Swift Horse Hooves

at the same time.

Beiyang Prefecture, Xindu County.

Su He also arrived at the foot of the mountain where Shen Gui was seeking immortality.

He spent most of his time on horseback during this period, enduring a lot of hardship, but that didn't matter. What mattered was... he arrived.

The man leading the way was a yamen runner from Beiyang Prefecture, around thirty years old. He stopped at the entrance to the mountain path and pointed upwards.

"This is it. All the evidence ends here. If you want to see it, then take a look yourself."

This constable was a seasoned veteran. Su He's ninth rank wasn't considered a high-ranking official, and besides, he would soon be returning to the capital and wouldn't be of much help in the future. So, he maintained a strictly businesslike attitude throughout, keeping a stern face.

As he turned to leave, Su He called out to him from behind, took out a string of copper coins from his sleeve, and handed it to him: "I'm sorry to trouble you, sir, to make this trip. Please buy me a bowl of wine."

The constable's expression relaxed slightly: "Those from Chengtian Prefecture are certainly particular."

Taking advantage of the situation, Su He asked, "This is my first time on a field mission like this, and there are many things I don't understand. I'd appreciate it if you could give me some pointers, Officer."

The words were spoken softly, which made the constable feel comfortable, so he stood there a little longer.

"There's not much to say. Those who sought immortality on the mountain died in a chaotic mess. The manor was afraid of an epidemic, so they sent people to cremate the bodies once. But the mountain is too big to burn cleanly. Every step you take, you see bones."

"Could you tell me about that powerful man in gray?"

"They disappeared after we went down the mountain."

"Which way?"

"Well..."

The constable frowned and thought for a moment. "Some people say he went east, some say he went south. Anyway, we asked several villages at the foot of the mountain, but no one saw him stay overnight or buy a horse. It's like he vanished into thin air after coming down the mountain."

Was he carrying weapons?

"I didn't see anything clearly. Some say he was carrying a sword, some say he was empty-handed, and some even say he didn't even lift a finger before the man died. Can you believe any of that?"

As the constable finished speaking, he glanced up at the mountain and covered his nose in disgust.

"I advise you not to go up there. It stinks up there, and the burnt corpses smell the worst. In the months following the incident, people from the manor, the capital, and even some martial arts masters came, but they've been investigating for so long and still haven't found anything. What's the point?"

Suhe carefully put away the field work token and looked up at the mountain.

The earliest eyewitness account of this mountain describes it as "possibly a place of immortal traces, with clouds rising like a tower."

But standing at the foot of the mountain, all he could see were charred trees, collapsed earthen slopes, and mud washed away by the rain.

The words "immortal mountain" have absolutely nothing to do with it.

"We still need to go and take a look."

"what ever."

The constable curled his lip, mounted his horse, and rode away.

Suhe went up the mountain.

The road was more difficult to walk than he had imagined. The mountain path had been trampled and burned. With each step, his shoes were covered in black ash, and in some places, broken bones were exposed, indicating that they had been gnawed by wild dogs and other creatures in the mountains.

He had seen case files of corpses in the Xun Jin Si, and he had also seen casualty records sent back from the border, but the death on paper was not the same as the death in front of him.

There's only one number written on the paper, but here you step on people with every step.

He felt nauseous several times, but in the end he managed to hold it in.

The higher you go, the fewer corpses there are, but the more bizarre the traces become.

Half of a tree trunk was broken off at an angle, the cut was so flat you could put a bowl on it. A skeleton lay face down in the mud, missing from the shoulders down. There were no drag marks next to it, it looked like a person was standing there, and then half of them were gone.

Suhe stood there for a long time.

In the Yan Kingdom, or rather, in the courts of the entire world, anyone who wants to climb to a higher position, even civil officials, must practice martial arts and cultivate themselves.

Once you embark on a spiritual journey, your energy and spirit will be different from those of ordinary people.

When faced with a mountain of tasks, a person with spiritual cultivation can stay up all night without any problems, but an ordinary person would be ruined the next day if they did.

Therefore, when the imperial court selected talents, this level of cultivation was the key to entry, and only then were other civil and military achievements assessed.

Su He also cultivates, and his aptitude is not bad, but he is not among the top tier. He is currently only at the Body Tempering Realm. If it really comes down to a fight, he can't even beat an old constable from Beiyang Prefecture.

However, he spent five years in the Xun Jin Division, where his horizons were broadened by the various files he had collected.

Leaving aside the Body Tempering and Dust Observation realms, once you reach the Mountain Gazing realm, you can release your Qi and take lives within ten feet.

The City Destroyer leaped a hundred meters, punching the city wall and cracking it; every move he made exuded power as vast as mountains and seas.

But the marks in front of me are too clean.

It was so clean, as if someone had casually drawn a line, separating the rocks, trees, and people along that single line.

Suhe pursed her lips and continued walking towards the summit. The wind was strong at the top, which actually made the smell of burning less noticeable.

He stopped in front of a skeleton.

The skeleton consisted of only the upper body, with a row of broken ribs and the lower half missing, the breaks being clean.

Based on the collected files, a picture uncontrollably surfaced in Suhe's mind.

A man stood atop a mountain. Rain fell, and chaos erupted all around. Some screamed, some attacked, and some knelt and begged for divine intervention.

