Chapter 24: The Great Case
This novel is translated and hosted on Bcatranslation
Under the pale night, the mountains loomed large and mysterious, their peaks disappearing into the dark sky. Snow lay thick on the forest floor, muting every sound except for the occasional distant cry of some unknown mountain beast. High above, strange birds circled, their wings slicing through the crisp, cold air.
Qin Ming stood still, letting the cold snowflakes melt into his hair, a small, satisfied smile curling on his lips. Today’s journey up the mountain had been dangerous, but the rewards had been well worth the risk. He now had everything he needed for his second awakening, and he could practically feel his power growing stronger.
He looked down at the forest floor, where the snow was stained dark red with blood. Things hadn’t gone as he had hoped, but those men had forced his hand. Since they had given him such a “gift,” he felt he owed them a proper burial. The dead deserved peace; no one should remain wearing cold armor in death.
Qin Ming knelt down and stripped the black metal armor from one of the fallen men, checking every pocket and fold for anything useful. Then, with a firm grip, he dragged the body deep into the dense forest, leaving it for the mountain beasts to find.
“This is a fine sword,” he muttered, running his fingers along the smooth, gleaming blade. He swung it lightly, and the sword sliced through the air with a soft whistle, its sheen cutting through the darkness like a silver ribbon. It was a shame, really—he couldn’t risk taking it out of the mountains.
The sword was far superior to Fu En Tao’s long blade. After battling the blood snake, his own blade was battered and nicked, while the man with the greenish-black face had used this sword to kill the beast and it remained flawless.
Qin Ming quickly cleaned up the scene. What needed to be fed to the beasts, he fed. What needed to be buried, he buried. These men were from Scarlet Dawn City, and he had to make sure there were no traces left.
Whether it was the long sword or its owner’s black armor, they were the best weapons and armor he had ever come across. But he had to leave them hidden here, in the mountains. “I’ll come back for them when I need to,” he thought.
As for the weapons left behind by Fu En Tao, Feng Yian, and the others, they were useless now, damaged beyond repair in the fight with the blood snake.
Each of the fallen men had carried night silver, and the strongest among them had thirteen pieces of day gold. Qin Ming chuckled to himself. “Guess the saying’s true—you can’t get rich without a bit of luck.” But these day gold pieces were covered in blood, and he didn’t want any more blood on his hands.
Unfortunately, the things he valued most—the meditation techniques and energy cultivation methods—weren’t here. It made sense, really; who would carry precious sacred texts into such dangerous territory?
As he made his way back home, Qin Ming hunted down a large wild ox. He cleaned out its insides and cleverly hid the blood snake’s remains inside the ox’s belly before sewing it back up. The journey home was uneventful, and he arrived safely.
“Fu En Tao and Feng Yian have been dead for two days now. Why hasn’t anyone caught wind of it yet?” Qin Ming wondered aloud, sensing it would only be a matter of time before someone noticed.
After all, the group that had set out to deal with the blood snake had sent someone to spy on Fu En Tao’s base, only to find several wooden huts had mysteriously vanished.
Indeed, the day after Fu En Tao, Feng Yian, and the others disappeared, people had begun to suspect something was wrong. The catalyst liquid needed for the Black Moon plant in the Flame Spring had been prepared, but when the time came, the leader of the mountain patrol group didn’t show up to collect it.
When Fu En Tao didn’t appear for two days in a row, and Feng Yian, Shao Cheng Feng, and the others didn’t turn up at Silver Vine Town for their usual merrymaking, people started to realize something was definitely amiss.
After a quick lunch, Qin Ming decided it was time to practice his combat techniques seriously. He stood in his courtyard, swinging a long-handled black hammer, sending snowflakes flying in all directions like a blizzard. The hammer cut through the air, making a faint sound of wind and thunder.
He kept going until his body was warm and sweat soaked through his clothes. With one last powerful swing, he unleashed his strongest strike, causing the snow around him to explode outward. Satisfied, he lowered the hammer, breathing heavily but feeling exhilarated.
