Chapter 264

Thomas just died like that.

Elder Grant frowned, squatted down to check, and finally stood up and said: "The poison is hidden inside the teeth. What a terrifyingly potent poison; from taking the poison to the onset and then to complete death, it was only these few short moments."

"It was my negligence..." He gritted his teeth, his expression somewhat ugly, and apologized to Luo Yiqi: "I didn't consider the possibility that he might commit suicide. The only clue has been cut off just like that..."

As it stands, Thomas was the only clue and witness, and as a result, he committed suicide right in front of them.

What made him even more embarrassed was that according to Thomas's last testimony before death, Catherine's arrest was also related to him.

And Thomas was his servant; from this perspective, Elder Grant also had to bear some responsibility for Catherine's current predicament.

However, Luo Yiqi had no heart to delve into these details now.

His only thought at the moment was to find a way to clear Catherine's name and rescue the imprisoned Catherine as soon as possible.

He silently stepped forward, approached Thomas's corpse, slowly closed his eyes, lifted his hands gently, and his fingertips trembled slightly.

A faint, imperceptible magical fluctuation immediately permeated the air.

The next instant, a silver light burst forth from the tip of his nose and then quietly vanished.

This was the power of a spell.

Second-circle Transmutation spell.

【Hound Tracking】.

Luo Yiqi, with his eyes closed, concentrated his spirit. At this moment, his sense of smell had become exceptionally sharp; every molecule in the air seemed clearly distinguishable, and various scents surged into his nasal cavity like a tide.

The fragrance of soil, the freshness of Jin Hui Wheat... and the unique scent on Thomas's body, the smell of clothing fibers... these scents intertwined, forming a complex scent portrait.

Luo Yiqi filtered out those common, useless scents one by one, focusing on finding the scent he needed.

Finally, a scent similar to a chemical substance, extremely pungent, rushed into his sense of smell.

His nostrils moved, as if confirming this discovery.

After confirming there was no mistake, Luo Yiqi opened his eyes abruptly, his tone carrying a hint of excitement.

"If it were something else, I might really have no way, but that magical pet happened to be a toad magical pet."

Luo Yiqi looked at Thomas's corpse, which had already fallen, and said "self-pityingly": "Although scent tracking is the strength and ability of every hunter who practices 【Wilderness Secret Arts】, in reality, this ability is not as powerful as it appears on the surface, and there are many limitations."

"For example, if the time interval is too long, the scent similarity is too high, or the scent conditions are too complex and numerous, scent tracking often doesn't work."

This is like a pot of strong-flavored food; it's hard for you to distinguish all the seasonings in it, but a pot of light, original-flavored soup always makes it easy to identify all the seasonings.

Scent tracking is the same.

The 【Wilderness Secret Arts】 practice method can improve a mage's performance in "tracking" spells, and at the same time, it can allow the mage to gain abilities including "Sense of Smell Enhancement."

However, it is not omnipotent.

A large part of the reason Luo Yiqi was able to track Gao De's scent on the snowfield was that Gao De was an outsider, his diet was completely different from the Northern Realm people, and therefore he possessed an extremely unique and distinct scent, making it easy to track.

If Gao De were also a Northern Realm person, given that the scents of Northern Realm people are generally similar, it would be extremely difficult to track Gao De on the vast snowfield.

"But because a toad magical pet secretes a special mucus from its skin, and this special mucus possesses an extremely unique and pungent scent, it is very easy to distinguish and easy to stain on clothing."

"Toads are animals that naturally don't exist in the Northern Realm, so perhaps in the entire Phoenix, this is the only toad that exists as a magical pet, and there's no need to worry about it being confused with the scent of other toads," Luo Yiqi explained, his tone carrying confidence.

"Plus, only five days have passed; under these conditions, I have every way to rely on the scent to track where this toad magical pet finally hid."

"Once we find that toad magical pet, even if we don't find the real culprit, at least we'll find someone in the know," he finally said to Gao De and Elder Grant, full of confidence.

Through the scent of this toad magical pet from Thomas's mouth, he could find more clues.

No matter how meticulous the mastermind behind the scenes is, they ultimately cannot achieve perfection, although this flaw is very small.

But it is this flaw, the size of a needle's eye, that is enough for Luo Yiqi to poke a hole as big as a mountain.

The clue is there; what needs to be done next is to follow the vine to find the melon.

