Tomb Raider: Villain System, Start with Umbrella Corporation

The destination was on the other side of the river. More than a dozen small submarines carrying more than 30 people dived into the underground river. It was no different from the outside world, with numerous reefs and towering hills.

They took the conventional route, entered a dark cave at the bottom of the river that was like a man-eating mouth, and faced the turbulent undercurrent. At the other end was the Ghost Lake under the altar. Legend has it that this kind of lake will not dry up unless it eats people and livestock. Even a feather falling into the lake will sink to the bottom. In fact, the bottom of the lake is just full of undercurrents.

"Well, that flush toilet is like a ghost lake. Every day I stuff countless tributes into my body, filter them with my life, and then offer them to the sacred toilet altar."

"Hey, then you say that the Weak Water is also the sewer." Zhang Musi suddenly became curious. "In that case, wouldn't it be like drinking from only one of the three thousand Weak Waters?"

Zhang Musi laughed loudly, "There is so much water in the sewer, but I only drink one sip. Hahaha!"

"Isn't that so, dumb?"

"Don't bother me." Zhang Qiling felt sick when he thought of the underground river he had been to.

I was so annoyed that I wanted to push him into the sewer, so I pushed him away and said, "Here we are, up."

There is an unpredictable abyss below the tiankeng, and four wooden bridges are fixed on the cliff in mid-air, connecting the altar in the middle. The altar seems to be suspended in the air, and above it is a rusted bronze furnace with traces of fire. Opposite the suspension bridge stands an ancient building with extremely gorgeous carving style, which obviously does not belong to the Central Plains culture.

"There are reflective bronze mirrors placed on the cliffs on both sides. People from the Land of Ten Thousand Gold can activate the bronze mirrors by summoning the divine eagle. The reflected light is the path to open the mechanism."

The support troops kept following the positioning. The roar of helicopters was heard from above. Soon, several drones flew into the cave from above. 17 bronze mirrors were accurately activated, and the refracted light formed a strange totem.

"Dumb, look there," the blind man sneered and pointed to the place where the light spot landed.

The stone wall was covered with ancient carvings, and the illuminated area showed almost identical totems. Under the light, the stone carvings were clearly moved half an inch inward.

Zhang Qiling didn't say anything, but his expression was terribly cold. Zhang Musi was surprised. The concept of ancient sculptures was extremely vague, and he didn't even understand what this thing was.

"Human-faced owl." Wang Canghai said.

"The one about Queen Mother of the West and Yunding Palace?" Zhang Musi was shocked. If the ancient tomb here was related to Yunding Palace, the system would not have ignored it in the ancient tomb map.

"It's different." The mute explained, "Although it's the same thing, it belongs to a different cognitive system. In our understanding, it's a kind of grave-guarding beast, but here..."

Zhang Musi observed the carvings carefully and saw obvious differences. He analyzed several theories and found that the two versions, human face and bird body, and human head and bird body, were different.

For example, the spring god "Jumang" in the Shanhaijing, the sea gods of the four seas, Bifang, and the human-faced owl are all birds with human faces.

The only creature with a human head and a bird body recorded in the Shan Hai Jing is the Five-Colored Bird. It is said to have "a human face with hair" and a bird's body with a human head on top.

The two have been confused in historical traditions, so many carvings and paintings in tombs are of human heads.

But the one in front of me really cannot be defined, because judging from the carving, it is neither.

"This is called half-man, half-bird." The blind man chuckled.

"Do we have such a term?"

"Look at the proportions of the head and body, the carving technique, it's not ours."

The drone flew in front of the statue, and all the details appeared on the screen. The blind man pointed at the screen and continued to explain.

"In the tombs of the Hu people during the Sui and Tang dynasties, Zoroastrianism, also known as Fire Worship, was introduced. This style of half-human, half-bird began to appear. They were called the guardians of human souls by the god Daman. Earlier, there were the Sirens and Harpies in the Bible, the Egyptian Ba, and Lilith, the first woman created by God in the earliest version of the Septuagint. This style of half-human, half-bird image also appeared. They were either gods or demons."

