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

Chapter 379 The Funeral of the White Light
"When your consciousness leaves your body, your soul enters another dimension of the world, where you can observe the world from a critical perspective, like an observer."

“I saw the process, the life processes of everyone around me.”

"You can think of it like making a movie, where the script is written in advance, and everyone follows the script's flow. Our lives are confined to such a script."

"At first I didn't believe it, thinking it was a hallucination I had before I died."

"But later I discovered that what I saw in the sacrifice was real."

“I have tried to change this process many times. Logically speaking, according to the butterfly effect, even if I make a slight tug and disrupt the trajectory, the butterfly's wings will change the subsequent series of events.”

“But the reality is not that simple.” Zhang Wuxun’s expression gradually became serious. “It’s no use. I’ve found it’s no use.”

“Whenever I disrupt a plot point, an invisible hand will manipulate everything in the subsequent development. The point that I disrupted will unknowingly return to its original track. I will temporarily call this power ‘it’.”

"In my speculation, this 'it' has many similarities to the 'it' that Chen Wenjin mentioned, and 'it' may be related to the bronze door on the snow mountain."

“After leaving the Heavenly Palace on the Clouds, I have been trying to find the power that was monitoring me. Later, in the Snake Swamp, I captured a puppet that resembled ‘It’, but the puppet was very weak. It was just a monitor. The real ‘It’ that was controlling all of this never showed itself from beginning to end.”

"Based on what Chen Wenjin said in the Snake Swamp, and some things I found out later, I deduced that the biggest puppet controlled by 'it' is a deeply hidden force with its subordinates all over the country. The Nine Gates have now been completely infiltrated by this force."

"That's the tenth family hidden behind the Nine Gates. They were behind the biggest tomb raiding operation, the underwater tomb archaeological team's accident, A Ning's death, and Chen Wenjin and his team becoming the failed experiment. They were behind all of these things."

"The funeral procession back then was not their ultimate goal; they just wanted to find the secret of the Zhang Family Ancient Building through the funeral procession."

"It has always been this force that has been using Huo Ling's information to coerce Huo Xiangu. It was also expected that Huo Xiangu would seek cooperation with us after learning about Xiao Ge's identity."

"I wanted to know how it all ended, so during the two weeks I disappeared after leaving the snake swamp, I went to the Qinling Mountains again, intending to make another sacrifice. As I wished, I learned the ending, but the ending was not good."

"The already declining Nine Gates will perish even faster because of this ending, which is one of the reasons why 'it' prevented me from changing the trajectory."

"In order to change that outcome, I need to rely on 'its' power. I can sense that this power has been infiltrated into the Huo family's ranks, but I can't be sure which one person or group it is."

"So I kept these two videos in advance. If the plan goes smoothly, I might get away unscathed. If it doesn't, then I will pay the price for my actions."

"I can't guess what my final fate will be, but I guess it won't be much better."

"If I really do die in the Zhang Family Ancient Building in the end, it's not such an unacceptable ending, after all, the ancient building is destined to be my final resting place."

Zhang Wuxun smiled with relief, and finally, through the lens, he saw exactly where Xiao Ge was standing. "Zhang Qiling, when you come back, if you can find my remains, please make me a tezuka and hang it in a nice place."

"Hey, I've prepared the box in advance." Zhang Wuxun shook the white wooden carved box in his hand, lined it with a layer of white velvet, and then took out a thick stack of letters from the drawer, put them in the box and put them away.

"Here are some clues and follow-up plans, which I have written in encrypted text on the letter. But Wu Xie, you will definitely be able to decipher them."

"Also, I've prepared the wedding gifts for Fatty and Panzi in advance. They're in the safe in my room. There are also some of my shares and assets inside, all in document bags. You just need to distribute them according to my will and sign it."

"Finally... give me a funeral, right here on this mountain, hang lots of white paper lanterns, as... a final farewell."

"I've never left a will before, so the process is a bit unfamiliar. Please forgive me." Zhang Wuxun chuckled with a sigh. "Farewell forever sounds too harsh, so let's just say goodbye."

"Hey buddy, naive, Fatty—"

"Bye now--"

The video playback ended, and the screen gradually went dark.

No one spoke; they were all in extreme distress.

The fat man squatted on the ground, covered his face, and cried out.

Hearing the fat man's wailing, Wu Xiaoxie felt like he couldn't stand up. He felt like the whole space around him was spinning, and the long-lost dizziness came over him. The sadness he had been deliberately suppressing for the past few days also rushed over like a burst dam, and his hands began to tremble uncontrollably.

