"Sister, be bold and keep moving forward!" Wen Jing's way of comforting people is quite unique, singing softly as he watches me leave.
But his way of comforting feels a bit ominous to me, like he's sending me to the afterlife or something.
I turned around and glared at him, hoping he'd just shut up, but his brainwave never matches mine. The harder I glared, the more enthusiastic he became in his singing.
"Keep moving forward ~ don't look back…"
Great, now he's even changing the lyrics himself!
I sped up my pace, not wanting to be bothered by his singing anymore. If he sang well, that'd be one thing, but the problem is he's off-key. If I didn't know the lyrics, I wouldn't even know what he was singing.
As I walked into the swarm of phosphorus fireflies, something felt off. Just now, because we were far away, we didn't take a close look at these fireflies.
But now that I'm in the middle of them, I can clearly see inside the flame clusters, where insects with wings are flapping and flying.
Because the insects are semi-transparent white, wrapped in the phosphorus fire, if you don't look closely, you wouldn't notice them.
No wonder they all flew down together, it wasn't because of air currents, but because the insects were flying with the phosphorus fire clusters.
Any creature that can survive in the burning toxic gas must not be a good thing.
They weren't interested in me, and after Chen Qinghan and the others retreated back to the tunnel, they fluttered back into mid-air.
I walked over to the fresh corpse. Despite having watched forensic drams on a tomb robber's phone, determining someone's cause of death can't be done after just a few episodes, so I quickly came to the conclusion: it's murder!
The murder weapon was stuck in his back, just that the body faced away from the direction of the tunnel exit, so we didn't see the situation behind him earlier.
I gripped the dagger's handle and pulled it out of the body. Whoever did this was really ruthless; only the handle was left outside.
It couldn't have been those creatures above that stabbed him, I've seen this too many times. He's most likely been betrayed by a companion.
There was no backpack next to him, someone took his gear. For tomb raiders, there are only three outcomes — killed by traps in the tomb, killed by companions, or kill others and be the last standing.
Having seen it often, there's nothing strange anymore, just that in this cave, there's no treasure or traps, and it hasn't even reached the point where they need to kill or take someone down.
Of course, a tomb robber could kill for many reasons, like being from different factions, and in the absence of others, eliminating one is a gain.
Not finding anything good, I got up and continued moving forward. Wen Jing's singing stopped, and my silhouette was swallowed by the darkness, leaving their sight.
Why is the ancient tomb connected to a natural cave? My curiosity was piqued, walking and looking around, layers of bones scattered among the rocky path underfoot, brittle and soft, clearly from a long time ago.
There were fresh footprints on the pile of bones, and I followed the footprints to avoid getting lost.
With countless clusters of phosphorus fireflies lighting the way above, the surroundings of the cave were clearly visible; I didn't need a light source, the light was more harm than good for me.
So, I just listened carefully for sounds around me. If I found anyone, I would hide immediately. Intuitively, Boss Lu that Chen Qinghan and the others mentioned, doesn't seem like a good person. If I run into them, I'd likely be beaten like a monster again.
Deeper inside the cave, there was a lake. The footprints ended here, beyond it was a seamless rock wall, no other route.
I walked to the lakeside and suddenly saw a backpack placed on a rock.
This time, I was cautious, crouching nearby to observe for a while. Confirming no one was around, only then did I go forward to rummage through it.
The backpack was full of ropes, not a single interesting item.
Disappointed, I punched the backpack, then suddenly, a splash rose from the lake's surface, followed by a head popping out. This person, wearing diving gear, saw me rifling through his backpack onshore and immediately made muffled noises.
At the same time, he raised one arm holding a spear gun aimed right at me.
This thing couldn't kill me, but I quite liked my current set of clothes, getting a hole would ruin it.
My earliest set of clothes was knifeproof, waterproof, and fireproof, unfaded after a thousand years. An old tomb robber told me it was priceless.
Hearing that, I quickly took it off, stored it in the corner of a coffin. If one day I make it out, I'd rely on it to live a billionaire lifestyle worth 80 billion.
Ever since then, my clothes have come from the tomb raiders, whatever they wore, I wore.
The particularly cool jungle exploration outfit I have now came from the 316th tomb raiding squad.
Being able to live a scavenging life in an ancient tomb, I'm already quite content; of course, if I could scavenge beyond the tomb, that would be even better.
I know the outside is a society governed by law, wouldn't allow me to rummage others' bags, a trash bag would suffice without a backpack, I'm not picky.
While my mind wandered, the person in the water had already come ashore, and I surrendered without running.
"Who are you?" Once ashore, the person removed his breathing gear. Those phosphorus fireflies stayed far from the lake, seeming to deliberately avoid it.
For once, someone asked who I was instead of taking out a Black Donkey Hoof or Black Dog Blood upon seeing me. I felt a bit giddy, crouched down and used my finger to dip some water from a crevice, writing on the rock: Survivor.
"You're a survivor from a previous tomb party?"
I nodded emphatically, using the identity Chen Qinghan thought up for me to respond directly.
"Hmph... someone from the Leng Family..." The man aimed the spear gun up and down at my clothes, conveniently deciding my surname for me.
"What's your name?" He immediately asked.
I promptly wrote: Leng Xiaofu.
"Never heard of it, must be a small fry."
I nodded repeatedly, grateful he helped complete my identity information.
However, mentioning the surname Leng, indeed a few people in the 316th tomb raiding squad had this surname. Only one reached the main tomb chamber, named Leng Tianxing, a man in his forties.
After he died, I rummaged through his bag and found a notebook, somewhat like a work log, recording his previous tomb experiences.
He likely only recorded it in detail after coming back out, so his record only mentioned the last tomb raid.
"Leng Tianxing?" The man indeed said that name.
I also truthfully wrote: He's dead.
"Your Leng Family is finished, even if you get out, you won't have a place. Better to join us, the Qin Family."
I started to doubt. Wasn't this team supposed to belong to Boss Lu? Why is the Qin Family suddenly involved?
Yet it's common for a team to have spies from opposing factions. The fact that he's alone diving here is suspicious in itself, maybe the stabbed person was actually killed by him.