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

Chapter 286 Another Group of People
(Two chapters are too much trouble, so I'll just post them together (ω). I can't manage eight chapters a day anymore, but I'll try to add more chapters in the future.)
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Panma's hand holding the opium pipe trembled almost imperceptibly, and his face was ashen, as if he had aged considerably in an instant.

"Of all the people involved in that incident back then, except for me, they were all killed by that monster." Panma closed his eyes resignedly. He knew that the sins he had committed back then would one day come back to haunt him.

Wu Xiaoxie frowned and said, "I want to know how they died, and what the cause of death was?"

Panma sighed softly, his expression pained, as if he didn't want to recall what happened back then. "The first one to have an accident was Pang Ergui. He disappeared a few days after we came back. The villagers searched for him on the mountain for two days but couldn't find a trace of him."

"The four of us who are left have something to hide. We know that Ergui's disappearance is definitely not simple. In the end, we had no choice but to bite the bullet and come to the lake. As a result, we saw Ergui talking to those monsters who had turned into people. He looked very natural, as if everything that had happened before had vanished."

Afterwards, they suppressed their fear, spoke a few words with those people, and immediately took Pang Ergui home.

At this moment, to Pan Ma and the others' great horror, the same smell also appeared on Pang Ergui, but apart from them, no one else could smell it, not even Ergui's wife who lived with him day and night.

But Panma and the others knew in their hearts that this person was not Ergui; the real Ergui had already been eaten by the monster in the lake.

Panma and the others were too scared to go home, fearing that they would be alone again and give the monster an opportunity to take advantage of them. So everyone gathered at Panma's house, but before dawn, they received news that Ergui had hanged himself last night, and the whole house was filled with that smell.

Meanwhile, two of the remaining four people also went missing.

"Those monsters silently assimilated Ergui and the others. Even if they moved out of the village, they would eventually return to Ergui's abandoned house and hang themselves."

Panma trembled uncontrollably and said in terror, "I was terrified. I knew that escaping was impossible, so I thought of the method of using black dogs to ward off evil. I borrowed several large, pure black dogs, hunting dogs that had seen blood, and tied them up in the house every night when I went to sleep. Three days later, those people completely broke camp and left the village with those boxes that emitted strange smells, and never came back."

Panma spent a year in fear and trembling, confirming that those people would not return, but the incident from back then still tormented him like a nightmare. In order to find out what had happened, he mustered up his courage and returned to the lakeside, where he found a piece of clothing that had been washed ashore by the current, and inside it, he found a strangely shaped iron block.

Iron blocks? Wu Xiaoxie immediately thought of the two "iron gourds" in Xiao Ge's hand, and asked Pan Ma, "What kind of iron blocks? Can we take a look?"

Pan Ma got up, pulled out a red cloth-wrapped object from under the floorboards in the corner of the room, and handed it to Zhang Wuxun along with the red cloth.

Upon touching it, Zhang Wuxun knew that this red cloth was no ordinary red cloth, but was completely stained red with blood. Judging from Pan Ma's evasive manner, it must be dog blood.

Upon opening it, there was indeed an iron lump inside that was almost exactly the same shape as before. However, the one from Panma was better preserved, with less rust on the surface, and the strange, ancient patterns on it could be clearly seen.

Wu Xiaoxie leaned closer to smell it and indeed detected a faint scent that was indescribable.

Panma said that when this thing was first discovered, it had a very strong smell, but over time the smell gradually dissipated. With this iron block in the house, there were no insects.

Judging from Panma's expression, he was clearly saying that animals and insects are more sensitive to danger than humans, which is why they don't get close to the iron block.

"That's all I know." Panma poured a cup of tea for each of them, only covering the bottom of the cup. "I hope you two will keep your promise."

This means they've already given you the boot.

Zhang Wuxun and the other man didn't linger any longer. They stood up, and Zhang Wuxun took out a card from his pocket and placed it on the table. "Thirty thousand, password: six zeros."

In this line of work, he usually prepares several loose cards, each containing a little bit of money, for convenience.

As I left Panma's house, it had started to rain outside, but the rain was light. I declined my father and son's offer to stay and jogged back to Agui's house.

The fat man and the young man were chatting idly under the pavilion in the courtyard. Most of the time, the fat man was rambling on and on, while the young man would occasionally respond. Most of the time, however, he would just stare blankly at the raindrops dripping from the edge of the eaves.

As soon as Zhang Wuxun and his companion appeared at the courtyard gate, the young man seemed to sense it and quickly turned his head, a flicker of emotion appearing in his usually calm eyes.

