8 Investigating the Mystery

To the southwest of the town, in the mountains near the coastline, there is a narrow canyon. It is said to be a canyon, but it is nothing more than a narrow passage between two mountain ranges, and the mountains on either side are not high, nor steep, let alone steep. This canyon runs more than 100 kilometers from north to south, so it is named "Changling", and the entrances and exits at the north and south ends are called "South Changling Pass" and "North Changling Pass".

Theoretically, Long Ridge was the shortest road between the town of Windrun and the east coast of the central empire, but no one or caravans had ever taken this road, mainly because it was inaccessible and there were no towns or villages at the north and south entrances and exits, which would cause an unanswered dilemma if something happened in the canyon. The caravans of the Sprelet Empire would not consider this route for safety, not to mention the fact that there was a more convenient sea transport than land transportation. As wanted criminals, Milo and Erin can also take this path with confidence, because the Sprelet Imperial army will hardly set foot here, and even if there are agents to arrest them, they will need to weigh up against the town guard.

After setting off on February 5, Milo and his party and more than 300 soldiers under his command had already passed through the North Changling Pass and entered the Changling Gorge.

The main concern for crossing the Long Ridge Gorge was a possible ambush, but this did not affect the march due to the undulating terrain of the hills on both sides. However, there was a series of things that caused the march to be delayed - and that was Erin's musketeers.

The musketeers were equipped with a large number of flintlock muskets, and although there was an epoch-making change from the arquebus, there were still problems such as parts falling off and loose, so every time she rested, she had to spend a lot of time repairing these muskets that had been worn out during the march, and Erin was the only one who could repair this weapon.

A lot of maintenance work added a lot of pressure to Erin, but fortunately, Milo's timely companionship made her tired feel a lot less, and the relationship between the two warmed up a lot. However, the delay in the march could not be changed, and in this way, the original plan to meet Kelan and others at the Nanchangling Pass on the evening of the 8th had to be postponed until the early morning of the 9th.

On the night of 8 February, when Irene repaired her last musket, she was exhausted, and she could not care about her image, leaning against a rock, squinting and preparing to rest.

Milo crept over and draped her in a blanket in case the stone was too cold to make her uncomfortable, which still slightly alarmed Erin.

"Oh, thank you." Erin woke up a little and understood Milo's intentions, "You're tired from traveling, so rest early." ”

"You are, you've worked hard these past few days, you've done so much for the guards, you see you're tired." Melo said with a wry smile, his words revealing concern, and he leaned against the rock and sat down beside Irene.

Erin put her head on Milo's shoulder, her eyelids still drooping, and she said, "I'm still too willful, but I still want to go with you." I'm afraid you'......"

Erin didn't seem to finish her words, but her voice stopped, and Milo tilted her head, and found with her peripheral vision: Erin was already asleep, her gentle snort sounded rhythmically, and the girl's youth couldn't resist the exhaustion and sleepiness. Since Erin's head was resting on Milo's shoulder, he didn't want to move himself to wake Erin, and still leaned against the rock, maintaining the position he had sat down.

Snow Dog came to Milo softly, and when he saw that Erin had fallen asleep, he motioned to Milo, "She needs to rest." Milo nodded and asked the Snow Dog what was the matter with her eyes, and the other party pointed to the southern sky.

Melo looked in the direction of the Snow Dog's finger - under the southern sky, a trembling yellow line divided the sky, and the bottom was gray and yellow, and all the night and scenery were obscured by yellow sand. He clearly remembered that when he had just sat here with Erin, it was still a deep blue sky. For a moment, as if deliberately preventing people from reacting, the sand and dust suddenly appeared and swept across as if by magic...... But in fact, the yellow sand showed no signs of approaching at all, but stayed there, as if waiting, more like a warning.

When dust obscures the sky, chaos follows. The thought of countless sand spirits waiting for an opportunity in the dust sent chills down the spine. Although the sandstorm is nothing new, and people's fear of it has long since disappeared, when this sandstorm mixed with the strangeness of the desperate desert and the ruthless and ferocious killing of the sand spirits came, fear came back to people's hearts.

"Have you seen this before?" The snow dog gestures to Melo.

Melo shook her head.

"Are you scared?"

Melo nodded.

Even though the "undead of Toum City" are just ordinary people, he doesn't think he has a chance of winning against unknown enemies.

Before you know it, everyone is asleep, except for the soldiers who are on the night watch. Mello also fell asleep and had a terrible dream - the blue-eyed, dark-skinned man threatened to break him up with Erin......

When dawn finally arrived on February 9, Melo woke up with a sore shoulder—Erin was still asleep, in the same position she had been in the same position she had been last night. He looked south, and the sand and dust had disappeared and returned to its original form. On the other half, the crimson morning glow filled the eastern sky, and Milo had heard other veterans say more than once that it was the color of blood and that there must have been a killing in the vicinity—he was a little worried about Kolan's side.

Erin moved, slowly opening her eyes, "Ah...... Is it dawn......" She soon found herself leaning against Milo, who was smiling at her, "Mmmm, I'm well rested, don't worry." ”

Breakfast was simply eaten, and the guards stepped up their march because they had missed their trip.

Erin had recovered her spirits and continued to check the equipment of the Musket Squad soldiers along the way, but Milo advised her not to push herself too hard, drawing a mockery from many of the soldiers.

By near noon, they could already see Kolan's improvised camp, no smoke, apparently not wanting to reveal their location - but to whom?

