Tomb raider: You're going to extract my alien bloodline?

Chapter 10 The Key

Seeing the fat man and Wu Xie wrestling like mortal enemies, the fat man's eyes were bloodshot and he was incredibly strong. He was tightly gripping Wu Xie's neck, and Wu Xie's face was turning purple. His struggles were getting weaker and weaker. Qin Yuan was extremely anxious!

He had no suitable weapon at hand, and his entrenching tool was long gone. In desperation, his gaze swept across the area and landed on his coat, which was covered in dust from the dugout.

Without a second thought, Qin Yuan dashed to the jade platform on the left, not even glancing at the eyes of the fox corpse emitting an eerie blue light, and tore off his coat, covering the head of the blue-eyed fox corpse!

The moment the coat covered the fox corpse's head, the fat man, who was desperately choking Wu Xie, suddenly froze. The frenzied bloodlust in his eyes receded like a tide, replaced by blankness and confusion. He looked down at Wu Xie, who was pinned beneath him and almost suffocating, and was startled. He abruptly released his grip as if he had been burned.

"Cough cough cough... Hah... Hah..." Wu Xie's neck loosened, and he immediately started coughing violently, panting heavily. His eyes regained their clarity, and he looked at the fat man with a mixture of fear and confusion, as if he had survived a disaster.

"I...what the hell? Innocent little comrade? Are you...are you alright?" The fat man looked at the clear finger marks on Wuxie's neck, then at his own hands, his face a mixture of bewilderment and lingering fear. "What...what just happened? I think I saw you turn into a bastard wielding a knife and trying to stab me..."

"I...I even saw you trying to steal my things!" Wu Xie caught his breath, and angrily pushed away the fat man who was still on top of him, struggling to get up from the ground.

However, when the fat man tackled him, his arm seemed to have caught something in the chaos. As he stood up, there was a soft rustling sound, and the lifelike female corpse on the jade platform next to him was pulled up to sit up along with him, hooked by the arm!

The female corpse remained seated, her face still beautiful, but her eyes, which had been slightly closed, were now fully open! Empty and lifeless, they stared straight ahead, appearing incredibly terrifying in this eerie environment!

As the female corpse sat up, her mouth opened slightly. In her mouth was an ancient-looking key, and at the end of the key seemed to be a bead emitting a green glow.

"The Corrosion-Avoiding Bead..." Qin Yuan's eyes narrowed as he recognized the bead. It was this bead that had protected the female corpse from decay for a thousand years.

Wu Xie was so startled by this sudden turn of events that he almost sat back down, but seeing the key in the female corpse's mouth, he realized it might be the key to unlock some crucial mechanism or the coffin. Curiosity overcame his fear, and he instinctively reached out to take the key.

"Don't move!!!"

A sharp and stern shout, like a thunderclap, came from above the cave!

Everyone looked up and saw several figures appear on the cliff face on one side of the cave. The one leading them was Wu Sansheng. His face was solemn. He held a powerful flashlight in one hand and clung tightly to the protruding rocks on the cliff face with the other.

Beside him was his companion, Da Kui, and the two of them were working together to slowly lower the weakened Pan Zi down from above using ropes. Clearly, they had found another path leading to the cave.

"Young Master! Don't touch it!" Pan Zi's voice was filled with unprecedented tension. "These kinds of things usually have mechanisms attached; don't touch them carelessly!"

Wu Xie's outstretched hand froze in mid-air, cold sweat instantly pouring down his face. Upon closer inspection, he indeed discovered that at the end of the key, there seemed to be a thin golden thread, barely thicker than a hair, almost invisible in the dim light, extending deep into the woman's throat, presumably connected to some kind of poison needle or crossbow mechanism.

The fat man was also startled, patting his chest in relief: "My goodness! I almost turned into a hedgehog!"

At this moment, Wu Sansheng and Da Kui had helped Pan Zi land safely. The group carefully avoided the snake cypress vines that were eyeing them menacingly, and quickly walked to the vicinity of the jade platform.

"Third Uncle! Why did you take so long to arrive!" Seeing her family, Wu Xie felt a surge of grievance and lingering fear, and couldn't help but complain, "Pan Zi, he..."

