The Golden Trade Road is not the name of a trade route, but a collective name for three traffic arteries that end in the commercial center of the BRICS city of Bai Modi. It extends in three directions, passing through most of the important cities of Turanda, and forms a domestic commercial material circulation network with the original Dopang River waterway.

Since the day of the collapse of Augustus (Note 1), the threat of enemy Bran has been looming day by day, and most of the country's military forces have been deployed to the western border. The law and order in many places on the mainland has deteriorated, and the robbers, robbers, and the crystal demons and parasitic monsters that are roaming everywhere have made life on the various trade routes not as peaceful as in the past.

Caravans, large and small, had to spend a lot of money to hire more mercenaries as bodyguards to protect their goods and personal safety. Even so, there are still bloody cases of people being robbed of goods and killed from time to time on the trade routes.

The Southwind Route is a golden trade route that starts from the Sagantan Marshes and passes through the Wanma Plain from the southernmost part of Turanda along the coastline to the north. Because there are several major ports along the way, it is the most exotic road, but also the worst of the security.

At this moment, the mighty convoy of the Zoya Circus is slowly advancing on this southerly road. The hot summer breeze blows from moment to end, and even under the shadow of the dense elm cherry trees, the sweat still flows uncontrollably.

Leaving the small city of Canlar, within two days, the weather suddenly entered the state of midsummer. The heat became the worst enemy of the long migration, and the circus had to stop at noon to escape the midday sun.

The sun was already approaching its highest point, and the head of Lan Li looked around and ordered the whole group to rest and prepare to camp. There is a man-made canal next to the paved trade road, so even if it is not a campsite, it can be used as a temporary rest stop.

The horses were not unloaded, but were led aside and let them drink and eat. The members of the group sitting in the carriage couldn't wait to jump out of the stuffy carriage and rush to the canal to fetch water to cool themselves down.

Captain Zoya, dressed in a robe made of colorful light gauze, also stepped out of his carriage. She held a lilac silk fan and shook it gently, standing on the wheel of the carriage to breathe.

The material of the robe is very light, and it flutters like a butterfly in the hot wind, outlining the plump and moving curves of Zoya from time to time. A bright red hair is also rare to be coiled up with a hairpin at this moment, which looks unique to a dignified beauty.

As soon as Kafra heard that he had set up camp, he jumped off his horse, rushed to the canal and drank to his heart's content, and then graciously fetched a bag of fresh water and brought it to Zoya. But when he walked up to the canal bank, he saw the regiment commander talking to someone on the other side of the carriage with his head down.

Zoya's carriage was so tall that it was impossible to see who the talker was, but from Zoya's soft expression, Cafra could guess who the other person was, the bodyguard "Dill Lando".

The two of them suddenly picked up a man from the woods more than a month ago, claiming to be a mercenary, who had not only lost his horse and equipment, but had also been lost in the mountains until he fainted from hunger!

Such a useless guy, but because of a good skin, he won the favor of the head of the regiment, and he ate and drank in the regiment for nothing!

Kafra thinks that he is good-looking, and he has always been the chief ace actor in the troupe, and the nickname "Prince" is not his own.

However, since that man came, he had somehow easily won the hearts of all the women in the group, and even the most difficult Aunt Rum and the murderous she-bear "Nana" obeyed him, which was really evil.

Cavra gritted her teeth and decided to send the water to Zoya. When it's so hot, what better way to relieve the heat than a cool spring water?

"Commander~ You're thirsty, there's a new spring here. Ignoring Dearlando's smiling greeting, Cavra greeted Zoya directly.

"Xiexie you, Kafra~" Zoya stopped talking, took the water bag, took a cup and poured a glass. "You're so considerate......"

With a snap, Zoya's hydration bag and cup were snatched away by Diarlando. Kafra didn't see how he jumped into the carriage, but at the moment he was frowning and smelling the water.

"What are you doing!" Cavra shouted, pointing at Deirlando's nose.

"Stop drinking...... The water is poisonous. Something must have happened upstream!"

Diarrando threw the water bag and cup to the ground and whistled, and his wild horse, which he had caught from the mountains and was as colorful as a cow, galloped over.

“...... What poisonous ......," Cavra could finish speaking, and Dearlando had already jumped on horseback with a leap and galloped away in the direction of the upper reaches of the canal.

Zoya directly rang a brass bell hanging next to the carriage, and the loud bell was a signal for the emergency summoning of the members, and everyone immediately returned to Zoya's carriage to gather.

"Fayir, Domon, follow Dill to see what is going on in front of you, there may be a problem with the canal, and all the water you just hit is gone. Blue Rite ...... You see what's wrong with the water. ”

Everyone was surprised and turned their heads to each other, not knowing what was going on, but they still trustfully obeyed the command of the regiment commander.

