The Famous Detective of the Red Mansion

Chapter 455: The Gongde Forest Mystery

The so-called Gongde Forest was not a real forest, but hundreds of merit steles built along the mountain.

This merit stele recorded the good deeds of the believers of the Fayuan Temple over the years. Of course, ordinary good deeds couldn’t be on the list. At least, they needed to have the merits of building bridges and roads, distributing Congee on a large scale, or inviting eminent monks to pray for common citizens.

It took about 370 years to finally accumulate so much.

Due to the fact that these hundreds of merit steles were as dense as trees from a distance, the monks in the temple often referred to them as ”Gongde Forest” mainly to boast about the great achievements of the Fayuan Temple when explaining to guests.

Originally, this place was also considered a scenic spot of Fayuan Temple, and believers often came here to admire the achievements of their predecessors. However, recently, due to the impact of continuous murder cases, relatively remote places like Gongde Forest have naturally become rare.

If it weren't for the regular inspection time, even Little Monk Xuan Ci wouldn't have had the leisure to come here for a stroll.

And it was during the inspection of Gongde Forest that Xuan Ci heard wild dogs barking fiercely. Being curious, he followed the sound and found Monk Jie Nian lying on the ground, with blood on his neck, and six or seven wild dogs around him, seemingly competing for this ”meat.”

How could Xuan Ci have seen this scene before?

Immediately frightened, he ran back to the temple in one breath and was about to report. Suddenly, he remembered the officials of the Central Judicial Office were here to investigate a case in the temple. Therefore, he continued to inquire and found the meditation room.

Fortunately, he didn’t report to the prison first, so when Sun Shaozong and others arrived, the site was still well preserved. Of course, this so-called good condition didn’t include the body that was bitten by the dogs.

Indeed, it was Monk Jie Nian!

When he asked to burn down the house arrest facility, how powerful was he?

Who would know that his body would be abandoned in the open space in the center of the stone monument just half a month later, to let wild dogs trample and bite!

When Sun Shaozong was still more than ten steps away from the body, he stopped his steps. When others saw him stop, they naturally followed suit and stood still.

However, Monk Jie Chen still strode forward and shouted, "Get out of here, get out of here! You damn demon dogs.”

Those wild dogs were already accustomed to bullying and being afraid of force. Seeing these many people gathering around them, they had already developed a sense of retreat, but the reason they didn’t immediately flee was just that they were reluctant to part with the fat on the ground.

At present, listening to Jie Chen's loud scolding and threatening look, they quickly ran without a trace with their tail between their legs.

Monk Jie Chen scared away the wild dogs and was about to take a big step toward Jie Nian to check his condition when he heard Sun Shaozong saying, "Master, stay behind. The murderer has put in a lot of effort to create this good scene, and it's not for you to casually destroy it.”

After a pause in his footsteps, he turned back and frowned. "What do you mean by this, Your Excellency?”

“Are you blind bald donkey?”

Without waiting for Sun Shaozong to reply, Qiu Yunfei jumped out, stretched out his arm, then crossed his waist and said, "Take a closer look at the footprints on the ground and see if there's anything wrong.”

Jie Chen was scolded by him as a bald donkey, and his already ugly face darkened a bit. His throat surged as if he were retaliating. Even though he only uttered a Buddhist name in the end, he followed Qiu Yunfei's instructions and looked around the body to see the situation.

At this glance, Jie Chen's face showed a hint of pride, and he turned back and sneered again, "I said it was done by the Heavenly Hound; isn't it now true?”

It turned out that the ground was messy with dog paw marks, but only one row of human footprints!

And the footprints extended to the body of Jie Nian, but there were no signs of walking out!

It was no wonder that the Monk Jie Chen believed that it was done by a demon dog.

However, what Sun Shaozong first thought of was the old routine used in many mystery novels, which involved stepping on the same path and returning.

Because the Gongde Forest has laid stone slabs and only a layer of floating soil on its surface, the weight of the footprint owner couldn’t be determined from the depth of the footprints.

So Sun Shaozong instructed everyone to stay where they were, carefully walking along the footprints alone, and then trying to return on his own path.

But halfway through, he stopped and completely denied the possibility of returning on the same path as his footsteps.

Sun Shaozong discovered some slippery footprints, and on both sides of these footprints, there were two unclear palm marks and traces of struggling to climb forward.

Obviously, someone had almost slipped here before but promptly supported it with their hands and then climbed up.

Normally, if the murderer had carried Jie Nian on his shoulder and had fallen with his hands on the ground, Jie Nian would have fallen long ago.

To put it a step further, assuming that the killer's strength surpasses that of an ordinary person and tightly tied him to his body to ensure that he didn’t fall, he might still encounter insurmountable obstacles.

During the process of climbing forward, there was a mark of about one meter or more in the middle, which was a slight backward sliding with the toes on the ground.

It was impossible to imitate such traces in the process of walking backward, and it was also impossible to accurately cross this distance of over one meter and step on the shoe print before slipping.

So this slip mark has completely ruled out the possibility of stepping on the footprints and falling back!

This footprint was undoubtedly belonging to Jie Nian himself!

How on earth did the murderer kill Jie Nian and then leave without leaving any footprints?!

Was it possible that the aerial passage was erected using ropes?

Sun Shaozong looked up at the stone tablets on both sides of the north and south direction, about fifteen meters apart, and loudly ordered, "Search carefully around the scene to see if there are any other traces! Especially on these merit tablets, don't miss an inch.”

With this command, Wei Ruolan, Private Advisor Qi, Qiu Yunfei, and Zhao Wuwei were divided into two groups, each leading several government officials to conduct a carpet-like search.

However…

Half an hour has passed, and the search scope has expanded to a radius of fifty meters, but no abnormal traces have been found!

How could this be possible?!

The possibility of stepping down on footprints has been rejected, and the use of tools such as ropes was also approaching zero.

The same for the possibility of using long-range weapons to attack

During the carpet-like search by everyone, Sun Shaozong carefully confirmed that the fatal wound of Jie Nian was that his throat was cut with a sharp blade and then repeatedly cut, creating the illusion of being bitten to death. Of course, there were indeed wild dogs who had bitten the body later on.

Repeatedly cutting and creating illusions was definitely difficult for long-range weapons to achieve.

How on earth did the murderer do it, after killing Jie Nian at close range, and then leaving without any trace?!