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

Chapter 342 Escape
The man with slumped shoulders didn't intend to confront the two below him directly; he was well aware of this. However, he also didn't intend to let them off so easily.

Within a day, the spores on the well wall below will be able to suck up all the air that was previously put in, and he can kill his enemy below without lifting a finger.

Thinking of this, a hideous, eerie laugh appeared on his sunken face, which was covered by a black cloth over his slumped shoulders.

Down in the well, the fat man had slowly woken up, occasionally gagging. The aftereffects of the Huoxiang Zhengqi Water were really too strong; he felt as if he had been marinated in the yeast of this flavor from the inside out.

Zhang Wuxun turned on a small light and put it into his mouth to check again. Only after confirming that there were no traces of spores inside was he relieved. However, after he came out, he still had to use professional instruments to check for any residue.

While slouching doesn't harm them fundamentally, it's certainly annoying.

Their team consisted of eleven people, and three of them had already died in such a short time.

Zhang Wuxun and the young man moved the fat man and the remaining five members of the Huo family more than ten meters into the well, then cleaned the spores off the inner wall of the well, waiting for the fat man and the others to recover before discussing their next steps.

Zhang Wuxun held a ball of silkworm cocoon-like spores in his hand. Upon closer inspection, he found that the thing looked familiar. He suddenly remembered that the bottom of the earthenware jar he had found in the cellar of the collapsed shoulder had contained something similar.

Could it be that the contents of those earthenware jars were found by the man with the hunched shoulders in this deep well?
Zhang Wuxun subconsciously glanced into the darkness deeper into the well shaft, cleared his mind, and sensed something within a limited area. On the surface, this place seemed safe for the time being.

But the fact that the hunchback remained on top and didn't come down is suspicious. There must be some danger down there that makes the hunchback feel that with his and the little brother's skills, they would surely die here.

Zhang Wu pondered for a while, then looked at the white ball in his hand, squeezed it hard, and then switched it to his other hand. He found that his palm had suddenly become sweaty, but he knew it wasn't his own sweat.

The Zhang family members' palms rarely sweat, even in summer or after strenuous exercise when they are drenched in sweat. This is related to their childhood training and the tonics they take, as sweat can affect the sensitivity of the hands.

So the water could only be squeezed out from the spore hyphae. He turned to the recovered fat man and asked, "When you were parasitized by these spore hyphae before, didn't you feel anything at all?"

"Yes, I could feel it." The fat man ate the compressed biscuit in a hurry, his words were a little muffled, but you could still hear him clearly. "At that time, I felt something crawling into my mouth. I grabbed it out and found that it was white hair from the wall. I was about to warn you guys, but I found that no matter how I opened my mouth, I couldn't make a sound. It felt like there was putty in my throat, completely blocked."

"I was so anxious, I was sweating bullets. Then I realized those white threads were getting closer and closer, so I had to quickly climb down to warn you, but you'd already noticed," the fat man said.

After listening to his words, Zhang Wuxun seemed to understand. So this spore plant itself seems to carry a toxin that can paralyze the vocal cords and has a hydrotropic property, which is why it spontaneously burrows into the fat man's stomach after entering the mouth and quickly multiplies into spore clusters inside.

He examined the body of the deceased member of the Huo family. There were pinpoint hemorrhages under the eyelids, the jugular veins were bulging, and the face was pale and bluish. The cause of death was suffocation, which meant that the spores had spread directly to all the hollow organs in his body along with the water in his body, including the trachea leading to the lungs, which was also blocked.

This thing is basically a portable desiccant. So, is the reason why the person with the shoulder placed this spore in the snake tank to keep the environment around the snake eggs dry?

That makes sense. The climate in Banna is rainy and wet, so the conditions for these special snake eggs to hatch would definitely be more stringent.

Zhang Wuxun shared his analysis with Xiao Ge and Fatty, and Fatty muttered, "This perverted black-haired pheasant's neck isn't very capable; he's actually a landlubber."

No matter what kind of duck it is, it can't stay here for long.

Zhang Wuxun glanced at his watch; it was already past 10 a.m. Huo Xiangu had likely already received news of their disappearance and was making the worst-case scenario plan.

Seeing that Huo Xiaoli and the others were refreshed after eating, he said, "Are you all rested? Once you're rested, we have to keep going. Our mortal enemies who used to ambush us with lynxes are waiting up ahead. This is the only road we can take."

