Chapter 1402 — Return to the Ancient Tomb
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
Thinking it over, Yu Xiaoke found it quite likely, for along the way she had not once caught sight of anything intimate between the male thief and the female thief; the two of them scarcely seemed to exchange a word...
"You... did you want... something from me?" The usually bold and reckless female thief, Yu Xiaoke, was oddly sheepish.
"Nothing much. I'll see you out of the valley. Go back the other way and do not meet the female thief and the others again; nothing good will come of it for you." Wei Zhao had not noticed her expression. What filled his mind was whether to go back into the ancient tomb once more. After all, the medical notes had mentioned the Sky-Thunder Pig, and Wei Zhao was keenly interested in that little spirit beast; and to find the Fire Spirit Sacred Fruit he would most likely have need of the creature, so he must go and have a look, whatever it took, before he could rest easy.
"The female thief? Is she going to harm me?" Yu Xiaoke was startled.
"No, nothing of the sort. I simply do not want the two of you to meet again." Wei Zhao had no wish to explain. At least he had no intention of revealing his identity before Yu Xiaoke; once it came out, Qiu Lingshan's identity would come out with it, and she would be awkward the next time she faced Yu Xiaoke. Besides, this was a covert operation, and the fewer who knew of it the better.
"Oh..." There was something ambiguous in the way Wei Zhao said it, and Yu Xiaoke took it amiss. What she took amiss was that Wei Zhao truly did have feelings for her and was only afraid the female thief would make things hard for her. The thought that they were about to part left her suddenly forlorn. "Then... will I be able to see you again?"
"I doubt it..." Wei Zhao frowned. That faint, peculiar warmth in her words left him helpless, unsure whether to laugh or to cry. Did Yu Xiaoke really imagine he was in love with her? Still, he had not lied to her. This was, he supposed, the last time he would appear before Yu Xiaoke as the male thief. Once this mission ended, Wei Zhao would never play the male thief again—and the male thief had long since been struck dead by Chen Yuxuan. There would be no male thief left in this world.
"Oh..." Yu Xiaoke was somewhat disappointed, and a sense of loss came over her at once. This was the first man who had stirred her heart, though she did not even know his face, nor his real name—only a code name: the Male Thief.
Beyond that, Yu Xiaoke knew nothing at all about the male thief. She had never seen him before, and from what he said now, it seemed she never would again.
"I'll see you out of the valley, and then I have to go back into the tomb once more," Wei Zhao said.
"You... you're going back?" Yu Xiaoke was taken aback.
"Yes. I want to take a look inside the Gate of Death. There may be something in there that I am looking for," Wei Zhao said.
"How about... I go back with you?" Yu Xiaoke asked, her face reddening. "I know I'm clumsy... but I ought to be able to help somehow..."
Yu Xiaoke was loath to part from Wei Zhao; even a little more time together would be something. From the sound of him, he seemed to feel nothing particular for her, and after today the two of them might never cross paths again.
And Yu Xiaoke would take no more missions from the Thief Sect. If she were handed another task like this one, with Wei Zhao absent, she would truly die.
"Very well, then we go together." Wei Zhao mused a moment, then nodded. His earlier plan had in fact been to have Yu Xiaoke accompany him. He had the jade pendant on his person, but he did not know the ancient tomb's traps as well as she did—especially after Yu Xiaoke had assembled the two jigsaw patterns on the Gate of Life and the Gate of Death, that notion had grown all the stronger.