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

Chapter 327 The Clay Pot Broken
Several long stones had already fallen down from the front, and the pottery jar directly below was smashed to pieces, with hair crawling all over the bottom.

It seems someone has been here before and triggered the mechanism.

The crack was very long, and the long stones hanging behind it seemed endless, stretching into the darkness at the end.

The eerie environment, coupled with the mountain of jars below, made one feel utterly numb.

“There are many copper clips driven into the stone walls of the crevice, which are for people to walk through, but we can’t walk through them. If we step on the wrong one and trigger the mechanism, the stone slabs above will fall down and smash the jar,” Xie Yuchen said softly. “The passage is too narrow. Even if I wasn’t injured, I couldn’t move freely inside.”

Wu Xiaoxie looked at the stone slabs above; each one looked to be about a ton heavy, indicating that the chains hanging them were very sturdy. "How about we go over the stone slabs above?"

Xie Yuchen clicked his tongue. "It seems feasible, but don't forget, what we can think of, the people who built this place may not be unaware of. The Zhang family is the most skilled in tomb raiding techniques. Such an obvious gap clearly indicates something fishy is going on."

"Then what do we do?" Wu Xiaoxie scratched his head. "Besides the above, we can only walk on the copper nails or the pottery jars. Either way, it's suicide. We don't have any earth-遁术 (earth-遁术 is a type of magic that allows us to burrow underground or pass through walls)."

He sighed inwardly, wishing that Xiao Ge and Mu Yu were here. This little trap would be no problem for them at all. They would definitely be able to figure out the pattern of the copper nails, or even just fly over by kicking the wall.

Xie Yuchen thought for a moment, then leaned into the crevice, carefully picked up a shard of pottery, returned and placed it on the ground for Wu Xiaoxie to step on.

Wu Xiaoxie had barely placed his foot on it when the pottery shard shattered into pieces. He helplessly shrugged, “These pottery jars are made of such rough material, and they’ve been sitting here for so long. Let alone a person standing on them, I reckon even a breath would break them.”

Xie Yuchen was also extremely frustrated, "The person who designed this thing is absolutely brilliant; they clearly didn't intend for anyone to survive."

Compared to Wang Zanghai's ingenious tricks and bizarre formations that bewitched the mind, the mechanisms here seem simple but are practical, effective, and flawless.

Ancient mechanisms were typically powered by stone slabs or iron chains. Given the sturdiness of this area, even if an earthquake were to occur in this mountainous region, the mechanisms here would hardly be affected or damaged.

Faced with such a pragmatic and honest government agency, even if he racked his brains until he was completely exhausted, it wouldn't make a difference.

He suddenly realized that the reason he had managed to escape danger in so many haunted tombs was not because he was lucky, but because there were always people around him solving problems for him. Whenever he encountered difficulties, he would naturally look for those three people.

Because his teammates were very strong from the start, he subconsciously felt that as long as they were in the tomb, there was nothing they couldn't solve.

However, reality soon delivered a slap in the face to him in a comical way. Wu Xiaoxie hung his head in frustration. His teammates had always been strong, while he had only gained some experience during this time. Without a mentor, his shortcomings remained.

Suddenly, someone patted him on the shoulder. Wu Xiaoxie was startled and looked ahead. He realized that he had somehow walked to the edge of the well. If he took one more step, he would fall in.

Xie Yuchen pulled him back a few steps quickly, staring warily at the well water, and lowered his voice, "Something's not right. There might be something strange down there. I just heard a series of rustling sounds, like someone was talking, leading us to jump into the water."

"What?" Wu Xiaoxie was a little confused.

"Didn't you hear me?" Xie Yuchen looked at him, staring intently into his eyes.

Wu Xiaoxie was even more bewildered. What was that? Besides the two of them, were there other people here? That would be terrifying.

He wanted to ask Xiaohua if she had misheard; it was actually the sound of water.

But then he realized that his emotions had indeed been a bit abnormal. A sense of self-deprecation and even self-loathing suddenly surged up, as if urging him to die.

How could someone who could live a life of leisure for years in an antique shop that was almost never open have such a stupid idea?
"We can't delay any longer." Xie Yuchen quickly took out a bundle of rope from his backpack, handed one end to Wu Xiaoxie to hold, and tied the other end to himself. "This place is too strange. We can only try to fight it head-on. Let's see if the ancestral master will protect us."

"What are you going to do?" Wu Xiaoxie had a bad feeling.

Xie Yuchen then took out a small purple clay bottle, about the size of a whistle, from his small bag, uncorked it, poured out the black powder inside, and applied it to his hands.

