Chapter 427: Chen Yiqing, Defection and Bad News

Great Xia Year 9, March 10th, daytime.

Northwest of Hong Sect, snow forest on the outer area of the south side of Mount Beining.

【Tomb of Ji Jiang】

Lin Kai, Liu Yuan, Zhao Bao, and Li Longkai were looking at the lonely grave in front of them with furrowed brows. Hundreds of Yunjiao Army soldiers in golden armor were scattered around, searching for clues.

The three Deputy Penal Officers were busy around the lonely grave with solemn expressions. Bai Shan Ning was checking the soil quality; Xiang Liang was carefully examining the tombstone; Tong Xingsheng was the most exaggerated, directly holding a shovel and digging the grave behind, clearly intending to open it and dig out the corpse.

"No wonder Ji Hong didn't return to the barracks. His sister Ji Jiang actually died..."

Lin Kai was standing in front of the grave at this moment, his face full of confusion and incomprehension. He subconsciously turned his head to look at Zhao Bao, finding that the other party's face at this moment had both astonishment and complexity. After thinking for a moment, his brows suddenly tightened.

"Is Yuanshu's marriage settled again?"

Zhao Bao only had this sentence in his heart at this moment.

In all conscience, when he just received the report from the Prison Official who went out to search for the siblings at the Prison Department, saying that Ji Jiang's tombstone was found on the outskirts of Mount Beining, his first reaction was really secret joy.

But after the secret joy, he soon noticed something wrong.

Because not only did Ji Jiang die, but her brother Ji Hong also disappeared!

Five days ago, when he just received the report from Zeng Rou, Zhao Bao didn't take it seriously at all. Hong Sect is now the gateway of Great Xia, with people from the Eight Towns coming and going, a mix of fish and dragons, and it was already chaotic. Coupled with a few ghosts causing trouble in the city, it is no exaggeration to say that not to mention two people missing, even if a few people died every few days, it would be considered a normal phenomenon.

If it weren't for Ji Hong's identity as a Long Wu Army soldier, Zhao Bao wouldn't even have bothered to send Prison Officials out to look for him.

Because of his daughter Zhao Yuanshu's marriage, he originally didn't like the siblings Ji Hong and Ji Jiang. Suffering from Great Xia's strict rules, coupled with the warning from his elder brother Zhao Long, he certainly didn't dare to strike at his own people, but naturally, he wished in his heart that the siblings could suffer a little bit outside.

Because of this, during the three days from the 5th to the 7th, he only sent two Iron Order Prison Officials to search symbolically around Hong Sect, and naturally, there were no results.

It wasn't until the night of the 7th that Hou Quan, the Commander of the Long Wu Army, sent a letter from Bashang to Liu Yuan, saying that Ji Hong, a soldier of the 5th Team of the Scout Battalion, did not return to the team on time after his seven-day rotation, and asked him to check what was going on.

Liu Yuan is now not only the Commander of the Yunjiao Army but also concurrently serves as the Military Official of the Hong Sect Military Department. If a soldier does not return to the team on time for roll call, it belongs to military affairs, and Hou Quan naturally has to ask him to cooperate in the investigation.

Three days ago, when Liu Yuan received Hou Quan's letter, his first reaction was naturally confused, but due to his duty, he still found Ying Yi of the Hong Sect Civil Affairs Department first, found out Ji Hong's foothold in Hong Sect, and then found his door for the first time.

Upon this search, Liu Yuan discovered the problem.

The siblings Ji Hong had not returned home for six days.

Great Xia governs the army strictly. Not being present for roll call outside the rotation period is a serious crime. Lightly, one will receive ten to fifty military sticks; seriously, one will be directly expelled from the army. This is the first rule everyone must remember after joining the army.

Ji Hong did not report to the Long Wu Army on time after his rotation ended, which in itself is a big deal, otherwise Hou Quan would not have sent a letter to ask personally.

Combined with the fact that the siblings went out hunting and hadn't returned once in six days, it was almost certain that something had happened to them.

Since it was determined that something had happened to the two, Liu Yuan immediately found the Prison Department.

Learning from Liu Yuan that Ji Hong did not report to the Bashang barracks on time, Zhao Bao immediately realized the seriousness of the problem, so he began to take the case of the siblings' disappearance seriously.

