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

"Why does the rock on top seem... to be moving?" Wu Xie asked uncertainly.

"Are you seeing things?" The fat man shook his neck, hissed, and looked around. "I, Fatty, also feel that something is a little off, but I can't quite put my finger on it. It's like Tang Sanzang entering the Spider Cave, with hair all over his back."

The fat man lit his torch and was about to look around when he suddenly heard Zhang Wuxun shush him, whispering a warning, "Turn off the torch, I feel something is watching us."

Without hesitation, the fat man stuffed the torch head into the crack in the rock and extinguished it.

The entire space was plunged into deathly darkness, as if trapped inside a light-absorbing dome, and one's visual senses were stripped away by something.

After losing his sight, his sense of hearing and touch suddenly amplified. A few drops of drizzle fell on the back of his neck, and the sudden coolness made the hairs on Wu Xie's neck stand on end.

“Listen, they’re in the rain.” Zhang Wuxun’s voice was very low, as if he was afraid of disturbing something.

It? And them?

Wu Xie and his companion felt a jolt in their hearts and immediately focused their attention to listen. They discovered that the fine rustling sounds surrounding them were not entirely the sound of rain, but rather like the rubbing of some kind of creature with countless tentacles on the rocks. The sounds were masked by the rain and were rapidly moving toward their location.

"What is it?" the fat man asked.

Zhang Haixing approached silently. "A kind of insect, the kind of soft-shelled insect that changes color in the rain."

Everyone suddenly remembered that when the King of Ten Thousand Slaves appeared before, there was no movement. Its figure was hidden by some kind of chameleon that crawls with the water.

Zhang Wuxun looked up at the cave ceiling. The irregular stones seemed to be shrouded in drifting mist, constantly wriggling and changing between gray, blue, black and white, like overlapping and alternating mosaics.

He gasped, “There are insects all over our heads. They all crawled out of the holes that have been gnawed out of the top of the cave. That’s where these insects live.”

"Quickly, we must leave here before they swarm together," Zhang Wuxun whispered, lighting a cold flame.

As the firelight ignited, countless downward-protruding "stalagmites" appeared on the top, like beehives hanging on the cliff. The bottommost tips of the nests were teetering on the brink of collapse, and the insects on them were still climbing down.

Looking around, the entire top of the stone cave outside the bronze gate was riddled with live insect stakes.

Zhang Wuxun made a quick decision: "Run forward!"

The group hurriedly grabbed their backpacks, picked up any usable weapons, and stumbled and ran towards the other end of the cave, stepping over the rubble.

The wind whipped past my ears as I ran, my adrenaline surged, and my mind became incredibly clear. All the illusions created by the bell vanished.

After running for several hundred meters, the cliff where they had first come down came into view.

Zhang Haixing immediately realized that she had fallen into a trap from the very beginning, and that they had never left the place. She glared fiercely at Zhang Wuxun.

The swarm of insects was right behind them, and everyone was anxious and no one paid attention to her little mood.

"What do we do now, climb up?" The fat man grabbed the climbing rope he had left behind when he came down and made a move to climb up.

Looking back, the insect nests had piled up to be thicker than the golden nanmu pillars outside the main burial chamber. Some of them, unable to bear the weight, had collapsed and lay limply on the ground like burnt ashes.

Hundreds of billions of insects swarmed towards the four of them like a colorful red tide, making their scalps tingle.

The rustling sound was so intense it made one's skin crawl; Wu Xie could almost feel the insects crawling all over him.

A tingling, feather-like sensation spread through his exposed arms. Upon closer inspection, he realized, damn it, what did he mean by "feeling"? Some of the insects had clearly already chased after him from above. The cliff face in front of him was covered with wriggling mosaics, with the most crawling on his arms, which had already begun to greedily suck his blood.

Upon seeing the fat man again, Wu Xie immediately felt as if he was going to go blind and almost vomited.

The fat man's legs, back, and neck were covered with red bumps the size of fingernails, densely packed together, like strings of bright red pomegranate seeds on his skin, almost piling up like the fleshy protuberance on the head of Buddha.

"Fatty!" he yelled, "You're covered in bugs, burn them off!"

He noticed that there were almost no insects in the hand the fat man was holding the cold sparkler; clearly, these insects were afraid of fire.

Upon hearing his warning, the fat man turned around and immediately started cursing and slapping himself, each slap leaving his hand covered in blood. "You son of a bitch, you sucked my life-giving water, I'll kill you all!"

