Entrance
"Why are you asking about our uncle? Are you attracted by his wealth and want to seduce him with your beauty?" the coach laughed strangely.
Ye Jingan rolled his eyes at her and said, "Read less nonsense!"
"That's how it is..." the coach muttered softly.
Ye Jingan sighed. He had been in this gym for over a week and hadn't seen any other suspicious people. The people who seemed suspicious hadn't done anything suspicious, not even come to talk to him. Ye Jingan glanced at his muscles. This shouldn't be the case. Wasn't his muscular body better trained than those of the victims?
He didn't want to waste time here, so he quit. Liu Muze said, "You have to be patient. The people of the Fox Tribe are very cunning and cautious. They won't reveal themselves so quickly."
"How's things going with Officer Lu?" Ye Jing'an asked.
"The murderer did it perfectly and didn't reveal any clues. We all suspected that we were going in the wrong direction from the beginning, or maybe it was just a coincidence that different cases happened to collide." Lu Yu said.
"Officer Lu, if these are individual cases, then each case has a different murderer. However, each murderer's actions are so flawless, which is a bit outrageous," Ye Jing'an analyzed. "Do the fox tribe have some method of teleportation or invisibility?"
"There are too many. The fox clan is best at confusing others." Liu Muzhe said.
"Then why bother investigating? They are not even on the same level anymore, unless he wants to be caught by us." Ye Jingan said.
"We have to check it out. Brother Liu, you must help me." Lu Yu begged them desperately.
"Has anyone disappeared mysteriously recently?" Liu Muzhe asked.
Lu Yu shook his head.
"That's enough." Liu Muzhe said reluctantly, "That's the only way."
"Like that?" Ye Jingan and Lu Yu asked.
Liu Muze sighed: "Let's go to the fox clan's lair."
Ye Jingan became interested and grinned, "Let's go!"
"Can I go?" Lu Yu asked.
"Officer Lu, you'd better not go. I may not be able to bring Ye Jing'an back safely by himself. Let's go by the two of us and set off tomorrow morning." Liu Muzhe said.
"Okay, then you guys take care of yourself." Lu Yu waved his hand, "Then I won't bother you anymore. Have a good rest. If you have anything, just call me directly."
"See you later!" Ye Jing'an had heard that the demon tribe's territories were very unique, and he was quite excited to see them in real life tomorrow. Ye Jing'an was just about to ask Liu Muze about the situation when he was surprised to find that he was actually drawing talismans with blood.
"What are you doing?" Ye Jing'an grabbed his cut hand.
"Don't disturb me. Once the blood dries up, I'll have to make another cut." Liu Muzhe shook off his hand and continued painting.
"You drew so many talismans with blood. Are you going to fight them to the death?" Ye Jing'an asked.
"If you go to someone else's territory to cause trouble, you will definitely have to fight. If you offend someone, you must be able to fight your way out. I was caught last time because I was not prepared enough, otherwise they would definitely not have caught me." Liu Muzhe drew all kinds of talismans that could help with escape.
"You've even been given the honor of running away." Ye Jingan took out an iodine cotton swab from the drawer. "Are you done? Come over here and apply the medicine."
Liu Muzhe consciously extended his hand. As long as he was injured, no matter whether it was a serious injury or a minor one, Ye Jing'an's anger would become very low. He was really afraid that when he arrived at the fox tribe's territory, something would happen to piss off Ye Jing'an, and he would fight with them without regard for the consequences.
Liu Muze was really unsure about how capable Ye Jingan was at fighting when he got extremely angry, so he warned him, "Don't mess around over there, just follow me."
"Don't worry!"
Early the next morning, Liu Muzhe checked everything he needed to bring, and after confirming everything was in order, he said, "Let's go."
"Oh, Brother Liu actually carried a sword today." Ye Jing'an recalled the journey and realized that Brother Liu only carried a sword when he saved him in the underworld.
"Do you really think you're going there for a trip?" Liu Muzhe glanced at him speechlessly. This kid didn't take it seriously at all, and he would definitely get into trouble.
"I believe in Brother Liu, they definitely can't beat you." Ye Jing'an said with a smile.
Liu Muzhe shook his head and left first.
"Wait for me." Ye Jing'an chased after him.
The two of them took the high-speed rail further north, and their ticket's final destination was Fenyang. Ye Jingan asked curiously, "Did they buy a house in Fenyang like humans?"
Liu Muzhe glanced at him in confusion and was too lazy to pay attention to him.
The further north they went, the denser the surrounding forests became. Liu Muze stared at a lush forest in the distance and said, "We're almost there. They're right here."
"The place they live in is quite primitive. I thought they had their own houses like humans." Ye Jing'an looked at the forest curiously.
Fenyang is a small county town with few people living there, most of whom make their living by collecting medicinal herbs from the mountains. Liu Muze and Ye Jing'an found a small restaurant for lunch and planned to buy some dry food to take with them. The deep forest was inaccessible by car, so they had to hike in. This round trip would take at least two days.
Ye Jingan picked a stir-fry restaurant with a lot of people. Since he was out of town and didn't know where the best restaurants were, he had no idea. He just went where there were a lot of people. The restaurant wasn't big, with only seven wooden tables, all of which were occupied. Ye Jingan and his companions had no choice but to share a table with an older man who was waiting for his food.
