When the sun rises, this old and bloated medieval city seems to be re-injected with temporary vitality. It starts to move amidst the neighing of animals and the rattling of wheels on the gravel road. The sunlight sweeps across the city's towering walls and walls.
The towers then illuminate the shiny glass panes on the bell tower, coating the spiers of churches and castles with a layer of golden color, and finally fall into the shabby, low and chaotic slums, as if to remove the most foul-smelling slums in the city.
Partial drying warmly bakes the fetid ditches of Trout Lane and Black Row.
Many gates that had been closed all night across the city began to creak open. Soldiers wearing blue and white smocks stood proudly in front of the inner city gate known as the "Wrangler Gate", looking at those hunched over and respectfully
The residents of the outer city with stooped heads passed through this gate and went to the market and Juggler's Square in the inner city to make a living. Amidst the flow of people, you could occasionally see an exaggeratedly large caravan swaying through the street.
On the roof of the caravan sat gypsy women dressed in colorful clothes. The soldiers would inevitably make things difficult for these convoys, usually asking for a few coins or asking for some innocuous benefits from the gypsy girls. No.
People will comment on this, because even the beggar in Trout Lane knows that these gypsies are savage creatures outside of civilized society. It is already a charity from the regional bishop and lord to let their carts into the city.
It was a great blessing from heaven. If they had not paid enough protection money, these gypsies might have been hanged outside the city as minions of black magic before entering the city.
Any trouble they encounter in this city is actually part of the "protection money".
Lily and Hao Ren were also mixed in the crowd. They put on hoods and lowered their heads all the way, pretending to be two farmers who had just entered the city from the countryside to cover up their obvious oriental features. This disguise was really crude, even
As long as a conscientious soldier comes to take a look, you can see the problem, but it is obvious that there are no such conscientious soldiers among the soldiers guarding the gate. They are just pretending to stand at the gate of the city. Their main function is to show the majesty of the city lord.
, and blackmail those outsiders and small businessmen who seem to have some lucrative opportunities.
The inner city is obviously much more prosperous than the outer city, and the buildings are neater and more beautiful. However, in Hao Ren's view, this kind of evolution is really limited. After being baptized by modern cities and even otherworldly scenery, it is difficult for him to understand the artificial people of this era.
What a shocking feeling the building produced.
Letting go of their mental induction along the way, coupled with Lily's sensitive ears that don't let go of any disturbance, the two quickly collected the necessary information in this strange city, and there was no trace of the awkwardness of outsiders in their advance and retreat.
It didn't take long for them to find their destination: a small square on the edge of the inner city.
This square is obviously not a place for gatherings and celebrations. A few yawning soldiers are guarding the square, preventing ordinary people from approaching it at will, and what they are guarding is in the center of the square: there stands a horrifying hanging.
The frame and two dark stone pillars. The blackened marks on the stone pillars and the buckles used to fix the ropes illustrate their function: burning pillars.
The ashes around the stake have been cleared away, but there is still a male corpse hanging on the gallows. The corpse is swaying horribly in the air, with tattered linen clothes wrapped around his withered and thin limbs.
It looks like he has been hanging for a while.
"Wow... no wonder there are plagues every now and then these days," Lily stuck out her tongue and muttered in a low voice, "After hanging someone, they just hang the body here. By the time it's put down, all kinds of germs have already multiplied here.
Substitute it?"
"Showing the victims is a means for rulers to maintain order, at least in this era. A prisoner sometimes has to be hung for more than ten days, or even hangs on the gallows until the rope breaks naturally. But that is usually not done in the city.
executed here.”
"Of course I know this. I graduated from Peking University four times," Lily pouted, pretending to tidy up her clothes while looking around secretly, "Landlord, do you really think there will be traces of witches around here?"
"80% sure."
"Didn't Mrs. Mary say that there were no captured witches? The so-called rescue of witches and the like are just used to fool people..."
"Hasselblad told me that in the dark ages, don't believe what any alien tells you. In order to survive, they have already rotted honesty and credibility in their stomachs," Hao Ren said in a low voice, "In this regard,
Witchers are much more honest and reliable."
Lily said in a long voice: "Uh-oh"
Hao Ren glanced at Husky Jing: "And Hasselblad also gave me a 'Believability Ranking of Various Races in the Dark Ages', asking me to compare it to see whose words are the least trustworthy, whose words can be trusted with conditions, and whose words are basically the same.
It’s reliable at all times, do you want to hear it?”
