"Bring it up."
Nezha clutched the scroll Bamboo Slips and the portrait, Wind-Fire Wheels stepped on it and made two scorch marks, and within three breaths, it landed at the door of Main Star Great Hall.
Gu Changqing is sitting on the Taishi chair in the middle of the Great Hall, with half a bowl of herbal tea in his hand. Yang Jian is leaning on the pillar on the left and wrapping his fingers with medicinal cloth. Tongtian is standing in front of Star Map, his fingers hanging on the red area of Myriad Worlds Rift without moving.
Nezha slapped Bamboo Slips on the table together with the portrait.
Bamboo Slips was spread out, and the handwriting on the draft of the message was crooked, using some kind of low-level Inscription Art, but the content was three full pages longer than the version broadcast by the spirit.
Gu Changqing didn't look at Bamboo Slips first, his eyes fell on the portrait.
The tin dog was painted with great care, including the location of the rivets, the welds of the joints, the coat pattern imitated by spray paint, and even the natural missing corner on Xiaotian Dog's left ear.
The plastic sign hanging around my neck is crooked, with the words Pangu written in a deliberately ugly way, like a child scratching it on the dirt with a branch.
Gu Changqing lifted the portrait and looked at it for a few seconds, then put it down.
"Where was it dug out in the back mountain?"
"The abandoned Spirit Mine Pit in the northeast corner is less than 800 feet away from Xiaotian Dog's nest."
Nezha gritted his teeth while speaking, and the flesh on his cheeks was stretched tight.
"The burial was not deep. The cloth bag was covered with two layers of soil. It seemed like it was found on purpose."
"Is there any scent left on the cloth bag?"
"I asked someone from Yin Jiao to check it. It's as clean as if it's been washed with water. There's not even any fluctuations in A Trace Magic Power."
Tongtian turned around from Star Map and glanced at the portrait on the table.
"This painting is very good. The missing corner of Xiaotian Dog's left ear has been drawn, which shows that the person who painted this painting has observed Xiaotian Dog at close range."
Nezha's fist hit the table.
"I also thought about this. There is a Magic Formation barrier in the back mountain area. Outsiders cannot enter. If you can bury things in it without triggering the alarm, either the Magic Formation has been cracked, or it was done from within."
Great Hall was quiet for a moment.
Yang Jian stopped wrapping his hand in the medicine cloth and looked up.
"You mean, there are people from them inside the Firmament Realm?"
"I have no evidence, but tell me if there is any other explanation."
Nezha's voice went up for half a minute, he suppressed it himself, took a breath and continued.
"Xiaotian Dog's nest is in the back mountain. The Magic Formation in the back mountain was laid by Master himself. Even if Quasi-Immortal Emperor comes to break it, it will take a long time. The movement cannot be small, but Covert Sentinels didn't notice anything."
Tongtian walked to the table, picked up the portrait, and turned it over. The back was blank, and he touched the texture of the paper with his fingers.
"The paper is made of Spirit Fiber. This material is not produced in the Firmament Realm. The nearest place of production is Weaving Cloud Star in the 38th Star Domain in the northwest."
"Weaving Cloud Star? Isn't that one of the sixteen Star Domain that was deceived?"
"Yes."
Tongtian Put the portrait back on the table.
"But Spirit Fiber paper is a bulk commodity in Weaving Cloud Star. Hundreds of thousands of sheets are circulated every year. If you check the flow direction, you can't find anything."
Gu Changqing picked up the bowl of herbal tea, took a sip, put it down, and turned his fingers half a circle around the edge of the bowl.
"What is the current status of Nezha, Xiaotian Dog?"
"Going crazy."
Nezha said.
"When I came out, it was still circling around the pit in the back hill. It kept whining and its eyes were red. I couldn't pull it away."
"Let it come."
Nezha was stunned for a moment.
"Master, let Xiaotian Dog come to the Great Hall?"
"Call it."
Nezha sent a signal through Magic Formation, and within twenty seconds, the sound of claws scratching the metal floor came from the door of the Great Hall.
Xiaotian Dog rushed in, running very fast on four legs, and did not stop until he reached Gu Changqing's chair.
It didn't wag its tail like usual, its whole body was tense, a low growl continued in its throat, and its eyes were fixed on the portrait on the table.
