"Good morning, adventurer. I have been waiting for you for a long time."
The little girl looked at the visitor with bright eyes, and her expression of uneasiness and expectation was extremely realistic. The three people who were stared at like this - Xiaoye and Terashima sister and brother looked at each other and exchanged surprised expressions.
After learning what happened last night, the siblings, like Xiaoye, felt that the employee playing "Lily" would be replaced by someone else. After all, for a little girl who is only seven years old, it is not very humane to be forced to fall into an icy stream by a contestant and then have to perform non-stop.
The reality is completely different from imagination, unless Lily has an identical twin sister.
The three of them followed the calm girl into the room in a trance. Her dress was not much different from yesterday, only a piece of light gauze wrapping her arms was vaguely exposed at the cuffs.
Xiao Ye didn't know if what happened last night was considered "in the plot", so she didn't dare to speak for a while. However, Long Xing couldn't help it and asked hesitantly: "Um... you were injured? Are you okay?"
Lily's smile faltered. She lowered her head slightly and subconsciously covered the injury, looking extremely aggrieved.
"Thank you for your concern." The girl said pitifully, "If you had delayed talking for a while, I'm afraid it would have healed."
Long Xing: "..."
Lijiu: "..."
Night:"……"
The little girl diligently asked the adventurers to sit down, and then said nervously and carefully: "Yesterday was really hard. Excuse me...adventurers, did you get the leaves of the sacred tree?"
Although Lily acted timidly and timidly, for some reason, Xiaoye and the other three inexplicably read a hint of criticism in her gaze, as if they were about to say "Brothers, do your business,... OK?" written on his face. Xiaoye was speechless for a while because of Xiaoye's calmness - well, she was just worried. It seemed that Lily was not only not frightened, but was also dissatisfied with the contestants who made a fuss and didn't take the scene well.
The purple-haired adventurer handed the paper bag containing the leaf ashes to the little girl. She opened the paper package carefully, sniffed the smell with her nose, and then showed a look of surprise.
"It's definitely the leaves of the sacred tree!"
The girl stood up with excitement and bowed deeply to the adventurers.
"Thank you very much! I will make it into medicine now and give it to Grandpa. If nothing else happens, Grandpa will wake up tomorrow morning." Lily raised her face and looked at the people in front of her with her clean green eyes. " So, can you do it again tomorrow?”
"Grandpa must have a lot to say to you."
After bidding farewell to Lily, the three of them learned the lesson from yesterday and hurried to the northwest of the Warcraft Forest without delaying at the villa. They even changed their tactics. When they encountered the attacking Pokémon, they directly crushed them with firepower, trying to cross the ice field as quickly as possible.
Therefore, when the group reached the edge of the forest, the sun had not yet had time to reach overhead.
"So boss, how do you plan to deal with that strange wind?" Lijiu asked enthusiastically.
Before leaving the villa, the Terashima siblings chatted with many contestants and found that almost all the people who arrived at the Warcraft Forest yesterday were blown away by the hurricane, and no one could successfully enter the forest.
Xiao Ye waved to her siblings to follow her, and at the same time opened a poke ball. Ghost Stone, who had not fought today, suddenly appeared in the light and let out a burst of chirping noises.
"First of all, we need to make one thing clear. If the gust of wind is really strong enough to blow people more than ten kilometers away in an instant, then the huge impact of landing will definitely cause us injuries or even death." Xiaoye said.
The adventurer stepped into the forest step by step. The blurry white shadow had reappeared in the distance, and the same giant beast as yesterday was about to appear.
"—but actually we were unscathed. So it wasn't the wind that got us back to the south of the ice sheet."
Xiaoye stood still in the forest where the wind was swirling, "Strong thoughts."
Ghost Stone's eyes lit up with blue light, and invisible spiritual power spread around. The entire forest seemed to freeze for a moment, and an invisible shell suddenly cracked, revealing its true appearance.
Fortunately, the illusion that the sky was falling and the earth was falling only lasted for a short moment. When the Terashima siblings looked around again, they found that the Ice Willow Forest was completely silent. There was no storm of snow and fog, and no roaring monsters. Lijiu twisted her neck, just in time to see the back of the Pokémon running hastily.
"That is……"
"Dream Demon and Casey." Xiaoye said.
The siblings suddenly realized that the dream demon used illusions to control people who entered the forest, and Casey waited for the opportunity to teleport to send the adventurers far away. This was the truth about the "hurricane".
Long Xing rolled his eyes and immediately realized something, "Boss, do you think this was Warcraft's own idea?"
Xiaoye shook her head, "Not sure yet. Let's collect information first."
The three of them gradually walked into the depths of the Warcraft Forest. Thick clouds blocked the sunlight, making it difficult for them to judge the specific time through the sun. They only knew that it was approximately afternoon. And during the hours they walked in the forest, which was said to be "dangerous and dangerous", they didn't encounter any fighting.
