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

Chapter 423 Finding the Iron Piece
Wu Xie promised to give these guys double their bonuses once the battle was over and they returned to Hangzhou, which naturally made Nie Xiaoba and the others happy.

After Fatty woke up, Wu Xie told him his speculation from before going to bed the night before.

The fat man hesitated for a moment and said, "Tianzhen, if you ask me, isn't this another trick of your nephew's third uncle that's been up to no good?"

Wu Xie glared at him. "Nonsense, my third uncle's surname is Wu, not Zhang. Besides, five or six hundred years ago, our Wu family ancestor was still nowhere to be found."

"Yeah, right." The fat man clicked his tongue. "That was probably something the Zhang family elders set up to trick their own descendants. They were originally targeting the wooden fish, but we ended up running into it."

Wu Xie lowered his voice, "Whether it's a trap or not, we have to take this step."

The atmosphere suddenly quieted down. The fat man patted him on the shoulder and sighed.

No one noticed that, near the corner behind them, a very small flash of fiery red appeared briefly behind the backpacks piled up in the corner.

After entering the staircase passage, the group continued forward. At first, the stone path went downwards, but after walking for more than ten minutes, the stone path suddenly turned into a slope that was almost vertical to the ground, leading down to an oval-shaped pit.

The group jumped into the pit and saw a lot of dried silt on the ground, messy crawling marks on the walls, and black ash marks from fire. It also emitted a strange smell that was burnt, fishy, ​​and foul.

Wu Xie sniffed carefully and felt that it seemed somewhat familiar, but he couldn't remember it for a moment.

He asked the fat man, who also said it sounded familiar. "No, no, we've definitely smelled this somewhere before, but we just can't remember where."

Seeing this, several of the waiters also sniffed around. One of the waiters, named A-Zhai, suddenly thought of something and said, "This smells like burning realgar."

After being reminded by A-Zhai, Wu Xie suddenly remembered that when they were in the snake swamp, they had burned a lot of realgar. The already somewhat foul smell, mixed with the dampness of the swamp and the burnt smell of charcoal, resulted in this kind of smell.

"Someone burned realgar here!" the fat man said with some surprise. "Look at how big this blackened area is, could there have been snakes here before? They were all burned to death."

Wu Xie's first thought was that there were also pheasant necks here, but they had not seen any snakes or snake skins along the way, which meant that the person had completely eliminated the snakes here, leaving no snake species behind.

There were no patterns on the stone wall, nor any other useful clues, so they continued forward.

The next section was the same as before, a downhill stretch followed by a deep pothole. After nearly two hours, the road finally began to climb sharply ahead.

A few scattered lights appeared ahead, and this section of the stone path began to feel damp. Water droplets appeared on the walls, and there was a lot of water in the small pits in the cracks of the stone slabs on the ground.

Here on the stone path, the height, which was originally only about 1.5 meters, suddenly increased significantly, and they were finally able to walk upright.

As they approached, they discovered that the top of the stone wall in front of them was a square, prison-like fence, about the thickness of a bowl, made entirely of small stone pillars.

Despite the wind and rain over the years, it still stands there firmly. The gaps in the stone fence have been mostly blocked by dry branches and mud washed in from outside, and light shines through those tiny gaps.

As the fat man looked around, he suddenly realized something and said, "I understand now. The place we are in now is actually the sewer system that the Longevity Kingdom built for water transport back then."

Turning his head, he found Wu Xie looking at him with a speechless expression. The fat man added, "Or maybe this is a place specially set up by the Gu King to imprison something. Look at these little stone pillars, they're so sturdy."

Nie Xiaoba volunteered to go up and take a look. Dafu was the strongest among the group, so he let Nie Xiaoba stand on his back and stand up to look at the stone pillars.

Wu Xie didn't speak, but slowly stroked the stone wall with one hand. Suddenly, he felt a stone brick under his hand loosen slightly. He then signaled everyone to step back, and then took the big white dog leg and smashed it down hard on the stone brick.

After a dull thud, the heavy stone fence began to slowly recede into the ground, and all the rubble and rotten branches blocking the outside rushed in, crashing to the ground like a waterfall.

Mixed in with it were some rotten animal bones and hair, and the stench that had been buried underneath was all brought to the surface.

The fat man shouted that it was a biological weapon, and everyone hurriedly put on gas masks and retreated further back.

