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

Zhang Wuxun looked at the deliberately erased area on the map, feeling very puzzled. What exactly was this place, and why was it covered up? Since Zhang Haisi had drawn it out, it meant that he had been there before.

Why is it deliberately hidden? Could it be that some great, unspeakable secret is being concealed here?
Zhang Wuxun subconsciously looked at Zhang Haike and saw that his expression was unusually serious.

"Do you know where this is? Or have you been there before?" Zhang Wu asked, trying to trick him.

Zhang Haike suddenly came to his senses, shook his head and said, "I have never been there. I have only heard the clan elders say that there is a place in the northernmost no-man's land that is a death trap for the Zhang family. All members of the Zhang family who go in will die. The clan rules clearly stipulate that no member of the Zhang clan shall set foot in this place. Those who disobey the order shall bear the consequences of their own lives. The clan members will not go to rescue them, nor are they allowed to go to rescue them."

Zhang Wuxun seemed to be deep in thought. The system had said that the place Zhang Menyu went to last was called the "Land of Divine Sacrifice." Could this be it?

Zhang Wuxun kept this thought to himself and didn't dwell on it for the time being. These things were still too far away for him right now, and focusing on the present was the most important thing.

The map of the unknown creature's skin also contained two human finger bones, belonging to the same person's left little finger, wrapped in red thread in a crisscross pattern, densely engraved with runes.

Zhang Wuxun used his fingertips to try to identify it and found that it should be a kind of overlapping script that combined ancient Miao incantations and snake-worshiping prayers. Although it looked a bit eerie, like the cursed dolls in the witchcraft and sorcery of ancient dynasties, the function of carving such runes was most likely just to pray for blessings and protection.

"That's all." Zhang Wuxun tidied up the items, put them back in the box, and then restored the mechanism.

Zhang Haike nodded and said, "I've contacted the area down the mountain and we'll use the Khampa people's passage. The supplies should be delivered by tomorrow evening."

“Alright,” Zhang Wuxun decided, “Then we’ll set off the day after tomorrow morning.”

The two, who were rolling on the thick mat, had already progressed to the stage of intertwining their limbs, twisting their necks, and spitting at each other. Upon hearing this, they were still somewhat taken aback.

﹉﹉﹉

The group of five officially entered Golden Sphere Valley, watched by the guards of Kangba Luo who led their hunting dogs.

The valley entrance is not wide, only about two meters wide. Looking up, you can see that the two cliffs on the top are almost closing together, with a winding white ray of light in between.

After walking a hundred meters, the white light gradually spread out like the contrails of an airplane until it met the sky. The clouds were like train carriages, running past from right to left at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Contrary to its name, Golden Globe Valley is not actually covered in gold. It is black, with the entire valley and the cliffs extending to the left and right presenting a silent gray-black color, like an ink painting.

According to Dan, this place was once a jungle 10,000 years ago. Later, due to underground fluctuations, it subsided, was squeezed, and overturned. After decay and erosion, it eventually formed the rugged and barren karst landform we see today.

Dan said this place also has another name, Nagodo, which means continuous black stone mountains.

The fat man commented, "It lives up to its name. It's all dark and gloomy at first glance. Can you really find gold in this place?"

To avoid inexplicable events like those described in the journal, the group would stop every ten minutes to mark the route and check the time and direction.

The path through the valley was quite complicated, with scattered rocks everywhere, so everyone walked very carefully and slowed down considerably.

Half an hour later, the ground level at the bottom of the valley, obscured by the stone forest, had expanded to an undetectable extent.

"How long have we been walking?" Wu Xie asked.

Zhang Haike glanced at his watch and estimated, "About five kilometers."

Wu Xie walked around the pile of rocks. There was a stone platform there that was suitable for resting. However, the traces of sixty years ago had long been erased by nature. For example, the tent made of cotton and linen fabric had almost completely disappeared in a year. Zhang Qishan's special team had left in a very hurry. If they were lucky, they might be able to find some small metal parts made of brass or galvanized iron.

He then asked Dan to confirm the direction: "Where exactly is our destination in Golden Valley? Do we need to keep going straight along the valley floor?"

“Keep going like this, it’s a long way off, and you’ll see a crater. What you’re looking for might be inside,” Dan said.

