Imperial henchmen? My divine skills are all hacked versions.

The mortuary was located in the backyard of the Inspection Department. Thirty-two bodies of the guards were laid out on the ground, covered with white cloth.

Xu Xian lifted the first white cloth, and Zhao Bao covered his nose and retreated to the doorway. Zhang Hu was still standing next to him, but his expression was not good either.

Xu Xian remained unfazed.

Having witnessed various crime scenes in his past life, the smell of corpses was simply part of his work environment to him.

He examined each wound one by one, making notes in a small notebook he carried with him.

Knife wound.

Arrow wound.

Location—behind.

After examining more than a dozen bodies, a clear pattern emerged:

The vast majority of the guards' fatal wounds were in their backs; of the thirty-two, twenty-eight were killed from behind.

The only difference between the four wounds was that the fatal wounds were on the front.

Xu Xian squatted down next to one of the corpses, his brows furrowed.

In his past life, he handled a case involving internal strife within a gang. The distribution of injuries at the scene was very similar to this one. When someone within the team betrays them, most of the wounds on the deceased are on their backs, because everyone is facing outwards to defend themselves, and no one expects a knife to be stabbed from behind.

These four people who were killed face-to-face were very likely the ones who stabbed their comrades with those knives.

When he examined the other three bodies, he found that the fatal wounds were neither knife nor arrow wounds, but extremely small wounds, only the size of a pinhole, with the surrounding skin and flesh being purplish-black.

He pried open the wound with an iron ruler and found a very fine fragment of bone needle under the skin.

Xu Xian asked Zhang Hu to summon the coroner from the Inspection Department.

The coroner, Old Sun, was over sixty years old and had been in the profession for forty years. He walked in hunched over, squinted at the bone needle fragments, and then carefully examined the poison spots around the wound.

I've seen this thing once before.

Old Sun stroked his beard. "Ten years ago, some members of a merchant caravan from the Southern Region were affected by this. This thing is called 'Bone Gu Needle,' a hidden weapon made by Gu masters from the Yue Kingdom of the Southern Region using the poisonous stings of special Gu insects."

"Those who are poisoned will have wounds as small as pinholes, but once the poison enters their bodies, they will die within half an hour."

  

The Yue Kingdom in the Southern Regions.

Xu Xian connected this information with his previous deduction that there was an insider.

The Yue Kingdom is located far in the southern region and has no territorial disputes with the Di Kingdom. Why would they travel thousands of miles to the northern border of the Jing Kingdom to intercept and kill the Di Kingdom's delegation?

Either they are employed by someone else, or there is a greater exchange of benefits.

In either case, it means there's a bigger fish behind the scenes.

He integrated the autopsy results with the case file analysis and identified three clear clues:

The reports of an internal traitor turning against the government, the involvement of a sorcerer from Yue, and the collapse of the official road are false.

When Cao Zhengde returned to the public housing, it was almost dawn. He rubbed his temples and listened to Xu Xian's report, remaining silent for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.

"You mean there's a mole within my Inspection Department's security detail?"

"more than."

Xu Xiandao said, "The mole is just the knife; the hand holding the knife is elsewhere."

Cao Zhengde fell silent again.

"My lord, I have another request."

Mr. Xu continued,

"The on-site investigation record mentions that there are wheel tracks extending northward deep in Black Wind Gorge. Although the northern region is the territory of the demon race, it is precisely because of this that the pursuers may not dare to go deep. If any survivors escaped in that direction, they may still be alive."

"Are you going to the Northern Regions?"

Cao Zhengde frowned. "I heard you've reached the rank of 'Grade 1'. What's your cultivation level?"

"Body Tempering Level 1"

"Going to the Northern Region at the first level of Body Tempering is suicide; even ordinary demonic beasts could tear you apart."

"My lord, if we don't find the survivors, the trail will go cold. Without a trail, I will die in three days, and your situation will not be good either, Lord Cao."

Cao Zhengde glared at Xu Xian, who calmly returned the gaze.

"OK."

Cao Zhengde gritted his teeth, "Zhang Hu and Zhao Bao will follow you, and bring an extra horse. Come back alive."

Xu Xian clasped his hands in thanks: "Thank you, sir."

...

The three men, on three horses, exited the north gate of the Iron Gate Pass early that morning.

Zhang Hu and Zhao Bao each carried dry rations and quivers, while Xu Xian carried a goose-feather saber at his waist—a standard weapon of the Iron Gate Pass border troops, heavier than an iron ruler but much more powerful.

The three of them spurred their horses and stepped into the vast snow-covered expanse of the northern ice plains.

...

The moment Zhang Hu's horse's hoof stepped onto the icy plains of the Northern Region, he cursed.

