The air was filled with the smell of rotting leaves and animal corpses. According to an old map brought by Uncle Selcy, www.biquge.info it was called Calf Town, but in Sonny's eyes, it was not a town: a dozen single-house houses made of stone, already burned by fire, surrounded by empty pigsties, and a few old wells that had long since dried up. Other than that, there was nothing but a few misshapen trees that were also charred, and a mess of broken bricks and tiles.

Their team consisted of fifty men, in addition to Uncle Sercy, Uncle Lawrence, and Steven, whom Horn called the Great Liar, there were also forty-six Guardsmen, all of whom had been carefully selected by Uncle Cercy, and were also the elite of the few remaining troops in the North City. "We can't bring too many people, so that it is easy to be discovered by the enemy, but not too little, fifty people is just right. Before leaving, Sersi told him.

So, they set out overnight, all the way south, crossing the North City Bridge, and after crossing the bridge, the guide became Lawrence. He led his party through a red oak forest to this seemingly odd village.

"It seems that the people of this continent also have the habit of setting fires. While riding through the ruins, a knight named Toller commented. He was the oldest in the group, even older than Lawrence's, and was completely black, including leather armor, breeches, boots, cape, and even hair and eyes.

"God Namu blessed, they didn't even spare babies. Lawrence muttered as he sat in the saddle and looked at the pile of blackened bones.

"It's just a town, and it's not big, so why be so cruel and burn so hard that you can't find a single grass?" Sersi looked around, "Damn, it can't be Kenny's doing, right?"

"If he had been so ruthless, he wouldn't have defeated Karta back then. Lawrence looked down and dodged a dead branch, "Someone, show me that skull, why do I think this fire looks a little weird?"

Toller, the oldest and most industrious, complied. He had a sword diagonally behind his back, wrapped in a black leather scabbard, and the reason why it was not hung on the strap was because it was too long. I saw him crouch down and stretch out his black-gloved hand into the dead leaves. It was full of dry rotting leaf sap, charred and blackened by the fire. He saw another, smaller skull under the skull, with a chipped jaw half-hidden in ash and broken bones.

He held the skull to Lawrence, who raised his hands and looked into the skeleton's hollow eye sockets. "We wasteland people have the habit of burning the dead, the Kartal people, the holy people, and the Robin people, which is a sign of respect for the dead. He tilted his head and thought for a moment, "But even if this were the case, there wouldn't be such a complete skull, and usually we would burn even the bones to ashes." ”

"You're trying to say that there was indeed a terrible looting, and that everyone died in arson?" Steven swallowed. He kept a certain distance from Lawrence, but he looked at the black skull from a distance, never daring to get too close.

"I didn't know if only bones could talk. "This guy can tell us a lot of things: what happened here, when did it happen, how did he die?who burned him?why did he burn him??," he sighed, "In the First Continent, whenever bandits raid villages and towns, they kill people and burn them. To put it nicely, it is a respect for the dead, but in fact, it is a bad thing, worried about the revenge of these dead people, so it is burned clean. ”

"The dead will also get revenge?" Sonny suddenly felt a lot more eerie around him.

"Who knows. Lawrence threw the bones back into the hollow, kicking up a cloud of ash. "Guys, give me a careful search of the houses that haven't collapsed and see if I can find any clues. He himself rolled over and dismounted, his jaw trembling twice. "It's not far from the Side Mountains, so it's best to find out what's going on around here. Night is approaching, we have to camp nearby, and I don't want to wake up tomorrow morning and find you all skeletons. ”

When the order was given, Sersi joined the search, leaving only Steven in place, and Horn following the old Toller's pace. "Sir, do the dead take revenge?" he asked the old knight as they walked through the ruins. "I've only heard of resentful spirits, and it's said that there is a kind of spirit-summoning wizard who can save the souls of the dead, and even transform into any form, you know?"

The two of them had to bend down to enter the low lintel, the house was solid in the dirt, the furniture had been reduced to embers on the ground, and there was no sign of habitation, except for a little soot under the smoke vent on the roof. "Haven't you heard of the resurrection of the dead?" said Toller and giggled.

"Isn't there such sorcery in Sunlight City?" Sonny whispered as he looked down at the pile of embers, "It's said that they formed an army of the living dead back then, and that's pretty good. He kicked the ashes, but there was nothing but ashes in them. "However, this is already the first continent, and to be honest, this is my first time here, what about you, Sir?"

"I'm from Nippur. "Come and see, it smells of."

The taste is very light. "It's been a long time coming. Sonny said. It was he who knelt down, reached out and tossed through the pile of hay that smelled of feces to see if there was anything hidden underneath, and then searched the walls carefully, but found nothing. "There's nothing here. ”

He hadn't expected to find out that Calf was the fourth town they had crossed the North City Bridge, and with the small settlements and villages, they had found nearly ten similar ones: the inhabitants had quietly left with their meagre possessions and livestock, the villages seemed to show no signs of being attacked, and everything was charred, but not to ashes, as Uncle Lawrence had been talking about. Almost all of the places are simply ...... Suffered a fire. "Sir Toller, what do you think has gone through here?" asked Sonny.

"I don't know, it must be something unlucky that we can't imagine anyway. Toller shook his head, "Well, although I don't know the owners of those bones, just by looking at the corpses, I know that they must have been subjected to terrible torture, and I don't know what it is, anyway, I already know that it is bad enough, and what to do with it, as long as we don't touch it." ”

When they came out of the house, the rest of the people happened to come out of the house, and it was clear from the faces of the men that nothing seemed to have been found. Toller patted Sonny on the shoulder and walked straight to Lawrence's side.

"Who can guarantee that we won't meet it. Sonny muttered to himself as he looked at the darkening sky.