The Informal Tomb Raiding Diary: She is the occupant of the tomb!-Chapter 145: It’s Safe in the Poop Pile

"I’m the temporary teammate of your friend’s teammate." I threw out a response as tangled as a tongue twister.

"Are you also sent by Shield?" The woman didn’t deny being Beauty Snake.

I tilted my head in thought, feeling the word Shield was familiar. "Shield? I don’t know them, but I’ve seen shamans."

"Hmph... Doesn’t matter, all fools here to meet their deaths." The woman snorted disdainfully.

"Prove it when you speak. Does coming here mean sure death? You’re still alive, and that lunatic who escaped, he’s alive... right." Whether that lunatic is still alive, I don’t know, but he was alive when he escaped the island.

"Who escaped?" Unexpectedly, the woman reacted strongly, her body tense, clearly surprised.

"My companions, exchange for information!" I noted her interest and seized the chance to inquire about Qinghan and the others.

"They’re fine, bitten by bats, paralyzed, but can recover in a few hours." Saying this, she glanced at the back of the goddess statue.

I walked over, seeing Qinghan and the other three sitting in a row leaning against the base of the goddess statue.

"Speak quickly, who went out!" Beauty Snake pressed.

"Seems like a guy called Pike." Professor Liu mentioned him briefly. I don’t know the full name, but that’s what he called him.

"No... impossible... indeed..." Beauty Snake’s face was tangled with indecision, shaking her head to herself.

"However, he was taken by a group of mysterious people, even his family couldn’t find him." I reached the back of the goddess statue, strangely finding the bats had messed up everywhere else in the hall except the four circles around it, which remained clean.

Thanks to this, Qinghan and the others didn’t end up sitting on a pile of bat droppings.

"Heh... hahaha..." Beauty Snake let out a strange laugh, crazy-like.

I checked Qinghan and the others’ pulses; indeed, they were alive and still strong.

"Pike died long ago, let’s put it like this, everyone from our team is dead, except me!" Beauty Snake explained the reason for her strange laughter before I could even ask.

"You seem so sure?" I asked half-heartedly.

"One by one, they all died before my eyes, only I... only I made it to the end, but—"

I walked back to her side, flipped her over so she could speak more easily.

"But there’s nothing here, an empty city... the treasure vault is empty, all empty."

Once she finished her monologue, I spoke: "Then why deceive me into coming in? Planning on a human meat BBQ?"

Since it’s an empty city, we gain nothing. Letting us mess around till we move from disappointment to despair, isn’t that easier?

"These bats don’t attack me, they’re my lifeline. Your people want to hunt them, I need to stop that."

I reckon her words mean Qinghan and the others were inspecting buildings within the city and got attacked by bats.

So the three of them showed their prowess, beating the bats soundly, and seeing her little pets suffer, Beauty Snake must have thought of a way to distract the trio’s attention, or she used Illusion Technique to disguise herself, approached them, and ambushed them.

This led to the three getting bitten and injured, falling into paralysis. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"How did you know they had companions?" I asked.

"I saw you enter the city, from the tower."

"So you’ve lived alone here for years without encountering others?"

"I’ve met them, treasure-hunting idiots." Her tone made it quite clear those people likely died.

First, White Jade City contains no treasure; second, the island is riddled with dangers.

Beauty Snake says she hid in a bat nest to survive till today, indicating the city isn’t safe.

I turned off the mini flashlight, her personal item, which she secretly pulled out and lit, tossing it at my feet, hoping the bats would attack me.

If it were a flashlight from her team years ago, it’d be out of battery by now; I recall Professor Liu has a spare mini flashlight in his backpack.

I searched Professor Liu’s bag, indeed finding the spare flashlight was gone.

The hall lights turned off, the bat swarm returned, retreating to the ceiling. It’s not yet time for them to wake and be active, so they came back for a nap.

As long as our team remains fine, I untied Beauty Snake, who instead grew curious about me, asking why the bats ignored me.

This I couldn’t explain, but in the past at the tomb, the fierce vampire bats avoided flying near me.

Perhaps there’s something about me that disrupts them, causing them to mistake me for a pillar.

Unless a bat intended to die by crashing into a pillar, they wouldn’t collide with me.

The world has many unexplained phenomena, Beauty Snake herself is a mystery, as are the bats that don’t attack her. Even under bright light, they don’t go towards her.

"You’ve truly not seen anyone else? I mean the island’s natives, etc." I asked persistently.

"Natives? Since entering the city, I haven’t returned to the jungle, so I can only assure you there’s no one else in the city."

"Did your team see any women or children in the jungle?"

"No. This hellhole is no place for humans, you must’ve experienced hallucinations."

"Did anyone go missing, I mean, the kind of sudden disappearance while walking, not attacked by animals or plants, just vanishing into thin air?"

"No." Beauty Snake answered straightforwardly, but pondered before adding, "The last batch of treasure seekers mentioned some of them got separated while escaping. After those died, about seven days later, a few suddenly reappeared outside the city."

"Suddenly reappeared?"

"That’s what they said; they were walking in the jungle one second, and the next, found themselves outside the city."

"What about those few?"

"Oh, God knows."

Beauty Snake wore a mechanical watch, glanced at the time, then said, "Night has fallen; if you don’t want to die, don’t leave this building."

After speaking, worried, she quickly added, "Remember, don’t make any sounds, coughs, sneezes, snores—none of these."

She specifically emphasized these three sounds, wonder if someone died for making them?

The three paralyzed by bat bites surely won’t make sounds, and I certainly won’t make those three sounds; I neither get sick nor need sleep.

Beauty Snake went to the rear hall to change clothes. Her initial visit meant she didn’t bring much clothing, so she likely scavenged her change from a dead treasure hunter.

Night at White Jade City isn’t as silent as the day, various sounds emerging.

Something wandering the streets, judging by footsteps, more than one creature.

They pour onto the streets from different corners of the city, fighting, screeching, or foraging.