"What is this?" Even through the gas mask, Wu Xiaoxie could smell the strong Chinese medicine scent on the powder.

“This is Chinese medicine and charcoal ash used to absorb sweat, and it can also refresh you.” Xie Yuchen grabbed Wu Xiaoxie’s hand and applied some to both of his wrists. “I’m going to lie down on these jars.”

"Give me some of your precious blood." Xie Yuchen put away the small bottle and reached out to Wu Xiaoxie.

Wu Xiaoxie stared in astonishment, "Are you crazy!"

"These jars break easily, how are you going to lie down!"

"Hurry up," Xie Yuchen urged, and Wu Xiaoxie had no choice but to hand him the bottle containing the Qilin blood.

Xie Yuchen dipped a cotton swab in the blood and smeared it around his neck, then smeared some on his body.

"Things that might break if you stand on them might not break if you lie on them. As long as there are many pressure points to distribute your weight, I can lie on even a light bulb."

Wu Xiaoxie didn't care about the blood at this moment, and took out a cotton swab to help wipe it off.

Although they knew this method was too risky, they couldn't think of a better solution at the moment.

Xie Yuchen removed the iron plate he was carrying, cut open a glow stick with a short knife and put some on himself, then took off his shoes, turned his back and lay down. Using his back and buttocks, he skillfully shrunk into the crack along the ground like a snake.

Wu Xiaoxie nervously wrapped the rope around his palm twice, shone the light inside, and swallowed hard. "Are you sure you can handle this?"

Xie Yuchen glanced down, "You came if you weren't confident?"

Wu Xiaoxie awkwardly shut his mouth, held his breath, and dared not disturb him.

Just before lying down on the pottery jar, Xie Yuchen took a few deep breaths to relax his whole body, muttered something to himself, and then leaned in.

In an instant, their breaths stopped simultaneously. The friction sound of the pottery jar under pressure was deafening in the quiet environment, and seemed to be accompanied by the crisp sound of thin pieces about to crack.

After waiting a few seconds, Xie Yuchen listened to the sounds around him and confirmed that the jars showed no signs of cracking before he felt reassured and continued to inch his way in, gradually moving his entire body onto them.

Wu Xiaoxie watched him move forward without any hesitation, and soon they had covered a distance.

A few minutes later, the fluorescence in the dark crevice had penetrated to a depth of about thirty meters, and Wu Xiaoxie could only see that the fluorescence constantly moving.

Although the pottery jars were still making terrifying noises, it was all a false alarm. Seeing Xiaohua doing so smoothly, Wu Xiaoxie gradually calmed down and continued to hold the rope in his hand, which he would need to climb over later. Listening to the heavy breathing echoing in the stone chamber, Wu Xiaoxie couldn't help but call out inside, "Take it slow, we're not in a hurry, and no one is competing with you. Take a break when you're tired."

Soon, amidst the intermittent, heavy breathing, Xie Yuchen's voice came from inside, saying irritably, "It's easy for you to talk when you're not the one suffering. You want me to rest in a place like this? Do you want me to die even faster?"

Wu Xiaoxie thought his words were very ominous, so he quickly spat a few times and said, "Don't talk nonsense. What if the King of Hell feels he can't refuse your hospitality and crosses you out of the Book of Life and Death in advance? That would be terrible."

Xie Yuchen smiled and said calmly, "This isn't a technical job. As long as nothing unexpected happens, I can get through it by lying down and not focusing too much on my back. The problem is that the original pottery jar might already be cracked, and my pressure on it might shatter it. It's all about luck. Whether I'm faster or slower, the outcome is the same."

"Since the outcome is the same anyway, I'd rather skip the waiting process."

Xie Yuchen's voice sounded too calm. Wu Xiaoxie suddenly thought that he had had many similar thoughts in the past. He immediately felt that he and Xiaohua were indeed very similar in their hearts. Many nonsensical thoughts seemed normal to people like them.

But compared to Xiaohua being all alone, his life experience is much better.

“We’re worlds apart now, and I can’t help you much. You wouldn’t expect me to chant sutras and pray for you, would you?” Wu Xiaoxie said.

Xie Yuchen said slowly, "You can read it when something really happens to me. Right now, you can sing a little tune to distract me and help me relax."

In this situation, the joke was not funny at all. Wu Xiaoxie felt a little depressed, but pretended to be calm and said, "Try your best. When you get out, I'll take you to hear Fatty sing Huangmei Opera. You two can have a good talk about this."

