Tomb raiding live stream: Starting as the mute Zhang

It's 11 p.m.

The campfire had burned to a dark red pile of embers, occasionally sputtering a few sparks. In the deep mountains after the rain, the temperature plummeted, and even exhaled breath condensed into white mist. The platform was shrouded in thick darkness, with only the faint emergency lights emanating from the tents.

Xie Linyuan sat beneath the sky, leaning against the rock wall, his black-gold ancient sword lying across his lap. His eyes were half-open, his gaze fixed on the depths of the dense forest at the edge of the platform.

His night vision allowed him to see the darkness as varying shades of gray-green outlines. He could see tree trunks, bushes, rocks, and... the shadows moving through the forest.

There is more than one shadow.

They came from the valley to the northwest, moving down the steep ridge with an unusually lightness. They were on all fours, but occasionally they would stand upright and peer at the platform. Their eyes glowed with an eerie green in the darkness—not the dark red of the mandrill from the previous night, but a colder green.

Quantity: Five. Or six. They stopped fifty meters from the edge of the platform.

They are observing.

Xie Linyuan tapped the hilt of the knife lightly with his fingers.

The rustling sound of someone turning over came from inside the tent. Lin Guoce was sleeping in the sleeping bag next to him, his breathing steady, but Xie Linyuan knew he was awake—a special forces soldier's alertness meant that even in sleep, he retained a sliver of consciousness.

The green eyes are moving. They spread out, forming a semi-circle around the platform.

They are very patient.

Xie Linyuan closed his eyes and listened.

The sounds of wind, insects, and a distant stream... interspersed among these sounds, there were extremely light footsteps. The soles of the feet made almost no sound when they landed, but the subtle cracking sound of snapping a dry twig gave away their location.

Thirty meters to the left front, two.

Twenty-five meters to the right front, there is one.

Forty meters directly in front, two.

There's another one... up there.

Xie Linyuan looked up.

A dark figure crouched on a rock face seven or eight meters above the platform. Green eyes looked down at the camp.

They can climb rocks.

It's smarter than the one from last night; it knows how to use tactical encirclement.

Xie Linyuan slowly stood up without making a sound. He walked to Lin Guoce's sleeping bag and gently touched the edge of the sleeping bag with his toes.

Lin Guoce opened his eyes immediately, his hand already touching the short blade at his waist.

Xie Linyuan raised a finger and placed it to his lips.

Then he pointed to the dense forest surrounding the platform and then to the rock wall above.

Lin Guoce looked in that direction. He couldn't see the green eyes, but a soldier's instinct made his muscles tense. He silently climbed out of his sleeping bag, gripped his short blade, and crouched down beside Xie Linyuan.

"How many?" he mouthed.

Xie Linyuan extended five fingers, then pointed upwards, adding another finger.

Six. Lin Guoce's face darkened.

He pointed to the tent and mouthed, "Wake them up?"

Xie Linyuan shook his head.

He pointed to himself, then to the left front. He pointed to Lin Guoce, then to the right front.

We'll deal with them separately. Let's tackle the most immediate one first.

Lin Guoce nodded.

The two moved at the same time.

Xie Linyuan darted to the left front. His footsteps were extremely light, like a cat moving in the night. His Martin boots made only a soft rustling sound on the wet ground.

Lin Guoce moved to the right front, his movements equally light, but with the precision of a special forces soldier's standard tactical movements—every step was precise, but he lacked Xie Linyuan's naturalness in blending into the environment.

Two green eyes, thirty meters to the left, noticed the movement.

They stood up from behind the bushes.

Moonlight filtered through the clouds, illuminating their appearance: smaller than the black mandrills of the previous night, about 1.5 meters tall, their bodies covered in short, grayish-brown fur interspersed with black spots. Their faces resembled baboons more, with pointed snouts and protruding fangs. Their fingers were long and slender, with curved nails and metallic tips.

The green eyes were fixed on Xie Linyuan as he charged forward.

The first one moved. It charged forward on all fours, its speed so fast it became a gray blur, lunging towards Xie Linyuan.

Xie Linyuan did not slow down.

He suddenly turned to the side when he was three meters away, and the gray shadow missed him from his left. He grabbed the fur on the back of the creature's neck with his left hand, used the momentum to throw it forward, and clenched his right fist to smash the second mandrill that had just leaped up.

A fist struck his chest.

A muffled thud. The sound of bones breaking.

The second mandrill flew backward, crashed into a tree, slid to the ground, twitched twice, and then lay still.

The first mandrill landed, turned around, and opened its mouth to hiss, but Xie Linyuan cut off the sound—his foot was on its throat.

Power comes from the balls of your feet.

His throat bones shattered. The screaming stopped abruptly.

The whole process took less than five seconds.

To the right front, Lin Guoce also encountered trouble.

