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

Chapter 438 An old friend returns
According to Chen Xuehan, Xiao Ge also came from the snow mountain back then. So, could Bai Ci's purpose in coming here be the same as Xiao Ge's?
Wu Xie frowned deeply. What exactly was deep within the snow-capped mountains of Motuo?
If Bai Ci really is Mu Yu, then what attracted him to the depths of the snow mountain must be related to the Zhang family.

The young man has gone to Changbai Mountain to guard the bronze gate, while the wooden fish has come to Motuo. So, could there be something related to the bronze gate or meteorite jade here as well?

After dinner, a young lama came to Wu Xie's room to inform him, "Master invites our distinguished guest to the bedroom for a talk."

Wu Xie thought he wouldn't be able to wait until today, and since he hadn't slept well last night, he washed up early and prepared to go to bed.

Upon hearing this, he quickly got up, leaving Langka behind, and followed the young lama up the stairs, with the young lama holding a lantern to light his way.

As dusk settled and Wu Xie looked up, he saw rows of houses built against the mountain stretching far into the distance, their lights like twinkling stars in the night sky, bright and eye-catching.

"Where did that guest named Baici used to live?" he asked the young lama.

The young lama answered him in broken Mandarin, “In the guesthouses on the east side of the back mountain.”

Wu Xie nodded thoughtfully, then asked, "May I also stay at the back mountain?"

The young lama shook his head. "The guesthouses on the back mountain are special; we need to ask Master Deren for permission before we can open them."

Wu Xie indicated that he understood. As he spoke, he followed the little lama into the corridor and finally stopped in front of a wooden door.

"Please come in, guest." The young lama gently knocked on the wooden door and slowly pushed it open. The inside was dimly lit.

Wu Xie thanked him and stepped inside, the little lama closing the door behind him.

Upon entering, Wu Xie saw a dim oil lamp lit in a corner by the window. An elderly lama was sitting at a table, his eyes closed, turning the prayer beads in his hand. In front of him was an open scroll of scriptures.

Wu Xie walked to the table, bowed to the Grand Lama, and said, "I would like to ask the Master some questions. Is now a convenient time for you?"

De Ren opened his eyes, slightly raised his hand to gesture for Wu Xie to sit down, carefully examined his face, and then revealed a kind smile, his voice deep and resonant, "Good."

Looking into his unwavering and resolute eyes, Wu Xie suddenly had a guess, "You know who Bai Ci is, right?"

Deren placed the prayer beads into his palm and slowly spoke, “All my thoughts are but a dream, and my spiritual visions are but illusions. My thoughts are separated by mountains and seas, but mountains and seas may be moved.”

"As for who he is, you can ask him yourself."

"What do you mean?" Wu Xie frowned slightly. "You mean, I might see him here?"

His eyes widened immediately. "He came out of the snow mountain? You received a message from him?!"

Deren smiled slightly and said only, "Heavenly secrets cannot be revealed."

Wu Xie knew he wouldn't get an answer so easily, so he changed the question, "Bai Ci stayed in the Lama Temple for so long, what did he find, or rather, did he leave anything for me?"

“That room has always been reserved for him,” Deren said. “If our distinguished guest wishes to know, he may go in and take a look.”

After receiving permission, Wu Xie bid farewell to De Ren and that very night packed his bags and moved to the room next to the one in the back mountain.

Pushing open the long-sealed wooden door, Wu Xie turned on his flashlight and prepared to go inside.

As soon as I lifted my foot, I felt a sharp pressure on the surface of my shoe, followed by a whooshing sound.

Wu Xie's eyes sharpened, and he immediately dodged to the side, deflecting the flying short arrows in a few swift movements, before retreating outside the door and pressing himself against the wall.

A dozen seconds later, the sound of the arrow being shot stopped.

Wu Xie cautiously peeked inside. In the small patch of floor illuminated by the soft moonlight from the doorway, there were many thin, long black shadows.

Looking up, the entire room was covered with thin, translucent white threads, densely packed like a spider web, eerie and terrifying, a truly horrifying sight.

The window against the wall wasn't completely covered, and some of the faint light from outside shone in. Wu Xie vaguely sensed that someone seemed to be sitting behind the low table against the wall.

The person's figure blended completely into the darkness, as if swallowed up by the wall, but that cold and sharp aura was hard to ignore.

Wu Xie stood still for a few seconds, then suddenly turned on the flashlight and shone it straight towards the window. A very fast black shadow flashed by in the white light, and the felt curtains trembled a few times before quickly returning to calm.

