112 Traces in the Sand (1/2)

It didn't take long for Yuan Lei to notice something. He signaled for Mei Chao Bing to come over and then motioned at a few traces that were left in the sand.

Mei Chao Bing raised his brows. ”These should be rather fresh?”

Yuan Lei shook his head. ”You might think so at first but look at where they are: The spot is protected from three sides and the top. It would take a long time to make them disappear completely. Judging from the slight fading at the edges, I'd say they have been here for at least a week.”

Mei Chao Bing pondered. ”A week …” He turned to where Liu Bao Ru was working and waved for her to come over.

She lightly patted her junior martial sister's arm and the two of them came over. Yuan Lei almost wanted to heave a sigh of relief. It seemed he also wouldn't have to worry about this person.

Liu Bao Ru gave him a look as if she had noticed his gaze but she didn't say anything and turned to Mei Chao Bing. ”What might be the matter, senior martial brother Mei?”

”Yuan Lei and Yi Ju found traces that they assume to have been left behind at least a week ago. Can you remember when you came here?”

Liu Bao Ru pondered. The area was quite a bit away from the town so it should have taken them a while. Then again, they hadn't acted like Gongsun Chen's group that searched the area closest to the town completely before the moved forward. Instead, they had chosen a strip of the area, left the town for that part and then investigated it from the closest part to the one that was the furthest away. In the following days, they would move to another strip and do the same. As for this one … ”We should have been here about one and a half weeks ago.”

Mei Chao Bing glanced at Yuan Lei who nodded in return.

”Yes, that could fit. Can you remember this spot?” He motioned at the place with the traces.

Liu Bao Ru tilted her head and took a moment to observe the spot. It looked a little like a bench or maybe a chest of some kind that was open on one side. ”No, I don't think so.” The truth was that their group leader hadn't let her do much on account of the dangers despite her martial arts being the second-highest in their group so it was unlikely that she would have gotten into contact with anything suspicious.

Yuan Lei looked back at the thing, leaned down and reached in, trying to figure out what the person had been doing. It seemed like they had also just grabbed inside and randomly touched to see if there was anything inside.

Mei Chao Bing narrowed his eyes. ”Try the upper side.”

Yuan Lei glanced at him but then turned his hand and touched the surface of the upper part. There were some faint lines engraved with some of them reaching deeper than others but he couldn't make out if there was any deeper meaning to them.

He pulled back his hand and turned to Mei Chao Bing. ”There is something. Some lines, maybe a pattern. I can't say for sure.” He looked at the thing with furrowed brows. The opening was almost as big as a human head but only almost. There was no way he'd be able to take a look. At a place of demonic practitioners, that was likely intentional.