Hao Ren looked back at the direction the people came from. The path in the thick fog had disappeared, and there was only a layer of black mirror surface rippling like water ripples. This circular "mirror surface" seemed to be drawn in the space Extending abruptly from the building, it is more than ten meters wide, and there are many trivial black stripes floating around the edges like dry oil paint. He reached out and touched it curiously, but he didn't feel that he had touched any entity. He probed in and took a look, and found that the path was still on the opposite side of the "mirror". Heather Anna threw a sentence from behind angrily: "If you want to go back, you can leave from this kind of mirror, just walk along the road. You have marks on your body, as long as you don't break into the dense fog, you will be fine. The entrance and exit between the shadow intermediary and the real world are guarded by an ancient man. Tell them that you can freely enter and exit this place. But don’t bring anyone in—your mark is only valid for yourself. Once outsiders enter the second floor Shadow space designates death."
This kind of mirror-like thing is the passage of the Shadow Fortress to the outside world. They are distributed all over the city, and there are powerful guards guarding both ends of the passage. The one in front of Hao Ren is still a relatively small one. There are large entrances and exits dedicated to the entry and exit of bulk materials in more heavily guarded places in the city, but it is not a place where visitors can step in casually. Heather Anna led everyone away from the platform, and before the steps at the end of the platform, everyone saw a tall ancient tree. Hao Ren couldn't help but look at this tree a few more times: this tree is different from normal trees, Its mottled and wrinkled bark is tangled together, giving the impression of an old face.
"What's strange about me?" Hao Ren was observing. The ancient tree actually opened its mouth, and the folds on the trunk trembled for a while, revealing a pair of dark brown eyes from under the thick bark, and the sound of creaking wooden friction sounded deep in the trunk. "Hmm... a guy I don't know, an outsider... but with the guidance of Heather Anna, you should be able to trust it. Don't make trouble in the city, otherwise it will become fertilizer."
"This is the ancient tree Gangrudar. The guardian of this gate just came to this city a hundred years ago." Heatherana bowed slightly to the ancient tree before introducing it to Hao Ren, "Every There are two gatekeepers in the passage, one for the real world and one for the shadow fortress. Senior Hesperis guards the reality level of the passage, while Gangrudar guards the shadow side. Don’t underestimate the power of Gangrudar. This All the plants in the city listen to his orders. Although he guards the gate here, he also monitors the streets of all other urban areas, and he is also an ancient man who has survived from the age of mythology. In terms of age, he is the most experienced elder in the city. one of the
The ancient tree Gangrudar swayed the canopy reservedly, and seemed to like this kind of praise about age and qualifications, but Vivienne suddenly said thoughtfully after walking around it: "I seem to have seen You... wait a minute. I seem to be the one who planted you back then! I remembered—what about the promised fruit?"
Gang Rudal shook the canopy, and then looked at Vivienne intently, but the whole tree trembled as if it was in vibration mode: "Miss... mistress!"
Vivian didn't care about this, she went up and grabbed Gang Rudal's trunk and dangled it for a while: "Is the fruit hanging? Is the fruit hanging? Where is the promised fruit?!"
Gang Rudal dropped the leaves and dead branches with a clatter, with a trembling sound in his voice: "Wait... wait... this is a misunderstanding! I am not a fruit tree! I have said that I am not a fruit tree! I just said I explained it to you when I could speak! I am a fighting tree man!"
Vivian let go of her hand in disappointment: "Tch, I know, I'm just upset—I wasted years of time before I realized that I took the wrong sapling..."
Hao Ren was very surprised: "What's going on?"
"I brought it out of Ymir's garden," Vivienne complained, "I went to visit Ymir once and found a fruit that was delicious. I went to the orchard and cut a branch. I came back and planted it myself. In the end, I got it wrong. After taking care of it for several years, I realized that it is a fruitless tree man, and the one that grows fruit is its second cousin. Tsk, I was foolishly happy under a broken tree for several years. .I watered and fertilized it with great interest every day, but it couldn't even produce any fruit."
Heather Anna stared at all this dumbfounded. Suddenly remembered something and showed an enlightened expression to Gang Rudal: "Ah, I said, why do you pretend to be asleep every time I mention Lord Vivian? Seniors worship!"
Gang Rudal shook the canopy: "So what! I am your predecessor in terms of age! Pay attention to seniority and inferiority. No matter how difficult the situation is, you must not forget the glory of the past. If you just live for the sake of surviving, then How is it any different from that brood of shadow sparrows on the third branch of the tree to the east!"
