When the sun rises, this old and bloated medieval city seems to be reinjected with temporary vitality. It runs amidst the neighing of cattle and the rattling of wheels rolling over gravel roads. The sunlight sweeps across the city's towering walls and Towers, then light up the shining panes of bell-towers, gild the spiers of churches and castles, and finally settle down in the shabby, squalid slums, Partial drying warms the stinking gutters of Trout Lane and Black Street.
Many gates in the city that had been closed overnight began to creak open. Soldiers in blue and white smocks stood proudly in front of the inner city gate known as the "Wrangler's Gate", looking at the hunched, respectful The stooped-headed residents of the outer city pass through this gate to seek their living in the markets and juggler's squares of the inner city. Among the crowds, you can occasionally see exaggeratedly large caravans staggering from the street. On the roof of the caravan sit a gypsy woman in colorful clothes. The soldiers will inevitably make things difficult for them. The convoy usually asks for a few coins, or asks for some innocuous bargains from those gypsy girls. No one will comment on this, because even the beggars in Trout Lane know that these gypsies are savage creatures outside of civilized society-it is already the favor of the district bishops and lords to let their carts enter the city. The charity was a great blessing, if not for paying enough protection funds, these gypsies would have been hanged outside the city as minions of black magic before entering the city.
Any difficulties they receive in this city are 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 overly obvious oriental features. This kind of camouflage is really simple, and even a conscientious soldier can see the problem at a glance, but obviously, there are no such conscientious soldiers among the soldiers guarding the gate, they just pretend to stand at the gate of the city, The main function is to show the majesty of the city lord, and to blackmail those outsiders and small businessmen who seem to be lucrative.
The inner city is much more prosperous than the outer city, and the buildings are neater and more beautiful, but in Hao Ren's view, this kind of evolution is really limited. After experiencing the baptism of modern cities and even the scenery of other worlds, it is already difficult for him to understand the artificiality of this era. What a shocking feeling the building produced.
Letting go of the psychic sense all the way, coupled with Lily's sensitive ears that don't let go of any wind and grass, the two of them quickly collected the needed information in this strange city, and they couldn't see the embarrassment of outsiders when they advanced and retreated. feel. 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 guarded the square, preventing ordinary people from approaching at will, and what they were guarding was in the center of the square: there stood a terrifying hangman. The frame and two blackened stone pillars, the blackened marks on the stone pillars and the buckles used to fasten the ropes illustrate their function: stakes.
The ashes around the stake had been cleared away, but there was still a male corpse hanging on the gallows. The corpse was horribly dangling in the air, and his shriveled and emaciated limbs were wrapped in ragged linen clothes. Looks like it's been a while since being hanged.
"Wow... no wonder there are plagues every so often this year," Lily muttered softly, sticking out her tongue, "after hanging people, they just hang their bodies here, and by the time they are put down, all kinds of germs have already multiplied here, giving birth to eighteen generations of ancestors." right?"
"Showing the victim is a means for the ruler to maintain order, at least in this era, a prisoner is sometimes hanged for more than ten days, or even hanged on the gallows until the rope breaks naturally - but that is usually not the case. implemented in the city."
"Of course I know this. I have graduated from Peking University four times." Lily curled her lips, pretending to tidy up her clothes while looking around, "Landlord, do you really think there will be traces of witches around here?"
"Eighty percent sure."
"Didn't Mrs. Mary say that the witch was not arrested? The so-called rescue of the witch is used to fool people..."
"Hasselblad told me that in the dark age, don't believe what any other kind 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, Witch hunters are far more honest and reliable."
Lili made her voice longer: "Oh~~"
Hao Ren glanced at the husky spirit: "Also, Hasselblad gave me a 'Reliability Ranking of Various Races in the Dark Age', allowing me to compare who's words are least trustworthy, whose words can be trusted conditionally, whose words are basically It’s reliable at any time, do you want to hear it?”
The husky girl was really fooled: "Landlord, landlord, where is the werewolf ranked?"
Although she has long accepted the fact that she is a husky, she can't help but pay attention to the werewolf when encountering such a topic.
"Werewolves are the most trustworthy, because these honest guys won't conspire with you at all. Usually, when you are unhappy, they will drag you to the corner to talk about your ideals in life. Big families such as vampires and Olympus The descendants are relatively credible, because they have a good face, family glory and race glory. Just follow their worldview and you can figure out how to deal with these guys. The guy who lives at the bottom."
As Hao Ren said, his eyes fell on an unremarkable floor tile in the corner of the square.
"Because they are weak, they are more unscrupulous, and because they suddenly lose their restraints, they are even more omnipotent. It is the most difficult for them to survive in the dark ages, so those who can survive... none of them are fuel-efficient lamps."
On that unremarkable floor tile, one can see a vague imprint, which is probably just a normal crack to ordinary people, but Hao Ren knows what this thing is.
A Leta rune.
A single Leta 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 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.
"Letta Rune, witches have already been here, they may plan to rescue their companions during execution, but they don't know when the captured witch will be executed, so they set up Leta 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 in order to rescue their companions."
Lily blinked: "They seem to have a wizard to help—what is the relationship between a wizard and a witch?"
"The number of wizards is less than that of witches, because in the age of mythology, wizards were used as cannon fodder and were consumed by their 'masters' in large quantities, while witches stayed away from the frontal battlefield because their combat effectiveness was not as good as that of wizards. As a result, they became mainstream wizards in the dark age at this time." " Hao Ren explained, "The inheritance systems of wizards and witches are different, because when the alien 'gods' raised wizards, they designed different 'teaching' programs for them according to the different physiques of human beings—in fact, they are different. Human experimentation. Generally speaking, wizards and witches don’t have much contact with each other, but there is no contradiction. After the end of the mythical age, they all formed a circle without interfering with each other. They will still communicate when necessary. My guess is that the process is as follows: the place where Vivienne sleeps will produce a relatively powerful energy release, and these energies have attracted a group of witches. They took advantage of it, but accidentally exposed their whereabouts and caused one of them to be arrested. The wizard may be a 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 hermit organization will not accept strangers at will... "
Lily was a little curious: "Can ordinary people catch witches in this era?"
"Ordinary people are of course weaker than wizards who master magic, but they are not completely immune to resistance. After all, they have dealt 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 church class and some hermit exorcism organizations in the Middle Ages, their predecessors were basically various human resistance organizations in the age of mythology, some of which may have received technical and even material assistance from demon hunters... even until In the 21st century, some hermit organizations are still operating secretly to monitor the supernatural forces in the world. However, with the passage of time and the growth of human beings in positive power, the demise of these organizations is already an inevitable trend."
Hao Ren talked about the knowledge he had heard from Hasselblad and learned on weekdays, while leading Lily slowly past the small square, and left the place without attracting attention.
The soldiers guarding the square lazily looked at the pedestrians passing by. Their eyes lingered on Hao Ren and Lili for a second or two, but they soon realized that they were two country folks who had neither oil nor fun. , so he turned his head back again.
They start talking about the poor prisoner hanging on the gallows, and the latest "Dark Arts" rumors.
During the whole day, Hao Ren and Lili wandered around the city, sometimes following the crowds to investigate the situation in open places, and sometimes using inhuman skills to sneak into places where civilians were prohibited from approaching to collect information. And so on until nightfall.
The two dressed up in disguise and climbed over the city wall by night, preparing to meet the mysterious witches.