"This village doesn't look like there are people there." Not far from the village, Fang Plover suddenly stopped. He looked at the silent village, with a low wall in front of them, and said.
"Yeah, it wasn't like this when we came here before. It's a bit strange." A Silver Vislan ranger climbed over the wall with one hand, took a few steps forward, and suddenly lowered his head and let out a ghostly scream: "What the hell is this? !”
Everyone followed his gaze to look at his feet, where the gray land was covered with a layer of dense black smoke, flowing like water patterns, reaching up to their ankles, and the smoke spread to the distance - in the direction of the rat village of Ander.
Akane's expression changed, and she jumped over the low wall and rushed over. She took a few steps forward and entered the village, but suddenly froze in place as if possessed.
Seeing her expression, everyone felt a vague premonition of uneasiness in their hearts, and they climbed over the wall to follow her. Fang Plover walked at the end, behind the box and Tenerik. After crossing the wall alone, he deliberately lowered his head and raised his feet in the black smoke. The smoke and dust dissipated a little sticky, as if a corrupt hand was grabbing him. ankle.
But in the blink of an eye, the illusion disappeared, and he could move forward normally, but every step required a little more effort.
He raised his head. The other human beings were far more powerful than him. This slight difference seemed to be nothing unusual. Only a few priest selectors stayed behind and looked at each other strangely.
There were waves of disbelieving low voices from the people in front.
"how so!?"
"Oante!"
"Miss Dan-Loney!"
Akane walked to the center of the village with a pale face, where a lifeless rat-man corpse lay under the red mushroom tree. Her chubby body was wearing a human-style gray skirt, and she looked a little clumsy. But the wide-open black eyes stared at the sky, empty and silent, but it made people unable to laugh.
Fang Plover separated the crowd from behind and walked closer. People made way for him, allowing him and Sophie to see the body. Sophie covered her mouth and widened her eyes, looking like she couldn't believe what she saw in front of her.
Fang Yu squatted down, opened the female rat man's mouth with his hands, exposed the front teeth inside, and pulled out her sticky tongue. There was a commotion among the people of Silver Vislan, and the ranger seemed to want to step forward to stop him, but was blocked by several priests.
"Don't disturb him," they warned in a low voice.
"What are you doing!" Sophie also shouted in discomfort, but suddenly, she saw a trace of black smoke coming out of the female rat man's nostrils and mouth following Fang Plover's movements.
Fang Yu reacted quickly and slapped his hand, and the black smoke dissipated immediately. He just frowned slightly and watched this scene.
Sophie was stunned when she saw this scene, and gradually regained the calmness that Her Royal Highness Princess Silver Wisland should have. She apologized to Fang Pliance: "I'm sorry, I was a little..."
"It doesn't matter," Fang Yu said lightly, "I understand, is she?"
"Her name is Dan Loni," Sophie took a deep breath: "When I met her three years ago, she was still fine. She invited me to drink the luminous wine she brewed, and I, I gave her this skirt in return... I didn’t expect that she is still wearing it, she must like it very much, she must like to be outside..."
She covered her mouth and blinked her red eyes, tears glistening with tears, and she couldn't say anything else.
"I'm sorry," Fang Yu whispered, but he could understand such feelings: "But I must tell you, she was actually alive not long ago."
He gently lifted Miss Rat Man's slender hand, which was hanging weakly, and then used the other hand to open her eyelids. There was no starlight shining in the dark pupils. Parker made an 'ah' noise and took a step back, almost hitting the box.
Fang Yu didn't look back and asked, "Does it look familiar?"
"Exactly the same as Miss Attila's brother!" Parker said tremblingly, his upper and lower teeth chattering, looking extremely frightened: "When we saw his body from the Black Goat Chamber of Commerce, he looked like this, with dark eyes. Yes, like two holes!"
"Just, it's like this..."
"The stars are gone..." Sophie tried not to look too weak: "How could this happen? Did this happen many times in a short period of time? Why didn't they leave? Who was so cruel!?"
"I'm afraid not," Fang Plover replied, muttering: "It's exactly the same as Dolifen -"
"Doriffin?"
Fang Yu did not answer the question. He stood up, looked at the others, and ordered calmly: "Go and check this village to see where the others are and whether anyone is alive."
The people of Silver Wislan were stunned. They looked at Fang Plover who suddenly changed his appearance, and felt that there seemed to be an invisible pressure emanating from him, which was completely different from the previous feeling. They looked at each other, but in the end they nodded in obedience, then turned and dispersed——
There was another corpse beside Miss Dan-Loni, a male ratman named Otean. Fang Plover turned him over and suffered a fatal wound on his back, a narrow sword wound.
The same goes for Miss Dan-Loney, with the same sword wound in her heart.
He gently lifted the two people up and leaned against the fungus tree, covering their eyes with his hands. Qian and Sophie silently watched his movements. Somehow, they felt the image of this young man. Much more stable.
"Ed..." Sophie seemed to suddenly understand something: "The adventure group you were in before was called Dawn Star, right?"
Fang Yu understood what she wanted to say, but he only smiled gently at her: "Do you feel better now?"
