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

Chapter 513 God's Territory
The silt accumulated in the cracks between the stones on the ground was nearly two feet deep.

The fat man stretched out a leg and tried it out. The mud was up to his knees. He immediately pulled his leg out in disgust and said, "The surface layer of this stuff has solidified, but the inside is still wet. It's like stepping into a frozen cesspool."

Upon hearing this, everyone felt a chill run down their spines.

Zhang Haixing pinched the mud scraps she had torn off her body and glared at the fat man with disgust. "It's disgusting enough already. We still have to go in later. Leave us some way out, okay?"

Zhang Wuxun replaced the battery in the only remaining flashlight, turned it on, and shone it around.

Almost all the surrounding rocks were covered in black mud. Even when they stood on the highest rock, they were inevitably splashed with a lot of mud, which made them feel sticky like half-dried chewing gum.

Everyone tidied themselves up by the light, and finally they didn't look so messy anymore.

Zhang Haixing lit a cigarette. The commotion on the other side of the bronze door had completely subsided. She said, "Let's go and see what's going on inside."

The flashlight, submerged in the mud, was completely lost. The fat man found a stone mallet, tore it into a strip from Feng's vest, tied it tightly at the thin end, and barely managed to make a torch to hold up.

The group carefully hopped across the stones and arrived at the bronze gate. What they saw left them speechless.

A colossal gash had appeared on the massive bronze gate, so large it was almost unbelievable. The gaping hole, dozens of meters high, gaped open menacingly, clearly caused by the mud gushing out from within.

The towering gap stood there, like a giant snake with its mouth wide open. The irregular edges of the gap became sharp fangs. Inside, it was pitch black, and black mud stuck to the edges dripped down and solidified into many sticky, stringy substances, hanging like black banners, exuding a sinister and ominous aura.

With his hands tied behind his back, Feng craned his neck to peer through the huge gap in the door, incredulous. "Are you sure you used MK3A2 grenades, and not Composition C-4s?"

"What nonsense are you talking about?" the fat man said dismissively. "My eyes aren't cataracts. Even if it's dark here, I'm not so old that I can't tell the difference between a grenade and C4."

Zhang Haixing said coldly, "The fact that it can cause such great damage can only mean that this door is indeed fake, and all that effort was wasted."

Wu Xie pondered for a few seconds and said, "Actually, that's not entirely true. There's something very strange. Since this door is completely sealed, how were all that mud poured in before?"

"And what's even stranger is why there's so much mud inside the door. What's the point? If it's just to take the life of whoever opens the door, this is going to a lot of trouble. He could have easily set up some more dangerous traps."

Zhang Wuxun shone his lamp inside, thinking, "Perhaps it's not all for naught. There must be some other secret hidden here, something related to the Zhang family of the past, something the current Zhang family overseas doesn't know about."

The fat man rubbed his hands together and took the flashlight from Zhang Wuxun's hand. "What are we waiting for? Let's go in and take a look."

He then crouched down and crawled inside, stepping into the sticky mud. He turned back and said, "For me personally, this is a small step, but for tomb raiders, it's a leap forward."

After saying that, he glanced at Zhang Wuxun, who was lagging behind, and mouthed silently, "This is the second time. You know that."

Zhang Wuxun's eye twitched. He was absolutely certain that Fatty had heard him call out Wu Xie's name earlier. Now, he was completely exposed.

It was too dark for Zhang Haixing to notice their furtive conversation. She squeezed past the fat man, frowned, and looked around. "What makes you say that?"

“Because this is God’s territory,” the fat man said.

Wu Xie thought he was marveling at something he had discovered, but to his surprise, he immediately replied, "The God of Diarrhea."

Everyone:...

Without hesitation, they all went inside, lit up the cold fireworks and threw them around, illuminating the entire space.

“If this were a temple, wouldn’t it be a bit lacking in prestige?” Zhang Wuxun asked. “This place is only about the size of a regular stadium.”

They imagined that behind the bronze door was something immeasurable, but in reality they only saw a huge bronze cave, which inevitably led to a sense of disappointment.

However, it is not so empty that there is nothing there. The oval-shaped cave is like an upright goose egg, with many bronze pillars of varying thicknesses scattered irregularly around it, supporting the dome like naturally formed stalactites.

