Tomb Raider: I Am Hu Bayi's Cousin

Chapter 230 Hexagonal Wind Chimes
The giant corpse beetle on the cave ceiling was slowly chewing on the ferryman's head, its cold, beastly eyes constantly scrutinizing Hu Ming and the others.

"The little thing is quite fierce, but it's a bit too greedy."

"Is that bastard not enough for you? You've set your sights on us now?"

"Little naiveté, why don't you adopt the selfless spirit of Buddha sacrificing himself to feed the eagle, and use your own body to satisfy the giant corpse beetle so we can pass safely?"

"I must say, you have such delicate skin and tender flesh here, you can tell at a glance that you taste amazing."

Hu Ming nudged Wu Xie's shoulder and couldn't help but tease him.

The giant corpse beetle was covered in glaring blood. Under such dangerous circumstances, Wu Xie never expected that Hu Ming would still be interested in playing such a wicked joke.

I couldn't help but roll my eyes, and I almost blurted out "mmp".

Delicate skin and tender flesh?
Uncle Ming, don't you think your skin is even smoother and more delicate than mine?
Wu Xie swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue, because the dragon-patterned cloud-shaped knife in Hu Ming's hand, gleaming with a cold light, was a bit frightening.

"The Cloud-Rolling Blade?"

When Hu Ming took out the Dragon Pattern Cloud Blade from his backpack, Wu Sansheng and the young man were stunned.

Even an ordinary person could tell that this knife was no worse than the one Wu Sansheng "sold" to the young man.

However, unlike Wu Sansheng's surprise that Hu Ming possessed such a Taiwanese knife, the young man seemed to remember something, and a glint flashed in his indifferent eyes.

"Brush~"

The golden blade sliced ​​through the air, tearing it apart and emitting a series of hissing sounds.

Hu Ming bent his knees slightly, preparing to leap up and kill the giant corpse beetle, when suddenly, the young man spoke up.

"Hu Ming, wait, I'll do it!"

"ha?"

Hu Ming was taken aback and looked at the young man who slowly walked to his side, somewhat puzzled.

"The ferryman is dead, and the guide who also ate human flesh has run away. There's something strange in this cave, and there must be a lot of dirty stuff inside."

“These giant corpse beetles are similar to ferrymen who grow up eating human flesh. Their deathly aura can mask our life force, allowing us to pass through safely. The corpse beetles must not die.”

The young man explained succinctly.

"Hey, I thought you were going to say something like, 'No need for all that trouble.' If I'm not mistaken, the death aura concealment is no longer effective."

"Thinking about it carefully, the ferryman has been doing this job here for years, coming and going so many times without incident, so why did he lose his life this time?"

Hu Ming chuckled and said.

"you mean?"

"It's very simple. Something has probably happened deep inside the cave, and the death energy is no longer effective in concealing the life energy."

"Look at those dark shadows in the water, they're clearly swarms of corpse beetles fleeing for their lives!"

"A single corpse beetle is no match for a dog, but when they appear in swarms, they become a major threat, capable of causing thousands of corpse beetles to flee for their lives."

Do you think mere death energy can conceal our presence?

As he spoke, Hu Ming had already leaped up, aimed at the giant corpse beetle, and swung his Cloud-Rolling Blade repeatedly.

The blade flashed ominously in the dark cave.

In the blink of an eye, the giant corpse beetle had already been chopped into eight pieces by Hu Ming, and was dead beyond any doubt.

Hu Ming's skills have long surpassed the limits of human ability.

Even if this giant corpse beetle is a Panzi, it's only a bit troublesome if you have a handy weapon.

Let alone Hu Ming?
"Unexpected turn of events" At this moment, Xiao Ge and Wu Sansheng looked solemnly at the dark shadow on the water below the boat.

They hadn't noticed until Hu Ming pointed it out, and then they realized what was happening.

What was rushing past underwater at breakneck speed was not a school of fish at all, but a swarm of countless carrion beetles!
Having worked underground for many years, they naturally knew just how terrifying swarms of corpse beetles could be.

But now, hordes of corpse beetles are actually fleeing for their lives in a panic?
Upon realizing this, everyone's expressions immediately turned grim.

"Third Master, Master Ming, we're in trouble!"

"The cave is too narrow; we can't turn back. There are cows on the boat behind us, so we can't row at all!"

"That ship full of equipment and cattle is already quite deep in the waterline. If we get one more person on board, the ship will probably sink!"

"Besides, the cave is too low; the cattle can't stand up, so there's no way to drive them into the water!"

Panzi shone his searchlight, glanced at the situation on the boat behind him, and yelled, unable to hold back his curses.

Wu Sansheng and his nephew Wu Xie were completely dumbfounded.

"It's not a big problem, just keep going. As long as we know there's a way out at the end of this waterway, that's all that matters."

Hu Ming shrugged, not taking the matter to heart at all.

Part of the giant corpse beetle's body, which had just been dismembered by Hu Ming, fell onto the boat.

Coincidentally, it was the tail of the corpse beetle!
On its tail is a fist-sized, hexagonal, sealed brass wind chime.

I don't know when it was planted, it's already covered in verdigris, and all six sides of the wind chime are engraved with dense incantations.

"What is this thing? Why would someone attach a wind chime to a corpse beetle? Is this corpse beetle farmed?"

Upon seeing this, Panzi was taken aback and subconsciously asked a question.

"Who knows?"

Hu Ming chuckled lightly, showing no intention of answering Panzi.

Actually, the tombs in the Tomb Raider Chronicles are quite interesting.

Just like the others, most tombs were kept with groups of corpse beetles or other ferocious insects to guard the tomb.

I don't know if this custom was passed down from King Mu of Zhou and was regarded as a tradition.

The tombs in the Tomb Raider Chronicles are never short of these densely packed, ferocious little creatures.

Ring ring ring~
Just then, the hexagonal wind chime started to move on its own without any wind, strangely shaking in mid-air and emitting a series of ethereal sounds.

Snapped!
Upon seeing this, Hu Ming crushed the thing with a single stomp without hesitation.

He knew that the sound of this thing could bewitch people.

The item is good, but it's too strange. It's too hot to handle, and it won't be easy to sell it.

The bronze shell was actually quite old and worn out; with a snap, a stream of extremely foul-smelling green liquid gushed out from inside the bell.

“Hu Ming…”

Upon seeing this, Wu Sansheng's lips twitched in pain. This was money, damn it!
"Save your breath. There's something inside the wind chime. You can't get it out without breaking the wind chime, so there's no way you can take it back and sell it. Nobody will take something like that."

Hu Ming pointed to the flattened blue centipede inside the bronze fragment and shook his head.

The bronze wind chime is part of a symbiotic system between the centipedes and large corpses raised inside.

Hu Ming knew very well that this was just an experiment inspired by the concept of human-animal symbiosis.

(End of this chapter)