Chapter 41: Searching for the Trace

Military Advisor Ji has now arrived outside Qingshanai City. He rushed in the dark night, and his face was darker than the dark night. He had just explored the secret passage in the Marshal's Mansion garden, but found nothing. Then he turned back and searched the Marshal's Mansion several times. Finally, he had to confirm that Li Yan was not in the mansion. After leaving the Marshal's Mansion, he jumped onto the city wall again, climbed up the ridge and left the city.

His current goal is the garrison camp thirty miles away. It is very difficult to find there. There are hundreds of thousands of troops there. If Hong Linying hides someone there, even if he has divine consciousness, it will take a long time. Moreover, he doesn't want others to know. If Li Yan is still not there after searching for so long, it will be even more difficult to find him.

Thinking of this, he was already furious, and there was a tendency of fire poison flowing in his body. He had to flash into the forest on the side, find a place and sit cross-legged. After about half a cup of tea, he stood up and disappeared into the darkness again.

Time flies, and the Military Advisor Valley ushered in the second day after Li Yan left. Chen An and Li Yin did not sleep all night, and their eyes were full of bloodshot. They didn't know what fate would greet them next, and they were really nervous.

In this way, in the anxiety of the two of them, time slowly came to the night of the second day. In just a short day and night, the two were exhausted. How could they be healthy without eating and sleeping? The other soldiers and women in the valley also saw that something was wrong. After Lord Ji came yesterday, he quickly left the Military Advisor's Mansion alone with a gloomy face. What was even more strange was that the young master did not come back with Chen An and Li Yin yesterday. After the two came back, they stayed in the camp with dark faces, without eating or drinking. The rest of the people, not knowing the reason, even the soldiers who usually liked to joke with them, spoke much more quietly. As a result, the whole military advisor's mansion seemed very depressing, with a dark cloud pressing down on the city.

The sun slowly rose in such a depressing atmosphere, and the top of the valley was tilted towards the west mountain.

The moonlight slowly rose again and then moved westward little by little.

"Chen An, Li Yin, you two come in." Suddenly, a voice sounded on the field outside the valley, extremely gloomy.

It was already midnight, and the third military advisor in a black robe flashed on the field like a ghost in the night, and then he walked straight into the valley.

Hearing this, both the soldiers on duty outside and the people in the house were shocked, and a chill rose from their backs. Chen An and Li Yin were trembling, and ran out in a state of distraction.

When the two of them arrived in the valley, they saw a figure standing in front of Li Yan's room. They hurriedly approached and took a closer look in the moonlight. It was Master Ji standing with his hands behind his back. But his appearance at this time surprised the two of them. In just one day and one night, Master Ji's face was purple and black, his expression was haggard, and his face was much older. Only his eyes were glowing with blood red.

Since Master Ji arrived at the garrison camp thirty miles away last night, he has used all his skills, using his eyes and spiritual sense, body skills and spiritual power, flying around the camp, but he has not finished searching by dawn. If he continues to search, when day comes, even with his body skills, he will be discovered, but he has no time to wait. With a ruthless heart, he dispersed some of the spiritual power that suppressed the poison, increased the range of his spiritual sense, and accelerated his body skills. When he used them, it was like a breeze blowing.

Just like that, a few hours later, he appeared behind a tent. At this time, his face was ugly, his appearance was ferocious, and his expression was dazed. The fire poison had begun to flow in his body, which made his mind somewhat out of control. He wanted to find Li Yan at all costs. After pausing for a while, he increased his spiritual power a little and searched everywhere. By the time night came, he had searched 70% to 80% of the camp. Due to excessive use of spiritual power, the fire poison in his body flowed much faster, and his mind was a little crazy. Looking at the unsearched area, the black air on his face turned purple, and some of his hair began to turn gray and black. He unconsciously said, "Do you think you can hide? You can't escape even if you dig three feet deep in the ground."

Finally, it was not until midnight that he searched the entire camp, but still found nothing. Division Ji's face was distorted, gritting his teeth, and his white teeth were "clicking". Under the purple-black face, a pair of blood-red eyes were shining, like an evil ghost in the dark night.

