Even after several days, the white flames that rose high as the farm burned still left a sparse white shadow in the field of vision, flickering in the dark jungle like a lingering ghost.

Even though Dolan had watched Tutan start the fire, she couldn't believe that they would one day set fire to their village.

"Hurry up, in this direction!"

From the dark forest ahead, there was a throat-lowering greeting. Doran couldn't tell who it was, so she hurried and quickened her pace—in front of and behind her, there were more people from Ellington villages, supporting each other and carrying bags and bags, through the mountains and forests like snakes.

No one spoke, only heavy footsteps and gasps, and a few night birds fluttered and flew away. The jungle rustled, and then the night shrouded all sounds, enveloping the anxious and frightened travelers with a thick darkness.

Three days earlier, a group of men, led by the village chief, had suddenly woken up the villagers in the middle of the night, shouting and throwing oil all over the house, driving away all the livestock. By the time the village that had been inhabited for decades was gradually engulfed in flames, the people had already plunged headlong into the jungle, as rushed as the dogs at their feet.

Half of the villages that had been swept away by the flood had just been burned to the ground in the hope of rebuilding – some yelled, some cried, and nearly half were reluctant to leave, but all those who resisted had to go into the mountains and forests after everything had burned down.

This was only the beginning of the escape.

They cannot stop in a populated place, nor can they hope to rebuild a village in a different place - the Holy See has set its sights on this mountainous area and is gradually closing its fingers.

The people of Ellington were left with little choice but to keep fleeing, and they fled in the mountains in fear for days, day and night, exhausted, but no one knew where the end would be.

On that night, when everyone was once again dragging their sore legs and feet through the jungle, Dolan accidentally slipped into a dirt ditch, and as soon as she twisted herself, she heard someone in the dark bushes behind her call her softly—

"Dolan!"

She breathed steadily, and with a wave of her hand, the ground trembled slightly, and as the clods of earth fell from the edge of the ditch and gradually filled the bottom of the ditch, the shadow that called her approached.

In the dim moonlight that looked like rust, Doran glanced at the young man in front of her. The young man's round face protruded from a bird's beak-like nose, and the bridge of his nose was marked with a few indelible red marks—March, who lived at the entrance to the village of Ellington, always leaned his neck long, as if he could not hear people without getting closer.

"It's you, what's wrong?" Doran asked softly.

The young man looked back and forth, grabbed her by the arm, and pulled her into the shade. He looked a little absent-minded and asked in a low voice, "Lin ...... What about Lin Yuqing? He didn't go with you?"

"He doesn't know where he's gone, we can't find him. Dolan whispered.

Ma Qi paused, "oh", didn't really care about Lin Yuqing's whereabouts, and fell into a hesitation that didn't seem to know how to speak.

While the girl waited for him to speak, she secretly moved her ankles—except that she felt a little soreness in her joints, as if she hadn't twisted her feet yet.

"I'm leaving!" as if out of his control, the young man burst out a few words coldly.

Dolan looked up.

"I, Xiao Shifei and his parents, Axia, and some others are leaving......" March hurriedly said half a sentence, and couldn't help but gently grab the girl's elbow - "I...... My sister married to Sydney Hill, which is a nice place to be. Let me ask you if you would like to go together. ”

Doran let him hold on to herself and straightened up.

From beneath her feet, she could feel her fallen spirit swimming like a fish deep into the earth, swimming so deep that she couldn't see anything except the occasional slight swaying of the grass on the ground. Her gaze stayed on the grass, and she didn't look at the young man, but said softly, "You haven't fallen into the spirit, have you?"

"Yes!"

The young man's tone suddenly became urgent, as if he had finally found a thread to speak: "We have not fallen into the spirit, and naturally we are not the target of those old men, there is no need to escape! They burned everyone's village, and it was impossible to say anything about it...... But we can understand that, after all, their situation was critical. ”

"Uncle Lin didn't fall into the spirit, and it was his idea to burn the village. ”

"You don't understand," March sighed and smiled bitterly at Dolan, "he doesn't, but his son do......es!" My dad asked him a few times what he should do next and if he wanted to go to Sydney Hill together, but he didn't agree, and the proposed solution was not a solution. Forget it, let's not talk about that, I mean it's better for both sides to separate sooner. You know, my mom is old......

"But I'm a fallen spirit. Dolan said softly.

"As long as you hide, who will find out?" March smiled eagerly: "My father has already gone to find Uncle Lin." If he doesn't agree to go with us, we'll have to say goodbye to him...... But I swear with my life that if you are willing to go with me, I will make you safe and happy...... I...... You know, I've always been to-"

Doran shook her head, stopping the rest of his sentence. Her cold fingers caught the young man's hand and gently pulled it off her elbow.

"You go," she said, raising her chin backwards, and exhaling softly from her hard-lined jaw, "you will go back and continue to bow to the nobles and pay your grain and taxes, because you are so humble by nature." The world may need an ant like you, but I don't. You go, I wish you all the best. ”

The momentary look on March's face made him look silly.

