Carefully lifting the hem of Ravenfeather's robes, Meredith tiptoed through the stagnant water on the ground and walked in front of Todd and Richel.

"The Land of Shadows is not as beautiful and peaceful as it seems. In many places, there are murderous motives. Meredith put her hand into the spring and made a splash: "On this island, there are many such springs, which are connected to the groundwater. To those who pass the trial, they are nothing more than the nectar that quenches their thirst, but to the common man, these are the poisons that pierce the intestines. ”

Rachel's eyes widened, her hands shook, and the spring water in her palms instantly spilled to the ground.

Todd looked at the mundane spring and asked Meredith, "Where can I find a safe source of water?"

"Every once in a while, some admiring trialists come to the island, carrying clean water and food. Meredith pointed to the earth with a flat expression on his face, but his words were terrifying: "When they return to dust, these goods will naturally change hands." ”

Untying a well-made water bladder from his waist, Meredith handed it to Rachel: "Its owner, it is no longer needed. ”

Rachel took the water bladder and looked at the surface of the container with mixed feelings, the initials written in ochre, and then looked at Todd again.

The latter nodded slightly at her.

Rachel then twisted the plug and gulped down the water.

Meredith looked at the cantharids drilled in and out of the stone wall with disgust, took a few steps back and said to Todd: "Not only the water source, but also the fruits, animal meat, fish and shrimp here are all highly poisonous to outsiders. ”

"Why is this happening?" asked Todd, curiously.

Meredith rolled his eyes: "Isn't this something that is all the more obvious? this is the realm of the undead, where everything contains the aura of a curse, and only a demigod who has passed the trial can resist such a curse." ”

Todd touched the bridge of his nose and pondered for a while, he thought about it, and always felt that the explanation behind these things was not so simple.

Meredith retreated to the hall of the temple, looked at the sky along the patio, and then said to Todd: "The sun will soon set, rest well, my master will arrange suitable training for you tomorrow morning." ”

"Training?!"

Todd was a little dumbfounded: "There are some things, you may have misunderstood, we are not here for training. ”

"It's for the 'tyrant', right?"

Meredith's sudden speech surprised Todd a little.

The latter tried to ask, "You once said that behind the Dark Gate, there is a 'tyrant', but then again, what exactly is a 'tyrant'?"

Meredith turned around and was about to leave: "The trial is just the beginning, through the training arranged by my master, you will get closer to the truth of the 'tyrant' step by step." ”

"By the way, my master has been in a rare good mood lately, after all, the country of shadows has welcomed two demigods, which has never happened in the past. Meredith looked at Todd and said solemnly, "So, don't talk about it in front of her, those wanton speeches, believe me, you definitely don't want to see her angry." ”

Walking to the temple gate, Meredith suddenly remembered something, she took out a bag of food from under the crow's feather, threw it to Todd far away, and said loudly, "There is some clean food here, let your companion save some food." ”

"After all, the next team of trialists, God knows when it will come. With this, Meredith turned his back, and a dark glint flashed in his eyes that no one could understand.

——————————————

That night, the temple stone chamber.

After days of life-and-death struggles, Todd finally remembered his other identity, the King of Twilight.

After unfolding the soul space, Todd began to call the important officials of the kingdom to enter the space.

The officials who had been summoned by the king for a long time and entered the soul space were so excited that they couldn't help themselves.

There are those who are grateful, there are those who praise, and there are those who complain.

But seeing the familiar king, standing in front of everyone's eyes safely and soundly, in everyone's hearts, there was more of a feeling of a big stone falling to the ground.

After a day of unimaginable tribulation for ordinary people, Todd, who was exhausted, no longer had the energy to deal with the affairs of the kingdom, and could only greet everyone one by one, and then closed the soul space.

After the most restful sleep in his life on the cold floor, listening to the sound of the waterfall outside his room, Todd was awakened early the next morning by Meredith's voice.

"It's time to get up, new guy. ”

Gesturing to the sleepy-eyed Rachel on the stone bed, motioning for the other to sleep a little longer, Todd cleaned up and walked out of the temple.

The rising sun casts a golden morning glow on the ridges.

Standing on a high pinnacle, Meredith unfurled her black crow feathers like a bird enjoying the sun, squinting slightly and smiling at the corners of her mouth.

"What is today's training?"

Hearing Todd's question, Meredith put away his crow feathers, jumped off the stone platform, walked down the mountain, and dropped a sentence: "My master has already arranged everything, rest assured, the first day of training is just a warm-up." ”

Following Meredith to the bottom of the mountain, Todd saw a man and a woman standing on a flat ground behind the temple.

The woman is naturally the queen of the Shadow Nation - Skaha.

The man, who looked to be about twenty years old, with a burly figure and deep features, was the man who had been called "Cúchulainn" yesterday.

Cú Chulainn held a stone hammer and a wooden shield, one foot in front and the other behind, with Skaha as the center, slowly moving in a circle, his eyes fixed on the queen's movements, looking for any flaws.

Skaha held a long twig as a spear and held it diagonally in front of his chest, his long purple hair swaying gently in the breeze.

Cú Chulainn moved in the direction of the backlight, and with the sun behind him, he launched a lightning-fast attack.

However, before Todd could see the details of his attack, Skaha's body only trembled slightly, and Cuchulainn flew upside down dozens of meters, fell into the woods, smashed several large trees, and the stone hammer and wooden shield in his hand also turned into powder.

Todd gasped and touched his forehead with a tingling scalp.

As if to see his concern, Meredith smiled and said to him: "Don't worry, today is your first day of training, and I won't arrange such a difficult course for you, your opponent, and someone else." ”

Meredith whistled to the sky, then turned back to Todd and said, "Your 'Strength' trial, the original opponent was taken first, and I helped you find an identical monster. ”

With a sense of foreboding, Todd looked towards the sky, and a monster with a lion's head and a scorpion-tailed flapping wings slowly landed on the flat ground.