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Chapter 9: Where The Path Is
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Fang Duobing felt troubled as he sat at the Moonlight Inn and watched Li Lianhua walk back and forth. He had been pacing around the room with the inn owner’s baby in his arms for what felt like forever, and the thing was howling like a wolf.
“Tell me, is that your son?”
“No,” Li Lianhua said, holding the not-so-cute-looking baby close to his chest and patting him gently.
“That’s right, it’s not your son, so why are you acting like this and carrying him around like you’re his mother?” Fang Duobing was almost mad at Li Lianhua, “I’ve been sitting here for an hour. I have many things I must get done, and I came all the way to this tiny inn to find you. Yet here you are taking care of someone else’s baby when I need your help.”
“Cuihua has gone out.” Li Lianhua pointed to the door, “She went to buy soy sauce and her baby had no one to watch over him…”
“There are plenty of widows with children in this world. Are you going to find them all and marry them just because there’s no one to take care of their babies?” Fang Duobing stared at him, slamming his fist on the table.
“I’m telling you, Fobi Baishi gave me this mission. It’s very important since it involves the famous ‘Iron Boned Warrior’ Wu Guang and ‘Shameless Killer’ Murong Wuyan. If you don’t investigate their murder with me, this case will involve three bodies instead of two!”
He looked threateningly at Li Lianhua, “Are you going to help me? If you don’t, there’s no telling what I’ll do to you!”
“Wait, Wu Guang has died?” Li Lianhua flinched, asking in a frightened tone, “And Murong Wuyan too?”
“Even Li Xiangyi and Di Feisheng will die at some point, why would these two people be any different?” Fang Duobing glared impatiently at the child in Li Lianhua’s arms as he hit the table again. “How much longer are you going to care for this child?”
There was a creak, the sound of the door opening and closing, and a young man’s embarrassed voice came from outside the door, “Um… I’m Ge Pan, a disciple of Fobi Baishi.”
He had opened the door and heard Fang Duobing’s shouting, which scared him. He closed the door with shaking hands.
Fang Duobing composed himself and straightened his clothes. Unfortunately today he hadn’t brought his sword he named Er Ya.
Showing an elegant smile, Fang Duobing spoke.
“Ahem. Please come in. This uncivilized person’s name is Fang Duobing.”
Ge Pan pushed the door open and entered. He was wearing a blue silk robe and thin-soled speed boots, and he seemed to smile more kindly than young people of his age.
“I, Ge Pan, greet Master Fang and Master Li.” He clasped his fists together in front of himself, greeting the sickly man and Li Lianhua.
Ge Pan was taken aback when he saw Li Lianhua holding a baby in his arms, but he quickly recovered and pretended not to notice.
“How is the situation at Yipin Tomb?” Fang Duobing put his hands on the armrests of his chair.
“When Master Biqiu sent me his message, he only said that Wu Guang and Murong Wuyan died at Yipin Tomb, and the rest of the details would be discussed in detail when you arrive.”
Ge Pan clasped his fists together again.
“Master Biqiu’s information is not accurate. According to the information obtained by Master Bai Jiangchun, the two men’s upper bodies were thin and shrunken, their lower bodies were swollen, and there were no scars on them. The bodies were located in the forest of Xiling Mountain, about ten miles away from Yipin Tomb. They were fifteen feet apart, both with a very strange appearance. The person who discovered them was Zhang Qingmao, originally a Shaolin disciple. Although this matter has nothing to do with the tomb guards, this is still a major event in the martial arts world. Master Bai checked the information and found that this was not the first case like this that happened at Xiling Mountain. In the past 30 years, eleven people have disappeared there, many of whom were good and honest people.”
“Xiling Mountain is right behind… ” Fang Duobing snorted, “Nevermind. You’ll know when you go up and have a look, but right now we’re waiting.”
“Waiting for what?” Ge Pan asked.
Fang Duobing snorted again, “Waiting for the lady boss to come back.”
“Waiting for the lady boss…to come back?” Ge Pan coughed lightly, unable to understand.
Fang Duobing suddenly glared at Li Lianhua angrily.
Li Lianhua looked at him apologetically.
“I didn’t know it would take so long for Cuihua to buy soy sauce,” he said softly.
The Fang family attached great importance to this case, and had repeatedly warned Fang Duobing to be cautious in handling affairs. This matter needed to be investigated well. That was why Fang Duobing knew he must drag Li Lianhua along with him.
Fang Duobing would always boast of being an intelligent person who naturally knew what kind of person was needed in a situation.
