Tomb Raider: What the hell is this strange commission?

Even now, Chi Yu's tone of voice has always been calm and indifferent.

His light-colored eyes glanced at Jie Yuchen, confirming his speculation. Then he and Jie Yuchen stood at the entrance of the cave, quietly watching the scene inside.

The terrain here is higher than anywhere else, or rather, because of this, the entire space appears to be sinking. They are now standing at the highest point of this underground cave, overlooking the contents inside.

The long-lasting darkness was broken by the arrival of the two people. When the light of the flashlight touched the ground, reflective cracks appeared in the shallow pit that Xie Yuchen had noticed before.

The light from the cracks was not dazzling, but it could not be ignored by Xie Yuchen's keen vision. He quickly captured this change and shifted the focus of his observation to it.

Unlike the ordinary chaotic cracks, the marks that appeared in the shallow pits seemed to have signs of human intervention.

When they reflected light together, Xie Yuchen seemed to see a dim but still brilliant sun rising slowly from the ground.

Xie Yuchen stared at it for a while and said, "According to the description on the mural, this should be the place where those people held sacrifices, and this shallow pit with the mark of the sun is where the Fountain of Youth once existed."

He pointed at the things placed around the shallow pit and said to Chi Yu, "Look, in addition to the sun mark in this pit, there are also sacrificial props left here by the Sun Civilization."

Chi Yu's wandering gaze stopped for a moment. He looked at the sacrificial props that were neatly arranged according to a special pattern, narrowed his eyes, and chose not to remain silent.

"No," he said.

If those sacrificial vessels were kept at that time, they would have been very valuable. Judging from the fact that they are still neatly arranged, there was no chaos here at the time, which means that those people did not choose to leave here in a panic.

But if this migration was still planned, they should at least choose to take these things with them instead of leaving them in a place where they have lost their usefulness.

and so……

"So these things were placed here by someone later?" Xie Yuchen asked again.

"Correct."

——This is the advantage of having an employer who can always keep up with your thinking. Even if his ideas are subtly shifted, as long as Chi Yu gives a little reminder, Xie Yuchen can quickly find the right idea.

Chi Yu thought about it, nodded at Xie Yuchen, and looked away.

He walked over to the lamp post at the entrance of the cave, pulled out his lighter and lit it.

The warm-toned lights instantly dyed the cold light of the flashlight a light orange-yellow, making the sun underground look a little brighter.

Xie Yuchen looked around.

There was an obvious gap between the entrance where the two were now and the area below. The steps seemed to have disappeared. Xie Yuchen estimated that they were about three stories above the ground.

This is not a height that an ordinary person can descend without any tools, but it is not difficult for either Chi Yu or Xie Yuchen.

——Of course, if it were a little deeper here, it would be a different story.

Xie Yuchen thought that although sometimes he was the cautious "Boss Xie", sometimes he was more willing to indulge his nature.

For example, now, Xie Yuchen guessed that when Chi Yu went down, he would definitely not use things like safety ropes to ensure his safety, and Xie Yuchen did not want to lose to Chi Yu in what he could do.

But Xie Yuchen's inexplicable desire to win was destined to be unsatisfied, because this silent competition could not be carried out from the beginning -

Chi Yu, who failed to receive Xie Yuchen's brilliant idea, put the lighter back into his pocket. He stared at the burning candle for a while, reached out to hold the lamp post and gently turned it.

The sound of the moving stone slabs was very obvious in this empty cave, so Xie Yuchen looked at Chi Yu, seemingly hesitant to speak.

Chi Yu:?

Why was this person suddenly looking at him like that?

Chi Yu and Jie Yuchen looked at each other, unable to understand the meaning in each other's eyes, so they simply stopped thinking about it and simply skipped this part.

The sound of the stone slabs moving soon stopped, and the hidden steps appeared before their eyes. Chi Yu walked down the stairs, and the candles along the way were lit one by one by Xie Yuchen.

"I originally thought that you would just use Qinggong to jump down." Xie Yuchen said behind Chi Yu.

Chi Yu didn't look back, but he still responded: "We will have to go back the same way later. Although it's a bit slower, it's more convenient to take the stairs than jumping up and down."

"And at this height, even if you can come down directly, when you need to go up, you will find that it will take much longer than you imagined."

Chi Yu asked Xie Yuchen, "When the time comes, do you like to be carried up by me, or do you plan to climb up by yourself? Let me make it clear first, if you choose to climb up by yourself, I won't wait for you."

Xie Yuchen was silent for a moment: "Although I can't easily go up and down a height of 30 meters, I can go up 10 meters very quickly. Don't describe me as a child who likes to show off."

But as soon as Xie Yuchen said this, the feeling he got became even more similar.

Chi Yu smiled at this, but in order to save some face for his client, he chose to say nothing.

They stopped at the dried up Fountain of Youth.

Out of caution, Xie Yuchen did not step into the shallow pit, nor did he touch the sacrificial props placed around the dried-up pool. He just moved slowly, looking down and observing these existences.

And Chi Yu is obviously bolder than him because of his own uniqueness.

When Xie Yuchen collected some basic information and was about to have some basic communication with him about clues, he looked up and found that the man had jumped into the shallow pit and walked to the center area where the sun mark existed.

Xie Yuchen took a deep breath.

"——Chi Yu?"

Xie Yuchen was calling him from behind, probably wanting to ask him why he agreed to act together, but he moved away from his activity area without saying a word.

But there is no need to worry about these little things for now, because he did find something interesting, Chi Yu thought as he looked at the things in the cracks.

——This was the first time he had seen a corpse made entirely of jade.

The entire body was stuck in the crack of the pool. As it had completely turned into jade, it looked crystal clear and even the blood vessels were clearly visible.

The light of the mark is therefore well diffused through it and looks more radiant.

But the body itself was twisted.

It fell to the ground, maintaining a posture of reaching its hand towards the center of the shallow pit, its face full of unwillingness, but it was powerless to do anything about what was about to happen, and finally solidified into its current appearance.

Beauty and ugliness descended upon this corpse at the same time.

Chi Yu looked at it silently, thought for a while, and then took an object off its body.

It was at this time that Xie Yuchen came to his side.

Xie Yuchen first went to check on Chi Yu's condition, then followed his line of sight and saw the completely jade-like corpse, and frowned.

"Jade Corpse... Feathered Immortal, why is there this thing again?"

"After all, they are all schools that pursue immortality. It's not surprising for me to see them here," said Chi Yu.

So Xie Yuchen's gaze returned to Chi Yu.

Just when he was about to discuss something with Chi Yu regarding the corpse, he noticed that Chi Yu's hand holding the object flashed a stream of light from the wrist, the same as that on the corpse.

It was a completely different light from the one produced by the dark white scales that Jie Yuchen had seen in the desert outside Lop Nur before.

Xie Yuchen's gaze froze as a result, and he subconsciously moved closer to Chi Yu and grabbed his arm.

The close distance allowed Xie Yuchen to see it more clearly: starting from deep inside Chi Yu's leather-covered gloves, this jade-like surface grew all the way to his wrist, and now, it ambitiously wanted to continue spreading upwards.

Xie Yuchen raised his eyes and looked at Chi Yu again.

No one spoke for a moment, but they all knew what the other party had not said.

——He is turning into jade.