Strategist Ji had now arrived outside the city of Green Mountain Pass. He sped through the pitch-black night, his face darker than the heavy night itself. He had just investigated the secret passage in the Marshal's Residence garden and had found nothing. He then went back and searched the Marshal's Residence several times, finally having to accept the fact that Li Yan was not in the residence. After leaving the Marshal's Residence, he once again leaped onto the city wall, went up along the mountain ridge, and left the city.
His current target was the garrison camp thirty li away. That place would be very difficult to search. With hundreds of thousands of troops there, if Hong Linying had hidden a person among them, even with his divine sense, it would still take a very long time. Moreover, he did not want others to know. After a thorough search there, if Li Yan was still not there, after such a long delay, it would be even more difficult to find him.
At this thought, a fire surged up in his heart, and the fire poison in his body showed signs of circulating. He had no choice but to duck into the mountain forest on the side, find a random place, and sit down cross-legged. About half a cup of tea's time later, he stood up, flickered, and disappeared into the darkness again.
Time flew by. The Strategist's valley welcomed the second day after Li Yan's departure. Chen An and Li Yin had not slept all night, their eyes were bloodshot. They did not know what fate awaited them next, and their hearts were truly filled with extreme apprehension.
And so, in their unease, time slowly came to the evening of the second day. In just one day and one night, the two of them were already exhausted. How could they be well when they couldn't eat or sleep? The other soldiers and women in the valley had also noticed that something was wrong. After Lord Ji had arrived yesterday, he had soon left the Strategist's Manor alone with a gloomy face. And what was even stranger was that the young master had not returned with Chen An and Li Yin yesterday. After the two of them returned, they had been sitting in their barracks with dark faces, not eating or drinking. The others, not knowing the reason, even the group of soldiers who usually liked to joke with the two of them, spoke in much softer voices. As a result, the entire Strategist's Manor seemed very oppressive, with a feeling of dark clouds pressing down on the city.
The sun slowly rose amidst this oppressive atmosphere... reached the zenith above the valley... and slanted towards the western mountain...
The moonlight slowly rose again... and then also moved west bit by bit.
"Chen An, Li Yin, you two, come in," a voice suddenly rang out in the clearing outside the valley, extremely gloomy.
It was now the middle of the night. Strategist Ji, in his black robe, was like a ghost in the night. He flickered and appeared in the clearing, and then walked straight into the valley.
Hearing this, whether it was the soldiers on guard outside or the people in the rooms, they all shuddered, a chill rising from their backs. Chen An and Li Yin's bodies trembled, and they ran outside in a daze.
When the two of them arrived in the valley, they saw a figure standing in front of Li Yan's room. They hurried closer. By the moonlight, they saw that it was Strategist Ji, standing with his hands behind his back. But his appearance at this moment greatly shocked the two of them. In just one day and one night, Strategist Ji's face was purplish-black, his expression haggard, and he had aged a lot. Only his eyes shone with a blood-red light.
After arriving at the garrison camp thirty li away last night, Strategist Ji had used all his skills. He used both his eyes and his divine sense, and his movement technique and spiritual power together, flying across the various parts of the camp. But by dawn, he had not yet finished searching. If he continued to search, when daylight came, even with his movement technique, he would be discovered. But how could he have the time to wait? In a fit of ruthlessness, he dispersed a portion of the spiritual power that was suppressing the poison, increased the range of his divine sense scan, and sped up his movement technique. When he used it, it was like a gust of light wind blowing past.
And so, a few hours later, he appeared behind a tent. At this time, his face was ugly, his appearance ferocious, and his expression dazed. The fire poison had already begun to flow in his body. This made his mind a little out of control, and he wanted to find Li Yan even more desperately. After a short pause, he increased his spiritual power a little more and began to search everywhere.
By the time night fell, he had searched seven or eight-tenths of the garrison. Due to the excessive use of spiritual power, the fire poison in his body was flowing much faster, and his mind was a little crazed. Looking at the unsearched area, the black energy on his face had turned a purplish color, and parts of his hair had also begun to turn a grayish-black. He said unconsciously, "Do you think you can hide? Even if you dig three feet into the ground, you can't escape..."
Finally, by the middle of the night, he had finished searching the entire garrison, but still found nothing. Strategist Ji's face was distorted, he gritted his teeth, his white teeth grinding with a "ge ge" sound. Under his purplish-black face, a pair of blood-red, glowing eyes looked like a malevolent ghost in the night.
