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

Chapter 478 Marponim
While stuffing sanitary napkins into the soles of his shoes, Wu Xie asked Zhang Haixing in a low voice, "You didn't explain clearly just now, why can't we walk along the lake shore?"

"And you said something terrible would happen here after sunset. What is it? How do you know that? Zhang Haike never mentioned it to me before we set off."

Zhang Haixing said with a cold face, "Wenbu Gongga Lake is a sacred lake in the eyes of the Khampa people, but after a long period of research, our Zhang family discovered that it is actually a man-eating demon lake."

The fat man didn't quite believe her and interrupted, "What Demon Lake? A lake with two strange fish? Even Bai Ci, a Khampa, doesn't know about this, but you, a member of the Zhang family, know so much about it? You're not just making this up, are you?"

Zhang Haixing sneered and gestured with her chin toward Zhang Wuxun, "Why don't you go ask him and see if what he says is the same as what I said?"

The fat man didn't believe her nonsense. He took two steps closer to Zhang Wuxun, who was radiating a low-pressure aura, and whispered, "Hey, buddy, you heard what that old woman said, right? Is what she said true? She's not just trying to fool us, is she?"

“The Khampa people don’t cross the lake after sunset,” Zhang Wuxun said.

The fat man looked confused. "Huh?"

Seeing his bewildered expression, Zhang Wuxun paused and added, "However, I've heard the elders in the clan mention that every night, fog rises over the entire frozen surface of the sacred lake and around its shores, like a white cloth falling from the sky and covering the whole area. If anyone tries to approach the lake, they will hear mournful cries coming from the fog, like ghosts and grudges, but the fog will suddenly disappear when the sun rises the next morning."

"Did no one try to go in and take a look back then?" Wu Xie asked.

“Yes,” Zhang Wuxun suddenly smiled strangely and lowered his voice, “but none of them made it out alive.”

Wu Xie was startled by his sudden change in tone, feeling that there was some profound meaning in his words. He turned around and saw that everyone's expressions were somewhat uneasy, so he tried to explain the phenomenon with scientific evidence.

"Surrounded by mountains, there is no wind to disperse the water vapor that the sun evaporates into the air during the day. At night, the temperature drops sharply, and the temperature in the air is even lower than that under the ice surface. As a result, the water vapor condenses into a large number of tiny ice crystals. Therefore, this kind of fog is also called ice crystal fog."

Zhang Haixing nodded, agreeing with his statement. "We've considered that possibility, but what about those people who disappeared into the fog? And what about the screams?"

The fat man stood up, brushed the snow off his pants, and sighed, "Isn't this much easier to explain? With such thick fog, you can't see your hand in front of your face. If someone wanders around in the dark and disappears, they must have fallen into the lake. Once they fall in, anyone who isn't stupid would definitely yell for help, and then they'd probably be eaten by a giant monster fish that heard the commotion."

Everyone exchanged glances, somewhat convinced by his seemingly reasonable explanation.

"Enough with the nonsense, the most important thing is to hurry up and get going," Zhang Haixing urged. "If we don't want anything to happen tonight, we either have to cross the canyon ahead, or we'll have to turn back from the Burial Ice Forest..."

Before she could finish speaking, her voice suddenly disappeared. When Wu Xie and the others looked at her in confusion, they found her staring in astonishment at the place they had come from.

Zhang Haixing exclaimed in shock, "Why is the cave entrance gone?!"

Wu Xie and the others were shocked and quickly turned to look, only to see that the hole that had been blown open had suddenly turned into a solid ice wall. Everyone's expression changed drastically.

"What the hell is going on? Where's the road? Where did that big gap we came through go?"

The fat man rubbed his eyes, frowned and stared, only to find that he wasn't seeing things; the hole that the Germans had brutally blasted open really had disappeared!

The original gap has now completely merged with the frozen mountain wall, showing no trace of the previous crack.

However, the broken ice and frozen rocks on the ground were still there, meaning that the ice wall that filled the gap appeared suddenly, just like plants growing silently, and no one present noticed anything unusual.

Zhang Haixing quickly ran to the ice wall and tapped on it, trying to find any trace of the mechanism. After a while without success, she immediately returned to Zhang Wuxun and the others and said calmly, "Although I don't know what's going on, I'm very sure of one thing: this is not some kind of mechanism, but some force beyond the understanding of nature that is preventing us from retreating. In other words, we have no way out."

