Chapter 26: Catching Hold of the Mastermind’s Weakness

The Spirit Taming Residual Seal was an extremely miraculous existence. Any creature affected by its power would form an invisible connection between its soul and the seal.

From that point onward, no matter how far away it was, as long as the creature did not die, that connection would not disappear.

After sensing it for a moment, Cheng Han identified the bird that had “gone offline.”

The Blue Pipit.

He immediately thought of a crucial question.

Was this simply an accident, or had Qin Zicheng discovered the bird spying on him?

If it was the former, then the Blue Pipit could only be called unlucky.

If it was the latter… well, that did not seem too harmful either.

Because Cheng Han had specially prepared a set of anti-divination precautions. He did not believe Qin Zicheng had the ability to trace things back to him.

The only trouble was that this guy would definitely become more vigilant, greatly increasing the difficulty of surveillance. In the future, Cheng Han would have to find other methods.

As these thoughts turned in his mind, Cheng Han pushed his bicycle toward the market entrance.

After only a few steps, someone suddenly called out from behind him.

“Young man, wait a moment.”

Cheng Han turned around and saw a gray-haired old man panting as he hurried after him.

He stopped and asked politely,

“Sir, is something the matter?”

The old man asked directly,

“Do you still have any burrow rabbits?”

Cheng Han shook his head.

“Sorry, they’re already sold out.”

The old man was experienced with age and tentatively asked,

“Young man, you caught so many burrow rabbits. You probably kept one for yourself, didn’t you?”

Cheng Han did not answer.

The old man had guessed correctly. He had indeed kept some burrow rabbits, and not just one, but six in total. He planned to pickle and preserve them as winter food reserves.

The old man tried appealing to his emotions.

“My third son’s wife gave birth to a boy half a month ago, but these past few days, she hasn’t had enough milk. The little thing keeps crying from hunger.

“Burrow rabbit meat can promote lactation, so I wanted to buy one to help nourish my daughter-in-law’s body. But I wandered around the market for most of the day and didn’t see a single burrow rabbit.”

Burrow rabbits had rather peculiar habits. When raised in captivity, they became extremely irritable and began attacking one another, causing large numbers of young rabbits to die.

Wild burrow rabbits were also extremely cautious. Traps and similar methods rarely worked on them, so it was common for the market to go an entire day without seeing any.

Only Cheng Han, who possessed extraordinary power and an incredibly capable black cat, could catch so many rabbits in one go.

The old man gritted his teeth and tried tempting him with profit.

“I’m willing to pay two silver coins for one!”

For ordinary people, this was an extremely tempting price.

But with the help of the Omniscient Eye, Cheng Han had picked up more than thirty silver coins over the past year. The offer was not enough to move him.

The old man begged with longing eyes,

“Young man, that boy’s constitution is already weak. If he keeps going hungry, I’m afraid he won’t survive the winter.”

Cheng Han sighed inwardly and silently said,

“Deduce.”

He did not completely trust the old man’s one-sided story, so he decided to verify it with his skill.

His Spirit Value decreased by 1.2 points.

A series of visions appeared.

A moment later, the images vanished.

Cheng Han raised an eyebrow slightly and decisively said,

“Sir, I’ll go back first. Please wait for me here at the market.”

The old man hesitated.

“You aren’t just making an excuse to leave, are you?”

He immediately realized those words could offend someone and hurriedly apologized.

“Young man, please don’t take offense. I’m old, and my head is a little muddled.”

Cheng Han replied, “It’s fine,” then turned and left.

Fifteen minutes later.

Cheng Han returned to the market right on time.

When the old man saw the rabbit hanging from the bicycle handlebar, he immediately beamed with joy.

“Young man, you truly keep your word!”

Then he complimented him,

“When I was young, I also wanted to catch rabbits to earn some money, but those things were far too clever. I worked in the wild for three days and got nothing. Young man, you’re really impressive!”

Cheng Han smiled faintly and gave an excuse.

“I just got lucky. A few companions and I managed to clear out a burrow rabbit nest.”

The old man inspected the rabbit a few times and voluntarily raised the price.

“This burrow rabbit must weigh six jin, right? I’ll pay two hundred and twenty copper coins. How about that?”

Cheng Han nodded.

“Deal.”

The burrow rabbits left at home were indeed the larger ones, so a slightly higher price was only natural.

The two exchanged money and goods.

The old man carried the rabbit away happily.

Watching his departing back, Cheng Han said softly,

“I never expected the affairs of this old man’s family would actually be connected to Qin Zicheng.”

The deduction results showed that the old man’s daughter-in-law had recently been plagued by nightmares. Her mental state had affected her body, which was why her milk supply had become insufficient.

More importantly, the house where she lived was less than fifty meters away from Qin Zicheng’s home in a straight line.

Was this coincidence?

He did not think so.

Cheng Han mounted his bicycle and thought,

“I actually overlooked this point. The neighbors are right next to him, so Qin Zicheng is most likely to target them.

“What he did earlier in the school botanical garden was probably just a spur-of-the-moment action, like a teenager showing off in front of his classmates.”

Thinking of the old man’s daughter-in-law’s nightmares, his expression shifted uncertainly.

“When I first deduced information about the black cat, the shadow transformed into a ghost claw and sucked the black cat into an empty skin.

“And in that woman’s dreams, strange and terrifying black shadows appeared frequently. That sounds a lot like the ghost claw. Could this be the power of an Evil God again?

“The Blue Pipit’s death probably wasn’t accidental. Its feathers were brightly colored, so Qin Zicheng likely noticed it lingering nearby for too long, felt something was wrong, and killed the unlucky bird.”

Cheng Han felt somewhat relieved.

“Good thing I was extremely cautious and didn’t recklessly go near Qin Zicheng’s home to investigate personally. Otherwise, I might have met the same fate as the Blue Pipit.”

He pedaled hard and thought,

“I’ll perform a deduction once I get back. Then I can verify my thoughts.”

Night descended.

Cheng Han arrived at his door.

The moment he pushed it open, he saw the black cat lying beside the wooden bucket containing the rabbits, seemingly guarding their spoils.

As for the two bird sentinels, they stood together on top of the cabinet. Clearly, the black cat had left a serious psychological shadow on them, so they did not dare approach it.

“Meow~”

The black cat immediately stood up and greeted its owner.

The two birds flapped their wings and flew down, landing on his left and right shoulders respectively.

Cheng Han rubbed the cat’s head several times, then stroked the birds’ heads before opening a drawer in the cabinet and taking out a feather.

It was the Blue Pipit’s feather.

To prevent accidents, before sending the three birds out, he had specially plucked one feather from each of them to serve as a traceable “connection item.”

Gently stroking the feather, Cheng Han chuckled.

“If you hadn’t touched my bird, I wouldn’t have had any way to deal with you. But you just had to touch it and directly create a connection with it. Isn’t this basically delivering yourself to my door?”

He focused his mind and silently said,

“Using this feather as a clue, deduce the cause of the Blue Pipit’s death!”

(End of Chapter)