Tomb Raiders: She Comes from the Ancient Martial Arts World

On another platform in the distance.

Seeing the signal from Zhang Rishan, Ling Yue turned to Hei Xiazi and said, "Take them away."

Liang Wan pulled her arm, "Ah Yue, aren't you coming with us?"

What's so great about this dark place? She'd rather die than come to this awful place again!

Su Wan and Yang Hao were also looking at her.

Hei Xiazi gave a smile, seemingly with a touch of emotion, and blessed Ling Yue: "I hope your wish comes true."

After saying that, he muttered meaningfully, "Oh dear, it's just a pity for Wuxie. I wonder if he could have survived until the day the mountain reopens after leading the Wang family, who were chasing him, to the lama temple in the Motuo Snow Mountain and using the heavy snow to trap them and buy time."

He started rambling on and on about where the Lama temple was and what landmarks were around it, almost as if he was about to hand-draw a map on the spot.

Then, with one hand holding Su Wan and the other pulling Yang Hao, he urged Liang Wan along, and alone, he herded the three "sheep" into the darkness, casually and lazily.

Ling Yue remained silent.

If you're going to complain, there's no need to explain the exact location of the Lama temple so clearly, is there?

It is simply Sima Zhao's heart, and everyone on the road knows it.

After Hei Xiazi and the others left, Ling Yue also took the opportunity to return to Zhang Rishan's team.

Chen Jinshui, Huo Youxue, and the others were taken aback by Ling Yue's sudden appearance, knowing how skilled she was.

Huo Youxue immediately turned to look at Zhang Rishan, her expression showing a sense of sudden realization: "She's Assistant Li?!"

No wonder they insisted on bringing him along; no wonder Assistant Li hadn't shown up before.

Because so many things had happened, Huo Youxue and the others hadn't noticed that Assistant Li was missing.

It now seems that Zhang Rishan had already made her step down!

Ling Yue's appearance suddenly gave Zhang Rishan, who had previously seemed weak and alone with only Luo Que by his side, more weight to speak.

Chen Jinshui was filled with suspicion and uncertainty, and for a moment he didn't even dare to draw the gun hidden behind his waist: "Zhang Rishan, you brought her here, what do you want to do to us?"

Of the four families—Chen, Qi, Huo, and Li—only Chen Jinshui personally experienced Ling Yue's overwhelming martial prowess.

Upon seeing Ling Yue, he couldn't help but subconsciously take two steps back.

This caused Huo Daofu, who knew Chen Jinshui's ruthless nature very well, to have a slight glint in his eyes as he looked at Ling Yue, his gaze filled with inquiry.

Previously, at Xie Yuchen's funeral, Huo Daofu noticed Chen Jinshui and Huo Youxue's wariness and fear of Ling Yue. Even when they surrounded Huo Xiuxiu, neither of them allowed their men to make a move.

It's just not as obvious as it is now.

That makes sense. Given the current situation, if Zhang Rishan is determined to take Luo Que and Ling Yue and leave them all here permanently, it's not impossible.

With Ling Yue by his side, Zhang Rishan felt he could stand up straighter.

He secretly regretted that Ling Yue wasn't one of his men, but Zhang Rishan didn't show it on his face and ignored Huo Youxue and Chen Jinshui's questions.

Instead, he nodded to Ling Yue and said, "Let's go, the ancient city gate is just ahead."

Having said that, he took the lead and walked ahead.

Ling Yue and Luo Que naturally followed closely behind.

Chen Jinshui and Huo Youxue exchanged a glance.

Li Qunao was also feeling uneasy: "What do we do now?"

Qi Anmei frowned: "I don't believe Zhang Rishan would dare to attack us directly."

Upon hearing this, Boss Yi glanced at her and gave a cold laugh. Without saying a word, he led his men and chased after them.

Seeing this, the others could only take it one step at a time for the time being.

Zhang Rishan led the group to a large gate, on which were carved two large characters: 虺 and 巳.

A hui (虺) transforms into a jiao (蛟) after five hundred years, and a jiao transforms into a dragon after five hundred years. In ancient Chinese, a hui was a type of dragon.

The character 巳 also refers to the snake.

The fact that it was named after two snakes shows how closely the ancient city of Tongjing was associated with snakes.

Zhang Rishan also said that the ancient city of Tongjing had coexisted with the nine-headed cypress for many years. In order to prevent the nine-headed cypress from damaging the ancient city, the city gate was covered with Tianxin stone powder, which could restrain the nine-headed cypress.

After pushing open the gate, you are greeted by a wide and straight avenue, with various stone tablets and statues placed on both sides.

