Path of Light.

Chapter 542 543. A murder caused by a winter thorn grass

The half-elf girl ran very fast and slipped into a house in the blink of an eye.

Moira glanced at the gate and didn't run in directly. After all, it was someone else's home.

She hung her arms on the wall and peeked secretly into the yard.

The yard was very clean. It was a very small yard with a date palm tree planted in the corner. There was a swing hanging under the tree. When the wind blew, the leaves hanging from the date palm tree kept dancing.

The door was open and the house was well lit.

The half-elf girl poured the medicine from the small cooking pot into a wooden cup. Even from more than ten meters away, Moira could smell the bitter smell of the hemostatic herb in the medicine.

Moira crouched against the wall, hidden by the shadow of the eaves.

Miss Tiffany chased after her and called out to Moira, who was squatting on the wall like a civet cat, "Hey, Moira, come down quickly..."

Moira turned around, put her finger on her lips, made a silencing gesture to Miss Tiffany, and with a coaxing smile on her face, she actually jumped into the yard.

Miss Tiffany bit her lower lip angrily, and swore in her heart that she would never go shopping with Moira next time.

Moira hung her body on the eaves, her hair falling like a waterfall, revealing her full forehead and big eyes like black crystal.

Through the window she saw a middle-aged male elf lying on the bed. He looked sick and a little weak.

Then Moira noticed the bruises on the elf's face and realized that he might be injured.

Hearing a series of slight noises, the half-elf girl carefully held the cup and walked from the outer room into the bedroom. She stood by the bed and fed the medicine in the cup to the unconscious male elf. Some of the medicine flowed out from the corner of his mouth. The little girl quickly wiped it with a handkerchief, and then whispered:

"Dad, you must get better soon."

Looking at her cute appearance, it was as if a finger touched Moira's softest heart, reminding her of an experience in her childhood. During that time, Gillian was seriously ill. She was only as old as a little girl at that time. During that time, she felt that the whole world was gray.

Fortunately, Sabrina was by her side at that time, and it was Sabrina who supported her.

The little girl fed the middle-aged elf the medicine, washed the cup and the small cooking pot, and placed them on the table outside. Then the little girl ran to the yard to wash clothes.

While washing clothes, she squatted in the corner and secretly wiped her tears.

Moira wanted to help, but didn't know how, so she sneaked down from the roof and ran back to the street in a depressed mood.

Miss Tiffany was leaning against the wall, holding the water bag above her head and pouring water on her head.

Seeing Moira return in a gloomy mood, he asked with concern:

"Moira, what's wrong with you?"

"Nothing, maybe I'm a little homesick..."

Moira said, and then she took Miss Tiffany's arm and walked out of the alley.

……

When Woods entered the free market, he was full of contradictions. He did not expect that the biggest bully in this market would be Roy.

This market is actually not that big. It is only about two hundred meters long from one side to the other.

The stalls set up by foreign merchants and half-elf collectors are clearly separated in the market, and they are completely two incompatible areas.

Especially at the intersection of the Free Market and the POW concentration camp, there was actually a stall selling poisonous horn bison meat. On the bloody iron hooks, there was a lot of bright red flesh and blood, which made Woods frown when he passed by...

Like many elves, Woods is extremely disgusted by the act of killing animals.

However, many half-elf hunters do not care about this. Although they do not eat animal meat, they do not mind hunting these beasts.

In order to obtain some precious magic materials, the elves would go into the forest to hunt monsters.

In the eyes of the half-elves, herbivores such as the bison and argali in the prairie are actually no different from the monsters in the forest. They are all prey in their eyes.

Woods squatted in front of a stall of a half-elf collector. There were some plant roots and rhizomes on the stall. Although there were no magical herbs, Woods was also very clear about what kinds of plants these were.

"The roots of the lantern fruit are very well preserved. Just bury them in the soil and add some water to revive them. By this time next year, the new branches will be full of lantern fruit."

The half-elf stall owner in front of the stall introduced Woods enthusiastically.

Woods gently pushed away the moss wrapped around the roots, and sure enough, the roots inside remained moist and looked full of life. Woods decided to buy the roots of the lantern fruit and plant them under the windowsill outside the cottage that Roy had prepared for him.

"How much is this?" Woods asked curiously.

"Five Kohler."

The half-elf stall owner stretched out his hand and gestured.

Woods selected six well-preserved roots and paid the stall owner thirty Kohlers.

Seeing that he paid so readily, the half-elf stall owner smiled and told him that he could take a look at other goods, as he still had a lot of good stuff in his stall.

"But you don't have any magic herbs here. Judging from your attire, you should be a gatherer, right?" Woods said casually as he picked and chose at the stall.

"Of course, how much can these plant roots and stems be exchanged for?" The stall owner said very proudly, "But it's impossible for you to buy magic herbs from me. To be honest, if you are a magic herb merchant, you'd better not expect to buy many herbs from Pagisto Plateau."

"Almost all of our gatherers here will not sell magic herbs in the market. This is something all of us elves have agreed on long ago."

"...Did someone force you to sell the magic herbs to the mine guards?" Woods asked in surprise.

"Why do you think so? If you had experienced the darkest period on the Pagisto Plateau and understood what Boss Roy did in the Plateau City, you probably wouldn't have any doubts about these transactions." The half-elf stall owner said with some emotion.

"He led us to defeat the plateau headhunters!" added the elf stall owner next to him.

"Hey, Tonys, are you trying to steal my business? Why are you butting in on our conversation?" The half-elf stall owner muttered in dissatisfaction.

The stall owner next door didn't respond at all. He leaned over and said mysteriously:

"Have you heard? That traitor was severely beaten up by a group of Silvermoon Elf merchants, and now he is lying at home and can't get out of bed!"

