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

Chapter 239 The Burial of Flexed Limbs
The two went back, Pan Zi assembled the guns, and had Wu Xiaoxie hold one and guard the fat man, while he carried the other two and handed one of them to Wu Sansheng.

Mop's expression changed immediately upon seeing this. He winked at the shop assistant behind him, then leaned over to Wu Sansheng and said, "Hey, Third Master, your friend is quite capable. He managed to find such amazing goods."

Zhang Wuxun had prepared a very new model of the German MP7 submachine gun, which had only appeared in the last two years. It had a magazine capacity of up to 40 rounds, could fire 900 rounds per minute, had low recoil, and was equipped with a tactical rail and an infrared laser designator. Nowadays, only people in special forces had seen this kind of gun. Pan Zi assembled it by following the instructions in his backpack.

Although Mop couldn't recognize the gun, it didn't stop him from sensing its brand-new and sharp killing intent.

He secretly pondered to himself that the person who had just gone down must have a powerful background and was not someone to be trifled with. The guns he and his men were carrying were old Type 56s that they had gone to great lengths to obtain, which were utterly weak compared to the other guy's.

Thinking of this, I quickly hid the little scheme that had just formed in my mind.

He's just a small business owner; he can't afford to mess with people with such powerful backgrounds.

Therefore, the smile on his face when facing Wu Sansheng became more genuine.

Wu Sansheng was also somewhat surprised. He was quite skilled with guns and could tell from the feel of the gun that it was unusual. He became even more suspicious of Zhang Wuxun's identity. This kid had too many secrets and a lot of power, making him a very dangerous person. Although he couldn't see any malice towards his nephew for the time being, he still had to be on guard.

Zhang Wuxun walked ahead. The crevice inside was extremely deep, as if a sharp blade had split the mountain in two from top to bottom, giving people the illusion of walking on a knife's edge.

The walls of the crevice were pitted like those in a grotto, the kind of pits that are formed by the cracks in the sand. Each pit contained a large, dried, human-shaped mud cocoon, which was entangled and fixed together by the underground roots of some unknown plant.

These mud cocoons actually contain the corpses of the dead; it's a special burial method called flexed burial.

Zhang Wuxun had once assisted an archaeological team when he saw this type of tomb while excavating an unnamed ancient tomb of a foreign tribe that had been exposed after being destroyed by a mudslide.

Flexed burial, as the name suggests, involves bending the limbs of the deceased so that the lower limbs are curled up before burying them in a grave.

There are two main types: squatting and lying down. Squatting is like a living person sitting down, while lying down includes supine, prone, and lateral positions.

These mud cocoons were clearly lying down, but Zhang Wuxun didn't know the details because he hadn't opened them to check.

At first glance, the entire area is filled with these pits, and the bare bones wrapped in some of the cracked mud cocoons are exposed.

This burial custom is very ancient. In ancient times, only nobles and slave owners were qualified to be buried with their limbs extended, while people from the lower classes could only be buried with their limbs flexed.

Seeing him looking at the mud cocoons, Hei Xiazi assumed he was curious and explained, "This may be the most primitive well passage built by the ancient people. There are no stones, only mud to smooth some cracks in the mountain. Later, it was used as a tomb."

"Build a tomb in a place like this?" Zhang Wuxun raised an eyebrow.

The nameless ancient tomb he had seen was later verified to belong to an unknown nobleman. Nearly a hundred slaves were buried in the pits dug out from the surrounding mountains, but their arrangement was very regular. This scale of burial was quite common.

But for those like the ones in this crack, a rough estimate would be tens of thousands.

"Given the conditions of that era, building such a massive project would have certainly resulted in many deaths. These were likely slaves captured by other countries, who died here in various ways, and since they couldn't be transported out for burial, they could only be buried on the spot," Black Glasses said.

Zhang Wuxun nodded, looked away, and said nothing more.

The two continued forward, walking for another twenty minutes or so, when they saw an even shorter and narrower crack above the fissure in the rock wall ahead.

Zhang Wuxun pushed off with both hands and kicked off with his feet, leaping up the mountain. He was mainly looking for the mark that Xiao Ge had left here.

Hei Xiazi watched from below, estimated his own size, and sighed, "Please consider whether I'm suitable." Zhang Wuxun took off the miner's lamp hanging around his neck, lit it, and searched the sandy wall covered with tiny tree roots. Hearing Hei Xiazi's words, he said without turning his head, "Wait down here for a while. Once I find it, we'll go back and call them down."

Black Bear asked curiously, "What are you looking for?"

"Shh." Zhang Wuxun gestured for him to be quiet, "Your voice is bothering me."

Black Bear pursed his lips speechlessly, crossed his arms, and leaned against the crack.

Zhang Wuxun used his dagger to pick up each of the tree roots one by one, scraping and digging, causing sand and soil to fall down in a flurry.

Black Bear was standing directly below when a clod of dirt landed on his head. He clicked his tongue in disgust and moved a little further away.

"found it!"

Zhang Wuxun's joyful voice came from above.

Black Bear was really curious. After thinking for a moment, he also grabbed the stone walls on both sides of the crack and climbed up, squeezing into the crevice with his long arms and legs. "What is that? I want to see it too."

Zhang Wuxun moved a little further in, making room for others, and pointed to a series of slightly messy carvings on the stone buried under the rough sand.

"Do you recognize this?" he asked.

"Hey~" Black Glasses leaned over for a look, "Dumb Zhang has already been here?"

Zhang Wuxun smiled but avoided answering. "Let's go back and tell them to come down. The people above must be getting impatient."

Black Bear raised an eyebrow and smiled, then let go and jumped down.

The two returned the same way.

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Above the crack.

Wu Xiaoxie nervously held the gun. Fatty had woken up, but he still couldn't muster any strength in his limbs, his head was a little dizzy, and his mouth was numb, just like when he was given anesthesia after a tooth extraction. Panzi had a hard time feeding him, and if it weren't for the fact that he was a patient, he would have been so angry that he would have cursed.

Mop and his gang stood guard above the crack, not caring about the stench. Their biggest worry was that the two people who went down might find a way in and loot all the treasures inside, leaving them with nothing.

After all, based on the observations along the way, the black bear was one of the same group, Wu Sanye and Pan Zi were one of the same group, and the little Sanye who joined later could barely be considered one of the same group as Sanye. The sleeping fat man didn't count, so there were already two groups of people.

Moreover, that guy called Master Yu is an uncontrollable factor. Although he appears to be Master Xiao San's friend, money can corrupt people's hearts, and who knows if he will turn against them later? In that case, they will have to deal with three groups of people.

Most importantly, none of these people are easy to deal with, and once things get really bad, it's hard to say whether they'll even survive.

No, no, Mop shook his head. He needed to come up with a foolproof plan, preferably one of those Boss Yu or Boss Hei, to their side.

I posted a bonus chapter, but I guess it won't be visible on Tencent. Will it be visible to our friends on Qidian?
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(End of this chapter)