King of Tomb Raiders

Chapter 54

Unfortunately, the man's press missed its mark, and he crashed heavily into the side of the stone platform, falling straight to the ground.

Tina exclaimed "Ah!" and her expression hardened. She couldn't help but stand up and shout, "Zoom in! Look at that stone platform!"

She spoke into the walkie-talkie, and the worker operating the camera inside the tomb immediately zoomed in.

The stone platform's structure consists of two lower levels, each about half a meter wider than the top level, resembling a giant three-tiered staircase. The platform's surface is also carved with hieroglyphs and murals, though these are not adorned with blood-red runes.

"Robert, sending more men down seems a bit strange!"

The second group of people quickly entered the pool. The first soldier who approached the stone platform was lying face down, his body stretched out straight, and he had already fainted.

After reuniting, the nine people moved forward cautiously, no longer daring to make any rash moves.

"The one who fell was the group leader, the most skilled one," Tie Na explained with a sigh. Just now, the person's hand had clearly touched the stone platform, so how could he suddenly lose his grip?

I strolled over to the monitor that was overseeing the entire area. The screen moved smoothly, taking in all the details of the tomb chambers.

Tani and James, who were driven aside, did not show great anger. On the contrary, their eyes were surprisingly consistent, both carrying a kind of gloating mockery, as if the soldiers who fell to the bottom of the pool would become bait with no return.

"General Tina, can you tell me what will happen next?"

Faced with an almost foreseeable crisis, what would become of those nine soldiers? I understood that in front of a general like Tina, who was second only to the emperor, the lives of ninety, nine hundred, or even nine thousand people were nothing more than a handful of ants.

As the old saying goes, "One general's fame is built on the bones of ten thousand soldiers." Behind every great general who has achieved lasting fame are mountains of soldiers' corpses.

"I don't know." Tina's face gradually turned ashen.

In the scene, Gu Ye and James are about a dozen steps apart from the edge of the pool, craning their necks and straining to look at the bottom of the pool.

It was precisely because they understood the immense danger that they willingly retreated, giving up the observation positions closest to the pool to the unsuspecting soldiers and workers.

Nine soldiers formed a battle formation and moved forward step by step until they reached the stone platform.

Robert's loud command came through the walkie-talkie: "Build a human ladder up onto the stage and bring up the gem."

These movements, which they usually performed with ease, became clumsy and slow when executed by the nine people, as if each of them was trembling with fear.

“Zoom in and look at the top of that stone platform.” What Tina said is exactly what I wanted to say.

As the camera zoomed in, I became even more certain that the mummy was lying in the same jade coffin where Fujika had been found. However, the mummy's body was enormous, almost twice the size of Fujika's, which explained why it couldn't fit completely into the recessed area.

The platform's surface was devoid of any text or patterns, merely a strange grayish-white. I couldn't find the transparent jade plate that covered the groove, nor could I explain how the mummy had suddenly appeared.

The mummy's body was tightly wrapped in a coarse, grayish-brown cloth, resembling a strangely shaped rice dumpling wrapped by a skilled hand. It was over 180 centimeters long, indicating it must have been an extremely tall man in life.

Tina suddenly muttered to herself, "Such a huge mummy, I don't think... I don't think I've ever seen one before."

As an Egyptian, she must have seen countless mummies since childhood and could be considered quite knowledgeable.

At the same time, I also discovered a strange point of contention: the shrouds that wrapped the mummies looked very new, with no signs of decay or rotting.

This is the most incredible thing. Ask any pyramid tomb raider or mummy research expert, and they will tell you: "After thousands of years of insect infestation, weathering, and bacterial erosion, the mummy's shroud will, without exception, decay and age, becoming extremely fragile, both in color and texture."

No matter how advanced the Egyptians' preservation techniques were, how could they withstand the slow erosion and decay of thousands of years on Earth?

Therefore, it is impossible for a "very new shroud" to appear under any circumstances.