"No, no, where are you?" At this time, his mind was in chaos, and the fire poison had gradually spread throughout the meridians in his body. He wandered around the military camp for a while longer and then began to run wildly, just muttering to himself.
He didn't know how long he walked like this before his mind gradually stabilized. He stopped, panting heavily. After composing himself a little, he looked around. In his subconscious, he had actually returned to the outside of the Strategist's Manor.
"You two, tell me in detail what you said and did with Li Yan in the past few months. Be detailed and clear. Do you understand?" Strategist Ji, in his black robe, stood in the moonlight, his voice cold as he looked at the two men kneeling on the ground.
Chen An and Li Yin were stared at by his gaze as if they were in the dead of winter, their bodies trembling uncontrollably. Chen An then began to recount everything, and even Li Yin, who was usually not talkative, would add a few words from time to time.
After nearly an hour, "Is that all?" Strategist Ji asked coldly. Chen An and Li Yin lay on the ground, not answering, just racking their brains. After a long while, the two of them secretly glanced at each other and got the answer from each other's eyes. In that hour, they had already said everything they could say and think about what had happened with Li Yan these few times.
"Yes, my Lord, that's all. There's really nothing else," Chen An replied cautiously. Li Yin also nodded in agreement. After this hour of narration, the two of them had begun to calm down. After all, they were people who had been through life and death on the battlefield many times. At this point, they could only resign themselves to fate.
After hearing this, Strategist Ji just stood there quietly, without a word. The two of them also just knelt on the ground quietly. In the moonlight, only the occasional chirping of early summer insects could be heard among the flowers and plants, which made people feel a little oppressed.
After a while, Chen An and Li Yin only felt the pressure on their bodies lessen. When they looked up, Strategist Ji had already disappeared from their sight. Then they heard a sound from inside Li Yan's room.
Strategist Ji came to Li Yan's room. In the past hour, he had been listening and thinking about every word the two of them had said. His mind had returned to a state of extreme calm, his brain constantly analyzing. Finally, he came to a few conclusions and points of doubt:
First, Li Yan should have known about his intentions for him. Even if he didn't know the real purpose, he must have felt that something bad was going to happen to him. But how did he know his intentions? He had always acted flawlessly. This made him a little confused.
Second, two months ago, Li Yan had intentionally or unintentionally begun to increase his contact with Liu Chengyong. Then Liu Chengyong should be the person arranged by Hong Linying to meet him. Today's escape of Li Yan, was it that Liu Chengyong had done some trick in the military camp as ordered, using a feint to cover Chen An and Li Yin's sight?
Third, the few fellow villagers who were close to Li Yan were also not a small source of suspicion. It was possible that they had all participated in helping Li Yan escape. Then the inn and the ironware shop could be Li Yan's hiding places. Although the city guards said that Li Yan had left the city, with Hong Linying's methods, it was not a difficult matter to make a few soldiers lie.
Fourth, if the city gate soldiers could all lie, then the military camp guards could also lie. Could Li Yan still be hiding in the military camp?
Fifth, if all the soldiers above could be lying, then could it be imagined that besides the inn and the ironware shop, Hong Linying could have hidden Li Yan in any private residence in the city, and not necessarily in the Marshal's Residence?
Sixth, what was the connection between Li Yan's recent large purchases of farm tools and clothes and his escape? He couldn't figure this out for a moment.
Seventh, was there any meaning to the large area of flowers and plants that Li Yan had recently planted?
Eighth, if Li Yan was not in any of the above places, where else could he have gone? His hometown? Or find a hidden place and wait for him to slowly lose confidence and give up looking for him?
Ninth, how could Li Yan imitate his handwriting and forge a note?
Tenth, had Chen An and Li Yin also been bought by Li Yan? Had they been helping Li Yan all along?
He deduced all of the above one by one and slowly formed one conclusion after another.
First of all, he came to Li Yan's room to confirm the last two points. He believed that Li Yan would not have done it flawlessly. Any method would have some clues. What he had to do now was to get results for these conclusions one by one, and then he could gradually find Li Yan's whereabouts.
