Book 1: Chapter 171

Book 1: Chapter 171

Before I could even ask, Kan Jian dropped a mass of things from above. They fell at our feet and kicked up a cloud of dust that was full of fungal spores. My throat immediately felt itchy and I yelled, "Behave yourself! Dont be so rash! Youll kill people!" Kan Jian was startled by my sudden scolding.

We stepped backed a little and waited for the dust to slowly disperse before approaching again. That mass of things turned out to be the skin of wild animals, probably a Siberian roe deer or something similar to it. Kan Jian said that there were still many more up there, and they were all well preserved. They were probably the skins of beasts from around the area.

This place was full of poisonous fungi and it was so dangerous at night that it shouldn't be the masterpiece of hunters or snake catchers. The locals in this valley should rarely get involved here, and the surrounding villages probably had various legends that had been passed down.

But it appeared that both the snakeskins from before and the animal skins now seemed to follow the royal poinciana. The snakeskins and animal skins hadnt completely rotted in the valley despite the heavy amount of rainfall Fujian usually got. Moreover, they were even well preserved and mustve been processed in the last three to five years.

In other words, these things should have been left here by someone three to five years ago.

But why? If it was to make money, then these skins were definitely worth more than the meat itself. But if it was for the purpose of eating meat, then the risk was too high since it came from a forest full of poisonous fungi.

As I was thinking all of this, I came to a sudden realization and told Kan Jian to help pull me up the tree. When I climbed to the top of the canopy, the sunshine was exceptionally bright. I saw countless skins drying in the tree canopy, all fixed to the trees branches. But they werent only on the royal poinciana; they were also in the trees all around us.

"This is a marker," I murmured.

I sighed, and Kan Jian said, "Doesnt this sound like the Wu family's technique?"

I thought about it. It was true that the Wu family had specially trained fox-shaped dogs that were very dexterous and could move among branches, but it was useless to guess now. We had to find Poker-Face's mark; otherwise, it would be really hard for us to keep moving.

Not only were these skins very old and probably didnt have a smell, but I didn't have a dog with me, which was a mistake.

We were right back at square one.

The four of us began looking for Poker-Faces mark. We first checked to see if there was an underground space under this tree. When we didnt fine one, we began to circle around. After looking around for a while and not seeing any marks, Liu Sang said, "If we can't find it, then lets just follow the stream. Otherwise, well waste another day."

I was feeling a little irritable. If this dragged on, I wouldnt be able to save anyone, let alone collect their corpses. The most I would be able to do was pick up their bones. Kan Jian suddenly snapped his fingers and told us to look into the depths of the forest. When I looked over there, I saw something standing in the shade of the trees. It appeared to be white, very dirty, and very tall. I figured it had to be at least four meters tall.

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TN Notes:

(1) lol Wu Xie. The good boy bit was in English in the raw if you all care. Not sure why he's so obsessed with touching people's heads