The next second, Grivoy pushed Tails away, looking away, breathing heavily.

Kez coughed slightly.

"I see Kevin. Kez shook his head to the left, where a young man was sneaking his head out from behind the wall and beckoning to this direction - Tails recognized it as the young coachman who had brought the old raven to the shield last night.

Maybe it's just finished talking about him, and the three of them don't look good when they see Kevin.

It's like being caught talking bad things behind your back.

"I'm going to make a final confirmation and wait for my signal. Kezi spit out the grass in his mouth, patted the dust in his hands and stood up, and his original scoundrel-like temperament instantly became neat.

Grivo nodded, watching her go.

Only veterans and princes remained.

The atmosphere was a bit heavy.

Tails looked at the back of the seamstress in the distance, and suddenly said, "To be honest, I've been in the Northland for six years, and it's really rare to see a girl like this in the Northland." ”

Grivo paused slightly, and snorted softly.

"Ketz's father was a military doctor, she grew up in a military camp, and her childhood was full of blood and howls. ”

Tails' eyes moved.

The veteran's fingers flicked across the wheelchair, as if reminiscing about the past:

Until her father died unexpectedly, the teenage Ketz was confronted with the veteran ruffians – you can't imagine what a girl would go through in that hell, let alone what she would become. ”

Tails' heart tightened.

With some surprise, he looked around the corner where Kez had disappeared, remembering the tough impression the seamstress had given him.

Grivoy said in a daze, "At least until I get her out." ”

"It's a pity that the famous Longxiao City is not much better, and the shield area and hammer area are even more so. ”

At this moment, the hardened veteran looked particularly tired, as if he had just experienced a big battle.

Tails took a slow breath:

"No wonder. ”

Grivo snorted and shook his head: "You were born noble and everything went smoothly—I'm afraid it's hard to imagine, but you think she was born with foul language, swearing, violent temperament, and no tenderness?"

"Do you think she doesn't want to be like the ordinary lady of the Northland, wearing gorgeous dresses and luxurious makeup, sitting in a warm and gorgeous palace, and enjoying a sumptuous dinner and the favor of men in a soft voice?"

"When life is tough on you," Grivo squeezed his wheelchair tightly, the three remaining fingers on his left hand trembling slightly, "You're going to have to be tougher than it." ”

Tails remained silent for a long time.

But then he looked up.

"But I think she's very good now," the prince, who was in an inexplicably heavy mood, had sharp eyes:

"It is the strongest, the most beautiful, the most charming look of a woman. ”

Boom!

Tails exclaimed.

He clasped his hands on his aching forehead and looked at Grivo with dismay.

The veteran retracted his right hand, which was comparable to a cauldron, with an expressionless face: "At a young age, don't learn to pick up girls." ”

Tails replied with an aggrieved look.

"But, yes. ”

"She's wonderful," Grivo smiled slightly, a slight glint in the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, "It's been more than ten years, and Kez has long been our brother." ”

Tails rubbed his head vigorously and said angrily, "Just a brother?"

"She'll be disappointed. ”

Grivo glanced at him, intentionally or not, but did not speak.

After a few seconds, the veteran spoke abruptly.

"Your father, what kind of man is he?"

Tails' nerves tightened.

"My father?"

Grivo turned his face to the other side, shook his head, and shrugged his shoulders seemingly unconcerned: "Yes. ”

The prince blinked.

That's a memory from a long time ago.

Tails frowned, and replied with some slurry, "He, he's a king." ”

Boom!

The second time, Tails held his head in his hands with teary eyes and watched indignantly as Grivo withdrew his right hand.

Why?

Grivoy was a little angry: ", who the doesn't know your father is king...... Something else, useful, okay?"

Tails gritted his teeth: "Don't move your hands and feet!"

"Anything else?" ...... the prince was about to speak, but his eyes rolled, "why do you want to know this?"

Grivo coughed and turned his head as usual.

"Oh, well, you know, both Kings of Exeter were vile and shameless bastards," the veteran shrugged his shoulders a second time without paying attention, rubbing his back against his wheelchair, "I was wondering if the King of the Stars was the same." ”

Tails gave a suspicious look.