The mandrill was cunning; it didn't charge head-on, but circled in the forest, using the trees for cover. Lin Guoce chased for a few steps, then suddenly stopped—he heard movement behind him.

The third one pounced from the side and rear.

Lin Guoce turned around and thrust out his short blade.

The mandrill swatted the blade away with its claws, then clawed at his face with its other claw. Lin Guoce leaned back, the claw grazing his forehead—the wound from last night was reopened.

He grunted and kicked the mandrill in the stomach.

The mandrill took two steps back, but immediately pounced again.

The other two charged from directly in front—the same pair that had been forty meters away.

Lin Guoce was caught in a three-pronged attack.

He leaned against a tree, a short blade held horizontally across his chest, his eyes rapidly scanning three directions. Cold sweat slid down his forehead, mingling with blood.

Just then, the sound of wind breaking came from above.

The sixth one—the one on the rock face—swooped down from mid-air, aiming straight for Lin Guoce's head.

Lin Guoce looked up, his pupils contracting. It was too late.

A dark shadow crashed into us from the side.

Xie Linyuan leaped up, his right shoulder slamming into the pouncing mandrill. The two figures crossed paths in mid-air, the mandrill being knocked off course and crashing into the bushes beside him.

Xie Linyuan landed and stood in front of Lin Guoce.

"Step back," he said.

Lin Guoce gritted his teeth, but still took a half step back, leaning against the tree trunk, wary of his flanks.

Four green-eyed mandrills surrounded them.

They didn't attack immediately. Their green eyes gleamed in the darkness, exchanging some kind of signal. Then, they pounced simultaneously.

Xie Linyuan moved.

He faced the two directly in front of him. With both fists out, the knuckles struck the faces of both mandrills. The sound of shattering nasal bones echoed. The two mandrills fell backward.

The one on the left seized the opportunity to grab his ribs.

Xie Linyuan struck with his left elbow from behind, the tip of which slammed into the mandrill's collarbone. The collarbone fractured, and the mandrill screamed in agony.

The one on his right pounced from below, its claws sweeping towards his calf.

Xie Linyuan raised his leg, his knee pushing against the claws, and stomped down with his right foot, striking the mountain demon's spine.

The spine made a cracking sound.

The mandrill collapsed to the ground.

The two directly in front of them had already gotten up, blood trickling from their mouths, but their green eyes were even more ferocious. They split up, one attracting attention from the front, the other circling around from behind.

Xie Linyuan didn't give him a chance.

He charged toward the one in front of him, and the moment the mandrill swung its claws, he bent down, slipped under its armpits, went around to its back, grabbed the mandrill's head with both hands, and twisted it.

Cervical spine misalignment.

The mandrill collapsed.

The last one that circled around behind him had already pounced on his back, its claws digging into his eyes.

Xie Linyuan bumped his head backward.

He bumped the back of his head into the face of the mandrill.

The mandrill winced in pain and loosened its grip. Xie Linyuan grabbed its arm, executed an over-the-shoulder throw, and slammed it to the ground. He raised his right foot, ready to stomp down.

The mandrill suddenly let out a pleading whimper, and tears welled up in its green eyes.

Xie Linyuan's feet stopped in mid-air.

He looked at the mandrill on the ground. Its short, grayish-brown fur was covered in mud and blood, at least three ribs were broken, and one arm was twisted. The ferocity in its green eyes was gone, replaced by fear and pleading.

A commotion came from the other side of the tent—the sounds of fighting finally woke the others.

Xie Linyuan withdrew his foot.

"Get out," he said.

The mandrill paused for a moment, then struggled to its feet, limped into the dense forest, and disappeared into the darkness.

The platform was a complete mess.

Six mandrills, five corpses, and one escaped.

Lin Guoce leaned against a tree, panting, blood still flowing from the wound on his forehead. Xie Linyuan turned around, walked back under the sky, and sat down again, as if he had just taken a walk.

The tent curtain was lifted.

Professor Zhou Xu'an was the first to come out, holding a flashlight. When the light shone on the corpse on the platform, he gasped.

The others came out one after another.

Chen Man saw the body, covered her mouth, and struggled to hold back a scream. Wang Yihan supported her. Kun Ge held up his phone, the camera panning across the scene, but his hand was trembling. Liu Desheng and Zhou Hao stared wide-eyed. Xu Jiashu collapsed to the ground. Jiang Shouyi was pale, and he almost dropped the compass in his hand.

All the live streaming balls were activated, and the infrared images were transmitted back to the live streaming room.

The number of people online late at night was not high to begin with, but it suddenly surged.

The comments section went crazy:

[ID Night Owl: Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!]

[ID Biologist: What kind of species is this?!]

[ID Martial Arts Champion: That guy in black's movements just now... is that even possible for a human?]