The putrid, fermenting stench lingered in the passage. The fat man's voice, muffled behind his mask, said, "I told you this was a sewer, but you didn't believe me. Now you've seen it for yourself."

Wu Xie frowned as he looked at the filth piled up at the entrance of the passage. As the rotting matter poured in, a thought suddenly popped into his mind, "Fatty, I suddenly feel that what you said is very true."

The fat man was a little surprised. "I was just making that up. Don't take it seriously."

Wu Xie said, "Looking back on this journey, do you think this place resembles a place specifically for raising something?"

"Raising things?" Fatty remembered the smell of realgar he had smelled earlier and his eyes widened suddenly. "Holy crap, were all the animals raised here before snakes? Pheasant necks?!"

Wu Xie nodded. "Based on the clues we have so far, that's indeed the case. This fence with the mechanism is a feeding port, used to easily drop prey down to feed the creature inside."

Avoiding the dirt on the ground, he carefully scraped off a small amount of pale yellow, scaly powder with his big white dog leg, examined it closely with a flashlight, took out a lighter, aimed it at the small clump of powder, and a flame shot out, igniting it with a whoosh.

"This is a mixture of pine resin and an animal fat. When applied to the wall, it makes it very smooth, so at this height, it's practically impossible for the snakes kept inside to climb up," Wu Xie said.

The fat man clicked his tongue in amazement. "Goodness, no wonder there's so much dried mud up ahead. It looks like this used to be a damp swamp, specially created to raise snakes."

Another point of similarity with the Kingdom of the Queen Mother of the West; the truth is getting closer and closer to them.

Nie Xiaoba and his men used shovels to clear the fallen mud to one side, then they formed a human pyramid and climbed out through the opening. A rope was lowered, and the group climbed up one after another.

After spending a day and a night in the dark and damp underground, I finally saw the sun.

There were many ancient trees near the exit, their canopies blocking out the sun, indicating that they had entered a deeper part of that primeval jungle.

After confirming the compass direction, the group rested briefly, left a mark, and continued on their way.

After walking for half an hour, some traces of a building appeared in the bushes and wild trees ahead. The fallen leaves here were very thick, and the small temple was buried down to just the corner of the roof. A large elm tree, which was quite old, broke through the roof of the temple and grew directly from inside.

Elm trees are very easy to propagate. As long as elm seeds fall like dandelions into a crack and there is enough rain, a small elm sapling will soon grow in that spot.

This large elm tree that grew through the top of the tree most likely grew in the same way.

Nie Xiaoba said that the temple here was not the mountain god temple he had seen before. Wu Xie speculated that it might have been built on the surface to cover up the truth, and the real Ksitigarbha Temple was hidden here.

The group cleared out an area of ​​the roof, removed the tiles near the tree trunk, and made a hole about half a meter in diameter close to the tree. Although the temple was small, it was very well built. Judging from the feel under their feet, the beams were quite stable, probably made of stone. This was a genuine method of ancient tomb construction.

Fatty said that Wu Xie had always led the way, and this time he was here to scout ahead.

Wu Xie shone his lamp down and saw only the dripping sound of water droplets; he didn't see any snake. Nevertheless, he handed a safety amulet to Fatty and told him to wear it around his neck.

Be careful.

"Don't underestimate me, Fatty. What problems could there be in such a small corner? Don't worry." Fatty replied and slid down the rope.

There was a loud splash as someone fell into the water. Wu Xie quickly peered down and asked, "Are you alright?"

The fat man cursed from below, "Damn it, this place is all tree roots and water, all hanging in bunches like human hands. It scared the crap out of me. I thought it was all floating corpses down there."

Wu Xie was relieved and teased him, "Did it flood your big butt?"

Upon hearing this, Nie Xiaoba and the others burst into laughter.

The fat man was furious. "I'm clearing the way for you, so you southern kids won't be so delicate. How dare you laugh at my hot butt?"

Wu Xie laughed and scolded, "Stop being so sarcastic, just tell me how deep it is down there."

"It's not very deep, it only reaches Fatty's upper thigh. Oh my, it's so cool, all rainwater. You should come down too," Fatty said.

Seeing this, Wu Xie no longer hesitated and jumped down the rope, landing in the water. He stepped on a slippery tree root and almost fell over, splashing water all over Fatty's face.

