Tomb raiding live stream: Starting as the mute Zhang

The tomb was very quiet.

The only sounds were breathing and the faint crackling of the burning grease in the ever-burning lamp.

The green firelight reflected on everyone's faces, creating a play of light and shadow.

Xie Linyuan stood in front of the empty coffin.

He didn't move.

His back was straight, but the tattoo on his shoulder blade, even through his clothes, still felt incredibly hot. The heat didn't seem like an illusion; it felt like it was burning from his very bones.

The images were swirling in my mind.

—A door. A massive bronze door. Behind it lay endless darkness. He stood before it, a knife in his hand. Someone called him from behind, the voice distant, indistinct. He turned, seeing only blurry silhouettes. Three silhouettes.

Blood. Lots of blood. It seeped from between his fingers, dripping onto the ground and blooming into black flowers. He gripped a knife; the knife was heavy. Before him... what was it? He couldn't see clearly. He only remembered a pair of eyes, yellow, with vertical pupils, cold.

—A name. Someone is calling a name. "Qiling." "Clan Chief." "Little Brother." These voices overlapped, growing louder and louder, then suddenly disappeared. Silence. Deathly silence.

He pressed his temples, his fingers digging in.

"Mr. Xie?" Chen Man called out softly.

Xie Linyuan did not respond.

He lowered his hand and turned around. His face was expressionless, except for a very faint, almost invisible layer of weariness deep in his eyes.

"Take a rest," he said.

Two words. The voice was steady, devoid of emotion.

Lin Guoce nodded and immediately gave instructions: "Rest where you are. Check your equipment and treat your wounds. Jiang Shouyi, check how much water and food we have left."

The team got moving.

Kun Ge plopped down on the ground, grimacing as he rubbed his eyes, which were red and irritated by the poison gas. Wang Yihan fed Chen Man water, and Chen Man drank it in small sips, but her eyes kept sneaking glances at Xie Linyuan.

Professor Zhou Xu'an sat down next to Huo Yun's empty coffin, his fingers unconsciously tracing the words "Gain freedom, enter reincarnation" on the bottom of the coffin, his eyes filled with complex emotions.

Jiang Shouyi took stock of the supplies. There were only three and a half kettles of water left, a few packs of compressed biscuits, the batteries were out, and the only flashlight was barely a firefly's glow. He reported the situation to Lin Guoce in a low voice.

Lin Guoce frowned.

Without light, being underground is no different from being blind. Food and water won't last long either.

"Mr. Xie," Lin Guoce walked to Xie Linyuan's side and lowered his voice, "What's next...?"

Xie Linyuan raised his eyes and looked at the other side of the tomb chamber.

That wasn't the way they came in; it was another passage hidden behind the pushed-open sarcophagus. The passage was narrow, sloping downwards, and so dark it seemed to absorb all light.

"Next," he said.

What's down there?

"have no idea."

Lin Guoce paused for a moment, then asked, "How long do you need to rest?"

Xie Linyuan didn't answer. He walked to the corner, sat down against the cold stone wall, and closed his eyes. The black gold ancient sword lay across his lap. This was his posture for resting.

Lin Guoce stopped asking questions and went back to arrange for people to take turns keeping watch at night.

The live stream chat was filled with scrolling comments.

[The guy with the ID looks really tired]

[The kind of fatigue I feel isn't physical fatigue.]

【ID: Feeling Tired】

[ID Changsheng...that's terrifying]

[ID Huo Yun is free, but what about Xiao Ge?]

Kun glanced at the comments section and felt a pang of sadness. He moved to sit down a short distance away from Xie Linyuan, not daring to get too close.

"Thanks... bro," he changed his form of address, his voice soft, "Are you hungry? I have... half a chocolate bar here."

Xie Linyuan didn't even lift his eyelids.

Kun awkwardly took the chocolate back and hugged his knees. He wanted to say something, but didn't know what to say. Comfort? Did he deserve it? Thanks? Too inadequate.

Finally, he managed to stammer out, "You...do you need to get your shoulder injury treated?"

Xie Linyuan finally opened his eyes and glanced at him.

