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

Chapter 347 A Terrifying Dream

Huo Xiangu was discussing something with her subordinates, and it seemed that she had not given up on the idea of ​​using detonators to blow it up.

Zhang Wuxun and his brother ignored her. After finishing their meal, disregarding the stares from those around them, they took out sleeping bags from their backpacks, crawled in, and closed their eyes to sleep.

Seeing this, the others also hurried to rest, because they knew that once the two woke up, those who couldn't keep up would only be abandoned.

Although Zhang Wuxun was asleep, he was not sleeping soundly.

The events that occurred at Zhangjia Ancient Building in the original story kept replaying in his mind in the form of dreams, and Pan Zi's tragic yet relieved look before his death was as if branded into his mind.

Unlike the original plot, he saw that at the moment of the explosion, a huge, thick, dark green tentacle pierced through the jade vein, dragging Pan Zi into the abyss below the ancient building. Pan Zi's body was swallowed by an incomparably black maw, and eventually merged with that black mass.

After swallowing Pan Zi, the black mass extended its tentacles and weaved through the jade veins. Fatty and Wu Xiaoxie were trapped by the bell, and it looked like the tentacles were about to grab them.

At the critical moment, Xiao Ge descended from the sky and cut off the two tentacles. Just as he was about to tell Wu Xiaoxie and the other to leave quickly, he suddenly felt a jolt. Looking down, he realized that a sharp tentacle had silently pierced into Xiao Ge's body from behind.

A trickle of blood escaped from the corner of the young man's mouth. He stared in one direction, his eyes revealing a faint look of confusion and bewilderment, as if asking, "Why?"

The expressions on the faces of the two fat men froze, their pupils widening in shock and disbelief as they stared at the other end of the tentacle.

As the dream followed their gaze, Zhang Wuxun trembled uncontrollably when he saw the dark figure in that direction.

That was actually a Miluotu who looked exactly like him.

That's right, the highest-ranking Miluotuo King actually had a human face.

He felt his vision magnified infinitely, as if he were floating in the air, getting closer and closer to that thing, right within arm's reach.

"who are you?"

He tried his best to suppress the trembling in his voice as he asked the question.

Upon hearing this, "Zhang Wuxun" suddenly burst into laughter—a very familiar smile, now on the face of another unknown creature.

"It's you—"

"It's you—"

It's you—

The sound lingered in their ears like the tolling of bells. With a gentle wave of his hand, "Zhang Wuxun" sent two more tentacles emerging from the darkness. They coiled and twisted, bypassing the row of bells, and stabbed straight into the abdomens of Wu Xiaoxie and the fat man.

"No—" he shouted hoarsely, his eyes wide with rage.

They could only watch helplessly as the tentacles devoured them all, assimilating them into ugly, dark green monsters.

"Now, you're the only one left."

King Miluotu stretched his neck and rubbed his face affectionately against Zhang Wuxun's, behaving exactly like an animal in the process of evolutionary learning.

However, Zhang Wuxun was unable to move at this moment. Darkness enveloped his vision, and he could feel a chilling coldness spreading from his spine throughout his body. Soon, he could no longer feel his body. There was no pain, no sensation, but he knew that he only had a head left.

No, even this head wasn't his. He heard a buzzing sound emanating from the bones, like they were talking, but he couldn't make out what it was; it seemed to be coming from a very distant place.

"Awuchile—come quickly, come to me quickly—"

He sensed the owner of this head moving slowly, and sunlight shone through the cracks in the giant door.

It's moving out; it wants to go out.

Stop it!
A voice exploded in my mind: Don't let it out!

Zhang Wuxun felt as if he had jumped into a sea of ​​lava and fire, his whole body was burning intensely, his pores were uncontrollably enlarged in the heat, his blood vessels were bursting, and his blood was flowing backward. This feeling made him feel like he was dying.

The door was right in front of him, and the voice in his mind grew sharper and sharper until it turned into a high-decibel noise that ruptured his eardrums.

He roared and struggled with all his might, and at that moment, the thing binding him cracked open with an invisible fissure.

It was as if tender grass sprouts were breaking through the soil, and fresh air from all directions rushed towards him at the same time.

The darkness vanished in an instant, and he suddenly opened his eyes to find a beam of white light shining into them. He instinctively raised his hand to shield them.

