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

Chapter 289 Underwater Yao Village
Yun Cai said she had seen a group of people wearing professional diving equipment salvaging something from the bottom of the lake. Based on the description, Wu Xiaoxie and the others thought they looked like foreigners.

Zhang Wuxun frowned slightly. "If they really are foreigners, then they are most likely Jude Kao's people."

Only that foreign old man would be interested in such vague and unrealistic things, and judging from the time described by the clouds, that team must have appeared here five years ago.

At that time, only Jude Kao had the financial resources, ability, and absolute information.

So, Jude Kao had already been to Banna back then, but he didn't find anything because he didn't have the key information. That's why he came back this time after learning that Wu Xiaoxie and Xiao Ge were both in Banna.

Wu Xiaoxie agreed with this idea, "The places we went to before coincided with the actions of Jude Kao Company. His data collection is more comprehensive than ours, so he will definitely not miss the first stop of the expedition team. This time we really stumbled upon the right place by accident."

The fat man clapped his hands and said, "That's great! Let's go back and get some sleep, recharge our energy, and go back into the water tomorrow."

“I’m a good swimmer, I can help too,” Yun Cai volunteered.

Zhang Wuxun turned his head, looked at Yun Cai with some trepidation in her eyes, and smiled, "No need, we considered going into the water before we came, and brought our equipment."

Yun Cai was stunned for a moment, then her eyes lit up. She was quite flattered and thought to herself that she had indeed made the right move.

Silent all night.

The next day, everyone got up early in the morning. Before the sun rose, a thin mist shrouded the lake shore.

Yun Cai and the others got up even earlier and had already cooked porridge and stir-fried two side dishes. They ate their fill with the golden-brown baked flatbread.

The fat man wolfed down his food, praising Yun Cai's cooking skills repeatedly, saying they were even better than those of a five-star hotel chef. Yun Cai was a little embarrassed by the praise.

After finishing his meal, Zhang Wuxun dragged a large backpack out of the tent and took out the tools inside.

Two folding two-person inflatable rubber boats, several ropes, a depth gauge, four sets of diving suits, diving flashlights, masks, and four small one-liter oxygen tanks are all you need to stay underwater for 15-20 minutes. Someone as skilled and with a long breath as this guy could easily stay underwater for a few more minutes.

Agui and Yun Cai, standing nearby, watched in astonishment as Zhang Wuxun carried out a huge pile of things like a hamster. They were especially amazed when the rubber boat, originally the size of a basketball, was inflated and transformed into a rubber boat more than two meters long.

"Goodness, this...this...this..." A-Gui tentatively poked the rubber boat with his hand, looking extremely surprised. "Something this sturdy must be worth a lot of money, right?"

Zhang Wuxun placed the ropes on the boat one by one, and smiled when he heard this, "There aren't many. If you want them, we'll leave some for you when you leave."

“Oh no, this won’t do, this won’t do.” A-Gui quickly waved his hand. “We usually just use a bamboo raft to cast our nets when we fish in the stream, we don’t need this.”

Zhang Wuxun didn't say anything more and told Wu Xiaoxie and the others to put the two rubber boats into the water.

After completing the preparations and changing into my diving suit, the sun was already high in the sky.

Zhang Wuxun and his three companions sat in two rubber boats and rowed to the center of the lake.

"Wooden fish, how do you use this thing?" Wu Xiaoxie examined the depth gauge, the instruction manual was entirely in English. "Is it just a matter of turning it on and dropping it in?"

Zhang Wuxun was on the same boat as him. He nodded, pressed the switch, and said, "Throw it away. This thing can measure a depth of 300 meters."

With a splash, Wu Xiaoxie let go and threw the probe into the lake. The rope attached to the probe sank to the bottom at an extremely fast speed.

A few minutes later, the handheld device emitted a beeping alarm.

Zhang Wuxun glanced at the numbers on the screen. "98.43 feet, 30 meters, temperature 23. Take the reading a few more times."

We took several more measurements while rowing the boat. At first, the depth remained around 35 meters, but after a few times, it suddenly became more than 50 meters.

"Holy crap!" Wu Xiaoxie exclaimed. "Is there a miniature version of the Mariana Trench hidden underwater? How come the drop is so huge?"

Hearing him call out, the fat man craned his neck and asked, "Innocent Captain, what did the test show?"

As soon as Wu Xiaoxie explained the situation, the fat man exclaimed, "It's not certain that those bones have been pulled to the deepest part. This is almost twenty stories high! First mate, this is a bit dangerous."

Wu Xiaoxie rolled her eyes at him, "What are we afraid of with our scuba gear? You can stay up here and watch the boat while the three of us go down."

