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

Chapter 463 Unleashing Wildness in the Ancient Tomb
The child remained in the courtyard, looking up at the sky.

Zhang Haike mustered his courage and stepped forward to ask him, "What are you doing here? Why don't you go play with them?"

The child looked at him, shook his head, and didn't say anything. After a while, Zhang Haike noticed that he was staring blankly at the sky above again.

This is the first conversation between Zhang Haike and Zhang Qiling.

Zhang Haike had a strange tenacity. When the child ignored him, he felt that as long as he kept talking and talking, the child would eventually talk to him and communicate with him. So that day, Zhang Haike stayed with the boy in the courtyard.

But this time he finally met his match. The child listened quietly, looking at the sky, and it was unclear whether he listened or not, or whether he cared. Even when Zhang Haike was finally taken away by his father who came looking for him, he didn't utter a single word.

At that time, five-year-old Zhang Haike wondered if the child was sick, or perhaps he couldn't speak at all? Or maybe he was too young to understand what he was saying.

Later, many chaotic things happened in the main clan, and the clan was completely sealed off and under martial law. Zhang Haike never had the chance to go in and see the child again.

Ten years later, Zhang Haike finally saw his older brother, who had grown up quite a bit, among a group of wild children.

The children of the Zhang family must undergo very strict training from a young age, with extremely demanding requirements for jumping ability and physical skills.

At the age of fifteen, they will face a very important hurdle that will lay a crucial foundation for their future status within the clan.

After the age of fifteen, the children of the Zhang family could leave home to search for ancient tombs and build their own reputation. The Zhang family called this test "letting them go wild".

Ten years later, the boy was only thirteen years old. So when Zhang Haike saw the boy, who was a head shorter than him, among a group of children preparing to go wild, he was extremely surprised.

It is important to know that the process of letting children roam freely in the wild is extremely dangerous. In the past, many children of the Zhang family have died tragically during this process. After all, opportunity and danger go hand in hand.

The Zhang family children knew from a very young age that letting the wild go unchecked was extremely dangerous, so they began preparing for it long in advance.

Of course, some children gave up the relevant training early on to avoid such danger, which also meant giving up any position they could strive for in the family in the future. The only benefit was that they saved their lives.

Releasing animals into the wild often involves disregarding the consequences. The Zhang family's basic mindset is that they don't care about any means, as long as they get the job done.

Therefore, in order to increase the chances of success and avoid death, most children would choose to go with familiar partners. In this way, there is strength in numbers. When they go to rob an ancient tomb together, they will divide the work and the credit for the few items that can prove the identity of the tomb owner will be shared among the children.

Such cooperation is also permitted within the Zhang family, because the ability to obtain information, process and control intelligence, as well as the methods of tomb raiding and the strategies for finally obtaining the items, are all very important abilities that need to be tested during the process of releasing animals into the wild.

But Zhang Haike discovered that the young man didn't seem to have such intentions.

While everyone was packing their luggage and preparing food and travel expenses, the young man's solitary figure stood out. By the time Zhang Haike came to his senses, the young man had already silently set off alone.

Zhang Haike is a very sociable person. He had already discussed the place he wanted to go with several friends. The source of the information was said to be very reliable. If Zhang Haike went with them, there would be basically no major problems with the test.

But Zhang Haike couldn't help but worry when he saw the young man traveling alone. He disliked the rules and regulations set by his family and felt that it was very unfair to a thirteen-year-old child to be forced to prove himself.

He heard from the other children in the family that his brother's father had passed away when he was seven or eight years old, and that his brother had been raised by his uncles and aunts. Although they did not mistreat him, they did not show him much love or care either.

The young man was so taciturn, and he participated in the wild release before he was old enough. He had also heard rumors about the young man's background, and he felt that it was very likely that someone in his family did not want him to continue living.

This intensified his hatred for his own family, and with a somewhat childish idea of ​​saving the weak, he decided to part ways with his friends and protect the little boy who was ostracized by his own family.

At the time, he didn't know that this might be the most successful decision he had ever made.

At that time, Zhang Haike was very confident in his abilities. He had not only trained his fingers to be much stronger than those of other children in the Zhang family, but also reached a certain level of speed. Therefore, he was already capable enough to complete an ancient tomb mission. Meanwhile, the young man was still a particularly thin and frail child, carrying a large bag. In Zhang Haike's pitying gaze, he felt that the young man looked so weak that even if he found the ancient tomb and went inside, he would definitely be in grave danger.

