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

Chapter 373 Fat Nicholas
Wu Xiaoxie mustered up her courage and was about to go over to take a look when the fat man stopped her, saying, "Don't move yet, let me confirm it before you look."

He was afraid that if it were true, Tianzhen would also go crazy, and then everything would be completely ruined.

Wu Xiaoxie didn't dare to move anymore, standing frozen in place. Although his expression was hidden by the gas mask, his eyes looked like he was about to cry.

The fat man carefully lifted the gas mask off the young man's face, checked his breathing, and, as if afraid it was just his imagination, even held his own breath.

Once he could feel a faint, cool sensation on his fingertips, he exhaled, coughed lightly twice, and turned to chuckle and mutter, "Damn, he really fell asleep. He scared me half to death."

Wu Xiaoxie quickly went over and looked through the gap. His tense shoulders immediately relaxed, and he felt that his legs were a little unresponsive. He wanted to sit down on the ground to rest for a while.

Hearing a soft chuckle, she turned to look at Zhang Wuxun and found him standing casually to the side with a mischievous and teasing smile. She immediately gritted her teeth in anger and silently cursed him with a laugh, "Damn it, you did that on purpose, you almost scared me to death."

Come to think of it, he is Brother Zhang, the patriarch of the tomb raiding world. In Wu Xiaoxie's eyes, his existence is a miracle in itself. In his understanding, there is no person or thing more miraculous than Zhang Qiling himself.

If even someone as taciturn as him were to disappear, he would surely feel utterly desperate, and the world would truly become incredibly real and cruel.

Perhaps knowing that Muyu was following them, he and Fatty never considered what would happen if they really died in Zhang Family Ancient Building. How could Muyu possibly let Xiao Ge get into trouble? It was simply impossible.

The existence of Muyu is more like a mystery. Whether it is his superpower-like treasure chest, his rare healing ability, or his skills as a member of the Zhang family, from the very first encounter, he gives the impression of being powerful, a combination of gentleness and eccentricity.

Sometimes Wu Xiaoxie felt that his eyes contained a lot of things, too many and too complicated to distinguish, but more often his eyes were indifferent, as calm as a glacier, as if an invisible mist was covering his eyes, making it impossible for people to see through him. Just standing there quietly, you felt that his shadow would disappear in the next second.

But as soon as he turned around, his gaze would always be fixed on them, and he would be pulled from the distant horizon into their presence.

The familiar wooden fish was back; it would laugh, it would make a fuss, it would frown when the fat man carelessly tossed his dirty clothes onto the sofa, it would complain for a while before throwing them into the washing machine and reminding the fat man to remember to hang them up later.

She would silently count how many cigarettes were missing from his cigarette pack, then confiscate his lighter, go out for a walk, and come back to leave a box of chewing gum on his desk.

He carefully studies all kinds of blood-nourishing recipes. Although the fat guy usually ends up cooking, Muyu knows how to pick out medicinal herbs. The guy who adds angelica to the white-cut chicken always eats it very quickly.

Perhaps the existence of the Zhang family is a mystery in itself. Once anything miraculous happens to them, you will suddenly realize that it is only natural.

Suddenly, someone patted him on the shoulder. Wu Xiaoxie turned around and saw that Zhang Wuxun had put on his gas mask again, steadily carrying Xiao Ge on his back. He glanced back at them and then walked into a hidden door that had been opened in the wall.

The fat man packed the rest of the items into his backpack, tossed one to Wu Xiaoxie, slung the other over his own back, put his arm around Wu Xiaoxie's shoulder, and called out with a laugh, "Tianzhen, let's go too."

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Emerging from the dark room, Wu Xiaoxie looked up and asked them, "Should we continue upwards? There should be all sorts of strange things up there."

"Go my ass." The fat man slapped him. "We came in to rescue people. Now that we've found them, why don't we hurry up and get out of here? Even if there were a Kitty cat wearing emerald and gemstone overalls and singing the Song of Heroes, I would never go up there."

As we all know, Kitty the cat doesn't have a mouth.

“There’s nothing much to see up there,” Zhang Wuxun said. “It’s just coffins and more coffins. The real secret is at the bottom, and we don’t have time to stay here. The alkaline gas can come anytime soon. Don’t forget there’s a very strange Miluo Tuo here, you’ve seen it before.”

Upon hearing this, Wu Xiaoxie and his companion immediately recalled the large, dark, hairy monster they had seen before, and felt a chill run down their spines. Without further delay, the three of them led Xiao Ge down the hidden staircase on the shady side to the seventh floor.

