They all turned their eyes to Huang Feng, Bai Lu and others in front of them, under the guidance of Zhang Chaoqiang.

I saw the crystal cores and some stolen goods that the investigators had searched out of the pockets of those five people.

Among all these stolen goods, the crystal cores of the monsters, without exception, had almost all of their light dimmed at this moment.

Although I have never seen the original appearance of these crystal cores, I can tell from the light and color they emit.

It was not difficult for everyone to see that these crystal cores were indeed much dimmer than before.

"These are basically fourth- to fifth-level crystal cores. Uncle Huang Feng, I would like to ask, if they are not stored with special protective measures...

So, it would probably take hundreds of years for the fourth and fifth level crystal cores to completely consume all their spiritual power, right?"

"Yes."

Huang Feng and Bai Lu didn't say much. He agreed with Zhang Chaoqiang's question and waited quietly for the other party's analysis.

"Comrade Zhang Chaoqiang, do you mean that this has accelerated the flow of spiritual energy in the crystal core?"

Old Song took out one of the fourth-order crystal cores that had fallen on the ground. He then took out another well-preserved fourth-order crystal core from his space ring, which consumed almost no more than 10% of the spiritual power.

After placing the two together and comparing them, it was discovered that this fourth-order crystal core had indeed been almost consumed.

What about the fifth-order crystal core? He compared it and found that it seemed to be the same, except that the dimness of the light was better than that of the fourth-order crystal core.

Afterwards, everyone began to look around the entire Mount Lu again with a critical look in their eyes.

It seems that there is no difference from before...

Bai Lu waved his hand, signaling Lao Song to stop talking. He wanted to hear what Zhang Chaoqiang had seen.

"Have you figured out what these signs are related to?"

"Comrade Zhang Chaoqiang, are you referring to the fact that Mount Lu has accelerated the consumption of spiritual energy of the monster crystal cores that are exposed to the air?
So if that's the case, Mount Lu is really a peculiar place. No wonder such a unique spiritual plant as the Heather Spiritual Flower was able to be nurtured there, and it was also favored by the thief, who stayed there for thousands of years!"

"If that's the case, then this Mount Yao might not be as barren as it appears. Could it be that there are some unknown treasures hidden inside?"

The investigators have lived for several decades, and their way of thinking and logic have become solidified. They make the most likely thoughts and inferences based on the current situation.

However, this is not what Zhang Chaoqiang wanted to emphasize, but he did not shake his head to deny the investigators' inference.

I'm just gently expressing my own views.

“I think this is also a form of theft.”

"steal?"

A word can wake people up from their dreams. Huang Fengbai Lu was attracted by Zhang Chaoqiang's words, and the other investigators did not speak again.

After careful consideration, it is true that when the crystal core is exposed to the air, the loss rate of the crystal core inside is greatly increased. Isn't this a disguised form of stealing?

It’s just that the theft by a thief was done secretly, but now it is done openly.

"You mean, the spiritual power of the crystal core is not dissipating naturally, but something is constantly absorbing the spiritual power, which causes the crystal core to become increasingly dim right under our noses..."

"That's right!" Zhang Chaoqiang snapped his fingers.

Then, he raised his head slightly and continued to analyze: "So I guess, under the current situation, at least we can confirm that this alien beast has been around us all along."

Yes, that's right.

Although the investigators were in deep thought, they could feel in their hearts the reliability of Zhang Chaoqiang's words.

In the Lushan Mountain, which was filled with the power of the Heather Spiritual Flower, there was no way to detect or sense any smell, spiritual power, or energy fluctuations.

Unable to sense any life energy fluctuations or spiritual power from any strange beasts around them, they naturally could not find any clues from them.

However, vision always exists. If the fat thief has always been around them, greedily stealing the spiritual power in their crystal cores, why can't they see it?

"Comrade Zhang Chaoqiang, could this fat thief have a second ability, such as invisibility? We are indeed unable to sense the fluctuations of the other party's spiritual power and life energy.

