Tomb raiding live stream: Starting as the mute Zhang

"Snap—crack—!"

The cracking sounds rang out in quick succession, like an eggshell breaking.

The cracks on the surface of the dark red cocoon became more numerous and deeper. A viscous, dark red to black liquid gushed out like pus and blood, flowing down the cocoon wall and dripping onto the ground, making a slight "hissing" corrosion sound and emitting a strong, sweet, and fishy white smoke.

The pulsating sound throughout the cave reached its peak, so loud it hurt people's eardrums and made their heartbeats pound involuntarily in rhythm.

The dark red "roots" and veins on the ground and walls shone brightly, like living blood vessels, pulsating and extending violently, and even began to slowly wriggle, contracting and converging towards the giant cocoon in the center of the cave.

"Back up! Everyone back up to the entrance!" Xie Yuchen shouted sternly, pulling Wu Xie and Huo Xiuxiu towards the cave entrance.

Hei Xiazi, A Ning, and Jiang Xun Gu immediately protected Wang Pangzi and retreated, aiming their weapons at the giant cocoon and those restless "roots".

Wang Cen's expression shifted, greed and fear mingling in his eyes. Finally, he gritted his teeth and led his remaining three men to the edge of the cave, away from the glowing veins. He stared intently at the giant cocoon, clutching a small, remote-controlled device, his finger trembling slightly as he pressed a button.

Zhang Qiling and "Zhang Qiling" stood between the crowd and the giant cocoon, about seven or eight meters away. The two stood upright, like two javelins nailed to the ground, unmoved by the turbulent airflow and flickering dark red light inside the cave.

Zhang Qiling's hand slowly reached behind his back and grasped the hilt of the knife, which was wrapped in strips of cloth. The cloth strips unfurled, revealing an ancient and solemn scabbard. He did not draw the knife immediately, but simply held it quietly, his gaze as cold as ice, locked on the largest crack in the giant cocoon.

Zhang Qiling did not draw his sword. His hand hung down, and his fingertips twitched slightly, as if sensing the increasingly strong, nauseatingly sweet and fishy smell in the air, and another... decaying, chaotic, and malicious aura.

"Bang!"

With a muffled thud, a piece of gelatinous material the size of a washbasin suddenly flew off from the top of the giant cocoon, revealing a dark, gaping hole.

A stronger, almost suffocating odor erupted from the gap. Then, a withered, dark purple hand with sharp, black nails suddenly shot out from the opening and gripped its edge tightly!

The skin of that hand was pressed tightly against the bone, the veins were clearly visible, and the color was eerie—it definitely didn't look like a living person! Immediately afterward, another hand reached out, and both hands gripped the edge of the gap, pushing hard!

A twisted figure slowly crawled out from the gap in the giant cocoon.

That was a "person," or rather, someone who was once a person.

Its entire body was covered in a viscous, dark red liquid, its skin a wrinkled, dark purple from being soaked, covered with fine, spiderweb-like dark red patterns. Its hair was sparse and stuck to its scalp, its features distorted and indistinct, but one could vaguely make out that it was wearing extremely ancient, almost tattered clothing. Its eyes were just two black holes, its mouth was wide open, revealing black teeth, and a hoarse, bellows-like sound came from its throat.

Most strangely, in its chest cavity, one can vaguely see a fist-sized, slightly pulsating dark red tumor, which, through its thin, translucent purple skin, emits a light that is the same as that of the giant cocoon and its veins.

The creature crawled out of the giant cocoon, crawling on all fours like a wild beast, its head tilted, peering through its two black holes at the living people inside the cave. It seemed extremely sensitive to light and life, its guttural growls becoming rapid, and it abruptly turned towards its nearest target—Zhang Qiling and "Zhang Qiling"!

"It's a zongzi! It's been modified by that thing!" Black Bear exclaimed, gripping his short knife tightly.

One of Wang Cen's men, clearly unaccustomed to such a scene, flinched in fright, causing the beam of his powerful flashlight to sway wildly.

It was this sudden burst of light that caused the "zongzi" to let out a sharp screech from its throat. With a burst of strength from its limbs, its dark purple body shot out like a cannonball, carrying a stench, and rushed straight at Zhang Qiling and "Zhang Qiling"!

The speed is astonishing!

The floating live-streaming sphere faithfully recorded this horrifying scene. The chat was instantly flooded with expressions of terror.

Holy crap! They actually climbed out!

What the hell is this thing?!

Rice dumplings soaked in cocoons?

So fast! He pounced on it!

Hey buddy, watch out!

Faced with the monster rushing towards him, "Zhang Qiling" made a move.

Instead of retreating, he took a half-step forward. With a flick of his right hand along the hilt of his sword behind his back, the ancient black-gold sword silently unsheathed, tracing a chilling arc in the dark red light.

He drew his sword, turned to the side, and swung it—his movements were fluid and fast, almost imperceptible.

