The Informal Tomb Raiding Diary: She is the occupant of the tomb!-Chapter 400 - 311: Howls in the Night

We don’t know if these black stone creatures will petrify people like the previous stone creatures when touched.

We’re already far from the Life Water now, and if infected, it’s really uncertain if we’ll have time to get back for treatment.

It was just when I saw the black stone hand that I thought of the stone disease and casually mentioned it to Qinghan. Little Red pointed to Qinghan’s backpack and said that the Life Water was with him.

Qinghan nodded and said indeed, while Little Red was keeping watch at the Scorpion Cave, he filled two empty bottles with Life Water and later put them in Qinghan’s backpack.

Little Red mentioned that if infected, drinking the water is faster in effectiveness than washing, and only a small dose is needed.

Had we known earlier, Wang Le and Huang Zaijiang wouldn’t have to soak in the icy water for half a day.

However, it’s naturally better to avoid infection if possible, and keep the Life Water for when it’s absolutely necessary.

Qinghan picked up a stone as large as a sandpot and threw it at the place where Mike was grabbed. When we walked there just now, it felt like solid ground, not quicksand, nor soft soil. If a stone creature emerged from underground and stretched out a hand, we would have felt the ground move.

I guess Qinghan found it odd, so he wanted to test if that ground was ’touch-sensitive’.

The stone landed heavily, but nothing happened. Qinghan checked all around the edges, this ground shouldn’t have any mechanisms, so the stone hand wasn’t a trap, just a stone creature moved to that spot and grabbed Mike.

Can stone creatures move freely underground without alerting people on the surface? 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Or is it that they can move through soil but not along stone pavements?

To verify, Qinghan chose three streets with soil and walked them. Mike and I stayed back waiting; Qinghan’s Qinggong is good, and he has the treasure sword in hand, so he can handle it alone.

The result was nothing happened, no stone hand reaching out to grab him. Mike told Qinghan to stop trying, maybe we were overthinking it, and it was just coincidental that he stepped on a stone hand rather than stone creatures ambushing us from underground.

Qinghan seemed quite concerned about it, but with limited time, we had agreed with Doctor Du that regardless of the search’s success, we’d return within an hour.

Our team is small, it’s very dangerous to scatter, and if necessary, we should minimize the time spent apart.

Qinghan and Mike made marks in the places they searched, setting up mini alarms in the middle of the road and on nearby buildings. These devices are only as big as an eraser, with sensors that, when triggered by a cotton thread, send signals back to a receiving device.

The receiving device sounds an alarm, with configurations for ringing, vibrating, or silent flashing lights, much like a phone.

Mike prepared these, explaining they’re for different situations since sound could put the recipient in danger.

Similarly, lights could expose one’s position in the dark.

Mike set the receiver to vibrate mode. He took one, and Qinghan took another. They placed the alarms within only ten meters around the house.

The alarm reception range is limited, and the sensors cover only around five square meters.

Given the limited number of alarms, we could only limit their range for some reaction time.

After setting up, we returned to the small dark room; the injured person had yet to wake, showing early signs of fever breaking but not ready to wake up.

We rested in the small dark room as time slowly passed, and no other survivors returned.

Qinghan rummaged through the garbage heap in a corner and said that within the last day, at least three people had stayed in this room.

Out of three, one remained, and with Doctor Du stating the scratches were from humans, the other two might have gone berserk.

As night approached, it was about to descend, which is why we chose to rest here first.

We wouldn’t need to travel at night; rather, we should avoid going out, as the city’s situation is unclear, it’s best to hide indoors at night.

At night, while others rested, I took the first watch with Wang Le, who stayed at the door, while I was up on the roof.

When Mike heard of Qinghan’s arrangement, he immediately objected, disagreeing with me being alone outside for the night watch.

Qinghan’s reason was that I lived in an extremely remote, secluded place, residing in an underground cave, guided by my master, and trained to have night vision.