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

Chapter 418 is a human-faced bird.
Luo Wenbing seemed to be a heavy smoker; in the time it took to talk, he had already smoked more than half a pack of cigarettes for the fat man.

He quickly puffed on the cigarette in his hand until only the butt remained, then stuffed it under his shoe and stubbed it out. The fat man then waved the cigarette pack over, and he waved his hand, "I'm done, that's enough."

While he was speaking, Wu Xie squatted in front of the iron cage and observed the old monkey inside. He saw that she was huddled in the corner, her mouth moving slightly, as if she was really muttering something in a very low voice.

Wu Xie was skeptical of Luo Wenbing's words, so he pointed at Granny Monkey and asked, "You said you can understand some of Granny Monkey's words, what is she saying now?"

Luo Wenbing went around to the other side of the cage, carefully approached, and listened for a while before saying uncertainly, "I don't know what it means. I just hear it muttering, 'Time's up, time's up.' How am I supposed to know what it means by 'Time's up'?"

Wu Xie and Fatty exchanged a glance, both thinking of a certain possibility. If that were the case, then everything had indeed been calculated in advance by Mu Yu.

"Open your display case and take out that mummified corpse so I can see it," Wu Xie said to Luo Wenbing.

Luo Wenbing rubbed his nose, untied a bunch of keys from his trousers, turned on the highest wattage light in the yard, and walked towards the front of the house, saying, "Gentlemen, you don't need to pretend anymore. I already know what kind of people you are. Why don't you just buy the dried-up corpse and the spicy monkey old woman? I can sleep comfortably tonight."

The fat guy followed, and the two buddies patted his arm, "Don't be in such a hurry, let's take a look first and then we'll talk to you about it."

Luo Wenbing knew there was a chance as soon as he heard that. If he could get rid of this thing quickly, he would feel better. He immediately opened the glass door of the cabinet and, together with the fat man, carried the mummified corpse out to the yard.

"Come, come, come and see! This thing would be a big deal even in the world of ancient corpses." Luo Wenbing enthusiastically promoted the ancient corpse, "You won't get a slap or be cheated if you buy it."

Wu Xie reached out and pushed him aside, saying, "Don't block our way. We'll decide whether to buy it after we've looked at it."

As he spoke, he reached out and peeled off the tattered hemp clothing from the ancient corpse. Upon closer inspection of the patterns on it, he discovered that they were all strange and bizarre animal-shaped patterns, with a scorpion closest to the navel.

The scorpion's eight legs are each connected to a lotus petal, while the last petal leads directly to the scorpion's tail and merges with the snake's body below.

Furthermore, Wu Xie discovered that the ancient corpse was ridiculously light. When he peeled back a bit of the dry, cracked skin to look inside, he found that the inside of the ancient corpse had been completely hollowed out. The entire body was only held up in human shape by bamboo strips inserted into the skin. Due to the subsequent drying and dehydration, the corpse twisted and curled up into its current form.

This situation can be compared to the shape of a roast suckling pig, where the dried-out bamboo carcass is entirely supported by thin and sturdy bamboo.

The fat man stroked his stubble and said to Wu Xie, "What do you think this thing looks like? Doesn't it look a lot like the scarecrows used to scare away sparrows in rice paddies?"

“A bit.” Wu Xie also felt that this description was quite accurate.

If his guess is correct, the ancient mummy was buried there not for the purpose of a proper burial, but because there must be many more clues beneath the wooden tower that Nie Xiaoba and his group discovered.

He winked at Nie Xiaoba and the others, then got up and told Fatty to leave, "We might have to sleep in the car tonight. Let's get there early, as that place may have already been taken."

Upon hearing this, the fat man immediately became anxious, "Hurry up, hurry up! Those wild lamas aren't as polite as us. If we're late, there won't even be any left of the oil residue."

Wu Xie gave him a speechless look. "Can you be serious for once? We're here to do serious business. Besides, I can sense from this ancient corpse that this place is not simple. You'd better not touch anything inside."

The fat man patted his chest and said seriously, "Of course, I'm a very careful person, so don't worry. Besides, Muyu is my brother who's been through thick and thin with me, so we have to put his affairs first."

Luo Wenbing had been expecting these two seemingly wealthy customers to buy the mummified corpse after looking at it, but to his surprise, they left without a word, and he hurriedly tried to stop them.

Before the words could even leave his throat, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his neck, froze instantly, rolled his eyes, and fainted.

Nie Xiaoba caught Luo Wenbing as he was about to fall and instructed the remaining men, "Dafu, you and Tietuo go to the warehouse and drive our vehicle over. Quickly, bring the cage and the mummified corpse. We need to go up the mountain before dawn tomorrow."

