I took the map from the monkey, opened it, and was immediately stunned.

This is a hand-drawn map.

The lines are orderly and the layers are clear, clearly marking the mountains and terrain surrounding Qingyun Town. The terrain is also depicted in special colors, and the feng shui of all the small areas is marked.

This map is clearly the work of Qu Ruilin.

In ancient times, maps were also called "Yutu," which is derived from the meaning of feng shui.

A qualified Feng Shui master must also be a skilled draftsman.

I can draw maps too, but my skills are really not very good. They look messy and like a child's scribbles.

Compared to Qu Ruilin, it's like the difference between an elementary school student and a college student.

Qu Ruilin's map has no text markings; it simply uses different colors to represent different areas.

I found the location of Jinji Cave on the map, and discovered that this location was marked in green.

Looking at the other places marked in green on the map, they all belong to the third tier of auspicious sites in the local feng shui layout.

In addition, several areas were marked in blue, and one of them was even circled.

Jiang Man didn't understand feng shui, so she naturally couldn't understand this feng shui map: "Can you see anything from this map?"

"Qu Ruilin has a high level of feng shui expertise, and his family tradition is more profound than mine. Before taking action, he divided all the areas and searched them one by one. In fact, the content he was doing was similar to what we were doing."

I ran my finger across the map, finally settling on a spot: "The circled area on this map is probably where they found the sheep's head. This spot is directly in front of us, while we found the chicken's head on the right. So they must be on the left, which is west of the town, going into the mountains, because the cow's head is most likely to be in that area!"

After listening to my explanation, Jiang Man asked, "Qu Ruilin and the others set off early this morning and have already left us quite a distance behind. If this guess is correct, they must find Golden Bull Cave faster than us! Is there any way to take a detour and get ahead of them?"

“It’s difficult! The only way we can take is to go into the mountains directly north of the town. However, the official search and rescue team is currently in this area. If we go into the mountains from this direction, the risk of exposure is too great.”

I thought for a moment and pointed to the left: "Let's also enter the mountains from this side and search along the path they took. With this map, we can determine their location! After we encounter them, we can fight fire with fire and just snatch the bull's head from them!"

"Are you really determined to break off relations? Stealing things in front of them is different from us coming to Li Changyou's house."

Jiang Man warned, "Your relationship with the Four Gates has only just begun to improve. If you take action against them now, your relationship will likely break down again!"

"When Qu Ruilin snatched the chicken head from our hands, he had already torn off all pretense of civility, hadn't he?"

I folded the map and put it in my pocket: "Have your men imprison the Wei family members to prevent them from leaking information. We're heading into the mountains now!"

Having ventured into the mountains outside Qingyun Town several times, we had become very familiar with the terrain. After leaving the town, I easily found a valley between two mountains using the map left by Qu Ruilin.

The valley was lush with trees, and there were no paths in the woods, but many branches had broken off as if they had been cut by a knife.

The monkey picked up a broken branch from the bushes and gestured to me, saying, "Young Master Duan, the cross-section of this branch isn't completely dry yet, which means it wasn't cut down long ago. It must have been left this morning."

"It's most likely Qu Ruilin and his group!"

I glanced at the map in my hand and analyzed, "According to their plan, the next step is to search the mountain range to the left of this valley, and this is the most convenient route for them to enter the mountains! Since we are on the same path, we will meet sooner or later. Let's follow the tracks they left behind and continue forward!"

To move through the woods, we had to clear a path. Following the trail left by the path ahead, we soon arrived at a basin.

This is a valley surrounded by mountains. Because the surrounding peaks block out the light, there are almost no plants in this valley, and it is full of bare rocks.

The monkey surveyed the surroundings and shook its head at me: "Young Master Duan, this valley is too clean. Wei Shengnan and the others likely came here to take advantage of this untraceable terrain, making it impossible for anyone to track them. What should we do next?"

"There are two areas marked by Qu Ruilin, one directly in front and one to the right. They will definitely choose one of them to search! Let's split into two groups. You take Lin Que and Man Jing as one group, and Jiang Man and I will take the other. We will search in two directions. After leaving this valley, we don't need to go deep into the forest. We just need to look at the edge of the forest for any traces of their presence to make a judgment."

I pointed straight ahead: "I'll go this way! Once we reach the edge of the woods, whether or not we find any traces, we'll all turn back and meet here!"

"OK!"

The monkey gave me a hand gesture, and then led Lin Que and Man Jing to the right.

The valley wasn't large, but the terrain was steep. Jiang Man and I walked along the valley for fifty or sixty meters before a cliff more than ten meters high appeared ahead.

I took out the grappling hook from my travel bag and said to Jiang Man, "We're only here to scout the terrain. We'll just take a quick look and then head back. This terrain is too dangerous. You can wait for me down here."

"I'll go instead."

Jiang Man took the rope gun from my hand: "I have received professional rock climbing training, and I am more professional than you in this kind of thing."

I looked at her in surprise: "Sometimes I'm really curious, did you even have a childhood? Did you spend your whole life learning these things?"

"I wouldn't say so, but my family environment didn't put much pressure on me to survive, so I was able to get in touch with and learn about all sorts of things! Although I'm not an expert in everything, I've really mastered a lot of theoretical knowledge."

Jiang Man skillfully adjusted the angle of the rope-throwing gun and pulled the trigger.

"call out--"

The grappling hook, carrying the rope, flew to the top of the cliff. As the rope-throwing gun tightened, the rope was also stretched taut.

Jiang Man draped the rope over her shoulder, leaned back and pulled herself up, and after confirming it was safe, she smiled at me: "Don't be afraid, you're down here by yourself!"

"That's what I should be saying to you!"

I drew my pistol and handed it to Jiang Man: "If there's anything unusual up there, just shoot. I'll climb up to support you!"