But there is absolutely nothing wrong with our eyes, so why can't we detect the other person's presence at all?"

Zhang Chaoqiang quickly answered his doubts within the next second:

"This is my initial guess. Everyone has seen the many crystal cores stolen by those five people. The fourth- and fifth-level crystal cores consumed a lot of spiritual power.

In other words, a lot of spiritual energy was stolen."

"The time they entered Mount Lu was positively correlated with the amount of spiritual energy stolen from their crystal cores.

This warrior entered Mount Laoshan seven days ago, so the crystal cores on his body that were exposed to the air consumed the most spiritual energy among the five people!"

Comparing with other people's crystal cores, it is true that the longer the time spent in Mount Lushan.

Then the spiritual power consumed will be higher.

Before continuing to explain his thoughts, Zhang Chaoqiang paused again. He realized that it seemed that he had been talking all the time and had forgotten to examine these warriors.

"Excuse me, why don't you put these crystal core stolen goods in the space ring?"

"Say!"

Behind Zhang Chaoqiang, the investigators glared at the five warriors, making them tremble with fear and tell the truth.

"I don't know, I don't know why, but I took the crystal core out of the space ring for no apparent reason..."

Zhang Chaoqiang asked again: "So did you do this once you entered the area of ​​Mount Laoshan?"

Several people nodded suddenly.

well.

This made Zhang Chaoqiang confirm it once again.

He wrote down this detail and continued to explain: "Obviously, since they entered the Lushan area, they have been forced by the fat thief to use his power to take the crystal core out of the space ring that can seal the space.

So that it can steal the spiritual power contained in it. And from every person who came in, the five of them, plus us, Uncle Rong, the crystal cores exposed to the air, all had their spiritual energy dissipated at the same time. "

“So what you’re saying is that fat stealers aren’t so much invisible as they are ubiquitous?”

Bai Lu and Huang Feng were well-informed and their minds were still active and sharp. They understood what Zhang Chaoqiang meant from his words.

"Yes, I think, it's everywhere!"

Having said that, suddenly, Bai Lu and Huang Feng took a big step back violently, as if they had imagined something incredible.

Then he looked at the entire mountain and said solemnly:

"I understand what Comrade Zhang Chaoqiang means..."

Bai Lu muttered to himself.

From the very beginning, Zhang Chaoqiang had already had doubts. The crystal core was being consumed at an inexplicably accelerated rate, as if there was a special force secretly stealing spiritual energy.

Then came the arrival of the five thieves who had entered Mount Lushan before. They were in different places and the crystal cores also lost spiritual power.

Doesn’t this simply represent that the power of the fat-stealing monster covers the entire Mount Laoshan?
"What I think is that the power of the heather flower that shrouds Mount Yao is the power of the heather flower!"

"Otherwise it doesn't make sense why they don't have any destination, because every place in this mountain is their destination!
Throughout the entire mountain, it can be said that fat theft is everywhere.”

Now, Zhang Chaoqiang proposed the last conjecture: "Is it possible that the fat thief wants to steal by guiding these affected people.

So as to provide it with a stable source of crystal core spiritual power, this purpose may be closely related to breaking through itself, reshaping its body, and leaving here?"

The purpose is nothing more than these three. It could be one of them, or of course it could be all of them.

Remember that the rarity level of Heather Spirit Flower is purple.

But in the legend about stealing fat, that story once mentioned that the stealers were compared to the indigenous inhabitants of Mount Laoshan at that time.

It is said that when the fat thieves were stealing the oil from the heather flowers, the thing they feared most was encountering people from the mountains, that is, the indigenous people.

The natives always drove it away, unable to bear the thought of hurting such a small, fiery red bird, and Thief Zhi was often horrified by their expulsion.

From this record, we can roughly see that Thief Thief's life condition and strength level at that time were at least completely inferior to those of the indigenous people.

