Gourmet Hunter - Chapter 169 (Patreon)

Chapter 169: The Relief Stone Door

A man named Antonmu stood towards a corner away from the crowd, his presence gradually fading. If not for his height, he might easily have been overlooked, treated as someone inconsequential.

Despite his powerful abilities, he behaved inconspicuously, but the bald man was willing to wait for Antonmu, perhaps because he knew of Antonmu's strength.

Bisky glanced unnoticeably at the complacent Luo, thinking to himself that this youngster was probably already knee-deep in trouble without even realizing it.

"Everyone is here, so I'll repeat what I told you all before."

Uncle Li calmly looked at the crowd and said, "The Stajy Tomb is not an ordinary tomb. It's definitely dangerous, so once we go down, everyone should stick together as much as possible to minimize the dangers."

He continued with a usual smile, seriously adding, "As for the distribution... I don’t need to say it, you all are well aware. No matter how it's split, each person will get more money than they can spend in a lifetime."

With those words, most remained silent, but a careful observation could reveal the greed in their eyes.

The Stajy Tomb was well-known, but it had been silent for many years. No one had found the Stajy Tomb, and naturally, no one had taken anything valuable from it. Meanwhile, collectors on the black market had placed high bounties on items from the tomb.

Frankly, just taking a small item from inside could fetch millions of jeeni on the black market, and in an auction house, it could easily go over ten million.

This world once experienced a blossoming era, where, in a single continent during the same era, many nations with diverse cultures vied brilliantly against each other. The Stajy Tomb was merely a small flower left from that era.

Like the Stajy Tomb, many such 'small flowers' existed around the world, yet to be discovered by modern people.

Seeing the greed expressed by most, Uncle Li unobtrusively reminded again, "The tomb is very dangerous. Those who want to back out can still do so."

It was a superfluous comment; at this stage, no one would think of backing out.

Even if someone did think about it, Uncle Li had ways to deal with potential risks that might arise later.

The room fell silent, everyone's eyes on Uncle Li, eager to act.

Uncle Li slightly curved his lips and then looked up at Luo, who was sitting on a stone, saying, "It's your turn to come out."

This caught everyone's attention towards Luo, not understanding the meaning behind Uncle Li's words.

"Where is the entrance?"

Luo stood up holding the truth.

This was a question others wanted to know as well, as they had been searching around Mount Grul for a long time to no avail.

"It's under your feet," Uncle Li pointed to a huge stone beneath Luo's feet.

As his words fell, everyone was stunned.

On the mountaintop, like this kind of boulder, there were eight pieces, and practically everyone had noticed and visited them, but no one had thought the entrance would be under a stone, here at the summit.

Luo was quite surprised; he looked down at the stone beneath his feet and stamped his foot. Indeed, the stone quality of Mount Grul was quite hard, surviving even under the scrutiny of stone-carving prevalent Parlo City.

This incidentally explained how frightening it was for Bisky to be able to strike a pit into a rock with a single palm.

"So, it's here..." he murmured to himself.

After Uncle Li pointed out the location, everyone together pushed the massive stone.

With a rumbling sound, the stone was forcibly pushed away, revealing a pair of ground-level double stone doors.

The stone door was three times the size of a regular door, engraved with bizarre patterns and reliefs, leaving almost no gap between the two doors.

"This is the entrance to the Stajy Tomb!" someone exclaimed with ecstatic joy.

Not counting the one knocked out by Bisky, there were a total of twenty-five people present, among them ten Nen users and fifteen ordinary people.

These people were collaborators picked by Uncle Li from tens of thousands of treasure-hunting hunters; even the ordinary people had good physical fitness.

Only ten understood Nen. They looked at the stone doors on the ground, not rashly approaching, because the doors emitted an ominous aura. Concentrating their aura in their eyes, they could see wisps of black aura enveloping the stone doors.

Uncle Li and two others were insiders and thus unsurprised.

