Despite their notoriety, they are also highly intelligent creatures, and generally speaking, when they are not too hungry, they are barely able to communicate with powerful visitors who are not affected by psionic powers.

As the name suggests, the City of the Hermit is closed off at all times except for the slave trade and slave hunting. Chief Consul Surak is an avid psychic who spends most of his time exploring the connection between spirit and matter, and the large fuchsia octopus would rather spend his time transplanting goblins and kobolds than taking care of the city's chores.

So the Psionic Monster in charge of the day-to-day operations of the City of the Recluses is the guy standing in front of Nisedir. Its pale pink and purple smooth mucous membranes looked extremely disgusting, and the deep eyes made people instinctively want to look away, unwilling to look at this monster.

"Bergendur, slave herd, please forgive us for visiting again. The slaver bowed slightly to the Spirit Sucker in front of him, "As a veteran supplier of the City of the Recluse, the Dragon Treasure Chamber of Commerce would like to make a deal with you. ”

Although the psychic defense talisman hanging around his neck constantly flashed with magical aura, dealing with these great octopuses who were naturally proficient in psionic magic was also necessary to get to the point, and Nisedir made a request straight to the point: "The First Consul of Ustnazar is hunting down a spider spirit who has betrayed the gods, he is a fugitive from Morsoblay City. There is evidence that he is hiding in the City of the Recluse. ”

Bergendur's two bubbling eyes looked at the slave trader, and a turquoise starlight diopside was embedded in its forehead, as if it were a third eye capable of piercing the psychic defense talisman.

"It's true that a arachnid has come to the City of the Hermits," Bergendur replied telepathically, "but this arachnid is an important test subject for the Chief Archon, and the City of the Recluses will not accept any request until the Chief Archon has completed his research." ”

With the news of the "Archon's test subject" alone, Nisedir can guarantee that the defector from Morsoblay will end up in a tragic end. In all fairness, compared to the crazy experiments of the spirit sucking monsters, the blood sacrifice of the Spider Queen Priests can even be called "merciful".

There is a cursed subspecies of dwarves in the Dark Lands, the Dilo Dwarves. These deformed, transparent-skinned dwarves were not at all as stout as their kind, on the contrary, the Dillor dwarves, with their naturally rotting faces, twisted limbs, and emaciated bodies, looked like the offspring of a zombie-ghost woman's hybrid. This cursed subspecies of dwarves, with a naturally twisted mind, is an out-and-out mad race, but their psychic ability talent far exceeds that of other dwarven races, and in the secret records of the drow elves, the Dilo dwarves are freaks created by the spirit sucking monsters after using humans and dwarven slaves to breed with each other, and even adding the bloodline of nether creatures such as ghost women.

So what kind of terrible things will Surak, the chief consul of the City of the Recluse, use the arachnoid elves to create?

Nisedir didn't allow Nisedil to think about it, he was more concerned about whether Firi could get his hands on the arachnoid elf who was destined to be dragged to the altar—

"Arachnids are rare, but there are still a few of them in each drow city-state. If His Excellency the Chief Archon wishes, the Dragon Treasure Chamber of Commerce is willing to exchange ten arachnid elves for this one. ”

Bergendur's tentacles squirmed slightly, like human politicians shaking their beards, and after a moment it telepathically replied: "Unfortunately, the Chief Sul will not agree to your request." This spider elf is very special, because it is special, so precious, it is a pity, Nisedil of the Dragon Treasure Chamber of Commerce, we refuse this transaction. ”

All the spirit-absorbing monsters in a soul-absorbing city-state are connected by their spiritual tentacles through the main brain of the city center, and in a certain sense, their consciousness is shared. Therefore, Bergendur's refusal is almost equivalent to Surak's refusal.

Nisedir still refused to give up, he thought for a moment, and said tentatively, "Can we enter the City of the Hermit and purchase a batch of psionic magic items?"

This time, the slave herdsman replied more directly: "Unfortunately, the City of the Recluse has no intention of trading with foreign countries in the short term. ”

For these octopus heads, this was already a rare expression of kindness, and Nisedir could only smile and take a step back: "It seems that it is really a pity. ”

......

.........

From the ruins of the Fallen City to the City of the Hermit miles below it, the rock walls in this area are fragmented, and there are not even a few safe tunnels.

