In terms of sprint speed, the spirit rider may not be much faster than the average horse, but there is one thing that the spirit rider cannot compare with the ordinary horse, that is, the spirit rider will never get tired. Pen~Fun~Pavilion www.biquge.info As long as the rider on the horse can provide aura replenishment for the spirit rider, the spirit rider can always run at maximum speed. Of course, if you are an ordinary person, it is necessary to stop and rest from time to time, but that is much faster than the average horse.

The three of them checked out and left the inn early in the morning, and ran to noon in one go, and they were already close to the outer area of Shanglin Town.

Huge Hai rubbed his stomach and asked Tianyou: "How far is this? Why don't we stop and find a place to eat first?

Zhao Gongming also said on the side: "Yes, God, the skin on my legs has worn out the saddle, it really hurts, why don't you take a breath and let me take some medicine?"

"Alright then, let's go over there and get some rest. "A short distance ahead, a hundred paces from the main road, there is a large area of high ground, and the surrounding trees seem to have been cleared, and it looks like a place for people to rest.

There are many places like this in the Shenzhou Continent, and there are one or two places on both sides of the road from time to time, which are basically gradually widened by the business travelers themselves in the past. After all, this place is not as densely populated as on the earth, and almost all of the towns are wild, not to mention super wolves, tigers and leopards, and it is even more dangerous to encounter monsters. Therefore, in order to have a relatively safe place to rest, business travelers will spontaneously make some such resting places on the way. There is no need for any facilities, just clear the surrounding trees and vegetation, so that the vision can be broadened and it is easy to guard and defend.

Following the direction pointed by Tianyou, the three of them soon came to the top of the dirt slope with a lot of road surface on the high place. The number around here has been cut down, and it is higher than the surrounding ground, and it is indeed a good place to rest. However, when the three of them really went up the slope, they were all stunned.

The expected open area was true, but it was not suitable for resting, because the top of the slope was clearly the graveyard of the nearby townspeople. There are almost more than 300 mounds of large and small scattered on the open land of several acres on the top of the whole slope, and it looks like the surrounding tidying is quite clean, and there should be people who come to worship from time to time.

Sitting in the cemetery to rest, there are few people on the earth who can do this kind of thing, let alone this Shenzhou Continent where demons and monsters really exist?

"That...... Actually, I can hold on a little longer, or let's go to the town and eat some hot food, right?" Zhao Gongming had some weak suggestions.

Huge Hai also immediately echoed: "Yes, yes, in fact, I'm not really that hungry, so don't eat dry food." Go get something hot. Let's go to town. ”

Tianyou also knew why the two of them suddenly didn't want to rest, but he really didn't want to rest in the cemetery himself, so he held back a smile and said, "Then keep walking, it's not far from the town anyway." ”

When the two of them heard this, they immediately agreed: "Yes, yes, yes, it's not far away anyway, let's go quickly." ”

The three men on the spirit riders did not dismount anyway, and as soon as they pulled the reins, they immediately turned around and returned to the main road, and then galloped towards the town. Behind them, under the graveyard, the sound of bones colliding that gradually came alive gradually calmed down as the three of them walked away.

The trio, who didn't know what they had missed, quickly entered the town.

This Shanglin Town is much larger than the nameless town at the foot of Zixiao Palace Mountain, not only has a fairly good city wall, but it is also guarded by soldiers. Of course, these soldiers are actually an upgraded version of the villagers' joint defense team, not a real army.

There is no government in the neutral zone, and there are no particularly large cities, and they are basically clusters of villages and towns. There is no subordinate relationship between villages and towns, and there is no subordinate relationship, but it is more like the city-state system of Europe. The difference is that the "city-states" here are much smaller in size and much more numerous.

Because there is no unified management, each village and town will have its own defense measures in order to protect itself. Generally speaking, the villagers' joint defense team is a relatively common configuration, but it is generally not professional, and only arranges rotational patrols at ordinary times, and then gathers everyone to fight the enemy together in case of emergencies. There are not only city walls like Shanglin Town, but also soldiers with armor and knives guarding the door, which is quite rare. Generally, only very large towns or cities have this configuration.