"This godforsaken place, the wind is like a knife."

He wrapped his fur coat tighter around himself and pulled up the collar. Zhao Bao sneezed beside him, and even the horse snorted in response.

The two men had worked at the Iron Gate Pass for over a decade and had never voluntarily ventured north.

For them, the Northern Region was like a blank space on the map—not that it wasn't marked, but that no one dared to mark it.

Xu Xian remained silent, observing the marks on the ground.

The three searched in the direction recorded in the survey record for nearly two hours, but initially found nothing.

The new snow covered the ground layer by layer, like a white cloth being constantly smoothed out.

Zhang Hu was already having second thoughts. "Xu Xian, did we go the wrong way? It's been so long, and we haven't even seen a tire track."

Xu Xian dismounted and squatted down in front of a slightly sunken snow slope.

"You didn't go to the wrong place."

He brushed away the top layer of snow with his hands, revealing a hard, sunken outline underneath—the marks left by wheels rolling over the frozen ground. Although most of it was covered by fresh snow, the shape of the sunken area was still there.

Following this trail, Xu Xian looked into the distance and found a second and a third depression, which connected to form a faint line that stretched northward.

Zhang Hu leaned closer for a look, his eyes widening in surprise. "You managed to find it under such thick snow?"

"The wind blows eastward, so the snow accumulates thicker on the east side and thinner on the west side. In depressions like tire tracks, the snow thickness is different from the surrounding area. You can tell by looking at the subtle differences in light and shadow."

Xu Xian mounted his horse. "Let's go, we're heading in the right direction."

Zhao Bao muttered under his breath, "Those eyes, like an eagle's. Is this what a top-tier martial artist looks like?"

...

On the evening of the tenth day, the three of them rested.

Darkness falls quickly in the Northern Regions; as soon as the sun begins to set in the west, the entire ice field is plunged into darkness.

Xu Xian found a sheltered mountain hollow and had the three of them set up camp.

When the campfire was lit, Zhang Hu finally couldn't hold back any longer.

"Mr. Xu, I have a question for you."

He threw a piece of dry wood into the fire. "Did you learn all this somewhere before? Tracking, autopsies—how come a lowly bureaucrat like you knows everything?"

Xu Xian was turning over the dry rations.

"My adoptive father taught me. He worked in the investigation department for thirty years and had seen all kinds of cases. When I was a child, I would follow him around and look at case files whenever I had nothing to do."

Zhang Hu nodded with some skepticism, without asking any further questions.

Xu Xian's adoptive father was indeed a senior figure, but he passed away a few years ago. It would make sense if he had taught Xu Xian everything he had ever learned.

Zhao Bao, on the other hand, was carefree and didn't care about any of this.

While munching on his dry rations, he asked, "Brother Xu, you said the cart tracks all go north, why would the mission members run north? There's nothing to the north."

"Precisely because there's nothing there."

Xu Xian broke the heated dry rations in half. "The pursuers won't chase us too far north. The northern region is the territory of the snow wolf demons. It's dangerous for human martial artists to go there. The pursuers are also human. Running north is the only way to survive."

Zhao Bao suddenly realized, "So they're betting that the pursuers won't dare to chase?"

"They made the right bet."

Xu Xian stood up, brushed the snow off his clothes, and said, "Now it's our turn to find them. Zhao Bao, you keep watch for the first half of the night. Zhang Hu, you keep watch for the second half."

Xu Xian lay on the ground wrapped in a blanket and glanced at the system panel.

The first level of the Dragon Elephant Prajna Skill requires 100 points of cultivation progress per day.

We're still a little short of the 1000-point threshold for the second level, but at this rate, we should be able to break through tonight.

He didn't feel it was slow—in his previous life, he would stake out cases for days and nights at a time, and patience was his forte.

Moreover, any martial artist in this world would go crazy if they had such a good thing as increasing their cultivation level while lying down.

He closed the panel and shut his eyes.

He didn't know how long he had slept when he was awakened by a howling sound.

Xu Xian rolled over and got up, his hand already on the hilt of his knife. Zhao Bao was standing by the campfire, holding a knife in his hand, his face pale.

Zhang Hu also sprang up from the felt, drew his knife, and looked around while crouching down.

"How many?" Zhang Hu asked in a low voice.

"three…"

Zhao Bao's teeth chattered. "Three pairs of eyes are watching us."

Xu Xian looked in the direction Zhao Bao pointed and saw three pairs of green lights in the darkness, suspended in the snow. The lights were moving slowly, flanking him from three directions.

The campfire illuminated their outlines; they were nearly ten feet long and covered in white fur.