Zhang Wuxun sat on the rock, took a few sips from the water pouch, and screwed on the cap. "Did you find any new records in Lao Renge's notes?"

“It’s not in Old Rengo’s notes,” Dan said first, then changed the subject, “but I found in the bone slips left by the chieftain before Old Rengo that about 1,500 years ago, there was a small alien tribe called Ge Que Qiang Qiong at the site of the snake mine.”

"The people in this small tribe are different from normal people. If we use modern scientific methods to explain it, it should be a kind of bone deformity inherited from blood."

"Autosomal dominant malformation inherited in genes?" Wu Xie asked.

Dan glanced at Wu Xie and said, "I don't quite understand, but it seems to be roughly the same."

"The people in this small tribe are born with a pair of short, membranous wings, but they cannot fly freely in the sky and mountains like birds."

"The people of this tribe are fanatically worshipping snakes, claiming to be followers of the Queen Mother of the West, and considering themselves descendants of the feathered serpent, servant of the three bluebirds."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Wuxun suddenly remembered something, and pulled out the black notebook left by the young man from his backpack. Inside was a photograph.

This is a photo of a bronze sculpture with a human head and a snake's body, which came to him from materials shared by a German named Ryan when he was living in a Lama temple with Wu Xie's face.

The reason I kept the photo is because the sculpture has the face of the Queen Mother of the West.

When he first recognized it as the Queen Mother of the West, he made many guesses in his mind, and even suspected that the Wang family deliberately used Ryan to make this thing and put it in Motuo as a trap to lure him into a trap.

However, after entering the snow mountain and finding the ancestral home of the snake-worshipping tribe, he did not see any similar statues. He originally thought that the Germans were being sabotaged by the Wang family, but now it seems that the statue's true origin may lie here.

As soon as the photos were shown, Wu Xie and the others were immediately drawn to them.

The fat man immediately recognized the face in the photo and exclaimed "Holy crap!" His face turned green. "Damn it, this ghost woman is haunting us! How could she travel 1,900 kilometers from the Snake Swamp Desert to the snowy mountains of southern Tibet? Could she really be a demon?!" Clearly, the face he peeked out from the meteorite cave when he left the Queen Mother of the West's underground city had left a deep impression on him. It was only because Little Brother was unconscious at the time and they were in a hurry to evacuate, and heavy weapons were not with them, that he could have blasted her to ashes with a single shot.

"Playing tricks." The fat man snorted and asked Zhang Wuxun, "Where did you get this picture of the monster?"

"It was given to me by the Germans." Zhang Wuxun flicked the photo with his finger and handed it to Wu Xie.

Wu Xie took the photo and examined it closely. With his years of experience in identifying antiques, he commented, "Judging from the layers of rust, this thing should be genuine. Look, the upper body of the crown robe is engraved with phoenixes and three bluebirds. The lines of the patterns are vivid, the bottom of the incised lines are sandy and discontinuous, and the repair marks are too obvious."

Zhang Wuxun nodded and stated his deduction, "I suspect that this thing came from Golden Sphere Valley. Look at the snake tail part of the sculpture, it has obviously been reshaped, and the top of the bronze tree that the snake body is wrapped around is also broken, as if it was forcibly broken off by someone."

Wu Xie gestured with his hands, "Judging by the proportions, that's indeed the case. Its main body should be a very elaborate and intricate project. It seems that this so-called Feathered Serpent Descendant really reveres the Queen Mother of the West."

The fat man pointed out incisively, "It's probably because he idolized the Queen Mother of the West too much and tried to imitate her by conducting experiments on transsexuals, which is why he mutated into a deformed being."

Everyone nodded in agreement, agreeing that what he said made perfect sense.

The Goqunqiong tribe did not exist for a long time. After all, the Khampa people had some connection with the Queen Mother of the West, so the Goqunqiong people might really be descendants of the Queen Mother of the West.

These speculations may ultimately remain just that—speculations. As for the truth, there is no more detailed evidence among the bone inscriptions preserved to this day in Kham to prove their authenticity.

The team continued forward, and by late afternoon, they had entered the 20-kilometer area marked by the red line.

The group assigned tasks, with Zhang Wuxun and two others, who had the advantage of combat skills, split up to scout out the surrounding area and collect some branches to start a fire, while Fatty and Wu Xie stayed behind to set up camp.

