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

Chapter 401 The Land of Divine Sacrifice
Last time, Aning paid to have Crescent Moon stored at the post office.

Zhang Wuxun rolled his eyes at him, "Why didn't you say so earlier?"

Chen Xuehan smiled silently, "Or you can hold it and cover your eyes so you can't see it."

Zhang Wuxun frowned, looked down and met Yueya's gaze. Yueya's two big, dark, furry dog ​​eyes were wet from the snow.

As Zhang Wuxun looked at it, he suddenly noticed something unusual. "Is this dog a mixed breed?"

"Really?" Chen Xuehan grabbed a dog's paw and looked at it. "I didn't notice before, but judging from the size of the paw, it's probably a Tibetan Mastiff."

The old version of the wolfhound's eyes usually had yellowish-brown or dark brown pupils, while the crescent-shaped eyes were more round, like almonds, with black pupils. Looking at the claws, they also had thick, round, arched toes with plump paw pads.

In fact, Crescent Moon is still a young dog that has just reached adulthood, a little over a year old, but its body and limbs have become noticeably stronger, and its shoulder height is almost comparable to that of a mature adult dog. It will definitely grow taller before it turns two years old.

"Looks like you'll be quite a big guy in the future." Zhang Wuxun chuckled, patted Crescent Moon's head, wrapped his arms around its back, turned it around so that its head was buried in his chest to block its view, and held it securely like a child.

Zhang Wuxun followed Chen Xuehan with Yueya in his arms. At noon, the two finally arrived at the Lama temple.

When Zhang Wuxun and his team were excavating a Tusi Dizang Temple in the snowy area with an archaeological team, they stayed in a large Lama temple. Compared with that kind of large-scale and magnificent building, the Lama temple they see now can be described as simple.

The dilapidated and narrow temple gate, only half a person's width wide, has been rotten and turned into an antique by years of wind and snow. Behind it is a small courtyard.

However, thinking back to the information I had researched, I realized that most of the Lama temples in Medog were indeed built against the mountains. If you wanted to build a temple, you would have to fill in the areas where there was no land, just like you would build terraced fields.

Therefore, although the Lama temple here occupies a large area and the courtyard extends upwards as far as the eye can see, making it quite spectacular, there is actually not much space inside the buildings.

Zhang Wuxun put down Crescent Moon, patted the coal dust off his clothes. Luckily, his cotton coat was black with a waterproof outer leather layer, so he could just wipe it off with a damp towel.

Holding the chain, he followed Chen Xuehan into the half-open temple gate. The snow in the courtyard was swept clean, and there were many stone mills and stone tables and chairs on both sides.

Three young lamas were sitting around a fire near a stone mill. When they saw someone enter, they didn't show much surprise and calmly continued with what they were doing.

Chen Xuehan stepped forward and explained their purpose. She then turned and pointed to Zhang Wuxun, who was leading a dog. One of the lamas stood up and bowed to Zhang Wuxun with his hands clasped together, saying, "Please follow me, guest."

Zhang Wuxun turned to Chen Xuehan and asked, "Can Crescent Moon go in?"

Before Chen Xuehan could answer, the young lama said, "You cannot enter the main hall and guest rooms at will. You may ask Mr. Chen to wait in the side hall with your dog."

Zhang Wuxun nodded, handed the crescent moon to Chen Xuehan, and then followed the little lama into the house.

The main hall is the first hall, where the lamas perform rituals. The back is open, and there is a wooden staircase at the back. Climbing up the stairs, one floor at a time, passing through no less than a hundred rooms, the young lama finally stopped in front of a pitch-black room.

The young lama made a gesture of invitation, and then walked back up the stairs.

Zhang Wuxun did not go in directly, but stood at the door and looked inside.

Only a little light shone into the room from near the window, which was covered by old felt. The light peeked out from the wormholes in the felt, but it didn't prevent Zhang Wuxun from seeing the furnishings and people inside.

