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

Wu Xie was no longer the easily startled novice he once was. When the thing behind the door turned around, he was only slightly startled, and then immediately turned his head and used his arm to shield his face in case something sprayed out.

In that instant, he had already seen clearly that it was a damaged gas mask, covered in dust, with a hole in it that looked like a wide-open mouth.

“There’s someone inside this door,” he said.

The fat man quipped, "What are you saying? Aren't we wooden fish people too?"

Wu Xie rolled his eyes at him speechlessly, "Are you being stingy or not? I'm serious."

Zhang Haike said, "It's possible that our kicking the door just now disrupted the balance of the items piled up at the doorway."

"Let's not act rashly yet, let's wait for Muyu's message."

Wu Xie nodded and said he would ask a question first. Then he bent his index finger to his lips, blew a long whistle with a trill, and then listened carefully.

Soon, similar whistles came from inside, one long and one short, followed by three short and crisp whistles.

Wu Xie was relieved and translated, "Mu Yu said it's nothing, but there are some strange things inside, so he has to take another look."

After a while, when the cold flames were almost burned out, Zhang Wuxun appeared out of nowhere and quickly walked to the door.

He said to Wu Xie and the others outside, "Wait a minute, let me move the big items blocking the doorway first."

"Move slowly," Wu Xie replied, then asked curiously, "What's inside?"

"It's hard to say, but I saw a large area of ​​very peculiar tower-like tombs."

As Zhang Wuxun spoke, his hands moved non-stop, quickly clearing the doorway.

Wu Xie and the others pushed from the outside, and the door opened completely.

The space inside the door was quite large. Zhang Wuxun moved all the things that had been blocking the door to one side. They were all kinds of metal and bronze utensils, some ancient and some modern.

Wu Xie picked up the torn gas mask and discovered that there was a dried-up skull embedded inside. The bronze pattern he had seen earlier was actually a Tibetan-style bronze helmet.

The fat man hissed and pointed to several humanoid bronze terracotta figures standing beside him, saying in surprise, "Bronze armor, there's bronze armor here too."

Judging from the fat man's tone, he seemed to have seen such bronze armor somewhere else.

Thinking this, Wu Xie asked, "Fatty, where else have you seen bronze armor like this?"

The fat man exclaimed, "You forgot? When the young man entered the Bronze Gate, he was wearing this kind of armor."

Wu Xie was stunned for a moment, then rushed over to examine the bronze figurines closely. Through the empty eye sockets, he could clearly see that they contained withered corpses.

"This thing is kind of similar to the Terracotta Army, huh?" the fat man clicked his tongue and said, "These bronze figures were probably dressed in armor while they were alive, and then stood here after they died. As for their purpose?"

The fat man glanced around and said, "Muyu said there's a tomb here. These figurines must have been used to guard the tomb."

Zhang Haike then interjected, raising an objection. In his hand was the very head they had seen at the beginning, wearing a gas mask and a helmet.

"But based on my limited knowledge of forensic anthropology, this skull is clearly from a modern person. It's hard to say whether it belongs to the Zhang family. I haven't found any other limb remains yet."

In this area, artifacts from various eras are naturally mixed together. Deren's notes also mention that there are a considerable number of transport plane wreckages left behind after crashes in the territory of the Khampa people. Therefore, it is not surprising to find World War II-era military equipment such as gas masks here.

The cold flames went out completely, and the group shone their flashlights around before, led by Zhang Wuxun, passing through the rows of bronze terracotta warriors and heading inside. Inside the stone gate, beyond the waterlogged area, lay a large, well-maintained, low platform resembling an altar. Zhang Wuxun explained that there were stairs leading up and down at both ends.

The area visible from the platform is made up of individual wooden towers. Upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that this is a huge warehouse. Fortunately, the water inside the door is not deep, only above knee level, and the platform is only slightly submerged.

Once the stone door was opened, the water inside rushed out, leaving only traces of waterlogging.

Turning the flashlight to its brightest setting, everyone could see rows of wooden towers arranged in a staggered pattern, resembling houses built inside a deep cave.

Like bookshelves, each tower has several layers and varies in height. Near the edge of the platform, the wooden bases of the towers have rotted from being soaked in water, and some have collapsed and tilted. Most of the towers are still intact, and the shelves on top are filled with all sorts of things.

The fat man strode up the steps and casually pulled out a triangular, thick cloth-like object from the shelf beside him. It looked like a prayer flag or some other prayer item.

The fat man avoided where people were standing, stretched out his arm and shook off the dust. Something wrapped inside the thick cloth fell out and scattered, landing on the ground and soaking into the puddles on the uneven floor.

Hearing the noise, the group turned on their lights to investigate and found some yellowed and grayish soft paper with writing on it.

"This is so flimsy! What kind of family would put precious things in their burial, instead of just paper books that attract insects?" the fat man complained, bending down to pick them up.

As he stood up, he must have bumped into something, because the entire wooden tower collapsed with a crash.

"Cough cough..." The fat man coughed and waved his hand to blow away the dust flying in front of his eyes. "Damn it, who built this thing? It's a complete shoddy construction project."

Wu Xie took the few sheets of paper that were barely dry from his hand and found that they were indeed a stack of handwritten scriptures, the handwriting so blurry that it was impossible to read.

There are actually many other things on the tower, but they are all covered with a thick layer of dust, obscuring their original appearance and making it impossible to see what they are.

Judging from the hazy outline, one can roughly guess that the two shelves on top are filled with pendants and jewelry such as beads, jade, and agate.

After seeing what the fat man had done, everyone knew that the tower was extremely fragile, so they dared not make any more moves lest they break the balance.

Just then, a sharp "deer" sound suddenly came from inside the cave. Hearing such a sound in the dark cave was so startling that the hairs on the back of one's neck stood on end.

"Who?"

The fat man swept the light in his hand across them in an instant, his face tense as if facing a formidable enemy.

"Don't be so tense." Zhang Wuxun sighed and patted him. "Besides the three of us, the only other person breathing in this place is Zhang Haike."

The fat man turned his head and realized that Zhang Haike was no longer there.

The light in Zhang Haike's hand had now appeared in the center of the platform. His figure was completely obscured by the numerous wooden towers, and his position could only be roughly determined by the shadows of the lights flickering on the top of the stone cave as he moved or scanned the area.

"He's like a mouse, running away so fast without even saying goodbye."

The fat man was slightly annoyed that Zhang Haike's sudden voice had startled him. In a place like this, who knew whether the person who suddenly made a sound was a person or a ghost?

However, he quickly put that little bit of annoyance behind him and raised his voice to ask, "What do you want?"

"I heard you talking badly about me."

Zhang Haike's voice came from behind the fat man. (End of Chapter)