It turns out that trust is established and collapsed in just an instant.
When we jumped up to the elm ditch and found a trail of paint on a wet hillside that only shimmered in the starlight, my trust in little Gregor completely collapsed.
He must have made a deal with the jungle trolls, giving them this rare pigment in exchange for... god knows what.
After all, who else would come to this place but trolls? !
"Uh..." After knowing what I was thinking, Hearn held his smooth forehead, "Maybe someone, or the flying troll, stole Master Gregor's things. I believe that young master As a person, he is smart and gentle, and is more suitable for managing the manor than the other two Agamand young masters."
"Hearn!" I kicked the pebbles under my feet down the small cliff full of dead branches and leaves on my right. "You clearly said that this kind of paint is rare and precious, so little Gregor will definitely take it seriously. The tightest one is right!”
"...You are right. I once saw Master Gregor putting this kind of paint in his bedroom." Hearne said while cutting the branches with a dagger and looking for traces everywhere, "And , and I didn’t hear him mention the missing paint. Oh,” he suddenly ran forward and squatted down, “here!”
I also rushed over.
Without the cover of the trees, the large blue glow is particularly eye-catching.
"Oh, this must have leaked out." I bent down and propped up my knees, feeling a little gloating, "Grego must give them another bottle. When we rescue Dallion, we will stay here, maybe We can catch him."
"...Little Flame," Hearne sighed helplessly, "Don't you think it's a little strange?"
"Um?"
"If this pigment is for trade... they will be extremely careful. As we know, this stuff is rare and precious."
"Maybe it's because they didn't notice it. Otherwise, we would have lost these 'signposts' long ago."
Hearn thought for a moment, then lowered his head and looked carefully at the ground soaked in paint.
Suddenly, he tightened the edges of his black leather gloves, and then forcefully peeled away the thick dead branches and mud.
Dirty, dark, and sticky. He even took out half of a mouse that had been dead for who knows how long. Suddenly, the stench spread quickly in the cold air.
"Ugh--" The first one who couldn't bear it was Dilys, who immediately ran away with her tail between her legs.
I also covered my nose, "...What are you doing? Hearn?"
"Look, Little Flame." He picked out a few dark, curved and sharp-edged flakes from the thick mud. He held them in his palms and rubbed them gently. The next second , they actually bloomed with dazzling blue light in the starlight.
Yes, dazzling.
It's a very bright and dazzling kind, not the hazy halo we saw before.
"What is this?!" I took a few pieces in surprise and rubbed off the mud on them with my gloves. At that moment, I discovered that there were rhombus patterns engraved on them, "Oh... these are fragments of the potion bottle. ! I've seen it at the sari place!" As I said that, I took everything in Hearn's hand and easily pieced out most of the gray bottle. "This is a lead bottle. It's very common. It’s very strong, there’s no cork, and these cracks are really sharp, oh… why is there a hole at the bottom of this bottle?! Layers upon layers?!”
Hearn took out the bandage, tied the fragments tightly together, and then looked over them again and again.
"Look, little flame." He pointed to the dark blue light coming from the connection between the fragments and said, "This is a crack caused by corrosion."
"Will this paint corrode the bottle?"
"I think the hole on the bottom of the bottle must also be caused by corrosion."
I subconsciously wiped my gloved hands on my cloak, "So, Gregor used a lead bottle to trap that group of 'naive' monsters? When they found out, they smashed the bottle angrily and stepped on it. How many kicks did you get?"
"Oh..." Hearn rubbed his brows in frustration, "Little Flame, you are too hostile to Master Gregor. I really feel that this matter has nothing to do with Master Gregor."
"I don't believe in Darien until I find him." For some reason, this sentence made me feel a little sad. I moved my eyes away from his face and looked at the path that was winding and disappearing into the dark jungle in front of me, "Let's... walk quickly and finish walking this hillside. Maybe, maybe..."