Similarly, Tina's discovery is also important—according to reliable historical research, ancient Egyptians were generally shorter than modern Africans, with adult men averaging around 165 centimeters in height, and due to disease and malnutrition, they were not overly obese. After their internal organs were removed and they were mummified, each mummy would not have exceeded 160 centimeters in length.

Now it seems there are too many suspicious points about this mummy. The most fundamental question is, if the surface of the stone platform is indeed the jade coffin I once saw used to imprison Tengjia, then where did this mummy come from?

Ultimately, aside from theories like "aliens, four-dimensional space, wormholes, and time travel," I can't think of any other scientific theory that can explain this.

Nine soldiers formed a four-layered human wall on the side of the stone platform where the "Eye of the Moon" was placed. The person on top gripped the edge of the stone platform with his hands, took a deep breath, and landed on the platform.

Tina breathed a sigh of relief, and her complexion improved slightly.

The man, trembling, reached for the gem, a very short tactical dagger in his hand. Logically, the gem should be embedded in the stone, with at least half of its volume submerged. The white light emanating from the gem was so intense that when the camera focused on the soldier's face, a large, bright blank space appeared on the screen, obscuring everything.

"I...I can't dig anymore..." The soldier, who also had a communicator on his collar, reported to Robert in a trembling voice.

"Put in some effort, get the gem, and I'll award you a Special Merit Citation!" Robert's tone was cold and devoid of any emotion.

Encouraged, the soldier knelt on the stone platform, gripped the knife handle tightly, and focused intently on prying open the gem. Robert's walkie-talkie was of excellent quality, so Tina and I both heard the "crunching" sound as the knife tip touched the crack in the stone.

This situation somehow reminded me of the first time that huge gold ingot was discovered in the tomb; it also had an extraordinary brightness that couldn't possibly be the natural light emitted by a gemstone.

"Wait a minute—" I gestured to Tina.

"Wait a minute—" Tina's words were immediately relayed, and the soldier kneeling high on the stone platform stopped what he was doing. She turned to me, her face full of confusion.

"General, do you remember those dismantled gold ingots? Once they were touched by external force, the natural light they emitted immediately disappeared. I wonder if this gemstone will also have the same problem, so it's necessary to connect the lighting circuit first before taking any action, isn't that right?"

Imagine if such a spacious tomb suddenly became pitch black—wouldn't that obviously cause huge chaos? Putting aside the lives of the people, once the gems disappeared, all their efforts would be in vain.

Tina nodded, but her immediate order was: "Everyone turn on the tactical flashlights on your guns in case the gem's light goes out." This was simpler than painstakingly setting up lighting circuits; after all, there were more than twenty flashlights, and the light they emitted when turned on together was enough.

Military orders are absolute. All the soldiers immediately turned on their flashlights, including Robert, who also turned on his flashlight as if facing a formidable enemy, and held his submachine gun tightly to his chest with both hands.

At such a crucial moment, I wish Suren were present, but she hasn't shown up since she left, and I don't know what she's been up to. Not only her, but Scalpel and Natura are also nowhere to be seen, as if the command of Operation Pyramid has been completely handed over to Tina, letting her do whatever she wants.

This situation is not normal, because neither the scalpel nor the high priest are people who willingly choose solitude.

"Mr. Feng, focus on the picture—" Tina reminded me with displeasure, perhaps already realizing that I was looking around and distracted.

I turned my gaze away and stared at the near-blindness in the scene.

"Creak, creak... Crack, crack..." The sound changed, as if it were the sound of some kind of beam breaking, echoing terrifyingly in the cemetery.

"What's going on? Robert, what's going on?" Tina shouted urgently.

All four cameras focused on the center of the stone platform, but the last camera's lens pointed at the dying soldier lying at the bottom of the pool, then rapidly zoomed in. I could see clearly that a soft black ribbon suddenly wrapped around his shoulder, then coiled several times, binding his neck and arms…

"What is that? What is that...?" Tina gasped, took two steps forward, and almost pressed her eyes against the screen.

