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

Chapter 546 Wounding Nine Hundred Enemies
“There’s something strange about this stone tower. I can vaguely see a small door through the gaps in the lattice.”

“We have to go inside. There’s probably no other way out here.” Zhang Wuxun picked up the flashlight from the ground, shone it on the group of wooden pagodas behind the stone pagoda, and then looked at Zhang Haike to confirm, “There’s a completely sealed stone wall behind there, right?”

Zhang Haike smiled knowingly and said at the opportune moment, "Come with me."

He turned around and returned the way he came, stepping back into the gray fog. It seemed that he had figured out the key to the maze the previous time he came in.

Wu Xie understood. "So we have to go through it all again. Is there a path that leads directly to this tower?"

Seeing Zhang Wuxun nod, the fat man immediately lifted his leg and said, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go, guys!"

The three turned off their flashlights and, to avoid any accidents, tied ropes to their arms before walking into the fog one by one.

The path they retraced seemed very long, taking much longer than when Zhang Wuxun brought Wu Xie in before.

After catching up with Zhang Haike, they wandered around in the maze for nearly half an hour without reaching the end. Fatty even began to doubt whether Zhang Haike had led them astray, since the environment was pitch black and so blurry that even if people stood face to face, they couldn't see the details of each other's faces.

The total area of ​​the stone platform where the wooden tower was placed was estimated to be about the size of a small football field. Wu Xie roughly estimated it based on his number of steps and stride length, and found that they had been walking non-stop since they started, and had now walked about three or four kilometers.

Even with the darkness and slow speed, this already far exceeded the expected distance.

The fat man paused, called out to Zhang Haike ahead, and asked suspiciously, "Could we have run into a ghost wall? Is that ghostly thing from before coming out again to bewitch us?"

Zhang Haike raised his hand to brush away the increasingly thick fog—no, it should be called smoke and dust—that was brushing away from his face. The feeling of it touching his skin with the passing air currents was dry, with a slightly rough, abrasive texture.

"This is the most dangerous part of this maze. It's a hidden formation, as you see fit," Zhang Haike explained briefly, without saying anything more. "In other words, there's another formation hidden within the maze."

Before he could finish speaking and before the fat man could ask any further questions, a baby-like cry suddenly rang in his ears. It was hidden in the darkness, sounding both resentful and hateful, desolate and eerie, sending chills down one's spine.

"...Damn it," the fat man stammered, half a word stuck in his throat, and reflexively looked in the direction of the sound.

A soft whimper. Another sound, this time closer than before.

"Did you hear anything?" The fat man's face was tense, and his voice was also strained.

"It sounds like crying," Wu Xie said in a low voice.

Zhang Wuxun had somehow moved from the back of the line to the front. He released his senses and confirmed, "It's not an illusion. Something is coming this way from the fog."

The things in the fog silently converged on their location. Strangely, Zhang Wuxun could only see many blurry shadows in his consciousness, and could not clearly outline the opponent's silhouette in his consciousness as before.

In other words, these unidentified creatures exist in a different way; like the "mermaid" locked in the stone tower, they are neither fully alive nor fully alive.

Zhang Wuxun "saw" that their bodies had long, thick tails trailing behind them, like snake tails.

Where were they hiding before, and why did they suddenly appear?
"This is a bit troublesome." Zhang Haike also noticed something was wrong. The others couldn't see his expression, but judging from his tone, he was probably not at ease either.

Sobbing and wailing sounds rang out one after another from all directions, and the frequency of the summons became increasingly rapid.

It's getting closer, closer—it's happening now!
The moment a gust of wind swept in, Zhang Wuxun and Zhang Haike moved simultaneously, one in front and one behind, shielding Wu Xie and his companion. Sparks flew from the muzzles of their guns, scattering the advance team that had first rushed forward to probe.

The long-tailed creature in the fog retreated after its initial attack, and its offensive temporarily ceased after failing to probe the enemy, seemingly also wary of Zhang Wuxun and his three companions, who were upright.

In the darkness, only the sound of rushing air could be heard, and gray shadows flashed by, moving with the wind. The sound of sharp claws scratching the stone platform and wooden tower was grating and irritating, as if they were scratching one's eardrums directly. The panting of the ferocious beasts was close at hand.

Wu Xie flung out a cold flame, but before it could land, it was knocked away and extinguished by a fleeting gray shadow. However, the moment the arc of light was flung out was enough for the group to see just how many uninvited guests were around them.

Densely packed, countless pairs of dark, hollow eyes stared intently at this side, like a honeycomb.

The four were surrounded and confronted by these unknown beasts. Zhang Wuxun sensed a strange aura flowing from the beasts.

He could sense that these long-tailed beasts didn't seem to have a strong desire to attack; they would surround their prey and wait.

wait for what?
Zhang Wuxun could already smell the scent of death, which was enveloping him from all directions. He clearly realized that what followed was probably the main event, and also the true cause of death of those skeletons in the stone chamber outside where bronze was being forged.