Sophie was startled, her heart felt slightly warm, and she nodded to him.
"What do you think now?" he asked again.
"I have to avenge them—" she replied.
"Revenge is inevitable, everyone has their own debts to repay," but Fang Yu seemed very indifferent: "But don't let hatred cover our eyes, let it see more truth and listen to the details—— Look at Miss Dan Loney, the person who killed them hasn't gone far yet."
Sophie was horrified and couldn't help but raise her hand and rub her eyebrows. She had always been calm, and the guild also asked her to do so. In the face of many dangerous moments, she always tried her best to appear calm, but when the real thing came, she found that she was not as good as a big boy she had only met once.
But this little princess of Silver Vesland will never understand what kind of experiences shaped her into who she is today.
The young man who once was under Miss Scarpet's wing is gone forever.
But she was still a little confused: "What should we do?"
"Look again." Fang Yu looked ahead, where was the tallest building in the village. He stood up and walked in that direction, and said to the others: "Follow me."
Tenerik and the box followed closely. After getting Sophie's consent, Qian also walked up with a halberd. Only Parker hesitated at the end before timidly catching up. Fang Plover stooped into the building and was faced with a gray-black human face, covered with corpse spots. He was looking at him with empty eyes, his mouth wide open, and he was about to pounce.
Fang Yu was shocked, but actually calmed down and realized that this was the body of an adventurer.
But just as he calmed down, the corpse suddenly started to move, pulling itself out inch by inch from the spear that had pinned him to the ground, and at the same time stretched out its hands to hug Fang Plover's face. Fang Yu reached for his three-style lion gun, but a sword light had already passed over his shoulder and pierced into the throat of the undead.
The latter fell backwards, his upper body and lower body torn apart, and fell into several pieces like dust on the ground.
Fang Yu didn't need to look back to know that it was Xiang Xiang's sword.
"It's an adventurer who passed by here," Sophie looked at the dark eyes of the corpse, and her tone was a little unnatural: "This should be the Chosen One, but there is no starlight. Where is the Chosen One System?"
In addition to this corpse, there were three corpses in the room. The dwarf crossbowman died next to the wooden frame, his head split open by a sharp blade. Miss Nightingale was hit by an arrow between her eyebrows and her heart, and she fell on her back in the black smoke in the center of the room.
The Healer's death condition was similar to that of Miss Ratman outside. He was stabbed in the vest when he turned to run away, and fell not far from Miss Nightingale.
Fang Yu silently walked past the bodies of the three people, with each person holding a sword behind the box, sending these people's corpses to rest in peace.
In the center of the room, at the end of the carpet was a mushroom throne. There was a heavy breathing sound from above, and an old rat man was standing up from there unsteadily, with red eyes and looking at the five people resentfully.
It staggered forward and shouted hoarsely: "Go to hell, humans! You have ruined everything!"
"Chief Neander!" Sophie whispered.
The rat man's chest is splitting, and a faint blue soul fire is coming out of it. It doesn't look like a humanoid. The box took a step forward and drew his sword at it, but Neander waved his staff, and an invisible force came like a storm, knocking the middle boy away.
Parker, who was hiding behind, couldn't help but whistle when he saw this. The other party had met his counterpart. This rat was also a power mage in life.
The Rat Man pointed the tip of his staff at Fang Plover again, but Fang Plover took a step forward and grabbed the tip of the staff. He raised his gun with his right hand and cocked the hammer. There was a loud bang and flames erupted. The Rat Man was hit in the chest and flew backwards. On the throne.
His right hand was also broken off, and he used his remaining left hand to press the large black hole in his chest that was smoking. His eyes flashed red and bright, and he screamed hoarsely for a while.
But the screams eventually subsided.
Finally, it turned into a few low moans: "Be careful of those who tell you to die..."
"Beware of crows..."
"Be careful...that woman..."
"south……"
"They went south..."
Then he tilted his head and gradually lost his last breath.
Fang Piao held up the gun in his hand for a long time, and at the same time threw away the wooden staff in his left hand. The wooden stick made of tree roots rolled slowly into the darkness.
Sophie didn't speak for a long time. The tall lizard man walked past the two of them and left a message: "It's dead. Don't believe the voice of the dead. There is something underground. I heard a whisper in the darkness. Maybe someone is trying to trick us."
"But……"
"Where is the south?" Fang Plover stopped looking at the corpses and suddenly asked.
"The River Styx," Sophie reacted and whispered, "There is a ferry there. The river flows through the deepest part of Ander's underground. Some people say that it goes straight to the center of the earth, but no one has ever confirmed it."
Fang Yu suddenly remembered a legend.
The Skaven, the Mardaran Mole Men, and the Offen Rabbit Clan (not mammals, but a branch of the Offen Demon Clan) together form a rodent alliance that is widely distributed underground in the continents of Aitaria. They worship a common The myth of the center of the earth, that is, all the underground rivers of Etalia flow to the depths of the earth, where the souls of the mountains rest.
The kingdom of the dead.
Therefore, the name Styx is actually a very common name for the rat people. Any river near the rat village may be called Styx by them.
