A small distance from the foot of Qing Mao Mountain, two figures were approaching.
One of them was wearing the uniform of a Gu Master. The number '5' was inscribed upon the plate on his belt. He wore a plain copper mask over his face, hiding his features, though even one look at him and anyone worth their salt in the Southern Border would know who he is. He was an investigator famous throughout the entire Southern Border: Tie Xue Leng.
Next to him was a young girl. She had long legs and a serious expression painted with a tinge of eagerness. This was his daughter, Tie Ruo Nan who had Rank 3 cultivation. Both of them came from the Tie Clan, one of the major clans of the Southern Border.
"So this is it? Qing Mao Mountain?" Tie Xue Leng said, gesturing towards his daughter. "Well, tell me, what do you think?"
There was a reason why Tie Ruo Nan was accompanying him on this mission. She also intended to become an investigator, much like her father.
As a matter of fact, the Tie Clan was a clan involved deeply when it came to maintaining law and order in the Southern Border.
Many demonic Gu Masters had been brought to justice by Tie clansmen, and many of them were still in prison within the Demon Suppression Tower controlled by the Tie Clan. Tie Ruo Nan was eager to work and join her clansmen in this journey; however, she had seen little of the world, which is why Tie Xue Leng had brought her along.
It was one thing to want to become an investigator who pursued justice, and it was another to realize what that actually meant.
Tie Ruo Nan took a look at the mountain. It looked ordinary, much like most of the other mountains in the Southern Border. However, there was a thick layer of ice and snow which covered the base of the mountain despite the fact that it was summer.
Much of it had already begun to melt under the summer heat already, leading to large puddles as well as the soil being incredibly muddy. They would need to watch out for mudslides while they tried to ascend as well.
The top of the mountain was free of ice, but at the same time, it looked extremely bare. The contrast between the rest of the surroundings and the top of the mountain was evident. The greenery greatly thinned out, almost like the hair on the top of a balding man's head.
"It looks like someone used a very powerful Ice Path attack here," Tie Ruo Nan said. She couldn't imagine what kind of force could possibly cause this kind of damage to the mountain. However, she had heard that Rank 5 Gu Masters at the peak of their strength could rival the strength of a mountain though she had always thought that was more figurative than literal. From what her father told her though, it could very well be taken in the literal sense. "That means that we won't be able to find clues here easily," she told her father.
Her father nodded.
"But Father, why are we really here?" she asked him.
They had been requested to come to the mountain initially because one of their clients had an issue with a demonic Gu Master.
However, such issues were numerous throughout the Southern Border. A mid-size clan like the Gu Yue Clan could not truly offer a reward fitting of her father, nor did it seem like an incident that was large enough to draw their attention. After all, as per the reports, the demonic Gu Master in question had not even killed anyone. Someone's cultivation had been crippled, but that was small fry compared to some of the other cases that Tie Xue Lang had to deal with: entire villages which had been wiped off the map, a fortress which had once stood that had suddenly sunk into the earth without a trace, merchant caravans which had completely vanished off the face of the world.
Without a doubt, these things took precedence over something small like this.
Tie Ruo Nan understood that.
As a matter of fact, she was rather sure that her father had intended to decline the request but had simply kept it at the back of his mind for one reason or another. It was even possible, she felt, that he had kept it just as a potential training exercise for her. However, this was far more than a training exercise that they were engaging in right now. They were not here to investigate the matter of that demonic Gu Master alone.
Something had happened on the mountain, and they had been called to investigate. The only thing was that Tie Ruo Nan didn't know who that person was.
She expressed these concerns to her father, to which he replied, "One of my long-term contacts told me that there was something going on on the mountain, namely, that there was a Blood Path Gu Master."
That long-term contact was someone from the Immortal Crane Sect. Lord Sky Crane had been forced to act quickly and had not been able to arrange for Tie Xue Leng to intercede before he had arrived, but he had set up this beforehand in case something untoward happened to him.
And multiple odd things had happened, Tie Xue Leng noted. The mountain had been nearly obliterated, supposedly by the hand of a demonic Gu Master who had attacked the clansmen there.
However, the demonic Gu Master who was said to have attacked them was said to have used not Blood Path methods - but cranes instead.
It seemed that Lord Sky Crane had attacked this village. This no doubt caused many doubts to form in his mind - he had reached out to him yet again, but no response had come from Lord Sky Crane.
Even more worryingly, it turned out that Lord Sky Crane had been found deceased soon after crossing the barrier between the Southern Border and the Central Continent.
'So he had come here... but then what happened?' Tie Xue Leng thought to himself. 'And where is that supposed demonic Blood Path Gu Master now?'
"Father, I asked you something," Tie Ruo Nan said, noting that her father had seemingly dozed off. He was getting along in years, that was true, but he was far from having a 'senior moment' like this.
"Right, sorry," Tie Xue Leng said. He cleared his throat. "Unfortunately, the water is rather murky when it comes to the events that happened here." He was the kind of person who would not tolerate the smallest of lies, and had unraveled countless tangled yarns in the past; so for him to say that a situation was quite murky was a testament to just how difficult it would be to solve. "I was told to investigate this place by a colleague who I had once trusted... though now I wonder about the truth of what he had told me. Anyway, I'm told that a demonic cultivator attacked this mountain and that led to this thick layer of ice. And that this demonic Gu Master used Blood Path methods..."
Tie Ruo Nan nodded, but that was little to go on.
"Hopefully the situation will get clearer once we start exploring," Tie Xue Leng said.
The incident that had occurred here was causing ripples all over the Southern Border, and numerous organizations were interested in what had happened. As a mater of fact, the Tie Clan had considered sending a group here to investigate before getting word that Tie Xue Leng was already on his way.
"Don't worry father," Tie Ruo Nan said. "I won't let you down! I'll get to the root of what happened here!"