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

Chapter 323 Houtu Sealing Stone
"What do we do next?" Wu Xiaoxie asked, a little bored, as he used a match to slowly burn off the hair stuck to Tieyi's feet. The chase was actually quite fun.

"You're not in a good condition to do anything big right now. How about we have your men come up and take you down so you can recover properly?"

Xie Yuchen leaned against his backpack with his eyes closed, looking like he was asleep, but he still answered Wu Xiaoxie's question, "Wait, we should have news from Granny Huo soon, there's no need for us to go in now."

Wu Xiaoxie nodded. The end of the cave was the iron plate, which was clearly visible. They couldn't handle the troublesome things below, so there was no need to go in and increase casualties.

He remembered that Grandma Huo had said that the two teams needed to cooperate with each other, but he didn't know how they would cooperate.

There was still no news from Banna, and Wu Xiaoxie didn't know how Zhang Wuxun and the others were doing either. For some reason, Wu Xiaoxie felt a vague unease.

But then I thought again, since Zhangjia Ancient Building is the ancestral tomb of the Zhang family, there should be no reason for them to stop their own descendants from going in.

With the skills of Xiao Ge and Mu Yu, plus the destructive power of the fat man, if they still can't get in, then probably none of the tomb raiding experts he knows can get in either.

Wu Xiaoxie suppressed her bad thoughts, took out a thin blanket from her package and covered Xie Yuchen with it, then closed her eyes to rest.

After waiting for another two hours, the helper who had been notified earlier finally climbed up the rope, looking exhausted.

The staff member was shocked when he saw the situation above. After inquiring about Yu Chen's situation, he immediately arranged for more supplies and medicines to be hoisted up.

The space upstairs was too cramped, so the deliveryman went back down after delivering the supplies.

For the next few days, Wu Xiaoxie and his companion were like birdmen living in an eagle's nest, confined to a very small space.

Surrounded by abysses, all he did each day, besides eating and sleeping, was stare blankly at the snow-capped peaks of distant mountains, or play mindless Tetris.

The scenery is beautiful, and the people are relaxed, as if they've come to this mountaintop for a joyful vacation.

A strong wind blows through the bushes, and the dense canopy stretches like endless green waves. Occasionally, one can put aside all worries and suddenly feel the magnanimous and open-minded state of mind of some virtuous practitioners who pursue the state of harmony between man and nature.

The only painful thing is going to the toilet. In this situation, all the beauty is ruined, it's unbearable to look at, and it's dangerous and difficult. You're always worried that you'll fall and be smashed to pieces, losing your innocence.

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While Wu Xiaoxie and the others were waiting, back in Banna...

Zhang Wuxun led a group of people to the entrance of the ancient tree and joined Old Lady Huo's group.

The ancient trees have been cut up and moved by the engineering team using large tools, and the valley floor below the cliff slope has been leveled to clear enough space for camping.

When Zhang Wu found her, Old Mrs. Huo was sitting comfortably under the sunshade, enjoying the cool air.

The entrance was carved out really big enough, and it had been carefully reinforced and repaired, making it almost like the entrance to a haunted house. All that's missing is a sign next to it that says "Welcome!"

It was terribly hot, so Zhang Wuxun went over and sipped a cup of the old lady's herbal tea, asking, "How's it going inside? Where are Little Brother and Fatty?"

"They haven't come out yet," Huo Xiangu said calmly, "but it will be soon. The photos have already been sent to the Four Sisters Mountain."

Zhang Wuxun approached the cave entrance and peered inside. He heard faint sounds of hammering against the rock walls coming from deep within. "Is it still not finished inside?"

This time, Huo Zhizhi answered him, "It's more than 700 meters from here to the sealing stone. Repairing and reinforcing it completely would be a huge project. The patriarch has already brought in another batch of people, and those two are also inside directing the work. According to the schedule, we should be able to go in before 3 p.m.

Zhang Wuxun said "Oh," and added, "I'll go in and take a look."

Huo Zhizhi didn't stop him. He took a walkie-talkie from a nearby table and handed it to Zhang Wuxun, saying, "Keep in touch."

Zhang Wuxun nodded, took the walkie-talkie, packed some food into his backpack, and then went straight inside.

Huo Xiangu's technicians were indeed professional. Not only was the cave spacious, but they also thoughtfully installed lights on both sides of the cave walls, connecting them to the external solar power system. There was one light every ten meters, illuminating the cold and damp passage.

