The Informal Tomb Raiding Diary: She is the occupant of the tomb!-Chapter 427 - 322: The Way Back

Where does this storm come from in the desert? The Black Water People shriveled in the rain. I grabbed Qinghan and told him to get inside quickly, in case this rain hides some mystery, a trick, a hidden threat.

Qinghan seemed indifferent to the rain. He asked me where I learned those idioms. I told him I love playing the idiom solitaire game, and there are idiom guessing mini-games on my phone.

The rain washed away the dust of the city. Qinghan and I hid in a corner of the rooftop. There was a stone shed there, seemingly for storing miscellaneous items, though everything else had long decayed, leaving only two empty stone jars behind.

The Black Water People looked like several black plastic bags, spread out on the rooftop. They dissolved after being soaked by the rain for a while, eventually flowing into the drain with the rainwater.

"Hey, this building has such a design, which means there was quite a bit of rainfall here originally." I pointed out the drain in the corner of the rooftop to Qinghan.

If the annual average rainfall was only 100 millimeters, four drains wouldn’t be necessary.

"I hope other places also have drainage systems," Qinghan said.

"It’s not too bad here." I leaned out to look at the street below; the road wasn’t flooded.

I somewhat understood Qinghan’s concern. Those ’traps’ on the road, if mixed with rainwater, who knows what chemical reactions they might produce.

Moreover, if the rainwater submerged the road, our markers would also get submerged.

"How about I go ahead and scout the road?" Seeing Qinghan hesitating, I volunteered.

This Ancient City is full of pitfalls, not suitable for ordinary living people to linger, and that cowboy hat doesn’t seem too reliable. Working with him could be more harmful than beneficial, so it’s better to rely on ourselves.

"Have you received any information?"

"No, we haven’t seen any shadows since we entered the city."

"Can you find the way back? We should visit your fellow tribe members again."

"Why? What are you worried about?"

Qinghan had initially decided to delve deeper into the downtown area to complete his mission promptly, hoping to get everyone out as quickly as possible, fearing Miss Tang couldn’t hold on much longer. Assuming she’s still alive, without food or water these days, it’s nearing the human limit.

But now he suddenly changed his mind, wanting to spend time visiting Wuyong again, surely due to other considerations.

"I feel that cowboy is problematic. We can’t have enemies both in front and behind us. The Two-headed Wolf should have attacked every group of living people that entered. Let’s go confirm whether it’s among the newly arrived group of living people."

"Oh, you suspect..." I looked down, seeing Doctor Du and Huang Zaijiang, along with Mike, sharing a room with the cowboy hat.

Qinghan nodded. He lifted the cover to the stairwell entry, climbed down to have a word with Mike and the others.

He didn’t mention we were going to see Wuyong, he just said the heavy rain had washed the roads, possibly submerging our retreat routes, and we need to recheck and remap.

He instructed Mike and Doctor Du to keep an eye on the cowboy hat, saying he might be some unlawful element from who knows where.

Qinghan didn’t explicitly state his suspicions, perhaps to avoid alerting the enemy.

But he reminded Doctor Du to be wary of the cowboy hat, meaning she should watch out for this person.

After we left the building, I asked him why he doesn’t stay back if he’s worried about Doctor Du and the others, he could have left that task to me alone, to search for Wuyong.

Qinghan said he wanted to meet this ’Wuyong’ himself. The research project on the Heavenly Maiden Clan was still ongoing. We still needed to gather information and collect samples, and since there are members of the Heavenly Maiden Clan in the Ancient City, he should meet them. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

I gritted my teeth. Here in front of him stands a ’Heavenly Maiden’, yet he still wants to personally see a ’Heavenly Maiden’. How does that even make sense? I am such a representative sample!

But strictly speaking, he indeed has not seen the other type of people in my clan. Our clan only has two types, the strong and the weak.

So far, Qinghan has only met me and Bi Shi, who are strong, but has not encountered the weaker ones in the clan.

"Let me tell you, her Insect Coat is quite special, it can keep her long-lived, but it requires charging." Earlier, I only briefly mentioned that Wuyong uses insects as clothes to Qinghan to maintain vitality without detailing the appearance of the insects.

Now that we had some free time, I explained as we walked, and Qinghan listened. The heavy rain had become drizzle by the time we went downstairs. The sky remained cloudy and gloomy. Although the sun was obscured, the air was still hot and oppressive.

The streets weren’t flooded, though there were quite a few puddles. The road surface was already not level. After walking a while, we returned to the entrance of a dark pathway. No rainwater had entered the tunnel; the farthest one could see from the building where the cowboy hat resided was this.

Once out of the dark path, he couldn’t see where we went. I led Qinghan on a detour towards the Two-headed Wolf’s base.

Their habitat building was quite prominent among the structures and could be seen from afar.

Qinghan spotted the ’sentry’ wolves, a total of four, one of which ran off, presumably to report back.

We stopped and waited; since it was a ’visit’, we probably shouldn’t force our way in.

After a while, the Two-headed Wolf returned, growling a few times at its companions. All four wolves hid within the nearby buildings, concealing their forms.

Does that mean they’ve agreed to let us enter their territory?

This time, there was no lane of welcoming Two-headed Wolves. The building felt empty. I led Qinghan straight upstairs to the door of the room where we met Wuyong that night.

Wuyong stood inside the room, still wearing the Insect Coat. But she did not come out to greet us and stood with her back to us. As we went upstairs, I seemed to hear her talking.

But besides her, there was no one else upstairs, nor were there wolves around her. Was she talking to herself?

I told you, not seeing people for long periods leads to psychological problems!

"Wuyong, I’ve come to bother you again." I coughed, reminding her of our presence.

"Yeah, sorry about last time, I wasn’t feeling well, and didn’t finish the conversation."

Wuyong continued speaking without turning around, as if doing penance against the wall. Qinghan gently held me back, not letting me enter the room. We stood at the open doorway.

"Ah, go ahead." I quickly recalled the visit but didn’t seem to recall any unfinished conversation topic back then. But since she says so, maybe she forgot back then and remembered later, wanting to say it now. I shouldn’t discourage her enthusiasm.

"Have the people from the city... looked for you?" Wuyong asked.

"Huh? The people from the city? Who, Miss Tang?"

"No, the old residents of this city, the original inhabitants."

"No, no one’s sought me out. I mean, the people in this city, some either died or fled long ago, even if any were trapped, it would have been ages ago. How come? Do they have descendants that have persisted till now?"

"You really haven’t seen them? That’s not right, they said, they’ve seen you, and you’ve seen them too."

"I’m confused, are you guessing riddles with me? Tell me who said they’ve seen whom. Can you state the names and identities clearly?"

"Why have you come to see me?" Wuyong’s tone suddenly changed, forcefully changing the subject.

"Oh, I wanted to inquire about something. Recently, or rather in the last 365 days, has there been a man with this kind of head entering the city, about yay high, with curly hair?" I gestured as I spoke.