Chapter 1360 — There Really Is Danger

"He was eaten by his companions?" James felt queasy too. Could the ones who had come robbing this tomb before have been a tribe of cannibal natives? If they had quarreled and killed a man, that was one thing — but why eat him?

"I don't know." Wei Zhao shook his head. "Maybe it was a man. Maybe it wasn't. Either way, we had best all be careful."

"Even if he was eaten, what is there to be shocked about?" Now that he saw no other danger, Elder Yu spoke up as well. "Perhaps they ran out of food in the tomb, quarreled over what was left, and one of them was killed; and with food so scarce, his companions ate the corpse."

"Heh heh..." Wei Zhao offered no explanation, though inwardly he thought the old man's imagination remarkably fertile... Apart from cultivating every day, did the man live inside a fairy tale?

They walked on together. The jade pendant's warning had still not faded, nor had it grown any stronger — which meant the danger lay ahead, but had not yet shown itself.

Seeing Wei Zhao braced as if before a battle line, Elder Yu was somewhat scornful; and since they had come so far without anything else appearing, the tension in Old Black's and James's hearts began to ease as well.

But after they had gone roughly another kilometer, Wei Zhao stopped again.

"What now?" Elder Yu asked when he saw Wei Zhao halt.

"Another one," Wei Zhao said.

"Another what?" Elder Yu blinked.

"Over there... there is another pile of bones!" Yu Xiaoke's eyes were sharp, and she spotted a scatter of human bones much like the last, not far off.

"Eaten too, was he?" Elder Yu pondered a moment, then said with great solemnity.

"Yes. Eaten too." Wei Zhao did not deny it, but his meaning was entirely different from Elder Yu's: the eating Wei Zhao meant was not being devoured by one's own companions.

Wei Zhao paid the others no mind. He strode over and gave the bones on the ground a brief look. They were like the earlier ones, gnawed by something. But Wei Zhao did not think it was a man. No one came tomb-robbing without laying in ample food; and even if they had none, they could retreat and fetch more. The way here was not difficult, and there had been no danger along it. Why would anyone eat a person?

Most of all, the tooth marks on the human bones did not look like the work of human teeth.

This time Wei Zhao did not linger. He simply walked on, and before long another heap of bones appeared on the ground, much the same as before, marked with the traces of having been gnawed.

"These fellows can certainly put it away — three of them in one stretch! Ha ha!" Elder Yu laughed when he saw it.

Wei Zhao was speechless. The man's intelligence was truly breathtaking. Even if they had been eaten by their comrades, who could eat three people in a single day? That was over a hundred jin of flesh — how many jin of meat could a man eat in a day?

They walked on. This time they had not gone far when another set of bones appeared on the ground, and now the distance between the two piles had shrunk a great deal — only a few hundred meters.

"Eaten another one?" This time even Elder Yu was doubtful. Just how many people had been eaten? Even a falling-out could not kill so many at once.

A foreboding rose in Wei Zhao's heart. Something living seemed to exist in this ancient tomb, and the sight of so many bones only made the notion stronger.

They moved on again, and this time they had not gone far when the jade pendant's warning signal suddenly turned fierce.

Wei Zhao hastily stopped in his tracks.

"What is it now? More bones?" Elder Yu asked on reflex.

"There seems to be danger," Wei Zhao said.

"Danger?" Elder Yu was startled, and so were Old Black and James.

Qiu Lingshan and Chen Yutian followed Wei Zhao's arrangements to the letter, so the moment he spoke, the two edged closer to him; only by gathering together could they be safer.

"Why don't I feel anything?" Old Black found it baffling. The spot where Wei Zhao stood was open and empty of any object, plainly part of the corridor itself; by any ordinary reasoning, no danger could exist in a place like this.

In ancient times there were no precise electronic measuring or computing devices. After walking so far, in a corridor without a rule or any marker, it was generally impossible to install a trap — otherwise one's own people might blunder into it while walking through.

Of course, tombs meant to be sealed forever were another matter, but neither Old Black nor James had ever encountered one.

"Let us wait here a while and see," Wei Zhao said, and made to sit down on the ground, intending to go no further.

To stop here, halfway along, with no fork to choose from and no danger in sight — Elder Yu was naturally unwilling. He had already lost many days; he had not even entered the underground palace yet, and to be delayed on the road infuriated him. His time was not unlimited — the Clan Arbitration Association was watching. If he stayed out too long and their people found out, he would be in deep trouble.

"What is there to wait for here? Nothing ahead, nothing behind. What exactly are you playing at?" Elder Yu was beginning to suspect Wei Zhao's motives.

Wei Zhao glanced at him and could not be bothered to explain.

"Hmph! What do you two say? This old man says we keep going!" Elder Yu had heard Wei Zhao cry danger, danger, all along, and yet after the whole walk they had met none. He no longer put much faith in Wei Zhao's words, and thought he was either raising a false alarm or deliberately playing the mystic to make them depend on him.

"Fine, then we keep going!" Old Black and James exchanged a glance, and each saw greed in the other's eyes.

Greed knows no bounds. Especially after Wei Zhao had demanded fifty percent of the profits, the two of them had begun to think of shutting him out — and now was a fine opportunity. Earlier Wei Zhao had been all suspicion, danger here, danger there, and yet the whole way there had been no danger at all; apart from a few skeletons, nothing out of the ordinary. So their guard had slackened.

"Good luck to you," Wei Zhao said with a smile, and said no more.

Yu Xiaoke stayed behind. She did not believe Wei Zhao meant her harm, but that Old Black was another matter. She somewhat regretted taking this job: Old Black was ruthless, and never treated her as an equal member, but as cannon fodder to be spent.

Elder Yu led Old Black and James off into the distance, and only then did Qiu Lingshan ask, "Male Thief, is there really danger ahead?"

Because Yu Xiaoke was present, Qiu Lingshan addressed Wei Zhao as Male Thief.

"There should be, but what kind of danger exactly, I do not know. The feeling is very strange," Wei Zhao said.

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