The ground overhead had sealed shut long ago, and that was why the passage lay in perfect darkness, without a thread of light.

They were only a few dozen meters from the bottom. Wei Zhao gave Elder Yu no warning; he simply set about finding a way out for himself. Directly beneath his feet lay a dense thicket of spikes - a bladed board bristling with square-set points - but to the left of that spiked array the passage lay open. If he judged the moment right, one leap would carry Wei Zhao clear of the board.

Thirty meters... twenty... ten... Wei Zhao drove both feet against the stone wall on his right, kicked off hard, and went flying out with Yu Xiao Ke and the others, shouting as he went: "Look out!"

A second later Wei Zhao and the rest landed safely - and then came a wet "squelch", followed by Elder Yu's wretched howl: "Aaoouu -"

"Elder Yu, what's happened to you? You didn't fall into a trap, did you? The instant I sensed something wrong, I warned you. Surely you're not that unlucky?" Wei Zhao asked, feigning concern.

"Male Thief, why didn't you warn me sooner? Was this deliberate?" Elder Yu was in agony. The spike board had pierced him in a good many places.

Old Black, who had clung to him the whole way, was unharmed. The man had wrapped himself around Elder Yu's chest like an octopus, and now, hearing that there was danger, he clung all the tighter.

Yu Xiao Ke drew a flashlight from her robes and shone it toward the voice, and what they saw was Elder Yu frozen in a squatting, horseman's stance: the tops of both feet run through by blades, and his crotch too, transfixed by a single spike, the whole area a smear of red.

"That's a pain in the balls for you!" Wei Zhao glanced at Elder Yu and thought: Well struck. Now let's see how you cross words with me.

"Hmph! Male Thief, you did that on purpose, didn't you?" Seeing the gloating look on Wei Zhao's face, Elder Yu flew into a rage and sprang over - both feet and the seat of his trousers still streaming blood.

"Think whatever you please. If I could sense the danger, why couldn't you? I gave you warning. If you got hurt after that, what has it to do with me?" Wei Zhao said mildly. "Besides, at your age you've no use for that thing anyway. A skewering or two hardly matters."

"How do you know I've no use for it?" Elder Yu glared. "I've gone my whole life without an heir. The day I break through to Heaven-rank, I mean to take a wife and father a son!"

"You won't break through. Rest easy on that score," Wei Zhao consoled him.

"You -" Elder Yu realized he would have been better off never speaking to Wei Zhao at all. Talking with him was enough to drive a man to death with rage.

Old Black climbed down off Elder Yu with a dry laugh, thinking to himself how close it had been - except that Elder Yu had taken the punishment in his place.

Though both his feet and his balls were injured, Elder Yu was an Earth-rank expert, and there was nothing serious about the wound; it was only a matter of pain and fury.

This was another long gallery of a passage, but they no longer had the searchlight. That light had dropped away ahead of them when the floor of the great hall tilted, and had smashed at the edge of the spike board, shattering past all repair. What remained to them were the flashlights each of them carried on his person.

Elder Yu rather regretted it. He should have turned on his flashlight and looked below him first, and he would never have come to this. But he lacked the experience, and it had never occurred to him.

As before, Wei Zhao, Yu Xiao Ke, Qiu Lingshan, Chen Yutian and General Weiwu took the lead, while Elder Yu and Old Black brought up the rear. With the tops of both feet wounded, Elder Yu limped and hobbled, yet his pace was not slow.

"This should be the main body of the tomb," Yu Xiao Ke said suddenly.

"Oh?" By now Old Black and Elder Yu had seen it too. Not far down the gallery, display pieces began to appear one after another - bookshelves, display racks, and boxed compartments.

"We're here at last!" A smile broke across Elder Yu's face; his feet and his crotch pained him less, and he hurried over in a few strides, ready to search out what he wanted. But when he reached the displays he stopped again, turned his head to Old Black, and said, "Go open these chests for me. Let me see what's inside them!"

Clearly, once bitten by a snake, one fears a rope for ten years. Elder Yu dared not act rashly again.

Old Black gave a wry smile. He did not dare disobey. He went over as told, approached one of the chests with care, and studied it front and back, top and bottom, for a long while, his face working with indecision...

"What are you dawdling for?" Elder Yu demanded impatiently.

"Elder Yu, forgive my bluntness, but these things all sit at the very edge of the underground palace. They won't be anything good - they're meant to fob off low-grade tomb robbers. They're surely nothing of value..." Old Black was speaking the truth. Whatever lay out in the open was seldom worth much.

"I told you to open it, so open it. What are you dithering about?" Elder Yu knew nothing of such matters and merely snorted.

"Lady Yan, how would it be if you opened the chest, and whatever is inside went to you?" Old Black did not dare open it. There was one thing more he did not say: that these prizes left in plain view were mostly bait to fool idiots, and the moment you opened one, the danger came with it.

"That won't do. My things are mine, and I'll give them to no one!" Hearing Old Black's words, Elder Yu cut in to forbid it.

Old Black felt a surge of disgust. If not for the fact that you saved my life, he thought, I would call you a fool to your face. The things you want are so precious - how could they be laid out in the open? Do you take the men who built this tomb for idiots?

"Then you open it, and everything inside is yours," Wei Zhao said mildly, glancing at Elder Yu.

"You..." Elder Yu had come off the worse in every exchange with Wei Zhao; needled like this, he flushed red.

"It's only one chest, isn't it?" Wei Zhao walked over and flipped the lid open as if it cost him nothing. When he did, the jade pendant gave no warning, so Wei Zhao had no fear of trouble.

The chest opened to reveal a neat, tightly packed layer of gold ingots, and nothing else besides.

Old Black and Elder Yu glanced at it, and neither showed much interest. Elder Yu's purpose in robbing this tomb was those three items; and neither the worldly Yu family nor the hidden Yu family lacked money, so a chest of gold ingots held very little temptation.

Old Black was an old hand in the tomb-robbing trade and cared nothing for such yellow-and-white stuff. It was solid wealth, true, but far too heavy and too bulky to carry with any ease. A tomb robber of Old Black's caliber had a very lofty eye; in a single raid he would take only a few things, but those few things were worth a string of cities.

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