Huo Xiaoli and the others nodded, each tidied their equipment and put it on, then took out gas masks and fully armed themselves to prevent the spores from entering their bodies again.

Fatty also put on a mask. Zhang Wuxun bit his finger and smeared some blood on the outside of the mask on Fatty's face. Then he took the lead and climbed deeper into the well. To prevent any further accidents, Xiao Ge followed behind.

The well shaft wasn't straight; instead, it had a gentle upward slope. The group climbed for over an hour without stopping, but the path ahead remained pitch black, like the bottomless pit of the rat demon in Journey to the West, with no end in sight.

In the fat man's words, this place was so shabby that it wouldn't even be suitable for fighting a tunnel war.

Because they were underground, they couldn't reach the other two teams via walkie-talkie and couldn't send messages to them. According to the compass, they had deviated from their original direction of travel, but instead of returning, they continued to move in a direction slightly northeast.

The walls of the well were very smooth, and the soil had been specially reinforced. The material used was not the soil commonly found in Banna. Zhang Wuxun couldn't help but wonder if this was a drainage system set up when the project was built. If so, there should be other branches further ahead.

However, no traces of water flow were found on the two walls. It may have been just a backup plan that was later abandoned. Somehow, it was discovered by someone who had taken a shortcut and put a fake iron cover on it.

Gradually, Zhang Wuxun felt the air around him thinning. He had to take deep breaths each time he breathed, as if the air was being sucked away by something invisible. Suddenly, he heard a sound of someone falling down behind him.

He turned around and saw a member of the Huo family who had been crawling behind the fat man lying down. The fat man was panting heavily and struggling to turn around to kick the man's shoulder, trying to wake him up, but the man did not move.

The other members of the Huo family were somewhat at a loss and remained where they were.

Zhang Wuxun had already guessed the reason. He took out a small bottle of oxygen from his backpack, turned to the side, and tossed it behind him.

The young man had already climbed down the edge from the last spot to the Huo family member, reached out and took the oxygen cylinder, removed the man's mask, and put the breathing mask that came with the oxygen cylinder over his mouth and nose, pressing it several times.

Zhang Wuxun tossed a bottle to the fat man and the others, telling them to take a few breaths of oxygen if they couldn't hold on any longer, and then continue forward.

We climbed until after 1 p.m., and finally a fork in the road appeared ahead.

Zhang Wuxun tore a piece of toilet paper into thin strips to gauge the distance. He realized he was quite close to the ground, and the strips were trembling slightly at the fork in the path. He immediately chose to crawl towards that side. In a daze, he seemed to catch the sound of flowing water. He checked with the guy behind him, who listened carefully and gave him a positive answer.

Upon hearing this, the Huo family members were greatly encouraged and overjoyed.

The further they went, the louder the sound of the flowing water became. They seemed to be crawling along the edge of a river, and the earthen wall on one side gradually showed signs of dampness.

The fat man suggested, "Why don't we just install a detonator and blast this wall open? At least we can get outside. This pig intestine-like pipe is driving me crazy."

Zhang Wuxun reached out and touched the wall, thinking that the method was feasible, but once the wall collapsed, they would only have a dozen seconds to escape through the gap.

Because the way this well is dug is the same as digging a tomb robber's tunnel, once an opening is blasted open and the structure is destroyed, this area will collapse very quickly. If there is any delay, they will all be buried by the collapsing silt.

The plan was quickly finalized: the fat man in the middle would plant the bomb, and once an opening was created, the people on both sides would rush out together.

The fat man was very efficient and quickly prepared for the directional explosion. After everyone had taken cover, he lit a cigarette with a lighter, took a satisfying puff, held it in his hand, and then reached out to light the fuse.

With a muffled thud, several cracks suddenly appeared on the surface of the earthen wall, bulging inwards, and the cracks spread rapidly, quickly covering a large area.

With a loud crash, the earthen wall could not withstand the water pressure outside and collapsed. River water mixed with mud rushed in and quickly filled the passage.

Zhang Wuxun kept his eyes tightly closed, relying solely on the last glimpse of his senses to swim against the current towards the breach.

Finally breaking through the water, the warm sunlight outside enveloped him. The dazzling sunlight made it hard for him to open his eyes. He wiped the water off his face, squinted for a moment, and then looked around while stepping on the water.

This is a relatively calm river channel with clear water. Sunlight can shine directly through the surface to the bottom. The aquatic plants below are growing very lushly, swaying gently with the current. The clear water ripples, and many fish of all sizes swim downstream, their tails swaying.

