The Informal Tomb Raiding Diary: She is the occupant of the tomb!-Chapter 96: The Love of Beauty Is Universal

Bi Shi saw that the two women were about to catch up, so she quickly slipped into a house by the street.

I followed her inside, squatting on a stool by the window, watching the two women fight and flee outside.

Their bullets shot at what was behind them, unaware that something was crouched on the roof of a nearby house. It suddenly jumped down and grabbed one of the women, and in a flash, leaped back to the rooftop and disappeared.

The creature was pitch black, seemingly covered in scales, with hands and feet but a lizard’s head.

But to call it a lizard wouldn’t be accurate, as it also had small sharp teeth like a dinosaur.

The young women weren’t just prey waiting to be captured. After one was seized by the creature, they fired back. Despite the tall buildings in between, I could hear the sounds of battle.

However, after a few rounds, all sound ceased entirely, followed by the crunching and swallowing noises.

"Once caught by them, escaping is next to impossible," Bi Shi whispered beside me.

"Aren’t you able to come and go freely?"

"I don’t make such a big fuss," Bi Shi said with a cold smile. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Then she paused and said, "See what they’re thinking, if they’ve noticed us."

I raised my brows. She was an ’old acquaintance’ of mine, no doubt, to know I could communicate with animals.

"No, they don’t have thoughts, not even like those caterpillars; they’re just brainless eaters." I had tried it before and felt nothing.

"Hmph, no wonder this place became a deserted city."

"You mean, the people in this city were all eaten by them?"

"What else?"

"Some must have escaped; that lift was deliberately destroyed, probably by the survivors trying to stop those creatures from following them up."

"You saw the traces; the destruction was from top to bottom. You can only go down, not up."

"Use a rope, then. We’ll climb up with a rope later."

"How will you throw the other end of the rope fifty meters high?"

"Well... maybe someone up there will help!"

"Ha, time is terrifying," Bi Shi said, looking out the window, indifferently.

The street was calm; the dinosaur-lizard-human hybrid creatures conserved food, eating an entire person, including clothing, and licking the blood off the ground clean.

The scene was thoroughly cleaned, only the weapons left by the young women. One creature picked up a handgun, put it in its mouth, chewed twice, found the taste off, and spat it out.

After just a few moments of chewing, only half of the gun remained, indicating that their mouths were like acid pools, no wonder they could consume food so cleanly.

"No wonder the street pavers are all uneven; these creatures must have licked them. This street must have been rivers of blood back then."

"Alright, they’re finished eating; they should be going back to their lair to sleep. Let’s go."

Bi Shi and I tiptoed quickly back to the city gate, only to be faced with a dozen dinosaur creatures waiting for us.

"Do you have any plan at all? They’re not going to their lair; they’re waiting for dessert!" Seeing the blocked gate, I turned to run back.

"Come back, kill them," Bi Shi grabbed and pulled me back.

"With what? They’re impervious to blades and bullets; I saw it myself just now."

"Your Karmic Fire!" Bi Shi yelled at me, wide-eyed.

"What? I only have a waterproof lighter, no gasoline." I thought Bi Shi wanted to use fire on these creatures and handed over my lighter.

Bi Shi rolled her eyes, knocked the lighter from my hand, and stomped on it hard.

"Where’s the Karmic Fire? Since you escaped, it must have followed you out."

"No, you mean... that little red flower?"

"Yes, use it."

"It’s not always reliable; if it worked, I—" I bit my tongue, swallowing the words about killing her just in time to not say it aloud.

"Look at them," Bi Shi pointed at the approaching dinosaur creatures.

As the distance between us and the dinosaur creatures closed, Bi Shi didn’t stop me from escaping; instead, I watched the charging dinosaur creatures, extended my hand, facing them.

Bi Shi smacked the back of my head, releasing a flash of red light from my palm that resembled a blood-tinged flame. Any dinosaur creature caught in the light evaporated instantly.

It was the first time I witnessed the power of the Nine Nether Flower manifest through me, incredibly simple, fleeting, yet clean, leaving no trace of the creatures.

"I heard the legend by chance, didn’t expect it to be true," Bi Shi murmured to herself.

"Ow!" The danger was gone, but her hit had been quite forceful, "You knocked my flower off! How annoying are you?"

The Blue Lotus hairpin that Chen Qinghan had given me had fallen. I quickly picked it up, luckily undamaged. I cherished this hairpin, brushed off the dust, and pinned it back.

"I bet they did something to you. When did you become so vain?" Bi Shi asked, glaring at me as if meeting me for the first time.

"Everyone appreciates beauty." Ignoring her, I pushed open the door and walked out of the Ancient City.

But thinking I should talk to her, I turned and asked, "Does the head-smacking trick always work?"

Bi Shi nodded, "I don’t know, just heard about it."

I sighed, "Seems our relationship is quite mediocre, not all that close; couldn’t even know such a small thing."

Bi Shi suddenly chuckled, "Who said we’re good? You’ve held the title of ’most annoying person in the world’ for years. Perhaps we cooperated and got closer, but it doesn’t mean we like you."

Ah-ha! Truly honored... I faked a smile internally, plastering a smug look of indifference on my face, as if a thick-skinned pig not fearing boiling water; indeed, many dislike me, impossible to rank.

Reflecting, it seems true, those claiming to be old acquaintances were unfriendly indeed.

No friends are better; when I sneakily kill her, at least I feel no guilt.

"Hey?" I walked to the elevator location and found the rope missing.

Nowhere around and not on the ground, could the dinosaur creatures have eaten it?

"Are your two subordinates reliable? They wouldn’t betray you, would they?"

"Tsk, I told you, one is a temporary teammate, the other a colleague. The temporary one I don’t know, but Chen Qinghan wouldn’t betray me."

"No way up here, otherwise those things would’ve gone out hunting long ago."

"Can’t be, if this place is sealed, what do they eat? Wait a few centuries for a rat to fall?"

"Not centuries, every few years a batch surely falls; the creatures can’t climb up but can emit a soundwave to lure prey, calling up a feast after waking, then go back to sleep."