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

Chapter 491 The Giant Bone Statue
Although they needed to change into dry clothes immediately after being pulled out of the ice hole, it was really inconvenient for the three of them to do it. Who knew if the woman would be unhappy when she woke up and would beat them up or accuse them of taking advantage of them.

Since no one else was willing to do this thankless task, Wu Xie simply wrapped her up tightly in a blanket and moved both stoves next to her. In Fatty's words, with such a strong fire, she would eventually dry out.

It will probably be a while before Zhang Haixing wakes up, and we don't know what she saw down there.

However, Wu Xie still keenly noticed that Feng, who had always tried to keep a low profile, suddenly revealed a hint of impatience just now. Although he quickly recovered, Wu Xie, who had eyes everywhere, still caught it.

Actually, after discovering traces of another group of Germans at the bear cave in the snow mountain, Wu Xie had already become suspicious of Feng. This was because Feng had managed to absolve himself of all responsibility so cleanly, with almost no loopholes in his words, as if he had anticipated what would happen and had prepared a perfect explanation in advance.

If he were still naive and innocent, he would have believed Feng's words. But now he clearly remembers a truth: the biggest flaw in an event is the absence of any flaws.

Since Bai Ci jumped into the lake and disappeared, Feng himself had fewer concerns as there was no longer a constant threat to his life.

For some reason, half of the star map was lost in the hands of the leader of Anjing Company. When Feng got his hands on it, only a part remained, but even this remaining part was extremely complicated. He and Zhang Haixing studied it for a long time but still had no clue.

Wu Xie believed that Feng was more anxious than anyone else about their current predicament.

While his back was turned, Wu Xie subtly whispered his discovery to Fatty, telling him to keep a close eye on the old man and that they needed to figure out his ultimate goal as soon as possible.

During this time, Wu Xie and the others processed all the fish that Fatty had caught, using fishing rods to pierce the gills of the gutted fish.

The fat man then moved the three-tiered offering table and chairs down and set them up on either side of the stove as shelves. He then hung the fishing rods with a few fish on them on top, making a total of thirteen fish. The fishing rods, which were made of several entrenching tools, were fully hung on the shelves.

The fat man carefully controlled the heat, sprinkling salt on the fish when it was half-cooked. The golden-brown oil secreted out, slowly dripping down the cut fish, hanging on the tail, and finally dripping onto the scorching charcoal fire below, crackling and popping, filling the entire room with a mouthwatering aroma.

The fish here are big and plump. The fat man even puts the fish oil he cuts into a pot to render it, then puts it into cans, and seals them with plastic after they cool and solidify. With the low temperature here, the fish oil can be preserved for several months without any problem.

About an hour later, Zhang Haixing finally woke up, most likely because she was tempted by the smell of fish.

The sky outside had completely darkened, and the frozen lake appeared grayish under the moonlight. The mountain shadows were nothing but gray and dark, quite monotonous.

"You're awake." The fat man, holding pieces of fish in both hands, turned around and saw Zhang Haixing sitting up from under the blanket. He called to her, "If you're awake, come and eat quickly. This is my specialty, whole roasted fish. You won't find this again once it's gone."

Zhang Haixing's eyes were glazed over for a few seconds, but she quickly pieced together what had happened. She touched her still slightly damp clothes, looked out the window, and asked, "What time is it now?"

Wu Xie glanced at his watch and replied, "It's not nine o'clock yet, it's not too late."

Zhang Haixing didn't say anything more. She got up and sat down silently. The fat man gestured with his lips to indicate that her new rice bowl was warming on the stove, filled with fish soup.

Feng glanced at Pang and Xie without leaving a trace. Seeing that neither of them intended to ask any questions, he became a little anxious. He then said to Zhang Haixing with concern, "Miss Zhang, the fish soup made from mountain fish is rich in protein and amino acids. Mr. Pang also added ginseng slices when he was making the soup. They are all for replenishing the body's energy. You stayed in the ice water for too long. You need to replenish your energy as soon as possible."

