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

Chapter 477 Underwater Giant Shadow
"Karma in this life, karma in this life." The fat man laughed sinisterly. "Dare to plot against Khambaruo, this is what you call retribution."

Zhang Haixing stared at the corpse with an inscrutable expression, seemingly lost in thought.

Wu Xie glanced at Zhang Wuxun and pondered, "If this German was bitten to death while still alive, then under what circumstances was he attacked by the strange fish in the lake? Judging from the state of his body, it seems that he didn't even have a chance to struggle when it happened."

"Moreover, the bullet holes on his body are also controversial. Assuming there was no infighting in the team at the time, when these bullets were fired from his comrades' guns, they may not have actually hit the German leader, but rather the strange fish that suddenly emerged from the lake to attack them."

Zhang Wu gazed at the azure lake and nodded. "Yes, they were crossing the ice when they somehow disturbed the Maponimus in the lake. The Maponimus broke through the ice and surfaced to attack them."

“Marponim?” Zhang Haixing asked, puzzled.

“The Mabonim is what you call the strange fish,” Zhang Wuxun explained calmly. “The fish in the lake are also raised by the Khampa people, and their function is probably the same as that of the human-faced bird, which is to guard the bronze gate.”

"Artificially raised?" Zhang Haixing pondered. "So, you Khampa people can control the movements of these strange fish?"

“No, not at all.” Zhang Wuxun shook his head. “The reason why the Maponimus won’t attack the people in the small boats is that before the boats were built, the planks used were soaked in the sap of a special plant from the bottom of the lake, which gives them a familiar scent to the Maponimus. As a result, the small boats floating on the lake are mistaken by the Maponimus for their own kind, so they won’t be attacked.”

The fat man put his hand on his forehead to shield his eyes from the setting sun, looked into the distance, and muttered, "Forget about boats, there isn't even a sheepskin raft to be seen on this huge lake. It's getting dark, how are we going to get across?"

“We must reach that hanging temple before sunset.” Zhang Haixing lit a cigarette, took down the weapon that had been hanging on her back belt, and began to adjust it; it was a crossbow.

The fat man snorted, "You make it sound so easy. How are you going to get across? Fly by flapping your wings?"

Zhang Haixing was too lazy to waste words with him. She took out a full quiver from her backpack, hung it on her waist, and said coldly, "Walking directly on the ice will save a lot of time. Although it is dangerous, if we walk along the lake shore, we will be exhausted and still not be able to get across."

The fat man spread his arms and roughly measured the distance, then looked at Zhang Haixing with the eyes of someone looking at a lunatic. "I say, nun, has your brain been turned to mush by the cold wind? Walking from the lake shore is at most twice as far, how come you can't get there?"

Zhang Haixing suddenly turned her head, looked at him with disgust, and cursed, "If you don't understand, shut up. What do you think this place is, where you can just leave and do whatever you want? The shoreline here looks short now, but once the sun sets, something terrible will happen here."

The fat man was stunned by her scolding tone, which sounded like she was scolding her grandson. When he came to his senses, he was so angry that he almost fell over backwards. How dare this old hag talk to me like that?
"You're so damn..."

Before the fat man could finish his curse, he suddenly caught a glimpse of something swimming towards him in the frozen lake and immediately shut up.

The others also saw it; a huge black shadow swam past them, skimming along the ice sheet beneath their feet.

The shadow was enormous, like a train half-submerged in a lake. It moved very slowly, its body swaying gently as it swam past everyone's feet.

Zhang Wuxun and the others stared intently at the shadow, watching it continuously circling the area, like a guard coming out to patrol after hearing a noise.

The ice sheet beneath their feet was close to the lake shore and was so thick that they couldn't see any details beneath it. They could only make out the general outline of the thing, and the head alone was as wide as two locomotives put together.

Not to mention its body, including its tail, which was longer than anyone could comprehend. The fat man's eyes were filled with terror, his face clearly saying, "If this is a fish, I'll be fat in reverse."

The dark figure lingered nearby for about three minutes before finally circling around and swimming away into the distance. Gradually, the shadow disappeared beneath the ice until it was no longer visible.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Just as the fat man caught his breath and was about to speak, he saw Zhang Wuxun frown and gesture for him to be quiet, while quickly gesturing for everyone to make sure they had a firm footing.

Although Wu Xie and the others didn't understand why, they still did as instructed.

Just as they were getting ready, they felt the ice sheet beneath their feet shake violently, giving everyone the illusion that the entire ice surface was about to be overturned.

As everyone steadied themselves, they saw the dark shadow take advantage of their momentary lapse in vigilance and silently launch a counterattack, slamming its massive head into the ice cap above.

If Zhang Wuxun hadn't warned them in time, the collision would have scared everyone into scrambling to their feet, and their location would have been exposed on the spot.

Perhaps this is precisely the purpose of the giant beast in the lake; it is using this method to probe whether there are any traces of intruders above the ice, because it cannot look up due to the limitations of the ice near the shore.

It wasn't until a long, long time after the dark shadow disappeared that everyone recovered from the fear of being enveloped by that giant deep-sea creature.

Feng's legs went weak and he collapsed to his knees on the ice, trembling all over like a leaf.

Thanks to the previous dirty trick, Zhang Wuxun and the others were afraid that Feng would stab them in the back, so the fat man confiscated the gun that had been given to him when they set off.

Given his level of composure, when that dark figure came over, he would definitely have pointed the gun at the ice. If he hadn't been careful and it had gone off accidentally, it could have killed everyone.

Everyone sat slumped on the ice for a long while before Zhang Haixing finally spoke softly, asking Zhang Wuxun, "What was that just now? It couldn't possibly have looked like a fish; its tail was way too long!"

“The Maponim is not a fish; it is a giant aquatic beast that has lived here since ancient times. The extremely cold environment here is perfect for them, and it took the Khampa people thousands of years to reach an agreement with them.”

As Zhang Wuxun spoke, he rummaged through his backpack and quickly wrapped gauze around his military boots, stuffing a thick layer of sanitary napkins between the gauze and the sole.

"Hurry up, the sun has already set behind the mountain."

Wu Xie and the others hurriedly did as instructed. Just now, they had only spoken in normal voices, which had already aroused the vigilance of Maponim.

To pass silently across the ice, they must add shock-absorbing and sound-insulating measures to the soles of their shoes.

Thank you to [Lingfeng], [Eat-Not-Full-Adorable], [Lost in Memory But Not in You] and other generous donors! Sending love!