Seeing the two return in the rain, Agui quickly instructed Yun Cai and her sister to boil water.

I spent the afternoon at Panma's house and returned just in time for dinner.

After changing into dry clothes inside, the fat man and his companion went upstairs. As soon as they closed the door, the fat man winked at Zhang Wuxun and his companion, "How was it? Did you find anything?"

Just as Zhang Wuxun was about to speak, he heard the wooden stairs creaking, and he immediately swallowed back the words he was about to say.

"Let's talk about it after we eat; the situation is a bit complicated," Wu Xiaoxie said.

The fat man nodded, "Alright, the situation with that lump of iron is a bit complicated."

Wu Xiaoxie was still wondering how complicated the iron lumps could be, but when he returned to the room after dinner and Fatty took out the two iron lumps, Wu Xiaoxie was dumbfounded.

Staring at the two unrecognizable lumps of iron inside the box, Wu Xiaoxie could hardly believe his eyes. "How did they get like this?"

If you didn't know better, you'd think a bucket of paste had been poured on it, making all the bumps and patterns blend together and impossible to see.

The fat man scratched his head and coughed. "This thing's outer shell is too strong. I poured a bottle of sulfuric acid on it, and the wooden stump was charred black, but this thing didn't react at all. It only burned off the rust on the outside. So I borrowed a saw from A-Gui, but two of the saw blades broke off. This thing still didn't budge, and that's how it ended up like this."

Zhang Wuxun's lips twitched, and he shook his head helplessly, taking out the iron lump he had just gotten from Pan Ma.

The young man took it and smelled it, his brow furrowing slightly. "This smell... I feel like I've smelled it somewhere before."

Seeing that the young man had no clue, Wu Xiaoxie repeated everything they had heard from Pan Ma.

"Is that so?" The fat man frowned. "Could it be that the old man made it up to fool people?" Wu Xiaoxie said in a deep voice, "I think it should be true, or rather, it is what Pan Ma actually experienced at the time, but not in that sense."

The fat man was a little confused. "What do you mean?"

Wu Xiaoxie explained, "Let's go through it from beginning to end. From the clues given by Muyu, we deduced that something happened to the expedition team back then. And from Panma, we learned that they were the initiators of that incident, but things got out of control afterward."

“I don’t believe Panma’s talk of monsters. Let’s only consider the most practical situation. What do you think it could be?” Wu Xiaoxie asked in return.

The fat man waved his hand impatiently, "Don't ask me, my brain cells have all been corroded by sulfuric acid."

Wu Xiaoxie turned to Zhang Wuxun and asked, "What do you think is the most reasonable guess?"

Zhang Wuxun tapped the table. "If I had to guess, the most reasonable explanation would be that someone is definitely pulling strings behind the scenes. Don't forget, to disguise someone, a simple human skin mask is all you need. You don't need any sophisticated makeup. It's easy to fool outsiders. Pan Ma wasn't familiar with the expedition team, and in his panic, he couldn't possibly notice anything amiss."

The young man nodded, "It's absurd to come back from the dead."

The dead cannot be brought back to life; this is an irreversible fact. Unless one possesses supernatural power like a system, even the power of the Bronze Tree would only produce a fake. Lao Yang's mother is the best example of this; a copy always has a limited lifespan.

Zhang Wuxun, on the other hand, was transported to another parallel world of The Grave Robbers' Chronicles by the system at the last moment before he died, through a time reversal.

The fat man grasped the true meaning of their words: "You mean that those people killed by Pan Ma were not resurrected, but that another group of people took their place and came out of the mountain?"

Wu Xiaoxie nodded, "The most reasonable explanation is this. Do you remember the 'it' that Chen Wenjin was so wary of? According to Chen Wenjin, 'it' is omnipotent and can accomplish such a thing with ease."

Although Zhang Wuxun knew that this deduction was flawed, he couldn't directly point it out at the moment, so he could only say, "It's very simple to verify. Let's go to the lake in Yangjiao Mountain and see. If we can retrieve a large number of skeletons, it will prove that our speculation is correct."

"Then how do you explain those who hanged themselves?" the fat man still asked, somewhat puzzled.

Zhang Wuxun's lips curled into a cold smile. "It's just a little trick of psychological pressure. If the truth is as we speculate, then those who hanged themselves were all switched later, and their bodies were hung up to make it look like suicide in order to intimidate Panma."

"Isn't this just a case of being bored out of one's mind?" the fat man chuckled. "The people he killed with his own hands are back in front of him, and his accomplices are dying one after another. That old man Panma is probably scared out of his wits."

