It felt as if every bone in his body had been crushed, and his flesh had been stabbed, leaving him battered and bruised. Only a faint warm sensation emanated from his left arm, providing slight relief to the excruciating pain.
Xu Song struggled to open his eyes. The world before him momentarily turned a fiery red, as if his vision was obstructed by intense flames.
Soon, the fiery red receded, leaving behind the last remnants of the evening sunset.
Had he been unconscious for so long? He had encountered the group of tomb raiders as soon as he entered the mountain in the morning. Although he wasn’t sure how long he had been inside the ancient tomb, it certainly couldn’t be late in the evening.
What had just happened? An earthquake?
Xu Song attempted to move his sore body and realized that he seemed to be pinned down by something.
Glancing toward the person on top of him, he noticed that he had also regained consciousness and was struggling to lift his head.
Those were a pair of bright, sharp eyes, full of vitality. Above those eyes, a layer of dirt adorned a pair of eyebrows, giving a somewhat disheveled appearance. And below that, there was the bushy beard that exuded a strong presence… or rather, half of it… half of the beard?
“Y-your beard?” Xu Song, unexpectedly, uttered these words as his first sentence upon awakening.
The person froze for a moment, his eyes showing a hint of confusion, before quickly regaining composure and reaching up to touch his beard.
Half of it remained stuck to his face, while the other half swung awkwardly between his nose and mouth, creating a somewhat comedic effect.
Xu Song couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
‘Xiao Li’ patted it, but even the remaining half fell off, causing him to look at the person beneath him, who was laughing uncontrollably.
Annoyed, he casually pulled off the beard and rolled to the side, lying flat on the ground beside Xu Song.
With the weight removed from Xu Song’s body, he felt a sudden lightness. He laughed until he had his fill, panting heavily, only for the needle-like pain to return to his body.
“Sss… What happened?” He lifted his arm and examined it. Besides some scratches and bruises, it was just a little dirty, not much different from usual.
Propping himself up with his arm, he half-sat and looked at the ‘Xiao Li’ who had lost his beard.
The warm glow of the setting sun shone on his face, casting a layer of orange light. Without the beard, ‘Xiao Li’ immediately appeared much younger, probably around 26 or 27 years old.
His nose was high and his facial contours somewhat firm, coupled with those sharp eyebrows and the slight furrow between them.
Xu Song, being a man himself, couldn’t help but feel a tinge of envy, this appearance was just too manly, wasn’t it?
Following his gaze, Xu Song froze. Not far from them, there was a large pit, seemingly near the tomb they had entered during the day… No, wait! That pit was right where the tomb had been!
“What… What happened?!” Xu Song’s voice trembled.
They had just climbed out, and now the ancient tomb had been blasted into a massive pit. Now, a sense of dread filled his heart, if they had come out even a little later… they would have been doomed!
“I don’t know…” Yue Zheng had been with these tomb raiders for half a month. Before going up the mountain, they had brought something with them, but he had no idea what it was. While they did have some explosives, the amount couldn’t possibly have caused such extensive damage!
“Could it be a methane explosion?” Xu Song wiped away a cold sweat. Although he was still in pain, it wasn’t as severe as before.
“It’s possible.” Perhaps someone had smoked inside? But when Xu Song had gone down earlier, he distinctly hadn’t smelled formaldehyde.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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With one hand, he pulled Xu Song’s arm closer and said, “It’s going to hurt a bit, bear with it.”
As soon as the cotton swab, soaked in alcohol, touched the flesh, Xu Song couldn’t help but tremble. However, this big brother’s grip on his arm was like a pair of pliers, tightly holding it, not allowing any movement whatsoever.
To divert his attention, Xu Song had to take a deep breath and engage in conversation with him.
“Brother, where are you from?”
“Y City.”
“Oh? I’m also from Y City, but I haven’t seen you before… Although I’ve been studying in B City for the past two years. Which district do you live in? Are you with the Municipal Public Security Bureau?”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Yue Zheng’s body remained still, but his eyes narrowed, staring coldly at Xu Song.
Cold sweat broke out on Xu Song’s forehead again. Could this be the legendary killing intent?!
His body trembled, and as his arm moved, the cotton swab that was still lodged in his flesh was stirred by his own actions, causing him to shudder in pain. He didn’t dare to move anymore, let alone ask further questions.
Yue Zheng then looked back at his wound and said, “Something is inside.”
After speaking, he discarded the cotton swab, found a small pair of tweezers, disinfected them, and once again pierced the wound. Xu Song trembled again, surgery without anesthesia was truly torturous.
