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

Chapter 532 Qiongqi Eight Evils
After listening to Zhang Haike's words, Wu Xie pondered for a moment and said, "So you mean that after this mechanism is activated, there will also be seven bridges in the main hall we enter, and we might also need to perform a sacrifice like the Zhang family patriarch did?"

He suddenly had a bad feeling. Throughout history, all these rituals related to sacrifice have been essentially bloody.

It's obvious that when the Zhang family patriarch went into the ancient building for a funeral, he couldn't possibly be carrying half a pig back and forth. So, the only offering used to awaken the aquatic creatures was probably human blood.

Seeing his tense expression, Zhang Haike chuckled and said, "It's just a possibility. Even if it's really necessary, I won't make you bleed."

After saying that, he deliberately raised an eyebrow at Zhang Wuxun and gave a meaningful smile.

Upon seeing his meaning, Wu Xie immediately glared at Zhang Haike with annoyance, "You make it sound so easy. In the current situation, it's a loss no matter whose blood is drawn. So many years have passed, who knows how many generations the creatures in the water have reproduced? A little blood is hardly enough."

Zhang Haike, too lazy to listen to his nonsense, said bluntly, "This is the only way."

"You..." Wu Xie's eyebrows almost stood up in anger, "Then if you have the guts, bleed yourself. Don't think you can just fleece my Muyu."

Zhang Haike displayed a disdainful expression that said, "I can't communicate with you commoners," and leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, refusing to speak.

Looking down, he saw Zhang Wuxun still squatting on the ground studying the mechanism, so he lightly kicked his boot with his toe and urged, "Say something, and you should also do something about your man. This is a very serious topic, and I'm not joking with you."

Zhang Wuxun moved away in disgust, not even looking up. "What do you want me to say? You're also a member of the Zhang family. If it's just to lure out something in the water, your blood should be enough."

Zhang Haike readily agreed, "Okay, I'll try it first."

Wu Xie snorted coldly, his expression softening slightly, and asked Zhang Wuxun in a low voice, "How's the research going? Can you solve it?"

"I see," Zhang Wuxun murmured, then smiled and said, "Okay."

The mechanism that Xiao Ge personally set up was much more difficult than those in the other evil tombs. But whether it was intentional or not, during the short period of his leisure time in the house by the water, Xiao Ge had taught Zhang Wuxun a simple wooden mechanism similar to the "Qiongqi Eight Evil Pearls".

This is a rather sinister bead-hiding mechanism, usually used to guard the entrance to tombs containing forbidden items, with a Qiongqi (a mythical creature) cast on it to warn future generations.

With this lock, outsiders can't get in, and things inside can't get out. The ball bearings inside the lock are extremely difficult to handle, but the guy unexpectedly used them here, and they're even a modified UPG version.

"Give me a small brush, I need to clean it properly so I don't accidentally touch it." Zhang Wuxun raised his hand and asked Zhang Haike for something.

Zhang Haike was a little surprised that he knew that he would carry such tools for cleaning cultural relics, but he didn't say anything. He took out the toolbox from his backpack and then told Wu Xie and the other to back up five or six meters.

"How is it?" he asked.

Since it is a sensory mechanism, any person or object that can cause fluctuations must be kept at a distance from it.

"Sure, as long as you don't stomp your feet or make any noise."

Zhang Wuxun squatted there tinkering, while Wu Xie and Fatty stood quietly not far away watching, feeling inexplicably nervous and their hearts pounding.

Zhang Wuxun was completely focused on the small device he was working on. He first used a small squirrel hair brush with a head smaller than a paintbrush to gently brush away the surface dirt, and then used tweezers to clean the sand and gravel from the crevices.

After everything was ready, he spread his five fingers, gripped the copper ring, and pressed down hard.

With a click, the copper ring seemed to be pushed by an invisible hand, and it began to rotate slowly counterclockwise on its own.

Zhang Wuxun withdrew his right hand, then closed his eyes tightly, using only his sense of hearing to touch. In an instant, the only sounds in the entire space were the subtle friction of the mechanism core inside the copper ring and the deliberately shallow breathing of the three people behind him.

