“...... Most of the elves who took refuge in the sewers died at the hands of their companions in the dark, and half of those who survived were infected with the deadly diseases of the sewers...... Despair, pain, hatred, panic, and almost all the negative emotions that pervade these millions of lower elves who have nowhere to survive in the dark and filthy pipes, this huge negative energy attracts a being with a main godhead from the otherworld to the present world, this is the spider god Queen Rose, who is revered as the mother of the drow elves...... Rose's appearance is also one of the few incidents in the history of the Morkelon Continent where the Protoss interfered with the mortal race."

- The Descendants of Gwyndlin, Hettlother K. Greger

Since the age of the Ancient Dragons, the towering rock walls of the Forbidden Realm have completely blocked the southwest of the continent from the mainland, leaving this world of rolling yellow sand and spices untouched. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 info Until the 33rd year of the 6th Obedience 5th Species of the Dwarven Seventy-Seven Empire (the Dwarven calendar is written: Щ?_ta?Пcan?Note 1), it is believed that the emperor of the empire, who buried endless treasures behind the rock wall, mobilized more than a million craftsmen and soldiers, and almost exhausted the efforts of the whole country for more than 40 years to finally open the desperate rock wall.

The Emperor himself presided over the final ceremony, taking the sledgehammer from his courtiers and striking hard at the last rock wall on the cliff, completely cutting through the huge rock wall that had separated the West from the continent of Morkelen for thousands of years.

However, when the Emperor couldn't wait to come to the back of the desperate rock wall to receive the endless treasure he had longed for, what he saw was a vast sea of sand with no life at all, and every wind whistling on the yellow sand seemed to laugh at his stupidity and presumptuousness. The Emperor, who could not withstand this huge blow, vomited a stream of blood and passed out on the desert, and soon after contracted a sudden illness and died in the middle of the way back.

The question of succession to the throne brought about by the death of the Emperor sparked fierce infighting among the dwarven princes, and the huge amount of manpower and material resources expended on the excavation of the desperate rock wall further intensified the rebellion of the people of all levels of the Seventy-Seven Empire, especially the elves who were called as slaves and forced to work in the most dangerous and onerous areas of the project. For a long time after that, the Western Desert was regarded as an ominous "place of king's fall" for the exile of prisoners who had been convicted of heavy crimes, including many famous dignitaries, such as the ancestor of the elves, Estisia "Ulder" Gwendrin.

It's another story of how Sir Roche later discovered spices and minerals in the desert, and how the Dwarven Stonemasons' Guild and the Gnome Chamber of Commerce battled each other to win the initial right to exploit the Western Sand Sea. All in all, as more and more spices and minerals are excavated from under the yellow sands of the western sand sea, and more and more trade convoys and adventurers with dreams of making a fortune are heading to the west, it is clear that the small passage under the rock wall of despair can no longer meet such a large capacity.

With the cooperation of wizards and craftsmen, the passage, which had been able to accommodate only one carriage, was gradually widened and enlarged, and by the end of the Gwendrin Elven Dynasty, it had been converted into a large pass that could accommodate four carriages in parallel. In order to commemorate the dwarves who first opened up the rock wall of despair, the two most revered masters of the dwarves, Eindev and Harubards, are carved on the rock walls on both sides of this rock wall, which is named the Hundred Knots Pass.

After the establishment of the Western Spice Trade Road, the various commercial activities brought about greatly activated the economic development of the various territories in the southwest of the Central Avenue, and in just a few years, the warehouses in these territories that even rats did not want to visit were filled with gold coins.

Although the spices contained in the western sand sea and the minerals of the people who came here to hunt for treasure made a lot of money, it also brought a new problem, and that was the appearance of orcs. ...,

Orcs are the inhabitants of the western sand seas, inhabiting desert oases and caves for thousands of years. The establishment of the spice trade route and the influx of the sand in search of gold had a great impact on these orcs, who had been living a primitive life, and this was the first to bear the brunt of the slaughter of large numbers of orcs as wild beasts and driven out of their homes where they had lived for generations.

However, these bloodthirsty and warlike orcs by nature did not rest on their laurels, learning from humans such as intrigue and deception, from dwarves how to mine ore and smelt weapons, and from elves that spells that were previously only used during sacrifices could be used for killing. Just when everyone thought that the beasts that lived in burrows like gophers and carried stones as weapons had been driven out by themselves, the orcs' revenge on the invaders had just begun.

Sixty-two years ago, the three knights were defeated in the South, and the orcs who had been lying dormant realized that this was the perfect opportunity for revenge. They drew their sharpened swords and polished shields, pouring out all the vengeful anger that had been pent up in their chests for thousands of years.

The orc army plundered all the way, not only the human territory and oasis settlements in the western sand sea were poisoned by the orcs, but these red-eyed orcs also slaughtered all the way to the Central Avenue along the spice trade route that brought infinite suffering to their race. The orc army crossed the Baijie Pass, burned and looted all the way along the Gray Salt Shiban Avenue, until it was stubbornly resisted by the private army of the Duandon family and the wizard of the Little Lighthouse before attacking the city of Ulder, and then retreated into the western sand sea.