There were very few Pokémon within sight, and even if they occasionally met, they would run away as fast as a frightened jackrabbit. The Terashima siblings, who had been mentally prepared for a hard battle, only felt that they were full of question marks, and even suspected that they had walked into the wrong forest.
Just when Long Xing finally lost his composure and was about to propose a change of strategy, a low horn sounded in the distance.
The sound seemed to come from the eastern edge of the forest. The sound was muffled and thick, making people distracted. The young man was about to complain when he saw the boss walking in front suddenly stretched out his arm and made a "stop moving forward" signal.
"Be careful."
When they looked ahead again, the siblings were stunned.
In the depths of the gleaming Ice Willow Forest, a huge figure appeared at some point.
It is covered in white fur and is as tall as a hill. It is exactly the same as the suspected "snowman" monster seen in the hallucination. Beside it, the ice Pokémon that had run away when they saw humans gathered one by one. They gathered into formation silently, many pairs of eyes staring at the humans in the forest, which made the siblings look horrified.
"Is this...an illusion too?"
Lijiu said hesitantly. The ghost stone floating above Xiaoye immediately shook his head like a rattle, indicating that he was definitely not slacking off in his work.
The distant horn sounded again. Xiao Ye vaguely realized something and said decisively: "Retreat first!"
At the same time, the mountain-like beast roared. The ice Pokémon surrounding them all charged as if they had received an order. For a moment, the snow and fog stirred, and the sand and dust flew. It was almost like returning to an ancient battlefield.
Not only were the Terashima siblings who were dragged running wildly with faces full of astonishment, but the viewers in the live broadcast room also gave eight hundred exclamation marks on the public screen.
The scenery they saw was even more magnificent than the players in it - countless giant snowmen appeared all over the Warcraft Forest, and the charging Pokémon followed them, setting off a tsunami throughout the forest. . All this happened too suddenly. Some contestants who stayed in the forest did not react in time and were almost instantly swallowed up by the wave of Warcraft. An elimination prompt popped up in the personal live broadcast room.
——At this moment, Big Dipper and his two younger brothers are still struggling.
"I dare to swear...that stupid young man must have done something he shouldn't have done and caused us trouble!!"
Long Xing shouted out of breath.
The Pokémon rushing up behind him were endless, and from time to time, an icy cold wind blew violently, making the human's movements become even stiffer. Xiao Ye soon realized that if she continued running like this, she would be overtaken in less than half a minute.
"I'll break up and meet at the last safe zone!"
She couldn't help but give the mandatory order, and pushed the two siblings out who were running out of breath.
Just by slowing down their pace, the distance between humans and the army of monsters quickly narrowed. Before the waves drowned the adventurers, dazzling fires rose from the ground.
The orange flame dragon roared, releasing its hottest flames. It hit the ground violently and exploded, turning into a curtain wall of high-temperature flames that reflected the glistening branches and leaves of the ice willow into a sea of red.
The ice Pokémon, who were naturally afraid of fire, stopped instinctively. The rhythm of the front of the troops was chaotic, and the guys behind were also bumped into a ball, and most of the momentum of the charge was suddenly lost.
Xiaoye was about to change the order when she suddenly saw a black shadow crashing into the fire.
It was an ice-type Sand King in Alola form. As if it had lost its mind, it forced its way through the fire curtain despite the raging flames. The light blue fur had been burned to black, but it seemed as if it couldn't feel the pain and waved its claws fiercely at the human.
The ghost stone was still floating above Xiaoye's head and did not leave. Seeing this, he gave it a mental boost without any courtesy. The invisible binding force pushed it directly to the ground, smashing it to pieces.
When the Chuanshan King was smashed into a pancake, Xiaoye saw a small black block rolling down from the ice on its back.
The adventurer was stunned for a moment. Before he could take a closer look, he saw that the Pokémon blocked by the fire screen were using their moves to attack. No matter how powerful the fire-breathing dragon's explosive power was, it could not withstand such a large number of sieges, and the flame's position was crumbling for a while.
Before the flames completely dissipated, Hurricane's support arrived first.
The big bird flaps its wings and blows up a storm filled with lightning. The fire's power instantly increased due to the wind, and the hot energy rotated and rose with the airflow, forming a fire tornado that shot straight into the clouds.
After a while, the flames dissipated. The Warcraft looked around and found that a large area of the ice willow had been cleared, and the snow on the ground had melted away, exposing charred rocks. The adventurer had already ridden away on the Big Bird and turned into a point of light on the horizon.
Deep in the Warcraft Forest, behind the towering hills, stood an inconspicuous cabin.
It is sandwiched between two highlands and is difficult to spot. But there was only a thin layer of snow on the open space in front of the cabin, as if someone had just swept it recently.
