Chapter 456: Mystery of Gongdelin
The so-called Forest of Merit is not a real forest, but hundreds of merit tablets built against the mountain.
This monument of merit records the good deeds done by the believers of Fayuan Temple over the years - of course, ordinary good deeds would not be included in the list, but at least they include things like building bridges and roads, giving out porridge on a large scale, or inviting eminent monks to pray for the common people.
It took about three hundred and seventy years to accumulate so much.
Because these hundreds of merit tablets look like dense trees from a distance, the monks in the temple often call it the "Forest of Merit" - mainly so that they can boast about the great achievements of Fayuan Temple when explaining the place to guests.
Originally, this place was considered a scenic spot in Fayuan Temple, and believers often came here to admire the achievements of their predecessors. However, due to the recent series of homicides, relatively remote places like Gongdelin have naturally become deserted.
If it weren't for the regular inspection time, even the young monk Xuanci might not have the leisure to come here and hang out.
It was during the inspection of Gongde Forest that Xuanci heard wild dogs barking. Out of curiosity, he followed the sound and saw Monk Jie Nian lying on the ground with a bloody neck. There were six or seven wild dogs surrounding him, seemingly fighting for this piece of "fat meat".
Has Xuan Ci ever seen this?
He was so scared that he pissed his pants and ran back to the temple. When he was about to report to the abbot, he suddenly remembered that the official from Shuntian Prefecture seemed to be investigating a case in the temple. So he asked around and found the meditation room.
Fortunately, he did not report to the abbot first, so when Sun Shaozong and others arrived, the scene was still well preserved - of course, this so-called intact did not include the body that had been gnawed by a dog.
It turned out to be Monk Jie Nian!
Just think about how he took advantage of the situation when he burned down the house of detention.
But he would have never expected that just half a month later, his body would be abandoned in the open space in the middle of the tombstone, left to be trampled and bitten by wild dogs!
When Sun Shaozong was still about ten steps away from the corpse, he stopped. When others saw him stop, they naturally stopped as well.
Only the monk Jie Chen continued to stride forward, shouting, "Get out of here, get out of here quickly! You damned dog demons!"
Those wild dogs were used to bullying the weak and fearing the strong, so when they saw so many people surrounding them, they had already begun to think of retreating. They did not run away immediately because they were reluctant to give up the fat meat on the ground.
Now, hearing Jie Chen's loud scolding and his aggressive look, they all ran away with their tails between their legs, disappearing without a trace.
Monk Jiechen scared away the wild dogs and was about to run to Jie Nian to check on him when he heard Sun Shaozong say, "Master, please stay. The murderer has put so much effort into this show that he won't let you ruin it."
Jie Chen paused, turned back and frowned, " What do you mean by that, sir?"
"Are you blind, bald ass?!"
Without waiting for Sun Shaozong to reply, Qiu Yunfei jumped out, stretched out his arms and drew a circle with the corpse as the center, then put his hands on his hips and said: "Look carefully at the footprints on the ground, see if there is anything wrong!"
Jie Chen was called a bald donkey by him, and his already ugly face became even darker. There was a surge in his throat, as if he was going to retort, but he just uttered a Buddhist name in the end, and followed Qiu Yunfei's instructions, and leaned over to take a look at the situation around the corpse.
After seeing this, Jie Chen showed a bit of smugness on his face. He turned around and sneered again, "I said it was the work of the evil Heavenly Dog. Now, hasn't it come true?!"
It turned out that the mess on the ground was all marks of dog's paws, but there was only one row of human footprints!
Moreover, the footprints extended to Jie Nian's body, but there was no sign of him leaving!
No wonder Monk Jiechen thought it was the dog demon who did it.
However, the first thing that Sun Shaozong thought of was the old routine used in many mystery novels, which was to return by following the original path.
Because the Merit Forest was paved with stone slabs and only had a layer of loose soil on the surface, the weight of the owner of the footprints could not be determined from the depth of the footprints.
So Sun Shaozong ordered everyone to stay where they were, and he alone carefully prepared to walk along the footprints, and then try to return along his own path.
However, he stopped halfway through the walk, completely ruling out the possibility of returning along the same path as before.
Because Sun Shaozong found some slippery footprints, and on both sides of these footprints, there were two unclear palm prints and traces of struggling to crawl forward.
Apparently someone almost slipped here, but caught himself in time with his hands and climbed up.
Normally, if the murderer was carrying the precepts as he walked forward, the precepts should have fallen off when he fell with his hands on the ground.
To take a step back, assuming that the murderer is stronger than an ordinary person and has tied the ring tightly to his body to ensure that it does not fall off, he will probably still encounter insurmountable obstacles.
Because in the process of crawling forward, there was a trace of about one meter in the middle where he touched the ground with his toes and slid slightly backwards.
It is simply impossible to imitate such traces exactly while walking backwards - and while walking backwards, there is no way to accurately cross the distance of more than one meter and step on the shoe prints left before the slip.
Therefore, this trace of slipping has completely ruled out the possibility of going back by following the footprints!
There is no doubt that these footprints belong to Jie Nian himself!
How on earth did the murderer kill Jie Nian and escape without leaving any traces? !
Could it be that they used ropes to build an aerial passage?
Sun Shaozong looked up at the stone tablets on the north and south sides, which were about 15 meters apart, and ordered loudly: "Search the scene carefully to see if there are any other traces! Especially on these merit tablets, don't miss an inch!"
Following this order, Wei Ruolan, Master Qi, Qiu Yunfei, and Zhao Wuwei divided into two groups, each leading a few yamen runners, and began a carpet search.
However……
Nearly half an hour passed and the search range was expanded to a radius of fifty meters, but still no abnormal signs were found!
How is this possible? !
The possibility of stepping on footprints backwards has been ruled out, and the possibility of using tools such as ropes is close to zero.
And the possibility of attacking with ranged weapons...
While everyone was conducting a carpet search, Sun Shaozong had already carefully confirmed that Jie Nian's fatal injury was that his throat was cut by a sharp blade and then cut repeatedly to create the illusion of being bitten to death - of course, wild dogs did bite the body later.
Repeated cutting to create an illusion is absolutely difficult for long-range weapons to do.
How on earth did the murderer manage to kill Jie Nian at close range and then escape without leaving any trace? !
