Feng Rugu swept away the scattered stones on the ground with his foot, clearing out a large empty space.

As he was sweeping, he frowned slightly and leaned back to hold Ruyi's hand: "Let me lean on you for a bit."

Ruyi showed a slightly questioning expression.

Feng Rugu said in a low voice, "Sand got into my shoes."

Cultivators, living in the mortal world, inevitably get dirty, but in most cases, using the simplest entry-level technique cleaning technique can solve everything.

Even at this time, Feng Rugu was not willing to use a bit of spiritual power at all. Ruyi could see that Feng Rugu was truly lazy to the core and was taking the opportunity to act coquettishly, wanting Ruyi to use a cleaning technique to help him.

Ruyi thought expressionlessly that he would not pour out the sand for Feng Rugu.

As a result, Feng Rugu really leaned on his shoulder, took off his shoes, shook out the sand, thanked him, and conveniently patted his head.

At this point, Ruyi, who was always clear-minded about everything, was a bit confused. In the end, the only impression left in his mind was that Feng Rugu's "ankles were very slender, and could be held in one palm."

After clearing out an empty space, Feng Rugu collected all the bloodstained stones that had rolled around and piled them beside him. He then waved his hand and called over the two disciples: "Come, come, come here, tell me again about the situation when you discovered the corpse that day."

The two disciples had no choice but to describe in detail the scene when they discovered the corpse again.

As the two disciples complemented each other's words, Feng Rugu picked up the bloodstained stones on his own, put the stones together, and pieced them together, not knowing what he was trying to do.

From his demeanor, it seemed that what was in front of him was not a messy and disorderly pile of stones, but a go game that could make a master player intoxicated.

The two disciples looked up and down, but couldn't figure out what he was doing.

But Feng Rugu and that monk, who was too beautiful to look like a monk, seemed to be of one mind and body, knowing each other's intentions without needing words.

Feng Rugu held the stones and pieced them together, while the monk silently observed beside him, occasionally picking up one or two stones that Feng Rugu had pieced together and placing them elsewhere, as if correcting his mistakes.

The two of them discussed and negotiated, making the two disciples suspect that they weren't listening at all.

But Feng Rugu interrupted them just as they were talking about a detail: "Say it again. What was the state of the corpse when it was discovered?"

The taller and thinner one had already answered three times and was a bit impatient: "Reporting to Lord Yunzhong, when the corpse was discovered, the throat was slit, the face was down, the head was facing south, and the feet were facing north..."

Ruyi picked up a stone with finger marks on it from the ground and suddenly asked, "Why do you and the head of the Hua family both emphasize that the victim died with 'head south and feet north'?"

As if afraid that the two dazed disciples didn't know the intention of his question, Ruyi said again: "When people talk about the deceased, they often talk about the appearance and manner of death, but rarely mention whether the corpse is facing north-south or east-west. From the beginning, the same question was asked three times, and each time your descriptions varied, but only the detail of 'head south and feet north' remained unchanged."

He said, "Why don't you just say it directly. Which of the three families in Jianchuan is to the south where the head of the corpse is facing?"

Compared to the smiling Feng Rugu, this monk with a very ominous wooden sword at his waist and a cold face made people's spines chill even more.

The two disciples originally intended to guide the two to think in this direction, wanting to proceed step by step and have Feng Rugu take the initiative to ask "which sect is to the south." Unexpectedly, their little thoughts were exposed so quickly. They were at a loss for words for a long time before stammering: "...It's Qingshuang Sect."

Although the situation was completely different from what the two disciples had expected, they still immediately started supplementing each other's words: "When we discovered this corpse, it was lying face down on the ground, stiff all over. Before dying, it was crawling towards the direction of Qingshuang Sect, shattering stones along the way, which shows how much hatred he had in his heart."

"Although it's possible that he randomly chose a direction to crawl forward before his death in order to seek help, it just so happens to be towards Qingshuang Sect, which is too much of a coincidence."

"You should know, Qingshuang Sect's Sect Leader Yan had just celebrated his birthday the day before that day. If we're talking about sending someone from another sect into Jianchuan, this would be the best opportunity..."

Ruyi's expression was naturally indifferent. No matter how they tried to smear Qingshuang Sect and induce them to suspect Qingshuang Sect, he remained unmoved.

Just as the two disciples were arguing until they were sweating profusely, Feng Rugu amiably interjected to smooth things over: "Don't be nervous, our Ruyi is just asking casually. He just looks fierce, don't panic, don't panic. I have another small question here, think carefully before answering."

The two disciples had just breathed a sigh of relief when they heard Feng Rugu continue intimately: "...Which one of you two killed this little Daoist priest?"

The two disciples' faces turned pale and their bodies trembled, unable to speak.

However, Feng Rugu acted as if he had just said the most ordinary thing, and the smile in his eyes did not diminish in the slightest. He moved aside, revealing the "jigsaw puzzle" that he had pieced back together piece by piece.

-- He and Ruyi had reconstructed most of the scene from a month ago based on the direction of those dark brown bloodstains.

It was a person whose throat had been slit, leaving blood traces stretching for several feet as he crawled on the rocky ground in his dying moments!

Although a month had passed, the blood traces were still clear and vivid, showing how tragic the scene was at that time.

The two disciples were trembling, not daring to look directly, for fear that if they continued to talk nonsense, a vengeful ghost would crawl out of the blood, gurgling blood from its throat, and crawl towards them.

Feng Rugu asked, "You claim to be the first to discover the corpse, right?"

They didn't dare to shake their heads, nor did they dare to nod.

"At the turn of spring and summer, it's inevitable to have more rain. Jianchuan is close to water sources, so it rains even more than other places. Those green mosses are the evidence."

As he spoke, Feng Rugu looked at the ground.