At the moment when the rotating gears reached a critical point, Zhang Wuxun suddenly opened his eyes. With lightning speed, he tapped the lower left corner of the bronze plate with his bent index finger, striking it three times in quick succession. The bronze plate responded with three crisp sounds, like jade shattering, and three bronze beads fell into the designated slots.

Hearing his movements, Zhang Haike, who had been silently watching from behind, breathed a barely perceptible sigh of relief. Nothing unexpected had happened; it seemed his gamble had paid off. Zhang Wuxun, oblivious to his thoughts, continued tirelessly tapping the copper plate, silently reciting incantations. Sometimes he tapped twice, sometimes once, sometimes four or five times in a row. The beads' response, tinkling and clanging like chords adding emotion to a piano piece, created a strangely harmonious atmosphere.

"Ah-"

The fat man's sneeze interrupted the knocking.

Wu Xie and Zhang Haike looked ferocious, as if they wanted to devour him alive.

Fortunately, the last two impacts ended a fraction of a second before he made the sound.

Zhang Wuxun stood still for two seconds, then turned to look at the fat man with a serious expression.

"!" The fat man jumped, and asked cautiously in a timid voice, "Is it over?"

Zhang Wuxun nodded heavily, and seeing that cold sweat was already seeping from the fat man's forehead, he chuckled, "Not finished yet, it's done."

"Aaaaah—you fatso!" Wu Xie suddenly jumped up, grabbed the fat man's head, and tried to stuff cotton into his nostrils.

"Holy crap! Tianzhen, have mercy, I can't breathe..." The fat man begged for mercy repeatedly, and sneezed several more times during the shoving, but his nose became increasingly itchy.

Wu Xie suddenly paused, pointed at him, and said, "Fatty, your nose is bleeding."

At this moment, Zhang Haike, who had been leaning against the wall, suddenly scratched his neck, hissed in pain, and looked down to see faint traces of blood on his fingertips.

He immediately turned and stared at the stone wall, discovering that the rough surface of the ore contained many tiny pores that were almost invisible to the naked eye. His expression changed instantly. "Oh no, this ore is poisonous!"

Zhang Wuxun immediately got up and walked over quickly. He pulled open the back of his collar and saw that the skin around his neck, which was not covered by cloth, was already beginning to ulcerate. "It's corrosive. The walls here are basically basalt formed by volcanic eruptions. It seems that the people who built this place probably used strong alkali to accelerate the process in order to speed up the construction."

The fat man, who had stuffed cotton balls into his nostrils, immediately took a big step back upon hearing this, then realized it was pointless.

The air in the entire space was filled with residual strong alkali, and his nasal mucosa and capillaries had become somewhat fragile since they were damaged by strong alkali in Zhangjia Ancient Building last time.

I had gotten used to the environment in Banna and didn't notice anything different, but after arriving in Medog, the cold and dryness made my nasal cavity very dry and uncomfortable. I thought I could just bear it, but I never expected that there would be alkaline gas here, which was really adding insult to injury.

"We can't stay here any longer. Quick, let's get out of here as soon as possible." Zhang Wuxun quickly took out a gas mask from his backpack and covered the fat man's face. Then he ran back to the Eight Evil Pearls, grabbed the copper ring, and lifted it up with both hands.

As the chains were dragged, the ground trembled. Suddenly, a dark opening, half a meter wide, appeared in the stone wall beside the tomb passage at the bend directly ahead, with the entrance pointing vertically downwards.

"Come on!"

Zhang Haike quickly pushed the two fat men inside, then drew his waist knife to block the stone door. He turned to Zhang Wuxun and reminded him, "Three seconds."

"it is good."

Zhang Wuxun agreed, and the moment he saw Zhang Haike's clothes disappear, he immediately released the copper ring, kicked the stone wall behind him, and sprang up like a black arrow shot from a fully drawn bow. He barely grazed the closing stone door and rushed in, pulling out the knife whose blade had been compressed to the extreme and was almost broken.

With a muffled thud, the stone door closed.

A person suddenly appeared in front of him, and Zhang Wuxun was startled. Before he could even slow down, he crashed into Zhang Haike, who was waiting on the hillside to catch him.

If there is no afterlife, then I wish for immortality. — *The Grave Robbers' Chronicles - Thousand Faces*