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

Chapter 146 The Peril of the Broken Bridge
Pan Zi immediately became alert. "Who exactly are you?"

Shunzi waved his hand and said, "Anyway, he won't harm you. You can ask him yourself when you see him."

"Where is my third uncle?" Wu Xiaoxie asked.

Shunzi shook his head, his gaze fixed on the flickering shadows in the lights above. "I don't know either, but it's definitely in this underground palace."

Hearing the growing noise above, the fat man lowered his voice and cursed, "Can't you guys have any sense of priorities? Dead birds are about to shit on our heads, why don't you hurry up and run away before you join the bird droppings army?"

Shunzi glanced behind him, guessing that Chen Pi Asi and the others should have already run far away, before quickly leading the way and running out of the front hall. "Hurry up!"

Wu Xiaoxie and the others quickly followed. A series of strong winds swept from behind them. The fat man turned around, raised his gun, and unleashed a series of sweeping shots, driving away several human-faced birds that were chasing after them.

Outside the front hall was a long arched bridge made of white marble. Wu Xiaoxie and his group ran onto the bridge, with the human-faced birds chasing closely behind. Pan Zi and his group fired shots into the air, and the sound of human-faced birds being shot and falling into the darkness below the bridge could be heard.

The muzzle flashes of gunfire exposed them to the predators' gaze, making their attacks even more ferocious.

Wu Xiaoxie had just fired an empty magazine and was taking out a full magazine from his pocket to change when he suddenly felt something grab his shoulder and pull him upwards. He was thrown out, his head hitting the side railing, and blood quickly gushed out. He didn't even know where the magazine he was holding had fallen.

Struggling to get up, he suddenly heard a hissing roar in his ear. Before he could react, the fat man smashed the human-faced bird on his back in two with the butt of his rifle.

The foul-smelling green water splashed all over Wu Xiaoxie's face. He didn't know if the dirty blood was poisonous, but luckily he had a gas mask to protect him.

Wu Xiaoxie crawled on his knees, reaching for the magazine, when the retreating fat man stepped on his foot, causing him to cry out in pain, "You son of a bitch, you stepped on my hand!"

The fat man cried out "Ouch!" and quickly moved his feet away, firing wildly into the sky. Flashes of fire appeared as countless dark shadows swept over their heads, constantly attacking.

"There are too many of them, we can't possibly fight them all!" Panzi roared at Shunzi. "We can't stay on the defensive like this forever, we need to think of something!"

Wu Xiaoxie couldn't find the magazine of bullets and didn't dare waste any more time. He quickly got up, took a bullet from the fat man's pocket, and fired two shots, shouting, "Where is my third uncle?"

Shunzi didn't seem flustered at all; instead, she remained calm. "I don't know either. Anyway, it must be inside this Xuan Palace. When he arranged for me to meet you, he only left one sentence: 'The place where Xuanwu rejects corpses.' Does any of you know what that means?"

What is that? A Xuanwu (Black Tortoise) repelling a corpse?
Before they could even ponder the deeper meaning of those words, the fat man running ahead suddenly reached out and stopped them. Upon closer inspection, they discovered that the section near the end of the arched bridge had been blown up at some point.

"Those damn bastards, we're finished now!" the fat man cursed angrily, his face ashen. "I'm running low on bullets, what about you? How many do you have left?"

"Can we jump across?" Pan Zi asked, then realized he had asked a stupid question. The broken bridge was at least seven or eight meters away from the imperial mausoleum on the other side. Unless someone mutated or grew wings, no one could jump across without tools. However, the situation was urgent, and they didn't even have time to catch their breath.

"No time." The fat man shoved the gun into Wu Xiaoxie's hand, then took a running start and leaped quickly. His chubby body soared into the air like a cannonball, slamming onto the opposite edge and grabbing onto it. His two fat legs thrashed about, and he managed to climb up using his powerful arm strength. Then he turned around and called to Wu Xiaoxie and the others to throw the gun over and jump quickly.

Wu Xiaoxie was utterly dumbfounded. Staring at the abyss below, he swallowed hard and thought to himself, "That fat bastard may look fat, but he can jump like a tiger and he'll be over in a flash. This is going to be tough on me, a weakling who doesn't exercise much."

"What are you dawdling for? Hurry up and jump, Fatty's here to catch you!" Fatty urged while firing his gun to buy them time. Wu Xiaoxie hesitated for two seconds, but Shunzi had already thrown his gun over first. He leaped over in a couple of quick leaps, and before he even landed, Fatty grabbed him and lifted him up.

Now that only he and Pan Zi were left, Wu Xiaoxie became even more anxious. He couldn't help but regret why he hadn't paid attention to physical exercise. Now that the time had come, he had no skills whatsoever and could only worry helplessly.

Pan Zi emptied his magazine, repelling the attack, then loaded another magazine and said to Wu Xiaoxie, "Little Third Master, jump over quickly, I'll cover you."

Now that the die was cast, Wu Xiaoxie had no time to be afraid or hesitate. He steeled his heart, shouted at the fat man, "Hold on tight!" and then leaped into the air. In the instant his body was airborne, he suddenly caught a glimpse of Pan Zi, who was still standing by the broken bridge, whose expression suddenly changed drastically and who was trying to reach out and pull him back.

Wu Xiaoxie leaped high into the air and took a step. He subconsciously turned around, and an enormous black shadow came crashing down on him. A wing knocked off his momentum, and he lost control of his body instantly. Under the weight of the backpack behind him, his body flipped over, and he fell face up straight into the dark abyss below, without even a chance to struggle.

"Young Master!" Pan Zi roared, rushing to the edge of the broken bridge, his outstretched arm grasping at nothing in vain.

Swah——

A bright white meteor rose from the abyss, piercing the darkness, and exploded amidst the swirling shadows above, emitting a dazzling light.

In an instant, the entire sky became as bright as day.

As soon as the blinding white light shone on them, a flurry of activity erupted in the air, and feathers and dust fell like snowflakes. In the blink of an eye, the oppressive shadow overhead vanished completely.

Despite the soreness in their eyes, Panzi and the others quickly looked down into the abyss below the arched bridge.

It turns out the abyss has an end; below lies the riverbed of the ancient imperial mausoleum's moat. On the riverbed sits a huge fluorescent inflatable cushion, and Wu Xiaoxie, who had just fallen in, is lying in the middle with his eyes closed, spread-eagled.

Standing next to the inflatable cushion was someone they knew very well—Zhang Wuxun, who had gone to scout ahead but had disappeared without a trace.

The previous signal flare had dimmed somewhat, so Zhang Wuxun fired another one and then waved to Pan Zi and the others above, "Come down quickly."

The fat man laughed and cursed, "You little bastard, it's like you planned this all along, you always arrive just in time."

"Stop talking nonsense and get down here." Zhang Wuxun said with a smile, "The way from here is where we need to go."

Without the human-faced bird bothering them, Fatty and the others secured the rope and lowered it down, one by one sliding down the rope onto the inflatable mat.

Thank you to the generous donor Nie Mowangqing for the 1500 Qidian Coins!

Thank you to the esteemed "Art is Uchiha" big star for the 500 Qidian coins!

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(End of this chapter)