The autumn leaves dancing on the edge of the sea cliff are not maple leaves, but they are not inferior to maple leaves.

On a November night, when Xia Han fell asleep by the horse wrapped in his cloak, a trace of ethereal singing finally sounded in the ocean.

【Mermaid! 】

Xia Han jumped up sensitively and ran barefoot towards the sea cliff.

Just as he had expected, a mermaid appeared on a reef not far from the sea. Mermaids are a race of half-man, half-fish, with suffocating women on the upper body and beautiful fish tails on the lower body.

However, the mermaid that appeared in Xia Han's field of vision was obviously just an underage girl, she sat on the reef and slapped the sea with her tail, looking at Xia Han with surprised eyes.

"You're singing here all day long?"

She asked, her face puffing up slightly, "Are you here to compete with me?" ”

The mermaid behaved as the villagers said, and she cared very much about her singing voice.

"Nope."

However, Xia Han shook his head at her: "I just want to ask you something." ”

He said his purpose - Xia Han wanted to know if the corpse that had been abandoned here two years ago was without a sword, and where the corpse was now.

"Whew!" But as soon as the mermaid heard Xia Han's request, she shuddered: "It turns out that you are here to find that corpse, it's disgusting!" ”

The coast was very beautiful and free of strife, and the mermaid loved the feeling of looking out of the ocean to the grove on land, and at one point she wanted to make it her own private domain. But two years ago, while she was sleeping, a rotting corpse was suddenly thrown into the sea, just close to her cabin.

The mermaid was startled and left the beach.

This time, she was attracted back by the singing, but she didn't expect that the other party's purpose was to ask about the corpse.

"I can tell you." The mermaid almost turned around and left, but before she left, her eyes moved, and she suddenly said to Xia Han: "But you have to compete with me to sing, and you can only win me!" ”

She couldn't forget the song that attracted her, why did complex humans sing such beautiful music?

"Words count."

Xia Han nodded in response.

He is actually not particularly good at singing, but the society and the times are very different, and the skills he has mastered are not on the same level as the world, of course, the key is that the innate talent of his body is very good.

Talent plus skill, there is no reason why he will lose to mermaids.

But as far as the result is concerned, Xia Han still encountered an unprecedented opponent - in terms of singing alone, the mermaid is completely better than him.

Even though Xia Han has elven blood, his voice and appearance still can't be compared with a pure mermaid. They have a perfect voice given by God, and when they sing, they will unconsciously have a seductive tremor when they sing, and it is very easy to pour out the emotions expressed in the lyrics.

The competition between Xia Han and the mermaid lasted for five days in a row.

They would start singing each day when the sun was setting and the shadows of the trees would stretch, stop at the middle of the moon, and think about the repertoire of the competition during the day.

In this world of power and war, there has never been such a competition.

Even in the mermaid society, singing is something that exists as a weapon, they sing for war, and the only person who really likes the song itself is this young mermaid.

The final winner is Xia Han.

His triumph is not because of his singing, but because of the variety of songs that come from other worlds, and the mermaid's songs are forever confined to their own traditions, just as a singer who has mastered different genres is compared to a singer who only sings bel canto.

"I lost"

The mermaid accepted this failure, and she looked at Xia Han: "What's your name?" ”

"I won't talk about the surname Han."

"That's it," the mermaid puffed out her face angrily: "Then I won't say my surname Shui." ”

"As promised, I'll tell you about the corpse."

She told Xia Han about the characteristics of the corpse, and it was indeed a small female corpse that had been abandoned here two years ago, but her hair color was blue - that is, the corpse was not swordless.

Xia Han was a little disappointed.

He said goodbye to the mermaid and turned away from the beach.

"Hey, wait until you're going to play with me next time!"

He ignored the mermaid's words, to whom she was just a passerby. But the mermaid is different, she has not forgotten the last moon of this autumn, she will remember the child who sang under the falling leaves, she will remember all this.

Even if the two met again as incompatible enemies, she did not forget that today she believed that singing could express a person's heart, and that in the heart of the child who sang with her - there was no war.

Perhaps history always changes inadvertently, because of a small encounter, when a bloody war breaks out between the sea and the land, the young king, who has long since ceased to sing, will reopen his mouth and sing with the mermaid who has been singing all along—it is the miraculous end of an epic war.

