Contacting Fatty to put a crew together

Of the ten Cao Yas, nine were curious, while one was both curious and weighed down with worry.

[The Masters of This World] Cao Ya wore a miserable expression and sighed repeatedly.

"Alas, the martial arts tournament Shaolin Temple held for the younger generation is about to reach its final showdown. Barring any surprises, Jiang Zhiwei of the Sword-Washing Pavilion will still take first place, and Zhang Yuanshan of the True Martial Sect will come second. Once this tournament ends, the Lord of the Six Paths of Reincarnation will start dragging people in, and the plot will begin running wild." He looked deeply worried.

If only some big shot from a super-sized world could come in, the kind whose power broke through the heavens... Ha, nothing but daydreams!

[The Masters of This World] Cao Ya gave a self-mocking smile.

[Detective Conan] Cao Ya consoled him. "Don't worry too much. The plot hasn't gone off the rails yet. That won't happen until Meng Qi reaches Dharmakaya, at the very least. We still have more than a decade. With that much time, what if one of us becomes a big shot? Nobody can say for sure."

"Let's hope so," [The Masters of This World] Cao Ya replied gloomily.

The world of [The Grave Robbers’ Chronicles].

Cao Ya returned, sensing the power surging through his body, his face lighting up with delight.

Suddenly, he rolled over and crawled out of his tent.

He was deep in an uninhabited mountain forest, with a small slope nearby. His tent had been pitched against it.

"Off we go, off we go!"

Cao Ya hastily packed a few things. Abandoning the tent and his tomb-robbing tools, he slung a small bag over his back and headed straight out of the mountains.

He had originally found a lead on an ancient tomb. After failing to recruit Fatty, he had come to tackle it alone.

Because of the changes wrought by time, he had never pinned down the tomb's location. He had spent all this time deep in the mountains, crossing ridges and climbing slopes to find it.

Now, there was no need for all that trouble.

There was still the issue of the world itself, though. The world of [The Grave Robbers’ Chronicles] was ultimately not a high-level realm, and excessively powerful abilities would be subject to certain restrictions.

The worlds of [Naruto] and [Global Martial Arts] had no such restrictions because their own levels were already quite high.

In [Naruto], beings at the Six Paths Level could blow up planets and traverse the universe.

Crossing the universe with their physical bodies alone!

As for [Global Martial Arts], that went without saying. Not one of the beings above the Peak True God level was weak.

[The Grave Robbers’ Chronicles] did have its peculiarities, but compared with realms like those, it was a minor sorcerer standing before a grand sorcerer.

Now that he had power, Cao Ya had no intention of continuing to operate alone, outside the main storyline.

The main plot was so exciting that he had to get involved.

Before, he had been wary of "It," which lurked deep behind the scenes, and had not wanted to enter "Its" field of vision.

Now, he no longer had that concern.

His power had already broken through the world's ceiling. What was there left to fear?

Even with the world's restrictions, he still deserved the words "invincible in this world."

He was not even afraid of nuclear bombs. Why would he fear some hidden "It"?

What a joke!

After returning to the small town, Cao Ya bought a ticket and rode straight back to the county seat.

He had no intention of making the journey on foot.

Flying through the sky?

Too conspicuous.

He was in Shaanxi. Having reached a small county seat some distance from Xi’an, he simply checked into a local inn.

He contacted Fatty, but received no answer. It was several hours before Fatty called back.

"Damn it, are you hounding me to my grave? I finally managed to get some decent sleep! These past few days nearly worked Lord Fatty to death." Fatty's complaints came through the phone.

"Fuck, I called you and you didn't answer for hours. I haven't even complained, and you're already griping?" Cao Ya joked. "How was that Sea Tomb? Get anything good?"

Fatty seemed to have a bellyful of complaints. "Don't even mention it. Didn't get a damn thing. If that foreigner's company hadn't paid pretty well, this trip would've been a crushing loss for Fatty."

At that point, Fatty changed the subject. "Oh, right,

"Did you find that Tang Dynasty tomb? Where exactly is it?" "Not yet."

"Fuck, Comrade Cao Ya, I have to remind you: diligence matters in our line of work. Look at yourself. How many days has it been? You haven't even found the place. Did you go sightseeing instead? No wonder you haven't made any big money. With that attitude, it'd take a ghostly miracle for you to get rich," Fatty ribbed him.

"Damn it! Fatty, can you talk like a human being?" Cao Ya cursed with a laugh.

After shooting the breeze with Fatty for a while, Cao Ya suddenly gave a light cough and said, "Fatty, got any jobs over there? Need to put a crew together? What do you think of me?"

Fatty roared with laughter on the other end. "I knew it! You called me out of the blue because you've run out of leads."

"I told you ages ago, working alone won't do. In our line of work, there are some things you absolutely have to do as a group."

Fatty paused thoughtfully on the other end.

"Hmm, as it happens, I really do have a big job here. We'll take as many hands as we can get. I know you well enough, too. You're good at this."

Cao Ya smiled, knowing that the big job Fatty meant had to be the expedition to the Cloud Palace.

After all, they had already come out of the Xisha Undersea Tomb.

"Putting a crew together" was an expression used in the trade.

In this business, certain things could only be done as a group. For example, one person could never handle some of the large tombs deep in remote mountain forests. First, a single person could not carry in all the necessary equipment; second, they could not carry out all the good stuff either. Such ancient tombs generally lay in exceptionally treacherous surroundings. Anyone going alone would need sheer dogshit luck just to return alive. As for risking their life to go back in again and again, probably nobody would be willing.

Whenever such a situation arose, someone would step forward to organize the expedition. In ancient times, it was called "tomb catching"; during the Republican era, the trade term was "gathering lamas."

It was much like a modern contractor who had a project in hand and hired electricians and plumbers himself. Archaeological teams in the early years after Liberation had used similar methods to recruit people with unusual talents.

That was why Fatty kept saying Cao Ya could not keep working like this forever, and urged him to join his crew.

But Cao Ya had his reservations and had always turned down Fatty's invitations.

Cao Ya was not actively courting death. The ancient tombs he entered were never grand ones. Sometimes, they did not even have passageways, burial corridors, or side chambers-just a burial pit, a coffin, and a few things the occupant had enjoyed in life piled beside it.

Those hardly even qualified as tombs.

Local landlords and gentry were often buried that way.

They could not build sprawling tombs, either. They lacked the money and manpower.

Small tombs like those had few traps, and Cao Ya could generally handle them alone. The returns were uncertain, though. Sometimes he would enter three or five tombs and gain nothing at all. The grave goods had been stolen by people living nearby who knew how many years earlier.

Those trips amounted to wasted journeys.

After settling the route with Fatty, Cao Ya stayed awake that night, sitting cross-legged on the bed to meditate, but made no progress whatsoever.

"Alas, I can still only rely on the other Cao Yas."

Cao Ya felt helpless. Against the restrictions of the world, he could only sigh.

A few days later, Fatty contacted Cao Ya and said he had arranged everything on his end. Cao Ya just needed to come over. They would meet in Changsha, then head to Jilin in Northeast China.

After hanging up, Cao Ya checked out, bought a ticket, and took the train to Changsha, where he met Fatty. Beside Fatty stood a well-proportioned man with a tall, lean frame, an expressionless face, and a distinctly mysterious air.