Ge Pan looked up and down at the miracle doctor who had finally spoken up.
He thought that it was rare for someone to consider the inn owner’s purchase of soy sauce more important than investigating the death of Murong Wuyan.
They waited for another half hour for Sun Cuihua, the owner of Moonlight Inn. In the end, Li Lianhua had to entrust the child to the Mistress of the neighboring Yihong Courtyard.
When he returned to the inn, the other two men were anxiously waiting, and soon they headed towards Yipin Tomb.
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It was already late when they arrived at Xiling Mountain and there were no people around.
Although it was a royal area, there were only a hundred soldiers stationed there, and ordinary people rarely stepped foot into the boundaries of the tomb.
The area was covered with towering fir trees, with almost no wild animals in sight. It was a clear, clean, and desolate place.
As the three men walked, their boots left extraordinarily clear footprints in the white snow. As long as there was no heavy snow and the weather didn’t warm up, the prints would last for days.
There was the glow of firelight in the forest not far ahead, and someone in the forest began shouting at their arrival:
“We are imperial court stationed troops! Any travelers or tourists should leave the area quickly!”
Ge Pan shouted back, informing them that he was a disciple of Fobi Baishi.
Several people in the forest came out holding torches and looking relieved as they announced that they had been waiting for the disciple of Fobi Baishi to arrive for a long time.
There were five people holding torches in the forest. There was Shaolin Sect member Zhang Qingmao, who was quite chubby.
Then there were two twin brothers also surnamed Zhang who were part of Shaolin Sect as well, and they were named Zhang Qinghu and Zhang Qingshi.
These two were incredibly similar, with the only differences being that Zhang Qinghu had a mole on his cheek and Zhang Qingshi didn’t; Zhang Qinghu was good at using the “Shaolin Eighteen Sticks” while Zhang Qingshi was proficient in Luohan Wrestling.
The other two men were Wudang Sect members, Yang Qiuyue and Gu Fengxin.
These people had been guarding the corpses of Murong Wuyan and Wu Guang for several days. After all, the deceased were important members of the martial arts world, and they were not like ordinary people.
This was bad because perhaps both of their relatives, friends, and clansmen would come to the mountain. If that happened, wouldn’t the one hundred guards be of no use? They would surely be forced to split their own throats to save face.
They all looked relieved when they led the three men to see the bodies.
Fang Duobing glanced at the two corpses.
Although these two people had been very fit and slim before their deaths, they now had a strange appearance with shriveled upper bodies and swollen lower bodies.
He sighed, “What happened? Were they poisoned?”
Ge Pan looked at Wu Guang’s body, “It’s strange. It seems these two people died of starvation.”
“Starved to death?” Fang Duobing was taken aback. He turned to Li Lianhua beside him, who was also surprised.
“How is it possible? These two people were definitely not poor, how could they starve to death?”
“This is what it looks like when people starve to death in a humid place,” Ge Pan said. “At first I thought they were shriveled and swollen due to poison, but now it seems that I was wrong.”
He looked up at Li Lianhua respectfully, “I suppose I should ask you, Master Li. I don’t know if what I’m saying is correct. Am I mistaken?”
Li Lianhua seemed to be in a daze, and then he smiled softly. “You’re correct,” he said. Fang Duobing chuckled beside him.
“It’s strange. In this empty place, two unrivaled masters have starved to death… It seems that they didn’t die here.”
Ge Pan was very confused, looked around, and walked to the edge of the forest to look at Xiling,”Unless Someone trapped them in a place without drinking water. Could it be…”
Fang Duobing said, “The tomb?”
Ge Pan nodded, “Apart from Yipin tomb, there is probably no other place that the two of them would’ve been going.”
Li Lianhua interjected, “Then how did they get over here?”
Fang Duobing and Ge Pan were confused. It was true, the tomb was still ten miles away from here. Although there were many footprints around the corpses, they were the footprints of the soldiers guarding the tomb, so they were definitely not left by Murong Wuyan and Wu Guang.
Fang Duobing’s mind spun quickly, “Could it be that the footprints they left were trampled by Zhang Qingmao and the others?”
Li Lianhua didn’t seem to hear Fang Duobing’s question and looked up blankly at a fir tree beside him.
Fang Duobing followed his gaze and gasped, “I understand! Since these two people didn’t die here, of course there would be no footprints. They were left here because of the path taken.”
Ge Pan was confused, “Because of the path? What do you mean?”
Fang Duobing pointed to the fir tree, “Look.”
