Thinking it over, Yu Xiaoke found it quite likely, for along the way she had not once caught sight of anything intimate between the male thief and the female thief; the two of them scarcely seemed to exchange a word...

"You... did you want... something from me?" The usually bold and reckless female thief, Yu Xiaoke, was oddly sheepish.

"Nothing much. I'll see you out of the valley. Go back the other way and do not meet the female thief and the others again; nothing good will come of it for you." Wei Zhao had not noticed her expression. What filled his mind was whether to go back into the ancient tomb once more. After all, the medical notes had mentioned the Sky-Thunder Pig, and Wei Zhao was keenly interested in that little spirit beast; and to find the Fire Spirit Sacred Fruit he would most likely have need of the creature, so he must go and have a look, whatever it took, before he could rest easy.

"The female thief? Is she going to harm me?" Yu Xiaoke was startled.

"No, nothing of the sort. I simply do not want the two of you to meet again." Wei Zhao had no wish to explain. At least he had no intention of revealing his identity before Yu Xiaoke; once it came out, Qiu Lingshan's identity would come out with it, and she would be awkward the next time she faced Yu Xiaoke. Besides, this was a covert operation, and the fewer who knew of it the better.

"Oh..." There was something ambiguous in the way Wei Zhao said it, and Yu Xiaoke took it amiss. What she took amiss was that Wei Zhao truly did have feelings for her and was only afraid the female thief would make things hard for her. The thought that they were about to part left her suddenly forlorn. "Then... will I be able to see you again?"

"I doubt it..." Wei Zhao frowned. That faint, peculiar warmth in her words left him helpless, unsure whether to laugh or to cry. Did Yu Xiaoke really imagine he was in love with her? Still, he had not lied to her. This was, he supposed, the last time he would appear before Yu Xiaoke as the male thief. Once this mission ended, Wei Zhao would never play the male thief again—and the male thief had long since been struck dead by Chen Yutian. There would be no male thief left in this world.

"Oh..." Yu Xiaoke was somewhat disappointed, and a sense of loss came over her at once. This was the first man who had stirred her heart, though she did not even know his face, nor his real name—only a code name: the Male Thief.

Beyond that, Yu Xiaoke knew nothing at all about the male thief. She had never seen him before, and from what he said now, it seemed she never would again.

"I'll see you out of the valley, and then I have to go back into the tomb once more," Wei Zhao said.

"You... you're going back?" Yu Xiaoke was taken aback.

"Yes. I want to take a look inside the Gate of Death. There may be something in there that I am looking for," Wei Zhao said.

"How about... I go back with you?" Yu Xiaoke asked, her face reddening. "I know I'm clumsy... but I ought to be able to help somehow..."

Yu Xiaoke was loath to part from Wei Zhao; even a little more time together would be something. From the sound of him, he seemed to feel nothing particular for her, and after today the two of them might never cross paths again.

And Yu Xiaoke would take no more missions from the Thief Sect. If she were handed another task like this one, with Wei Zhao absent, she would truly die.

"Very well, then we go together." Wei Zhao mused a moment, then nodded. His earlier plan had in fact been to have Yu Xiaoke accompany him. He had the jade pendant on his person, but he did not know the ancient tomb's traps as well as she did—especially after Yu Xiaoke had assembled the two jigsaw patterns on the Gate of Life and the Gate of Death, that notion had grown all the stronger.

Yu Xiaoke's heart leapt with joy. To return to the ancient tomb, and to the Gate of Death at that, might be perilous beyond measure; yet for some reason, with the male thief beside her, she felt filled with a sense of safety, as though with him there no danger could do her harm.

"Are we going back now?" Yu Xiaoke asked.

"Yes. I'll take you back." As he spoke, Wei Zhao scooped Yu Xiaoke up in one arm, tucked her under his armpit, and went racing back along the tunnel.

Yu Xiaoke had not expected Wei Zhao simply to carry her and run; she felt suddenly shy, and yet she did not struggle, because the feeling was really quite nice.

Wei Zhao was a Mystic-rank expert. Once he circulated his true qi, he could hold his greatest speed all the way back to the Gate of Life and the Gate of Death without rest. Yu Xiaoke was different—she had to stop and start, stop and start, to rest—so Wei Zhao simply did the running in her place.

The Majestic General was a Mystic-rank dog as well, and had no trouble keeping pace behind Wei Zhao.

And so the man and the dog went tearing through the passage of the Gate of Life without a moment's pause. Yu Xiaoke, for her part, no longer felt the tension and worry she had known earlier in the tomb, and wrapped in that sense of safety, she even slept a while along the way.

Only when they reached the place where the Gate of Life and the Gate of Death had stood did Wei Zhao set Yu Xiaoke down.

"So fast?" It seemed to Yu Xiaoke that Wei Zhao had spent almost no time at all running back, and she could not help but marvel.

"A Mystic-rank expert running full out would not need long in any case. Elder Yu is even faster." Wei Zhao said, "Enough. Let us not study that. The puzzle on the ground—is that the pattern on the Gate of Death? If I assemble the pieces according to it, the Gate of Death will open?"

"That should be it. But the puzzle on the Gate of Death follows a rule; not one piece may be moved at random, or it may bring dangers beyond anything you could foresee," Yu Xiaoke said with a nod.

"Good. You direct me in assembling it," Wei Zhao said with a nod. "You tell me which piece to move, and I'll move that piece."

"Ah... all right!" Yu Xiaoke would have liked to say how dangerous that was, but she knew his temperament. Every perilous thing along this journey he had taken upon himself; even with Old Black and Elder Yu present he had shouldered it all alone, let alone when he was with her. Judging by the way he had shielded her the whole way, he would never, ever let her move those puzzle pieces.

Wei Zhao walked over and stood before the Gate of Death, ready to begin moving the puzzle.

"Move this piece to the left first." Yu Xiaoke pointed to a piece on the Gate of Death.

"This one? All right." Wei Zhao laid his hand on the piece. The jade pendant gave no warning at all, and his heart eased; he moved the piece directly.

"Ah..." Yu Xiaoke cried out instinctively. But when she saw that no danger had appeared, she let out a breath of relief and stared at Wei Zhao with a look of doubt and wonder. Had he moved it correctly?

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