Of course, that history is still too far away.

Xia Han led his horse through the woods and walked slowly towards the village, thinking that he was tired of looking for it, and then decided to go back to Jade City to claim the real address.

However, before he reached the village, the girl with two buns and hairpins on her head ran from the front with a panicked face, and her eyes lit up after finding Xia Han: "Hurry, just right!" Run away with us! ”

"Run?"

"That's right! Monsters have taken over the Tempest Grassland, and His Majesty the King and Queen are dead! We have to hurry up and go to sea, otherwise we won't be able to run. ”

In November 998, the news of the fall of Windwind City spread throughout the Qilin Continent, and the Southern Continent fell into a panic. With the roads cut off by the orcs, countless southerners ventured to the sea, relying on the sea to flee to the north.

In the same month, Xia Han traveled north with the villagers on a boat, but he did not show any expression when he learned of the death of the king and queen.

――――

Yulin Mountains,

In the dark twilight, a long dragon of torches spread out into the distance along the mountain road, and these were all humans who had fled the windy grassland.

Jade City Lord Wujing stood at the gate of the city, with his back to the brightly lit city, and looked coldly at the small figure in front of him.

His once pretty face was stained with dirty dirt, and his eyes were red and frightened—this was his daughter.

"You escaped, but what about your mother?"

Wujing asked calmly.

"Mother is dead."

Bai Yue hugged the package in her arms tightly and shouted to him hoarsely: "It's all because you didn't save your mother, she would die!" ”

Wujing shook his head and stared at her pitifully: "Why should I save a tool?" As he said, Jade City didn't send any reinforcements to support the Church of Light and Windwind.

Bai Yue took two steps back in disbelief, looking at Wujing's eyes full of hatred: "Tools, tools!" Everything is a tool to you, but Mother, Mother, she told me not to hate you in the end! ”

"She loves you so much, why did you abandon her, why!!"

She gritted her teeth and suddenly rushed towards Wujing.

However, Wu Jing simply lifted her up by just reaching out: "Don't use your childish thoughts to figure out my heart!" ”

He snatched the package from Bai Yue's arms, then threw her on the ground and said to the housekeeper beside him, "Lock her up." ”

"Yes."

The old butler then pulled Bai Yue away.

"Grandpa Housekeeper, why do I have such a father"

Bai Yue struggled and cried while asking why.

She has not enjoyed her father's love since she was a child, but her mother Bai Ya has always said good things to her. Bai Yue listened to Bai Ya's words, no matter how much Wujing beat and scolded her, she still faced him with a smile.

She thinks that one day Wujing will change her mind. However, until now, Wujing has stood by and watched Bai Ya's death.

"Mother, is she really a tool to my father?"

Bai Yue didn't understand.

In the story her mother told her, Wujing was a very powerful hero, who fought his way from the pauper to the lord of the city, and transformed the ghetto to make Jade City the least refugee place in the Emerald Empire.

However, in the mouths of others, Wujing is a despicable careerist. When he was young, he targeted Bai Ya, who was the holy daughter of the church, deceived her with rhetoric, and relied on her help to usurp the position of city lord, and then ruthlessly abandoned the mother and son after giving birth to Bai Yue.

Bai Yue believed her mother's words, but Wujing was an indifferent and ruthless person after all, was her mother really deceived by this man?

As he said, Bai Ya was just a tool, a tool to protect the young him from gaining power.

"In the eyes of the city lord, anything is a tool" The old housekeeper sighed, he touched the tears on Bai Yue's face: "Miss, crying can't solve anything. ”

Crying is a sign of cowardice, and Wujing hates to see people crying more than anything else—especially his daughter.

But at this moment, the Jade City Lord had already put Bai Yue aside and put his whole mind on the package in his hand. He carefully unwrapped the package, and then smiled: "Sure enough, people who don't have the power to get their hands on you will never be able to have you for long." ”

It was a crown - a crown that only those who stood at the apex of the Emerald Empire could have.

It seems to gather the light of all the stars in the night sky, and the crown carved from precious jade is not emerald, but traditional gold. Pearls and gems were set on it, and after a war, the crown was undamaged - and rightfully so, it had very strong defensive magic

The noble crown is now in the hands of Wujing.

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