New insights into his combat techniques flooded his mind. He stood still for a long time, trying to capture those fleeting thoughts and make sense of them. Afterward, he began to study the technique “Light Shroud” again. He visualized emptiness, concealed his vitality, and dimmed his spirit and energy. The deeper he went, the more he felt a profound sense of understanding.
As evening approached, Uncle Xu Yue Ping returned with a serious look on his face and called all the newly awakened practitioners in the village together.
“Something big has happened this time!” His words immediately made everyone tense.
“What happened?” someone asked anxiously.
“It looks like Feng Yian, Shao Cheng Feng, and their group… have been wiped out by a mountain monster,” Uncle Xu said, but he couldn’t help a snort of laughter at the end.
He quickly tried to compose himself. It wouldn’t do to show too much delight in such matters—it could cause trouble if word got out. But his eyes crinkled with suppressed amusement, and even his movements as he brewed black ant tea seemed lighter.
“Are you serious?” Yang Yong Qing jumped up, eyes wide. This was big news.
Uncle Xu nodded. “They’ve been missing for two days now. Doesn’t look good.”
Old Liu, who never cared much for politeness, burst out, “Well, I’ll be! The mountains really are dangerous. Those scoundrels Feng Yian and Shao Cheng Feng are actually dead? That mountain monster might as well be a mountain god now!”
“How do you know, Uncle Xu?” Qin Ming asked, trying to sound casual. He didn’t want to appear too indifferent, and he genuinely wanted to know the latest developments.
“Just a while ago, a large group of mountain patrollers—dozens of them—swarmed into Green Mulberry Village, looking for Xu Kong, Sickly’s distant relative,” Uncle Xu explained.
“Why are they looking for him?” someone else asked.
“Because our village is the only one that hasn’t planted the Black Moon, and the day before Feng Yian and Shao Cheng Feng had their accident, they went to see Xu Kong.”
Hearing this, Qin Ming fell silent, deep in thought.
…
In Green Mulberry Village, Xu Kong was utterly bewildered. “What on earth is going on?” he muttered. How had he suddenly become a suspect?
That day, Feng Yian, Shao Cheng Feng, and the others had visited him quite politely. Even if they had the nerve, they wouldn’t dare threaten him. There was no way they could have had a mortal feud; they weren’t even on the same level.
But now, the mountain patrol group had mobilized, all armored and armed, with arrows at the ready. Several top experts had come personally, leading sixty or seventy mountain patrollers to surround the place.
At the same time, the mountain patrol group that had attacked the Blood Bamboo Grove was also under scrutiny. Their leader, Liu Huai Shan, found himself cornered by several leaders of equal rank.
“What are you doing?” Liu Huai Shan protested. “I may not like people like Fu En Tao, but I wouldn’t kill them all and ruin myself.”
Someone replied sternly, “Then explain why your group has lost several members, why you recently took out twelve extra sets of armor, and why you bought a large amount of poison. Do you still deny it?”
“I… I’m being framed!” Liu Huai Shan cried, sweat dripping down his face. “We took out the armor and bought poison to hunt spiritual creatures in the Blood Bamboo Grove.”
An old man shouted, “That lines up perfectly! The Blood Bamboo Grove is within Fu En Tao’s territory. His group has always wanted to hunt the blood snake. After you crossed into their territory, you must have had a bloody conflict. Or worse, you attacked them when they and the blood snake were both weakened. Isn’t that right?”
“I…” Liu Huai Shan nearly choked. Listening to this, even he felt like all the clues pointed to him, as if it all made sense.
“You have nothing to say for yourself?” the old man pressed.
Liu Huai Shan shook his head desperately. “Please, sirs, don’t jump to conclusions. We didn’t do it. But I think I know who did. We once saw a man with a greenish-black face, wielding a long sword, killing a blood snake all by himself. In the past two days, he’s probably the only one in that area with such strength…”
He added solemnly, “Most importantly, we really felt his strong hostility towards us mountain patrollers. He even approached us with his sword, like he wanted to kill us!”
“Take them all away for questioning!” the old man ordered sharply.
