The next morning, the sun crossed the horizon on time, and the morning breeze swept across the sparkling lake.

"Jeanne, why are you still sleeping? It's time for us to hunt! Viklily saw that Jeanne was still in her sleeping bag and hurried over, and she felt a little strange, she had the impression that Jeanne would always be the first to get up in the tribe, and that she was already going hunting at this time.

"Jeanne? How do you sleep so soundly? Viklily saw that Jeanne was still unmoved, and quickly reached out and shook her.

Jeanne's body wasn't as strong as it used to be, and her muscles were limp as if even her bones were about to melt. Vikily quickly turned her over, but Jeanna's skin turned iron blue like a dead man, brown blood spilled from the corners of her eyes, and the pillow was soaked with liquid, leaving a dull mark.

"Jeanne!" Vicilico hurried to check her vital signs, her pulse ...... A little disordered but fairly powerful, breathing ...... Not too optimistic, although she gasped heavily, it wasn't a good thing, pupils ......

Vikily quickly ripped a piece of cloth from the carriage and wiped the liquid from the corners of Jeanna's eyes.

"That's spider cloth! Very expensive! Florie hurriedly shouted at Viklico.

"Shut up!" Vicky shouted angrily.

"Well, it's important to save people...... businessman shrugged his shoulders and lowered his head. Deraeno heard the commotion and quickly dropped the barrel full of water and ran over to the lake.

"Jeanne? What's wrong with her? ”

"Look at this ......," Vikli said, flipping her fingers open Jeanne's eyelids, which were no longer a clever and starry eyelid, but a vague, bloodshot pupil.

"What's going on?" Draenor asked eagerly.

"It's snake venom, the aftermath of the previous Apep snake." Vicky clenched her fists and slammed it on the carriage board, "Damn, I knew something was wrong with this little girl, I should have insisted on asking yesterday!" ”

"Snake venom?" Draenor couldn't believe his ears, he had seen the venom of the Apep snake with his own eyes, and it would rot immediately if he touched the slightest touch of his body, but why did it take a whole day to attack?

"Yes, snake venom, I should have reminded her before, the Apep snake not only has a corrosive venom, but its blood is also poisonous, but it is not strongly corrosive, it is a chronic poison that will slowly attack after entering the human body!" Vikily gritted her teeth in chagrin and said, "It must have been snake blood splashed in her eyes, damn it, I overestimated her, I shouldn't have let her take the risk before!" ”

Jeanne has been poisoned by chronic poison, and Draenor herself regrets not completing the most dangerous mission for her before, but now she is dying, and there is no way to save people by regretting it! But they have already come to the border, and Degas is on the other side of the lake, and it is a fool's dream to turn around and rush to Xingli Xizhou now.

"There's no way, Xingli Xizhou is too far away, and we can't rush back in a short time. But Degas's medical conditions are not bad, at least he has to find a way to slow down the spread of the poison first. Viclily walked over to Jeanne and carefully carried her into the carriage with Draenau.

"Grori, get in the car! We ran along the lake towards the castle opposite! "Vicky can command the cowardly businessman. He froze in fright at the sight of the poisoning, and when he heard Viklico's shout, he jumped into the carriage without saying a word, and hurried towards the red castle with the reins raised.

Although her memories are a little vague, Vikily remembers the castle, it was called Characht Castle, and it was once an alchemy academy that had to be banned due to the increasing blood addiction of knowledge-hungry alchemists. Although she hadn't been here for more than seventy years, Vikily knew that there was another alchemist who had stayed because she couldn't give up the beauty of the place, a kind and noble alchemist who had rescued countless wounded hunters. As long as she can help, Jeanne has a glimmer of hope!

The carriage sped towards the gates of Fort Characht.

The castle has no walls or a front yard, and the main body of the building is on top of the gateposts. Although not as big as the Western-style mansion of Desville Manor, the building is more like a tower for looking up at the sky than a castle. Pointed arches cut off its mysterious interior, red masonry inlays into the tower's corners, metal pillars arch upwards like ribs, and guard-like spirits and beasts carved at the junctions of each corner.