The Lizard Man Prince knelt down in front of the Mouse Man's throne and looked carefully at the latter's death. The Neander chief's left fist was clenched tightly, as if he was holding something. He stretched out his hand, broke it open, and took the thing away. He came down and glanced at it with his burnt yellow vertical pupils.
"Let's go there," Fang Yuzheng said, "Do you know the road there?"
Sophie nodded.
The others had turned and walked out of the house.
Tenerik also straightened up and walked towards Fang Plover. When passing him, he thrust something into his hand.
Fang Yu was slightly startled and looked back. The lizardman prince said nothing, leaving only his back. Then he lowered his head to look at the thing in his hand. It was a brooch, in the shape of a lily, shining in his hand.
There is a line of ancient dwarf writing on it, and the motto engraved on it is like a quiet time, like water flowing:
'Time passes like water, and wisdom increases with each passing day——'
Fang Plover's heart tightened, feeling slightly dazzling.
He thought for a moment and carefully put the brooch away.
Sophie looked at his movements and asked, "Do you know this brooch? It doesn't look like something from the Rat Man. I really want to see this motto somewhere."
Fang Yu nodded, but had no further answer.
Other people who entered the village to search also returned one after another, bringing back bad news from all over. Almost no one in the village survived, and corpses were scattered here and there, as if they had been attacked suddenly, without any prior knowledge. No warning.
The dwarf Snowin was found dead in his bar. He had been stabbed through the heart with a dagger and fell on the bar, bleeding all over the floor.
The discoverer brought back the dagger, but it was ordinary and there were no clues on it.
But Sophie asked the man to turn the dagger around, and then said through gritted teeth: "It was the people from the Jefflett Red Team who did it."
"But this is just an ordinary dagger." Fang Plover asked.
"The people from Jeffreet's red team can't hide it from me," Sophie replied word for word: "The front tip of the dagger is seriously worn, but there are no gaps on the surface. This is a spare dagger, usually used for Throw.”
"Only the Nightingales of the Jefflett Red Team like to do this, because their main daggers are usually union-standard and will definitely not be left on site."
Of course it's not necessarily absolute.
But here, she knew it was a possibility.
"Ed, help me catch up with them," she said to Fang Plover, her tone pleading.
Fang Yu nodded, but after thinking for a moment, he suddenly stopped and asked another question:
"Why are the Jefflett Redcoats ahead of us?"
Sophie was stunned.
Contrary to what Fang Plover expected, the Styx River in the south of the Andet rat village is not an ordinary underground river.
Under the leadership of Sophie, everyone arrived at that place after passing through a group of caves with rugged terrain. When Fang Yu saw the mighty underground river rushing forward, he couldn't help but be stunned for a moment - it was a fluorescent green underground river. The emerald green was the color of the luminous algae in the river. The green light reflected the strange scenery in the distance. underground caves, spectacular stalactites and symbiotic underground flora.
The river is wide and the water flow is slow, and the river is filled with dreamlike blue mist, which reflects the green water and is azure. It is really like the legendary fog that permeates the land of the dead, and a lonely ferry stands there. In this heavy fog.
The trestle extends into the river, and a fog lamp hangs next to it, which stays on all year round.
This place is so similar to the legendary real River Styx that even Fang Plover couldn't help but be startled before he realized that the ferry was not built by the rat people, but in the style of the ancient Sinsus snake people. .
Seeing this scene, he couldn't help but wonder in his mind whether this ferry had anything to do with the original black holy city on the ground.
Suddenly someone in the team screamed.
Fang Plover raised his head and saw something flowing down from the upper reaches of the river in the thick fog. But when he looked carefully, he found that it was a swollen corpse soaked in the water. It was a human being with pale skin. , staring at the people on the river bank with bulging black eyes.
Drifting slowly down.
Then more floating corpses appeared, flowing down from the upper reaches. Each one had a heavy, round belly, and under the translucent skin, it seemed that you could still see the green intestines, swimming like worms.
Disgusting.
Several girls from Silver Wisland couldn't help but retched in disgust when they saw this scene. Following their lead, others also made gagging sounds.
Fang Yu also felt a little sour in his stomach. He couldn't help but ask Sophie: "Is this the river like this...?"
Sophie was separated from the scene by a layer of light, which was slightly better, but she also shook her head with a pale face: "I have never seen a scene like this. What is happening below..." But suddenly, she stopped.
Everyone was watching the underground river water suddenly become bleak, the green light gradually disappeared, and a heavy layer of black appeared under the river water, like mud, and the spreading black color gradually infiltrated from the upper reaches.
Until the entire river was polluted.
Fang Yu stared further away, and a golden clockwork fairy flew out of his hand. He clearly saw a huge thing coming out of the fog somewhere.
That's a boat -
The high bow is a ferocious dragon.
The slender hull has a round shield with skulls and spiders painted on it.
An open horizontal sail looked dilapidated in the mist.
And suddenly, a distant soft singing sound came from the mist, it was like ghosts, whispering songs to the dead——
"Yo ho, yo ho, the ancient ship route——"
"The ancient ship road leads to the mist of death..."
…