Although the orc raid had only been completed for three months, it had brought near-devastating damage to the southwest of the Middle Highway. Not only was the entire southwestern territory scorched, but even the wealth accumulated for thousands of years was looted by the orcs.

This orc invasion not only sounded the alarm bell for the Central Avenue that had been peaceful for a long time, but also deeply engraved the fear of orcs in the minds of the people of the southwest territory. Simon Evans, the lord of the Hundred Knots Pass, who was frightened by the orcs, spent a lot of money to invite a dozen warlocks from the Northern Reflection Valley to completely blow up the entire Hundred Knots Pass, completely blocking the possibility of the orcs invading again. But what he didn't expect was that the destruction of Baijie Pass also meant that the spice trade route, which was the lifeline of the Southwest Territory, was also completely cut off, and the Southwest Territory, which had lost trade, could not recover from the orc invasion at all, which made the Southwest Territory continue to break out when the people rebelled against the lord, and the Lord Evans who blew up the Baijie Pass also died at the hands of the mob in a suppressed rebellion. Although there is no shortage of petitions every year to rebuild the Hundred Knot Pass and the Spice Passage, the proposal has been delayed due to the intensification of the political battle between the Reflection Valley of the Woodenne Warlocks and the Wizard's Lighthouse.

So until today, travelers who want to travel from the Western Sand Sea to the Central Avenue have only two routes to choose from, one is to cross the southern Yaxia Plain to the Endless Forest, and then pray that the gods will descend and make way for these dragon-like trees in the Endless Forest to fall, but no one with a slightly right mind will do this, so this is only the second option:

"We're out of town and we're going to head towards the Desperate Rock Wall, which normally takes about three to four days to get to the foot of the Cliff, and then we'll head north along the Cliff and ...... here," Haredik continued, marking a parchment on the parchment map, "We'll cross the Desperate Wall and enter the Blackwater Valley. ”

In addition to Haredith and Hanlon, there were several key members of the Knights who participated in the discussion of this trip, and Xiuqi, who had been injured by Blake just now, was also among them. At this moment, a bare knight interrupted Hareddick and said, "Hey, hey, wait, cross the rock wall? How do you want us to cross the desperate rock wall?

"Don't be stupid, there's a trail that will take us across the entire Desperate Rock Wall. ”

"Trail?" the knight's tone was full of suspicion.

"yes, trails, canyons, rifts, valleys, I'm not quite sure what to call it, but it gets us through it. ”

"Are you sure?, I've never heard any bullshit about the Desperate Rock Wall other than the Hundred Knots Pass!" said the knight, clasping his hands on his chest.

"Hey, have you been there? I've been there twenty-four times, so you'd better keep your mouth shut and listen to me. Haredith looked up and replied equally unceremoniously.

"You long-eared bastard...... the knight just opened his mouth to scold back, but Han Long waved his hand to block it. Hanlon bowed to Haredith and asked, "Of course we believe you, we just never heard of another place where we could cross the entire Desperate Rock Wall. ”

Hareddick shrugged his shoulders and exhaled, "Listen, I'm not here for history lessons, the only thing I know is that there's a trail about five or six meters wide that crosses the entire cliff, or whatever you like to call it a canyon." As for how it came about? I don't know, maybe it was an earthquake or maybe it was a collapse, who knows? After all, it's stone, not steel, right? ”

"Then how did you know about the existence of this valley?" Xiu Qi suddenly asked curiously.

Hareddick glanced at him, smiled, and said, "Well, sixty, or seventy years ago." I was caught by a gang of slave traders, and they took me there. ”

Xiu Qi opened his eyes wide and said, "Sixty or seventy years ago!"

"Isn't that weird? Don't forget? I'm an elf, and I'm going to live much longer than any of you. Hareddick shook his long pointed ears and spread his hands and said, "Any other questions? ”

Hareddik picked up the charcoal pen and retraced the map, "After we crossed the Rock Wall of Despair, we followed the path of, oh, who drew this map, this should have a river." Anyway, we're going north along the river, and we can camp here, here, and here if we go the normal way. ”

Xiuqi watched Haredik draw a big curve on the map, frowned and said, "Why don't we go straight, a straight line is always the shortest distance." ”

"Ah, that's a good question, if you had found me eight years earlier, I would have taken you straight into the Blackwater Valley, which would have saved us two weeks, but not now. ”

"Why?" asked Xiuqi.

"Because there's a dragon there. Although Haredik's tone was lighthearted, his words made the whole room jump.

"A dragon?!" Han Long asked with a serious expression as he propped his hands on the table.

"Yes, an adult frosttooth dragon, don't you know? I thought Burke had told you, otherwise how do you think Tepenny became a cripple?" Hareddick couldn't believe that Tepenny hadn't told the knights about the dragon.

Hanlon and Xiuqi looked at each other and sat back in their seats and said, "No, Bart never told us, we always thought they had met robbers on the road. ”

At this time, the bare knight muttered with some fear: "Damiko is on top, another dragon ......"

"Hemmel!" Hanlon apparently heard the whispers of his men and immediately snapped.

"Hug, I'm sorry, Knight Captain Hanlon. Hemmer said immediately.

