37: Chapter 37 Elimination Method

After returning to the post house, Chen Shanzhi did not rush back to his room.

He stood by the window of the attic, watching the sunset gradually sinking behind the mountains in the distance.

He raised his fingers and tapped them unhurriedly against the window lattice.

Tap, tap, tap.

The sound was exceptionally clear in the quiet attic.

Chen Shanzhi narrowed his eyes, his mind constantly replaying every detail of the skeleton in the Valley of Ten Thousand Snakes.

"From the time Sang Ji rushed over to when we went to the Valley of Ten Thousand Snakes, the entire duration was, at most, no more than a quarter of an hour.

Even if the Supervising Officer is a fool, he still possesses the cultivation of the Life Fire Realm.

So, who on earth could have managed to do this without alerting the guards outside the Valley of Ten Thousand Snakes?

Silently devouring a Supervising Officer with Life Fire Realm cultivation until only a skeleton remained?"

Just as Chen Shanzhi's thoughts were surging, the door was gently pushed open with a creak.

Tang Xiaowu walked in.

Her steps were somewhat heavy, and her exquisite, fair face was currently filled with exhaustion.

"How is it? Did you find anything?"

Chen Shanzhi did not turn back, still looking at the setting sun outside the window, and asked directly.

Tang Xiaowu walked to the table, picked up the teapot to pour a cup of cold tea, tilted her snow-white neck, and drank it all in one gulp.

"Nothing."

She put down the teacup, shook her head, her expression more serious than ever before:

"Grandpa Divine Shaman used all his methods, even resorting to the 'Soul Summoning Technique' that consumes an extreme amount of Origin."

"But that corpse was completely clean."

"What do you mean by completely clean?" Chen Shanzhi turned around, leaning against the windowsill, and looked at her.

"It means exactly what it says."

Tang Xiaowu bit her lip, a trace of lingering fear in her eyes:

"There were no remnant souls, no resentment, and even… the living aura that originally belonged to Wang Yuanhua had completely vanished."

"Grandpa Divine Shaman said this is too bizarre. It's as if that person had never existed at all."

Speaking of this, Tang Xiaowu paused, raised her beautiful eyes to look at Chen Shanzhi, and asked with some hesitation:

"Third Brother, do you think it could be… the methods of the Demon People?"

The methods of the Demon People are treacherous and mysterious. If it really was them,

it would mean that the Witch Tribe's most heavily guarded hinterland has now been infiltrated by the Demon People.

Then the danger in this Secret Realm would have directly doubled.

Chen Shanzhi did not pick up on this topic.

He strode over, sat down at the table, and poured himself a cup of tea as well.

Looking at his reflection in the tea, a flash of inspiration suddenly crossed his mind.

"Xiaowu, have you ever thought that there might actually be another possibility?"

Tang Xiaowu was stunned and instinctively asked: "What possibility?"

Chen Shanzhi raised his eyelids, his gaze looking directly at her:

"What if this Wang Yuanhua didn't actually die at all?"

"Clang!"

The teacup lid in Tang Xiaowu's hand dropped directly onto the table.

She widened her eyes abruptly, her face full of disbelief: "Not dead? Then the skeleton on the ground…"

"Have you ever heard of a 'golden cicada shedding its shell'?"

Chen Shanzhi stared at her with burning intensity:

"Think from another perspective."

"If I were that mole hiding in the shadows,

wanting to sabotage the alliance between the Great Zhou and the Witch Tribe, while also infiltrating the Witch Tribe to steal something,"

"what would be the best method?"

Tang Xiaowu's brain spun rapidly, following Chen Shanzhi's line of thought as she replied: "Hide yourself?"

"Wrong!"

Chen Shanzhi shook his head:

"The best method is to let yourself die in full view of everyone!"

"In this world, only dead people will not arouse anyone's suspicion."

Chen Shanzhi leaned back in his chair, his body slightly tilted backward:

"Create a fake corpse, and take the opportunity of Sang Ji taking him to the Valley of Ten Thousand Snakes to logically 'die' there."

"This not only allows one to escape perfectly and move into the shadows,

but also allows one to easily pin the dirty water of killing the Great Zhou Supervising Officer firmly onto Sang Ji's head."

"If a Great Zhou Supervising Officer dies at the hands of a Successor of the Divine Oracle, do you think the Great Zhou and the Witch Tribe can still maintain a proper alliance?"

"This move of manipulating the narrative and slinging mud is simply a brilliant method of killing two birds with one stone."