"Okay." The young men responded and immediately got to work.

They sped all the way to the village at the foot of the mountain, found a house and parked the car in the yard. Wu Xie checked the time on his watch; it was a little past 1:40 a.m. He used the walkie-talkie to tell everyone to get some rest and get up at 4:30 a.m. the next morning.

Nie Xiaoba naturally made arrangements for the night watchman, and the night passed without incident.

The next day, they got up at the crack of dawn. Thick clouds gathered on the mountaintop like a bustling market, obscuring the little sunlight they could see. A thin morning mist rose from the forest at the foot of the mountain, indicating that it was going to be a very cloudy day. They wondered if it would rain later.

Wu Xie and his group quickly ate breakfast at a local villager's house. As they set off on the mountain road with their equipment, Fatty spotted a tan-colored minivan parked in a family's yard, its body hidden by fodder for livestock.

"Naive, look over there, could that be the car of the group that dressed up as monkeys digging graves before?" the fat man said.

Wu Xie took out his binoculars and found a spot. He saw that the license plate of the van, which wasn't completely covered by grass, had the letters "川D" in front of it. He then looked at the tightly locked gate.

“It looks like that group is local. Of course, it’s also possible that a local brought some outsiders here to look for treasure.” Wu Xie raised an eyebrow and looked at Luo Wenbing, who was slumped to the side, and asked him, “Do you know this family?”

Luo Wenbing woke up early in the morning to find himself kidnapped. Only then did he realize that he had not encountered ordinary antique dealers. These people were damned thugs who climbed coffins.

"Oh no, oh no, this is really bad luck." Luo Wenbing said with a gloomy face, full of regret.

"What are you muttering about all by yourself?" The fat man slapped him on the shoulder. "Hurry up, the Third Boss is asking you a question, answer honestly."

Luo Wenbing looked worried and sighed, "Big brothers, where exactly are you going to take me? I have no idea, really, I swear."

The fat man chuckled mischievously, "Of course I'll take you to cut some spicy hot pot. Don't be afraid, just cooperate obediently."

Luo Wenbing knew he had unwittingly boarded a pirate ship, and it was too late to get off now, so he had no choice but to cooperate obediently.

He didn't dare to run away. There were so many people around. If he ran away, those bastards would take out knives and sticks and retaliate against his family. What would he do then?

Wu Xie asked again, and Luo Wenbing replied, "That's Li Shengbao's house. That bastard is over fifty and still single. He's a notorious hooligan in our town. The police have taken him away many times. He's no good."

"But there's something strange about it. How did you manage to get such a big cart all of a sudden? Weren't you dirt poor? How did you suddenly become rich?"

Wu Xie understood; it seemed that locals had teamed up with outsiders to raid tombs here.

The group did not linger and continued their journey under Luo Wenbing's guidance, crossing a mountain and heading towards Jianping Mountain.

The only way to get here is along a mountain path used by mules. It's so steep and rugged that even bicycles can't make it up. I reckon if a motorcycle were to go too fast, both rider and vehicle would be destroyed while turning a corner.

The mountains were vast and deep, the scenery serene and secluded, filled with mystery and a chilling mist. Gradually, fewer and fewer people emerged from the roadside, until only a few scattered mountain dwellers dressed in ethnic minority costumes, carrying baskets on their backs, were heading down the mountain to the early market. Wu Xie also saw a little boy among them, barely taller than the large basket on his back. The basket on his back was divided in the middle; one side contained dried herbs, and the other held a little girl with her fingers curled up in her mouth, her rosy cheeks from sleep.

The child said that his parents died in an accident on the mountain a few years ago, and his grandparents passed away even earlier, leaving only him and his younger sister to depend on each other.

The fat man was probably going to be a father in a few months and couldn't bear to see this kind of scene. Under the pretense of asking the child for directions, he secretly slipped a small wad of money into the little girl's pocket in the basket. It was a small coin from his wallet. Before leaving, he also took a handful of candy from Wu Xie's pocket and put it in the child's palm.

"Poor kid." The fat man sighed softly. He remembered when he went to the countryside with his team, he also carried loads of pig feed up the mountain like this.

Daylight quickly broke through, and the place they were heading to, Jigongliangzi, was on the opposite mountain, with a sheer cliff in the middle. Looking down, all they could see was mist and clouds.

The fat man glared at Luo Wenbing, "You're not being honest, kid. If we hadn't just asked that kid, we would have almost been led astray by you."

Surrounded by burly young men, Luo Wenbing dared not act rashly and hurriedly explained, "There is a road, there is a road. The road I'm leading is the right one. Don't just look at Jigongliangzi now, which is only a small part. In fact, most of it is in Yunnan. If you want to go up from the bottom of the mountain, you have to go directly out of the province."

