"Whoosh!"
Fang Han rushed north along the official road, <Wind God Step> was unfolded, and the figure in green robe was like an invisible wind, passing silently in the autumn wilderness.
Smoke from the distant villages curled up, and the sounds of chickens and dogs could be faintly heard.
Occasionally, a few birds would start up from the dead grass, fluttering their wings and fly towards the gray-blue sky.
He did not increase the speed to the extreme, but maintained a rhythm that could advance quickly without losing breath.
"Buzz--"
<Thousand-Mile Soul Lock> always maintains operation, firmly locking the breath belonging to Zhang Yuan Heng.
The breath extends from the city gate and winds northward along the official road, sometimes becoming stronger and sometimes lighter due to the wind.
Fang Han Follow this breath and head north.
An hour later.
The view ahead suddenly widened, and a group of buildings built against the mountain appeared on the horizon.
It has gray tiles and white walls, and the courtyard wall is made of bluestone. There is a stone tablet standing in front of the door with the four characters "Zhang Clan Herb Fields" written on it.
Fang Han slowed down and stopped in front of the medicine field.
He did not go in, but stood outside the door, using <Thousand-Mile Soul Lock> with all his strength and carefully sensing the breath in the air.
The aura of Zhang Yuan Heng becomes a little clearer here.
He had been here before, stayed in the medicine field for a while, and then left.
Fang Han did not enter the medicine field for questioning, turned around, and continued heading north.
More than two hours later.
Ahead, a group of buildings built along the water appeared in view.
The walls are white and the tiles are black, and the branches and leaves of several old locust trees in the courtyard rustle in the autumn wind.
In front of the door is a small stream. The water is clear and gurgling through the pebbled river bed.
This is an industry of the Zhang Clan - Blood Rice Manor.
The breath of Zhang Yuan Heng also stayed here for a moment, just like in front of the medicine field.
He came and then left again.
Fang Han stood up again and continued to sweep north.
More than three hours later, it was afternoon.
"Huh?"
Fang Han's footsteps suddenly stopped.
His nose twitched slightly, and his expression suddenly became solemn.
There is a smell of blood in the air.
The smell of blood mixed with the smell of Zhang Yuan Heng is most likely the smell of Zhang Yuan Heng's blood.
"Buzz--"
Fang Han carefully sensed the source of the smell of blood.
It's just ahead, about a hundred feet away.
He didn't waste any time, his body swayed and he swept forward.
It's more than a hundred feet away, but it only takes a moment.
In front of you is a winding official road.
The road is paved with gravel, with yellow grass and sparse trees on both sides, and rolling hills beyond.
On this official road, there is a large area of dark brown traces.
That's blood.
Dried blood.
Fang Han squatted down and gently touched the dark brown blood stain with his fingertips.
The blood stains have dried completely. Judging from the degree of dryness, it must have been several days.
Zhang Yuan Heng should have been injured here.
"It's a knife mark!"
Fang Han's eyes fell not far from the blood stains, where there was a deep knife mark.
The knife mark was about three feet long, nearly dozens of centimeters wide, and as deep as an inch.
It cut deeply into the hard gravel road of the official road, the soil rolled up at the edges, and the gravel collapsed.
Judging from the traces left on the scene, the person who took action was extremely powerful, and Zhang Yuan Heng was seriously injured with just one blow.
Zhang Yuan Heng is a Second Grade warrior. He can severely injure him with one sword, and his combat power is at least comparable to that of First Grade warrior.
"The blood trail extended into the forest next to the official road."
Fang Han stood up and looked at the woods on one side of the official road.
The bloodstains started from the knife mark and extended to the forest beside the official road.
Bit by bit, intermittently.
Fang Han followed the blood trail towards the forest.
Because it was autumn, the branches and leaves in the forest were sparse, and there were countless rotten leaves on the ground, making them soft and silent when stepped on.
Bloodstains snaked on the rotten leaves, appearing and disappearing.
Sometimes a large piece of it is scattered on the dead leaves, dyeing those dry leaves dark red.
Sometimes it's just a few drops, dripping sporadically on tree roots or gravel. If you don't look closely, you can't even notice it.
Fang Han Follow these traces and walk step by step deeper into the dense forest.
After about a stick of incense, the trees in front suddenly became sparse, and a relatively open space appeared in the field of vision.
In the center of the open space, there was a large area of scorched black corrosion.
"What trace is this?"
Fang Han's footsteps stopped here.
He knelt down and his eyes fell on the scorched black corrosion mark.
The ground that should have been covered with weeds and fallen leaves has now become bare.
The soil showed an abnormal burnt black color, with a hard crust on the surface, as if it had been soaked in some extremely corrosive and terrifying liquid.
At the edge of this area, there are still a few withered and yellow wild grasses leaning sideways. The grass leaves are scorched and curled, and they break when touched.
Fang Han stretched out his hand, gently picked up a small piece of burnt black soil, brought it to the tip of his nose and sniffed it.
A pungent smell, mixed with sourness and burning, penetrated the nasal cavity.
"Corpse-Dissolving Water?"
Fang Han whispered these three words in a low voice, and his face became solemn.
He had seen records of this thing in the sect's miscellaneous books - Corpse-Dissolving Water, an extremely domineering and vicious medicinal liquid, which was mixed and refined with a variety of highly toxic substances. It could corrode flesh and bones in a very short period of time, leaving only a pool of charred black traces.