"Little Flame," he said softly, stretched out his hand, hesitated for a long time, and then gently patted my shoulder, "Don't worry, we still have time."
*
We tracked for two days in the mountains and forests that connect the sky and the earth.
I have every reason to believe that there must be anti-tracking masters among that group of trolls, because they handled their footprints perfectly, even burying their feces carefully.
Without Hearn and Dilys, I really don’t know how to find someone in this vast mountain forest.
We crossed a gurgling stream and camped until late at night.
Chased by wolves, they climbed over a bare mountain full of rocks.
The growing anxiety in my heart made me dare not stop, even if I was already dizzy from exhaustion.
On the third night, we finally climbed down alive from a large mountain covered with holly trees.
The trees at the foot of the mountain are even denser, with towering fir trees and sharp pine trees dominating the forest.
They are scattered and scattered, like big black snakes twisting on the ground, and the occasional patches of snow are their scales reflecting the starlight.
*
We stopped, and even Dilys hesitated.
You see, if the gap between two trees were the road, we would be faced with thousands of choices.
The biting wind screamed through the forest, as if a wooden saw was pulling back and forth on my heart, making my heart extremely cold and making me feel even more restless.
"The woods in front...even hunters won't go there," Hearn breathed out white steam into his hands and looked around with a frown. "In inaccessible places...it may be easier to find traces, Dilly. Si, go and take a look."
The giant wolf shook its fur and jumped out briskly.
I stamped my legs and was about to follow, but Hearn stopped me with his hand, "Let's search here, Little Flame. If Dilys finds anything over there, she will tell us."
*
This forest is filled with the faint smell of dead grass. When you take a deep breath, you can still smell the faint smell of fish in the coldness. Hern told me that it is the special smell of jungle trolls. smell.
"Does that mean we're heading in the right direction?"
"That's right, Little Flame." As he spoke, Hearne used his dagger to carve a deep mark on the pine tree beside him. "Now, we have to choose one of these two directions."
Following his fingers, I looked around in the dark surroundings. The dark paths made me feel almost suffocated.
"Little Flame?" Hearne called me worriedly, perhaps because I hadn't spoken for a long time.
"...I know a ranger who doesn't believe in Elune, but the goddess doesn't seem to mind at all and even showed him the way."
"Wow," Hearne's eyes lit up, and he tucked the long hair on his temples behind his ears, "Little Flame, you actually know how to use the power of gods?"
I looked up and found the moon that had fallen to the horizon, and then pointed over there.
He looked over there, kicked the mud under the tree with his patched boots, and couldn't help but laugh, "Oh... okay... the moon god will bless us."
*
The road is not easy.
In the forest covered with branches, it is easy to get lost. Fortunately, Herne had a silver compass, otherwise we would probably have been wandering in circles in the woods until dawn.
It was not until late at night that the wet and cold woods were left behind.
In front of him was a piece of mud, a few meters away was a spiraling cliff, and to the south was a glacial lake that had begun to melt.
The pale starlight spread all over the ground, making it blindingly bright.
I was so tired that I almost vomited. I immediately ran staggeringly through the muddy water on the ground, holding on to the relatively clean rocks and breathing heavily.
I didn't know where we were, let alone where Dallion was, and those thoughts made my already chaotic mind throb.
Hearn kicked the mud under his feet and walked past me. Suddenly, he turned back and said, "Little Flame, I think we are very close to them."
That sentence shocked me, and I turned my head to look at him in disbelief, "...What are you talking about?!"
He crushed the soil under his feet, "The traces they left disappeared near here..."
"You...did you really find traces on this road?" When I said that, my voice was trembling, but the next second, I immediately understood something, "Actually, you found it from the beginning. There are no traces, right?!”
"No," he looked at the sky with a smile. Suddenly, his light eyes shone like stars, "This is Elune's blessing."
I didn't know how to respond to him at all, so I could only take a deep breath and straighten my body, "Then, let's keep moving forward... Now, which way?"