The few tunnels that didn't collapse were either nests for monsters or guarded by selfless slaves of the Psisuckers. Slave trader groups like the Dragon Treasure Chamber of Commerce have been set up in the City of the Recluse, and they have gone safely and smoothly, and they have changed their faces, but they are afraid that they will soon be served to the table of octopus heads.

Heavily armed stone-blind barbarian slaves cautiously roam the tunnels, these naturally blind underground creatures with a strong sense of hearing and are the best patrolmen.

Ustnazar's best scout, wearing an Invisibility Cloak that allows him to easily reach the sentry of the surface elves, and can step on fallen leaves without making a sound. But the well-trained Stoneblind Barbarian soldiers were able to catch any whisper, not even the sound of the Invisibility Cloak being blown by the wind.

Beside a tunnel that had long since collapsed, the stone wall covered with thick moss rippled faintly, as if a stone had been thrown into the quiet middle of the lake, and the black magic cloak silently pierced through the stone wall.

Stone boots stomped on the borders of the City of the Recluses, and Ustnazar's best warriors took another look at the spirit-absorbing city-state. Unlike the drow spirits, who make full use of stalagmites and stalactites as building materials, the Spirits of the City of the Recluse have a distinct lack of awareness of architectural aesthetics.

Just as octopuses like to hide in rock crevices, the City of the Hermits hides entirely inside the rock formations, using the slaves they control to dig out an ant-nest-like interior. This completely enclosed cavern structure effectively restricts the observer's perspective, and the caster's detection skills such as monitoring the MONOCULUS are hardly useful in the face of this labyrinth in the rock.

Stone walking, a spell that travels through rocks, is no longer applicable when approaching a spirit-absorbing city-state. As the traditional source of slaves for the Spirits, the Grey Dwarves and the Dillors often have a strong affinity for the earth element, and can even "listen" to the "language" of the rocks.

However, these obstacles are not a big problem for a magician who hides his identity.

Releasing a small bag of gray cave moth scale powder from the pouch under the magic cloak, Sohrafine gently sprinkled the rare arcane catalyst on the surface onto the cloak and gently recited the incantation: "Nondetection." ”

"Evasion Detection" is a three-ring arcane artely, a protective school spell designed to defend against the detection magic of the Prophecy School, which can also interfere with the psyker's telepathic power, which is also an essential spell to infiltrate the psionic city-state.

After applying evasive detection, Sorafien put on a plain houndine ring for himself, with mysterious patterns etched into the gray canines. This Shadow Walking Ring, made from the canines of the Shadow Mastiff, allows its wielder to gain the unique powers of shadow creatures, blend into the shadows for long periods of time, and even go directly to the shadow plane for a short plane trip.

Even if they are proficient in psionic magic, it is difficult for their psychic perception to pass through the main material realm and detect changes in the shadow plane. For the assassins and scouts of this world, only those who have mastered this kind of stealth technique using the shadow plane can be regarded as true infiltration experts.

Placing the shadow ring on the little finger of his left hand, and with a slight twist, the world in Sorafien's eyes suddenly lost all color, and his body became as dark as a shadow, and then quickly sank into the shadow of the stone wall.

Almost instantly, he had disappeared from this material world. The magic cloak, the shadow ring, the stone walking boots, and all the equipment sank into the shadows, becoming illusory.

Of course, this is relative, and for the young Drow, he can also think that the shadow world he is in now is the real existence, and the material world is just an illusion of illusion. The drow's proud thermal vision makes it difficult to capture subtle changes in light and heat in a world of shadows, and those once vivid thermal spots are now hazy and dark shadows, black, white, and a mixture of the two, which is what Sorafien can see.

In the shadow state, Sorafien is like an actor who has left the stage, and can only stay in the shadows and watch the performance under the lights. But in the same way, those "actors" who still remain on the "stage" have no way to leave the "stage" to interfere with his every move.

Unless he voluntarily ends his state of sneaking in the shadows and returns to the main material plane. Until then, most of the forces acting on matter and mind could not cross the chasm between shadow and substance and act directly on him.

......

.........

The stench of rotting corpses settled on the lowest level of the Recluse's City, which was supposed to be a concentration camp for slaves and, more precisely, a large storehouse for the Psionic Monsters of the Recluse.

But for the psionics, one by one, the most precious ingredients are turning into mangled corpses. As for the spirit-sucking monsters, whether they are dwarves or gnomes, once they lose their lives, their brains will begin to die the moment they lose their fresh blood and oxygen supply, and the cerebral cortex, which retains all the knowledge and emotions of intelligent beings, will also quickly lose their "nutritional value".

