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

Chapter 5 Copper Bell Corpse Beetle
Upon hearing the boatman mention the ancient tomb, Wu Sanye subtly glanced at Zhang Wuxun out of the corner of his eye and, as expected, saw an interested expression on his face, but he was not entirely relieved.

Uncle Wu casually approached the boatman, offered him a cigarette, and said, "To be honest, we are actually an archaeological team. We're just here to scout out the location. The main force will be here in a while. From what you're saying, it seems you know quite a lot."

Zhang Wuxun almost burst out laughing. What the hell is this? An archaeological team? Why not just call them underground workers? That would be more accurate.

The boatman took the cigarette, tucked it behind his ear, and shook his head. "That's all I know. I only heard it from the old folks in the village. I don't really know the specifics."

Then she started rambling on and on about the story.

Wu Xiaoxie always listened attentively to stories, and his tense body relaxed considerably.

Zhang Wuxun listened for a moment and found it uninteresting, then closed his eyes and listened carefully for any unusual signs.

A few seconds later, he suddenly opened his eyes and put his index finger to his lips to shush.

At the same time, the quiet deliveryman suddenly spoke up, "Quiet, listen, someone is talking."

Everyone was startled, then immediately held their breath and focused. Sure enough, they heard a rustling sound, like someone whispering in their ear, but upon closer listening, it sounded like the wind blowing through the leaves.

Wu Xiaoxie's scalp tingled with fear. He quickly unfastened the safety latch and cautiously surveyed his surroundings.

Then he exclaimed, "Holy crap!" and asked, "Where's the boatman?"

When everyone turned around, they found that not only the boatman, but also the old man driving the oxcart had disappeared.

"Damn it!" Third Master Wu frowned in frustration. "Those two must have hidden themselves using some method. We don't have any corpse energy on us, so we definitely won't be able to get through this cave. Who knows what will happen later?"

As he spoke, he looked at Pan Zi and asked, "Didn't you fight in wars before? Did you ever eat dead people?"

"..." Pan Zi looked at me with a "Are you kidding me?" expression. "When I got there, the fighting had basically stopped, and I hadn't even touched a gun a few times."

As she spoke, she pointed at Da Kui, "Da Kui once said that he had eaten those kinds of meat buns."

Da Kui immediately glared at him, "I was just bragging, how could I have ever eaten that stuff?"

With a dark expression, Master Wu barked, "Shut up, all of you."

The ship suddenly shook violently, and a huge dark shadow drifted past underneath it.

Da Kui was timid to begin with, and immediately turned pale with fright. He said tremblingly, "Third...Third Master, should we go back? That thing looks too big. Even if all of us were together, it wouldn't be enough for him to chew in one bite."

Old Master Wu slapped him on the back and cursed, "You're such a coward! Those two kids haven't even cried out yet, what are you afraid of? We have plenty of men, what are you afraid of!"

Da Kui shrank back into the cabin, feeling wronged, and dared not utter another sound.

Master Wu looked at the young man squatting at the bow of the boat, seemingly seeking his opinion.

The young man didn't listen to what they were saying at all. He stood like a stone statue, his eyes fixed intently on the water, as if he were looking for something.

Suddenly, he moved.

His right hand moved with lightning speed, plunging into the water and then springing out, two unusually long fingers holding a black object, which he casually tossed onto the deck.

"This was it just now."

Wu Xiaoxie, who was standing nearby, peered over and exclaimed, "Isn't that a water beetle? Was that the dark shape we saw earlier?"

The young man replied succinctly, "Yes."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Da Kui probably felt that his performance was too embarrassing, and in a fit of anger, he stomped the black worm flat.

Suddenly, Old Master Wu picked up a worm's leg, brought it to his nose, and sniffed it. He exclaimed in horror, "This damn thing is a corpse beetle!"

Everyone was suddenly startled, a chill creeping into their feet.

Da Kui was terrified and almost burst into tears on the spot, "Third Master... what... what kind of corpse beetle is this? Does it bite people?"

"I can't say for sure. This thing eats carrion. At its normal size, it definitely won't bite, but this size..." Even Wu Sanye himself wasn't sure.

Zhang Wuxun suddenly spoke up, "Where did the sound go?"

Everyone: "Holy shit!"

One wave after another, leaving no chance for anyone to catch their breath.

Wu Xiaoxie was also panicking. "Third Uncle, why don't we leave? Didn't that old man say there's still a way into the mountains, it just takes a long time?"

