Chapter 1335 — Yu Xiaoke's Doubt
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
Seeing Qiu Lingshan's look, Wei Zhao remembered at once what her mission and Chen Yuxuan'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 Yuxuan. 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.