If a certain disaster occurs in one place, people will fear that the disaster will happen again in the same place, so they will not dare to approach it again for a short time. The same is true of what happened in the hills outside the colony. The inhabitants, hunters or natives who lived in the vicinity were too frightened to set foot after seeing the horrors of the sights in the distance, which caused a brief period of calm.

It was late at night, the dark clouds on the hills had completely dissipated, and the world had finally mercifully revealed the inky black sky to this wild place. The stars were shining, and the moon hung there like a silver platter, looking quiet and gentle. These beautiful things are indifferent to what is happening on earth – just a sight they have been accustomed to over eons of time.

At this time, there was a shallow pit in the ruins that had been razed to the ground, and the surface of several clods of earth made of gravel and wet mud stirred slightly, and then a very small Momack lifted the earth and rocks and came out of it. It scratched the ground with a few limbs, probed forward with the tentacles on its head, and then climbed a rough mountain path for a long time until it came to a lifeless human being lying on the ground.

Grisenda's skin had peeled off a lot, and there was no blue glow in those terrible cracks, only charred flesh mixed in. But when Mother Earth stretched out a limb and put it to her nose, she found that she was still breathing.

"Poor child...... "Mother Earth lamented, "despite your strength, you have ended up like this." Well...... With my small body, I should be able to escape the pursuit of Gmercross. Even if you and I are destined, I want to help you before this......"

Mother Earth lifted Grisenda's right hand and touched the purple ring on her index finger with the tentacle above her head—the body was too young for Mormike to open her eyes until she was an adult—and it felt a warm power in the ring, and it was constantly channeling into Grisenda's body.

"Sure enough, it was your last name and your ring that saved you......"

Mother Earth sighed a few more times, then in a strange gesture, raised her head in a groaning voice, and spat out a black shard of disgusting mucus from her mouth. As soon as it wiped the dirt off the black shard like broken glass, it immediately shimmered with a completely unusual black light—as deep as the night of the universe, and upon closer inspection, one could see that something like a nebula was hidden within, hovering slowly—something strange and profane that did not need to be said.

It held the mysterious black shard to a tentacle and muttered some ancient incantation that no one knew, and then something strange happened: the black shard slowly rose into the air, gradually evaporating a black mist, and a kind of black halo of threads connected from the shard to the ring, creating a strange connection. This scene didn't last long, and something even stranger happened again - the ring that originally emitted purple light suddenly shot out a bright blood-red terrifying light from it, and immediately released a strong smell of blood. The purple gem on the ring had now turned into a red gemstone that had never appeared before, and more mysterious words appeared on the surface of the band.

Mother Earth stopped chanting, retracted the shards, and stuffed them back into herself.

"It's okay...... My core has not been destroyed, and now I can move freely underground. On the other hand, I would like to thank you, poor lost man...... I can get rid of my body and get my revenge in a nimble way, I just need someone to help me find another ......" It didn't say anything more, just touched her body with a slight tentacle - which began to grow warm and smooth - and then it quickly disappeared from the night.

..............................

On the plains on the east bank of the Blue Mist River, at the intersection of several country roads, there is a tavern with a broken sign "Lumberjack's Cottage". It was mostly a few passing travelers and members of small caravans (the big caravans disdained to live here), and not all of them were lumberjacks. Of course, in addition to resting for drinks and lodging, it is also a hiding place for all kinds of strange people - robbers, gangsters, smugglers, deserters, homeless people, etc. It was not uncommon for Vasilia to come to places like this.

Even in the middle of the night, such a remote place is still bustling. Most of the illegals who live here are accustomed to noisy from evening to early morning, drinking, punching, beating, yelling for women, then falling asleep on the floor and waiting for the clerk to carry them back to their rooms, day after day, and so on. For these people, the night has long been their perfect companion. Sometimes, people here write a note and put it on their desk, and then stay up all night for days on end. If they leave for more than the time they stated on the note, then the clerk will take back the room and rent it to someone else. But if they come back on time, it means they've earned—if not they've earned—enough money to go through that numbing cycle again.

It was a very ordinary night out for a "lumberjack's hut". At this time, the innkeeper was surrounding a young man of about 20 years old with blue hair, with several vicious clerks, and he was watching the man drunken and drink the last drop of wine in his glass.

"Whew...... Hiccup......" he gave a loud full burp.

"Hey, boy!" the burly and tall store manager patted the young man on the shoulder and said viciously, "You have been drinking since yesterday and you haven't paid a penny, how long are you going to delay?"

"Huh...... Money?"

The young man squinted his eyes and looked at the store manager and the others blankly, and then he fell asleep on the table with his eyes rolled over.

The store manager looked at the bubbles coming out of the young man's nostrils, and his face turned green with anger. All the drinkers come together to watch the excitement and prepare to watch the show - even though this kind of thing is very common, it can be a good way to liven up the atmosphere every time it happens. This young man did not see anything special except for his bright blue hair and a fairly handsome face. In particular, his dirty clothes and a torn and old wooden sword on his back added a bit of funny to him. When a person like this walks outside, he is either recognized as a drunkard, a madman, or a homeless man, or he is seen as a gangster of unknown origin, and he should be avoided when he walks.

When the shopkeeper saw that the young man did not give himself any face in front of everyone, and fell asleep on the spot, and did not look like he was pretending, he became angry, grabbed the young man's collar, and slapped the guy who looked soft because he was asleep.

"Smack!"

