Mercenaries and Adventurers

The northern wolf returned along the original path, its body strong and vigorous, its four wolf paws stepping through the flying wild flowers and lush weeds, all the way south from the northern border area of ​​the great forest.

Soon we left the dangerous unsheltered area and entered the large forest, shaded by the endless shade of big trees in the forest.

It stopped to rest for a while, spit out the glowing vines from its mouth and inspected it for a moment. After confirming that it was correct, it continued to set off as before.

It is smart and remembers all the dangerous areas it encounters on the road, so it steadily avoids those places and never takes risks at this moment. Even though it feels like its whole body is full of strength and inexhaustible energy at this time.

It runs and runs, trekking long distances in the forest. When its body is really too hot in the hot summer, it will look for some ponds on the road. After boldly jumping in and soaking in the cool water, we immediately hit the road.

Ignoring the roars of other ferocious animals drinking water or guarding the pool behind me.

Soon, it returned from the northern region to the cold cave where the Wolf King lived in one-third of the time it took to go there.

At this time, its whole body was so hot that it entered the outside of the cave where the Wolf King lived without much thought. The still biting chill in the middle of summer made him sober up quickly.

At this time, the Wolf King's questioning voice came from the depths of the cave.

It immediately lay down, spit out the still fresh and glowing vine shoots from its mouth, and explained its situation truthfully with a whine.

Unexpectedly, the Wolf King did not blame it too much for its offense, but praised its intelligence with a smile, and asked him to show the glowing vine he had brought along.

Not daring to say no, it picked up the buds of the glowing vines and walked quickly through the cave path going down. Under the light of the pale fluorescent icicles in the deepest part of the cave, it came to the Wolf King.

Unexpectedly, the Wolf King was lying on the ground at this time, his huge body lying casually. But in the empty air at the deepest part of the cave, there were flying many huge wolf skins with the same coat color as the Wolf King.

It was shocked and stared blankly at the huge hollows of white wolf king fur flying in the air. The buds of the glowing vines he held in his mouth fell to the ground.

However, following the languid reminder from the Wolf King, it came back to its senses, picked up the things again, came to the Wolf King in small steps, and presented the glowing vine shoots it had obtained.

The Wolf King didn't do anything. He just brought the wolf's head, which was as huge as its entire body, close to it, stared at it for a while, and then smelled it.

And then it's over.

It received the instruction and put the thing in its mouth again. After bowing politely, it walked backwards and left the Wolf King's sight.

The Wolf King didn't say anything in the end, but was optimistic about its action this time.

After re-exiting the cold cave, he headed south on a familiar road. When he passed by its wolf den, he was in a hurry and did not go back to see his companions and the thriving young wolves.

Arriving at the southern part of the big forest, it sped up and ran along the same route. It only drank some water in some safe ponds to replenish its body, and then dipped some water on its body to cool down.

Walk out of the big forest, come to the stone passage, run and jump directly through it, and come to the smaller southern forest.

This time, it directly followed the scent trail left by it before, bypassing all dangerous and mysterious areas, and safely passed through the entire forest.

Arriving at the hills and mountains in the southern part of the forest, it once again met other northern wolves hunting here. It hurriedly said hello and ran away from them.

After the terrain dropped, it reached the confluence of the rivers with open terrain. It finally slowed down and carefully hid all the way forward. Because there will be some annoying human hunters coming and going here.

It is very dangerous for a single Northland wolf to encounter a group of two human hunters, so it neither hunts or eats, nor does it walk arrogantly in open areas. It uses lush shrubs and weeds to cover its traces along the way. .

It cautiously arrived at the outermost edge of the human field. It hid in the grass and watched humans use wood and metal to dig the ground and remove miscellaneous plants growing in the field. It also waited for the scorching sun to set before taking action after dark.

It noticed that several humans who were punished for unknown reasons were trapped on a platform outside the wooden wall of the human lair. These trapped guys who could not protect themselves were exactly what it needed.

