Previously, Rong Fei heard normal heartbeats coming from two places. One was the small courtyard where the old man's fourth uncle lived, and the other was deep in the forest behind the town.
Arriving at the edge of the mountain forest, Rong Fei once again activated his magical power of seeing through walls to determine the location, but the normal heartbeat of the suspected masked monk disappeared.
Ran?
Or...dead?
Although there was no evidence, Rong Fei's intuition told him that the masked monk was most likely dead.
The townspeople had warned not to enter the forest after dark so as not to disturb the mountain gods.
Rong Fei used to read novels and often read the phrase "Don't enter the woods." The reason is that it is easy to lose your way in the mountains and forests, and it is easy to be ambushed and attacked.
But Rong Fei is not an ordinary person now. As an eighth-grade monk, holding a fourth-grade talisman sword, wearing soft armor, and having elixir to protect himself, he is not afraid.
Even if there is a real mountain god, he is still qualified to fight.
After recalling the location where he heard the sound earlier, Rong Fei took a deep breath and walked into the forest.
The tall tree crowns blocked the moonlight. After entering the forest, Rong Fei seemed to have suddenly entered the night from day to night. His eyes were unable to adapt to the sudden dimming of the light, and he could not see clearly anything in the darkness in front of him.
To be on the safe side, Rong Fei took out only a quarter of the Xuan Bing Creation Pill, held it between his fingers, and activated his magical ability to see through walls.
As the magical power was activated, the scenery in front of him instantly became clear, and traces of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth floating in the forest could be seen.
The spiritual energy here is actually richer and purer than the outside world.
There were thick piles of dead branches and leaves on the ground in the forest. Every time I stepped on it, it was soft and made me feel unsteady. The clicking sound made when the dead branches and leaves were trampled to pieces was amplified several times in the silent space. times, it is especially true in my ears.
In this environment, unless you can fly, it is impossible to hide your whereabouts.
So Rong Fei ran directly, relying on his ability to see through walls, dodging giant trees and crossing ravines in the dark forest, and quickly approached the predetermined location.
After running quickly for about a quarter of an hour, more than ten miles deep into the mountain forest, not far ahead was a towering cliff.
Rong Fei slowed down, adjusted his breathing, held the talisman sword tightly and walked towards the cliff.
The heartbeat of the masked monk that I heard earlier came from near this cliff.
After walking a certain distance, Rong Fei stopped and squatted down, observing the ground carefully.
The closer they got to the cliff, the trees became sparser, and the ground was invaded by various unknown weeds, but a path appeared under Ke Rongfei's feet.
The path is suitable for two people to walk side by side. The ground is flat and hard, with obvious traces of repairs. There are no traces of roots or roots of vegetation. Rong Fei speculates that this path should have existed for many years, but he did not see much in the dust on the road. Messy footprints.
After walking a certain distance along the path, Rong Fei discovered several shoe prints. The shoe prints were almost the same size and spacing, so they should have been left by the same person. On the right side of each pair of shoe prints, there is a small pit half a finger deep and the size of a copper plate.
After observing for a moment, Rong Fei had an image of his fourth uncle hobbling on a path with a cane in his mind.
It's more than ten miles from the town to this place. After so much effort, this road was opened, but it was only accessible by the fourth uncle. And even if a small road is built, the more than ten miles of gently sloping mountain road is extremely difficult for an old man with inconvenient legs and feet.
So what exactly is at the end of the road?
After thinking for a moment without any clue, Rong Fei walked along the path again.
After walking a short distance, we reached the end of the path. The cliff was right in front of our eyes, and a clearing was cleared under the cliff. There was a tomb in the center of the clearing, and a person was kneeling in front of the tomb.
Rong Fei sighed after seeing the attire of the kneeling man clearly.
It was the masked monk that everyone had been chasing for a whole day and night, but he was no longer breathing and was dead.
The psychic vision from across the wall swept around and confirmed that there was no danger. Rong Fei walked to the masked monk and looked at his face first.
The eyes were round and there were faint traces of blood at the corners of the eyes. He pulled off the black cloth covering his face, revealing a horrified and twisted face.
After confirming that the masked monk was dead, Rong Fei ignored him and looked sideways at the grave bag on the other side.
It was obvious that someone had regularly repaired and maintained the grave mound. There were no weeds on it, and the surface was tamped very solidly. There is a stone tombstone standing in front of the tomb. There are exquisite patterns carved on the tombstone, but there is no text indicating the identity of the tomb owner.
Rong Fei had heard of the Wordless Heavenly Book, but this was the first time he saw a wordless tombstone.
Could it be that the person buried in the grave cannot see the light of day?
Or does the person who buries him not know the name of the person he is burying?
After roughly observing the tombstone and grave bag, Rong Fei turned his attention to the dead masked monk again.
The face was twisted and ferocious, and the corners of his eyes were torn and a little blood flowed out, as if he had been frightened before death.
Rong Fei noticed that the monk's face was a little abnormal, with a faint greenish white color.