She nodded slightly, and turned to follow in the direction the villagers were heading, and from the sound of footsteps on the grass behind her, it sounded as Doran was gone, and March seemed to stumble away.

Like a circle of ripples as a flying insect streaks across the water, March disappeared from Doran's mind a few seconds later.

She had more important things to think about.

Thinking about it, Doran quickened her pace and hurried past one villager after another, almost slipping several times in the darkness of the night, but she was able to catch up with the figures who were walking in front of the group.

Even at night, she recognized Lin Junyou at a glance - his back was exactly the same as Lin Yuqing.

Although the children call him uncle, Lin Junyou actually looks very different from the uncles and uncles in the village. He is not yet forty years old this year, and he is thin and long, with a straight back and a posture like a green bamboo in winter. Ah Yu has also inherited this upright strength, and he will probably be as tall as Uncle Lin in the future, right......?

The old people in the village said that when Uncle Lin brought Dolan back from the snow valley that year, she was still too young to remember. So she didn't know if the scene where Uncle Lin reached into the arms of his dead father and dragged her out was something she had really seen, or was it out of her own imagination?

She gently hurried in the direction of Uncle Lin.

Dolan's father accidentally fell off a cliff and died.

He still clung to Dolan until his death, and did not let her break a single bone, which is really hard to think about, because when he rushed into the snowy mountains that day, he had planned to feed his daughter to the wolves.

Dolan didn't believe that he had suddenly regained love for herself before he died, and had long forgotten what he was like. Whenever she tried to recall her father's appearance, Uncle Lin's face always came to mind—his thin face was red from the cold, and he sighed, gently coaxing her, while pulling the young her out of the hands of the dead man.

"Uncle Lin!" she beckoned, cutting off her thoughts.

Lin Junyou turned his head, and a surprised smile appeared on his thin face: "Dolan?"

A shadow appeared beside him, and when he saw someone coming, as if he had finally waited for the opportunity, he immediately turned around and left, even though Lin Junyou screamed twice behind him, the shadow still disappeared into the night in a hurry. Duolan approached him in a few steps, swept her eyes over the back, and said to him in a low voice, "Uncle Lin, Uncle Ma, they are about to leave the team?"

"You've heard?"

"March told me. Dolan explained simply, "He didn't shy away from people when he said it, and everyone who walked past us should have heard it." ”

Lin Junyou sighed, and his breath dissipated into the night like white smoke.

"Uncle Lin, if you can't let go of ...... in your heart"

Before he could finish his sentence, Lin Junyou suddenly waved his hand and interrupted Dolan: "Forget it, let them go if they want to go." No one stipulates that those who have been in the same village for decades have to continue to be in the same village for the rest of their lives. ”

Dolan was stunned and took advantage of the night to look at him. Seeing that his words were indeed light-hearted, she couldn't help frowning, and after a pause, she smiled softly: "Uncle Lin, you rarely can see so openly, just don't blame yourself too much." ”

Lin Junyou answered, turned his head to look at her as he walked, and said with a smile: "You are really a big girl...... I don't blame myself. They didn't fall into the spirits, and it was safer to live alone without others, and it was better for everyone. ”

"Uncle Lin, you didn't fall into the spirit either, but you didn't bother to find a corner to hide. ”

Duolan snorted lightly, but this sentence made Lin Junyou greatly embarrassed, his slender face turned red, and he said after a while: "No...... Not so really...... Well, you can go back and follow, and let a few of our adults open the way in front. ”

As if she hadn't heard this, Dolan still followed him every step of the way.

Lin Junyou smiled bitterly, "Don't be so stubborn, go back." ”

The girl glanced at him, but suddenly reached out to take his luggage: "Uncle Lin, give it to me." ”

"No—"

She smiled at Lin Junyou, and couldn't help but pull the package, and said softly: "I'll hand it over to the falling spirit, you don't have to carry it, it's weird." ”

As soon as Dolan's words fell, a bush of grass shook open at her feet, revealing a deep black hole from under the roots and mud, just the size of the burden in her hand. Without waiting for Lin Junyou to speak, as soon as she let go, the burden had been thrown into the soil hole, and the clods of soil suddenly collapsed again.

"Don't make Uncle Lin dirty," Dolan whispered to the ground beneath her feet, "Wrap a layer of soil." ”

"Can you wrap it in soil without getting dirty?" asked Lin Junyou.

"Then I'll shoot it clean in a moment. ”

Lin Junyou was about to open his mouth again, but Dolan suddenly raised her hand, wiped it on his chin, and said with a smile: "Uncle Lin, your boss is not small, and your face is still stained with ashes." ”

He was embarrassed like a teenager again, looking like he would never know what to do with Dolan, he shook his head and laughed: "Ah Yu is not here, but it looks like there is an extra daughter." ”

Speaking of Lin Yuqing, both of them suddenly fell silent.

After a while, Lin Junyou sighed heavily.

On the night of the burning of the village, they searched around the nearby mountains, but they never found any trace of him, and they did not know what the boy had done. As soon as they left, even if Lin Yuqing returned to the village, where would they find them?