"But the old crow said that you don't care about high-level politics. ”

Grivo's face changed: "Yes...... Me, I suddenly changed my mind...... It's not a bad thing to know more, and the next time we meet, I can laugh at him in turn. ”

The veteran shrugged his shoulders for the third time.

Tails looked thoughtfully at Grivo.

Until Grivo coughed embarrassedly and turned his face away.

Tails asked tentatively, "But didn't you say you didn't want to see him again—Hisser?"

Grivo's face turned red: "What's the matter with you!"

"Of course, of course, but ......" Tails narrowed his eyes as he carefully observed Grivo's side face, "Why is it my father?"

Grivo's face froze.

"Oh, come on," he interrupted Tails angrily with a wave of his hand, "you know...... Forget it, forget about it. ”

Grivo snorted coldly, obviously extremely unhappy.

"Who the cares about your King Daddy. ”

The veteran folded his arms, turned around, shrugged his shoulders for the fourth time, and muttered to himself angrily: "Another genius, precocious, young and golden, handsome, charming and domineering little white face." ”

Tails looked at him silently, smiling.

"What about Therland?"

Grivo shuddered slightly: "Huh?"

"Did you hear what I said," Tails sighed, "what about my mother?

The wait time for this question is unusually long.

It was a long time before Grivo tilted his mouth and shook his head disdainfully.

"Your mother?"

"That nasty little girl with crooked brains," the veteran in the wheelchair said with a complicated and incomprehensible look, "the best thing to do is to get into a bunch of trouble and make everyone angry." ”

"Trick everyone into wiping her ass. ”

Tails nodded, "Including you?"

"Spare me," Grivo shook his head and sneered, "I hate her the most." ”

Tails smiled.

"You and Hipser...... They were slaves in the desert, right?"

This question seems to poke at Grivo's pain point.

"Hey!"

He jumped up a few inches in his wheelchair and was very annoyed:

"I don't care what the old crow told you......"

Grivoy pointed at Tails with an unkind look: "I agreed to do you a small favor, but that doesn't mean we know each other well!"

"Stop the 'I'm your good friend' sensational trick. ”

Tails blinked helplessly, in understanding.

The two of them leaned back into their positions, waiting for a signal from Kez.

Until Grivo spoke again.

"Hey, the old crow doesn't talk much to me, but from the direction you're going......" Grivo didn't seem to be able to switch naturally from his "rage", and he said stiffly, "You're going to the desert, are you?" ”

Tails' heart tightened.

He spread his hands, just squinting and smiling.

But Grivo seemed to read his thoughts, and hummed softly:

"Listen, if you're going into the desert, you'd better have a skilled guide, or you'll ......"

Grivo shook his head disappreciatively.

Tails' heart moved: "Is there so terrible in the desert? orcs or bones?"

"Both," Grivo tugged at the corners of his mouth, his eyes sharp, "Orcs, they smash your skull as effortlessly as we smash eggs, and the Bonesman...... It's hard to talk about them, those guys are very evil. ”

"Evil Sect?"

"But your greatest threat is far from them," said Grivo, with a solemn expression, "but the desert itself, the sun and the sand, and the demons whispering in your ear all the time—'Lie down, sleep, dream, never get up.'" ”

The veteran's expression began to drift into the distance again.

Tails looked at his side face and remembered something, "You've been in the desert, haven't you?" ”

Grivo nodded, absent-mindedly:

"When I was a soldier, I went to fight inside. ”

Tails frowned slightly: "And then?"

Grivo looked up.

"And then," the wheelchair-bound veteran looked at Tails sternly:

"There is no then. ”

Right now.

In the distance, there was a sudden commotion on the street.

It seems to be two men arguing.

"Get ready!"

Grivo cleverly held both ends of the wheelchair: "The signal is here - that's our people." ”

Tails stood up nervously, leaning down and holding on to the hedge.

"Will this work?"

Tails looked worriedly at the two men who had started fighting without saying a word, watching their fight get more and more intense.

More and more people are joining in, turning brawls into scuffles and scuffles into riots.

The patrol at the sentry began to frown at them, as if suspicious.

