"I remember there is an ancient village here, but everything in it has been completely destroyed by time. Even if it is reused, the only thing that can be used is... look at your confused little eyes, have you forgotten everything? ?」
"Ah, you discovered it? I have almost forgotten it. I have experienced too many things during this period. Even I have changed my appearance. Why? I haven't forgotten you. I Is your memory that bad?"
"I didn't have any doubts at first, but now I have some doubts. Not to mention now, when we entered this emerald forest together, I didn't see much reaction from you. This is the place where we first met! Humph! "
"What are you humming? It's true that this is where we first met. But at that time, this was a beautiful forest. Now it has become a stone forest. It is impossible for anyone to empathize with it, right? Of course——"
After finding an area closest to the edge, two members of the Qingling Adventure Group and the Devil's Paradise temporarily took a rest in hiding. Duan Qing and Xueling Huanbing, who were responsible for the lookout, also found a broken ruins wall at this time. As an outpost, but what he is talking about is something that has almost nothing to do with the current situation: "I still remember more or less about this area and the tower in front of me."
"Oh? Then tell me, what do you remember?"
"Why, you don't trust me? I remember that we met sisters Christine and Freya here, and had a fight with several hostile people who were still called restorationists at the time. We finally used the Broken Mountain Mountain to I helped climb the tower, and then I faced off with my past self named ‘Sky-Breaking Blade—well.”
"What happened after that?" The gray-robed magician paused obviously when he said this, and the sight that had been observing the front also became more hesitant at this moment: "This tower later-"
"This is the crux of the problem: the function of this emerald tower has been a mystery until now." After sighing helplessly, Xue Ling Huan Bing then turned his attention back to Duan Qing: "The Mage Council is From the information I could find, the forces that later took over the tower were unable to find out all the secrets of the tower. In the end, they only temporarily took care of the tower, and then there was no other useful information. ...Phew, now it seems that this may also be one of the loopholes in the intelligence data."
"You mean to say that the 'guardian' sent here by the Mages' Council is a mole?"
Pulling his attention back from the feeling of memories, Duan Qing's eyes also focused on the surface of the tower not far away from them, standing under the dark sky in the distance: "This statement seems to make sense, after all, the Emerald The tower is also a very important place and should not fall into the opponent's hands so easily."
"That's not necessarily true. Maybe the Council of Mages thought that this tower had no important secrets at all, so they relaxed their vigilance and even gave up on this place altogether." Xue Ling Huan Bing curled her lips and replied: "The Rise of the Magic Empire After that, this place became their base in the rear. If the Mages Council initially only sent a very small number of troops to take care of it, it would be natural for them to be taken away."
"You actually stood on my side to defend me?" Duan Qing, who was sitting among the ruins, showed an extremely surprised expression: "Is the sun coming from the west today - ah, I can't see the sun now."
"Shut up." As expected, his exaggerated performance was met with a beating from Xueling Huanbing and an angry expression from her gritted teeth: "If you don't want the whole army to be annihilated, tell me everything you know. The war is right around the corner!"
"Okay, okay, I'll try to remember." He stretched out his hand to hold down the opponent's fist that was about to hit him, and the gray-robed magician put on a thoughtful expression: "The time and space in that tower was chaotic. The experience of climbing the tower is completely inconsistent with the actual height of the tower. Now that I think about it, it should be related to the energy properties contained in the stones called 'emeralds' around the tower..."
"Life energy can distort time and space? How come I don't know about this?" Xue Ling Huan Bing, who had his fists clenched in the air, stared at himself: "Or are you again?
What are you hiding from me? "
"With all my conscience, how dare I hide it from you." Duan Qing rolled his eyes: "Does a woman get a disease called 'hypochondria' when she reaches this level? I - ouch."
The gray-robed magician received a knee in the stomach. He bowed in pain like a shrimp and gradually bowed in front of Xue Ling Huan Bing. The latter withdrew his hands and knees with satisfaction and stood before Duan Qing. He made a victory gesture in front of him: "This is the price of talking nonsense."
"I, I was wronged." Duan Qing seemed to be gasping for breath with every word he said: "I really only remember these, I didn't study this stuff deliberately."
"You haven't studied it? Do you dare to touch your conscience and say it again?"
"Don't you want me to come into contact with this again? How could I be such an obedient person... Ahem, if you really don't believe it, you can ask Violet or Wiggins. Anyway, you I’m already familiar with both of them, and my reputation and favorability are completely sufficient——”
"Forget it, I don't have time to interrogate you now."
Sighing softly, Xue Ling Huan Bing finally helped Duan Qing's body: "How are you, are you okay?"
"How can it be okay?" Duan Qing replied with a voice still filled with pain: "You are a full-level strength number, and you hit a vital part. Even a normal warrior player would lose half his life, not to mention that I am a A magician..."
"I, I didn't mean it." The tone of the white-haired swordswoman became a little anxious: "Did you really hit the 'injured' state? Don't you still have a lot of healing potions? Yes, otherwise, we will do it first Temporarily retreat——"
"We finally got to this place, how could we retreat so easily?" Duan Qing immediately stood up as if nothing was wrong: "I'm fine, let's move on - hey, hey, what are you doing? You really want to Will you cripple me?"
"……snort."
Putting down the raised bone sword, Xue Ling Huan Bing let out a heavy cold snort after a while. Chao Ri Dongsheng, who had approached at some point, ignored the cold aura exuding from the female swordsman and looked at him. He asked in a low voice without expression: "Sorry to interrupt your flirting, but should we go?"
"How is Goldman's injury being treated?"
"It's not bad, it's nothing serious to begin with."
Walking out of the tangled grass behind Asahi Dongsheng, Gedman stepped into the dark shadow of the ruins with a grin on his back: "It's just two more cuts. As a shield warrior, , if he fell down due to such a degree of injury, it would be too much.”
