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

Chapter 216 Mysterious Disappearance
Seeing Zhang Wuxun and Xiao Ge split up and chase after the people, Wu Xiaoxie and the other two were dumbfounded.

Wu Xiaoxie looked left and right, then said, "Let's split up and chase them." He had only run two steps when Pan Zi grabbed him, and he stumbled and fell into a mud pit.

"Don't chase them." Panzi dug him out of the mud. "They're too fast. We were a step too slow and can't catch up."

The fat man wiped the rain off his face, turned his head and asked, "Are you sure that's Chen Wenjin? Tianzhen, don't you know her? Is she shy and embarrassed because we haven't seen each other for years? Why did she run away as soon as she saw someone?"

Wu Xiaoxie spat out the muddy water in his mouth and was speechless upon hearing this. "That person was covered in mud and black, I couldn't even tell if he was a man or a woman, how could I possibly know who he was?"

Besides, even if it is Chen Wenjin, so many years have passed, his appearance must be different from when he was a child. It would be a miracle if someone could recognize him immediately.

"So what do we do now? Why don't we grab our equipment and try to give them a chase? If we run into them, we can provide some support," the fat man said.

Panzi waved his hand, advising him to give up the idea, "That young man and Muyu are both very sensible. If it's something that even they aren't sure about, going in will only make things more complicated. The jungle is full of dangers, and we might end up having to be rescued by them. It's better to stay where we are and wait for the rain to stop tomorrow morning before making any plans."

The two fat men thought about it and agreed. Rather than soaking in the water and attracting pheasants, it would be better to go back to the stone platform.

The three returned to shore, tied their entrenching tools with ropes to prop them up, and hung their wet clothes on them to dry.

The tea on the smokeless stove boiled again, and Panzi habitually added some cold water, instantly calming his anger as the boiling tea bubbles subsided.

As time went by, the rain intensified, and the tarpaulin seemed to be covered by a continuous curtain of water droplets, creating a misty atmosphere and reducing visibility.

Wu Xiaoxie felt uneasy all the while. He woke up immediately after taking a nap, feeling extremely annoyed. He felt like something was stuck in his chest, and he couldn't breathe properly.

He glanced at the fat man, who was sleeping soundly with his head propped up and snoring softly, and then at Panzi, who was staring at the rain outside, lost in thought.

I decided to get up and take another look outside.

But as soon as he stood up, he suddenly noticed something was wrong out of the corner of his eye, and his scalp tingled.

He wasn't sure if he had seen things wrong, so he took a deep breath, picked up his headlamp, and carefully stepped over the edge of the tarpaulin, towards "A-Ning's" body.

As I walked up to the sleeping bag and took a closer look, my mind went blank.

The sleeping bag was empty; "A Ning's" body had mysteriously vanished!
"Panzi, Fatty!" Wu Xiaoxie rushed over and called to the two of them in a panic. "Oh no, oh no, something terrible has happened! A-Ning's body is missing!"

The fat man was startled by the shout, opened his eyes, and was dumbfounded. He cursed, "Damn it, who the hell did this?"

The three looked at each other, completely bewildered.

A perfectly healthy corpse just vanished right under their noses—this was outrageous!
"Could it be another pheasant neck?" Pan Zi guessed.

“That’s not right,” the fat man immediately retorted, “Didn’t the wooden fish sprinkle snake repellent around the waterproof tarpaulin…”

"Holy crap!" the fat man exclaimed. The three of them looked and realized that the sulfur powder around the waterproof cloth had been completely washed away by the rain.

How can this protect against snakes? They might just wipe out their entire nest without them even noticing.

"Damn it." The fat man cursed, pulled out his dagger, and said to Wu Xiaoxie, "Tianzhen, you stay over there and hold up the light. I'll go check if there are any more pheasant necks hiding inside." Panzi pulled him back, disapproving, "It's too dangerous. Those snakes are very fast. If they really pounce and bite you, you won't be able to react at all."

As he spoke, he pulled two empty cans out of his backpack and tossed them one in front of the sleeping bag and the other behind it.

With a "clang," the metal can hit the ground through a layer of cloth, making a crisp sound that clearly reached the ears of the three people.

After waiting for a while and seeing no movement from inside the sleeping bag, Panzi and Fatty mustered their courage and approached carefully. They opened the sleeping bag and saw that the inside was covered with messy, thin mud marks that felt sticky to the touch. The marks were fresh and had obviously been left recently.

All three of them felt a chill run down their spines.

The fat man said quietly, "No wonder they were able to move such a heavy corpse. Just look at these marks, there must have been at least a hundred snakes. If there were any more, even an elephant could have carried it."

"What exactly do these snakes want to do by taking away Aning's body?" Wu Xiaoxie asked, puzzled.

Pan Zi sneered, "It couldn't possibly be just for fun. Snakes are very ruthless. There must be a reason why they took the body away. We need to be more careful. I have a feeling they won't stop here."

Another silence fell, and the unease that had just subsided in Wu Xiaoxie's heart resurfaced. The terrifying dream that had vaguely prophesied that day floated into his mind, and that face, which resembled both a human and a snake, seemed like a curse that he couldn't shake off.

No, you can't sit still.

Wu Xiaoxie stood up abruptly, grabbed the lamp without a word, and walked outside.

Pan Zi quickly grabbed him, "Third Master, where are you going?"

“I have to find A-Ning’s body.” Wu Xiaoxie lowered his eyelids and said in a suppressed voice, “She shouldn’t have died here. At the very least, we can’t just throw her into a pile of snakes and leave her alone.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than the fat man slapped him on the head.

The fat man snatched the lamp from his hand, scolding and advising at the same time, "Are you stupid? A person is only a person when they are alive. When they are dead, they are just a stinking carcass. I wanted to say this before, even if there hadn't been this incident with the pheasant neck, even if you stayed up all night guarding the corpse, we would not have been able to take her out of here. Besides, we are not related to her. It's not worth risking your life for a corpse."

Panzi pressed him down to sit and advised, "When a person dies, it's like a lamp going out. There's no point in doing anything after death. We've already done our best by not leaving her by the waterfall. Hundreds of snakes took her away. Even if we found her, what could we do? There's no way the three of us could possibly snatch the body back from the pile of snakes. This is just suicide."

Wu Xiaoxie immediately deflated, scratching his head, completely slumped.

After grabbing a quick bite, the three decided to wait for Xiao Ge and Zhang Wuxun in the same spot. In truth, they didn't know where to go, given the possibility of wild chicken necks popping out of the swamp at any moment and causing trouble.

Panzi added some more fuel to the smokeless stove, and kept watch over Wu Xiaoxie to prevent him from getting stuck on something.

The fat man collected the remaining sulfur mixed with egg white and placed some around everyone.

Fearing that the wild chicken necks might make a comeback, the three of them huddled together back to back that night, keeping a close watch on their surroundings without daring to blink. The slightest sound would set off their alarm bells.

As dawn broke, a few monotonous bird calls drifted from the treetops, signaling that the night was finally over.

(End of this chapter)