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

Chapter 237 The Sound of Horns
Black Bear approached in a friendly manner, draping his arm over Zhang Wuxun's shoulder and squeezing his head through the gap between them, grinning, "I want to see too."

Zhang Wuxun and the other man exchanged a glance, both feeling somewhat helpless. It wasn't like they were watching some kind of special movie; did they really need to come in such large groups?

Hei Xiazi remained as irreverent as ever, seemingly oblivious to any embarrassment.

So Zhang Wuxun and Wu Xiaoxie stopped paying attention to him and started watching the video that had been converted from a recording.

The screen was initially dark, and a noisy, chaotic sound kept coming from the speakers.

Wu Xiaoxie frowned, feeling that the voice was somewhat familiar.

Zhang Wuxun reminded him, "The sound of water, someone is wading through the water, judging from the sound, there are probably eight or nine of them."

Wu Xiaoxie nodded and continued watching the video.

As time passed, the screen remained black, but the sounds changed. The water became increasingly rapid, as if people were walking beneath a small waterfall, occasionally accompanied by muffled claps of thunder.

Soon, a series of rapid breathing sounds and the sound of running footsteps on stones came from the dark video. It was very chaotic, as if the people inside were running fast, or something was chasing them, forcing them to run.

But soon, the sound other than the sound of water disappeared. Wu Xiaoxie felt a chill and put his ear close to the speaker to listen carefully, afraid of missing anything.

Unfortunately, the sound of water continued, sometimes near, sometimes far, as if it were on repeat.

Having learned from the experience of the previous two videotapes, Wu Xiaoxie and his companion waited patiently.

About twenty minutes later, the first human voice appeared on the videotape. It was a woman's voice, hoarse and full of exhaustion, asking, "Where is this? Have we gotten out yet?"

No one answered her; all she could hear were exhausted breathing, the clatter of equipment being thrown to the ground, and sighs that sounded like disappointment.

After a long pause, a male voice finally came through, "Any more cigarettes?"

The sound seemed a bit distant from the recording equipment, and somewhat ethereal against the backdrop of background noise.

Then came the sound of a metal striking pin igniting, indicating that the person had gotten the cigarette.

Then came another deathly silence; the screen remained completely black, and nothing could be seen.

Wu Xiaoxie was getting a little anxious and was about to move the progress bar back a bit when a hand suddenly reached out from the middle and pressed him down.

Wu Xiaoxie was startled and turned around to see Hei Xiazi. The guy was wearing sunglasses in the cave, staring at the dark screen with great interest. He wondered what kind of weird things he was seeing.

Zhang Wuxun reached out and grabbed Hei Xiazi's arm, then threw it aside and said to Wu Xiaoxie, "Don't adjust it, just look like this, you can see a little bit."

Wu Xiaoxie glanced at the screen, puzzled, but didn't ask.

Immediately afterwards, a male voice with a heavy northern accent suddenly came from the loudspeaker. The voice sounded panicked, "Listen, there's a sound! Those things are back!"

Wu Xiaoxie's spirits lifted immediately. What's coming?
Then came a commotion, and someone warned everyone in a leader's tone, "Everyone be quiet!"

After that sound, everyone fell silent; only the sound of water, and... and... could be heard from the loudspeaker.

Wu Xiaoxie frowned, pondering in his mind, "This voice...this voice..."

Suddenly realizing something, his pupils contracted sharply, and he cursed in a low voice, "That's the damn horn sound we heard last time in front of the Bronze Gate, the sound of the ghost soldiers asking for passage!"

He would never forget that eerie and mysterious sound. Zhang Wuxun had already been forced to faint in the crack at that time, and he didn't know what happened afterward, but he had heard Wu Xiaoxie and Fatty describe it when they chatted in Hangzhou.

After the bugle call, the progress bar gradually came to an end.

Wu Xiaoxie listened to the videotape again, unwilling to give up, afraid that he might have missed something. In the end, he found nothing. Well, this videotape had been in his third uncle's hands for who knows how long. If there were any clues, his third uncle would have captured and analyzed them frame by frame long ago.

He then turned to Zhang Wuxun and asked what he had seen.

Black Bear looked over curiously and pushed up his sunglasses.

Zhang Wuxun shook his head. "The image is too blurry. You can only see a few shadows. They must have covered the front of the camera with something like gauze. They were running almost the whole time, so the image was shaking a lot. Only when the horn sounded at the end did the shadows suddenly multiply, which is very similar to what you and Fatty described."

Upon hearing this, Hei Xiazi's eyebrows twitched slightly, as if he were smiling, but then he stood up, stretched, and walked to the side to rest against his backpack.

Wu Xiaoxie closed the computer, her face full of worry.

Zhang Wuxun patted his dog's head, "Alright, stop thinking about it. There aren't enough clues. No matter how hard you rack your brains, it won't help. You might as well wait until you find Chen Wenjin and ask her directly."

Thinking of the guy who had been chasing Chen Wenjin without a trace, Wu Xiaoxie sighed again. Damn it, none of them are easy to deal with.

"Are you sleepy? Go take a nap," Zhang Wuxun said.

Wu Xiaoxie put the computer back in his third uncle's box, wrapped himself in a sleeping bag, and forced himself to fall asleep.

Zhang Wuxun stood by the fire, pondering the contents of the video he had just seen.

Logically, when the bronze gate opens, the ghost soldiers will appear to pass through. At the same time, to lead the ghost soldiers, one must use the Ghost Seal.

According to his understanding of the original plot and the descriptions of Wu Xiaoxie and the other person, Xiao Ge was indeed holding the Ghost Seal when he was mixed in with the ghost soldiers.

Now, let's return to the question: who was the one who used the Ghost Seal to open the bronze door when Chen Wenjin and his group went to the Heavenly Palace on the Cloud Top?

Could it be the young man?

There are marks left by Xiao Ge in the Heavenly Palace on the Cloud Top, so it is very likely that Xiao Ge was the one who opened the bronze door back then.

However, the young man had no memory of ever visiting the Heavenly Palace on the Clouds.

Chen Wenjin mentioned in her diary that when she was heading to Tamutuo, she had a disagreement with one of the team members, so she did not continue.

According to the analysis in the original plot, the young man would only suffer from soul loss if he was affected by something in the meteorite.

Therefore, Xiao Ge had already entered the Kingdom of the Queen Mother of the West back then, which can be proven by the marks found in the well in the later plot.

The contents of the meteorite jade somehow concealed the young man's memories, which is why he is once again cycling through the Seven Star Lu Palace, searching for the meaning of his existence.

Like an unbreakable curse, it firmly locked the last patriarch of the Zhang family and the Nine Gates into this cycle.

Thinking of this, Zhang Wuxun couldn't help but grit his teeth. Damn meteorite jade, damn bronze door, they really treated Xiao Ge as a tool to guard the gate.

And the equally damned Wang family!
Damn it, he'll end all of this sooner or later.

(End of this chapter)