His gaze was indifferent, devoid of warmth, but also devoid of hostility.

"No need," he said.

Then close your eyes again.

Kun dared not speak again.

Time passed little by little.

The only sound in the tomb was breathing. Chen Man was asleep, leaning against Wang Yihan, tears still clinging to her eyes. Professor Zhou was dozing, his head nodding. Jiang Shouyi was on guard, vigilantly watching his surroundings. Lin Guoce was checking his gun; although he had run out of bullets, holding it gave him a slight sense of security.

Xie Linyuan was not asleep.

His eyes were closed, but he was fully conscious. Fragments of memories were still churning in his mind, like seashells left on the beach after the tide has gone out, sharp and painful.

—Wu Xie.

The name suddenly popped up.

very clear.

Then came another name—Fatty.

And... the blind man.

What do their faces look like?

He tried to recall. All he could remember were vague outlines, gentle, smiling eyes, a boisterous voice, and a pair of sunglasses… The details were like sand slipping through his fingers; the harder he tried, the faster they slipped away.

My heart suddenly clenched.

A sharp, chilling panic gripped him without warning. It left him more bewildered than facing any monster.

who am I?

This question has resurfaced, carrying an even deeper chill.

His fingers, resting on the hilt of the knife, tightened. His knuckles turned white.

[Touching the core memory loss]

[Character compatibility increased: 90%]

[Warning: The amnesia has reached the intermediate stage, and the memory anchor points are continuing to loosen]

The system's voice gave a cold, indifferent prompt.

The compatibility has improved. Because he's become more "like" Zhang Qiling. More like that gatekeeper who has no past, no future, only an endless "present".

The price is that the identity of "Xie Linyuan," along with the faint connection that identity carries to this world, is being eroded. And the memories of the original world are also becoming increasingly blurred.

He slowly exhaled, suppressing the panic deep within his heart.

Now is not the time to think about these things.

He needs to concentrate. There's still a long way to go. Danger lurks in the shadows.

About two hours later.

Xie Linyuan opened his eyes and got up.

The movement was very light, but everyone woke up instantly. The prolonged tension had made them sleep very lightly.

"Let's go," he said.

No one objected. After gathering what little remained, the group followed him toward the narrow downward passage.

The passage was steep, the stone steps were badly worn, and slippery moss grew along the edges. The air grew colder and damper, carrying a heavy earthy smell and... an indescribable odor, like a mixture of aged medicinal herbs and the rust of metal.

Xie Linyuan walked at the front. There was no light, but his night vision allowed him to see clearly within a few meters ahead. Darkness was no obstacle for him.

The people behind couldn't keep up. The flashlight beams had completely gone out. They could only hold onto each other's backs, shuffling down the slope with uneven steps. Kun almost slipped and fell, but Jiang Shouyi grabbed him.

"Be careful," Jiang Shouyi whispered.

After walking for about ten minutes, the passage widened. The steps were no longer stone steps, but a smooth stone slab path. The walls on both sides also changed.

The rough stone walls were gone, replaced by smooth, artificially polished surfaces. There were no murals, only deep marks, as if repeatedly scratched with a sharp tool. The marks were chaotic and irregular, yet, after a while, they gave one a creepy feeling.

"This...this looks like something scratched out of here?" Wang Yihan's voice trembled as she vaguely pointed to a deep scratch on the wall, the mark running from top to bottom with broken stone chips at the end.

Xie Linyuan stopped and reached out to touch the mark.

A hard, cold touch came from my fingertips. The marks were deep, with sharp edges. They weren't recent, but they weren't from a thousand years ago either. They were somewhere in between.

He withdrew his hand and continued walking forward.

After rounding another bend, light appeared ahead.

It wasn't the green light of a constantly lit lamp, nor the light of a flashlight. Instead, it was a soft, pale blue, hazy, cold light, like moonlight.

The light source comes from a huge space at the end of the passage.

The group quickened their pace and went outside.

Then, everyone froze on the spot.

