Tomb Raider: I Am Hu Bayi's Cousin

Chapter 792 Gu Huaisheng!
By this time, the group had been traveling for quite some time after entering the ruins, winding their way downhill.

And at the end of this road is a cliff nearly 100 meters high!
The environment here is dark, and even with the lights on, the view from this height is still blurry, making it difficult to discern what is below.

But the rustling sounds coming from below the cliff were chilling.

Mercenaries are human too. Although they work in a profession where they risk their lives to earn money and gain wealth, they still have an instinctive fear of life and death.

The greatest fear is the fear of the unknown!

Just as Song was frowning and arranging manpower, Hu Ming suddenly disappeared.

At the same time, the blind man covered Gu Ziqing's mouth, pulled her along, and followed Hu Ming's footsteps, disappearing silently from the spot as well.

……

……

The cliff, hundreds of meters high, is covered with withered vines and other things, and there are still faint traces of the nine-headed cypress.

Hu Ming didn't use any safety ropes or anything like that. Like a nimble monkey, he passed the ropes along the vines and fell quickly. Before long, Hu Ming's figure had appeared steadily at the bottom of the cliff.

A moment later, it also fell silently, carrying a blind man who was a burden.

Are you born in the Year of the Dog?

"No, even dogs don't bite like you. Didn't I tell you I meant you no harm? On the contrary, I was protecting you. You really don't appreciate my kindness?"

The moment the blind man came down, he grimaced and released his hand from Gu Ziqing's mouth, rubbing the teeth marks on his palm with heartache.

These hands were his most cherished possessions!
"Pah! Bad people never admit they're good. What are you trying to do?"

"You still don't appreciate kindness, huh? You're probably thinking I'm a dog, right? You bastard!!!"

Gu Ziqing was still not satisfied, so she grabbed the blind man's hand and bit him hard again.

"Hey! You two, there's a better place and time for flirting, isn't there? Are you sure you want to do it in this godforsaken spot?"

Hu Ming's lips twitched. These two really did have similar thought processes in some ways.

“That’s right, we still have important things to do. This way….”

The blind man straightened his expression, and seeing Gu Ziqing's regretful look, he pulled back his right hand, quickly assessed the surrounding environment, found the agreed-upon marker, and prepared to lead the way.

However, Hu Ming had already run in the right direction.

"Your friend's voice sounds like it's shouting right next to my ear, it's so clear, you don't need to bother looking for any secret codes..."

Hu Ming, without turning his head, said indifferently, "Your friend? A friend here?"

A thought flashed through Gu Ziqing's mind, and she exclaimed in a low voice.

"No time to explain, get in the car! Ugh, I meant hurry up and catch up, we don't have much time left! You're definitely not the athletic type, let's go!"

The blind man gave a mysterious smile, and amidst Gu Ziqing's soft gasp, he hoisted Gu Ziqing onto his shoulder and quickly left.

Compared to the labyrinthine caves on the upper levels, this place is like a huge, empty football field. The vast space is almost empty, shrouded in a thin mist of unknown origin, making it incredibly mysterious.

It's just like the underground world in Alice in Wonderland.

Hu Ming sped along a deeply hidden ancient path, with the blind man carrying Gu Ziqing close behind. Ten minutes later, the area where the two were located was so dense with weapon energy that it was almost impossible to see one's own hand in front of one's face.

In particular, upon arriving here, wisps of black energy were already faintly mixed within the white mist.

Hu Ming and the blind man ignored all of this, pressed themselves against the rock wall, took two steps forward, and found a narrow passage that was just big enough for an adult to pass through sideways. They slipped inside.

Strangely enough, despite being in the same interconnected environment, not a single wisp of mist leaked into the narrow cavity behind the crack.

"Blind man, this is not what we agreed on... I've long admired your name, Second Master, I never expected to meet you here."

In the empty shadows, a dark figure appeared silently, glanced at the dumbfounded Gu Ziqing, casually complained to the blind man, and then asked Hu Ming with a slightly respectful attitude.

He is Gu Ziqing's missing father, Gu Huaisheng.

Hu Ming nodded slightly, then stepped aside to give the blind man space.

After all, the blind man and Gu Huaisheng had a long-standing friendship.

"There's no need. You don't know Hu Ming or me well enough. He's just a fully armed mercenary. If it really comes down to it, I'm not necessarily afraid of them."

"Besides, your former boss is determined to come down and retrieve the pagoda, and that thing down there... forgive me for being blunt, but if we wait another hour or two, they'll most likely be wiped out here."

"Here you go. Thanks to this thing, our journey here was much easier; we weren't attacked by any of those monsters."

The blind man shrugged and pulled a small, glittering gold object from his pocket, tossing it to Gu Huaisheng.

This thing was given to the blind man by Gu Huaisheng when they made contact with him during the attack by the black tentacles, when everyone had lost consciousness.

This is part of the mysterious underground pagoda.

"If it weren't for the strange power of the pagodas here, emanating an aura that the eerie plants in the central area repulsed, I probably would have perished here long ago."

Gu Huaisheng gave a wry smile, gathering the fragments. Several gleaming golden pagodas could be faintly seen in his pocket. "Wait, wait, wait, wait!!!"

"Gu Huaisheng, you're not dead? So, you've been hiding here all this time, not even bothering to let your family know you're safe?"