The fat man quickly helped him up and laughed heartily without any hesitation.

Wu Xie straightened up and found that the water was up to his waist. He immediately glared angrily at the fat man.

The fat man said in a cheeky tone, "Oh, I thought you had long legs."

Just as Wu Xie was about to scold him for lying, Fatty suddenly shone his flashlight to the side, slightly waving it at a spot protruding from the water, and whispered, "Shh, Tianzhen, look, there's something good over there."

Wu Xie looked over and saw that the area not yet submerged by water was a high stone platform, on which was enshrined a stone statue of a strange creature composed of a scorpion and a snake lying on the platform.

Like an eight-petaled plum blossom in bloom, the tails of the nine snakes are all connected to a turntable-like object, and the upper bodies of the scorpions are also made in anthropomorphic form, with their raised pincers pointing upwards in unison.

Clearly, the way these scorpions are posed is similar to the guide figurines we saw earlier; they are all expecting something to fall from the sky.

The two fell silent for a moment, but then suddenly heard a faint exhalation sound in addition to the sound of water droplets and their breathing.

Wu Xie looked at Fatty, and the two exchanged a glance to confirm that neither of them was hallucinating.

Wu Xie feared that this was a pheasant's neck mimicking human breathing, so he immediately shone a light upwards to signal Nie Xiaoba and the others not to come down for the time being.

Wu Xie drew the large white dog leg sword from its sheath at his waist, while Fatty gripped his gun. The two moved silently and slowly through the water toward the source of the faint breathing sound.

Upon closer inspection, they discovered that behind the strange stone statue, on the beam boat, hung six or seven cocoons entangled in vines, a dark, oval-shaped mass covered with white spiderwebs.

Wu Xie and his companion focused their gaze on the newest cocoon among the vine leaves. The breathing sound was coming from there, and there was clearly a living creature inside.

The fat man silently made a gesture of swimming forward on his palm, meaning he was asking if it was a snake cocoon full of baby snakes.

Wu Xie held his breath and sniffed closer, but didn't smell the sticky, fishy smell that belonged to snakes. He then gestured back to him, unsure, saying it was probably not snakes.

"Then let's open it up. We'll find out what it is once it's out there." After saying that, the fat man held up the flashlight for Wu Xie, climbed up the stone statue and approached the tree cocoon, preparing to cut the vines little by little with the blade.

The vines wrapped it very tightly, and you couldn't see what was inside through the gaps.

Just as Fatty was about to make a move, Wu Xie suddenly called out to him, "Fatty, don't move!"

"What's wrong?" the fat man asked, puzzled.

Wu Xie reminded him, "Don't act rashly. Put on your gas mask. This vine is a spider vine, and its sap is poisonous. If it accidentally splashes into your mouth, you will feel dizzy and have diarrhea, and it will also affect your heart."

The fat man quickly withdrew his hand, took the mask and rubber gloves from Wu Xie, put them on, and then carefully began to cut.

The trachelospermum jasminoides is very resilient. It took the fat man a long time to cut a hole. Just as he tilted his head to see what was inside, a white, slippery thing suddenly fell out, almost scaring him half to death.

"Damn it, a surprise attack."

The thing fell straight into the water. Wu Xie carefully went over to check and found that the smooth, naked thing was actually a person!

Moreover, it was a person whose joints had been removed and whose limbs had been twisted behind their back like a reptile.

Wu Xie used the tip of his knife to pry aside the hair covering the man's face, and exclaimed in surprise when he saw the man's face clearly, "Tieduo!"

"What?" The fat man was also surprised. There was nothing else in the tree cocoon. He hurriedly jumped down from the stone statue.

Upon hearing this, Nie Xiaoba and the others jumped in anxiously, asking, "Why is Tie Tuo here? Wasn't he taken away by the mountain demon?"

Seeing Tie Tuo's miserable state, Da Fu was heartbroken and asked cautiously, "Third Master, Tie Tuo, is Tie Tuo still alive?"

Wu Xie's expression darkened slightly. "He's still alive, but if he can't be taken to the hospital immediately, his arm will be completely ruined."

Both of Iron Tuo's shoulders had been torn open by sharp claws, the ligaments and tendons inside were tangled up, and most importantly, both of its shoulder blades were missing.

(End of this chapter)