Just as he was about to speak, the blood in his chest surged up, and he began to cough, coughing uncontrollably until his whole body curled up, his throat throbbing with pain. Something choked out of his mouth, and his consciousness told him it was a clump of blood.

Someone helped him up, gently patted his back, and fed him some water, which finally suppressed the metallic taste of blood in his throat.

Zhang Wuxun snapped out of his daze and found the young man half-squatting beside him, a hint of worry in his eyes, asking him how he was feeling.

"It's alright," Zhang Wuxun replied softly, his throat still a little dry, but the burning sensation from before was gone.

There was something stuck to his right cheek. Zhang Wuxun took it off and saw that it was a fever-reducing patch.

He looked around and found that Huo Xiangu and the others were staring at him intently, their eyes fixed on him as if they were possessed.

Without much thought, Zhang Wuxun understood: the tattoo on his right cheek had reappeared, and those people would definitely be even more suspicious.

But it doesn't matter. What they think is none of his business. The outcome is already decided, and nothing can be changed.

The thought of the dream filled him with panic. He didn't know what the dream meant, or if the system was affecting him, but he knew that Xiao Ge couldn't die.

With Xiao Ge around, the thing behind the bronze door will be wary.

He also cannot die, or rather, the system within him cannot be devoured. Once he and the system disappear together, and the young man leaves the bronze gate, the things inside will no longer have any restraint.

Once it is born, there will be terrifying things to come, and the consequences are unimaginable.

It seems that heading to Medog is now of utmost urgency.

Zhang Wuxun gathered his thoughts, got up to tidy up his equipment, and then called to the young man to continue forward, ignoring whether the others were following behind.

The young man's expression grew increasingly serious, as if he had either noticed something or sensed something.

After walking about two kilometers further, the stone path ahead changed; light appeared, though very faint, but it was definitely light. "Is that the exit?" someone asked.

No one answered him; everyone was immersed in the joy of possibly finding a way to survive.

However, after walking about twenty meters further, they discovered that the glowing place was a small, narrow cave.

The cave is more than two meters above the ground, and its top is covered with many very small, irregular pits, densely packed, like old tree roots hollowed out by insects, or more vividly, like tattered honeycomb briquettes, looking as if it were formed naturally.

The stone walls on all four sides, including the ground, were glowing. It was a very special dark green jade, not the kind of light that a priceless gemstone would have. Instead, it looked as if fluorescent powder had been mixed in. The light was uneven, with very fine, streaky, pale blue streaks, much like the marks left by something crawling across the stone walls.

The jade wall is not smooth; its surface has a slightly frosted texture and is somewhat hazy.

The floor of the cave is covered with pits and pools of water of varying sizes.

I don't know if it's the psychological effect of the dark green color, but I always felt that the pool was very deep. Even when I shone the brightest beam of a flashlight into it, I couldn't see the bottom.

Looking at the dazzling jade light, someone exclaimed excitedly, "Have we stumbled upon the Zhang Family Ancient Building by accident?"

Huo Xiangu also thought it was very likely, and sent people into the cave to investigate.

Huo Chushi led two of his men inside, while the rest rested temporarily at the cave entrance.

A dozen minutes later, Huo Chu Shi returned with his men, bringing with him very bad news.

The cave ends completely sealed off; it's an almost entirely enclosed space except for the entrance right in front of us, with no murals or tomb doors.

Huo Xiangu frowned, utterly perplexed. "How could this be?"

She looked at Zhang Wuxun and the other person, and asked them the reason.

Zhang Wuxun only told her, "The finish line is right here."

Looking at the pool of water on the cave floor, Huo Xiangu pondered for a while before ordering one of Huo Chu Shi's men, who was good at swimming, to go down and take a look.

Huo Chushi nodded, then turned to his subordinates and said, "Chu Si and Chu Liu, you two change into your gear and go down to take a look."

The two agreed, quickly took off their outer clothes, put on oxygen equipment, and after testing the water to ensure it was non-toxic, they chose the nearest pool and jumped in.

The ripples on the water quickly subsided, leaving two people to guard the pool while the rest retreated to the stone path entrance, quietly awaiting the outcome.

