Chapter 639 - 583: The Small Grave
Identifying secret graves through forensic botany is considered a relatively simple application of the field, roughly at a Level 1.5.
It doesn’t require the identification of specific plants, but rather a knowledge of how certain plants will quickly root in freshly disturbed soil, with new seeds germinating until a balance is reestablished—a process that often takes decades.
On one hand, vegetation in the disturbed area is at a different stage of growth compared to the surrounding environment; on the other hand, the composition and distribution of the new plants differ from the original plant community.
Furthermore, a buried body could chemically alter the soil, either fostering or inhibiting plant growth, or promoting the growth of some plants while suppressing others.
People often talk about the pH balance of the human body, which is useless while a person is alive, but if that person becomes a corpse buried not too deeply underground, then their pH balance indeed becomes useful.
Of course, for a regular Level 1.5 botanist, it might require extensive observation in a specific area and careful judgement to possibly identify the existence of a secret grave.
But for a Level 3 forensic botanist like Jiang Yuan, the process is much simpler.
Jiang Yuan arrived at the Zhang Family’s ancestral grave as quickly as possible.
The road was not easy, a plowed dirt track overrun with weeds in the middle, with deep ruts on either side made by the passage of off-road vehicles and tractors, essentially navigable only by such vehicles.
A cluster of graves sat at the end of the road.