Chapter 187: Meeting an Old Acquaintance

I grabbed He Yu by the collar, dragging and pulling him back toward safety. Just as I started to move, I suddenly heard a strange sound from outside. It wasn’t coming from Tian Xiaoqi’s direction, but from the steep cliff above.

Sensing something was wrong, I immediately stopped dragging him and crouched down, quickly switching off my flashlight. My position was extremely awkward; I was lying flat right at the edge of the pit, with He Yu’s head in the hole and his feet stuck in the mud, stranded in between. Soon, I heard rocks tumbling down the stone wall above, followed by several flickers of fire emerging from a freshly carved hole.

The men in front were all rather short, each holding a fire-starter. As soon as they broke through the hole, they began shouting and yelling, their voices echoing loudly. They spoke in a dialect I couldn’t understand; they didn’t seem like Fourth Brother’s men.

I checked He Yu’s pulse, which was beating strong and steady, so I set my mind at ease and left him alone to lie quietly in the mud for now. We were far enough away, and Fourth Brother had mentioned that many people would likely catch wind of the news and follow us secretly. I had no idea what sort of crew this gang digging robbery holes in the tomb was, so stepping out right now was definitely a bad idea.

“Third Master! Does this mean we’ve reached the Main Hall?”

Amidst the noisy chatter, a sentence finally came out that I could understand. I immediately looked up and saw Qiao Sangui poking his head out of the hole. Tian Xiaoqi hadn’t lied to me this time; this bastard was actually still alive. Truly, evil lives a thousand years. After an explosion of that magnitude back in Yunnan, it still hadn’t managed to kill him!

I was just about to adjust my posture to keep watching what they were up to next when I suddenly remembered that Tian Xiaoqi and Lu Ayao were still under the Snake-Tortoise’s jaw. One was a girl and the other was severely injured; they couldn’t have run very far. If they were caught by this gang and interrogated under torture, it would be a disaster!

This thought made me anxious. I still had He Yu passed out cold beside me, and I couldn’t just leave him in the mud and run back on my own. While I was caught in this dilemma, I turned my head to see that He Yu had woken up at some point and was now groaning as he sat up from the mud.

“Wait, what’s going on…”

Before he could groan any further, I quickly yanked him over and clamped my hand firmly over his mouth to keep him quiet. He seemed confused about what was happening at first, but once he saw Qiao Sangui and the others lowering ropes in the distance, he immediately shut his mouth.

He swatted my hand away, rubbed his face with both hands, and asked in a low voice, “What’s going on? Where are we? Did you drag me over here? Why… why didn’t you bring Tian Xiaoqi and the others along? Ow, why does my face hurt so much?”

I really felt like slapping him again. Lowering my voice, I cursed at him, “You fucking dare to ask me? Think long and hard about how you got here yourself!”

“How should I know? You were on night watch!”

Feeling like his voice was getting too loud, I quickly covered his mouth again and scolded him harshly, telling him that the man leading the group on the rock wall was Qiao Sangui. If he didn’t want to die, he’d better keep his voice down.

“Holy shit, Qiao Sangui? Looks like we didn’t use enough explosives last time to blow him up. Wait, how the hell did he get in? You don’t think that girl sent him a message, do you?”

I shook my head, lying flat beside him at the edge of the pit. “Doesn’t look like it. This group dug a horizontal tunnel to get in. This rock wall is very thick. Logically, the tunnel should have led directly into the main hall. We’ve been crawling through tunnels for so long just to get this far; who knows how long these people have been digging to break through.”

He Yu glanced at me. “You never learn. Go ahead, keep defending her. If you’re wrong and that girl is in league with Qiao, Old Lu is basically in their hands now. They can do whatever they want with him.”

His words made my confidence waver, but then another thought occurred to me, and I wanted to kick him again.

“Damn it, this is all because of you! If it weren’t for you, would I have run this far? I knew your willpower was weak. You got possessed by some ghost or something, caught in a trance, and no matter how much I yelled, you wouldn’t wake up. You almost strangled me in the mud just now. We still have a bone to pick over that!”

“What? Possessed? I was possessed?”

Qiao Sangui and his men were sliding down the ropes one by one. I pressed myself lower and made a silencing gesture to He Yu, then mouthed: I’ll settle the score with you later. Let’s see what they’re up to first.

On the other side, Guangtou pulled in the rope beside Qiao Sangui and said, “Whew, Third Master, so this is the legendary Gune Kingdom City? Didn’t they say the roads were paved with gold? Looks like a bunch of ragged rocks to me, nothing grand about it!”

“What do you know? Who told you this was Gune Kingdom City? If you don’t know what you’re talking about, shut up. Don’t make a laughingstock out of us!”

Hearing Qiao Sangui’s words, I frowned slightly. It seems Qiao has also realized this isn’t the legendary Gune Kingdom City. But if this isn’t his target, why did he go to such great lengths to get in?

“Hey, you’re acting a bit naive there,” He Yu said. “Old chiefs like him have been making a living this way since they were kids. Since this is a tomb, there’s bound to be good stuff inside. Now that they’re here, it would be a waste not to take the treasures. What does it matter if it’s the Gune Kingdom or not?”

I fell silent and continued listening.

Qiao Sangui spat on the ground and said, “Don’t think we can relax just because we’ve reached the main hall. All of you, keep your eyes peeled. This tomb is extremely fierce. We lost so many men just in the Yin-Yang Thirteen Palaces. I’ve never been in such a pathetic state!”

I did a quick count. Including Qiao Sangui, there were only five of them left, not much different from our numbers. From what Qiao said, the men he brought down must have been lost to those White Corpse Turtle Immortals in the Yin-Yang Thirteen Palaces.

Seeing that their numbers were few, I wanted to crouch low and sneak over, but before I could stand, He Yu pinned me back down.

“What are you doing!”

“Going to save them! What if Qiao Sangui finds them?”

“Go save them? Like hell! Stay put. That Qiao guy hasn’t even found Tian Xiaoqi and the others yet, and we don’t even know what the situation is over there. Both Old Lu and Tian Xiaoqi are more capable than you. They might already be well hidden. If you rush over out of nowhere, they’ll end up having to save you instead. Don’t rush. Stay down and see how things play out.”

He patted my head. “Be a good boy.”

I jerked my head away to shake off his hand, still staring anxiously at the firelight held by Qiao Sangui’s group.

As they walked a few steps toward the Snake-Tortoise, Qiao Sangui, who was leading the way, suddenly stopped. My heart leaped into my throat. Then came the sound of blades being drawn and guns being cocked.

Qiao Sangui looked at the traces of fire on the ground and said, “Be careful, everyone. Someone’s damn well already been here.”

Guangtou, behind him, asked, “Then we need to hurry into the Main Hall! If someone’s taken the treasure, won’t we go back empty-handed?”

I saw Qiao Sangui turn and rap him hard on the head, sneering, “Even if they were gods from heaven, they couldn’t move the treasures here. That tomb door is sealed tight. In such a hurry to get in, I’m afraid you’ll have the life to take this Mingqi, but not the life to spend it.”

“Go! All of you, search the area! If anyone is hiding nearby, dig them out, even if you have to dig three feet into the ground!”