Wu Xiaoxie continued, "I feel there might be some errors in this. Let's assume this is a long-planned conspiracy, with a group of people secretly preparing to kill the real expedition team. The planned execution date might have been set for that day, but unexpectedly, Pan Ma and his group beat them to it, causing the plan to go astray."

"So those people in the shadows simply took this opportunity to begin their disguises according to the original plan. That's why there's the story of the monster from Panma's Demon Lake coming ashore and turning into a human. As for the series of events that followed, just as Muyu said, Panma and his group, as the 'assassins' who carried out the operation and as insiders, naturally took certain measures."

“The dead are the best way to keep secrets,” Zhang Wuxun continued, picking up where Wu Xiaoxie left off. “However, Panma and the others also indirectly caused some disruption. As Panma said, he had secretly witnessed those people climbing out of the lake, which is why he believed in the idea of ​​a monster in the lake.”

“In the archaeological team back then, Xiao Ge, Chen Wenjin, and Huo Ling were all involved. Perhaps on the night of the murder by Pan Ma, the three of them happened to go down into the lake, thus escaping the disaster. Afterwards, the three of them may have left Banna with the fake expedition team. When they entered Xisha, they were switched with the fake three. That’s why Huo Ling left the statement that the expedition team was fake in Golmud after being tricked.” Zhang Wuxun finished explaining his speculation.

The fat man stroked his chin and clapped his hands. "I think what you said makes a lot of sense. In that case, let's hurry up and go to Yangjiao Mountain to find the bone. Everything will be solved then."

Wu Xiaoxie nodded. "Panma and the others were in a hurry when they killed people and disposed of the bodies. They didn't have a boat, so they must have just dumped the bodies by the lake. Let's try our luck. Muyu, did you bring any diving equipment in your treasure chest?"

Zhang Wuxun nodded, "It's always been prepared."

After discussing it, the four decided that if the rain stopped tomorrow, they would have Ah Gui find a guide to take them to Yangjiao Mountain.

The rain outside the window wasn't heavy at this time. Fatty even went downstairs to ask Agui. It rains frequently in Guangxi, and people who have lived here for a long time have a lot of experience. Agui said there was a high chance that the rain would stop, and going up the mountain wasn't impossible.

The fat man then asked him to help find a guide who knew the way. A-Gui readily agreed and offered to contribute two of his own hunting rifles, though they didn't have much ammunition, but enough for self-defense.

The fat man smiled and agreed.

The next day, the sky cleared up.

Since their excuse was to go up the mountain to explore, Ah Gui had already prepared their equipment the night before and even gave each of them a herbal sachet, saying it was to repel mosquitoes.

Zhang Wuxun and the others accepted it without saying anything. Even with Xiao Ge and him around, the mosquitoes wouldn't bother them.

However, they tested it last night and found that the three strange iron lumps did have a slight mosquito-repelling effect. The guy felt that the thing was a "time bomb" and insisted on carrying it himself.

What's a bit frustrating is that even though they're about to set off, they haven't seen the guide A-Gui mentioned. Instead, they see A-Gui himself carrying a bundle of clouds and a machete, looking like he's ready to go at any moment.

Wu Xiaoxie asked in surprise, "What's going on here?"

Ah Gui made an excuse, saying that the hunters who had been to Yangjiao Mountain had all gone up the mountain and hadn't returned yet, so he had to do it for them.

Wu Xiaoxie had no choice but to turn around and go to Zhang Wuxun and the others to discuss it. The fat man said, "I guess we offered too high a price, and this old guy is unwilling to let others make that money."

“No, A-Gui can go, but Yun-Cai can’t. We’re going to take care of important business. What can a little girl do? It’s too dangerous. If she gets a scratch, he, as her father, won’t be worried, but I will be.”

Then he went to confront A-Gui, but A-Gui kept emphasizing that the children in the mountains, regardless of gender, started handling guns at the age of five or six. He sometimes brought Yun Cai with him when he went hunting in the mountains, and in terms of experience in the mountains, Yun Cai was much more useful than the city folks.

Yun Cai was a little unhappy. She patted the hunting knife tucked into her waistband, her eyebrows raised, and she looked dashing in her Yao ethnic hunting attire. Her pretty face showed a mix of defiance and playfulness. "Fat brother, do you look down on people?"
The fat man turned around upon hearing the sound and his eyes widened immediately.

Thank you so much to the generous donor 【聂莫忘情长】! Sending you a huge heart (v)
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(End of this chapter)