After entering the room, although there was no light in the room, with his cultivator's eyesight, as long as he had a little light in the darkness, it was not much different from daylight. It would only have an effect when he was looking at a distance. Moreover, the moonlight was like water tonight, and everything in the room was clearly visible in his eyes.
He stood before the table. On the table, by the window, there was still an inkstone and a brush. After a glance, he could deduce that Li Yan had been in a great hurry at that time. Although the inkstone and brush had now been put back in a non-writing position, the ink in the inkstone was still there and had not been washed away. The ink stains on the brush were also still there, and some had even dripped onto the tabletop. Although there were only one or two drops, it also showed Li Yan's urgency at that time. He must have been afraid of some unexpected change in his plan.
He picked up the brush with one hand and looked at it for a while, but found nothing else. He then looked around again and found a pile of paper balls thrown in a corner of the room. He put down the brush, flickered to the corner, and with both hands out, he had already inserted the jade book that he never left his side into the sash of his robe. He bent down and picked up a ball of paper from the pile and unfolded it. It was just an ordinary poem written on it. He then picked up a few more sheets and unfolded them. His face slowly became difficult to look at.
These papers were the scribbles that Li Yan had often left behind a while ago. Because it was uncertain when Li Yan would go on a writing spree, the woman who cleaned the room would occasionally have things that she didn't have time to clean up and take away. And the papers that were taken away during cleaning were all burned as firewood according to what Strategist Ji had said to Chen An and Li Yin before.
Strategist Ji had also seen this before. It was Chen An and Li Yin who had shown it to him. At that time, he didn't think much of it. But today, upon closer inspection, he immediately discovered some problems. Although the handwriting was still messy, as if to vent the frustration in his chest, and it was still so ugly and chaotic, upon closer inspection now, some of the strokes of some of the characters were somewhat similar to his own. If he hadn't been intentionally trying to find fault now, he really wouldn't have discovered this situation.
This discovery made a flash of inspiration strike his mind, and he turned to look at the bookshelf on the west wall of the room. There were one or twenty books there.
With a flicker, he was at the bookshelf. He found a book in it. This book was the source of the poem in the paper ball he had just looked at. He had read it often before, so he naturally knew.
He quickly flipped to that page. With just one look, his face changed. He then found a few more books in succession, opened them, and looked. He couldn't help but sigh and mutter to himself, "This boy, I really underestimated him. He's only fifteen or sixteen, yet he has such a mind."
When he opened the first book, he had basically already understood. These books were all ones he had read often before. It was just that he had read too many books, and the bookshelf in his room was no longer big enough, so he had only left some of the books he often read. The rest of the books were on the bookshelves in these few rooms. He had a habit when he read books. He liked to mark some good sentences and would occasionally write a few annotations, comments, and so on. Obviously, Li Yan had also discovered this and had incorporated it into his plan.
Strategist Ji now remembered that Li Yan had also taken a few more books from him before. He thought that one reason was to see more of his handwriting, and the other was to confirm if the handwriting on the books in this room was his own.
He also remembered that he had only written things for Li Yan twice. One was the "Breath Guiding Technique," and the other was the "Night Curtain Art." But obviously, the second time Li Yan had looked at the cultivation technique, he had spent a longer time looking at it. At that time, he had still thought that as the cultivation technique was upgraded, Li Yan's comprehension was slower, so he had looked at it for a longer time. Now it seemed that it was not out of the question that Li Yan was trying to see more of his handwriting at that time, or to check if the handwriting in the books and on the paper was from the same person.
Looking back at the ball of paper in the corner, he also had some enlightenment. In those characters that Li Yan had practiced, it was often a certain basic stroke in a character that was really imitating his own. The rest were just scribbled to cover it up. And when it came to the real use, Li Yan had slowly combined the basic strokes he had practiced to form his own note.
At this point, he had already confirmed the last two of his conclusions: Li Yan had secretly imitated his handwriting by studying the books he had once annotated. And as a flaw of the cultivation technique, it just so happened that he needed some external things to soothe the heat in his chest, and he had used this to cover up his practice of imitation. The other point was that Chen An and Li Yin had not been bought by Li Yan. This was easy to figure out. If they had been bought, Li Yan would not have had to go to such great lengths to secretly imitate his handwriting. Chen An and Li Yin could have just gone out with him.
Then next, he had to confirm some other conclusions. Perhaps Li Yan's whereabouts were among them.