The eastern sky glowed with a faint morning light, illuminating the gloomy Valley of Flames.

The atmosphere in the valley is the opposite of the bright sky. Last night's drumming and singing and lanterns drifting along the river seemed to be phantoms, and even the most lively flame people tensed up, and the mountains were filled with the smell of the remnants of gunpowder smoke after a fierce battle.

The newcomer didn't know what the lost drum meant, but she had a vague sense that it wasn't just her compatriots who were wounded that could take away all the laughter in an instant.

Several of the people injured at the lookout had already been taken to the Yanaka Clinic. The guard at the door inhaled a large amount of powerful hypnotic powder and was still unconscious, and the drummer Hauna seemed to have fought with the visitor, leaving a lot of scorch marks from the heat. She was stabbed in the abdomen with a sharp object, but fortunately she was treated in time, and is currently somewhat weak due to excessive blood loss, and is not life-threatening.

With the exception of the wounded and the guards who couldn't leave their posts, almost everyone else was gathered in the only auditorium in the Valley of Flames, the tallest building next to the plaza where Xiao Ye had landed before, and it seemed that a clan assembly was taking place.

After all, Xiao Ya is an outsider, and consciously does not participate in meetings that may involve confidential information, and walks around the valley aimlessly after reporting safety to Yongzhen's parents.

The sleep-deprived Pichu was groggy after the late-night battle, and it wasn't long before she fell into Night's hood and slept like a ball of fur. Xiao Ye didn't bother it, but stood still in the silence and no one, thinking about what had happened last night.

She didn't know much about the Wind Thieves in the Aso Mountains, but at least she knew that they hid in the mountains and lived by stealing chickens and dogs - even in the fiercest battles for the Fire Stone Veins, the Wind Thieves were mostly thieves, and rarely fought head-on with the powerful Fire Pokémon of the Fire People. Even her, an outsider, felt that the wind thief's actions last night were too abnormal.

After replaying the footage of the fierce fight in the middle of the night in her mind, Sayo tried to sort out the motives shown by the wind thief.

Instead of sneaking into people's houses to steal property, they are advancing and retreating around the altar to delay time. Judging from the final assault of the Extraarmoured Rhino, it seemed that they wanted to destroy the Pillar of the Covenant placed in the center of the altar.

And - when the eyes of the people were focused on the altar, they attacked the lookout and took away the Flame People's Upe drum.

In a previous casual conversation, Yang Yu and Yong Zhen had mentioned to Xiao Ye that among the many Upe drums, only one side was special - unlike the small waist drum used by the dancers, that one was nearly two meters in diameter, and was made by the patriarch hundreds of years ago and has been preserved to this day.

Due to the change and loss of the production process, the tone of the Upe drum that has gone through a long time is different from that of the current drum. It is said that the ancient flames were able to use it to talk to their gods.

With a history of thousands of years, the Wupei drum is a treasure of the people of flames and a symbol of a people's culture. But to outsiders, it's just a relic with some historical value. Sayo couldn't understand why the Wind Thief had to go to great lengths to snatch an antique that was useless and unsellable.

Thinking that maybe he knew too little information, Saya took out his phone and tried to find out more about the wind thieves of Mt. Aso and the stolen Upei drum.

As soon as her fingers swiped twice on the screen, the girl's mind moved.

She was located in a narrow alley near the central square. After the war, the detection of the power of the waveguide habitually maintained a radius of about ten meters, and the invisible fluctuations fed back abnormal information.

There is an ordinary two-story warehouse in front of the night, and the entire warehouse has not yet been returned to its place, so it is used as a temporary "prison". Three wind thieves who were stunned by the heat and didn't have time to escape by boat were thrown into the room with guards and Pokémon partners guarding the door—and by the time the battle meeting in the Great Hall was over, they would most likely be subjected to many rounds of interrogation.

Between the gap between the temporary prison and the adjacent house, a figure was slowly squirming.

It was a very narrow gap, so dark that it could not let in the sunlight, and an adult of normal physique would never be able to get into it. The sound of the river running not far away muffled the slight rustling, and Saya could clearly "see" through the power of the waveguide that a short, short-cloaked human was carefully climbing upwards.

The infiltrator struggled a long way, and when he finally stepped on the target's location, he couldn't help but exhale softly.

The battle had just ended, and the road was full of patrolling guards, and it was not easy to avoid their eyes. Fortunately, the buildings in the Valley of Flames are chaotic and crowded, and there are many small alleys, which provides a visual blind spot to hide.

The dwarf infiltrator stood at the edge of the ledge, his eyes rolling and fixing on the window of the warehouse attic opposite.

Five seconds, as long as no one looks up for five seconds, you can enter the warehouse through the window, and ......

After tightening the dagger around his waist again, the infiltrator held his breath and leaped silently in the right direction—

"Boom!"

The sound of bodies colliding is extremely harsh in the quiet of the morning.

The infiltrator didn't even see the sudden appearance of the figure, and was knocked off balance and fell into the side alley.

Xiao Ye landed lightly on the gravel road, looking at the appearance of the person opposite.

It was a little girl with black hair and black eyes, who looked no more than seven or eight years old. Her body is very flexible, even if she is hit by surprise, she still falls to the ground as lightly as a cat.

Perhaps realizing that the collision had completely ruined her plan to save people, the little girl's eyes quickly changed from subtle blankness to fierceness. She snapped her dagger and spat out a barrage of age-inappropriate curses.