There were menus posted on both sides of the walls of the restaurant. The prices were very cheap. Ye Jing'an ordered all the dishes that Liu Muzhe liked, and he spent less than the cost of a meal at home.
On the wall facing the door hung a portrait of a white fox, which was lifelike and vivid. Ye Jingan asked curiously, "Brother Liu, why do you hang a portrait of a fox? Is there any particular meaning?"
"You must be from out of town." The uncle next door said with a smile.
"Yes, we came here to travel and relax." Ye Jingan said.
"This area is the Hu family's territory, and the deity they worship is the fox, so every family will enshrine fox sculptures and portraits." The uncle explained.
"Immortals?" Ye Jing'an asked again, "Then how can you meet these immortals?"
"Of course, ordinary people like us can't see them. Only disciples who go out to perform rituals can communicate with the immortals. Usually, when we encounter any problems, we go directly to the disciples who go out to perform rituals for help." said the uncle.
Liu Muzhe had some understanding of the immortals. It was just a mutually beneficial cooperation. When humans encountered troubles, they sought help from the immortals, and the immortals benefited from the incense and offerings made by people. This kind of cooperation was maintained stably.
After eating and drinking, the two bought three days' worth of dry food and headed for the fox tribe's territory. As they neared the woods, they met a hunter. Seeing that the two wanted to go deeper into the woods, the hunter hurriedly stopped them and said, "You are from outside the area, right? The deep woods are very dangerous. There are bears and leopards. Many locals have never returned after going there. Don't go in there."
"Okay, thank you for the reminder, big brother. We are on a hiking tour. Since it is dangerous inside, we won't go in. Will we encounter a blind bear if we walk around outside?" Ye Jing'an said.
"Blind bears usually don't go out of this forest during the day, but there's no guarantee. If you want to hike, you'd better choose another mountain." The hunter pointed out several safe mountains to him.
"Okay, let's take two steps forward and then go back." Ye Jingan said as he left, but his feet did not turn at all.
After walking for almost three hours, they had reached the deepest part of the forest. Liu Muze looked around but couldn't see the entrance to the Fox Tribe last time. He wondered, "Could it be that I remembered the wrong way? Why can't I see that tree?"
"No way, are we lost?" Ye Jing'an asked, "The entrance to the Fox Tribe is a tree. There are thousands of trees here. How can we find it?"
"Uh... they might have moved to a new place. I don't know how long ago they last came back." Liu Muzhe said uncertainly
"What should we do then?" Ye Jing'an asked.
"Keep looking, we have enough dry food anyway." Liu Muzhe said.
The two began to search for the entrance of the fox tribe in the forest aimlessly. Ye Jing'an learned from Liu Muzhe that the entrance of the fox tribe was a relatively large but ordinary-looking tree.
When he received the message from Ye Chenyi asking for help, he hurried over and rushed in along the mark made by Ye Chenyi. When he came out, he was chased and beaten by a group of foxes. He had no extra energy to see what kind of tree this was, let alone remember any details. Of course, he didn't expect to come to this place again.
"Even if we find that tree, how do we get in?" Ye Jing'an asked.
"I don't know where Ye Chenyi got a fox clan emblem from back then. It can be used to open the fox clan's barrier. I still have it." Liu Muzhe took out a metal badge with a fox face.
"That's easy. Just hold the clan emblem and test it on the tree one by one." Ye Jing'an said.
Liu Muzhe hesitated for a while, as if he could not think of any other way except this one, so he handed the family emblem to Ye Jing'an.
Ye Jing'an chose a distinctive tree as the center and patiently tried each one outward. An hour later, he sat beside the tree with a sense of despair. "Did they replace the entrance with stone or something else? There's no stone in all these trees. Or maybe Brother Liu remembered the wrong place and the entrance isn't in this forest at all?"
"I'm really not sure about this." Liu Muzhe said.
"What should we do now?" Ye Jing'an asked.
"Let me think of any other solutions." Liu Muzhe closed his eyes and recalled the details of the incident.
Ye Jing'an stared at him for a long moment, then heaved a long sigh. After circling around, he shouted deeper into the woods, "Listen up, you fox cubs of the fox clan! You've killed someone, don't you know? I'm here to collect a debt, so hurry out and greet me, your uncle!"
Liu Muzhe was stunned when he heard this. Seeing that Ye Jing'an was still shouting, he hurried over to cover his mouth.
"Mmmm...Brother Liu, what are you doing?" Ye Jingan shook off his hand.
"Why are you shouting? Don't let them beat you away before you even get in." Liu Muzhe said.
"No, Brother Liu, you have to believe in yourself. After so many years, it's still uncertain who can beat whom. Anyway, I believe you can win. When the time comes, wait for the little fox to be called out by me, and then we will capture it and ask it where it came from." Ye Jingan seriously planned how to cooperate with Brother Liu.
Just as he turned around to shout again, a figure emerged from the bushes on the left and rushed towards Ye Jing'an. Liu Muze waved his sword to stop it, and the figure jumped aside. It was a little fox, staring at Ye Jing'an fiercely and baring its teeth.
"Wow, you're here so soon! I knew my method worked." Ye Jing'an walked over proudly. "Don't be afraid, little brat. I won't hurt you. Tell me where your front door is."
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