This is where the lamas meditate. Along one wall, there are many rows of wooden shelves filled with scriptures. On the narrow, long, low table next to the shelves, there are also stacks of scrolls piled up like small mountains, arranged very neatly.

In a dark corner of the other side of the house, five lamas sat in a circle. One of the older lamas was Deren, whom Zhang Wuxun had seen at the post office entrance that morning.

The other person knew that Zhang Wuxun was staring at him, but he didn't feel offended. He smiled kindly and lit the candlestick next to him with a tinderbox.

In a shimmering, warm yellow light, he waved to Zhang Wuxun, "Distinguished guest, come this way."

Zhang Wuxun did as he was told and went over. The other four slightly younger lamas were still in meditation with their eyes closed. His arrival did not disturb them. They truly achieved unity of mind and body, neither listening nor looking, neither surprised nor annoyed.

Deren pointed to the prayer mat on the side, gesturing for him to sit down and speak.

Seeing the other party's natural attitude, Zhang Wuxun didn't hesitate and sat down next to him, gently asking, "Master knew I was coming here, why?"

“I didn’t know before, but I have known since I became Naruhito,” Naruhito said, enunciating each word clearly.

Zhang Wu asked him, "When did you become Naruhito, and who made you Naruhito? Would you mind telling me?"

“About thirty years ago, a distinguished guest came here. After returning from the snow mountain, we talked about some things, and since then I have become Naruhito,” Naruhito said slowly.

Zhang Wuxun was filled with surprise. Wait, thirty years ago? How did it become thirty years ago? Shouldn't it be Zhang Haike from ten years ago?
Thirty years ago, going back in time, back then...

He suddenly remembered the signature sheet he had torn from the guestbook in Kujiao Village. It showed that Zhang Menyu had arrived at Zhangjia Gulou in 1975. Thirty years ago, that would be 1974, or even earlier.

After the previous Deren was secretly killed by the Wang family, who tracked him down to the contact point, the contact point lost Deren.

If Zhang Menyu had also found this place after coming down from Changbai Mountain, then his target would have been the fake bronze gate deep in the Himalayas.

This timeline is far too long ago.

He was fooled by Chen Xuehan's rambling talk about ten years. He thought ten years was a round number, but it wasn't. Ten years was just a general term.

In other words, Chen Xuehan copied the oil painting around 1990, which is fourteen years ago. At that time, the young man should have just returned from the snow mountain.

Nearly twenty years have passed between the killing of the previous Naruhito and the emergence of the current Naruhito.

Perhaps since that oil painting appeared in 1990, the three destined people that Deren said it would meet were indeed Zhang Haike, Wu Xie, and him.

Moreover, it seems that the Grand Lama took the initiative to become Deren.

Having finally figured things out, Zhang Wuxun breathed a sigh of relief and said to Deren, "I want to know what the people in the oil painting experienced deep in the snow-capped mountains, and also about the distinguished guest you mentioned."

Deren nodded slightly, closed his eyes, and spoke with a Zen-like air, "I still remember that matter."

After saying that, he got up, picked up the candle, walked to the tall shelf to the side, went to the last row, pointed to a large carved mahogany box at the bottom, and said to Zhang Wuxun standing beside him, "Take it and come with me to my room."

Zhang Wuxun squatted down and looked at the wooden box. To his surprise, he found a small flame symbol in the corner. For some reason, the more he looked at the carved patterns on the box, the more familiar they seemed to him.

Based on previous speculation, it seems that Zhang Menyu did indeed come here to look for the fake bronze door. He asked the system in his mind, "Is the thing you asked me to take out of the bronze door something that Zhang Menyu put in there?"

“Yes.” The system did not deny it. “He was my second host.”

"Where did Zhang Menyu go after that?" Zhang Wu asked. The system's voice sounded a little confused, "I don't know either. I wasn't strong enough back then. I was in a deep sleep most of the time. When I woke up for the last time, I only found you based on my senses."