Several attempts to distract himself proved futile, and now Xu Song’s mind was filled with images of the tweezers stirring in his wound. He didn’t dare to engage in conversation with this person any longer, fearing that he might slip up and say something that could lead to dire consequences if he were silenced.
After a long time, the object from within his flesh was finally extracted.
“Alright, what is this?” Yue Zheng asked.
“Huh?” Xu Song quickly looked over, and the tweezers held a bloody ‘stone’. The stone sparkled under the setting sun, resembling a gem stained with blood, emitting a magnificent light.
Yue Zheng placed the stone on the ground and proceeded to disinfect and dress Xu Song’s wound. However, Xu Song’s gaze remained fixated on the stone, as if it possessed some kind of enchantment that drew him in.
Once the wound was taken care of, Xu Song picked up the stone and wiped it dry with his blood-stained T-shirt. The translucent crystal lost its bloody hue but still radiated a brilliant light.
“Is it glass?” Xu Song mumbled to himself after examining it for a while.
“Perhaps, it looks similar to the other one,” Yue Zheng replied.
At the sound of his words, Xu Song quickly looked over again. Yue Zheng’s tweezers still held another irregular, blood-stained, transparent stone.
“Where did you find this one?”
“Here, it got lodged in my leg.”
Only then did Xu Song notice that after treating his wound, this person had attended to his own injuries. He couldn’t help but feel a sense of guilt and quickly took the stone, wiping it clean with his clothes.
He smiled at Yue Zheng and said, “Let’s keep it. Surviving a great calamity brings great fortune. Let’s consider them our spoils!”
Yue Zheng raised an eyebrow, glanced at him, and then lowered his head to continue bandaging his leg. Xu Song awkwardly smiled, slowly withdrawing his hand. However, he felt a lightness in his hand, and the stone had disappeared.
“Yue Zheng.”
“Hmm?”
“My name.”
“Oh, oh, I’m Xu Song.” Xu Song quickly extended his hand again, and Yue Zheng graciously shook it.
With the wound dressed, Yue Zheng attempted to stand up. The sharp pain from before was no longer felt, and although the leg injury was still somewhat painful, he could manage to move.
Furrowing his brow, he scanned the surroundings. During the previous explosion, his phone had been completely smashed. Now that the sun had set, the people who were supposed to come up the mountain for support hadn’t arrived yet. It seemed that the recent explosion had affected the mountain road leading up.
“Do you have a cellphone with you?”
Yue Zheng’s words prompted Xu Song to instinctively reach for his waist, but he found nothing. It then dawned on him.
“Just when you guys… ah no, when they caught me, they stomped on it…” That was the brand-new phone his father had just replaced for him after he had saved up for a long time. Over 4,000 yuan, freshly bought!
Yue Zheng also recalled the situation, and the corner of his mouth twitched. Those people wouldn’t leave behind any traces, especially not potential hazards like phones. They would have surely disposed of such items immediately. In terms of covering their tracks, they were indeed professionals.
“Forget it, it’s too late now. It’s better if you don’t wander around. I’ll go down and check the situation. Wait for me here for a while,” Yue Zheng said, retrieving a dagger from his bag and tossing it to Xu Song.
“Use it for self-defense, but don’t wander off.”
After saying that, Yue Zheng shouldered his backpack again, took out a commonly used dagger from his waist, and cautiously walked toward the enormous pit that seemed to have been atomically bombed.
“B… brother Yue… How about I come with you?” By now, the sky had completely darkened, and the night in the mountains felt particularly cold. It was somewhat bearable to have someone by his side, but with Yue Zheng leaving, Xu Song listened to the rustling sounds of trees from all directions and couldn’t help but feel as if these things were alive, making him reluctant to stay alone.
Xu Song’s voice trembled slightly. Yue Zheng furrowed his brow, realizing that this young man in his early twenties was probably still a student, and today he had been terrified by those tomb raiders.
After glancing at the pit that no longer resembled its original shape, he estimated that there were likely no survivors inside. With a stern expression, he advised, “Stay close, and if anything happens, hide to the side.”
Nodding vigorously, Xu Song knew that with his abilities, if they encountered any trouble, rushing in would only make matters worse. It was better to stay by Yue Zheng’s side obediently and avoid causing any trouble.
Yue Zheng handed Xu Song a flashlight and held another one as he walked ahead.
The ancient tomb, once surrounded by shrubs, was now unrecognizable, a pitch-black hole was exposed before them. If there were flowing red magma below, Xu Song and Yue Zheng would have mistaken this place for a volcanic vent rather than a tomb.
