And so Old Yu could no longer cultivate in peace, either; he had to stay on his guard at every moment. These people dared to sleep, but he did not. Who knew what might lurk in this ancient tomb? If something came rushing out all of a sudden, what if there was no time to react?

Watching Old Hei and James, worn out, slip into dreamland in no time, Old Yu grew even more sullen. Had he become their bodyguard? And yet he truly had no choice but to protect these people. Of the traps in this tomb he knew nothing at all; if they died, he would never get in himself, and would have to turn back.

Wei Zhao, naturally, could see nothing in the darkness either, so he shut his eyes and entered the jade pendant space, preparing to cultivate. In any case, his jade pendant could send out a warning at the first sign of danger, so he was not afraid anything would go wrong.

But once Wei Zhao was inside the jade pendant space, he was astonished to discover that he could clearly perceive everything beyond his own body. He could see the people around him, and every detail of the passage, sharp as broad daylight, with not the slightest sense of obstruction.

This... Wei Zhao was startled. Before, when he entered the jade pendant space, he could also perceive what was around him, but always under conditions where there was light nearby. He had never been in utter darkness like this, and so he had never paid it any mind.

After all, for a cultivator like Wei Zhao, even the faintest glimmer of light was enough to see by. Yet here, in total darkness, he could still perceive everything beyond his body from within the jade pendant space. He supposed this must be another formidable cheat of the jade pendant, one he had simply never noticed before.

And so Wei Zhao could cultivate with even greater peace of mind...

Songshan City, in An Jianwen's home.

The sudden collapse of the underground boxing arena had left An Jianwen somewhat out of sorts. Those days of raking in gold by the day had been far too splendid, faster even than the kidney-harvesting ring at pulling in money. Once he had grown used to such easy pickings, An Jianwen no longer even wanted to do business like kidney harvesting. Too much trouble. You had to hunt down buyers, and the goods were hard to keep.

How fast did boxing rake in the cash? So these past few days An Jianwen had been turning over new money-making schemes in his head. Heaven did not fail the diligent, and he really did hit upon another way to reap huge profits with no capital at all. The inspiration, of course, had come to him in a flash during a casual chat with Dr. Yin.

Dr. Yin was a formidable expert in human biochemistry, specializing in the structure of the human body and its latent potential. Two days earlier he had mentioned a research topic of his: erasing a person's mind and turning the person into a walking corpse; then, by means of hypnotic suggestion, transmitting commands to that walking corpse so it would carry them out.

The research topic had originally been of no great use, but the speaker had spoken carelessly while the listener had taken note. An Jianwen instantly mined a business opportunity out of it.

The business opportunity was simple: robbery. Rob banks, rob gold shops, wherever there was money, rob it. All he needed was for Dr. Yin to produce such an obedient walking corpse, plant the command to rob in its mind beforehand, and send it out to rob wherever it could.

If it got caught, no matter. Just abandon it. The person's head held nothing but commands anymore; it had become a fool. An Jianwen was not in the least afraid of being implicated.

Of course, a walking corpse alone would not do, because it had no powerful physique. Even if it pulled off a robbery, it might not escape. So An Jianwen suggested that Dr. Yin give the walking corpse an injection of that drug from the earlier research, the one that pushed the human body to its limits. That way there would be no problem at all.

Once the plan had taken shape, An Jianwen felt he was truly a genius. He immediately reported it to his father, An Mingyue, who passed it up to the Fire Wolf Gang. Now he had only to wait for the Fire Wolf Gang's reply.

Toying with the photograph of Gu Mengyao in his hand, a flicker of hatred crossed An Jianwen's eyes. At the auction at First High School before, he had plainly been played by those two chits Shen Yushu and Feng Xiaoxiao, made to pay good money for a pile of broken glass.

This only made An Jianwen hate Wei Zhao all the more. To his mind, Wei Zhao's earlier bids had been nothing but the work of a shill, meant to bait him into a trap. He did not believe Wei Zhao had known nothing of it.

"Wei Zhao... heh heh. Whether you have anything to do with Gu Mengyao or not, this time I am going to play you to death!" An Jianwen sneered. "Once the Fire Wolf Gang approves my plan, that will be the day you die, and then, even with a mouth, you will not be able to argue your way out! Hahahaha!"

In the ancient tomb, Wei Zhao, deep in cultivation, suddenly sneezed. The temperature in the tomb was not high, but it could hardly be called too cold either; a cultivator like Wei Zhao especially would never feel the chill. So the sneeze puzzled him. What was wrong with him? Who was thinking of him?

Of course, Wei Zhao did not know that over on An Jianwen's side, a new money-making scheme was brewing, and that it had somehow come to involve him.

The night passed without incident. Early the next morning, everyone woke by their biological clocks, for inside the ancient tomb it was still pitch black.

Old Hei and James had slept very well. Both had pushed themselves to their limits the day before, and with a capable hand like Old Yu standing guard beside them, they naturally rested soundly.

After a quick bite of compressed biscuits and canned food, they rose once more and set off.

The path was as it had been the day before: rugged and without end. But this time, after walking for roughly two hours, a fork appeared in the passage ahead, just like the wrong passage back at the entrance to the underground palace.

Yu Xiaoke halted. Old Hei and James also frowned.

Forks in the passages of an underground palace were nothing they had never encountered before, but walking so long before meeting one was a first.

"Which way do we go?" Yu Xiaoke turned her head and asked.

"Let us all put our heads together. No one panic," said Old Hei, knowing that panic would not serve here; only calm analysis would.

But at that moment, the materials Liu Bojia had given Wei Zhao earlier surfaced in his mind. In those materials it was indeed mentioned that on the road to the underground palace, forks might appear.

According to the notes, one of the paths was a dead end. By "dead end" they did not mean it led to death, only that it led nowhere; that it could not reach the destination.

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