"Miss Afifah, then we will send you to this place."
ZXC said to the mystic girl politely.
Ahead is a manor standing in the darkness, a tall building hidden behind rows of palm trees.
The people of Rufu's Shield also stopped behind him. Afifah stayed temporarily in a residence of Count Nurman in the royal capital, together with the count's daughter. Naturally, she didn't know about this, she just thought it was arranged by Lord Albany, and soon the mystics would go to the capital to take her back.
She turned around and bowed slightly to everyone to express her gratitude.
After the banquet, Fang Yu originally planned to ask Alyssa to send her back. However, because everyone from Rufu's Shield was on the way, the latter did the work for them.
Moreover, she and several people from Rufu's Shield were already familiar with each other on the 'Daoud', and they were no strangers either.
"Then we'll see you again in the future, Miss Afifah." ZXC nodded lightly.
"May the sacred fire bless you all."
Afifah watched everyone walk away and sighed softly.
Everything that happened at today's banquet was a first for her. Prince Aleph was completely different from what she had imagined. Did she really have the same name as a princess? What a coincidence. things.
Of course, she also understood that this was all because of Mr. Ed - looking back on everything that had happened in the past few days, 'escaping' from the Bein Fortress, encountering a big dust storm, and the crash of the 'Daoud', it was like It's like a dream. And is this what is called 'adventure'?
She had some novel ideas in her heart, but she also vaguely understood that this was not actually the life she wanted. In comparison, she still preferred those peaceful and quiet days in the lighthouse in the clouds, where she could read easily. And read between the lines to understand the world. Adventure is still too far away for her.
Only a powerful person like Mr. Ed can be fearless in wind and rain, overcome all kinds of difficulties, and enjoy the challenges, right?
She was a little envious.
But not yearning for it.
After watching the people at Rufu's Shield disappear into the darkness, she turned around and silently remembered this day in her heart. She realized that she might not forget all this for a long time, and then walked back to the courtyard. But the courtyard seemed a little quiet today, with the palm leaves rustling in the wind, and the earl's daughter scolding her maid could not be heard -
Isn't Miss LaVallee here today?
The girl looked in that direction. The manor was completely dark, completely different from the brightly lit scene in the past. In the darkness, only the leaves were left swaying gently, as if a strange shadow was lurking, watching her silently in that direction. Afifah looked at this scene and felt a little uneasy in her heart - why is there no one in the manor?
She hesitated for a moment before taking out a crystal of light, but before she could light it, the crystal trembled and fell to the ground.
In the darkness, several figures slowly walked out.
"Miss Afifah."
"We've been waiting for you for a long time."
The leader said in a hoarse voice: "If you don't mind, please come with us. Someone wants to see you -"
Something stirred in the girl's mind, and she turned around and ran away.
As she ran, she opened her mouth and prepared to shout - if ZXC and the others hadn't gone far enough, they might be able to hear it. But before she could make a sound, the strong hand behind her grabbed her arm. Afifah screamed in pain and almost fell down.
Then another hand reached out from behind and covered her mouth.
The girl only felt her eyes go dark and then lost all consciousness.
…
Inside the hostel——
Pasha came up and took out the package from his arms. Fang Lu couldn't help but feel a little amused and touched as he watched the little boy carefully open the package one by one and take out the dusty notebook. He gently rubbed the other person's head and said with a smile: "Actually, you don't need to be so serious."
Pasha raised his head and looked at him with some confusion. Miss Attila asked him to bring this notebook from Tansnir, saying that it was something the group leader wanted. He was worried about it along the way, for fear of losing it, but fortunately, he finally delivered it safely.
Looking at Pasha's expression, Fang Yu knew that the other party did not understand what he meant, so he had to change his words and said: "Thank you, Pasha."
Pasha then showed a happy smile.
He smiled shyly and lowered his head in embarrassment.
But Tianlan was not so 'reserved' and slapped Pasha hard: "Well done, Pasha!"
Fang Yu then picked up the note and looked at the dusty cover, but before opening the note, he glanced at Sylvester first. This note was sent by the other party to Miss Atila and asked Pasha to bring it over. She is always so attentive and thinks of what she needs first.
Sylvide just smiled slightly, and the meaning in her eyes was that this was the responsibility of the ship officer. Although Fang Yu was not familiar with the affairs on the ship, he always felt that the ship officer was not responsible for this...
Tang Xin watched the flirtatious couple flirting with each other from the side, feeling as if she had been filled with ten lemons.
Sylvide noticed this scene, and used her eyes to indicate to him to pay attention to her sister's emotions with a bit of fun.
But Fang Yu got it wrong and thought of something. He turned around and said to Tang Xin, "By the way, Tangtang, take a look at this note."
