The Informal Tomb Raiding Diary: She is the occupant of the tomb! Chapter 246 - 247: The Eyewitness’s Account

But the leader didn’t silence him; he did have so skills. After spending so ti, he managed to open that secret lock with a small round lock hole.

He said the lock looked simple from the outside, but inside it was very complex, requiring a thin iron wire as thin as a toothpick to navigate through multiple chanisms to truly unlock it.

"Get to the point, you’ll have plenty of ti to write your autobiography in prison later." I interrupted him impatiently.

"Oh, the point is, Brother Cong went in and never ca out," Li Chengming quickly nodded and corrected his off-topic remark.

The leader didn’t let them follow and went into the cave alone, but he never returned.

"Did you see what was inside the box?" Qinghan asked.

"The mont the lid was opened, I saw sothing—it was... a hand, but Brother Cong imdiately snatched the box, so I didn’t see it clearly."

"Just a hand?" I asked.

"Yes, the box wasn’t big, it couldn’t hold much."

The leader disappeared; logically, his team should have gone in to search for him, but the entrance suddenly closed, and without knowing the opening command, they decided to go down the mountain, find soone knowledgeable, and then co back to rescue.

They went up the mountain unard, empty-handed, and couldn’t pry open the stony door on the cave wall, so they had to co up with a long-term plan.

They also considered calling the leader, but the signal in the mountain was poor, and there was no reception in the cave.

But they never imagined that just that night, while camping and resting, a swarm of monsters attacked the camp.

Li Chengming said that at that ti, the others were asleep. He pretended to go to the bathroom and hid in the woods without returning to the camp.

Even without the leader, he feared they’d silence him; it was fine during the day, but at night, once he fell asleep, it was the best ti for them to act.

It was impossible to travel in the dark, so he hid in the bushes for the rest of the night, watching as the monsters used a small tower to make the people in the tents sluggish and powerless.

They just absorbed so energy; the people didn’t die but lost their ability to resist and were dragged out and carried away from the tents.

One person, who was a light sleeper, tried to escape, but the monster used the small tower again, removed the tower’s tip, and aid it at the person’s back.

Li Chengming saw the whole process; as the person passed by him, he witnessed the young man age with every forward step. By the ti he passed by his hiding bush, he had turned from a young fellow into an elderly man.

The person fell not far from him, and seeing the man now aged and frail, the monster put away the tower.

At the sa ti, the monster found him, hiding in the bushes, shock evident, and dragged him away.

When he spoke about the monster finding him, his tone was slightly unnatural.

The reason wasn’t hard to guess. The sight of the small tower nearly made him jump, indicating his poor control over fear—the sight of the bizarre rock miner and his rapidly aging companion probably made him wet his pants. Also, hiding in the bushes, if he shook, the bushes would move, making it easy to discover him.

However, the only ’prey’ with its mobility still retained, the rock miner didn’t use the Crystal Tower to absorb his energy.

I guessed the rock miner felt it unnecessary; by then he was likely paralyzed with fear, legs too weak to run, courage too faint to resist.

He said there were dozens of birds on the river, their bodies as large as cows, wings spanning more than four ters wide. The most terrifying part was they had no heads, no feathers on their bodies, with wings like bats.

Li Chengming was so terrified he beca dumbfounded, thinking he was dreaming until he was taken into that hillside entrance.

His experience taught us that fear has no limit, only deeper fear.

After entering the cave, he saw many terrifying corpses. As a re thief, he had never seen even naturally deceased corpses before, and suddenly seeing so many with ghastly expressions and horrifying appearances sent half his wits flying.

It was only then that I realized I might et a tragic end in this corpse-filled cave myself.

Thus, his limp body regained so strength; the survival instinct led him to smack himself awake. With considerable effort, he cleared his head and figured out a way to escape.

The miners didn’t pay much attention to him; they carried people into the cave and left them in a stone chamber with a pool before leaving.

Li Chengming saw the chamber door open and seized the opportunity to escape the chamber, trying to run outside.

But he couldn’t open the stone door, so he had to find a place to hide, planning to follow out the next ti the monsters left.

He ended up waiting for several days, surviving off the water dripping from the rock crevices. Had he not found an opportunity soon, he would’ve starved to death.

Fortunately, that night, when the monsters went out, he managed to escape. However, they seed to forget sothing and returned to retrieve it. He wanted to distance himself from the monsters, so he ran full speed, fueled by a strong survival instinct, igniting his inner strength and reaching us before night fell completely.

This kind of situation I’d seen before; it was sheer human potential sustaining him. If he were sent ho now, and inford of his safety, he might sleep for seven tis seven days.

Even if he slept just one night, the next day he’d probably enter a state of full-body paralysis, unable to lift a finger.

The corpse oil on his and the miners’ feet must have co from that cave.

Li Chengming spoke quickly, omitting so details, such as exactly how terrifying those corpses were.

But that’s not important; the miner is still waiting for by the river. I just wanted to learn about the cave’s situation.

But it seems Li Chengming had never seen the evil creatures the miner ntioned, though what he said about the hand might be a clue.

The miner said the evil creatures were awakened, so does that an the leader’s purpose for bringing people into the mountain was to awaken that creature?

"You guys take him down the mountain and hand him over to the police," Qinghan said to Xiao Changfeng and Gan Lu.

"What about you guys?" Xiao Changfeng asked nervously.

"We’re going to scout the way," Qinghan said casually.

"No, it’s too dangerous for you two to go alone. We still don’t know why there are so many corpses in the cave, or the cause of death. There might be toxic substances leaked; this person needs a physical and psychological assessnt," Xiao Changfeng imdiately objected.

"We’re just going to roam around outside the cave," Qinghan put on a sincere face.

"What was that sound by the river earlier?" Gan Lu asked.

"It was an animal scared away by ," I shrugged, making up a lie in line with Qinghan’s intentions.

He didn’t want Xiao Changfeng and Gan Lu to see the rock miner because they could discover that I could communicate with the miners. Once in the cave, they would realize I might also know that evil creature.

Qinghan was buying us ti, temporarily sending Xiao Changfeng and Gan Lu away so the two of us could first check the situation.