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

Chapter 472 Khampa in Danger
“Yes.” Feng nodded. “These are tooth marks from two different carnivores.”

Zhang Wuxun pondered silently. If the carcass had been eaten by two different animals, it wouldn't be strange if it had been carelessly abandoned in the wild. But this place was clearly the den of some kind of carnivore.

All carnivores have a strong sense of territory, and they become extremely aggressive once another creature enters their territory.

Not to mention that it is now the dead of winter, and carnivores have difficulty finding food. Anything that wanders into their territory is likely to become a prey, so such a symbiotic relationship is basically impossible.

“Look here again.” Feng pulled out a femur and half a broken pelvis from the pile of bones.

Feng placed the two items on the ground and put them together. Pointing to the femoral neck, he said, "The part where the femoral head and pelvis meet was bitten off in one go, very cleanly. A quarter of such a large pelvis was bitten off, which shows that this kind of beast has a very strong bite force. I guess it should be a bear or a snow leopard-like short-snouted broad-headed beast."

Feng sniffed the air again and said with certainty, "It smells fishy and stinky. The smell is strong but not fresh. This must be an abandoned bear den. It has been there for some time. Although this place is rarely visited by humans, there will still be hunters who take the risk to come to this area to hunt. Snow leopards have a keen sense of smell and are very vigilant. They will not live in any place with even a trace of human presence."

"Moreover, bears don't eat so meticulously or cleanly. This second creature is quite intelligent. I think these teeth marks are very likely from a wolf."

Zhang Wuxun frowned slightly and raised his hand to cover his nose. "You mean, the wolf picked up the bear's leftovers? But even if the bear abandoned this cave, the smell here is so strong, the wolf wouldn't risk it."

Feng shrugged, indicating that he couldn't help. "I don't know. It's very possible that the owner of this place died outside, or perhaps a lone, starving wolf took the risk."

The walkie-talkie hanging in the jacket pocket rang again, and Zhang Haixing's urging voice came through, "You two, stop dawdling outside, there's a new discovery inside."

The walkie-talkie was on when Zhang Wuxun and the other person were talking, so Zhang Haixing and the others could hear Feng's analysis.

Zhang Wuxun and his companion walked quickly inside. The cave was quite spacious, with all sorts of oddly shaped stones piled up haphazardly. Feng found many bear scratch marks on them, as well as dried droppings left at the bottom.

The further in they went, the stronger the stench became, all from the fermentation of putrefactive substances like cadaverine and putrescine. The stench made their eyes water, and Zhang Wuxun even regretted coming in.

Feng, however, became increasingly excited, looking around like a hunting dog tracking its prey. He would squat in a corner to examine the feces, and then point to several places, saying that there were new marks made by wolves with their urine.

"Could the wolves be using the bear's scent to make this their new den?" Zhang Wuxun asked Zhang Haixing through the walkie-talkie. "Did you find any wolf cubs inside?"

Just as they finished asking, the cave turned and they reached the bottom. Zhang Haixing was squatting under a huge rock, her hands busy doing something. She was holding a flashlight up by two long bones tied together and leaning against the rock.

Hearing footsteps, Zhang Haixing turned around and replied, "There are no cubs, only droppings, but they belong to adult wolves."

As Zhang Wuxun and the other man approached, they saw Zhang Haixing trying to piece together the scattered bones on the ground. She threw a large piece of bone at Feng's feet, saying, "Take a look at this."

Feng shone the light on it and saw that it was a piece of left scapula with many fine gnaw marks on it. "It's similar to the tooth marks on the bones outside, but this piece was only eaten by wolves."

He then exclaimed in surprise, "Why is there a bullet stuck in here?"

Two bullets were lodged in the upper corner of the scapula and in the hollow of the scapula. They were not ordinary shotgun shells used by hunters, but single-shot rifle bullets.

Zhang Haixing brushed the dirt off her hands, stood up, and pointed to the skeleton that had been mostly pieced together on the ground, saying, "We didn't find the skull, but look at this large skeleton. I suspect it might be the original bear from the cave. It might have been injured while being hunted and escaped back here. It died from blood loss and was then eaten by wolves."

“That’s possible, but who would have hunted this bear?” Zhang Wuxun wondered. “Ordinary hunters don’t have guns that can fire these kinds of bullets.”

He poked at a grimy clump of something in a crevice in the cave with his antler hunting knife, picked it out with the blade and tossed it next to the bones. "This is the remaining bear skin, isn't it? It's rotten beyond recognition."

Zhang Haixing looked at him suspiciously, "Wasn't it someone from your Kangbaluo region who did it?"