It does not have to risk being discovered by a large group of humans working during the day and rush out to attack humans during the day. There is no need to find ways to swim around the tall wooden walls after dark at night to attack lone humans in human lairs.

Those are too dangerous.

Once discovered, if things go wrong, it will be chased and beaten by a group of humans. Although humans running on two feet will definitely not be able to catch up with it running on four legs, wouldn't it be impossible to complete the challenge? .

Taking this into consideration, it carefully crawled down in the grass, spit out the wilted glowing vine shoots from its mouth, held it down with its wolf claws, and closed its eyes to take a nice rest.

-

On the wooden execution platform outside the wall of Hekou Town, several young men who were sentenced to two days of imprisonment for fighting in line while carrying water were wilting and quarreling with each other. The venomous sun was like a short leather whip in the hands of the security militiamen, constantly whipping several of them from above.

The four of them no longer looked as energetic as they had in the morning when they had a fight because of cutting in line. The security militia did not directly ask these young men for security fines, or directly reward them with a few whips. Instead, they gave them a profound lesson in a more insidious manner.

That is, he was detained for two days on the wooden platform outside the north gate of the main town of Hekou Town.

Not only is this embarrassing, it will be laughed at by every farmer and woman who goes out of town to farm and tend the fields, and will even be teased and teased by those half-grown men surrounding them.

And this also means that they can't help work on the family fields for two days. Although the family members didn't mention it much because they were ashamed.

The wooden wooden stick that held the four of them was the kind that required bending down to put the head and hands through the three wooden holes separated by hinges. After bending down and lying down, the wooden wooden wooden wooden wooden wooden wooden wooden wooden wooden wooden wooden wooden board was closed from the back of the neck, and then used on one side. A metal spike is inserted into the retaining collar to secure it.

You definitely can't get rid of this thing alone, but if there are outsiders, you can naturally release them easily.

It’s just that even my family members don’t dare to do it.

Of course, it must be uncomfortable to be trapped like this. In fact, it's not bad. With their legs straightened and their butt stuck out, their posture is ugly. Standing for a whole day is nothing for young men like them. It is very troublesome to eat and excrete.

When family members come over during meals, the younger brothers and sisters at home will take the place of their parents who are too embarrassed to come over, carrying small baskets to feed the four of them. Although he will be teased by his family, he can just go back and fix his younger siblings.

At this time, they will also compete with each other for the food sent by their families to see who is the more favored one in the family.

Eating and drinking is easy to solve, but excretion is very troublesome.

Mu Xingtai is right next to the road outside the north gate of the town, and there are people at the gate of the town at all times. If the four of them want to relieve themselves, they have to turn to the red-faced militiamen guarding the gate. Every time at this time, the guard militiamen who are a few years older than them will tease and curse them, saying that they have to wait for you little bastards to poop and pee.

These guys are not only unforgiving in their words, but also procrastinating in their movements. They often have to wait for a while before they will come over and open the young man who is in urgent need, Mu Zhu, and let the exhausted young man go to the wild field to have a good time. convenient.

If they faltered, they would be given a fist or a kick.

Normally I don't think these guys are hateful, but at this time, the four young men who got into fights because of queuing would hate these guys very much.

However, these are okay. When the sky darkens, the farmers who went out to work sporadically return to Hekou Town. The gate outside the town, which was originally very popular, will look particularly scary as the north gate closes. .

They are all guys who grew up in the town. Naturally, they have heard all kinds of horror stories that their family members and elders told them since childhood, scaring them to go to bed early or help them work.

It was okay at first. Although it was dark, the town across the wall was bustling with people. The sounds of families cooking, crying, crying and laughing kept them relatively calm. The four of them actually started chatting, exchanging the horror stories they had heard.

Someone mentioned the story of underwater monsters often told by fishermen. This story is 10% true. After all, they are residents who live at the intersection of rivers. Everyone has more or less seen the monsters turning up in the wide and deep rivers. river monster. However, that thing never attacks humans, so even though the monster looks terrifying, in the occasional propaganda by the priests of the Church of the God of Rivers and Lakes, everyone thinks that the thing is a divine creation that the gods love to raise to protect human waters.

