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

Chapter 421 is Grandpa Fish
“Perhaps,” Wu Xie said. “Do you remember those ancient mummies with sharpened teeth that we saw in the Cloud Palace, in the pavilion where the giant head corpse was hiding? The teeth on this skull were also deliberately sharpened like that.”

The fat man brought his finger closer and touched it; it was indeed excessively sharp. "Yeah, that's true."

The connection between them is currently unknown. Wu Xie squatted down to examine the stone tablet carefully. "But I always feel that it's a bit strange that this stone tablet is standing here."

Nie Xiaoba chimed in, "Third Master, I remember the place where the monkeys raided the tomb we visited before was at least a kilometer away from here."

The stone tablet is of very rough texture. The patterns on it have been largely preserved due to years of decay, and many cracks have appeared. Apart from the scorpion totem in the center and the door-like frame, there is nothing else on the entire stone tablet.

Moreover, Wu Xie felt that the small print below appeared somewhat deliberately.

The name "Land of Immortality" seemed tailor-made for their arrival.

“I have a feeling that this stone tablet hasn’t been buried here for very long.” Wu Xie said, looking at the old grave behind him, guessing, “This thing is very likely to have been buried here at the same time as this lonely grave.”

The fat man exclaimed in surprise, "You mean someone knew we were coming here, so they deliberately set up these two things here so we could see them?"

“But if we look at it this way, the timeline doesn’t match up,” the fat man analyzed. “Look, we only learned about the scorpion because of the Sheba bead left by Muyu. Muyu was only twenty-one years old. Even if we go back a couple of years, the era is far off.”

Wu Xie looked at him and said, "The scorpion in the snow pearl may not have been carved into it by the wooden fish himself."

The fat man paused for a moment, and the two flame marks he had seen outside the sealed gate of the Zhang Family Ancient Building suddenly flashed through his mind. He hesitated for a moment and said, "Are you saying that these things, including the Snow Pearl, are all information left to him by Muyu's father?"

Before Wu Xie could say anything, Fatty started counting on his fingers and roughly estimated Zhang Menyu's birth year. "Let's go back a bit. If our Uncle Yu was born to Aunt Yu in his thirties or forties, then Uncle Yu would still be a kid before Liberation. The timeline still doesn't match up."

"Could it be..." Fatty and Wu Xie exchanged a glance and gasped, "The one Mu Yu sent us here to find is his grandfather!"

Both of them exclaimed "Holy crap!" in unison, with the fat man adding, "Of course, it could also be Grandma Fish."

Nie Xiaoba and the others were completely confused about what Wu Xie and the other man were talking about, so they could only listen quietly. Little Ninth Master said that no matter what happened during this tomb raiding, listening to Little Third Master was definitely the right thing to do.

After calming his shock, Wu Xie paused for a moment before saying, "Actually, before I saw this stone tablet, I had a question in my mind."

"What's your question?" the fat man asked.

"Tell me, who did that mandrill learn sign language from?" Wu Xie said in a deep voice. "In my opinion, that mandrill's way of thinking has surpassed that of an ordinary monkey many times over. Rather than calling it a monkey, it's more like a human being."

"Wasn't its sign language taught by Granny Monkey?" Luo Wenbing interjected.

Wu Xie looked at him and asked, "Then who do you think taught Granny Monkey sign language?"

Luo Wenbing shrank his neck. "How would I know?"

Nie Xiaoba slapped his glove impatiently, "If you don't know, then don't interrupt. Don't break Third Master's train of thought."

There must be a human behind the mandrill, and that human may be the one who buried this stone tablet and old grave here.

I have considered the connection between sign language and the previous group of wild lamas, but it is unlikely. Wild lamas generally do not have a high level of education, and people who are not sharp-witted and visually sharp cannot do this job. Sign language is almost non-existent.

The fat man took several photos of the stone tablet for later study, and then suggested, "It's getting dark. There's an old saying that there's always an ancient temple next to a desolate grave. Let's go look for it and stay there tonight."

Wu Xie patted the dirt off his trousers. "We need to find the ancient temple, but we still have to come back and sleep next to this old grave tonight."

The fat man reached out and touched his forehead. "You don't have a fever. Your eyes aren't swollen either. You're perfectly normal. Why are you talking nonsense?"

Wu Xie slapped his hand away, "What are you doing? You've got mud all over my face."

The fat man wondered, "Why don't we sleep in an ancient temple instead of sleeping in an open-air grave? The dark clouds above are almost right above our heads. What if it rains tonight?"