[ID screen recording maniac: I recorded it! I punched one away!]

[ID is terrified: Is this archaeology or Monster Hunter?!]

Lin Guoce gritted his teeth, tore open the first-aid kit, and bandaged his forehead himself. Zhou Xu'an quickly went over to help.

"Captain Lin, you..."

"Just a superficial wound." Lin Guoce gritted his teeth. "Mr. Xie saved me."

All eyes turned to Xie Linyuan.

He sat under the sky, wiping his right knuckles with a cloth—the knuckles were scraped and bleeding. The movements were slow and careful, as if that was the only thing that mattered.

"Thank you... Mr. Thank you." Zhou Xu'an's voice trembled. "What... what were those things?"

"Mandrill," Xie Linyuan said. "A variant."

Why are you attacking us?

"Territory." Xie Linyuan paused. "Or...being driven by others."

The last four words made the air freeze.

"Control?" Jiang Shouyi's voice was hoarse. "Who can control these monsters?"

Xie Linyuan did not answer.

He stood up, walked to the carcass of a mandrill, squatted down, and examined its claws. Under its fingernails were dark red stains—not blood, but powder from some kind of mineral.

He pried open the mandrill's mouth again. There was the same powder between its teeth.

"They ate something," Xie Linyuan said. "They ate... the soil from the grave."

"Grave soil?" Zhou Xu'an leaned closer. "How did you know?"

"The taste." Xie Linyuan stood up. "The burial soil has a special mineral composition. Soil that has been used to bury corpses for a long time will change. They've eaten it, a lot of it."

He looked northwest: "That tomb might have been breached. Something has escaped."

"What is it?" Chen Man's voice trembled.

"I don't know," Xie Linyuan said, "but these things are just the outer guards. The real trouble is inside."

Xu Jiashu suddenly screamed, "I'm not going! I'm going back! This isn't archaeology! It's suicide!"

Lin Guoce said coldly, "If we go back now, we might encounter even more on the way. Staying at the camp, at least we still have Mr. Xie."

This statement stunned everyone.

Unbeknownst to them, Xie Linyuan had become the psychological pillar of the team—despite his taciturn nature and aloofness, his strength was the only guarantee of their success.

Xie Linyuan walked back to the sky and sat down again.

"Go to sleep," he said. "We'll set off at dawn."

His tone was calm, but carried an undeniable power.

The group exchanged bewildered glances and then silently returned to their tents. But no one could fall asleep.

Lin Guoce rekindled the campfire and added more firewood. The flickering fire dispelled some of the chill and also chased away some of the fear.

Xie Linyuan continued his night watch.

He kept his eyes closed, but his ears were listening to everything around him. In the distance, the mandrill that had fled whimpered in the dense forest, and then the sound gradually faded away.

The night breeze carries scents from afar.

The smell of soil, decaying leaves, and... a very faint smell of metallic corrosion.

Like bronze.

Xie Linyuan's Qilin tattoo on his shoulder blade was heavily burned.

He reached into his coat pocket and touched the thin black stone slab.

The thin sheet was also getting hot.

It seemed to be echoing something in the distance.

Echoing that door.

Echoing the world behind the door.

Xie Linyuan gripped the thin slice tightly, feeling the burning heat spreading along his arm.

Fragmented images flashed through his mind: a massive bronze door, endless stairs, shadows writhing in the darkness, and... a figure with his back to him, wearing a black hoodie.

That's Zhang Qiling.

Or rather, that was himself.

The system was subtly changing him. Not just his abilities, but also his memories and emotions.

He now thinks less about his original name, "Xie Linyuan," and more often, he feels like he is "Zhang Qiling"—the one who guards secrets, bears destiny, and walks alone outside of time.

Suppressed sobbing came from inside the tent. It was Chen Man.

Wang Yihan offered words of comfort in a low voice.

Kun was speaking in a low voice, probably explaining what had just happened during the live stream.

Liu Desheng and Zhou Hao were arguing about whether or not to go back.

Xu Jiashu was reciting scriptures.

Jiang Shouyi was turning the pages of a book, making a rustling sound.

Lin Guoce sat by the campfire, wiping his short blade, his eyes fixed on the darkness.

Everyone copes with fear in their own way.

Xie Linyuan opened his eyes and looked at the flickering campfire.

The firelight reflected in his eyes, but it couldn't penetrate them.

He knew very well that this was just the beginning.

Mandrill is just an appetizer.

The real treasure is still waiting in the mountains.

They were waiting for these clueless "outsiders" who had trespassed into the forbidden area.

Xie Linyuan's fingers unconsciously pressed against his chest.

There, where the Qilin tattoo was, it was burning hot, as if it were about to catch fire.

As if reminding him:

Your mission has begun.

The gatekeeper's mission.