Then the man in gray raised his hand, or perhaps he didn't even raise his hand, and a sharp line of light passed by, leaving the mountaintop quiet for a moment.

Su He closed her eyes briefly, trying to suppress the image.

Don't overthink things. The worst thing you can do when investigating a case is to write down the answer first and then attach the evidence.

He stood atop the mountain, gazing outwards at the vast landscape. In the distance, there were villages, roads, and even further, county towns. Cloud shadows fell on the ridges of the fields, some bright, some dark.

A few years ago, or even a few days ago, perhaps a man in gray stood here as well.

"What did you see at that time?"

The wind blew those words away.

Su Hebin was not annoyed. If Yan Zu were so easy to find, it wouldn't seem like Yan Zu at all.

This trip wasn't entirely in vain; at least in Su He's mind, the gray-clad man and Yan Zu overlapped a bit more.

He clenched his fist to encourage himself, then glanced at the sky, calculated the distance, led the black horse down the mountain, and began to hurry towards the ancient locust village.

The reason for coming to Beiyang Prefecture was to investigate the old case of the haunted Guhuai Village.

Although it's just a facade, it still has to look presentable, otherwise, when Zhou Fu asks about it back in Chengtian Prefecture, he'll have to have something to say.

Changluo County is adjacent to Xindu County.

With Xuanma's speed, only half a day had passed when Suhe arrived at Guhuai Village.

As he led his horse into the village entrance, his brows suddenly furrowed.

On the country road ahead, the bloodstains had not been wiped clean; they had only been hastily covered with soil and grass. When the wind blew, the smell of blood rose from the soil again.

Several houses had their doors ajar, and people were peering out from behind the crack.

"Chengtian Prefecture seeks out the Bureau of Ashes to investigate the ghost story of Guhuai Village from three years ago."

Su He took out the Xun Jin Division's field mission token and held it to his chest.

As soon as he finished speaking, the slightly ajar door was tightly shut from the inside.

The name Chengtian Prefecture was too distant, and the name Xunjin Division was too grand. The villagers didn't know whether the official had come to punish the Liu family or to investigate the county government.

Suhe walked around the village, but no one came out.

He returned to the village entrance, stood before the bloodstains, pondered for a moment, then put the token away and said in a calm voice, "I only investigate old cases. Whoever tells the truth will not have their name added to the case file."

Still, no one spoke.

Suhe repeated it again, but this time his voice carried an air of official authority.

After a while, the door of the tea stall was pushed open from the inside.

An old man with a stooped back came out and said, "Sir."

Suhe dismounted: "Old man, tell me about the ghost stories?"

The old man looked around, gave a wry smile, and said, "What else is there to say? After all the commotion last night, the whole village is still watching. The officials just happened to arrive at the right time."

"Oh? What's going on?" Su He took out paper and pen.

The old man then began his story by mentioning a woman dressed as a ghost under the old locust tree.

Was it really a person disguised as a ghost? Su He circled a mark on the case file, indicating that the review was consistent with the records.

The old man was still talking, saying that Zhou Laizi had stolen the straw mat and then publicly slandered someone's innocence. He was so frightened by the slap from the man in gray that he died at the village entrance, his head rolling in the mud, his eyes still open.

Suhe's pen suddenly stopped!

His eyes were full of disbelief, and his tone was filled with surprise:

"Gray clothes?! Are they tattered?!"

"Old clothes, but not exactly torn..."

"Where's your hair?"

"The man was not bound or wearing a crown; he simply draped it over his back."

"Is he in his early twenties?!"

"How did you know? You're definitely in your early twenties, but your eyes don't look like it."

The old man's face showed surprise.

A perfect match!

Suhe's fingers were clenched so tightly that her nails almost dug into her flesh.

He quickly lowered his head, not wanting the old man to see his expression, and after taking a few deep breaths, he looked up again: "What did that man in gray do? What did he say?"

The old man thought for a moment and said, "He didn't say much. He killed someone this morning and then asked A-Yue if she wanted to escape from this cage. I couldn't understand what he meant at all."

Su He raised an eyebrow, feeling as if he had grasped something. He quickly wrote down the sentence and began to speak faster: "Go on, what else did you say?"

"I asked the Liu family, and I asked what this village was called hundreds of years ago."

"Several hundred years ago?"

Suhe repeated this sentence.

Having more information, and still harboring suspicions that Yan Zu was still alive, he instantly grasped a clue.

A coincidence, it can be a coincidence.

Two coincidences are tolerable.

He was dressed in gray, had black hair, a youthful face, and possessed extraordinary strength. When asked about the village name from hundreds of years ago, and the distance between Changluo and Xindu counties...

When all the coincidences come together, they are no longer coincidences.

Su He quickly closed the booklet and asked, "Where did the man in gray go afterward?"

The old man pointed east: "Changluo County, that's where I took Ayue, it's about ten miles away."

"When?"

Yesterday evening.

Suhe turned and left.

The black horse stamped its hooves twice at the village entrance, as if it knew its master was in a hurry, and then it took off running, kicking up clouds of dust.

"Run faster!"

The black horse neighed loudly, its hooves shattering the silence at the village entrance.

The wind blew in his face, making Suhe's eyes sting. He stared in the direction of Changluo County, his voice so soft it was almost drowned out by the horse's hooves.

"Is it really you?"

"Is it really you?"