The adventurer who knocked on the door but received no response tentatively opened the door and walked into the house.
Although the wooden house is small, it is fully equipped. Tables and chairs are placed by the window, and soft skylight shines through the glass on the surface of the old wooden table. The single bed on the other side was covered with neat orange plaid bedding, and there was a fireplace with an unextinguished flame next to it. The beeping and beeping sound of the fire covered the wind and snow outside the window, and also brought warm air, soothing the adventurer's frozen skin.
There is a round wooden sign hanging on the door with a line of words written on it - "Those passing by, please feel free to rest here."
After checking the firewood in the fireplace and confirming that it had been replenished not long ago, Xiaoye stood up and felt that there was a suspicious atmosphere everywhere in this wooden house.
The fire was still on, but there were no signs of use on the tables, chairs, and beds, and none of the Pokémon were willing to come near this place.
After escaping in the Big Bird, Xiaoye did not escape the danger immediately. Before she could fly far, she was chased by a group of messenger birds, almost causing a tragic plane crash. In the process of trying to shake off her tail, she accidentally noticed that the messenger birds seemed to be deliberately avoiding this area. After tentatively letting the dabbit approach this area, the messenger birds did not continue the chase and quickly dispersed.
This is not an unusual thing - Xiao Ye can be sure that this wooden house is not a safe zone set up by the organizer, but a part of the wild environment.
Regardless, the cabin is warm and comfortable enough, and there doesn't seem to be any obvious danger, and the Pokémon do need a break. Xiaoye looked at the sky outside the window and estimated that it was probably around five o'clock in the afternoon, so she simply released the Pokémon and had a simple dinner.
Charizard took the lead and ate enthusiastically, leaving the white snow in a mess. Xiao Ye, who finished her meal first, sat down by the house and looked at the unknown black object in her hand.
Before taking off on the Big Bird, she picked up the objects dropped from the Sand Mountain King, thinking that it might be related to its abnormal "suicidal" behavior. It was a small electronic device. Its surface was so burned that its original appearance could not be seen, but from the shape... it seemed like a miniature player?
Xiaoye looked at the burnt player over and over again, but couldn't see any reason, so she had to put it into the package first.
After resting, Xiaoye went to cut down some dead branches nearby, filled up the nearly exhausted firewood again, and left a few fruits on the table as "usage fees" before leaving peacefully.
At this time, the tide of monsters sweeping through the entire forest had just subsided. Xiao Ye climbed to the top of the hill, took a distant look to confirm that the empty road was temporarily safe, and then rode the Big Bird straight to the agreed-upon safe zone.
She originally thought that the Terashima siblings would have arrived long ago - the safe zone was not far from the place where they encountered the wave of monsters, and even taking a long detour wouldn't take too much time. Unexpectedly, there were only a few people resting in the huge safe area, and there was no sign of the siblings at all.
After asking one by one but failing to get any information, Xiaoye suddenly felt that her head had become as big as a ghost stone.
Seeing that the sun was about to set, and she would miss the curfew if she didn't return, Xiaoye even considered taking a high-profile tour of the forest in a big bird for three weeks. Fortunately, the next moment, she saw a signal from the Terashima siblings - blue-purple smoke rising from the north of the Warcraft Forest.
It was the smoke produced by burning tree fruits. As early as the first day of the competition, the three of them had discussed that if they couldn't find each other, they would light a bonfire and burn blue-purple smoke as a signal. Xiao Ye followed the direction of the smoke and found her teammates in a deep valley.
I don’t know how these two people managed to get on their way. They just ran in the completely opposite direction to the safe zone and almost rushed out of the Warcraft Forest. The valley they fell into was not too deep, and they seemed uninjured. However, there was a large group of spiny shells hanging on the edge of the cliff, eyeing them with eager eyes, as if they would stab you into skewers if they dared to come up. The two unlucky children could only tremble at the bottom of the valley and lit a fire to ask for help.
Xiao Ye, who witnessed all this: "..."
You are also the trainers of Squid, how did you manage to make these Pokémon so angry?
Xiaoye had no choice but to send the well-fed Gyarados and use the roar of the beast to scare away the shellfish group before dragging up the two magical trainers from the bottom of the valley.
"Boss, you saved our lives again! We are willing to be cows and horses..."
"Stop, please be a human being." The Beidou player interrupted the tearful confessions of the younger brothers with a cold look on his face, "Why are you here?"
The two siblings from Nanguo all tilted their heads, showing puzzled expressions, "Didn't you say, boss, that you want to gather here?"
Night:"……"
Is this the sense of direction southerners have in the mountains...
After explaining the current situation in a few words, Xiaoye said bluntly: "——So, now we have two choices."
