Tomb Raiding: My Family's Last Clan Chief is Little Brother

Chapter 128 Kneeling in the Snow Mountain
After walking uphill for about half an hour, Ye Cheng, a member of Chen Pi Asi's group, suddenly started screaming and howling, which startled the monk Hua in front of him so much that he slipped and almost fell off the ridge.

"Aww—there, there are so many over there—" Ye Cheng pointed to a cliff below the ridge slope, his face pale, so frightened that he could barely speak.

Chen Pi Asi glanced at him coldly with displeasure, and Ye Cheng immediately shut his mouth and lowered his head, not daring to utter another sound.

Following the direction he had pointed, everyone looked and saw many black shadows displayed on the cliff face that was slightly higher than their own. Upon closer inspection with binoculars, they realized that each of them was a person curled up in a ball, or rather, a corpse.

Through the not-so-transparent ice, you can see even more densely packed black dots beneath those shadows. Just looking at them is enough to trigger trypophobia. There are even some traces of rituals at the bottom of the ice valley.

Shunzi, who was used to seeing this, said: "In ancient times, mountain people were accustomed to ice burial. In the early days of liberation, some people were buried in this ice cliff. So now there are still some elderly people who come here to worship. The ice layer here is also getting thicker year by year. Those tiny black dots that are almost invisible at the very back are probably thousands of years old."

The fat man laughed without any politeness, "Such a grown man, yet you're afraid of a frozen rice dumpling. It's not like it's going to come out and bite you."

Ye Cheng was angry but dared not speak.

Wu Xiaoxie suddenly asked, "Among these bodies buried in ice, could there be any Eastern Xia slaves from when the Cloud Palace was built?"

"It's possible."

The young man, who had been silent the whole way, suddenly spoke up. He looked at the ice valley with a somewhat gloomy expression, seemingly lost in thought.

Zhang Wuxun walked over and patted him on the shoulder. The young man turned his head and glanced at Zhang Wuxun. His clear black and white eyes held a faint light, and there seemed to be a layer of sadness in them.

The team moved on.

The path on the mountainside was more difficult to walk than before. Some of the shorter steep slopes required a human ladder to be built so that one person could go up first and then pull the people below up.

Above you are towering snow-capped mountains, and under your feet is a layer of snow that has stood for millennia. One wrong step and you could be buried in the snow. You have to use a long icicle to make a foothold, and step on it carefully, your nerves on edge, as if you were walking into a minefield.

The higher you go, the more pronounced the altitude sickness becomes.

Fatty had experience exploring snow mountains before. He walked the fastest, making snowdrifts with each step, and he was very particular about where he put his feet.

Poor Wu Xiaoxie, he kept stepping straight down, stumbling and falling every now and then. Zhang Wuxun, Xiao Ge Pan Zi, and two others surrounded him, constantly watching to prevent him from burying himself and not being able to get out.

After passing the snowy road on the mountainside, we arrived at a giant snow slope and ice zone with two sides that never see the sun. The slope here was even steeper than before, and the snow was frozen solid. The Dragon Head Treasure Cave that Chen Pi Asi mentioned was inside.

Chen Pi Asi was exhausted by the time he arrived. At his age, he was suffering in this freezing cold, and he didn't know what he was doing it for.

Lang Feng carried the old man on his back, while Hua Heshang and Ye Cheng helped him along.

After another three hours of trekking, we finally reached the snow slope. Fatty was the first to arrive. The sunlight at the summit shone on the white snow, and the reflected light made him a little dizzy.

He took a few more steps forward, and on a patch of hard snow, he pretended to stomp out a large footprint with his foot. He then spread his arms wide, looked up at the sky, and sighed. He turned to the group of people who had climbed up and were now sprawled on the snow behind him and exclaimed, "For me personally, this is just a small step, but for the tomb raiders, it's a damn leap forward!"

After finishing speaking, he lay down in the snow and remained motionless.

This time, almost the entire army was wiped out. Except for Xiao Ge and Zhang Wuxun, who were still standing after a short rest, everyone else was exhausted and silent, as if they could die on the spot at any moment.

As the sun sets, a pale blue mist envelops the entire sacred mountain, with strands of gold piercing through the clouds and shining like Buddha's light on the white-topped, black-rocked peaks, shrouding the majestic, rugged mountains in a mysterious veil. One can't help but imagine whether immortals reside atop those ethereal peaks.

Looking at the beautiful scenery before him, Zhang Wu couldn't help but sigh, "No wonder people often say that the beauty of Penglai cannot compare to a glance at Changbai Mountain."

This exhilarating feeling of being high above the clouds captivated everyone present.

Zhang Wuxun took out his camera to capture the scenery. He changed his position several times, as the opportunity was hard-won, and he wanted to take as many pictures as possible.

Suddenly, in the camera's view, the young man was standing on a slightly elevated patch of snow, slowly kneeling down and bowing his head respectfully towards the distant Three Saints Snow Mountain.

The setting sun cast a slanting glow, tinging his fair and delicate profile with a faint golden hue. Whether it was an illusion or not, the young man's originally expressionless face now revealed a faint, deeply sorrowful expression.

"Click," Zhang Wuxun pressed the camera shutter, capturing the moment in a photograph.

Everyone was surprised, wondering why he suddenly performed such a grand salute to the snow-capped mountain.

It seems to have some special affection for this snow-capped mountain.

Wu Xiaoxie and Fatty looked straight at Zhang Wuxun, searching for the answer.

Zhang Wuxun shrugged, put away his camera, and looked at the distant snow-capped mountains with a somewhat melancholy expression.

He didn't know what kind of complicated feelings the young man had for this snow mountain. Perhaps he had a god-like perspective and knew a little about the entanglements that had happened millions of years ago. In his eyes, this snow mountain and the secrets buried deep within it were like an invisible and intangible shackle for the young man and the entire family, deeply binding the fate of the Zhang family and many others.

Especially after the sacrifice in Qinling, Zhang Wuxun had a very subtle feeling about the bronze door buried deep in the snow-capped mountains and the things inside. His reason was disgusted, but he was also instinctively drawn to it by the same source.

However, for the Zhang family in the original story, this place is their long-standing faith, a place they have protected for generations.

Zhang Wuxun felt a sense of belonging to the Zhang family, but he couldn't bring himself to submit. His beliefs and ideologies prevented him from becoming a completely pure member of the Zhang family.

(There will be one more chapter before midnight)
(End of this chapter)