Although I can understand Elena's desperate approach, I was still slightly stunned after seeing the family members she brought.

Elena brought twenty-one men, both men and women, not only not more than forty years old, but mostly young people in their twenties. What surprised me even more was that these people were in excellent physical condition, and if it weren't for Elena's reminder, I would even have thought of them as a group of active soldiers.

Arthur, who was standing in the crowd, was the first to come out: "Mr. Wang, we meet again!"

I reached out and shook my hand, "You're also from the Scarlet Tulip family?"

"No!" Arthur shook his head, "I just accepted Miss Anne's offer." ”

I could see that the Tulip family members were faintly headed by the girl named Annie, aside from Elena.

In terms of temperament alone, Anne is more aristocratic than Elena, with elegance and calmness in her gestures, even if she is only wearing sportswear now, she can't hide her noble temperament.

On the contrary, Elena makes people feel more like a cunning warrior than an aristocracy.

A tall young man in the team took a step forward and said, "Elena, this is the mercenary you invited to escort us? A group of Huaxia people, I can kill them all by myself." ”

Elena told me that although the Scarlet Tulip was a nobleman, it still did not change the ferocity of a pirate in her bones. The noblest pirates, the fiercest nobles, has always been the creed of the Tulip family.

To this day, members of the family are required to undergo rigorous military training and even serve in the military. So there are many martial arts masters among them, and they also have the unruliness of pirates in their bones.

As soon as the young man's voice fell, someone laughed and said, "I don't need you to get on, I can deal with them with one hand." ”

Someone laughed and said, "Perhaps, not with one hand." Look at them, can they beat a goat? Or let's release a goat and try it. ”

The laughter of several people did not fall, Ren Tianqing's figure suddenly flashed out, slapped everyone's face, and stood back in place as if nothing happened: "Gentlemen, there is a saying in Huaxia: If you pretend to be forced, you will be slapped in the face." I don't speak much English, so I just use international body language to explain our strength to gentlemen. I hope you don't mind. ”

The first time I heard Ren Tianqing scolding, I couldn't help but turn my head to look at her face, and when Ren Tianqing saw me turn around, she quickly stretched out her tongue and stood aside with a red face.

After Lu Xinyao translated Ren Tianqing's words, several people who were slapped in the face suddenly became angry, and rushed forward at the same time.

As soon as Ren Tianqing was about to meet the enemy, four daggers with scabbards burst out of Li Xiaomei's hands, hitting the crook of the opponent's leg mercilessly, and the four people knelt on the ground at the same time, and the four daggers flew back into Li Xiaomei's hands silently.

Standing in the distance, Anne's pupils couldn't help but shrink suddenly. It is not difficult to use the dagger as a hidden weapon to attack four targets at the same time, but the difficult thing is to make them fly back to their original places, which is beyond the scope of ordinary people's cognition.

Elena stepped forward and said, "Alright, the joke has been made, it's time for us to go." Mr. Wang Huan, please. ”

According to Elena, the Dark Castle was hidden deep in the mountains inaccessible, and the bus we took could only reach the mountain pass, and the members of the Tulip family skillfully took out firearms and equipment from the car, and formed a small army in less than half a minute.

Elena said with a serious expression: "This operation is not only related to your life, but also to the continuation of the family. When entering the ancient castle, all actions must be under the command of Mr. Wang, and whoever dares to act without authorization, I will break his neck with my own hands. ”

Elena's words were unceremonious, but no one in the Tulip family questioned or expressed dissatisfaction. Queue up in an extremely orderly manner and wait for departure.

Arthur walked up from behind: "Do you want to send someone to investigate first?"

"No need!" Elena shook her head, "There are clan warriors in front of you as a response, anything can happen in the Land of the Damned, don't scatter your actions as much as possible." ”

Elena and Arthur and I walked ahead into the forest and followed the path of the mountains to the top.

Elena stood on the top of the mountain and pointed to her feet: "Down from here is the Cursed Land, you have to be careful." ”

When I looked in the direction of the other person's finger, the first thing I saw was a basin covered with trees, and the trees on the shady hillside should grow slowly, but the vegetation below the hillside was not only tall. And, like it spirals in a clockwise direction. Looking down from above, the entire basin looks like a huge black vortex, forcibly drawing my gaze.