Perhaps because he was so heartbroken, he found himself unable to cry.

"How could this be..." Wu Xiaoxie's legs went weak, and he uncontrollably staggered backward. Someone steadied him from behind, and he slowly turned his head, his dazed eyes finally focusing. "Brother, Muyu is dead, Muyu is really dead..."

The young man stared at him quietly, and Wu Xiaoxie couldn't see any emotion in his dark pupils.

"Zhang Qiling! Muyu is dead!" Wu Xiaoxie shouted uncontrollably, "Did you hear that? He's dead! He'll never come back!"

The young man let go of his hand, turned around and left the tent. He walked very fast, like a gust of wind, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

With a thud, Wu Xiaoxie could no longer hold on and sat down on the ground, leaning against the table leg and tightly hugging his head.

Xie Yuchen stood silently by, watching the two people on the verge of collapse. He could understand their emotions, but he couldn't truly empathize with them. In this situation, any comfort would be pale and powerless.

He turned and left the tent, glanced in the direction the young man had gone, and whispered to his men to guard the place before going to handle other matters.

The young man wandered aimlessly. He didn't know where he was going; he just didn't want to stay in that oppressive, suffocating space.

Unbeknownst to him, he had walked to the back of the mountain, where there was a tree, an old pine tree.

There were three mats made of woven grass under the tree. The heavy rain hadn't washed them away, perhaps because the huge canopy of the tree protected them.

Two hunters' dogs came running over and circled the young man's legs. When the young man ignored them, they ran to the tree and carried the three damp grass balls to a sunny spot. Then they lay down and fell fast asleep.

The young man stared quietly for a long time before looking up at the tree canopy above, only to find that only three of the small red rope tags that had been hanging on the branches above the grass mat remained.

What about the other one?

He was getting anxious, so he immediately climbed up the tree and searched carefully.

I stayed until it was almost dark, when the setting sun hung between the two mountains, its afterglow shining obliquely. Most of the pine tree canopy was bathed in a warm yellow halo. The light pierced through the gaps in the needles between the treetops, through the evening mist, and fell to the ground, forming one small golden spot after another. When a gentle breeze blew, the light spots danced playfully.

From a distance, the entire tree appears to be enveloped in a halo of light.

When Wu Xiaoxie and his companion arrived, they saw Xiao Ge sitting in the misty halo of the Buddha statue. The light was coming from behind, so they couldn't see the expression on Xiao Ge's face.

The two walked under the tree canopy, and the rustling sound of their footsteps on the dry needles woke the young man up.

Seeing the two people under the tree, the young man remained silent, clutching something tightly in his hand. He slowly stood up from the branch and reached down to take down the other three small red rope tags hanging there.

Before Wu Xiaoxie and his companion could react, Xiao Ge was already standing in front of them.

After a long silence, the young man suddenly handed a small card to Wu Xiaoxie.

Wu Xiaoxie took it and saw a line of words engraved on it: "Where time flows gently, every step is peaceful, and life remains evergreen year after year."

A moment of daze flashed through his mind, and he seemed to see a scorching afternoon, with the fat man hiding behind a tree, making a sweet phone call, while Muyu and Xiaoge sat under the tree enjoying the shade.

The young man held a large bowl of mung bean soup in his hands, seemingly lost in thought, or perhaps watching the tiny wood shavings falling like golden dust from the wooden fish.

A gentle breeze blew by, and tiny shards of light danced into the young man's eyes, which were clear and peaceful.

I don't know when I came to my senses. Occasionally, I heard a dog barking in the distance. A thin mist swirled up from the valley, and the verdant mountains in the distance looked like shadows in the mist. Crows and sparrows returning home at dusk flitted about on the mountaintops and treetops, their calls carrying far.

The moonlight was hazy, and a light drizzle lingered.

The young man still had three small cards in his hand. He returned the fat man's card to him, stared at the remaining two, straightened the tassels hanging from them, and then put them in his pocket.

The fat man took a deep breath and said softly, "It's raining again. Let's go back. We still need to fold lanterns for the wooden fish and send it off on its final journey."

﹉﹉﹉﹉
Inside the tent, Xie Yuchen specially arranged for someone to hang up warm-colored lights.

Wu Xiaoxie and his friends stayed up all night, using the bamboo they had cut in the rain to whittle down the fine, soft bamboo strips, which they then layered together to weave small bamboo lanterns about the size of basketballs. Finally, they covered the lanterns with Xuan paper, and the warm white light shone through the misty white paper, creating a hazy and soft glow.