Zhang Wuxun scoffed at her skepticism and retorted, "Dan and the others are much better marksmen. A bear's heart is so easy to find; when they hunt, they would definitely choose to kill it with a single shot to the heart. This bullet is obviously fired by a lot of people in the chaos, and it just happened to hit the bear's shoulder."

Since it's a hunt, there's no reason not to chase a dying bear. Even if they were worried about the injured bear going berserk, they could have followed the bloodstains on the snow. The bear would eventually run out of steam. Then he added, "But then I suddenly realized that those people weren't actually hunters, and they weren't hunting for anything. They were probably walking in the snowy mountains nearby when they did something that startled the bear. When the bear came out to check the situation, they discovered it, and in their panic, they fired their guns randomly to scare it away."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Haixing's eyes immediately sharpened. "So, that means a group of people also entered the snow mountain half a month ago!"

She immediately turned her head and stared coldly at Feng, "Is this related to you?"

Zhang Wuxun looked at Feng with interest and said quietly, "Confess and you'll be treated leniently."

Feng's face changed drastically, and he hurriedly explained, "How could this be? This could never have been done by my men. All the men I brought were taken care of by you on the back mountain that day. If they were really sent by me, why would I be here analyzing this with you? I would have just told you directly."

“It’s precisely because you don’t know what happened to them after they went into the mountains that you need to analyze it,” Zhang Wuxun raised an eyebrow and brought the lamp closer to his face.

On the other side, Zhang Haixing swiftly pulled out a dagger, held it to Feng's neck, and said coldly, "The only people who know the route and are able to get to this place besides us are your Anjing Company people. Even if you didn't send them, they are definitely involved with you."

Seeing their interrogative attitude, Feng's eyes flickered, and then he lowered his head, unwilling to argue with them any further. "I will never admit to not doing it. Since you won't believe anything I say, then I have nothing more to say."

Zhang Wuxun found his stubborn resistance a bit strange, so he simply ignored him and asked Zhang Haixing, "If these people are really Germans, what do you think their purpose is in entering the snow mountain?"

"What else could it be? It must be something from deep within the snow mountain." Zhang Haixing brought the knife closer, looking at Feng Dao with murderous intent. "I don't mind finishing you off right here. Even without the star map, we can find the place through other means, it'll just be a bit more troublesome."

Feng subconsciously stepped back. "Even if they really are German, they wouldn't be my team members. You have to understand, our headquarters might send out more than just my team. Our missions are different, and to avoid leaks, we basically don't have any contact with each other."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Wuxun abruptly turned his head and stared intently at Feng, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He stammered, "Wh...how..."

"I suddenly felt something was strange. Why didn't they kill the bear?"

Zhang Wuxun's voice was tense, his eyes cold. "They may have indeed disturbed the bear unintentionally, but given the weaponry capabilities of Anjing Company, the teams they dispatched were generally more than ten people, each equipped with sophisticated weapons. Even if they just fired randomly, they could have easily taken care of the bear without breaking a sweat. But they didn't do that."

"Why?" Zhang Haixing also realized something was wrong and frowned. "Did they deliberately let the bear escape?!"

Members assigned to such a perilous mission must be incredibly skilled, at least on par with Nick's level of combat prowess. How could they possibly fail to kill a mere bear?

“Unless, they have a very urgent mission, so urgent that they don’t even have time to finish the cleanup.” Zhang Wuxun’s eyes gradually revealed a chill. “This mission could not be the Bronze Gate. Half a month ago, when Wu Xie first arrived in Motuo, all the forces gathered at the Lama Temple.”

"That team is going to deal with the Khampa people who are hiding deep in the snow-capped mountains!"

Zhang Haixing stared wide-eyed in disbelief. "How is this possible? Have they gone mad?"

Feng's expression changed instantly, and he subconsciously pushed Zhang Haixing away and ran out of the cave.

Zhang Wuxun, who caught up in two steps, kicked him and sent him flying, crashing heavily into the stone wall. He almost fainted but was woken up by the pain.

Zhang Wuxun grabbed him by the collar and demanded fiercely, "Tell me honestly, are their targets the Khampa people? What exactly do they want to do?"

Feng swallowed hard, feeling the metallic taste in his throat. He sensed an intense killing intent emanating from Zhang Wuxun, and his limbs went weak uncontrollably. "I...I don't know. I don't know anything. They're not in the same department as me. I'm not lying. Their missions were directly assigned by the headquarters leader. I have no right to contact them at all."

Zhang Wuxun's hand slowly moved to his neck, his fingertips tightening and applying force.

Feng saw his own distorted reflection in his eyes, and that icy hand was like the gushing claws of a demon, making his blood seem to freeze at that moment.

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