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

Zhang Nian reached out, her fingertips tracing the special mark carefully. The small, thickened hook in the center of the mark seemed like a mocking smile on the other person's lips.

Zhang Nian slowly clenched his fists, his knuckles cracking, his features contorted and grotesque as he suppressed his rage.

"They found out so quickly," he muttered to himself. "Interesting."

He was very curious: even if this person discovered that Zhang Qiling's mark was forged, how did he manage to completely erase the altered mark and then carve an old mark at the new stone path entrance that could withstand the erosion of time?

If these forged engravings hadn't had rough, blurry edges and obvious signs of weathering and aging, he wouldn't have been so easily fooled.

Zhang Nian lowered his eyelids slightly, concealing the sinister look in his eyes, and thought to himself: Wu Xie, Zhang Haike, I underestimated you.

Seeing that he had been staring at the mark for a long time without moving, Kenga came over and asked him, "Mr. Zhang, what's wrong? Did I really hit the nail on the head?"

"Retreat quickly!" Zhang Nian's expression changed instantly, and he said to Kenga with feigned anxiety, "We've fallen into a trap."

"Why? What did you find?" Kenga asked, puzzled. "Where are we supposed to retreat to?"

“This is a trap,” Zhang Nian said, and hurriedly pushed through the crowd to walk back the way he came.

His push caused panic among Kenga's men, who swarmed back, filling the already narrow stone path with people, creating a chaotic mess.

A cacophony of shouts and complaints erupted.

Seeing this, Zhang Jiuri slung his knife behind his back, pushed off the stone wall with both hands, jumped up, and stepped on the German's shoulders. The sudden weight almost made the German kneel on the ground.

"Oh shit!" the German cursed, steadying himself against the wall.

Zhang Jiuri ignored the crowd and used the throng ahead as a stepping stone, quickly passing through their shoulders to catch up with Zhang Nian, who had run away earlier.

"Zhang Nian!" Zhang Jiuri leaped forward, blocking Zhang Nian's path. His face was dark as he questioned him, "Why did you run away?"

Zhang Nian's face was even more grim than his. "This is a trap set by Zhang Haike and his men. They discovered long ago that I had changed the markings. It must be very dangerous ahead. We can't go this way."

Zhang Haike!
Upon hearing the name, Zhang Jiuri's dark eyes lit up for a moment as he grasped the key point, "You mean, Zhang Haike is up ahead?"

Zhang Nian gave a vague reply. Although he didn't think Zhang Haike and the others would be stupid enough to set themselves up in a trap, that didn't stop him from using it to fool the even more foolish Zhang Jiuri.

“They are indeed ahead, and they have most likely already reached the core area and obtained what Zhang Qiling left behind, which is why they set a trap along the way to try and stop us.”

Zhang Nian's words seem reasonable and well-founded, but in reality, they are utterly illogical.

He simply wanted to make Zhang Jiuri feel the crisis that if he arrived too late, the other party would have already succeeded, thus making him completely at Zhang's mercy.

However, he still underestimated Zhang Jiuri's obsession with Zhang Qiling.

At this moment, Zhang Jiuri had only one thought in his mind—to obtain what Zhang Qiling had left behind, kill Zhang Qiling's friends and relatives, and inflict pain upon Zhang Qiling!

Without hesitation, Zhang Jiuri turned around, stepped on the shoulders of the mercenaries, and jumped back.

Zhang Nian pushed up her glasses, looked at Zhang Jiuri's determined figure amidst the swaying, chaotic lights, covered the cold smile on her lips, and turned away without looking back.

In the chaos, Kenga was stepped on on the head by someone, which angered him so much that he pulled out his gun and fired three shots into the air.

“SILENCE!”

He roared, "Just shut up!"

The gunshots jolted everyone back to their senses.

Just as Kenga was about to give a speech, he noticed that everyone was looking around in fear, exclaiming things like "Oh no!" and "My god!"

Wait, what about the surroundings?
Kenga was startled and looked up, only to find that they had somehow entered a large stone cave. The surrounding stone walls were straight up and down, and there was no door. He had no idea how they had gotten in.

There are many tall niches on the stone wall, and in each niche stands a strange mummified corpse with wings and a snake's tail.

The mummies were wearing tattered jade armor, and strangely, all of them had their eyes closed.

When? Kenga wondered. Weren't they in the stone passage? How did they suddenly appear in this place?

"Heads up, leader!"

Suddenly, several team members stared at him in alarm behind him, warning him to be careful.

Kenga immediately turned around and was met with a ferocious and menacing face. He was so frightened that he took a few steps back and raised his gun to fire.

"Boom!"

After two shots, the face fell off.

With his field of vision widened, Kenga was able to see clearly what had been hit by the bullet.

It was a human head, and it was the head of one of the two henchmen who had just disappeared. His body was hanging upside down in mid-air.

Kenga cursed silently, then looked up to see another head and body hanging in the other corner.

Kenga was consumed by rage, his entire body flushed red. "Who? Who killed my people and is now hanging them here as a prank!"