The longer you look at the whirlpool, the more dizzy it becomes, and the swirling forest sea seems to forcibly pull out the soul of the person looking down and roll into the bottomless darkness, no wonder this place is called the Land of Damned. The horror of the endless darkness alone is enough to send chills all over the body.

Elena pulled out a parchment map: "The Dark Citadel is in the center of the Cursed Lands, and this is the only way to reach the Cursed Lands. ”

I picked up the map and looked at it: it not only showed a road to the castle, but also clearly marked the dangers that might arise along the way. I frowned slightly, "This parchment scroll is an antiquity, isn't it? ”

"It is said to have come from a nobleman who sold his soul to the devil. Elena said: "Before the Middle Ages, black magic was very popular in Europe, and many people would sell their souls to the devil in order to gain great power. to get everything they need. ”

Legend has it that the nobleman made a pact with the devil for the glory of his family, and sacrificed the castle where he lived as a place for the devil to live. His intention was simply to sacrifice the castle. However, the devil told him that to sacrifice the castle was to give everything in the castle to the devil. Among them, his family is also included. ”

"The devil played a word game with that nobleman and took everything that belonged to him," Elena said. But he didn't expect that the sir's resentment would involve a very advanced form of dark magic. The entire castle was cordoned off. ”

"No matter who you are, you can't leave the castle as long as you enter it. Even if they are forcibly taken away, they will eventually return to the castle. The devil caused the nobleman to lose his family, and he imprisoned the devil in the castle forever. ”

"This is the story of the nobles and the devil, and it is also the reason why the castle was able to cut off the curse. ”

I muttered, "No one really came out of the castle after that?"

"As far as I know," said Elena, "never. Legend has it that during World War II. Once a group of German soldiers tried to discover the secrets of the castle, only to disappear into thin air when the heavily armed army entered the castle. ”

"The commander at the time, believing it to be a secret stronghold of the Resistance, shelled the center of the Cursed Lands. Legend has it that after the shell exploded, a strange human face appeared in the smoke. More than a dozen artillerymen died en masse at the same time. The commander was also court-martialed and thrown into prison as a madman. ”

"That's the only record I've been able to find of a massive search for the castle, and I don't think I'm credible of the claims in the Adventurers' Guild. There's so much exaggeration there. ”

I pointed to the map in Elena's hand, "And where did this map come from?"

Elena said: "I don't know, there is a saying that it comes from adventurers. They marked the way to the castle, but never brought out a map of the inside of the castle. ”

"There is also a theory that the map came from the castle itself. It is a decoy automatically released by the undead of the nobles. lure the adventurer into the castle for him to devour. ”

Elena said, "But one thing is certain, and that is that the cursed members of the family have all entered the castle according to the map. So there is no need to doubt the authenticity of this map. ”

I was about to speak, when a family member stood up and said, "Mr. Wang Huan, I don't know what you are suspecting, but I want to say that we are wasting time. After dark, the Cursed Lands will be more dangerous, so shouldn't we set out sooner in order to complete the mission sooner?"

I turned my head and said, "When adults are talking, children should not interject." ”

The man was about to have a seizure, but was stopped by Anne beside him. Then I crossed my shoulders and looked into the depths of the forest: "There is only one map of this kind?"

Elena nodded, "Yes, only one." It has always been kept by the patriarch himself. ”

I raised my chin at the side of the road, "What's the matter with that dead man over there, and your family's guard?"

Elena followed my gaze and said, "What's over there?" ”

I walked quickly to the edge of the grass and tore away the turf from the ground with my knife, revealing a humanoid protrusion underneath.

The killer apparently laid a person's body flat on the ground and then buried him in the ground with dirt along the outline of the body.

I crouched down and said, "The murderer is very interesting!"

I say that the murderer is interesting because the mound on the ground seems to have been carefully carved, and every part has been carefully treated, and from the outside of the soil, the deceased not only has distinct facial features, but even the folds on his clothes and the screws on his weapons are extremely clear.

What's even more amazing is that the murderer also camouflaged the mound with blades of grass, as if covering the corpse with a layer of camouflage. If you don't look closely, you won't even notice that there is a person buried here.

When I looked at Elena, the latter's face was pale, and one of the people next to him exclaimed, "How did you see that?"

I laughed and said, "If I didn't even have this bit of eyesight, I wouldn't need to mess around in the hands of the gods." ”

To be exact, if I hadn't practiced the Ghost Pupil Secret Technique, I wouldn't have been able to see that there was still a corpse buried here.