Chapter 41: Searching for Traces
Strategist Ji had now arrived outside the Great Qing Pass city. He rushed through the pitch-black night, his face even darker than the heavy darkness surrounding him.
He had just investigated the secret passage in the Marshal's mansion garden as well, with similarly no results. Then he returned to search the Marshal's mansion several more times, finally having to accept the fact that Li Yan was not in the mansion.
After leaving the Marshal's mansion, he once again leaped onto the city wall, moving along the mountain ridge and out of the city.
Strategist Ji's current target was the military encampment thirty li away. That place would be very difficult to search, with hundreds of thousands of troops there, even with his divine sense, if Hong Linying had hidden someone among them, it would take a considerable amount of time.
If after searching there Li Yan still could not be found, having wasted so much time, it would be even more difficult to discover Li Yan's whereabouts.
Thinking of this, anger surged within him, and the fire poison in his body showed signs of circulating. He had to flash into the forest on the side, find a random spot, and sit cross-legged.
About half a cup of tea's time later, he stood up and disappeared again into the darkness with a flash.
Time flew by, and the Military Advisor's Valley welcomed the second day after Li Yan's departure. Chen An and Li Yin had not slept all night, their eyes bloodshot. They did not know what fate awaited them next, and their hearts were truly extremely anxious.
Thus, as the two remained in this state of unease, time slowly arrived at the evening of the second day. In just a day and a night, these two had become visibly exhausted, how could one be well when unable to eat or sleep?
The other soldiers and women in the valley had also noticed something was wrong. After Lord Ji came yesterday, he soon left the Military Advisor's Mansion alone with a gloomy face. More strangely, the young master hadn't returned with Chen An and Li Yin.
These two had returned with dark faces, neither eating nor drinking, staying in their quarters. Without knowing the reason, the other people, including the soldiers who usually liked to joke with these two, all lowered their voices significantly.
As a result, the entire Military Advisor's Mansion seemed very oppressive, with a feeling like dark clouds pressing down on the city.
The sun slowly rose amid this oppression... over the peak of the valley... tilting toward the western mountains.
The moonlight slowly rose again... then gradually moved westward bit by bit.
"Chen An, Li Yin, come in here for a moment!"
Suddenly a voice rang out in the valley, extremely grim.
It was now the middle of the night, and Strategist Ji in his black robe appeared like a ghost in the night, flashing onto the ground, then walking straight into the valley.
Hearing this voice, whether the soldiers on guard outside or the people inside the rooms, all shuddered, feeling a chill rise from their backs.
Chen An and Li Yin trembled even more, rushing outside in a somewhat dazed state.
When the two arrived in the valley, they saw a figure standing in front of Li Yan's room. They hurriedly approached and, in the moonlight, saw that it was indeed Strategist Ji standing with his hands behind his back.
But his current appearance startled them greatly. In just this short day and night, Strategist Ji's face had turned purple-black, his expression haggard, his appearance much older, with only his eyes gleaming blood-red.
After Strategist Ji arrived at the military encampment thirty li away last night, he had exerted all his skills, using both his eyes and divine sense, employing both his movement techniques and spiritual power, flying through various parts of the camp...
But by the time it was almost dawn, he still hadn't completed his search. If daylight came, even with his movement skills, he would be discovered.
But he had no time to wait any longer. Steeling himself, he released part of the spiritual power that was suppressing the poison, enhancing the range of his divine sense scan and increasing his movement speed.
With such exertion, his entire person passed by like a gentle breeze, imperceptible even in broad daylight.
Several hours later, he appeared behind a tent. By now, his face looked terrible, his appearance fierce, his expression dazed, as the fire poison had begun to flow within his body.
In this condition, his mind was somewhat out of control, making him increasingly desperate to find Li Yan regardless of consequences. After pausing briefly, Strategist Ji increased his spiritual power again and continued searching.
By nightfall, he had searched about seventy to eighty percent of the encampment. Due to excessive use of spiritual power, the fire poison in his body accelerated again, and his mind became somewhat deranged.
Looking at the unsearched areas, Strategist Ji's black facial qi had turned purplish, parts of his hair had turned grayish-black, and he unconsciously said:
"You think you can hide? Even if I have to dig three feet into the ground, you won't escape!"
Finally, by midnight of the second day, he had completed searching the entire encampment, still with no results.