It wasn't until Milo and the others finally joined up with Kelan that they saw the bloody scene, Milo's premonition and worry were not wrong, Kelan's camp was attacked-

- Attacked by djinn.

"It's good to have this ...... Belch...... The Administrator is here," said one of the guards who followed Kolan, with trepidation, "or we'll all die here." He then pointed to the two corpses of the djinn that had been cut off not far away, neatly arranged.

Everyone understood what it meant to face the two djinns, but neither Klan nor his entourage were injured. "The librarian killed them......" the guard continued, "and when we saw the djinn, we were so scared that we couldn't move our legs, but she was able to move between the two big guys with ease, it was amazing!" ”

After listening to these terrifying descriptions, combined with the terrifying expressions on their descriptions, and the corpses of the two djinns, everyone's hearts couldn't help but raise their throats, but Koran Dutved, who perfectly defused the attack, was calm and calm, and people couldn't help but secretly admire this battle mage.

"Hey, it's good that everyone wasn't hurt, otherwise I would have blamed myself for a long time." Kelan responded to the concern and questioning of Milo and his party one by one, without the slightest arrogance and praise, but simply recounted the process of the attack: on the night of the 7th, two wandering djinn found the campfire of Kelan and others, and attacked without saying anything, but fortunately, the patrolling guards found it in time, and Kelan easily solved the enemy without waiting for the guards to react.

One person to solve two djinns, an unbelievable record, but just like this, it is really in front of you.

Nightfinch and Erin examined the djinn's wounds - only one, and the blow was fatal. "It's a wound from a katana," said Erin, who had introduced Milo to the Dragon Empire's signature weapon in the village of Dizzy, "and I didn't know that Kran was using this weapon." ”

"The incision is flat and looks like it's grinding quickly." Nightfinch said that she looked at the djinn's wounds, which were neatly cut and did not leak disgusting djinn blood. "But she only has that stick by her side, and she may be even more terrible than a wind chime."

"But how did the djinn end up here?" Erin turned her gaze away, no longer looking at the hideous wound.

"A few years ago, when they were completely defeated, a few djinn hid, some hid in the mountains or forests, all of which were sparsely populated, look at the sand in their toes, they could fill the rice bowl when they pulled it out, it is estimated that these two were originally hidden in the desperate desert, oh no, it is the edge ......"

"Shaling forced them out." Erin went on to say that she could also deduce the conclusion, and Nightfinch nodded.

"Thank you for protecting the Guard." On the other side, Milo was thanking Kelan and learning about Sha Ling's situation, "What are the results of your investigation?" ”

"Hey, the results of the investigation are somewhat surprising, that is, the sandstorm weather that occurred at night is not real, but a kind of 'illusion' magic." Kelan said unhurriedly.

Hearing this important message that "the dust is not real", Melo wanted to interject to ask a question, but she held back and waited for Koran to continue.

"I guess...... There are a few magicians, at least ten or more, who create this piece of sand and dust to cover the sand spirits from attacking the humans, not so much as a cover, but a reminder or warning, and the slow expansion of the sand and dust to the north is actually the caster moving north, and the 'illusion' of the sand and dust is also moving with them as the center. And Sha Ling is easier to explain, puppet magic is just that, but the number is too large, and there may be a lot of spellcasters manipulating. Koran put his hand to his forehead and said in thought.

"Then these sand and dust 'illusions' and sand spirits can't appear in the daytime?" Milo asked, puzzled.

Kelan thought for a moment and said, "It can appear during the day." Although Milo didn't ask, they both understood what the new question was: why did Shaling and Sanddust only appear at night?

"Oh, there's another thing I'm concerned about," Koran continued, picking up a roll of paper with some time information recorded on it, "You see, this is the report that the viscount gave me in the past two years, and at the beginning it was a few sporadic cases, which did not attract people's attention, and the most serious of them was only an attack on an Imperial army squad responsible for supporting Ansesen City, the number of which was less than ten people......" Milo looked at the data, he contacted Erin's experience, and deduced that Kelan said that the Imperial army was attacked, It was the one that Erin investigated.

"But from this time on, the number of reports has increased dramatically, and the loss of victims has increased." Koran pointed to a point in time - October 1805 in the imperial calendar, when Milo and the others were sheltering from the limelight in the Dragongon Empire.

"I suspect that since about October, Shaling suddenly gained such a powerful force that it has developed into what it is today. As for why the villagers of the two villages disappeared inexplicably, I couldn't do anything about it, it was really bizarre. After saying that, Kelan lowered her head and began to ponder, Sha Ling's matter was obviously beyond her comprehension.

"Thank you, Kolan." Milo thanked her, and Kelan was already grateful for being able to do this, especially the point in time when Kolan finally found out, and the hint of the disappearance of the villagers in the two villages, which reminded him subconsciously of a person......

But it was too early to say anything, and Merlo didn't want to bother thinking about it, he looked up and looked south—there was a clear sky and no dust.

Kran saw that Milo was looking into the distance in a daze, and thought that his distraction was a kind of admiration for himself, and that was exactly what happened.

"By the way, Kolan, there's something I've always wanted to ask you, you mentioned when we first met."

Kelan's eyes lifted for a moment, recalling the scene when they first met on the Pearl, and asked rhetorically, "Hey, is it about Irene?" ”

Mello nodded admiringly, and said, "You judged that Erin was wronged at the time, but I always felt that you seemed to know some hidden secrets...... " He didn't continue, and he didn't want to trouble Klan.

Kelan smiled helplessly and said, "Actually, it doesn't hurt to talk to you, I know the truth because-

"—I know Sylvia Anselson."