Chapter 1325 — New Arrivals

"No need for that. We go straight on. We're all cultivators; there's no point in resting." Wei Zhao said flatly.

Qiu Lingshan nodded. She had forgotten for a moment that they were all cultivators, and thinking along her old lines she had naturally suggested they camp somewhere with people, with a village, to rest. Now, of course, that was quite unnecessary.

"Then we keep going. We should be nearly there!" Qiu Lingshan said.

The road grew harder and harder to travel. For a stretch around them there was almost no sign of human habitation; even the folk of the nearby villages would hardly come to a place like this. It was all mountains, and mostly sheer cliffs of rock — no wild fruit, no animals. A person could come here and do nothing but look at the scenery.

"The scenery here isn't bad at all — a fine spot for a photograph!" Wei Zhao remarked with a sigh of appreciation.

"A pity that scenery, however fine, is so far off the beaten track that it can never be developed into a tourist site. The villages around here are simply too poor, the infrastructure too wretched; turning this into an attraction would take far too much investment. No company would throw that kind of money in here, and no one could even say whether there'd be any return," Chen Yutian said.

Wei Zhao did not understand this sort of commercial operation, so hearing Chen Yutian's words he offered no judgement of his own.

The car drove on for a while more. The mountain road grew all the harder to negotiate, and the trees along the roadside thinned out; apart from the desolate mountain rock there was nothing left at all. When they had first entered these mountains, the scenery had seemed lovely enough, but after a time it turned monotonous, stale, without a trace of novelty.

Chen Yutian was right — this place was not suited to becoming a tourist site. The scenery was too uniform. Anyone who came once would never come again; there was nothing in it to make a person linger.

"We're nearly there... it's time to put on the masks! That tent up ahead probably belongs to another tomb-raiding gang. We must stay cautious and alert at all times; we can't let anyone see through us," Qiu Lingshan warned.

"There's no need for alertness. Too much alertness only rouses suspicion; let things be as they are," Wei Zhao said flatly. "The Husband-and-Wife Thieves were always domineering and brazen — that's in the material too, and everyone in the trade knows it. How could they possibly be cautious and wary?"

"You're right. My worry has clouded my judgement!" Qiu Lingshan said, taking the lesson to heart.

That said, Wei Zhao, Qiu Lingshan and Chen Yutian all put on the masks prepared in advance. These masks had been confiscated from the Husband-and-Wife Thieves — the originals; there was no need even to make copies.

As the car drew nearer, rows of tents and rows of vehicles came into view not far off. Most of the vehicles were off-roaders, though there were also a few large trucks, no doubt carrying supplies.

These tomb robbers had no end of men under them, unlike the Husband-and-Wife Thieves, who preferred to work alone.

When Chen Yutian drove closer, several burly men holding submachine guns suddenly stepped out from the tents, and behind them a short, slight, dry-thin man waved his hand, signalling Chen Yutian to stop.

"What's your business here? This is a military zone — construction up ahead, you can't pass!" the short, thin man said flatly.

An ordinary tourist, seeing the gaunt man's gun-toting underlings, might well have believed him and turned the car around. But Chen Yutian had come with a purpose, and naturally would not believe the man's words.

"Metal, wood, water, fire, earth — there's wood up ahead, isn't there?" Chen Yutian said flatly.

This was the newest password in the Thief Sect's line of work, tomb raiding, and he had it from Liu Bojia's own mouth. Surely this short, thin man would understand it.

"Oh?" the gaunt man said, betraying nothing. "The Heavenly King covers the earth tiger!"

The earlier phrase was the common password of the tomb-raiding trade; this one was the signal agreed upon for this particular raid. If you could not answer it — well, then, sorry: the short man had only to flick his hand, and those submachine-gun-toting men would fire without hesitation.

Someone who could match the first phrase but not the second was very likely a man of the Thief Sect as well, who had caught wind of things and come to fish in troubled waters for a share of the spoils. The gaunt man would never let such people cut themselves a slice.

"Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King Li!" Chen Yutian said, calm and unhurried. This countersign he had read in the Husband-and-Wife Thieves' work journal — a signal even Liu Bojia did not know. The couple had perhaps feared forgetting so temporary an agreed password, and so had set it down in their journal.

When Chen Yutian and Qiu Lingshan first saw that signal, they had both nearly laughed. At the words "the Heavenly King covers the earth tiger," most people's first reaction was "the precious pagoda quells the river demon" — but to blurt that out as glibly as it came to the tongue would be a terrible mistake.

"A friend comes from afar — and which road might he be from?" The gaunt man's expression eased somewhat; he knew these visitors must be the party that had been agreed upon.

"Old Hei, you son of a bitch, don't you even recognise me anymore? Nattering on with your endless questions — believe me, I'll have him run you over!" Before Chen Yutian could speak, Wei Zhao shoved open the car door in displeasure, jumped down and jabbed a finger at the gaunt man, cursing him out.

According to Chen Yutian's information, this Old Hei was the leader of the Red Pagoda tomb-raiding gang, and the man who had discovered this ancient tomb.

The Husband-and-Wife Thieves, though, were of a strange temper, and confident in their own great skill they often held their peers in contempt; so ordinarily they were not much liked. Yet when it came to an ancient tomb as difficult as this, there was no choice but to invite him over.

So Wei Zhao imitated the male thief of the Husband-and-Wife Thieves, cursing the moment he stepped out of the car.

"Male Thief, still that hot temper of yours. This is for safety's sake — the fewer people come to carve up this ancient tomb, the greater our own share! Isn't it only that I fear someone catching wind and coming to join the fun?" The short, thin man called Old Hei shook his head somewhat helplessly, seething with anger yet with no other way about it.

"Hmph!" Wei Zhao snorted coldly. "Where are the others? Are they all here? My time is limited!"

"Brother Keng and Haoye, and James too, have all arrived. They're over there resting!" the short, thin man said.

"Everyone's here? When do we start?" Wei Zhao asked. The material showed that only five parties had come to raid this tomb, and one of them — the Husband-and-Wife Thieves — was now himself. The remaining four parties had all arrived.

"We're waiting on one guest. Without Liu Bojia, we could only invite one outsider. This ancient tomb is too dangerous; even you aren't sure of it, so I have no choice but to be careful," the short, thin man said.

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