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

Chapter 348 Fat Milotuo
White powder fluttered down, like countless tiny snowflakes drifting in the sky, filling the entire cave with a hazy, grayish-white atmosphere.

The surface of the water in the pools had begun to ripple, and some of the smaller pools were already bubbling with hot water.

Huo Xiangu paced anxiously back and forth at the entrance of the stone path. Her cough was worse than before. The life-saving medicinal tea was right next to her, but she couldn't drink it now. If she didn't want to inhale more poisonous gas, she could only tough it out.

Before long, several people stumbled out of the white dust, supporting each other. The two most seriously injured had blood seeping from their skin under their protective suits.

"Quickly back up, back into the stone path."

Zhang Wuxun and Xiao Ge had used this time to build a temporary barrier wall on the edge of the stone path ten meters behind them, using backpacks filled with equipment, leaving only a gap in the middle for people to pass through.

Hearing the noise, Huo Xiangu and the others rushed over in a panic.

Zhang Wuxun and the young man immediately stuffed the backpacks they had left on the side into the gap to seal it up.

Only Huo Chu Shi and a few others came out; another person, whose name was unknown, was dragged and killed inside by the remaining Huo family members.

The toxic fumes from these alkali powders can penetrate the skin and are extremely corrosive. Fortunately, they were wearing diving suits when they came out of the water, which provided some protection.

The skin on my face and neck was burned so badly it looked like a peeled sweet potato. It wouldn't disfigure my whole face, but it would definitely leave a shallow scar.

The group retreated a considerable distance into the stone path, where the alkaline fumes could not spread for the time being, allowing them to breathe a sigh of relief.

"What the hell is going on here?" Chu Ji shouted angrily, his face covered in blisters.

The large group of dozens that entered this place has now dwindled to only eleven people, including Zhang Wuxun and Xiao Ge. The death rate is terrifyingly high.

"Do you think Zhang Family Ancient Building is a vegetable market, where you can come and go as you please?" Zhang Wuxun said calmly. "We've used up our two chances to survive, so now all we have left is our killing move."

"Didn't you say there were no traps along the way?" the man sneered again. "Could it be that even you two members of the Zhang family couldn't see them?"

Zhang Wuxun glanced at him sideways, "If you're so capable, then you do it." If you're not, then shut the hell up.

The man immediately stopped talking and glared at him resentfully.

Huo Xiangu's health was already poor, and the air in the cave earlier still contained some alkaline gas. The poisonous gas had the greatest impact on her, and she was only able to hold on by sheer willpower. Anyone else would have fainted long ago.

Zhang Wuxun sat cross-legged on the ground and slowly explained to them, "When we first entered the cave, the alkali powder didn't appear immediately. Instead, it stayed inside for about twenty minutes before it surfaced. So the mechanisms in the cave have a time limit. After that time, we'll have to go in again."

"The destination is here, so the exit must be here too."

There was one more thing Zhang Wuxun didn't say: Xiao Ge was sure he could find the exit, and perhaps he had already found it after walking around the cave, but he just didn't say it.

Although the young man's memory is incomplete, his sixth sense is more accurate than anyone else's. He can usually find what he is looking for by relying on intuition and experience.

As expected, the clan leader is the clan leader. Other members of the Zhang family who are still alive have also tried to enter the Zhang Family Ancient Building, but apart from the young man who was able to truly enter the core of the ancient building, no one else has succeeded.

Oh, and that pervert Hei Xiazi is one of them too. Not only did he get arrested, but he also stole the ancestral burial knife.

Their protective suits were fairly sturdy, but in that corrosive alkaline gas, they could only last for about ten minutes at most.

Zhang Wuxun was actually most worried about Fatty. He and Xiao Ge had been here for two days and hadn't come out for so long. Fatty knew that something had happened to them and would definitely bring people in through the sealed entrance to look for them. That would be tantamount to walking into a trap.

It's very likely that Miluotu will also lead them to this cave, so Zhang Wuxun has to wait until he meets up with Fatty before they can take the next step. Little Brother probably thinks the same way.

Right now, he was hoping that Miluotuo in the jade vein would be more efficient and send the fat man over as soon as possible.

Zhang Wuxun estimated that the release of alkali powder was determined by the length of time they stayed there. In other words, when the mountain moved and attracted some of the prey here, the remaining Miluo Tuo were also attracted by the temperature of the prey. When the number of Miluo Tuo in the cave jade vein increased to a certain level, the mechanism for releasing alkali powder would be activated.

