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

Chapter 392 Countdown to Life
Seeing that there was no further movement from the other side, Zhang Wuxun peeled some melon seeds and asked the young man, "Why do we have to wait until the silkworm moths start mating after they emerge from their molts before we can make our move?"

"Wait for it to lay eggs." The young man glanced at the enormous cocoon on the wooden frame, then lowered his eyes and said, "It will be useful."

Although Zhang Wuxun had guessed the origin of the brain silkworm, he still did not know its function.

However, anything related to the Wang family is nothing more than matters concerning people's lifespans.

Zhang Wuxun then asked directly, "Brother, is this kind of Gu silkworm related to lifespan? Can it extend a person's lifespan through some method?"

From Ma Chongshan's half-truths and half-lies, we can infer that the cause of all this started with Ma Chongshan's trip to southern Tibet.

Ma Chongshan went to Motuo, and after he returned, troubles began to happen to the Ma family.

Was this Gu silkworm given to him by the Wang family, or did Ma Chongshan obtain it by chance?

Before we get to that, let me briefly introduce the so-called Gu silkworm, which is the brain silkworm we just saw.

The giant silkworms that Ma Chongshan raises here are actually a type of Gu worm that looks and behaves almost exactly like ordinary silkworms.

The art of Gu poison was extremely famous throughout my country's long history.

Especially in the Miao and southern Xinjiang regions many years ago, and among all the Gu techniques, the most terrifying and powerful is undoubtedly the Gu technique of the Tibetan Monpa people.

The Monpa people live in the vast regions of Lhoyu and Monyul, located on the eastern end of the southern slope of the Himalayas, known as the "Roof of the World." They are a small ethnic minority with a population of just over 10,000.

Gu magic has always been associated with witchcraft; casting Gu on someone is essentially the same as poisoning them.

The practice of cultivating and raising Gu poison is a traditional custom that has been passed down for thousands of years and has nothing to do with ethnic hatred or other factors.

The person who casts the poison believes that poisoning the wealthy will bring them good fortune; poisoning the physically strong will bring them health and longevity; and those who suffer many misfortunes in life will gain good luck by poisoning those who have everything going their way.

Zhang Wuxun thought this was somewhat absurd. Often, what people seek when they pray to gods and Buddhas is nothing more than psychological comfort, which ultimately comes down to their own mindset and thoughts.

Some early-stage cancer patients live happily and survive beyond the life expectancy given to them by their doctors, and the disease miraculously disappears.

If a healthy person wallows in self-pity and worries every day, their mental illness will weigh heavily on them, and over time, their body will naturally deteriorate.

The saying "a mental illness requires a mental cure" is sometimes true.

Today, the mysterious Gu poison techniques of the Monpa people in Medog, southern Tibet, have become legends.

The sudden appearance of something related to Gu worms here makes it easy to deduce that this giant silkworm is related to the Wang family's long-standing struggle over lifespan.

Could it be that Ma Chongshan also wanted to live forever, and the Wang family took advantage of this to use him for experiments?

Or perhaps, when Ma Chongshan went to Motuo, something terrible happened to him, forcing him to use his family's blood and flesh to raise the Gu silkworms.

What kind of unexpected event will occur?

Zhang Wuxun looked at the young man, hoping to get an answer from him.

The young man hesitated for a few seconds, seemingly thinking, before finally giving an ambiguous answer: "Yes and no."

"Huh?" Zhang Wuxun was a little disappointed. He had been holding his breath and waiting for the big secret, but this was all it was.

"The Heavenly Longevity Silkworm cannot prolong human lifespan," the young man said.

"Oh, and then?" Zhang Wuxun pressed. The Heavenly Longevity Silkworm must be the name of the Brain Silkworm.

"But it can steal lifespan," the young man said calmly. "Ma Chongshan contracted a terminal illness a long time ago. Even if he uses this, he will only be prolonging his life."

Zhang Wuxun pondered the meaning behind the young man's words and asked incredulously, "Are there really Gu worms in this world that can transfer lifespan?"

“It’s fake.” The young man lowered his eyelids. “That thing is just living in his place. The man himself is already dead.”

Zhang Wuxun was a little confused. If people are dead, how can they communicate with them?
Was that silkworm that ate the instant noodles earlier? Good heavens! Has that silkworm become a spirit?
No, no, this is really confusing. Although Ma Chongshan looked a bit pale and stiff before, he was definitely breathing...