Once he took it seriously, there were results soon.

He took the three Deputy Penal Officers to investigate and visit in the North City for two days, immediately locking onto the last destination of the siblings before they disappeared, which was the outskirts of Mount Beining.

Last night, the three Deputy Penal Officers, Tong Xingsheng, took more than a hundred Iron Order level Prison Officials, plus a battalion drawn by Liu Yuan from the Yunjiao Army, a total of more than two hundred people, and launched a carpet search on the outskirts of Mount Beining.

The lonely grave of Ji Jiang in front of them was the result of this search.

Ji Hong is not a small character. His identity as a Long Wu Army soldier already has a lot of weight, coupled with his supreme combat body aptitude, and he had received a personal commendation from the Lord Xia Hong. Such a person, his sister died, and he himself disappeared.

No matter how bold Zhao Bao is, he dare not hide it, and he instinctively smelled a hint of conspiracy from this matter, so he notified Lin Kai and Liu Yuan for the first time.

This led to the scene where Lin Kai, Liu Yuan, and Li Longkai were all standing in front of this lonely grave with furrowed brows along with him.

Zhao Bao's thoughts were thousands of miles away. Suddenly, he noticed something and turned his head to find that Lin Kai was staring at him. He immediately guessed what Lin Kai was thinking and hurriedly said with a look of urgency, "Lord Lin, you wouldn't suspect that I killed Ji Jiang, would you? Even if Zhao is confused, I wouldn't do such a stupid thing..."

"I am not suspecting you!"

Lin Kai waved his hand directly to interrupt Zhao Bao, shook his head and said in a deep voice, "Not to mention the cause of Ji Jiang's death for now, she came out with Ji Hong in the second half of the night of the 1st. This tombstone was most likely erected by Ji Hong for her..."

Speaking of this, his brows furrowed, and he continued, "Why do you think Ji Hong didn't return to Hong Sect after helping her erect the tombstone?"

"Dare not return, unwilling to return, unable to return. There are only these three possibilities!"

Liu Yuan seemed to have said a nonsense sentence, but after thinking for a moment, Li Longkai and Zhao Bao's expressions immediately became solemn.

Click…………

"My Lord, the corpse has been dug out!"

Coincidentally, Tong Xingsheng's voice came from the side of the mound.

The four of Lin Kai rushed over immediately. Seeing the situation of the female corpse in the mound, the four of them's brows tightened slightly.

The temperature in the Frozen Abyss is extremely low, so even if the corpse is not treated, it can be preserved for a long time. The female corpse in the mound had basically no change in appearance, and one could see at a glance that she had died not long ago.

Of course, this did not exceed the expectations of the four. Ji Jiang disappeared on the night of March 1st. Even if she died as soon as she went out, it has only been nine days until now, and the state of the corpse is completely understandable.

The four of them furrowed their brows because they saw the big knife wound on Ji Jiang's neck.

"It was killed artificially!"

After Lin Kai finished this sentence, a guess had already flashed in his eyes, but he didn't say much, just continued to wait for Tong Xingsheng to examine the corpse.

"Dead for about nine days, it should have been killed on the night of the 1st. The fatal wound is the neck. There are no wounds elsewhere on the body. Judging from the depth of the wound on the neck, the murderer's strength formed an absolute crushing blow to her. It is highly likely that she was killed by the murderer in one blow before she could react..."

Tong Xingsheng has extremely rich experience in examining corpses. He soon obtained a lot of information through the wound on the neck of the female corpse, and then he lifted the female corpse, intending to continue to examine other parts of the female corpse.

But upon this lifting, his expression was suddenly stunned.

"My Lords, please come down and take a look..."

Hearing this, the four of Lin Kai jumped into the grave pit immediately.

The four of them looked in the direction of Tong Xingsheng's finger, and their expressions were all stunned.

It turned out that under the female corpse, there were three characters pressed.

Those three characters were temporarily arranged with small stones. The font was not regular. It could be seen that the person who arranged it was very flustered at that time, and even because Tong Xingsheng's lifting action was too big, the font was a bit messy.

Tong Xingsheng naturally discovered it too. He put down the female corpse, then walked to the side of the small stones, and carefully arranged them for a while. Those three characters were immediately restored.

【Chen Yiqing】

"A person's name?" ===== CHAPTER 428 =====