"One, rush back to Snow Mountain Villa as soon as possible, but you may miss the curfew. Two, stay overnight in the Warcraft Forest tonight and continue exploring."
As soon as the words fell, the siblings raised their hands excitedly.
"You're already here, what a pity if you don't go and see what's at the end of the Warcraft Forest!"
The dark clouds covering the sky gradually dispersed, but the sun set and the sky became darker. Under the cover of night, the Terashima siblings walked deep and shallow in the forest. If the eldest brother hadn't been a lifeguard, they would have fallen into the snow at least fifteen times.
The ice willows began to become sparse, and damaged bricks and wood gradually appeared at my feet. When a crooked wall blocked the front, the three of them looked at each other.
It was obvious that this was an old village that had been abandoned. There was a faint rustling sound in the distance, as if someone was moving.
Xiaoye made a gesture, instructing the siblings to stay quiet and move forward cautiously. They carefully circumvented the scattered walls and walked along the ruins. Finally, they saw the damaged buildings and streets through a gap in the broken wall.
At this time, the clouds had dispersed, exposing the dark dome. The desolate moonlight shone on the earth, making the faces of Terashima sister and brother pale.
They could hardly believe their eyes.
The people walking on the streets were not the residents of the old village as they had guessed - they were densely packed, mountainous and sea-like dolls made of ice. They are more than two meters tall, with slender limbs, slender feet, and no facial features on their smooth heads. It is incredible to carve such a smooth and rounded surface out of ice, and these ice dolls in front of you can actually move freely.
They moved slowly along the broken road, their shapes resembled humans but were not human. Hundreds of identical ice dolls are crowded together, like a deformed comic mime, which looks extremely weird.
As the first team to successfully pass through the Warcraft Forest and reach the old village, the three of them fell silent in unison. In the live broadcast room, it was also the first time to see the old village, and after seeing the whole village through the long-distance lens - and the densely packed ice puppets - it also fell into a lifeless silence.
At this moment, the voices of countless people around the world converge into the same sentence.
——What the hell did the Himi family come up with! ?
The scene in front of me is really not friendly to the heart, and patients with trypophobia may faint on the spot. The two brothers and sisters from the southern country recalled the horrific memories of last year. They were so frightened that their faces turned pale and they stammered in their speech: "Old, old, old, old, let's retreat first. What are these things..."
Before he finished speaking, the panicked Long Xing stepped on a piece of dry wood, making a harsh cracking sound in the silent old village.
The young man instantly stiffened into a stone pillar. He twisted his neck little by little in fear and looked at the street through the crack——
All the ice puppets stopped moving.
As if they "heard" something, the creepy ice puppets tilted their heads and turned their faceless heads towards the source of the sound.
Then, the inhuman things came over.
In front of them was a broken wall that would collapse at a touch, and behind them was a spiked fence that was difficult to climb. Coupled with the monsters surrounding them from all directions, the Terashima siblings even felt the despair of being at the end of their rope. Xiaoye's right hand has already grabbed the elf ball at her waist——
But she didn't have time to open it.
In the dark night, under the pale full moon, a figure appeared silently.
Wearing a snow-like silver robe, wearing a hood, and holding two swords, he stood on the spire of the bell tower like a sculpture. And the next second, the "sculpture" jumped down - the snow-white sword light fell like a meteor, splitting the array of ice puppets with a bang.
This blow was like poking a hornet's nest, and the strange ice puppets immediately became restless. They turned around without hesitation and chased the harsher sound, and the body of ice reflecting the cold light surrounded the man.
But the silver-clad swordsman was not swallowed up. He waved the pair of beautiful swords - the moonlight gently projected on the blades like water waves, and turned into an indestructible cold light at the end. The swordsman's figure was as light as a dance, but the ice puppets that touched the sword fell to the ground one after another, as if their souls had been ripped away.
The snow-colored sword light and snow-colored robes swam from one section of the road to the end, scattering a halo of light like the Milky Way in the Nine Heavens, so dazzling that one almost forgets to breathe. When Long Xing, who had gotten into trouble, came to his senses, he found that there were ice dolls lying down everywhere, and none of them still had the power to move.
The swordsman in silver sheathed his sword and walked towards the broken wall.
The moonlight cast a halo of light on him, which was astonishingly dazzling in the night. Xiaoye saw that he was wearing a blank mask, covering up his true appearance. A familiar pattern is outlined on the forehead of the mask, which is the shape of a blue bird spreading its wings and about to take flight.
"Don't be afraid, come with me."
said the silver-clad swordsman.
====================
small theater:
Terashima Siblings: (Innocent) Didn’t you say you want to gather here, boss?
Xiaoye: (sluggishly) Is this the southern people’s sense of direction in the mountains...
Yang Yu, who never gets lost in Mount Aso: (Aggrieved) I'm not, I don't have it, who is smearing our image again, QAQ!
