Free Web NovelChapter 135: Chapter 135: The Magical Footprints
Wang Hao listened, his face a picture of shock, and quickly crouched down like Su Zhenping.
He shone his flashlight and discovered a new footprint in a mud pit.
Ever since the Zao City Biological Laboratory had transferred the mountain forest management rights to Wang Hao, apart from Su Zhenping, Wang Hao hadn’t allowed anyone else to go up the mountain.
But whose footprint was this?
"Uncle Su, this couldn’t possibly be your own footprint, could it?"
"Impossible!"
Su Zhenping answered with certainty.
"My foot is bigger than this one, and I haven’t been up the mountain these past few days, this footprint is definitely not mine."
Wang Hao took a careful look at Su Zhenping’s foot and the footprint on the ground, and indeed, there was quite a size difference, and he immediately became tense.
If it wasn’t Su Zhenping’s, then whose could it be? Surely someone hadn’t secretly discovered the existence of Blood Ganoderma and Dragon Spring?
"Whether it was a person or a ghost, we have to find them and can’t let anyone damage the Blood Ganoderma and Dragon Spring."
After saying this, the two of them followed the trail of footprints to search.
Strangely enough, after searching in circles, they returned to their starting point without seeing a single person.
"Uncle Su, what’s going on here? We couldn’t possibly have encountered a ghost, could we?"
Wang Hao muttered under his breath.
"There’s no such thing as ghosts in this world, I don’t believe in that stuff."
Su Zhenping flicked Wang Hao’s head with his finger.
"Then what exactly is going on here?"
Wang Hao asked, puzzled.
Even Su Zhenping wasn’t sure what was happening, so he crouched down again to study the footprint more closely. The range of the footprint was wide, circumnavigating almost half of the mountain.
However, none of the directions pointed towards Blood Ganoderma and Dragon Spring.
He therefore deduced that these two things had likely not yet been discovered by anyone.
For the time being, Su Zhenping didn’t know how to explain the footprints.
"Uncle Su, could it be that these people already know about the treasure in the mountain and have come to blindly wander around, searching for treasure?"
Wang Hao looked at Su Zhenping and asked.
"How would you know? Are you just guessing?"
Su Zhenping said impatiently.
"I’m not guessing."
Wang Hao pointed in the direction they had come from.
"Look carefully, both the starting and ending points of this footprint are by this mountain path, which clearly shows they already know this path."
"And they’ve also been through the bushes searching for something because we haven’t seen footprints anywhere else; they must have been following this path to look for something."
After listening, Su Zhenping nodded again and again.
"But we don’t know when these people came in. How could they have come in without us knowing?"
With a puzzled face, Su Zhenping continued walking towards the direction of Dragon Spring with Wang Hao.
On their way, both kept a lookout but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
Upon reaching the entrance of Dragon Spring, they were still a bit worried and didn’t immediately open the cave entrance, but instead hid nearby to observe for any movements.
After waiting nearly an hour without any irregularities, they moved the stones covering the entrance.
Because they were still worried, they quickly left after collecting water from Dragon Spring, disguising the entrance to the cave before preparing to descend the mountain.
As they passed the footprints again on their way down, Su Zhenping stopped and observed for a while, then suddenly said,
"I’ve got it, these people were measuring!"
"Measuring? Measuring what?"
Wang Hao was somewhat baffled.
"I’m not exactly sure what they were measuring, but, you see, the circle we just walked around happens to be at the very center of the mountain."
Su Zhenping continued, pondering while he spoke.
"Uncle Su, what do you mean by this? Are you saying that someone wants to dig into the mountain?"
Wang Hao found it too incredible. Could it be the work of Zao City’s biological laboratory? frёeωebɳovel.com
But on second thought, that didn’t make sense either. Since they had requisitioned the entire mountain, they could enter it anytime they wanted, so why would they sneak in?
"It’s too early to be certain, but from their actions, they seem to be trying to determine the center of the mountain,"
Su Zhenping said thoughtfully.
"We should hurry back and water the greenhouse with the dragon spring water before it gets light,"
So, the two of them took the dragon spring water and descended the mountain, rushing to water the traditional Chinese medicine before dawn.
Yet, both of them couldn’t shake their concern about the footprints on the mountain, so after watering with the dragon spring water, they continued into the forest to investigate further.
They split up to search. Su Zhenping went towards the dragon spring because he was afraid of being bitten by the venomous centipedes near the Blood Ganoderma. This left Wang Hao, who was immune to the venom, to go there.
They kept watch until daybreak but found nothing unusual.
Even though nothing happened, they were still anxious and decided to check the entire mountain.
Fortune favors the diligent, and this time they were not disappointed. In a corner behind the mountain, they found an empty vial.
"Someone did come!"
With a frown, Su Zhenping held up the empty vial.
"It seems that this person has hidden themselves well, even an empty vial is concealed so cleverly. These people must be no ordinary characters, and they certainly have come with a purpose,"
Wang Hao suddenly thought of the missing person case he had investigated with Zhou Yingying and wondered if it was related to these strange incidents on the mountain.
He then relayed to Su Zhenping everything that had happened without omitting a detail.
"Golden dragon?"
Su Zhenping’s face changed as he heard this and said to Wang Hao.
"Could it be that by the dragon’s eyes, they mean the dragon spring water?"
Wang Hao’s heart quivered as he listened, and on reflection, it also seemed very plausible to him because the ancient text mentioned a golden dragon lying at the bottom of the mountain, and that finding the dragon’s eyes would lead to the golden dragon.
Could the dragon spring water really be the eyes of this golden dragon?
Could the golden dragon really lie beneath this mountain?
And those footprints... were they measuring the center of the mountain, suggesting that the golden dragon might be located at the mountain’s heart?
If these conjectures all held true, the footprints on the mountain path could very well be those left by Grandpa Gao Chao.
"Dragon or no dragon, we must find this person. We can’t let them take the secrets of this mountain away!"
Wang Hao’s gaze sharpened, resolutely looking at Su Zhenping.
Realizing the gravity of the situation, Su Zhenping began an even more meticulous search, careful not to overlook any corner.
Whether or not there actually was a golden dragon beneath the mountain didn’t matter to Su Zhenping, but the Blood Ganoderma and dragon spring water must not be disclosed to outsiders, or else Chen Village would never know peace.
The two searched the mountain for most of a day and found no clues.
They were filled with urgency, but they dared not search too conspicuously for fear of alerting the person who might then make a desperate escape.
"Blindly searching like this isn’t a solution. Right, Uncle Su, I remember the ancient text given to me by Gao Chao’s dad mentioned something about waxing and waning. Could it have something to do with this?"
Wang Hao said to Su Zhenping earnestly.
"Yes, that should refer to the moon. The waxing moon shines in the west, and the waning moon shines in the east. What time was it when you fell down the cliff?"
Su Zhenping suddenly asked.
"I can’t remember clearly, but it was very dark that day, and I seemed to only see half of the moon, but the crescent seemed to be facing upwards,"
Wang Hao recalled.
"That would be the waxing moon, the waxing moon lights up the east, so you found the west side very dark."
"After that day you found the dragon spring water, and now during the waning moon, the east is illuminated. Let’s go to the west and take a look,"
Realizing this, Su Zhenping muttered to himself on the side.
"Uncle Su, are you speculating about the location of the golden dragon?"
Wang Hao asked.
Finding some clues at last, the two were quite delighted and decided to change their direction of search.
"Never mind that, let’s go check out the west side first."