Although the heart stops beating after a person dies, the blood throughout the body will gather downwards due to gravity and completely solidify after four or five hours. If the corpse is lying down, as the blood coagulates, the surface skin will gradually change from normal color to bluish-white, while the back, buttocks and other lower body areas will appear bluish-purple.
The interval from when I heard the monk's heartbeat to this time was about half an hour, which meant that the monk's death time would not exceed half an hour at most.
Although the corpse was in a kneeling position, his face would not have turned blue-white in such a short period of time.
Rong Fei became suspicious and reached out to unbutton the monk's clothes, revealing his upper body and face which were generally greenish white.
He went around to the back and tried to take off the corpse's boots and socks, but the corpse fell directly to the ground.
Seeing the speed at which the body fell to the ground and hearing the sound when it fell to the ground, Rong Fei noticed something was wrong. He reached out and grabbed the body's belt and lifted it up, lifting the body up without any effort.
Rong Fei weighed it a few times and already guessed the cause of the monk's death.
Judging from the monk's height and build, he should weigh one hundred thirty or forty pounds. However, the corpse was obviously light in the hand, and rigor mortis was severe, which was contrary to common sense.
He took out the waist knife from the storage jade ring, and the blade cut a gash on the corpse's calf. The shriveled flesh rolled over, but no blood flowed out.
There seemed to be no blood in the monk's body.
No obvious wounds were found on the body surface, so how did the blood in his body disappear?
Rong Fei simply used a knife to cut open all the monk's clothes and trousers. He carefully inspected the monk's clothes and trousers and found that except for the wound he had just made on his calf with a knife and some minor scratches on the body, there were no other wounds.
After staring at the corpse and thinking for a moment, Rong Fei opened the corpse's mouth.
With the help of his spiritual consciousness from across the wall, Rong Fei could clearly see that there seemed to be obvious damage deep in the throat of the corpse.
Rong Fei had learned how to do autopsies from a widower when he was a head catcher in Fencheng. He used a steel knife to cut open the corpse from the throat to the chest. After careful inspection, he found many small and solidified wounds on the trachea wall and esophageal wall. .
Rong Fei, who had a rich imagination, immediately had a terrifying picture appear in his mind. Even though he was so bold, he couldn't help but shudder.
"Is it another demon that has spread to this extent?"
Rong Fei said to himself.
Judging from the cause of death and the wounds inside the body, Rong Fei first ruled out that it was caused by humans.
Most likely he was killed by a monster.
Rong Fei has never fought against the masked monk, but from the descriptions of Li Jun and others, he can probably judge that this man's cultivation level should be at the peak of the ninth level, and is about to break through to the eighth level.
There were no obvious wounds on the monk's body, indicating that there was no fierce fight and that he died after being sucked up by the monster without any resistance.
So what kind of cultivation is this monster?
Eighth grade or higher?
But that's not necessarily the case. Rong Fei then thought of another possibility.
This monk came in from the town entrance like Rong Fei, and he must have been confused by the strange fragrance. Monks are humans too, not invulnerable gods with bronze skin and iron bones. In a state of confusion, even an ordinary person can kill it.
Therefore, the monster's cultivation level may not be very high, but its methods are really weird.
I just don’t know whether the strange fragrance that is everywhere in the town is the result of the monster itself, or whether it is the result of some strange medicine.
What makes Rong Fei's hair stand on end is the way the monster sucks blood.
Rong Fei had seen vampire movies in his previous life. Vampires bite their carotid arteries to suck blood. This is the most convenient and trouble-free method in terms of human body structure. But this monster is so different, is it a special preference? Or is it a last resort?
Unable to figure out the reason, Rong Fei stopped wasting time and began to check the monk's belongings to see if he could find anything that could prove his identity.
Soon Rong Fei found a bronze medal half the size of a palm.
One side of the bronze medal has an unknown animal head design, and the other side has the word "Shadow Kill".
In addition, there were several porcelain bottles containing pills of unknown purpose, a dagger coated with black paint, two talismans and a stack of large banknotes.
In addition, the monk's left arm also has the same animal head tattoo as the bronze medal, but nothing else.
Shadow kill!
I don’t know if it is the name of an organization or if this monk is just called Shadow Killer. I can only leave it to be verified later.
After studying the two talismans, Rong Fei guessed that the monk relied on this thing to run so fast. It was somewhat similar to the magical armored horse of Mr. Dai, the magical eunuch in Water Margin.
The talisman drawn with cinnabar on the talisman paper has faded and almost disappeared. It is guessed that this thing is still a consumable.
I thought that while arresting people, I would also be able to harvest a magic weapon, but it turned out to be all joy in vain.
But come to think of it, how could a ninth-grade monk have such a rare and precious treasure in his body.
After checking the monk's belongings and finding nothing yet, Rong Fei turned his attention to the grave bag beside him.
Why does the monk's corpse kneel in front of the grave? Could it be that the monk's death is related to this tomb?
Who is buried in the grave?
Or maybe the person buried was not a human at all!
Rong Fei stared at the grave bag and felt a little confused for a moment.
What about digging?
Or dig?
