Snorlan spent the night peacefully in the cave, dreaming of his hometown, of his parents, of the past. He had some regrets, if he hadn't summoned Astarus by his own death, he would still have been able to gnaw at old age on earth in peace, die for a few years, and live on his parents' savings. You can also do a little business, find a suitable girl to get married, and have another child. These kinds of days may not be glamorous, but comfortable. But this is his own choice after all, he has no complaints, even if he regrets it, but the matter has come to this, regret is useless, how to live in this world is the most important topic for Snorlan now.

Early in the morning, it was time to set off again, Arturius led the people to clean up their traces briefly, the nearest was the village of Wood, the chief of the village here was an old acquaintance of Arturius, they decided to go to the village of Wood for a short rest, and rent two or three carriages to return to the village of Crane.

At noon, the group finally arrived at Wood Village and met the village chief. The head of Wood Village was an old man in his sixties or seventies, on crutches and with a seemingly lame right foot. The years have carved deep wrinkles on the old man's face, and among these wrinkles are hidden wisdom - the wisdom of survival. On the border, there are not many people who live to this age and still have sound limbs and strong spirits.

The old village chief had ventured around in his youth, but when he was hit in the knee, he returned to his hometown, married a wife, had children, and did some farm work. Although he spent the rest of his life mainly farming, he still had the heart of an adventurer. In the past few decades, he has never learned the wisdom of tolerance, but has accumulated a lot of experience in struggle, and in the face of the oppression of the Segou Empire, he did not go against the grain, but openly and secretly resisted the Segou Empire.

The old village chief was naturally familiar with Arturius, the leader of the Marton rebel army, and he warmly entertained Arturius and his party, and Arturius naturally would not refuse the old village chief's kindness. So at about two o'clock in the afternoon, a warm feast began. The villagers wouldn't have eaten this meal – they had already had lunch. Arturius and his party had also been running around all day, tired and hungry, and now that they had this opportunity, they naturally feasted.

After he had eaten and drunk, Arturius thanked the old village chief, who found them three more carriages, and Arturius was overjoyed and thanked the old village chief again and again. The old village chief waved his hand, urging Arturius to hurry up, and the Seigu people would soon come to investigate. Arturius was no longer polite, and hurriedly led the group to the carriage on the road.

By this time, the Seigu people's investigation team had arrived in Riptide. They briefly surveyed the situation in Riptide - the situation in Riptide was strange, there were only ruins and corpses, but not a drop of blood on the ground—the blood had turned into a blood mist and disappeared with the red light last night.

"Captain, square, ...... square" A member of the investigation team ran to their captain, and as soon as he arrived at the captain's side, he hurriedly reported breathlessly.

"Slow down, what's going on in the square?" The captain was a sturdy young man in his early twenties, with a resolute countenance, but he could not hide his youthful spirit. However, the players seemed to be convinced by the young captain. His name is Malan Clinton, he has just enlisted in the army, and his uncle is a mid-ranking member of the Segou army, and this time he has both experience and gilding in the army, but he has excellent observation and superb combat skills, which is perfect for a scout. His style of conduct is also very serious, even boring, he never drinks, he does not play with women, for these soldiers, this is a stern but reliable commander,

The team member slowed down for a moment, as if he had received some shock, which was very rare, and then said: "Sir, the corpses of our people who have been found in the square are neatly arranged, and it seems that a magic circle has been formed. There was not a single trace of blood in the square either. ”

"Let's go, let's see." Malan Clinton pondered for a moment and decided to see for himself.

In the square, several members of the investigation team wanted to put away the bodies of their comrades, but they knew that this was likely to be a magic circle, and if the formation was broken, this clue would be destroyed, so they carefully checked the location of each corpse and noted the location of each corpse - these are the nodes of this magic circle. At this time, Malan arrived.

Ma Lan looked at the paper that his subordinates handed him to memorize the nodes of the magic circle, and he found that this magic circle was not common, and it seemed to be a magic technique from the perspective of style.

The subordinates whispered to themselves: "These Roe dogs ......"

Malan heard his whisper, and said without raising his head, "It shouldn't have been the Roe people." Judging from the fact that there is no living mouth and no blood on the ground, it is probably a god of the chaotic and evil camp, and the priesthood should include killing or blood or the like, combined with the recent belief situation within the empire and on the Roe side, it is likely to be a fanatic believer in the god of killing, Eresnu, if it is really them, this is not the first time they have slaughtered a small town, and this time they disguised themselves as Roe to attack this town, and they also have the purpose of provoking a war and increasing killing. ”

The subordinates suddenly realized: "So that's the case, it's strange that I have to be like that group of Roe dogs." So what do we do? ”

"Report it truthfully, but be sure to keep your mouth shut, the Empire needs a reason to go to war, and that's a reason to go to war. This must have been done by the Roe, understand? Ma Lan's grim gaze swept over everyone.

