Dusk had arrived, the cold wind was raging, and there was a restless noise in the dense jungle. In front of the cramped village gate, the darkness eroded the flickering firelight, and the branches and leaves also gathered strange shadows, and the long night was stretching its claws to surround all the gaps.

I heard the sound of fallen leaves shattering under my feet, and my wrist in my right hand was like ice.

"Run—"

There was a whisper with a broken voice in my ears, and in the oppressive air, I turned my stiff neck, and vaguely saw the figure on the edge of my eye socket slowly shrinking,

"We have to run! No, or they would-"

She screamed, her voice stretched into a thin thread of fear, and it snapped away from me, turning around and trying to rush into the bushes beside her.

"Wait!"

I shouted, raising my hand and grabbing its shoulder at the moment when it was about to run away, but at this moment, the brute force that erupted from Rin's body could not be stopped by me. Seeing that it rushed out half a meter without hindrance, I stumbled and almost didn't fall to the ground, I could only throw out the last hole card,

"Don't you want to see him again!"

As soon as these words came out, I knew that it had worked, and she was immediately nailed to the spot like a piece of wood, trembling and maintaining a forward stance, and I gasped for breath on the sidelines, waiting for its next move.

I'm still torn between a rock and a hard place, but I've figured out what I'm going to do now. In fact, from the first time the villagers made that strange move, I found that for some reason, the identity of the people in these people's hearts is extremely special, and they should not act rashly against us. And maybe I can use this relationship to investigate the whereabouts of the girl and the girl, and even find the clues behind all this, so no matter what, I must not let Aki leave here!

Thinking of this, I hurriedly added,

"Do you think if Jue doesn't find you after he comes back, will you be able to see him again?!"

Suddenly, the slight tremor on her body stopped abruptly, and she slowly turned her head, her mouth half-open, and her eyes were empty and terrifying. But in a moment, this look disappeared from its face, leaving only overflowing sadness,

"Good...... I stay, I will stay. ”

She lowered her head and stood in place, her face unclear behind her long waterfall hair, and only a few sobs lingered around her—looming and piercing the marrow. I can't understand what it meant by her decision, and I can't appreciate what it felt like in those days when it was treated as a monster, but I knew that from the moment Jue left ten years ago, it lived to meet, and this sadness only faded a little when I saw Jue.

It's just that that kind of thing will never be possible.

In the boundless silence, a voice sounded from behind me,

"You're guilty."

Puff –

My heart seemed to skip a beat, and the strength of my body was instantly withdrawn, and the next second my body suddenly went limp, and I fell straight to the ground.

Dust was falling from the ears, and the crowd was noisy. I felt the warm blood gushing out of the wound, flowing through the eye sockets, and finally dripping onto the gray earth, blooming and disappearing, leaving only a lingering stench.

My eyes were blankly open, but there was nothing around me.

I was scared, I was desperate, I wanted to run, I wanted to roar, I wanted to prove my existence like a madman, but in exchange, I only had the consciousness of gradually moving away.

A hole was broken in the dark curtain, revealing a white light, and the light floated from the abyss, getting closer and closer, it was a person, a girl dressed in white.

Fear alternates with joy, fear with peace of mind, am I laughing? Is that a tear? I reached out and touched the girl's coat, but all I could do was a small speck of smoke.

At this time, the girl's face gradually became clear, as if she had taken off a blurred lens, condensed into a delicate face, extremely familiar, extremely unfamiliar, I held my breath - it was the face of the Aya.

She spoke, her voice like a ghostly voice:

"You're guilty."

Then, everything was empty.

"I'm not!"

Screaming, I opened my eyes, panting, something on my forehead, sticky and upsetting with sweat.

"it, my head! Ahh

After a while, the nerves began to work, and the damage to the body was sent to the brain quickly, and for a moment I bared my teeth and screamed like a child in a hospital room with an injection.

"You're awake?! You're finally awake! Doctor, doctor! ”

I took a moment out of the painful bombardment, squinted at the door, and caught a glimpse of a pale green flying to the door, talking excitedly.

"Holy Maiden, please take a step back first, and wait for the old man to go in and take a look."

"Oh, good! You come in, you hurry in! ”

"Thank you, Holy Maiden."

Then, she carefully climbed from the foot of the bed to the other side, and stood aggrievedly in the gap between the wall and the edge of the bed.

"What...... Saint? ”

It seemed that I couldn't fully control my actions, and I muttered unconsciously as I listened to the conversation at the door.

"Yes, the savior of the fern, the faith of mortals, the great and selfless—the Holy Maiden."

The sound of vicissitudes came, I tilted my head, let go of the hands holding my head, and at the same time an old man was also crossing the threshold, holding a candlestick and walking next to me,

"I'm the village doctor in this village, welcome to Wei Fern."

Wisdom and majesty are probably the first impression of this old man, although the long snow-white beard has hung down to his chest, and the wrinkles and spots are all over the face, but those piercing eyes have always revealed the will not to bow down to age.

"Lad, how do you feel now?"

Without waiting for me to answer, he hung the candlestick in his hand on the rusty iron hook beside him, and then calmly reached into the satchel at his waist, took out a thin dry leaf, crushed it, and sprinkled it into the water placed at the head of the bed.

"My head, it hurts, and I feel dizzy, it feels like I just saw something, something like a hallucination...... Something like that. ”

I frowned, and described my messy state 1510, while the old man nodded and listened while stirring the broken leaves in the water with a thin rod, and at last he burst out laughing.

