Chapter 1349 — Back Into the Ancient Tomb

"In that case... very well, then!" Yu Shuixing nodded. "How about this: this time, why not quietly do away with Wei Zhao first? That brat is the one who killed Third Brother — our sworn enemy!"

"I will see. If this mission goes smoothly and there is time to spare, I will go to Songshan City and hunt for Wei Zhao. If I find him, I will finish him off in passing. If there is no time, then it will have to wait for next time," Old Yu said.

"Then it will have to be that way. In that case, Big Brother, I will not disturb you any longer," Yu Shuixing said.

After hanging up, Old Yu frowned, thinking with venom in his heart: Wei Zhao, one day, sooner or later, I will take your life! Yet for the moment, the greatest enemy before Old Yu was that Mystic-rank expert, the male bandit. The man was a thorn in his side. Since when had tomb robbers of the mundane world grown so formidable? He was truly too strong.

In Wei Zhao's tent, the moment Wei Zhao entered he sat down cross-legged and began healing his injuries, seizing every minute and every second. Qiu Lingshan and Chen Yutian exchanged a glance. Though each had questions they wished to ask Wei Zhao, they also knew this was not the right moment, and so both chose silence, guarding him from left and right.

Tonight might well be the most dangerous night of Wei Zhao's life. Yesterday it had been Wei Zhao who stood watch over them; tonight, let them stand watch over Wei Zhao.

Though Wei Zhao had hurried into the jade-pendant space to cultivate, it was not that forced entry brought on by injury and unconsciousness, and so he could still sense the world outside. Seeing Qiu Lingshan and Chen Yutian both standing guard for him, warmth rose in Wei Zhao's heart.

In the blink of an eye, the night had passed. That morning, Wei Zhao did not rise early as he had before, but opened his eyes very late. Qiu Lingshan and Chen Yutian had kept vigil at his side the whole night without sleep; fortunately, both were accustomed to staying up late, and both were cultivators at the peak of the late Yellow-rank, so a sleepless night had little effect on them.

Outside the tent, the sounds of the others waking had long since risen, yet no one came to Wei Zhao's tent to rouse him. His showing the day before had awed Old Hei and the rest, and Old Hei was not so foolish as to send someone to wake Wei Zhao.

Besides, Old Master Yu had not appeared either. What use would summoning Wei Zhao have been?

It was past ten in the morning when Wei Zhao finally emerged from the tent. By now he was full of vigor, with not the slightest trace of injury about him. Old Yu too arrived late; though he was a cultivation genius, the spiritual qi of heaven and earth here was far too thin, and even amid these deep mountains Old Yu had not recovered from the wound on his right hand. He appeared before the others still with his arm wrapped in bandages.

"We can set out now, I take it?" Old Yu asked flatly.

"Let's go." Without another word, Wei Zhao headed off toward the cliff of the day before.

Old Hei, James, and Yu Xiaoke still descended by the crude lift, while Wei Zhao, Qiu Lingshan, and Chen Yutian followed Old Yu and leaped straight down the cliff to the robbers' hole midway up the rock face.

Old Yu looked at Qiu Lingshan and Chen Yutian, who had come down with Wei Zhao, and his gaze narrowed slightly. He had not expected that the female bandit of the husband-and-wife pair, and their hanger-on besides, were also experts at the peak of the late Yellow-rank! This tomb-robbing crew was truly no simple matter.

Old Yu had himself entered the Hidden Yu Clan from the mundane world, and so he naturally knew how rarely a Yellow-rank expert appeared there. For a tomb-robbing crew to hold even one Yellow-rank expert — like Mr. Qiu yesterday — was already no small feat; yet in this husband-and-wife bandit crew, all three were cultivators!

No wonder the husband-and-wife bandits went tomb robbing with so few hands, unafraid that others might turn on them and pick them clean. So they were all experts. Especially that male bandit — a thornbush no one could touch; touch him, and your own hands would come away dripping blood.

"The male bandit is indeed no simple man. Even those around him are cultivators, all at the peak of the late Yellow-rank, a single step from the Mystic-rank!" Old Yu said flatly.

"You flatter me." Wei Zhao smiled, and said no more.

Old Hei, James, and Yu Xiaoke came down one after another on the lift. This time, however, neither Old Hei nor James brought any helpers down with them, for they knew full well that in Old Yu's eyes their helpers were nothing but floating clouds; even facing Wei Zhao, those men would be like watermelons under a knife, one cut apiece.

And so Old Hei did not even send word for the helpers he had hired afterward to come — simply because, if they came, they still could not stand against Old Yu.

This time the searchlight gave no trouble. The last time, it had failed halfway along the route; now that he thought of it, that too had been Young Master Hao's handiwork — he alone could have tampered with the equipment in advance.

The group reached the mechanism before the entrance of the underground palace without mishap, and did not take again the wrong path they had taken the day before.

The entrance of the underground palace here had likewise been blasted open with explosives, plainly the work of the tomb robbers who came before. Whether that man had entered the palace was impossible to say; at least nothing showed on the surface.

"Here it is!" Seeing the blasted-open entrance of the underground palace, Old Hei could not help calling out in delight. "That way over there used to be blocked by stone. Plainly whoever blasted this robbers' hole found that path suspect and sealed it up with stone. The true robbers' hole is here!"

Following where Old Hei pointed, the group looked. On the stone door at this entrance of the underground palace was a wheel, somewhat like the combination lock on a safe, and upon the stone door there were still marks of blasting — surely the work of the earlier tomb robbers. But clearly the material of this stone door was exceptionally sturdy: ordinary explosives could never have destroyed it, yet too violent an explosive dared not be used. After all, this ancient tomb had been hollowed out within the mountain itself; too violent a blast might bring the mountain down outright. Even if the stone door were destroyed, the passage would be collapsed along with it, and everyone would be buried alive inside.

"This is the stone door. I have consulted a great deal of material and grasped a few ways of opening it, though I do not know whether they will work," Old Hei said modestly. In truth, to say so much meant he was reasonably confident; after all, this was only the first mechanism, and a fairly easy one at that.

"Then why are you not trying it yet?" Old Yu said, somewhat impatient.

Toward the male bandit he dared not shout and order about, but toward these juniors of the tomb-robbing trade, he had no scruples at all.