When Roddy had just returned to the Sola outpost today, Hanks and his debriefing were not so serious.

Ivta's taxes were terrible, causing the realm to fall into financial trouble—and the nobles were cold and even happy about it... They all know that Duke Angmar's body can't last long, and once he dies, I'm afraid the family will be completely finished...

At that time, no matter whether Sally, the sole heir of the family, can barely maintain the bloodline, it is absolutely a sure thing that the territorial resources will be "slammed out" by these nobles.

And how to get the most benefits is what these nobles are thinking about at this time, these guys are like sharks that smell blood, they are always very sensitive to profitable things, and in the face of such temptations, these nobles who are not united or even have no intersection are even willing to stand on the same front... And unanimously pointed the gun at Angmar.

In this case, Roddy already had an alternative plan: he planned to contact the Duke of Angmar directly, and ask the old man to officially issue a "proclamation", loudly announcing the fact of "Roddy's return" to all the nobles in the realm, and doing his best to promote the strong image of his killing of Belom, so as to quickly deter these nobles with bad intentions.

After all, Roddy had other things to do, and he didn't want to waste his time cleaning up the nobles one by one, so scaring a group and judging a few with the help of the duke's order would be enough to settle the territory for a short time - he knew very well that it was impossible to completely solve such a problem.

But when Sodrore brought the news that "Parl had been attacked", Roddy knew... I'm afraid this matter can't be good.

Because... They crossed the line.

The silent Roddy narrowed his eyes and pondered the content behind this message, while Nata, a wood elf who grew up in Elsa's Village, was obviously unable to hold her breath, she took a step forward and asked in a cold voice, "Is Elsa's Village really okay?"

"The news report doesn't say that the village has been attacked or killed, just that someone is trying to track down the team that has entered the Silent Forest," Sodlor knew what Nata was worried about, glancing at a pensive Roddy, explaining, "The team we left there is enough to deal with an armed force of up to a hundred people, and ordinary ringing horses or bandits can't pose a threat at all." ”

Having said that, Nata's heart couldn't calm down at all, and her originally relaxed fingers had already tightly grasped the longbow at this time, and she couldn't wait to fly back to the Silent Forest immediately.

The atmosphere was silent for a moment, but Roddy, who had never spoken, suddenly raised his head and said, "Now go and inform the team, the plan has changed, I'll go write a letter to the duke, and... The team departs tomorrow. ”

"Whoever dares to mess with us, then go directly to them to settle accounts. ”

Such a simple decision made the other two unable to respond for a while, each stood there in a daze, Roddy turned his gaze to Nata, saw her lips pursed and held the longbow, so he reached out and patted her shoulder, and said softly: "Rushing is not the way, don't worry, what needs to be done, I won't delay for a second." ”

Roddy's hand seemed to have magical power, which made Nata's body stiffen suddenly, but then immediately relaxed - there was an inexplicable warmth flowing in her heart, the coldness in Nata's eyes gradually dissipated, her eyes lowered, and then nodded and stopped talking.

Nata, who has been an orphan since she was a child, rarely feels the feeling of being so "cared for", and other wood elves are bullied, and they will have parents to rely on, but Nata has always been alone since she was sensible, and she bears any setbacks alone, so her character is extremely stubborn, and she wants to solve everything by herself.

And at that moment, the first thing she thought of was not how to persuade Luo Di to protect her people, but she was worried about a question: If Luo Di didn't ask, should she secretly leave the team and go back alone?

In retrospect, she was ashamed of her thoughts. But then came the kind of "peace of mind" that she had never experienced before—with the support of Roddy, she found that her mood was always relaxed, and even sleeping at night was no longer as difficult to sleep as before.

"Okay, let's go back and rest first, get a good night's sleep, and leave tomorrow morning. ”

Roddy wanted to discuss the "job change" with Nata, but she obviously couldn't think about it now, so Roddy didn't say anything more, and let the two go back to their bedrooms to rest, while she went to the desk, took out the parchment, and began to write a letter to Angmar...

"When dealing with insatiable people, the only way to solve the problem is the most primitive way. ”

While Roddy pondered how to deal with the nobles of Ivta, a mysterious ritual was quietly going on in a valley at the southwestern end of the kingdom.

It is only about 400 miles away from the royal city of Ignaz, and only 300 miles away from the "Temple", the core of the "Rosiractic"—a distance that is not close in this day and age, but it is not safe for the "Pit Viper Cross".