Strategist Ji's face twisted, gritting his teeth so hard they made a creaking sound. On his purple-black face, a pair of blood-red eyes gleamed, like a man-eating evil ghost in the darkness.
"Nothing, nothing... where are you?"
At this point, his mind was in chaos, the fire poison had gradually spread throughout his meridians. After quickly prowling around the military camp again, he began to run wildly, only muttering to himself.
He walked like this for who knows how long before his mind gradually stabilized. He stopped, panting heavily!
After regaining some composure and looking around, he discovered that unconsciously he had returned to the outside of the Military Advisor's Mansion.
"You two, recount everything you said and did when you went out with Li Yan over the past few months. Be detailed and clear, understand?"
In the black night, Strategist Ji in his black robe stood like a vengeful ghost in the moonlight, coldly looking at the two kneeling on the ground.
Chen An and Li Yin trembled continuously under that cold, snake-like gaze, feeling as if they were in the dead of winter. Chen An immediately began to recount everything, and even the usually taciturn Li Yin occasionally added a few words.
An hour later.
"Is that all?" Strategist Ji coldly asked.
Chen An and Li Yin lay on the ground without answering, still racking their brains trying to think.
After a long while, the two secretly glanced at each other, both finding the answer in each other's eyes. In an hour's time, they had said everything they could possibly say.
"Yes, my lord! That's all, there really isn't anything else," Chen An answered cautiously, and Li Yin nodded in agreement.
After this hour-long narrative, the two had begun to calm down. After all, having faced death on the battlefield so many times, at this point, they were resigned to fate.
After listening, Strategist Ji still stood silently, saying nothing.
Below, Chen An and the other remained kneeling on the ground, like men awaiting execution.
In the moonlight, only the early summer insect sounds occasionally rose from the flowers and grasses throughout the valley, making the atmosphere feel even more oppressive...
At some point, Chen An and Li Yin felt the pressure on them lessen. When they looked up, Strategist Ji had vanished from sight, and then they heard sounds coming from Li Yan's room.
Strategist Ji entered Li Yan's room. During the previous hour, he had been listening and thinking about every word the two had said. His mind had recovered to its usual calmness, and finally, he reached several conclusions and points of doubt:
First, from their description, he could deduce that Li Yan probably already knew his true intentions, but how did he discover them? He had always been extremely careful, which puzzled him greatly.
Second, Li Yan had intentionally increased his contact with Liu Chengyong two months ago, so Liu Chengyong was likely the contact person arranged by Hong Linying. Today's escape was highly likely facilitated by Liu Chengyong, who created a diversion in the military camp to distract Chen An and Li Yin.
Third, the fellow townsmen who were close to Li Yan were equally suspicious and might have been involved in helping Li Yan escape. The tavern and the ironware pavilion might also be hiding places for Li Yan.
Although the city gate guards said Li Yan had left the city, with Hong Linying's skills, making a few guards lie wouldn't be difficult.
Fourth, if the city gate guards could lie, then the camp guards could also lie. Could Li Yan still be hidden in the military camp?
Fifth, if all the above guards might be lying, perhaps Hong Linying could have hidden Li Yan in any private residence in the city, not necessarily in the Marshal's mansion.
Sixth, Li Yan's recent large purchases of farming tools and clothing, what relation did they have to his escape? This point he simply couldn't figure out.
Seventh, were Li Yan's recent extensive plantings of flowers and grasses related to his escape?
Eighth, if Li Yan wasn't in any of the above places, where might he have gone? His hometown? Or some hidden place, waiting for him to gradually lose confidence and give up the search?
Ninth, how could Li Yan imitate his handwriting and forge the message?
Tenth, had Chen An and Li Yin also been bought by Li Yan, and they had been helping him all along?
With all these considerations, he gradually formed conclusions one by one.
He entered Li Yan's room to first confirm the last two points. He believed that Li Yan couldn't have done everything perfectly; any method would leave some traces.
What he needed to do now was to verify these conclusions one by one to gradually determine Li Yan's whereabouts.
After entering the room, although there was no light, with a cultivator's eyesight, even with just a bit of light in the darkness, it was nearly as clear as daylight. Only when looking far into the distance would there be some impact.
Tonight, the moonlight was like water, and everything in the room was clearly visible to him.
