Tomb raiding: Intercepting Yin Xinyue and building a family of immortals

With Old Wu's reminder, Wu Jizong also understood.

He was keen to befriend them and treated Su Chen and Su Chen even better.

"Brother Su, without you, we might all have died at the hands of the Corpse Beetle King. There's not much wine here, but we'll have a good drink when we get back."

"Easy to say."

Su Chen also wanted to leverage the Wu family's influence to lead Su Family Village into Changsha City.

The two hit it off immediately and soon began calling each other "brother" and "older brother".

The group gathered around the campfire, chatting about everything under the sun.

However, most of the time, it was Wu Jizong who talked about the strange people and events he had encountered while setting up the stove.

As the future head of the Wu family, Wu Jizong was properly trained by the old master.

He was an expert in the mechanisms of ancient tombs and had the ability to identify tombs by smelling the soil.

In his early years, he had joined the Xieling Army and followed the main force to set up camp in the mountains of southern Xinjiang.

"Speaking of the Southern Frontier, there's not much else in it, but there are plenty of snakes, insects, rats, and ants. If you're not careful, you can get eaten by poisonous insects."

Old Wu loved hearing his father talk about these things, and upon hearing this, he quickly asked, "Father, are there really so many poisonous insects in the mountains of southern Xinjiang?"

"That's right. I remember it was in the third year of the Republic of China. I went with Zhao, the leader of the Miyun branch of the Xieling sect, and more than eighty Xieling experts to set up a camp on Laogu Mountain in Miyun County, southern Xinjiang."

"Laogu Mountain is located next to a tributary of the Lancang River. Eighty miles south, you will reach Laos. When we went up Laogu Mountain, we found a Song Dynasty royal tomb. It was full of rare treasures, a dazzling sight. Any one of them was a priceless treasure."

Old Wu blinked and pouted, "Dad, our family hasn't gotten rich either."

"You brat, get out of here."

Wu Jizong slapped Wu Laogou across the face before continuing his story.

"We were just about to take the treasure when, to our surprise, countless straw sandal soles surged into the tomb, densely packed, numbering in the thousands. It was terrifying to see!"

The "straw sandal sole" that Wu Jizong mentioned is actually a millipede, scientifically known as a millipede. It is recorded in Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica as slightly poisonous and can be used as medicine.

Its appearance is somewhere between a centipede and a centipede, but it has many legs, up to a hundred.

Before Su Chen transmigrated, he loved watching science videos like Animal World and had a fairly good understanding of these kinds of insects.

He gave Wu Laogou a lesson in science, and then added, "The world's largest centipede, found in the Americas, can grow to half a meter long and have five or six hundred legs."

Upon hearing this, Wu Laogou couldn't help but gasp.

"Goodness gracious, if it could grow five or six hundred legs, how could it even walk...?"

Su Chen smiled faintly, then said, "Brother Wu, the centipede isn't very poisonous. As long as you don't touch it, there shouldn't be any problem, right?"

Wu Jizong sighed, his tone wistful.

“That’s what we thought at the time. We just wanted to avoid those straw sandal soles and take the treasure. But who knew that there would be more and more straw sandal soles, covering the ground with a thick layer. Moreover, these straw sandal soles were completely different from those in other places. As soon as they crawled on people, even through their clothes, it felt like they were on fire. In no time, several of our brothers were poisoned to death.”

"Old Zhao had no choice but to lead his men out first."

"Later, Lao Zhao tried many other methods, such as smoking and burning... but no matter how many straw sandal soles he killed, as soon as someone went in, a new one would come out. Then an earthquake happened in Miyun County, and the Song Dynasty tomb was completely buried in the mountains, so we had to give up."

Wu Jizong looked regretful, just like a fisherman who lost a big fish, still feeling remorseful to this day.

After listening to his story, Su Chen thought for a moment and said, "In my opinion, there must be some kind of precious medicine in this Song Dynasty tomb where you set up your cooking pot. Otherwise, those centipedes wouldn't keep coming in one after another."

Upon hearing this, Wu Jizong's eyes lit up.