Half an hour later, the three returned one after another. Zhang Wuxun was holding a small reddish-brown snake with its head cut off. Zhang Haike's target was the camp of the team he had once led, and he did indeed have something to show for it. He brought back a lead box with a severely corroded and discolored surface.

Only Dan, after scouting the path ahead, dutifully gathered a large bundle of tree branches.

The fat guy and his team had already set up their tents and lit the smokeless stove with the fruitwood charcoal they had brought, adding water. Aside from protective suits and ammunition, most of the supplies they brought this time were water.

And the facts proved that their decision was correct. Since entering the valley, they have not seen any water source or even a trace of snow.

Fatty took the dead snake from Zhang Wuxun's hand and teased him as he dealt with it, saying, "I was just planning to live on biscuits, porridge, and luncheon meat, but I didn't expect to get an extra meal."

As he spoke, he hesitated, "Speaking of which, these snakes have lived here for a long time, is their meat still edible? Won't it be poisonous?"

"Don't worry, I've treated it with special methods. It's as clean as if it just hatched from a sterile room," Zhang Wuxun said.

Wu Xie was somewhat reluctant to eat snake meat, but Fatty complained that he, as a native of Hangzhou, didn't eat snake, saying, "Didn't you eat snake when your third uncle took you around to play when you were a kid?"

"I don't remember," Wu Xie said. "I'd rather eat West Lake Fish in Vinegar Sauce than snake meat."

Zhang Wuxun didn't eat it either; he never ate such strange insects, ants, snakes, spiders, or scorpions.

Zhang Haike tasted a small piece, and in the end, the entire small pot of stewed, tender snake meat ended up in Fatty and Dan's stomachs.

After dinner, it was already getting dark, but it was still before eight o'clock, so everyone decided to rest early to prepare for any possible situations in the early morning.

For the next five hours, Dan will guard the first shift, Zhang Haike and Wu Xie will guard the second shift, and Zhang Wuxun and Fatty will guard the third shift, so that everyone can get some rest.

……

Time quickly came to midnight. Zhang Wuxun and Fatty stood back to back guarding the campfire. Fatty stared at the tent, while Zhang Wuxun stared into the darkness in the distance.

The fat man opened a pack of compressed biscuits to chew on and pass the time. As he gnawed on them, he remembered the snake meat he had for dinner. Suddenly, a memory popped into his head from some obscure corner of his mind, and he slapped his forehead.

"What's wrong?" Zhang Wuxun tilted his head slightly and asked him in a low voice.

The fat man sighed in frustration and whispered, "I was just saying that I've been feeling like I've forgotten something these past few days. Snake Egg, the snake egg fossil jade you gave me, I had it in my backpack, but the paper doll chased me like crazy and I don't know where it went."

The thought of losing over a million dollars left the fat man feeling empty inside, as if a hole had been gnawed in by a rat.

The fat man slapped his thigh in discomfort, but dared not slap too hard for fear of waking the people inside the tent.

Hearing that he still remembered this, Zhang Wuxun almost laughed.

"Don't worry, Zhang Haike and I found that egg jade on our way to find you, and it's currently safely stored in the tent where I'm staying in Kangba."

"Really?" The fat man turned around abruptly, his voice almost choked with excitement. He grabbed Zhang Wuxun's hand and shook it. "I was planning to treat this trip as a private vacation, but I ended up paying for it anyway. We agreed to split it 50/50, it has to be 50/50."

The fat guy had tears in his eyes. His brother was worried that he was having a hard time, so he gave him a Land Rover.

My brother gave me a Land Rover, and I defied fate with him.

Zhang Wuxun reluctantly withdrew his hand. "There's no need for a 50/50 split. However, I suggest you take that jade egg to the New Moon Hotel for auction. Before leaving Motuo, I'll leave something inside the egg to bring it back to life. Once the New Moon Hotel promotes the 'thousand-year-old snake egg,' it'll definitely fetch an astronomical price."

One hook after another was thrown out; as long as it involved snakes and immortality, even if it was suspected to be a trap, the Wang family would definitely send people to investigate.

With Zhang Wuxun's new disguise when he left the snow mountain, and some clues from Gutongjing, as long as there are enough baits, the Wang family's attention will be diverted elsewhere, and Wu Xie will be safe enough during the time he is adapting to and extracting information from the pheromones. (End of Chapter)