Two pale beams of light swept around the surroundings. The illuminated area revealed no semblance of its original state, not even a trace of the topmost layer of coffins.
Yue Zheng took a few steps left and right, selected a stable large stone, and took out a rope from his backpack. He wrapped it around the stone, pulling and testing it twice before descending first.
“Wait for my signal, then you can come down.”
Xu Song nodded hurriedly and waited for a while. It seemed that Yue Zheng had climbed to a platform as he called from below, “Come down now.”
There were plenty of loose stones in the pit, and even without the rope, Xu Song could manage to climb down. Previously, he had thought he was about to die when he was scared by those tomb raiders, which made him lose face in front of Yue Zheng. But now, successfully climbing down, he felt like he had redeemed himself as a man.
“Doesn’t look like a methane explosion.” Once Xu Song stood firmly, Yue Zheng continued to explore the path with the flashlight in hand.
“What do you mean?” Xu Song looked at him in confusion.
Yue Zheng tapped on a large stone beside him. “There’s no heat, no traces of burning.”
Xu Song quickly used the flashlight to scan the surroundings, and indeed, although there were signs of an explosion on the rocks and soil around, there was no trace of scorching or even a hint of heat.
“Could it be an earthquake?” Xu Song hesitated as he looked at the pitch-black bottomless pit, feeling anxious.
“It doesn’t seem like it… but it’s hard to say,” Yue Zheng replied.
He hadn’t gone down with those people, so he didn’t know what they had done or encountered down there. He couldn’t make a judgment at the moment.
After thinking for a moment, Xu Song smiled at Yue Zheng and said, “Maybe it was an explosion? We both passed out after the explosion, so maybe these rocks had already cooled down. If the methane gas is concentrated on the bottommost layer, we’ll naturally find the burnt stones when we go all the way down.”
Yue Zheng looked at Xu Song unexpectedly. In the pitch-black darkness, his row of bright white teeth stood out.
He nodded and said, “Let’s go down and check the situation.”
He was worried that if they waited for backup to arrive, there might be unexpected situations at the scene below. That’s why he decided to go down and investigate first.
The two of them climbed down one after the other, with no threat of death. Xu Song’s movements became more agile, but both of them hadn’t eaten anything the entire day, and their bodies were injured. Their stomachs simultaneously growled.
Yue Zheng took off his backpack and said, “Let’s eat something first; otherwise, we might not have the energy later.”
“Okay,” Xu Song replied, taking the compressed biscuits that Yue Zheng handed to him.
He couldn’t help but think of the roast duck he brought back from City B. It was a local specialty, and he had planned to bring it back for his parents to taste. However, the three of them decided to return to their ancestral home in Zhang Village temporarily.
Xu Song thought that being in the mountains here was perfect for cooling off and enjoying the summer, as well as climbing and exploring. But he never expected to encounter these unfortunate events.
He didn’t know if his parents had called him today. If they couldn’t reach him, they would probably be worried.
After drinking a few sips of mineral water and swallowing the dry compressed biscuits, they suddenly heard the sound of rolling stones not far away.
Both of them froze for a moment, then exchanged glances in the darkness. Yue Zheng gestured to Xu Song, and they both picked up their flashlights and slowly stood up.
Xu Song quickly stuffed the remaining compressed biscuits into his pocket and nervously took out the small knife Yue Zheng had given him.
“Who’s there?” It could be one of the surviving members of the tomb-raiding group or some kind of animal like a rat. Yue Zheng remained extremely cautious, shining the flashlight toward the source of the sound.
With just one glance, Xu Song was shocked, his face turning pale, and his flashlight trembling and falling to the ground.
Judging by his clothing, that person should be the last tomb raider that was guarding the entrance. But now, he no longer looked like himself.
Half of his face was blown apart, with blood and flesh scattered. His eye sockets no longer contained any trace of eyeballs, and the remaining half of his face, although still intact, was stained black with blood.
His right arm was also dripping with blood, with only two fingers remaining, while his left hand twisted at an eerie angle. His legs were turned inward, and he slowly approached the two of them step by step.
As soon as the flashlight illuminated him, the person let out a long, drawn-out sound of “hoooo,” sending chills down their spines.
“He, he…” How could a person walk when they had been blown up like that?! Xu Song’s legs trembled as he stared at the face that revealed the bloody gums, the word “zombie” suddenly popped into his mind.
Well, that went south fast 😂
Thank you for starting a new novel!!! 😍
Quick appearance of “zombie”
Thank you for your translation 💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛
😲zombie!!!
Reminds me of Tomb Raider, you know how trinity or Lara end up messing with sum world ending artifact & almost fk humanity over lmao💀