Ge Pan stared at the branches of the giant fir tree and saw that there was a slight depression in the snow between the branches, leaving a clear mark.
“A foothold?” he asked.
Fang Duobing nodded, “This fir tree is between Murong Wuyan and Wu Guang’s corpse. They are fifteen feet apart. This tree is at the middle point, and Murong Wuyan is exactly eight feet away from this tree.”
Ge Pan looked around and suddenly came to his senses, “I see. Although there are many fir trees on this mountain, they are not all connected. No wonder the two people are fifteen feet apart. I must say Master Fang, you have quite sharp eyes, I admire that very much.”
Fang Duobing laughed dryly, wiping the sweat from the back of his neck and then glaring over at Li Lianhua. Li Lianhua just nodded repeatedly.
Originally, the top of Xiling Mountain was covered with fir trees, but the trees were not continuous. A section of the fir forest itself had empty space — a gap ranging from the mountaintop to the mountainside. Murong Wuyan and Wu Guang’s bodies were located in the empty space between the chunk of forest on the mountaintop and the chunk on the mountainside.
So if someone wanted to descend through the trees from the top of Xiling Mountain without leaving a trace, they would inevitably have to cross the nearly twenty feet of tree-less space and even an unparalleled expert couldn’t cover that much area in one go.
If it was another mountain, one could just place rocks as stepping stones and cross that way, so as not to leave any prints in the snow. However, Xiling Mountain was a royal tomb, and the entire mountain had been meticulously trimmed and manicured.
The top of the mountain was covered with stones of all the same size, and everything was covered in snow. If you were to dig out some of them to use as stepping stones, it would reveal your whereabouts.
But if you happened to have two corpses on your hands, the best idea would be to carry them to the top of a fir tree and throw them into the snow, using them as a sort of bridge to cross the twenty feet of snow. And then you could make your way into the lower chunk of the forest and leave without any trace.
Just looking at the fact that this person saw throwing the corpses as no big deal, one could tell that they were definitely not a normal human. But why would the person rather leave two corpses– something bound to cause an uproar– than leave footprints behind?
Fang Duobing muttered to himself, “The only person it could be was the murderer of the two men. If it really was the culprit, I wonder why they would do such a thing… Oh! I know!”
His eyes lit up, “This person’s feet… There must be something wrong with them! Maybe the person had low self-esteem, so no matter what, they refused to leave footprints in the snow!” Fang Duobing triumphantly finished his wonderful theory but found that Li Lianhua was looking intently at the footprints left on the tree.
Ge Pan had walked over and was examining Murong Wuyan’s body as if nobody had spoken.
Zhang Qingmao respected the three men and listened quietly.
Zhang Qinghu said, “We have guarded Xiling Mountain for years. The main lookout tower and city are always full of people. Even if someone was locked somewhere in the tomb, they would be found before they could starve to death.”
Zhang Qingshi was not good at speaking and nodded, but his gaze remained fixed on Ge Pan.
Fang Duobing and Zhang Qingshi glanced at each other, vaguely feeling as if there was something unusual, but they couldn’t figure it out at the moment.
“What if it was in the underground palace?” Yang Qiuyue asked coldly.
“Even though Emperor Xicheng ordered a simplified burial, don’t forget this is an imperial tomb. There may be some treasures underground that Murong Wuyan and Wu Guang were searching for. There are many legends here, such as the Weeping Guanyin elixir, the Imperial Jade Seal, and all kinds of legends that imperial tombs are known to have.”
Though Yang Qiuyue had a gentle appearance, he spoke with a hint of negative energy, and Fang Duobing disliked him at first glance.
“But we have been guarding Xiling for years and have never found the entrance to the underground palace,” Gu Fengxin said.
“According to the historical records, the entrance to the imperial mausoleum is usually hidden somewhere in the main lookout tower,” Ge Pan said, “So why don’t we go to Xiling and look for it?”
Li Lianhua looked over at Ge Pan with a perturbed expression and Ge Pan coughed lightly, “Master Li, do you have something you’d like to say?”
Li Lianhua hesitated before he spoke.
“I’m… afraid of ghosts,” he said with an embarrassed sigh.
Ge Pan was surprised, and Fang Duobing couldn’t help laughing until his lungs ached.
“An amazing genius doctor who is afraid of ghosts at night… Hahahaha! Hahahaha!”
Ge Pan sighed sympathetically, “Since Master Li is afraid of ghosts, we’ll look for it tomorrow morning.”
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Author Note: I hope everyone has a great Monday! I’m so happy that it’s almost Autumn!! XD
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