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

Chapter 382 Just like an old friend
The man with slumped shoulders gestured to Zhang Wuxun to indicate that he was harmless. He then took out a few black pills from the animal skin bag he was carrying, lit them, and threw them at Zhang Wuxun's feet. A strange and exaggerated smell instantly filled Zhang Wuxun's nostrils.

After the snake handler died, all the snakes, which had been trained since birth, turned into a leaderless swarm of long worms.

Even beasts will turn on their masters one day, and now those snakes are already instinctively and habitually crawling into Wang Xiaoli's ruptured brain.

There are only a few truly adult black-haired snakes; the other dozen or so are semi-adults, and the remaining white snakes are not a threat.

Under the fumes of the snakebite medicine, the snakes quickly moved away from Zhang Wuxun's location.

The finger bones of the slumped shoulder made a slight knocking sound, and the large black-haired snakes immediately began to entangle and tear at each other.

He easily dealt with the adult black-haired snakes that had burrowed into the red and white brain matter in just a few moves. He sprinkled the remaining small snakes with medicinal wine and burned them along with Wang Xiaoli's corpse.

Even on his deathbed, Wang Xiaoli still wore that arrogant expression unique to the Wang family, an expression that suggested he was in control of everything.

He probably thought that the slumped-shouldered man, abandoned by the Zhang family, could really be of use to the Wang family. No wonder he was so confident in persuading Zhang Wuxun to join them.

The stench of burning corpses filled the cramped space. Zhang Wuxun dragged his crippled leg and silently retreated to the corner.

She glanced at him indifferently from her slumped shoulders, her expression hidden by the cloth covering half of her face.

His voice sounded hoarse, as if his throat was filled with sandpaper. "Don't worry, I won't kill you. Saving you this time is also repaying your life."

A question mark slowly rose on Zhang Wuxun's forehead, but he did not sense any killing intent from the slumped shoulder.

In his current state of severe injury and weakness, he wouldn't last more than three moves against the man with the collapsed shoulder.

The slumped-shoulder man stared at Zhang Wuxun's pale face for a moment, then said without much disappointment, "Looks like you really don't remember either."

Zhang Wuxun was very surprised. The slumped shoulders didn't seem like he was lying, so... he sat up in shock while on his deathbed and realized that the person he had met was himself?

The man with slumped shoulders pulled a first-aid kit from a leather pouch and tossed it into Zhang Wuxun's arms, saying, "Take care of it yourself."

Zhang Wuxun rummaged through the items and found surgical tools such as scalpels and suture forceps, which he guessed were taken from the bodies of Jude Kao's dead subordinates.

He glanced at the gun lying beside his slumped shoulders. In this dim light, even a broken hunting rifle could kill with a single shot. He asked suspiciously, "You didn't fire that shot at me, did you?"

"No." The slumped-shouldered man sneered, "If it were my bullet, it would be aimed at your head."

Zhang Wuxun gave an "oh," wiped the dirt off his face, and talked to him to distract him while stitching up his reopened wound. The superficial femoral artery that the bullet had graze had been healed by the energy absorbed from the bronze mask.

From another perspective, Wang Ergou did do a good deed.

"I thought you were in cahoots with him, after all, when the lynx herd ambushed us in the back mountains, he was most likely the one who broke the camp's lights."

“They did find me.” He sat by the fire with slumped shoulders, took out two compressed biscuits and toasted them. “So they’re destined not to leave here either.”

Zhang Wuxun naturally understood his meaning; in the original story, he had even killed Yun Cai, who only knew a little bit of the secret.

He considered his words carefully, "Have we met before?"

“You were the one who rescued me from the ancient building back then,” the hunched-over man said frankly. “You killed the other survivors, then knocked me unconscious and took me outside. That’s when Panma found me.”

"I don't remember what you look like, but I do remember the tattoos on your face and your hair."

Upon hearing him mention hair, Zhang Wuxun froze, instinctively reaching for his head only to find his hand covered in white stubble. He was so shocked he almost jumped up. "Holy crap, where did you guys put my hair?"

"When I rescued you, your hair was too long and got tangled in those bells. You would have died if I hadn't cut it off." The man with the sloping shoulders didn't understand why he was reacting so strongly, looking like the sky was falling.

However, it is indeed rare for members of the Zhang family to have white hair.

Even those centenarians who lived to be over three hundred years old only had gray hair at most.

"You look like you're quite old," he remarked.

Zhang Wuxun rolled his eyes, rummaged through Wang Xiaoli's backpack which was standing to the side, pulled out a piece of clothing and put it on, and said irritably, "You're the older one. I've been like this since I was a child. It will only turn into normal black when I grow up."

The man with slumped shoulders looked surprised. "Why?"

"Who knows?" Zhang Wuxun sidled up to the fire, took a piece of the heated compressed biscuit, and ate it while warming himself by the fire. "Which member of the Zhang family doesn't have a few strange quirks?"