The back of the bronze door was also completely covered with black mud. The group tore it off and found that the door and the two walls on either side seemed to be a single piece.

The cave and doors are all cast in bronze and are covered with strange, intricate patterns, so dense they resemble the lines on human skin.

"My goodness!" the fat man exclaimed. "These people are really patient. How did they carve all these patterns? It must have taken them hundreds or thousands of years to complete."

Wu Xie touched the mountain wall with a serious expression. "The patterns are a minor issue. The problem is that there are no injection-molded patterns. If you look closely, these bronzes are too smooth, as if they were cast from a single piece."

Zhang Haixing asked, puzzled, "Is this difficult?"

“It’s not that it’s difficult, it’s that it’s impossible,” Wu Xie said. “There’s only one place where this kind of craftsmanship could be made.”

"Where?" Zhang Haixing asked.

"Outer space, where there is no gravity," Wu Xie replied.

"Of course, there is another possibility. For example, during the construction process, people could be sent into the red-hot cave to build supports. If people are kept being sent in, wearing protective gear, they could do some things in the minutes before they are burned to death."

"But this method is neither possible nor scientific in terms of common sense," Wu Xie concluded.

The fat man nodded. "If we were to complete such a massive project using this method, at least tens of thousands of people would die. And back then, we might not have had such tight protective gear as we do now. It would be like letting living people jump around in an erupting volcano; they'd be turned to ashes before they even got a chance to move."

"Your Zhang family must have had so many people to build this up. If they had actually done it, they probably wouldn't have needed Wang Zanghai; they would have wiped out long ago."

Zhang Haixing glared at him with dissatisfaction, "What about the Khampa people? There are so many Khampa corpses in the Ice Burial Cliff."

When asked about it, Zhang Wuxun wiped the mud off his hands and said calmly, "There is no record of this in the ancient historical records of the Khampa people, and the corpses of those people have nothing to do with the bronze gate."

Zhang Haixing was somewhat disappointed. In fact, she suspected Bai Ci more than Feng.

She knew that Bai Ci was definitely hiding many things. His cooperation with the Zhang family was directly handled by Zhang Haike, and she didn't know the details of what was discussed. She hadn't cared before because it was unrelated to what she was doing.

But the inexplicable events that occurred outside the bronze gate made her feel uneasy. She thought it was more likely that Bai Ci and the Khampa people behind him had deceived Zhang Haike, and their purpose was probably still related to Zu Ling.

If it was the Khampa people who did this, then it means that Bai Ci has already begun to doubt her identity.

The fact that her blood had been drawn from her had probably exposed the fact that she was not a member of the Zhang family.

Zhang Haixing's heart tightened. If that were the case, the place they had entered must be extremely important, and Bai Ci must have had a purpose in luring them here.

She didn't have much time left. Bai Ci was a huge obstacle, and she had to find a way to get rid of him. Zhang Haixing glanced at Zhang Wuxun subtly, then turned and went to look for clues on the other side.

The others also scattered and searched the cave.

The fat man snapped his fingers to attract everyone's attention. When they looked over, they found him squatting in the center of the cave, where there seemed to be a deep, sunken pit. The fat man was peering down into it.

"What did you find?" Wu Xie asked.

"Something awesome," the fat man said, his tone slightly excited. "Something incredibly awesome."

Upon hearing this, everyone rushed forward to take a look and discovered a bowl-shaped, sunken area in front of the fat man, like a semi-circular crater made by a giant lead ball hitting the ground.

The fat man had already torn off part of the black mud covering the surface of the ten-meter-diameter circular pit, revealing the patterns underneath.

These patterns are quite different from those on the surrounding mountain walls. Near the group, there are several thick, chain-like cracks, as well as many spiral circles whose details are unknown, one inside the other.

“Tear the mud apart completely,” Zhang Wuxun said. “This is indeed a very powerful thing, a big secret.”

Everyone got excited and jumped into the pit, quickly tearing at the mud with their hands.

Even Feng, who was slacking off on the side, came over with interest, carefully examining the patterns that were gradually revealing their true forms, his expression turning to astonishment.