Some fishermen who are convinced of this even use expensive waterproof paint to paint pictures of the monster on their fishing boats to pray for protection and blessing.

I don't know if it's useful, but at least the church priests are very satisfied with what the other party is doing.

Another young man talked about a man-eating house that the previous generation had encountered a long time ago. When they talked about this, the four of them shuddered. They had never seen this story before, so they could not tell what was going on in the story. I wonder whether the man-eating monster was made up by the older generation, but the story clearly states that there are many graves in Dukou Town, southwest of Hekou Town, that can attest to this.

After all, they are not horror stories from far away, but stories that happen around them. Although they are not sure whether they are true, the parts of the stories that overlap with their daily lives still make them live in this hot world. The chill in my heart that I feel at night.

The third boy turned his neck, looked at the three moons high in the sky, and told the horror stories he had heard from the businessmen.

Not in Kendall, but in other parts of the distant kingdom, and even beyond, there are monsters that are just like normal people. They look like humans, but inside they hide the deep desire from their bloodline.

Whenever they see two of the three moons being full except for the Silver Moon, they will turn into monsters. When the khaki moon is full, they will transform into huge four-legged monsters, running like the wind, with an insatiable appetite. When the blood-red moon is full, they will transform into monsters that look roughly like humans. They are extremely powerful, eager to kill, and have an insatiable desire to kill.

The other three boys found it interesting and asked directly what would happen to the monster if all three moons were full. What would happen if the silver moon and the earthy moon were full at the same time? Is it different if it is a full moon with a silvery white moon and a blood red moon? Finally, if the earth-yellow moon and the blood-red moon are full at the same time, will the monsters be particularly powerful? Can you beat the town's lord knight?

The third young man was asked, and he hesitated and couldn't say anything: "Anyway, the businessman who came to my house to buy grain only said that much. I will ask you more about the specific situation next time in the autumn. Bar."

The last young man felt that it was his turn, so although he was sandwiched, he was still very excited and told a different horror story he knew.

That's what he heard from his mother, that's what happened this year. In the spring, a woman who hitched a car from the south came to join their next-door neighbor. At first, everyone didn't think anything was wrong. After all, everyone was basically migrants from other places. After arriving at a place, , will naturally seek refuge with relatives and friends. It is basically easier for a woman to settle down in a strange area by herself. All she needs to do is find a young man to marry and that's it. She will soon be integrated into the local production and life.

But after the woman went to live with his neighbor, it didn't take long for everyone to discover that the other woman had been pregnant for a long time. In the spring, they thought she was wrapped in thick clothes, so they didn't notice.

But it doesn't matter. As long as the child is healthy, it's not too late for Hekou Town, which lacks a population, to welcome him. The unmarried young men in the town don't care. After all, the child can be adopted and raised by his neighbors. They are all immigrants, and everyone can basically understand anything that happens to a woman during her long journey. For example, the husband who migrated with him got sick and died on the road, or he met a scumbag on the road who took advantage of him and ignored him, or he was taken advantage of by a malicious male migrant in the team during the journey. .

In fact, everyone has seen it a lot.

But the woman was not only depressed, but also quite desperate. Some time ago, at the junction of spring and summer, the woman gave birth to a child.

Before the church priest could go over to bless the newborn child, something unexpected happened. After the woman took one look at her child, she immediately went crazy. Regardless of the neighbor's obstruction, she strangled the child alive. The newborn child died.

This incident made the church priests who arrived later think it was an ominous sign, so they immediately cremated the dead baby. Unexpectedly, during the burning, not only a large amount of black smoke came out from the baby's small body, but also those black smoke. The smoke condensed into the appearance of a terrifying monster.

Although it sounds terrible, the church priests later used methods to eliminate all the black smoke and the baby's body on the ground.

