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

Chapter 356 The Seventh Floor
Huo Xiuxiu examined Huo Xiaoli's injuries, rolled up his trouser leg, and immediately slapped him on the head. "You brat, you only have a little scratch, and you're screaming like a pig being slaughtered. If you keep screaming, believe me, I'll give you a euthanasia injection."

"Ouch!" Huo Xiaoli quickly covered her head, looking miserable. "Sister Xiuxiu, why did you hit me so hard?"

Huo Xiuxiu quickly treated his wound and gave him a piece of candy. "Alright, stop dawdling. The wound isn't deep. As long as it doesn't get wet, it'll heal quickly."

Huo Xiaoli gave a simple, honest reply, stood up, patted the precious camera that had been hanging around her neck, and said thankfully, "Luckily I hung the camera tightly, otherwise I would have cried my eyes out if it had fallen."

These flip-top mechanisms are designed to catch people off guard. Those who come to rob tombs are definitely after money, and almost no tomb robber is not greedy. With good stuff right in front of them, within easy reach, they will naturally be tempted to lower their guard and end up suffering the consequences, falling into the trap and remaining there forever as burial goods for the tomb owner.

Everything went smoothly afterward. With the preparations in place, the underground traps posed no challenge for them. The Huo family easily sent the person over to have their picture taken and then brought them back.

Just when everyone thought everything was going smoothly, Huo Xiangu, who was sitting to the side, suddenly started coughing violently. As she coughed, she suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood. She hurriedly tried to wipe it with a handkerchief, but the bloodstains were too deep to be hidden.

The Huo family members were shocked and exclaimed in disbelief, "Patriarch!"

Zhang Wuxun's expression changed instantly, only then realizing with shock that the alkaline gas had already begun to spread silently without him noticing.

Looking around, he exclaimed, "Damn it, this is bad! There are vents on the top of the wall here. The mechanism has been activated, and the alkaline gas has been released."

"Go back!" the young man shouted, and took the lead in running towards the tomb door outside the stone passage.

Zhang Wuxun pulled out the nail clipped to Huo Chushi's backpack, ran to the tomb door, and together with Xiao Ge, pried open the self-locking stone at the top of the door.

The Huo family carried Old Madam Huo out in a swarm. Behind them, a cloud of grayish-white mist was slowly descending from the sky like wisps of smoke. The mist inside was so thick that it resembled the South Heavenly Gate in Journey to the West.

The young man stood outside the door holding up a self-locking stone, and Zhang Wuxun quickly pulled out a nail and squeezed through the crack in the door.
With a bang, the heavy tomb door slammed shut. Zhang Wuxun urged repeatedly, "Hurry up, hurry up! Such a wide gap in the door can't keep out the poison gas."

Upon hearing this, the Huo family members, no longer caring whether their clothes were wet or they were cold, jumped into the pool like dumplings being dropped into water and swam back as fast as they could.

Fortunately, the rock spikes they had driven into the crack and the ropes hanging from the rock face were still there. One by one, they climbed up as fast as they could. Looking back down, they saw white mist spreading out from the crack in the door.

No one dared to delay any longer and ran forward as fast as they could, passing through the crevice and returning to the stone chamber they had been in before.

Just when they thought that Xiao Ge and Zhang Wuxun would knock on the pillars again to lower the mechanism, they saw the two of them go straight into the corner of the stone chamber. While they were still confused, they saw the two of them grope on the stone wall for a few seconds, and then suddenly disappear into the wall.

In the chaos, the lights flickered, and they didn't even see how the two people disappeared. They were still wandering around like headless flies.

"Holy crap, where did they go? How did they just vanish in a flash?" Huo Chu Si exclaimed.

Huo Chu Shi, who was carrying Old Madam Huo on his back, turned ashen-faced upon hearing this and hissed, "Damn it, what are you all standing there for? Hurry up and find her!"

Huo Xiaoli hopped on one leg to the corner of the wall and carefully checked for any hidden doors or anything like that. He had gone into the water too quickly and his leg had cramped up, so he hadn't had time to treat it. His injured leg was still cramping, and the pain made the veins on his forehead bulge.

As the lamp in my hand swept across a corner of the wall, I was about to turn around when I saw that the wall suddenly move on its own, opening its mouth like a celestial dog swallowing the moon, and a human head emerged from it.

The man saw the Huo family members wandering around outside and cursed, "Damn it, I'm really fed up with you guys. I've never seen such a stupid group of tomb raiders. You can't even find the secret door. Hurry up and come over here."