Tang Xin looked at him speechlessly, but when she looked at the notes in her cousin's hand, a hint of surprise flashed in her eyes. After listening to Ye Hua's description, Fang Yu planned to return the notes to the eldest princess. However, since it involved the Sky Bridge and was related to the search for the whereabouts of Sylvester's father, he wanted to take one last time before handing it back. Check out this note.
Since no useful clues were found in this note before, their investigation turned to other directions afterwards, so Tang Xin saw this note for the first time.
"I seem to have seen this note..." She reached out and opened the title page, feeling a little stunned.
"Really, can you think of anything else?" Fang Plover asked quickly.
Tang Xin just shook her head.
"That's all, I did see it a few times."
Fang Yu couldn't help but be a little disappointed, but he was actually the same.
Everyone studied the note, but even Miss Goblin couldn't see any reason from the note. Only Nini babblingly expressed her opinions, livening up the atmosphere.
In the end, Fang Yu decided not to waste time anymore. He went to the big library a few more times in the past few days. If he found nothing, he was ready to return the things to the princess. Questak is done with everything, and after that, they will officially leave this place—probably staying in Tansnir for a while longer.
Until the launch of the Seven Seas Traveler——
After that, they will leave this thousand-year sand sea.
So Fang Yu officially announced the end of the third gathering of the Seven Seas Brigade.
Everyone was preparing to take care of things before leaving, but after the meeting, Luo Hao, Jita and Luo Yu found him.
The fat man from the military walked up with a serious face and said, "Captain, I have something to tell you."
Fang Yu looked at the other party in surprise.
Luo Hao took out a handful of fragments from his pocket, spread his palm, and showed it to him.
They were some translucent crystals that exuded a faint green light and stayed in the opponent's fleshy palm. They looked like something between emerald and turquoise, like gems, but the raw ore of the gems was not so bright. , and to say that it has been polished and cut by a jeweler would be too piecemeal.
More like some broken glass shards, but the glass doesn't have such a beautiful luster.
When Fang Plover saw these fragments, he was slightly startled:
"these are……"
"You should know its origin, right?"
"Emerald Star, during the Giant War, the warlocks of the Silver Tower used it to make the first Dragon Soul Crystal. This kind of crystal is extremely rare in nature, and it seems to be one of the few times that they appear in this world. ." Miss Tata's calm voice came from Fang Plover's shoulder.
There were only three first-generation dragon soul crystals, which were the starting point of artificial dragon souls. Creating souls with alchemy was closer to a miracle, so people also called it the legendary name - The Sage. stone.
Kapka kept one of the three first-generation Dragon Soul Crystals. Of course, it was already empty, leaving only an empty shell. The first owner of the dragon soul in this crystal was the founding king of Kaolin-Ithurion.
Fang Yu had seen the crystal, which was almost exactly the same as the fragments in Luo Hao's hand.
It's just that these fragments in Luo Hao's hands occasionally emit a bright blue light. It seems that this kind of brilliance will appear when the light incident angle is different.
But when Fang Yu looked at the light, he always felt a sense of rejection, and felt a little uneasy in his heart.
"Only the first generation of Dragon Soul Crystal was cast from the Emerald Star," Luo Hao said: "Later, people discovered its flaws. Artificially created Dragon Souls have great uncertainty, which will affect their knights. Most of the first generation of dragon knights died young, precisely for this reason."
Plus later people discovered an easier way.
By accommodating rather than creating, a more stable dragon soul was obtained, so the Emerald Star withdrew from the stage of history.
But people think that this kind of crystal is a thing that can 'create' life, a philosopher's stone. They think that they are the door to the ultimate path of alchemy, a gift from the gods——
"So around seven hundred years ago, alchemists started a trend of 'creating life', but the Emerald Star was so rare that it almost triggered a war between countries. And among the three Dragon Soul Crystals, Two of them were also damaged in that era...but later these attempts failed one by one, and the creations became silent one by one."
Miss Goblin's voice was still calm.
That era in history is known to history as the Creation Event.
But its ending is far from being as lighthearted as Miss Goblin said -
The creation of the Emerald Star not only failed, but also caused many accidents and resulted in the creation of some deformed monsters.
And people soon discovered that these monsters were born with certain divine characteristics, and they were almost the best resurrection bodies of the dead dark saints. Therefore, among various "creation experiments", dark believers soon appeared figure. The largest group among them is the predecessors of the blind followers who are hiding in this vast sea of sand today.
Of course they still had a famous name at that time.
Corrupted Alchemist.
The dark believers almost created a slave god, Mephistopheles - but before Descartes actually arrived, all countries finally reacted and exterminated the fallen alchemists one by one, so the resurrection incident at that time fell short.
After that, it became taboo for alchemists to use the 'Philosopher's Stone' to shape souls.
It is one of several types of alchemy prohibited by the Artisan Federation.