The husky girl was indeed fooled: "Landlady, where do the werewolves rank?"
Although she had long accepted the fact that she was a husky, she still couldn't help but pay attention to werewolves when encountering such a topic.
"Werewolves are the most trustworthy, because these upright guys won't conspire with you at all. Usually if they see you unhappy, they will just drag you to the corner to talk about life ideals, vampires and big families such as Olympus.
Descendants are relatively trustworthy, because they are good-looking, have family glory, race glory, and so on. As long as you follow their world view, you can figure out how to deal with these guys. And the most unbelievable thing is that witches and the like were originally in mythology.
A guy who has always been at the bottom of the pack."
As Hao Ren spoke, his eyes fell on an inconspicuous floor tile in the corner of the square.
"Because they are weak, they become more unscrupulous, and because they suddenly lose their restraints, they act more unscrupulously. It is most difficult for them to survive in the dark age, so as long as they can survive... no one is a fuel-efficient lamp.
"
On that inconspicuous floor tile, you can see a vague mark. To ordinary people, that mark is probably just a normal crack, but Hao Ren knows what it is.
A Leita rune.
A single Laita rune has little power, so there should be more runes here, probably hidden in other corners of this "execution ground".
However, Hao Ren was not more interested in these runes, as long as he confirmed the existence of these runes.
"Landlord, what did you find?" Lily looked at Hao Ren curiously.
"Leta Rune, the witches have already been here. They may plan to rescue their companions during the execution, but they don't know when the captured witch will be executed, so they set up Leta Rune here in advance.
Rune. It seems that the arrested witch is an important member of their organization or group, and may even be the leader. Otherwise, witches in this era would not be willing to take such a big risk to save their companions."
Lily blinked: "They seem to have a wizard to help them talk about the relationship between wizards and witches?"
"The number of wizards is less than that of witches, because wizards in the mythical era were used as cannon fodder by their 'masters', while witches were far away from the frontal battlefield because their frontal combat effectiveness was not as good as that of wizards. As a result, they became the mainstream wizards in the Dark Ages.
," Hao Ren explained, "The inheritance systems of wizards and witches are different, because when the alien 'gods' raised wizards, they designed different 'teaching' plans for them based on the different physiques of humans. They are actually different.
Human experimentation. Under normal circumstances, wizards and witches do not have any dealings with each other, but there is no conflict. After the end of the mythical age, they have formed their own circles without conflict, but after all, they were 'from the same family' at the beginning. If necessary,
They will still communicate with each other. The process I guess is this: the place where Vivian sleeps will produce a relatively powerful energy release. This energy attracts a group of witches, and they may plan to use Vivian's sleeping place to escape from the place where she sleeps.
They took advantage, but accidentally exposed their whereabouts and led to the arrest of one of them. The wizard may be the foreign aid they invited, or it may be a passing wizard who accepted the invitation of the witches, but one thing is certain,
That is, they knew each other before: in this era, every secluded organization will not accept strangers at will..."
Lily was a little curious: "Can ordinary people in this era also catch witches?"
"Ordinary people are certainly weak compared to wizards who master magic, but they are not completely defenseless. After all, they have been dealing with aliens since ancient times. Even if humans are always at a disadvantage, there are some ways to deal with them. These methods are usually mastered.
In the hands of the medieval church class and some monastic exorcism organizations, their predecessors were basically various human resistance organizations in the mythical age. Some of these organizations may have received technical or even material assistance from demon hunters...even until
In the twenty-first century, some secluded organizations are still operating secretly, monitoring supernatural forces in the world. However, with the passage of time and the growth of human beings' positive power, the demise of these organizations has become an inevitable trend.
"
While Hao Ren was talking about the knowledge he heard from Hasselblad and learned in daily life, he led Lily slowly past the small square and left the place without attracting anyone's attention.
The soldiers guarding the square lazily looked at the pedestrians passing by. Their eyes rested on Hao Ren and Lily for about a second or two, but they soon concluded that these were two country people who had no luck or fun.
, so he turned his head back.
They began to discuss the poor prisoner hanging on the gallows, and the recent rumors of "black magic."
Throughout the day, Hao Ren and Lily wandered around the city, sometimes following the crowds to investigate the situation in open places, and sometimes using their inhuman skills to sneak into places where civilians were prohibited from approaching to collect intelligence.
This went on until nightfall.
The two of them dressed up in disguise and climbed over the city wall at night, preparing to meet those mysterious witches...