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

Chapter 328 Snakes Appear
Wu Xiaoxie noticed that the four Corpse Beetle Kings crouching at the mouth of the Qilin Blood Bottle hadn't moved for quite some time since they landed.

Continuing in this stalemate wasn't a solution, so I tried blowing a breath in that direction, but it still didn't budge.

This is a bit strange.

Wu Xiaoxie gritted his teeth, plucked the cotton off the cotton swab, rolled it into a long strip, and then tentatively poked one of the small insects that had fallen onto the bottle opening.

Then, something unexpected happened.

The little red worm actually fell directly from the bottle opening, crashing to the ground with its six legs pointing upwards.

This corpse beetle king has kicked the bucket at some point!
Wu Xiaoxie then poked the other few, but without exception, they all remained motionless.

He was shocked. He had always thought that the blood of the wooden fish was only for insect repellent, but he never expected that it could kill insects just by smelling it.

After hearing no sound for so long, Xie Yuchen felt something was wrong.

"Wu Xie?" Xie Yuchen called out tentatively, "Wu Xie, how are you?"

Wu Xiaoxie snapped out of her daze and quickly replied, "I'm fine. It seems like those bugs were killed by the blood from the wooden fish."

Xie Yuchen breathed a sigh of relief and continued crawling inside.

Wu Xiaoxie burned the insects and everything that had come into contact with them, then disinfected the bottle opening before sealing it and storing it away.

As he climbed, the lamplight flickered, and Xie Yuchen's attention was suddenly drawn to something above him.

Seeing that the lamplight in the darkness had stopped moving, Wu Xiaoxie asked him if they had reached the end.

"We haven't arrived yet, but I've noticed something strange hanging here," Xie Yuchen said. "These aren't stones."

It's not a stone?

"What is that?" Wu Xiaoxie asked nervously.

The light swept across the room a few times, and Xie Yuchen's voice sounded faint, "I can't see clearly, it's hanging very high, it looks like... the skin of some kind of animal?"

The lamplight flickered overhead, and the breathing sounds from the gaps grew heavier.

“Be careful, you’re breathing like a broken bellows. Calm down first, I’m afraid you might break another pot if you panic,” Wu Xiaoxie immediately said to Xie Yuchen.

Upon hearing this, Xie Yuchen was taken aback and asked in confusion, "I wasn't breathing. Wasn't that your voice?"

"I've been right here, I haven't even lifted my legs twice, where did I go to be panting like this?" Wu Xiaoxie was also stunned, but then he immediately realized what was happening, picked up his short-handled shotgun and aimed it into the gap.

Xie Yuchen heard the sound of a gun being cocked. He paused for a moment, and the panting continued, but due to the echo, he couldn't tell where the sound was coming from.

After listening quietly for a while, Wu Xiaoxie steadied himself and said, "I have a rough idea of ​​what it is."

"What?" Xie Yuchen was still shining his flashlight up.

“Turn off the light,” Wu Xiaoxie said. “The snake making that sound is most likely the pheasant neck I told you about before. It’s mimicking your breathing. These snakes are attracted to light. Stay quiet and I’ll find a way to lure it out and deal with it.”

Xie Yuchen paused for a moment, then said "okay" and turned off the flashlight.

The space in the crevice was suddenly enveloped in oppressive darkness, leaving only eerie gasps.

Inside, there are hanging and interlocking chains and stone blocks that restrict movement, making it impossible to fire a gun. This is because the iron shot might accidentally trigger the copper nail mechanism on the wall, and if the stone blocks fall down, the small flowers lying on the jar will be smashed into mincemeat.

Wu Xiaoxie arrived at a sufficiently spacious area, lit five cold fireworks in a row, illuminating the entire stone chamber as bright as day, and then retreated to a corner, holding his gun and waiting quietly.

He kept his eyes fixed on the gap, his eyes half-closed, and fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

Several cold flames ignited together, blinding him, and the air was filled with a strong, pungent smell of burning metal.

In a daze, he felt a red light flash before his eyes and instinctively aimed his gun at it.

Then they saw a blood-red crested snake, as thick as an arm, perched on a cold flame closest to the crevice, tilting its head and curiously staring at the burning flame.

Wu Xiaoxie calmed himself down, pointed the gun at its head, and was about to fire when he saw its upper body suddenly stand up, its bright red comb trembling and making panting sounds.

