Above the mage!

Chapter 260 Breakthrough

Castella volcano, golden wheat fields.

Elder Grant rubbed his hands with joy on his face. The wheat seedlings swayed gently in the wind, full of vitality.

Another day has passed.

Since he followed Gao De's instructions yesterday and watered the wheat fields with water from neem grass, no new cases of golden wheat seedlings withering have occurred.

Even a small number of wheat seedlings that had previously shown signs of disease have regained vitality.

If nothing unexpected happens, the problem that had kept him awake for several days has been solved.

Standing next to Elder Grant were Gold and Loych. Looking at Gold—

A little person was sitting on his left shoulder, swinging his legs nonchalantly, looking like he had nothing to do.

"Thanks to you this time." Elder Grant solemnly expressed his gratitude to Gode.

Gao De corrected with a smile: "It's not me, it's her."

"That's amazing!" Elder Grant lowered his head and looked at Flora with shining eyes.

Flora ignored Elder Grant and turned to look at the wheat seedlings in the field.

Seeing this, Elder Grant thought for a moment, raised his hands, and imitated Goder, expressing his gratitude to Flora again: "This time, it is all thanks to Lady Flora for helping."

"Hmm~"

Only then did Flora turn her head and hum in response.

Seeing Flora's performance, Elder Grant did not feel dissatisfied at all, and was even full of love in his heart.

"It's a pity that this is a magical pet summoned by magic, otherwise I would have to name a price and buy Lady Flora from you." Elder Grant sighed.

Although he said it casually, Gao De's expression became serious and he said seriously: "Elder, you have misunderstood. Although Lady Flora is my magical pet, this is only her origin, not her identity. Lady Flora is my companion and we have an equal relationship."

Elder Grant was stunned when he heard this, but seeing that Gao De looked extremely serious, he thought for a moment and apologized, "It was I who offended you."

"Come to my place and discuss your matters in detail." After the insect infestation of the golden wheat seedlings was resolved, Elder Grant finally had the mind to take care of other things.

"Okay!" Royci was delighted to see hope and said quickly.

Elder Grant's willingness to help does not mean that Catherine can be cleared of all charges, but at the moment Elder Grant is indeed the only person he can count on.

If all else fails, he will have to ignore Catherine's wishes and return to the sect to ask that man for help.

Elder Grant's residence, in a room specially used for meeting guests and discussing matters.

Gao De habitually glanced at the furnishings in the room and found that there was no exquisite furniture, not even wooden furniture.

Even the table is made of limestone.

Even though he is an elder of the Zhenbing Tribe and one of the top leaders in Phoenix, Elder Grant's "mansion" is actually quite simple, not even as good as that of a small businessman with some assets in Hogan City.

There is no other way. This is the only condition in the North.

At least it is not a simple tent, but a real building.

After sitting down on the stone bench, Elder Grant's servant made three cups of hot water for the three of them.

Looking at the strange weed-like plants floating in his cup and the faded yellow soup, Gao De hesitated for a moment, but still took a sip.

The taste turned out to be quite good, light but slightly sweet.

“In fact, as soon as the Saint was taken away, I went to inquire about the details.” Here, Elder Grant also took a sip of the “hot drink” and spoke first.

When Saint God heard Elder Grant address Catherine, her heart was moved.

So, is this Catherine’s true identity?
"It's just that I just learned some of the circumstances, and something happened here in the volcanic land, and I can't take care of it anymore." Elder Grant gave an additional explanation.

"I understand." Roych didn't dwell on this. The most urgent task was to clear Catherine's name as soon as possible and rescue her.

He looked at Elder Grant and waited for what happened next.

Elder Grant was not vague and gave Roych a detailed account of what he had learned, including the causes and consequences, and all the details were explained:

"Some time ago, a group of hunters from the tribe discovered a young frost giant lizard with rare dragon blood on the snowy plains."

"You must be aware of the power and mysteries of giant dragons, so even if this young lizard only has a little bit of dragon blood, its potential and value are immeasurable."