My heart is pounding! Damn!

Zhang Wuxun realized what the problem was: Ma Chongshan's heartbeat was too weak. Even when he was being chased by the Wang family and fleeing for his life, his heartbeat was so weak that it was almost inaudible.

Not to mention that when he unexpectedly saw Xiao Ge, Zhang Wuxun didn't pay much attention to Ma Chongshan at all. With the cold wind and snow blowing, it was good enough that he could find breathing.

That's why Ma Chongshan's heartbeat was weak, but his breathing was noticeably deliberate.

“He’s a living dead!” Zhang Wuxun asserted.

This conclusion brings to light all the details he had unintentionally overlooked before.

Ma Chongshan's stiff and heavy steps, his frequent clutching of his chest, his even breathing, and his attempts to sneak away in the middle of the night were all attempts to conceal the fact that he was not a normal person.

It turns out that the biggest secret Ma Chongshan wanted to hide was himself.

The young man nodded. "He originally had a silkworm in his chest, but it was severely injured."

Severe injury? Zhang Wuxun thought to himself, "Then it could only have been caused by the sneak attack from the Wang family."

Seeing that Zhang Wuxun still didn't quite understand how Ma Chongshan had become a living dead, the young man took out a yellowed notebook from his backpack.

Zhang Wuxun was stunned for a moment, "What is this?"

"Ma Chongshan's life countdown." The young man handed him the notebook. "Everything you want to know is in there."

Zhang Wuxun took it and found it to be a very old parchment codebook, though the lock had been broken. The codebook was quite thick, suggesting that Ma Chongshan was a person who was quite meticulous about recording things.

The beginning of the book is more like a travelogue, starting from Ma Chongshan's trip to southern Tibet. The sheepskin used for the book is also made by Ma Chongshan himself, using local leather.

Just as Zhang Wuxun had previously speculated, the Tianshou silkworm was indeed something obtained from the Menba people of Medog.

Ma Chongshan did not actually go to southern Tibet alone; he was accompanied by his brother, Ma Chongfeng.

However, in the end, only Ma Chongshan returned to the Ma family in Nepal with the antiques, because his younger brother Ma Chongfeng died on the snowy mountain.

The person who should have remained on the snow-capped mountain forever was Ma Chongshan.

Ma Chongshan and his younger brother are two years apart in age. When they went to southern Tibet, they initially only wanted to collect a batch of antiques from Tibetans. However, after staying in southern Tibet for several months, they did not get the items that Ma Chongshan wanted.

One day, Ma Chongshan accidentally discovered an old sheepskin Buddhist scripture scroll in the home of a Tibetan family.

This is a map recorded in ancient Tibetan shamanic language, showing an incredibly sacred place in southern Tibet, deep within the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon, where legend says there is a holy land filled with golden Buddha lotuses.

In order to find out about this place, Ma Chongshan managed to sneak into a local sacrificial ceremony and spent a lot of money to find out from the local shaman that the place was in Motuo, a mysterious mountain.

Having received nothing special for a long time, Ma Chongshan's curiosity was piqued. He discussed it with his younger brother and, along with a few of his men, embarked on a journey to find the Lotus Holy Land.

Medog has been plagued by transportation difficulties since ancient times, and in those days it was almost a mysterious, isolated island cut off from the world.

Ma Chongshan hired a local guide, and the group trekked across mountains and valleys for five days on horseback through the snow-covered mountains. Unfortunately, they encountered a blizzard, making even walking difficult, let alone finding their way. They were completely lost in the blizzard.

Exhausted and weary, they were fortunate that their guide led them to a narrow hot spring cave for temporary refuge.

A raging blizzard raged outside the mountain crevice. The guide's face was full of worry as he prayed incessantly to the Yarra Shambhala mountain god who was in charge of the blizzard. But the blizzard howled for a day and a night without stopping, and his devout prayers had no effect whatsoever.

"It must be that the mountain god sensed our attempt to find their sacred land and sent down snow to punish us."

The guide was filled with remorse. He shouldn't have been so greedy and led this group of people here to search for the sacred place where the mountain god lived, all for the sake of money.

Everyone had given up hope for the trip. Ma Chongshan was filled with regret, regretting that his recklessness had led to their being trapped on the snow mountain. Now, forget about the sacred place; their lives were in danger.