All the men present wore black armbands with the word "Respect" written in white on them.

The old pine tree and almost all the trees within a kilometer radius were decorated with white lanterns. According to the arrangement of the four elements in feng shui, Wu Xiaoxie and his two companions hung them up themselves, stacking and hanging the lanterns, which took five days.

Under the stars and moon, the warm lamps that are lit up are like millions of stars with candlelight in the forest, and countless streams of light compete to fall here.

White lamps are easily illusory, gods and Buddhas dance together.

A thousand bells rang out, ten thousand snowflakes floated on the mountain.

As the night passed, only the top of the old tree remained, at its highest point, where a lamp still shone.

That was the lamp that the young man lit for the wooden fish.

The lights flickered; going out was not their intention. The fading glow would eventually go where it was meant to go.

﹉﹉﹉﹉
The morning after the funeral.

Wu Xiaoxie didn't sleep all night. His eyelids were heavy, but his mind was unusually clear. Just as he was about to fall asleep, a loud bang would wake him up.

He knew that the explosion was heard after he and Fatty had pulled Panzi out of the water and were about to return to the pool.

He didn't know how the explosion was caused, only that the entire cave was collapsing and countless rocks were falling down, instantly engulfing the cave.

They could only run, keep running forward, sprinting all the way.

Finally, they saw light ahead and rushed out.

He didn't want to recall what happened after that; every time he thought about it, his heart would ache as if it were being stabbed with needles.

Gradually, he hid that memory away, yet it kept recurring in his consciousness every night in his dreams.

In his dream, the wooden fish said something to him before turning around for the last time, but his figure was almost completely hidden in the mist, and he couldn't hear it at all.

Startled awake once again, Wu Xiaoxie heard that it seemed to be raining outside again. He turned over irritably, only to find a dark figure standing beside his bed.

He was instantly jolted awake, his mind went blank. His first thought was that the bastard with slumped shoulders was about to touch him and kill him. His second thought was to pull out the dagger from under his pillow and stab the bastard like a hedgehog.

The brain says, "Do as I say."

My body is saying, "No, no, I can't react."

So Wu Xiaoxie stuck his right hand under the pillow, and before he could even get out of bed, his left leg was already reaching out to hook his shoe on the floor.

This behavior led him to finally grab the dagger, slide off the bed in a spectacular fashion, and kneel down on his knees.

The shadowy figure remained eerily silent.

A whispered sigh seemed to come from outside the tent: "My God."

Even though the voice was kept very low, Wu Xiaoxie could still tell that it was Fatty's voice. Xiao Hua's men wouldn't be so weak as to let just anyone sneak in, so this dark figure in front of him... damn it, it's Xiao Ge!

Wu Xiaoxie looked up and, although the light was behind him, it was indeed Xiao Ge.

However, the guy was carrying a black backpack, which blended into his clothes in the shadows against the light, making him almost unrecognizable at first glance.

Wu Xiaoxie got up from the ground, brushed the dirt off his trousers, put the dagger back into the buckle behind his belt, and asked, "Brother, what are you doing?"

The young man looked at him and said calmly, "It's almost over."

"What?" Wu Xiaoxie didn't understand what he meant.

"I need to finish the final step of something," the young man said. "I don't have time."

Wu Xiaoxie felt a blast in his head. Before he could speak, Xiao Ge had already turned around and walked out of the tent, carrying his knife on his back.

Wu Xiaoxie staggered and hurriedly chased after him, but was stopped by the fat man standing by the tent. "Tianzhen, let him go. Our scheme is over, but his is not. We have no right to force Xiao Ge to live according to our ideas."

"Moreover, the wooden fish already knew."

Wu Xiaoxie stared blankly at Xiao Ge's receding figure. Because of the light rain and the thick fog in the morning, Xiao Ge's figure disappeared in the blink of an eye.

He found it hard to accept that the wooden fish was gone, and the young man was gone too. So this was the result of all his pursuit of the mystery.

Will he come back?

"He will come back. Muyu said he will come back, and he definitely will."

……

Thank you to [Qi Muyun], [Never Forget the Original Intention], [Book Friend 20210819180826587] and other big names for their rewards, sending love (PS: I will be adding some extra chapters in the next two days, and the Zhang Family Ancient Building will be completely finished tomorrow).

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(End of this chapter)