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

Chapter 294 Dark River Silver Worm
There were thirty-seven Miluotu active in the cave, and in no time, half of them had been cleared out.

The fat man's digging speed increased significantly, and he became more and more adept at it, digging all the way into the mountainside, leaving Miluotuo far behind.

On both sides of the mountain wall, there were also Miluotu trapped inside, with their two claws outstretched, standing there like zombies, their white-rimmed eyes staring straight at Zhang Wuxun and his companions as if they were being monitored, their heads turning as they moved.

The fat man huffed and puffed as he swung his pickaxe, muttering under his breath, "Having this damn thing watching me gives me a chill down my spine, it's creepy."

Zhang Wuxun turned his head and immediately laughed, "Fatty, you really need to lose weight. You've torn this huge protective suit."

"Hmm?" The fat man was a little puzzled. "No way, I weighed myself on the scale when I went out this time, and I've obviously lost two pounds."

Wu Xiaoxie retorted mercilessly, "You clearly weighed yourself on an empty stomach before eating."

"Tch~" the fat man scoffed. "Little naivety, you're clearly just jealous of my charm..."

Before the words were even finished, a rushing sound of water suddenly came to my ears.

The fat man asked in confusion, "What's going on? Have we reached the exit?"

Zhang Wuxun pressed his ear against the stone wall and listened carefully, his expression somewhat subtle.

Seeing that his expression was off, Wu Xiaoxie hurriedly asked him, "What did you hear?"

Zhang Wuxun chuckled, "We might have really stumbled upon a shortcut this time."

The path that the person with the drooping shoulders took was a direct route through the jade vein to the outside of the mountain, and it was almost completely safe.

However, while Zhang Wuxun and his companions were hiding in the mountains from Miluotuo's pursuit, they were searching for a way out and ended up accidentally turning back.

If Zhang Wuxun's guess is correct, less than ten meters ahead, the path they are on will connect directly with the crack in the vertical shaft at the bottom of the lake.

When Zhang Wuxun shared his idea, the others thought it was very likely, so they immediately put the oxygen cylinders on their backs and were ready at any time.

After digging about six meters further, the fat man struck with his pickaxe, and several thin jets of water sprayed out like a showerhead.

Immediately afterwards, the barrier in front of me cracked open in several places, like a windshield, and then spread outwards like a spider web.

With a loud bang, the barrier finally gave way to the water pressure and collapsed completely.

The surging water immediately crashed against Zhang Wuxun and his companions, pressing them tightly against the stone wall, pinning them down completely, leaving them utterly unable to resist.

After the initial shock subsided, the four of them swam to the surface with air nozzles in their mouths.

However, when they swam to the surface, they discovered that this was not the lake they had imagined, but another underground river.

The fat man wiped the water off his face, turned on the diving flashlight hanging from his chest, and looked around. "What the hell kind of place is this?"

Zhang Wuxun was also somewhat bewildered. He had originally thought that the jade vein connected to a crack at the bottom of the lake, but who would have thought that it would lead to such a place.

There are no traces of human excavation here; it's more like a naturally formed waterway, with the river flowing slowly downstream.

The space here is not large; they could reach the rocks at the top with a single hand, and there was no trace of the jade veins found around them.

The young man suddenly stretched his hand out into the air, felt it, and said, "There's a breeze."

Wu Xiaoxie immediately said, "If there's wind, it means there's an exit. If we follow the underground river, we'll definitely find an exit eventually."

Zhang Wu and the others then waded through the water, using flashlights, and slowly swam upstream along the underground river.

After swimming for more than four hours, my skin was swollen from being soaked in the water. This underground river seemed to have no end, stretching into the darkness in the distance.

The fat man even dived underwater to check the situation, but found nothing but smooth rocks that had been eroded by the water.

They felt as if they were isolated in another dimension, but thankfully there was plenty of oxygen, which prevented them from falling into despair.

“This won’t do.” Zhang Wuxun stopped to catch his breath and said, “If we keep swimming, we’ll get soaked. I’ll get a rubber boat, and we can sit on it and take turns paddling. We can also take breaks to conserve our energy.”

The proposal was unanimously approved.

After boarding the rubber boat, Zhang Wuxun and the others rested for a while, ate some self-heating meals to replenish their energy, and then continued on their way.

After drifting in the underground river for two days, they were all a bit listless.

The fat man was half-lying on the side of the boat, splashing water on his face with one hand. Suddenly, he saw something and uttered a sound of "Hmm?"

