Little Constable grinned and walked away quickly. After a few leaps, his figure disappeared from sight.

Brian Carter showed a relaxed smile, sat down cross-legged, and began to rest with his eyes closed...

But he didn't expect that, more than half an hour later, footsteps sounded at the entrance of the Yin family inn, and Little Constable came back again. Before even entering, Little Constable shouted loudly, "The torrential rain has caused a mountain flood, the roads are blocked and I can't go back! You're a local—do you know any other way?"

Brian Carter hadn't expected things to turn out like this either. He was stunned at first, then shook his head. "There's no other way, we can only wait for the water to recede."

Little Constable, feeling the weight of responsibility, was extremely anxious. "How can that be? The matter of requesting reinforcements can't be delayed. Ahem..."

Seeing Little Constable pacing anxiously in front of him, Brian Carter held up three fingers and suddenly said, "Three things."

Little Constable was puzzled. "What three things?"

"First, the mountain flood has blocked the road. You can't get through, and neither can the barbarians. At least before the water recedes, nothing will happen at Swallow Slope. Second, this tragic case was discovered by us first—the barbarians haven't been here yet. Otherwise, they wouldn't have left the corpse handlers' bodies uncollected. This means the barbarians don't know about this yet, so what's the rush? Besides, it's a full three days' journey from here to the barbarians' lair. Even if a corpse handler survived last night and escaped to call for help, it would take six days for a round trip. Third, our county magistrate may not be... not that smart, but he wouldn't overlook something this big. It's possible that the prefectural troops are already stationed in town, so there's no need for you to worry."

After hearing these three things, Little Constable was no longer anxious, but he did get angry. He glared at Brian Carter and asked, "You were the one who told me to rush back overnight to deliver the message, and now you're the one saying it's fine. Is this fun for you? Are you messing with me? Want to fight? Let's go outside—don't mess up the crime scene. I'll let you use one hand! Get up, don't worry, I won't hit your face!"

Brian Carter laughed. "It's my fault, calm down, calm down. The angrier you get, the hungrier you'll be. I wanted to send you away, but not to make fun of you."

At the mention of "hungry," Little Constable's eyes turned red. "So what's the real reason? Tell me."

Brian Carter stood up and walked to the door, looking up at the sky. "At midnight, I plan to try something. I was going to go alone."

Little Constable rolled his eyes at him. "What is it?"

Brian Carter didn't answer right away, but changed the subject. "In the deep mountains of our Nanli region, there's an herb called 'Zi Yin Feng.' Only the mountain stream barbarians know how to fry and refine it. This herb has a strange property, and two other marvelous effects." Little Constable didn't understand or care about medicinal matters, and wanted to frown and shake his head, but seeing Brian Carter so serious, he forced himself to listen.

The strange thing about Zi Yin Pan is that, after being specially prepared by the barbarians, it emits a faint scent at midnight every night, smelling like the ashes of plants and trees, and disappears by dawn.

As for its two effects, the first is related to the word "Yin" (lust). Its scent has no effect on men, but if a woman inhales it for a while, her blood will stir, her whole body will weaken, and her desires will become uncontrollable.

Suddenly mentioning an aphrodisiac, Little Constable's expression didn't change, but his eyes showed some anger and a bit of embarrassment. He frowned and said, "Why bring up such a lowly drug out of nowhere?"

Chapter Eight: Night Visitor

"A drug is just a drug—there's no such thing as noble or lowly." Brian Carter continued, "The second effect of Zi Yin Feng is in the word 'Feng' (seal). It can dispel dampness and preserve corpses. The mountain stream barbarians refine this herb to use it for corpse preservation. In this case, 'Zi Yin Feng' was ground into powder and smeared all over the corpses. The killer took the bodies and left, along the way..."

At this point, Little Constable already understood. "At midnight, 'Zi Yin Feng' will emit a strange scent, and by following the smell, we might be able to track the killer?"

Little Constable was greatly invigorated, but soon realized, "But we don't have a dog—how can we track them? Besides, it's been raining all day. Would any scent even remain?"

"We don't need a dog. I can do it." As he spoke, Brian Carter himself felt a bit awkward and touched his own nose. "My sense of smell is extremely keen, far better than most people. And the scent of Zi Yin Pan is unique—it's easy for me to track. But today's heavy rain came at the worst time, so we'll just have to try and see."

Little Constable was very curious, his gaze lingering on Brian Carter's nose for a while. "Your nose is as good as a dog's? You can smell whatever a dog can?"

Brian Carter didn't act modest and said openly, "Let's put it this way—if I can't smell it, neither can a dog."

Little Constable's temper was like the mountain rain clouds—fierce when they come, but quick to disperse. He laughed and clicked his tongue in amazement, then got back to the point. "So you sent me away because you planned to track the killer yourself? That's not very fair of you, trying to take all the credit for yourself. Hmph, and a bit overconfident too. The killer who managed to take down twelve corpse handlers at once—if you catch up, isn't that just asking to be killed?"

Brian Carter didn't argue with him, only said, "Let's wait until midnight. First, see if there's any scent left and if it can be tracked. If it can, then see if we can catch up. Whatever happens, we'll talk about it if we really find the killer. I was planning to go alone, but I didn't expect you to come back again."