Fang Yu looked at the crystal fragments and asked:
"The blind followers found the Emerald Star again?"
But Luo Hao shook his head.
"Captain, these were found on the 'Daoud'. Their owner may not be a blind follower."
"...because there are more on the ship, and there is a full set of 'Creation Technique' related equipment and alchemy materials. They put many explosive crystals on the ship. If Miss Afifah hadn't been on the ship, they might have Blow up the ship.”
"Moreover," Luo Hao said slowly: "Captain, the state of these crystals is a bit subtle..."
And he hasn't spoken yet.
Tata had already answered: "They have been used."
Fang Yu listened silently. For this matter, he knew the inside story far better than anyone else.
Almost immediately, he thought of that possibility.
But did the other party succeed?
He didn't have time to think about this problem clearly.
Alyssa had already walked in from the outside with a serious face, looked at everyone, and said:
"Something happened, Captain, Miss Afifah is missing."
This news was like a thunder, exploding among everyone.
"What!?"
…
Fang Yu hurried to the count's mansion where he had been last time, and saw the count's daughter there again.
When he saw Lavalli, he realized that something was not right about her.
The earl's daughter's face was pale, and she covered her left arm with her right hand - there was a piece of cloth tied on it, and there was a faint red ooze from underneath. ZXC stood aside, and of course other people from Lufu's Shield. When the little fat man saw him, he looked apologetic: "Boss Ed, I'm sorry... We made a mistake and promised you to send Miss Afifa back safely... No To think that something like this happened..."
"Never mind their business."
The earl's daughter gritted her teeth and replied, shaking her head weakly: "I was negligent. They had already sent the person, but they didn't expect the gangster to be hiding in the manor. This is my responsibility, and it is my responsibility with the others." People have nothing to do with—”
"Don't talk about this for now," Fang Yu said, "What exactly is going on? Do you know who the other party is?"
He promised the King of Sand to take good care of Afifah.
What's more, if you don't talk about this, a big living person disappears in front of you, what is this?
Afifa risked so much in Bein Fortress to help them. Even everyone in Rufu's Shield looked at this girl differently, not to mention him?
To say the least, the other party was his fan—his first female fan in Aitaria.
No matter what, he must rescue the other party.
More importantly, thinking of Luo Hao's previous words, he suddenly thought of a possibility——
"Has the King of Sand left the capital?"
Fang Yu paused for a moment and suddenly asked a question without any clue.
Lavalli thought he was worried about the agreement with the Sand King, so she was startled and nodded. "Your Majesty set out an hour ago."
"An hour ago..." Fang Yu murmured.
He immediately calmed down and asked again: "So what exactly is going on?"
LaVallee took a breath and was silent for a moment before replying: "Someone attacked the manor. There were not many people left in the manor. The guards were killed at the beginning on the outside, and then They overpowered the servants and broke into my room."
She paused for a moment: "But before that, I didn't notice it, so I hid first. I thought they were coming for my father at first, but I hid behind the door and heard the conversation between those people, and then I realized they were there. The target was Afifa...I expected that they would attack in the courtyard, so I went to that place first."
Fang Yu looked at the injured hand of the earl's daughter.
"But you didn't expect that you still didn't stop those people?"
LaVallee nodded slightly.
"Is the injury serious?"
The earl's daughter raised her head and glanced at him unexpectedly, then shook her head: "It's just a small injury, left when I took their knife... These people are very purposeful and well-trained. They only knocked me unconscious and then... I left this place. I guess if it was an ordinary gangster, he would not turn a blind eye to me..."
Fang Yu was stunned for a moment.
He looked at the earl's daughter. The other person's words obviously meant that she was very confident in her appearance, but after thinking about it for a moment, it was indeed the case. If it were an ordinary bandit, how could he turn a blind eye to the beauty of Bein's Desert Pearl? The other party subdued everyone and took away no property but only one Afifah.
Not to mention the bandits, even Questac's city guards probably don't have such discipline. According to the knowledge of this era, these people are at least at the level of dead soldiers.
But the key is, which side does the other party come from?
"Did you see what those people looked like?"
LaVallee thought for a moment and shook her head.
"They all wore headscarves and masks, and their bodies were tightly wrapped. The weapons they left behind had almost no flaws. They were all popular goods." She thought for a moment: "But they should be locals in Questac. I You can hear their accents.”
Fang Plover narrowed his eyes slightly.
With this information, it is actually enough to narrow the scope down to a small size.
How many forces can cultivate such dead soldiers in Aitaria? Ordinary small nobles cannot afford to maintain such subordinates and attendants, and how many of the major local forces in Questac are interested in Afifa?
After eliminating all impossible options, the remaining possibilities remain.
There seem to be only a few left.
…
Miaoshuwu