“The Zhang family has many branches.” The slumped-shouldered man had no intention of pressing him further. “I don’t know which branch of the Zhang family you belong to, after all, I’ve never seen that kind of red tattoo on any other Zhang family member under Zhang Qishan.”

He was indeed a member of the Zhang family of the Qiongqi lineage, but he had been a spy in his early years and only returned when Zhang Qishan was searching for Zhang Qiling.

"However, you have a Qilin. The Wang family said your bloodline is quite special. There are probably not many Zhang family members like you who are strong hybrids who surpass ordinary purebloods these days."

Zhang Wuxun raised an eyebrow and asked him, "When did you see my other tattoo?"

"By the lake, that night in the tent, I was planning to kill you, but I happened to see the tattoo on your face and froze for two seconds. In that short time, another member of the Zhang family carrying a knife had already spotted me." The slumped-shoulder man subconsciously touched the spot where two fingers on his right hand were missing.

Zhang Wuxun suddenly remembered a suspicious point he had previously suspected: "Did you cut off the hands of those Zhang family members who sank to the bottom of the lake?"

He nodded, his shoulders slumped. "Zhang Qiling's duty is to escort the graves home."

Zhang Wuxun gave a cryptic smile.

With a slumped shoulder and a hint of displeasure, he said, "Even if there is a new Zhang Qiling now, I am still the Zhang Qiling I once was."

Zhang Wuxun made a pause gesture, not wanting to argue with him about these old, trivial matters.

He had figured out the truth of the matter. That is to say, more than 20 years ago, after Zhang Menyu disappeared in Changbai Mountain, he returned to Zhangjia Ancient Building again. He may have been secretly monitoring the archaeological team.

Even if Master Jie Jiu doesn't intervene, Zhang Menyu will find his own way to stop the funeral procession.

When the archaeological team ran into trouble, the "fake Zhang Qiling" was abandoned by the team. Perhaps out of consideration for being a member of the Zhang family, Zhang Menyu saved the collapsed shoulder. Among the survivors killed by Zhang Menyu, there must have been traces of the Wang family. That's why there was so much blood inside the tower of the Yao village at the bottom of the lake.

The Tibetan sepak dervish beads at the bottom of the lake and the bronze fox mask in the small stone coffin were clues left by Zhang Menyu at that time.

He didn't explain that he and Zhang Menyu were not the same person. It seemed that even if he explained, the slumped shoulders wouldn't believe him, so he just let him misunderstand.

Zhang Wu looked around and found that the stone path walls were very uneven, the stone was rough and inconsistent, and there were even hard shells of dry grass mixed with mud in the gaps between the stones, as if someone had built it later. So he asked, "Where is this place? Have we left the ancient building?"

“No,” said the slumped-shoulder man. “The exit has been destroyed. We can only get out of the mountains. This is a temporary shelter that I built myself little by little with stones and alkali mud in the volcanic rocks next to the ancient building over the years when I was traversing the mountains.”

"You're quite impressive," Zhang Wuxun praised sincerely, then asked him, "Is there any water? I'm choking."

The man with slumped shoulders handed him the animal-skin water bag. “I’ll only stay here for one day. If you can’t keep up before the next alkaline gas arrives, I’ll abandon you.”

Zhang Wuxun was not surprised at all by what he said. They were not related by blood, and it was already very kind of him to save his life. "You want to stay on this mountain forever? 'It' has already found you."

"I will make sure 'it' can't find me." The slumped-shoulder man had this confidence.

Indeed, if it weren't for all of them flocking to Banna, the man with the hunchback would probably have stayed hidden until he died of old age.

"You kept so many snakes in the cellar before. Were all those snakes provided by you?" Zhang Wu asked him.

Zhang Wuxun didn't know much about snake control, but it was said that snakes had very dull hearing, but were extremely sensitive to the frequency of friction and vibration of bones.

Snake handlers can use the vibrations generated by striking their teeth to control and command snakes to attack. Even the slightest vibrations from the jaw, the tiger's mouth, or any joint can give commands to a hidden snake.

This is also why snake handlers are difficult to guard against, because their movements are extremely subtle and completely different from the initial attack moves in a fight; you can't know when they will launch an attack.

He suddenly remembered that Huo Xiaoyao, who had turned into a black fly, had suddenly stood up like a zombie after Wang Xiaoli's teeth chattered, and made a gesture as if she was about to attack someone.

Just now, when Wang Xiaoli was controlling those small snakes, she also made a sound by rubbing their joints together.

It turns out that the Wang family's control over the black flying machine was actually based on snake control, which greatly reduced the mystery and provided new material for scientific research.

“You destroyed all my snakes. Those snakes were ones he pulled out of the bodies of lower-level Miluotuo,” said the man with the slumped shoulders.

"Oh, no wonder it's so easy for it to devour its master; it's because it hasn't been properly tamed yet."

