A Fake Wheel Track Wants to Lure People Away?

The team leader stopped by the well.

"Wheel tracks can be faked?"

Li Sanshun pointed toward the old water channel.

"Last night, the corpse-transport cart was loaded with four 'bodies'. The wheels would have been heavily weighted, so the tracks left behind should have been deep. Look at the bottom of the well; the depth of the left and right tracks is identical, and there isn't even a side-mark where it turned."

A Law Enforcement disciple jumped into the abandoned well and used a short blade to dig into the tracks.

Under the white sandy soil, the indentations were only half an inch deep.

"Indeed, too shallow."

Li Sanshun continued, "Sun Erhe has been driving corpse carts for nine years; he would never drive a cart full of bodies like this. Find an old axle, attach two wheels, and drag it by hand, and you could leave marks just like these."

The fire outside the medicine garden was still burning.

Heat poured down through the well opening, and the medicinal odors in the water channel grew increasingly chaotic. If they dragged this out any longer, the lingering scents would be completely masked by the toxic smoke.

Gu Qinghe took out a Wind-Cleansing Talisman and stuck it to the well rim.

The talisman paper drew away the smoke pouring into the well, and the stench of rotting medicine in the channel finally dissipated somewhat.

"Why are there no crushed medicine roots in the soil at the well mouth?"

"Someone cleaned it."

Li Sanshun squatted down and scraped away the white sandy soil from the back of a stone slab. Near the pivot point of the slab, a few black fragments were pressed into the surface.

They were roots of the Corpse-Bone Vine.

The culprit had cleaned the well mouth, but had failed to clear the area beneath the slab.

"The corpse cart passed the north side of the medicine garden, which is why the axle got stuck in the black roots. It came to the abandoned well; the tracks on the west slope were just added later."

Gu Qinghe scanned the bottom of the well.

"The cart entered the water channel and then headed west, which counts as having been to the abandoned well. This only proves the route is suspicious; it doesn't prove the person is still here."

"The Breath-Closing Powder can prove it."

Li Sanshun removed his Smoke-Avoiding Scarf and took a breath toward the bottom of the well.

[You have ingested a mouthful of mixed medicinal gas.]

[Air Quality: Hazardous.]

[Life Energy increased by 0.01 points.]

[Detected scent components: Breath-Closing Powder, Corpse-Bone Water, stale medicinal dregs.]

The medicinal gas came from the bottom of the well.

He walked to the west side of the water channel and took another breath.

[Detected scent components: Corpse-Bone Vine, Sulfur Stone Powder, trace amounts of Red Saltpeter Powder.]

There was no Breath-Closing Powder here.

The tracks on the west slope extended far away, but the Breath-Closing Powder that Zhao Chong had ingested had not spread out along those tracks.

"The cart reached the bottom of the well, and someone opened the corpse bag here."

Gu Qinghe jumped into the well and walked a dozen steps west along the channel. She used her scabbard to turn over the mud by the side of the path, revealing a piece of worn hemp rope.

There was no blood on the rope, nor was there any Corpse-Bone Water.

The team leader followed her down.

"Was this rope used to drag the axle?"

"Most likely."

Gu Qinghe placed the hemp rope into an evidence bag.

Footsteps soon echoed in the water channel. Two Law Enforcement disciples who had gone to check the west slope hurried back.

"Senior Sister Gu, we found the corpse cart under the cliff!"

"What was on the cart?"

"Two empty corpse bags and Sun Erhe's waist token. The cart has already been burned; only the frame remains."

The team leader looked at Li Sanshun.

The person, the waist token, and the corpse bags all pointed toward the west slope.

Remaining at the abandoned well any longer would likely mean missing the chance to catch the culprit.

Li Sanshun, however, did not move.

"Are the wheels still there?"

"One was burned, and the other rolled to the bottom of the cliff."

"Is there a notch on the edge of the broken wheel?"

The disciple who had returned thought for a moment.

"Yes. A piece the size of a thumb is missing from the outer rim."

Li Sanshun pointed to the tracks at the bottom of the well.

The wooden cart found at the morgue had a wheel with a missing piece. If it had truly passed through the water channel, there would be a notch left in the mud at regular intervals.

The two tracks before them were complete from start to finish.

"The cart under the cliff is real, but the tracks here are fake. Someone sent the corpse cart to the west slope to be burned, then brought other wheels back to create these marks."

The Medicine Peak deacon was sweating profusely.

