The Informal Tomb Raiding Diary: She is the occupant of the tomb!-Chapter 142: Don’t Eat Me, I’m Rotten Flesh

Lu Xiaodao only told us that he eavesdropped on the formula after the experiment was a success.

He was able to leap up a tree, even when the ground beneath him suddenly gave way, demonstrating his light-footed skills. After Meng Qingyu brought them out, she arranged for them to stay in a villa.

There was a month’s preparation period for this operation. During that month, using his wall-climbing abilities, he eavesdropped on a phone call between Meng Qingyu and someone in the organization.

On the call, she said there was no antidote outside; the materials to make it were on the island.

Because the poison she used to threaten Lu Xiaodao and the others came from a venomous insect on the island.

And a few plants on the island happened to counteract this insect’s poison. Perhaps during the call, she was feeling smug, having deceived a bunch of fools to work for her, knowing that regardless of whether they make it out, they’d end up dead.

The other person asked something, and Meng Qingyu described the appearance of several plants, assuring them that no one would touch these poisonous things.

Logically speaking, the team members indeed wouldn’t touch these poisons, so the secret of the antidote was almost impossible to uncover.

Lu Xiaodao didn’t mention any of this to anyone, fearing that Meng Qingyu would discover he had found her secret and kill him early to silence him.

After arriving here, he began waiting for the opportunity to escape Meng Qingyu’s sight and attempt to concoct the antidote.

"So, Meng Qingyu and her mysterious organization know a lot about this?" Being able to produce poison on the island and knowing the antidote definitely indicates prior research.

Researching poisons and antidotes cannot be done in a day or two, yet from Meng Qingyu’s reactions along the way, it was like she was coming here for the first time.

Perhaps their organization had sent several groups before to gather relevant data and samples for internal research.

Meng Qingyu then directly used the venom from the insect. Although Lu Xiaodao heard her description of the antidote materials’ appearance, he had no one to verify it with, so he recklessly consumed those poisonous things, risking life and death.

"I feel like their purpose is not just to obtain something simple," Chen Qinghan said thoughtfully.

"Indeed, every plant and creature on this island has immense research value, and even..." Professor Liu’s words trailed off suddenly.

His eyes fixed on a point behind me. I wanted to turn around, but Chen Qinghan signaled me with his eyes, lightly shaking his head, meaning I shouldn’t turn around.

Having found a place to rest, Professor Liu and Lu Xiaodao sat side by side under a tree, with a campfire burning before them.

Chen Qinghan was behind them, cutting vines from the tree. We only had one coil of rope, and he found the vines very sturdy, so he wanted to cut a bundle to use as rope.

Only I was standing opposite them, at a distance of several meters, with my back against a large tree that I had checked for any signs of mutation.

Their expressions were unusual; something bad must be happening. I felt a faint breath, gently exhaling behind my ear.

Inanimate objects don’t breathe; anything breathing must be a living entity. I understood why Chen Qinghan didn’t want me to turn around—if there was a wolf behind me crouching, turning my head would let it bite my face.

Professor Liu, Lu Xiaodao, and Chen Qinghan seemed frozen, wide-eyed, as if watching a horror movie.

Suddenly, I felt something brush past my right cheek—cool and moist, as if someone had smeared saliva on my face!

My hand quietly moved behind me, palm facing back. I intended to eliminate whatever was there.

"Grumble..." Someone’s stomach let out a series of ’hungry’ growls, untimely breaking the suffocating tension.

The breath by my ear vanished suddenly, and both Chen Qinghan and Professor Liu breathed a sigh of relief, while Lu Xiaodao lowered his head expressionlessly.

What kind of creature would be scared away by a growling stomach?

I used the back of my hand to wipe the cheek where the saliva had been smeared, asking disdainfully, "Ew~ What kind of animal was that? Drooling, really?"

Professor Liu glanced at Chen Qinghan, seeming unsure of how to begin, while Chen Qinghan had nothing to hide from me, though he frowned as if perplexed.

"It wasn’t an animal—it was a person."

Hearing Chen Qinghan say it was a ’person’, I felt even more disgusted. Seeing that Chen Qinghan had spoken up, Professor Liu added, "It was a woman."

Immediately, He Su came to my mind, but she and Bi Shi had vanished together. If she could come out, so could Bi Shi.

And judging from Chen Qinghan’s expression, it definitely wasn’t someone he knew.

"She seemed... to want to eat you." Despite his reticence, Lu Xiaodao wasn’t a complete introvert; he engaged when others spoke.

"Huh? Eat me?" My flesh has been in the tomb for thousands of years, less fresh than zombie meat frozen for three years—who would want to eat me?

"That’s not necessarily it. It’s just that her expression looked very greedy," Professor Liu tried to clarify. "Maybe her expression meant something we couldn’t interpret."

A greedy expression, yet not wanting to eat—what does that mean?

"Isn’t there a third group in this jungle? Where did this woman come from?" I felt they were missing the point. Shouldn’t we be concerned about why there’s someone else in the jungle?!

"Could it be the... silhouette they saw earlier?" Professor Liu speculated.

"It’s possible," Chen Qinghan continued. "Her skin’s pale, and her long hair reaches her waist. It might be the silhouette Old Shi’s group saw."

The distance from where Old Shi’s team first saw the woman’s silhouette to here spans several dozen kilometers, separated by the bone flower clearing.

"Aren’t the creatures within the ring unable to cross its boundaries?" I remembered Professor Liu mentioning this, and we had personally verified the claim.

"What if, what if it’s a native?" Chen Qinghan proposed boldly.

Still alive? I didn’t voice this question aloud because, for now, none of us could answer it.

The diaries left by Professor Liu’s friend contained no records of natives, and Meng Qingyu never mentioned them.

Both teams were on the island for the first time, encountering its creatures for the first time, with no experience to draw from.

Perhaps Meng Qingyu knows more, but she’d never tell us willingly, especially since she’s disappeared now.

The stone pillar square and the tunnel were abandoned, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the previous civilization was wiped out—this was the consensus between Professor Liu and Chen Qinghan.

"So, does that mean there might be a cannibal tribe on this island?" With no traces of modern civilization and drooling over me, if there really are natives on the island, we should be on guard. I don’t want to end up in a primitive tribal cannibal feast, turned into human barbecue skewers.