Starting as an infant, with parents who are blond-haired delinquents?

In the vast Jushan Mountains, they have not encountered each other since they entered.

Furthermore, according to records, the time they entered Jushan varied, with the earliest entry occurring seven days prior.

The latest one entered five days ago.

In other words, the earliest of these five people had stayed for at least five days.

Furthermore, according to normal thinking, if the purpose was simply to make offerings and be controlled by the power of the fat thief, then one could directly find the fastest and most convenient way to enter the destination of the fat thief in Jushan.

The most convenient, satisfactory, fastest, and most efficient way is to give the other party the monster core they need.

They didn't need to stay this long...

Furthermore, if they truly share the same destination, even a fourth-tier martial artist could explore the entire Jushan Mountain several times over those five days.

Therefore, Huang Feng and Bai Lu believed that they were not lying.

They seemed to have no destination, or at least no common destination, because in the current situation, five days was more than enough time for them to find a common place.

But why haven't they met even once so far...?

There really is no other answer besides this explanation.

This left the investigators in a dilemma once again, temporarily at a loss for what to do.

Now, they've truly become like headless flies...

They didn't have a specific destination; could it be that only this last option remained...?

"So that means the entire Jushan Mountain was turned upside down, the whole mountain range was dug up three feet deep, and that cunning beast was found?"

"Don't rush." ​​Bai Lu patted Huang Feng's shoulder, even though he could only barely reach Huang Feng's head when he raised his arm.

He continued, "Because so far, we've only gone through a few half-days, a few hours."

"It's still early, so we need to be patient. After all, Jushan has a natural landscape, so let's try our best to find the strange beast Stealing Fat while preserving its original state and features."

Huang Feng seemed to realize at this point that he was being a bit too hasty. He glanced at Zhang Chaoqiang, after all, he had brought this young man along this time, and it was reasonable to want to get things done as quickly as possible and not take up too much of the other party's time.

In addition, they naturally wanted to show Zhang Chaoqiang the strongest side of their investigation bureau.

To maintain their performance in front of them.

So it's indeed important to make the most of the time, but looking back on their past experiences of capturing strange beasts...

Basically, they all take a long time to complete, ranging from a few months to several years or even more than ten years. There are even cases where, after spending several years, nothing is gained in the end.

It seems the fastest time was during the Jie Gou incident.

From discovery to the end of the capture, it took less than a month.

And in such a short time, it wasn't entirely due to the investigators, but rather because Zhang Chaoqiang forced the other party to reveal themselves.

Only then were they able to complete the capture and learn the truth about how they had been affected.

Thinking about it this way, it's really quite frustrating. Not only did they fail to demonstrate their strength in front of Zhang Chaoqiang, who was still a child, but they also had to ask him for help.

At the same time, thanks to Zhang Chaoqiang, they broke the best record in the history of their investigators' investigation and capture of alien beasts.

So how could such a person not be valued?

Lunch was quickly cooked. The gamey smell was quite strong, so some equally pungent spices were added to mask it.

The group ate with great relish, while Liu Feng and the other five martial artists could only watch them enjoy their meal.

Since they failed to provide the investigators with any valuable information or clues, being only allowed to look but not to consume is already the lightest punishment they could receive.

Up until now, Zhang Chaoqiang had been holding onto that first-tier demon beast crystal core, and only released it when he was about to grab the freshly roasted beef.

It was this action that made him notice the changes that had occurred over the past few hours.

"It has dimmed."

Zhang Chaoqiang clearly noticed that the crystal core, which had been flashing with a fairly obvious light, had now almost completely dimmed, with no light at all.

What does this mean?

This means that the investigator named Lao Song was right about what he had just noticed.

Indeed. It means that the spiritual energy within the demon beast's crystal core is being constantly depleted.

The first-order crystal nucleus reacted to it more violently and at a faster speed than the second-order crystal nucleus he had at that time…

Within just four hours, the area went from being filled with spiritual energy to being dim and lacking spiritual energy.

"There are probably problems in every part of this Jushan Mountain!"

Zhang Chaoqiang looked around and then uttered those words.

After several hours of searching, his location had been constantly changing.

However, the spiritual power of the crystal core is gradually dissipating, rather than disappearing all at once, just like Old Song's situation before.

This Jushan Mountain is a bit dirty; it seems to be covered in filth...

After learning about this situation, Zhang Chaoqiang told Huang Feng, Bai Lu, and others.

"Look!"

Zhang Chaoqiang handed over the first-tier crystal core in his hand, which had become so dim that it had lost all its luster, to them for inspection. At the same time, he asked the investigator named Lao Song to also examine the crystal core that he had previously put away.

"I heard before that the crystal core that Uncle Song was wearing, which was exposed to the air, seemed to be gradually dimming, which meant that the spiritual power within it was rapidly leaking out."

