Chapter 1335 — Yu Xiaoke's Doubt

Seeing Qiu Lingshan's look, Wei Zhao remembered at once what her mission and Chen Yutian's had been on this trip to the ancient tomb. Their chief task was to capture these tomb robbers; the tomb exploration was merely incidental. Which meant that the movements of these people had suddenly become a matter of the first importance.

Qiu Lingshan had no wish to explore the tomb on her own. She wanted to be able to keep these tomb thieves under watch at all times, so that the instant anything went wrong, she could be the first to notify the reinforcements waiting outside and have them close the net around this place. What she feared was that these men might judge the tomb too dangerous and abandon the whole scheme for the time being.

If that happened, once they scattered, catching them again would be far harder. So Qiu Lingshan proposed that they go back first.

Wei Zhao mused for a moment. Anxious as he was, he reflected that Feng Xiaoxiao was already frozen inside the ice coffin and would come to no harm for a while yet. A day sooner or a day later hardly mattered; the ancient tomb was not about to run off, and even if the robbers gave up entirely, he could still come and explore it himself.

"Fine, then we'll go back first and settle it after we've talked it over!" Wei Zhao said with a nod.

Lord Hao let out a breath of relief, and a little more of a smile surfaced on his face. "That's how it should be — we act together. Otherwise, if something goes wrong, what then?"

The return was made the same way as the descent, hauled up by the rope hoist. Only this time two were missing: Old Keng and Mr. Qiu.

Mr. Qiu was no great concern. Old Keng, though, still had several trusted men up above, and no one knew how Old Hei meant to deal with them — or whether Old Hei had already quietly sent word to the men he had left up there to dispose of Old Keng's loyal followers.

When the group climbed up, sure enough, Old Keng's trusted men were nowhere to be seen. Only a handful remained, and they had surrendered and thrown in with Old Hei.

That was simply how reality worked: when the tree falls, the monkeys scatter. Old Keng was dead, and for his men, resisting to the bitter end would have meant nothing but being wiped out.

Such matters, however, were of no interest to Wei Zhao. Old Hei was merely a wretched pawn. Though he seemed to have come out ahead — having killed Old Keng and absorbed his men — Wei Zhao felt that he was being used.

An invisible net was draped over them all, and somewhere behind it an unseen ghostly hand was pushing everyone onward, toward the direction it had already chosen.

Wei Zhao watched the tomb robbers with cold eyes and said nothing. He simply returned to the tent with Qiu Lingshan and Chen Yutian. But after two steps he turned his head and looked back at Yu Xiaoke. "Be careful. It's too dangerous here. With those clumsy skills of yours, you'd best go back early."

"Ah?" Yu Xiaoke was startled, and wanted to say something, but Wei Zhao had already turned and walked off.

The little scene drew no particular notice. The Thieving Couple were known for precisely this sort of caustic, cutting manner, speaking bluntly to anyone's face, and so Old Hei took it as Wei Zhao mocking Yu Xiaoke's incompetence and, by extension, conveying his displeasure with Old Hei himself.

Could it be that the Thieving Couple were dissatisfied with their share of the take? Small wonder if they were. Old Keng had died today, and his fifteen percent had opened up. Were the two of them, then, casting greedy eyes on that fifteen percent?

At the thought, Old Hei's face turned somewhat dark. He knew that exploring this tomb would be impossible without Wei Zhao's help — these people had very nearly lost their way in there today. If he did not offer Wei Zhao a larger share, then when the moment came, Wei Zhao might simply walk away and come rob the tomb on his own a while later, and Old Hei would have no part in it at all.

With the Thieving Couple's temperament, they were perfectly capable of doing something so unreasonable. So Old Hei hesitated, and decided that if Wei Zhao raised the matter, he would hand over another portion of the profits. After all, Wei Zhao's role was pivotal.

"Everyone rest a while. In a bit, all of you come to my tent, and we'll work out the plan from here!" Old Hei said to those present. "And Lord Hao, do favor us with more of your ideas and guidance..."

"Hmph! Some people, I fear, no longer consider an old thing like me worth anything at all!" Watching Wei Zhao's departing back, Lord Hao gave a cold, thoroughly displeased snort. "Old Hei, a man who won't follow arrangements — don't bring him along anymore."

"Lord Hao... the Thieving Couple are simply made that way, but they do have skill, and we can't do without them on this job..." Old Hei said, somewhat put out, though inwardly he was rather resentful of Lord Hao. Had he known, he would never have told the old bastard. Leaning on his years to lord it over others — no use at all when it counted, and now nothing but trouble!

But it is easy to invite a god in and hard to send one away. Since Lord Hao had come, there was no sending him off. Old Hei could only explain, thoroughly dejected.

"A blind cat stumbling over a dead rat, nothing more," Lord Hao snorted.

Wei Zhao returned to the tent with Qiu Lingshan and Chen Yutian. Chen Yutian immediately set about checking for listening devices, but Wei Zhao waved a hand. "Save your strength. Old Hei isn't fool enough to use that sort of irritating trick a second time. For now, he doesn't dare offend us."

And there was one more thing Wei Zhao did not say: his jade pendant had given no warning signal at all. Which meant that the tent was, for the moment, safe — that nothing here was amiss.

"True enough. Old Hei and the rest still need you to explore the tomb. But Wei Zhao, how did you know that path would lead out?" Chen Yutian nodded, and then, thinking of what Wei Zhao had done today, was still rather astonished. He had known before that Wei Zhao's investigative skills were formidable, but in this ancient tomb there had been no clue whatsoever to follow, and yet Wei Zhao had walked straight out, accurate and unerring, without taking a single wrong turn.

"Intuition, I suppose. Do you believe that?" Wei Zhao smiled. It was hard to explain the business with his jade pendant, so he merely shrugged and gave an answer that was neither here nor there.

Chen Yutian was taken aback. Then he nodded. "I believe it. Why wouldn't I?"

"Heh..." Wei Zhao smiled. "All right, enough of that. Let's talk about the tomb. You two had better prepare yourselves — among this gang of tomb robbers, there should be a real expert."

"An expert? You mean the one who killed Mr. Qiu?" Qiu Lingshan and Chen Yutian were no fools; they seized on the crux at once. "That Mr. Qiu — was he truly an expert at the peak of early Yellow Rank?"

"That's right. Old Hei wasn't lying." Wei Zhao nodded. "Anyone able to kill Mr. Qiu with a single fatal blow, and without a sound, is very likely an Earth Rank expert — at the very least, the peak of late Profound Rank. I'm not sure I could manage it myself, killing Mr. Qiu without a whisper..."

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