Chapter 3354 — There Is More to This Than Meets the Eye
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"I can't say for now. Let's walk on and take a look—staying here won't do us any good." With that, Wei Zhao lifted his foot and headed toward the great signboard.
"Oh, all right." Yu Dake could not say why, but he trusted Wei Zhao with a strange, unquestioning faith. So when Wei Zhao moved, he followed without a second thought.
Yu Xiaoke, however, saw Wei Zhao striding off so rashly and immediately grew anxious. "Wei Zhao, what do you think you're doing? If you want to throw your life away, don't drag us with you! There's only one passage in there, and even my Flying Swallow Sect people wouldn't dare claim to know which one is right—so don't go wandering off!"
The traps and hidden passages in ancient tombs were dangerous enough, but most of them left traces to follow, possessed a certain regularity. Yet this thing the Palan clan had built with their own hands had no pattern at all: five passages identical in every respect, with no hint, no marker. As things stood, Yu Xiaoke simply had no way of judging which one was correct.
"That just proves how low your level is!" Wei Zhao said flatly. "I told you before—with that piddling skill of yours, don't come out here trying to play the hero. If it weren't for your brother, I wouldn't have brought you to a dangerous place like this at all!"
"Hm?" Yu Xiaoke was taken aback, and could not help but frown. Something in Wei Zhao's words gave her a strange, uncanny feeling. In this dim, gloomy place, so much like those ancient tombs of before, Yu Xiaoke had the odd illusion that the one walking ahead and speaking was not Wei Zhao at all, but the Malevolent Thief!
Yu Xiaoke could not say why she felt this way; all she knew was that in that instant, Wei Zhao's voice, Wei Zhao's manner of speaking, had made her think of the Malevolent Thief before she could stop herself.
But when Yu Xiaoke tried to calm herself and think it through, Wei Zhao had already chosen a passage and stepped into it, leaving her no time to think. Seeing that her brother had already followed him in, Yu Xiaoke had no choice—she gritted her teeth and, steeling herself, went after them...
As it happened, Yu Dake had been worrying over nothing. By this time Gu'erzi had already led the Gu family in flight toward the remote mountain regions. They might have nursed vengeance in their hearts, but they knew full well that with their strength, revenge was utterly beyond them!
Yet halfway along the road, Gu'erzi's phone suddenly rang! It was a satellite phone, so he had no need to worry about signal.
After a moment's hesitation, Gu'erzi answered it anyway. He had no idea who might be calling. "Hello, hello, this is Gu Zixian..."
"Little Gu, it's me..." On the other end came the voice of Patriarch Xuanchen. So Patriarch Xuanchen was, in fact, the master of the Gu family!
"M-Master... hello..." Gu'erzi jumped in fright. Instinctively he wanted to hang up, but he dared not.
"My two men have gone to your place, haven't they? Receive them well. When they come back, they'll be paying you another visit!" said Patriarch Xuanchen.
"That..." Hearing that Kang Jingming and the others would come to him again on their return, Gu'erzi was at a loss for words. He was a fugitive now—what was the point of anyone going to stay with him?
"What is it? Has something happened?" How shrewd was Patriarch Xuanchen? Hearing Gu'erzi stammer, he sensed at once that something was amiss.
"That..." Gu'erzi was a spineless coward by nature. Frightened half to death by Patriarch Xuanchen's stern tone, and cowed by years of submission, he forgot everything else and poured out the whole tale like beans from a split bamboo tube—what had happened, and then: "Master, you must avenge our Gu family! We've served you faithfully these many years, and now my father has been beaten to death—you can't just do nothing! Could you send someone over, perhaps..."