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

Chapter 473 Nightmare Beast Gorge
Everything before his eyes began to blur. Feng felt his lungs begin to ache due to lack of oxygen, and his heart was beating faster and faster, as if it were about to burst out of his chest.

"Hey, don't actually strangle him. This guy is still useful."

Zhang Haixing stood at a distance and watched. Seeing that Feng had suffocated to the point of shock, she hurriedly spoke up to stop him.

Zhang Wuxun's current appearance, revealing his vicious nature, was so terrifying that it frightened her. She worried that if she rashly stepped forward, she might also be caught in the crossfire and suffer the consequences.

Since she met this person, she had witnessed more than once just how vicious he truly was; his malevolent aura was simply concealed by his clean-cut appearance.

"Of course we won't let him die so easily."

Zhang Wuxun's voice was as cold as a piercing knife. He released his grip, loosened his fist to control the force, and slammed it into Feng's chest.

"Ho-"

Feng exhaled a breath of turbid air, his chest heaving rapidly. His pale face gradually returned to normal. He opened his hazy eyes, vaguely thinking that he had just walked through hell, with Satan grabbing his ankles, trying to drag him into the ninth level of the Treachery ice prison to be punished.

Fortunately, he survived the fear of near death; betrayal did not exist, and God will still bless him.

"Let's go." Zhang Wuxun grabbed him by the collar and dragged him up, tossing a sentence to Zhang Haixing before pulling him out of the cave.

Zhang Haixing hurriedly picked up the things that had fallen from Feng's body, put away her flashlight, and followed him out of the cave.

After leaving Feng by the smokeless furnace for a long time, he finally recovered from the near-death experience. He trembled and hugged himself tightly against the stone wall, unable to utter a single word.

Wu Xie already knew what had happened. He curled his fingers slightly, but still patted Zhang Wuxun's shoulder and gently comforted him, "Don't be too anxious. The Khampa people have existed in the snowy mountains for so long, they must have ways to save their lives in critical moments. The Germans may not be able to succeed. We'll set off at dawn tomorrow, speed up, and get there as soon as possible."

“I think Tianzhen is right.” The fat man handed him a cup of ginger soup. “Doesn’t your family still worship those ghosts and spirits? Those people who went into the mountains with you before were all killed by some kind of curse. Those people were crazy and didn’t know anything. They probably didn’t even know the route. They probably just stumbled upon this place by sheer luck.”

Zhang Wuxun shook his head. "They must have a route map. This road is the only shortcut for the Khampa people to connect with the outside world and cross the snow-capped peaks. People without a map simply cannot find this road."

"Who gave you the map?" The fat man turned around and slapped Feng on the head, yelling, "Did you, you bastard, give it to me? Confess!"

Startled by the shout, Feng shuddered and hurriedly explained, "I did give them the map, but I really don't know what they're going to do in the snow mountain. This group's security clearance is higher than mine. I can only cooperate with whatever they want."

Even without knowing the details, he could guess that this team's ultimate goal was definitely the Bronze Gate.

But headquarters never acts without a backup plan. He knew very well that he and his team were just cannon fodder heading deep into the snow-capped mountains. All those people before him were victims of minefields. The real mission to find the secret was probably this group of people.

The Khampa people are closely associated with the mysterious bronze gate, so it's not surprising that they would be targeted by headquarters.

To save his own life, Feng had to reveal his speculation: "That group of people probably wanted to get something from the Khampa people. They probably wouldn't attack the residents there before completing their mission."

"Should?" Zhang Haixing sneered. "Don't you know what kind of people those Germans are? Don't you feel guilty saying that?"

Feng was speechless, his face full of shame, and he silently lowered his head.

“You’d better pray to your God that things are still under control, otherwise… humph…” Zhang Haixing pursed her lips and glanced at Zhang Wuxun, who was resting with his eyes closed.

If something really happens to Kangbaluo, then Anjing Company will face a crisis from more than just one side.

Nothing happened that night. The snow stopped completely the next morning, the wind gradually subsided, and a rare thick fog rose over the snowfield, surging like a vast sea of ​​clouds falling from above.

