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

Chapter 368 King Miluotuo

Another explosion followed, the sound wave sweeping in. A lot of noise came from the video, drowning out Zhang Wuxun's voice. In the end, it even turned into the kind of ear-piercing high-decibel shriek coming from the broken microphone speaker.

Xie Yuchen frowned, paused the video for a few seconds, and then reopened it. The same ear-piercing sound was still playing, but Zhang Wuxun, who was recording the video, seemed completely unaware of anything amiss.

The video, which lasted only a few minutes, ended quickly, leaving everyone puzzled. What had it all said?

Xie Yuchen pondered for two seconds and then clicked on the last video.

This time, the footage was shot directly at Zhang Wuxun's face, with the stone mortuary where they were currently staying in the background.

Zhang Wuxun stood in front of a wooden bed with the number "279" on it, holding his phone in one hand, and said in a deep voice, "I don't have much time left. Xie Yuchen, Pan Zi, after you take the old lady's body out, you must cremate it as soon as possible, and no one can see her cremation."

"Next, I need to find Wu Xie and the others. I left a small bottle of my blood in that bag. You can share it and apply it to yourselves to prevent the species that coexist with Miluotuo in the jade vein."

"In four hours, the entire jade vein in the mountain will change. You must find a new path within four hours. The original path is no longer passable. The new map is inside the small bag. You can see it by turning it over."

"Take Huo Xiangu's body and get out of here, otherwise you will be trapped here forever when the time comes."

"I've already cleared out the Miluotuo on the road leading out. Hurry up before they target you."

"...One last piece of advice: never even think about entering the Zhang Family Ancient Building, otherwise no matter where you hide, it will find you."

"Unless they vanish into thin air... things are about to change... that's it."

A buzzing electromagnetic sound mingled with his words, making the recording unclear. Before anyone could react to the last word, the video ended abruptly.

The atmosphere became somewhat tense. Xie Yuchen tried to determine the truthfulness of Zhang Wuxun's words. The clues were messy, and it was unclear who the "them" that Zhang Wuxun was trying to avoid was.
That high-level shadowy figure, Miluotuo? Or something else besides Miluotuo?

Devouring evolution? Could it be that the sudden decrease in the number of Miluotu within the mountain before the explosion meant they were eaten by the dark shadow?
Zhang Wuxun also revealed what frightened him the most: mind control.

Judging from his words, this mind control seems to be undetectable and impossible to defend against.

So how did they determine whether Zhang Wuxun had been controlled while recording these videos?

The first and last "it" in Zhang Wuxun's words, as can be seen from the subtle changes in his eyes, suggest that these two "it"s likely do not refer to the same concept.

The sudden electromagnetic sound seemed to be deliberately preventing Zhang Wuxun from speaking. In other words, Zhang Wuxun did not notice anything abnormal when recording the video, but when they reviewed it, a strange consciousness did not want Zhang Wuxun to reveal certain things, so they could not hear clearly.

"Boss..." Xie Sanduo was a little scared, looking around suspiciously, and stammered, "Should we continue?"

Before Xie Yuchen could speak, Pan Zi had already begun organizing his equipment.

Xie Yuchen frowned at him, "Aren't you planning to come out with us?"

Pan Zi nodded firmly and said, "I have to go find... Third Master and the others. Only when I'm sure he's out safely can I feel at ease."

“Zhang Wuxun has already gone to find them,” Xie Yuchen disagreed. “You also heard the message he left us: we only have four hours to evacuate. You can’t guarantee that you will be able to find Third Master. If you stay here, you will die.”

Pan Zi laughed freely, but the wrinkles on his face made his smile look a little bitter. "My life was given to me by Third Master. Wherever Third Master is, that's where I'll be."

He stood up, then suddenly remembered something. A tender look appeared in his eyes, which quickly turned to sadness, and his smile faded.

He took out a handkerchief embroidered with a deer from the inner pocket of his chest, opened it to look at a pair of pearl earrings wrapped inside, as if he wanted to imprint the image of the earrings deeply into his mind.

A moment later, he wrapped the earring back in his handkerchief and handed it to Xie Yuchen, whispering, "Master Hua, please keep this safe for me. If I am lucky enough to get out of here alive, I will ask you for it back. If this is destined to be a disaster, I will also trouble you to return it to someone for me. Just say... say that I, this rough old man, am not good enough for her, and let her live a good life from now on."

