Path of Light.

Chapter 221 222. Dire Wolf
In the evening, the shadow of the caravan appeared on a small road in the woods.

The clear and melodious sound of bells came over, and the leading horse walking in the front was also carrying a large bag of goods. Captain Xindeji was walking in the front and seemed to be in a good mood.

The caravan arrived at the mouth of the valley and began to camp. These horses needed a good rest, and the elves specially repaired the horseshoes for these horses. The next section of the road was a rocky road. If the horseshoes are cracked, it is easy to walk in the canyon full of gravel. Let the horse get hurt.

"I originally planned to arrive here at noon today, but the transaction in the village has not been completed, so it has been delayed for a long time."

When talking about this, Commander Shindeji's face was full of pride.

During this trip to the barrier villages, business in each village was good. Now they have purchased a lot of magic herbs. As long as they can return to Padstow City safely, they can make a sure profit.

Commander Xin Deji was naturally very happy in his heart.

At night, the chirping of harpies will sometimes be heard, and they will make a sound similar to evil laughter, which will make even the elves feel irritable.

Gru climbed to the top of a tree, ready to shoot some harpies to intimidate them.

Head Xin Deji walked to the campsite of the adventure group, sat in front of the bonfire, and said to Instructor Nora:
"They have been living on the nearby cliffs. There are many caves on the cliffs of this canyon. They can fly in the caves and ambush any hunter who enters the caves. After entering the caves, many hunters become Harpies rations, so the elf hunters around here never climb into the caves in the rock walls to hunt these harpies.

At night, they are also attracted by the firelight, and they hate the sound of the bells. As long as a string of bells is hung outside the tent, the harpies will not come close.

The elves don't like the harpies' leather, which is wrinkled and unattractive. Few elf hunters are willing to hunt them. I heard that human nobles like to keep harpies in birdcages, but human witchers There is no way to come to the Partington plane.

As we cross Tiger Leaping Gorge tomorrow, we'll try not to provoke the harpies, who normally wouldn't target us. "

After speaking, Commander Hindji also gave Instructor Nora a string of bells.

"Understood, when the time comes, we will follow behind your team. Unless they initiate an attack, we will definitely not provoke them."

Instructor Nora stood up and said, climbed to a rock wall after speaking, stood on the top of the rock wall and shook the bell in his hand vigorously.

Sure enough, the laughter of the harpies stopped suddenly, and then there was a popping sound of wings flapping in the forest, and several harpies flew through the woods and flew into the caves of the canyon.

……

Instructor Nora arranged for Roy to stay on duty overnight, and it was in the middle of the night, so Roy needed to get some sleep in advance.

Just as he got into the tent, a group of elf warriors ran out from the forest against the backdrop of the night. These elf warriors stopped at the entrance of Tiger Leaping Gorge.

For a moment, a series of war horses neighed.

Roy poked his head out of the tent and looked outside. The elf warriors were all wearing metal armor, with long swords hanging from their waists and battle bows on their backs, looking majestic.

When jumping off the horse, you can hear the clear sound of metal friction.

This group of elf warriors are all silver moon elves.

The leader of the elf warrior captain strode up to Commander Xin Deji and asked him:
"Are you a caravan from Padstow?"

"Yes!" Commander Xin Deji quickly responded.

Captain Elf raised his chin slightly, pursed his lips and said to Commander Xin Deji:
"If you take this road again in the future, you must take the initiative to pay a tax to Lord Alves. This mountain forest including the canyon in front has become the territory of Lord Alves. You people are now good at If you break into private territory, according to the laws of the Elf Kingdom, we have the right to expel you, but since you don’t know yet that this forest has become the private territory of Lord Alves, we will not expel you immediately. .If you don’t want to pay your taxes, you need to get out of here tomorrow morning.”

Captain Hindji was slightly startled. He seemed to have never heard of this matter. However, the name Lord Alves is very famous in Padstow City. He owns the largest trading house in Padstow City. , considered to be the most powerful Silver Moon Elf noble in Padstow City.

Since the elf army can be allowed to enter the jungle and the matter is announced everywhere, it seems that this matter should be true.