As in the snake swamp, this snake can always mimic the most frequently used sounds made by other creatures.

Without further hesitation, Wu Xiaoxie pulled the trigger with his index finger. With a "bang," the entire snake body, including the pheasant's neck, was instantly blasted away by the iron shot from the gun barrel, crashing into the wall behind it, splattering blood everywhere.

After waiting a few seconds and confirming that the pheasant's neck, broken in two, had fallen against the wall and was no longer moving, Wu Xiaoxie breathed a sigh of relief. Suddenly, a chill ran down his spine, and a creepy premonition surged into his heart.

Without a moment to think, he instinctively lunged forward with his gun in hand. A gust of wind swept past, and he immediately heard a dull thud behind him.

The instant he rolled to his feet, before he could even see what the other person was, he had already fired a shot.

Thanks to the training he's undergone, his body's reflexes are so fast that even he finds it unbelievable.

He thought the shot would hit its mark, but when he looked again, he found that there was nothing on the wall except for a few drops of blood splattered on it and traces of gunpowder impact.

A thought flashed through my mind: Oh no, that thing has already hidden itself.

Under the blinding light of the cold flames, the entire stone chamber was empty except for the corpse of the dead snake.

He immediately found a wall to lean against and carefully searched the well shaft and the vicinity of the bearing.

His eyes darted around, and he suddenly sensed something was wrong. Upon closer inspection, cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

The dead pheasant's neck in the corner disappeared in the blink of an eye.

He immediately realized that there was more than one pheasant neck here.

The air fell into a deathly silence, and the sound of flowing water grew clearer, mixed with a strange rustling sound, as if someone was whispering.

Wu Xiaoxie frowned; he felt he had heard that voice somewhere before.

The dense rustling sound, amplified by the echo, became somewhat ethereal.

As he listened, he felt dizzy, like he was drunk, and wanted to lie down and sleep immediately.

A splashing sound came from the well.

In a daze, Wu Xiaoxie saw a humanoid creature covered in thick black hair, standing upright in the water.

The rustling sound gradually became clearer as the thing appeared.

Wu Xiaoxie stood frozen in place, one hand in his pocket, unmoved by the slow approach of the creature. Seeing that Wu Xiaoxie did not react, the creature grew bolder.

The mouth, covered by fur, opened wider and wider, like a dark, deep well. A crimson tongue emerged from it, trembling like the Komodo dragon's scent as it caught its prey. It crawled out of the mouth, followed by another tongue.

It's now--

Wu Xiaoxie, who had been in a daze, suddenly sharpened his gaze, flung his hand out of his pocket, and then quickly knelt down against the wall, covering his head.

A flash of silver light streaked past, and because the distance was less than three meters, it struck the black-furred monster precisely.

With a deafening roar, blood and flesh splattered everywhere.

Just as Xie Yuchen climbed out of the water after falling into the earthenware jar, before he could even observe the situation inside, he heard a deafening explosion outside.

As if an earthquake had struck, the entire stone chamber shook violently. The iron chains rattled and clattered, and the stone slabs hanging from the top of the crack began to sway. The jars below also hummed from the vibrations.

Xie Yuchen had no idea what was happening outside. Fortunately, the explosion only happened once, and the surroundings quickly returned to calm. The stone slabs on top of the pottery jar did not fall down.

He shone his flashlight through the crack, but visibility was limited; he could see nothing but the thick smoke billowing in from outside.

"Wu Xie? Wu Xie." He tried calling out twice, but received no response.

He pursed his lips, as if he had made up his mind, turned around and looked at the stone chamber, then stepped into the pool.

The water was deep, reaching well above the knees.

The underwater surface resembles a funnel, with the water getting deeper as you go in. In the center of the stone chamber, underwater, there is a huge spherical object surrounded by chains that spread out like a spider web.

Xie Yuchen approached step by step, and finally held his breath and dived underwater, only then could he see the full appearance of the enormous creature.

It was an indescribable bronze sphere. Its irregular surface, besides its intricate and ancient patterns, was covered with countless holes, each with an iron chain extending out and leading to a small hole in the stone wall of the pool.

The chain, pulled in through the gap from the bearing in the outer stone chamber, was also connected to the hole in this strange, beehive-like ball nest.

