Tomb raiding live stream: Starting as the mute Zhang

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Everyone looked at the entrance, which was glowing with a dark red light, and their hearts skipped a beat.

The entrance was small, barely enough for two people to walk side by side. The deep, pulsating sound emanating from inside carried an eerie rhythm, pounding against one's eardrums and heart.

The sweet, fishy smell was so strong it was almost impossible to dissolve.

"Let's go in and take a look," Xie Yuchen said in a deep voice. At this point, there was no turning back.

Zhang Qiling took the lead and stepped into the red light. "Zhang Qiling" followed closely behind.

The others took a deep breath and followed them inside.

Upon entering, everyone was stunned by the sight before them.

This is a natural cave several times wider than the outside passage, with an irregular shape, a high dome, and many hanging stalactites. But the most eye-catching part is the center of the cave.

There, there was a huge, dark red "cocoon" that pulsated slightly like a heart.

The "cocoon" is about four or five meters in diameter. Its surface is not silk, but a translucent substance that resembles a thick gel or coagulated blood. Inside, there are faint, irregular shadows slowly wriggling. The dark red light and the "thump, thump" pulsating sound are emanating from this huge "cocoon".

The roots of the "cocoon" are deeply embedded in the ground and connected to a dark red, fleshy root-like thing at the bottom of the cave. These "roots" spread throughout the cave, and some even climbed up the rock walls.

The cave walls are no longer adorned with the rough reliefs found outside, but rather with vibrantly colored and relatively well-preserved murals!

The murals were painted with a dark red, ochre, black and an eerie fluorescent green pigment, and are filled with wild imagination and unsettling details.

The most striking image depicts a group of ancient people dressed in simple animal skins and wearing feather headdresses, kneeling on the ground and bowing towards a blurry, luminous object in the center of the cave (possibly the precursor to this "cocoon"?). Their expressions are not piety, but a mixture of extreme fear and a twisted fanaticism.

Another mural depicts a sacrificial scene. Some people are bound and brought before the luminous object. Then, their bodies are pierced and bound by thin, tentacle-like or root-like things, and their bodies quickly wither away, while the luminous object seems to grow brighter and larger.

Another painting depicts many bizarre creatures crawling out of the luminous object, some resembling giant beetles (corpse beetles?), others completely indescribable. They rush towards the kneeling crowd, who seem not to resist, but instead open their arms to welcome them...

The mural's lines are twisted and wild, with strong color contrasts. Under the dark red "cocoon" light, it appears particularly eerie and chilling.

"My God..." Fatty Wang stared in disbelief. "What the hell is this? A live broadcast of raising venomous insects?"

Wu Xie and Huo Xiuxiu were drawn to the content of the murals and the information they contained. Ignoring the eerie environment and the pulsating "cocoon," Wu Xie shone his flashlight closer to the rock wall, carefully examining the details of the murals and some difficult-to-decipher symbols that appeared to be writing.

"This isn't a traditional Central Plains ritual..." Wu Xie murmured, his face pale. "It's more like... a primitive form of worship, a worship of something with devouring or parasitic properties. They use living people as sacrifices, feeding... 'it'."

Huo Xiuxiu also felt a chill run down her spine, but she was calmer. She pointed to some twisted lines and symbols around the luminous objects in the mural: "Look at these patterns. They are similar to the carvings on the stone houses outside, as well as some symbols we have seen in Jingjue Ancient City and Zhangjia Ancient Building, but they are older and more... chaotic."

This may be a very primitive form of understanding about "doors" or "passages," where they worship these entities with the power to devour and transform as "mediums" or "deities" for communicating with a certain place.

Wang Cen stared intently at the mural, especially the one depicting the "sacrifice" being drained of its life force. His eyes behind his glasses gleamed with an indescribable light as he muttered to himself, "As expected... it really is like this... devouring and transformation... the ancient symbiosis... this is the key..."

One of his men, who had come with him, seemed to be drawn to the mural and the pulsating "cocoon" in the center, and subconsciously took a few steps forward, wanting to see it more clearly.

"Don't move," Zhang Qiling's cold voice rang out.

The man paused, looking at Zhang Qiling with a puzzled expression.

Zhang Qiling's gaze shifted from the mural to the dark red, slightly undulating "roots" on the ground. "Alive. Moving."

As if to confirm his words, a dark red "root" about the thickness of a finger twitched slightly not far from the man's feet. Its tip lifted up and, like a snake, very slowly probed towards the man's ankle.

The man was so frightened that he immediately took a few steps back, his face turning deathly pale.

Wang Cen also composed himself and looked at Zhang Qiling and "Zhang Qiling," his tone urgent: "Mr. Zhang, look at this...this thing inside the 'cocoon,' isn't that the key? How do we take it out? Or do we need to destroy it?"