Xie Yuchen chuckled, and after a while, his voice came out from inside, "I think you're lying to me. That fat guy is obviously not cut out to sing Huangmei Opera. I'm afraid I won't be able to resist beating him up."

Thinking of the fat man's raspy voice, Wu Xiaoxie couldn't help but chuckle.

Then I heard Jie Yuchen say, "If it really breaks, just drop the rope and run as fast as you can. Don't worry about me, I won't blame you."

Wu Xiaoxie sensed something was off about those words and her heart tightened. "What nonsense are you talking about? You're not really in trouble, are you?"

The heavy breathing had disappeared at some point.

Xie Yuchen gave a vague reply, his attention entirely focused on a jar under his left ear.

In the instant he moved, amidst the cacophony of sounds, he clearly heard a cracking sound as the fragments rubbed together.

Unfortunately, there's a broken jar here.

He didn't know how big the opening was, or whether the things inside would crawl out when he pressed down on it.

Wu Xiaoxie didn't hear his reply, and coupled with what he had just said, she felt increasingly uneasy. "Xiaohua, what's wrong?"

There was still no response, and Wu Xiaoxie grew increasingly anxious. "Xiaohua, is the jar broken?"

Xie Yuchen gave a muffled "hmm," and said, "You'd better run, the bugs are about to come out."

Wu Xiaoxie's heart skipped a beat. He didn't think Xiaohua would joke about something so serious.

Is the jar really broken? What should we do?
Wu Xiaoxie was so anxious he was pacing back and forth, wishing he could punch the air. He thought that Xiao Hua was probably doomed now, and the entanglement between his third uncle and Xie Lianhuan was about to be repeated in the younger generation of the Wu and Xie families.

Will he earn the nickname "the harvester of the Xie family"?

No, that's not the point. If Xiaohua dies, he will soon follow her to the end.

Suddenly remembering something, he asked in a suppressed voice, "Is the jar completely broken?"

Xie Yuchen didn't hear anyone running away outside. Feeling helpless, he still replied, "No, it should just be a crack."

Wu Xiaoxie quickly said, "Then don't move. Remember, absolutely don't move. Pretend you're a corpse. You have the blood of the wooden fish on you. His blood can ward off the Corpse Beetle King. As long as you don't move, even if the Corpse Beetle King comes out, it will stay away from you."

He remembered very clearly that back under the hydra cypress tree, the little red corpse beetle king that flew out of the blood corpse's head was originally going to attack Da Kui, but was caught by Mu Yu.

The Corpse Beetle King is highly poisonous. Near the shipwreck in Devil City, Aning's subordinates unknowingly came into contact with it and died in less than two seconds, their bodies turning crimson.

But when Muyu caught the Corpse Beetle King, he immediately ran into the cave, and Xiao Ge followed closely behind.

Although he didn't know exactly how the two of them dealt with the corpse beetle king in the end, there was no doubt that the wooden fish's blood was effective against the corpse beetle king, otherwise it would have been poisoned long ago.

When Xie Yuchen heard Wu Xiaoxie's words, although he didn't have much hope, he still stopped and didn't make any rash moves as he was told.

A few seconds later, he suddenly felt a shadow fall on the transparent goggles of his gas mask. His breath caught in his throat as he stared at the tiny insect, which was no bigger than a fingernail.

The little shadow crawled back and forth on the blindfold, its legs with tiny hooks making a soft clicking sound when they touched the blindfold, and its antennae twitching as if it were checking something.

After a long time, just when Xie Yuchen felt he was about to lose his breath, the little shadow suddenly buzzed and flapped its wings and flew away.

Xie Yuchen took a deep breath, but did not let his guard down. Sure enough, a few seconds later, the shadow reappeared, its antennae trembling. Suddenly, the entire insect turned towards the outside of the crack, then flapped its wings and flew away.

Xie Yuchen's heart skipped a beat, and he hurriedly reminded Wu Xiaoxie, "A bug flew over there, be careful."

"Understood," Wu Xiaoxie replied, his back pressed against the wall, his eyes fixed on the Qilin Blood with its lid open, and the several red, dripping corpse beetle kings hovering around it.

If anyone's going to die, it's more likely he'll die.

And then another one flew in right now.

Fortunately, the Corpse Beetle King wasn't very interested in him; it circled him once before being drawn away by the blood of the wooden fish.

A long time passed, so long that Xie Yuchen, who had crawled forward more than ten meters by clinging to the pottery jar, began to wonder if he had already died outside.

Thank you so much to the generous donors: [不念], [年少时最是天真], [影子君y], and [大理陈]! Sending you a huge heart!
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(End of this chapter)