Ji Yunshu in front!

Li Shiyan behind!

Watching that slender figure struggling forward in front of him, he became somewhat worried and raised his alertness several notches, planning to protect her well.

After the two had walked for a short while, Li Shiyan asked, “Where are we heading now?”

“Southeast.” Ji Yunshu replied.

“Then I don’t understand. Why are you cutting through this forest? Look at this place—the dampness is so heavy, dark as night. Why not go around the mountain base?”

Li Shiyan frowned in confusion.

Ahead, Ji Yunshu walked carefully, using the wooden stick in her hand to poke the ground while asking without turning her head, “Do you really want to know?”

“Of course.” Li Shiyan nodded affirmatively. “If you think my aptitude isn’t bad, why not take me on as a disciple? Perhaps in the future I could also handle solving cases as easily as you do.”

Handle easily?

These four words made Ji Yunshu smile despite herself, and she didn’t answer further.

Yet Li Shiyan’s confusion grew heavier precisely because of her silence.

He continued pressing, “Since you’ve already agreed to let me follow you, why hide your thoughts? Perhaps if you tell me, I can offer you some ideas.”

Ji Yunshu seemed to have lost her annoyance and took a breath of the cold, damp air.

She said, “The deceased came from the official road, cut through this forest, and ran to the southeast corner.”

“How do you know?”

“Although there are mountains around here, woodcutters frequently come and go, so there’s simply nowhere to hide people. Moreover, Jing Zhaoyin also investigated the vicinity and indeed found no possibility of hiding anyone. Based on the deceased’s physical condition, it’s even more impossible that she trekked over mountains and through rivers from far away to reach Mount Liang. So there’s only one explanation.”

“What?”

“The deceased should have escaped from a certain carriage on the official road at that time, or rather, from something that could hide a person. At that time, someone was definitely chasing her. In her panic, she couldn’t possibly run around the mountain base with its wide field of vision toward the southeast, but rather ran into this forest and then headed southeast. She just unfortunately fell, struck her head on a stone, and died on the spot.”

Her explanation was quite patient!

Li Shiyan nodded several times in shock, his face full of admiration, yet he couldn’t help asking again, “So why are you retracing the path the deceased took?”

“To find traces left by the murderer, or something else I don’t know about.”

The explanation was fairly clear, but Li Shiyan’s brain still needed some time to process and understand it all while running at high speed.

His face showed astonishment!

He really wanted to open this woman’s head and take a good look at what was inside!

Ji Yunshu pushed forward with effort and continued, “There’s one more point. Mount Liang is just outside the capital with only this one official road. To hide the deceased, a carriage would be more likely. Moreover, the direction the carriage was traveling at the time was very possibly leaving the city.”

“Why?”

“Because of the disappearance case, the city has long been heavily guarded and searches are being conducted everywhere. The murderer might have been worried about being discovered, so he was anxious to transport the deceased out of the city. However, there’s one thing I still don’t quite understand. If it really was a carriage, hiding the deceased inside would indeed be easy, but entering and leaving the city both require thorough searches. How did the murderer avoid these and transport the deceased out?”

Ji Yunshu’s mind also gradually grew puzzled!

In short, there were layers upon layers of suspicious points!

She had no leads either. Now, she could only hope to find something in this mountain forest.

“Never mind. Let’s first try to find something related to the case here.” Ji Yunshu said.

Li Shiyan didn’t continue asking. Ji Yunshu’s words were enough for him to digest.

Suddenly—

“Wait!”

Ji Yunshu stopped.

“What is it?”

“Look, is that a piece of white cloth over there?”

She pointed to a spot!

Not far away on a pile of tangled branches, there was indeed a piece of white cloth hooked on them.

However, those tangled branches grew on a downward steep slope. One could only carefully step down to reach that piece of white cloth.

Li Shiyan squinted and looked several times, then nodded. “There is a piece of cloth. It might just be an ordinary cloth.”

“We’ll know once we get it and look.”

The next moment, Ji Yunshu had already walked over with her wooden stick. Bending down and stretching out her hand, she still couldn’t reach it no matter what.

“Let me!”

Li Shiyan pulled her behind him and was just about to walk down the steep slope.

Swish, swish, swish—

The treetops were suddenly swept by something in rapid succession!

In this gloomy, dark forest, it was very piercing.

From the tall, straight trees, over a dozen black-clad figures suddenly jumped down, each wielding swords, stabbing toward the two of them.

As a sharp sword stabbed toward Ji Yunshu, her hand was immediately pulled behind Li Shiyan for protection.

“Be careful!”

That originally ornamental and impractical exquisite folding fan was waved open by Li Shiyan and actually shot out several sharp silver needles.

They shot accurately into the throats of several black-clad figures, killing them on the spot!

Ji Yunshu hadn’t expected that folding fan to be such a formidable weapon.

“Lean against the big tree and don’t run around.” Li Shiyan glanced sideways to instruct her.

In an instant, he was locked in combat with those black-clad figures.

But somehow, from atop the large tree Ji Yunshu had been leaning against, another black-clad figure leaped down, sword point downward, stabbing mercilessly straight at her head.

As she raised her eyes, that sword blade, as if carrying meteor-like light, suddenly magnified in her pupils!

Certain death?

She had lived from Jinjiang to here. The disappearance case still wasn’t solved. The “Linjing Case” still wasn’t investigated.

And what about Wei Yi?

Would Jingrong take care of him for her? Would he treat him well?

When that sword was no more than 0.0001 millimeters from her line of sight, a pebble flew over, instantly deflecting that sword. It broke free from the black-clad figure’s hand and fell steadily into a broad palm.

Jingrong, holding that seized sword, stabbed it into the black-clad figure’s chest.

At the same time…

He forcefully pulled Ji Yunshu and pressed her before him.

“If you dare abandon this prince again next time, this prince will personally kill you.” His eyes blazed with intense fury.

Although the surrounding light was very dark, Ji Yunshu still clearly saw that stern and angry face.

“I…”

Not waiting at all for Ji Yunshu to explain, Jingrong pressed her against the tree again. “Stay put.”

Then, wielding the sword, he went to fight that group of black-clad figures.

Ji Yunshu clutched her chest and only reacted after a long while.

Watching as both sides had become locked in fierce combat, her line of sight once again fell on that piece of white cloth. After thinking for a moment, while remaining vigilant, her footsteps also slowly moved in that direction.

Her slender fingers grasped the messy tree branches beside her as she descended the steep slope. Her other hand struggled to reach that piece of white cloth.

A bit further forward!

A bit more forward!

Finally reached it!

She grabbed the white cloth into her hand, but…

“Ah!”

Her body rolled down from this steep slope.