“Back then, we gathered all the stone tablets and statues in the ancient city of Tongjing here, and re-translated and reorganized the texts recorded on them, roughly restoring all the history of the ancient city of Tongjing,” Zhang Tishan said as he walked forward.

Ling Yue had already reached the first stone tablet and was carefully reading the inscription on it with a flashlight.

Gutongjing was indeed a period of time, or a branch of, the Yuezhi civilization, and the script used was Yuezhi script.

Ling Yue had specifically sought out someone to learn this skill, in order to better collect information about the origins and legends of the Empress's maternal clan for the princess. Now, it just so happens to come in handy.

Zhang Rishan continued talking about everything related to the ancient city of Tongjing: "There are two boundary markers here, with a complete picture of the ancient city of Tongjing drawn on them. Below the ancient city of Tongjing, there is a river that nourishes this ancient city, called the Yellow Springs River. There is a kind of fish in the river called the Snake-Eyebrow Copper Fish, and a kind of snake lives on the fish's eyebrows."

He turned and looked at the diverse expressions on the faces of the crowd: "The people of Gutongjing greatly admired this phenomenon, so they took out these snakes and tattooed them on their eyebrows. The snakes have a very long lifespan. After a person dies, the snake will devour the corpse and continue to grow, eventually becoming a large snake. In this way, the people of Gutongjing and the snakes have coexisted for thousands of years. The venom of the snakes can transmit what they see to the brains of special people. They are like natural biological archives, allowing people to see everything that happened thousands of years ago or even longer by reading their memories."

Li Qunao thought this was too far-fetched: "Able to read memories from thousands of years ago? That's too exaggerated!"

Huo Youxue also said, "If it's true, wouldn't that be like having a third eye?"

Zhang Rishan didn't say that there weren't many people who could read the pheromones of this kind of snake; he just smiled noncommittally and turned his gaze toward Ling Yue.

He had just discovered that Ling Yue seemed to be able to read the ancient Tongjing characters on the stone tablet without any problems.

Who exactly is she? And what is she trying to find in the ancient city of Gutongjing? Is it immortality? Or the secret that the people of Gutongjing have guarded for thousands of years?

Ling Yue listened and watched at the same time, and by the time Zhang Rishan finished speaking, she had roughly finished watching as well.

The inscription on the stone tablet was very brief, and the content was largely the same as what Zhang Rishan had said.

However, Zhang Rishan deliberately concealed the fact that the people of Gutongjing claimed to be descendants of the snake god and that they worshipped the nine-headed cypress.

The people of Gutongjing believed that the snake god was a god of time and space who guarded and maintained order around the edge of the world.

As descendants of the serpent god, every few decades, a new divine messenger with special abilities is born among them.

When the new envoy turns ten, the people of Gutongjing will offer the current leader as a sacrifice to the gods, and then throng the new envoy to become the leader.

Although it seems strange, the people of Gutongjing, including their chief, took it for granted.

The chief being sacrificed did not find it terrible to be offered up on the altar as a sacrifice.

They firmly believed that such a death was a return to the embrace of the serpent god, from which they would gain true immortality and remain forever by the god's side.

The young men and women who are chosen to accompany the city lord, who is to be sacrificed, to the altar to perform the sacrificial dance will be worshipped and envied by everyone because they have received the gaze of the serpent god from beyond the ancient times. Afterwards, they will become the successors of the elders of Gutongjing.

The reason why the ancient temple enshrines the stone statue of the nine-headed serpent cypress is because the ancient people of Tongjing believed that the serpent god was the world's ruler who could not be looked at directly or peered into.

Only its companion sacred tree, the Nine-Headed Serpent Cypress, can become a deity worshipped by mortals.

These contents were found on two stone tablets specifically used to record sacrifices and praises to the snake god.

The inscription on the stone tablet also records similarities to the local legends told by Marila regarding the special abilities of the divine messengers.

By controlling the opening and closing of the imaginary space, enemies can be exiled to the imaginary space, and one can also use the imaginary space to bring people to any place thousands of miles away in the blink of an eye.

It can also communicate with heaven and earth, control clouds and rain, and master the great power of nature through different kinds of music...

Although there must have been some exaggeration involved, these alone reminded Ling Yue of the Jingjue Ancient City, the Ghost Mother, and the Ghost Cave that Grandpa Zeng had mentioned.

Perhaps these two things once belonged to the same civilization in the long river of history.

Ling Yue then recalled the four messy, irregular characters she had seen behind the nine-headed cypress statue in the abandoned ancient temple: wind, snake, god, and destruction.

Therefore, the eventual demise of the mysterious ancient Tongjing civilization, which lasted for thousands of years, was also related to the gods they worshipped.

What exactly happened here more than two thousand years ago?