Lin Junyou pursed his lips and glanced back. Crowds of villagers were wading behind him in the jungle shrouded in night, and the branches and plants swayed from side to side in the darkness, sometimes revealing a few figures, sometimes covering their tracks. Apart from the rustling noise, there was hardly any superfluous sound, only the whining sound of the wind blowing through the mountains.

After a few days of fleeing, everyone was enveloped by haste and exhaustion.

"Dolan," Lin Junyou retracted his gaze and sighed softly, "You help me go back and inform me that we are about to cross the border of the Holy Alliance." ”

"Then where are we going next?" Duolan didn't leave, looking at him with a pair of eyes that lit up: "Uncle Lin, what do you have in mind?"

"The Holy Alliance can't stay, and you can't go to the Tongyuan Empire......" Lin Junyou was halfway through his words, and suddenly raised his hand and put it on the top of her head, while the warmth of his palm passed through his hair, Dolan also felt a few branches just scratch the back of his hand.

Even if our ancestors escaped from the Eastern Empire back then, no one would remember this now. She said softly, feeling his warm hand take it down, and the top of her head was cold again.

"There is no need to take that risk. Lin Junyou shook his head, "The Fang Kingdom has always been very stable, and beyond the border between it and the Holy Alliance, there are patches of uninhabited mountains and forests, and it has always been a place where there are no two things...... If we can find a secret place there, everyone will be safe. ”

Dolan nodded and said in a low voice, "It's just that the people of our clan don't seem to be able to have a place to live forever." I don't know how many teenagers we have, and our children and grandchildren are about to start running away again. ”

"Maybe. ”

Lin Junyou looked up at the sky and answered in a low voice.

Dolan glanced at him, then turned around and walked back to the back - her skills in the mountains and forests were far inferior to Lin Yuqing, but with the help of the falling spirit, her steps were quite fast.

A slender young man whistled at her and stopped her with a smile: "What are you doing here?"

The man had a long face, slender hands and feet, and looked like a piece of plasticine that had been torn open—it was Tutan who had set fire to the village with his own hands.

"We're about to cross the borders of the Confederates," Dolan said hurriedly, "you help me get the word down—"

Before the word "go" was finished, she heard a sharp whistle break through the night sky in the distance behind her, and she was so startled that she twisted her body violently, and her pupils were immediately reflected red by a line of fire that shot straight into the night sky.

In a few breaths, the night that was still dark just now was torn apart by several flame signals, pouring a blood-red in the sky; in the shrill whistle, countless footsteps accompanied by the impact of iron armor, the sound of horses' hooves mixed with the unsheath of long swords, and the noise of bursts of noise from far and near like a tide, rushed close to this mountain forest—in the dark and secluded cracks of the woods, countless torches were lit, and someone was shouting from afar: "Stop these people!"

In the light of the fire, the people of Ellington Village were all pale and panicked, and the people stumbled up, still holding the old lady, the family dog, and the burden, looking dazed.

"Who? can't be coming for us, right?"

"Did you run into a thief?"

Seeing that torches blocked the way, Lin Junyou saw a slight sweat on his forehead, lowered his throat and shouted: "Everyone don't move!" Then he stepped forward a few steps and shouted, "May I ask who is in front?"

As his words fell, there was a split in the trees in front of him, and a pair of tall cowhide boots stepped on the grass, and a figure rustled out.

A few squire-like men followed the man, torches illuminating him—and as they appeared, the many soldiers with swords and bows strode through the jungle with the sound of iron armor, standing far and near in the forest, and surrounded the people of Ellington Village in the center.

The people of Ellington stared at the comer, and they all fell silent.

The man at the head was small and richly dressed, from the tips of his boots and white silk gloves to the emerald scabbard and his thin silver breastplate, all of which glistened in the firelight, and his well-groomed face, with his mustache delicately trimmed and shiny, was raised high at both ends, and his lips twitched as he spoke—"Yo? ”

He spoke without looking at anyone, and his eyes fell on the clearing, not as if he were speaking to the squire, nor to the people of Ellington—as his words fell, the squires lowered their faces and did not make a single sound, except for the crackling of torches under the night sky.

The people of Ellington Village looked at each other, and Lin Junyou couldn't help but slowly change his face.

The short nobleman didn't move, but gently pulled his gloves off. After a few seconds, he smiled coldly again: "Okay, then you can take a look." After all, it is a task under the Holy See. ”

As soon as the word "Holy See" entered their ears, the villagers were immediately terrified, and they had just taken two steps back when a whirlwind suddenly rose from the ground to the ground—and in the shrill wind whistled, a cloud of wind and sand rose from the ground and reached the sky, from which came a sweet laugh: "Come and play with me!"

Play?

Dolan squinted her eyes vigorously, and just wanted to see clearly who was talking in the clamor of the sand, but she only felt the ground move under her feet, as if something in the soil was arching upward, and in an instant she immediately understood everything - she shouted in a low voice, "Don't come out!", and then rushed to the villagers beside her in a few steps: "This nobleman has a falling spirit!"