*
"Aww--!!" At that moment, Qingyue's long wolf howl suddenly came from the distance, "Aow--!!"
The voice stunned Hearn, who had just taken a step forward. "It's Delia." He listened for a while, then looked to the far south in confusion. After thinking about it, he held his fingers in his mouth and blew out a long breath. A series of ups and downs of whistles.
"Ouch---!!" The wolf seemed to be having a conversation with him, and let out another long howl.
"...It found traces of the trolls." Hearne and I looked at each other, the suspicion in his eyes almost dripping out.
"But you just said that the trolls took this path."
“Delia’s sense of smell is so good that it’s impossible to go wrong.”
"So, what did you find?"
"...The residual stench is unmistakable..." He frowned and slowly walked around the crushed dead branches, "There are indeed many people who have been here...I can't guess. ...Little Flame, besides those trolls, who else do you think will hang out here together?"
Going out together?
His choice of words reminded me of the druids who traveled with the lich.
Oh, haven't they been sent back to the elf city? !
...could there be another group of crazy night elves here?
The more I thought about it, the more panicked I became.
"Let's get out of here first!" I grabbed Hearne's wrist and grabbed him without any explanation and walked back.
"Hey! Little Flame! What's wrong with you..."
"It will be much closer if you jump over here!"
"oh!"
But at that moment, just as I was taking Hearn to jump off the rock where I had just rested, I suddenly discovered that the land under my feet had disappeared!
do you understand me?
I originally thought we could step into the mud, but the reality is that our bodies passed through the empty ground and fell into an abyss!
"Ouch!"
"oh!"
We couldn't help but scream at the feeling of weightlessness!
*
However, we did not fall for a long time, nor did we fall to pieces.
We fell into a blood-red world.
Blood red sky, blood red stars.
The blood-red tree trunks, blood-red branches, and even the air steaming around us were as wet as blood mist.
The ground was also blood red, with a thick layer of sticky liquid. Long red threads would appear under people's boots with every step they took.
"...Oh God..." Suddenly, Hearne squeezed out the word from his throat while leaning behind me, "Little flame...what the hell is that?!" I could really feel his fear, because, At that moment, his back against mine became as hard as iron.
Suddenly I turned around, and the next second, I couldn't help but widen my eyes!
I saw a man growing on a tree trunk!
His upper body leaned forward, and his gray hair completely covered his face.
Below his waist there were only bloody blood vessels and rotten flesh, and those blood vessels and rotten flesh had already merged with the black tree trunk!
I covered my mouth tightly to prevent myself from screaming!
There was dead silence.
There was no wind and no sound.
And that thing kept its head lowered and motionless.
"...I think...let's not disturb him..." After glaring at him warily for a long time, Hearn stopped me back with his shoulder blade, "Let's go around him and find a way out."
*
This bloody world is not big, no more than a hundred meters in length, and it is full of big trees that are thicker than people. On the border, there is also a diaphragm that firmly covers it.
This diaphragm is extremely tough. Even if we scratch it with a knife or stab it with an arrow, there will be no trace left on it.
Obviously the film is not thick at all. Through it, I can even vaguely see the boundless dark woods outside!
"What the hell is this place?!" I couldn't help but ask loudly, "Have we fallen into the subspace twisted by that monster?!"
Hearn withdrew his hand from his diaphragm with an ugly expression, and brought out a thin and long blood thread, "...If it is subspace, then we must..." As he said that, he looked back. , at that moment, I saw his face become stiff and pale, "Little Flame!" he exclaimed.
I turned around sharply, and at that moment, I found that the thing growing on the tree trunk had moved behind us without anyone noticing, and the distance was less than half a meter!
His head had been raised, and the long hair piled in front of his face like dead grass had long been pulled away to both sides. At a glance, I saw a face twisted into a whirlpool!
"ah!!!"
