I became the tyrant's only belief.

Chapter 409 A strange combination of circumstances
Xiao Da: "Who is it?"

Gu Qing sighed, "I don't know him."

If you walk the dark road too often, you're bound to run into a ghost. He was probably someone who had been fooled by him, and feeling resentful, he had a sudden evil thought.

Xiao Da then asked, "What does he look like?"

“His face was covered, only his eyes were visible, and it was dark, so I couldn’t see clearly, but…” Gu Qing raised his hand and touched his brow, “He has a red mole here.”

Red mole?

Xiao Da immediately thought of someone, and promptly took the old man over to report the matter to Xiao Jingfan.

The red birthmark was so obvious that everyone inevitably thought of Ping Xuan, who had escaped with Ping Yu.

Lu Fei glanced at the fat old man, puzzled: "Why did Pingxuan want to kill him?"

Chen Xing reached out and tugged at Gu Qing's white beard: "Did he have his fortune told by you? He knows you deceived him, so he wants to kill you."

Gu Qing shook her head decisively, but then hesitated and nodded.

Everyone was confused by him. Feng Jing asked, "What do you mean by nodding and shaking your head like that?"

"I think I've seen him before." Gu Qing frowned, looking at the sky in recollection.

Chen Xing continued to pull his beard, this time using too much force, causing the old man to yelp in pain. He glared at Chen Xing, angry but unable to say anything.

Chen Xing glared at him back: "I've seen it, or I haven't. What's the point?"

"Why are you in such a hurry, little girl? The old man is getting old and his memory isn't what it used to be. He sees so many people every day, he has to think carefully, right?" Gu Qing rolled her eyes at her angrily, while protecting her precious beard and continuing to think.

"There's no rush. Think about it slowly later." Xiao Jingfan pointed to the stack of array diagrams that Zhou Yuande was holding and asked the old man, "First, tell me clearly, when did that young man give you these things?"

"Two or three months ago, the exact date... um... I don't remember." Gu Qing's memory was truly terrible; even remembering a date was a blur. Seeing that he didn't seem to be faking it, no one could do anything about it.

To think that this scholar could have foreseen this event two or three months ago, who exactly is he?

Xiao Jingfan frowned and thought for a moment without any clue, so he had to put the matter aside for the time being. On one hand, he sent Xiao Da to order Huang Xin to arrange for people to search the entire Sishui Town carefully overnight, as Ping Xuan was likely still hiding in the city. On the other hand, he handed the array diagram to Huang Qian and asked him to study it as soon as possible, lead people to break the array, and try to break the mechanism and array before dawn.

Feng Jing served as an assistant, specifically dealing with poisonous insects and snakes to ensure that Huang Qian and the others had no worries when breaking through the formation.

As for Xiao Jingfan, His Majesty the Emperor, whose gauze was soaked with blood, was forced to have his dressing changed. After being persuaded by Eunuch Zhou, he returned to his tent to rest.

Before heading up the mountain, Feng Jing made a point of checking on the wounded soldier who had lost an arm, reapplying medicine and bandaging him, and writing a new prescription for the army doctor. If all went well, he should survive.

Chen Xing was supposed to serve Xiao Jingfan, but with Eunuch Zhou around and nothing else to do, she wasn't needed for the time being. After informing Xiao Jingfan, she went up the mountain with Huang Qian and the others to break the formation.

Then, he and Dr. Feng fell off the cliff together.

The main responsibility for this matter lies with Feng Jing.

He saw two beautiful red pearl grasses growing on the edge of the cliff and happily ran to pick them. However, the stone under his feet became loose, and before he could react, he fell down the cliff along with the grass.

Huang Qian and the others were focused on comparing the formation diagram and did not notice this side. By the time they heard Feng Jing's shout, it was too late.

Chen Xing gritted her teeth and jumped down.

She had planned to catch up with the people and use the trees or vines growing on the cliff to save herself, and she even took out her grappling hook. But some bastard did something inhumane, not only kicking the tree down but also leaving them not a single vine.

