The so-called merit forest is not actually a real forest, but hundreds of merit monuments built against the mountain.

What is recorded on this merit tablet is the good deeds done by the believers of Fayuan Temple over the years, of course, ordinary good deeds can not be on the list, at least they also build bridges and pave roads, large-scale porridge, or invite monks to pray for Li Shu and other things.

It took more than 370 years to accumulate so much.

Because these hundreds of merit tablets are as dense as a forest when viewed from afar, the monks in the temple often call it 'merit forest' mainly to explain to the guests, and they can boast about the great achievements of Fayuan Temple.

Originally, this was also a scene of Fayuan Temple, and there were often believers who came here to admire the exploits of their predecessors, but recently, due to the impact of a series of homicides, a relatively remote place like Gongdelin has naturally become crowded.

If it weren't for the time for regular inspections, even the little monk Xuanci might not have the leisure to come here.

And it was in the process of inspecting the meritorious forest that Xuan Ci heard a wild dog barking wildly, and followed the sound of curiosity to find it, and saw the monk Jienian lying on the ground, with blurred flesh and blood on his neck, and there were six or seven wild dogs around him, who seemed to be fighting with each other for this piece of 'fat meat'.

Xuan Ci has seen this?

Immediately, he was frightened, and ran back to the temple in one breath, and was about to report to the prison at this time, when he suddenly remembered that the official of Shuntian Mansion seemed to be investigating the case in the temple, so he inquired all the way and found the meditation room.

Fortunately, he didn't go to the prison first, so when Sun Shaozong and others arrived, the scene was still well preserved, of course, this so-called intact does not include the corpse that was gnawed by a dog.

Sure enough, it's a monk who abstains from meditation!

Think about what kind of dog fight he was when he set fire to the house arrest center?

But he didn't want his body to be discarded in the open space in the center of the stele just half a month later, to be trampled and bitten by wild dogs!

When he was still a dozen steps away from the corpse, Sun Shaozong stopped, and when others saw him stop, they naturally followed suit.

Only the monk who had abstained from anger still strode forward, shouting in his mouth: "Get out, get out of here!" You damn dogs! ”

Those wild dogs were used to bullying the soft and fearing the hard, and when they saw these many people surrounding, they had already had the idea of retreating, and they didn't run away immediately, but they were reluctant to give up the fat on the ground.

At present, listening to the ring and scolding loudly, he looks menacing again, and he is busy running away without a trace with his tail between his legs.

The monk scared away those wild dogs, and was about to stride to Jienian's side to check his situation, when he overheard Sun Shaozong say: "Master stays, the murderer took great pains to make this good show, but it is not for you to destroy it casually." ”

After a pause, he turned around and frowned, "What do you mean by this, my lord?" ”

"Are you blind on a bald donkey?!"

Without waiting for Sun Shaozong to reply, Qiu Yunfei jumped out, stretched out his arm and drew a circle centered on the corpse, and then crossed his waist and said, "Take a closer look at the footprints on the ground to see if there is anything wrong!" ”

Jie Yan was scolded by him as a bald donkey, his already ugly face darkened a little, his throat surged for a while, as if he was sneering at each other, regardless of the fact that in the end, he just pronounced a Buddha name, so he followed Qiu Yunfei's instructions and looked at the situation around the corpse.

And under this look, the face of the ring showed a little smugness, and he turned around again and sneered: "The poor monk said that it was the Tiangu demon who did it, and now it has come true?!" ”

But it turned out that the mess on the ground was all the marks of dog paws, but there was only one row of footprints belonging to people!

And the footprints extended to the corpse of the ring, but there was no trace of coming out!

It's no wonder that the monk who quits anger thinks that it was the dog demon's doing.

However, the first thing Sun Shaozong thought of was the old routine used in many reasoning, stepping on the footprints and returning the same way.

Because the stone slabs are laid in this merit forest, and only a layer of floating soil is covered on the surface, the weight of the owner of the footprints cannot be judged from the depth of the footprints.

Therefore, Sun Shaozong ordered everyone to stay where they were, and carefully walked alone, preparing to follow the footprints for a while, and then try to step on their own footprints and return the same way.

But halfway through, he stopped, and at the same time completely denied the possibility of stepping on the footprints and returning the same way.

Because Sun Shaozong found some slippery footprints, and on both sides of these footprints, there were two not very clear slap prints, as well as traces of struggling to get up.

Apparently someone almost slipped here, but he held it up with his hands in time and got up.

Normally, if the murderer was carrying the precept at that time, and the hands that fell on the ground would have fallen long ago.

Taking a step back, if the murderer's strength surpasses that of ordinary people, and he binds the precept tightly to his body to ensure that the precept does not fall, I am afraid that he will still encounter insurmountable obstacles.

Because in the process of getting up forward, there are traces of about a little more than a meter in the middle, and it is a slight backward slide by tapping the ground with your toes.

Such traces, if you want to imitate them in the process of walking backwards, it is impossible to do it at all, and in the process of backwards, there is no way to accurately cross the distance of more than one meter and step on the shoe prints before slipping.

So this slippery trace has completely vetoed the possibility of stepping on the footprints and reversing back!

This footprint is also certain, it belongs to the Jiexian himself!

How did the murderer kill the precepts without leaving footprints and then leave?!

Could it be that the rope was used to set up an air passage?

Sun Shaozong looked up at the stone tablets on the north and south sides, about fifteen meters apart, and commanded: "Search carefully around the scene to see if there are any other traces at the scene!" Especially on these merit tablets, don't miss an inch for me! ”

With this order, Wei Ruolan, Master Qi, Qiu Yunfei, and Zhao Wuxing were divided into two groups, each leading a few officials, and launched a carpet search.

However......

Half an hour passed, and the search area expanded to a radius of fifty meters, but still no abnormal traces were found!

How is this possible?!

Stepping on footsteps has been denied, and the possibility of using tools such as ropes is also tending to zero.

And the possibility of attacking with long-range weapons......

When everyone conducted a carpet search, Sun Shaozong had also carefully confirmed that the fatal wound of Jienian was that the throat was cut by a sharp blade, and then it was cut repeatedly, creating the illusion of being bitten to death Of course, there were indeed wild dogs that had bitten the corpse behind.

And repeated cutting to create illusions is definitely difficult to do with long-range weapons.

How did the murderer manage to kill Jie Nian at close range, and then leave without a trace?!