Just when Ma Chongshan thought he was going to perish on this vast snow-capped mountain, his guide suddenly said he smelled the aroma of food and walked straight into the deeper part of the hot spring crevice.

At that time, Ma Chongshan and his group had long since run out of the dry rations they carried with them, and they survived for two days by relying on the snow water melted in the iron pot.

The horses that were being transported up the mountain had already been bled and stored on the snow-covered mountain before the snowstorm arrived, because their hooves were struggling to traverse the snow that was thicker than their thighs. Their bodies were buried somewhere in the snow, and it was difficult to find horse meat to eat.

Everyone was starving and drowsy. Unexpectedly, the Tibetan guide suddenly got up from the ground, his nose twitching as if he had smelled something very fragrant. He kept muttering words of thanks to the gods, and walked towards the narrower crevice in the mountain with a drooling look on his face.

Ma Chongshan and the others were also starving and dazed. Upon closer inspection, they could indeed smell a faint fragrance in the air, an extremely fragrant aroma that defied description. No delicacy in the world could compare to it.

Hungry and exhausted, the group had no time to think. Their empty stomachs urged them onward, and they hurriedly stumbled and staggered behind the guide.

Following the faint fragrance, they walked for an unknown amount of time in the mountain crevice until a huge hot spring cave suddenly appeared ahead. The steam made the fragrance in the air even stronger.

They didn't care about anything else and stumbled into the water, as if possessed, walking step by step along the shallows into the depths of the hot spring.

This part was not recorded in detail in the book, and Ma Chongshan himself did not know what exactly happened. When they woke up from their coma, they found themselves in a magnificent hall filled with the fragrance of incense.

The faint fragrance still lingered around them, but for some reason, they no longer felt hungry. The Buddhist incense surrounding them made them feel as if they had entered a paradise.

They were standing at the entrance of a palace gate-like staircase. Looking inside, the main hall seemed to rise up layer by layer, like a staircase leading to the clouds.

On the ninth step directly opposite them, a dignified Buddha sat cross-legged on a Buddha throne. On the next step, there were eight Vajras and Bodhisattvas in different postures. Below that were deities such as White Tara, Green Tara, Supreme Buddha Mother, Vajrasattva, Guhyasamaja, Hevajra, and Mahachakra Vajra. Further down were Dakinis. Ma Chongshan did not recognize the rest.

He carefully counted and found that there were a total of 108 golden and jade Buddha statues in the temple.

At the very top of the main hall was a huge white nine-turn jade lotus. The jade lotus emitted a cool and soft light, just like thousands of luminous pearls. To Ma Chongshan and his companions’ great surprise, the jade lotus seemed to be alive, with its nine petals rotating at an extremely slow speed.

Surrounded by the sound of flowing water and shrouded in mist, they felt as if they were standing in a fairyland, their minds completely absorbed, as if they had entered a state of oneness with nature.

The Tibetan guide traveling with him had already knelt on the ground and begun a long prostration prayer. Ma Chongshan was overjoyed, never expecting that he would actually find the legendary Buddha Lotus Holy Land by sheer chance.

Ma Chongshan pulled the Buddhist map out from the crease of his clothes, only to find that the originally winding route on the map had changed.

It seemed that the special smell in the hall reacted with the contents of the parchment scroll, and he could clearly see that the originally nonsensical lines on the picture suddenly became clear and distinct.

"This is...this is a scorpion!"

Ma Chongshan's exclamation attracted the attention of others. When they gathered around to take a look, they discovered that the pattern formed by the lines on the map was indeed a white-shelled scorpion coiled on a nine-petaled lotus flower.

At this time, Ma Chongshan was unaware of the reason why his family had moved, so he naturally did not connect the lotus scorpion with the scorpion tomb in Ma'an.

The businessman's profit-seeking nature once again prevailed, and he had a premonition that there must be a treasure trove on this map, waiting for him to discover it.

The Ma family members were extremely excited and rushed into the Buddhist temple, before the Tibetan guide could stop them.

However, Ma Chongshan and his group wandered around the Buddhist hall for a long time but did not find any passage leading to other places.

Wasn't the holy site supposed to be filled with golden lotus flowers? Here, there's only a nine-turn lotus flower and a bunch of bald monk statues.

Having traveled extensively over the years, Ma Chongshan had seen a lot of the world and, after a moment's thought, he realized...

It's very likely that some kind of mechanism has concealed the passageway here.

Goodnight, Makka Pakka~
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(End of this chapter)