Several senior experts wore grim expressions. Such a serious incident hadn’t occurred in years. An entire mountain patrol group wiped out? If it was man-made, then this was undoubtedly a major case.
All the mountain patrol groups in the area were mobilized, each acting separately.
One group came to our village, Twin Trees Village. Not only did they call in Uncle Xu, Qin Ming, and the other newly awakened for questioning, but they also cornered a few idlers in the village.
“Is there anyone here who has a grudge against the mountain patrol group?” a mountain patroller asked sternly. “For example, have any of your village’s new awakened ones had conflicts with Feng Yian, Shao Cheng Feng, or the others?”
He directed his gaze at Ma Yang, Wang You Ping, and Hu Yong—the same trio who’d once tried to steal Qin Ming’s prey outside the village.
“What are you staring at? Answer the question!” the mountain patroller barked.
Ma Yang swallowed nervously. “Well, Uncle Xu has always been kind, and Old Liu… well, his legs aren’t so steady these days.”
In the distance, Old Liu heard this and his beard bristled in anger. He wanted nothing more than to roll up his sleeves and give Ma Yang a good thrashing.
Ma Yang continued, “As for Qin Ming—uh, I mean, Brother Qin—he did, uh, rough us up a bit once. But I can’t just go accusing him of something like this. He’s the least likely suspect. He’s only recently awakened, and he’s really kind and gentle. He often shares the game he brings back from the mountains with the villagers. He even gave us meat, even though we, um, didn’t exactly deserve it.”
Wang You Ping and Hu Yong nodded vigorously. “Yeah, the new awakened here are all good people. They’ve never had any disputes or conflicts with anyone.”
The group of mountain patrollers exchanged glances, then turned and left. They were just following procedure and had to hurry to the next village.
That night, Liu Huai Shan and a few of his surviving subordinates, despite not being skilled artists, gritted their teeth and kept sketching. They revised the drawing again and again until they finally produced a passable likeness of the man with the greenish-black face wielding a sword to slay the blood snake.
A stack of these portraits was immediately sent out, quickly distributed to various towns.
That evening, Qin Ming, Uncle Xu, and Old Liu sat together, leisurely sipping from a jar of aged wine that Old Liu had dug out from under his bed. The three of them drank quietly, all in high spirits.
“Hey, remember when Qin Ming was talking about all those ‘what ifs’?” Uncle Xu said with a chuckle. “Turns out he was right! They were actually taken by a mountain monster!”
Qin Ming grinned. “I told you, even the heavens couldn’t stand them. They were bound to get into trouble sooner or later.”
He was in an excellent mood now, as he was about to prepare for his second awakening. Suddenly, he found that this old wine tasted quite good.
Old Liu sighed dramatically. “Alas, this is a jar of wine I’ve treasured for ten years. It’s the only one. After this, there’s not a drop left in the house.”
“Don’t worry, Uncle Liu,” Qin Ming said with a wink. “I’ll get you ten more jars in the future. By the way, about the second awakening—I think it’s happening soon. I’ve been feeling all warm inside lately.”
Old Liu nearly spat out his wine. “Are you… some kind of monster?!”
Late that night, Qin Ming took out all the blood snakes he’d collected.
The wounds on the second large snake were very deep. Qin Ming figured that besides the sharpness of the man’s sword, his strength must be considerable—possibly even greater than his own.
Moreover, the man’s speed was faster. If they were to meet and fight to the death, Qin Ming realized he might be in real danger.
A hint of worry clouded his mind. What kinds of powerful beings were appearing in the mountains now? It was becoming more and more dangerous.
However, when he thought about how the man with the greenish-black face had already undergone his second awakening, Qin Ming felt calmer. He currently had the strength to lift a thousand pounds, and if he underwent his second awakening, he could lift two thousand pounds—far surpassing the records of even the most talented individuals in Scarlet Dawn City.
At least in the past few hundred years, there had been no such astonishing records there.
“Everything’s ready,” Qin Ming thought, his eyes gleaming with determination. “It’s time for my second awakening…”