"Good morning, Adventurer. I've been waiting for you for a long time. ”

The little girl looked at the visitor with sparkling eyes, and her expression of anxiety and anticipation was extremely realistic. And the three people who were staring at each other like this, Xiao Ye and the Terashima siblings, exchanged a look of surprise.

After learning about what happened last night, the siblings, like Sayo, think that the employee who plays "Lily" will be replaced by someone else. After all, for a seven-year-old girl, it is really inhumane to be hurt by a contestant and fall into an ice stream and have to go into battle to act non-stop.

And the truth is very different from what is imagined, unless Lily has an identical-looking twin sister.

The three of them walked into the room in a trance with a calm group of girls. Her outfit was not much different from yesterday's, except for a faint piece of light gauze that wrapped around her arms at the cuffs.

Xiao Ye didn't know if last night's incident was considered "in the plot", so he didn't dare to speak for a while, but Long Xing couldn't help it first, and asked hesitantly: "That...... Are you hurt? Are you alright?"

Lily's smile froze. She lowered her head slightly, subconsciously covering her injuries, and looked extremely aggrieved.

"Thank you for your concern. The girl said pitifully, "If you speak a little later, I'm afraid it will heal." ”

Long Xing: "......"

Lijiu: "......"

Sayo: "......"

The little girl beckoned the adventurers to sit down diligently, and then said nervously and cautiously, "Yesterday was really hard. Excuse me...... Adventurer, have you gotten the leaves of the sacred tree?"

Although Lily made a timid and cowardly appearance with dedication, for some reason, the three of them inexplicably read a bit of criticism from her gaze, as if they were going to write "Brothers, do the right thing, OK?" on their faces in the next moment. Rao was speechless for a while with Xiaoye's calmness - well, she was blindly worried, and it seemed that Lily was not only not frightened, but also very dissatisfied with the contestants who made a fuss and didn't take the show well.

The purple-haired adventurer handed the little girl a paper bag containing the ashes of the leaves. She cautiously opened the paper bag, sniffed the scent with her nose, and then looked surprised.

"It's the leaves of the sacred tree, yes!"

The girl stood up with excitement and bowed deeply to the adventurers.

"Thank you so much! I'm going to make it into medicine for Grandpa now, and if nothing else, Grandpa will wake up tomorrow morning." Lily raised her face and looked at the people in front of her with clean green eyes, "So, can you do it again tomorrow?"

"Grandpa must have a lot to say to you. ”

After saying goodbye to Lily, the three of them learned the lesson of yesterday and did not delay in the villa, but hurried to the Monster Forest in the northwest direction. They even changed their tactics and ran over the incoming Pokémon with direct firepower, trying to cross the ice field as quickly as possible.

So when the group reached the edge of the forest, the sun hadn't even had time to rise overhead.

"So Boss, what are you going to do with that strange wind?" asked Li Jiu with great interest.

Before leaving the villa, the Terashima siblings talked to many contestants, and found that almost all the people who arrived at the Warcraft Forest yesterday were blown away by the hurricane, and none of them managed to enter the forest.

Xiao Ye beckoned, motioning for his sister and brother to follow him, and at the same time opened a Poke Ball. Ghost Stone, who hadn't played today, suddenly appeared in the light, letting out a burst of chirping.

"First of all, we want to be clear about one thing. If that gust of wind is really strong enough to blow people away for more than ten kilometers in an instant, then the huge impact of landing will definitely hurt us and even kill us. Xiao Ye said.

Step by step, the adventurer stepped into the forest, and a vague white shadow had reappeared in the distance, and the same giant beast as yesterday was about to appear.

"—but in fact we were unscathed. So, let's go back to the south of the ice sheet that is not the wind. ”

Xiao Ye stood still in the windy forest, "The spirit is strong." ”

Ghost Stone's eyes lit up with blue light, and the invisible spiritual power spread out in all directions. The entire forest seemed to freeze for a moment, and an invisible shell cracked, revealing its true form.

Fortunately, the illusion of the sky collapsing only lasted for a short moment. When the Terashima siblings looked around again, they found that the forest of ice willows was silent, and there were no storms of snow and mist, and there were no roaring monsters. Li Jiu twisted her neck, just in time to see the back of the Pokémon fleeing in a hurry.

"That's ......"

"Dream Demon and Casey. Xiao Ye said.

It dawned on the siblings that the dream demon used hallucinations to control the people entering the forest, and Casey waited for the opportunity to launch a teleportation to send the adventurer to a distance, which was the truth of the "hurricane".

Long Xing's eyes rolled, and he immediately realized something, "Boss, you say, could this be the idea of the Demon Beast itself?"