The fat man was puzzled. "Why is there no way out? Why not just blow it up? It's impossible for the passage inside to become solid as well."

Zhang Haixing didn't answer him. She turned around, slung her equipment over her shoulder, and gestured with her chin towards Zhang Wuxun, "There's no time. Let's go." With that, she stepped onto the ice first.

"Put away all the spears and switch to pistols," Zhang Wuxun whispered to Wu Xie and the other man behind him.

In close-quarters combat, rifles are far less convenient than pistols. Pistols are more effective at short range, more flexible, and can be operated with one hand in critical situations.

Moreover, given the size of that creature in the water, if it had some scales or something, it would be more than enough to stop bullets. Carrying a pistol serves two purposes: firstly, to bolster courage, and secondly, as a precaution. In the event of an attack, it would be convenient to fire within the narrow space between the beast's mouth and the ice cap, stalling for as long as possible.

Zhang Wuxun stuffed Feng's mouth with rolled-up gauze beforehand, warning him not to shout later, and then grabbed him to follow Zhang Haixing ahead.

The fat man watched their retreating figures, startled by his own thought, muttering, "They haven't really turned into solid bodies, have they...?"

"Let's go too, time waits for no one." Wu Xie patted Fatty on the shoulder.

The two men took the guns that were slung across their chests, folded them up, and put them into their backpacks. They then switched to pistols and tucked them into their waistbands.

The group lined up and tiptoed onto the ice sheet.

Zhang Haixing walked at the front, and with each step she took, she would carefully look around under the ice board to make sure there were no dark shadows before continuing forward.

Zhang Wuxun dragged Feng to the second position, almost following in the footsteps of Zhang Haixing.

We made our way to the center of the lake without any major incidents. The ice there was quite thin and couldn't support the weight of five people at once.

After a crisp cracking sound came from the ice beneath her feet, Zhang Haixing had no choice but to detour, bypassing the still unfrozen water in the center of the lake from the left.

Zhang Haixing turned around and gestured to the people behind her to express her thoughts, and no one objected.

The next stretch of ice was extremely difficult to walk on. The ice near the center of the lake was very thin, and white cracks quickly spread from underfoot as soon as you stepped on it.

Zhang Haixing was both angry and frustrated. They didn't have much time left, and she didn't want to take a long detour. To save time, she could only cautiously move forward step by step. Each step made a crisp sound, as if she were stepping on thin biscuits. Although the sound was faint, in the quiet environment, it was like a death knell. Everyone dared not even breathe loudly.

Just when they thought everything was going smoothly and they could finally enter the canyon ahead before nightfall, an unexpected event occurred—

Zhang Haixing, who had been walking ahead, suddenly saw something and shouted excitedly, then took off running forward.

Zhang Wuxun, who was following behind, hurriedly reached out to grab her, but she forcefully shook off his arm and broke free. In the blink of an eye, Zhang Haixing had already run more than ten meters away.

Zhang Wuxun sensed something was wrong and immediately turned around to warn Wu Xie and the other man behind him, only to find that the two men were already in a daze. Neither of them realized that Zhang Wuxun had stopped because of the sudden situation and was still walking forward.

Zhang Wuxun quickly let go of Feng's hand, turned around and grabbed the two of them. In the short time that was lost, Feng suddenly turned pale and cried out in German, "Fire! Fire!" After shouting, he ran towards Zhang Haixing's direction.

With both hands gripping people, Zhang Wuxun had no time to pay attention to anyone else. From the moment he saw Wu Xie and the other person's expressions, he realized that they were under an illusion. Just like the Germans who accompanied him when he first entered the snow mountain, under the influence of the illusion, running away was their instinctive reaction.

Fortunately, Wu Xie and the others still had their own sense of self, and were able to recognize Feng's shouts as noise and frown, instead of running away uncontrollably like Zhang Haixing and Feng.

The maraño in the lake had been disturbed by the noise of the blasting not long ago, and any slight disturbance on the ice cap would immediately alert them. Seeing that a dark shadow was gradually swimming up and chasing after Zhang Haixing and the other person, Zhang Wuxun immediately led Wu Xie and Fatty straight to the nearest lake shore and ran quickly.

At this point, no one cared about the strange fish in the lake; escaping was the priority.

