Chapter 1325 — New Arrivals
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"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 Yuxuan said.
Wei Zhao did not understand this sort of commercial operation, so hearing Chen Yuxuan'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 Yuxuan 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 Yuxuan 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 Yuxuan 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 Yuxuan 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 Yuxuan 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 Yuxuan 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.