"Look, what's that up ahead?" the fat man shouted.

"What?" Wu Xiaoxie leaned closer to take a closer look and discovered a large patch of silvery-white light appearing in the darkness ahead.

At first, he thought it was just the light from the flashlight shining on him, but when he turned off the light, he found that the silvery patch was still there.

"What's going on?" the fat man asked in a low voice. "It doesn't look like an exit."

Zhang Wuxun was rowing when a flash of silver light suddenly appeared in his eyes. He subconsciously flicked the light with his oar and realized that the thing seemed to be a living creature.

"Look." Zhang Wuxun poured the water from the oar tip into the cabin. A small, shimmering silver thing was jumping around, like a mudfish struggling after being pulled ashore.

Wu Xiaoxie took a closer look and found that this thing seemed to be a kind of fish. It was flat and smaller than the nail of a little finger. Although the fish was small, it had all the internal organs. Even through a thin layer of silver skin, you could see the jumping internal organs inside.

Wu Xiaoxie guessed, "This should be a kind of small silver fish that glows. The glow comes from the spine. The light shines through the very thin skin and is reflected by the fine scales, making it look shiny."

Fatty wanted to touch it, but Wu Xiaoxie stopped him, "Don't touch it yet. We don't know if this thing is poisonous. And if you look closely, its teeth are very sharp. It's probably a rather ferocious carnivorous fish."

Zhang Wuxun suddenly realized something, and his pupils contracted sharply. "This isn't a fish; it's a kind of insect."

"Insects?" Wu Xiaoxie asked, puzzled.

Zhang Wuxun nodded, a hint of confusion in his eyes. "I've seen a kind of transparent worm before. This worm lives in underground water channels and can adapt to various temperatures. Usually, this worm is in a state of suspended animation. Once it is awakened by blood, it can scrape a cow apart in less than half a minute, leaving not even bone fragments."

He had seen the same kind of insect in the water channel of the underground palace beneath the divine tree. These insects only temporarily revealed their shapes when they sucked blood, their prey's flesh and blood being swallowed. But unlike those, the insects here glowed.

But Zhang Wuxun was certain that they were definitely one species. Perhaps environmental factors had caused them to change, or perhaps they only started glowing during their breeding season.

He recalled a type of amphibious fish called mudskipper, also known as a jumping fish. This fish is usually grayish-yellow or brown in appearance, but during the breeding season, the male mudskipper's appearance turns pink or magenta, also known as "nuptial coloration".

Thinking of this, Zhang Wuxun hurriedly took out new diving suits and rubber gloves from his space and said urgently, "Quickly wrap your whole bodies up, don't leave any gaps, we can't let them smell even a trace of blood."

Upon hearing this, the young man also abandoned his plan to bleed the patient.

The four men were fully armed, with even their heads wrapped in plastic film, leaving only a hole for an air nozzle.

Carefully paddling the rubber boat closer and closer to the large expanse of silver light, as we approached, tiny silver specks of light would occasionally appear on the water's surface, drifting slowly and leisurely.

Upon closer inspection, they realized it was a small cluster of caves, with silvery orbs of light gathered inside, varying in size, truly resembling a dazzling galaxy.

Countless silver dots darted among them, their starlight dazzling and mesmerizing.

Moreover, as they approached, they clearly felt a change in the surrounding temperature; the original eerie coldness turned into a warm and cozy atmosphere. This further confirmed Zhang Wuxun's guess that these dangerous little insects were in their breeding season.

Zhang Wuxun and the others tried to make their paddling movements as lightly as possible until the boat had passed through the area and was completely far away, at which point they all breathed a sigh of relief.

The fat man ripped off the plastic film from his face and muttered under his breath, "Damn it, I'm suffocating."

The group burst into laughter.

Wu Xiaoxie said that there was probably some kind of warm jade behind that cave, which is why those silvery insects that look like fish gathered together.

Zhang Wuxun reached out and touched the stone wall, plucking off a small tuft of fuzzy moss. "I guess we're almost at the exit."

Wu Xiaoxie poked the oar into the water and, sure enough, hit the bottom of the underground river. He nodded and said, "That's right, the water in this area is getting shallower and shallower. If we go any further, we won't be able to row the boat anymore."

After drifting slowly for about half an hour, the rubber boat was completely blocked and could not move. The surrounding cave walls had also widened considerably.