Luo Yiqi's professionalism is beyond doubt.

After casting 【Hound Tracking】, combined with the dual-buff of the sense of smell enhancement and tracking spell effect enhancement that comes with the 【Wilderness Secret Arts】 practice method, plus Luo Yiqi's own tracking ability, all tiny scent traces have nowhere to hide from him.

"You just go ahead and investigate to the end. Rest assured, regarding this matter, no matter who the other party is, I won't let it go. If it really doesn't work, I'll report it up and ask the War Mother to take action."

Elder Grant said in a deep voice: "If they were only targeting your Saintess, the War Mother might not necessarily be willing to take action; after all, this is your sect's business, and it's not easy for her to intervene."

"But since this mastermind behind the scenes has set their mind on the Jin Hui Wheat of our own tribe, then this matter is related to the Enduring Zhenbing Tribe, and the War Mother certainly won't be able to tolerate this kind of behavior."

Speaking of this, Elder Grant's gaze became fierce.

"With your words, Elder, I can rest assured," Luo Yiqi responded.

Anyone could see that this mastermind behind the scenes had vast supernatural powers, so he was indeed worried that even if he tracked down the real culprit, he might not necessarily be able to take them down.

But with the Enduring Zhenbing Tribe taking action, it would be different.

The Enduring Zhenbing Tribe is the largest tribe in the Northern Realm, and its strength is also the strongest; it is the number one power in the Northern Realm.

Even if the personnel of the entire Snowfield Guardians sect were added together, they would definitely not be a match for the Enduring Zhenbing Tribe.

Late at night.

All things are silent, and the cold wind wails.

On the streets of Phoenix, one can barely see a human figure, and snowflakes are falling intermittently.

In the Northern Realm, once night falls, basically no one will be active anymore.

But tonight, in an inconspicuous gray stone residence in a small alley, there are still whispers at this moment.

The light of an oil lamp flickers inside, and there is the sizzling sound of burning charcoal.

Several figures are gathered in a circle, eating the boiling yak beef soup in a pot over the charcoal fire in the bitter cold weather.

"The ice-thread worm problem has already been solved, and the plan to pull Grant down from his position as Elder has also blown over."

"Didn't you swear to me that this matter was definitely foolproof?"

"It was originally foolproof. With the concealment of the ice-thread worms, if they hadn't been in contact beforehand, how could they have discovered them, let alone find a solution in such a short time? The breadth of your Elder's knowledge far exceeds my imagination..."

That person explained helplessly, his words drifting away with the cold wind. "What sound?!" Just at this moment, one of them suddenly pricked up his ears, as if he had discovered something.

But just at the moment he became alert, several arrows had already pierced the night like lightning, and amidst the whistling sound, they passed through the bone-made gate and all shot into the house.

The arrows revealed a serene blue color under the moonlight, faintly reflecting a bit of ice crystal light.

They were not ordinary arrows, but ice arrows!

The people inside the house let out muffled groans, obviously caught off guard by this sudden attack.

After this wave of ice arrows, the house fell into deathly silence, as if everyone inside had already been wiped out under this wave of ice arrows.

However, the next instant, with a boom, the wall of the stone house collapsed with a crash.

Following that, several figures rushed out from the collapsed wall, fleeing in different directions in all directions.

However, after they rushed out, they were shocked to find that the house they were in had already been surrounded by nearly twenty high-level Ice-born mages.

Seeing them rush toward their faces voluntarily, these Ice-born mages revealed playful and confident smiles on their faces.

Rich magical fluctuations rippled from their palms in an instant, turning into ice-blue nova light, shooting toward those panicked fleeing figures.

After the light left their hands, it was like tiny meteors, drawing beautiful star trails in the air, and then landing on those fleeing people.

Every hit was accompanied by a crisp sound of ice breaking.

Several novas landed on the same person's body, instantly freezing them into an ice sculpture.

"Elder, they have all been captured," on the outermost perimeter, an Ice-born mage reported softly to Elder Grant.

Elder Grant nodded with satisfaction and said to Luo Yiqi beside him: "This time I've learned my lesson; once I take action, I won't give them any chance, including suicide, which is also impossible."

"Thank you for taking action, Elder," Luo Yiqi thanked him.

With Luo Yiqi's ability, he soon found the whereabouts of the toad magical pet Thomas spoke of by scent.

Fortunately, it hadn't left Phoenix.