The wound on his shoulder seemed to have reopened, and Xie Yuchen felt a sharp pain. The pain in the cold water became even more unbearable.

He emerged from the water and climbed onto the narrow bank.

To reduce the weight, he had only carried a rope and a rock bolt. Looking around, he noticed a supporting stone beam across the ceiling of the chamber and had an idea.

He untied the rope from his waist, tied the rock spike to one end, and then tossed it with a flick of his wrist. The rock spike, carrying the rope, shot towards the stone beam, flying from one side and hooking onto the other.

After testing its sturdiness, Xie Yuchen climbed up the stone beam using the rope, then removed the rock anchors, tied several knots in the rope to the stone beam, and slid down the rope.

Outside the crack, Wu Xiaoxie was curled up on his side on the ground, his head throbbing with pain.

Before the explosion, he was lying on the ground, but the blast wave mixed with the stench of blood threw him into the wall.

The impact on the metal plate on his back nearly made him choke, and the intense pain made him suspect that he had fractured his shoulder blade and that his gas mask had been washed away.

Before he could recover from the pain, he suddenly felt a cool sensation under his nose. Immediately afterward, a pungent and spicy smell was inhaled into his nasal cavity and rushed to his nasopharynx with the airflow. The tingling and numbing sensation shot straight to the top of his head, and tears immediately welled up in his eyes.

He covered his nose, feeling an indescribable discomfort in his head, a severe dizziness, nausea, and eventually he started dry heaving.

He couldn't help but want to scream, but found that his tongue and throat were completely numb. He didn't know what was wrong with him. His fingers accidentally touched something, and the keen sense of touch told him that it was a shard of pottery.

He felt so bad he was about to die, and his last thought was to write down what was happening here and leave a message for Xiaohua.

He gripped the pottery shard tightly, ignoring the pain from the cuts on his palm, and wrote it down, quickly wrote it down.

In a daze, he opened his eyes and felt the whole space in front of him was floating. There were several gray shadows, their backs to him, doing something.

Wu Xiaoxie strained his eyes and craned his neck, trying to see clearly who the other person was.

He could hear the gurgling water, the beating of his heart, and even feel the blood flowing beneath his skin.

But at this point, his brain was no longer able to think, his whole body was in a state of paralysis, his eyelids blinked slowly, and finally closed slowly.

He could feel that this state continued for a very long time, until it seemed that someone came to his side and moved his body.

After that, the dizziness and discomfort gradually disappeared, and he finally fell asleep completely.

When he regained consciousness, he felt warm all over.

I barely opened one eye and saw two familiar figures sitting beside me.

Perhaps his brain hadn't quite recovered yet, because his first words were, "Do they have electric blankets in the underworld?"

Xie Yuchen's lips twitched as he looked at his dazed expression.

The guy next to him chuckled at this remark.

Wu Xiaoxie turned her eyes to stare at him, "You beast, what are you laughing at?"

Nie Xiaoba: "..."

Xie Yuchen burst into laughter, a hearty laugh.

Nie Xiaoba was dumbfounded, shrinking to the side in frustration, unsure whether to laugh or cry.

He only slaughtered a pig, how come he's not even human anymore?

"Are you feeling better?" Xie Yuchen helped Wu Xiaoxie up and let him lean against his backpack.

Wu Xiaoxie finally came to her senses. She blinked, lifted her arms and legs through the blanket, and only felt relieved after confirming that she was not missing any parts except for soreness.

Seeing that he was feeling better, Xie Yuchen fed him some water and said, "I don't know how you caused such a commotion outside. When I came out, you were already lying in the corner, trembling all over like you were having an epileptic seizure."

"Oh, by the way, I found this in your nostril." Xie Yuchen used tweezers to hold up a white, rice-grain-sized object to Wu Xiaoxie's eyes, urging him to take a closer look.

Wu Xiaoxie squinted and looked at it, noticing a hole on the little thing. "What's this?"

"Your nose was bleeding non-stop, and when we looked closely we found this thing stuck inside."

Xie Yuchen gave a strange laugh. "You're really unlucky. The snake exploded and died, but its fangs flew into your nose."

Thank you to the generous donors: [Brother's Leg Accessory], [Shadow Guy y], [Dali Chen], and [The Most Innocent When Young]...*
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(End of this chapter)