Of course, there was a big difference between these soldiers and officers and soldiers, because they were all hired by the townspeople, and many of them were originally residents of the town. If you want to talk about training and equipment, it is not as good as those regular armies in the ten countries, but if you want to talk about courage and responsibility, it is much more than those armies. After all, these people are defending their own homes, and it is obviously impossible to say that they are not careful.

Because of the previous encounter, Zhao Gongming had learned from God to bless them and changed into a strong outfit, and now the three of them are not wearing the clothes of Zixiao Palace, and the three of them are riding horses and swords, so when they entered the town, they were stopped and asked about their intentions. Of course, not the kind of vicious questioning, but rather polite questioning. After all, this is just a militia organized by the residents of the town themselves, and it is impossible to compare with the regular city defense troops in the Ten Kingdoms in terms of confidence. What's more, there are many rangers and monks in the neutral zone, and ordinary people don't dare to provoke them, so it's normal to be polite.

The three of them briefly talked about the situation, and the guards immediately became more enthusiastic. Apparently these people also knew about the missing children, and for this reason they were specially assigned to take them to the mayor.

Speaking of which, the names of the village and city managers in the neutral zone can be described as strange, and there are all kinds of names. There are many people like Shanglin Town who are directly called the mayor, and in some places there are city owners, village owners, and even those who are directly called kings.

The main reason for this situation is that the residents of the neutral zone are basically fugitives from the ten countries, and these people have crossed the border to the neutral zone for various reasons.

For example, some villages and towns were originally bandits in the Ten Kingdoms, and they had no choice but to be surrounded and suppressed by the official army, and then the entire cottage ran to the neutral zone to settle down. What can the leader of a town like this call if he is not called the owner of the village?

Therefore, in this neutral zone, it does not matter what the name of the head of the village and town is, in some places the number one hundred and ten people dare to call the king, and in some big cities there are tens of thousands of people, among which the head is still only called the county order. Looking at the title of these heads of a place, it is more reliable to look at the scale of the town.

Although the real leader of Shanglin Town is called the mayor, he is actually a wealthy businessman. Almost one-third of the town is his yard, and the townspeople are either his helpers or the helpers' families, and almost the whole town revolves around his family anyway.

Along the way, Tianyou used his talent to talk a lot with the person who led the way, and he also understood the general situation.

The mayor's surname is Lin, and his family business is passed down from his ancestors, and he has lived here a long time ago, so he is an authentic local. On weekdays, the main source of income is a few caravans of considerable size, which travel between the borders of the ten countries. As for the internal ...... of the Honjin The Lin family hardly made any money from the townspeople, but was throwing money outside.

Since there was no government at all in the neutral zone, there were no landlords in practice. Anyway, there are mountains and forests everywhere, and if you have the strength to cultivate it yourself, you can farm it. The only problem is that jackals, tigers and leopards plus demons and monsters, and counting the occasional passing bandits, it is not a problem for ordinary people to farm, but safety is very problematic.

So the residents generally get together and then work together to help each other. And this Shanglin Town is the Lin family's family supporting the security of the entire town, and the soldiers outside the city gate and the guards patrolling the street are actually just Lin family members. The Lin family itself is also very kind, if the villagers do business, they will pay money every month, and if they farm the land, they will pay some grains, vegetables and fruits according to the harvest month, and the amount is not too much. If there is a public facility construction or something, then the Lin family will take the lead, and then the townspeople will contribute with money. It is said that the walls outside the town were built in this way.