The most interesting thing is the top of the tower, which is a tower made of colorless glass, like a cone-shaped prism, which makes people imagine that it peeps into the vast sea of stars through the veil of the sky in countless dark nights.

"Is anyone there? We were a passing hunter and our friend was bitten by a snake and she was in a bad condition! Can you open the door and let us in!? Vickyli slammed her fist against the oak door until the side of her little finger was bleeding and there was no response.

"Damn, this guy is definitely in there, he should be an old fool!" Vikirico kicked on the door in anger, and who knew that the two stone statues by the doorpost turned slowly and opened their mouths to aim at Vikirico.

"What are you going to do? Is it a trap? Vikiriko suddenly became vigilant, and she stared at the stone statue on her left hand and slowly took a few steps back.

"Knock three times!" A hoarse voice suddenly came from inside the statue. Vickyly didn't understand what it was trying to say for a moment.

"Wooden doors! Three knocks are all you need to do! Are you behind your ears? The statue shouted loudly at Vikirico, and even though she covered her ears, she was still dizzy from the sound. The stone statue suddenly closed its mouth, and the door slowly opened, revealing the interior of the castle.

It was a white tiled path, and dim candlelight stretched along both sides of the brick path toward the staircase, and a stone statue stood beside the handrail of the staircase.

"Bring her in!" The statue shouted to the crowd at the door, and Vicilico motioned for Draenor to pick up Jeanne and walk forward with her.

"Glory, just leave the carriage here." Vickyli can ask Glori to come along.

"Huh? No need, it's better to put me here! Glori saw the dark hall in front of her, and wanted to hide in the carriage.

"Well, it's going to get dark, whatever you want." With that, the two of them walked towards the stairs with Jeanne. Glori looked back at the already dark sky, the gloomy surface of the lake made his scalp tingle, and he quickly jumped out of the carriage and walked in with him.

Vikiriko stood on the edge of the staircase as the statue suddenly turned and moved down a metal track up the stairs. Although it is a little suspicious, the current situation does not allow for so much consideration, and if there is the slightest possibility, Viklico must save Jeanne.

The group followed the stone statue up the staircase, and as they ascended the final staircase, an expansive library came into view. Bookshelves made of oak line the library, each resting on a triangular ladder made of metal. The statue moved all the way to a workbench in the library window, and Draenor could see that the workbench was almost identical in its décor and objects to the room in Hecheng, except for a lot of stains on the tabletop.

Dragenor hugged Jeanne tightly in his arms, and he relaxed for a moment, as if he felt all the weight of his life in this crook of his arm.

A staggering footstep came from behind the bookshelf, and everyone quickly turned around, only to see an old woman lying on her back. The old woman didn't even look at Viklico, except for a mummy-withered finger that pointed to the bed surrounded by instruments on the side of the workbench.

"Put that girl there." She spoke in a raspy voice like a crow.

Delaeno hesitated for a moment, then walked over to the bed and gently placed Jeanne on the bed. For some reason, as he passed by the old woman, he noticed her strange dress, which seemed to have been seen somewhere.

The old woman picked up a round lens from the table and stuck it in the deep eye socket, and she carefully studied Jeanne's eyes with brown liquid.

"Hunter? Running so far from Hecheng to hunt? The old woman glanced around the crowd with suspicious eyes.

"How ......unfortunate it is to be poisoned by the worm of Apepe," she said, picking up a syringe from the table without a needle and extracting some liquid from the corner of Jeanne's eye.

"How do you know we're from Hecheng?" Draenor asked the old woman warily.

Ignoring Draenor's question, the old woman poured the liquid into a glass container of yellow powder and placed it on the candle to heat it unhurriedly.

"Old woman, our friend is really dangerous now, we are not hunters, I am really sorry for lying to let you open the door before, but her breathing and heartbeat are getting weaker and weaker, we have no way to detoxify her, I beg you to think of a way!" Vicky folded her hands and pleaded with the old woman.

"Can't detoxify? The fire of white refining can be concocted at will, and you can't make the antidote to the snake venom of Apep? The old woman glanced at Viklico with slanted eyes. This sentence made Vickyrie's heart tremble suddenly, at present, the only person who knows about the White Refining Fire is herself except for Draenor, Igor, and Deshmeg, what is the origin of this old woman?

