Fang Plover drank the cup of Elf Tears in one gulp, but he didn't really know how to drink, so he couldn't help coughing immediately.
Sylvester quickly patted his back.
"This is your key. The room is on the second floor. Follow the exit of the stairs to the right. There are six rooms in total." The owner of the hotel looked at it and shook his head. He took out a key ring from under the counter and placed it in front of the two of them.
He said: "The number of adventurers staying in the north is getting fewer and fewer every day. A month earlier, you might not have been able to find so many empty rooms."
Sylvide took the key and smiled at the other party, "It seems that we are quite lucky, but don't worry, I believe that once winter is over, this forest will regain its vitality."
"Thank you, ma'am."
The two of them then returned to the hall.
Guests in groups of three and three were talking in low voices. The adventurers were wearing long cloaks that could withstand the severe cold, and even the natives were wearing coats that could cover half of their faces. It seemed like a mysterious transaction was going on in the dim hall.
The gaps between the wooden tables are zigzag, the dark red stove is flickering, the firelight drags the long and narrow shadows of the table legs and chair legs, undulating and extending between the uneven stone floors. Others are looking for a corner of the hall
I stayed here in an inconspicuous position. When I saw two people approaching, I quickly made room for them.
Fang Yu pulled out the chair first and let Sylvester sit down first. The noble lady turned around and smiled sweetly at him.
Then Fang Yu himself pulled out the chair and sat down next to her. Sitting on the other side of him was Luo Hao. This fat man from the military was leaning half of his body on the table in a very awkward manner, with several pages open in front of him.
The content of the light window was unclear, and the cool-toned shimmer illuminated the other party's chubby face.
When Luo Hao saw Fang Yu sitting down, he straightened up, pointed at the light windows and said, "You came just in time. I probably figured out the origin of that 'temple'."
"Tell me."
"The predecessor of this 'Temple' was an autonomous organization called the 'Crow's Claw Guards', which was once active in the area around Charter City."
"Autonomous organization?"
Luo Hao nodded, "The Traveler Swamp in the north of Charter City has invaded the Egon Forest. This area has always been an area haunted by wild beasts and strange monsters. Since the force of Charter City is not enough to protect the countryside, various autonomous organizations have
They came into being, and the Crow's Claws are one of them."
Tian Lan interrupted at this time: "But I heard that Charter City is one of the four major cities in the north, Rodel, El Paxin, Charter City and Gula Port. Isn't such a big city enough to protect its surrounding countryside?
?”
Sylvide smiled and said: "Theoretically this would not be the case, but the kingdom's endless internal fighting has weakened its local power. Under such circumstances, the people living in the countryside can only seek their own protection.
It's my own. Such autonomous forces are not uncommon in the North. I've heard of some in the past, but this is the first time I've heard of this 'Crowpaw Guard'."
Fang Yu motioned for Luo Hao to continue.
The dim flame of the candle on the tray of a three-pronged candlestick provided all the lighting on the table. The dim flame reflected everyone's face. Tianlan and Jita listened attentively, Parker was absent-minded, and Luo Yu lowered his head and thought about something.
The box uses a spoon to pick through the peas.
Ai Xiaoxiao was drinking water with a cup in both hands, with a pair of curious eyes outside. Although she had been a member of the Seven Seas Troupe for some time, it was still rare for her to go on adventures with the others.
Miss May sat quietly in her seat and enjoyed her lunch quietly. She slowly separated the bread, dipped it in water, and then slowly swallowed it in small bites.
Miss Knight didn't seem to have any complaints about the poor conditions, and looked at peace with herself.
There were three wooden plates placed in front of Fang Plover, which contained a few slices of black bread, a small piece of smoked fish, a glass of wine, and a plate of mashed potatoes and peas. This was just the lunch, and it seemed that the town's supplies were quite scarce.
Fang Yu picked up a piece of black bread, chewed it in his mouth, and frowned - his tooth hurt.
He turned around and saw Sylvester looking helplessly at the lunch in front of her, as if she didn't know what to do. She wasn't a very picky person, but the bread had been stored for an unknown amount of time and was a bit hard.
Outrageous.
Fang Yu gently picked up the wooden plate in front of the other party, and then replaced it with his own mashed potatoes.
Sylvide raised her head and glanced at him a little surprised.