However, Leonards Canyon is remote and sparsely populated, since the unification of the Karen Kingdom, there have been a total of three lords here, and these unlucky people have all moved away because the land has no value, so that the current "Leonards Canyon" has completely become a "no man's land", and the center is even more uninhabited.

Wang Cheng was not interested in exploring this place, and the "Rossicrucian" could not exterminate this kind of place even if they exterminated the infidels, so the existence of this hidden valley was never known.

And in the depths of this labyrinthine canyon, a large circular altar is slowly scattering a soft light.

More than a dozen black-robed clergymen were chanting incantations in low voices, and in the center of the altar, which was more than twenty meters in diameter, was a black, one-man tall stone tablet with a non-uniform appearance. Around it, there were more than thirty glittering magic crystals, their size was huge, and their value far exceeded those "treasures" that could be seen on auction houses on the market.

These magic crystals obviously belong to high-level or even top-level demonic beasts, and if you are more specific, the former owners of these magic crystals are all "snake" demonic beasts.

The sacrifice had been going on for an hour, but the black-robed Shadow Priests were not tired, but their eyes were full of enthusiasm and excitement: they could all see that the prismatic stone tablet in the center of the altar had already appeared a small floating phantom like a python entwined.

"Hum—"

As the spell became more and more high, the vague and entangled snake shadow seemed to become clear, and the originally solid stone tablet seemed to have a slight crack with the shaking of the snake shadow, as if a group of colorful snakes wanted to break the protection of this stone tablet.

However, after the spell continued for half an hour, the snake shadows did not make any more progress - the black-robed mages stopped casting spells, and one by one they gasped and looked at the rock-solid stone tablet with tired faces.

Among them, an old man who looked like a leader sighed, waved his hand, and said, "Continue tomorrow." ”

His words were commands, and the rest of the people immediately bowed respectfully, and then silently withdrew from the altar - after everyone had left, the old man looked at the altar covered with magic crystals, shook his head and sighed, "It's still a little bit off... If Kevin had succeeded, perhaps the staff would have been awakened. ”

Roddy, who was thousands of miles away, would not have known that Kevin, the mercenary leader and "executioner" he had killed in the Silent Forest, would be the proud protégé of the Cardinal of the "Pit Viper Cross"!

"Lord Goethe, news from the Brill Forest. ”

A black-robed mage came over to report on the battle, and in front of the cardinal, all the members of the Viper Cross bowed their heads deeply, not even daring to look at the old man.

"The Rosicrucius squad is currently in the ascendancy, they are dismantling the team we have deployed, and at the expected rate, it may take another month for them to clear the chess pieces on the outskirts of the forest. ”

"This is a little faster than expected, with a high-level magician leading the team?"

Goethe's gaze looked at the center of the altar, a little absent-minded.

"My lord, the front line says that there seems to be a strong team led by a priest there, and some of the teams that could have been able to stand in the way have been defeated by them - that priest has a nickname, 'White Scythe'..."

"Oh, young people always like to use such exaggerated nicknames. ”

The old man waved his hand, "These arrogant young people... It doesn't matter if they bounce for a few days, the end result is the same anyway. ”

"Yes, sir. ”

The other party took the order, leaving Goethe alone in front of the altar to ponder the current plans of the "Pit Viper Cross".

The outside world did not know that the "Pit Viper Cross" at this time did not use all its resources to confront the "Rosicrucian", and those so-called "conflict events" were actually just a cover to attract attention, but the real target was the obelisk in front of Goethe's eyes...

This is a "big gamble" promoted by the Pope - they want to use the power of the snake crystal to awaken the "Viper's Kiss" staff inherited from the first pope at the beginning of the sect, and use the power of this artifact to restore the influence of the sect and change the pattern of religion in this country!

And the "pit viper's kiss", known as the "artifact", was in the stone tablet in front of Goethe at this time... In order to open it, it is necessary to use the power of the snake crystal to break through the prohibition on the outside of the stone tablet.

This step is a test for the owner of the artifact: if you don't even have the level to break the shield, it means that everyone is not qualified to use this "artifact" - obviously, Goethe and the others have been working hard for weeks to break through the prohibition brought by it, and even exhausted the mages from prostration.

The quality and quality of the crystal determined the difficulty of breaking through the ban, so Goethe was obsessed with Kevin's death - if he had been able to bring the spar of the Serpent King Sakya, I am afraid that now the sect would not have to sacrifice so many believers to buy more time to awaken the staff...

"Who the hell killed Kevin?"

Whenever he had spare time, Goethe always lamented the death of his apprentice – but with that came a little hidden cruelty...

"Whoever it is, they will have to pay for it. ”