The Informal Tomb Raiding Diary: She is the occupant of the tomb!-Chapter 130: Setting Up Camp

The attitude of the team leader and Professor Liu made me change my view of their team. Perhaps they weren’t Meng Qingyu’s subordinates but were temporary members following her lead due to some unavoidable reason.

At least they were anxious about losing teammates. Despite the leader suspecting the blood was poisonous, he still jumped into the blood pool to pull Cong Zhibo and the others out.

This is a team with feelings and a sense of righteousness, or at least not entirely devoid of conscience.

Meng Qingyu suggested leaving immediately when the blood pool spread to the Stone Forest’s boundary. She disagreed with the leader’s decision to go back and save people. Even though Cong Zhibo was still making sounds at the time, she believed those three were beyond saving and should be abandoned.

It was the leader’s defiance that made me change my view of them and confirmed the gap between Meng Qingyu and the team members.

Meng Qingyu had long considered Cong Zhibo a burden, only holding back her thoughts due to Professor Liu’s presence.

Her eyes and expressions were already very revealing, so when Cong Zhibo fell into the blood pool, she immediately suggested abandoning him.

There’s also the injured Junior Brother Sha. His role in the team was as a power carrier, specifically carrying the luggage cart, but he got injured as soon as they arrived.

Not only can he not carry luggage, but someone also has to protect him when danger arises.

Meng Qingyu is like the ’boss’ I often see in tombs. Anything burdensome must be discarded. This is relatively mild; some even use burdens as human shields or throw them as bait to clear the mines.

Everything happening now, I’ve seen countless times before, including the leader choosing to risk his life to save people.

After the three blood-soaked people were cleaned up, Cong Zhibo recovered the fastest. Previously, he had vomited violently, seemingly on the brink of death. After bathing in the river and eating some compressed nutrition pills, his mind cleared considerably.

After this ordeal, we could only set up camp by the river. Carrying the unconscious people slows down our progress, and if we encounter sudden incidents, we might fail to protect them.

With a command from the leader, those responsible for setting up tents did so, and those for boiling water and cooking all went about their respective tasks. They brought convenient food; a small piece thrown into water can cook a large pot of that miraculous food.

Zhou is the team’s doctor, though still unconscious. Hence, others don’t know how to help them and can only put them into tents and wait for them to wake up.

During this time, He Su woke once, and Bi Shi asked if she knew Meng Qingyu. She said she didn’t but knew of this island. Before going back to sleep, she told us to stop these people from getting the key.

Evidently, He Su knows something about this island. The key she mentioned might be the very reason Meng Qingyu’s group came here.

"Have you seen fresh bones in the Stone Forest?" With nothing to do, I casually chatted with Chen Qinghan by the fire.

"Are you referring to those foreigners?" Chen Qinghan quickly understood my implication.

"Yeah, they didn’t take this path, right? How come we haven’t seen them?"

"Maybe they took a detour, in which case they should be behind us."

Chen Qinghan was spot on. That very night, we encountered Big Beard’s team again.

Since the sky remained covered like with a dark cloth, we could only rely on the clock for our schedule. After dinner, it was already past seven in the evening, so everyone retired early to the tents to rest. They had been tense all day and needed to rest early to restore energy for tomorrow, not knowing what crisis they might face.

I volunteered to keep watch, as there wasn’t any space for us in the tents. The men squeezed together to free up a tent for Bi Shi and He Su. If I were to sleep, I’d have to share with Meng Qingyu.

I’d rather keep company with the night breeze than sleep near her. Chen Qinghan needed rest, and he was never polite with me, patting my shoulder and leaving a ’keep a good watch’ before heading off to sleep.

To my surprise, Professor Liu offered to stay on watch with me, though after a brief thought, it seemed natural; he likely had something to say to me privately.

The leader set up two campfires. Our task was not only vigilance but also ensuring the fires kept burning.

Professor Liu and I each tended a fire a few meters apart, and after a long silence, no one spoke.

Only after thunderous snores echoed from the tents, overpowering the surrounding bird and insect sounds, did Professor Liu begin to speak.

"What’s your relationship with Miss Wang?" Professor Liu asked softly.

His first question about our relationship with Bi Shi was unexpected from what I had imagined.

"We know her... We’re acquaintances, I guess." I answered as objectively as possible.

"And how about with Miss Su?" Professor Liu asked again.

Miss Su refers to He Su, which was a fabricated alias Bi Shi gave her—somewhat perfunctory, merely reversed, but nobody cared about such matters, just a codename.

"Also familiar old acquaintances." I truthfully replied.

"Meng Qingyu has grand ambitions. If you want to survive, it’s best not to provoke her."

Professor Liu’s words further caught me off guard. I thought he might recruit us into his alliance to deal with Meng Qingyu or at least have her expelled from the team.

Instead, he warned me not to oppose Meng Qingyu, sparking my curiosity, "What happens if we anger her?"

Professor Liu gazed over the flickering flames towards me, seemingly unable to see through me, slightly furrowing his brow, saying, "She has some skills."

"Can you elaborate?"

"She’s adept at using poison, hard to guard against."

Professor Liu’s answer was simple, but I felt rather disappointed, expecting to hear about some intriguing skill, only to find it was poisoning.

Yet to substantial beings like Professor Liu’s group, poisons are lethal, posing a threat no less than firearms.

I sensed what Professor Liu meant was Meng Qingyu could kill at any time, and the key point was she’d act; the method was secondary.

In other words, if angered, Meng Qingyu would unhesitatingly poison us.

"What’s so special about her identity, can you disclose it?" I decided not to continue the previous topic, as saying I’m not afraid of poison would require a lot of explanation, best left unsaid.

"She’s an agent from a secret agency of a certain country. We... No, except for me, Cong, and Xiao Guan, the others are death-row inmates."

Professor Liu didn’t continue, hinting enough for speculation, yet the unsaid content was easy to piece together.

A certain country’s secret agency assembled a team of death-row inmates through special means.

They were sent to the island to seek the ’key’, with Meng Qingyu as the sole ’official’ representative.

Possibly having life and death authority over others, which is why they follow her lead. Professor Liu undoubtedly has his own leverage held by the secret agency.

Thus, despite his reticence about the agency and Meng Qingyu, he’s forced to partake in this mission.

However, during the remaining time, he told me about the origins of his mysterious journal.