They stowed up the rubber boat and waded into the water. They could clearly feel the terrain gradually becoming steeper, and the underground river was flowing faster, even pushing them backward.

Holding onto the stone wall, I carefully tested the stones under my feet before taking each step to avoid slipping.

The sound of the flowing water grew louder and louder, the air was filled with the smell of mud, and the water underfoot became increasingly murky.

The fat man, panting heavily, chuckled and said, "I reckon it's starting to rain again outside. Look at the water, there are still broken grass blades in it. We'll be able to get out soon."

After another ten minutes or so, light finally appeared ahead, beyond what the flashlight could provide.

The four of them ran over quickly, cleared away the grass blocking the entrance, and took deep breaths of the fresh air outside.

It was indeed raining outside, and you could hear thunder, but the opening was too small for them to stick their heads out.

The fat man excitedly reached out to Zhang Wuxun and urged, "Quickly, Muyu, give me the explosives. As long as we blow a hole in this thing, we can get out."

Zhang Wuxun took out a waterproof time bomb with a small amount of explosives. Fatty quickly chiseled a small hole, put the bomb in, set the orientation, and then told Zhang Wuxun and the others to quickly take cover.

With a loud bang, it sounded like a muffled thunderclap in my ears.

After a thick cloud of smoke cleared, the light streaming in from outside became much brighter, but it looked rather unnatural.

Without thinking twice, the fat man pushed most of his body out, then suddenly screamed and tried to pull back. Before he could get back in, he was pulled out again as if by a tremendous force.

Zhang Wuxun and the others were startled. When they realized what was happening, they quickly grabbed the fat man's legs and pulled him down. The thing above was also pulling upwards with force, and the fat man screamed and cried as he was pulled from both sides.

"Damn it, stop right now! Fatty's going to be torn to pieces!"

Suddenly, a voice came from above the cave entrance, calling out a few words to Zhang Wuxun and the others inside.

Zhang Wuxun recognized the language as Yao and quickly told Wu Xiaoxie and Xiao Ge to let go of each other's hands. "There are people outside. They should be locals. I also heard a Xingcheng accent. I guess it's Pan Zi and Wang Mengmeng who led people to search for us on the mountain, but they were attracted by the explosion."

Without any resistance from below, the fat man was pulled up by the people above. Immediately afterwards, a familiar yet weathered face peeked in from the cave entrance. Upon seeing Zhang Wuxun and the others, the face lit up with joy.

Pan Zi laughed and cursed a few times, "Where have you little brats been? We've been looking all over for you, hurry up and come out."

Zhang Wuxun and the other two also climbed up one after another. Outside, the lights were bright, as bright as day, and people were shouting something on walkie-talkies. All sorts of chaotic sounds were mixed together, making people's heads throb.

Several burly locals stood in the bushes near the cave entrance, but their gazes toward Zhang Wuxun and his companions were not very friendly.

The fat man was slumped on the ground, rubbing his arm and cursing.

Turning my head again, I saw even more people standing in the ravine beside me, all dressed in shorts and shorts, speaking entirely in the Changsha dialect.

Wu Xiaoxie, with his sharp eyes, spotted one of them and immediately shuddered, shrinking his head to hide behind Zhang Wuxun and Xiao Ge.

Zhang Wuxun asked in confusion, "What's wrong?"

Wu Xiaoxie bent over and pointed in one direction, whispering, "We're in big trouble. We've really messed up this time. My second uncle actually came all the way from Xingcheng to get here."

Zhang Wuxun glanced in the direction he was pointing and saw a refined-looking middle-aged man walk quickly over. The moment he saw Wu Xiaoxie, he visibly breathed a sigh of relief, then clenched his teeth, his gold-rimmed glasses unable to conceal the anger in his eyes.

"Xiao Xie, come here, let your second uncle check if you're hurt anywhere," Wu Erbai said calmly.

Wu Xiaoxie immediately looked miserable, and dejectedly shuffled over with small steps. His first words were an apology, "Second Uncle, I'm sorry for making you worry."

Of all the people in the Wu family, Wu Xiaoxie was most afraid of his second uncle. If he made a mistake, he would admit it directly and the punishment might be lighter. But if he tried to play tricks on his second uncle, he would be courting death.

He could be mischievous and playful in front of his third uncle, even chat and joke around without any problem, but when he was in front of his second uncle, both his third uncle and he had to become featherless quails.

(End of this chapter)