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

"It is a child born from the consciousness of the ancestral tree fragments brought by the ancient Lan people after their migration. We share a resonance of blood ties with our ancestors."

In the dim light, Zhang Wuxun's face appeared exceptionally pale. He said, "So I accepted the guidance, came here, and then awakened it."

It was as if he was repeating what he had done at the altar beneath the bronze tree. Here, he had also given up some things and gained some things, something even more precious.

"Whether it was intentional or accidental, I have to thank you anyway." Zhang Wuxun turned to look at Zhang Haike and smiled slightly.

To prepare for a future change that could impact the entire world, we must take this step.

"Like Zhang Haisi and Zhang Menyu back then?"

We are trying to stop change, while they are chasing it.

"Them?" Zhang Wuxun tilted his head in confusion.

They are evolutionary species abandoned and corrupted by the ancestral tree.

"A failed atavism, like the Queen Mother of the West?" Zhang Wuxun asked tentatively. "Being corrupted by it, does that mean being eroded by its consciousness?"

The system remained silent, neither denying nor admitting anything.

Zhang Wuxun then asked, "So where are those failed products that were left behind?"

This time, the system answered: "They are scattered in every corner of the world. If you were to encounter them someday, your instincts would tell you the answer."

Even after leaving the snow-capped mountains, they will still instinctively chase after you.

Before pollution completely erodes and devours this pristine land, you must stop it and kill it.

"So what Wang Zanghai saw in his pursuit of the ultimate goal, and what all the Wang family members firmly believed in, was actually bait they had thrown out," Zhang Wuxun said thoughtfully.

The system avoided the topic, only stating, "You've come this far, experienced all this, and now there's only one final step left. You will then obtain... what your father left behind after he separated from you."

Zhang Wuxun was puzzled. He felt that the system hesitated when saying the title "father". Could there be some unusual hidden story behind it?
After he hatched from his cocoon and, while searching for Wu Xie and the others, unconsciously entered the altar to offer sacrifice under the guidance of his instincts, the system seemed to have recovered the missing part: the memories he had when he was residing in Zhang Menyu's body.

“I don’t know what you saw in the previous sacrifices.” Zhang Haike looked at his blood-stained palms and casually wiped them on the hem of his clothes.

Zhang Haike had never experienced this before, so he found it somewhat difficult to understand. He tried to figure out how Zhang Wuxun had managed to do this. He had very little information about the evolution of snake species, but he wouldn't ask.

"As long as it can end, I think all the sacrifices are worthwhile." This is what Zhang Haike thought, and this is what all the overseas Zhang family members who gathered here thought.

At this moment, it seemed as if they had reached some kind of agreement or promise.

Zhang Wuxun's lips curved into a faint smile as he turned his head slightly to look at him. "Now, take Fatty with you and let's go find Wu Xie."

……

Wu Xie wouldn't easily believe the fleeting information he caught; eyes can lie, and he needed to verify it.

He quickened his pace on the crossbeam, leaping and weaving between the coffins, the wind whistling past his ears, the final cries of the corpses forced into free fall.

Wu Xie fell heavily into a decaying coffin. The immense pressure caused the coffin to creak under the strain, teetering on the verge of collapse.

It was only halfway up that Wu Xie discovered that what he thought was a huge cave was actually a deep, dark valley with no end in sight. The cave that revealed the sunlight was just one of the small passages leading to the outside world.

The deep valley stretches endlessly into the darkness, with pale white logs growing out from the cliff face, or perhaps the valley walls have become one with the giant logs over the long course of time.

Wu Xie looked down, the bottom of the valley was just inches away.

Too many people are buried here. Hanging coffins are scattered everywhere, with piles of white bones underneath. The air is thick with the smell of corpses and the poisonous miasma is so thick that even insects and ants have disappeared. Even though he covered his mouth and nose with a torn piece of cloth, the stench of decay still made his eyes blurry and countless thoughts rushed through his mind.

He tried to clear his mind of distractions, sort out the details he had consciously or unconsciously remembered, and then analyzed them.

The number of corpses thrown down from above was roughly estimated to be twenty or thirty. It was impossible for such a large group of people to sneak in without alerting the Zhang family members guarding outside. However, this place was already very deep underground, and even if the Zhang family members outside noticed something was wrong, they probably wouldn't have time to react.

Therefore, this group of people should have been killed by Zhang Wuxun and his group, who had previously separated from him.

The body was handled violently, covered in knife marks. Given Zhang Wuxun and Zhang Haike's methods, this treatment seemed more like torture or revenge.

Wu Xie rubbed his throbbing temples hard, and his nasal cavity seemed to start to hurt as well, causing radiating pain in the nerves of his face. He guessed that the sinus inflammation was caused by inhaling too much corpse miasma.

Wu Xie hypnotized himself to ignore the discomfort and continued his analysis. He had a vague feeling that he was about to grasp that clue.

So what is the source of anger?
That blood-stained face flashed through my mind again.

Wu Xie tilted his head back slightly, grabbed the collar that was stuck at his Adam's apple and tugged at it. The corpse energy was too strong, and he felt a little short of breath.

He tried his best to keep his face calm, but his rapid breathing betrayed his inner tension. He dared not stop, nor dared to think.

With his feet finally on solid ground, Wu Xie didn't dare to delay for a moment. He estimated the general direction and staggered towards the possible location of the corpse.

Lying on the mountain of corpses and the sea of ​​decay, unable to see, Wu Xie could only rely on his hands to feel his way out.