"That hunting team knew the value of the young lizard. After a brief hesitation, they decided to take the risk and captured the young lizard while the mother frost lizard was away. Then they rushed back to Phoenix overnight."

"Adult frost monitors have a minimum combat power of the third ring, and the elite ones can even reach the fourth ring. This hunting team is also afraid that the mother lizard will find out that the baby lizard has been kidnapped and chase them by following the scent."

"With the combat power of an adult frost giant lizard, they are unable to cope with it."

"So they released the falcon immediately and sent the news back to Phoenix, asking the tribe to send support to pick them up."

"However, when the helpers sent by the tribe arrived at the route and location agreed in the message, they could not find any trace of the hunter team at all."

"If they were caught up by the mother lizard and died in her mouth, there would definitely be some traces left behind."

"But the hunters of the tribe searched for a long time and didn't find even a trace. It was as if this hunting team and the dragon blood baby lizard had disappeared out of thin air."

"It is undoubtedly impossible for someone to disappear out of thin air. Something must have happened."

"Only humans can do this without leaving any trace."

"Not long after this speculation was made, the hunters in Phoenix received a message from their tribesmen saying that they saw suspicious people near their home and discovered some abnormalities."

"When the hunters from the tribe arrived as reported, they found the Saint and the hunter team that disappeared out of thin air."

"It's just that everyone in the team has turned into a corpse."

"As the only living person at the scene, the Saint is naturally regarded as the number one suspect." Elder Grant spread his hands and said helplessly.

"What suspects? It doesn't make sense at all! No matter which hunter team was killed on the snowy plains and their bodies were taken to Phoenix, or they were first captured and brought back to Phoenix and then killed, it doesn't make sense at all." Roych's voice unconsciously became louder, unable to control his emotions.

The hunter team disappeared in the snow and their bodies were found in Phoenix.

What murderer would be so stupid as to send evidence to my door? Is he thinking he is not dying fast enough?

"Isn't this a blatant frame-up?"

"That's what I said." Elder Grant naturally understood this truth. He sighed and explained the deeper reasons:
"But after checking, the seven hunters were all killed by your Snowfield Guardian's unique spell, Frozen Blade."

"【Frozen Blade】is not only a unique spell of your Snowfield Guardians, it can even be called one of the iconic spells. It is absolutely impossible for outsiders to master it, so..." "Even if this matter was not done by Catherine, it must be related to you Snowfield Guardians. Under this premise, the tribe will naturally not let you Saint go easily."

After he said this, Loichi's expression changed again and again.

"Whether it is to recover the lost dragon-blood baby lizard or to give an explanation to the seven dead hunters, the tribe will never let the saint go easily. Unless the saint is ready to reveal her identity, there may be some hope." Elder Grant affirmed.

"Impossible, Catherine will never take the initiative to reveal her identity." Royci knew Catherine's character too well.

So he fell into deep thought.

After a long time, Roychi suddenly raised his head and said, "Can you take me to the scene where the bodies of the Hunter Team were found?"

Elder Grant frowned slightly, but finally nodded and said, "No problem."

In front of a private house deep in an alley in Phoenix.

The wall connected to the gate had collapsed, and the rubble and dust were scattered all over the ground without being cleaned up, making it look particularly messy.

"This is the scene. Your saint was also taken away here." Elder Grant introduced to Loychi.

"Why did Catherine come here?" Loichi looked at the dilapidated houses in front of him, frowning, very puzzled.

Along the way, they were already far away from the main street. If it weren't for Elder Grant leading the way, they would never have ended up here, let alone entered the houses.

This point really made Loichi unable to understand.

Unable to figure it out, Loichi temporarily ignored it.

He walked in through the passage that was "wide open" after the collapse.

In the inner room, there were two members of the Zhenbing tribe guarding it.

However, after Elder Grant took a step forward and said a few words, the two members of the Zhenbing tribe left the inner room first.

Elder Grant lifted the animal skin curtain and led Loychi and Gode in.

