20demayo Chapter 22 The Wonderful Use of Keen Senses to Discover Clues
Chapter 22 The Wonderful Use of Keen Senses to Discover Clues
"Look at these wheel tracks, they are very deep and wide, left by a heavily loaded carriage."
Jia Huan followed the trail slowly, his gaze sharp.
"Moreover, the trail is intermittent and leads deep into Black Wind Ridge. It seems that the robbers had planned this in advance and used the terrain to forcibly drag the cart carrying the official silver into the ridge."
Wang Ren added from the side, "Sir, look over there."
Jia Huan looked in the direction he pointed and saw several ancient trees, each as thick as a person's embrace, broken in half. The broken ends were a strange, charred black, as if they had been corroded by strong acid.
The weeds under the tree were withered and droopy, and there were even some unidentified insect corpses scattered among them, already dried and blackened.
"These marks..."
Jia Huan frowned slightly, took out the Book of Impermanence from his pocket, casually flipped to a page, and gently tapped the cover with his fingertips.
"This doesn't seem like the methods of ordinary mountain bandits. There are probably quite a few evil martial artists in Black Wind Ridge."
Li Shun shivered and whispered:
"What you say is absolutely right, sir. It is said that our Embroidered Uniform Guard sent three groups of people in to investigate."
The first group was led by the centurion of the "Bai" house, but before they even got deep into the area, half of their men were lost, supposedly because they encountered a "ghost wall".
The second group consisted of skilled individuals from the "Gui" room. They did find some clues after entering, but they all emerged mentally unstable and died suddenly within two days, their deaths extremely gruesome, their bodies covered in festering sores.
"There's a third wave."
Wang Ren swallowed, his voice a little dry.
"Several captains went in together, but only two of them came out alive, and both of them became crippled. It is said... it is said that something drained their life force."
"The complex terrain and dense vegetation are just the surface."
Jia Huan snorted coldly and put the Book of Impermanence into his pocket.
"Snakes, insects, rats, ants, miasma, and poisonous creatures, along with those so-called 'mazes,' are merely means to deceive people. The real danger often lies in the human heart."
He turned around, looked at Li Shun and Wang Ren, and said in a deep voice:
"Since the previous Jinyiwei experts all perished here, it shows that the depths of Black Wind Ridge are indeed extremely dangerous."
But precisely because of this, the million taels of government silver and the bandits' hideout are most likely located in this most dangerous place.
"Sir, since all the clues point to this ridge, why don't we take advantage of the early hour and charge in?"
Jia Huan waved his hand, his expression unusually calm.
"No rush."
He slowly closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
All the surrounding noise—the sound of the wind, the chirping of insects, and the slightly hurried breathing of Li Shun and Wang Ren in the distance—seemed to be stripped away at this moment.
His consciousness was sinking into a mysterious state.
This is one of the fundamental principles upon which he relies for his livelihood—the "Mysterious Armor Body Forging Technique".
This body-forging secret technique is considered legendary among the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
It does not cultivate internal strength, but focuses on training the physical body, step by step forging the human body from skin, flesh, tendons, bones, blood, and marrow into something like ancient armor, impervious to swords and spears, and possessing the strength to uproot mountains.
However, the pain and time required for its cultivation process are beyond human imagination.
Each breakthrough is like breaking down and rebuilding every inch of one's body, requiring an astronomical number of rare medicinal materials.
Throughout the entire history of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, spanning hundreds of years, those who have cultivated this technique to the sixth level are extremely rare.
Even Lu Bing, the current commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, whose internal strength is unfathomable, has only reached the fifth level of his "Mysterious Armor Body Forging Technique".
Jia Huan, with the help of the Deep Blue stat-adding system, managed to cultivate this technique to the sixth level without paying any price.
At this moment, his five senses had already surpassed the limits of the mortal realm.
The world he "saw" was completely different from that of Li Shun and Wang Ren.
In his eyes, the veins of every leaf in that seemingly chaotic thicket were clearly visible.
He captured the movement of even the smallest dust particles floating in the air as if in slow motion.
His gaze finally fell on the faint marks on the ground that Li Shun and Wang Ren had overlooked, marks that were almost blended into the soil.
Those were not ordinary wheel tracks and hoofprints.
They are so faint, like phantoms left by the wind, that ordinary people would hardly notice them even with a magnifying glass.
But in Jia Huan's view, these traces were as conspicuous as torches in the night.
These traces do not point to the seemingly dangerous heartland of Black Wind Ridge, but rather, in an extremely concealed manner, circle around to a cliff called "Dead Wood Cliff" on the west side of Black Wind Ridge.
Jia Huan opened his eyes, a glint of light flashing in them.
"Black Wind Ridge is just a cover."
His voice wasn't loud, but it carried an undeniable certainty.
"A cover?" Li Shun and Wang Ren were both taken aback.
Jia Huan didn't say much. He walked to a bush, squatted down, and picked up a small, almost invisible clump of debris from the soil.
"This is a fragment of the 'Stoneheart Fern'."
He held the debris up to their faces.
"This fern only grows in the crevices of cold, dry, and iron-rich rock walls. In the entire outskirts of Beijing, only 'Kumu Cliff' has this unique geological environment."
Then, he picked up a nearly invisible dark red tissue from a nearby blade of grass with his fingertip.
"And this is the flesh and blood of the 'rock rat'."
Jia Huan's voice carried a hint of coldness.
"Rock rats, as the name suggests, live on rocky cliffs and feed on moss and minerals. Their flesh and blood have a unique mineral smell. Black Wind Ridge is damp and watery, so there is no possibility for this creature to survive."
Li Shun and Wang Ren were dumbfounded.
They never imagined that so much information could be deduced from mere fragments and flesh that were barely visible to the naked eye.
"so."
Jia Huan stood up, his gaze falling on the "Deadwood Cliff" on the west side of Black Wind Ridge, which was inconspicuous on the map, and a cold smile curled at the corner of his mouth.
"The people of Black Wind Stronghold used the infamous reputation and complex terrain of Black Wind Ridge to create the illusion that government silver had been robbed and hidden inside the ridge, drawing the attention of all the investigators here."
And their real headquarters, the place where they hid millions of taels of official silver…”
He paused, then said, word by word, "It's the Dead Tree Cliff!"
Li Shun and Wang Ren exchanged a glance, both seeing deep shock in each other's eyes.
Their boss was not only highly skilled in martial arts, but his ability to see through things was also far beyond their imagination.
"My lord, then we..." Wang Ren began.
"Walk!"
Jia Huan interrupted him and leaped onto his horse.
"Let's go to Drywood Cliff. I want to see just what Black Wind Stronghold is capable of, daring to provoke us!"
Having said that, he spurred his horse and galloped off in the opposite direction from Black Wind Ridge.
Li Shun and Wang Ren dared not delay and quickly followed behind.
"Sir, shall we head straight for the Deadwood Cliff next?" Li Shun asked.
"No, before we head to the Deadwood Cliff, we need to prepare some things first," Jia Huan said.
"What is it?"
"Liquefied oil and sulfur powder!"