "I remember when he explained it to me, he went on for three hours straight!"

"That's because you seemed to believe it, and I wanted to see how far I could string you along," Feng Bujue said with a laugh, as he walked into the room made of flesh.

The other four followed him, as none of them wanted to stay in the ever-changing corridor outside.

"Assuming this is the center of the Usher Mansion's cursed power," Feng Bujue said, heading straight for the two corpses, "the entire room is constructed from the souls or bodies of generations of Usher family masters. Roderick and Madeline's corpses will eventually become part of this room as well." He grabbed Madeline's foot, trying to pull it down, but the intestines were tightly wound, and pulling from below seemed useless.

Feng Bujue took out a kitchen knife from his bag and held it in his mouth. It looked like he was planning to climb up the corpses and cut the intestines.

"I'll do it." Si Yu placed a hand on Feng Bujue's shoulder, stopping him.

Feng Bujue turned to look at her, and she looked directly into his eyes. Si Yu didn't speak, but pointed to Feng Bujue, then pointed to the ground.

"Okay..." Feng Bujue seemed to understand. He knelt down on one knee and leaned forward, turning his back to her.

Si Yu stepped forward with her sword, stepping lightly on his shoulder, and with a gentle leap, reached the top. She swung the sword in a half-circle, neatly cutting the two intestines hanging the corpses. The two bodies fell to the ground.

After landing, Si Yu said to Feng Bujue, "Thank you."

"No... no problem..." Feng Bujue felt like he was the one who had troubled her.

Just then, Roderick's ghost reappeared, standing outside the door, behind Bei Ling.

"You... can't change anything..." Roderick said.

His sudden appearance startled Bei Ling, and she immediately turned around, shining her flashlight towards the door, but saw nothing.

On the floor, Roderick's corpse began to move. The intestines around him loosened naturally. As everyone's attention turned to the door, the ghost controlled his corpse to stand up from the ground, launching another attack on Feng Bujue.

Feng Bujue was alert. Although his eyes were on the door, he reacted instantly when he heard the movement behind him. He raised the kitchen knife and turned to block, the blade hitting Roderick's arm.

Although the corpse had regained mobility, it was still flesh and blood. The knife in Feng Bujue's hand cut directly into Roderick's right forearm, but got stuck on the bone, failing to sever it completely.

Long Aomin reacted quickly as well, sidestepping forward and swinging his shield horizontally, aiming for Roderick's temple. The Fragments of Ultron was high-quality equipment, and the "Sub-Adamantium Alloy" setting was not just for show. Combined with Long Aomin's Schwarzenegger-like physique, the blow swept away Roderick's skull.

The exposed brain matter was gray-black, looking like minced tofu, and emitting a disgusting odor.

Seeing that half of his head had been cut off, Feng Bujue quickly grabbed a pipe wrench with his free hand and stabbed it into the corpse's chin several times. His eagerness made it seem like... if he didn't hurry, there wouldn't be any head left for him to hit.

Seeing that the two could handle it, Si Yu didn't help. Soon, only Feng Bujue was left "whipping the corpse," wielding the kitchen knife and pipe wrench, hacking at the fallen body like he was chopping meat. He continued until Roderick's body was a bloody mess, his internal organs exposed, and the major bones in his limbs were fractured before he stopped, panting, "Huff... it shouldn't get up again."

Even Xiao Tan, who was used to corpses, couldn't help but cover his mouth and say, "Get up? How could it 'get up' in that state? You could make dumplings with that pile of stuff..."

Roderick's corpse was destroyed, but his ghost reappeared in the corner of the room. "It's useless... my flesh will become one with this house. You... will be no exception."

As he spoke, the door slammed shut. The flesh on the surrounding walls began to writhe, and mouths with sharp, outward-pointing fangs appeared, large enough to bite off a person's face.

"Hey... Jue-ge, what do we do now?" Wang Tanzhi took out his kitchen knife, unsure of what to attack. Was he supposed to chop at the meat wall?

"If tongues start sticking out of the walls, I'm not sticking around..." Bei Ling said, looking at the mouths on the wall with disgust.

"Since we're going to be swallowed sooner or later, why did you bother possessing your corpse to attack me?" Feng Bujue muttered, shining his flashlight on Roderick's ghost, but the latter no longer seemed to be affected by the light.

"Oh... so you're not afraid of light in this room?" Feng Bujue said, walking to Madeline's corpse and squatting down as if to do something.

Roderick's face clearly showed surprise. "What are you doing?"