Who is that person? Why is he in Bai Ci's room?

Could it be a wooden fish? If it is, why did it jump out of the window and run away after seeing itself?

Wu Xie frowned deeply. Why was Mu Yu avoiding him?!
The dark figure moved quickly and disappeared in a flash. Wu Xie didn't even get a clear look at the other person's face. In fact, he couldn't even tell if the other person was male or female, but his intuition told him that the person knew him.

The dark figure had been waiting here on purpose after learning that I would come to this room.

He desperately wanted to chase after them to investigate, but unfortunately, there were so many threads in front of him that touching them would trigger a trap.

To avoid accidentally touching anything, Wu Xie took off his thick cotton coat and carefully crouched down to enter the dense network of threads that resembled infrared rays.

This layout is very similar to the hexagonal copper bell array at the exit of Zhangjia Ancient Building, but since there are no bells attached, the difficulty is reduced by more than one level.

After some effort, Wu Xie finally managed to get through and stand in front of the low table, without touching any of the other items.

The flashlight beam shone on the clean table and cushion, a stark contrast to the dust that covered the surrounding area. Wu Xie subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief, his eyes slightly stinging.

He chuckled softly. Even after all this time, that person's meticulous and clean nature remained unchanged.

Regardless, it's good to know that he's still alive and well.

To the right of the low table was an old-fashioned bookcase, with two rows of bookshelves on top displaying some scriptures, and a lock on the cabinet below.

Wu Xie took the thin wire tied to his belt, picked up the lock and looked at it. Then he bent the wire into a special hook shape, inserted it into the keyhole, and tried to hook the lock cylinder inside. In less than ten seconds, the old lock in his hand popped open.

Wu Xie opened the cabinet and took out a box with a combination lock. Looking at the four-digit combination, he first tried "0912", but the lock did not respond.

After thinking for a moment, he turned the gears one by one to the four numbers "0503".

With a click, the lock popped open smoothly. It was somewhat unexpected, yet also expected. Just like most of Muyu's loose cards were set with Wu Xie's birthday as the password, only the month and date were swapped. Wu Xie used to think that Muyu might be worried that he was running that small shop that didn't bring in money for ten or fifteen days at a time. Not only was he not making any money, but over time, the utility bills, daily expenses, and Wang Mengmeng's salary might wear him down to nothing.

After Wang Mengmeng shook out the last two coins from her wallet and subtly indicated that she was broke by taking out her pocket, Muyu slammed a card on the table with great arrogance, successfully earning two pairs of bright, starry eyes.

Back then, Wu Xie, who was so full he was practically a salted fish, even fantasized that if Wu Shan Ju really couldn't stay in business one day, he could just sell the house to Mu Yu, since it wouldn't make much difference if it were under his control.

Once Muyu becomes his boss, he can add an extra pair of chopsticks and openly support this little good-for-nothing.

As Wu Xie's memories and sorrow intertwined, he had no idea that in the next room, two people were sitting face to face at a low table, quietly listening to the sounds coming from inside.

After the shadowy figure climbed out of the window, he didn't leave immediately but instead slipped into another room next door.

"What do you think of the test results? If it's confirmed to be him, when do we start?" Under the dim light of the oil lamp, the Tibetan in the blue robe pushed a steaming cup of goat milk tea across the table to his side.

After a pause, the Tibetan in the blue robe inquired, "You seem very happy."

"Is that so?" Zhang Wuxun curled the corners of his mouth and raised his hand to touch the herbal cloth covering his eyes. "Wait a little longer, give him a few days to digest it."

-

Three days later, Wu Xie finally finished reading all the records, his gaze lingering on the illustration in the German's notes.

The Bronze Gate – Deep in the snow-capped mountains of Medog lies the Bronze Gate!

He tried his best to suppress the trembling of his fingers and focused all his thoughts on this.

Why are there bronze gates in Medog?
He could tell that this door was different from the one at Changbai Mountain.

His old curiosity kicked in again; he desperately wanted to know what the ultimate goal was behind the bronze door, the reason why everyone was so eager to get there.

Was it because Muyu was inexplicably affected back then and didn't have time to enter the bronze gate of Changbai Mountain, that he came here and entered another bronze gate?

Wu Xie still remembers when Xiao Ge mingled with the Yin soldiers and used the Ghost Seal to open the bronze door, the wooden fish couldn't stop bleeding.