The fat man chuckled, "Are you looking down on my fat body or what? I've held my breath for five minutes before."

Wu Xiaoxie chuckled and said bluntly, "You're kidding me. Holding your breath in a basin is not the same as holding it in a lake. With your weight, the water pressure alone will make it hard for you to breathe. Besides, the thicker your fat, the greater the buoyancy. It will be more difficult for you to get down there than for us."

The fat man was extremely disappointed and had no choice but to give up.

Zhang Wuxun tossed the rope tied to the side of the boat to Xiao Ge, instructing him to tie the two boats together. Then, while putting on his flippers and slinging an oxygen tank over his shoulder, he said, "Tianzhen, you and Fatty wait up here. Xiao Ge and I will go down and check the situation first. You can come down once we find a spot."

Wu Xiaoxie nodded. The situation below was unclear, and he couldn't keep up with Zhang Wuxun and the other person's speed, so he decided not to go down and hold them back for the time being.

The fat man was holed up on another boat, winking and making faces at him, but Wu Xiaoxie ignored him.

The young man put on his gear, gave Zhang Wuxun a hand gesture, then leaned back and plunged into the water, using his flippers to dive several meters.

Zhang Wuxun gave a few more instructions, then bit the mouthpiece and tilted his head back into the water. After the downward momentum stopped, he looked up.

On the lake, the dark bottoms of the rubber boats were submerged in the water, their reflections shimmering on the ripples, making one dizzy.

Zhang Wuxun turned around, turned on the diving flashlight hanging on his chest, and swam towards the light from the guy below.

In absolute darkness, everything underwater was silent. The two moved quickly and soon saw the bottom of the water.

A massive ancient Yao village emerged from the dark gray water.

The young man stood still, treading the water, and waited for Zhang Wuxun to get close to the side. He then pointed to the Yao village underwater and made a few hand gestures, indicating that he wanted to dive in and take a look.

Zhang Wuxun nodded. There was still plenty of oxygen, enough for them to stay underwater for a while.

The two carefully avoided the sharp rocks and approached the wooden buildings. The parts of the wooden buildings that were exposed above the sand and stones at the bottom of the water were completely covered by sediment, and the dark shadows made them look like part of a sunken ship. The two shone their lights and looked around. To their surprise, they found that the layout here was almost identical to that of the Yao village outside.

The young man suddenly swam to the side, seemingly seeing something. Zhang Wuxun waited in place. A dozen seconds later, the young man swam back, carrying a round, fuzzy ball-like object in his hand.

The young man made a few hand gestures, indicating that there were other discoveries over there, and asked Zhang Wuxun to come with him.

Zhang Wuxun nodded and followed, discovering a round, fossil-like object embedded in the murky water, among the dense, unidentified aquatic plants and rocks. It was a skull.

Zhang Wuxun stepped forward and pulled it out. He then burrowed down further and found several bones in the same area, including leg bones and ribs.

It was inconvenient to hold it with bare hands, so Zhang Wuxun casually took out a large net bag from his space and threw the bones in. Xiao Ge also found some bones, so they were all put together and put together when they got up there.

Continuing forward, there were even more bones scattered around, some standing upright outside the water plants. Zhang Wuxun and his companion picked them out like mushrooms—no, wait, they picked out the ones that were edible, but rather the ones that were human bodies—and put them into their bags.

There were many other things hanging on the fence near the stilt house, including guns rusted into lumps of iron, military water bottles, and tattered tents.

The guy was carrying something he found here.

The two searched around as they looked until the alarm beeped, reminding them that their oxygen was running low.

Zhang Wuxun patted the young man's arm, pointed upwards, and made a diving gesture.

The young man nodded in agreement, helped Zhang Wuxun carry the other handle of the net bag, and slowly swam upwards in the water.

The two returned home with a full load of goodies.

On the lake, Wu Xiaoxie and Fatty moored their boat together. Wu Xiaoxie kept looking at his watch, anxiously waiting.

"Muyu and the others have been down there for seventeen minutes, why haven't they come back up yet?"

The fat man lay sprawled out in the cabin, claiming he was sunbathing. Hearing this, he lazily said, "What's the rush? There are still three minutes left. With their skills, even if something happens, escaping won't be difficult."

The fat man had a strange confidence in those two perverts surnamed Zhang.

Enraged, Wu Xiaoxie scooped up a handful of water and splashed it on his face. "You know nothing! Underwater is much more dangerous than on land. Under the influence of buoyancy and pressure, any movement you make will be soft and weak. You might not even have time to react if there is danger."

The fat man wiped the water droplets from his face, sat up, clicked his tongue, and was about to say something when another splash of water hit his face. Two dark figures emerged from the water and removed their masks.

