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

Chapter 220 Snake Crown in the Grove
Zhang Wuxun, Wu Xiaoxie, and the other two met up in the jungle.

As Wu Xiaoxie breathed a sigh of relief, he recounted what had happened after they left, including how Wild Chicken Neck had stolen "A Ning's" body from under the tarpaulin when they weren't looking.

The fat man said regretfully, "What a pity about that string of ten-cash coins. Tianzhen, that stubborn fool, insisted that I return it. But what good would it do? It was still stolen by that pheasant's neck."

Wu Xiaoxie glared at him, "A-Ning was someone we knew well, and it's already pitiful enough that she died. You even took her belongings."

The fat man curled his lip, "Only things left for the living to remember are called relics. Since your thing was taken along with it, it's just a pheasant's neck as spoils of war."

"Hey you..." Wu Xiaoxie's eyes were practically spitting fire.

Zhang Wuxun quickly advised, "Alright, alright, you two stop arguing. It's just a string of ten copper coins, it's just a little rare, not some kind of peerless artifact. There are definitely plenty of treasures in the Queen Mother of the West's palace, you can take as many as you want then."

The fat man was delighted to hear this. With the wooden fish around, his path to discovering funerary objects became much smoother.

Wu Xiaoxie didn't want to engage in a pointless argument, so she changed the subject, "I wonder where that guy Xiao Ge chased after Chen Wenjin."

"Don't worry." Zhang Wuxun patted his shoulder. "With your skills, Xiao Ge will definitely be fine. Didn't you say you left information at the original camp? If Xiao Ge goes back there, he will definitely follow the route to get here."

Wu Xiaoxie sighed, "I hope so."

With Zhang Wuxun around, all I had to do was stand guard, and my sense of security more than doubled.

Zhang Wuxun urged Wu Xiaoxie and Fatty to get some rest. Pan Zi was worried about Third Master and couldn't sleep, so he stayed up with Zhang Wuxun to keep watch.

I woke up from a deep sleep to find the fog around me had thinned considerably, and I could see things at least five meters away. The moon, half-moon in the night sky, looked fuzzy under the thin fog, exuding a poetic and hazy beauty.

Wu Xiaoxie got up and stretched his stiff and sore body, his bones making a cracking sound that made your teeth ache.

Only Fatty was guarding the campfire. Wu Xiaoxie found it strange and asked, "Where are Muyu and Panzi? Where did they go?"

The fat man waved his hand to tell him not to speak, then pointed to the big tree diagonally above his head.

Wu Xiaoxie was stunned when he saw them. Why were these two climbing trees like monkeys?

The fat man whispered, "Just now, Muyu said there was some noise in the woods, so the two of them climbed up to check it out."

Wu Xiaoxie let out a soft "Ah," thinking to himself, "Could it be Little Brother?"

Just then, a head suddenly peeked down from a branch above, glanced at the two people below, and then waved for them to come up.

Wu Xiaoxie and his companion climbed up with trepidation, while Pan Zi was intently watching the treetops through the thin mist in the distance with binoculars.

Zhang Wuxun handed the binoculars to Wu Xiaoxie and pointed in a direction for him to look, "Take a close look, isn't there someone on the branch of that tree over there?"

Pan Zi turned aside to make room for him.

"It's over there, about twenty meters away from us, there's a dark shadow on a tree branch."

Wu Xiaoxie guessed, "Could it be Little Brother?"

“No.” Zhang Wuxun shook his head, denying his guess. “His figure doesn’t look like it. If he were to come to us, he would do it openly and honestly, not in such an awkward pose.”

The human-like dark figure was huddled behind the branches and leaves, its head tilted to one side, seemingly peering through the leaves at something. It was not very clear in the thin mist and the yellowish-orange moonlight.

Wu Xiaoxie glanced at it and also thought it probably wasn't; the thing's two long arms were covered in mud, hanging limply as if it were dead. "Could it be Chen Wenjin?" Wu Xiaoxie said.

Upon hearing this, the fat man hurriedly tugged at Panzi, "Quick, Old Pan, give me the binoculars, I want to take a look too."

Upon seeing her, he immediately exclaimed "Holy crap!" and whispered, "It's probably really her. We can't let her get away this time. Let's carefully surround her, trap her in a tree, and make sure she has nowhere to escape."

Pan Zi was also a little anxious and immediately agreed.

Just as he was about to climb down the tree, Zhang Wuxun grabbed him, his face grim. "Don't rush, something's not right."

Pan Zi hurriedly asked, "What's wrong?"

Zhang Wuxun cursed under his breath and handed the binoculars to Fatty. "Fatty, look closely. The hand farther from the tree trunk, the one hidden among the leaves, what's that on its hand? Doesn't it look familiar?"

The fat man looked bewildered, took it and held it in front of his eyes. He looked at it and immediately gasped in shock, "Holy crap, what the hell? How could Ah Ning be there!"

"what?!"

Upon hearing this, Wu Xiaoxie and the other person broke out in a cold sweat.

"Didn't you say that Pheasant Neck stole Aning's body?" Zhang Wuxun asked suspiciously.

"Damn!" Wu Xiaoxie's scalp began to tingle involuntarily. He had personally put that copper coin bracelet on "A Ning's" wrist, so how could he not recognize it?

"Damn it," the fat man clicked his tongue, "It's at least a hundred kilometers from where we started, and the whole way has been filled with mud pits and forests. And now they've even put a corpse in a tree. Are they having a 'snake marathon'?"

Pan Zi frowned deeply. "Those snakes actually brought the corpse here. What are they trying to do?"

Zhang Wuxun snorted coldly, "No matter what they're planning, they're definitely after us. Fatty, we have three grenades left, right?"

Wu Xiaoxie realized what he was about to do and was about to speak when Zhang Wuxun raised his hand to stop him.

“You don’t actually want to bring the body back, do you?” Zhang Wuxun frowned, his eyes cold. “I guarantee that the area under the tree canopy over there is teeming with snakes. Even if the Heavenly King himself came, he wouldn’t be able to bring the body out. It’s better to burn it all in one fire, and let the snakes that die in the fire be buried with Aning.”

The fat man patted Wu Xiaoxie on the shoulder, "Stop thinking about that little wench's corpse. Blowing it up is the safest way we can think of right now."

Pan Zi also agreed with this method.

"The enemy's situation is unclear right now. Going there rashly would be suicide. Maybe those snakes brought the corpses here to lure us in."

Wu Xiaoxie sighed. Although he felt regretful, there was no better way at the moment. He uttered "Amitabha" and agreed.

Once an agreement was reached, Pan Zi, with his experience in jungle warfare, quickly made arrangements.

After gathering all the equipment on the ground and carrying it with him, Zhang Wuxun also applied some sulfur powder mixed with egg white to the bodies of the group.

With everything ready, Panzi climbed a tree with binoculars to give Fatty directions.

Zhang Wuxun and Wu Xiaoxie stood guard beside the fat man, each holding a gun.

(End of this chapter)