The ground began to tremble slightly, all the wooden towers shook and made a tooth-grinding creaking sound, and something seemed to be about to emerge right beneath their feet.

Zhang Wuxun and the others suddenly realized that the explosive device on the wooden tower wasn't intended for them, but for the unknown behemoth sealed beneath the stone platform. Cracks had appeared in the floor beneath their feet, the shadows in the mist began to recede, and plumes of black smoke billowed from the cracks, scattering rapidly in all directions.

Without needing to say more, Zhang Wuxun and the others had already made a tacit decision in their hearts.

"Everyone retreat to the stone tower!" Zhang Haike said, then turned and charged back.

"Alright!" the fat man shouted, and with his momentum, he threw out two detonators with a blast radius of five meters, blasting away all the dozen or so long-tailed beasts blocking his retreat, sending them flying in all directions.

With a soft hum, the silk strings around the wooden tower were touched.

With a mournful screech, the long-tailed beasts, in an attempt to prevent Zhang Wuxun and his companions from escaping, swarmed towards them. With a series of snaps, strings were broken, and the fat man could almost hear the crackling sound of fuses being lit.

Zhang Haike took the lead, leaping into the air and kicking over two long-tailed beasts. He then turned and used the momentum to knock another one away.

Sensing the hard scales covering its skull, Zhang Haike knew what was going on and fired several shots in quick succession.

With keen intuition, the bullet, gleaming slightly silver, pierced the air, entered the long-tailed beast's dark eye socket, and exited through the armor behind its head.

The long-tailed beasts crashed to the ground, their bodies then trampled and submerged by the surging in of their kind.

Fatty and Wu Xie, one throwing grenades and the other firing a shot, both exerted all their strength to barely keep up with Zhang Haike's pace.

When the Zhang family members truly ran at full speed, their speed was incredibly fast, two to three times that of a normal person, almost like teleportation.

Zhang Wuxun was responsible for covering the rear and cleaning up the mess, using bullets to take out the pursuing long-tailed beasts one by one.

With a series of thunderous crashes, long-tailed beasts fell to the ground, the wooden tower was smashed to pieces and shattered beyond recognition, and the detonators placed on the tower finally burned out, heading towards their end and destruction under the guidance of their fuses.

The scorching heatwave, like a thunderbolt, swept in with a vast plume of smoke, and countless shattered pieces of wood, like bullets, shot out in all directions.

Zhang Wuxun and his companions were practically jumping on the Grim Reaper's head. They were mercilessly thrown away by the shockwave, flying more than ten meters away as lightly as autumn leaves being swept away by the wind, before crashing to the ground one after another.

The fragments of the wooden tower buried the four of them. Zhang Wuxun snapped out of his dizziness, feeling a tingling sensation all over his body, unable to feel his limbs anymore.

He took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and propped himself up with one arm, but the next second he collapsed back down from the pain.

This movement seemed to activate all his senses of sight, hearing, touch, and smell. An explosive pain swept from his body to his internal organs, as if all his organs had been twisted 360 degrees. The pain was so intense that he dared not even take another breath.

Fortunately, a few seconds later, a warm current surged from his heart. Perhaps the injury was too severe, and the system could no longer hide it, so it took the initiative to perform physical repair on him.

A dozen or so breaths later, Zhang Wuxun stood up, tattered and battered. He turned around and looked at the long-tailed beast horde behind him. The smoke had been dispersed by the explosion, and the long-tailed beasts were almost completely wiped out.

This incident was truly a case of inflicting heavy losses on both sides, causing immense suffering.

Zhang Wuxun took out a new gun from his spatial storage and shot down the long-tailed beasts that were still twitching and writhing in his sight one by one.

The cracks beneath their feet had stopped spreading. After eliminating the potential danger, Zhang Wuxun immediately turned to look for Wu Xie and the others.

Zhang Wuxun recalled the location of Wu Xie and Fatty the moment he was blown away. Because he was the first to be blown away, and he was hit by the biggest shockwave and flew the farthest, Wu Xie and Fatty should have been not far from him.

Zhang Wuxun closed his eyes and sensed again. He quickly found a wriggling orange-red figure in the deep pit below the wooden tower fragments. Judging from its shape, it should be the fat man. Another thinner figure was below the fat man. Both of them were seriously injured, but fortunately, they survived.

Zhang Haike had been blown away somewhere, and there was no trace of him within my perception range.

He didn't think Zhang Haike would die so easily. Perhaps another explosion occurred while he was buried and unconscious, causing Zhang Haike to fly to a more distant place.

Shaking his head, Zhang Wuxun wasted no more time and took out his tools to start digging people out.

The fat man wasn't buried very deep, and he tried to dig a hole himself after he woke up.

As soon as the light of day appeared and he met Zhang Wuxun's gaze, the fat man coughed twice, spat out a mouthful of blood, and then tilted his head and completely fainted.

good night