Commander Xin Deji asked the Silver Moon Elf captain in front of him:

"I want to know how big the territory of Lord Alves is here?"

Captain Elf coughed lightly, then took out a parchment map from his pocket, and unfolded the map in his hand.

This map happens to be a map of the entire Partington plane, but only the elves currently occupy the area, which radiates [-] kilometers around the city of Padstow.

Obviously, the elf captain came well prepared. He had already drawn a green area on the map.

Pointing to this area, Captain Elf said to Commander Xin Deji:
"From Padstow City to the south, all the way to the Griffin Barrier Mountains, this land has been purchased by Lord Alves."

Not only Captain Hindji was stunned on the spot, but the followers of the merchant group all looked up at the elf captain. Everyone couldn't believe that this Lord of Alves actually bought a quarter of Padstow City in one fell swoop. soil of.

Commander Xin Deji quickly asked:
"Uh, you mean that the forest south of Padstow has already been bought by the Lord Alves?"

The elf captain corrected: "Actually, Lord Alves' territory only extends to the northern foot of the Griffon Fortress, and the area south of the Griffon Fortress is not counted as Lord Alves' land."

Several instructors from the adventure group also came over one after another. Among the instructors, only Instructor Nora is a half-blood elf, and the other instructors are all silver moon elves, and they all wear magic pattern leather armor. It seems that they know their status is extraordinary.

Captain Elf glanced at the instructors and nodded to them.

Head Xin Deji continued to ask:
"In the future, if we want to pass through Lord Alves' territory, will we have to pay taxes?"

Captain Elf became a little more amiable, and said with a natural look, "That's it."

Instructor Nora asked curiously: "Where does Lord Alves' territory extend to the east?"

Captain Elf held up the parchment map in his hand and said to everyone, "The width of the territory is about two hundred kilometers."

Commander Xin Deji's face changed slightly, and then he noticed the thin line on the east side of the map, frowned and asked, "You mean the east reaches the edge of the Mochias Mountains directly?"

Captain Elf shook his head, pointed to the east area and said, "It's not that far away, and the Blackwater Swamp is not currently the territory of Lord Alves."

Commander Xin Deji sat down a little weakly, and said to Captain Elf:
"Okay, got it, we'll leave as soon as possible."

Captain Elf and a group of soldiers under him camped at the entrance of the canyon, but their camp was tens of meters away from the caravan.

Instructor Nora sat opposite Captain Sindeji and asked him:
"If the caravan doesn't want to pay taxes in the future, will they have to detour from this territory?"

Commander Xin Deji wiped the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief, and said sadly:

"It will take more than three times the road, and the Mochias Mountains are notoriously dangerous. Almost all the monsters there are haunting the mountains and forests in groups, even in the Blackwater Swamp. Giant long-nosed crocodiles, killer bees, dragon flies, and giant anacondas are also notoriously ferocious. Without the adventure group and mercenary group to follow, our caravan would be unable to move an inch."

"Ah? I didn't even know there was a place like this in the Partington plane. If I had known there was a place like Blackwater Swamp, why would we have ventured to Griffin Barrier..."

Instructor Nora said loudly.

Guide Margery was a little dumbfounded and said to instructor Nora: "Aren't you here to climb the gryphon barrier?"

"I just didn't know there was a place like Blackwater Swamp, so I decided to climb the Griffin Barrier. If I had known there were dragonflies in Blackwater Swamp, we should have gone there to take a look..."

Instructor Nora said with some regret.

The other instructors didn't care.

On the contrary, Instructor Eleanor asked with some concern: "What about the elf village in the territory?"

"Of course you need to pay taxes, otherwise you might be kicked out!" Head Xin Deji said worriedly.

The instructors fell silent, this was the last thing they wanted to see

"..."

Even Instructor Gru, who usually doesn't like to talk much, couldn't help but say at this time:
"They have lived here for so long, and suddenly they became the subjects of Lord Alves, isn't that justified?"

In the elven village, they have seen the oppression of these half-blood elves by the Padstor Silver Moon elves. These half-blood elves living in the elven village have almost no chance of going to school. Many half-blood elves can only become hunters in this life. Or herbal gatherers.

Now there are silver moon elf nobles taking the jungle they live on for their own...