Therefore, a spirit sucking monster only needs to suck a fresh brain a month, which is enough to ensure that its body is full of vitality, but such unnecessary killing is an out-and-out "corruption and waste".

The "corrupt" who presided over this killing feast was none other than Surak, the supreme consul of the City of the Recluse.

The gigantic psychic was imposing, adorned with a crystal crown on its massive octopus head, its overly loose purple robes held in place by a jewel-encrusted belt, and even the staff in its hand was carved entirely from emeralds.

The tip of the staff is carved into the gloomy octopus face of the spirit-sucking god Il, who is clinging to a planet with his tentacles, his ill-intentioned eyes sweeping back and forth thoughtfully in front of him.

The idols of Surak and Eir Divine Siin used the square pupils of their cold-blooded creatures to gaze at the slayer whose upper body was a drow elf, and the lower half of which had been transformed into a giant eight-legged arthropod.

This is the blessing and curse of the spider god queen, the divine blessing from the deep pit magic web, completely distorting the body structure of the drow elf, completely distorting the body of this unfortunate person, turning it into an existence between the drow elf and the demon hunting spider.

At first, this blessing was only given to those who were extremely devout in the way of the Spider Queen, giving them the same half-spider and half-drow body as the Spider Queen. For the aftermath of Chaos, this is probably a rare compliment.

However, this kind of evil god blessing from the lower realm, mixed with chaos magic that is almost fatal to intelligent beings, can even distort the soul and corrupt the spirit, so that the drow elves who bear this divine power lose themselves and become mutated weapons that completely implement the will of the spider queen. As a result, most of the Spider Queen's priestesses eventually became insensitive to this terrible "blessing" and used this power to punish those who rebelled against them.

On the outskirts of every drow city, there will always be such losers who have been expelled from drow society, relying on carrion corpses to feed their hunger, taking pleasure in killing, and completely reduced to beasts, and there is no trace of elves in sight.

But there are always one or two exceptions to everything.

Unlike the giant spiders that ordinary people have in their minds, the Demon Hunter Spider, a purgatory creature of the Abyss, is essentially closer to a demon, with its eight long claws that stretch outwards are not only longer, but also covered with sharp spines like blades, which makes it easier for the Demon Hunter to hunt the lower demons of the Abyss.

At this moment, the arachnid elf with scattered white hair slowly walked between the corpse mountain and the sea of blood, each long claw was covered with blood, brain marrow, and internal organ fragments, faithfully carrying out the mission of the killing machine. But on the handsome face of the arachnid, there was only a look of indifference full of weariness, staring at his prey, and the chief archon of the soul-absorbing monsters who had been watching this killing feast.

The spider's long claws flipped through the pile of corpses a few times, pulling out a shivering goblin. The arachnid elf looked at the goblin's face, which was also covered in blood, and convulsed from fear, sighed softly, and then pierced the goblin's throat with a claw, tearing out the lobes of the lungs and heart along the trachea, and stirring it into a mess of rotten flesh.

The goblin's blood splattered, staining the spider's white hair, and a pale silver spell could be faintly seen between the hair, looming between the spider's forehead.

Surak glanced at the ring of spells that flickered between the spiders' foreheads, and unconcernedly, he used his psychic ability to contact Bergendur, a slave herd, "Bring a new batch of slaves to the testing ground." ”

Soon after, Bergendur, who was in charge of the slave management of the city of recluses, hurriedly came to the archon, and as soon as the heads of the two octopuses, one large and one small, met, Bergendur exclaimed in a telepathic way: "Your Excellency, the chief consul of the Scriptures, if you continue to carry out the experiment, then the food reserves of the city of the hermit will fluctuate greatly. ”

"And," Glancing at the arachnid elf who was wandering among the corpses, Bergendur certainly couldn't mistake the spell ring on the other party's forehead: "When this test subject received the arachnid elf's curse, he had a specialized miniature anti-chaos magic circle on his head in advance, which greatly limited the chaotic power of the arachnoid elf's curse, and weakened the mental deprivation effect that should have taken effect. If you want to continue experimenting, you might as well get rid of this constant defense magic!"