A crisp and loud slap echoed through the tavern. The bubble in the young man's nose burst, he straightened up sharply, jumped up from his chair and shouted:

"There was an earthquake!"

"Oh, if you don't pay, you're going to mess with a guy who's harder to mess with than an earthquake. The store manager snorted coldly and said.

"No...... the young man kept his eyes shrunk into a slit, as if the upper and lower eyelids could never be lifted, "It's a real earthquake, it's right next to the crimson hills......"

"Wow, were you a seismograph in your last life? You even know where the earthquake is, that's really God. But this trick won't work for me, pay the money quickly!

"...... money?" the young man scratched his head, squinted back at the mess on the table, and let out a drunken breath "Oh......"

He took a gold coin out of his pocket, and the store manager snatched it from him.

"Little Golden Hand, this thing is worth 100 universal gold coins...... But I see that you eat so much, and it is probably as expensive as 100 gold coins...... I'll take it......" The store manager suddenly smiled and quickly stuffed the gold coins into his pocket, "Boy, do you still want a room?"

"No...... No ......" the young man burped again, pushed the crowd away, and staggered out of the "lumberjack's hut" into the darkness of the night.

The owner of the tavern frowned when he saw that he had left here alone, and secretly said a few words to the clerk beside him, and suddenly, several of them showed a meaningful smile.

The young man walked along the road for a while, looked at the sign at a fork in the road, and muttered:

"How do I remember when I came here during the day, and went in the direction of Kingsbridge instead of there?" he was stunned for a moment, and then added, "Forget it, maybe I'm drunk and confused...... I've been idle for a long time, why did the master suddenly ask me to find someone...... Kingsbridge?What?Is there a tavern there?I'll go there...... White Tower Special, no ...... Call...... Fuck Amdes, he borrowed my money to build a monastery and hasn't paid it back yet...... Golden Bay, Frigel Rum ...... What? Kingsbridge has orcs? Ah, there are orc......"

..............................

Turan, Ice Mist City, in a dark hall at the headquarters of the Wizards' Guild.

The eerie pale candle flame flickered, and the cold air condensed and moved, as if to suffocate.

In this unusually quiet and terrifying darkness, a large group of people in white robes and grim faces knelt densely. Their emaciated bodies were all wrapped in the strange mage's robes, like a group of white and hateful ghosts. At this point, the group was all facing a place—a place connected by nine staircases, and in the center of the platform lay a chilling blue crystal ball, next to which stood a man.

This ghost, more ghostly than the others, seemed to float in mid-air as if it had no substance. Its miserable white goose-down robe was embroidered with pale blue magic patterns, and the cuffs were pitch black, and the inside of the robe could not be seen. From a short distance, it looked like a robe sewn with a strange white mask sewn on—there was no hole in the mask to breathe or observe, it was all white with blue patterns, and its eyes were black, as if a blue ghost fire was burning in it.

The man (let's call it human) stared silently at the blue-white glittering crystal ball, and it took a long time to wave his sleeve and erase the sight that had appeared in it. Its robe trembled for a moment, then said in an ethereal voice that did not sound like a human being:

"Who escorted Amarisa to New Garand?"

The group of people below looked at each other, and there was some hidden conversation. Then, seven white-robed men stood up from the crowd.

The two sides were silent for a long time, and the ghostly figure leaned slightly over the mask.

Explained. ”

The seven men were all sweating profusely, and after a while a man stepped forward, bent slightly, and said fearfully:

"Back to the National Teacher, we did follow Miss Protect all the way to New Garand, but Miss Miss's strength is sky-high, even if we tried our best to hide ourselves, we were still discovered on the eve of Miss going to inherit the inheritance. National Teacher...... You know, Mademoiselle has always had a bad temper and especially hates the feeling of being watched, so she unceremoniously sent us straight back to Icefog City...... Ahem......"

At this moment, the white-robed man who spoke had a fierce expression, stretched out his hands and grabbed them in front of him, and the whole person was lifted up and hung in the air as if someone had choked his neck. The man's face was pale, his legs were tossing and turning, and he watched in horror at the scene that was gradually emerging before him—a terrifying ghost made up of a cloud of white mist suddenly appeared, stretched out a powerful palm to lock his throat, and lifted him up with a hideous expression. The ghost's eyes and cracked mouth burned with blue ghostly fire, and it wasn't as terrifying as anyone could imagine.

Then, the ghost dissipated, and the man fell to the ground clutching his neck, coughing violently, and then hurriedly got up, knelt down and kowtowed.

"The grace of Xie Guoshi not to kill, the grace of Xie Guoshi not to kill......"

"Do you know how much Amarisa is worth to the whole of Turan, to the entire Wizards' Guild?" the man slowly floated down from the platform, "I haven't seen a more gifted mage than her in hundreds of years. Her life alone is higher than all of you...... Now she's gone, but you're back here...... This shocked not only me, but also Her Majesty and the Four Dharma Protectors. Do you know how difficult it is to explain to the Queen that her friend is not in danger, and if I hadn't tried to stop it, at least two of the four protectors would have supported the explosion of the New Garand ......."

The man floated around the entire dark hall.

"Amarisa is my apprentice, and she's gone missing from my hands, which embarrass me, you know?"

"Yes......"

The man snorted coldly in an extremely terrifying ethereal voice.

"I'll give you one more chance, go to New Garand now, and bring her back to me in one piece. If there is a slight slip-up......" the creature let out a strange and terrible laugh from the soul, "you will understand......"