There is a god in the sky

Chapter 429 Clues

In the early hours of the morning, a group of people gathered at the entrance of Muyun Village.

"It's almost time. Have you brought everything?" The person in the lead was the eldest son of the village chief, surnamed Mu.

“I brought it.” A young man kicked a burlap sack at his feet.

Almost everyone carried a burlap sack with them.

Several sacks moved, clearly indicating they contained live animals.

"The number is smaller this time. I repeatedly told them not to be rough with them, because those who died were all laborers."

Next time someone kills someone, they'll have to find the goods themselves to make up for it!

With a wave of his hand, he led his men up the mountain.

For the fifteen minutes after they left, villagers guarded the village entrance, preventing any outsiders from entering the village silently.

In the bushes not far away, Xiao Ji and his men hid, watching helplessly as the villagers left.

"They've been gone for a long time. If we don't catch up soon, we might lose them," Li Ye said anxiously.

"Don't worry, so many people have walked this path, so we can just follow the trail."

"The villagers here are very cautious; I really don't know who their backers are."

"There are no more than three families in Jiangling who have the ability to mine gold privately, and eighty percent of them have connections in the imperial court."

However, after two changes of imperial power, the power structure in the court had been reshuffled several times over.

However, opening gold mines was not something that could be done overnight; it probably started during the reign of the late emperor.

"You can go now, but be careful not to be discovered by the villagers."

The group entered the mountains before dawn.

Suiying and Li Ye walked at the front, one responsible for checking for traces and the other for keeping a close watch on the surroundings.

Halfway up the mountain, Suiying gestured for everyone to stop, and after parting the leaves in front of them, they discovered a trap.

Few hunters would set traps in the middle of the road; this is clearly not for catching wild animals, but for protecting themselves from people.

Xiao Ji stepped forward and took a look.

"The trap is very large and deep, enough to trap an adult. There are no large wild animals in this location, so it's clearly aimed at people."

"Ah."

"Be careful, there should be quite a few traps along the way."

Everyone walked very carefully, so they walked slowly.

Li Ye would occasionally climb a tree to look into the distance, but he could never see any trace of the villagers.

"I heard that they stay in the mountains for three to five days at a time, so they must not be too far away."

"This mountain doesn't look bare from a distance. Shouldn't mines be completely cleared out?"

"Not necessarily. It's also possible that they dug a cave and the ore is mostly underground."

After avoiding several traps, one time the shadow triggered a large net.

A huge net descended from the sky, nearly catching them all.

Fortunately, the group reacted quickly and escaped the encirclement before the net fell.

Shh... I think I heard something.

Li Ye pressed his ear against a mountain wall.

The others followed suit and stuck it on, but only Shen Lan heard a faint sound.

She stepped back a short distance and looked up at the mountain peak in front of her.

This is a mountain peak shaped like a camel's hump, consisting of two connected, towering sections.

Suiying pointed to the path on the left and said, "They're going this way."

"We can't go any further," Shen Lan said.

Seeing everyone looking over, she pointed to another mountain peak and said, "The sound was very faint just now; it must have come from the other side."

They're mining gold here, so they'll definitely have sentry posts around the perimeter of the mine. Going any further ahead would make them easy to spot.

"You wait here, I'll go take a look by myself." With Xiao Ji's permission, Suiying disappeared into the dense forest in a few leaps.

Shen Lan searched around the area and found some man-made trash, as well as a string of copper keys with lucky bags hanging from the roots of a tree.

Such items should be considered lost, not intentionally discarded.

"what is this?"

Shen Lan first discovered the scratch marks near the tree roots; they were very shallow.

Xiao Ji leaned closer to take a look, "Maybe it was left by an animal."

It's not surprising that many animals with sharp claws in the mountains scratch tree trunks.

"It wasn't left by sharp claws, it's five fingers, like human fingers." Shen Lan placed her right hand on it to imitate, and the position of the five fingers was just right.

Xiao Ji went around to the other side of the tree, squatted down, and broke off a piece of bark.

He leaned closer and sniffed it. "Is this human blood?"

Shen Lan observed carefully and saw that the bloodstains in that spot were splattered, dotted, and unevenly distributed.

Assuming it was human blood, the person killed should have been leaning against a large tree, and most of the blood should have been splattered on the murderer and... the ground.

She gathered the fallen leaves together and examined them one by one, finding no trace of blood.

Xiao Ji stomped hard on the bare ground. "The soil here is loose, like it's been dug up."

Li Ye and Sui Feng walked over, and the two of them tacitly drew their knives and began digging.

They dug only a shallow layer and saw the fabric and exposed fingers.

After the body was dug out, Shen Lan covered her mouth and nose and approached to conduct a quick examination.

"The fatal wound was the knife wound on his neck. His body was rotting, but he had multiple fractures, indicating that he had been beaten before he died."

Xiao Ji used a stick to pull out a bracelet from his wrist, with a copper coin strung on it.

In many places, children wear red wristbands like these to ward off evil spirits and ensure safety.

"It seems that the lucky bag and the key are his too."

The face was no longer visible, but Shen Lan judged from the deceased's build and clothing that he was not very old.

Footsteps approached, startling the group, who immediately assumed defensive stances.

Then I saw Suiying running towards me from the front. He said breathlessly, "I've found the approximate location, but just like Miss Shen said, there are sentries around, so I didn't dare to get too close."

"Leave first and then talk."

They couldn't take the body with them, so they buried it again and then went down the mountain along the same route.

Shen Lan washed the two relics clean and carefully examined them, from the fabric to the style.

"These two items are not valuable, but you can tell they were made with care; they must have been made by family members."

Shen Lan carefully drew the two items, colored them, and then posted them out.

In the busiest market, there was a government bulletin board with a lost and found notice posted on it.

"This is the first time I've ever seen such an exquisitely painted picture; it looks just like the real thing."

"Yes, the embroidery is so crude it's laughable. Why would anyone want to find the owner of something like this?"

"Perhaps they're worried that the person who lost their things won't be able to open their door without their key?"

Everyone was just watching it as a spectacle.

After all, neither of these items is worth much, and there's no need to fraudulently claim them.

Just then, a butcher happened to pass by, glanced at it, and stared wide-eyed. "This...this thing seems familiar."

He continued pushing the cart forward until he reached his doorstep before remembering what had happened.

"Hey, isn't that what Erniu's silly son wears?"

He quickly abandoned the cart and ran to Erniu's house.

That afternoon, a middle-aged couple came to Xiao Ji's residence.

It was clear that the couple were very simple and honest, and they looked haggard. The wife's eyes were red and swollen from crying.

"These really are my Baozhu's things!" The couple recognized them as soon as they saw the belongings.

"I made this by hand, hoping my Baozhu would be safe and sound, but he still got lost!"

Xiao Ji had someone pour them water, and after they had cried for a while, he asked, "How old is your child? When did he get lost?"

The couple did not know Xiao Ji's identity, but before entering the house, someone had said that a high-ranking official from the capital lived there.

They answered Xiao Ji's questions without any concealment.