"This thing...this thing..." Feng's voice trembled, disbelief mixed with excitement, "I've seen this thing before! I've definitely seen it before!"

Feng stared intently at Zhang Wuxun, his face flushed, wanting to confirm, "Is it... is it that one!"

"What's with all this and that?" the fat man frowned. "What kind of riddles are you spouting, kid?"

"You've seen this thing before?" he asked Zhang Wuxun.

“Yes, I’ve seen it. The notebook Zhang Qiling left behind contains a complete sketch of this pattern,” Zhang Wuxun said. “That notebook was obtained from the Germans.”

Zhang Haixing hurriedly asked, "Where's the notebook?"

Zhang Wuxun shrugged, "It was stolen by those who plotted against us."

Zhang Haixing frowned deeply, clearly not believing it.

Feng Huo's mind immediately cleared, and he awkwardly shut his mouth, fearing that this unfounded charge would implicate him again.

"Although the contents are gone, I still remember roughly what was inside." Zhang Wuxun clapped his hands and called everyone to come up from the pit.

"The first half depicts the Germans' search for the Bronze Gate in the snow-capped mountains. Starting from the appearance of this picture, it mentions a person who suddenly appears. The Germans treat this person with great respect, and under his guidance, they find a treasure."

"Who is he?" Zhang Haixing asked urgently.

Zhang Wuxun lifted his eyelids and glanced at her. "That person's surname is Zhang."

Everyone immediately took a deep breath.

"Is that Zhang Qiling?" the fat man hurriedly asked. "Is that you, Brother?"

Zhang Wuxun shook his head. "I don't know."

The German corpses and notebooks frozen in the canyon were part of a scheme devised by the Khampa people to verify who was the person Dong Can had promised in the ten-year agreement, and to help them deal with the person riding the corpse.

Therefore, based on Zhang Wuxun's guess, the Mr. Zhang mentioned in that letter most likely refers to Zhang Fulin, who is Dong Can.

The notebook was almost entirely written in German, which Wu Xie couldn't understand, but he always felt that what Zhang Wuxun said seemed to be a mixture of truth and falsehood.

He found the note that Mu Yu had specially left in the Tibetan robe on the stone statue of the young man. He asked Hei Xiazi to translate it. Although it mentioned Mr. Zhang, it did not contain any information about treasure.

Wu Xie had also seen the contents of that notebook in Zhang Wuxun's meditation room, and he remembered the copy of the bronze door.

He said, "Although the patterns are not exactly the same, their arrangement and the meaning they express are not significantly different."

Zhang Haixing glanced at him. "What do you mean?"

“Bronze mural.” Wu Xie pointed to the patterns in the pit. “The engraved patterns record the events. The patterns in other places are a whole, so only important things can be recorded in the very center.”

"This thing has the same pattern as the bronze door, and it looks like an overturned tortoise shell."

“We need to find the first relief on the tortoise shell and start deciphering from there.”

“Actually, the source is easy to find.” Zhang Wuxun lit a cold firework and threw it into the very center of the turtle shell’s concavity.

Zhang Haixing jumped down to take a closer look and saw a clearly protruding sphere in the very center, covered with countless holes.

"What's this?" she asked. "A round hornet's nest."

"No." Wu Xie recognized him at a glance, then looked at the fat man, who was also looking at him.

Both of them knew this thing very well. They had seen with their own eyes a place that was many times larger than this bronze cave, and it was full of this honeycomb-like thing.

"This is a meteorite."

The group dispersed from the center, searching for the direction of the relief sculpture in all directions.

This is Wu Xie's forte; he is best able to distinguish the order of carving and painting. Although the knife strokes and brush techniques are different, the human ideology is the same. As long as these reliefs are carved by humans, then it is unlikely to be wrong.

He quickly found the second image, and combined it with what he had drawn in his notebook, he immediately understood.

“This is not a tortoise shell,” he said. “This is the scene of a meteorite falling. People are standing on the ground, watching a huge meteorite in the sky split into several pieces, turn into fireballs of different sizes in the air, and finally fall to all corners of the world.”

Wu Xie's thoughts began to wander, and he suddenly connected with many more ideas.

The patterns in this bronze cave were actually formed in outer space!
good night