The cave was completely silent. Apart from his men, whose faces were filled with panic and who were trembling with fear, there was only the silent, desiccated corpse.

It was then that Kenga realized the two Zhang family members in the group were nowhere to be seen. He was so angry that he cursed, "Damn it! Those two bastards ran away on their own."

His deputy suddenly interrupted him, "Boss, look! There seems to be something moving behind Liam's body." Kengar frowned and beckoned his men to come forward and put the headless corpse down.

As soon as the group moved, something fell out of the corpse's arms with a "gurgle," rolled a few times on the ground, and stopped at Kenga's feet.

Kenga looked up instinctively and met a pair of gray-white eyes covered with spiral patterns.

A buzzing sound came from my mind, and everything in front of me began to blur. I seemed to faintly hear a very small and light bell sound.

"Click-clack—"

At that very moment, all the mummies in the niche moved.

The deputy quietly slipped out of the crowd, casually approached the stone wall, activated the mechanism, and a narrow crack appeared in the stone wall.

He walked out, leaving the screams and chaotic gunfire behind.

The crack in the stone slowly closed, the last ray of light disappeared, and in the darkness, his face gradually blurred, then gradually became clear.

It's time to settle accounts with those two traitors.

……

Zhang Nian walked hurriedly along the stone path, his figure revealing a rare hint of panic.

Since separating from the main group, he has felt that something is watching him.

He tried to shake off the gaze that was always watching him, but the stare followed him wherever he went.

Zhang Nian couldn't hide his frustration. Damn it, where is it?
Inside the rock wall? Above my head?
Or...behind...

Zhang Nian turned around a beat late. A silent black shadow leaned against the stone wall, the wisps of hair on his forehead partially obscuring his calm, watery eyes.

The person slightly raised their eyes and only glanced at them quietly.

That memory, which he had deliberately hidden deep in his mind, filled with despair and helplessness, where he could only watch helplessly as all his efforts were in vain and swallowed by the sea of ​​fire, resurfaced before his eyes.

"Clang, clang." Zhang Nian heard her teeth chattering.

It was an overwhelming hatred, the rage of being played, the resentment of the plan's failure, and a fear etched deep into Zhang Nian's bones that even he himself was unwilling to admit.

"Zhang-Qi-Ling—"

Zhang Nian felt an intense urge to devour the flesh and blood of the person who wrote each word.

"You shouldn't be here."

Why are you here?!

Zhang Nian's eyes were bloodshot, and he looked like a madman, roaring with a ferocious expression, "Why, why do you always appear just when I'm about to succeed, like a savior descending from the sky, ruining my plans? Why!"

"It was the same last time, and it's the same this time. I was so close to succeeding. All it took was for them to walk in, all it took was for them to open the Corpse Jade Man's head..."

Zhang Nian's consciousness became blurred, and her words gradually became incoherent.

Zhang Wuxun stepped forward and once again plucked the octagonal bells on his wrist in sequence to deepen the illusion.

"Stop! Don't come any closer!" Zhang Nian warned, her face full of fear.

"?" Zhang Wuxun initially thought he had struggled out on his own through willpower, but upon closer inspection, he realized he had been overthinking it.

"Ahhh, I'll kill you! Die, die! Die!" Zhang Nian suddenly screamed and pulled out his gun, firing wildly at the stone wall in one direction.

In the chaos, he even forgot to turn on the insurance, and it all came up empty-handed.

Zhang Wuxun's lips twitched, and he glanced at him with disdain. Daring to betray the Zhang family, he thought he was some kind of important person, but this is all he is? I really don't know which Zhang family's doorstep was flooded and this seafood was washed ashore.

"Hahahaha..." Zhang Nian suddenly burst into laughter as if he had seen something in the illusion.

Zhang Wuxun was too lazy to watch him go crazy anymore. He stepped forward, twisted his wrist to remove the gun, and carefully tapped the gun butt on his temple. He made sure that when the man woke up, he would most likely lose control of his body due to brain injury and bleeding that would compress his nerves, but he wouldn't die immediately.

Zhang Nian grunted, his consciousness briefly returning due to the pain, before quickly succumbing to darkness and collapsing to the ground.

To prevent him from "coming back to life," Zhang Wuxun casually dismantled all the joints in his body.

Zhang Wuxun then tied him up with a rope, dragged him along, and followed the cipher molecules emitted by the snakes to hunt down another traitor of the Zhang family.

……

Wu Xie and his companions squeezed through every available gap along the way. Twice they almost lost their way due to changes in the mountain terrain, but Wu Xie managed to find his way back using his wits.

As the fat man listened to the rustling sound of snakes crawling through the holes in the stone wall, he unconsciously rubbed his arms.

He ducked down, tiptoed to avoid the small snake that had fallen out, and reminded the people behind him.

"What's wrong with the snakes here? Not only do they not bite people, but they all seem to be dazed and confused, like they've been licking catnip, and they all just slither in one direction."

The fat man asked the probing question, "Who exactly is over there?" (End of Chapter)