Emerging from the half-finished Qilin stone statue, Wu Xiaoxie shone his lamp around and noticed that the stone hall walls were very plain. He wondered, "This doesn't seem to be the place we came in from before."

As Zhang Wuxun carried Xiao Ge toward the hidden door, he explained, "This is the shady side of this burial building. You can think of it as the back of a mirror. You can't get out through the main entrance of the ancient building. Even without that giant Miluo Tuo, the quicksand layer would trap us."

"This is the route my brother and I took when we brought the Huo family in. There's a shortcut out here."

Wu Xiaoxie nodded. "No wonder Fatty and I didn't see any footprints you left in the main hall. So, where should we go now?"

“Here.” Zhang Wuxun stood in front of a stone slab in the corner and said softly, “Move this aside, there’s a secret passage underneath.”

There were iron rings cast onto both ends of the stone slab. Wu Xiaoxie and Fatty each took one side and lifted it up without much effort, then put it aside.

Shining the flashlight inside, you can see two rows of exposed stone bricks on the left and right sides of the inner wall of the stone path, which are very convenient to step on.

Zhang Wuxun transferred Xiao Ge to Wu Xiaoxie's back, then quickly climbed into the cave. After walking a few steps down, he told Wu Xiaoxie to put Xiao Ge down, saying, "I'll catch him down here."

"Okay." Wu Xiaoxie did as he was told, and with the fat man's help, carefully moved Xiao Ge into the cave.

Zhang Wuxun placed one stone brick on each foot, reached out to help the young man down, then grabbed one stone brick with one hand to steady himself, and put his other arm around the young man's waist, leading him slowly down.

The stone path wasn't long, only about one story high. Soon they reached the bottom, where a hidden door was about half a person's height. Zhang Wuxun looked up and said something to Wu Xiaoxie and the other person who were holding up a lamp. Then he led Xiao Ge out through the door and waited for them outside.

Wu Xiaoxie and his companion quickly got down and squeezed through the flipped-open hidden door.

After they came out, Zhang Wuxun touched one of the gilded Pixiu pillars and then tapped out the sequence "one-eighteen, two-nine, three-nine".

This time, the mechanism on the pillars didn't open the octagonal corridor building above, but rather a narrow stone path leading downwards, just large enough for the fat man to pass through. Inside, there were also simply constructed steps with a gentle slope.

"Let's go." Zhang Wuxun turned around and carried Xiao Ge on his back again, walking into the stone path. Wu Xiaoxie and the other person quickly followed. They arrived at a small underground palace built of stones.

"Is this also part of the Zhang Family Ancient Building?" the fat man asked.

Zhang Wuxun nodded. "There are several more underground palaces like this around the base of the wooden tombs built later above. Be careful. Neither Xiao Ge nor I have been to this place before." "Aren't we going back the way you and Xiao Ge walked?" Wu Xiaoxie asked, puzzled.

“No,” Zhang Wuxun explained. “That path is quite far, and the exit is in the cave that trapped us before. Going out would be the same as not going out at all. I discovered there was another path leading to the back door when I saw the model of the ancient building.”

The fat man chuckled and teased, "To be honest, your Zhang family's ancestral graves are the most complicated I've ever seen in all my years of traveling around the country."

Wu Xiaoxie couldn't help but sigh, "I estimate that what we've seen is less than one-tenth of what Zhangjialou has."

Zhang Wuxun smiled faintly and walked straight ahead without saying a word.

The only exit ahead was a tightly closed stone door. Fatty immediately recognized it as a tomb entrance and muttered, "This is a tomb entrance, you bastard! Wooden Fish, are you going to contribute to my tomb-raiding career?"

Zhang Wuxun rolled his eyes. "Who says there has to be a coffin behind the tomb door? This is just a simple door. Hurry up and open it. I saw the self-locking nail hanging on your backpack."

The fat man chuckled and rubbed his hands together. He took off his backpack and let Wu Xiaoxie carry it for him. He then stood in front of the tomb door and inserted the nail into the gap to fasten it to the self-locking stone inside.

Then, he inhaled, lowered his shoulders, shouted, and leaned forward with all his might. Using his own weight and the strength of his arms, he pushed inward, and the stone door loosened slightly.

Wu Xiaoxie hurriedly went over, lifted the door, and pushed it forward. The door opened a crack, revealing a dark stone path behind it.