Fang Plover scratched his head: "...Actually, I quite like this bread. Let's eat it instead."
Sylvide blinked her eyes, her eyes full of smiles, and nodded slightly.
Luo Hao looked at the two of them quarreling with each other from the side, and felt that he had been hit hard by 10,000 points. He couldn't help but said: "I said, can you care about the feelings of singles?"
"Luo Hao, if you can lose weight, I think some girls will like you."
"I looked offended."
Feeling troubled, Luo Hao reluctantly changed the topic: "Let's get back to the topic. Although it is said that it is because of the royal struggle, El Paxin, and the contraction of aristocratic power in the Charter City area that gave these local autonomous forces room to grow.
But what really contributed to the rise of the Crow's Claws was what happened afterwards."
Fang Plover immediately reacted: "I guess it's what happened in Charter City."
Luo Hao gave him a thumbs up: "Smart, after Nicol Bolas destroyed Charter City, the north of Talon fell into chaos and disorder. Many local armed forces perished due to the invasion of dragon beasts, but only Crow Claw
The Wei army suddenly emerged and became the most prestigious local autonomous organization."
Fang Plover put down the teeth-hard bread and was a little surprised: "A sudden rise under the invasion of dragon beasts?"
He had seen the strength of those knights in the square, but to be honest, they were a bit weak.
"...How did they do it?"
Luo Hao replied: "Actually, it's nothing. It's just that the Crow Claw Guards are the strongest among all these autonomous organizations."
"The strongest?"
Fang Yu almost thought he heard wrongly.
"Yes, the strongest," Luo Hao nodded, "According to the information I found, the Crow Claw Guards have a strict internal organization, which is divided into four levels of organizational structure from top to bottom. The highest level is the Son of Raven.
Next are the Watchers, Controllers and Gray Knights."
"The Son of Raven is also its only leader, but he has almost never appeared in the outside world. We can only know about the existence of such a person from the communications at the lower levels of the Crow Claw Guards. The four guards all obey his orders directly, and the outside world will also
These four caretakers are called Gray Feathers - because they have gray crow feathers as marks on their bodies. Further down, there is the Patriarch called the Controller, which is their internal title, but it is actually a bit similar to the regional bishop.
Generally speaking, each village has at least one clergy, and there is one in Gray Owl Town, codenamed Storm. And each patriarch is followed by a varying number of gray knights, and these knights are roughly divided into three levels.
The highest level is called the Crow Knight, the middle level is called the Feather Knight, and the lowest level is called the Claw Knight—the ones we saw in the square before."
When Tata heard the title Raven's Son, he couldn't help but raise his head.
Fang Yu also frowned slightly.
Only then did he realize that this organization seemed to be much stronger than he had imagined.
If those previous knights were only the most basic combat power of this organization, in the Beitalon area, at least the Spear of the Silver Forest would definitely not be at this level. Think about it carefully, when he first met Wu Di and Liu Liyue, what level were they?
?Anyway, there is definitely no level 15 or 16.
But there was such a powerful autonomous organization near Charter City. He had never heard of it before, which was a bit incredible anyway.
"This organization used to be called the Crow's Claws. Have any of you heard of this name?"
Luo Hao shook his head.
Fang Yu looked at the others again, and everyone else shook their heads - even Jita.
This is a bit interesting. Like the Spear of the Silver Forest, the Oak Knights of Tapolis is also a northern guild, and Jita is a naturalist. Even she has never heard of it. This is really weird.
At this time, Luo Hao said again: "But in fact, in the communities of Gula Port, El Paxin and Charter City, there have been a lot of discussions about them recently, and you can see them everywhere. But I checked and found that most of these discussions started half a year ago.
In the beginning, that is to say, they should have had little reputation before that."
He looked at Jita, "I guess this is probably why we haven't heard of this organization at all -"
Fang Yu silently estimated the time.
"So after the fall of Charter City, this organization rose rapidly?"
"Allow me to correct you," Luo Hao replied: "To be precise, it shouldn't be called Rise. It should be as bright as a meteor streaking across the sky, attracting everyone's attention almost immediately."
Fang Yu had never heard of such a bizarre thing, but he still thought of two possibilities.
One is that this organization has been hiding its strength in the past.