I heard a hissing sound in my ears, but this time it wasn't a nightmare about venomous snakes; it was a real, audible sound coming from the walkie-talkie receiver. Tina froze, her right hand gripping the walkie-talkie so tightly it cracked. I seriously doubted she could accidentally crush it.

The ground on the screen suddenly began to move; the murals carved with text and painted with red runes crumbled into countless fragments like a collapsed block house, plummeting into the bottomless abyss. Of course, the soldier fell with them—

In an instant, the hissing and roaring of thousands of venomous snakes erupted. The soldiers monitoring the workbench leaped backward, knocking over five chairs with a loud crash. But now no one paid attention to the chairs; everyone's eyes were fixed on the footage transmitted from the fifth camera.

Snakes, many snakes, a great many snakes, rolling, crowding, intertwining, surging—more than fifty triangular black snake heads squeezed into the scene at the same time. When these snake heads opened their mouths at the same time, their blood-red tongues, white fangs, and pink palates immediately formed a nauseating and terrifying scene.

One soldier couldn't hold back any longer, covered his mouth, and ran out of the tent, vomiting profusely.

The remaining people were all deathly pale and trembling.

“Snakes…snakes…General…we’ve found a lot of snakes…” Robert could no longer speak a complete sentence.

Suddenly, screams rang out again, because all the pool bottom spaces surrounding the stone wall had collapsed. Of the eight people who had previously built the human ladder, six had fallen with the ground, and the other two had clung to the second level of the stone platform and were struggling to climb to the top.

Those trapped in the snake trap were constantly struggling and howling, their cries mingled with the intermittent gunfire of submachine guns. However, in this bizarre situation, even the most skilled snake catchers and herders would have no chance of escape. Those standing by the pool were stunned, including all the workers operating the cameras, who simply stared blankly as their fellow human beings struggled painfully in the snake trap.

A full three minutes later, Robert finally yelled in a daze, "Shoot! Throw the cable! Save them..."

No one made a move, and no one fired a shot, because seven fresh, white human bones had surfaced from the snake formation.

"Ugh... ugh..." Two more people rushed out and joined the vomiting.

"Where did these snakes come from?" Tina asked me with a wry smile, turning to me.

All five cameras were pointed at the snakes at the bottom of the pool, so the five monitor screens showed snake heads of all sizes, black snake bodies rolling around, and blood-red tongues constantly flicking in and out of their mouths. The walkie-talkies were constantly transmitting terrifying hissing sounds.

Tina turned off the walkie-talkie in disgust, and the two of us stared silently at the bizarre images on the monitor.

Part 5: The Cave of Ten Thousand Snakes

— Chapter 6 — The Prophecy of the Dragon Has Come True —

"You don't know? How could you not know?" I couldn't help but express my anger. If she knew this place was called the "Cave of Ten Thousand Snakes," how could she not know where the snakes came from?

"I really don't know anything. Everything was discussed between Tanino and the High Priest. I only knew from hearsay that there would be swarms of snakes, but I never imagined it would be this terrifying—"

The word "horrifying" is insufficient to describe the situation at the bottom of the pool. It was a deep pool teeming with enormous venomous snakes, and I believe the snake array was at least five meters thick. After another churning and rolling, the skeletons disappeared, and the bottom of the pool was a dark mass filled with extremely hungry and excited venomous snakes.

Finally, the remaining two soldiers also escaped, leaving only Tina and me in the tent.

"Mr. Feng, believe me, I had no idea this would happen—"

I grabbed the walkie-talkie and shouted, "Turn the camera to the stone platform, quick!" The dead soldiers were no longer worth worrying about; rescuing the three people on the platform was the most important thing. If there was still time, I wished I could run down the well right now and participate in the rescue operation myself.

Long ago, Scalpel once said to me earnestly: "To accomplish great things, one must first have a broad mind and great courage, and only then can one have great ambitions and lofty aspirations. And then what? A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Only by following the route you have set for yourself will you have a chance to succeed."