Anyway, it sounds like life is pretty good in Shanglin Town, and every family is quite wealthy, God bless them all the way over and they haven't seen people in tattered clothes and yellow muscles. However, this phenomenon is actually quite common in the neutral zone, because there is no government in the neutral zone, so naturally there is no need to pay taxes. Of course, the local sects will charge a certain protection fee for their nearby spheres of influence, but the taxes are always much lower than those of the government. Therefore, except for some areas that are poorer because of the problems of the manager's mentality, most places are actually much richer than in the ten countries. After all, the biggest social problem in the neutral zone has never been the lack of food and clothing, but personal safety. Otherwise, the people of the Ten Kingdoms would not have endured high taxes rather than come to this neutral zone.

Tianyou and the three of them were directly introduced to the Lin family's mansion by the town's guards, and when they entered the door, someone went to notify the head of the Lin family, that is, the mayor of the town. Of course, the outside of the forester does not refer to the court official outside the main member, but a kind of honorific title for the rich and powerful. This kind of name is quite popular in the Shenzhou Continent anyway, which is slightly different from that on Earth.

The three of them did not come to ask the forester to do something, but to help with the errand, and this matter was related to their young son, so of course the forester ran over in a hurry. God blessed the three of them just sat down, and before the stool was covered with hot breathing, they heard a chaotic footsteps outside, and then saw a middle-aged man with a slightly round figure and a white and clean face trotting into the house under the support of the two bright and energetic pretending to be the house.

Following this person, there was an old woman outside who was supported by two maids and walked quickly, followed by a middle-aged man who looked quite capable, and looked like a housekeeper or something.

The person at the head didn't need to guess to know that it must be outside the forester.

"I don't know if the three immortals are coming, there is a loss of welcome, there is a loss of welcome!" Although the forester looked very anxious, the etiquette was quite thoughtful. The family member who broke away and hugged his fist and began to say hello.

Tianyou and Da Dahai also quickly stood up when they saw this posture, but Zhao Gongming was half a beat slower, and hurriedly followed when he saw Tianyou get up.

In fact, Tianyou and Panghai's time to join the Immortal Gate is too short, and it is said that Zhao Gongming is a normal reaction. Not to mention that this is a neutral zone that has no law and discipline and only relies on the power of the sect to maintain basic stability, even within the scope of the Ten Kingdoms, these monks are also a real privileged class. A person with a status like a forester may be a very powerful figure in the eyes of ordinary people, but in the eyes of monks, it is just a little money.

Of course, the reason why Zhao Gongming was not so polite was not because he was accustomed to the status of monks, but because he was originally the heir of the largest merchant family in the Qin State. For a businessman of the level of a forester, it is not so easy to meet him. How could he be so polite to such a person?

Of course, you are not afraid of power, but can only be said to be habitual. Tianyou has tasted the warmth and coldness of human affection over the years with Xiyan, so he has developed the habit of smiling at people and seeing the other party's reaction before responding. As long as others are polite to him, he will be polite to others and will never take the initiative to cause trouble.

Among the three, only Da Dahai was really a little panicked. Although this guy is very arrogant, he is only from a blacksmith family after all. With his previous identity, such a forester is really a great person. Although he is now a regular disciple of Zixiao Palace, and his future is limitless, after all, he has only joined for a short time, and he has not been down the mountain since he started, and the mountain is full of senior brothers and immortal elders who are higher than him, and he has not yet adapted to this identity change. So when he saw the forester taking the initiative to salute, he became a little cramped for a while. This is a common problem for small people to see big people. No way, who called you a little person.

The forester over there was really anxious, and after hurriedly saluting, he didn't wait for God to bless them to answer, and when he saw that he returned the salute, he immediately went straight to the point and said: "The three must be the immortals sent by Zixiao Palace, right? Thank you for the hard work of the three of you, my little child is saved now!"

"Yes, yes, the three immortals must save my grandson, the old man is here to thank you. ”

The old woman who came in with the forester said that she was about to kneel down and kowtow, how could God let the old man kowtow to him, and hurriedly stepped forward to support him.

"The old lady doesn't have to be like this. Now that I'm here, I'll do my best to help find your grandchild. As he spoke, he handed the old woman into the hands of the maid who stepped forward, and continued to persuade: "Don't worry, old lady, tell us about the situation first, and we can start looking for your grandson as soon as possible, right?"

