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 some skills. After spending some time, 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 mechanisms to truly unlock it.

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

"Oh, the point is, Brother Cong went in and never came 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 moment the lid was opened, I saw something—it was... a hand, but Brother Cong immediately 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 someone knowledgeable, and then come back to rescue.

They went up the mountain unarmed, empty-handed, and couldn’t pry open the stony door on the cave wall, so they had to come 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 time, 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 time 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 some 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 aimed 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 time 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 same time, 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 meters 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 became 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 mere 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 meet a tragic end in this corpse-filled cave myself.

Thus, his limp body regained some 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 time 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 seemed to forget something 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 home now, and informed of his safety, he might sleep for seven times 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 come from that cave.

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

But that’s not important; the miner is still waiting for me 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 mentioned, though what he said about the hand might be a clue.

The miner said the evil creatures were awakened, so does that mean 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 assessment," Xiao Changfeng immediately 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 me," 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 time, temporarily sending Xiao Changfeng and Gan Lu away so the two of us could first check the situation.