"There's an old saying: 'Better to sleep in a desolate grave than in an ancient temple.' There's a reason for that," Wu Xie said.

Nie Xiaoba silently raised his hand, "I know where the ancient temple is. It's about two or three hundred meters away from the tomb where the monkey robbed it last time."

Wu Xie glanced at the sky and immediately made a decision: "Let's go find that monkey's tomb."

Led by Nie Xiaoba, the group walked northeast for nearly twenty minutes and immediately saw a deep pit in the middle of weeds and wildflowers. The vegetation on the edge was leaning downwards, and an old tree had fallen across the pit due to the geological collapse.

Wu Xie could tell at a glance that this old tree wouldn't live for more than two years. Even though it looked vibrant now, it was already covered with dodder, which were stealing nutrients from its host and robbing it of its life.

The dodder absorbs nutrients from the tree, continues to multiply and grow, climbing and spreading on the thick trunk, blocking the sunlight needed for photosynthesis, and eventually causing the host to wither and die.

At the bottom of the pit lies the coffin in the photo. Without any soil protection, it has been exposed to wind, rain, and sun for days, and the coffin is now rotten and unrecognizable.

There was a hole at the bottom of the rotten coffin, leading directly to the wooden tower below. Nie Xiaoba said that this was already there when he came back last time.

The roof tiles of the tower were completely covered with mud and fallen leaves. Wu Xie turned on his flashlight and shone it down from the tunnel. A lot of rainwater had accumulated on the wooden planks on the lower level. Moss had begun to grow in the places where the sunlight couldn't reach, and the hanging dodder vines were persistently winding around the wooden planks.

At a glance, you can see a stone figurine of the Thunder God's Mouth placed in the pavilion on this floor. It is more than two meters tall and stands there upright with its eyes staring straight ahead. Its expression is ferocious, and its hands are pressed together on the ulnar side as if it is digging for water.

There should have been something stuck in the palm of this stone statue, but it's gone now; it was probably taken away by those wild lamas.

Fatty asked what was inside, and Wu Xie said that they could only see a stone statue, and they would have to go down and take a look to see more.

Nie Xiaoba secured the rappelling rope at the edge of the pit, and Wu Xie and Fatty went down one after the other, shining a light as they looked around.

The fat man, with his sharp eyes, noticed two halves of a rope lying on the ground. "Are those guys out of their minds? How could they cut off their own escape route?"

Wu Xie picked up the rope and looked at the broken end. "It wasn't done by a human. Judging from the rough cut, it was probably bitten off by a monkey."

Upon hearing this, the fat man immediately became nervous. "They've already been attacked by monkeys here?" Nie Xiaoba and the others above immediately grabbed their weapons and looked around warily. Just then, a muffled thunderclap exploded in the dark clouds above their heads, and everyone was jolted.

By this time, it was already getting dark, and the area below the dense primeval forest not far away was so dark that it was completely invisible.

But Nie Xiaoba always felt uneasy, as if something was watching them from the shadows.

A blinding flash of lightning ripped through the darkness, followed by a deafening roar of thunder, and then large raindrops pelted down.

Nie Xiaoba stood there, staring blankly in one direction, his face ashen.

Dafu, not understanding what was going on, handed him half of the coat that was covering his head, and squinted in that direction as well. The rain was so thick that he couldn't see anything.

"Hey, what were you looking at? Third Master is telling us to go downstairs to take shelter from the rain."

Nie Xiaoba shuddered, his soul returning to his body, his forehead damp with what seemed like moisture or cold sweat.

When the lightning struck suddenly, an enormous black figure appeared in the shadows of the bushes. He could clearly see that the huge shadow had two red lantern-like eyes on its head, making it look sinister and terrifying.

Rainwater was already flowing down the pit. When the group went down, they moved a coffin lid over and covered it. Although it couldn't completely stop the rain, it was better than nothing.

Two lanterns were lit, illuminating the attic. Wu Xie noticed that Nie Xiaoba's expression was off, so he asked him what was wrong, "Did you find something wrong?"

Nie Xiaoba hesitated for a moment. Given how terrifying what he had just seen was, and to avoid causing panic among the crowd, he whispered to Wu Xie, "The lightning passed by too quickly. I'm not sure if I'm seeing things."

Upon hearing this, Wu Xie paused for a moment before saying, "Your feeling is correct. Those monkeys didn't leave us; they were following us the whole time. Wasn't the huge shadow you just saw very similar to the mandrill we saw before?"