The strength and level of the indigenous people are not well reflected in the legends.

However, from the fact that they loved to sneak attack three-meter-tall black bears, and the many times they fought with tigers, cheetahs, and chimpanzees, it can be seen that most of the indigenous people are at the first to third stage.

From this we can conclude that the fat thief back then was only at level two or three in strength at most. After stealing a whole mountain of heather flowers, it was normal for him to be overwhelmed by the power within.

So this is why Zhang Chaoqiang, in his previous speculation, specifically believed that the reason why Qianzhi did not leave Mount Lu for more than two thousand years was most likely because he was absorbing the power of the heather flower.

With its strength back then, how could it have the ability to absorb all the purple spiritual plants of rareness all over the mountains without any pain?

Therefore, Zhang Chaoqiang's inference was also a guess. Just like the power of the heather flowers that spread all over Mount Lu, the fat-stealing body also dissipated.

In this case, perhaps the main purpose of the strange beast stealing the fat and the spiritual power in the crystal core is to reshape its own body.

Because according to Zhang Chaoqiang's rigorous and powerful conjecture, Thief Thief does not have a physical body at this moment, because its spiritual body has been speculated to have completely merged with the power of the Heather Spirit Flower. This also leads to the possibility that it is indeed recently after these two thousand years that it completed the final absorption.

But unfortunately, it is very likely that this move did not succeed as expected.

Otherwise, I'm afraid that Thief Zhi can use his own abilities and the power brought to him by the Heather Flower anytime and anywhere.

Therefore, what they are facing now is most likely that Thief Thief has completely lost his consciousness. He can only follow his instincts and try desperately to find a way to bring him spiritual power.

But what Zhang Chaoqiang and others could not guarantee or confirm at this time was whether their guess was completely correct.

Then they went their separate ways again.

A very simple method. First, Huang Feng, Bai Lu and others will explore different areas in batches, and their purpose of searching is to cover the entire Lushan Mountain as much as possible without missing any hidden corners.

And they dug deep into the ground to see if they could find any traces of the fat stealing.

Zhang Chaoqiang's task was to stare at the crystal cores exposed to the air, and to continue to use his diffusion ability to feedback the energy fluctuations of the crystal core spiritual power to his own feelings to the greatest extent, and then continue to explore in the air.

Observe the location where the spiritual power completely dissipates, whether it is in the original place or transmitted to a designated location.

In fact, Zhang Chaoqiang cannot be said to be spreading the fluctuations of spiritual power.

Because spiritual power is a special energy vibration with a frequency, it is not a diffusion phenomenon between molecules.

It has more special energy fluctuations than anything else, and there is no way to spread it directly.

Some auxiliary medicinal powders are needed, which can attach to the energy fluctuations of spiritual power.

Although this powder has no color, it has a subtle and barely perceptible smell. So this also means that the fluctuation of spiritual power has become a molecular movement phenomenon with an odor.

After nearly an hour of careful exploration, Zhang Chaoqiang repeatedly tried the same location to ensure the accuracy and targeting of his diffusion ability.

Plus the smell of the powder, it's really hard to detect. So the spiritual power in the crystal core is constantly consumed and lost.

It often takes nearly half an hour to catch any clues about them.

"Got it. From the diffusion movement just now, I diffused the surrounding smells into my senses.

After trying again and again, I finally captured and observed it at the same time, the moment when the spiritual power in the crystal core was consumed.

There was no specified direction for their departure, but they just dissipated directly. However, before they dissipated, they had a very critical destination!

That is to be under the power of the colorless and odorless heather flower."

In other words, Zhang Chaoqiang's words proved that the flow of spiritual power did not go to any designated direction.

Instead, it dissipated into the surrounding air, or to be more precise, under the cover of heather.

At night, Bai Lu and Huang Feng dug almost three feet deep into the entire Lushan Mountain before they brought back important news... (End of this chapter)