Sending Off the Yin (6)

More than one person hung from the trees.

Every one of the escorts who had ignored Yu Xing and fled on their own had become a skewer of candied hawthorns, impaled through the body.

For some reason, the corpses' blood seemed to have dried up. It took ages for a single drop to form and fall, as if they'd been drained dry, leaving behind nothing but skin and flesh.

Yu Xing counted them. All his missing subordinates were here—not one was absent. Besides his escorts, several men in plain cloth clothes hung from the trees as well.

Zhao Ruru compared their clothes and said softly, "These are people from my clan."

The Dog God Clan's clothing differed from the styles popular beyond the mountains. Although Zhao Ruru had never seen her clan members in person, her original clothes had the same patterns as those worn by these men.

So the Saintess's clansmen hadn't failed to catch up with her. They'd made it this far, only to be killed by something strange.

What had killed them?

Or rather... had these people triggered some sort of instant-death condition, and that was why they'd all ended up hanging from these trees?

Zhao Ruru looked at Yu Xing, hoping he could explain.

Unfortunately, Yu Xing had no idea either. Based on his guess, if all the Deductionists were in these woods, each of them should have their own main objective.

He had to deliver the cargo, and Zhao Ruru had to escape the Dog God Clan's pursuit once and for all. Then perhaps... whatever maintained the rules of the woods was another Deductionist's main objective.

The two of them passed through the forest of hanging corpses, where a drop of blood fell now and then, without incident.

Yu Xing had expected as much. When