Tails was apprehensive: "The Meteorite may be suspicious - I have seen the actions of the former White Blade Guards in Longxiao City, and I have seen how they locked down the whereabouts of a Comas in half an hour in a chaotic situation, and the Meteorite and the White Blade Guards know Longxiao City well, this is their home." ”

The commotion in the distance grew louder, and many people rushed from outside the street to join the brawl.

Until a patrol soldier who was fighting was also punched over.

Grivo laughed mockingly.

"Starfaller, hehe, that dogleg head, and his dogleg boys?"

The veteran in the wheelchair turned his face with a serious expression: "You are wrong. ”

Grivo silently patted his chest.

"The people who are most qualified to call this city 'home'......"

"It was never them. ”

In the next second, Grivo turned his wheelchair and, in the midst of the growing commotion, decisively drove out of this cover, hurried on the side of countless crowds, and headed towards the cliff in the sky: "Let's go. ”

Tails let out a deep breath and trotted out, keeping up with the veteran's direction.

The process of avoiding the sentry post was easier than expected, the paupers in the shield area were fighting loudly, and the poor dozen or so people of the patrol were so surrounded that they could not even protect themselves, let alone find them sneaking into the cliffs of the sky.

In Grivo's words, it is "Longxiao City is really not as good as the generation".

In the confusion, they slipped under the rocky, bumpy cliff face before the patrol sent a squad of bullets - God knows how the veteran in a wheelchair could shake so fast!

After a lot of twists and turns, before Tails was about to faint, he followed the back wheel of Grivo's car and finally saw Kötz in front of a small dark hole.

"Ready?"

Ketz looked nervous, but her movements were unstaggering, and she took out a low-quality non-extinguishable lamp from her back pocket that she knew at first glance was a remodeled old item, and threw it to Tails.

Panting, Tails hugged the non-extinguishing lamp, watched Kez take out the rope and tools, and said solemnly: "Anytime." ”

The sound of the fight behind him began to subside.

Ketz smiled lightly, as if disdainful: "Remember, only touch the places I have stepped on." ”

Tails gasped and nodded with mixed feelings.

"Pray I don't die in there. Ketz smiled and patted the veteran on the back.

The seamstress took the lamp into her mouth, straightened up, and slid her feet down into the dark hole.

The figure is gone.

That's what it is...... Black Path?

Tails was not surprised that the little cavern was so much of a cave that Grivo sighed and patted him on the shoulder.

"My men will have the horses ready over there and go wherever you want," the veteran looked uncertain, but finally didn't say anything, "but, follow Kez inside." ”

Tails took a deep breath, followed the example of a seamstress, and stole his legs into the cave—he didn't step to the bottom, but he felt the chill inside, and the breeze that seemed to be there.

"You're not coming?"

The brawl behind him continued, but the patrol's whistle was already sounding in the distance.

Obviously, time is running out.

Grivo patted half of his thigh and mocked, "Do I look like I can fly up the wall?"

Tails' heart was blocked.

"Go," Grivo turned to the side, grimacing, "I need to go back and clean up the mess—especially the dead man's face." ”

Tails looked at the veteran and clenched his fists.

"Grivo," Tails gritted his teeth and nodded heavily:

"Thank you. ”

The boy said seriously: "Whether you are for the old crow or for my mother. ”

Grivo froze.

Tails looked at him sincerely, bowing slightly.

The next second, the veteran's expression became annoyed, and he slapped Tails on the back, pushing him into the black path with the latter's exclamation.

Watching Tails disappear into the dark path, Grivo gasped for breath to calm his impatience.

Damn it.

Grivo cursed silently in his heart.

For his mother?

Who did he think he was?

Grivo turned his wheelchair around with an unswerving face, and spat unpleasantly as he watched the brawl on the street become more and more clear.

"A king. ”

He looked at the sky that had just lit up and muttered.

"A king," said Grivo, whose face sank, and he muttered to himself with a low mood:

"How can it be...... What about the king?"

The veteran looked at half of his thigh, touched his only hollow left left eye, his expression was reluctant and gloomy, and he whispered:

". ”

But after just a few breaths, Grivo's nervous expression relaxed.

His face stiffened, and he pulled a thread from the pocket of his bosom in a panic.

A small black leather bag was slowly pulled out of the mezzanine.