Upon hearing this, the fat man chuckled and said to Wu Xie in broken Changsha dialect, "This foreign grandson is quite cunning in using someone else's talent to curry favor."

Wu Xie also slightly curled the corners of his mouth and replied in the same old Changsha dialect, "No matter what's underwater, there will always be someone who's more anxious than us." "Wu, Fatty, what are you two talking about?" Feng asked curiously.

The fat man glanced at him sideways and said, "You wouldn't understand serious issues between men."

Feng asked, puzzled, "But I'm a man too, why wouldn't I understand?"

The fat man laughed at him, "You, a native foreigner, really think you can understand the profound Chinese culture just by reading a few Chinese books? You don't even understand the basic local customs and traditions. Hurry up and finish eating, wash up, and go to sleep."

Seeing that the topic had gone off-topic again, Feng finally lost his temper. He stopped arguing with the fat man and asked Zhang Haixing directly, "When you were at the bottom of the lake, did you see clearly what Wu's fishing hook caught?"

Zhang Haixing nodded. "I see clearly now, that thing is a statue."

"A statue?" The fat man picked his teeth with a long fishbone and mumbled, "But no matter what, a statue should be placed on the bottom of the water. No matter how long the fishing line is, it can't be long enough to hook onto the bottom of a lake hundreds of meters deep, right? Does my Tianzhen have some kind of special ability that can make the fishing line longer?"

Zhang Haixing looked at him with displeasure, "Why do you talk so much nonsense?"

The fat man curled his lip, "Fine, I saved an ungrateful wretch. Your old woman's face is still intact thanks to me, and you don't know how to be grateful at all."

Zhang Haixing rolled her eyes, not wanting to pay him any attention, and continued, "The water below the Lama Temple platform is not very deep. I dived all the way to the bottom and saw a large snake coiled around a fish. Wu Xie's fishing line was hooked on the snake's head."

"However, the material used for the statue is not stone, but a grayish-white bone that faintly glows white. The overall frame is made of a whole huge animal spine, with a python coiled on the spine, and the scales on the snake's body are real red scales."

"The spine of a giant animal?" Wu Xie asked, repeating the question aloud.

"How big is it? Bigger than an African elephant?" the fat man interjected.

Zhang Haixing looked at him speechlessly, "Such obvious features, can't you really make even the slightest connection in your mind?"

"Just kidding to lighten the mood," the fat man said. "Look at you guys, all of you with long faces, like you have a grudge against the food I made."

Zhang Haixing didn't want to listen to his witty remarks, so she put down her bowl, took out a small notebook from her backpack, and continued, "I once heard from the elders of my tribe that some very ancient tribes would carve the likeness of ferocious beasts from the bones of large animals, fill the bone cavity with sand and stones to increase its weight, and finally throw the river-suppressing stone into the water source in their living area as a prayer for protection. The giant bone statue at the bottom of the lake may have served the same purpose."

Wu Xie asked, "Since it's a river-suppressing stone, shouldn't it be firmly pressed down at the bottom of the water? Why did it suddenly float up?"

“It doesn’t float up,” Zhang Haixing explained. “The place where I found the giant bone statue was a small, sunken, well-shaped volcano. Although the bone statue was heavy, the crater would spew out a burst of hot steam every now and then. Driven by the hot steam, the bone statue was pushed out of the volcano like a piston in a syringe. After the temperature was lowered by the ice lake, the bone statue would fall back down.”

“I found five arm-thick chains around the base of the giant bone statue, pressed against the bottom of the statue,” Zhang Haixing said.

"When I went down, the crater had already entered the cooling and accumulating phase, so I couldn't see where the chains ultimately led. But I speculate that they should be connected to the crater below, which would prevent the floating giant skeletons from shifting their positions when they fall."

Thank you so much to [Jiajiaya][Lost in Memories but Not in You] for the generous donations! Sending you love!
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(End of this chapter)