So I kept an eye on it and am constantly trying to verify this situation.

So you see, this first-tier crystal core, after about four or five hours, has changed in brightness, indicating that it has almost completely dissipated its spiritual energy from its peak state.

"Therefore, and most of these phenomena were discovered after entering the Jushan Mountains..."

After Zhang Chaoqiang said these words, the investigators immediately began to verify, taking the crystal cores out of their hands and waiting to see if they had a different state.

Subsequently, Bai Lu, who had been flying, seemed to have figured something out from Zhang Chaoqiang's verification.

His eyes darted towards the sky, and he kept replaying what had just happened in his mind.

He pondered for some time, and then shared his feelings with Zhang Chao and others, as well as his earlier insights.

"Huang Feng, you should also know that although flying consumes a lot of spiritual energy, a seventh-level martial artist's spiritual energy strength is around 100,000 P, while a demon beast core of the same level can replenish a seventh-level martial artist's spiritual energy about two to three times."

But just now, my crystal core was only replenished less than twice. No wonder the crystal core consumption rate suddenly became so fast.

And according to Zhang Chaoqiang, this is indeed the case…

Zhang Chaoqiang was still deep in thought.

He seemed to have already formed his own guesses in his mind, and now Bai Lu took the initiative to reveal the clues and unusual situations he had just encountered.

This brings us one step closer to verifying our hypothesis.

Now, with just one last step, he will be able to basically obtain information and details about the beast that steals fat.

He strode forward and, while the crowd was talking amongst themselves, asked:

"Did Uncle Bai Lu find the stolen crystal cores or items on them?"

Bai Lu slapped his forehead: "I was in such a hurry to find them that I didn't have time to examine them properly."

"Uncles, could you please search their bodies for the stolen crystal cores?"

Zhang Chaoqiang was very polite, but the investigators felt he seemed a bit too aloof, since this was their job.

With a whoosh, just as the investigators were about to search their spatial rings, Zhang Chao forcibly stopped them.

"Those stolen items shouldn't be in their spatial rings, they should be on them!"

Pockets, or trouser pockets—anywhere that's directly exposed to the air!

"Comrade Zhang Chaoqiang, how did you know?"

Sure enough, based on Zhang Chaoqiang's deduction, the investigators found the crystal cores that had been stolen from them!

"How do you know they didn't put the stolen items and resources into their spatial rings?"

The next second, Zhang Chaoqiang pointed, and everyone's attention focused on those things...

Chapter 185 It Exists Everywhere

They all turned their gazes toward Huang Feng, Bai Lu, and the others in front of them, under Zhang Chaoqiang's guidance.

The investigators found the crystal cores and some stolen goods in the pockets of the five men.

Among these stolen goods, the demon beast cores, without exception, had all dimmed their light at this moment.

Although I have never seen what these crystals originally looked like, I can tell from the light and color they emit.

It was easy for everyone to see that these crystal cores were indeed much dimmer than before.

"These are mostly fourth to fifth order crystal cores, Uncle Huang Feng. I'd like to ask, if they haven't been stored under special protective measures..."

"Then, for fourth- and fifth-tier crystal cores, it would probably take hundreds of years to completely deplete the spiritual energy within them, right?"

"Yes."

Huang Feng and Bai Lu didn't say much. He agreed with Zhang Chaoqiang's question and then waited quietly for the other party's analysis.

"Comrade Zhang Chaoqiang, do you mean that this has accelerated the rate at which spiritual energy is lost from the crystal core?"

Old Song took out one of the fourth-order crystal cores that had fallen to the ground, and then took out another well-preserved fourth-order crystal core from his spatial ring. The core had consumed less than 10% of its spiritual energy.

When the two were placed side by side for comparison, it was discovered that the fourth-order crystal core had indeed been almost completely consumed.

As for the fifth-order crystal core, it seems to be the same when compared, except that its dim light is better than that of the fourth-order crystal core.

Afterwards, with a critical mindset, everyone began to look around the entire Jushan Mountain again.

It seems that nothing has changed from before…

Bai Lu waved his hand, signaling Lao Song to stop talking; he wanted to hear what Zhang Chaoqiang had figured out.

"Have you figured out what these various signs and reactions are related to?"

"Comrade Zhang Chaoqiang, are you referring to the fact that Jushan accelerated the consumption of spiritual energy from the monster cores exposed to the air?"

Therefore, Jushan is truly a unique place. No wonder it was able to nurture such a peculiar spiritual plant as the Photinia Spirit Flower, and even gain the favor of the Stealing Spirit, staying there for over a thousand years!

"If that's the case, then this Jushan Mountain is probably not as barren as it appears on the surface. Could there be some unknown treasure hidden inside?"