Haredith looked at the two of them and raised his eyebrows and said, "Another dragon? Is there any other dragon? Could it be the ...... of the Dragon Bridge?"

"It's none of your business, Mr. Guide. Han Long interrupted him coldly, obviously not planning to dwell too much on this issue. ...,

Haredith wasn't a nosy person either, so he shrugged his shoulders and continued, "Then you should know, because of the Frosttooth Dragons in the Blackwater Valley, we have to take a detour. ”

Xiuqi said at this time, "So that we can avoid that dragon?"

"Not quite. ”

"Not quite?"

"Hey, buddy, it's a dragon that can fly anywhere it wants and kill any creature it wants. All I can promise is to keep you away from its lair so as not to anger it. Hareditik said, looking at Xiuqi.

The knight, named Hemmer, said worriedly, "Then how shall we slip under the nose of a dragon?"

Haredith pursed his lips and frowned, he said to him, "By luck." ”

"What! luck, here's your way!" exclaimed Hemmer.

"Or what tricks do you have?" Hareddick asked rhetorically, and Hemmel opened his mouth but couldn't say a word.

Haredith turned around at this time and said to Hanlon, "By the way, I haven't asked you yet, how much fire salt do you bring?"

Hanlon gave Hareddick a strange look and said, "I don't know much about it, but Mr. Ressator probably has some, and he is a warlock who may use some when studying alchemy." ”

Haredith glanced at the Warlock sitting in the corner of the hall, and hadn't seen the Warlock look up from his shield-sized book since he had entered the door, as if everything that was happening outside had nothing to do with him.

Hareditik retracted his gaze and said to Hanlon, "No, not a little, we need one, or two better." ”

"What for?" asked Hanlon.

Haredith pointed to a spot on the map and said, "It's autumn, it's the season for the long vines to grow, and these things will pierce your skin and burrow into your veins while you sleep, and then they will sprinkle seeds in the veins to let it grow slowly." After three months, these seeds will sprout and grow along your veins until they take up every corner of your body. When the time comes, you'd rather kill yourself with a single sword, so that you can come more comfortably. Haredith paused and continued: "As for the fire salt, it is the nemesis of these long vines, if you are entangled in the long vines, sprinkle the fire salt on it, it may scorch your skin, but at least it will not lose your life." ”

Hanlon nodded, then shouted into the back room, "Bode!"

As soon as he spoke, a knight's attendant, who had obviously not yet passed the coming-of-age ceremony, immediately ran out of the back room and said respectfully to Han Long, "What do you command, my lord?" ”

Han Long commanded his attendant, "Tell Lady Donna that we need some fire salt, the more the better." ”

"Yes, sir. The squire named Bode was about to step back when Haredith called out, "Hey, hey, wait a minute." We need something else besides the fire salt, can you give me some paper?"

The squire handed Haredith a blank piece of paper and a quill, Haredith took it and scratched his head and began to write on the paper: "Okay, let me think about it, first we need some fire salt, some Hogg grass, and some wilting mica, ah, of course, the scale horn powder of the half-dragons can't be missing......" Hareddyk densely wrote a lot of potions or tools to be used on the paper, and then carefully examined it before handing it to Hanlon.

Han Long frowned and looked at the list and asked suspiciously, "Do we really need to prepare so many things?"

Hareditik stretched out his index finger and shook it confidently, "Believe me, the better you prepare, the more people will survive to reach the Woods." ”...,

Han Long nodded and said, "Alright, Bode, give this list to Lady Donna and ask her to buy them as soon as possible." ”

And this time, Haredith grabbed Pod again and said to Hanlon, "Rely on your people to never try to get all these things in Azonica, give this list to Tepeni, he will do it for you." ”

Hanlon nodded again and said to Bode, "You heard what this gentleman said. ”

"Yes, sir. Pod said respectfully, then tucked the list into his coat pocket and ran out as fast as he could.

Haredith looked at the back of the squire and sighed, "I can't believe you've been here for weeks and you've been prepared for nothing. ”

"No one ever told us to prepare these things. Xiu Qi, who was standing on the side, said, "We always thought that we were just walking some mountain roads and encountering some wild beasts. But now, first there were dragons, and now what kind of grass were, we never thought it would be so dangerous. ”

Hareddick turned to look at Xiuqi and said in a sincere tone: "Then be mentally prepared now, this road is much more dangerous than you think, and it is already a very good result to die two or three of the first twenty people in the Uard." ”

Hareddick's words silenced the entire room, as a childish voice broke the silence of the hall.

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1 The dwarf calendar is counted down, and the countdown of a hundred years is one last species, and the tenth last species is one obedience. For example, the thirty-third year of the fifth and last species of the sixth order is written as: Щ?_ta?Пcan?, and the following year is the thirty-second year of the fifth and last species of the sixth order, which is written as: Щ?_ta?Пcan?. In addition, the first year of the new last species in the dwarven calendar is not the same as the last year of the old last species, such as the beginning of the sixth and fifth last species is: ?_chta?Пcah?; And the sixth and fifth last kinds of the end are written as: ?_chta?Пcan?