Before me lay a vast natural cave, its dome so high it was invisible. Countless stalactites, emitting a pale blue glow, hung down, illuminating the entire space like a dream. In the center of the cave was a pool of water, its surface an eerie deep black, calm and still, like a giant piece of black jade.

On the opposite side of the pool, at the end of the cave, stands a building.

It was a small altar built entirely of black stone. The altar was pyramid-shaped and had three tiers. Along the edge of each tier stood stone lamps, from which flickered cold blue flames, the same as those in the stalactites.

Most strikingly, at the very top of the altar, on a flat surface, lies something.

It's too far away to see exactly what it is. Only an outline is visible, like… a small stone coffin? Or a stone box?

Around the base of the altar, some things were scattered.

It's white, and segmented.

It's bone.

Human bones.

There were many of them, scattered and piled up there, some still retaining their complete skeletal shape, while others were already broken into pieces. Under the eerie blue light, they gleamed with a pale white light.

"So many dead people..." Sun Shuanzhu's legs went weak and he almost collapsed.

Professor Zhou Xu'an gasped: "Looking at their clothing fragments... they're not from the same era! There are pieces from the Han Dynasty, pieces from even earlier... and even fabrics from modern times!"

This means that over the centuries, more than one group of people has reached this place.

Then, he died beneath the altar.

Xie Linyuan's gaze swept over the skeletons, finally settling on the top of the altar.

What attracted him was not the stone coffin or the stone box.

Instead, it was the huge pattern engraved on the front of the altar.

That was a cicada.

It was almost identical to the cicada on the star map in Huo Yun's tomb. But this one was carved much larger and more intricately, its outstretched wings covering the entire front wall of the altar. Two dark red gemstones were inlaid around the cicada's eyes, which, under the blue light, resembled two blood-red eyes staring at the visitor.

longevity.

It's about achieving immortality again.

This tomb, Huo Yun's last words, the scattered bones, and the eerie altar before us... everything seems to revolve around these two words.

The tattoo on his shoulder blade burned again.

It's even worse than before.

A system notification suddenly sounded in my mind:

High concentrations of causal entanglements related to "longevity" detected

[Hidden Clues Triggered]

[Ultimate Area Exploration Begins]

[Current area danger level: Extremely high]

[Suggestion: Obtain key tokens to unlock some blocked memories and improve role-playing ability]

Xie Linyuan's eyes narrowed slightly.

The key token... does it refer to the thing on top of the altar?

He strode toward the pool.

"Mr. Xie!" Lin Guoce hurriedly called out to him, "Be careful! Something's not right here!"

It's too quiet.

Such a large space, so many skeletons, yet no obvious deadly traps or traces of monsters were seen.

How did those people die?

Calmness often foreshadows greater danger.

Xie Linyuan didn't stop. He had already reached the edge of the pool.

The pool was pitch black, its bottom completely invisible. The surface was stagnant, without a single ripple. But he could sense something beneath the surface—something enormous, slowly moving.

He crouched down, stretched out his fingers, as if to touch the water's surface.

"No!" Chen Man cried out in surprise.

Xie Linyuan's finger stopped an inch above the water's surface.

Then, he flicked his finger and gently tapped a protruding rock by the pool.

"despair."

A soft sound rang out, unusually clear in the silent cave.

Almost the instant the sound rang out.

The pitch-black water surface silently broke apart.

A gigantic head, covered in bluish-black scales, slowly emerged. The head resembled a snake, or perhaps some kind of fish, with no eyes, only two dark, gaping holes. It opened its mouth, facing Xie Linyuan.

There were no teeth in its mouth, only spiraling, flesh-colored, constantly wriggling folds.

An indescribable, foul stench, like something that has rotted for thousands of years, wafted over.

The live stream chat exploded instantly:

【ID Holy crap!!!】

【ID What the hell is this?!】

【ID: Water Monster!】

[ID has no eyes! How does it see?!]

[ID Guy, log out quickly!]

Xie Linyuan did not back down.

He stood up and gripped the hilt of the black gold ancient sword on his back.

My gaze passed over the enormous, repulsive head and fell upon the calm, bottomless black pool behind it.

This isn't the only danger.

Underwater, something else is awakening.