But they hadn't run far when the ice beneath Zhang Wuxun's feet trembled violently and cracked. At the last moment, Zhang Wuxun led Wu Xie and the other two forward and leaped out, narrowly avoiding the enormous beast head that lunged at them.

Fortunately, due to the hasty jump, the three of them lost their footing and fell into a heap. The pain from hitting the solid ice, by some strange twist of fate, woke up Wu Xie and Fatty, who were half-entering the illusion.

The moment the two regained their senses, they saw a wide and long crimson dorsal fin stuck in the ice in front of them, and a huge beast head lying on the ice, resembling a fish but not quite, with a bronze helmet on its forehead that looked like dragon horns, and lantern-sized pupils like dark, cold pearls, shooting out a dazzling, captivating light.

This fish-like beast was much smaller than the dark figure that had been patrolling the shore earlier. In its eagerness to break through the ice, it ended up getting its dorsal fin and head stuck in a hole in the ice. Its long tail, which was submerged in the water, was covered with scales like a python's and was several times thicker than a python's tail. It kept slapping the ice from bottom to top in an attempt to break free.

The impact force of this tail was equivalent to several tons, and the originally thick and hard ice layer quickly could not withstand it and cracks appeared.

The biting cold air that surged up made Zhang Wuxun and the other two shiver. Although they had dodged a fatal blow, the overwhelming spray of water still soaked them completely.

More dark figures slowly gathered beneath the ice, and the Mab Ningmu in front of him was about to break through the ice. Zhang Wuxun gritted his teeth, got up, grabbed one in each hand, and dragged it toward the shore with all his might.

"Run!"

Boom——

Another giant wave swept in, its roar like thunder. Large chunks of ice beneath Zhang Wuxun and his companions began to break apart. The thick ice floes swayed violently with the waves, threatening to overturn at any moment. It was impossible for anyone to even stand on it, let alone run. The moment they lifted their feet, they sank into the cracks in the ice.

Just as Zhang Wuxun pulled Wu Xie out of the ice crevice, a thunderous roar suddenly exploded in the ears of the three of them, their eardrums buzzing and vibrating, as if a fully loaded truck had sped over and slammed into their backs.

Wu Xie felt dizzy and his vision went black for a moment. His muscles seemed to freeze and become numb and stiff. He couldn't control himself and fell down. His heart was pounding wildly, as if it was about to burst out of his chest at any moment.

The ice collapsed, and Wu Xie watched helplessly as the three of them were knocked apart and fell into the ice hole. The biting cold instantly enveloped his entire body. He tried to move his limbs, but his whole body was numb and stiff, as if he were bound by ropes, and he could not move.

"Innocent!"

Countless black and white spots flickered before his eyes. His forehead hit something hard when he fell, and he felt a dull pain. He vaguely heard someone calling him.

Wu Xie held his breath and desperately tried to move his arms to float up, but his cotton clothes, soaked in water, were as heavy as lead, causing him to sink continuously.

He felt someone swimming towards him, a hand groping his face, then immediately grabbing him around the waist and pulling him to the surface.

Just as he was about to open his eyes, a sweet-smelling liquid splattered onto his face, and the blood mist instantly blurred his vision.

But he recognized the smell all too well—it was blood!

Who is injured?

An inexplicable sense of panic welled up inside him. Before he could even think, Wu Xie felt someone push him with great force onto the floating ice.

Wooden fish? It must be a wooden fish.

The wooden fish is injured!
"Run forward! Quickly!"

Zhang Wuxun gave him a quick shove and immediately turned to swim towards the fat man who had fallen into the icy lake for the second time and was sandwiched between two large ice slabs.

The moment the fat man was swept off the ice by the water jet, he instinctively lunged forward to avoid the second impact. His body was also pushed far away by the residual force of the water wave, separating him from Wu Xie and Zhang Wuxun.

Although he was also shaken by the roar and his internal organs ached, the fat man gritted his teeth and opened his stinging eyes. In the blurry bloody light, he saw a ferocious beast head open its blood-red maw, its sharp teeth biting directly at him.

In a moment of quick thinking, the fat man held his breath and suddenly pulled his body downwards, falling straight down three or four meters. The sound of sharp teeth cutting through the ice above his head chilled him to the bone.

He hurriedly slithered deeper before the marabra noticed him, and after bypassing the marabra's area, he frantically swam towards the distant ice plate.

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