The strong alkali will drive the Miluotuo away from here, so the release mechanism will only stop when the surrounding Miluotuo disperse to a certain distance.

The stone path behind them was made of intact rock, preventing Miluotuo from getting out. They only needed to wait a moment and use the time difference between Miluotuo's journey back and forth.

However, one thing is strange. When Huo Chusi and his team tested the water, it was found to be non-toxic. But if strong alkali was mixed in, it would still be somewhat corrosive.

So, is there a connection between the bottom of this pool and the outside world? In other words, is the water here alive, and is there a channel to bring the water out?

He couldn't help but recall the last time he and Wu Xiaoxie were in Banna, when they were swept into the Miluotuo Cave by a siphon tide and had to find their way out. He also remembered the underground river they had passed through and the well passage filled with spores.

He had a premonition that these waterways were connected, but they had already gone deep into the mountains, and it would be extremely difficult to get out by following the waterways.

Huo Xiangu couldn't possibly be unaware of this, but those who remained by her side were all her true confidants, so going out wouldn't make much sense. Right now, she only wanted to find the Zhang Family Ancient Building.

Judging that it was about time, the young man touched the stone wall and then nodded to Zhang Wuxun.

As everyone changed into new protective suits and armed themselves, they moved the backpacks blocking the stone path when something heavy suddenly fell over.

Upon closer inspection, it was a mummified corpse that had been burned and corroded by strong alkali. The moisture in the flesh had been evaporated, and it was red and rotten, just like the blood corpse in the Lu King's Palace. There was not a single piece of good skin on its body, especially on its back. Under the spasmodic and twisted flesh, you could even see the bones of the spine curled up and protruding.

Huo Chu Shi put on protective gloves and rummaged around in the corpse's curled-up arms, pulling out a silver chain. After glancing at it, he said, "It's not Chu Wu."

The body was moved aside, and a thin layer of white powder accumulated at the end of the stone path. There were several other bodies in the cave, some floating in the pool, and others with half their bodies dangling over the edge of the pool. Their deaths were all similarly gruesome.

Aside from collecting Huo Chuwu's remains, no one paid any attention to the other corpses. Huo Xiangu instructed her men to tap on the jade walls with tools, listening for the sounds to locate cavities behind them, thus determining the position of mechanisms. After a while, when they saw powder falling from the holes above the cave, they immediately retreated into the stone passage and blocked the holes to prevent the poisonous gas from leaking out.

After five rounds of back-and-forth, three protective suits were ruined for each person, leaving two remaining.

Huo Xiangu's brow furrowed with worry. This couldn't go on; their equipment was running out.

Just then, a muffled sound like thunder came from outside the cave, as if it were an earthquake. The entire cave space suddenly trembled violently, and the jade wall on one side made a cracking sound.

What's going on? Could it be that Miluotuo has become so angry from all this back and forth that he finally couldn't stand it anymore and decided to come out?

The muffled thud made people's ears ring and their heads spin.

Not knowing exactly what had happened, they hurriedly retreated from the cave, holding their guns and on guard.

With a loud bang, a gap suddenly appeared on the right side of the cave, followed by another explosion as rocks shattered and flew everywhere.

As the thick smoke dissipated, a massive body emerged from the blasted hole. It was entirely green, with an enormous head and two dark, bulging eyes. It turned its head and stared straight at them. It was practically a giant Miluotuo!
Huo Chushi instinctively raised his gun to fire, but Zhang Wuxun immediately pressed down on the barrel, and the bullet shot into the sole of the Miluo Tuo's foot, startling the Miluo Tuo into jumping up.

"Don't shoot!"

"Wow, we're all on the same side! Hey hero, open your eyes wide and look carefully, don't accidentally hurt an innocent person!"

Zhang Wuxun's voice overlapped with the voice of the green "Miloto".

Everyone was stunned for a moment, and then they saw the fat body rush over like a cannonball, grab the head and lift it up to reveal a big, white and fat face. After looking at Zhang Wuxun on the left and then at the little brother, and confirming that they were okay, he immediately started shouting.

"You two bastards, I've finally found you!"

Zhang Wuxun was overjoyed and patted him heavily on the shoulder, "How did you find me here?"

"You have the nerve to say that!" the fat man roared. "You're such a pain in the ass! You said you were going in to find someone, but you two have disappeared without a trace. If I really can't find you, I don't know how I'm going to explain this to Tianzhen when I get out."