The young man showed no reaction to Zhang Haike, who had followed him without prior notice. He neither showed happiness nor rejection. When his eyes occasionally swept over Zhang Haike, Zhang Haike felt as if he were no different from the wildflowers and grass by the roadside, which made him feel somewhat frustrated.

But Zhang Haike was not one to give up easily. He didn't say anything, just silently followed the guy, occasionally offering some suggestions. Then he was pleasantly surprised to find that the guy wasn't completely unresponsive to his words, but perhaps he thought he talked too much and didn't listen to most of them.

Their initial journey was particularly tedious. They started from Changbai Mountain, went to Shandong, and after finding nothing, they traveled by boat all the way to Shanghai.

Their thinking at the time was that Luoyang and similar places have been important ancient tomb sites since ancient times, and there are many tomb raiders. Although they might not be at a disadvantage when fighting those old tomb raiders head-on, the other side is ruthless, has many tricks up their sleeve, and their experience in the martial arts world is something that the two greenhorns could not match.

Moreover, in this era of rampant firearms, the risk of entering such an area is too great. It would be better to go to the Jiangzhe region to find some shallowly buried small pots. If you are lucky enough to find them, the quantity can be roughly equal to the quality.

Unfortunately, after wandering around Shanghai for a long time, the few small shops they had visited were so poor that it was heartbreaking. They had nothing to offer, and their money was almost gone. So they simply disguised themselves and went to a pawnshop to sell their belongings.

Afterwards, the two traveled to Hangzhou, and later wandered around the Pengcheng area of ​​Suzhou for a long time. They found several large buckets, but unfortunately, when they went inside, they found that they had been looted and there was only some broken copper and scrap iron inside, which could not be used as tokens at all.

By this time, they had traveled through most of the country. The few copper coins left in their purses jingled in their pockets. They barely survived by stealing from vegetable gardens. They were in a sorry state, and their clothes were patched in several places by Zhang Haike.

Their initial high hopes have been shattered by reality, and Zhang Haike feels that if things continue like this, they will definitely not be able to complete the test of going wild before the end of the year.

So the two decided they should continue westward, where there was a province rich in cultural relics and ancient tombs, where they might be able to find some hidden treasures.

However, on their journey westward, they encountered three other children, all fifteen years old, who were also running wild.

Like Zhang Haike and his companion, this group of people traveled around most of the country without finding anything. It was too difficult to find ancient tombs in the Qinzhou area that had not been visited by tomb raiders. Some ancient tombs had been excavated hundreds of times, and the area was full of tomb raiding holes like a hornet's nest. Even if they went there, it would be a waste of time.

If they fail the exam, they will not only lose face when they go back, but also bring shame to their parents.

Time was of the essence, so they decided to take a risk and rob an extremely special and dangerous ancient tomb.

There's no need to look for the tomb; it's right there, but no one can rob it anymore.

This ancient tomb was the one Jin Wantang later discovered from the red moonstone on the three strings of Tibetan prayer beads Zhang Wuxun showed him—the micro-carved totems inside the pores, which led to his later recounting of the man-eating scorpion tomb in Maba Town.

At that time, the village there was very large, and it was called Ma'an Village. The ancestral graves of the Ma family, the wealthy family in the village, were on the back mountain. The Ma family kept a group of soldiers who were not good at fighting, but they were good at guarding the house.

It's always difficult to get close to a guarded cemetery. After carefully investigating the situation, the children decided to dig a tunnel that leads directly to the cemetery.

They dug the pit in a very clever spot, on the side of a field ridge, where it was hidden by the ridge that was higher than the ground, so the lazy sentry post above would never have noticed it.

After preparing all the tools and supplies, they dug all the way down to the grave. Nearly two weeks had passed by the time they reached the bottom of the grave. There were only ten days left before they had to return to their hometown for the Chinese New Year. They had to finish everything within those ten days.

Time was of the essence, so they began digging the tunnel day and night, without eating, drinking or sleeping at night, and finally they dug the tunnel to the top of the ancient tomb.

When the shovels in their hands struck the blue bricks and stone slabs, the crisp sound of the impact almost brought tears to everyone's eyes; it was truly an extraordinary feat.

After their initial excitement, they rested for three hours before setting out to open the blue brick and stone slabs and prepare to enter the tomb chamber.

They carefully broke the blue bricks that had been piled up on top of the tomb using leverage, finally clearing a barely passable opening, and then lowered the only small guy who could fit through.

Thank you [Mr. Skull] for the donation, sending you love!


(End of this chapter)