Half the town might have seen the scene.

Speaking of this, the other three young men remembered that one day not long ago, when they were working in the fields, a tall and strange light rose from the residents' houses on one side of the town.

At that time, everyone was ordered by the gentlemen in the town not to inquire. Unexpectedly, this was what happened behind the scenes.

A young man then asked what happened to the woman who gave birth to the child.

The fourth young man told the ensuing situation with an ugly face.

Afterwards, before the priests could interrogate the woman, the woman ran out of the house and committed suicide by drowning. The other party was not a local, he had not been here long, and he had not yet learned how to swim, so he was quickly washed downstream by the rolling Kendall River, and it was too late for anyone to rescue him by boat.

As for what happened to that woman during the journey, and with that person's death, it became something they could never figure out.

After finishing the story, the boys no longer felt hot, but felt that this midsummer night was particularly cool. They regretted a little and shouldn't have done this. However, they cannot rest while being tortured at this time. It will not end until at least tomorrow evening. They will definitely have to suffer this night.

-

However, something that frightened them even more soon came.

Compared to the illusory horror stories or mysterious events that have nothing to do with them, for the four young men, when not far away from the peripheral field road, there was a sound of animal footsteps, and When they approached them straight away, the four young men, who had just listened to the horror story and were in high spirits, realized that the story was just a story after all, and it was completely incomparable with the real and fatal things.

There were illuminated torches on the north gate of the town not far from Muxingtai, so even though it was midnight, with the light from the fire in the distance and a little shadow brought by the stars and the moon in the sky, you could still clearly see the empty surroundings.

They soon discovered two bright bright spots hanging in the sky on the dirt road leading to their daily life. The thing stared straight at the four of them and approached them again with the sound of footsteps.

At first, the four young men thought it was something from a horror story, so they were very scared. They all muttered nonsense like sorry or I didn't dare anymore. But as the two bright spots came closer, they finally discovered what they were.

Those were the eyes of a wolf as big as a man.

So they were even more scared. After all, compared to ghosts, things that really kill people are more terrifying, especially since they often hear that caravans passing by are attacked by wolves, and so and so is killed. , news about someone whose legs, feet or hands were bitten off by a wolf.

"No!"

"Guards! Guards! There are wolves!"

However, as soon as the two young men shouted, the northern wolf approaching from the opposite side quickly approached, with a fierce look on its face. This made it impossible for them to shout a word anymore. It was obvious that if they shouted, the wolf in front of them, which was as big as a human, would brutally bite their heads.

That's fine. It would be even worse if the wolf on the opposite side circled behind him.

The four young men were trembling all over and struggling hard against the wood that trapped them. Unfortunately, this thing was not something they, as ordinary people, could destroy while trapped.

"What should I do? What should I do?" A young man asked his companions in a low voice, his teeth chattering.

Because the voice was not loud, the wolf opposite did not express any response. He just walked to the wooden platform step by step and looked at the four of them curiously.

"I don't know, I don't know. Who am I asking? God of Agriculture, God of Agriculture, you, the great one, come and save your believers. I will never tell those stories again. I really will never tell them again."

"Me too, me too, it's all my fault. Why did you start saying all this? Please save me, please save me. I will never jump in line when fetching water again."

The northern wolf sniffed behind their butts, which suddenly made one of the timidest young men urinate. The northern wolf, which was as big as a human, moved away from him in disgust.

Coming back to the four of them, the Northern Wolf put its wolf head in front of the four young men and sniffed their faces with its dark nose. The young man who just peed was directly attracted by the wolf head in front of him and the sharp teeth in his mouth. I was stunned.

With a strange cry, he fell limply on the wood. As soon as his body fell, his neck was stretched out, and soon he was unconscious and his face turned purple and black from the pain.

Although the other three young men looked at it in horror, they all realized that if they fainted at this time, they would die on the wood.

So they just closed their eyes tightly, chattering their teeth and mumbling something.