"Among the few, were there any people who came to the waterfall with Du Heng to investigate?"

Everyone was walking on the mountain road to the small waterfall, and Shi Cheng, who was walking in front, suddenly asked this question to the Du family behind him.

After hearing this question, the disciples of the Du family all looked at a short and stout man standing in the middle of the line.

A female disciple of the Du family said, "Brother Du Yang, it seems that you were the one who followed Du Heng that day, right?" ”

A row of eyes looked at the short man named Du Yang.

Du Yang's personality seemed to be a little shy, he scratched the back of his head a little helplessly, and after two sounds, he nodded.

Shi Cheng let out an "oh" with great interest, his steps did not stop, and he said as he moved forward: "When you get to the waterfall later, please trouble Du Yang Daoyou to tell Shi again about the scene when you explored the waterfall." ”

"Oh, no problem, Mr. Shi." Du Yang replied respectfully.

After walking down the mountain road, after a short walk along the river valley, the group came to the area around the small waterfall.

Shi Cheng stood still, turned around, and looked at the high ground on the southeast side, there was not much fog in the area around the waterfall at the moment, and the high ground was not far from here, Shi Cheng could clearly see the scene in the clearing.

That high ground was the place where Du Heng found the waterfall when he entered the forbidden area for the last time.

Shi Cheng thought for a moment, turned around, and continued to move forward with the large army, walking to a large flat stone on the south side of the water curtain.

Du Yang had already talked about what he and Du Heng saw and heard in the waterfall that day in front of everyone.

"At that time, I, Du Xuemei, and a few other disciples followed Senior Brother Heng all the way here, but I didn't see the thief that Senior Brother Heng said."

"Senior Brother Heng's expression was very shocked, and he shouted 'this is impossible' in front of us, and kept muttering, 'I saw it just now, why did I go down the slope and disappear'......"

"So, assuming that Du Heng Daoyou didn't have the illusion at that time, those thieves who gathered near the waterfall disappeared out of thin air in front of you?"

Du Yang nodded his chubby wide head, then shook his head again, and said, "If Senior Brother Du Heng is not mistaken, then it is indeed the case, for us cultivators, it will only take three hundred and fifty to four hundred breaths to come down from that small high ground through the forest, the fog around here is thin, and the waterfall is so spacious here, if it weren't for the power of the Grandmaster Realm, it would be impossible for the other party to escape from our sight in such a short time." ”

Xu Fengshi thought for a moment and asked, "Well, is it possible that those thieves found out that you were going downhill at that time, so they used some kind of magic weapon or formation to move to another place?" ”

Duke laughed, and even the beautiful beard on his lips shook, "Deacon Xu doesn't know, using a magic weapon formation with aura can indeed allow the user to move to another area in a short period of time, but the burst of spiritual power caused by driving the magic weapon will leave traces in the same place, and it cannot be dispersed in a short time, if it is really as the deacon said, then Du Heng Du Yang and they will be able to find traces of using the spirit treasure or formation here at that time." ”

"I see." Xu Fengshi frowned and fell into deep thought again.

Iron Mask looked around and said, "Here...... There doesn't seem to be any remnant of the ancient formation. ”

"Will you hide behind the water curtain?" As soon as Wu Neng spoke, he dispelled this speculation, because when he looked behind the waterfall, he found that there was only a small recessed space behind the waterfall, and there was no cave large enough to hide people.

Du Yang also shook his head, "Wu Gongzi, there is no way to hide behind the water curtain, and Senior Brother Heng also took us to search there at that time, and we didn't find anything else." ”

Shi Cheng didn't speak, he first stood on the big rock and looked at the high ground in the distance, then carefully looked at his surroundings, and finally, he slowly paced around the clear pool under the water curtain, and as he walked, he carefully looked at the waterfall under the water and not far away.

The waterhole is very clear, not too deep nor too shallow, and after Shi Cheng's visual inspection, it was found that the shore was only about half a person deep, and the deep water near the center of the waterhole was nearly one zhang deep. The terrain near the waterfall is high in the southeast and low in the northwest, so that when the water falls from the height, it first forms a pool below, and then flows out of the pool under the influence of the topping, forming a small stream in this dry valley that flows from the southeast to the far northwest.

"Shi Daoyou, what do you think?" Duke saw that Shi Cheng had not spoken since he came down, so he asked curiously.

"Fellow Daoist, wait a minute." Shi Cheng continued to circle along the edge of the waterhole as he spoke, Xu Fengshi and Duke and the others were puzzled, but it was not easy to bother them at the moment, so they followed Shi Cheng honestly.

The scale of the waterhole was not large, so although Shi Cheng walked slowly, everyone quickly walked around the pool.

"Ouch!" Xu Fengshi accidentally stepped on a slippery place and almost fell.

Du Yang, who was walking in the middle of the team, hurriedly supported Xu Fengshi, "Deacon Xu, be careful, the area around this waterhole is still very slippery, and if you are not careful, you may fall." ”

"Thank you, thank you."

