Chapter 2: End of Hibernation

After paying the bill, the three of them walked out of the roadside food stall.

As soon as they reached the corner that blocked the stall from view, Wu Xiezhi could no longer contain his curiosity and asked, "Muyu, what's wrong? Why did we suddenly leave?"

Zhang Muxun pulled him to hide behind a car parked on the roadside, poked his head out slightly to look back, and Lao Yang, seeing this, copied their actions.

With his night-vision ability, Zhang Muxun easily spotted a man strolling out from the entrance of the food stall. After glancing a few times in the direction the three had left, the man pulled down his brim and walked toward their side.

Zhang Muxun whispered in Wu Xiezhi's ear, "Did you see that guy wearing the gray soft-shell jacket and black hat over there? He was one of the guys at the table right next to us. You two were running your mouths way too loud, and they've set their sights on us."

Wu Xiezhi was startled, narrowing his eyes as he looked over. "Could they be tomb raiders too?"

"Nine times out of ten," Zhang Muxun nodded. "That guy's words earlier were probing whether we were grave robbers, and I brushed it off, but it looks like they haven't let down their guard."

"I can sense the malevolent aura coming off them, and the stench of earth is very heavy. They are definitely not ordinary types."

Lao Yang panicked, "Then, then what should we do?"

Wu Xiezhi cursed under his breath, "Let's hurry back to the inn then."

The man in the black hat was less than ten meters away from them and was about to reach the corner.

Zhang Muxun nodded, crouching down as he grabbed Wu Xiezhi and led him around the vehicle. The three of them took a detour through another alleyway and returned to the inn.

Zhang Muxun asked Wu Xiezhi, "Did you book a standard twin room or a single room?"

"A single room, of course," Wu Xiezhi replied. "What, are you planning to stay with me?"

Zhang Muxun let out an "hn," and headed straight up the stairs.

"Hey..." Wu Xiezhi kept his hand outstretched like the classic television pose for a moment before quickly retracting it. He said a quick word to the front desk, then hurried upstairs to open the door for Zhang Muxun, who was waiting in the hallway. "Why do you insist on rooming with me? Don't tell me you're afraid of the dark? Here it is, Room 203."

Zhang Muxun waited for him to unlock the door with the key and walked in first. He instinctively wanted to check the corners before realizing that pinhole cameras and the like were not as widespread in this era as they would be in the future.

"I'm just worried you'll get into danger and I need to keep an eye on you. With your naive personality, people could sell you off and you'd still help them count the money." Zhang Muxun placed his bag on the table, crossed his arms, sat down on a chair, and looked at Wu Xiezhi. "That childhood friend of yours named Lao Yang—how many years has it been since you two last met? Is he reliable, and why did he come looking for you this time?"

Wu Xiezhi chuckled sheepishly and pulled over another chair to sit down. "Lao Yang is my childhood friend; we grew up together since we were kids. It's just that later he got arrested by the police for trafficking antiques and spent three years in prison."

Seeing Zhang Muxun's unfriendly gaze, Wu Xiezhi quickly added, "But this time he came to find me because of an ancient tomb in the Qinling Mountains. You know my level of expertise is just barely skimming the surface, so I naturally had to ask you to lead the two of us down there."

"Besides, he has been to that tomb before and even left a marker. He also took a bronze bell from inside that looks exactly like the one we saw before, only a couple of sizes smaller," Wu Xiezhi said.

Seeing how enthusiastic he was, Zhang Muxun didn't have the heart to dampen his spirits. "Tell me the details."

Wu Xiezhi then recounted how Lao Yang had approached him and everything he currently knew about the situation to Zhang Muxun.

Zhang Muxun nodded after listening. "Alright, then we'll make the trip. I've already prepared the gear. We'll set off before twelve noon tomorrow, let's get some rest first."

With that, he took four sets of disposable bed sheets out of his backpack (spatial inventory) and threw two sets onto Wu Xiezhi's bed. "One for the mattress, one to cover yourself."

(Tianzhen, Fatty, and the others always thought Zhang Muxun needed to rely on a medium like a backpack to retrieve items from his treasure chest, and Zhang Muxun never bothered to explain—mainly because it was hard to explain anyway.)

Wu Xiezhi had already witnessed Zhang Muxun's severe germophobia and fastidiousness firsthand, so he didn't say much. He unfolded one sheet to spread over the original bed sheet, pulled the other over his body, and put the quilt on top of that.

Zhang Muxun was awakened by the system prompt tone. Checking the time, it was a little past eleven, and Wu Xiezhi had already gotten up and gone out.

[Ding—The Qinling Divine Tree storyline has officially begun.]
[Task Assigned: Protect Wu Xiezhi to successfully enter and exit the Qinling underground tomb.]
[Task Reward: Danger Perception Ability (Beginner, perception range 100 meters).]

[Oh ho, you're alive. I thought your honorable self was going to leave me to fend for myself this time.]
[The system will not abandon the host.]
[Alright, I won't bicker with you. First, explain what happened last time. Where did that section of my memory go? It was just retrieving a small orb, what was the necessity of forcing control over my body?]

The system fell silent.

Zhang Muxun grew impatient. [Speak up, don't play dead.]
[That memory cannot be returned to the host temporarily, and given the host's current capability, you would not have made it back in one piece.]
[Made it back in one piece my ass, I'm covered in injuries, in case you didn't notice.]
[Apologies, I did my best.]

Zhang Muxun understood. [So you really went to some extremely dangerous place and then exhausted all your energy until you crashed and burned out, right?]

The system fell silent once again.
[Does that mean from now on you can take control of my body at any time and do things against my will?]

The system quickly replied: [No.]
[It requires the host's consent.]

Zhang Muxun sneered. [Fine, I won't argue with you anymore. Transmit this segment of the storyline to me.]

He didn't ask the system about the materialization ability because he knew asking would be pointless; aside from playing dead, the damn system wouldn't say a word.

After digesting the plot memories, Zhang Muxun got up and packed an extra backpack for Wu Xiezhi. Wu Xiezhi returned carrying lunch at that moment.

The three of them ate lunch together, checked out of the inn, and headed out.

Lao Yang had hired a car, and the three of them climbed in, with Zhang Muxun pulling Wu Xiezhi to sit in the back row.

Lao Yang stared at the bulging backpacks of Zhang Muxun and Wu Xiezhi several times, but because Zhang Muxun kept a cold expression the entire time, he felt a bit intimidated and didn't dare to ask too many questions.

The biggest characteristic of a mountain highway is its endless twists and turns, and as a result, Wu Xiezhi successfully became carsick.

Zhang Muxun made him take a motion-sickness pill and then let him lean on his shoulder to sleep.

After driving for half an hour, the sound of an explosion echoed from afar, waking Wu Xiezhi up.

"What's going on? Is there an earthquake?" Wu Xiezhi rubbed his eyes and looked out the window.

The driver's voice came through with a thick rural accent, "You three bosses must be from out of town, right? That's someone blowing up a tomb. They set off a blast like that every couple of days."

Wu Xiezhi was astonished. "These grave robbers are this bold? Don't the police do anything about it?"

The driver let out a "heh." "How could they? The mountain on the other side is completely different from this one. Although they're only separated by the Jialing River, the other side doesn't even have the most basic roads. Unless you can sprout wings and fly across, even if the police are as resourceful as immortals, they'd have to travel for a full day and night. By the time they reach the spot, those people's shadows wouldn't even be left."

Lao Yang stammered, "Li-Listen to thi-this movement, was it, was the, the amount of dynamite, too much, or what?"