Xie Yuchen was silent for a moment, then took it and slowly asked, "What's her name?"

“Jiang Lu.” Pan Zi smiled, a hint of reluctance flashing across his face. “Her name is Jiang Lu, and she’s a doctor.”

Xie Yuchen put the handkerchief away, nodded, and patted Pan Zi hard on the shoulder. "Take care!"

Seeing this, the few Wu fellows that Pan Zi brought also packed their equipment and stood beside Pan Zi. "Brother Pan, we brothers will go with you."

"Stop messing around." Pan Zi scolded lightly. "Do you think you're the same as me? Don't you value your own lives? If you follow me and die, you won't even leave behind a son or daughter. What will your families do then? Listen to me and come out with Master Xie."

The men looked at each other, and after glancing at Pan Zi's expression, they had no choice but to agree. "Then, Master Pan, please be careful. We'll wait outside for you and Third Master to come back together."

"Go ahead." Pan Zi patted their shoulders calmly and slung his backpack over his shoulder.

Xie Yuchen gave him a copy of the map inside the small bag, along with the old map, and also gave him half of the detonators he had brought with him.

The two groups parted ways and went their separate ways.

Pan Zi walked along the passageway behind the stone hall. Xie Yuchen had someone bring Huo Xiangu's body, and led the people back out of the stone hall, back to the jade vein pit carved with Pixiu, and climbed up the cliff along the rope.

The jade vein above has changed, and two new channels have appeared on the side.

Xie Yuchen checked the route and quickly led his men into the jade vein.

From their current position, the closest point to the Qilin's neck is the Qilin's neck. This means that their final exit route will overlap with the error-tolerant route Zhang Wuxun and his group took after entering the sealed gate twice, but they won't have to go through the bell array.

This was a route that Zhang Wuxun had studied tattoos for a long time before devising. In fact, Zhang Wuxun initially planned to bombard the area from the neck to the shoulder, then pass through the center from the waist, all the way to the part near the right forelimb, and then circle around to the neck to meet up with Xie Yuchen and the others. At that time, Wu Xie and the others would also be able to reach the Ancient Tower.

However, while walking through the mountains, he discovered something strange about Miluotuo's actions in the jade veins that were close to the heart of the Qilin.

Some Miluotuo were driving away the lowest-ranking Miluotuo, pushing them closer to the heart, which is why Zhang Wuxun felt like he was being deliberately surrounded by Miluotuo.

By sheer chance, Zhang Wuxun arrived at the heart of the Qilin, where he witnessed the nightmare he had always feared most.

Miluo Tuo Wang—that was a very strange creature. Its form was unpredictable, like a flowing liquid. It could freeze itself in one state at any moment, and then spread out like a long magnetic tape in the next second, merging into the surrounding jade veins.

It was an enormous black shadow, so large that even one wall of the jade vein couldn't contain its shadow. Its limbs were incredibly long, more than twice the length of its central body. It looked like a human figure made up of many snakes as thick as buckets intertwined, or like a dancer in flowing robes and sleeves in a painting of court ladies.

When Zhang Wuxun saw it, it was eating.

Through the deep jade vein wall, Zhang Wuxun could clearly see its limbs stretching out, moving freely through the jade vein like an awl piercing a sponge, devouring more low-level Miluotuo within.

It eats Miluotuo, and it also eats people.

This special Miluo Tuo hunts by using a sound that is imperceptible to the human ear to control Miluo Tuo of the next lower rank. The lower-ranking Miluo Tuo are then responsible for driving the lower-ranking Miluo Tuo into a certain area.

There are also quite a few Miluotuo of the second rank, scattered throughout the jade veins.

Zhang Wuxun couldn't determine whether the Miluotuo King had a black-haired snake inside its body, even though it looked like a giant, moldy, hairy clump of seaweed.

Or perhaps the Miluotu that the Zhang family controlled and raised back then has lost control after many years of evolution and change. Through continuous devouring and evolution, it has developed a certain level of intelligence. Just like the food chain proposed by Elton, the Miluotu in the mountains has formed its own ecosystem.

Based on the current situation, there are three types of Miluotuo in the jade vein. One type has black-haired snakes inside its body and is raised by the Zhang family. This type of Miluotuo is widely dispersed and can travel to the very edge of the mountain.