However, this time, after discovering the target, Luo Yiqi didn't attack immediately, but waited for Elder Grant to "summon" enough personnel to ensure everything was foolproof before striking fiercely.

After all, if this clue were cut off again, it would truly be a hopeless situation.

Elder Grant and Luo Yiqi walked in front of the several figures who had already been frozen.

"How did you discover us?" One of those people looked at the two approaching and asked with full unwillingness, his tone still carrying a hint of resentment.

Luo Yiqi didn't answer their question, but swept his gaze over the faces of these people, then shook his head, turned to look at Elder Grant, his gaze carrying a questioning intent.

Elder Grant also shook his head, indicating that he didn't recognize these people either: "I'll take them back first. Rest assured, the interrogation methods of our Enduring Zhenbing Tribe are no weaker than those of your Snowfield Guardians."

"Alright, then I'll leave it to you."

"No problem, you just wait at home for my good news. If everything goes smoothly, perhaps tomorrow you'll be able to see your Saintess," Elder Grant laughed.

"I hope so." Luo Yiqi took a deep breath; the tight string in his heart hadn't fully relaxed yet.

In the lodging provided by Catherine, Gao De was waiting for Luo Yiqi's return.

To be honest, he didn't want to participate in the internal affairs of the Snowfield Guardians sect at all, and he wasn't even willing to get involved in the Jin Hui Wheat seedling matter.

Gao De was not an evil person, but he was also not a meddlesome person.

And his original intention for coming to the Northern Realm was always to plant trees.

But he had to participate in this matter.

Because he had become involved with Baruk, and given his current situation, it was highly likely that he would be viewed as a target for silencing by the mastermind behind the scenes who was a high-level member of the Snowfield Guardians.

Once that mastermind behind the scenes dealt with Catherine and Luo Yiqi, the next target would definitely be him.

Therefore, regarding this matter, no matter how much Gao De didn't want to get involved, he had to contribute.

He was also very clear about the critical nature of Luo Yiqi's operation tonight.

It was just that his strength was relatively low, so it wasn't suitable for him to participate in the night's operation, and he couldn't contribute at all; he could only wait here for Luo Yiqi's return.

Fortunately, he didn't wait too long before there was movement at the door.

Then footsteps accompanied by Luo Yiqi's voice broke in.

"I'm back."

Luo Yiqi pushed open the door, sat down at Gao De's table, drank some water, and said: "The people have all been captured and taken away by Elder Grant."

Gao De breathed a slight sigh of relief; at least as far as Fu Luo La was concerned, Elder Grant held no malice toward him. From this point of view, he should be considered a trustworthy person.

"Thanks to you this time, whether it was helping to discover and solve the pest problem of the Jin Hui Wheat seedlings or finding the key clue..." Luo Yiqi hesitated for a moment, but still expressed his solemn gratitude to Gao De.

The relationship between them was already a bit strange. Looking at the mode of getting along normally, it was a bit like friends, but both sides knew well that the essence was actually a relationship of coercion, yet it seemed there wasn't too much hatred.

And after going through this, this already strange relationship became even stranger.

At least with Luo Yiqi's cultural level, he couldn't think of a suitable adjective; perhaps it was a bit close to "not fighting, not knowing each other"? In short, in Luo Yiqi's heart, he could no longer treat Gao De as he had before, otherwise, his conscience would be uneasy.

So, he thought for a moment, and suddenly reached out his hand and began to grope and explore Gao De's body.

Following the movement of Luo Yiqi's palm, a cold current slithered like a snake across Gao De's skin.

Then, Gao De felt as if something in his body was being pulled out like silk from a cocoon.

Looking closely, it was actually the Forbidden Ice Needles that Luo Yiqi had previously inserted into his body! "During this time, it's better if you don't leave Phoenix easily, and it's even better if you don't leave my side," Luo Yiqi carefully put away the five Forbidden Ice Needles and then reminded him:

"Although we caught a batch of people last night, it's highly likely that they still have people in the city... You are only a first-circle mage; if you are targeted by them, it would be too simple to kill you. Stay by my side, and I can at least look after you."

Gao De stretched his muscles and bones, feeling the sensation of freedom.

Although he had long been immune to these five Forbidden Ice Needles, after the needles were truly removed from his body, he still felt much more at ease instantly.

"I understand," he responded, not being ungrateful.

(End of chapter)