[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-grave-robbers-chronicles":3,"chapter-the-grave-robbers-chronicles-the-grave-robbers-chronicles-chapter-441":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","The Grave Robbers' Chronicles",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":20,"prevChapterSlug":21,"totalChapters":22,"novelImage":23},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":16,"volume":17,"translator":18,"content_hash":19},16298,44,"Chapter 441: Visitor from Zhang's Ancient Tower","the-grave-robbers-chronicles-chapter-441",441,"\u003Cp>Jude Kao's people were staying in the upper part of the village. Probably because there were so many of them, the stilt houses in that area were packed tightly together, making it convenient for large groups to live close and look out for each other.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I waved Panzi over and explained the situation. Then Panzi followed us, and we circled up along that familiar little stream. The night air was very cool, moonlight shone into the clear stream water, and the sound of insects was everywhere, involuntarily reminding me of the scene from half a month ago.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After we got up there, I realized that nearly the entire upper part of the village was occupied by Jude Kao's people. Lights were blazing everywhere, every courtyard had large round tables set up, and there were cases of beer and bare-chested foreigners eating everywhere. Apparently, most of these rooms had been converted into restaurant kitchens.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Grave robbing can stimulate the local economy too, I thought to myself. A hard-to-find tomb can enrich an entire region—this aspect really does show itself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing Jude Kao approach, a few foreigners who couldn't even stand up straight grabbed their beers and yelled at him, \"Boss, comeon! Dontbetooupset!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jude Kao ignored them and just walked straight past that open-air food stall to the back of this row of houses. The atmosphere suddenly changed. I saw a very quiet stilt house, small, seemingly just one room. Two people stood at the door with stern faces; there were no drinkers around, and only a dim incandescent light illuminated the front of the house.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jude Kao made a gesture to the people at the door and led us inside. As soon as we entered, a terribly pungent medicinal smell hit us.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the floor was an oil lamp. Under the lamp, I saw something like a flour sack lying on a straw mat. Next to it was a person wearing glasses who looked like a doctor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"How is he?\" Jude Kao asked the doctor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The doctor shook his head. I leaned in and couldn't help but gasp. Only then did I realize that the \"thing\" on the straw mat was actually a person.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But was this really a person? Looking at this \"person,\" I felt a strong urge to vomit. Everywhere on his body, large patches of skin were sunken in, making him look like an orange rotting from the inside. But if you looked closely, you could see that under all the sunken areas, the skin seemed to be wrapped around pockets of liquid. At first glance, it looked as if this person had been decomposing for a long time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet he was alive. I looked at his eyes; he was looking at me, but he clearly couldn't move anymore.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"How did this happen?\" Panzi asked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I sent seven people down, and only he came out. He was fine when he came out, but three days later he started running a high fever, and then he ended up like this.\" Jude Kao's face was ashen. \"He was the one who brought out that knife. He told me that he went deep into the stone passage. When he reached the location of the corpse carrying the knife, he split off from the others. The others continued deeper, and he brought the knife out to me. As a result, those who went deeper never came back.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"What happened to his body?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The doctor with glasses shook his head. \"I don't know. All I can say is that his body is dissolving into some kind of strange liquid, starting from the inside.\" As he spoke, he poked the man's arm with a syringe, and immediately the sunken skin broke, and a black liquid flowed out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"If you want to ask, ask quickly,\" Jude Kao said. \"He doesn't have much time left. You can ask him questions; he can't answer, but he can nod or shake his head.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I leaned closer to the man and asked him, \"Don't be afraid. If you answer these questions, maybe I can save you, but you have to answer me truthfully. Did you find this knife on a corpse?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His expression did not change at all, but he slowly nodded. I asked again, \"Were this person's fingers especially long?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He looked at me with no reaction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I glanced at Jude Kao; Jude Kao also had no reaction. Panzi said, \"Maybe he didn't notice the person's hands? Ask about other features.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I thought for a moment and asked, \"Did that person have any tattoos on his body?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The man lying on the straw mat still had no reaction, but he kept looking at me. I stared into his eyes, searching for what answer I wanted to get, when suddenly I noticed that the expression in his eyes was very strange.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In that instant, I saw a familiar look flash through his eyes. His eyes were filled with utter despair—I could understand that; in his situation, no one would have a bright, spirited look. But within that despair, I clearly saw a glimmer of familiarity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I couldn't put my finger on it, but I sensed it was very familiar. I had seen it at some point before, and it had left a deep impression on me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Was it Poker-face? I thought. Could he have put on a human-skin mask, swapped out one of Jude Kao's men, and come out instead?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Definitely not. This absolutely was not Poker-face. His eyes were too distinctive—it was impossible. It's just that it felt familiar to me. Besides, these were Jude Kao's men. If Poker-face knew Jude Kao was coming down, and knew Jude Kao would send this particular man down, and had prepared a human-skin mask to swap out, then Poker-face would have to have eight legs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To be safe, I still checked the man's hands. His hands were like rubber gloves filled with liquid, but I found no sign of unusually long fingers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I breathed a sigh of relief. Even if it really were Poker-face, he couldn't possibly cosplay this miserable state. And it definitely wasn't Fatty—Fatty's eyes could convey yes or no, and even sing \"Eighteen Touches\" without any problem.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I thought carefully and finally came up with the answer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was the look Xiao Hua gave me when we first met, right before I caused a big scene at the New Moon Hotel.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the time, Xiao Hua felt I looked familiar, but couldn't remember who I was.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I looked at the man; he was staring hard at me, definitely racking his brain. Could it be that, like Xiao Hua, he thought I looked familiar? I suddenly felt something was off, as if something bad was about to happen. I quickly pressed on: \"Answer me—did that person have tattoos?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As soon as I finished asking, the man suddenly opened his eyes wide, as if he had recognized me. He struggled to get up, his eyes fixed on me, his chest heaving, letting out hoarse roars that no longer sounded human.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Everyone was startled. They watched as he crawled up in an incredibly bizarre posture. The doctor tried to hold him down but failed. He kept struggling, and several of the sunken places on his body broke open, black pus and blood gushing out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When I saw him stand up in front of me and roar at me, I was stunned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I saw a person in an extremely grotesque posture. It seemed as if his insides had completely melted. His two shoulders hung limply at his sides. The sunken areas on his body had broken open, black liquid covering his entire body.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But I felt no fear at all. Instead, an even more terrifying feeling shot through my whole body.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Suddenly I realized that I seemed to have seen a person like this before—I had witnessed this very scene before!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This feeling was so strong that I didn't step back as the man walked toward me. I watched his movements, cold sweat breaking out, and then I remembered two things.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The first was that strange photo Brother Chu gave me. In that photo, behind a screen, a strange shadow was captured.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Another was at a window on the second floor of another building at Agui's house. I also saw a shadow whose posture was very similar to that person's.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Could it be that the originals of those two strange shadows were just like this person? This person looked at me, struggling to shout and trying to pounce on me, but after a couple of steps he fell to the ground and could no longer move. I watched him, my whole body cold.\u003C\u002Fp>",1441,"2026-05-28T17:14:10.150Z","2026-06-01T04:28:20.357Z",1,"deepseek-v4-flash","62457e0df96c0ebd5538fbcb9d1526d96c19cd483d6a43dce8a9a690dca7eec8","the-grave-robbers-chronicles-chapter-442","the-grave-robbers-chronicles-chapter-440",513,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-grave-robbers-chronicles-cover.jpg"]