Da Kui quickly chimed in, "Young Master is right."

At this point, Master Wu was also having second thoughts. He looked at the young man and asked, "What do you think?" The young man shook his head and said calmly, "It's too late."

Wu Xiaoxie frowned and asked, "Why?"

The young man glanced at him and pointed behind him.

Zhang Wuxun continued, "The road we came from has been blocked by bamboo rafts carrying luggage, and there are also oxcarts on them."

"Damn it!" Wu Sanye cursed. "Those two old thieves had planned this all along."

The group looked at each other, unsure of what to do.

Just then, the rustling sound that had just stopped started again, and it was even noisier than before, which was inexplicably irritating.

The atmosphere suddenly became extremely weird.

Zhang Wuxun knew there was something strange about the sound, so he quickly took out his earplugs from his pocket, flattened them, and put them in.

But everyone looked blank and stunned, clearly lost in thought.

Suddenly, Zhang Wuxun felt a few drops of water splash on his face. When he looked up, he saw the young man kicking people into the water one by one.

Poor Wu Xiaoxie was the first one to get kicked.

The deliveryman quickly arrived in front of Zhang Wuxun. Just as he was about to step forward, Zhang Wuxun pointed to his ear and shouted, "I can't hear you!"

The young man gave him a strange look, but seeing that he was indeed conscious, he ignored him and jumped into the water himself.

Zhang Wuxun breathed a sigh of relief. The water was filthy, with corpse beetles and the boatmen's bodies floating in it. He didn't want to stay in it.

According to the timeline in the notes, the boatman should be dead by now.

Wu Xiaoxie had just surfaced from the water, wiped the water off his face, and opened his eyes to find himself staring at a bloody head. He screamed in shock.

Pan Zi was being attacked by a corpse beetle the size of a washbasin. With a flick and a swing of his dagger, he sent the beetle flying.

Unfortunately, it happened to be in Wu Xiaoxie's direction.

Wu Xiaoxie was so frightened that his whole body stiffened. His mind was telling him to run away, but his arms and legs just wouldn't obey him.

Wu Xiaoxie closed his eyes, thinking to himself that his life was over.

With a whoosh, a silver light pierced through the air, cleaving the corpse beetle that was lunging at Wu Xiaoxie's face in two.

Wu Xiaoxie tilted his head back and caught the corpse beetle's juice all over his face.

“…” Zhang Wuxun awkwardly withdrew his hand.

Wu Xiaoxie waited with his neck stiff for a long time, but instead of the expected pain, he was splashed in the face with some unknown foul water.

He opened his eyes in a daze, reached up and wiped his face, his hand covered in sticky green liquid, and immediately felt nauseous.

"Cough..." Zhang Wuxun coughed to cover his embarrassment, took off his earplugs, avoided the corpse beetle water, grabbed Wu Xiaoxie by the back of his collar and lifted him onto the boat, handing him a bottle of water, "Don't talk yet, quickly wash your face, or it will drip into your mouth."

Wu Xiaoxie: "..."

Xiao Ge and Pan Zi also climbed onto the boat one after another.

The terrifying scene just now had given Master Wu quite a fright. He looked at Zhang Wuxun intently, wondering what the man's purpose was in doing such a thing.
Is this person really after the ancient tomb, or... something else?

Master Wu kept his suspicions to himself for the time being. The time was not yet right, and he could not be led by the nose.

If it's really just for the ancient tomb, that's fine, but otherwise... Wu Sanye sneered inwardly.

Regardless, he did save his nephew's life, and in front of everyone, he had to repay this favor.

After washing his face, Wu Xiaoxie poked at the two halves of the insect corpse that Pan Zi had fished out with an empty bottle, then turned to Zhang Wu with curiosity and asked, "Muyu, why didn't you jump into the water just now? Also, did you throw that dart? You're surprisingly good at it!"

Zhang Wuxun waved his hand modestly, "It's nothing special, that's all I know. I felt that the sound was strange just now, so I quickly plugged my ears. Since I couldn't hear it, the sound naturally didn't affect me anymore."

Wu Xiaoxie nodded thoughtfully, "Anyway, thank you for earlier. If you ever need anything in the future, just tell me, and I'll definitely help if I can."

Zhang Wuxun chuckled, "Okay, I'll remember."

"Hey? There's a bell here."

(End of this chapter)