Zhang Wuxun pulled him towards the stone path, saying, "This opening isn't safe. Let's talk inside the stone path first."

The explosions the fat man just made will surely cause the surrounding Miluotuo to quickly gather, and the alkali powder will arrive at any moment.

Several green heads peeked in through the crack that had been blasted open in the cave; judging from the voices, it was Huo Xiaoli and her group.

Powder had already begun to fall from above the cave, so the group retreated back into the stone passage.

Zhang Wu asked the fat man how he got there, and the fat man said that on the afternoon of the day he and the little brother entered the sealed gate, he hadn't seen anyone and began to suspect that something had happened inside. Just then, a few uninvited guests arrived at the camp. The leader was Huo Xiuxiu's brother and sister, and Huo Qiji, who was left behind in Yao Village, was also taken hostage by them.

Seeing that the two men were up to no good, Huo Zhizhi dealt with them outside while the fat man took the opportunity to lead Huo Xiaoli and the others to grab their equipment and sneak into the cave in the dark to look for them.

Upon hearing that Huo Youxue and the others had reached the top of the mountain, Old Madam Huo's face turned ashen. She then sneered inwardly, thinking that those two clueless fools were simply waiting for news to spread that this old woman had perished in the ancient tomb so they could seize control of the situation and strike first.

There are probably many people in the Huo family who are watching and waiting for the internal situation to change so they can immediately launch a power grab.

Fortunately, she had seen through the two men's true nature early on and sent Xiuxiu to a safe place. With Xiuxiu's abilities, she could bide her time and eventually take back the Huo family's property.

"Oh, right." The fat man remembered something and added, "Those two seem to have some connection with that old turtle Jude Kao. Huo Zhizhi told me to tell the old lady that they seem to be planning to cooperate to enter the ancient building together. So he told us to bring some important documents with us when we came in at night, and we can't leave them with them no matter what."

Huo Xiangu sneered, "Since they all want to come in, then let them never leave."

Then he asked the fat man, "How's the situation on the side you came in from?"

The fat man slapped his thigh, hissed, and his brows furrowed immediately. "Don't even mention it! We came in smoothly at first, but this time the path suddenly changed, like a damn maze. No matter how we walked, we couldn't find our way out. We finally reached the end, only to find it was a dead end. Is this the same situation for you guys?"

Seeing Zhang Wuxun nod, the fat man continued, "After discovering that the end point was a cave, I wondered if there was a mechanism hidden in the jade wall. So I thought I'd do what you two did and feel around on the wall. Just in case I stumbled upon it by chance."

"I never expected to fall for it." The fat man said, grinning as he took off his gloves.

Zhang Wuxun's expression immediately changed upon seeing this. "You touched the wall with your bare hands!"

The jade wall was covered in alkali powder. The fat man sweated a lot, and when he stuck his sweaty hands to the wall, the alkali powder naturally reacted with the water.

At this moment, the fat man's palms were covered with bumpy blisters, resembling the red and white skin of a toad. His fingers also had many fine blisters, like fish skin rashes. Some of the blisters had been squeezed open, and the blood and pus inside had all stuck together in a clump.

Zhang Wuxun frowned deeply, a nameless anger rising within him. "Where's the other hand?"

"My other hand is fine, just a few small blisters. A quick prick with the tip of a knife and some ointment will do the trick," the fat man chuckled sheepishly.

He knew he had been reckless this time, and explained in a low voice, "I was just worried about you two, and I was in such a hurry that I didn't look carefully..."

Zhang Wuxun glared at him, grabbed his other hand and took off his glove. Upon inspection, he saw that only the index and middle fingers of this hand had blisters, which had been pricked by the fat man with the tip of his knife. The thin skin on them had long been rubbed away by the glove, leaving only the tender flesh underneath the blisters.

He rummaged through his medical kit, took out a needle, and pricked the blisters on the fat man's palms one by one, squeezing out the pus and blood. He cut off the scalded skin, disinfected the wound, applied burn ointment, and finally wrapped it with gauze.

The fat man grimaced in pain, hissing and gasping for breath, but after applying the medicine, the burning sensation in his hands was significantly reduced, and the cool feeling was quite comfortable.

Thank you to [Bao Yi Ge], [Nian Shao Shi Zui Shi Tian Zhen], [Dali Chen] and other generous donors! Sending love...*
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(End of this chapter)