"We ran into some trouble on the way. We'll talk about Panzi later." Wu Sansheng interrupted him, his gaze sweeping over the blue-eyed fox corpse whose head was covered by a coat, the female corpse sitting upright with her mouth open, and Fatty Wang and Qin Yuan standing to the side.

His gaze lingered on Qin Yuan for a moment, but quickly returned to the female corpse and the key, his brow furrowed. "Not to mention the key in the female corpse's mouth, that bead alone is a treasure. But this mechanism is extremely insidious; once the gold thread breaks, the crossbow bolt fires immediately. At such close range, there's no way to dodge it."

"Then... what should we do? We can't just watch ourselves miss out on the treasure, can we?" The fat man stared at the key and the anti-corrosion bead, his eyes filled with longing.

Wu Xie ignored the fat man. He stared at the key and gold thread in the female corpse's mouth, his mind racing as he recalled the descriptions of ancient tomb mechanisms he had gleaned from his grandfather's notes when he was a child. Some mechanisms couldn't be solved by brute force or dodging; one had to understand their principles. Either completely avoid the trigger point, or... do the opposite, creating an opening that the mechanism couldn't hit at the moment it activated!

He recalled a similar mechanism mentioned in his notes: a device with a gold thread in its mouth and a hidden crossbow in its belly. Its triggering mechanism was very sensitive, but not insurmountable.

"Third Uncle, do you have any small pliers or similar tools?" Wu Xie suddenly asked.

Wu Sansheng was taken aback. After a moment's hesitation, he took out a small, exquisite alloy pair of pliers from his pouch and handed it to him: "Be careful! If anything goes wrong, lie down immediately!"

Wu Xie took the pliers but didn't act immediately. Instead, he carefully examined the female corpse, paying particular attention to the angle of her open mouth and the direction the golden lines extended. He took a deep breath and said to Fatty and Qin Yuan, "Fatty, Qin Yuan, listen to my command. When I yell 'pull,' pull me back as fast as you can! No matter what happens, don't hesitate!"

Although Fatty and Qin Yuan didn't understand why, they both nodded when they saw Wu Xie's serious expression.

Wu Xie took another deep breath, held it, and carefully inserted the pliers into the woman's mouth, clamping down on the almost invisible gold thread. Instead of cutting it from the end near the key, he pushed the pliers in as deep as possible, clamping the thread close to the back of the woman's throat!

Then, his eyes flashed, and with all his strength and speed, he slammed the pincers shut!

"Crack!" A very slight breaking sound.

Almost at the same instant the golden thread snapped, Wu Xie roared with all the strength he had ever mustered: "Pull!!"

Fatty and Qin Yuan, who were already prepared, grabbed Wu Xie's shoulders on either side and pulled him backward!

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Several sharp, piercing sounds burst forth from the woman's slightly open mouth! They were several extremely thin, short crossbow bolts that shimmered with a cold, eerie blue light, shooting straight towards the spot where Wu Xie had just stood at a speed too fast for the naked eye to detect!

Because Wu Xie cut the gold thread near the throat, the crossbow bolts were fired more directly in front of the female corpse than diagonally upwards. In addition, the fat man and Qin Yuan reacted very quickly and pulled back. The poisoned crossbow bolts almost grazed Wu Xie's nose and stuck into the rock wall not far behind, penetrating deep into the stone, their tail feathers still trembling!

Do! Do! Do!

Everything happened in the blink of an eye!

It wasn't until the crossbow bolt embedded itself in the rock face that everyone reacted, breaking out in a cold sweat. Wu Sansheng looked at Wu Xie, who was slumped on the ground panting heavily, his eyes filled with shock and relief.

After the fat man and Qin Yuan released their grip, Wu Xie's first reaction wasn't fear, but rather to immediately look at the female corpse. There, no longer bound by the golden thread, the bronze key inlaid with the anti-corrosion bead gently fell onto the corpse's clothes.

Meanwhile, having lost the protection of the anti-corrosion bead's power, the once lifelike, plump female corpse rapidly shriveled, blackened, and withered before the naked eye! Her full cheeks sunken, and her smooth skin became wrinkled and dry like old tree bark. In just a few breaths, she transformed from a sleeping beauty into a hideous, dried-up corpse!

The faint, strange fragrance in the cave dissipated, replaced by a stronger, more pungent smell of decay.

Despite his discomfort, Wu Xie quickly reached out and picked up the key, clutching it tightly in his hand.