"No, no, where are you?" At this time, his mind was confused, and the fire poison had gradually spread to the meridians of his body. After he quickly wandered around the military camp for a while, he ran wildly unconsciously, just mumbling in his mouth.

He walked for an unknown amount of time before his mind gradually calmed down. He stopped and panted. After calming down a little, he looked around and subconsciously returned to the outside of the military advisor's residence.

"Tell us everything you said and did with Li Yan in the past few months. It must be detailed and clear. Do you understand?" Military Advisor Ji, who was dressed in a black robe, stood in the moonlight in the dark night, spoke indifferently, and looked coldly at the two people kneeling on the ground.

Chen An and Li Yin were stared at as if they were in the ninth winter, and their bodies trembled involuntarily. Chen An told them one by one, and even Li Yin, who was usually taciturn, added a few words from time to time.

After nearly an hour, "Is that all?" Military Advisor Ji spoke coldly. Chen An and Li Yin lay on the ground without answering, but were still racking their brains and thinking hard. After a long while, they secretly looked at each other and got the answer in each other's eyes. In an hour, they had said everything they could say and think about the few times they went out with Li Yan.

"Yes, sir, that's all, there's really nothing else." Chen An answered carefully, and Li Yin nodded in agreement. After an hour of narration, the two of them had begun to calm down. After all, they had experienced life and death many times on the battlefield. At this time, they just let fate take its course.

Military Advisor Ji stood quietly after hearing this, and did not speak. The two of them also knelt quietly on the ground. Under the moonlight, only the chirping of insects in early summer occasionally sounded among the flowers and plants, making people feel a little depressed.

After a while, Chen An and Li Yin felt the pressure on their bodies reduced. When they looked up, Ji Junshi had disappeared from their sight. Then they heard a voice coming from Li Yan's room.

Ji Junshi came to Li Yan's room. In the past hour, he listened and thought about every word of the two. His mind had returned to a very calm state. His brain kept analyzing. Finally, he came to several conclusions and doubts.

One is that Li Yan should know his intentions towards him. Even if he didn't know the real purpose, he must have felt that something bad would happen to him? But how did he know his intentions? He had always behaved without revealing anything, which made him a little puzzled.

Second, Li Yan had intentionally or unintentionally started to increase the number of contacts with Liu Chengyong two months ago, so Liu Chengyong should be the contact person arranged by Hong Linying. Is Li Yan's escape today because Liu Chengyong did something in the barracks according to orders, using a sleight of hand to block Chen An and Li Yin's sight?

Third, the suspicion of several fellow villagers who are close to Li Yan is also not small, and they may have participated in helping Li Yan escape, so the wine shop and the iron pavilion may be Li Yan's hiding place. Although the soldiers guarding the city said that Li Yan had left the city, it would not be difficult for Hong Linying to make several soldiers lie with his means?

Fourth, if the soldiers at the city gate can lie, then the soldiers on duty in the barracks can also lie. Will Li Yan still hide in the barracks?

Fifth, if the soldiers above are likely to lie, then can it be imagined that in addition to the wine shop and the iron pavilion, Hong Linying can find any private house in the city to hide Li Yan, instead of in the Marshal's Mansion.

Sixth, what is the connection between Li Yan's recent purchase of farm tools and clothing and his escape? He couldn't figure it out for a while.

Seventh, are the flowers and plants that Li Yan has recently planted related to his escape?

Eighth, if Li Yan is not in any of the above places, then where might he go? Hometown? Or find a hidden place, waiting for him to slowly lose confidence and give up looking for him.

Ninth, how could Li Yan imitate his handwriting and forge a message?

Tenth, have Chen An and Li Yin also been bribed by Li Yan, and in fact, the two of them have been helping Li Yan?

He deduced the above things one by one, and slowly formed a conclusion.

First of all, he entered Li Yan's house to confirm the last two points. He believed that Li Yan would not do it perfectly, and any means would have certain clues to be found. What he has to do now is to get results from these conclusions one by one, and then he can gradually get the whereabouts of Li Yan.