"Go to such great lengths just to lure people to the cliff?"

"The area under the cliff is easy to search for bodies, and one can track people in the mountains. They knew they couldn't fool us for long."

Li Sanshun looked at the still-smoking medicine garden.

"As long as they can lure the Law Enforcement Hall away for half an hour, the fire will finish the job for them."

Gu Qinghe spread out the old map of North Mountain.

The abandoned well was in the center of the medicine garden, and the old water channel led to the west slope. The edges of the map also marked two sealed branch paths: one connected to the north slope's detoxification vent, and the other to the medicine transport tunnel on the east side.

When the well was sealed twelve years ago, all three exits were blocked with stone walls.

If someone had re-excavated one of them, they could enter and exit from underground.

"Zhou Yuan, take six men to guard the west slope cliff. If you find anyone alive, capture them, do not kill."

"Zhao Rui, take your men to seal the north slope detoxification vent. Check the stone wall first, don't rush to tear it down."

"The east medicine transport tunnel is mine."

After giving her orders, Gu Qinghe handed a Message Talisman to Li Sanshun.

"You stay at the well mouth. If you smell any change in the Breath-Closing Powder, notify me immediately."

Li Sanshun shook his head.

"If they are hiding underground, the entrance is near the abandoned well. I have to go down and find it."

"The fire hasn't been suppressed yet; the toxic fumes trapped underground could erupt at any moment."

"The toxic smoke won't kill me that quickly."

Gu Qinghe did not press the issue.

Li Sanshun had been breathing the rotting medicinal air for so long and could still stand and investigate the tracks; he was indeed more resilient than the Law Enforcement disciples who had taken antidotes.

"Stay close to me. Do not go off alone."

The two entered the old water channel.

Less than twenty steps in, the tracks on the west side split into two paths. One continued toward the cliff, while the other circled around the bottom of the well and folded back to the original spot.

Someone had dragged the old axle by hand, deliberately walking in a circle here.

Li Sanshun ignored the tracks and pressed close to the stone walls on both sides, checking the medicinal scent section by section.

The left side only had the scent of Corpse-Bone Vine.

The right side was mixed with Sulfur Stone Powder.

When they reached the north side of the well bottom, the system issued a new notification.

[Detected residual Breath-Closing Powder.]

[Detected Hemostatic Medicine, human sweat, Red Saltpeter Powder.]

The scent of the Breath-Closing Powder came from the right wall.

The wall was built with a row of old blue bricks, the gaps sealed tightly with medicinal mud. The surface was covered in dust, showing no signs of having been opened.

Gu Qinghe tapped several of the bricks.

Everything behind them was solid.

"Could the scent be drifting from somewhere else?"

Li Sanshun walked along the wall for a few steps and stopped before a drainage stone half-buried in the mud. The Breath-Closing Powder was strongest here, and there was a faint trace of lamp oil mixed in the medicinal scent.

He moved the drainage stone.

A hole the size of a bowl was revealed underneath.

A clump of Corpse-Bone Vine was stuffed inside, covered on the outside with medicinal mud. The vine roots were already withered, but they bore fresh creases from being pressed.

Gu Qinghe pulled out the Corpse-Bone Vine, and a burst of medicinal air that had been trapped for a long time rushed out from the hole.

There was a space behind the wall!

She drew her short sword and scraped away the medicinal mud along the hole. Behind the blue bricks, a rusted iron plate was revealed, engraved with the sealing mark of the Medicine Peak from years past.

"An old medicine cellar."

Gu Qinghe flipped to the back of the map.

North Mountain once had an underground medicine cellar used to store Corpse-Bone Vine. Before the well was sealed, the entrance to the cellar had been filled in, so it hadn't been drawn on the later water channel maps.

The fire outside advanced another few yards inward.

A few wisps of gray smoke drifted in through the brick gaps, and the sound of heavy objects rubbing together came from behind the iron plate.

Gu Qinghe signaled for everyone to step back and inserted her short sword into the edge of the iron plate.

The iron plate did not budge.

The sealing mark was still connected to an underground mechanism; forcing the door open would likely trigger the Incineration Array inside the cellar.

Li Sanshun pressed close to the hole, holding his breath.

From inside, two scratching sounds came first.

After a moment's pause, three knocks followed.

A man squeezed out a sentence from behind the iron plate.

"Don't break the door... there is an Ignition Array buried under Zhao Chong's feet!"