After patting him a few times, he realized something was wrong; why was his palm so hard?

He turned his hand over and saw that his palm was also crawling with insects. He hurriedly brought it to the flame to burn. The scorching heat of the fire almost instantly hardened the soft shells of the insects. The pungent smell of blood mixed with the smell of burnt protein created a scene of large-scale insect slaughter.

With a crackling sound, dead insects fell to the ground and landed at his feet, but even more insects rushed forward, jostling and engulfing the fat man's calves in no time.

Zhang Haixing had already cunningly climbed up the rocky mountain, and the insects hadn't crawled there yet.

Perhaps because of the presence of half a drop of Qilin blood, the transparent soft shells of the insects on Wu Xie's body were not yet so swollen, and some even began to retreat spontaneously after tasting his blood.

"It's almost too late!" Wu Xie shouted as soon as he saw a chance. "Bloodletting! Bloodletting! We've been running for so long, my blood should be useful."

Just as he drew his dagger and rested it on his arm, a handful of hot rain, carrying the salty smell of blood, rained down on Wu Xie and Fatty's faces and bodies like a shower of petals.

The beetles, which were once arrogant and domineering, with only the desire to devour and reproduce in their lives, began to instinctively avoid and stay away from the bloodstains that had been sprinkled on them.

"Useless my foot." Zhang Wuxun slapped his dagger away. "With so many bugs, even if you turned yourself into a dried-up corpse, it wouldn't be enough."

"Then what can we do? We can't keep bleeding you out." Wu Xie angrily stomped all the fallen insects into a pulp.

"Don't panic, let's climb up the rocky mountain first." Zhang Wuxun escorted him to the rocky mountain where Zhang Haixing was standing, then turned back to help the fat man clean up the remaining insects.

After smearing several handfuls of blood on it, the insects immediately scurried away as if they had seen a ghost, disappearing into the cracks in the rubble in the blink of an eye.

"My blood can hold out for a while, hurry up and go up," Zhang Wuxun urged.

The fat man cursed under his breath and started climbing up the rocks, while Wu Xie grabbed his arm and pulled him up with all his might.

Almost every inch of the fat man's exposed skin had a pinprick-like bloody gash. After the insects detached, the numbness subsided, and he was in so much pain that he jumped up and down, feeling as if all the embroidery needles used by Rong Momo to torture him had pierced his body.

Seeing that the fat man had reached a safe place, Zhang Wuxun squeezed out another handful of blood and sprayed it out, forcing back a wave of insects, and then climbed up the rocky mountain.

He had barely steadied himself, and before he could even speak, the small rocky hill beneath his feet suddenly lurched. Everyone froze, too afraid to move, their breath caught in their throats.

"Don't move." Zhang Wuxun made a very slow gesture.

The next second, a deafening sneeze erupted from the fat man's mouth, "Achoo!!!"

The fat man's flesh trembled three times, and the small rocky hill beneath their feet also began to shake.

"...Damn it!" Everyone looked at the fat man with grief and indignation.

"Achoo—" came again, and two big snot dripped from the fat man's nostrils.

Everyone has given up, is desperate, and has given up—yeah right.

Having already sensed what was about to happen, Zhang Wuxun grabbed one person with each hand in a quarter of a second, shouted "Jump!", and took the lead in leaping down the small rocky hill.

Unfortunately, the pile of stones collapsed too quickly, and in an instant, Wu Xie, who was standing near the center, was swept into it.

The rustling insect swarm launched its attack once again.

The fat man, who had already jumped up, shouted, "Even if I'm buried by rocks, I'd rather be sucked dry by worms!"

Its chubby body nimbly spun in mid-air before crashing down onto the middle of the small rocky hill.

Zhang Wuxun's frozen expression looked like he'd been fucked.

He was originally going to grab Wu Xie, who was caught in the rocks, but he was pulled down by Fatty's sudden action.

Provoked by them repeatedly, Little Stone Mountain finally succumbed to its overwhelming power and, howling in agony, swallowed everyone whole.

Darkness, rolling, dizziness, pain.

The fall happened in an instant. Zhang Wuxun could sense that they had fallen only a short distance, about five or six meters.

The inside of this rocky mountain must have been hollow. The cover plate on top couldn't withstand the weight of four people. The fat man's sneeze broke the balance of forces, causing it to collapse.

He could still feel the fat man pressing down on his back, shielding him from the rock attacks while also applying nearly 170 pounds of pressure.