The second is that it suddenly received support from a certain force behind it, and this force must continuously provide sufficient manpower and material resources in order for it to quickly achieve its current strength in such a short period of time.
In the entire Talen, there are actually not many forces with such strength.
Of course the first possibility is almost certainly slim -
As for the second possibility, the answer can be obtained by elimination.
The Silver Forest Spear itself is definitely not good, but the Rainbow Alliance behind it has this strength.
In the same way, descendants of Flor can do the same.
In addition to the two giants of the northern selector forces, among the forces from the indigenous people, Elpaxin's Artisans Guild, the Silver Wind Knights or the Archons should all have this strength.
But for these parties, what are the benefits of supporting such a force?
Therefore, the Rainbow Alliance must be excluded first, because North Talon is originally the sphere of influence of the Rainbow Alliance, and they do not seem to be able to commit so many such acts. The second is the descendants of Flor, although the descendants of Flor do have this motive - for example, in the death of their rivals
Cultivate a force of your own within your sphere of influence.
But Fang Yu suddenly remembered that he had seen the Silver Forest Spear people in the square not long ago. It seemed that the Silver Forest Spear should be cooperating with those knights. And at least, the two sides should not be enemies.
Fang Plover does not think that the Rainbow Alliance is a fool who will be fooled by the descendants of Flor, so this possibility can be roughly ruled out.
What's left is Elpaxin's power?
However, the Silver Wind Knights and the city guards belonging to the Prime Minister checked each other, and the two teamed up to monitor the Craftsmen's Association and put the Lord under house arrest in the city. It seemed that these parties had no chance to take action.
What's more, he couldn't think of any reason why these forces born from Elpaxin would set up such a trap.
Unless, it's the adult himself...
When Fang Yu thought about the situation in Elpaxin, he couldn't help but think of His Highness the Prince who was under house arrest in Elpaxin.
Since the new king came to the throne, the other party has been dragged to Elpaxin by the prime minister's party using excuses, but the south is his base, will he want to leave North Talon in a hurry?
Under such circumstances, muddying the water in the north of Talun seems to be conducive to the escape of the prince. But what makes Fang Yu a little puzzled is that the other party has been under house arrest in Elpaxin and in Yin.
Under the strict guard of the Wind Knights.
Does he really have this ability?
Reason told Fang Yu that he couldn't, but when he thought of the rumors about this gentleman in the past, it was difficult for him to be sure for a while.
Some people in this world are called heroes, but some people's experiences are more legendary than heroes.
Even heroes have to do their bidding——
Fang Yu had heard with his own ears that Princess Brianne said she owed the prince a favor. What's more, the princess and Sylvide also successfully passed the news from Elpaxin last time, so it seemed to mean that the prince
His Highness the Prince is not ignorant of the outside world in El Paxin?
Is this really the plan of His Highness the Prince?
"Speaking of which, regarding the rise of the Crow Claw Guards, what do the Chosen Ones and Aboriginal forces near Talon think of it?"
Jita suddenly spoke at this time.
"The North is the traditional sphere of influence of the Rainbow Alliance, and El Paxin and Gula Port also have their own interests. Even if there is a power vacuum after the destruction of Charter City, other local forces may not be happy to see an emerging force appear in their own country.
Right under his nose?"
"But the strange thing is," Miss Naturalist said with a slightly confused tone: "It seems that the Silver Forest Spear is getting along well with those knights. What exactly happened here? Port Gula is already close to the heartland area controlled by the Rainbow Alliance. They
How could you just watch the Crow Claws exert their influence in this area?"
"I know a little bit about this." Luo Hao replied, "This starts from the previous trial. This is actually one of the reasons why the Crow Claw Temple has developed to the extent it is today. After the fall of Charter City, the tower
There are some creatures called shadow people appearing in various places in London——"
When Fang Yu heard the word "shadow man", he couldn't help but raise his head. He had just heard about this term from the hotel owner, but he didn't expect to discuss this kind of creature again.
"Shadow Man?" Others in the Seven Seas Brigade looked a little confused.
Luo Hao nodded, "These creatures have appeared less recently, but a few months ago, they once caused great panic in the northern border. Because the shadow people have the ability to devour the souls of mortals, and can turn into
With the appearance of devouring people, they blended into humans. Relying on this ability, they once invaded Gula Port and almost successfully assassinated the governor of Gula Port. Of course, the governor of Gula Port
Mr. Guan was lucky enough to escape, but even so, he still stayed in bed for two months."
