Tomb raiding: Today is another day I don't want to go home.

Chapter 4 presents a solid argument, but it's flawless.

Wu Sansheng secretly glanced at Yan Huai's clothes. His light blue thin jacket was stained with a lot of dried blood, as was his white shirt underneath. His pants were also torn, but there was no visible wound.

Either Yan Huai encountered an accident and was caught by the boatman, or he was lying.

"Young man, to put it bluntly, with your skills just now, how did you become...?" Wu Sansheng frowned, unable to bring himself to say the words "reserve grain".

“I don’t remember,” Yan Huai understood what Wu Sansheng meant, and he pursed his lips. “When I woke up, I was lying in his mud house.”

Judging from Yan Huai's expression alone, Wu Sansheng could not see any signs of lying. However, there were too many suspicious points about this man's appearance, so he had to be on guard. He then gave a wink to Da Pan, who saw it and sat down at the stern of the boat.

"How did you find this place, young man? There are many water-damaged caves around here, how did you end up in this one?"

"There is firewood in the earthen house, some of which looks like boat planks. This is the only lake with flowing water nearby, and this cave has the strongest malevolent aura. If they want to harm people, they will only come here."

"Can you see the menacing aura?"

Yan Huai glanced at Wu Sansheng, who was speaking: "I can feel it."

"But you're not sure when they'll come! Are you just going to stay in this cave and keep watch the whole time?"

"Ok!"

"..." Everyone was speechless. The only thing they could be sure of was that this young man was a bit stubborn, so stubborn that it was hard to argue with him.

After a moment of silence, Wu Xie was the first to notice something was wrong. He looked around and asked in confusion, "The boatman is here, but what about the old man who drove the ox? Is he dead too?"

Upon hearing this, the group turned their attention back to Yan Huai.

Yan Huai said expressionlessly, "They're not dead. The bamboo raft couldn't withstand the pressure, so we had to kill one of them."

"..." So it was this bamboo raft that affected your performance, huh!

The group fell silent, and the boat continued to glide forward using the engine's power. After passing through a rather dangerous bend, the lake's current turned into a downstream current, and the boat rocked for a while.

"Host, the second task is now issued: prevent the corpse beetles from harming the protagonist, Wu Xie. Upon completion, the reward is 10 points and 100,000 yuan."

Yan Huai paused for a moment, glanced at the five people on the boat in front, and asked in his mind, "Who is Wu Xie?"

As soon as the question was asked, the system displayed a green arrow above Wu Xie's head from Yan Huai's perspective: "That's him."

Once Yan Huai identified the person, he turned his head and closed his eyes. With a slight twitch of his ears, he absorbed all the sounds in the cave, and even got a general idea of ​​what was making the sounds.

Not far away, Yan Huai could sense hundreds of crustacean species with claws lurking in a huge cave; those should be corpse beetles.

"Danger!"

"Danger!"

Two voices rang out at the same time. Yan Huai opened his eyes and met a pair of clear, deep eyes. It was the hooded guy sitting at the bow of the boat.

The next moment, the two looked away from each other and simultaneously looked up at the cave ten meters above them.

The swarm of corpse beetles had already swooped down, and from deeper within the cave came a piercing sound wave, like an extreme scream. Except for Yan Huai and the hoodie guy, everyone else gritted their teeth and covered their heads.

The sound of tearing cloth rang out, and the light from the flashlight reflecting off the blade flashed through Yan Huai's pupils. Immediately afterwards, he smelled a strange scent of blood, and his Adam's apple bobbed involuntarily.

"Host!"

The system's voice rang in Yan Huai's mind, carrying a hint of helplessness, but it still managed to draw Yan Huai's attention. He looked down and saw that the corpse beetles that had surged into the lake were terrified by the dripping blood and scattered in all directions, but some of them still gathered around the hull, forming a coil.

"This blood..."

Yan Huai was somewhat surprised by what he saw, but before he could ask the system, he heard a series of splashes. The hoodie guy had kicked everyone on the boat into the lake, and the next moment, his gaze fell on him.

The piercing sound waves continued. Seeing that Yan Huai was standing on the bamboo raft with clear eyes, seemingly unaffected by the sound, the hoodie guy ignored him, turned off the engine, and jumped into the water.

Yan Huai looked at the figure in the lake and asked the system, "Who is he?"

"Zhang Qiling, the last patriarch of the Zhang family, possesses the bloodline of the Qilin, and his blood can exorcise evil spirits and repel corpses," the system diligently replied. However, seeing its host's seductive expression, it had to remind him, "Host, you still have a mission."

“I know.” Yan Huai withdrew his gaze, glanced around, and then, using the protrusions on the surrounding cave walls, darted towards the source of the disturbing voice…

Zhang Qiling saw Yan Huai's movements through the murky lake water and had a guess in his mind. Sure enough, the strange voice disappeared not long afterward.

Meanwhile, the people in the lake had regained their senses, but to be on the safe side, they waited a while longer. Wu Xie couldn't hold back any longer and began to swim upwards, and the others could only follow suit.

But to his surprise, as soon as it surfaced, the unfortunate Wu Xie was struck head-on by the half-dead body of a boatman, and was so frightened that he choked on several mouthfuls of lake water made of chemicals.

Meanwhile, Da Pan was also hit on the face by a lone corpse beetle with a large head. In his panic, he only remembered to pull out the dagger from the outside of his thigh and slash at the corpse beetle.

The corpse beetle was in pain, and green, putrid liquid flowed down, smearing Da Pan's face. But he didn't have time to care. Taking advantage of the corpse beetle's loosened claws, he threw the corpse beetle away. Embarrassingly, he threw it directly at Wu Xie, who was still in shock.

When the others reacted, Wu Xie looked at the corpse beetle that was now within arm's reach and could only think, "Damn it!" He closed his eyes and reached out to grab it, but who would have thought that the next second he would feel something grab his legs from underwater and lift him up. Before he could see clearly, he was thrown onto the boat.

The few people still swimming towards the boat with their heads above water witnessed Yan Huai leap out of the water in an instant, using the corpse beetle he was holding in his right hand to swat away the corpse beetle that was being thrown towards Wu Xie. He even managed to free his hand to throw Wu Xie onto the boat as well.

For a moment, no one knew how to describe their thoughts, but as they watched the corpse beetle slowly sliding down the cave wall, they could almost hear the beetle's mournful cry before it crumbled into dust...

Yes, it's true... Da Pan unconsciously wiped the water off his face.

"Task Two: Prevent the corpse beetles from harming the protagonist, Wu Xie. Mission complete. Reward: 10 points, 100,000 yuan. (Note: Points can be used in the system shop to exchange for items needed by the host.)"

Yan Huai put one hand on the edge of the boat and swung the stunned bronze bell-shaped corpse beetle in the other, thinking to himself that he almost missed it.

“Um…thank you!”

Upon hearing this, Yan Huai turned to look at Wu Xie on the boat. Seeing him scratching the back of his head with an embarrassed expression, he waved his hand and handed over the bronze bell corpse beetle in his hand: "Be careful with the bronze bell."

Wu Xie's lips twitched. If it weren't for the innocent and serious look in Yan Huai's eyes, he would have really thought that Yan Huai did this on purpose.

Seeing his third uncle still climbing onto the boat, looking dazed, Da Pan bandaged his wounds on the bamboo raft behind. Da Kui was even more timid than him, and as for Xiao Ge…

Wu Xie cast his gaze over, only to meet a pair of emotionless eyes. He instinctively shivered and decided to give up...

With a bitter expression on his face, Wu Xie could only carefully take the bronze bell corpse beetle from where Yan Huai had been holding it.