Zhang Wuxun frowned. Could it be that the system only leaves to find the next host after the previous host dies?

"You should know where he went before you fell into your last sleep."

"I don't know," the system replied, "but he calls it the place of divine sacrifice."

"Does God really exist in this world?" Zhang Wuxun was utterly incredulous. He felt it was a strange power, like the system and the divine tree.

“Perhaps.” The system paused for a moment, “unlike the gods with physical forms that have been passed down through human mythology from ancient times to the present, that is a kind of ethereal god that exists only in the concept of consciousness.”

In science, nothingness is defined as non-existent. However, some idealists believe that nothingness is an absolute existence beyond time and space, beyond matter, that has no meaning or attributes, existing outside the beginning and end of the universe. It is the source of all phenomena and the destination of all things.

In Buddhism, "emptiness" is not only an independent word, but also non-action, formlessness, selflessness, and namelessness. Emptiness is a state of Tao Qi that is seemingly there and yet not there, vague and indistinct, mysterious and profound. It is the carrier of existence.

Nothingness is a state of unconsciousness that human consciousness cannot penetrate or touch, and it is usually manifested through death.

Perhaps, the ultimate goal that the Zhang family guards, and the ultimate goal that the Wang family seeks, is nothingness.

All the secrets of the universe arise from nothingness, and are locked away by nothingness.

All these are the causes and reasons for the formation of this situation.

But Zhang Wuxun always felt there was still a contradiction. Logically speaking, even if nothingness exists, it shouldn't have consciousness. And clearly, the reason why the Zhang family and the ancient tribe guarded the ultimate was because they foresaw that something terrible would happen when the end came.

This contradicts the very existence of nothingness. Is the nothingness behind the bronze door malevolent, or is something malevolent exploiting it to devour or merge with it?
So complicated, so complicated. Zhang Wuxun rubbed his temples with a headache, collected his thoughts, picked up the heavy wooden box, and followed Deren out of the house, heading towards the room to the left of the pillar.

Deren stopped in front of a house, reached out and pushed open the wooden door. The house was sunny, and the golden sunlight from outside the window shone in and spread across the floor, making it feel warm and cozy.

Deren gestured for Zhang Wuxun to place the box on the low table. A young lama came in from outside and placed a pot of hot yak butter tea on the table.

Zhang Wuxun poured a small bowl for each of them, pushed it in front of Deren, and waited quietly for him to begin his story.

The bedroom was warm with a charcoal fire burning. Deren's gaze was distant and lingering, looking at the burning charcoal, or perhaps looking at someone through the glowing embers.

After a while, Deren opened the wooden box, which contained many yellowed scrolls, and some of the lower ones were even parchment scrolls.

Deren said that these materials were also recorded on bamboo slips and cloth a long time ago. Each Deren, after taking office, would use the more convenient and durable methods available at the time to organize and transcribe the original materials.

The higher up you go, the newer the pages become. These pages have all been treated to prevent decay and insects, and they are carefully preserved here.

Deren began to recount, “At that time, I was still very young and not yet the senior lama of the temple. There has always been a tradition in the temple that every ten years, when the ground in front of the temple is covered with snow, three large charcoal stoves are placed in front of the temple gate. Although we don’t know the meaning, the lamas of all generations have strictly followed this custom.”

That winter, the snow was exceptionally heavy. Following old custom, the young lama placed three charcoal stoves outside and swept away the snow in front of the temple gate.

But the snow continued to fall, quickly covering the ground in white, except for the snow near the three stoves, which melted and seeped into the ground.

That noon, when the young lama went to add charcoal to the stove for the fourth time, he saw a very young man standing in front of the stove. His skin seemed whiter than the snow falling that day, and he was warming himself.

The man was wearing a very strange outfit, which appeared to be an extremely thick military overcoat, but the pattern on it was Tibetan. He also carried a large backpack on his back, which looked incredibly heavy.

The young lama and he had the following conversation at that time.