"Yes, Captain!" The team members immediately obeyed the order, and they also knew that it was easier for the dead to keep secrets than the living, and if the slightest word leaked, none of them would want to go home alive.

Malan immediately reported to his superiors the communication crystal he had brought with him, the kind used by the Segou officers who had died in battle. He searched around, looking for any other clues. He slowly checked out of town. Suddenly, around a corner, he notices that something is not quite right with the three corpses - their swords are gone.

The first body lay on the ground, with no visible wounds and some dents in the back of the head, presumably from a blunt blow to death—the one that Snorlan had beaten to death with a frying pan. The second body lay curled up on its side on the ground, and Malan looked closely and found that he had been killed by a blow to his left temple. The third body had no scars on its body, and judging by the taste in its mouth, it had committed suicide by poisoning.

These three bodies are the three people killed by Snorlan and his party on the way to escape. Ma Lan carefully observed for a while, thinking that judging from the location of this place and the situation of the three corpses, most of these three corpses were left by someone on the way to escape outside the town. None of the three bodies were killed with sharp weapons, and the sword was taken away after their death, which shows that the murderer did not have a sword or knife or other sharp weapon, and they could use a sword - not taking the sword away with a sword would only be a burden to them, which indicates that it is likely that the murderer did not have a weapon, and according to common sense, if you want to kill three heavily armed people, if you are an ordinary townman, how can you need six adult men.

They are most likely not natives – it is human instinct to choose to hide in their homes rather than risk running out of town in the streets, especially if they choose to flee and not mention that there are at least six adult men in a few homes, don't they even have a knife at home? So who would they be if they didn't even have a weapon to defend themselves? One word flashed through Malan's mind: prisoner.

Malan immediately called out to his assistant: "Hans, what is the mission of this team?" ”

Hans nodded, flipped through his notebook, and replied to Malan: "Captain, their mission is to maintain stability in the region, and it seems that they have captured a group of mobs and are going to behead them in Riptide Town. ”

Malan nodded, thinking that this was the right one.

He thought back to the map of the area, and the team was responsible for stability near Riptide, where most of the mob came from the Marton Rainforest in the south, and the nearest village was Wood. So he instructed his deputy: "Hans! ”

"What's the matter, Captain?"

"You take a team here to continue the investigation, team two, follow me, let's go to Wood Village!"

"Yes!"

Malan turned on his horse and rode south with a group of men, while Snorlan and his party were already on their way back to Crane Village.

On the bumpy carriage, Arturius asked Snorlan, "Snorlan, who are you?" ”

Snorlan couldn't answer, so he had to say, "My hometown is a remote village, called Ers. ”

Arturius thought about it carefully, it is true that he has never heard of this village, but there are many villages in the world, and it is normal that he has not heard of it. He then asked, "What about the parents?" ”

Snorlan sighed and said, "It's all gone." ”

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine."

"Hey, why were you arrested by the Saigus?"

Snorlan smiled bitterly, "If only I knew." ”

Arturius also smiled and comforted: "Hey, it's not been a day or two since the Seigu people were arrested. ”

Snorlan smiled as well, and silence enveloped the two of them again. For Arturius, he was considering whether the man in front of him was credible and reliable; He was also wondering what should happen to the rebel army he led? Now more than a dozen brothers have been lost, and there are only more than forty people left behind under his own hands, Segou did not find them in the past, they gathered more than a dozen villages, hundreds of people, and now there is only one village left in Kelan Village, forty brothers, he knows in his heart that sooner or later, the Saigu people will find them, and then they themselves will be fine, what about their families? At that time, the entire village of Klan will probably cease to exist. It's time to plan ahead.

For Snowland, his worries couldn't be simpler: stay alive, become stronger, and try to complete Astaro's mission as soon as possible before he can return home.

The wheels were spinning, and the militiamen, who were like arrows, drove the wagon in the direction of the village of Crane, which, if nothing else, would arrive at the village of Crane at noon to-morrow.

The afternoon sun shone on Snowlan's face, and he now felt like an unattended child, free and frightened, he greedily breathed the air of another world, looked at the wilderness in the distance, a little fear of the future, a little uneasy, and more at a loss.

There must be a road before the car reaches the mountain, Snorlan thought, whatever, let's take one step at a time. Snowlan sighed, and turned his attention back to the endless wilderness.