The levitating live-streaming sphere clearly presented the terrifying scenes and eerie murals inside the cave, especially the giant, pulsating "cocoon" in the center, to the viewers. The live chat was already scrolling by rapidly:

Holy crap! What the hell is this thing?!

It's still moving! There's something alive inside!

The murals are terrifying! Were they fed by humans?

This worship is too creepy!

That old bastard Wang Cen has a strange look in his eyes!

He seems to know something!

The mute Zhangs remained calm.

That root is really moving! Watch your step!

Zhang Qiling did not answer Wang Cen's question. His gaze slowly swept across the entire cave, lingering on the murals, the "roots" spreading on the ground, and the giant "cocoon" pulsating in the center, as if he were sensing and judging something.

Zhang Qiling took a more direct approach. He crouched down and gently touched the dark red "root" closest to him with the scabbard of his black gold ancient sword.

The "roots" suddenly retracted, like startled earthworms, quickly retreating into a nearby crevice. Where the scabbard had touched, a viscous, dark red sap remained, emitting an even stronger sweet and fishy smell.

"It's part of 'it'." Zhang Qiling stood up and looked at the giant cocoon. "These are all extensions. The core is inside."

"Then what are we waiting for?" one of Wang Cen's subordinates couldn't help but say, holding a device resembling a flamethrower, its muzzle pointed at the giant cocoon. "Just burn this monstrosity and get the core out!"

"Idiot." Zhang Qiling coldly uttered two words.

The man's expression changed, and he was about to lash out when Wang Cen raised his hand to stop him.

"Don't be impulsive!" Wang Cen scolded, then looked at Zhang Qiling, "Mr. Zhang, what do you mean?"

"Zhang Qiling" pointed to the monsters crawling out of the glowing objects in the mural, then to the ground and walls. "If you're disturbed, they'll wake up. And what comes out won't just be insects."

His meaning was clear: the entire cave, including the "roots" on the ground, the veins on the walls, and even what might be behind the rock walls, was one with the giant cocoon in the center. Attacking the giant cocoon rashly might awaken everything, and what would emerge might not just be a simple corpse beetle.

Wu Xie also came to his senses, and added with a grim expression, "The murals show that this 'thing' has the ability to absorb offerings and convert energy, and can also... generate or control those monsters. If it is itself a huge, living... 'mother nest' or 'core,' attacking it is like stirring up a hornet's nest."

Wang Cen frowned, staring at the pulsating giant cocoon, his eyes flashing as he clearly thought quickly. He wanted what was inside, but he didn't want to risk himself and his men.

"Then... what are your insights?" Wang Cen suppressed his eagerness and asked in a calm tone as much as possible.

Zhang Qiling finally turned his gaze away from the cave ceiling, where some barely perceptible, finer, dark red veins, like blood vessels, were distributed among the stalactites. He looked at the giant cocoon, and slowly spoke, his voice clearly audible amidst the deep throbbing sound:

"wait."

"Wait?" Wang Cen was taken aback.

"It's 'moving'," Zhang Qiling explained, his gaze falling on the slowly writhing shadows on the surface of the giant cocoon. "It's rhythmic. It's about to 'wake up'."

Wu Xie's heart skipped a beat: "It's about to wake up? What do you mean? It...it will come out by itself?"

Zhang Qiling nodded, pointing to the mural depicting monsters crawling out of glowing objects. "The time has come. Or perhaps, the sacrifices are enough."

Sacrifice?

A chill ran through everyone. They instinctively looked towards the cave entrance, then at the dark red "roots" on the ground. Could it be that the blood of the person who had just died... had been absorbed by these "roots," becoming a "sacrifice" that accelerated the "awakening" of the thing inside the giant cocoon?

This thought sent chills down everyone's spine.

Just then, the giant cocoon pulsating in the center suddenly contracted violently!

"Gulp!"

The throbbing sound suddenly amplified, like muffled thunder exploding in the cave!

Immediately afterwards, fine cracks began to appear on the dark red gelatinous substance on the surface of the giant cocoon, and a viscous, dark red to black liquid slowly seeped out from the cracks.

The dark red "roots" and veins on the cave floor and walls also began to glow faintly, as if blood was being injected into the veins, and the frequency of their pulsation gradually synchronized with that of the giant cocoon.

"Step back!" Zhang Qiling shouted, taking several steps back as his black gold ancient sword was already held horizontally in front of him.

"Zhang Qiling" moved almost in sync with him, retreating to the same horizontal level. His sword was half an inch out of its sheath, and his eyes were as sharp as an eagle's, locked tightly on the giant cocoon that was beginning to crack.

The air inside the cave instantly tensed up.

That thing is about to come out!