After eating some dry rations to replenish their energy, half an hour later, the fog gradually dissipated due to the cold wind, the snow line on the horizon turned slightly gray, and visibility improved. The group immediately packed up their equipment and continued on their way.

Feng had already made up his mind; nothing was more important than his own life.

After much consideration, he still spoke up to remind them: "The wolf tracks left in that bear den are very complex. I guess it must have been a wolf pack, no less than ten in number. Moreover, the gnaw marks on the bear skeleton are still very fresh, which means that the wolf pack is very likely to return. This area is within their hunting range of dozens of kilometers, and we are very likely to be targeted by the wolf pack."

Zhang Haixing turned away from the wind, took a breath, and said, "You don't need to worry about this. We already found out."

Feng was astonished. "How did you know?"

Zhang Haixing turned back and pointed to the snow-capped peak they had just crossed, "Since yesterday afternoon, the wolf pack has been sending bait to peek out from behind the snow hills. Several times they deliberately revealed themselves to me and Bai Ci."

"Wolves are cunning by nature. They might have thought we were hunters, but seeing that we were indifferent to lone wolves, they kept following us at a distance."

Feng Jin looked worried. "That's terrible. It's been snowing a lot lately, and all the animals on the snowfield have hidden themselves. The wolves are hungry and can't find any prey, so they definitely won't let this free meal go easily."

“They’re just a dozen or so wolves. Why would I be afraid of them?” Zhang Haixing scoffed at his concerns.

"..." Wu Xie was speechless. This woman was always so confident. Couldn't she consider the psychological trauma of a normal person? That thing was a wolf, not a groundhog.

He nudged the fat man with his elbow and lowered his voice, "We don't have her bragging skills, so we'd better be careful." The fat man nodded, "I used to hunt wolves when I was with the team. These things are very cunning and vengeful. They can chase you for dozens of kilometers if they catch a whiff of your scent. In my opinion, the group of beasts following us isn't far away, otherwise Bai Ci wouldn't have set up signal flares outside the cave last night."

Wu Xie, holding the fat man's shoulder, stood on tiptoe and looked back at the path they had come from. There was only a vertical row of their footprints, with no trace of the wolf.

Looking at the sky, Zhang Wuxun urged, "We need to move faster and hurry up to find a safe shelter before dark. Although the wind has subsided, setting up camp in this open field could lead to big trouble."

Everyone nodded, and the group continued forward.

Two hours later, a canyon appeared ahead, nestled between two snow-capped peaks, steep and deep.

According to the map, after passing through here, go another 60 kilometers or so, and you will reach the mass burial ice mountain recorded in Deren's notes.

Standing on the mountain, Zhang Wuxun quietly looked into the distance. The sun was setting, and the snow line on the horizon blended with the crimson sunset clouds. The afterglow spread evenly on the gentle slope like a golden veil, and the white snow was crystal clear and sparkling like the sun.

A few black dots appeared sporadically at the edge of the snow line where it met the sky, scattered here and there, and quickly disappeared among the undulating mountains.

Wu Xie climbed out of the snow pit, wiped the snow off his snow goggles, tightened the scarf around his neck, and said to Zhang Wuxun, "I think I saw them just now too, but I couldn't see how many there were in a flash."

“More than a dozen.” Zhang Wuxun spoke slowly with a solemn expression. “I’m afraid that once we enter the canyon, we will soon encounter another pack of even stronger adult wolves. This is likely something they did on purpose.”

Wu Xie was startled. "You mean there are two wolves targeting us? They're working together to surround us?"

“It’s not cooperation; perhaps they are a wolf pack.” Zhang Haixing took out her binoculars and stared at the cliff above the canyon, where a few black dots were also appearing. “The ones chasing us earlier were just the wolf pack’s scouts; the ones lying in wait here are the main force of the wolf pack’s hunt.”

"What should we do then?" Wu Xie was a little panicked. There were only five of them, and facing such a large-scale wolf pack, their chances of survival were slim. "Maybe we should stay out of this canyon and try to find a way around it."

"No, we must go in!" Zhang Wuxun said resolutely. "We have been trekking for a whole day, and we are exhausted. If we continue, the wolves will definitely take advantage of our fatigue and distraction to attack us. The snow here is so thick that it takes a lot of effort to pull your leg out after stepping into it. We can't run very far by human strength. If we get trapped in the snow and surrounded, given the wolves' endurance, they can wear us down just by wasting time."