The two cursed and swore, barely managing to stay afloat before falling into the pool.

Dr. Feng, who couldn't swim, struggled desperately in the pool, shouting for Chen Xing to save him.

Chenxing swam over and dragged him to the shore.

Falling off a cliff and into the water had exhausted Chen Xing, even with his martial arts background. After throwing Feng Jing and himself ashore, he lay panting heavily by the pool. "Cough cough cough!" Feng Jing had choked on some water and was coughing violently while spitting it out. Once he felt a little better, he turned to look at Chen Xing: "How are you?"

"I'm a little tired, but I'm not hurt." Chen Xing propped himself up and sat up, looking around. His gaze fell on the pool, and he said with lingering fear, "Luckily there was a pool, otherwise we would have been done for."

As Feng Jing wrung out the water from his clothes, he asked, "How did you fall down too?"

"How could I possibly fall? I jumped down specifically to save you." Chen Xing rolled her eyes, grinning to reveal her left dimple. "Dr. Feng, how do you plan to repay this life-saving grace?"

Feng Jing clutched his chest warily: "What do you want? Let me make this clear first, I'm not offering myself to you."

"I don't even care if you offer me a favor." Chen Xing pouted, wrung the water from her hair, and stood up. "I'll come to you for help later. First, let's find a way out."

Fortunately, the pearl didn't fall. She held it up as a light and called for Feng Jing to follow.

Feng Jing stuffed the two red pearl grasses into his arms, but suddenly noticed drag marks on the ground. He quickly called out to Chen Xing, "Wait, look at the ground."

To facilitate tracking, bodyguards need to learn some trace detection skills.

"Judging from the crushed grass, it shouldn't have been more than two hours ago." Chen Xing squatted down and examined it closely for a moment. He looked up to his left and was about to suggest following the tracks when he was suddenly blinded by the light.

A silver ring inlaid with a sapphire lay quietly in the grass, with the character "Chu" engraved on the back of the ring setting.

Chen Xing exclaimed with delight, "It's Sister Liu Zheng's ring!"

Feng Jing was delighted: "Liu Zheng has been here before?"

"Hmm." Chen Xing answered while searching the grass for any other clues.

Feng Jing also squatted down to help search.

The two found a piece of emerald green cloth, but that was all.

"Let's go take a look." Chen Xing stood up, holding the pearl in her hand and walking along the drag marks. Feng Jing hurriedly followed.

The trail ended at the foot of the mountain wall, with no footprints to the left or right.

"Take it." Chen Xing handed the pearl to Feng Jing, then stepped forward to examine the mountain wall in front of him, tapping it from different angles.

Feng Jing tried to hold the pearl high so that the area illuminated would be larger.

After about fifteen minutes, Chenxing had found nothing. She angrily kicked the mountain wall, pouting and muttering to herself; if you listened closely, it was all cursing.

Feng Jing chose not to listen to what was improper, put the pearl aside, and opened the cloth bag to take stock of his belongings.

Fortunately, he had the foresight to have the tailor make the cloth bag with three layers. Although it was a bit heavy, it was sturdy, waterproof, and very durable.

After taking stock, it was found that almost nothing had fallen out of the cloth bag, and the shadow-chasing insects in the box were still lively and crawling around.

Feng Jing was happy again.

Just as he was about to pack all his belongings back, a sudden inspiration struck him. He called out to Chen Xing, "Zheng Qianqian brought Liu Zheng here before. If we release the Shadow Chasing Insects, and they search for Zheng Qianqian, could that help us find our way?"

Chen Xing thought about it and felt that it might be feasible.

There are no other options at the moment, so let's try it first.

Feng Jing immediately released the Shadow Chaser and fed it a drop of Zheng Qianqian's blood.

The shadow-chasing insect flapped its wings and took flight, circling around the bottom of the cliff for a while before finally landing on a spot on the mountainside.

Chenxing and the other person held the pearl up and looked closely, and found a semi-circular, shallow bloodstain there that was almost invisible.

(End of this chapter)