"There are other pills over there - Qi Recovery Pills, antidote pills, and the like. Those ought to serve you far better. How about this: you hand both of these Qi Gathering Pills over to me, and I'll give you every one of those pills?" Elder Yu pointed toward a cabinet a short distance away as he asked.

"Have you lost your mind?" Wei Zhao stared at Elder Yu as though he were looking at an idiot. "This was agreed upon beforehand. You want only the Qi Gathering Pills and the medical practice notes. If there are two Qi Gathering Pills, one of them goes to me; if the notes are found, you lend them to me to copy. You were to want nothing beyond that. The rest of the pills I take or leave exactly as I please - what business is it of yours?"

"This..." At Wei Zhao's words Elder Yu's face turned unbearably dark. What Wei Zhao said was not wrong - he had indeed spoken so back then. Only, back then he had assumed the tomb held a single Qi Gathering Pill and never dreamed there would be two. Now, seeing two before his eyes, he found his heart stirring.

His plan was to slip one away for himself and hand the remaining one over to the Yu family. After all, he too was an Earth Grade expert, and he could not say the day might not come when he reached the pinnacle of the late Earth Grade. Should that day arrive, a single Qi Gathering Pill taken in secret would carry him through to the Heaven Grade in one stroke, and his standing within the hidden Yu family would shoot straight up.

Yet if there was only one Qi Gathering Pill, then even had he been the one to discover it, it could never have been his to take. It would be reserved for the most core figures of the hidden Yu family - there was no way it would ever fall to him.

But Wei Zhao flatly refused to part with it, and it infuriated him beyond measure. He was an Earth Grade expert! An ordinary Profound Grade expert - even one standing at the pinnacle of the late Profound Grade - quailed and trembled at the mere sight of him. Earth Grade and Profound Grade were worlds apart! Yet Wei Zhao alone showed no fear, and on top of that he possessed a killer move in his true-qi bomb, which left Elder Yu in constant dread. The result was that Elder Yu could only nurse his rage in silence, not daring to press Wei Zhao too openly on the surface.

"Take what is yours. Were it not that I have no wish to fight you to the death, I wouldn't give you a single bottle." Wei Zhao tucked away his own bottle of Qi Gathering Pills, left the other standing there, and spoke.

"!!!" At Wei Zhao's words Elder Yu was so angry his heart seemed ready to explode - and yet there was not a thing he could do about it. The more Wei Zhao menaced him with an all-out fight, the less Elder Yu dared provoke him. Especially now, when his body was covered in wounds: his right hand injured, both feet injured, and - most critically - his groin injured as well.

With wounds that numerous, going head to head with Wei Zhao, he had no confidence of victory whatsoever. That was precisely why he swallowed so much.

Elder Yu slipped the small bottle from the drawer into his robe, grinding his teeth with fury. "Then all the other pills belong to me."

"Don't force me to blow you apart," Wei Zhao said evenly.

"You—" Elder Yu was choked speechless by that single sentence. It was a long while before he managed: "I am wounded; I will not stoop to your level! Do not imagine for a moment that I am afraid of you!"

Elder Yu thought to himself: wait a few days, until my injuries have mended - will I still tolerate your arrogance? When that time comes, I'll simply snatch them back by force.

Wei Zhao strode over to the other cabinets and pulled open every drawer labeled as holding pills. Most of them, however, were empty; only a handful of drawers contained anything at all.

The drawers that held something were labeled "Qi Recovery Pills," "Wound Salve," "Painkilling Liquid," and "Life-Prolonging Pills." All four were perfectly ordinary medicines. Only the Qi Recovery Pill counted as a true "pill," something that had to be refined by a person of alchemist's skill; but as for things like the Painkilling Liquid, the Wound Salve and the Life-Prolonging Pills, Wei Zhao knew their formulas and could refine them in bulk - and after his improvements, at a lower cost still.

Still, Qi Recovery Pills were of no use to Wei Zhao. He had some rough notion of what they did: they could restore a measure of one's strength in a short span of time. But they could not be taken in succession - take them too often and they accomplished nothing.

And since Wei Zhao possessed the jade pendant space, Qi Recovery Pills were of no use to him at all.

Wei Zhao swept every pill out of the drawers and shoved the whole lot into Yu Xiao Ke's arms. "All yours - take them. A clumsy girl like you, who goes off adventuring all the time and likes to pick fights with people at the drop of a hat, the more medicine you carry about, the better!"

"Huh? All of it - for me?" Yu Xiao Ke was stunned. These were all fine goods. She could scarcely believe it. Was Male Thief being far too good to her? Did he truly have feelings for her?

A clumsy girl... well, perhaps a little - at any rate, she could not be mentioned in the same breath as Male Thief. A Profound Grade expert, an existence more formidable than her own master; Yu Xiao Ke could only gaze after him, utterly beyond her reach. But - going around picking fights at the drop of a hat? That, surely, she had never done.

When had she ever gone looking to challenge anyone? Ever since entering the ancient tomb she had been perfectly well-behaved. How could she have gone picking fights?

Yu Xiao Ke grew puzzled. Come to think of it, she supposed she had challenged someone exactly once - that one time, when Wei Zhao had insulted her dignity, and only then had she stepped forward to challenge him... But how had Male Thief known of it?

Could he be Wei Zhao? The bold thought struck Yu Xiao Ke all at once, but she shook her head at it the very next instant.

How could it possibly be? Wei Zhao would never come and play at being some husband-and-wife thief duo - that was far too absurd for words. Besides, Male Thief treated her so kindly while Wei Zhao treated her so vilely; how could they be the same person? Absolutely impossible! A wicked man like Wei Zhao would be an insult to Male Thief.

Long before they entered the ancient tomb, Male Thief had been unfailingly protective of Yu Xiao Ke; inside the tomb he had shielded her at every single turn - wonderful beyond all measure. How could he be anything like that great villain Wei Zhao?

Had Wei Zhao heard Yu Xiao Ke's reasoning, it would probably have killed him with rage. One and the same man, and covering his face suddenly makes him a good person? Are you mentally unhinged?

"It's all yours. And don't come tomb-robbing again - it's far too dangerous." Wei Zhao's admonition to Yu Xiao Ke was grave and sincere. Had he not followed her this time, what awaited her would have been the ruin of her young life.

"Mm-hm!" Yu Xiao Ke nodded, committing Male Thief's words to heart. Yes - it really was far too dangerous. Just thinking back on it filled her with lingering dread. If Male Thief had not been there to protect her, she would surely have died this time.

Thinking of how Old Hei had used her as cannon fodder only deepened Yu Xiao Ke's gloom and anger. The man was unspeakably vile - worse even than Wei Zhao!

Qiu Lingshan merely pretended not to see what Wei Zhao was doing. After all, he was helping himself to things of no consequence; had they been antiques or the like, Qiu Lingshan would certainly have stepped in to stop him.

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