The fat man snorted coldly, "Don't try anything funny, kid. How are we leaving?"

"Keep going forward, and once you get past this village, climb over the ridge above it. Follow me."

Luo Wenbing walked at the front. The scattered houses on the mountain had disappeared from sight. When they reached a higher place, there were no more paths, and they walked directly through the bushes.

Fearing that snakes might dart out of the bushes, everyone carried a long stick.

As the afternoon approached, a light drizzle began to fall. The group put on raincoats over their clothes and continued on their way. Finally, in the evening, they arrived at the place where Luo Wenbing had encountered the ancient monkey-snake corpse.

The sky was overcast, there was no sun, and night was falling quickly. The rain was still falling, and it was too slippery to travel. Wu Xie ordered that they set up camp here to rest for the night.

Nie Xiaoba directed the men to set up tents to shelter from the rain, while Wu Xie and Fatty carried Luo Wenbing towards the lychee tree.

"Is this the place where you found the mummified corpse?" Wu Xie asked, pointing to the bushes behind the tree.

Luo Wenbing nodded, and Wu Xie looked up. The leaves and fruits were very dense, and he couldn't see anything strange about it. He decided to climb the tree to take a look.

"Be careful," the fat man cautioned him.

After training with Hei Xiazi for many days, Wu Xie felt that he was much more agile when climbing trees. He was as nimble as a monkey, easily climbing to a high place and grabbing the branches to stand firmly.

He kept in mind the strange feeling he hadn't paid attention to when picking fruit from the tree, as described by Luo Wenbing.

He suspected there might be something else in the tree that Luo Wenbing had overlooked.

Half an hour later, the fat man below was getting impatient. "Have you found it yet? Why don't I come up too, and we can look for it together?"

"Found it." Wu Xie peeked out from among the leaves, a smile on his face. He waved a large, dark mass in his hand. "This is it."

After saying that, he slid down from the tree. The fat man handed him the towel and shone his flashlight on the thing. "What is this black thing?"

Wu Xie wiped the rain off his face and waved the thing in his hand. "Let's go, let's talk about it in detail by the fire."

The two returned to the shelter, and Nie Xiaoba quickly served them two bowls of ginger soup to ward off the cold.

"Young Master, what have you discovered?" Nie Xiaoba asked curiously.

Wu Xie blew on it to cool it down, finished the drink in one gulp, put down the bowl, turned the thing he had just taken from the tree over, pointed to a triangular protrusion on it, and said, "Look, does it look familiar?"

The fat man examined it closely, even spreading his arms to compare it, and hissed, "This thing looks like a motorcycle helmet, but what's that triangular protrusion for? Isn't it afraid of hitting your head?"

Wu Xie nodded. "That's right, but it's not a helmet. It's a specially made mask. Do you remember that mummified corpse made of a monkey and a snake? Its head was very, very small, and it had a triangular hole on its forehead."

"This thing should have originally been on the face of that mummified corpse, or rather, this thing is the face that the mummified corpse really wanted us to see."

As Wu Xie spoke, he flipped the "helmet" over to the front. The moment Fatty saw what it was, he gasped in shock.

In the firelight, the fat man could clearly see that it was the face of a human-faced bird!

"Holy crap!" the fat man exclaimed. "What the hell is going on? How did this ghost bird get here?"

Wu Xie's expression was solemn. "Do you still remember the two human heads and the snake and centipede specimens we saw in the secret chamber of the Queen Mother of the West's underground palace? And think about that monkey-snake mummy, which was also pieced together from different animal bodies."

“Actually, we overlooked one thing from the beginning,” Wu Xie said.

The fat man, staring at the face of the human-faced bird, finally came to his senses. "What?"

“Monkeys are intelligent.” Wu Xie looked at the old monkey who was chained to the bottom of a tree.

"What exactly is the form of the Gu King who turned into a monster in Cai Laojiu's story, and why is he called a monster?"

The fat man's mind immediately clicked. "You mean, the Gu King in that chieftain's tomb was actually a monkey?"

“No, perhaps it’s not a monkey.” Wu Xie stared intently at Granny Monkey’s face. “It’s a person who has regressed to their ancestral form for some reason.”

In the shadows cast by the lamplight, a sinister smile seemed to appear on Granny Monkey's face.

Wu Xie sighed, "It seems a fierce battle is destined to take place tonight."

Sorry everyone, I've been dealing with some trivial matters back home these past few days and haven't had time to write anything. I apologize profusely.

Thank you so much to the generous donors [Lost Memories, But Not You] and [The Most Innocent Years]! Sending love...*
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(End of this chapter)