The room was dimly lit and the air was filled with a faint smell of blood.

"The bodies of our tribe's hunters were found in this room. Based on the condition of the bodies, we can determine that less than half a day had passed since their deaths." Elder Grant revealed another detail.

Obviously, this detail is not good news for Leitch.

But now, he has suppressed his emotions.

The more unfavorable the situation is, the more you need to remain calm.

At this moment, there was a barely perceptible flash of light in his eyes and nose.

As a hunter who is good at tracking, Loitch is professional in searching for traces and details.

The reason why he asked Elder Grant to bring him to the scene was to use his own abilities to see if he could find any missing details or even key evidence.

He looked around, observing every corner carefully.

In the dust on the ground, Loitch found some tiny footprints.

But many people come and go at this site, and not much information can be obtained from some footprints.

"There are no signs of resistance or fighting. So the seven hunters must not have died here, but died somewhere else first, and then their bodies were dumped here."

"It's not easy to quietly bring seven bodies of living people into Phoenix from outside without being noticed. This may be a breakthrough. You can ask the guards at the city gate if there are any suspicious cases among the people who have entered the city in the past few days."

As Roych inspected and judged, he also offered his own thoughts, "It just so happens that you have an extra interrogation step when entering the city recently, so you should have some impression."

"What you said makes sense. I'll get someone to do it." Upon hearing this, Elder Grant nodded in agreement.

"How many people have come here since Catherine was taken away?" Loychi sniffed and asked again.

"No. After a detailed inspection of the scene, the tribe sent two people to guard this place. No one has been here since then."

"The strongest smell here is the smell of the two guards. In addition, there is a slightly lighter smell of blood and human smell. Judging from the concentration, they are from the same group of people. They should be the ones who took Catherine away."

"These are all normal, but what is abnormal is that apart from these smells, there are no other smells of living people."

"It's unreasonable. It can't be so clean. At most it's a little lighter, but it shouldn't be completely non-existent." Loichi muttered to himself.

"Unless someone knows your ability and has already worked on the smell when setting up the scene." Gao De, who had been listening for a long time, said softly.

He had suffered from Loichi's ability before and knew exactly how sensitive Loichi was to smells.

"Yes. Whether it is the cause of death of the seven dead hunters or the handling of the scene, it shows that the real murderer must be from the sect, so he would be aware of my methods and know how to target them." Roych said slowly, his tone sounding unusually heavy.

"Based on the methods currently displayed by the murderer, perhaps the method I mentioned earlier to break through from the suspicious situation entering the city is also very likely to not work."

"Since I can think of this breakthrough, the murderer must also be aware of it and have corresponding countermeasures."

Gao De nodded in agreement.

Since the murderer was able to set up such a trap, it would be unlikely that he would leave any obvious flaws.

but
Gao De thought about it and suddenly said: "Maybe there is another breakthrough."

"Hmm?" Loichi, who was in deep thought, subconsciously raised his head and looked at God.

Goder smiled slightly and turned his gaze to Elder Grant.

"How many years has the elder been in charge of the cultivation of Golden Wheat?" he asked.

"Forty or fifty years, right?" Elder Grant was stunned for a moment, not understanding why there was such a turn of events, but he still answered subconsciously.

"Before this, Golden Wheat should have never suffered from ice nematode infestation, right?" Although Gao De was asking, he already had the answer in his mind.

If that had happened, Elder Grant wouldn't be so confused this time.

"It is indeed the first time." Elder Grant nodded.

"Then has the elder ever thought about how these ice nematodes appeared? And why there has never been any ice nematode pests before, but this pest suddenly appeared when Catherine encountered this incident?" Gao De asked back.

The two were startled, and then they were awakened by what he said.

Seeing that the two had reacted, Gao De continued, "It's not easy to find a breakthrough from the hunter's death. Why not find another way and start from the ice nematode damage?"

"I dare not say that these two things were done by the same person, but I can be sure that there must be a connection."

(End of this chapter)