"What are you laughing at, old man?! Isn't it fun?! ”

Although I couldn't express my dissatisfaction, she was just right to help me out.

"Hehe, Holy Maiden is angry."

When the old man answered, he didn't even turn his head to look at him,

"The old man just feels that his skill in making poison has become more and more sophisticated."

"Huh?"

I couldn't care about the pain in my body anymore, so I hurriedly glared at the old man and shouted,

"What poison?"

The old man stopped, held the solution in his hand in front of the flickering light, nodded with satisfaction, and then bowed slightly to Chao Yu and asked,

"Holy Maiden?"

It was watched by two people, and its expression was a little unnatural, it thought for a long time, and finally covered its face and whispered,

"You...... Tell him. ”

"Yes."

After receiving an affirmative answer, the old man smiled, put the cup in his hand aside, and then crossed his hands together naturally, and told me what had just happened,

"Young man, you must have seen that the one who followed you is not a simple character, to sum it up, you can understand her as our savior, or because of her, most of us have been able to survive in this cruel forest."

"Savior?"

I looked at her with a puzzled expression, but the latter didn't look like she knew more. The old man continued,

"It is not my turn to tell you the origin of the relationship between the Holy Maiden and us, after all, the High Priest has always wanted to inform you that the ceremony will be more formal, but before that, I can reveal some to you.

The Holy Maiden, who used to live in the Fern, was driven into the Holy Mountain due to the infestation of demons. Despite the ordeal, the blood unintentionally spilled by the Holy Maiden on the way stopped the demon's steps, and at the same time gave Wei Fern an incomparably noble gift! That's why we follow her all the way to the foot of the Holy Mountain! ”

When the old man said what he was excited about, he couldn't help but bow to him,

"This gift is—'Blight'!"

"This ...... Is it also a gift? ”

I shook my head in disbelief, but the sharp pain immediately shook me up.

"Hehe, I don't know what the place where you grew up, young man, but for the people of Wei Fern, this is the most precious holy grace."

He paused suddenly, and then lowered his voice in a dark voice,

"Do you think this cursed forest will stop growing?"

When I landed, a terrible thought sprouted in my own trouble, I looked at the old man's pupils that had been precipitated for countless years, and my hand unconsciously retracted into the quilt.

"You mean—"

"Yes!"

Before I could finish speaking, he preemptively confirmed my conjecture,

"It's harder than you think to live here!"

After speaking, the old man suddenly showed a strange smile, he bent down stiffly, lifted his trousers, I leaned over, only to find that under him was originally a calf, two wooden sticks tied to the left and the right.

"Lean ......"

I also sighed, and then asked the old man with some concern,

"I'm afraid it will take a long time for this to grow again, right?"

"Hehehehehe......"

The old man's hoarse laughter made me bristle,

"The Holy Maiden may not know it, but for us mortals, this is a permanent defect."

"Oh my God."

She covered her mouth, her expression exaggerated in shock.

"So, lad—"

Seeing that the effect had been achieved, the old man also stood up straight again on the edge of the bed, and said to me in a serious voice,

"This forest is alive, and its only desire is to eat flesh and blood! Whether it's vines, spikes, or poisonous mist, if you accidentally get hit, you'll forever become its fertilizer and rot in the ground! And even if you try your best to cut out a vacant lot, all your efforts will be wasted in a day and night. When there is no light, the growth is so fast that you can't imagine it.

And do you know what's the worst? It's food! At that time, people were crazy with hunger! But where is there anything to eat?! If you're lucky enough to find a non-poisonous fruit, or a crippled animal, you're unlucky...... Hehe, hehehehehe. ”

He kept staring at me as he said this, and this creepy feeling overshadowed the headache for a while,

"So, do you know how important the Holy Maiden is to us? It is because of her that we can get this stable living space, and we can even open up a few plots to grow some food. And you can't blame us for mistaking her for a threat. ”

At the end of the topic, the old man made a final summary. I had no choice but to pick up the water cup he handed me and pour down the slightly fishy liquid in it.

"Ah, wait."

But when I wiped my mouth, I suddenly realized that something was wrong.

"Didn't you say that the ground can make the forest wither, so how can you grow food?"

"Oh, this one, because—"

Just as the old man was about to explain, a disheveled young man suddenly flashed out of the door, he was so excited that he didn't even have time to salute him.

"Lord Fern! Lord Fern! Something is wrong! The village guard caught the two of them on the edge of the field area in Xier! ”

The old man, who had always been calm, was actually a little excited, and he hurriedly asked,

"Who?"

"A little girl! And a brute! ”

Suddenly! My heart pounded together! The water glass he was holding in his hand rolled to the ground and smashed into a pile of pieces! But the old man didn't care at all, he limped to the door, and asked anxiously at the young man,

"What did the village chief say? Do you want to stay, or do you ————?"

The young man interrupted him with a beaming expression, his expression of joy almost like he had won the jackpot!

But what he said next almost didn't make me pass out again!

"Hey! The village chief said that today is a day of great joy! Chop it into pieces, of course! Plant it in the ground! ”

"What ?!!"

I yelled! Lift the quilt and jump straight out of bed! The young man looked at me from behind the door, like he was looking at a retarded person!

"What are you going to do?!! TMD?"

After I screamed hysterically, the whole room fell into a dead silence! Only the old man sighed as if he had suddenly realized, and smiled at me,

"The old man mentioned Tian earlier,

I didn't say that I was growing food! ”