The banks on both sides are shallow beaches covered with aquatic plants and reeds. One area on one side had been blasted down by them, and mud and water were still swirling there, pouring into the well.

Beyond that were some scattered woods, an area they had never set foot in before. It seemed they had crossed directly from underground to the outside of the valley, and this place should no longer belong to the Yao village.

The young man and the fat man quickly emerged from the water and swam towards the shore. The fat man still had a half-wet cigarette dangling from his mouth. The cigarette paper, wet from the water, hung limply on his chin, as if a clump of bird droppings had fallen from the sky and landed on his mouth.

Several members of the Huo family also emerged from the water safely, their faces beaming with the joy of escaping death.

After climbing ashore, everyone lay flat on the sun-warmed pebble beach like salted fish, closing their eyes to enjoy the sun's massage, too tired to even move a finger.

The young man walked around the area and, after confirming that there was no danger, sat down on the grass, took off his jacket, and wrung out the water.

Zhang Wuxun tossed him a pack of compressed biscuits and said, "Later, we'll follow this river downstream. The water sources in Banna are basically interconnected. Once we find a village downstream, we can try to contact Huo Xiangu and the others."

Their walkie-talkies had gotten wet, and the fat man had only tested them twice when the internal circuitry started burning and emitting a foul, burnt smell.

The young man nodded, broke off a piece of biscuit and put it in his mouth, his eyes fixed on the water.

Zhang Wuxun followed his gaze and immediately understood. Near the shallows of the riverbank, there was a very fat crucian carp leisurely opening its short mouth and nibbling at the moss in the crevices of the pebbles.

With a slight chuckle to himself, Zhang Wuxun got up and quietly approached the spot. Hidden by the reeds, the crucian carp didn't notice his uninvited guest's approach.

Zhang Wuxun slowly raised his right hand, pressed the mechanism on his wrist buckle, and a streak of silver light flashed through the air, merrily plunging into the tail fin of the large crucian carp two inches ahead.

Startled and in pain, the crucian carp thrashed about, trying to dive to the bottom. The waves stirred up some floating debris attached to the rocks, but it was too late.

Zhang Wuxun suddenly raised his hand, and the barbs on the small silver dart got stuck in the fish scales. As the silver thread retracted, the crucian carp broke through the water's surface, splashing water as it returned to Zhang Wuxun's hand, where he caught it in mid-air.

Hearing the noise, Fatty saw the fish in Zhang Wuxun's hand and immediately clapped his hands excitedly, "Clap clap clap, our little wooden fish is such a kind and understanding little angel. It's been eating compressed biscuits all day, and Fatty's mouth is so bland it's practically tasteless."

Upon seeing this, Huo Xiaoli and the others, despite their exhaustion, got up and jumped into the water, heading straight for the fish at the bottom. It seemed like they were catching fish, but it was more like a release of pent-up emotions after surviving a disaster.

The water temperature was just right, refreshing and invigorating. The group enjoyed a wonderful bath in the water, and then brought the small fish and shrimp they had caught ashore. Their splashing around had scared away all the larger fish around them.

Zhang Wuxun followed the same method and brought up six more. After processing them with Xiao Ge by the river, he handed them over to the fat man, the peerless chef, saying, "Come on, Chef Wang, it's time to show off your skills."

The fat man, dressed casually in his shorts, shook his clothes in the water to wash away the mud and sand, then spread them out on the warm pebbles to dry in the sun before taking the fish that Zhang Wuxun and the other man had prepared.

Huo's men had already gathered firewood and started a fire. They stood around it, shirtless, looking at the fat man expectantly.

Zhang Wuxun didn't need to worry about what happened next. He walked a few steps further away, jumped into the water and washed himself thoroughly. He then took out shampoo from his spatial storage and washed his hair. Finally, he washed his clothes with soap and chose a clean rocky beach to dry them.

Looking back, I saw the young man still soaking in the water, resting with his eyes closed, looking very relaxed, so I casually took his clothes over as well.

As I passed by, I noticed that the fat man's clothes were covered in white sweat stains on his half-dry armpits and back. I sighed helplessly, picked up his clothes, and went back to where we had been before to wash them together and hang them to dry on the big rocks on the shore.

Thank you so much to [Dali Chen], [Born to be a Show], and other generous donors! Sending you a huge heart!
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(End of this chapter)