Chapter 2702 — Arrival at the Ancient Tomb

"Xiaoyi?" Yu Xiaoke turned to look at Wei Zhao. "He... he called you what?"

"Oh, my real name is Liu Yi." Wei Zhao casually made up a name for himself.

"Liu Yi? Oh..." Yu Xiaoke nodded. How similar it was to that scoundrel Wei Zhao's name—but their character was worlds apart. If Wei Zhao were even one-tenth as decent as Liu Yi, she would not have treated him the way she did!

In truth, Yu Xiaoke's eyes had been blinded by love, and beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. Wei Zhao and Liu Yi were one and the same person, yet she insisted on regarding them as two opposite extremes!

White Leader also realized he had let his tongue slip. Wei Zhao had told him before that this tomb-robbing venture required concealing his identity, yet he had blurted out Wei Zhao's name in the blink of an eye. Fortunately Wei Zhao had reacted quickly and invented a name for himself; on the surface, there was no flaw to be found. Otherwise, they would truly have been exposed.

"This is White Leader. You may call him Teacher Bai," Wei Zhao said, giving Yu Xiaoke no time to react and directly introducing White Leader's identity.

"Hello, Teacher Bai. I am Yu Xiaoke, Liu Yi's friend." Yu Xiaoke bowed gently and respectfully to White Leader, speaking with impeccable courtesy—a world apart from the fiery, impulsive Yu Xiaoke of daily life.

"Heh heh, hello. Xiaoyi mentions you often," White Leader said politely. This time he need not worry about a slip of the tongue.

"R-really?" Yu Xiaoke was pleasantly surprised. Even the male thief's teacher mentioned her often—then the male thief must surely have feelings for her!

"Shall we set out now?" White Leader said. "Tonight we will scout the area nearby, and first thing tomorrow morning we enter the ancient tomb!"

"All right, let's go!" Yu Xiaoke nodded obediently and got into the car with Wei Zhao, sitting in the back seat.

Wei Zhao directed White Leader as he drove. This time, Wei Zhao did not enter through the robbers' tunnel in the ancient tomb, but through the exit instead. It would save a long stretch of road and was not much more dangerous.

Under Wei Zhao's guidance, the car soon reached the nearest spot accessible to vehicles. The rest of the way would have to be covered on foot. The three of them got out of the car and walked together toward the ancient tomb's exit.

All three were in excellent physical condition. Though White Leader was no longer a ** practitioner, walking long distances posed no problem at all—only his speed could not keep up. An hour later, the three arrived at the open ground before the tomb's exit.

"This is the place!" Wei Zhao said, pointing at the entrance of the tomb.

"Squeak, squeak..." The Heavenly Thunder Pig seemed to sense the aura of the tomb, a feeling of coming home, and immediately squealed excitedly from inside Wei Zhao's backpack!

Only then did Wei Zhao remember that he had forgotten to let the Heavenly Thunder Pig out—he had quite forgotten the little creature! The Heavenly Thunder Pig must have been miserable: beaten by Wei Zhao earlier, it had not dared to squeal along the way, enduring it all until they reached the tomb's entrance, where it finally could not hold back and, risking another beating, squealed once to remind Wei Zhao of its existence.

"What was that sound?" Yu Xiaoke looked at Wei Zhao in confusion. Why did that sound seem so familiar? It was like...

"Oh, it's the Heavenly Thunder Pig." Wei Zhao hurriedly let the Heavenly Thunder Pig out, diverting Yu Xiaoke's attention. Wei Zhao realized that pretending to be two people was not so easy to pull off—especially before the same person, and especially when he was not being particularly careful.

"Ah, it's this little thing! I haven't seen it in so long, I've actually missed it!" Sure enough, Yu Xiaoke's attention was immediately drawn to the Heavenly Thunder Pig. She scooped up the little creature and gazed at it affectionately. But after a while, she was startled. "It's already a spirit beast at the peak of the late Mystic rank?" "Yes, heh heh, I can help others raise their strength. Didn't you know that back at the ancient tomb?" Wei Zhao asked.

"Back then..." Yu Xiaoke had not been well acquainted with Wei Zhao at the time and had not asked in detail; now she could not quite remember clearly either. But it did not matter. She was astonished. "You can raise a spirit beast's strength? Then why not raise it to the Heaven rank?"

"..." Wei Zhao was somewhat speechless. "That is already the limit. It cannot be raised any further."

"Oh..." Yu Xiaoke nodded. Wei Zhao's words brought her back to reality. Right—raising a spirit beast to the Heaven rank, was that not a joke?

Wei Zhao quickly pitched the tents. He had brought two: one for himself and White Leader, and one for Yu Xiaoke. As for food, they had brought their own compressed biscuits and the like.

Once the tents were up, Yu Xiaoke had assumed Wei Zhao would share a tent with her, and she had been rather excited about it—because in her view, White Leader was the teacher and would naturally have a tent to himself, leaving her with Wei Zhao. But to her surprise, Wei Zhao went into a tent together with White Leader!

"Male thief, you two together?" Yu Xiaoke was somewhat reluctant to accept it. She had finally gotten a chance to be alone with Wei Zhao—even if they did nothing, just whispering together would have been nice!

"I am helping Teacher Bai heal his injuries. He is slightly wounded. Xiaoke, if you are not sleepy, you can help us with the **!" Wei Zhao said.

"All right, then I will just sit nearby!" Only then did Yu Xiaoke cheer up again. Though with White Leader present she could not say anything too intimate to Wei Zhao, she was content simply to be with him.

Wei Zhao said nothing more. He sat cross-legged in the tent with White Leader, his hand pressing on the pulse point at White Leader's wrist, while Yu Xiaoke watched Wei Zhao's healing method with curiosity.

"Male thief, you are using true qi to help your ** heal?" Yu Xiaoke was curious. Though she was an external ** practitioner, she knew a little about internal ** as well. Seeing Wei Zhao use true qi to heal White Leader, she was puzzled. "Can you treat him because you are of the same sect, or can you treat anyone's injuries?"

"Xiaoke, Xiaoyi is healing me now. If you have questions, ask him later, all right? Do not disturb him," White Leader said, startled, afraid Yu Xiaoke would interfere with Wei Zhao.

"Oh, oh, oh..." Yu Xiaoke nodded hurriedly and covered her mouth. She had heard that an expert of the internal school must not be distracted while circulating the mental cultivation formulas, especially when performing important tasks. But she was an external ** practitioner, free of such concerns—which was why she had spoken up—and she had nearly disrupted Wei Zhao!