"Even the consul was almost killed by these monsters. You can imagine the plight of others. At that time, almost the entire northern territory was in danger, and no one could trust the people closest to them. But it was also at this time.
, the people of Crow Claw Temple claimed that they found a way to identify shadow people——"
Tian Lan's eyes widened slightly: "So with this method, everyone has to cooperate with them and acquiesce to their existence? Even the Rainbow Alliance, El Paxin and Gula Port?"
She paused and then said: "You mean, those people who were tried in the square before were all transformed by shadow people?"
"I don't know," Luo Hao replied: "Actually, I'm not the only one who doesn't know. Others may not know whether the minions of Nicol Bolas unilaterally claimed by the Crow's Claw Temple are really Shadow Men.
.However, this possibility cannot be ruled out, because what supports their statement is that the frequency of shadow people's appearances has indeed become less and less in the past few months."
Tianlan opened her mouth and looked at the group leader on the side cautiously. If this was the case, didn't they let go of the two shadow figures before?
Fang Yu lowered his head. In fact, he had been thinking about this issue since before.
Those being judged do not look like Dragon Cultists in any way, let alone Nicol Bolas's minions. What's more, does Nicol Bolas, the Dragon Witch himself, still exist at this moment?
There was still a question, whether it was Lady Misu or Nicol Bolas, he still didn't know.
And when he mentioned the shadow people, he couldn't help but think of another thing. He always felt that he had seen the shadow people described in the rumors somewhere.
He raised his head and asked Luo Hao: "You said 'Crow's Claw Temple', what is this temple about?"
There are many autonomous organizations in Aitaria, and even Elpaxin's Silver Wind Knights were once just a private armed force before being absorbed by the Kingdom of Kaolin.
But whether it is a knighthood, a guild or an adventure group, there are very few autonomous forces that are called so-and-so's 'temple', because this is a term with strong religious overtones. Most of them belong to someone.
The subordinate institutions of the Orin God - such as the Temple of Life, the Temple of Commerce, the Forest Temple, and even the Temple of War and the Temple of Travelers.
Of course, there are also those who do not belong to the gods of Orin, but those who existed in the more distant era of the Sun Saints, and there are still some snake people and lizard people who still believe in those temples from the Sinsas era, are not the same as Orin.
The gods are two systems.
Other than that, it is a cult organization.
"That's what they call themselves," Luo Hao replied: "Since the destruction of Charter City, these knights have declared to the outside world that they believe in a god in charge of storms named Aidanlian."
Fang Yu was a little surprised. The god in charge of the storm, Aidanlian? Is there such a god in the Olin pantheon? Why had he never heard of such a name?
Of course, things like making up a god and cheating have not never happened in history, but in a world with a true god, the end will probably not be good. And Elpaxin has the Temple of Life and the Temple of Commerce.
, Mirela and Roman’s believers won’t just sit back and watch a bunch of hypocrites illegally preach in the name of the Orin gods?
At this time, the goblin lady who was kneeling on the table finally spoke. She spoke in a quiet tone: "Adrian, the god of raven, there is indeed such a god in history. He was also Orin.
One of the gods, but it is generally believed that he was killed in the Scourge of Isolin. After that, the god has not been seen for a long time."
The dead believer——
I have only heard of this term in the past. A god still has followers long after his death. These followers are called "dead believers". However, the life and death of a god is sometimes not so easy.
Presumably, a god who has not responded to his followers for thousands of years is not necessarily dead, let alone the god of death who has returned from that dead world.
"I have heard of this god," Jita replied at this time: "His belief was once very common on the Treasure Staff Coast, and there are still many people there who believe in this belief. But unlike other dead believers, many
Adrian's followers do not believe that their god is dead, but merely that he has fallen into a deep sleep."
She thought for a moment and then replied: "The god of storms, Adrian, has a holy emblem of the one-eyed raven. Because the legendary one-eyed raven controls the power of thunder, its claws also have
A flash of lightning - His followers worship black and white, black is the color of the storm, white is the color of lightning."
"That's right," Alice asked: "So, do the knights outside believe that Adrian is alive or dead?"