As you move further in, the passageway begins to narrow, but it's still wide enough for four or five people to walk side by side. It's likely that Old Mrs. Huo did this to make it easier to transport those large tools inside.

After advancing more than a hundred meters, the originally straight passage began to turn and gradually descend, the slope became steeper, and the temperature inside dropped significantly.

Zhang Wuxun, who was originally wearing short sleeves, took out a black windbreaker from his backpack and put it on, quickening his pace.

The further in you go, the more turns there are, and in some places there are even steep, leveled steps. At the same time, some simple carvings and murals begin to appear on the cave walls, but they are all quite ordinary. It is estimated that the Huo family has already taken pictures of them and taken them out to study them eight hundred times.

The sound of the hammering against the rock wall grew louder and louder, and Zhang Wuxun could already hear the fat man's complaints mixed in.

"Hey, shoot it like this, the light is bright here, make Fatty look more handsome."

Huo Xiaoli couldn't take it anymore. "Can't you have any morals? We're here to take photos of the materials, not for you to show off."

"Hey, you little brat, you don't understand. I'm giving you a chance to practice your photography skills, don't be ungrateful," the fat man yelled.

Hearing the familiar voice, Zhang Wuxun couldn't hide his joy. He took a few steps and turned the last corner, and immediately saw the chubby figure in the crowd, as well as the young man leaning against the rock wall with a knife on his back.

The young man, who had been keeping his eyes down, sensed something, looked up, and immediately stood up straight when he saw Zhang Wuxun.

"Bro!"

"Fat!"

Zhang Wuxun waved happily, "I'm back."

Everyone's eyes immediately turned to the end of the passage.

The fat man turned around and immediately shouted with delight, rushing over to give Zhang Wuxun a hug and patting his back hard. "Oh my gosh! You're finally back! I've been thinking about you every day. If you hadn't come, my brother and I would have gone down the mountain to look for you." Zhang Wuxun gritted his teeth and patted him back. "Of course! You and my brother are here, how could I not come?"

The fat man grinned and turned to call out to the younger brother, "Come on, come on! When Muyu wasn't here a few days ago, I wonder who was standing at the mountain pass looking down every day. Now that he's here, you've shrunk back and hidden again. Come on over, let's all give each other a hug."

Zhang Wuxun smiled at the young man and opened one arm.

The young man pursed his lips, stepped forward, and was immediately embraced by Zhang Wuxun.

The three of them bumped heads together, and the fat man, who had been resting his hand on Zhang Wuxun's back, reached out, unzipped his backpack, took out two chocolates, and tossed one to the young man.

Zhang Wuxun took off his backpack, and the three of them found a place to sit down.

Huo Xiaoli had a good impression of Zhang Wuxun, and greeted him with a smile, "Master Yu."

Zhang Wuxun took out the food he had brought for the two men, and then handed them the rest along with their backpacks. "You've been busy all morning, have something to eat and take a break."

"Thank you, Mr. Yu."

Being a child, Huo Xiaoli's eyes immediately narrowed with a smile when she saw so many snacks in her backpack. She then ran back to distribute the snacks to the others.

The fat man pulled out two boxes of self-heating rice, poured water for himself and the young man, and chuckled, "The self-heating rice you brought is the most authentic. The rice at the Huo family's place tastes undercooked."

The three chatted as they ate, with Fatty recounting the big and small events that had happened in the days since Zhang Wuxun left. He concluded with a sigh, "You missed taking the photos this morning. Tianzhen is probably thinking about the three of us every day while she's out there."

He lowered his voice and said to Zhang Wuxun, "I think the old woman is very determined to go down into the tomb this time. In the two days you were away, the Huo family sent another group of people. You can tell from their walk that they are much stronger than those rookies from before. They all have a murderous look on their faces and are dangerous people. Moreover, the weapons that were brought in with the team are almost never seen by Fatty before, and he doesn't know what they are for."

"We haven't seen any jade veins containing Miluotuo along the way. I reckon they're all behind this sealing stone."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Wuxun looked up at the stone-carved gate at the end of the passage.

The carvings on the front stone wall are in the form of outward-protruding reliefs, forming a very large disc shape. There are many patterns on it, all depicting various mountains, seas, birds, and beasts, with the ones near the outer edge appearing somewhat blurry.

The key is the four pictures in the middle. Although they are depicted in an abstract way, Zhang Wuxun can still recognize them. If you look at them clockwise, the animal at the top twelve o'clock position is a "hou".