Young lama: "Where do our distinguished guests come from?"

Zhang Qiling: "I come from the mountains."

Young lama: "Where are you going, distinguished guest?"

Zhang Qiling: "Go outside."

Young lama: "Are our honored guests from the village across the mountain?"

Zhang Qiling: "No, it's deep inside there."

The young lama looked in the direction the man was pointing and discovered that it was the heart of the snow-capped mountains. For the young lama, and for everyone living in Medog, they all knew very well that it was a no-man's land, where there was nothing.

-

[While writing, I suddenly remembered that according to the original plot, Wu Xie arrived in Motuo in 2010, but Muyu moved the timeline forward by five years, so it's now the end of 2004. Therefore, there's a bug in the earlier timeline. I've reread and revised the original work, and I'm listing it here to avoid confusion.]

Before 1900, Dong Can encountered Baima. To save Baima, he imprisoned Yama, who rode a corpse, through the bronze gate. Baima then fell into a deep sleep amidst the Tibetan sea of ​​flowers.

In 1901, the young boy was taken to the Zhang family and became the Holy Infant on the altar.
In the same year, the truth about the Holy Infant was exposed, plunging the Zhang family into chaos. Zhang Fulin died, and Xiao Ge was abandoned and taken to an ancient tomb by his clansmen to have his blood drained.
In 1913, the young man, along with 15-year-old Zhang Haike and others, went into the wild and entered the ancient city of Sizhou, where they obtained the ancestral bell and became the new clan chief.

In 1940, the master took Pema out of the ice and placed her in the room.

In 1949, the young man came to Motuo for the first time to search for Dong Can, who had disappeared years before, and other clues. Later, he went into the mountains and met the Khampa people. After coming out of the snow-capped mountains, Deren had him practice for a year to learn to think, and then led him to see Pema.

(The timeline of the blue-robed Tibetan's appearance in the original novel's "Three Days of Silence" is inconsistent; I will correct it later.)
Before 1955, the young man returned to Motuo. By then, the Zhang family had fallen apart. He placed the ancestral bell into the bronze gate and became the last patriarch of the Zhang family.

After emerging from the snow-capped mountains, Deren was already dead, and the liaison station of the Western Archives was cut off. The young man relayed his memories to the young lama, and then went to Changbai Mountain to guard the gate.

In 1965, Xiao Ge left Changbai Mountain and discussed with Jiu Men about jointly guarding the gate.
In 1970, the Nine Gates tomb raiding operation failed, and Xiao Ge was imprisoned in the Golmud Sanatorium.

Before 1974, Zhang Menyu came to Motuo in search of a fake bronze gate, placed something inside the gate, and then emerged from the snow-capped mountains. A new Deren had taken office.
In 1975, the young man was trapped.

In 1984, Master Xie led the Awakening Faction to rescue Little Brother.
In 1985, the young man accompanied an archaeological team to the underwater tomb in the Xisha Islands, where he may have suffered amnesia.

Before 1990, the young man visited Motuo for the third time. After entering the mountains, he left behind an oil painting in 1990, which Chen Xuehan copied.

In 1994, Zhang Haike came to Motuo in search of the fake bronze gate and attempted to find the hexagonal bronze bell, but returned empty-handed.
In 1995, while searching for his memories, the young man recounted a trip to Changbai Mountain with Chen Wenjin and his companions, where he encountered the ultimate [object/object].
In 2000, while searching for the Zhang Family Ancient Building, the young man unexpectedly lost his memory again in Banna and became Chen Pi Asi's subordinate.
In the winter of 2004, Zhang Wu came to Motuo in search of the fake bronze gate, drawing the Wang family's attention back to Motuo.

In the autumn of 2005, Xiao Ge, believing everything was over, came to Hangzhou to say goodbye to Wu Xie and went to guard the gate of Changbai Mountain.

Thank you [piadbm] for the generous donation, sending you love!

(End of this chapter)