"Don't you know how worried my grandma was about you? She disappeared without a trace, neither alive nor dead. How could you be so heartless?"

Gu Ziqing finally realized what was happening, and the emotions that had been building up for more than a month exploded instantly. She stepped forward, hugged Gu Huaisheng tightly, and cried, laughed, and got angry all at the same time.

"I'm sorry, Ziqing, this matter is of utmost importance. I had no choice but to do this. If news of my survival gets out, that Okitajima will most likely use you, and your grandmother, to threaten me..."

Gu Huaisheng hugged his daughter tightly and gave the blind man and Hu Ming a grateful look.

Clearly, the fact that Gu Ziqing was able to come to such a dangerous place unscathed must be thanks to these two people.

The blind man deserved the honor, and Hu Ming took a small step back.

After all, the person who took care of Gu Ziqing along the way was blind.

While the blind man, Gu Huaisheng, and Gu Ziqing were exchanging feelings, Hu Ming came to the gap and squinted as he looked around at the fog that had suddenly become thicker.

At the same time, a sudden burst of ear-piercing gunfire, roars, screams, and other sounds erupted.

As his fingers probed out of an illusory boundary, his skin was exposed to the mist, and Hu Ming felt a burning pain.

I pulled my finger back and looked closely; there was a faint black mark on my skin.

Hu Ming's extensive experience told him that these were traces of corrosion from a faint acid mist.

"Ha, things are getting more and more interesting..."

Upon closer inspection, there are clear signs of artificial backfilling around the narrow passageway.

After thinking for a moment, Hu Ming used his two fingers, which were like hooks, to probe the rock wall with the skill of cutting through gold and jade. He pierced the rock wall as easily as a hot knife through butter. With a flick of his fingers, a small, unidentified golden substance was picked out.

"Just as I expected..."

Gently stroking the golden fragments on his fingertips, Hu Ming observed the faint, mysterious power emanating from them with his golden eyes and sighed softly.

"That's right, as expected of Second Master. I filled the exit here with some pagoda debris. It was these pagoda fragments that shielded me from that strange creature's senses, as well as these strange things from the outside world..."

After a brief conversation with his daughter, Gu Huaisheng's mental state had noticeably improved. He approached Hu Ming and explained softly.

"Strange, it smells like the digestive fluid of some kind of creature—strongly acidic, yet also has the stench of rotting food!"

Hu Ming smiled slightly, knowing what Gu Huaisheng wanted to express, and said softly.

"The mist formed from the liquefaction of digestive fluids... Although it sounds absurd, if you think about it carefully, this white mist does indeed resemble the situation you described, Second Master."

As the gunshots and screams grew fainter in his ears, Gu Huaisheng suddenly realized.

"According to your logic, isn't this cavity the stomach and digestive space of that mutated cypress?"

The blind man raised an eyebrow and said incredulously.

Even with his extensive experience, this was the first time he had ever encountered such a bizarre creature.

But the cunning frog—no, Arthur Conan Doyle—once said in his bestselling detective novel *Sherlock Holmes*—

After eliminating all impossible outcomes, whatever remains, however improbable, is the truth.

"In fact, if I am not mistaken, the layers of rock here have long been riddled with holes by the tentacles of the cypress."

"In this area, the snake cypress has already arranged its tentacles into a dense, enclosed space. In other words, the place we are in now can be called the inside of this mutated snake cypress."

"This situation is indeed very bad. We have no idea where the snake cypress is most vulnerable. To be honest, even I am a little troubled by such a huge creature."

Hu Ming once again plunged his golden twin fingers into the rock wall, examining the hard rock layer as if it were soft tofu. Before long, many tiny tentacles emerged from between his twin fingers.

The tendrils on his fingertips writhed like serpents, as if they were independent living things. When the light shone on them, people looked through the holes left by Hu Ming's fingertips.

Sure enough, just as Hu Ming said, apart from the outermost five-centimeter-thick hard rock shell, the inside had already become a honeycomb-like structure, and inside were all tiny tentacles that were exactly the same as Hu Ming's.

Sizzle.
As if realizing that escape was impossible, the tiny tentacles paused in their struggle and began to secrete colorless and transparent mucus. The moment this liquid touched Hu Ming's body, it emitted a faint corrosive sound.

Hu Ming, without changing his expression, drew his knife and cut the thing in half. Then, with a flick of his wrist, he pulled out a clean bottle of Farmer's Three Fists soap to wash his fingers, which were stained with strong acid.

Even after just a brief contact, Hu Ming's fingertips showed obvious signs of corrosion.

Hu Ming frowned slightly. This injury was nothing to worry about. He took out a box of special ointment, applied it to his finger, and soon felt a cooling sensation.

However, the current situation is too difficult. If we cannot find the fatal spot of this cypress, any further resistance will only be a waste of energy.

In the mental map, at the very center of this cavity was a structure resembling a plant trunk…

Now that he understands the strangeness of this snake cypress, Hu Ming is no longer sure where its weak point is.

After all, creatures of enormous size possess terrifying vitality, and their vital organs are protected by layers of defense; how could they possibly be so easily exposed in the most conspicuous places?
"If that's the case..."

Hu Ming's eyes flickered, and another ordinary, dusty, fist-sized pebble appeared out of thin air in his right hand. Looking at the pebble in his hand, Hu Ming had a bold idea.