Chapter 153: The Call Of The Bronze Tree
In Uncle Tai’s decades of life, although he had experienced far more dangerous situations than this, he had never felt so frustrated before.
Yes, frustrated. He now only felt a nameless fire igniting in his heart. If he weren’t still desperately suppressing himself, he might have already done something irrational. Even when he had just crawled out of the pond in such a sorry state, he hadn’t felt this sense of the situation being out of his control.
If he really handed over all his weapons now, although it was clear that the young leader opposite was telling the truth, his long-standing intuition told him that the stuttering young man beside him was not to be trusted.
He always believed that no matter the situation, his life and death must be under his own control, even if it was a path to certain death.
He hated the feeling of being forced to choose. Admittedly, as an “underground worker,” his profession and identity couldn’t see the light of day, and he often had to do many things out of necessity for survival, but at the critical moment, he still only trusted himself.
He looked up at Wu Xie, pondered for a while, until Lao Yang was even suspecting if he was turning into a statue, then grinned at Wu Xie and said word by word: “You can have my guns, but at least leave me one for self-defense.”
This was his bottom line.
When Wu Xie saw his eyes, he inexplicably sensed this message. Indeed, at this point, neither side trusted the other, but they couldn’t go their separate ways and had to find a compromise that would put everyone at ease.
After thinking for a few seconds, Wu Xie nodded and inserted the handgun back into Lao Yang’s pocket. Lao Yang touched the spot where the gun was and suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. The reason was simple: Wu Xie had casually pulled out the fake gun, the kind that only produced a flame when fired. If Uncle Tai hadn’t been focused on proving himself and guarding against them, this old tomb raider would probably have spotted it long ago.
But now it was fine. Lao Yang looked at the two guns and several magazines that Uncle Tai threw over and thought that now he could have one in each hand.
After Wu Xie took the guns, he gave one to himself and one to Lao Yang, and casually handed the improvised gun obtained from the fish belly to Lin Yan.
Lin Yan: “？？？？”
Facing Lin Yan’s silent question, Wu Xie sighed: “Have you ever fired a gun?”
Lin Yan shook his head.
Wu Xie nodded: “That’s it. Whether you can hit accurately is another matter. This gun has decent power at close range. If all else fails, once you run out of bullets, you still have a handy stick.”
Ah, although he could foresee that his marksmanship was regrettable, Lin Yan still had a black line on his forehead. What did he mean by a handy stick? He depressedly swung the improvised gun, which really resembled a short stick in shape, a couple of times, then even more depressedly discovered that it was indeed quite handy.
Fine, he was just a close-combat soldier, huh?
Master Liang was completely in the clouds over there, watching as the two sides were about to fight at any moment, still trembling with fear and praying not to be affected. But in the blink of an eye, they had reconciled? So what was he doing acting like he was facing a great enemy?
He watched the four people in front of him testing their weapons, packing their things, and suddenly no one paid attention to him, feeling a bit lost: Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing now?
Then, unintentionally turning back, he saw at a glance the three big rats behind him that were obedient and cute in front of Lin Yan but bared their teeth at him.
Fine, it was good that there was still time for him to space out now. Those rats behind were too scary! The seemingly cute white little ball in front was even scarier—no wonder those big rats were all afraid of it!
After the group packed up, they discussed having Lao Yang lead—after all, he had come here first—followed by Wu Xie, Uncle Tai, Master Liang, and Lin Yan. Both Uncle Tai and Wu Xie agreed with Lin Yan bringing up the rear, one for safety’s sake, the other for the team’s safety.
While Master Liang was still bewildered and unaware, he was arranged to be in this position. He didn’t know what his reaction would be when he found out that both the little white zombie and the three big rats were walking behind him.
Before leaving, Uncle Tai silently boxed up the coffin lid and covered it back as it was, even casually nailing a few nails on top, shocking them all into stunned silence. So that’s what the nails in Uncle Tai’s equipment were for! It felt like opening a new world— this was a real tomb raider? Lao Yang thoughtfully watched and secretly noted it down.