Zhang Wuxun silently swallowed the taste of blood in his throat. His hand, squeezed by the rocks, twisted into an extreme bend as he reached out to touch the fat man. He touched the fat man's neck and found that his breathing was relatively even, so he must have just been knocked unconscious.

He breathed a sigh of relief, calmed himself down, and listened for any heartbeat or heavy breathing sounds, but instead heard a faint tapping sound on a rock.

[Are you alive?]
It was Wu Xie's message. Zhang Wuxun was overjoyed and also tapped Morse code with a rock, [Where are you?]
[The fat guy fainted, how are you?]
He could only guess the meaning of the knocking based on tacit understanding. If he tried to imitate it, he couldn't express the specific meaning. If he accidentally conveyed the wrong message, he would knock on Morse code, which Wu Xie also knew.

Wu Xie was also trying to figure out Zhang Wuxun's direction, so Zhang Wuxun deliberately typed a few more paragraphs to explain his and Fatty's situation.

[At your eleven o'clock position, Zhang Haixing and I judged there was a breath, but it might not be good.]
Wu Xie also switched to Morse code to type.

"How are you?" Zhang Wuxun pressed.

They were the first to fall, and they fell the deepest, so they were probably badly injured.

Wu Xie hesitated for a moment, but still told the truth: "[My left leg was pressed down and I couldn't feel it much, but my right hand was slightly dislocated, which I've already reset.]"
Zhang Wuxun knocked a few times quickly, [Wait for me to come.]
Wu Xie silently pulled his hand back, rubbed his sore wrist with his other hand, and then took out a roll of gauze from the small pocket inside his down jacket, tore off a wad, and used it to plug the bleeding wound on Zhang Haixing's head.

When this woman fell, she protected him. Whether it was intentional or unintentional, she saved him. Otherwise, Wu Xie would be the one with blood on his head right now.

Zhang Wuxun's eyesight was unaffected in the darkness. He moved the stones to create a space for the fat man, and then continued to grope his way into the gaps between the stones near his left.

The space below isn't small; large stones piled on top of large stones, yet there's still enough room to breathe—a stroke of luck amidst misfortune.

As I was touching it, I suddenly felt a chain; it was made of iron.

He instantly realized something, silently recited a few Buddhist chants, and then messaged Wu Xie: "[Found a mechanism chain; this must have been specially built by them. There's space below.]"
Wu Xie listened intently, instantly understanding his meaning, and said, "[Open it.]"
Even if they manage to climb out, there are still lurking worms waiting outside, so they might as well try to find a way to survive.

[good. ]
Upon hearing the countdown Zhang Wuxun tapped out, Wu Xie quickly wrapped all the remaining gauze around Zhang Haixing's head.

[...three, two, one.]
The iron chains creaked and rattled, and the two awake people felt a sudden emptiness below them as they and the stones fell down.

Below is not a vertical drop, but a long, stepped ramp.

After a series of tumbles and crawls, just as Wu Xie's soul, which had flown to the heavens, was singing "Cool Down" to itself, it landed spectacularly on a human cushion with a loud thud.

With a crash, the stones above followed suit and fell down.

Just as Wu Xie was about to adjust his posture to protect his head, a strong hand grabbed his shoulder, dragging him along with the broad fleshy pad underneath, one in each hand, to the corner of the steps.

In the darkness, all I could feel was stones tumbling down the steps with a constant crackling sound, some hitting the bottom directly, others bouncing off.

The noise lasted for about half an hour. Wu Xie's outer knee was pressed against a rock. He guessed that the stone fortress above must have collapsed completely, and the steps were completely blocked.

Feeling a bit cramped, Wu Xie shifted in the opposite direction and immediately heard a series of cracking sounds coming from the side of his legs, causing him to break out in a cold sweat.

He was truly terrified of this series of near-death experiences.

Zhang Wuxun was right behind him, pressed against the wall. Noticing his nervousness, he patted his shoulder and turned on the miniature lamp embedded in his collar.

The moment he saw the light, Wu Xie almost burst into tears; it had been so damn difficult.

"It's nothing, just some dead people's bones," Zhang Wuxun said softly.

Wu Xie quickly turned his head and found that Zhang Wuxun was sitting on a skeleton to make room for him.

Fatty and Zhang Haixing were each huddled in the arms of a skeleton, looking half-conscious and dazed.

This scene is utterly ridiculous. (End of Chapter)