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

Chapter 87 ends abruptly
Lao Yang, still shaken, said, "Of course not. If I had run into you... you wouldn't be seeing me now."

Wu Xiaoxie sighed inwardly, thinking to himself that he really did have all sorts of bad luck to happen to him; it was unbelievable.

After waiting for a while, there was still no movement outside.

Wu Xiaoxie breathed a sigh of relief, turned on his flashlight and peeked outside. Turning his head, he saw Lao Yang still wrapped in bandages and hurriedly asked him, "How are your injuries?"

Lao Yang casually waved his hand and said, "It's just a minor injury."

"It's out of the way."

Wu Xiaoxie's heart skipped a beat. He wondered if it was because his nerves were too sensitive from the series of stimuli, but he felt that Lao Yang's actions and expressions just now were somewhat similar to Zhang Wuxun, the ghostly thing that had turned into him.

He kept his eyes fixed on Lao Yang, muttering to himself, "I wonder where Mu Yu and the others were taken by the vines. Hey, didn't you get taken by the vines before? How did you escape and end up here?"

Lao Yang immediately looked relieved, saying that after being swept away by the vine, he was taken to a tree hole and hung inside by the vine, probably to be dried and stored as food. He was carrying a dagger, so he took advantage of the vine coming out of the hole to cut the restraints and escaped.

He briefly mentioned the process in one sentence, and as for how he got here, he said that he guessed all the tree holes were the same, so he just kept walking and walking, and somehow he ended up here. He was really lucky.

Wu Xiaoxie neither agreed nor disagreed with his answer, showing no sign of anything amiss on his face, only verbally agreeing while secretly becoming wary in his heart.

If what he experienced on the plank road wasn't a hallucination, and Lao Yang was pierced by vines but was completely unharmed, then it's obvious that there's something wrong with Lao Yang.

If his previous experience on the boardwalk was a hallucination, then Lao Yang's appearance at this time is even more problematic.

As he pondered this, Wu Xiaoxie couldn't help but worry about where the real wooden fish was and whether it had encountered some troublesome situation that prevented it from escaping.

Just then, Lao Yang suddenly reached out and pushed him, startling him so much that he almost instinctively retaliated.

Fortunately, the lighting was poor and Lao Yang couldn't see clearly, thinking he was just moving his arm.

After Lao Yang finished pushing him, he gestured for him to be quiet and pointed to the cave wall behind him, indicating that he should lean closer to listen. "Listen, isn't there some sound coming from behind here?"

Wu Xiaoxie was startled, thinking that the ghostly thing had chased after him again, and quickly turned his head to listen carefully.

"Thump—thump—thump—"

The sounds were rhythmic and very close; you could hear them clearly if you pressed your ear against the cave wall. The sounds weren't loud, and they sounded like... the sound of teeth hitting a bone while gnawing on it.

Wu Xiaoxie was horrified. Could that ghostly thing be gnawing on the flesh of some unlucky guy right there, separated from them by a wooden wall?
The hairs on his body stood on end, and Wu Xiaoxie was so shocked by his own imagination that he almost jumped up on the spot.

Lao Yang quickly grabbed him and dragged him away from the wall, whispering in his ear, "Listen carefully, I think it sounds like someone is knocking on something."

After recovering from the shock, Wu Xiaoxie also noticed that the sound was very rhythmic. If it were really the sound of gnawing on bones, it wouldn't be so regular. At this moment, it sounded like the sound of monks in a temple using hammers to strike a wooden fish.

Unlike Wu Xiaoxie, who was covered in white sweat, Lao Yang appeared very calm, as if he were in his element here.

The incongruity about Lao Yang was becoming more and more obvious, and he didn't seem to be trying to hide it.

The man before him exuded confidence and determination in every expression and movement. The image of his childhood friend in his mind shattered into fragments, eventually piecing together to form the image of Lao Yang before him. Lao Yang, already half-crouched and holding a flashlight, was walking towards the direction of the sound. Seeing Wu Xiaoxie standing still, he stopped and urged, "What are you... what are you standing there for? Come on, let's go see what's going on."

Wu Xiaoxie stood there, a dangerous thought suddenly forming in his mind. He wanted to test Lao Yang's bottom line. "I don't want to go."

After he finished speaking, he waited quietly for Lao Yang's reaction.

Lao Yang slowly straightened up, his gaze gradually turning from fervent to icy. Suddenly, the flashlight in his hand flickered, then the beam shrank, the light dimmed, as if it were about to run out of power.

Wu Xiaoxie caught a glimpse of silver light out of the corner of his eye, and upon looking over, he discovered that Lao Yang had somehow already grasped a dagger in his other hand.

Judging from his eyes, it looked like he could rush over and stab him at any moment.

This time, things have really gotten really out of hand, Wu Xiaoxie thought with a bitter smile.

He added sincerely, "What I mean is, we don't know the specific situation over there, and it might be dangerous to rush over..."

Lao Yang's expression softened, and a confident smile appeared on his face. "It's nothing, I'm just going to take a look. If you're really scared, just follow behind me."

Wu Xiaoxie cursed inwardly, thinking, "You son of a bitch, if you dare to trick me and kill me, I'll haunt you as a ghost and chase you back to scare you to death."

He cursed under his breath, reluctantly moved forward, and forced an awkward smile. "Let's go."

Lao Yang nodded, turned around and continued to tiptoe away.

Wu Xiaoxie followed behind, staring at Lao Yang's back of the head, wondering if he should just knock the guy out. But there were no suitable weapons available in this place, only wood and dry vines, which was really awkward.

The two passed through several tree holes and arrived at the next banyan tree hole, where they shone their flashlights inside as usual.

The sound stopped abruptly, and the surrounding silence was quite jarring.

"This should be it," Lao Yang said.

Wu Xiaoxie frowned and peeked inside, saying, "The root system caves inside are much more complex than those in ordinary banyan trees, and we don't even know if the copper pillar is hollow. Going in rashly might be dangerous."

Lao Yang nodded, "I know, so we'll go down first to scout ahead."

Wu Xiaoxie's heart skipped a beat when he heard this. Oh no, this bastard wouldn't want me to go down and be cannon fodder, would he? Did he go through all that trouble to make up lies just so that I would be sent to my death?

"Go to hell with your second uncle and third uncle!" Wu Xiaoxie snapped, about to unleash a curse, when he heard Lao Yang say, "I'll go down and take a look first. You hold the rope for me from up here."

"Huh?" Wu Xiaoxie was stunned and didn't understand what he said.

Lao Yang laughed as he watched. "What, you want to go down first? This eagerness isn't like you."

Wu Xiaoxie cursed inwardly, thinking to himself, "If you hadn't tricked me into coming here, I'd still be comfortably enjoying the fan and eating watermelon in the antique shop right now."

(End of this chapter)