Chen Shanzhi straightened up and sneered:

"So, if that is really the case, then all the bizarre aspects can be explained.

No resentment, no remnant souls, because that skeleton was simply not Wang Yuanhua!"

"The real Wang Yuanhua is surely still alive and kicking, hiding in some corner of the Witch Tribe."

"Combining this with the mission hints before we entered this Secret Realm, Wang Yuanhua's goal is actually already laid out in the open."

"You mean…"

Tang Xiaowu looked up, her gaze meeting Chen Shanzhi's, and her breathing involuntarily quickened:

"The 'Nine-Turn Golden Body Art of the Witch God' Cultivation Technique, and the formation map of the Ten Thousand Poison Barrier?"

Chen Shanzhi nodded: "That's right. Since you told me before that

these events have already truly happened in reality,"

"then it is very obvious that the Wang Yuanhua in the Secret Realm has these two things as his goal."

"If we had really been fooled by that skeleton in the Valley of Ten Thousand Snakes just now,

and followed the line of thinking that Sang Ji killed Wang Yuanhua,"

"then everyone's attention would be led astray."

"This is exactly what Wang Yuanhua wants, allowing him to steal the items without anyone noticing."

Hearing this earth-shattering speculation from Chen Shanzhi, Tang Xiaowu was completely stunned.

She stood there, quickly running through everything that had happened today in her mind.

The more she thought about it, the more her heart pounded with fear.

The more she thought about it, the more she felt that what Chen Shanzhi said was the truth!

A flash of joy instantly erupted in her beautiful eyes, and in her excitement, she grabbed Chen Shanzhi's arm:

"I will go and inform my father about this right now!"

"As long as my father and Grandpa Divine Shaman are not misled by that fake corpse and know Wang Yuanhua's true purpose in advance,"

"then with my father's and Grandpa Divine Shaman's heaven-defying cultivation, they will definitely not let the Cultivation Technique and formation map be lost!"

"In this way, we will be in an invincible position in this Secret Realm!"

Tang Xiaowu said this and was about to run out the door.

"Don't go."

Chen Shanzhi backhanded her wrist and forcibly pulled her back.

He shook his head, his tone flat: "It's useless."

Tang Xiaowu stumbled from being pulled, her beautiful eyes full of confusion: "Why is it useless? Can't we just take precautions in advance?"

Chen Shanzhi let go of her hand, looked at her eager expression, and patiently explained:

"Xiaowu, use your head and think."

"These two items are the very foundation of your Witch Tribe and are top-secret objects.

Isn't the level of protection for them usually already at the highest level?"

Tang Xiaowu nodded: "That's right."

"That's exactly it."

Chen Shanzhi spread his hands:

"The defense was already so strict, yet in real history, Wang Yuanhua still succeeded!"

"What does this mean?"

"It means that relying on passive defense won't stop him!"

"I think the mission the Secret Realm gave us shouldn't be about how to prevent the items from being stolen,

but rather how to find Wang Yuanhua, who is hiding within the Witch Tribe, as well as the mole who is colluding with him to steal the items!"

"There is only the principle of being a thief for a thousand days, not the principle of guarding against a thief for a thousand days?"

After hearing this, Tang Xiaowu felt as if a basin of cold water had been poured over her head, and the excitement that had just risen was instantly extinguished.

A deep look of worry appeared on her stunningly beautiful face.

"But…"

She bit her red lips, her brows locked in a frown:

"That Wang Yuanhua seems to have vanished into thin air, and even Grandpa Divine Shaman can't find even a trace of his aura."

"If he keeps hiding in the shadows and doesn't come out, how are we supposed to find him?

And that mole, they haven't shown a single flaw until now.

If it weren't for the fact that these things have already happened in reality,

I would even doubt whether the Witch Tribe really has a mole."

Speaking of this, Tang Xiaowu looked up.

Those watery, beautiful eyes, filled with a trace of pleading and reliance, looked steadily at Chen Shanzhi.

Unknowingly, in this Secret Realm,

she had completely come to regard the man before her as her backbone.

"Third… Third Brother, you are so smart, you must have a way, right?"

Looking at the girl's pitiful appearance, a calm smile appeared on Chen Shanzhi's face.

"As for a way… naturally, there is one."

"What way?!" Tang Xiaowu's beautiful eyes darted, staring fixedly at Chen Shanzhi's face, afraid to miss a single word.

Chen Shanzhi unhurriedly raised one finger and waved it in front of her eyes.

He uttered three words:

"Process of elimination."