The second type of Miluotuo is larger and less numerous than the first type, but it moves incredibly fast. It does not move by temperature, but by sound. Just like the Miluotuo that Wu Xiaoxie and Fatty saw in the quicksand trap under the moonstone mirror, it used its hearing to catch its prey.

Within the jade veins, they were also controlled by King Miluotuo using a unique sound that was imperceptible to the human ear.

The third type is the Miluotuo King, the ultimate mutated species, the highest level, and the absolute ruler of the jade vein.

He also discovered that the kelp worms he had previously seen hidden under the human-faced turtle were actually a type of creature that coexisted with Miluotuo in the jade vein, and they were key to Miluotuo's feeding.

It's like the symbiosis between the human-faced bird and the monkey in the mouth; the human-faced bird feeds on the monkey in the mouth, while the human-faced bird survives on the monkey's excrement.

Similarly, the mucus expelled by the soft-bodied creatures in the interlayers after feeding helps Miluotuo navigate through the jade veins and allows Miluotuo to survive.

He remembered that the Classic of Mountains and Seas recorded a kind of blue strange insect with a human face called the Corpse-Eating Salamander, which was born with corpse poison. Although it was called an insect, it actually looked more like a long-legged soft-bodied snake. Wherever there were large areas of corpses, there would be these Corpse-Eating Salamanders.

The green mollusc he had seen resembled a carrion salamander. Both were carcass scavengers, and after drying, they would turn into sheep droppings with human faces. Perhaps the side of them that crawled close to the ground naturally had a human face. He tentatively called the mollusc a carrion salamander.

Corpse-eating salamanders live in corpse poison and are not afraid of strong alkalis, but they are afraid of the blood of the Qilin, which is specifically associated with evil spirits related to corpses. Moreover, due to their slow movement, their hunting ability is almost zero. Therefore, they need the Miluotuo, which is afraid of strong alkalis but ignores the blood of the Qilin, as their shells. They rely on melting the jade veins of the Miluotuo itself to trap their prey in one place.

It is estimated that the Zhang family took advantage of this characteristic of the carnivorous salamanders to confidently remove some of them to clean up the excess corpses in the ancient building.

Realizing that the mountain had "come alive," Zhang Wuxun immediately retreated to a place far away from King Miluotuo, intending to find a new route for Xie Yuchen and the others in the Qilin Map so that they could evacuate from here immediately.

During the process of clearing the route, he discovered the stone palace. After leaving clues inside, he returned to the heart of the Qilin and lingered on the edge of the Miluotuo King's activities, using heat to attract many Miluotuo to facilitate its hunting activities and temporarily restrain it in that area.

After parting ways with Xie Yuchen and the others, Pan Zi continued forward along the passageway.

After walking two or three hundred meters, the original passageway turned into a crack in the mountain. The crack sloped downwards and was gentle. There were traces on the rocks that had been eroded by water for a long time. It looked like a natural waterway.

The surface of the stone is very dry, and it looks like no water has flowed through here for at least a hundred years.

There are also traces of human repairs in the rock crevice waterway, and remnants of wood that have rotted after being soaked in water.

After much thought, Pan Zi thought that this was very likely the way the Zhang family used to transport the corpses from the stone hall to the ancient building. Therefore, there was an 80% chance that the end of this road led directly to the ancient building.

Pan Zi looked at the two maps that Xie Yuchen had given him. The new map only marked the route Xie Yuchen and his group took to escape, and it was not of much reference value.

He unfolded the old map again and found that the waterway had turned into a jade vein again, which meant that he would have to fight this tough battle alone.

﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉

Back in time.

After leaving Huo Xiangu's body behind, Zhang Wuxun returned to the previous location, where he spent two hours moving around and delaying before planting the final bomb.

Judging that Xie Yuchen and the others would be leaving soon, he followed the jade vein toward the neck of the Qilin, using the same method as before: using the heat generated by the explosion to lure away Miluotuo from the crevice.

It's not just attracting those inferior Miluotuo, but also because a place where a large number of Miluotuo gathers is likely to attract the Miluotuo king who only wants to eat.

This will minimize the chances of Xie Yuchen and Wu Xiaoxie encountering danger.

Goodnight, little ones~
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(End of this chapter)