"Yes, yes, the immortal is right. The old woman knew that this was the right matter, and hurriedly asked the forester next to her to introduce the situation. At this time, there happened to be another sound of footsteps outside, and a group of women who were all good-looking arrived one after another, and after coming in, they didn't speak, and Wei Yifu stood behind the old woman.

The forester was not interrupted by these female dependents, and kept introducing the situation, and soon introduced the whole thing.

In fact, there is not much that the forester knows. The missing is his son, the only son of the Lin family, who has just reached the age of dancing spoons, and is actually almost an adult by the standards of the Shenzhou Continent. Of course, by the standards of the earth, this child has just graduated from elementary school.

Children at this age are somewhat rebellious, always feel like adults, and like to challenge authority and fight against the rules set by adults. As everyone knows, most of those rules exist to protect them. Then the Lin family began to die, drunk the family who was taking care of him, and then followed a passing caravan out of the city.

The Lin family themselves are businessmen, and they know very well how dangerous the neutral zone is, so they don't let this child out of the city wall since he was a child. Who knows that the more he restricts this child, the more he wants to go out and see. I didn't have that ability when I was young, but now that I'm older, I finally put it into action, and I actually succeeded.

The Lin family found that the child was lost, of course, the whole town searched, but found a pile of cloth, so it is speculated that the child should have emptied the wooden box for the caravan to pull the goods, and then hid it himself, so he mixed out of the city.

After that, the Lin family dispatched people to catch up with several caravans passing by that day, and sure enough, they found empty boxes in one of the caravans, but the child was gone. Originally, it was impossible to determine that the child was out of the city, but then a piece of cloth scraped off by an iron nail was found in the carriage, which happened to be the material of the dress that the child was wearing that day.

Considering that it was already a day before they caught up with the caravan, the area was a little larger, including not only a large no-man's land, but also three villages and towns. If the boy gets off halfway and follows the other caravan in another direction, it will be even more impossible to find.

However, the forester would rather the child follow other caravans now, so that the bad guy is fine, if the child is not sensible and gets off halfway, it is really bad.

Although the mountains and forests in this neutral area are not as dangerous as Qingyuan Mountain, the sons of foresters cannot compare with Tianyou. If it weren't for the fact that he liked adventure and extreme sports in his previous life, Tianyou would not have been able to adapt to Qingyuan Mountain, right?

This little boy of the Lin family has had no worries about food and clothing since he was a child, how can he understand the hardships of survival in the wild? Not to mention encountering wild beasts and monsters, even if it is a hungry wild dog, he can still take the child's life. Besides, it's never just the living that are really dangerous in the mountains and forests. Lack of water and food, accidental ingestion of poisons, flowing water from mountain cliffs, and miasma in the forests, what kind of things should not kill people? Even the low temperature at night is enough for an adult who does not know how to make a fire to keep warm in the mountains and forests, let alone a child?

The Lin family obviously knew about these situations, which is why they were so anxious. They didn't try to find it themselves at all, and after catching up with the caravan and confirming that the child was indeed out of town, they immediately asked for it to be here in Zixiao Palace, and God blessed them just happened to get the unsorted initial task as soon as possible. Counting the time, it's only been four days. It's fast enough, so to speak.

Of course, even if it was only four days, Tianyou still felt that the child would not be able to be recovered. And even if it is found, it is estimated that it is too likely to be alive.

Modern people can't understand how dangerous an undeveloped primeval continent like the Shenzhou Continent is, otherwise they wouldn't have come to Tianyou as a guide in the first place. Think about how long can a child who doesn't know anything live in the mountains and forests? Even if this mountain forest is not called Qingyuan Mountain.

"We all know the situation. Don't worry, let us discuss it first, and start looking for it right away. In addition, the troublesome staff prepared some food for us, we came all the way, and we haven't had lunch yet!"