Chapter 1331 — One Man Short

The situation inside the tomb was something Wei Zhao knew nothing about. The Couple Bandits' work log had scarcely mentioned such matters, and though Liu Bojia had offered a few conjectures about the traps within, he had on the contrary overlooked these simple, safe stretches just inside the entrance.

So Wei Zhao, knowing nothing, said nothing, and followed behind Old Hei and the others through the pitch-black tomb. Old Hei carried a searchlight, but with not a ray of sunlight inside, the place still felt unspeakably grim.

At first it was tolerable enough, but after a few dozen meters the cold, dank air came beating at their faces, carrying an indescribable stench of mildew and rot that set the hair on end.

Luckily, the floor of the tomb was fairly level and free of obstacles, which let them move quickly.

On they walked, no one knew how long, when suddenly there came a faint click, and in the next instant everything before their eyes went black!

They were all old hands at tomb robbing, and none of them believed in ghosts or demons; but the sudden darkness still stopped every one of them in his tracks.

"Damn it, the searchlight's dead? It was charged only yesterday!" Old Hei's cursing came from the front of the line. "Who charged it yesterday?"

"Brother Hei... I checked it over before we set out, tested the remaining charge — there was no problem..." one of the big men said cautiously.

"Bloody hell! Who's got a flashlight? Give me one!" Brother Hei shook his head. The odds of a searchlight failing out of the blue were less than one in a hundred, and here they were, off to a bad start. But it was too late to go back for another searchlight — and besides, they had brought only one.

The thing was bulky and hooked up to a high-capacity battery, which made it a nuisance to carry, so on this descent they had brought just the one.

Someone handed Old Hei a flashlight, but in that pitch-black tomb its beam seemed pitifully weak; the searchlight itself could not reach the end, and the flashlight was a mere grain of light.

Still, half a loaf was better than none — the view was poor, but it would have to do.

"Those at the back, each of you take the hand of the man in front — don't anyone get left behind!" Old Hei shouted back to the others, then said to another of his men beside him, "Mr. Qiu, I want you in the rear. Sprinkle lime powder as a trail the whole way — mind we don't get lost!"

"Yes, Brother Hei!" The man called Mr. Qiu answered with a nod, then turned and ran to the very back of the line.

Wei Zhao glanced at this Mr. Qiu — an expert at the peak of the early Yellow Rank, no less. He had not expected Old Hei to have a man of such caliber at his side.

Having given his orders, Old Hei went on ahead with the flashlight. Several hundred meters more, and still no end in sight. Wei Zhao frowned; but seeing that no one else said anything, he said nothing either.

Another few hundred meters, and Old Hei, up ahead, suddenly halted, the whole line lurching to a stop after him.

"This is wrong! We've taken the wrong path!" Old Hei cried out suddenly, turning around, a flicker of unease in his eyes. "Something's off. Last time it took us only about ten minutes to reach the entrance of the underground palace. This time we've been walking nearly half an hour, and there's still a path ahead!"

"No way? How can that be?" James cried out. "How were you leading us?"

"Damn it, I felt something was off — why were we walking so long? My legs are going numb!" Brother Keng complained too.

"Enough, all of you. Old Hei, what exactly is going on?" Lord Hao spoke, cutting them off. He was the only one who had never been to this ancient tomb before, so naturally he had not noticed anything wrong.

"Lord Hao, I think we've taken the wrong path. This corridor seems to have no end. We need to retreat at once!" Old Hei said.

"What do you mean, we? You're the one who took the wrong path!" Brother Keng grumbled.

"All right, now is not the time to shift blame. Old Hei didn't do it on purpose. Let's retreat first and talk after!" Lord Hao was, after all, seasoned and steady; he showed no great alarm now, only said in a low voice.

"That's the only way. Mr. Qiu, you lead the way back along the lime line. We're retreating!" Old Hei ordered Mr. Qiu at the rear.

But no one answered.

"Mr. Qiu? Did you hear me?" Old Hei called again.

Still no answer.

"Mr. Qiu?" Old Hei's face finally changed. He called a third time.

"Ah—" Just then, from the very back of the line, came a scream of terror!

Old Hei instinctively ran toward the rear, and everyone else turned their eyes that way. There, at the very back of the line, one of his men stood holding a severed arm aloft, screaming in horror.

On the arm still hung half a sleeve, stained with blood — it was Mr. Qiu's.

"Mr. Qiu!" Old Hei stared at the severed arm in horror, speechless. After a long moment he roared, "Where is Mr. Qiu? Why is there nothing left but half an arm?"

"I... I don't know..." The man holding the arm had gone white as a sheet. "Earlier, when you called Mr. Qiu and I heard no answer, I thought to turn and look. There was nothing to see, nothing to feel — and in my hand there was only this half arm..."

The party had already grown restless from taking the wrong path; now this horror, coming out of nowhere, left them shaken to the bone.

Old Hei's face was grim. If he had not known Mr. Qiu's skill so well, he might even have suspected this man of foul play. But Mr. Qiu was an expert at the peak of the early Yellow Rank — to kill him without a sound, what rank would such an expert have to be?

"Who did it? Who in the hell did it?" Old Hei grew agitated. Mr. Qiu was his greatest reliance, and now the man had been done away with soundlessly, without even the killer's identity known! And besides — was there anyone in this party capable of such a thing?

Wei Zhao was startled too, seeing that only half of Mr. Qiu's arm remained. He was confident he could kill Mr. Qiu and hack off his arm in a single move — but that was on the strength of his own identity as an assassin. For an ordinary Profound Rank expert, such a thing would be extremely difficult; there would surely have been some noise. Yet Wei Zhao had sensed nothing!

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