Bare Yellow Land, 2009, early June.

Although it is known as the land of dry yellow, it is green and vibrant. Palms and cacti are separated by a craggy rock, tulips and larches snuggle up to each other for warmth, hibiscus and thorn trees grow in the sand, red willows and camel thorns grow in puddles, epiphany blooms in the sun, hostas smile towards the sun, pitcher plants and felt moss spit out sweet honey to feed passing ants and aphids.

A little white rabbit hugged a pig's trotters, and Shi Shiran passed by a group of grazing wolves, and his mouth was full of oil stains left by gnawing bones. Not far away, its companion, a slender fawn, and a grizzly bear that soiled its hooves with a vicious lesson. The grizzly bear held his head and obediently enjoyed the hoofs of the fawn, not daring to say anything.

When Nikita landed with the captain, he saw such a nostalgic scene.

Yes, nostalgic scenes.

When she was a serious wizard, it was hard to imagine that the lich would live in such a fairytale environment. In her imagination, the lichs should live in a snowy land, with a desert of dry bones beneath their feet and a forest of unjust souls and flesh in front of them.

Eight Thestrals whizz over the field with a wide pumpkin cart, and all they could hear was the sound of the wind and the sound of golden bells in the grass.

The pumpkin cart eventually stops outside a small three-story white tower.

This is the Lich's Mage Tower.

In the open space outside the tower, there are many stalls, the stall owners are all lichs in the tower, old and young, most of them wear black robes, and the goods they sell are not much different from those of ordinary dark wizards, such as ghost flags, binlings, dominoes, painted skins, bloody cards, stained nooses, shrunken heads, dead man's nails, glorious hands, and so on.

Here, the blood of wizards is divided into cans according to age and gender, and the corpse oil is also made into candles of different colors according to the level of cultivation, and at first glance, except for the slightly eerie atmosphere on the stalls, there is not much blood surging.

Nikita lowered her eyebrows and walked after Captain Mist towards the Mage Tower.

There was no shortage of scrutinizing gaze behind her.

Many of the old lichs looked at the banshee's neck with malicious eyes, as if it would be easier to consider where to start. This oppressive atmosphere made her shudder.

The first floor of the Mage Tower is wide and empty, and is a huge classroom.

Floor-to-ceiling windows, each more than ten meters high, hang between the windows with huge murals that are said to be made of giant skin, but Nikita knows that is nothing more than a rumor. It's not that the base of those murals is not human skin, but it is not giant skin, but it is spliced together with ordinary wizard skin.

The giant's skin is too hard to be crumpled into a picture.

Far away from the door, there was a huge blackboard, a huge podium.

Between the entrance and the podium, there were thousands of terraced seats, and it seemed that the young lichs of the whole world had gathered here.

An old wizard sat behind the podium, in front of the blackboard, giving a lesson on the future of these lichs.

He was so big, like a giant, that even if he sat cross-legged behind the podium, his back propped up to the ceiling, he had to bow his head and his gray beard fall to the ground.

His voice reverberated throughout the classroom:

“...... After three years of sleeping in the mud and struggling in the water for three years, the mayfly can finally feather and fly into the sky, but it can only fly for half an hour. It was the most glorious and brilliant moment of their lives. ”

"The mayflies that appear first are immediately captured by birds, by bats, by any predator who preys on their flesh. But because there are so many mayflies, it won't be long before the mayfly swarms are so numerous that the birds can't make any impact on them. ”

"At this time, they will calmly find the safest and most comfortable place to start reproducing. They will lose the last layer of skin from their bodies, their previously transparent wings will shimmer with a bright, dark blue color, and their abdomen will pull out a long, beautiful tail filament...... The two most important concepts in this story, 'accumulation' and 'balance'. ”

"Predators are too powerful for any mayfly to resist, and there are too many mayflies for any predator to wipe them out. But without six years of accumulation, it will be difficult for mayflies to fly into the sky and form a 'mayfly crowd' to protect their own safety......"

"Mayfly people, that's a good word, hehe. ”

Captain Mist's low laugh rang out in the classroom, interrupting the old lich's lesson, and shaking the tall floor-to-ceiling windows around him:

“...... However, you only tell these children that mayflies can win by the crowd, but you don't tell them that mayflies have no mouth, no stomach, no food, and no digestion of any food after they metamorphose into flying insects. The half hour of their splendor depends entirely on the energy they accumulate from foraging at the bottom of the river during their juvenile years...... That energy was only enough for them to soar in the air for half an hour. ”

At first, the young lich in the seat wanted to angrily reprimand the rude guest, but soon, everyone lost the ability to speak under the pressure of the sea monster, and only held the Dharma book, trying to keep the altar clear.

"Ann - Quiet !!"

On the podium, the old wizard slapped the handout in his hand heavily, and a heavy wave of sound rippled from the lectern, hitting the laughter of Captain Mist.

The floor-to-ceiling windows finally ended their mission, and turned into a cloud of powder under the confrontation between the two big men, revealing the dark, empty void outside the window. The murals between the floor-to-ceiling windows are like the canopy of trees in the wind and rain, swaying from side to side, barely supporting.

The young lichs gasped, and took advantage of this rare opportunity to turn into clouds of smoke and disappear between their seats, fleeing from their seats. This is not an event in which they can meddle.

Nikita had the same thoughts as the young lichs, but she couldn't go.

For the captain was still standing in front of her.

The captain has not yet spoken.

She could only hide under the shadow of the captain, holding her arms, shrinking, clenching the cloth belt tied around her wrist hard, and scolded herself a hundred times in her heart, why did she keep thinking about getting off the ship.

How safe it is to stay on board!

Until the young lichs in the classroom have withdrawn.

The old lich on the podium slowly raised his head, revealing a wrinkled face. For this movement, his body shrank slightly, but the momentum on his body became thicker and heavier. The entire space seemed to tremble with the weight around him, and there was a faint crack in the air like a crack in glass:

"Say what you came from, Mist. ”

"I just want to help you expand the number of mayflies," Captain Mist showed a rare slickness when he was not around, "...... Isn't it your responsibility to bring more and more wizards to the glory of the True Ancestor?"