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

When Zhang Haike compiled the information he had found and hurriedly returned to find Zhang Jiuri, he learned that the guy had already injured the guard and escaped.

After that, Zhang Jiuri disappeared without a trace.

Zhang Haike had no choice but to leave secret messages for Zhang Jiuri at several hidden locations where they used to exchange messages, but he never received a reply.

Zhang Nian also disappeared into the shadows. Zhang Haike caught him by the tail several times, but he always managed to slip away.

After hearing about these grievances and entanglements, Zhang Wuxun and the others, whether out of compassion or reason, all sided with Xiao Ge.

The fat man commented incisively, "Isn't that all his own doing? The young man didn't take his life. If he had taken his wife and escaped the fire earlier, his wife wouldn't have died. His wife was just unlucky."

"They're not innocent either," Wu Xie said calmly.

She is also a greedy person who covets immortality, and is the behind-the-scenes force and financial supporter of Zhang Nian's laboratory.

"If someone could give up their obsession with just a few words from others, then they wouldn't be Zhang Nian," Zhang Haike concluded.

“A stubborn soldier makes a stubborn army.” The fat man clicked his tongue twice, his eyes scanning back and forth. “Speaking of which, this is a traditional gene of your Zhang family, isn’t it? I think you two are quite stubborn too.”

Zhang Haike ignored his nonsense without even glancing at him.

Zhang Wuxun glanced at him, said nothing, and then looked away.

That glance was chilly, an invisible breeze brushing against his head. The fat man felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up one by one, as if he were being slowly and deliberately watched by some kind of large reptile.

The fat man silently took a step back, shielding Wu Xie in front of him.

"?" Wu Xie was confused. He looked around and instinctively placed his hand on the hilt of the big white dog's leg.

Zhang Haike sighed deeply and asked Zhang Jiuri, "Since Zhang Nian was able to plant explosives on weapons, it means he didn't actually want you to live. So what is he planning to do?"

Zhang Jiuri lowered his head, his eyelids drooping, and said in a muffled voice, "He told me that there is something very important left by the clan chief here. If I can get that thing, the clan chief will definitely come to see me."

"So in the end you didn't know anything at all, you were just tricked by that Zhang Nian guy." The fat man was speechless, and even wanted to laugh a little. This kind of Zhang family member was really rare, a rare commodity.

“I know he’s using me.” Zhang Jiuri lowered his head even further, his voice barely audible. “I was planning to defeat you, get the stuff, and then kill Zhang Nian.”

Thinking of the bomb hidden in the hilt of the knife, the fat man chuckled, "Don't try to fool me, I'm just having a fit of laughter."

Hearing the fat man's mocking laughter, Zhang Jiuri raised his head and glared at him, as if he wanted to say something. But when he caught sight of Zhang Wuxun passing by, he blushed and lowered his head in silence.

The fat man grinned, his expression a half-smile.

Wu Xie quickened his pace to catch up with Zhang Wuxun and asked him what happened when he left the group.

Zhang Wuxun briefly explained that they had to completely destroy the snake mine's exit before leaving, because they couldn't be sure how many "secret weapons" Zhang Nian had developed, and they didn't have the time to deal with them one by one.

None of them objected.

Zhang Haike called out to Zhang Jiuri, telling him to follow.

The road near the end gradually widens like a trumpet, with no forks in the road, only scattered bloodstains on the ground.

When they saw Dan, who had left early to deal with Zhang Nian, their destination came into view.

Looking at the niches filled with countless winged, snake-tailed mummies, the group's previously listless eyes visibly brightened.

The fat man nudged Zhang Wuxun with his elbow and lowered his voice, "Can these ghosts jump up?" Zhang Wuxun sensed them for a moment and shook his head, "They're dead."

Dan was sitting on the steps carefully wiping the blade when he looked up and saw that they had all arrived. He then stood up and tucked the knife back into the buckle at his waist.

Then he pulled out a small, rolled-up piece of fresh human skin and a black object the size of a button from his pocket.

Zhang Wuxun only took the black remote control, fiddled with it a couple of times, then tilted his chin to the side, indicating that Dan should point out the human skin and the tomb to Zhang Haike to keep.

"Where is the body?" All he saw was a lifeless head resting on the steps at the foot of the Queen Mother of the West statue.

Without the support of life, that repulsive face became somewhat distorted and unfamiliar.

“They took it away by the snakes.” Dan pointed to the winding tracks on the ground around him. “I had just put Zhang Nian’s head on it when I turned around and the body was dragged away.”

The group exchanged glances, recalling the previous events. Could it be that the headless corpse of the "fake Wu Xie" was also carried away by a snake?

Wu Xie muttered, "It does resemble the necks of those pheasants in the Snake Swamp somewhat."

Zhang Wuxun had no intention of asking about unimportant things.

He stepped forward and stood at the top of the steps, stared into the statue's eyes, and said, "This is real."

In this vast snake mine, there are many statues of the Queen Mother of the West like these, but they are all like the one Zhang Wuxun first encountered. They are traps that can confuse people's consciousness in an illusion, causing them to lose control of their bodies.

Only the one in front of me is real.

This statue looks much more refined overall. In this sunless underground, the brown and gold paint on the robes of the Queen Mother of the West still faintly reveals a hint of her former extravagance.

"The mechanism is in the eye, and..."

Zhang Wuxun's face darkened. He knelt down, leaning forward until his upper body and chest were almost touching the ground.

Wu Xie heard him suddenly stop halfway through his sentence, and then, lying on the ground with his head tilted to look at something, so he asked him what was wrong.

“Come and look, here and here, there are many scratches, like they were made by human fingernails.”

Fingernail scratches? Can a human hand scratch a stone statue? Everyone gathered around curiously upon hearing this.

Upon closer inspection, I discovered that there were indeed countless dense handprints around the base. They were very old, and looking at them made my eyes hurt and my scalp tingle.

It looks like the marks left when something alive was forced inside and struggled.

Zhang Wuxun picked a spot with fewer scratches and tapped it with his finger. The sound was hollow.

Empty? Zhang Wuxun raised an eyebrow slightly.

He then carefully felt the edge of the base with his left hand. It was rough to the touch but had a unique resilience. With a little force from his fingernail, a new mark immediately appeared.

Zhang Wuxun then understood the situation and got up to brush the dust off his clothes.

“It’s human skin,” he asserted.

"Human skin?" Wu Xie was taken aback, then, remembering the hollow sound from before, he lowered his voice, "A human skin drum?"

The base is made from the skin peeled off the bodies of the Goquqiang people, and the statue above is made from the bones of the Goquqiang people, piece by piece, carved into the shape of scales, soaked in oil until they resembled jade, and finally inlaid together. (End of this chapter)