Sayo shook her head, "I'm not sure yet." Let's gather information first. ”

The three of them gradually walked into the depths of the Warcraft Forest. Heavy clouds obscured the daylight, making it difficult for them to tell the exact time by the sun, only that it was about afternoon. And in the hours they spent walking through the supposedly "treacherous" forest, they did not encounter a single battle.

There are very few Pokémon in the field of vision, and even if they are met occasionally, they will flee like frightened long-eared rabbits. The Terashima siblings, who were mentally prepared for a bitter battle in vain, only felt that their heads were full of question marks, and they even suspected that they had gone to the wrong forest.

Just when Long Xing finally couldn't hold his breath 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, and it was muffled and heavy, and it was disturbing. The boy was about to complain, when he saw the boss walking in front suddenly straighten his arm and make a signal of "stop advancing".

"Be careful. ”

When they looked ahead again, the siblings froze.

In the depths of the glittering Ice Willow Forest, a huge figure appeared at some point.

Covered in white fur, it is as burly as a hill, exactly like the monster seen in the hallucination that appears to be a "snowman". And beside it, the ice-type Pokémon that had run away from the human race when they saw it before gathered one by one. They gathered silently, and many pairs of eyes stared at the humans in the forest, and the two siblings looked creepy.

"This ...... It's also an illusion?"

Li Jiu said hesitantly. And Ghost Stone, who was floating on top of Xiao Ye's head, immediately shook his head like a rattle, indicating that he was absolutely not passive and slacking off.

The distant trumpet sounded again. Xiao Ye vaguely realized something, and said decisively: "Retreat first!"

At the same time, the hill-like behemoth let out a rumbling roar. The ice-type Pokémon clustered around seemed to have received an order, and they all launched a charge. For a while, the snow and fog were stirring, and the sand and dust were flying, almost like returning to the ancient battlefield.

Not only were the Terashima sisters and brothers who were dragged and running wildly stunned, but the viewers in the live broadcast room also played 800 exclamation marks on the public screen at this moment.

The scenery they saw was even more spectacular than the players in it—countless giant snowmen appeared all over the Warcraft Forest, accompanied by charging Pokémon, setting off a tsunami throughout the forest. All this came too suddenly, and some of the contestants who stayed in the forest couldn't react, and they were swallowed up by the wave of Warcraft almost instantly, and a hint of being out popped up in the personal live broadcast room.

- And at this moment, the Beidou boss and his two younger brothers are still struggling.

"I swear ...... It's definitely a stunned young man who did something he shouldn't have done and caused us to suffer!!"

Long Xing roared breathlessly.

The Pokémon surging up behind him were endless, and from time to time a cold wind blew violently, making human movements more and more stiff. Xiao Ye quickly realized that if she continued to run like this, she would be caught up in less than half a minute.

"After I'm broken, meet in the last safe zone!"

Without saying a word, she gave a mandatory order and shoved the panting siblings out.

Just a slight slowdown, the distance between humans and the army of Warcraft quickly narrowed. Before the tide overwhelmed the adventurers, a dazzling fire rose from the ground.

The orange dragon roared, unleashing its own hottest flames. It slammed into the ground and exploded again, turning into a curtain wall of flames that reflected the crystal branches and leaves of the ice willows into a sea of red.

Ice-type Pokémon, who are naturally afraid of fire, instinctively stopped. The rhythm in front of the troops was chaotic, and the guys behind them also collided, and the momentum of the charge suddenly disappeared by half.

Xiao Ye was about to change the command when she suddenly saw a black shadow crashing into the fire.

It was an Alola form of an ice-type pangolin. As if it had lost its mind, it forced its way through the fire curtain in the flames. The light blue fur had been burned black, and as if it didn't feel pain, it swung its claws at the human.

Ghost Stone still floated above Xiao Ye's head and didn't leave, and when he saw this, he unceremoniously rewarded it with a strong mental thought. The invisible restraint force pushed it directly to the ground, and it fell to pieces.

As the Panking is smashed into a pancake, Saya sees a small black lump tumbling off the ice edge on its back.

The adventurer was stunned for a moment, and before he could take a closer look, he saw that the Pokémon who were blocked by the fire curtain had launched an attack one after another. No matter how strong Charizard's explosive power was, it couldn't withstand such a large number of sieges, and the flames' position was crumbling for a while.

And before the flames could completely collapse, the hurricane's support arrived.

The bird waved its wings and blew a storm of lightning. The fire instantly swelled with the power of the wind, and the fiery energy swirled and rose with the air current, condensing into a fiery tornado that rushed straight into the clouds.

After a few moments, the flames dissipated. The monsters looked around and found that a large area of the ice willows had been emptied, and the snow on the ground had melted, revealing charred rocks. And the adventurer has already taken the big bird away and turned into a point of light on the horizon.

Deep in the Warcraft Forest, behind the towering hills, stands a nondescript cabin.