Fortunately, the convoy still had a reserve of water sources, and Aunt Rumme skillfully began to prepare meals for the people in the group as usual, and Achille and Luna helped the aunt obediently, but couldn't help but discuss it in private.

"Brother Dill said that the water is poisonous, brother, have you drunk it?" Luna was helping Aunt Rum cut potatoes, and asked Achille quietly.

Achille was kneading his dough vigorously when he heard this, and he was stunned for a moment: "Ah, did the boss say that? I was just fetching water from below, and he ran away when he came up." I didn't feel anything uncomfortable, it stands to reason that what the boss said must have made sense, but I really didn't feel anything wrong for the time being. Didn't you drink water?"

"Hmm...... I didn't get off in Sister Zoya's carriage just now. And Brother Dill gave me a lot of fruit, and I ate it all morning, and I was not thirsty. Luna put the knife down and pulled out a string of watery berries from her bosom. "Brother, do you want to eat?"

"Doom...... No, my brother is not thirsty. "Achille knew at a glance that it must be the wild fruit that those little animals paid tribute to, and Diarlando will send some to Zoya if he is fine. At this moment, although Achille was kneading the dough, his mind had already flown to the road ahead, wondering what was going on.

Continuing north from where the circus is stationed, about two miles away, there is a campsite. A relatively spacious area has been carved out along the roadside, and the canal has been enlarged to create three ponds of similar size. There are also simple shacks on the side of the road where people can rest and shelter from the rain.

And at this moment, the place is enveloped by the strong smell of blood. There were about five or six bodies, lying on the side of the road, two of them half soaked in the pond. The blood on the ground had dried up, and flies were lingering next to fresh corpses.

A few crows flew into the sky as Deirlandor approached, but reluctant to give up the delicacy to their beaks, perched on the branches of the surrounding trees, tilting their heads to observe the creatures that had broken into their restaurant.

Dearlando jumped off his horse and circled around the corpse. All of them seemed to have been bitten to death by some animal, with bloody wounds on their necks, faces, and waists. Because of the hot weather, some wounds have begun to grow white maggots, and the pungent smell of rancid smell is blowing in the face.

The young dragon spun around agitated in the star box, as if he wanted to come out.

"No, no, no, it's not tasty. Dragons are not scavengers, and no matter how hungry you are, you can't fall into eating corpses!" Diarrando lectured the young dragon through the star box. After thinking about it, he grabbed a handful of pure magic crystals and threw them to the young dragon as a snack.

After such a delay, Fayle and Domont also rushed over, and when they saw the surrounding scene, they both covered their mouths and noses and frowned.

Fayle looked at the color of the wound, poked it with a twig, and dug out some sticky bodily fluid. The purple-brown blood clot looked like normal dried blood, but after he placed a small fireball on the branch, it suddenly burst into flames, forming a blue-green fireball.

"Poisonous!" Fayle nodded to confirm Dearlandor's previous speculation.

Domon crouched on the ground, looking for footprints and marks. After a while, he pointed to the woods on the left side of the road and said, "All their horses are going here." ”

The three men remounted their horses and followed the messy horseshoe prints into the woods by the roadside. The horses were apparently frightened and fled in all directions. But their luck was not much better than that of their owners, and soon the carcasses of all six horses were found.

"If it wasn't a horde of beasts attacking them, it was something very, very fast. Domon looked at Zuihou, a disemboweled caravan horse, and came to a conclusion. The distance from here to the camp was no more than a mile, and the place where the six horses had fallen was no more than three hundred feet apart.

"What the hell is it!" said Fayle frowned, soothing his restless thin gray horse. Apparently the smell left by the assailant or something that still persists intimidating the animals passing by.

Dearlando closed his eyes to expand the scope of his perception, there were no high-level creatures in a radius of three miles except for insects and those greedy scavengers on the trees just now, and they all seemed to be scared away by something.

"Ah~~~~~~~~~~~~~h The three of them exchanged glances, and immediately tacitly patted the horse and returned to the camp.

Note 1: The Day of the Collapse of Augustus - The thousand-year-old city of Augustus, the original capital of Turanda, broke out on the second full moon day of the winter month of the year 997 in the astral calendar, and a rebellion led by the traitor Archduke Lyons broke out. The Grand Duke of Lyon, in collusion with the Bran spies, triggered a terrorist attack that destroyed the underground holy spring of Augustus. The giant parasitic beasts unleashed by Bran priestess Jojava and archmage Fayer attacked the entire city of Augustus, turning all the humans who did not evacuate in time into zombie-like crystal demons. For more information, see The Little Tailor and the Wolf Knight.

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