After entering the house, although there was no light in the house, with his eyesight as a monk, the darkness would not be much different from the daytime with the help of a little light. It was only when he looked far away that it would have an effect at a farther distance. Moreover, the moonlight tonight was like water, and everything in the house was clearly visible in his eyes.

He stood in front of the table. There were inkstones and brushes on the table near the window. After taking a look, he could infer that Li Yan was in a hurry at that time. Although the inkstone and brush were put back in the non-writing position, the ink in the inkstone was still there and had not been washed away. The ink stains on the brush also existed, and some even dripped on the table. Although there were only one or two drops, it also showed that Li Yan was in a hurry at that time. He should be afraid of unexpected changes.

He picked up the pen with one hand and looked at it for a while. He found nothing else. He looked around and found a pile of paper balls thrown in the corner of the wall. He put down the brush and moved to the corner. He stretched out both hands. His left hand had inserted the jade book that he had been keeping for a while on the waist of his robe. He bent down and picked up a ball of paper from the pile and unfolded it. There were ordinary poems written on it. He then picked up a few more and unfolded them. His face gradually became a little uncomfortable.

These papers were left by Li Yan's frequent graffiti some time ago. Because it was uncertain when Li Yan would write a close-up, the woman who cleaned the house occasionally had things that she didn't have time to clean up and take away. The papers taken away during the cleaning were used as firewood and burned as before, as the military advisor Ji said to Chen An and Li Yin.

Ji Junshi had seen this before, and it was Chen An and Li Yin who showed it to him. He didn't think it was anything special at the time, but when he looked at it carefully today, he immediately found some problems. Although the handwriting was still messy, as if venting the anger in his chest, it was still so ugly and messy, but now when he looked carefully, some strokes of some characters were somewhat similar to his own. If he hadn't deliberately wanted to find the problem, he really wouldn't have found such a situation.

His discovery made him involuntarily have a flash of inspiration, and he turned back to look at the bookshelf on the west wall of the house, where there were 10 or 20 books.

With a flicker of his body, he went to the bookshelf again and found a book inside. This book was the source of the poem in the paper ball he had just read. He had often studied it before, so he knew it.

Soon he turned to that page. After just one glance, his face changed. Then he found a few more books one after another. After opening them, he couldn't help but sigh and said to himself, "This kid, I really underestimated him. He is only fifteen or sixteen years old, but he has such a mind."

When he opened the first book, he basically understood that these books were all books he used to read frequently. However, he had read too many books, and the bookshelves in his room could no longer accommodate them. So he only kept some books he often read, and the rest were placed on the bookshelves in these rooms. He had a habit of reading books. He liked to mark some good sentences, and write a few annotations and comments from time to time. Obviously, Li Yan also discovered this, so he included it in his plan.

At this time, Ji Junshi remembered that Li Yan had taken a few more books from him before. He thought that he wanted to see more of his handwriting; second, he wanted to confirm whether the handwriting on the books in his room was his own.

He remembered that he had only written two things to Li Yan, one was "The Breath Guiding Technique" and the other was "The Black Night Curtain Green Technique". However, it was obvious that Li Yan spent a longer time looking at the technique the second time. At that time, he thought that as the technique was upgraded, Li Yan's comprehension would be slower, so he spent a longer time looking at it. Now it seems that it is not ruled out that Li Yan wanted to see more handwriting or check whether the handwriting in the book and the handwriting on the paper were from the same person.

Looking back at the pile of papers in the corner, he also realized that in the handwriting that Li Yan practiced, it was often a certain basic stroke in a word that was truly imitating himself, and the others were just random writing to cover up. When it was actually used, Li Yan slowly combined the basic strokes he had practiced to form his own message.

At this point, he had already determined the last two points of his conclusion: Li Yan secretly imitated through the books he had annotated, and as a defect in the practice of the exercises, it was precisely that some external objects were needed to calm the heat in the chest, and he used this to cover up the practice of imitation; the other point was that Chen An and Li Yin were not bribed by Li Yan, which was easy to figure out. If they were bribed, Li Yan would not have to work so hard to secretly imitate his handwriting, and Chen An and Li Yin would have gone out with him.

Then, he would have to determine some other conclusions, and perhaps Li Yan's whereabouts were among them.