It is sandwiched between two high grounds, making it difficult for people to notice. But there was only a thin layer of snow in the open space in front of the hut, as if someone had recently cleaned it.

The adventurer, who knocked on the door but received no response, tentatively pushed open the door and entered the house.

Although the wooden house is small, it has all kinds of organs. Tables and chairs are placed by the window, and the soft daylight shines through the glass on the surface of the old wooden table. On the other side, the single bed was covered with neat orange plaid bedding, and there was a fireplace next to it that was still burning. The beeping sound of firewood clattering overshadowed the wind and snow outside the window, and also brought warm air, soothing the adventurer's frozen skin.

On the door hung a round wooden sign with a line written on it - "Passers-by, please rest here with confidence".

After checking the firewood in the fireplace to make sure it had been replenished not long ago, Saya stood up, only to feel that the wooden house was full of suspicious smells.

The fire is not extinguished, the tables, chairs and beds are not used, and - all Pokémon refuse to come near here.

After escaping with the big bird, Xiao Ye was not out of danger immediately. Before she could fly far, she was chased by a flock of messenger birds, and almost crashed. In an attempt to flick off her tail, she stumbles upon the Courier Birds as if they were deliberately avoiding the area. After trying to get the Dabi bird close to the area, the messenger birds did not continue the chase and soon dispersed.

This is not an ordinary thing - Xiao Ye can be sure that this wooden house is not a safe area set up by the organizers, but part of the wild environment.

Either way, the cabin is cosy and cozy enough to look like it's in danger, and the Pokémon really need a break. Xiao Ye looked at the sky outside the window, estimated that it was about five o'clock in the afternoon, and simply released the Pokémon and had a simple dinner.

Charizard took the lead and ate in full swing, tossing the white snow into a mess. Xiao Ye, who had finished the meal first, sat down next to the house and looked at the black unknown object in his hand.

Before taking off on the Tabito, she picks up the objects that have fallen from the King, thinking that it may be related to his unusual "suicidal" behavior. It was a small electronic device, and the surface was burned by fire so that it could not be seen from its original appearance, but it was ...... in shape Seems like a miniature player?

Xiao Ye looked at the burnt player over and over again, but didn't see anything wrong, so he had to put it in the package first.

After resting, Xiao Ye went to cut some dead branches nearby, filled the firewood that was about to burn out again, and left a few tree fruits on the table as "usage fees", so he left with peace of mind.

At this time, the tide of demonic beasts that swept through the entire forest had just subsided. Xiao Ye climbed to the top of the hill, looked at it from afar, and after making sure that the empty road was safe for the time being, he rode the big bird straight to the agreed safe area.

She had thought that the Terashima siblings should have arrived a long time ago - the safe zone was not far from the place where they encountered the tide of Warcraft, and it wouldn't take too much time to take a long detour. Unexpectedly, there were only a few people resting in the huge safety zone, and there was no shadow of the sister and brother at all.

After asking one by one and failing to get any news, Xiao Ye suddenly felt that her head had become as big as Ghost Stone.

Seeing that the sun is about to set, and if he doesn't return, he will not be able to catch up with the curfew, and Xiaoye is even thinking about riding a high-profile patrol of the forest for three weeks. Fortunately, the next moment, she saw a signal from the Terashima siblings - blue-purple cooking smoke rose from the northern part of the Warcraft Forest.

It was the smoke that only burned the fruit of the tree - as early as the first day of the competition, the three of them had discussed lighting a campfire to light a blue-purple smoke as a signal if they couldn't find each other. Xiao Ye followed the direction of the smoke all the way, and sure enough, he found his teammates in a deep ravine.

I don't know how these two people were in a hurry, they ran in the opposite direction to the safety zone, and they were even about to rush out of the range of the Warcraft Forest. The valley they had fallen into wasn't too deep, and they didn't seem to be hurt, but there was a swarm of thorny shells hovering over the edge of the cliff, looking like they would stab you into a skewer if they dared to come up. The unlucky two children could only shiver at the bottom of the valley and light a fire for help.

Aoya who witnessed all this: "......"

You're also a trainer of the Thorn Shell, how did you manage to provoke this group of Pokémon to this point?

Xiao Ye reluctantly sent a well-fed tyrannosaurus to scare away the thorny shells with the roar of the beast, and only then did he drag the two magical trainers at the bottom of the valley up.

"Boss, woo woo, you saved our lives again! We want to be cows and horses......

"Stop, please be human. The Beidou player interrupted the teary-eyed confiding of the younger brothers with an indifferent face, "Why did you come here?"

Nanguo's sister and brother tilted their heads together, revealing puzzled expressions, "Didn't you say you wanted to come here to gather?"

Sayo: "......"

Is this the sense of direction of the southerners in the mountains......

