When they set out early the next morning, Diego was surprised to find that almost all of his soldiers were armed to the teeth, and it seemed that what happened to Ghazi the Jackal last night had taught them a deep lesson, and no one dared to be careless anymore.

The gnolls who had survived the death were in a trance, and almost walked into the mud pit several times. But in reality, apart from a few contusions, he was nothing serious, just frightened - no one could be as if nothing had happened after his head had wandered around the crocodile's mouth.

Heightened their vigilance, the Precursors were horrified to find that they were full of ill-intentioned pretenders, in addition to the still-annoying mosquitoes, the dense grass also hid hissing wind snakes and clattering spiders with their chelicera, and crocodiles lurked in almost every rotten pool......

On this day alone, they killed five crocodiles, a dozen wind snakes, and several times as many dark-toothed spiders, and paid the price of three minor injuries and one nearly drowned in the water, and Diego once suspected that the soldiers who had disappeared a few days ago might have been dragged away by these beasts, rather than drowning in the mud as originally thought.

In this way, they accompanied the bloody journey to the northwest. After more than half a month, they came to the northernmost point of the road that loomed in and out of place, and then turned southwest. At this inflection point, they saw the huge totem poles to the north that were taller than all the trees. These totem poles are carved into the image of a bull's head and a bird's head, and on either side of the pillars, lifelike wooden wings and horns are inserted.

Diego knew that this was a settlement of the Minotaur Terror Totem Clan, the Village of the Black Hoof. Unlike the Bloodhoof Clan, who are mild-mannered and enthusiastic and join the tribe led by Thrall, the radical, racist among the Minotaurs, the Terror Totem Clan, arrogantly thinks. The entire continent of Kalimdor is a gift from Mother Earth to the Minotaur race, and no other race has the right to touch it. And the Bloodhoof Clan's friendship with the orcs is simply a big mistake.

In many areas of Kalimdor, there are camps of the Terror Totem Clan. Blackhoof Village is just one of the larger ones. They are hostile to any other race in the land, and sometimes they will even kill those minotaurs who are friendly with other races as traitors.

They didn't linger much at this fork in the road, but continued on their way. Because Diego knows very well that although the Terror Totem is also engaged in herding and hunting, many times, they don't mind a cameo role as a bandit.

I have to say that today is their lucky day, maybe the minotaur of Blackhoof Village has other things to do. There is no time to do part-time work, and it is possible that the last vote to do it has temporarily satisfied their plunder**, Diego and his party did not meet any minotaurs, whether they were grazing or making a windfall.

But the following week, Diego felt his luck was souring. For he could often hear the sound of people moving in the grass in the distance, not the hissing of the wind snake or the clatter of the darktooth spider, but a heavy thud similar to that of a cow's hooves stomping on the ground. This made Diego worry for a moment if he was being targeted by the terror totem - to be honest. In the eyes of any bandit, this well-armoured, well-armed team is a good fat sheep, although it is a little difficult to gnaw. But once it succeeds, it is enough to make the whole group of shotguns change.

Until one day a week later, a creature with horns on its head suddenly emerged from behind a tree on the side of the road. Diego realized who had been secretly watching him.

"Hey, human. Welcome to Que Wall Village! He said loudly with an urn. Diego was surprised to find that he could understand what he was saying, as the minotaur was using the standard human lingua franca. Although it is a bit blunt. He didn't look vicious, but full of kindness.

Diego raised his hand to stop the soldiers who were raising their weapons and taking defensive positions, and then met them. Instead of staring at death, he stuck it in his saddlebag, and it seemed to him that if things changed, a revolver on his waist alone would cope.

And the minotaur also slowly walked towards Diego, a wrist-thick halberd was inserted in place, which seemed to prove that he had no malicious intent.

He has a huge bull head, but also a humanoid body. The head is also covered with thick, dark hairs that extend all the way to the back and back to the tail of the thigh, while the rest of the body is covered with fine hairs. His eyes, if they were not radiant with wisdom, would look like bull's eyes. The tip of his nose and nose protruded forward was inlaid with a large nose ring, and whenever he breathed, the air coming out of his nose made a slight clanging sound. Judging by the teeth that showed in his smile, his recipe was not limited to chewing plants, and those sharp canines were clearly suitable for cutting meat.

The muscular body of this minotaur was almost half-naked, and he wore only a few pieces of leather armor in important parts. As he walked up to Diego, the Minotaur raised his long, broad hands towards his left chest, his fingers were only three, almost the thickness of a carrot, but they looked nimble.

"Mother Earth protects you!" He spoke in fluent human lingua franca.

"May the Light be with you!" The human stooped down and said in the Minotaur language. It was one of the few Minotaur phrases that Diego had learned with Captain Vimes along the way, and it took him a lot of work.

Both men froze, but they soon realized the other's respect for their own race, and then laughed in unison.

"I thought you'd be here in a week, and when the scouts informed me of your arrival, I was a little incredulous, considering that this swamp wasn't friendly to humans." The Minotaur continued to speak in human language. Obviously, his human language was more than a star and a half better than Diego's Minotaur, but it was a relief for Diego, at least not to show up in his unsightly Minotaur language.

"Indeed, the danger and difficulty of this swamp is more than we expected." Diego said apologetically, pulling out the Theramore emblem with Lady Prode's seal from his purse and handing it over.

"Oh, look at my memory!" The minotaur was stunned for a moment before reacting, and then took out a totem pole that was a foot long and wrist-thick from behind him, and the cut surface of the tail was carved with a white frost wolf pattern. Diego was keenly aware that this was true, for just like the power of the water elemental contained in the Theramore emblem, the surging power of the earth contained in the wooden stick could not be faked.

The two exchanged tokens and looked at them, just as their boss had described before they came. Diego couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief and handed the totem pole back.

The Minotaur smiled and put the stick back on the belt around his waist, and Diego noticed a similar row of totem sticks stuck in the small leather tube on it.

"Are you a shaman?" Diego asked curiously.

"As you can see, yes," said the Minotaur with a nod, gesturing to the totem pole he had just inserted, "This was given to me by Grand Chief Sal, both as a token and as a reward for this mission." ”

"Wow, he's so generous!" Diego was amazed by the fact that Thrall was one of the few most powerful shamans in Azeroth, and that the totem pole he made and imbued with power was priceless to other shamans - in addition to its own great power, they could learn from it how the Great Shaman built runes and wielded power. Compared to this, the Theramore emblem that Gianna gave him, although it also contained the power of the water element, was not of that much value to Diego

"Yes, I think so too." The Minotaur agreed, and he turned around and made a leading gesture, "Please follow me, the camp is ready for you, and I think you who have come from afar must be looking forward to this." (To be continued.) )