Although it was an insult, it sounded like heavenly music to the Huo family members at that moment.

Huo Xiaoli was so frightened that she fell to the ground with a thud. After recognizing the person, she screamed, "Master Yu!"

He immediately paddled over quickly and squeezed into the flipped-over stone door.

Zhang Wuxun reached out and helped him up, urging him to climb up the small bricks on the wall. Then he took the old lady from Huo Chushi's back and helped her in, holding her with one hand and calling up to her, "Brother, catch!"

After saying that, he threw Old Mrs. Huo vertically upwards. The already weak Old Mrs. Huo almost fainted from the feeling of weightlessness. The next second, she felt two iron-like hands tightly grab her shoulders and lift her up.

Zhang Wuxun followed closely behind and climbed up, taking out an oxygen cylinder mixed with a very low concentration and a small amount of acetic acid and putting it on Old Mrs. Huo to temporarily relieve her discomfort. Lung lavage could only be performed at the hospital using specialized equipment.

“Your respiratory tract was already corroded by alkaline gas before, and this time even the mucous membranes are ulcerated and bleeding. If you inhale it again, you will not be far from death.”

Huo Xiangu lay flat on the ground, coughing a few times with a muffled cough. Her face was pale, and her lips were turning blue. Although she was conscious, her muscles were spasming slightly and uncontrollably. If it got any worse, she would go into shock.

"It's safe here for now. You can rest for a bit and replenish your energy," Zhang Wuxun said to the Huo family members who were climbing up behind him.

Huo Chushi had already checked the surrounding area but found no air vents, so he asked, "Master Yu, which part of the ancient building is this?"

“The seventh floor,” Zhang Wuxun pointed to the ground beneath his feet. “This is the true seventh floor of the ancient building.”

This is a huge circular stone chamber, about half the size of a football field. Seven thick pillars stand around the chamber, and the dome is a seven-star dome similar to the previous ones. Although it is a tomb, the furnishings here are very rough and lack details, more like a temporary storeroom.

The only unusual feature is that there is a high platform in the middle of the stone chamber, on which is a huge stone statue of a Qilin with its head on top of the tomb ceiling. Only the head is finely carved, while the rest of the lines are rough, as if it was a half-carved blank that was left here.

Such a large stone block obviously could not be fully carved and transported from outside, so it had to be used locally. There is a crack below the neck of the stone statue, about the width of a palm. It is very likely that the rough shape was already formed, and it suddenly cracked when it was being carved into fine details. It could not be repaired, so it was abandoned here.

The young man went around to the back of the stone statue and pushed open a stone door that was wide enough for two people. Inside was a wooden staircase leading straight up.

Twenty minutes later, Huo Chu Shi, carrying Old Madam Huo on his back, entered the stone gate under the guidance of the young man and arrived at the sixth floor of the ancient building.

From here, the wooden circular building comes into full view.

They stood on a long corridor to the left, with a tightly constructed railing and dragon-carved pillars on one side, and rows of wooden houses on the other. Behind them was the mountain. The corridor led directly to a house that was clearly different in size from the other rooms, resembling the rear hall of an ancient Han-style building. The beams were densely covered with many strange and unusual Zhang Jiaming characters. These characters varied in system, all originating from fragments of broken Chinese civilization. The higher up they went, the more modern the characters became.

The symbols commonly used by the Zhang family were derived from this concise form of writing. However, after the Zhang family's demise, records of the meanings of some of the inherited characters were lost.

When Zhang Wuxun was at home, he only learned the concrete and fixed meanings of many special symbols, just like a parking sign with a diagonal line. It can only express the fixed meaning that you can't park here, and it can't express where you can park like a navigation system.

The wooden eaves extending from the short beams are arranged in neat rows of blue-tiled roofs, and a bell hangs from the eaves of each house, also called a wind-sign.

Behind the white gauze curtains hanging in the back hall, one could vaguely see a large coffin inside, but it was too far away to see the details clearly.

From the outside, it seems that passing through the lobby directly opposite from the left corridor leads directly to the right.

The young man reached out and pushed open one of the rooms. Inside, there was only a single wooden coffin lying horizontally, its surface covered with a thick layer of white powder. It was severely decayed and looked as if it would crumble at the slightest touch.

Behind the coffin was a small mourning hall, on which was enshrined a memorial tablet made of animal bone. The characters on it were crooked and twisted. Zhang Wuxun vaguely deciphered them and guessed that the coffin might contain the remains of an ancestor of the Zhang family from the Spring and Autumn Period.