After explaining the current situation in a few words, Xiao Ye said bluntly: "-So, now we have two choices. ”

"One, rush back to Fengxue Mountain Resort as soon as possible, but there is a chance that you won't be able to catch the curfew. Second, stay overnight in the Warcraft Forest tonight and continue exploring. ”

As soon as the words fell, the sister and brother had already raised their hands excitedly.

"It's all here, what a pity it is not to see the end of the Warcraft Forest!"

The clouds that covered the sky gradually dissipated, but the sun had set and the sky became darker. At night, the Terashima siblings walked deep and shallow in the forest, and if it weren't for the boss as a lifeguard, I am afraid that they would have been planted in the snow at least fifteen times.

The ice willows began to thin, and gradually damaged bricks and wood appeared at the feet. When a crooked fence stood in front of them, the three of them exchanged glances.

Obviously, this is an old village that has been abandoned. There was a faint sound of rustling in the distance, as if someone was moving.

Xiao Ye gestured, signaling the siblings to stay quiet and move forward cautiously. They carefully bypassed the vertical wall and walked along the ruins, until they finally saw the broken buildings and streets through a gap in the broken wall.

By this time, the clouds had cleared, revealing a pitch-black dome. The desolate moonlight sprinkled on the earth, reflecting the faces of the Terashima siblings pale.

They could barely believe their eyes.

Walking the streets were not the old village dwellers as they had guessed – they were densely packed with dolls made of ice. They are more than two meters tall, with long limbs, slender feet, and smooth heads with no facial features. It is already incredible to carve such a smooth and rounded arc out of ice, and these ice puppets in front of them are able to move freely.

They staggered slowly along the broken path, human-like and inhuman. Hundreds of identical ice figurines huddle together like a distorted pantomime, which looks extremely eerie.

As the first team to successfully cross the Warcraft Forest to reach the old village, the three of them were silent. In the live broadcast room, it was also the first time to see the old village, and after seeing the whole picture of the village through a long shot - and the dense ice puppets - it also fell into a lifeless silence.

At this moment, the voices of countless people around the world have converged into the same sentence.

- What the hell did the Himi family come up with!?

The scene in front of you is really not friendly to the heart, and people with dense phobia may faint on the spot. The sisters and brothers in the south recalled the terrifying memories of last year, and they were so frightened that their faces were colorless, and they all stammered in their speeches: "Boss, boss, let's retreat first, what is this......"

Before the words fell, the panicked Long Xing stepped on a piece of dry and cracked wood, making a piercing cracking sound in the silent old village.

The boy instantly stiffened into a stone pillar. He twisted his neck a little in horror and looked through the crack into the street—

All the ice puppets stopped moving.

As if "hearing" something, the creepy ice puppets tilted their heads, and turned their faceless heads towards the source of the sound in unison.

Then, the inhuman creatures came over.

With a broken wall in front of them that can fall down at the slightest touch, a spiky fence behind them that is difficult to climb over, and monsters that surround them from all directions, the Terashima siblings even feel the despair of the end of the road in a trance. Sayo's right hand was already clasping the Poké Ball on his waist—

But she didn't have time to open it.

In the dark night, under the pale full moon, a figure appeared silently.

Dressed in snow-like silver robes, with a hood and two swords, he stands like a sculpture on the top of the spire of the bell tower. And in the next second, the "sculpture" jumped down - the snow-white sword light fell like a meteor, and the array of ice puppets was shattered.

This blow literally stabbed the hornet's nest, and the weird ice puppets immediately became agitated. Without hesitation, they turned and chased towards the harsher sound, and the icy body reflected the cold light around the man.

But the silver-clad swordsman was not engulfed. He wielded the beautiful pair of swords—the moonlight gently projected on the blades like water waves, and then turned into an indestructible cold light at the end. The swordsman's posture was as light as a dance, but the ice puppets that touched the blade fell to the ground one after another, as if they had been drained from their souls.

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 Nine Heavens Milky Way, dazzling so dazzling that it almost made people forget to breathe. When Long Xing, who had been in trouble, came back to his senses, he found that there were ice puppets lying down all over the place, and none of them still had the power to move.

And the silver-clothed swordsman put his sword back into its sheath and walked towards the broken wall.

The moonlight cast a wheel of light over him, dazzling in the night. Sayo sees him wearing a blank mask that hides his true appearance. The forehead of the mask is delineated with a familiar pattern, in the shape of a pale blue bird spreading its wings.

"Don't be afraid, come with me. ”

Said the silver-clad swordsman.

====================

Small Theatre:

Brother Terashima: (innocent) Didn't you say you wanted to come here to gather, Aren't you the boss?

Sayo: (sluggish) Is this the sense of direction of the southerners in the mountains......

Yang Yu, who never gets lost in Aso Mountain: (aggrieved) I'm not, I don't, who is smearing our image again, QAQ!