"Madeline's soul doesn't want to become part of Usher Mansion. Her image briefly appeared in the cellar, calling for help," Feng Bujue said. "I thought about it... the phrase 'Let me out' probably wasn't asking me to rescue her from the coffin, because she had already escaped from that coffin in life." Confirming Roderick's reaction, he stood up and smiled. "Madeline wants me to take her body out of this room, to prevent it from being assimilated by this house like you in a while."

Roderick's face became increasingly terrifying, the features of a demon completely replacing his human features. "Look around you... how do you plan to take her out?"

Feng Bujue said, "Do these scenes around me really exist? If this house could devour people so quickly, your corpses would have been eaten to dust long ago, right?" He strode to the wall and reached out to touch the bulging, bloody mouth.

The others remained silent, not trying to stop him. Feng Bujue's confident tone and steady movements gave them the impression that he was certain of success.

Roderick could only glare at him, unable to do anything.

Feng Bujue's hand passed through the illusion of flesh and blood, touching the real wall, an ordinary wooden wall. "As expected... the illusion conceals the true appearance of this room. Now, I just need to find..." He paused. "Heh, I'm getting slow. Where else could it be?"

Feng Bujue walked towards the corner where Roderick was standing. The latter looked terrified and roared in anger. But Feng Bujue completely ignored the translucent ghost, passing through him and exploring the wall behind him.

A few seconds later, Feng Bujue raised his hands to a height slightly above his waist, palms forward, and vigorously pushed upwards, opening a window.

[Current quest has been changed, main quest has been updated] the system voice announced.

In the quest log, the main quest [Explore the mansion, find a way to escape the mansion.] was finally checked off, and a new quest appeared [Destroy the formation, escape the mansion.].

The red light of the blood moon shone in from the window, and Roderick disappeared without a trace the moment it touched the light. At the same time, the light dispelled all illusions, restoring the room to its original appearance.

It was just an attic, entirely made of brick and wood, with no flesh, bones, or hair. What had been hanging the corpses were not intestines, but two thick ropes.

The room was empty, except for a strange formation etched in the center of the floor. This may have been a randomly generated pattern by the game, and there was no way to verify it.

At this moment, the only terrifying thing left in the room was the corpse that Feng Bujue had just chopped to pieces.

The other four finally breathed a sigh of relief. Wang Tanzhi wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and said, "I was worried for so long. It turns out this room can't hurt anyone at all."

Feng Bujue walked to the formation on the ground and slashed some marks on it with his knife. "This room is like the 'head' of the entire house. The Usher family members, after death, are sent here, 'fed' to this mansion like food." He glanced at the minced meat beside him. "Their corpses will disappear, and their souls will become one with this house, transforming into various bizarre things. Maybe those distorted sculptures and ugly paintings are reflections of certain family members."

After defacing the formation, he put away his weapon and stood up, saying, "Also... when I came in and saw these two corpses, I had some doubts... The 'he knows' that Madeline carved in the coffin might not refer to Roderick..."

"What? Could it be the protagonist of the novel?" Long Aomin said.

"No, the protagonist is obviously innocent, but..." Feng Bujue replied, "Besides the two masters, there were other people in Usher Mansion... On this point, the book only has one or two sentences of description. I remember a 'stealthy, silent servant' and a 'cunning-looking family doctor who showed panic when he saw the protagonist.'"

"Are you saying that the Usher family members might also be victims?" Bei Ling continued.

Feng Bujue looked around, as if searching for something, and replied absentmindedly, "Perhaps the Usher family was targeted by some strange religious group, becoming experiments... no, sacrifices. After they die, they are sacrificed to this house. Who knows what's going on with this house... Maybe the house's power comes from some fictional evil god."

"Above," Si Yu said suddenly.

Feng Bujue immediately looked up. On the slanted roof, he saw the last stanza of The Haunted Palace.

【And travellers now within that valley,
Through the red-litten windows see
Vast forms that move fantastically
To a discordant melody;
While, like a ghastly rapid river,
Through the pale door
A hideous throng rush out forever
And laugh -- but smile no more.】

[Side quest completed] The system prompt sounded.

Feng Bujue sighed and said, "Okay, now the formation is destroyed. This house should have returned to its normal state. We should be able to find a way out soon."

"Why don't we just jump out of this window then? We finally found an exit!" Wang Tanzhi said.

"Then go ahead," Feng Bujue said, carrying Madeline's corpse on his shoulder, as he walked towards the door. "Good luck."