He once succinctly summarized these words into the four characters "胸怀天下" (embracing the world), and wrote them down in a powerful Han Dynasty clerical script, which has always hung above my bed in my university dormitory.

In my opinion, only by cherishing the lives of all fellow human beings can we truly appreciate the preciousness of life.

With two more people added to the stone platform, it already felt a bit crowded.

"Help me...help me—" Two soldiers who came up later desperately reached out to the people by the pool across the snake array, pleading for help. One of them had half of his face black and swollen, obviously bitten by a venomous snake.

The people who entered the tomb this time did not carry any rescue equipment. Tina loudly ordered the people outside the tent to immediately bring an extended folding ladder and antidote serum injections down into the well to carry out an emergency rescue operation.

The snake venom was extremely potent. I watched helplessly as a black mist gradually enveloped the soldier's forehead, turning his entire face pitch black, making him look even more eerie than the most authentic African. He could still speak, but his tongue was no longer under his control. He only managed to twitch his arms a few times before suddenly falling to the side and silently plunging into the swarm of snakes.

His companion froze, looking down at the back of his hand. The soldier had also been bitten; his entire left hand was black, and within seconds, black smoke had appeared on his left cheek.

He stopped calling for help, smiled bitterly in despair, slowly raised his gun, and bit the muzzle of the submachine gun.

No one spoke up to stop him. When a series of crisp gunshots rang out, a bright line of blood spurted from the back of his head, and then his body rolled over and fell into the swarm of snakes.

I no longer had the strength to express my anger. Faced with the surging snake formation, I had the will to save people, but no power to reverse the situation.

The remaining soldier was terrified. He gripped his dagger tightly with both hands and remained kneeling, but his body was trembling so badly that he could no longer hold on and fell forward, landing on the gemstone.

In an instant, the light in the tomb dimmed, but the hissing of the venomous snakes remained terrifying, especially the "scratching" sound made when the snakes rubbed against each other, like the dullest knife scraping against the sharpest fish scales, torturing one's auditory nerves to the maximum extent.

The snakes were still six meters away from the top of the stone platform. Facing the steep, vertical rock face, they did not yet have the ability to climb up, so the remaining soldier was safe for the time being.

"Go save him!" I slumped down, burying my face in my hands. The stark reality made me realize once again that the thrilling tomb raiding movies I'd seen before weren't all just made up by directors; there was always some basis in reality. For example, this vast snake formation before me was something even the best set designers and prop masters couldn't have created.

“I have already…sent people down…ah? Wind, wind, wind…you…look…” Tina suddenly became incoherent, gasping for breath as if someone was choking her, unable to breathe or speak.

I looked up and saw that she was tightly hugging one of the monitors with both hands, her face pressed against it, her eyes wide open.

"What happened?" My gaze fell on the monitor next to me, and I was immediately overwhelmed with extreme horror. I couldn't help but take several steps back and kick the chair that had fallen to the ground away.

On the screen, the gem's brilliance returned to its intense, dazzling state, and the path of light that had been blocked by the soldier was fully restored. Thus, the soldier now appeared completely transparent, his body offering no respite from the light. Even more bizarrely, his body was beginning to decay—or rather, to be "splittered" by the light, and then slowly "weathered" into dust.

“Weathering… God! So the mysterious ‘weathering’ comes from the ‘Eye of the Moon Goddess’?” I muttered to myself, my voice exaggeratedly distorted, sounding like a wail of extreme pain.

Tina was unable to speak until the soldier's body completely decomposed, like a dried cicada shell, lying face down on the stone platform in a terrifying yet ridiculous way.

Everyone who witnessed this scene lost the ability to speak, as if they had been imprisoned by a magician.

Tina released her hand, her lips trembling, her pale face contorted with muscles.

The legendary "Eye of the Moon Goddess" appeared, but along with it came not only a surging and terrifying array of snakes, but also a devastating "weathering" force, which must have driven her to a frenzy of rage.