Strategist Ji stood at the table. An inkstone and brush were still placed on the table near the window. After a glance, he made a deduction.
At the time, Li Yan had been in a hurry. Although the inkstone and brush were put back in their non-writing position, the ink in the inkstone remained and hadn't been washed away.
Ink stains also remained on the brush, with even a few drops on the tabletop. Though only one or two drops, they revealed Li Yan's urgent state of mind at the time, probably fearing something unexpected in his plan and thus being careless in his haste.
He picked up the brush with one hand and examined it carefully for a while, but found nothing else unusual.
Looking around again, he found a pile of crumpled papers thrown in the corner on the floor. Putting down the brush, he flashed to the corner.
With both hands moving, his left hand had already placed his ever-present jade book in his waist sash outside his robe. Bending down, he picked up one of the crumpled papers from the pile and smoothed it out with both hands.
Written on it were ordinary verses of poetry. He continued to pick up and examine several more sheets, and gradually... his face began to look troubled.
These papers were the doodles Li Yan had often left behind recently. Since no one knew when Li Yan would suddenly write wildly, the woman who cleaned the room occasionally missed some things that weren't swept away.
The papers that were swept away had, following Strategist Ji's previous instructions to Chen An and Li Yin, been used as kindling and burned.
Strategist Ji had seen papers written by Li Yan before, shown to him by Chen An and Li Yin. At the time, he hadn't noticed anything unusual, but now looking carefully, he immediately found some issues.
Although these characters were still written haphazardly, still as ugly and messy as before, seemingly venting frustration, now looking carefully, certain individual strokes of some characters somewhat resembled his own.
If he hadn't been deliberately looking for flaws, he really wouldn't have noticed this situation.
After this discovery, a flash of inspiration naturally came to his mind, and he turned to look at the bookshelf on the western wall of the room, where twenty or so books were placed.
His form flickered, and he was at the bookshelf, looking for a particular book. This book was the source of one of the verses he had seen on the crumpled paper, and he recognized it since he had often studied it before.
He quickly turned to that page, and after just a glance, his expression changed.
Then, he found several more books in succession, and after looking at them, he sighed involuntarily, muttering to himself:
"This young man, I truly underestimated him. Despite being only fifteen or sixteen years old, he has such intelligence."
When he opened the first book, he had basically understood. These were all books he used to read frequently.
But he had read too many books, and his own room's bookshelf was already full, so he only kept the books he read often, with the rest placed on the bookshelves in these few rooms.
He had a habit when reading books of marking some good sentences, occasionally writing notes, comments, and the like. Evidently, Li Yan had discovered this point and incorporated it into his plan.
Strategist Ji now recalled that Li Yan had previously borrowed several books from him, probably both to see more of his handwriting and to confirm whether the handwriting in his own room's books was indeed his.
He also remembered that he had only written things for Li Yan twice: once for the "Breathing Guidance Technique," and once for the "Dark Night Cyan Curtain Technique."
However, it was clear that Li Yan had spent more time looking at the latter the second time. At the time, he had thought that with the upgrade in technique, Li Yan needed more time to comprehend, which was why he took longer.
Now it seemed possible that Li Yan was mainly trying to see more of his handwriting or to verify whether the handwriting in the books matched that on the papers.
Looking back at the pile of crumpled papers in the corner, he also understood. In those characters Li Yan practiced, it was often a certain basic stroke in a character that was truly imitating his, while the others were randomly written as a cover.
When it came time to actually use them, Li Yan had gradually combined the practiced basic strokes to form his message.
"He really went to great lengths!" Strategist Ji thought to himself. People have habits when writing, and trying to write a certain character with specific strokes requires strong willpower and patience.
By now, he had confirmed the last two points of his conclusions:
Li Yan had imitated his handwriting by secretly studying the books he had annotated. As for the deficiency in cultivation, it happened to require some external objects to calm the internal heat, and he had used this point to cover up his imitation practice.
Additionally, Chen An and Li Yin had not been bought by Li Yan. This was easy to understand, if they had been bought, Li Yan wouldn't have needed to go to such great lengths to secretly imitate his handwriting; Chen An and Li Yin could have simply gone out with him.
Next, he would need to verify the other conclusions, and perhaps Li Yan's whereabouts would be among them!
(Chapter End)