With ample food, Zhang Wuxun's recovery speed increased significantly. The special constitution of the Zhang family members resulted in greater cellular activity than ordinary people, which also made them recover from serious injuries faster.

Thanks to the bronze fox mask, the most serious arterial injury in his leg has healed. However, the bullet stuck in the bone cannot be removed for the time being. The surgery is too difficult, and without professional medical equipment, there is a risk of death at any time.

As soon as he felt something on his shoulder, he extinguished the fire and said he was leaving. Zhang Wuxun also stood up.

People who can control snakes usually sense when a snake approaches.

Once they emerged from the stone path, both of them proceeded with great caution.

The continuous deaths of intruders in the ancient building have stopped; all those who were destined to die are gone. Nobody knows where the Miluotuo King is hiding now, so it's best to be careful.

The two moved forward at top speed through the jade vein. The hunchback skillfully carried him across the quicksand trap in front of the ancient building, taking the shortcut he had previously pointed out to Wu Xie and Fatty.

The entire tunnel is a translucent green. Over the years, the collapsed shoulder has been reinforced with volcanic rock, which slows down the Miluotuo, as they cannot pass through the volcanic rock and must take a detour.

His slumped shoulders were like a human navigation system; Miluo Tuo could sense it even from more than ten meters away. For the first time, Zhang Wuxun had the experience of being carried to victory.

The key issue is that he doesn't have the extra energy to care about anything else right now. If he hadn't just replenished some energy, given his current state of anemia and hypoxia, it would be a miracle if he didn't immediately faint and become a burden.

Perhaps because there were only two of them, making them a small target and allowing them to move quickly, their journey was unexpectedly smooth. Before King Miluotuo could react and catch up with them, they had already exited the tunnel.

The sky outside was overcast and gloomy, with the clouds almost being pulled up to the mountaintops by the rain.

Nearly a month has passed since Zhang Wuxun and Xiao Ge first entered the Zhang Family Ancient Building.

The mountains of Banna are rainy, and almost every cave in the lower reaches is damaged. With his shoulder hunched, Zhang Wuxun walked and stopped frequently until they reached the depths of the rarely visited jungle. Finally, they grabbed onto vines and climbed to a temporary shelter on a cliff.

This place is nearly 30 kilometers away from the mountains near the ancient building.

Although the entrance was just a narrow crack, once inside, one discovered a hidden world within.

It looks like a gourd ladle stuck horizontally in the mountain. Behind the first, slightly smaller cave, there should be another, slightly larger space.

A pieced-together wooden door was still blocking the concave part of the gourd's waist. With the light shining through the gaps, you could see a little bit of what was inside. The outside was a mess, with the feathers and bones of various birds and animals scattered haphazardly on the ground.

He slumped his shoulders, muttered something, casually kicked away the obstacles in the road, and walked over to move the wooden door.

Inside was a stone table with a small iron pot underneath and several wooden boxes.

Against the wall of the cave is an old wooden bed covered with fluffy lynx fur. There are even small recesses carved into the cave wall for placing bowls and chopsticks. Backpacks and other equipment are all piled up in another corner.

Zhang Wuxun was slightly surprised. He glanced at the slumped shoulders wrapped in black linen clothes and thought to himself that he hadn’t expected this guy to be so domestic. He was right. You can’t judge a book by its cover.

Although it was simple, it was still a way of life.

With a slumped shoulder, he pointed to the old wooden bed, gesturing for Zhang Wuxun to go over and sit down to rest.

Zhang Wuxun was actually a little embarrassed, since they were not related. "How about I do something?"

The man with the droopy shoulders simply tossed him a piece of wood and a small knife, saying, "Try carving it," before going down the vine to the bottom.

Zhang Wuxun glanced at the bowls and chopsticks on the wall and immediately understood what he meant. He then picked up a knife and began to whittle the piece of wood.

When Tang Jianbei came up from the cliff carrying two rabbits, his face turned green when he saw the small wooden bowl and chopsticks that Zhang Wuxun had placed on the table.

He held back for a long time, but finally couldn't help asking, "What are you doing with this?"

Zhang Wuxun looked completely innocent. "Didn't you ask me to do it?"

You need a bowl to eat, right? He saw that there was only one wooden bowl in each of the small pits, and it was rather ugly, thick and clumsy like a mortar and pestle.

The man with slumped shoulders had eyes that were practically spitting fire. He pulled out several porcelain bowls from a wooden box under the stone table and placed them on the table.

Zhang Wuxun was a little embarrassed; it turned out that the wooden bowl really was a mortar and pestle.

Before he could speak, the slumped-shouldered man suddenly stared at him for a few moments and asked, "Could it be that you're not Zhang Qiling?"

"How could you think I'm Zhang Qiling?" Zhang Wuxun retorted. "Aren't you also named Zhang Qiling?"

Thank you all for your continued support! Extra chapter today, at the end of the month...*
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(End of this chapter)