After killing someone, use Corpse-Dissolving Water to destroy the body and eliminate all traces, so that not even the bones will be left. It is more useful than the tung oil he prepared in Storage Ring.
Some killer organizations always keep this thing.
Azure Profound Sect does not have Corpse-Dissolving Water. He has only seen relevant introductions in miscellaneous books and has never seen it with his own eyes.
Unexpectedly, I saw it today.
Zhang Yuan Heng, the bones should have melted, and there is no whole body left.
No wonder no corpse of the missing masters from the major forces has been seen so far. It turns out that the bones have long been melted by Corpse-Dissolving Water.
"What a professional method. Who is the murderer?"
Fang Han stood up and scanned the charred area.
The person who took action was not only extremely powerful, but also very thoughtful and did not leave any clues.
"Buzz--"
Fang Han will activate <Thousand-Mile Soul Lock> with all its strength.
Perfection Realm's Tracking Secret Technique unfolded without reservation, and the perception spread around like a tide.
Within ten miles, the breath of all things can be sensed.
He abandoned those irrelevant smells - the fragrance of vegetation, the fishy smell of soil, the musty smell of rotten leaves, the water vapor from distant streams - and concentrated his mind to capture the "human" breath from the vast sea of breath.
One way.
Two lanes.
Three ways.
Hundreds of ways.
Thousands of ways.
Nearby is the official road. Although there are not many people coming and going, there are at least several groups of people passing by every day.
Over the course of a month, at least thousands of people passed by the area.
And the murderer is hidden among these thousands of people.
"It's unrealistic to have thousands of people investigating one after another!"
Fang Han frowned slightly.
It would take at least several months to investigate thousands of people one by one.
Not to mention that it is impossible for him to waste so much time on this task, even if he wanted to, it would be unrealistic.
He can smell the remaining odors within a month at most. As time passes, the odors left by these people along the way will dissipate.
The smell left along the way dissipated, and even if he wanted to track these people, he couldn't.
Therefore, the auras of these thousands of people must be screened.
"The murderer must meet one condition."
Fang Han whispered to himself, his eyes scanning the charred soil.
Zhang Yuan Heng is a Second Grade warrior. Even if he is attacked by a sneak attack, he can be seriously injured with one sword. Even if the conditions are relaxed as much as possible, he must be at least a Upper Third Grade warrior.
Just select the breath of the Upper Third Grade warrior from the breath of thousands of people.
As a warrior improves his cultivation, his qi and blood will become more vigorous, his vitality will become more powerful, and his aura will become stronger and more unique.
This change is the inevitable result of the transition in life levels.
This is why powerful warriors can frighten wild beasts with just their breath, and even make some demonic beasts with keen senses flee.
Ordinary people cannot detect this difference in aura, but <Thousand-Mile Soul Lock>, who has Perfection Realm's extremely keen perception, can sense the difference in this aura.
"Buzz--"
Fang Han once again fully mobilizes <Thousand-Mile Soul Lock>.
This time, he no longer captured everyone's aura, but screened out the aura belonging to the Upper Third Grade warrior from the thousands of auras.
The nose is twitching slightly and the mind is highly concentrated.
Thousands of breaths, like thousands of threads of different colors, were intertwined in his mind.
He abandoned those auras belonging to Middle Third Grade, Lower Third Grade and even ordinary people.
Leaving behind those condensed and unique textures - the aura belonging to the Upper Third Grade warrior.
One way.
Two lanes.
Three ways...
Fang Han screens, eliminates and categorizes these scents one by one in his mind.
After dozens of breaths, a glimmer of light flashed in his eyes.
"Twelve ways."
He discovered twelve auras belonging to the Upper Third Grade warrior, and he successfully narrowed the suspect range of the thousands of people to twelve people.
Now that the scope has been narrowed down to twelve people, subsequent tracking will become easier. All it takes is to check these twelve people one by one.
Compared with before, the difficulty can be said to be lower than that of diving.
"This... aura?"
Suddenly, Fang Han's expression suddenly changed.
Among the twelve breaths, one gave him a familiar feeling.
The breath was extremely thin, if it weren't for him <Thousand-Mile Soul Lock>Perfection Realm would even have missed it, but it was domineering with a scorching texture like rising flames.
It was exactly the same as the aura exuding from the Iron River Gang leader Qi Zhen in the ruins of the Hundred Treasures Pavilion that day.
It is the aura belonging to Qi Zhen.
"It can't be such a coincidence!"
Fang Han's face was solemn. Although Qi Zhen's aura was just one of the twelve auras, it might be a coincidence, and it was not necessarily Qi Zhen's doing.
But his intuition told him that this matter was closely related to Qi Zhen.
After all, Iron River Gang, where Qi Zhen is located, originally wanted to annex the major forces, but because the major forces chose to rely on Seven Sects, they had to stop the annexation.
It is entirely possible to choose to attack major forces secretly instead of openly conflicting with Seven Sects.
"The suspicion of other people cannot be ruled out, but Qi Zhen is definitely the biggest suspect. We will investigate Qi Zhen first!"
Fang Han carefully sensed the breath of Qi Zhen and followed it in the direction where Qi Zhen left.
But after only chasing a few dozen miles, he couldn't help but stop.
On the road ahead, a man wearing Dark Gold Brocade Robe appeared.
The man was tall and muscular, with a wide belt tied around his waist and a long knife hanging on the belt.
This person turned out to be Qi Zhen whom he planned to investigate!