The rocky valley was rugged, with green moss often growing in the crevices of the rocks, but there was a peculiarity: more in the north and less in the south.

The reason was simple: the terrain of the mountain depression was slightly higher in the south than in the north, so once it rained, the water would inevitably flow to the north. In addition, there was a huge overhanging rock in the north, blocking the sunlight, so the moss thrived under the rock.

Feng Rugu took out one of the pieces of gravel covered in blood stains, which was clearly on the path of the corpse's crawling, and held it up to the two disciples so they could see it more clearly.

-- On the stone, covered by the jet-black blood, was a patch of dead green moss that was also stained black and couldn't be seen clearly without careful examination.

"According to your statement, the corpse was crawling southward, but why would this blood-stained stone be covered with moss from the north?"

The two disciples still wanted to defend themselves, but when they looked at the pile of rocks in the south and the few clumps of moss stubbornly shrinking in the shade under the scorching sun, their knees weakened and they couldn't kneel anymore, slumping to one side and sitting on the ground.

Feng Rugu's smile remained unchanged: "Tell me, you said you were the first to discover the body, but why did the corpse that should have been crawling northward end up crawling southward? Tell me, which one of you killed him?"

Of course, he was bluffing them.

The murdered disciple already had cultivation close to the Golden Core stage. With the abilities of these two cultivators in front of him, unless they ambushed together, they had no chance of winning, let alone being able to slit his throat with a single knife, leaving no other injuries on his body.

Sure enough, the two disciples panicked and almost scrambled to say, "Lord Yunzhong, you are wise! Wise indeed! We really don't know. When we discovered the corpse, he was indeed already dead. Before he died, he was crawling in the direction of our Feihua Sect. We were scared and originally wanted to report to the Sect Leader immediately... but, but..."

The one who spoke first couldn't continue at this point and kept swallowing.

The other tall and thin person was eager to escape guilt and couldn't care less anymore, anxiously saying, "Lord Yunzhong, please forgive us! After we discovered it, we selfishly thought that although it might be a coincidence which direction this Daoist priest crawled before his death, the other two families might use this matter to make an issue and cause Feihua Sect to be criticized by them. We thought that since the person was already dead, we would move the body to face the direction of Qingshuang Sect, and kick the stones around to make it look like... look like he was crawling towards Qingshuang Sect before he died..."

At this point, he also knew that this act was quite shameless, and he was too ashamed to raise his head.

Feng Rugu could see that these two were not used to being frightened, and what they said this time should be the truth. But he still intended to tease them to see if they could reveal more secrets about the three families.

Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly heard a cold and clear female voice coming from above the overhanging rock, "Lord Yunzhong, I can prove that what my disciples said is not false."

Feng Rugu narrowed his eyes, pushed aside the umbrella above his head, and looked up against the scorching sun, then smiled brightly, "Madam Zhu."

The person standing on the rock was none other than Zhu Mingxing, who had spoken vaguely at the banquet and gestured for Feng Rugu to go and look at the situation at the scene.

Madam Zhu looked down at Feng Rugu and said, "Lord Yunzhong, please come up and talk."

And after facing Feng Rugu, the first thing she said made Feng Rugu raise his eyebrows, "That corpse was initially placed by my younger sister Zhu Mingchao, deliberately facing Feihua Sect."

Feng Rugu sorted out his thoughts and asked, "How does Madam Zhu know?"

Zhu Mingxing said frankly, "I saw it with my own eyes."

According to Zhu Mingxing, she had argued with her husband early that day and was in a bad mood, so she came to the back mountain for a walk. By chance, she ran into her younger sister from her maiden family squatting alone in the mountain depression, picking up a stone from the ground.

She was surprised for a moment, first concealing her own aura, and walked to the edge of the overhanging rock to take a look.

What she saw shocked her.

-- Not far from Zhu Mingchao's feet lay a corpse that had been dead for who knows how long.

Judging from the direction the corpse was crawling, it was clearly towards Baisheng Sect.

At this time, Zhu Mingchao was picking up the bloodstained stones one by one, bit by bit changing the last traces left in the world by the deceased, drawn with his own blood.

Feng Rugu understood: "Madam Zhu is saying that the corpse was originally crawling towards the Baisheng Sect direction. Sect Leader Zhu picked up the bloody stones and rearranged them, changing the crawling direction of the corpse to make it look like it was crawling towards the Feihua Sect direction?"

Madam Zhu nodded: "Exactly. And after completing the layout, she grasped the left wrist of the corpse - that dead young Daoist was left-handed, she observed very carefully - she dipped his blood and wrote a cursive 'grass' character on the left side of where his body was finally laid, then covered it with the hand he used to write, forging a dying message."

...The 'grass' character refers to "flower".

Feng Rugu said, "But I didn't find this stone."

Madam Zhu opened a hand, holding three or four broken stones.

As she said, the stones indeed had a cursive "grass" character written crookedly, and the blood had long congealed into a dark brown color.

"After doing all this, she left in a hurry. I was about to go down and investigate when those two playful disciples appeared not far away. Fearing being discovered by them and bringing trouble upon myself, I didn't act rashly. When they discovered the corpse and tried to frame Qingshuang Sect in a panic, I used a bit of power to take these few stones with writing from the scattered stones on the ground. I knew that the simple framing tricks of my disciples couldn't fool Lord Yunzhong, but I was afraid that Feihua Sect would suffer unjust blame. So when Lord Yunzhong found out half the truth, I brought the evidence to seek Lord Yunzhong."

Feng Rugu said, "The 'truth'...You mean Sect Leader Zhu murdered and framed someone?"

Madam Zhu said coldly, "I never said that. Lord Yunzhong's words are too heavy."

...Although she said "never said that", she was pointing fingers everywhere.