"I think this might be the cause of some things."

Hei Xia Zi laughed mockingly, touched the carving on the tomb door, pressed it lightly, and the tomb door opened.

The entire tomb chamber is round in shape and has mottled stone walls around it. In the middle is a large coffin. After the dust is cleared away, it gleams with golden light under the light. The bottom of the sarcophagus is densely carved with wood and covered with gold foil, making it a seamless whole with a golden glow. There is a pair of divine eyes on each side, making it look cold and weird. On the coffin lid is the red blood moon pattern that the bearded man mentioned.

Zhang Qiling carefully scanned the tomb chamber, and his eyes finally fell on the sarcophagus. "This is not a tomb chamber."

"Ah? Such a big coffin with a dead body inside is not a tomb. You can't discriminate against people just because they live in a single room, mute!"

Wang Canghai leaned against the coffin and said coldly, "The divine robe is wrapped with gold thread, the deerskin hat is on the head, the face is covered with gold, the head is resting on cold jade and the feet are wearing leather boots. This is the dress of the shaman priest in the early Ming Dynasty."

"As for this place, it was built during the Shang and Zhou dynasties. Take a closer look at what this space would look like if this coffin was removed."

"What's the feeling? It's like there's one less coffin!" Zhang Musi rolled his eyes. He was just a money-payer, so he knew nothing!

"This is a temple for sacrifice." The blind man had his back to the crowd and had been observing the murals around him. He suddenly spoke with great certainty.

But the blind man didn't say anything else. He just stood in front of Zhang Qiling and looked at those clear eyes seriously.

"Mute, you really know everything."

Zhang Qiling's eyes flickered. In fact, when he first saw the ancient corpse's costume, he knew that this was the blind man's ancestor, who was dragged here and made into a magic weapon.

But looking at the blind man's back, I really couldn't say it.

"Mute~" The blind man hugged Zhang Qiling tightly, refusing to let go like a snake. "What should I do~ My ancestors were used to harm the mute, and I feel bad~"

Zhang Qiling wanted to say it was okay, but he felt that he was too frivolous and not worthy of the blind man's sadness, so he just reached out and hugged the strong waist.

"How can a blind person compensate a dumb person~"

"How about you have sex with the mute here to ease your guilt?"

"Yeah!"

The blind man was thinking that these words hit the nail on the head, only to realize that this was not the voice of a mute at all. He turned his head and saw that there was an extra head next to the two intimate heads.

Zhang Mu Si asked humbly, "Excuse me, what's wrong with you two? Does the ancient tomb give you a sense of security? Isn't this XP strange?"

"What do you care about me... Go away, don't delay us... Hey, don't leave, dumb man~ The blind man is so sad~"

"Bah, your ancestor is still lying there, and you only know how to cheat, how shameless!"

Zhang Musi decided to spit on him ruthlessly. He took out three incense sticks from his small backpack, stood respectfully in front of the coffin, and muttered something.

"Hello, ancestor of the Qi family. I am your relative Zhang Musi. On behalf of the entire Zhang family, I strongly condemn your Qi family's behavior of deceiving our mute and not paying a penny for the betrothal gift. Even the money of my mute is in the hands of the blind man. I have reason to suspect that this is a pig-killing scheme..."

"I'll fight~"

"Ow..."

The blind man kicked Zhang Musi away, snatched the three incense sticks, knelt on the ground and began to explain, "Ancestor, I don't have any, we are true love!"

Zhang Musi stubbornly clung to the coffin and shouted inside, "You Qi family won't give us a betrothal gift! We, the dumb ones, have lost both our lives and our money! You have absolutely no conscience!"

The two men, one at the head of the coffin and the other at the tail, were standing there in a stalemate, sulking.

Suddenly, Zhang Musi leaned over to the coffin and whispered, "He married into the family."

then…

"Blind man! Help! Your ancestor is resurrecting!"