Spending the night on a snow-capped mountain, without finding a suitable sheltered place and a source of fire, the sudden drop in temperature at night could freeze them to death.

“I know there’s a rock protruding from the cliff in the canyon. The snow below it must not be very thick, and the mountain behind it can prevent wolves from attacking from behind.”

Hearing Zhang Wuxun's words, the group no longer hesitated and immediately sped up their pace to move into the valley.

The red sun on the horizon was mostly obscured by the gray snow line, leaving them with little time.

The fat man pulled his leg out of the clump of snow, panting heavily, and said, "I don't know if you've ever heard of Nightmare Beast Gorge, the kind of gorge where, according to legend, animals collectively jump off cliffs to commit suicide on the night of a full moon."

“What does this have to do with our current situation?” Wu Xie’s voice was muffled by his thick scarf. “Aren’t those death canyons all related to strong geomagnetic fields? When the magnetic field is too strong and uncontrollable, it can easily trigger thunderstorms. Most of the animals that live in the canyons are killed by lightning.”

The fat man pushed up his snow goggles and said earnestly, "Tianzhen, you've read too many books. Many unusual supernatural phenomena cannot be explained simply by applying science. For example, the Zhang family's bell—even the Zhang family themselves haven't figured out what the underlying principle is."

Zhang Haixing snorted coldly in dissatisfaction, "Enough with the nonsense, what exactly are you trying to say?"

"Are you saying this canyon is also a death valley? How did you figure that out?" Wu Xie asked.

"How did you figure that out? Hmph, I figured it out with my feet."

The fat man reached into the snow hole from which he had just pulled his foot, his cheeks clenched, and gritted his teeth as he pulled out a frozen, hard deer leg, still attached to the deer's body.

The mountain walls on both sides were narrow, the wind was strong in the valley, and the snow covering the valley floor was not as much as they had imagined. The animals that had died in the valley were not buried very well. The group also found many deer that had frozen to death or fallen to their deaths in the surrounding area. When they dug out the bodies, they were almost all intact.

“This might be a herd of red deer, and there seem to be quite a few of them, but why are they all dead here? And most of them are strong, healthy male deer and older deer.” Feng was very puzzled. “Could it be that an avalanche pushed them down?”

"This all started with the Nightmare Beast Gorge I mentioned earlier." The fat man walked forward, shaking his head and showing off his knowledge. "Legend has it that in those deep mountains and snowfields, in places rarely visited by humans, herbivores would gather in one place and jump off a cliff to commit suicide on the night of the full moon. There are rumors that the mountain god awakens, and the animals commit suicide as a sacrifice to appease the mountain god's anger."

"But in my opinion, this is pure nonsense. These animals were clearly driven by something and had no choice but to jump over this canyon. Those who couldn't jump over fell to their deaths, just like what we see now."

Although the animal carcasses were frozen solid, they had already shown signs of decomposition. The fact that they could reach this state in an extremely cold environment of minus twenty degrees Celsius indicates that these animals had been dead there for a long time. The large temperature difference between day and night meant that the carcasses had thawed and then frozen again.

“You said something is driving them from behind? Do you mean wolves?” Feng questioned. “Even if there were wolves deliberately driving the deer herd toward the cliff, adult red deer can easily jump over this narrow crevice in the canyon, which is less than ten meters wide.”

The fat man glared at him angrily, "Can't you fucking grasp the point of what I'm saying? There's so much food right here, why don't we just dig it out of the snow and have a good meal? Why did the wolf pack have to travel thousands of miles to chase us? Is it because you, German, are hairy and tough and taste better?"

Feng was sprayed in the face with spit by the fat man. He turned his face away awkwardly, wiped it with his sleeve, and was jolted by the cold. At the same time, it suddenly dawned on him. "I know, you mean that this canyon is a place where the wolf pack chasing us stores food. They need to keep driving their prey to this place to kill them and store them in the cold ice and snow to prepare for the whole winter when food is scarce."

“But…” Despite the fat man’s angry glare, Feng still insisted on asking the question that had been bothering him, “Why are all the deer that died here adults?”

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