The fat man was so startled that he leaned back and almost fell over. "Damn, you two were so quiet, you scared me to death!"

Zhang Wuxun was slightly out of breath. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. "We've found something big. Now."

As he spoke, he and the young man worked together to throw the net bag onto the boat, where the bones collided and made a clanging sound.

The young man threw the backpack he had found earlier onto the boat, then grabbed the gunwale with both hands, and with a push of his arms, he flipped himself up. He then turned around and extended his hand to Zhang Wuxun, saying, "Come on up, that thing might still be nearby."

Zhang Wuxun grabbed his hand, flipped him onto the boat, and removed the empty oxygen tank from his body.

Seeing what they had pulled up, Wu Xiaoxie and his companion were astonished. The fat man exclaimed, "My goodness, how come there are so many human bones? Did you collect everything from the bottom of the water?"

Upon hearing Xiao Ge mention "that thing," Wu Xiaoxie hurriedly asked, "What were you talking about? Is there anything else in the water?"

Zhang Wuxun shook his head and frowned, saying, "I don't know what it is. It's very fast and quite big. It disappeared in a flash. I wanted to chase after it to find out what it was, but unfortunately, I ran out of oxygen and couldn't find any trace of it."

"Moreover, the underwater conditions were somewhat beyond our expectations." Zhang Wuxun recounted the ancient buildings they saw underwater that were exactly the same as those in the Yao village.

The fat man looked incredulous. "How could that be? Who would be so bored as to build a tower underwater?"

Zhang Wuxun glanced at him sideways, "You're asking me? Who am I supposed to ask?"

The fat man scratched his head, still finding it hard to believe that Zhang Wuxun and the other man's expressions seemed genuine.

Wu Xiaoxie fiddled with the net bag for a while, picked up the tool bag and tent that were soaked and ruined by the water, and looked at them. He said, "It seems that Pan Ma really wasn't lying. After they killed people, they really did sink the bodies and equipment into the lake. They were siphoned to the bottom of the water and ended up hanging on the fence of that ancient building."

The fat man asked, "Are you sure that ancient building is exactly the same as the Yao village?"

Zhang Wuxun nodded, "Why would I lie to you? If I had an underwater camera, I would have taken the pictures and shown them to you."

Wu Xiaoxie sighed softly, "It seems that this village has many secrets. The expedition team came here to retrieve the iron block. Based on the clues we have now, the iron block is in the Yao village underwater. The intact village outside must be closely related to this matter."

The fat man, holding the oar, nudged the backpack the young man had tossed up. "Never mind that for now, let's see what's inside. The waterproofing of this bag is passable; there might be some hidden clues inside."

Wu Xiaoxie thought about it and realized it made sense. With so many bones piled up on the boat, if they were just taken straight ashore, A-Gui and his daughter would be so frightened that they would call the police.

The quality of military products at that time was indeed enviable. These bags usually used metal buckles, but after turning them over, it was discovered that the buckles had rusted into a clump and could not be opened. The fat man used a dagger to scratch the leather surface a few times, and the wire that supported the shape of the backpack was exposed.

The fat man dug out everything inside, which had rotted into cotton-like pieces, like an archaeologist, and laid them out in the cabin.

Inside were three wooden combs, two hair clips, several hair ties, a badge, a wooden picture frame, a bottle of Pechoin face cream, and a tea canister.

There was originally a photograph in the wooden frame, but unfortunately it's been blurred and is no longer legible.

Without analysis, it's obvious that this is a woman's backpack. Back then, only women would be so particular, carrying three combs with different widths between the teeth.

The fat man grabbed the tea canister, shook it, and heard a clanging sound, clearly indicating that it contained something.

The fat man tried with all his might to open it, but the lid was damp and rusted, and he couldn't budge it.

"Hey? You little punk, I don't believe I can't get you open today." With that, he used a dagger to pry open the edge.

Several small pouches had been pried off the edge of the lid, but the tea canister still couldn't be opened.

The fat man quickly came up with a plan. He used the handle of the dagger to tap the bottom of the tea canister. After only a couple of taps, the rubber boat started shaking uncontrollably from his actions.

He had no choice but to go into the water, swimming on his back while tapping the jar on his chest. The crisp, drum-like sound echoed across the lake, like that of a large, fat otter.

With each tap, the fat man's belly would bulge, much to the amusement of Zhang Wuxun and the others on the boat.

Although the action was a bit comical, it was indeed effective. In no time, the bottom of the tea canister was broken, and a stream of black water overflowed, emitting a smell that was hard to describe.

Thank you so much to the generous donor 【聂莫忘情长】! Sending you a huge heart! ヾ(▽)ノ

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(End of this chapter)