Wei Zhao nodded and said no more. As for Qiu Lingshan and Chen Yutian, they had begun to admire him in their hearts. The more petty and calculating Wei Zhao made himself out to be, the more he fit the image of the Couple Bandits — and the less anyone would suspect a thing.

"And you, Heroine Yan? Any objections?" Old Hei turned his head to look at Yu Xiaoke. "Ten percent for you. That is the rate by the custom of the trade, no more and no less. Outside technical support is worth ten percent of the take."

"No problem!" Yu Xiaoke nodded in agreement. In truth Old Hei was being quite fair, since that was the price for everyone.

"But let us get the ugly part out of the way first. If you cannot crack a single thing, then the most I will give you is travel money to send you home," Old Hei said. "Even that ten percent has value attached to it."

"That I understand." Yu Xiaoke spoke with complete confidence. "You should know the reputation of the Flying Swallow Sect — our word is our bond. But I want my ten percent in cash, not in goods."

What Yu Xiaoke lacked was money. Baubles from the tomb would be of no use to her, and would only be hard to move besides. So she made the request outright.

"That can be done. But you know the trade custom as well: converting to cash means a twenty percent discount off market price," Old Hei said. "Because we will not necessarily be able to sell right away, and holding goods in hand always carries risk."

"Understood." Yu Xiaoke nodded. "But the things none of you want — I can pick those up, right?"

"That is up to you," Old Hei said with a nod.

Listening to Yu Xiaoke, Wei Zhao was caught between laughter and tears. This little girl really was a little miser! Not willing to let a single thing slip past her — things other people had already cast aside, and still she wanted to scavenge them. Still, a mosquito is meat no matter how small. These tomb robbers kept their standards high and would hardly spare a glance for ordinary goods, which only took up space in the pack, so some trinkets or bits of gold and silver would fall neatly to Yu Xiaoke's benefit.

With the division of spoils settled, there was nothing more for anyone to discuss. Old Hei said, "Since no one has any objections, then the matter is decided. I do not want any disputes over profit when the time comes. With Lord Hao here, I trust everyone will keep to discipline."

Everyone nodded, though no one could say how much sincerity lay behind those nods. When the profit was not large enough, people could naturally keep to the rules; but once the stakes rose to the point of making eyes red with greed, then all bets were off.

"I will be going back first." Wei Zhao rose to his feet, finished saying it flatly, and turned and walked out of the tent, with Qiu Lingshan and Chen Yutian close behind.

"Everyone get some rest and save your strength — we enter the ancient tomb together in the morning!" Old Hei nodded and said.

Back in the tent, Qiu Lingshan said at once, "That one from the Flying Swallow Sect—"

But halfway through the sentence, Wei Zhao clapped a hand over her mouth and signaled for silence, while carrying on her words without the slightest pause: "Hmph. The Flying Swallow Sect is not necessarily of any use either. In our hands, after all, we hold certain key information about this tomb! Even if they can crack what comes before, the final crucial step will still depend on us — otherwise everyone will die."

As he spoke, Wei Zhao pointed with his finger toward a corner of the tent. Qiu Lingshan and Chen Yutian followed the direction of his finger, and there on one of the tent's steel ribs sat a listening device.

Qiu Lingshan's heart gave a sudden lurch, and inwardly she counted herself lucky. She had still been too rash; if not for Wei Zhao's quick reaction, she would likely have given them away already. A moment ago she had meant to say: the Flying Swallow Sect's Heroine Yan was actually Yu Xiaoke — was she not the female thief she had been sent to catch?

She believed that once those words were spoken, their identities would be exposed, and what followed would be submachine guns' worth of Old Hei's men closing in around them. Even if the three of them managed to escape by their own strength, the mission would have failed.

"Xiaotian, check the tent — see if anyone has tampered with it!" Having finished what he had said before, Wei Zhao suddenly ordered Chen Yutian, as though something had just occurred to him.

"Yes!" Chen Yutian began rummaging about the tent in an ostentatious show of searching. Finding the bug at once would have looked far too staged, so he searched about for a while before taking the device down.

And while he was at it, he would check whether other parts of the tent had been tampered with as well.

At that very moment Old Hei was holding a listening device, listening to the conversation between Wei Zhao and Qiu Lingshan. He had just reached the crucial part when he heard Wei Zhao tell Chen Yutian to check the tent for tampering, and he was instantly annoyed. So the Couple Bandits really did keep their guard up against everyone else.

Still, no wonder. In this line of work, who did not guard against others? Sending his men to plant bugs in other people's tents while everyone was gathered for the discussion — was that not done to guard against others too?

Earlier, hearing Wei Zhao's words, Old Hei had finally understood why Wei Zhao had been so confident in demanding twenty percent. So he had a trump card after all — he had actually gotten hold of information on this ancient tomb! And hearing what Wei Zhao said about the mechanisms, Old Hei felt a chill of dread in his heart. It was a good thing he had agreed to Wei Zhao's terms; otherwise, if the man decided to play dirty, would they not all die inside the tomb? And then he would have taken the whole profit for himself — what a loss that would have been.

Before long, it was clear that the male bandit's follower, that Xiaotian, had found the bug. There came a creaking sound, and the earphones went silent — the listening device had been destroyed.

"Did not expect the Couple Bandits to keep an ace up their sleeve. No wonder they are so cocky!" said one of Old Hei's trusted men, who was also in charge of monitoring the other tomb robbers. The others, though, had said nothing of importance, and had all prudently torn out the bugs as well.

Clearly, no one who could make it here was a fool; every one of them had their own tricks.

Old Hei shook his head. There was nothing to be done about it. Though they had all spoken fair words earlier and the division of spoils had drawn no objections, who could say whether tomorrow would bring some fresh complication?

Yu Xiaoke had not brought a tent, but Old Hei had provided her with one — that had been agreed in advance. Yu Xiaoke had no money to buy anything off the supply truck; that truck belonged to another faction within the Tomb-Robbing Sect.

Inside the Tomb-Robbing Sect there was a group of people who took no part in the robbing themselves, but wherever there was tomb robbing, they went to sell the necessities of life — food, clothing, shelter, and transport, the whole lot — though their prices were absurdly high. This trade had existed for a very long time, and had also won the blessing of several of the Sect's most respected elders.

These people's credit was excellent as well. Though the goods they sold were outrageously expensive, whatever you needed you could basically buy; and most important of all, they kept their mouths shut tight and never let word leak out.

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