Hurried footsteps rang out from all around, apparently the guards who had heard the movement had arrived. Desperate to get out, the Wind Thief Girl stabbed the obstructor who was at most two years older than her, "Get out of the way!"

Xiao Ye reached out and firmly grabbed the girl's knife-wielding arm.

People who fight a lot can always read the approximate strength of the other party in a short exchange. The girl's face changed, and she kicked the knee of the person opposite.

Perhaps sensing that the strength of the child who was in the company of the wind thieves was definitely not as harmless as it seemed on the outside, Saya had to let go of her hand and take a step back to avoid her flying kicks. At the same time, the girl waved her arm again, and the dagger came out of her hand and flew straight towards the door of Xiao Ye.

Hidden weapons flying from the front are difficult to hurt, but they still need time to dodge. As the dagger fell to the ground with a clatter, the purple-haired girl saw a black hole pointed at her.

"Bang-"

The gunshots startled the waves that landed on the roof.

The patrolling guards were frightened and quickened their pace into the alley where the sound came. Before he could see the appearance of the people in the alley, he saw a flash of cold light, and blood splashed up.

The pitch-black guns collided with the guards' boots, dripping and spinning on the ground. The owner of the gun, the young wind thief, had been crushed to the ground by the tourist who had arrived yesterday, and blood was oozing from her arm. No matter how much she screamed and struggled, she couldn't move a single step.

Soon, the Wind Thief Girl, who wanted to secretly save people, was also searched for all her weapons and thrown into the makeshift prison where she was trying to get in. The pistol she had brought with her was unloaded by the solemn-looking Flame Folk and placed securely close to her.

As the only witness to the whole process of this shooting, Xiao Ye finally had to walk into the "temporary operations conference room".

The interior of the auditorium does not seem to have been completed, and many places still show the appearance of rough masonry. Most of the people who had been crowded in the room had dispersed, and only a dozen adults and a few teenagers remained in the room. Xiao Ye saw Yang Yu standing behind a middle-aged man, and when she saw her being led in by a patrolman, she winked at her with concern.

There is a long table in the room. Last night, at the most critical moment, the red-haired young man, known to everyone as the "Patriarch", sat at the end of the room and smiled softly at the passer.

"Hello visitors from afar, and welcome to the Valley of Fire. The young man with the ponytail stood up, and the bright array of feathers swayed with his movements, like a burning flame, "I am the patriarch of the Flame People, the fire industry. Hope you enjoy having a time here – although I'd love to say so. ”

The boy sighed and walked over to Xiao Ye.

"I'm sorry for the bad memories you had when you first came here. The young patriarch named "Fire Plains" said, "Is there anything I can do for you as an apology?"

The young patriarch's accent was soft, and his speech was also very "people of flames", not at all like a person who set fire to the ground without saying a word. Xiao Ye naturally didn't plan to make any demands on people at such a juncture - the red-haired child who was eavesdropping on the conversation outside the window didn't read the air at all, and vaguely shouted "Let the patriarch treat you to eat rice fruit cake", which made everyone in the house hide their faces.

Reluctantly pulling his consciousness out of the rice cracker cake, Saya briefly introduced himself to the patriarch and told the whole story of his fight with the Wind Thief Girl.

The patrolman who had put away his pistol placed the unloaded gun on the conference table and showed it to the public. After listening to Xiao Ye's story, the young patriarch picked up the pistol and looked at it, then handed it to the person next to him.

"Jingmu, what do you think?"

The middle-aged man standing next to the patriarch looked at the gun in his hand and replied simply, "This is not something that a wind thief can get. ”

Even a trainer like Sayo, who has been traveling for less than a year, understands that the appearance of that gun means that the problem is more serious than they thought.

The Pokémon Alliance has very strict control over firearms, and ordinary people can only buy electromagnetic guns for self-defense, and full firepower can only paralyze people for a while without being injured. Guns like this, which are actually loaded with bullets and have lethal power, are key controlled weapons that ordinary people cannot legally buy - a gang of petty thieves should theoretically not have "illegal channels" that are enough to buy guns and ammunition.

"The Wind Thieves are targeting our Pillars of the Covenant and the Upe Drum, which is unusual. Mr. Ye, will it be ......?"

After reading something from the middle-aged man's eyes, his expression gradually became serious.

He nodded to his friend, then looked at the purple-haired girl, "Thank you for telling us this, Saya." ”

"We're going to search the mountains for the whereabouts of the Wind Thieves, and I'm afraid we don't have time to entertain you, and I'm sorry for that. The young man said softly, as if he felt very guilty, "If you don't mind, why don't you go to the other islands first, and come back later?" ”

Facing the eyes of the redheads, Sayo shook her head.

"Mr. Ye, can I join the search for the Wind Thief?"

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

Small Theatre:

After tightening the dagger around his waist again, the infiltrator held his breath and leaped silently in the right direction—

"Boom!"

The sound of bodies colliding is extremely harsh in the quiet of the morning. The infiltrator didn't even see the sudden appearance of the figure, and was knocked off balance and fell into the side alley.

Pichu catching up on sleep in Night's hood: I had a dream in which I had as many tree fruits as a mountain and no longer had to worry about running out of food - and then a sudden collision shook me into a mound. Is this the Pokémon god telling me not to daydream?" (tears flowing)