“Hey, buddy, you’ve hit the nail on the head. Later, Lao Zhao and I consulted the local county annals and asked many elderly people, and finally confirmed the identity of the tomb’s occupant. He was a very famous Taoist priest in the late Northern Song Dynasty. He was once bestowed the title of Taoist True Man by the emperor at the time because of his merits in alchemy. Later, he retired and returned to his hometown, Miyun County, and was buried in Laogu Mountain after his death.”

Su Chen nodded, not surprised at all.

The emperors of the Song Dynasty, more or less, enjoyed taking some so-called elixirs and panaceas.

Regardless of whether it worked or not, at least back then, many Taoist priests who knew alchemy were granted the title of "True Person".

The most famous one was Emperor Huizong of Song, who called himself the Daoist Emperor and had a group of Daoist masters under his command.

Some even suspect that the alchemical well at Ping Mountain was built during the reign of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, but after the fall of the Song Dynasty, the well was taken over by the Yuan Dynasty.

We chatted for most of the day, and it was already late at night.

Apart from Black-backed Old Six and Old Dog Wu, who were on night watch, everyone else went to sleep.

Time flies, and several hours have passed in the blink of an eye.

While Su Chen was half asleep, he suddenly heard a rustling sound.

He groggily opened his eyes and saw the old foreman put on his clothes, shook his head solemnly at him, and signaled him not to make a sound.

Su Chen was stunned for a moment!

Having learned from his previous experience of being bewitched by the raccoon dog, Su Chen did not rush to get up this time. He calmly took out a gourd containing black dog blood from his clothes and then waved it under his nose.

The black dog blood in here has been stored for several days and has long since spoiled and smelled bad.

The stench that hit him right in the head immediately brought him back to his senses.

However, the rustling sounds in my ears did not disappear; instead, they became even clearer.

Su Chen immediately realized that he was not hallucinating, but that these voices were real.

He hurriedly dressed and, together with Old Wu, quietly woke up Wu Xiao'er and his father, Wu Jizong.

"Sir, what's wrong..."

Wu Xiaoer was still a bit dazed, but subconsciously asked a question.

The rustling sounds outside the tent stopped instantly.

Old Wu realized something was wrong and quickly covered his grandson's mouth.

Inside the tent, all three of them tensed up.

Suddenly, a corner of the tent began to tremble, and a moment later, a corpse beetle that looked like a horseshoe crab and was about the size of a palm crawled in.

This corpse beetle was bluish-black in color, covered with a layer of carapace, and had a ten-centimeter-long tail.

Beneath the carapace are two short, flat plates, and below those are sharp mouthparts.

Su Chen took a deep breath and carefully picked up the shovel next to the package.

After the corpse beetle entered the tent, it rushed towards Wu Xiaoer and the old foreman.

Su Chen quickly stepped forward and flipped it over with a shovel.

The carrion beetle's shell was indeed hard, but not as hard as the military shovel Su Chen bought from the trading company.

The shovel head, made of special steel, easily splits the carrion beetle in two.

The corpse beetle emitted a sharp, squeaking sound, and bluish-black blood oozed from its split carapace.

Su Chen didn't have time to think, and quickly turned around and growled, "Run!"

Wu Xiaoer also came to his senses from the initial panic. He didn't even have time to put on his clothes. He just grabbed a few packages containing treasures and rushed out after Su Chen, shirtless.

Outside the tent, Black-backed Old Six and Old Dog Wu were in no better shape.

The two were surrounded by a group of about thirty or forty corpse beetles, and they were fighting them off with all their might.

Seeing them rush out, Black-backed Old Six breathed a sigh of relief.

With the addition of Su Chen and the others, the pressure on Black Back Six and Old Dog Wu was immediately relieved.

After swatting all the corpse beetles to death, Old Dog Wu, still shaken, exclaimed, "Master, the insect swarm is here!"

Before he could finish speaking, more rustling sounds arose.

When everyone turned to look, they discovered that countless corpse beetles were crawling out of the crevices in the rocks in the distance.

These corpse beetles, numbering in the thousands, resembled a dark blue tide, relentlessly advancing towards their location.

Su Chen looked around and decisively said, "Let's go to higher ground!"