However, it was visibly clear that Uncle Tai put extra force when covering his own coffin, with extra nails too. Cough, understandable, understandable.
Finally, as they were about to go down, Lao Yang walked a few steps in, and Wu Xie let out a light “Eh”: “Why do I feel it’s so hot down there?”
Thinking of the suddenly erupting geyser, he had an ominous premonition—would they reach the geyser’s lair just by going further?
Their flashlights lit up the inside brightly. The exquisite staircase and the rough corridor interior felt very contradictory to him. This staircase was somewhat like it was made of bluestone; he stomped his foot and felt it was very solid, but the corridor interior felt just like the outside mine, extremely rough.
If this place really led to the main tomb chamber, it should be even more exquisite. Could Lao Yang have taken the wrong path?
Lao Yang confidently turned back: “N-No problem, it’s just a hot spot! This road is d-definitely correct!”
Although that was said, Wu Xie was still somewhat skeptical. Master Liang behind him was almost walking in front of him, single-mindedly wanting to get out quickly to escape that feeling of a thorn in his back. Being stared at by those big rats behind, even knowing Lin Yan was in between, the psychological shadow from all the rats crawling over him earlier was too severe—he always felt those rats could gnaw him up if he wasn’t careful.
No one noticed that Lin Yan at the back of the group was acting a bit off.
For some reason, the deeper they went, the stranger Lin Yan felt, as if something was summoning him? No way, could this mystical feeling happen to him? Wasn’t this only for protagonists in mystical xianxia stories, following their inner call and discovering some ruins that gave the protagonist opportunities?
But that’s in novels; this is inside the tomb! What good thing could be summoning him in the tomb? Thinking with his toes, he knew it was either a zombie or something strange—maybe a zombie like the little white zombie?
The little white zombie seemed to sense something, rubbed against Lin Yan’s neck, and quieted down against his neck.
Petting the little white zombie’s head a couple of times, Lin Yan also felt worried. Recalling how he uncontrollably went up to gnaw the bronze tree branch after seeing it, it felt hard to handle. According to Lao Yang, the bronze tree inside was enormously huge—so if he went in, would he end up hugging and gnawing such a massive bronze pillar? Would his teeth break?
So, was what was summoning him that bronze tree? Or did this bronze tree have something to do with the thing in his head?
The more he thought, the more irritated he got. He tried to clear the stray thoughts from his head and focus on the path under his feet.
Looking closely, he actually discovered something.
In an inconspicuous spot in the corridor, there was a carving of a somewhat strangely shaped bird?
“Wu Xie.”
He didn’t recognize this bird, so he could only call Wu Xie to ask: “Look here, do you recognize what this bird is?”
“Bird? Where?”
Wu Xie looked where he pointed but saw nothing: “Where is there a carved bird? Could it be you mis-saw?”
Lin Yan’s expression sharpened, looking again at the spot Wu Xie had checked—there was clearly a bird, small though it was carved, but Wu Xie absolutely couldn’t have missed it!
He looked at Lao Yang and Uncle Tai again. Lao Yang seemed thoughtful but unreadable, even looking at him with interest, his eyes clearly saying “hallucination?” Uncle Tai was also puzzledly watching him and Wu Xie, seemingly wondering what trick they were playing. As for Master Liang, with his constant glances back at the rats’ movements, the devil if you could read anything from that.
“N-Nothing, probably I mis-saw.”
It seemed this was something only he could see—or perhaps here targeted everyone except him, making them hallucinate so they couldn’t see the bird?
“Really okay?” Wu Xie asked worriedly, feeling Lin Yan wasn’t faking it; he might really have seen something they couldn’t. Meeting his concerned gaze, Lin Yan gave him a look meaning: talk outside.
Not a big deal, right? Wu Xie worriedly glanced at him; Lin Yan slightly shook his head: Not a big deal, we’ll talk after we get out.
His eyes darted around; Wu Xie understood—this really wasn’t the place to talk, with everyone listening. If he said something he shouldn’t, who knows what would happen.
The group silently continued downward, and sure enough, as Wu Xie expected, it got hotter the deeper they went. By the time they reached the bottom of the passage, it was almost like southern summer, the air at least 30 degrees, hot enough that they took off their jackets.