"O Slave Herdler, you don't understand that once this anti-chaos circle is canceled, then my experiment will be meaningless. ”

Surak's tentacles swayed slightly, and he replied to the disgruntled subordinate, "Because this arachnoid spirit still retains a part of his mind and is not completely controlled by the curse of the goddess, his actions are still murder, not hunting operations common in the animal kingdom, and this is the focus of my research. If this young and promising Master Drow had completely lost his mind, then the premise of my experiment would not have existed. ”

While psionic suckers who are obsessed with devouring the brains of intelligent beings throughout the multiverse are considered an absolutely harmful race, these octopus heads are also avid collectors of forbidden knowledge. Not to mention, Surak himself is a big monster from the most mainstream "Bo Scholar" sect of the Spiritsuckers, and as the supreme leader of the City of the Recluses, he uses the "public property" of the city-state to do some bloody experiments, and it is not necessary for any Soulsuckers to openly oppose it.

In a dark shade of black and white, Sorafion, who had blended himself into the shadows, was also watching the arachnid. From the face that closely resembled Viconia, Sorafien determined that the arachnid elf wandering among the piles of corpses was his target.

Viconia's older brother, the former genius among the young mages of Morsobre, is Valas Deaver.

The lips that were supposed to spit out spells fluently now probably only know how to use the lower language that goblins or bad demons can use, and the hands that used to be able to make complex spell casting gestures now only know how to tear their prey apart.

The dilapidated anti-chaos magic circle, although it has maintained a little sanity for the time being, has not dissipated, but in the face of the curse after chaos, this line of defense will sooner or later collapse completely.

This is the final end of a drow elf trying to reclaim his loved ones from the altar of the Queen Spider.

As a mage who concealed his identity, Sorafien had no religious beliefs, but at this moment he finally whispered the most taboo name in the drow society: "O lady dancing in the moonlight, Elise Etrian who guides us out of this nightmare......"

......

.........

On the seemingly simple but vast wooden chessboard, Xia Yuan Taiyijun, who was watching this long chess game, set his eyes on the black chess piece called "Solafien", which slightly revealed a trace of warm brilliance, as if it was carved with coal spirit. This sign represents that Sorafien is trying to follow the path of the Dark Maiden, and even a little inner impulse is clearly manifested in the chess pieces.

Of course, this inner change was also nurtured by Elisetsu, at least her moody and crazy mother would not notice it anytime soon, unless the piece began to fully shift into her daughter's camp.

However, as a chess spectator invited by Elistry, Xia Yuan Taiyijun's eyes fell on another chess piece beside Sorafien.

It was Varas Deaver's pawn, and unlike the gentle guru "Sorafien", this spider-shaped pawn still retains the hooded robes of magicians on the upper body, but the lower body has changed into the appearance of a spider. A sulphur-smelling filthy black gas kept pouring out of the chess pieces, almost unmistakably expressing the true meaning of the words "no help".

But in the eyes of Xia Yuan Taiyijun, in addition to the vicious aura that obviously came from the deep pit demon web, inside the spider elf chess piece, there was also a faint blood light that flickered from time to time.

This blood light looked very similar to the evil qi from the deep pit demon net, but there were some slight differences in it.

Xia Yuan Taiyijun squinted his eyes slightly, and drew a few times in the palm of his hand with a gesture of writing. The spiritual disc was bent into a seal, faintly dyed with the same blood, but at the moment when it was about to take shape, it was suddenly cut off by a strange force, turning into several drops of blood and tears, flowing in the palm of Xia Yuan Taiyijun.

Or it should be said that at the moment when the true form is about to be formed, it is pulled by the origin divine power and directly cuts off the true form of the true form that the true form is simulated.

But at this moment, Xia Yuan Taiyijun also captured the moment of blood and tears, countless broken pictures-

Corpses are everywhere, and the soldiers are cursed, and it is endless death, but also endless killing.

Xia Yuan Taiyijun nodded knowingly: "It turns out that it is one of the three gods of death, the god of murder, Baal." ”

Being a stranger in a foreign land, although knowledge is still limited, this murder god Xia Yuan Taiyijun is not a stranger.

The original god of murder, along with his two companions, Bane and Mirkor, were still mortals, and the three of them joined forces to enter the underworld and ask Jeger, the god of death, for the priesthood of the god of death: tyranny, death, and murder.

As a result, the god of tyranny, Bane, the god of death, Mirko, and the god of murder, Baal, were born, and they were also the leaders of the evil gods among the local gods.

It's just that compared to the Spider God Queen and the Soul Sucking God Il, there are few residents of the dark region among the believers of this murder god, not to mention, the path of this divine power is more like being called to come, rather than the gods actively attaching themselves.

This is a little bit more interesting.