Bisky and Antonmu stared at the stone doors, their expressions growing slightly solemn.

The Nen on the stone doors seemed non-aggressive, but it still made the two uncomfortable, as if warning them not to approach carelessly, or else they would bear the consequences.

The other four

 Nen users showed a hint of fear; their abilities were mediocre, and they felt the Nen on the stone doors was extremely dangerous, simply looking at it evoked an urge to turn around and flee.

"They're not on the same level," Luo was astonished. He had absorbed the resentment from Cook and the Elder after their deaths, but the resentment of those two compared to the Nen on the stone doors was incomparable.

The Nen users quietly observed the stone doors on the ground, while two ordinary people, blinded by greed, suddenly ran towards the stone doors, eager to open them and descend into the tomb quickly.

Seeing their behavior, Uncle Li, Ruby, and Aya remained silent, viewing it as their elimination once those two made their hasty moves.

"Come and help open the door!" one of them crouched in front of the door, turning back and shouting.

The two fumbled on the door, seemingly believing there was a mechanism to open the sealed stone door.

Ultimately, it wasn’t a complete team; it wasn’t strange for some to act independently, though they might pay a heavy price.

Uncle Li’s eyes narrowed as he saw the black aura, which slowly undulated like small snakes, now entwining the two rash members.

Not only Uncle Li could see it, but any Nen user, using Gyo, witnessed this scene.

The man kept calling for help, but Uncle Li neither spoke nor made any move, so the other members also stayed put.

Seeing no one respond, the shouting man showed a disgruntled expression, harboring an unbalanced mentality of 'why should I do the work while everyone enjoys the benefits', without considering his own actions.

At that moment, the two touching the stone door suddenly felt difficulty breathing.

Confused, they experienced pain as if countless ropes were harshly constricting them, prompting them to scream out loud.

The people around saw the two suddenly stand up, then their bodies tensed, and deep indentations appeared on their clothes and skin.

Those who couldn’t see Nen displayed horrified expressions.

"Help, help..."

The two entwined by the black aura struggled to shout for help, then continuously screamed as their consciousness quickly blurred.

Uncle Li and the others quietly watched, knowing that attempting to save them might cost their own lives.

At that moment, Luo charged towards the two now unconscious.

"Idiot!" Bisky mentally exclaimed upon seeing Luo’s action.

Even she wouldn’t dare to readily help those attacked by the unknown Nen, especially not in her view of an inexperienced youngster.

"Foolish child," Antonmu's eyes flickered with a hint of scorn, precisely because he was a Nen user, he understood certain dangers better, making the right choice, while in his view, Luo’s action was tantamount to suicide.

Uncle Li and the others were quite anticipatory; after all, the key to opening the stone door was on Luo. If even Luo couldn’t handle it, then they would be in trouble.

Luo, unaware of what the others were thinking, saw the small-snake-like twisting black aura as merely dangerous in his view, yet to him, it was akin to sustenance.

He briskly approached the two, put down the truth, and with both hands grabbed their collars, quickly absorbing the Nen wrapped around the two, then suddenly threw them backward.

The two, already unconscious, made no sound as they heavily hit the ground.

After throwing the two aside, Luo took a closer look at the reliefs on the stone door and suddenly stepped back, several small-snake-like black auras wrapping around his arms.

Whew!

From the stone door, a strong wind spontaneously arose, seemingly the discontent burst from that Nen.

The howling wind ruffled Luo’s hair and whipped his clothes noisily.

Luo merely retreated calmly, distancing himself from the stone door, then raised his hands, his ability of white smoke characters activated, completely absorbing the black aura wrapped around his arms.

Ordinary people saw Luo save the two unlucky ones, then a strong wind appeared out of nowhere, but in the eyes of Nen users, it was an extraordinary scene.

"A Nen Exorcist...!"

Bisky’s mouth slightly agape, Chairman Netero had not mentioned this point.

Antonmu’s eyes, once full of scorn, retreated like the tide...

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