This one is too thin, no, he touched to the side. This one only has half a head left, so it shouldn't be that either. Wu Xie felt around in the dark and followed the corpse's neck until he found a small tool bag in the person's clothes. He was overjoyed and quickly opened it, taking out a miniature flashlight.

The miasma of corpses settled like fog at the bottom of the valley, limiting visibility with the miniature flashlight, but Wu Xie's hope still surged stronger; it seemed that with light came hope. There was a long-haired figure over there, its head smashed like rotten watermelon pulp. Some local resident's gray leg bone was embedded in the corpse's neck and head. The corpse's neck was tilted back, its face grotesquely contorted; upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a woman.

This body is ridiculously short, a dwarf? That can't be right.

Wu Xie stretched his neck and lifted it up. When he shone a light on it, oh, it turned out to be a half-body.

It seems to be that "n" that fell onto the crossbeam in front of him back then.

Wu Xie's heart suddenly pounded with a "thud," like a drumstick that hadn't been properly positioned landing heavily on the drumhead. The sound was dull, and then the drum rolled down the edge to the ground, "bang bang bang bang bang," as Wu Xie's left chest began to pound wildly.

Below the lower half was a fat, swollen leg, with something stuffed inside the skin and flesh, making it look like it was bulging out in rows.

With trembling hands, Wu Xie peeled back the half-section, revealing the face he had longed for, so familiar it felt almost strange.

The face was as robust as ever, except that the eye sockets were empty and the crisscrossing knife marks on the face were deep and etched into the bone, as if the person wished they could peel off their face.

……

The fat man scratched his face through the gauze, his eyelids twitched as if he was about to wake up, but then, feeling the warm sleeping bag enveloping his body, he drifted back to sleep.

The fat man rarely frowned in his sleep; he was used to having sweet dreams. But this time, he almost experienced the most terrifying nightmare of his life.

The fire not far away had already passed its most intense stage; the flames were still leaping and flaring up, as if unwilling to give up, but they were already showing signs of gradually dying out.

The charred, withered vines at the edges, now completely burned, occasionally leaped out with sparks, proclaiming their presence as if to say, "I too have contributed to the fire race, I too have added fuel to the fire!"
With a "bang," the withered vine snapped, and the sparks that flew into the air were quickly cooled and turned into ashes, which were then stepped on by a military boot.

The fat man's eyes were tightly closed, his brows furrowed uneasily, and his eyeballs darted around erratically under his eyelids; he was dreaming again.

But this dream is real.

At that time, Wu Xie was knocked away and seriously injured. The blood from the tip of his tongue that he spat out attracted all the paper dolls away.

Fatty seized the opportunity to climb out from under the cliff. Seeing the paper figures swarming up and attacking Wu Xie, he was extremely anxious. He was about to cut his own hand and bleed to lure the paper figures back.

Suddenly, all the paper figures froze in place, their paper heads all turning in one direction, looking up as if they were devout believers.

The fat man was stunned and dared not move for a moment.

But soon, the paper figure moved.

All the paper figures shattered into countless smaller paper figures in an instant, like confetti blasted from cannon fire. As if receiving some mysterious summons, the gray-white paper pieces rushed to the ground and fled in the direction they had just been looking up at.

The fat man felt a sudden gust of cold wind, and when he looked again, all the paper figures had vanished without a trace.

He didn't have time to worry about the whereabouts of the paper doll and rushed over to check on Wu Xie. He found that Wu Xie had just been knocked unconscious and his bones were not broken, but he couldn't tell whether they were cracked or not.

Worried that the paper figures might return, Fatty carried Wu Xie on his back and led them to a cave they had stumbled into while being chased by the paper figures.

The interior of the cave is somewhat similar to the side chambers often seen when entering a tomb. The walls are rough, like plowed land with ridges and mounds. In the very center is a stone coffin.

The coffin was carved with many patterns and totems of varying shades, interspersed with Tibetan script, which the fat man couldn't understand, so he ignored it.

He placed Wu Xie behind the stone coffin and planned to find something to burn to start a fire.

After wandering around half of the cave, I found that none of the burial items were made of cotton or linen; they were all made of bone and stone, so that they would make a sound if they were thrown to the ground.

The fat man thought to himself, "Damn it, could all the good stuff be in the coffin?"

I finally got some peace and quiet, but this coffin is just too unlucky.

As I was pondering this, I suddenly felt that something was slightly off.

Looking down at their feet, they discovered that the cave floor was covered with dense patches of white, withered vines, and the surrounding walls were also covered with hanging dry vines.

After all that, it turns out this is actually a huge tree hollow.

The fat man chuckled and quickly gathered materials on the spot to set up a fire.

Wu Xie's injuries were quite serious, and he would probably suffer a concussion when he woke up. Fatty quickly bandaged his wounds, thinking that just waiting around wouldn't do.

This place is so remote it doesn't even have a water source. If I catch a fever later, I'll be in big trouble.

Fatty slapped his thigh and decided to go back the way he came to look for the equipment pack he had lost earlier. Although the cardboard doll had eaten a lot, there should still be a few left. It would be best if he could find a medkit, but if he couldn't find one, he would have to find a way to get some water.

After huddling the fire together and settling Wu Xie in, Fatty left the cave.

After finally finding a dented water bottle by following the trail, the fat man was overjoyed and ran over to pick it up.

Looking up, I noticed a glimpse of black clothing peeking out from around the corner.

The fat man was stunned for a moment, then straightened up, only then realizing he was surrounded. (End of Chapter)