What about this bronze door? Will it have the same effect on him?

Could it be that the reason Muyu avoids seeing him is because of this influence?

His head began to spin with waves of dizziness. He hadn't slept for two days and two nights. Feeling a long-lost drowsiness, he finally couldn't hold on any longer and slumped onto the table, his eyelids drooping heavily.

In his dream, he saw a wooden fish covered in blood lying in front of a bronze door, and then he saw the bronze door open, revealing a room full of pitted meteorite jade. He saw Chen Wenjin peeking out from a hole, a sinister smile on his face, staring straight at him.

He gradually felt extremely cold, and he was transported back to the time when he saw his brother off in Changbai Mountain, when his brother knocked him unconscious and went into the mountain crevice alone.

He also dreamt of a group of ghostly soldiers marching in neat rows in front of him. The leader of the ghostly soldiers turned around, and his body suddenly began to swell, turning into the face of a fat man, who excitedly shouted at him, "Tianzhen~ Come and play~"

He looked closely and was immediately horrified. The fat man was inside the giant mouth of the snake-like dodder flower and was about to be eaten!

The subsequent dream was so chaotic that he couldn't tell if it was a person or a ghost. Wu Xie felt like he was asleep, but also like he was being tied up with ropes and couldn't move. His whole body was getting colder and colder, as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

Deep down I knew it was all a dream, all fake, but no matter how hard I tried, my eyelids felt like they were glued shut, and I couldn't open them or wake up.

Just as he was wondering if he would freeze to death, he suddenly felt a weight on his body, and something warm enveloped him.

In an instant, it was as if someone had pulled him out of the icy water. The suffocation and coldness were instantly dispelled, and Wu Xie finally slept more peacefully.

A barely audible sigh came from the silent room, and then the door was closed from the outside.

Wu Xie was awakened from his long sleep by a knock on the door. He opened his eyes, his ears feeling like they were plugged with cotton. He heard someone talking outside the door, but he couldn't make out what they were saying. He blinked slowly, and in just two seconds, his mind cleared up.

As he stood up, the large cotton coat draped over his back slipped down. Wu Xie instinctively reached out to catch it, then immediately realized what was happening and looked around.

The silk thread that had been lying across the room had been removed without his noticing.

Touching the cotton coat in his hand, Wu Xie was still a little happy. The fact that he thought of quietly coming in to put the coat on him meant that the influence on Mu Yu might not be as severe as on Xiao Ge. Mu Yu's memories were not hidden by fate, and he still remembered himself.

He casually draped his clothes over his shoulders, walked to the door, and opened the wooden door, letting in the blinding midday sun.

Wu Xie narrowed his eyes slightly. Langka and Chen Xuehan were standing outside the door.

Seeing that Wu Xie looked somewhat haggard but still had a good spirit, the two breathed a sigh of relief.

Previously, Wu Xie suddenly said he was going into seclusion for a few days. Except for going to the toilet, he didn't leave the house at all. He was so engrossed in his studies that he forgot to eat and sleep. I was really worried that he might starve to death in his room one day.

"I almost thought you planted it in there. Mushrooms don't grow well in the dead of winter," Chen Xuehan teased, then shoved the lunchbox in her hand into his hands.

Wu Xie smiled, took the lunchbox, and the three of them ate and chatted.

As they talked, Langka mentioned a strange phenomenon: "The temple seems unusually lively lately, with many people coming."

Chen Xuehan lit a cigarette and put it in her mouth, nodding. "It's not unusual. Around this time every year, a group of people from other places come to worship Buddha and listen to lectures."

Langka frowned and said, "Those people look like a group, about seven or eight people. I've been observing them closely these past few days while Mr. Wu has been in seclusion, and I've noticed that their behavior is a bit strange."

"If they really came to listen to the sermons, they would have to go to the main hall every morning and evening for the daily greetings, but only a few people would go. The rest of them would stay in their rooms, doing something mysterious."

Wu Xie paused in his chopsticks, then looked up at Chen Xuehan and asked, "Last time, before Bai Ci entered the snow mountain, wasn't there a similar group of people who moved into the lama temple?"

Chen Xuehan was speechless for a moment, then shook her head. "You're talking about Germans, but I haven't seen any foreign faces among those people so far. I haven't had much contact with them, so it's hard to draw any conclusions."

Thank you so much to the generous donor [Dreams Require Effort]! Sending you love!

(End of this chapter)