Nie Xiaoba nodded, still feeling lingering fear.

"That's actually the projection of lightning as it travels in a straight line through the air and is blocked by a solid object, like this," Wu Xie said, bringing his other hand close to the flashlight's nozzle and then asking Nie Xiaoba to observe the shadow on the ground.

The closer his palm is to the light source, the larger the shadow on the ground becomes, and the more blurred its edges become; conversely, the closer it is to the light source, the clearer and smaller the shadow becomes.

Nie Xiaoba suddenly realized that the enormous shadow had come from there. It had almost scared him to death, as he had thought that there was a monster in the mountains that was even bigger than a mandrill.

“But if you’re not mistaken, the mandrill is indeed hiding in that spot,” Wu Xie said.

Nie Xiaoba hurriedly asked, "Third Master, what should we do now?"

"Let's make it cold." Wu Xie smiled and called to Fatty, who was already setting up a pot to cook, "Don't bother with the food yet, we still need to go down a few floors, those monkeys have been following us."

"Damn it!" the fat man cursed. "Those bastards are really persistent. Tianzhen, you find the opening and get the men down there. I'll put some detonators here and blow them all up."

Wu Xie nodded in agreement and patted Fatty on the shoulder, "Be careful."

Having experienced many traps, Wu Xie was already very familiar with the hidden mechanisms that were typically set up in tombs. Hei Xiazi had also specially trained him in this area, so it was easy for him to find the mechanism indicated by the stone figurine with the thunder god's mouth.

“This is a guide figurine, but such things usually only appear in the passageway of the burial chamber, and their purpose is to guide the tomb owner on the path to immortality,” Wu Xie said. “But the direction this figurine points to is very strange. Why does it point to the lower level of the tower, instead of the top of its head?”

Nie Xiaoba guessed, "Didn't the stele say 'Longevity Kingdom' before? Maybe that Gu King thinks he's a god? Or maybe he wants to be a god."

Wu Xie shook his head. "No, look at the expression on this stone statue. The ferocity is just the original form of the Thunder God's Mouth, but its eyes are looking up instead of down. In other words, it is looking up at something coming down from above."

Fatty deftly installed the waterproof bomb, connected the trigger wire, and said, "Come down from up there, isn't that us? Why is this monkey looking up at us? Does it want to recognize Fatty as its grandfather?"

As he spoke, he squatted down and struck a playful pose, mimicking a stone figurine, and said in a high-pitched, coquettish voice, "Welcome, Grandpa, please give me a red envelope."

No sooner had he finished speaking than another thunderclap struck, the sound penetrating the ground and amplifying infinitely in the empty attic. The echoes and thunder overlapped continuously until they gradually subsided after more than ten minutes.

The fat man was caught off guard and was stunned, his eyes narrowing into slits.

Wu Xie lowered his hands from his ears, shook his still-ringing head, cursed under his breath, and slapped Fatty awake. "Hurry up, let's get down here quickly. This tower is shaped like an inverted cone, and the closer we get to the ground, the louder the thunder will be. If it happens a few more times, we'll all be temporarily deaf."

The stone statue of Lei Gong Zui pointed to a wooden door, which was slightly deformed due to dampness. Wu Xie kicked it open, revealing a very low staircase behind it.

The fat man glanced inside and exclaimed, "This place doesn't look like a place for people to walk."

"It's for the monkeys, stop talking nonsense and hurry up." After saying that, Wu Xie put on his headlamp and crawled inside.

The fat man took a deep breath, tightened his belt, turned around and patted Nie Xiaoba on the shoulder, saying earnestly, "I'm entrusting my bag to you."

Before the next clap of thunder, everyone squeezed into the small door and crawled down the low passage. The passage was long, and it was clear that they were going around in circles around the tower itself.

They passed several wooden doors, but Wu Xie only pried one open with his knife to peek inside. He found that the inside were all the same Thunder God's Mouth stone figures as the top floor, with identical postures as if they had been copied and pasted.

The only difference is that the stone figurines in the third level of the pavilion have an extra long, coiled snake in their hands.

The fat man said quietly, "Naive, doesn't he look familiar?"

Wu Xie also said quietly, "That's right, they're all overcooked and dried out."

"Damn, these sausage hangers are like ghosts that won't leave you alone." The fat man clicked his tongue. "Tianzhen, how delicious must your meat be that they've come all this way from afar?"

"You're more palatable." Wu Xie had already pried open the door and crawled inside.

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(End of this chapter)