Martial Arts: Starting from a Seemingly Real System

After Shopkeeper Chen introduced to Qiao Rui the recent crimes committed by Yizhihongxing, Qiao Rui finally understood.

"You specifically target the Beggars' Sect?" This guy might have a grudge against the Beggars' Sect.

"That's right. Although this thief still likes to prey on other people's wives and concubines, they are all people who are involved with the Beggars' Sect!" Shopkeeper Chen's eyes were scorching, and a hint of sternness flashed across his face. He said to Qiao Rui: "Since you are sure that he is hiding in the Lotus Inn, why do you need to go to so much trouble to track him down? Go find Hong Gang and ask him to send people to ambush around the Lotus Inn, and wait for that guy to go out at night to scout the area, and then capture him in one fell swoop!"

"This..." Qiao Rui was a little embarrassed, "What if I guessed wrong and he is not a red apricot? If we kill the wrong person, we will have a hard time explaining it. We can't arrest someone just because he is wearing a nightgown, right?"

"Hmph, there's no need to explain what I, the Qingtian Guard, do! Now that the Qingtian Guard has been rebuilt, even though its might is not as strong as during the time of the previous emperor, we still have to be tough when we need to. There's no need to worry too much!" The old man looked wealthy and kind, and he had his own aura when he got angry.

"I still want to track him down and confirm his identity. If he is really an adulterer, it would be best to catch him red-handed before he commits a crime. That would be fair!" Qiao Rui chuckled. Since he started practicing martial arts, he began to like violent and direct ways of doing things, but he could not do the unreasonable and brutal law enforcement as Manager Chen said.

Shopkeeper Chen stared at Qiao Rui with dissatisfaction, and his expression was full of anger at his lack of fighting spirit. He lightly scolded him, "Young man, you have no courage at all!"

Qiao Rui just smiled and didn't answer.

Seeing that Qiao Rui was determined to do this, Shopkeeper Chen sighed and said impatiently, "Well, whatever you want!" He stood up and walked to the wooden cabinet by the wall, took out a gourd from a secret compartment and handed it to Qiao Rui, saying, "This is blood powder. It is colorless, odorless and translucent in the dark night, but under the sunlight during the day, it will gradually turn blood red. Sprinkle it on the roof of the inn after he leaves tonight, and stick it to his feet when he comes back. Tomorrow you will be able to tell which room he entered by the bloody footprints. But you have to calculate the time well, because this thing is only effective for a few hours, and it will dissipate after the time is up!"

"Will it be a mistake to wait like this? What if he doesn't come back tonight? What if he commits a crime tonight? Then it will be too late for everything, right?" Qiao Rui frowned and said, "Isn't there any tracking incense or tracking Gu? We can just track him directly!"

"No, you think too much!" Shopkeeper Chen said calmly, "If there really was such a thing, that guy would have been caught long ago!"

Qiao Rui looked at the gourd in his hand and thought that it was better than nothing. He hoped that he could get to the bottom of it this time. Qiao Rui clenched his right hand tightly.

The two chatted for a while, and after the waiter brought the goose-feather knife, Qiao Rui said goodbye and left.

Instead of returning to Yunlai Inn, Qiao Rui went directly to the room of Lotus Inn to meditate and recuperate. At night, Qiao Rui sat by the door with his eyes closed, hoping to be found as soon as possible after hearing any movement.

At midnight, a slight sound was heard. Qiao Rui suddenly stood up and gently opened the door. The corridor was dark and silent, but there was no one in sight. Qiao Rui was about to chase out to check, but then he stopped and waited for a while. Sure enough, he saw a vague figure flash out from the dark corner, and then quickly went up to the roof and left.

"What a cautious guy! It seems he noticed someone was following him last night!" Qiao Rui walked out of the room only after the man in black left. He then jumped onto the roof and looked into the distance. The guy's figure gradually became smaller and walked away.

Qiao Rui took the big gourd, unplugged it and poured some liquid onto the roof. It turned out to be some translucent powder, so light in color that it could be almost ignored and could not be noticed without careful observation.

Along the U-shaped roof, Qiao Rui sprinkled the cloth every few feet, and did three circles from inside to outside before returning to his room to sleep. He had a good night's sleep.

At the beginning of the morning hour of the next day, when it was still light, Qiao Rui got up, washed, opened the door and looked at the floor at the door. He had poured some blood powder in front of his door last night so that he could grasp the moment when the blood powder appeared at any time. Seeing that there was nothing unusual about the blood powder in front of the door at this time, Qiao Rui had to go back to his room to practice.

Half an hour later, Qiao Rui went out to check, and saw that the blood powder at the door began to react slightly, but the color was still very light. If he didn't know there was blood powder here, he wouldn't be able to see it at all.

At the end of the morning hour, Qiao Rui looked at the faint red mark on the door and thought that he could finally see it. He had checked it several times before. The slow speed of the color gradient was maddening. Fortunately, Qiao Rui was calm. If it were someone with an impatient temperament, he would have been unable to hold back and would have launched a large-scale search.

Qiao Rui paced slowly along the corridor. It seemed that he was just strolling aimlessly, but in fact he was looking everywhere for the marks left by the blood powder.

"No!" Qiao Rui looked around but found no blood-red mark at all.

"Why can't I find him? Could it be that he really didn't come back?"

"Or did he commit a crime and run away?"

Qiao Rui looked around again without giving up, but still couldn't find it.

"No, there must be something wrong!"

I must have overlooked something. Qiao Rui frowned and thought for a long time, then suddenly his eyes lit up.

"By the way, the one at your door is poured there on purpose, so it's relatively thick, while the others are stuck to the soles of that person's feet and then stepped on the floor, so they might be very light!"

Another hour passed, almost noon, and the red mark on Qiao Rui's door had become quite obvious, like a pool of blood.

Qiao Rui stood up and looked around, and finally saw some red marks on the railing of the corridor. He closed his eyes and thought, imagining the movements of the man in black, floating down from the roof, tapping on the railing, and then falling to the corridor. Following his thoughts, he found another footprint three feet away, which was slightly reddish.

As we searched along the way, we found the red footprints moving left and right, high and low, all in easily hidden places like corners or pillars, showing that the owner of the footprints was cautious and cunning.

Finally, he came to a door from the corner. There were two faint red footprints on the ground. This should be the end. Qiao Rui was about to knock on the door, but the door opened from the inside and a hunchbacked, ugly, dark and thin man walked out.

"It's you!" Qiao Rui said in surprise.

The ugly, dark and thin man was slightly startled when he saw Qiao Rui, then replied expressionlessly and coldly: "What's the matter?"

Qiao Rui looked strange. He could never have imagined that the rapist he had guessed was actually such an ugly guy. Qiao Rui even doubted whether he had guessed wrong. The man in black was obviously tall and thin, so how could he be so hunched?

Qiao Rui suppressed his surprise and shouted, "A red apricot!"

The ugly man still had no expression on his face, as if he didn't understand what Qiao Rui said.

"Look at the footprints you left last night!" Qiao Rui pointed at the footprints on the ground.

The ugly hunchbacked man saw the two footprints where Qiao Rui pointed. His face changed slightly and he subconsciously glanced at the corner of the corridor.

Seeing him subconsciously looking towards the corner, Qiao Rui suddenly got an idea and shouted, "You are indeed a red apricot!"