The moment he landed, Qin Yuan began searching for something nearby.
Rain fell frequently in the forest, and the traces on the ground had long since been washed over again and again. Some were already indistinct.
Only after everyone had landed safely did they notice what Qin Yuan was doing.
"Mr. Qin, have you found something?" Ning Bao asked.
Qin Yuan held two fingers beneath his nose. Ning Bao sniffed. "That's the smell of burnt bullhide. What's wrong with that?"
Qin Yuan said gravely, "The cliff we just descended was almost perpendicular to the ground. Cattle are heavy beasts. Even if one fell off the cliff, it couldn't have scraped right along the cliff face, much less been scraped by its recessed sections. These marks were clearly left by bullhide shoes."
"I was the first to descend just now, so we couldn't have left these embers from the friction of bullhide. And we set out to explore before Spirit Hall's experts did. No one within sight could have overtaken us."
Everyone immediately caught on.
Someone had beaten them to it!
Marshal Ge Long shook his head repeatedly. "Impossible. I was the first to bring troops to the secret realm, and Spirit Hall's army arrived afterward. Our two sides were locked in a standoff the entire time. Neither could have entered the secret realm first."
"As for Chief Meng Shenji, he didn't notice anyone following him after he left..."
Zhi Lin ventured, "The Star Luo Empire has been keeping an extremely low profile. Could they have discovered another entrance to the secret realm?"
Bai Baoshan shook his head. "That's unlikely. The Heaven Dou Empire, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, and even Spirit Hall all have covert agents in the Star Luo Empire's court. If the Star Luo Empire really had