"Listen to the old lady, we don't know what you mean by 'White Refining Fire', but people lying in front of you right now could die at any time, we really hope you can help this poor girl." Draenor said to the old woman.

"Don't pretend to be garlic, it's not the first time we've met, don't worry, I won't say anything about it. As for this little girl, I'll find a way to detoxify her. The old woman turned around and sucked out the warm liquid with a strange dropper, aiming it at Jeanne's nostrils and pouring the liquid into it. Jeanne suddenly ran out of breath and began to struggle.

"Old woman! What the hell do you want to do? Seeing this, Draenor rushed forward and reached out to grab the old woman's arm.

"It's not the beast's turn to speak! Either just shut up and let me help her, or hold her and fuck me out! The old woman suddenly shouted at Draenor in a loud voice, and the momentum came at Draenor, causing him to freeze where he was.

Vicilico stepped forward and pulled Draenor's arm back, signaling Draenor to calm down with a calm look.

"This is a blood booster specifically for Apep snake venom, which can rejuvenate her blood in a short period of time, thus suppressing the poison. But I don't have any antidote at hand now, and if the toxicity wears off, she might go blind. The old woman looked at Jeanne, who was slowly calming down, and said.

"Snake liver!" Vikiriko suddenly shouted, she took off her backpack and pulled out a huge dead snake and placed it in front of the old woman.

"This is a dead snake brought out of the snake's nest before, since it has been poisoned by blood, there should be something in the liver of the Apep snake that can neutralize this chronic poison!" With that, Vikily put the dead snake on the old woman's workbench.

"Hmm...... is worthy of the little girl who concocted the 'White Refining Fire'. With a strange smile on the old woman's face, she walked to the workbench, put on a pair of leather gloves, and cut open the belly of the dead snake with scissors.

"That's right, snake liver will produce its own anti-blood inhibitors, but this snake is too small, the dose may not be enough, but we still have to try it first." As she spoke, the old woman took out a globular gland from the snake's liver, rinsed it with water, pounded it into a meat sauce, and heated it in a container made of quartz.

"Little girl, come and give me a hand." The old woman called out to Viklico, and she hurriedly walked to the workbench to cooperate with her work.

Draenor watched as Vicherco expertly manipulated the strange instruments, lighting the bottle and shaking the container, and she and the old woman worked together perfectly, a scene that reminded Draenor of what he saw during his near-death experience.

Less than five minutes later, the old woman threw the black powder into a clear glass, stirred it, and sucked it into a syringe, and Vicchily walked with her to Jeanne's bedside.

"God bless this poor boy." As she spoke, she plunged the needle into the vein of Jeanne's arm, and the black potion was injected into her body.

Everyone waited anxiously in the library, especially Draenau, who had been at Jeanne's bedside since the injection, a sight that reminded Vickily of the myth she had told before.

"Well, it's still going to be enlightened." Vickily held a heavy book in her hand, staring at Draeno's trusty figure with satisfaction.

After about six hours, Jeanne finally opened her eyes, and she felt that it was pitch black, but for some reason she felt an inexplicable sense of relief, probably because she smelled the scent of Draenor.

"Draenor ...... Mr? Jeanne stretched out her left hand and groped in the air, and a pair of rough, strong hands suddenly grasped it.

"Jeanne, great, you're still alive!"

The crowd walked towards the hospital bed, only to see that Jeanne's face was bloodied again, and she slowly sat up, facing Draenor.

"Mr. Delaenau! You didn't break your promise! Jeanne's eyes welled up with tears, and she hugged Draenor and sobbed.

"Don't be nervous, it's okay Jeanne, I said I would save you no matter what happens." Something surged in Draenor's chest, like a warm sweet wine, which made people feel extremely happy and reassured.

Jeanne also felt that all this was a reflection of the myth of the lake, a predestined guardian, and her patron saint was the tall and reliable man in her arms.

"Well, for Jeanne's sake, I'll give you the credit this time." The corners of Viklico's mouth turned up and she turned and walked towards the old woman's room.