From bone collectors to the supreme ruler of humanity

Chapter 17 Two Secret Pouches

One of them was lost by him; it contained something.

The other one was empty; it was picked up by his people.

What about the brocade pouch used to hold the items?

Zhao Yuanlang's mind raced.

Since Lin Yan was able to find an empty brocade pouch, he might be able to find another one.

If that brocade pouch containing the items also falls into his hands...

"Go find him," Zhao Yuanlang said. "Find that Lin Yan."

"And then what?" Su Wenyuan asked.

Zhao Yuanlang remained silent for a while.

"Don't touch him yet, keep an eye on him."

"Yes."

When Lin Yan returned home, it was already dawn.

Chen and Lin Xiu were still asleep in the cliffside stone chamber. He went in to take a look, but didn't wake them. He then came back out and squatted outside the cave entrance, looking down the mountain.

Zhou Dahu ran away.

That bastard will definitely tell Zhao Yuanlang everything that happened tonight when he gets back.

Lin Yan wasn't afraid of Zhou Dahu; that guy was just a paper tiger, easily crushed. But Zhao Yuanlang was different. He was the head steward of Qingfengxiang, with guards under his command, connections, and even the ability to mobilize government officials.

Being targeted by him is a hundred times more troublesome than being targeted by Zhou Dahu.

Lin Yan touched the wood-chopping knife in his arms, mentally going over what might happen next.

In the worst-case scenario, Zhao Yuanlang, convinced that the item was in his possession, sent men to arrest it.

The best outcome, Zhao Yuanlang thought, was that he was a pawn, to be observed but not acted upon.

Regardless of the outcome, he has to be prepared.

Lin Yan stood up and glanced down the mountain.

It was still dark, and the mountain road was shrouded in a gray haze, making it impossible to see anything clearly.

But he always felt that something was watching him.

This feeling is faint, almost imperceptible, like the wind that you can't grasp.

[Guanshan] did not provide any warnings.

Lin Yan frowned, turned around and went back to the stone chamber.

Madam Chen was already awake, sitting against the stone wall. Seeing him enter, she asked softly, "Are you alright?"

"It's alright." Lin Yan squatted down and stoked the fire a little stronger. "Mother, let's stay here for the next few days and not go back to the cave dwelling."

Chen looked at him, not asking why, but only saying, "Is there enough food?"

"Enough to last for a while."

Lin Xiu was nestled in her mother's arms, fast asleep, with a slight smile on her face.

Lin Yan glanced at her, suppressing the unease in his heart.

No matter what, try to calm them down first.

For the next two days, Lin Yan did not go down the mountain.

During the day, he practiced breathing exercises near the stone chamber, and at night he went to the mountain stream to catch fish and pick wild vegetables, occasionally hunting a wild rabbit to improve his meals.

Life was peaceful and stable.

But on the third day, he realized something was wrong.

That afternoon, he went to fetch water from the mountain stream, but suddenly stopped halfway there.

The perception of "Viewing the Mountain" finally came into play.

someone.

It wasn't a large-scale search like Zhou Dahu's; it was a stealthy ascent, done by one person, moving very quietly, hidden in the woods, motionless.

Lin Yan squatted by the stream, pretending not to notice, and continued scooping water.

His mind was racing.

A person.

Being able to reach this spot means you're very familiar with the mountain path.

But this person didn't come up from the foot of the mountain; he came from the west, taking a long detour and avoiding all possible routes that could lead to his discovery.

This is not a skill that ordinary constables possess.

Lin Yan slung the water bag over his shoulder, stood up, and walked downstream along the stream.

The shadow behind him followed.

The distance was neither too far nor too close, about forty or fifty steps, just enough to see Lin Yan's back without him noticing.

Lin Yan's lips twitched slightly.

He quickened his pace and turned into a side ditch.

The ditch was very narrow, with thorns on both sides and only a narrow path in the middle that was barely passable.

The shadow behind him hesitated for a moment, but still followed him in.

Lin Yan walked ahead for about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, then suddenly turned left and disappeared into a clump of bushes.

The shadow behind him followed and parted the bushes.

There was nothing inside.

The person has disappeared.

Su Wenyuan stood in front of the bushes, watching the footprints on the ground suddenly disappear, his brows furrowing into a deep frown.

He worked as an accountant in the business for twenty years, following countless shipments and keeping an eye on countless people, and he never lost track of them.

I failed today.

He crouched down and examined the ground carefully.

The footprints stopped here, neither forward nor backward, with dense thorns on both sides. Unless Lin Yanfei had flown away, it was impossible for them to disappear into thin air.

Su Wenyuan stood up and looked around.

Behind the thicket of thorns was a low cliff, not very high, only a little over ten feet high, but the cliff face was covered with moss and there were no signs of climbing.

He was silent for a moment, then turned and walked back.

After walking a dozen steps, I suddenly stopped.

wrong.

He turned around and looked at the bushes.

If Lin Yan neither moved forward nor backward, then he only had one direction to go—

Above.

Su Wenyuan looked up.

The overhead branches and vines were so dense that you couldn't see anything at all.

But his expression changed.

Where he was standing just now, there was a thick tree branch extending horizontally directly above his head, with a broken, withered branch on it.

Lin Yan climbed up, right above him.

He stood below and saw nothing.

Su Wenyuan broke out in a cold sweat.

If Lin Yan had pounced down from above, he wouldn't have even had a chance to react.

He quickly left the ravine and went down the mountain along the original route.

The backyard of Qingfengxiang.

Zhao Yuanlang sat in the armchair, and after listening to Su Wenyuan's report, the walnut in his hand stopped spinning.

"Lost them?"

Su Wenyuan lowered his head and said, "Yes."

"You've been following this guy for twenty years, and you've never lost him." Zhao Yuanlang's voice was flat, but the flatter the voice, the more unsettling it became. "You lost him today, following a bone collector?"

"He used the terrain," Su Wenyuan said frankly. "That place has many ravines and dense thorns; he knows the mountain roads very well."

Zhao Yuanlang remained silent for a while.

"Anything else?"

"He might have spotted me," Su Wenyuan said. "Although I'm not sure, he walked too fast when he turned into that side ditch, it seemed like he did it on purpose."

Zhao Yuanlang stood up and paced around the room a couple of times.

"How could a bone collector find you?"

Su Wenyuan did not speak.

He knew what Zhao Yuanlang meant by those words.

Although Su Wenyuan was an accountant, he had worked as a bodyguard in the prefectural city in his early years. His fighting skills were not particularly good, but his ability to keep watch was first-rate.

How could a wandering bone collector be able to track him down?

Either Lin Yan was lucky, or he stumbled upon a dead mouse by sheer chance.

Or—

"He knows martial arts," Zhao Yuanlang said for him, "and not just the fancy moves of Wang Agou, he's actually trained."

Su Wenyuan nodded.

"What Zhou Dahu said that night, in retrospect, wasn't entirely unreasonable."

Zhao Yuanlang stood by the window, looking at the gray sky outside.

"He's trained in martial arts, able to track you, and knows the mountain terrain like the back of his hand." He listed the reasons one by one. "You're saying someone like that is a bone collector?"

Su Wenyuan did not respond.

"Zhou Kaiquan," Zhao Yuanlang suddenly called out.

A person walked in from outside.

He was in his thirties, of medium build, dressed in a gray cloth outfit, and looked quite ordinary; you'd easily lose your way in a crowd.