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

Chapter 64 Ice Silkworm Cloak
After a stone slab sank down, a cave entrance appeared. The three of them went down the secret passage through the cave entrance, walked up the steps, and arrived at the base of the bronze tree.

They're probably climbing up the bronze tree right now.

Thinking about the dangers they would encounter later, Zhang Wuxun couldn't sit still any longer. He quickly finished his self-heating rice in a few bites to fill his stomach, then got up with an energy chocolate in his mouth and started looking for an exit.

When the giant snake saw him get up, it suddenly opened its single eye, startling Zhang Wuxun. But seeing that the snake was just staring at him and made no other move, he was relieved.

Zhang Wuxun waved goodbye to the giant snake and set off along the branching path of the Flaming Spring. Before he had gone two steps, he was entangled by the Nose and forced to return.

Zhang Wuxun: "..."

Looking at the large head so close to his face, he felt quite helpless.

Desperate, he tried everything, gesturing wildly as he said, "I—want—to—leave, to—get out—of—this place, understand?"

The giant snake withdrew its tongue, and Zhang Wuxun was overjoyed. He had only taken two steps when he was dragged back.

Zhang Wuxun looked up at the sky speechlessly and said anxiously, "I really have to go. I need to find my companions. I can't stay here with you."

The giant snake tilted its head. It couldn't understand what Zhang Wuxun was saying at all, but it could sense the urgency in Zhang Wuxun's aura. It stared at him for a while, and just before Zhang Wuxun was about to lose patience, its huge body shifted, revealing a crimson, flame-shaped pattern on its underside.

It turns out that the entire stone platform was covered with flame-shaped patterns, which were previously hidden by the giant snake.

Zhang Wuxun was puzzled. He stared at the pattern for a few moments, touched it with his left hand, and his eyes changed. It was blood!

These crimson flame patterns are formed by the accumulation of blood as it flows through the body.

The entire stone platform is a massive sacrificial structure.

Zhang Wuxun dared not imagine how much blood would be needed for the actual sacrifice if even the weight of Zhujiuyin could not activate the mechanism!
A sudden movement under my fingertip—is there a mechanism?
Zhang Wuxun's brow twitched, and he pressed down hard with his finger. With a crack, several flame patterns moved, first sinking downwards, then shifting to both sides to reveal a shallow groove about two hand spans wide.

Zhang Wuxun took out a flat, long stone box from the shallow trough, pondered for a moment, and quickly unlocked the mechanism. Inside, there was a small square box containing the same black and gold mechanism ball as before.

Zhang Wuxun put the black-gold ball into his spatial storage and then looked into the long box.

Below was a neatly folded white cloth. Zhang Wuxun took it out and unfolded it, revealing a light and thin cloak with a high-quality feel. The material was ice silk, and it was embroidered with intricate and simple dark gold patterns in silver thread, resembling flames or beasts, seemingly some kind of totem.

Zhang Wuxun stood there stunned for a moment. He didn't recognize the totem, but he had a vague sense of familiarity about it. In his mind's eye, he felt that he had seen this pattern somewhere before.

He was confident in his memory; if he had seen such a unique pattern before, he couldn't possibly not remember it.

Despite racking his brains, Zhang Wuxun couldn't come up with a solution, so he simply kept it in mind. His immediate priority was to meet up with Wu Xiaoxie.

He put the ice silk cloak back into the box, then put the entire box into his spatial storage. He then restored the mechanism, and the flame patterns slowly rose until the seal was perfectly closed, leaving no trace of the mechanism visible to the naked eye.

Zhang Wuxun got up and looked up; the giant snake was currently closing its eyes.

good chance!
Overjoyed, Zhang Wuxun tiptoed backward, making sure to remain completely silent.

Suddenly, as he stepped backward, his right foot stepped on something. Zhang Wuxun quickly tiptoed, but the fragile dry branch still broke a little. Zhang Wuxun cursed his second great-uncle inwardly, thinking, "This damned law of escape!"

He held his breath nervously, his eyes fixed on the dormant snake.

Indeed, these sentient beings possess extraordinary perceptual abilities.

The giant snake opened its single eye and saw Zhang Wuxun not far away. It subconsciously stretched out its tongue to try to pull the person back, but stopped abruptly halfway. It tilted its head, seemingly lost in thought. In the end, it only touched Zhang Wuxun's face with its tongue before retracting it, closing its eyes as if nothing had happened, and continuing to hibernate.

Zhang Wuxun was stunned for a few seconds, rubbed his face with the back of his hand, turned around and walked quickly along the water flow, soon leaving the cave.

Zhang Wuxun didn't stop and continued forward with the current.

After walking for about the time it takes for two incense sticks to burn, Zhang Wuxun finally found the second cave where someone had left traces.

Although there were traces of people staying in the first cave, the people here were obviously better at concealing their tracks. Their method of extinguishing the fire was much more sophisticated than Wu Xiaoxie's group's, and it was probably left by Uncle Tai and his group.

Surprisingly, these animals are quite lucky to be alive.

The second cave is the one mentioned in the original storyline where Wu Xiaoxie, Lao Yang, and Liang Shiye paused. Zhang Wuxun found a canned food box produced by the system next to the ashes. There was a simple drawing of a fish on the bottom of the box, with a lowercase letter X in front of the fish's head.

Zhang Wuxun smiled. He even knew to leave a mark in a place that wouldn't attract attention but would definitely make him notice. Little Tianzhen has indeed grown a lot.

Having determined their route, Zhang Wuxun quickened his pace, took out a climbing rope from his spatial storage, secured it to the edge of the cliff, and with a few light jumps, descended.

Zhang Wuxun was somewhat surprised. Was this the benefit of the Candle Nine Yin Egg that the system had mentioned? He could clearly feel that his skills had improved a lot.

Keeping his doubts to himself, Zhang Wuxun continued on his journey.

The coffin maze had been burned to ruins by a fire, with only one path leading straight down into the pit below.

The rats, having escaped the fire, squeaked as they discovered new prey and gathered around.

However, it was all for naught. They found the aura emanating from their new prey too terrifying, and immediately tucked their tails between their legs and slunk back into a corner.

Zhang Wuxun arrived smoothly at the pit and found several loose bricks pushed up from inside. They collapsed with a gentle push, probably to keep out the fat rats.

Zhang Wuxun kicked over the loose bricks, went down the steps, and headed straight for the largest coffin at the back of the tomb. He glanced out of the corner of his eye at the dried and moldy corpse lying beside the coffin, dressed in armor that, judging from its style, should be from the Qing Dynasty.

Zhang Wuxun didn't care. He leaned out of the coffin and looked inside. Oh, these three people had even restored the outer surface of the mechanism.

Zhang Wuxun tapped on the inside of the coffin to pinpoint its location, then hooked his finger and pulled out a thin iron chain from a small hole. With a pull, the partition between the upper and lower layers of the coffin sprang up, revealing a hidden door wide open below.

Thank you to Tomato Plus Lemon, Shadow, Yin Hanyue, alexg, and other great contributors for your monthly votes.



(End of this chapter)