Ackley was shrouded in the invisibility spell cast by Anar, and observed the actions of the Shadow Group from the side of the kitchen. He saw a man holding a long sword standing at the door without moving, while the others spread out in tacit understanding and began to search the entire house.
A member of the Shadow Group ran towards the kitchen. Ackley and Anar retreated and left the kitchen door. The man came in and searched very carefully, even opening the doors and drawers of the cabinets one by one. However, Ackley and his men were much more skilled than him, so how could they be discovered by a cheap warrior? When he showed the gap behind him, the two of them slipped to the corridor outside the kitchen.
"It seems that except for the leader, the skills of these people are very average." Although Anar is not a wizard of the Dream Tower, he also has his own soul communication magic.
"Of course they are just average in front of you, but for me, there are at least three of them whose depths I cannot fathom," Ackley said.
"Well, I can't figure out the leader either. I really want to fight him." Anar said.
"Well, I think based on the current strength comparison, it would be better for us to choose to hide." Ackley said.
Anar chuckled in the soul: "Of course I know. But when the time is right, we still have to face the challenge. Isn't that the way for us to grow?"
The Shadow Group naturally did not find Glade, whose earring transformation was more convenient than invisibility. Like Ackley and his men, they searched the restaurant for the longest time, and then returned to the man who looked like the leader.
"Gerardo, what have you found?" asked the leader.
"Sir Augusto, we have searched all the rooms, but no one is here." The one who reported back was the "Black Archer" Gerardo. "According to our judgment, they left yesterday. We are a step too late."
The analysis of the Shadow Group was basically the same as that of Ackley and the other two, but Gerardo emphasized: "But after they left, someone else came here. We found new traces on yesterday's footprints. It is estimated that someone came here to investigate before us."
"It's strange that anyone would pay attention to Julio, an insignificant guy." Augusto felt very surprised.
"Could it be Chinese?" Gerardo asked.
"The Chinese have occupied the town of Alano a long time ago. His brother Ackley is not an important figure to the Chinese. He is just an insignificant craftsman. To them, what does the life and death of Julio mean? Could it be that other forces also want to control Ackley from Julio?" Augusto thought for a while but had no direction.
"Could it be the two lingering ghosts of the Temple of Wisdom and the Temple of War?" Gerardo said.
Augusto said, "There's no point in thinking too much. Just stay alert. Go outside and find out where the people in this room have gone."
Gerardo led the others out the door, and Augustus sat down at the door with his legs crossed.
Ackley looked at Augusto with some worry and said, "This guy's aura is too dangerous. Even if I'm invisible, I can't walk out of this door without telling him."
Anar said, "Why are you in such a hurry? Haven't they already done what you wanted to do? Just wait patiently. The people of the Shadow Group of the Temple of Nature have much deeper roots here than we do. What we can't find out, they may find out easily. They will do what we need to do for us."
"This is the only way." Ackley and Anar didn't dare to get close to Augusto. They waited in their place motionless without making any sound.
This waiting time seemed particularly long. After about half an hour, some people began to come back and report that Julio should have been picked up by the Duke of Greenwood City's men. Someone in the elf community saw him riding in a carriage, escorted by some knights, heading northeast of the city.
After a while, another person came back to report that they found out that Julio and another convoy met up in front of the city library, and then left the city from the east gate overnight.
About an hour later, Gerardo came back to report in person: "Lord Augusto, according to the information sent by the people stationed in the city guards, they should be heading to the Duke's villa in the east. I wanted to ask someone in the Duke's personal guards to confirm, but he doesn't seem to be in the city. However, according to various intelligence, that team should be carrying a large amount of property. Hearing that the Chinese were coming, the Duke of Green Forest City had to make preparations, and he might have arranged to send away some of his valuables."
"Oh? In other words, if we catch up with this team, we can not only capture Julio, but also maybe find a 'tribute' for the Temple of Nature?" Augusto raised the corner of his mouth and laughed softly, and the people around him also laughed in agreement.
"If necessary, we can ask the temple guards to send out some men to block it from the other end," Gerardo suggested.
"So that they can share some of our money?" Augusto sneered. "Send a letter to the brothers in the branch immediately and ask our remaining team to go out and intercept the convoy together, while we rush over the mountain road. The mountain road to the east here is very winding. As long as we can go over the mountain and take a straight line, we can catch up in less than a day in just a dozen hours."
"Okay, sir, I will contact the Southwest Branch immediately," said Gerardo.
Augusto stood up and said, "Let's hurry up and get going!"
All the members of the Shadow Group left, and Ackley and the others waited for a while before coming out of hiding. Anar said, "It's clear now. Let's follow them and tell Luo Ling the general direction. Let's see who is the hunter and who is the prey."
———————
When the two groups left Julio's house, they didn't notice that there were two elves on the terrace of the house opposite, watching them. One was an elf wizard with strange red hair, and the other was a female swordsman wearing an elf swordsman's uniform with a mechanical spider on her shoulder.
The red-haired wizard said, "Maya, these two groups of people are not together. The three people in the second group are following the people in the first group. I heard that the people here evacuated in a hurry last night. There must be something wrong. I think we should follow them and take a look."
Maya said, "Di Ning, shouldn't we go find Xiao Chen as soon as possible? I can't wait to see their machines."
The red-haired wizard Di Ning said, "After all, this is an elf community. Since we have the title of inspector, we have to take care of some things, right? These people are causing trouble here at such a tense time. We can't let them go easily. Besides, the Green Forest City incident may be related to the Chinese. Maybe this is a good gift for Xiao Chen."