"In contrast, I am more curious about what happened just now." After saying this, he pointed behind the team in the direction where several people had just come: "Those guys who ambushed us, why didn't they chase us? ?」
"There are many possibilities, and of course the specific probabilities are also different." The gray-robed magician, who crossed his arms, replied in a low voice: "The first possibility is that they are really stupid enough that we disappeared into thin air in front of them without tracing them. , just like low-IQ monsters that have lost their hatred. The second possibility is that they belong to outsiders or low-level members and do not know how to enter and exit the barrier - ah, by the way, the barrier we just passed It should be the same as the first time we passed through the barrier outside the Emerald Forest. Without my means to break through the barrier, it should be difficult to open the entrance and exit through ordinary methods."
"I think both possibilities are nonsense." Gedman replied sullenly: "Then the remaining possibility is-"
"That's right, they knew that we escaped into the double barrier, and they also knew how to get in and out of the barrier. Since they still didn't catch up in the end, it means that they did it on purpose." Duan Qing He grinned and snapped his fingers: "This is a cordial invitation."
"In other words, there may be a bigger trap waiting for us ahead." Asahi Dongsheng spread his hands.
Hand: "Then shall we continue to keep the appointment?"
"I know you may not trust us, even now." Mephisto's voice came from behind a few people. He and Sansheng Fish Pond had hid in another corner to rest before finally joining in. Discussion: "But we can guarantee that we have severed ties with the Magic Empire, and we are no longer friends."
"But there are more and more doubts about you now." Asahi Dongsheng, who crossed his arms and squinted his eyes, questioned: "First of all, the point in front of us is somewhat unreasonable: you really don't know about the barrier. Something?"
"Of course we know about the barrier, but we don't know how to get in and out of the barrier." Mephisto also had the same gloomy expression, as if this expression had become his trademark: "Otherwise we wouldn't be here. When we were at the border of the Emerald Forest, we asked Sky-Breaking Blade to take the two of us with us. Wouldn’t it be over if we came in on our own?”
"Second question: You didn't act like you knew this was the location of the Emerald Tower before. When you just came in, I saw that you were obviously surprised." Gedman, who was standing aside holding his shield, also said Then he questioned: "But you were originally on the side of the Magic Empire. Before you were ambushed, you kept claiming to go to the Emerald Tower. But in the end, you didn't know that the true location of the Emerald Tower is here?"
"Of course we... don't know." Before Mephisto could answer, Sansheng Fish Pond sighed and replied: "We haven't been here much before, and we basically came here to do tasks. Or to do things, they use the magic teleportation array set up by the Magic Empire. We have never walked the hiking route. We only got the general direction based on the records in the adventurer's manual... What? This explanation sounds like Isn’t it real enough?”
"Rather than saying it's not realistic enough...huh, I think it's more reasonable that you are acting in partnership with the Magic Empire." Putting away his scrutinizing eyes, Asahi Dongsheng turned his gaze to the sky: "You can find whatever you want. He found a pretext to insert himself into our team, and then led us to the ambush place just now, waiting for an opportunity to catch us all in one fell swoop - doesn't this story sound more consistent with the truth?"
"If we are really deceiving you, there is no need for us to continue to follow you across this second barrier and continue to suffer your doubts." Mephisto's voice seemed to have no intuition of being doubted at all. Still looking calm and rational: "A reasonable story always needs a reasonable motive. Doesn't the way we act like this look more stupid?"
"Using this kind of rhetoric to defend yourself again, who knows what you think?" Asahi Dongsheng put his hands on his hips and rolled his eyes: "In short, you look very suspicious now. We didn't take action against you immediately. I’ll give you face! If you continue to quibble...hey, do you really want to continue to challenge our IQ?"
"If you really think this way, then I really look down on your brain." Pixiao twitched the corners of his mouth without a smile, and Mephisto's eyes had shifted to the direction of Duan Qing: "With the pawn, That’s the end of our negotiations—do you think so too?”
"If your cognition and judgment are also so low, we can act separately now." His eyes wandered back and forth between Duan Qing and Xueling Huanbing, who did not express their attitude. Mephisto dragged him with one hand. The black sleeves pointed behind them: "Anyway, we have now arrived at the foot of the Emerald Tower. Our cooperation can end here. You go and complete your mission, and we will go find our things."
"...To be honest, it's hard for reason to help me make a correct judgment. After all, no matter which explanation is used, there are still many things that cannot be explained." The gray-robed magician and the white-haired female swordsman looked at each other. After a long pause, Duan Qing finally spit out the thought that had been brewing in his mouth for a long time: "So I think it's time to bring out your special skill: how do you feel?"
"Do you want me to take the blame?" A disdainful smile appeared on Xue Ling Huan Bing's lips: "You think of me now?"
"I believe in your intuition. After all, your intuition is always very accurate." Duan Qing smiled and shook his head: "I can't
When you believe in reason, you have to rely on sensibility, right? "
"snort."
Without saying too many words, Xue Ling Huan Bing completely suppressed the light in her eyes. She looked back and forth between her two other teammates and the two from Devil's Paradise for a while, and an unknown smile gradually appeared at the corner of her mouth. : "...Okay, I've decided, let's continue to act together."
"Did you commit the same problem as this guy?" As expected, her decision was rebutted by Asahi Dongsheng: "Because you boasted about Haikou before and couldn't get off the stage? Or is it because you triggered some strange rebellious psychology?"
"I don't talk nonsense like him. I have only one reason: I think it should be like this." The aura of calm and power was rising steadily. Xue Linghuan replied coldly: "I'm not protecting Duan Qing. I'm just fulfilling the responsibility of a group leader."
"I will bear any problems that arise due to this choice."