Wu Xie held his jacket, rolled up his sleeves to his elbows, and exhaled: “This is way too hot!”
He looked at the path ahead and saw the environment had changed—no longer the rough corridor, but a formal tomb passage with torches on both sides.
Lao Yang stopped, turned off his flashlight, and used a fire starter to light the torches on both sides: “We’re a-almost there!”
He wiped the sweat from his forehead and breathed a sigh of relief. Though there were no mechanisms on this path down, he had still been uneasy. Although all signs showed no one had come after he left, he couldn’t be sure no one had entered— what if it was an expert who left no trace?
Only after safely passing through here just like three years ago did he breathe a sigh of relief. If anyone had come, the mark he left here would definitely have been touched.
He coldly watched an inconspicuous little wooden strip on the torch turn to ashes, truly breathing a sigh of relief.
In front of them was a huge pit. By the torchlight, they could see it was at least 50-60 meters in diameter, with scorching wind rising from the bottom, making their heads spin.
“Lao Yang, there isn’t lava down there, is there? So hot—how do we cross?”
Lao Yang smugly smiled: “W-Wouldn’t have thought it, huh? Follow me and you’ll see!”
They thought they wouldn’t need flashlights after Lao Yang lit the torches, but the pit was too huge; from their angle, they could only see vague shadows, nothing clear. So he pulled a torch from the wall and followed Lao Yang downward.
After Uncle Tai came down, he silently fell in behind them, ending up with Master Liang, just in time to see Lin Yan clutching his head, looking uncomfortable from the heat.
Approaching Lin Yan, he felt a wave of heat hit him, even hotter than the surrounding air, thinking maybe he had a fever?
“Little Lin, brother, you okay?”
Master Liang nearby also turned to look, seeing Lin Yan’s face flushed red, indeed like he had a fever, and reached to touch his forehead but stopped upon seeing the little white zombie’s eyes. He bitterly grinned— he really didn’t dare!
“N-No problem.” Lin Yan clutched his head and answered them. This feeling was a bit odd, like he was split into two parts: one dizzy, bloated, and thirsty, wanting to follow Wu Xie into the pit; the other striving to stay calm and observe coldly, like a God’s-eye view?
He felt a surge of irritation—what exactly was that thing below? What did it want him to do?
He opened a pair of eyes gradually turning red and turned on his flashlight to head downward.
Master Liang wanted to stay at the end, but upon turning and seeing the three big rats, he could only sheepishly smile and hurry after Lin Yan, pulling Uncle Tai along.
Wu Xie and Lao Yang gradually reached the bottom and saw a pillar nearly 10 meters in diameter standing there, leaving them dumbfounded: “Lao Yang, this is the bronze tree you mentioned? This huge?”
He glanced at Lao Yang’s backpack, thinking it was no wonder he said the tree branch was an insignificant part of the bronze giant tree—this was truly a drop in the bucket!
He looked up in awe and saw the part previously hidden in darkness, realizing the vague shadows were the countless branches of the bronze tree, densely connected above.
He was silent for a moment, then hesitantly asked Lao Yang: “Is this really technology the ancients could master?”
He looked at where the branches connected to the bronze tree trunk—seamless, unknown welding technique. But the patterns on it…
At this moment, a figure beside him walked past and started climbing up without a word. He hurriedly called: “Lin Yan, what are you doing? Wait for us!”
But Lin Yan didn’t answer, which felt off to him. Lao Yang suddenly said: “H-He seems a bit off? His eyes—they’re red!”
Eyes red? Wu Xie had an ominous premonition. Recalling Lin Yan’s state facing the bronze tree branch earlier, he cursed himself for only thinking of it now— he had really fallen for Lao Yang’s nonsense!
Master Liang and Uncle Tai hurried over from behind. Master Liang was panting after a few steps and said upon seeing them: “H-He doesn’t know what’s wrong, like he’s burning up all over, bolted this way, c-couldn’t stop him!”
Wu Xie and Lao Yang exchanged a glance and decided: “Chase!”