The "zongzi" lunged forward, its sharp, black claws about to grab Zhang Qiling's face. In that split second, Zhang Qiling's figure seemed to blur, narrowly avoiding the claws.

At the same time, he casually flicked his ancient sword.

There was no earth-shattering sound, only a slight "ripping" sound like tearing silk.

The "zongzi" continued its charge with undiminished momentum, but its right arm, severed cleanly at the shoulder blade, flew away covered in a sticky, dark red liquid.

"Zongzi" seemed to feel no pain. It lost its balance and fell to the ground, but immediately used its remaining left hand and legs to support itself, twisting its broken body and letting out an even angrier roar as it tried to get up again.

"Zhang Qiling" did not give it a chance.

He shifted his feet, his figure closing in like a ghost, and with a swift upward flick of his ancient sword, he made a diagonal thrust.

A flash of light.

The twisted head of the "zongzi," along with half of its shoulder, detached from its body and rolled to the ground. Not much blood gushed from the severed neck; instead, a thick, dark red liquid oozed out. The mouth on the head was still opening and closing, its dark eye sockets staring at the crowd.

The headless body twitched a few times, then finally stopped moving. But the pulsating, dark red tumor in the chest cavity continued to throb slightly, its light undiminished.

All of this happened in just two or three seconds. From the moment the "zongzi" lunged out to being dealt with by "Zhang Qiling" with two slashes, it was clean and swift, without the slightest hesitation. He didn't even move two steps from his original spot.

The cave was silent, except for the throbbing sound of the giant cocoon and the faint pulsation of the tumor in the chest cavity of the headless corpse on the ground.

Wang Cen and his men were stunned. They knew the two from the Zhang family were formidable, but witnessing their inhuman speed, precision, and ruthlessness firsthand was still incredibly impactful. Especially "Zhang Qiling," whose movements were so concise they were almost cold-blooded, devoid of any unnecessary flourishes, yet terrifyingly efficient.

Although Wu Xie and the others had witnessed their actions, they still breathed a sigh of relief at this moment, while at the same time feeling alarmed by the indestructible tumor in the "zongzi's" chest cavity.

Zhang Qiling flicked the slime off his blade, his gaze remaining calm as he looked at the still-pulsating giant cocoon. "There's more than one."

As if to prove his words.

"Snap! Snap! Splash—!"

More and more gaps burst open on the giant cocoon. One after another, withered, twisted hands covered with dark red tumors reached out and clung to the gaps. Various but equally bizarre and terrifying figures struggled to crawl out of the sticky, gelatinous substance.

Some were still relatively intact human shapes, some had their limbs twisted at bizarre angles, and some even had unbroken, dark red "roots" resembling umbilical cords still attached to their bodies...

In a short while, seven or eight such "zongzi" crawled out and lay around the giant cocoon, their dark "eyes" all "staring" at the living people in the cave. They made mixed "hoarse" sounds from their throats, filled with hunger and malice.

"Damn it, it's had a baby!" Fatty Wang's face turned pale as he picked up the weapon in his hand.

Wang Cen's face was also extremely ugly. He gripped the remote control tightly, seemingly hesitating whether to press it.

After the initial shock, Wu Xie's gaze was drawn to the first "zombie" corpse killed by "Zhang Qiling." To be precise, it was drawn to the tattered, ancient fragments of clothing on its body.

"Wait...look at its clothes!" Wu Xie said in a low voice, his voice filled with disbelief, to Huo Xiuxiu and Xie Yuchen beside him. "The pattern...the weaving method...it's very similar to those kneeling ancient people in the murals! And look at that thing hanging around its neck...although it's rotten, doesn't its shape resemble the bone ornament worn by the priest in the murals?"

Huo Xiuxiu followed his gaze, examined it carefully, and her expression changed: "It...it looks very similar! Could it be...that these 'zongzi' are the ancient people who performed the sacrifices back then? They...they sacrificed themselves, assimilated by this 'cocoon,' and turned into this?"

This speculation sent chills down everyone's spines. If it were true, how long had this "cocoon" existed? How many people had it devoured and transformed? Were the monsters crawling out of the glowing objects in the murals referring to these "zongzi" (rice dumplings)?

Wang Cen had clearly heard Wu Xie's words as well. He abruptly turned to look at the murals, then at the tattered clothes of the corpse on the ground. His eyes flashed intensely as he murmured, "Sacrifice... Assimilation... Maintaining vitality... Could this be... the initial form of 'symbiosis'? No... it's not enough... the core... the core must be inside the cocoon!"

He suddenly looked up at the giant cocoon that was still crawling out of the "zongzi" (rice dumpling), his eyes almost overflowing with greed.

At this moment, the "zongzi" that crawled out seemed to have adapted to the outside world. The "hoarse" sounds from their throats became uniform and sharp. They lowered their bodies and, like hyenas that had smelled blood, slowly dispersed, forming a semi-encirclement of the people in the cave.

A fierce battle is about to break out.