"It's bad! The surroundings are on fire!" Liu Yuning was the first to react!
"How can this be? Our escape route is blocked!" Xia Hou was the second to be vigilant.
I looked around and realized the gravity of the situation. It seemed this was indeed a private funeral home. Liu Haokang must have modified the villa, turning it into his personal death trap for torturing corpses. Shackles of eternal damnation bound us in all four directions, ensuring that no matter which way we went, it would lead to our demise.
As the temperature continued to rise, the officers were drenched in sweat, their uniforms soaked. Seeing the walls gradually turning red from the heat, Zhao Xiong said, "There's no time. Director He, we'll use an oxygen cutting machine to breach the back door. You guys take this chance to escape!"
"But..."
"There's no time left!"
With no other option, Zhao Xiong, Li Fan, and others attacked the door behind them with the cutting machine. After a while, a large hole was opened. However, the moment the door opened, a horde of corpses, seemingly burned by the funeral home's crematorium, surged towards us!
The sheer number was staggering. I even wondered if the entire funeral home's corpses were rushing at us! This reminded me of Gao Mingqiang's case, the one involving cathinone!
But I could tell these people weren't affected by drugs. Besides, they were dead. Even if there was cathinone, it wouldn't explain this scene. But if they were dead, how could they be standing? Perhaps those previous cases, the so-called 'feigned deaths,' were similar to these reanimated corpses?
With no time to spare, everyone desperately pulled their triggers. Dense bullets pierced the corpses, followed by the use of saws and circular blades. Amidst a spray of blood, we stepped over the bodies and reached the main hall. The entire place was now a fiery red. All windows and doors were sealed with thick iron plates. Eerie cackling sounds echoed around us, as if we were truly trapped in a crematorium's furnace, being mercilessly consumed by flames!!
However, this was a colossal furnace, large enough to incinerate all of us. It was likely that not just us, but any previous victims who arrived here would have met the same fate.
They must have been burned alive here, just like the corpses hanging earlier. They were hung after being burned to death.
So, were we going to be the next batch to be burned to death?
At that moment, the police officers looked around the crimson environment in utter terror. The heat intensified at an alarming rate, as if gaining tens of degrees every second. It was over, everything was over!
We were about to be burned to death in this lightless place, just like the corpses. Strangely, at this critical juncture, everyone calmed down, as if prepared for sacrifice. Yet, Zhao Xiong and Li Fan were still desperately searching for an escape. But the defenses were so strong that even the oxygen cutting machine was useless. Moreover, under such extreme heat, the machine had already stopped working.
"Damn it! Why didn't I consider that the machine would fail!" Zhao Xiong, his hands burned red, angrily smashed the oxygen cutting machine. He then snatched another from an armed police officer and tried again, but to no avail. All the oxygen cutting machines were paralyzed.
Normally, these machines generated immense heat during operation. In such an environment, if activated, they risked melting immediately. How could they function normally?
Xia Hou pulled Zhao Xiong, who was extremely agitated, "Calm down, Captain Zhao. It seems we can't escape this time!"
"Calm down? We're about to die! Look, the walls are melting!"
Perhaps this was the highest temperature yet. As Zhao Xiong said this, we all noticed the walls indeed dissolving like wax. How high must the temperature be for such a phenomenon to occur? We probably wouldn't last much longer.
Watching the walls gradually melt like candles, many officers began to experience breathing difficulties and felt an unsettling heat all over their bodies. It's worth noting that the human body's maximum temperature limit is approximately 46.5 degrees Celsius. The upper limit of normal human body temperature measured in the armpit is usually 37.4 degrees Celsius. If one has a fever, it wouldn't exceed 42 degrees Celsius, but the absolute maximum is around 46.5 degrees Celsius. As for the human environmental temperature limit, it's around 116 degrees Celsius, meaning the temperature one can endure while still being able to breathe.
In a dry air environment with bare skin, the human body can withstand rapid temperature increases up to 210 degrees Celsius. However, wearing a thick winter flight suit, the limit for sudden temperature increase can reach 270 degrees Celsius.
But an increase in internal body temperature is difficult to tolerate. If body temperature exceeds 42 degrees Celsius, the central nervous system's function will be severely disordered. Proteins in the body may denature and coagulate, posing a life-threatening risk. This is why the maximum reading on a thermometer is only 42 degrees Celsius. For the human body, a temperature of 40 degrees Celsius is a warning sign, and 42 degrees Celsius can cause irreversible organ damage or even death.
A stream of numbers flashed through my mind. My eyes were also turning red. We hadn't even found a single trace of Liu Haokang. Were we really going to die like this?
Just as I was about to lose consciousness from the heat, whether it was an illusion or not, I saw...
Grandfather, standing on the second floor of the villa, nodding slightly at me.
Then, behind him were my parents, and my deceased uncle...
Suddenly, I realized something. A thunderous roar erupted from the villa's roof, and the entire structure was blown open by something. Everyone looked up, enduring the fall of countless sand and debris. He Xin was standing next to the old patriarch, waving at me and saying, "Are you alright now? Thank goodness I arrived in time! Oh my, this ceiling is too hot!"
He Xin had followed us, but I didn't know where she went midway. I didn't expect her to bring me reinforcements, and such important ones – the old patriarch.
I was surprised that the old patriarch, despite his age, could appear here. After the roof broke open, streams of cool midnight breeze seeped in, instantly lowering the surrounding temperature. The special forces and armed police quickly used ropes to escape upwards. We also swiftly used grappling hooks to leave the villa.
However, after we emerged, we found He Jinghui and He Bailing engaged in a fierce battle with numerous men in camouflage uniforms! Among them were many experts from He Family Village!
They were armed with swords, spears, shotguns, sabers, iron forks, and other weapons. Seeing that the number of camouflage-clad men was more than half that of ours, I quickly shouted, "Everyone! Listen to my orders, arrest these criminals!"
"Yes, Director He!" Everyone raised their weapons and rushed out of the villa, quickly joining the fray!