As he spoke, Gunrudal spread out his own branch to prove that there was really a nest of birds living on the third fork on the east side of the tree to enhance his persuasive power.
Hessiana was speechless, and could only nod with a dry smile, but Vivian glanced at the ancient tree with a sigh: "Forget it, you can live well... Live longer, the one in Northern Europe All the chickens and dogs that have been killed are left alone, and only a tree like you is left to remember what they look like."
Gang Rudal was silent for a moment, and slightly lowered all the branches: "Yes, mistress."
A group of people bid farewell to this ancient guard plant with a history of thousands of years, and walked together with Hessiana in this strange city under the shadows. On the road, I occasionally pass by some pedestrians who look like ordinary people, but are actually of a different kind. Most of the residents in this city are vampires, the remaining one-third are humanoid creatures called shadow demons, and the rest are mostly unprofessional idle races. There are still a small number of werewolves in the city. Their situation here is a bit embarrassing. After all, the leaders of the city are their rival races. However, due to the current situation, this small group of werewolves still maintains relative peace with the blood race in the city.
The so-called peace is to work hard for each other as if the other party does not exist, and naturally we cannot fight if we don't meet each other.
Hao Ren noticed that although the city of shadows is quite large, the actual number of residents is probably pitiful. The huge main road can only meet less than ten people at the end. Most of the huge and solemn ancient houses are gloomy and deserted like ghost houses. , the real residents inside may not occupy one-tenth of the rooms. Originally, he thought that there would be lively scenes in the alien shelter, and vampires or little devils could be seen rubbing shoulders at any time on the road, but in fact... this place is as lonely as a ghost town. It can only be said that there are still people living there, but absolutely Can't be called popular.
"There are actually only tens of thousands of residents in the city. Just think about it, a city as big as the real Athens has only tens of thousands of residents," Heatherana introduced the current situation of the city, "And even among these tens of thousands, many are Don't show your face at all, too many people are disappointed with the status quo, so they just go back to sleep, wake up once in hundreds of years to see the situation outside, and go back to sleep when they find that the situation still hasn't improved. Some guys even slept enough Two thousand years...longer than I've been in this city."
"Didn't you live here right after the city was built?" Nangong Wuyue asked curiously.
"No," Hesianna shook her head, "I am 1800...or maybe I was sent here by Lady Vivian 1700 years ago. At that time, the city was still blocked, but there was Lady Vivian. Guaranteed, Hesperis made an exception and took me in. At that time, I was still a widow, and it was a later matter to form my own family."
Vivienne nodded: "Well, she was so annoying, I had no choice but to throw her here. And to be honest, the situation was difficult at that time, and it was difficult for me to support myself. Why don't I send her to a safer place ——At that time, she was still a little girl who didn't understand anything, and it was too dangerous to run around with me outside."
Lily is a straightforward girl: "But when the situation is not difficult, it is also a problem for you to support yourself!"
Hao Ren hurriedly pulled the husky behind him: "This girl is really... talking nonsense!"
Finally, the group arrived at a new neighborhood in the depths of the city that seemed to be more neatly planned. After arriving here, Heatherana was obviously in a happy mood. She pointed to the largest steeple bungalow in front of her eyes: "This is it! This is my The place where I live, and all the surrounding houses with the same emblem are the territory of the Heatherana family—welcome to my house~~”
This is a big house with a black roof and gray walls, elegant decoration, and a gloomy vampire-style exterior. Although the style is depressing, the details are gorgeous. Hao Ren saw at a glance what the emblem Hessiana mentioned was: the exterior of the house The most conspicuous place on the wall is a huge family crest, and on the seven or eight meters long fabric is Vivienne's extra-large head sticker—not the shrunken version of Hesianna with short hair and childlike face, but the same as Vivienne's The same long-haired image, the restoration rate is at least 99.9%, this headshot is the so-called family emblem. Seeing this scene, Vivienne covered her face and turned her head: "So I don't want to come to this place... She is too annoying."
(Happy New Year’s Day everyone! In addition, let’s give a few monthly tickets during the big festival, and double the price now. And continue to reflexively ask for tickets for annual works, but it seems that the free ticket mechanism has changed, and it’s fine if there are no free tickets. Xing spends money to swipe tickets.) (to be continued~^~)