Grivo shuddered as he unwrapped the pouch, stared blankly at its contents, and then looked at the entrance to the Black Path.

Silence for a long time.

The veteran stopped moving, snorted lightly, and shook his head as if laughing at himself: "......"

The brawl behind him began to subside.

But Grivoy didn't notice.

He pinched the thing in his hand, his face turned red and uncertain, and he put on a fierce expression, and shouted:

"!"

As if that proves something.

After a few seconds, Grivoy leaned back into the back of his wheelchair with relief.

He chuckled weakly.

The veteran closed his eyes tightly, and his tone was tinged with melancholy:

". ”

Eventually, the object in Grivo's hand slowly floated down into his wheelchair.

The morning light illuminated it.

It was a neat strand of female hair.

Smooth, smooth and shiny.

The color is fiery red.

————

After feeling the friction between his back and the rock formations, and sliding all the way to the bottom, Tails' eyes were black.

Until footsteps sounded.

"Yo, you're afraid of the dark?"

Tails squinted at the sudden light, and looked at Kez with a playful look at the lamp that was not extinguished.

It was pitch black.

As well as the cold.

Their inextinguishable lights can only illuminate a small area around them.

"Keep up," said the seamstress, who had only half of her face in the light in the darkness, helped him light the lamp that could not be extinguished, and sighed, "There are some roads that must be followed, even if they are not easy to walk." ”

Tails scrambled to his feet.

Ketz turned, his hands and feet digging up the black rock wall, and seemed to be going uphill.

"I've got to climb this place again......"

"At least I took three hundred gold coins last time......"

Ketz sarcastically said to himself: "What about the patron this time? gave us a chance to go to the gallows, ha!"

"Prince? ”

Tails had to pretend he didn't hear.

The Black Path was narrower than Tails had imagined, and he was just about to reach for the inextinguishable lamp at his side when his arm slammed into the rock wall.

Boom.

Tyers hissed at the sore spot, not daring to be careless, carefully grasping the inextinguishable lamp, and struggling to keep up with Ketz's footsteps.

Kertz was clearly familiar with the road, and he could barely see Kez's trouser legs and boots through the faint light of the lights that never went out.

Soon, Tails understood the power of the Black Path.

Obviously, there were no flat roads here, either uphill or downhill, but there were potholes, and in several places there were even steep slopes that resembled cliffs, and Kez had to climb up with a hook, and then hang down the rope to pull him up.

"Is this place really walked by people," Tails grumbled bitterly after his eighth fall, "Black Path?"

"It wasn't that hard to walk before," Ketz chuckled at the front, "but you know...... Calamity played with stones in Longxiao City, and half of it collapsed out of thin air. ”

"Blame them. ”

There were bumps and bumps everywhere along the way, and Tails repeatedly fell or slipped because of his inexperience—if it weren't for the experience of wrestling as a child, Tails felt that he might have a blue nose and swollen face by now.

"Be careful, don't fall again. ”

There was a voice from the front.

Tails blushed and groped for the surrounding rock formations more and more cautiously, "Thank you." ”

Kez snorted.

"I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about the lamp that never goes out - who cares if you fall or not. ”

Tails raised an eyebrow, rolling his eyes in the darkness that no one was seeing.

"It's poorly ventilated, and you'll suffocate with torches. ”

The kertz who led the way in front of him said twice:

"And it's so dark in here that the lights won't go out, and you can't get out without the lights. ”

Speaking of which......

Tails' heart moved: I have a solution.

He smiled inwardly.

The sins of the River of Hell answered his call, rushing into his eyes.

In the turbulence of blood vessels around his eye sockets, Tails saw with satisfaction that the pitch-black scene in front of him slowly became transparent.

Including the sounds of the cavern, albeit with only a faint chill flowing.

Tails only felt that his eyes were much clearer, and many obstacles that could not be illuminated in the dark could be avoided in advance.

He quickly caught up with Kez, which made the seamstress look up to him.

"You're pretty quick to get started!"

Tails couldn't help but feel a little smug, and he began to pay attention to his surroundings.

"Oh, there's still a word here?"

Tails climbed a flat rock platform and saw strange writing on the rock wall through the Sins of the River Hell.

"Huh?"