Du Yang smiled and said politely, and then pouted at a small piece of grass in front of him on the right, "I remember very clearly, the last time we followed Du Heng to investigate, there was a disciple of the Martial Arts Realm who slipped there. ”

Xu Fengshi looked at the grass and found that the soil near the grass was not slippery, so he asked out of curiosity: "The soil over there seems to be quite dry, why can you fall there?" ”

Du Yang also shook his head a little confused, thought for a while and said, "This pool is a little smaller than the last time we came, and the last time we came, the water in the pond was just below the middle of the grass." But also, the weather in the forbidden area is like this, the sides of this valley are wet and hot, and the valley is very dry, and a lot of water has been steamed out of this waterhole in the past few days. ”

Xu Fengshi looked at his feet, and then at the grass in front of him, and still muttered a little in his heart. "Even so, this pool has shrunk a little too much...... Xu Fengshi thought to himself.

After everyone circled around the waterhole, they found nothing, not even half of the footprints. Under the leadership of Shi Cheng, the group even took a look at the depression behind the water curtain, and Shi Cheng knocked on the rock wall with his hand everywhere, but did not find the existence of secret passages or mechanisms.

In desperation, Shi Cheng had no choice but to find his way of thinking again and leave the space behind the water curtain.

"Du Heng shouldn't have been dazzled at that time, because I can clearly see the situation on the high ground on the southeast side here, and in the same way, standing on the high ground must be the same, but where are the people Du Heng saw hiding? The view here is very good, there is no shelter to hide, if it is not the use of formations or spiritual treasures, then the only explanation is that there is a secret passage where people can be hidden. At that time, when Du Heng saw the thieves on the side of the waterfall on the high ground, some of those thieves must have also discovered the Du family, and when the Du family disciples who came down the mountain to investigate were blocked by the forest area on the hillside, the thieves calmly hid in the secret passage, and avoided the search of Du Heng and others...... "Shi Cheng's brain began to run rapidly, thinking and trying to restore the scene at that time in his heart, "That's right, this speculation may indeed be true, and the only question at the moment is where the secret passage is......"

Just as he was thinking about it, a bush on Shi Cheng's left suddenly attracted his attention.

He crouched down and took out a pair of tweezers and a small, thin, short glass bottle from his storage bag in front of everyone's eyes. Shi Cheng opened the glass bottle, then used tweezers to push through the grass, and pinched out a small handful of hair from the shade of the green leaves.

"This is ......" The Du family disciple named Du Xiuhan said in surprise, "There is actually a strand of hair here, Shi Gongzi has good eyesight!" ”

Wu Neng's spirits perked up: "Old Shi, I finally found out, it seems that Du Heng didn't look at it at that time." ”

Duke hurriedly looked at Du Yang: "Du Yang, did you find these hairs last time?" ”

Du Yang, who looked surprised, hurriedly clenched his fists and replied, "Elder Hui, Senior Brother Du Heng took us to search very carefully at that time, and we didn't find these hairs. These hairs should have been newly left here. ”

Ma Guo, who hadn't spoken much, suddenly frowned and said, "Could it be that after your last exploration, another monk who explored the forbidden area has come here." ”

"Anything is possible, these strands of hair are just a small discovery, and they don't say anything." Shi Cheng said, carefully putting his hair into the glass bottle, and then sealing the lid.

Shi Cheng stood up and said, "Let's disperse first, in groups of three, and we'll search the vicinity carefully." ”

Everyone scattered and searched in groups according to the words, but this time, everyone had no new discoveries, in desperation, the group had to leave the waterfall temporarily, and marched to the southeast highlands, there are still many places to go today, and now the time has passed, and the sun will set in more than an hour, Shi Cheng and others can not spend time in the waterfall all the time.

"Old Wu, what's wrong?"

Just as everyone was about to climb to the high ground, Wu Neng suddenly shivered unconsciously, and the young mechanic turned around and looked behind him with a puzzled expression. Shi Cheng noticed Wu Neng's actions and asked about it.

Wu Neng glanced around vigilantly, and then frowned and whispered to Shi Cheng: "Old Shi, just now, I always felt as if someone was staring at me from a distance. ”

Shi Cheng also lifted his heart, carefully examining the hillsides, waterholes, and waterfalls in the distance, but like Wu Neng, he didn't find anyone in sight.

"No matter how small the forbidden area is, it is full of dangers, Lao Wu, you pay more attention, and remind me and Tiemian in time if something is wrong." Shi Cheng patted Wu Neng on the back, and then let Wu Neng walk in front of him, and the two of them followed the large army into the forest area leading to the highlands.

At the moment when everyone's figures disappeared into the forest, a person in a black robe suddenly appeared out of thin air on a cliff on the left side of the waterfall, and the person stared straight at the place where Wu Neng's back disappeared with a trance gaze, muttering in a low voice.

"Little ...... Can ......"