"Not bad, Fatty." Wu Xiaoxie smiled and gave Fatty a thumbs up. "As expected of the successor of the Northern School of Tomb Raiders, you actually have such a skill. You're so proficient. I've never seen you use this before."

The fat man raised his eyebrows smugly, and then sighed dramatically, "I've been hanging around with you guys for the past few years, and damn it, I've never been to a proper fight. The few times I have, I've been surrounded by top-tier experts like Brother Muyu. Even though I have the skills, I have no chance to use them. I haven't had any opportunity to practice at all, and my great talent has been wasted."

"You know, before I met you guys, I was lucky to come across so many imperial tombs. I was already lucky to find a few yellow earth pits to dig out."

Wu Xiaoxie laughed, "So you should thank us for broadening your horizons?"

"Nikolai F. Grovesky said that opportunity and danger go hand in hand, and opportunity not only creates thieves, but also great tomb raiders."

The fat man chuckled and kept peering through the crack in the door while holding up the lamp. "The tomb passage, damn it, isn't this more familiar than seeing the alleyway in front of my own house?"

Although it's nonsense, it's actually quite philosophical.

Entering through the tomb gate and walking along the tomb passage, unlike the usual tomb passages, this one was very monotonous. If it weren't for the fact that they were inside the ancient building, they would have thought they were still walking on the stone path in the mountain.

Although this place is old, its advantage lies in its clean air, allowing them to breathe freely here.

The fat man took off his gas mask, his face filled with a mixture of happiness and excitement. After spinning around twice, he made a gesture as if his partner was bowing and leaving at the end of a tango dance.

Unfortunately, his flirtatious glances were wasted on thin air. Zhang Wuxun had already led Xiao Ge and Wu Xiaoxie forward and didn't even see his standard movements.

The fat man clicked his tongue, "You really don't know how to appreciate things. I'll dance for my sister later." After saying that, he quickly jogged after him.

The tomb passage was as simple as it could be. There were no mechanisms, not even a single coffin nail. The fat man confidently asserted that it was because the tomb raiders disguised as an archaeological team hadn't yet visited the place.

Zhang Wuxun didn't shatter his small dream; remaining silent was the right thing to do.

As they neared the end of the more than 100-meter-long tomb passage, the fat man seemed to finally realize what was happening. Looking left and right, he exclaimed in disbelief, "Where's the coffin? Where's my huge coffin?"

Wu Xiaoxie shook his head sympathetically, "Didn't Muyu already say that this is just a secret passage?"

The fat man was completely dejected. It was like when he went home and found that the walls of several thatched houses in his hometown had been painted with big "demolish" characters. He was overjoyed and was looking forward to receiving the demolition compensation and saying goodbye to the thatched houses happily. But at the last minute, he found out that the big red characters were actually drawn by a few troublemakers. The place that was really going to be demolished was the neighbor's house. You can imagine how depressed and frustrated he felt.

"Alright, stop being so down. Even if there are lots of good stuff here, you'll still need to be alive to take it all."

Zhang Wuxun stuffed several jade bracelets and pendants that the Huo family had previously taken from Zhang Ruitong's coffin into the hands of Fatty and Wu Xiaoxie.

Upon seeing the quality of the jade artifacts, the fat man's jaw dropped in astonishment. "Holy crap, where did you get all of this?"

Zhang Wuxun said in a calm tone, "Zhang Ruitong's coffin."

Upon hearing this, the fat man chuckled and said, "You unfilial grandson, according to seniority, he is your distant great-grandfather."

Zhang Wuxun glared at him, "That's your great-grandfather, don't associate me with that lineage."

Realizing that Zhang Wuxun was a little unhappy, the fat man immediately contradicted himself and said, "I was thinking the same thing. That way, wouldn't the little brother be my grandfather? With such a powerful grandfather, an equally powerful little cousin, and the super invincible Old Man Baoxue, tsk tsk tsk, I bet I could laugh myself awake in my sleep."

"Dream on." Zhang Wuxun rolled his eyes and urged, "Alright, stop talking nonsense and get out of here quickly."

After exiting the tomb passage, there is a spacious stone chamber behind you. When the light from a flashlight shines on it, you can see many wooden boxes piled up in the corner. If you don't look closely, you might mistake them for short coffins.

Among these boxes was a special coffin, entirely black, and much longer than a typical coffin.

Many modern tools were scattered haphazardly beside the coffin, covered in rust, clearly having been left there for a long time.

Thank you so much to [the adorable, perpetually hungry] for the generous donation! Sending you love and goodnight~
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(End of this chapter)