There are generally two interpretations of the ancient ferocious beast "Hou". One interpretation is that it is the ancestor of the Qilin because its appearance is very similar to that of the Qilin. It feeds on dragons and is the nemesis of dragons. However, some scholars believe that the ancestor of the Qilin should be the Yinglong. Furthermore, the symbolic meanings of the two beasts are different. The Qilin has always been a symbol of auspiciousness and benevolence, while Hou is the exact opposite.

Another theory suggests that the Hou is related to the Hanba, and is a special kind of zongzi that can also bring about catastrophic disasters.

The mythical beast in the relief is bound by something that looks like a chain, and it is connected to the iron disc relief at the bottom.

The relief in the second image is part of the first image. It depicts nine people without right hands, all shirtless, and their figures appear strong and powerful. The scene is both near and far, and although they are running away, they do not appear panicked. Their running posture shows that they are in complete control.

It is evident that the craftsmen who carved these reliefs possessed exceptional skill, capturing the spirit of the figures with just a few strokes.

The third image, the relief at the six o'clock position, also features people, but in large numbers. It is clearly not from the previous ones, as the right hands of these people are intact, and their clothing is also different, suggesting they belong to a minority group, with unusual headdresses.

Because the clothing was somewhat indistinct, Zhang Wuxun couldn't tell whether these people were Miao or Yao, but he was more inclined to believe they were ancient Miao.

The connection between the Zhang family and the Miao people can be traced back more than 3,000 years.

After King Mu of Zhou died, the Zhang family, who were his confidants, fled to the then-wild Guangxi region to escape the war in the Central Plains. They quickly won the recognition and respect of the Miao king with their own strength and settled down there. They used the Miao territory to bide their time and sent their people to various levels of external forces.

Through tomb raiding, the Zhang family discovered countless secrets from various dynasties, and even had the power to intervene and change history. It was like an invisible net that permeated all the key points of society, firmly controlling everything, until it was accidentally discovered by Wang Zanghai in the Ming Dynasty.

What the Zhang family has been doing all this time is less about protecting and more about guarding.

However, King Mu's tomb was discovered by King Shang of Lu during the Spring and Autumn Period, after the Western Zhou Dynasty. After learning the secret of King Mu's immortality, King Shang, with the help of Tie Miansheng, directly used the original tomb. King Mu was pulled out of the jade terracotta warrior before he could be resurrected.

However, King Lu Shang was also outmaneuvered by his subordinate Tie Mian Sheng. In the end, Tie Mian Sheng, who was lying in the bronze meteorite coffin, did not survive and was strangled to death by Xiao Ge.

Furthermore, the original plot revealed that when Chen Pi Asi went to Jing'er Palace to steal treasure, he obtained a treasure box containing the first snake-browed bronze fish.

When Chen Pi Asi came out, he was captured on the spot by the Miao people and his eyes were injured by the Miao leader at the time. However, based on the situation in the Cloud Palace later, Zhang Wuxun felt that Chen Pi Asi's eyes should not have been blinded.

However, according to Jin Wantang's account, the Miao leader who injured Chen Pi Asi had a Qilin tattoo on his body that danced in the firelight.

Furthermore, the old man Panma that Zhang Wuxun and the others met at Yangjiao Mountain also had a Qilin tattoo on his body. It is said that this Qilin was tattooed on the young Panma by a Miao shaman to repay a debt of gratitude.

Combined with the relief in front of us, the craftsman used the method of overlapping composition to make the number of people appear even larger. These people are standing, squatting and lying down, holding long knives in their hands, as if they are lying in ambush.

In terms of composition, each of the three reliefs has its own independent meaning, but the decorative lines between them are connected very harmoniously and naturally, seemingly implying another layer of meaning.

Zhang Wuxun speculated that this might be a trap.

Although the Hou was locked to the iron plate, its head was facing the nine people without right hands, and it was in pursuit. The nine people were in the middle, and they were running away towards the ethnic minority swordsmen who were lying in ambush on the ground.

If the nine strong men without right hands represented the Zhang family, then they were using themselves as bait to capture the enormous Hou together with the ethnic minority group.

Thinking of this, Zhang Wuxun frowned. Could it be that these three pictures, when combined, tell the story of the origin of the Zhang family's Qilin tattoo?

However, totem reliefs and the like are usually exaggerated. As for the origin of the Qilin tattoo, we can only go back in time and ask the oldest ancestor of the Zhang family.

Thank you so much to the generous donors [不念], [大理陈], and [影子君y]! Sending you a huge heart!

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(End of this chapter)