The atmosphere in the business group was very dull. In fact, this also meant that Commander Xin Deji needed to open up a new business route.

……

The next day, the caravan passed through Tiger Leaping Gorge and arrived at the next elf village.

This group of elf warriors came one step ahead and had already issued Lord Alves' warrant. The half-blood elves in the village were in a mess. Everyone came out of their homes one after another and began to discuss how to deal with this matter.

Some half-breed elves don't want to leave their homeland, and many elves have lived here for half their lives, so naturally they don't want to leave here.

Since he chose to live in the village, the first thing to do was to pay taxes to Lord Alves.

Many elves don't have the habit of saving money. They only find ways to make some money when they need it.

Just at this time, the caravan of Commander Xin Deji rushed to the elf village, and many half-blood elves took out some magic herbs and monster materials from their homes, sold them to the caravan in exchange for some Kohler, and paid a tax.

Many young mixed-race elves in the village do not intend to pay taxes. They are planning to leave their homes and continue to migrate south.

In their words: the world is so big, we do not accept slavery.

These young half-breed elves are going to follow the caravan to go south, until they reach the village of the barrier.

The whole village has become extremely noisy. In the originally quiet village, many tree houses will be abandoned, and the sadness of parting is everywhere.

The young half-breed elves clamored to go with the merchant group, and Captain Xin Deji had no reason to refuse.

But Commander Xin Deji also has his own worries...

The further south you go, the more dangerous the jungle becomes. There are often monsters in the jungle in front of you, and the closer you get to the Griffin Wall, the more dangerous it will be, because the Griffin is the real overlord of the jungle sky.

……

The adventure group still did not follow the caravan into the village. Under the leadership of the guide Margery, a group of people from the adventure group came to a mountain depression.

This time, Instructor Nora divided the adventure group into two combat groups. The two groups were only 500 meters apart, walking side by side in the jungle...

Roy is still in a group with Instructors Virgil, Instructor Gru, and Instructor Eleanor. There are three instructors in their group.

Instructor Nora and Miss Scarlett, together with Sabrina and Miss Christine, are a little weaker, but their team also has Guide Margery.

After walking out of Tiger Leaping Gorge, the mountains and forests here have become more desolate. It is difficult to find paths in the jungle. Almost everyone is walking forward through the weeds. According to the guide Margery, there are often scary people in this mountain. Wolves haunt.

The wind fox hunted by the adventure group before can only be regarded as a first-level monster, but the dire wolf here is considered a second-level monster. This kind of monster is more dangerous to Roy, Sabrina and Miss Christine. .

So when Instructor Nora was grouping, he repeatedly told Instructor Eleanor to take good care of Roy.

However, the responsibility of taking care of Roy ultimately fell on Instructor Gru.

As the archer in the adventure group, Instructor Gru's usual duty is to hunt and kill monsters and give them a fatal arrow.

However, for a great elf archer, the most fearful thing is that the monster breaks through the siege of other instructors. Once it rushes to the side of Instructor Gru, the combat effectiveness of Instructor Gru will drop sharply.

Roy is currently in the adventure group, mainly protecting Instructor Gru.

Instructor Eleanor walked at the front of the team, Instructor Fugil was in the middle, and Instructor Gru led Roy to the back of the team...

……

In the mountains, a furious two-headed dire wolf crouched in the grass, staring at the two half-blood elf hunters in front of it with blood-red eyes.

The two mixed-blood elf hunters had just killed a wind fox in its territory.

Although it had disliked the wind fox for a long time, the wind fox ran too fast and was too alert, and the dire wolf never found a chance to hunt it down.

But now it saw two elf hunters breaking into its territory and hunting down the wind fox. The dire wolf suddenly felt that it should teach these two elf hunters some lessons, such as making them a delicious meal for itself.

The dire wolf was crawling in the grass, and it didn't even dare to move, for fear of disturbing the two elf hunters.

It patiently waits for an opportunity...

Finally, the two elf hunters squatted down, and they seemed to start skinning the wind fox. Now, the dire wolf suddenly jumped out of the grass and rushed towards the two elf hunters a hundred meters away.

(End of this chapter)