Ketz, who was groping his way ahead, asked puzzledly, "Why didn't I find out?"

Tailston paused, and the sins of the River of Hell's River continued to surge.

He squinted his eyes and touched the words carved into the rock wall.

"August, Twenty ...... Livestock, grain ......," he whispered, reading the words aloud.

Tails' expression became serious.

"Ancient Empires. ”

Kez climbed a protruding rock and wondered, "What?"

"The words, the words on these rocks, are the ancient imperial scripts, this way of writing...... Not the final empire, it's an ancient empire from a long time ago," Tails blinked, remembering in disbelief the ancient imperial alphabet Gilbert had taught him a long time ago, "This tunnel is at least a thousand years old, if not longer—at least then, when the Northlands were still under the rule of the Ancient Empire. ”

"No," Tails said with interest when he saw a new sentence, and his curiosity was aroused, "it shouldn't be that old, and I notice that there are some lingua franca words and usages mixed in with them—as if to keep track of supplies and stocks." ”

Ketz chuckled dryly.

The seamstress seemed to be doing something strenuous and might be climbing, and said perfunctorily, "yes, really...... That's amazing...... That's amazing. ”

"Now, move your ass and keep walking. ”

Kez finally climbed a boulder above, she gasped, poked her head out and stretched out her hand to Tails below, and said angrily, "Then give me your hand, and I'll pull you up." ”

Tails raised an eyebrow, glanced at the figure above, and moved on.

But he froze immediately.

Wait a minute.

Tails looked back at Kez in disbelief.

The lights lit up only a small rock wall around her, and the rest was pitch black.

But.

Seeing the scene in front of him, Tails was shocked!

He blinked in astonishment: he saw the rock formation above Kez's head in the darkness of the Sins of the River Hell, almost as dark as day......

Suddenly there was one more person.

It was a man.

He was dressed in ancient armor, with intricate braids, a thin face, an open mouth, and bulging eyes—but no pupils, only the whites of his eyes.

It's like a dead body.

Tails noticed in a faint chill that in the dim black path, there was only black and the golden yellow of the lights, but the man was "brightly colored", with dark blue shoulder armor, bright silver chain mail, dark red belt, and even the weapon was distinctly colored.

What's even more bizarre is that the man seems to be face down in the rock formation, defying gravity, "lying" upside down on top of Ketz's head.

At that moment, Tails only felt stiff - he suddenly remembered the story of the "back-to-back" of the top bunks in another fantasy world, in the campus dormitory.

Why now......

I know it...... I'm most afraid of this kind of thing......

"Hey!"

Ketz shook his arm impatiently and said, "Are you stupid?"

The next second.

The man moved.

I saw "him" little by little, stiffly lowering his neck.

It's like the neck is rusty.

Tails' scalp began to tingle, and a chill began to run down his spine.

The next moment, as if his neck was lowered to the extreme, "he" began to turn the pair of eyesless eyes, only a miserable white eyeball, staring lifelessly at the Kezi below.

"He" slowly tugged at the thin muscles of his cheeks, pulled out a stiff smile, showed his unusually sharp rust-colored teeth, and spat out a phrase in a hoarse voice like tearing vocal cords.

Hearing the elongated phrase, Tails froze.

It was the ancient imperial Chinese language.

【Live ...... Human ......】

But Ketz was still impatient, unaware of something just a few inches above his head: "Do you want to come up?"

I didn't even seem to hear that word.

Tails took a deep breath and lowered his head, suppressing the tremors in his body.

Right now.

What the hell is he going to tell Ketz: above your head......

Yes......

There is a ......

Tails took a few deep breaths, desperately shutting away fear.

He made up his mind.

What's in it?

No......

Isn't that ......

Isn't it just a ......

Isn't it just a ghost!

With a heart full of indignation, Tails gritted his teeth, opened his eyes, and jerked his head up!

But he was stunned again.

I saw that above Ketz's head, there was only a pitch-black rock formation.

Empty.

What a man lying upside down, what a brightly colored ghost.

As if it had never been there.

"Hey, hey, hey?"

Kez looked at the stunned Tails with an unhappy expression, the lights shining on her side face and the rock wall:

"What the hell are you fussy?"