Just as Li Wei said, when the snowstorm came, Calvin and his little girl Luo Jiali stayed in Yatta City for nearly a day and a half before stepping on Zeelandia's specialty-Eight-Legged Alchemy

The bicycle passed through Sanzhudi, Hongsong Town, and through the golden fields, and finally I saw the towering city wall of my hometown, Jishui City.

It was a tall city wall extending from the southern end of the city to the northern end of the Dead City, also known as the Troll Wall.

It is so named because it was mainly used to resist troll invasion in the early days.

Below it is a cliff with a height of more than a hundred feet. The city wall stands on a section of the cliff that attackers can climb. It extends along the edge of the city to the Troll Tower, or North Tower, and then turns back to the southern seaside. It is in this northern land.

He played an important role in the establishment of coastal cities.

Not many people really know the history of this great city. It has a history of more than a thousand years. At that time, the Northland was really what the southerners called it contemptuously:

Wild North!

At that time, most of the Northland was still covered with tall and vast ancient green forests, inhabited by dwarves, goblins, and elves. A small number of primitive human tribes were distributed along the Sword Coast, making a living by hunting and fishing.

Merchants came by boat in the spring and autumn, when they gathered to exchange furs for jewelry and metal tools, or the few available weapons.

As the forests were cleared year after year, further and further away from the coast, some tribes began to spend most of the year here cultivating the land cleared by the clearing of the forests.

One of the chiefs, Nemo, directed his people to occupy farms, rickety wooden wharves, trading sheds, and storage sheds, and gained control of what would become the port of Kitchener, where they settled and built

A long earth embankment with a wooden palisade as the skeleton was built to protect these properties. With this, Nemo's people withstood several pirate plunders and tribal attacks, and prospered.

Farther north, due to the arrival of the cold winter period, the number of orc clans and tribes at that time grew far beyond the limit that their mountain fortresses could support. Their efforts to expand underground encountered fierce resistance from the violent dwarves, so the orcs

The surface world spreads.

They broke out of the mountains and headed south in large numbers. Their seemingly infinite numbers were like passing locusts, trampling all obstacles on their way forward.

Elf settlements in various places rose up to resist, but in the end the tide of orcs moving south still swallowed up many northern natives, including the "eternal dead" trolls!

Under the invasion of the orcs, these trolls were forced to go south into the newly developed land in the northernmost part of Nemo's territory. However, the old Nemo died at this most dangerous moment, so the young lord Lalon led the people of Jishui

Join the battle against the trolls.

This bloody war between humans and trolls lasted for nearly ten years, until a magical northern boy named Agharon reversed the tide of the war, and the "Eternal Dead" were driven to the eternal wilderness.

Worried about being attacked again in the future, the waterbenders built a small fortress on the slopes of the deep water peaks above the farm. From this high ground, they could use arrows to defend themselves against the trolls.

Many people from remote tribes also came to seek shelter in this settlement that could block trolls. The wall was expanded several times due to the establishment of new farms. This was also the prototype of the Troll Wall.

The lord Lalon ruled this free city, maintaining its independence and making it increasingly wealthy.

Agharon's skill and power gradually increased until he became a great mage. He invented the longevity potion, which allowed him to live forever and keep his youthful body unchanged for decades.

Finally, in the winter when he was one hundred and twelve years old, Agharon had a heated argument with Lalon, the then Lord of Deepwater, over the issue of whether to rely on the wealth and military power of Kashuei to create an empire in the North with Kashui as its capital.

The quarrel also paved the way for subsequent turmoil.

The power conflicts within the forces of Jishui City went through a series of changes over the years, and finally formed its unique and even bizarre system of co-ownership of city lords and lords.

That is to say: the lord of Jishui City must summon several lords to assist him in ruling. They usually hide under the surface status of civilians, but in fact they have almost equal power to the lord of the city and are not subject to coercion by anyone, including each other.

These lords were selected from various people in the city and served until they voluntarily abdicated. This plan also greatly slowed down the political struggle at the time.

Therefore, they are also called by the people - the masked lords of Kaishui City.

They generally only exist four to six at a time.

In this way, the city of Kaishui went through the Beiron period and the Shilani period. After that, their daughter, "The Masked Lady" Lestin, took over as ruler.

She was married to Zelfa Arusan from the northern city of Neverwinter, and she was also the mother of the famous Arusan, the Black Staff of Kelburn.

Kelben is one of the current lords of Jishui City, and he is also the only openly lord who does not bother to hide his identity.

As a chosen one of the Goddess of Magic, and as the husband of Leila Silverhand Orosan, the second of the Seven Northern Sisters, he is familiar with many secrets of the long period from the time of Agharon's death to the present. Naturally,

We also know that this kind of mutual restraint hidden behind the scenes will consume too much city resources, including manpower.

Faced with the threats from Bann's tyrannical church, the Zhentarim and the Dragon Cult that has emerged in recent years, Kelben, who believes in the creed that "a secret will no longer become a secret if it is told to others", resolutely chose to disclose his identity as a lord.

At the price, in order to strengthen and consolidate his dominance over other lords and city lords in Jishui City.

For this reason, he also followed Karsus in the Netheril era and opened the Magic Academy of Kashui City. He recruited a wide range of apprentices and trained many well-known mages successively to assist him in managing all aspects of Kishui City.

As for why Calvin knows this so clearly, it's because he graduated from, or probably failed to graduate from, the Magic Academy in Kishui City.

And his mentor, the mage apprentice trained by Kelben, is just a mediocre mage who is not very well-known.

From a certain point of view, Calvin can also be regarded as Kelben's disciple and grandson.

Whenever he thinks of this, Calvin can't help but smile bitterly. I guess that the fact that he resolutely dropped out of school and went to the Dark Territory has now become one of the jokes at the Magic Academy in Jishui City.