Gu Changqing reached out and touched its head.
Xiaotian Dog's low roar stopped for a moment and then started again, his voice was hoarse with a mixture of grievance and hatred.
"I saw it."
Gu Changqing's hand slid from its head to behind its ears, and rubbed the edge of the natural missing corner twice.
"I know."
Xiaotian Dog's body trembled, and his growl finally weakened and turned into intermittent whimpering.
Gu Changqing retracted his hand, picked up the portrait, folded it twice, and stuffed it into his sleeve.
"Tongtian."
"The disciple is here."
"All the Magic Formation in the back mountain have been dismantled and reinstalled. They are encrypted with the highest level of Myriad Heavens Only Origin System. I will do it myself."
"Yes."
"Yin Jiao Have you finished interrogating the prisoners over there?"
"After five interrogations, the confessions were mostly the same."
Tongtian took out a stack of records from his sleeve and handed it over.
"They are all running errands at the bottom and have no access to the core layer. The only valuable clues are Veiled Woman and Spiritual Sense Locking Device."
Gu Changqing took the record and scanned it once. After reading it for three breaths, he threw it back on the table.
"Yang Jian."
Yang Jian bit off the tail of the medicine cloth, tied it tightly, and stood up straight.
"The disciple is here."
"The Runes on your Formation Core Fragment has a new Transformation, tell me."
Yang Jian took the fragment out of his arms and placed it on the table, pointing to a newly emerged scratch in the middle.
"This section of Runes only appeared this morning. It has nothing to do with the original Formation function. It is more like a set of coordinate codes. I compared Star Map with the Great Thousand Origin Realm and found that it completely matches the entrance coordinates of the third section of the passage on the route."
The air in the Great Hall has changed.
Tongtian came over and looked down at Runes, his expression was not very good.
"They engraved the Star Map coordinates into the Formation core?"
"It's not carved, it's delayed."
Yang Jian scratched the edge of the fragment with the fingernail of his left hand.
"When this fragment was brought back from Cangwu Star, it only had the Runes of the Formation body. The coordinates came out by themselves later, like some kind of timed release message. The recipient is not us."
Nezha interrupted when he heard this.
"Then who is the recipient?"
Yang Jian glanced at him and didn't answer.
Gu Changqing Pick up the pieces and turn them over to the back.
The arrangement of Runes on the back was exactly the same as that of Chip, but there was an extra mark at the bottom that he had not seen before.
A palm with a Stars painted on the center of the palm.
Origin Temple's emblem.
Gu Changqing placed the fragments and the Chip side by side on the table, and glanced back and forth between the two things twice.
"Interesting."
Nezha was very anxious beside him.
"Master You keep saying it's interesting, what do you mean?"
Gu Changqing didn't reply to him, so he stood up and walked to the Great Hall's window.
Outside the window was the Firmament Realm Main Star night sky. The stars were so bright that they made the shadows of the Great Shang Heavenly Soldiers patrol team on the square in front of the temple drag out.
"System, can the Runes on the Chip and Formation Core Fragment be traced back to the Spiritual Imprint of the writer?"
"Ding, analyzing."
The system was silent for three times longer than usual.
"Ding, a very weak mental residue has been detected, and the concentration is lower than the conventional tracking threshold, but Myriad Heavens Only Origin System can perform enhanced extraction."
"Tips."
"Ding, the enhanced extraction is in progress, it is expected to take a quarter of an hour."
Gu Changqing turned around and looked at the people in the Great Hall.
Yang Jian, Tongtian, Nezha, Xiaotian Dog.
"Go back and rest first. Come to me in a quarter of an hour."
Nezha opened his mouth to say something, but Yang Jian grabbed his arm and dragged Great Hall out.
Tongtian looked back at Gu Changqing before leaving.
Gu Changqing sat back on the Taishi chair, tapping his fingers on the armrest, the rhythm was very slow, like a heartbeat.
Xiaotian Dog didn't leave. He was lying at the foot of the chair, his head resting on his front paws, and occasionally a sob came out of his throat.
Great Hall Be quiet.
Gu Changqing glanced down at it.
"Remember this tone and figure it out together later."
Xiaotian Dog's tail slapped on the floor.