He shared his guess with the young man, who neither nodded nor shook his head.

On the small stone table sits a palm-sized bronze incense burner, shaped like a lovable mythical beast with round, bright eyes. Inside, three crooked, brown incense sticks remain, presumably offered by the Zhang family to their ancestors when the ancient building was completed.

A strange, rotten sandalwood smell lingered in the air, and after smelling it for a while, I couldn't help but sneeze.

The group quickly withdrew, and after seeing that the second room was the same, they went straight to the back hall at the end of the corridor.

The alkali powder clinging to the gauze curtains, like flour, would flutter and fall down with the breeze created by walking.

Everyone hurriedly moved aside, making their movements even quieter, and only taking a careful breath when they could no longer hold their breath.

You can't stay in this place for long. Even if the mechanism doesn't start, your lungs will rot if you stay here too long.

While the Huo family was still carefully examining the coffin, Zhang Wuxun and Xiao Ge had already found the entrance to the front hall.

The Zhang Family Ancient Building is located in a place where dragon veins are drained of their essence. Its feng shui design is intended to devour the dragon vein's energy and destroy the earth's energy. To achieve this effect, the visible staircase needs to be discarded and replaced with a staircase or hidden door that can be concealed on the surface.

The group went up the stairs hidden in the wall and arrived at the main hall.

The space here is extremely large and spacious, with four thick pillars supporting it standing in the middle of the hall. The beams are entirely in the architectural style of the Qing Dynasty, and there are countless patterns and inscriptions on the roof. Under the cover of alkali powder, the whole building is a bleak and desolate gray color.

Upon arriving here, they rummaged through their equipment and pulled out the last set of barely usable gear, put on gas masks, and waited for instructions.

The young man walked to the central pillar carved with qilin, put on gloves, grabbed the protruding heads of the qilin and started climbing up. He quickly reached the top and then casually kicked the left eye of the top qilin's head with his toe.

With a crisp snap, a thin, folding staircase extended down from the floor, and the young man grabbed it and quickly climbed up.

Zhang Wuxun went up second, then lowered the rope and hoisted Huo Xiangu, who was sitting on a folding chair, up. Huo Chushi held her up from below, and the others followed behind.

The fifth floor was extremely eerie. What came into view were countless neatly arranged shelves that stretched into the darkness behind, like stacked sleeper berths on a train, only with more layers. There were hundreds of them at a glance.

What's most unsettling is that these shelves are filled with iron terracotta warriors, making the entire space feel cold and oppressive.

"What's inside these iron figures? Are they all solid?" Huo Xiaoli asked in a muffled voice.

“Milotu.” Zhang Wuxun tapped an iron leg beside him with his finger. “When the Zhang family was excavating the mountain, the Miluotu they encountered should have been captured, poured with molten iron, and placed here.”

The Huo family members clicked their tongues in amazement. "So many! That's enough for a whole battalion!"

“Actually, it’s not that many,” Zhang Wuxun said. “Outside the ancient building, there are more than ten times as many Miluotuo, all of which have been attracted by our temperature and are gathering around the ancient building.”

“We need to speed things up. Once Miluotuo gathers a certain number, the strong alkali mechanism will be activated, and we’ll all die here.”

His tone sounded too absolute, and one of the Huo family members couldn't help but rub his arms. "Could it be that what Huo Xiaoyao said before she died was true?"

No one answered his question; Zhang Wuxun had already walked away into the distance through the gaps in the iron terracotta warriors.

It took a long time to reach the center of the shelf where the iron figures were placed. There was a large space there, but nothing was placed there.

Looking outwards from the center, it is clear that all the stands holding the iron figures are arranged radially outwards from this point, forming a complete set of the Fuxi Sixty-Four Hexagrams.

This floor, like the one below, also has four massive double-eaved golden pillars supporting the ceiling.

Judging from the previous model of Zhangjia Ancient Building, the Zhangjia Building built by Yangshi Lei only had seven floors. Below the seventh floor, there are the original ruins of the ancient building. The floor they mistakenly entered should be the first floor of the earliest Zhangjia Building.

In other words, there are likely many more secrets buried beneath the volcanic rock, some unknown depths beneath their feet.

The higher you go, the farther away you get.

Happy Birthday, Little Third Master! — A sudden clap of thunder heralds an extraordinary destiny; may you live in peace and tranquility year after year in the mountains.

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(End of this chapter)