When they entered the city from the north gate of Jishui City, it went smoothly. His academic robe that he was reluctant to change played a big role.

So in the eyes of the city guards, Calvin became a middle-aged widowed mage who returned to Jishui City alone with his elf daughter to make a living.

As for why you think it is a father-daughter relationship rather than a human trafficker who abducts elves?

Have you ever seen a kidnapped elf growing on the back of a trafficker?

They did take a second look at the strange 'bicycle' under Calvin's seat, but that was all. After all, there were not many mage creations in Kaishui City now, and this one was just unique.

Just some.

As a city tax, Calvin gave him a bronze wolf head made by Zeelandia.

The city gate guard bumped it in his hand. Although the weight was slightly lighter than the copper coins issued by their city of Kishui, considering that the copper coins were beautifully minted and Calvin was a mage, he turned a blind eye.

Without hesitation, Calvin and the others entered the city.

As soon as Calvin entered the city, he took Luo Jiali along the Dragon Avenue and headed straight to the coastal area on the northwest coast of the castle area, where his home was located.

Looking down from his height at this moment, Jishui City looked like a flat plate with high north and low south, sloping slightly to the west along the terrain and flattening out from the Great Dragon Avenue.

Jishui Peak is the highest point of Jishui City. Its seaside side is a barrier for Jishui City to withstand the harsh storm weather and winds along the coast. The peak is more than 700 feet above sea level. There is a castle built for air traffic on the mountain, which is guarded by city guards.

, located on the inland side under the mountain peak. From here, you can overlook the "Thrower" commanding the city's maritime defense force, and there are several squadrons of gryphon knights flying in the sky.

Different from the wild species that Li Wei captured, this is a griffin that has been domesticated in Jishui City for hundreds of years, and each one is worth a lot of money.

In Calvin's eyes, everything in Jishui City has not changed much from when he left twenty-three years ago. As the crown of the North, it should be regarded as the largest and most prosperous city in the North.

The population of Jishui City has rarely been less than 120,000 in history. The population fluctuates with the seasons due to various reasons, and a considerable part of the floating population moves with the itinerary of trade activities.

During the peak business season, the number of people in the city can usually reach five times the usual number, that is, as many as 600,000!

These peak seasons appear regularly in the "full spring", and winter passes away in a reasonable manner, waiting for the next year to wreak havoc again, land transportation resumes, all seaports thaw, and the autumn harvest of Amn in the south.

It was almost winter, and the Dragon Avenue was naturally not as crowded as during the peak season, so Calvin directly switched the bicycle from the eight-legged cross-country mode to the two-wheeled mode like a Transformer, and headed all the way up the slope towards the Bay Villas area.

As they slid down, even the elf Luo Jiali, who was wrapped tightly in rat skin behind her, couldn't help but exclaimed "Wow!" and stared curiously at the spectacular and prosperous Northland metropolis in front of her with her big eyes.

It is worth mentioning that this suggestion was made by Levi himself because he really couldn't stand the terrible noise of tens of thousands of bicycles in Zeelandia Square!

There are even some worries that as the number of these spider-legged bicycles increases, will one day cause a resonance phenomenon that will lead to the collapse of the entire Zeelandia?

As he got closer and closer to the coastal area, Calvin became more nervous and nervous about being close to home.

The Calvin family's 'villa' is close to the coast, because his father, George Sr., is in the wine industry and is considered a 'rich' middle class among the common people, and the coastal area is where people like them who have a little money but are not aristocrats gather together.

area.

Calvin's bicycle stopped in front of the two-story building at No. 73 Second Street in the Binhai District. Looking at the small building that did not look rich but warm enough under the morning light, Calvin patted Luo Jiali's face.

Keeping his head waiting, he took a deep breath and walked to the courtyard door. After hesitating for a while, he pursed his lips and rang the magic doorbell.

Ding dong.

He originally wanted to use the key to open the door himself, but the bunch of keys had been lost somewhere when he was kidnapped by the drow twenty-three years ago.

Calvin stared at the door of the small building almost holding his breath, and a 'long' half minute passed like this.

Squeak~

What was completely different from what Calvin imagined was that as the door was pushed open, a strange figure was revealed.

It was a brightly dressed blond girl. She looked at Calvin with a look of disbelief on her face, and she also showed a puzzled look. She opened her mouth and asked:

"Who are you looking for?"

Calvin's heart also sank to the bottom, and he suppressed his anxiety and asked in a hoarse voice: "I'm sorry, shouldn't this be George's house?"

He still clung to his remaining luck, fearing that his memory would be messed up because he had been away for too long.

But what disappointed him was that the girl frowned and said to Calvin: "Sorry, this is the Wilson family. I have lived here since I was a child."

Plop.

Calvin only felt a dull pain on both sides of his forehead. Just when he was about to ask further questions, another man who seemed to be the girl's father came out. He seemed to have heard the conversation between the two. He thought for a while and said:

"Young man, this place was indeed George's house more than ten years ago, because when I signed the real estate transfer agreement with the Xialan Chamber of Commerce, it was indeed this name."

"Excuse me, do you know where the original homeowner is now?"

Calvin instantly became excited, and he jumped over the iron fence with a dance technique and came to the middle-aged man, frightening the father and daughter.

"Magician!"

The blond girl immediately exclaimed excitedly after being frightened. Twilight looked at Calvin with a completely different look, and she even stroked the end of her hair beside her ear while her father was not paying attention.

The middle-aged man lowered his head and recalled it, and said with some regret: "The homeowner didn't seem to be present that day, because this is an asset mortgaged to the Xialan Chamber of Commerce."
To be continued...