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

Emerging from the deep pit, Zhang Wuxun and his companions entered a natural stone path shaped like a spout. After walking for about twenty meters, they discovered a square, windmill-shaped Sanskrit symbol, "卍," at a fork in the path.

"This looks familiar. What does it mean?" the fat man asked, gesturing with his finger.

"It probably means that we can move forward smoothly. It is a common auspicious symbol in Buddhism and is regarded as the Buddha's mind seal."

The side path was a bit narrow, and they couldn't go in sideways, so Zhang Wuxun put Wu Xie down, fed him some water with a syringe, checked his forehead and found no signs of fever, then quietly left a small ball of energy in his wound, then changed his position and carried him on his back, saying, "Let's go, let's go in, there won't be any danger inside."

"Okay," the fat man replied.

Following Zhang Haike's markings, Zhang Wuxun and the others turned onto the right fork in the road and continued walking along the rugged natural mountain crevices.

The narrow passage overhead stretched as far as the eye could see. Since entering this place, the surrounding temperature had become extremely cold and damp. The further in you went, the more water vapor began to condense on the mountain walls. Some unidentified grayish-white spore plants also sprouted from the corners and cracks in the rocks, which at first glance looked like old snow that had not yet melted.

The fat man lagged behind, glancing back every now and then to see if any lizards were following.

"It's getting colder and colder. It looks like there's an underground river leading outside near this stone path. I wonder if we can get out directly from here." The fat man was panting heavily, and his exposed skin was covered with tiny water droplets condensed from the moisture in the air.

“Unlikely. At most, there are a few mountain crevices connecting to the outside.” Zhang Wuxun shook his head and denied it. “The road ahead is downhill, and I feel that we might end up inside an ice burial mountain.”

"Look, there's another sign at the fork in the road ahead," Zhang Wuxun gestured in that direction.

The fat man peeked over his shoulder and saw a silver compressed biscuit wrapper stuck in a crevice in the rocks, just like a small flag, within the limited area illuminated by the glow stick.

The fat man chuckled, and his tense expression gradually relaxed.

Along the side road that Zhang Haike had scouted out for them in advance, there were tentacles of the Nine-Headed Cypress constantly lurking around, like snakes chasing after their prey. However, they were all blocked by the Heavenly Heart Stone Powder that Zhang Haike had scattered beforehand.

Following those strange and unusual marks, Zhang Wu and his companions safely navigated several complex intersections.

An hour later, the road conditions finally changed. Traces of human expansion appeared on the surrounding mountain walls, and some ancient inscriptions and images appeared sparsely on the stone walls. They had no special colors and were simply outlined with some pictographic lines.

Zhang Wuxun tried to decipher it and found that the part he could make out was all kinds of snakes. Even the few words he could see were made up of small snakes. None of these snakes had eyes, but no matter how their bodies twisted, the direction of their heads never changed.

“These murals depict primitive snakes, but the fact that they show signs of human intervention suggests that snakes were not the only inhabitants here in ancient times,” Zhang Wuxun said, frowning slightly. “Humans and snakes coexisted.”

A few muffled coughs suddenly came from his back, the voice hoarse, "Cough cough, this is probably an ancient tribe that makes a living by feeding snakes."

"Naive?" Zhang Wuxun was secretly delighted and turned his head to look back. "You're awake."

Wu Xie responded with a sound and blinked very slowly.

"You're finally awake, kid. Next time there's any scouting or similar work, I won't dare send you. If you get stuck halfway there, who can handle that?"

The fat man muttered to himself, then helped him down from Zhang Wuxun's back. "How are you feeling? Still dizzy? Are you feeling unwell?"

Wu Xie leaned against the stone wall and waved his hand wearily. "I've been awake for a while, but I just can't muster any energy. I can't even open my eyelids. I just heard you two talking over there."

"Have some water." Zhang Wuxun unscrewed the cap of the water pouch and held it to his lips.

Wu Xie took a few sips of water, finally easing his dryness and hoarseness. He continued the previous topic, "Judging from the descriptions in those murals, before the Khampa people migrated to the Himalayas, there was an ancient tribe here that made a living by raising snakes. Their faith was in snakes, and further back, we should be able to see traces of humankind." Fatty chimed in, "I remember Zhang Haike mentioning something about the Divine Serpent of Heaven, saying that people back then regarded that giant snake as a divine messenger, offering sacrifices and such. Could he be referring to this tribe?"

“It’s probably true.” Zhang Wuxun pondered. “If the information provided by Zhang Haike is correct, we should see another temple if we continue forward.”

The fat man tugged at his stubble and hissed, "We haven't seen him along the way. Could that old bastard have already followed these murals into the temple?"

"Where would that guy hide his things?" the fat man wondered. "Could they be inside the temple too?"

Turning his head, he saw Wu Xie staring at him with a deep and compelling gaze. "Is the second thing that Brother told you to do related to this?"

The fat man's words suddenly caught in his throat. His lips moved, and after a long while, he finally said, "How did you guess that?"

“It’s too obvious.” Zhang Wuxun said in a calm tone, “From the moment you opened your mouth, you’ve kept the topic focused on the temple. The second thing Xiao Ge wants Tianzhen to do is to find the legendary temple, right?”

"You didn't say anything before because you couldn't be sure if the temple really existed, but things are different now."

Wu Xie gave him a light kick and urged, "Hurry up and tell me!"

The fat man sighed and said helplessly, "I knew I couldn't hide this from you for long. That's right, based on my own analysis, the second thing the young man mentioned was finding the temple."

"But what the young man told me at the time was, 'The Cangteng returns to its nest to see the person who will clear its name.'"

"Although we still don't know what the second sentence means, I think that as long as we follow the murals of these little snakes, we should be able to find the so-called 'nest,' which is the snake god temple built by the snake-worshipping tribe for worship. I estimate that we will find more clues once we enter the temple."

Wu Xie pressed on, saying, "What about the third thing? Since it's related to the second thing anyway, let's talk about it together."

The fat man kept his mouth shut like a clam shell, and simply shook his head, "The time isn't right. Telling you would only harm you."

Wu Xie's lips twitched with anger. "Just keep it to yourself. I also have something to tell you, about clouds. It's a secret I discovered back in Banna. I was planning to tell you, but I don't want to now."

The fat man suddenly became anxious, "What secret? You're not kidding me, are you?"

Wu Xie turned his head away from him, as if he were enacting a new kind of villainous triumph.

It's hard to tell when Fatty is telling the truth to Wu Xie and when he's just fooling him.

He hesitated, then said, "Naive, I'm telling you the truth, don't lie to me."

Wu Xie ignored him, took Zhang Wuxun's arm to stand up, moved his hands and feet, felt that he could walk, and then leaned against the stone wall to look at the snake paintings.

The fat man believed him immediately when he saw his expression, and hurriedly tried to pull him away, saying, "Don't be so naive, tell me quickly, even just a tiny bit will do."

“That secret is in Banna, something Yun Cai and her family have always wanted to know, but you don’t know it.” Wu Xie glanced back at him and tossed down another hook.

The fat man scratched his head, thinking and thinking, going over everything related to the clouds. He felt confident and declared, "Alright, let's both keep quiet and see who can hold out the longest. Whoever speaks first is a coward!" (End of Chapter)