Chapter 3354 — There Is More to This Than Meets the Eye

"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..."

Having said this much, Gu'erzi no longer cared about the rest. What he wanted was simple: if Patriarch Xuanchen would help them take revenge, nothing could be better.

"What?" At the words "the man driving the Grand Cherokee" and "together with people surnamed Yu," Patriarch Xuanchen understood at once—wasn't that Wei Zhao?! Hearing this, Patriarch Xuanchen was so furious he wanted to swear. **Damn it all—if I could** kill Wei Zhao, **I'd have done it long ago!** Would I have needed to set the Palan clan on him? At this thought, Patriarch Xuanchen said angrily, "I can't avenge you. Run for your lives. If there's nothing else, I'm hanging up!"

With that, Patriarch Xuanchen hung up outright and paid Gu'erzi no further mind. In his eyes, the man was a discarded piece—why should he care whether they lived or died?

"Hello? Master? Hello, hello? Moshi moshi?" Gu'erzi held the phone, his face a picture of despair...

……………………

Tuo'ertu had been badly wounded, but he was, after all, a consummate expert at the peak of the late Heaven rank; his injuries were not enough to rob him of his ability to move. Black of mood as he was, he forced himself into the ancient castle and came before his father, Tuo'er Riyue.

"Tuo'ertu, what's happened to you? You're wounded?" Tuo'er Riyue started violently at the sight of him and asked at once.

"Father, I'm crippled... just like you..." Tuo'ertu had already examined his own meridians; he knew that he had become the same as his father—a ruined man.

"What?! How? What on earth happened?" Tuo'er Riyue was shocked. He sprang to his feet and demanded.

"It was that man called Wei Zhao... To think that a mid Heaven-rank expert could not only dodge my strike, but counterattack and wound me so gravely..." Tuo'ertu was thoroughly despondent. Truly, he had gone out for wool and come home shorn!

"What? That Wei Zhao is that formidable?" Tuo'er Riyue's face darkened at the news, and he turned an angry glare on Kang Jingming and Xiao Yi beside him.

Kang Jingming did not much care whether Tuo'ertu lived or died; what he cared about was whether Wei Zhao was dead yet. So, with a sigh, he said, "I told you long ago—this man can fight opponents above his own rank, and his strength is extraordinary. And what did you do? You sent a single man to kill him? Whom have you to blame but yourselves?"

"That..." Tuo'er Riyue was struck dumb by Kang Jingming's words and could not speak. Indeed, the man had warned them beforehand: this one can fight above his rank, so take care! It was not that they had not been told—it was that they had paid no heed at all!

"Tuo'ertu, what exactly happened? Is there something more to this than meets the eye?" Tuo'er Riyue asked in a low voice after entering. His mood was foul indeed: his own injuries had not healed, and now Tuo'ertu too was crippled. Truly, these were ill-starred times!

"Father, this business... we never should have gotten involved at all!" Tuo'ertu sighed helplessly. "Do you know who it was Kang Jingming wanted to kill?"

"Who?" Tuo'er Riyue was startled.