Twenty minutes later, the two who had dived down surfaced, followed by something large and black, right behind their heels, about to catch up with them.

The men guarding the pool immediately opened fire on the creature, only to find that no matter how hard they fired, it remained firmly attached to them.

Just as they were at a loss, Huo Chu and his companion emerged from the water, removed their oxygen masks, and immediately shouted, "Don't shoot, that's a person!"

As they spoke, they turned around and pulled on the rope tied around their waists. The thing was incredibly heavy, and it took the four of them a lot of effort to pull it out of the water and carry it to the ground by the pool.

The thing was an oval shape like an egg, and it looked like it was covered with a soft, yellowish membrane. It looked very heavy overall.

As soon as Fu emerged from the water, a very strange, fishy smell quickly spread throughout the cave, making people feel very uncomfortable. The source of the smell was that unknown thing.

Huo Chushi's men said it was a person, but no matter how they looked at it, they couldn't see any trace of a person on it. The thing looked more like a twisted, tortured human pig.

But what horrified them was that the bundle was wrapped in the same style of black adventure clothing as theirs.

What's going on? How did the groups that left earlier end up here?

"Who is it?" Huo Xiangu asked.

Huo Chu Si shook his head, his face extremely pale. "I can't recognize them. There are several more corpses like this down there. Their bodies have been swollen from being soaked in water, and their faces have been corroded by something, covered in blisters. Their original faces are completely unrecognizable."

Zhang Wu went over, pierced the thin membrane on the head, skillfully straightened the person's neck, looked at the eerily red face, and saw a twisted scar between the swollen blisters.

“It was that scarred guy,” he said. “The first team to leave.”

The scar on the man's face was originally covered by his hair and collar, but it was revealed when he bent down to kill the clueless leader.

They originally thought they would be trapped somewhere in the mountain, but now it seems that the movement of those Miluotu in the mountain has led them here, intentionally or unintentionally.

Zhang Wu went deeper into the cave to look at the pool. The groups that had left one after another looked like they had all been buried at the bottom of the water.

Huo Chusi continued, "These pools are connected at the bottom. There are also some long-rotted bones underwater, all of which have sunk to the bottom. Along with them, there are also some tools such as Luoyang shovels and picks."

Why did these people drown? Were they searching for something in the water?
Huo Xiangu became increasingly certain that the entrance she was looking for was at the bottom of the pool, so she ordered the others to put on their equipment and dive down to search at the bottom of the pool near the end of the cave.

After saying that, he coughed violently a few times, patted his chest lightly, and his face was pale with a hint of gray.

Zhang Wuxun and Xiao Ge also entered the cave, went to the innermost part, and scraped the dark green jade wall with a knife, scraping off a little bit of white powder.

Upon hearing Huo Xiangu's suppressed cough, Zhang Wuxun's expression immediately changed. He quickly opened his backpack, took out a protective suit, and told the young man to put it on as well.

Upon seeing this, Huo Xiangu hurriedly asked what had happened.

Zhang Wuxun put on a gas mask and said in a muffled voice, "There used to be a lot of alkali powder here. The reason why these jade walls are a bit rough is because they were corroded by the alkali powder."

Upon hearing this, Huo Xiangu was greatly alarmed and immediately instructed Huo Xiuxiu to put on protective clothing and a gas mask.

She now only had Huo Xiuxiu by her side; the rest of them had gone down into the pool.

Zhang Wuxun looked up at the countless small holes at the top of the cave, then at the corpses by the pool, and finally understood why those corpses were in the water.

Through the gas mask, some extremely fine powder was already falling down from the small holes at the top; these small holes were where the alkali powder was released.

The reason those people were in the water was because of the alkali powder in the air, which forced them to jump into the water. However, when a large amount of strong alkali is dissolved in the water, a lot of heat is generated during the dissolution process. People in the water will be scalded to death or even boiled.

So no matter what, it's all a dead end in the end.

Not much alkali powder had landed yet, so Huo Xiuxiu hurriedly rummaged through her equipment to find a protective suit and mask, entered the cave, knelt down by the pool where Huo Chushi and the others had gone, and shouted loudly for them to come up quickly.

Thank you so much to the generous donors [冬雪轻歌], [不念], and [年少时最是天真]! Sending you a huge heart!
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(End of this chapter)