The half-blood elf stall owner was stunned and asked in surprise, "Is it that serious?" The stall owner next to him nodded and said, "Yes, his daughter, little Aisley, was still looking for hemostatic herbs yesterday. It seems that she must be seriously injured. I don't know if she found any."

The half-blood elf stall owner sighed and said, "Hey, I have some hemostatic plasters here too. I'll go check it out tonight!"

The stall owner next door widened his eyes and warned: "Hey, don't be stupid, stay away from that traitor, otherwise you will be misunderstood and it may be difficult for you to join the herb-picking group in the future."

"Is it that serious?" The half-elf stall owner was speechless.

The stall owner next door said in an even lower voice: "That traitor betrayed our agreement. I heard that the leaders of more than a dozen herb-picking groups gathered together last night and wrote his name on the blacklist..."

"A winter thorn grass... could it cause such a big fuss?"

The stall owner next door covered his mouth with his hand and said in an inaudible voice: "I heard that he is damaging the reputation of all herb collectors on the Pagisto Plateau!"

The half-elf stall owner said hesitantly, "You said... that winter thorn grass is fake? But he showed it to me before, and it indeed has all the characteristics of winter thorn grass!"

The stall owner next door said stiffly: "But in all these years, have you ever heard of... anyone finding wintering thorn grass on the plateau?"

"That's not true!"

"..."

Woods crouched in front of the booth and did not engage in the conversation.

He selected a few roots of Elaeagnus angustifolia and prepared to plant some in the yard. This plant is drought-resistant and has strong adaptability, and can survive even without watering.

He can't live in the plateau city for too long. Usually the houses here are basically empty, and no one will come to take care of the yard. Buying some sand dates and planting them under the courtyard wall should be a good choice.

While Roy was selecting these tree roots, he had a rough idea of ​​what the two stall owners were talking about.

The half-elf collectors were reluctant to sell the magic herbs because they wanted to sell them to Roy. Therefore, the mine guards almost monopolized the magic herb industry in the Plateau City.

Anyone who sells magical herbs to an herbalist will be considered a traitor by the half-elf gatherers.

The topic they were discussing was that a half-elf gatherer risked public wrath by selling a winter thorn grass to an herbalist, but the herbalist thought that the magic herb was a fake and not only took the money back, but also beat the half-elf gatherer so badly that he couldn't get out of bed. The half-elf gatherer's daughter was now looking for medicine everywhere, but the other half-elf gatherers didn't want to help.

After all, it is winter thorn grass, which is almost never seen on the Pagisto Plateau.

Woods, squatting in front of the stall, was a little curious about what the fake winter thorn grass looked like... In theory, winter thorn grass is easy to identify.

Carrying the rhizomes of several cape gooseberries and sand date trees he bought, Woods left the stall and walked around the market again.

Many stall owners were talking about this matter. Not only the half-elf collectors were talking about it, but some elf merchants were also talking about it. They were mainly talking about the scammers among the half-elf collectors. The magic herb business is really not easy to do nowadays!
Half-elf gatherers tend to stick together, so it is very difficult for herbal merchants to buy magic herbs from them.

But this group of gatherers will also reject some half-blood elves who betray their agreement...

As Woods listened, the story became more and more complete in his mind.

The half-elf gatherers thought that this gatherer had betrayed them, and after the herbal merchant beat him up, not only did they refuse to stand up for him, they were also ready to kick him out of the circle.

The herbal merchants were all saying that this gatherer took a thorn vine that looked very similar to winter thorn grass, froze it and sold it to an herbal merchant. The winter thorn grass was a complete fake, a scam carefully planned by the half-elf gatherers.

This kind of speech affected the reputation of the half-elf collectors, making many collectors very angry but unable to refute...

Woods did not see the herbalist who bought the false winter thorn in the market, nor did he see the half-elf gatherer who was beaten.

He spent the whole afternoon in the market before returning to his residence.

……

The next morning, in a yard next to the town hall.

Roy sat with Moira, Sabrina, Miss Tiffany, and Woods for breakfast.

Only Woods and Sabrina had a plate of breadfruit and a cup of lemon tea in front of them, while Roy, Moira and Miss Tiffany had salt-baked sea fish in front of them.

Roy plans to visit the Northern Black Iron Mine in the Jiaxi Mountains.

The forging workshop was recently making iron chains for the dock at Sun Island Bay. These iron chains were used to tie up the seawall made of stones. Since the forging workshop had not yet transported the iron chains to the Plateau City, Roy planned to go to the workshop for an inspection.

Moira and Miss Tiffany also wanted to go out with Roy.

"Sabrina, do you want to come with me?"

"Me? Forget it. Mu Lin asked me to go to the military camp. I'm going to give the new soldiers of the mine guard a basic martial arts training class!"

Sabrina put a piece of soft breadfruit into her mouth and said as she ate.

"How about you, Woods?"

Woods shrugged and said, "I want to go upstream along the Tolai River to see the scenery of the wilderness beside the river..."

After breakfast, Roy walked out of the yard to see the war horses that Mulin had prepared for him, and saw a group of elven merchants escorting a half-elf towards the city hall.

When the elven merchants reached the steps in front of the town hall, they were stopped by several half-elven guards holding spears.

When Roy saw these elf merchants coming to the front of the city hall, he did not rush to the forging workshop.

The half-elf guard saw a middle-aged half-elf with wounds all over his body tied up with ropes, and asked:

"What are you doing at the City Hall?"

"There is no Silvermoon Elf Elder Council in Plateau City, so we sent this liar to City Hall. We hope that City Hall can give this liar the punishment he deserves!" a Silvermoon Elf merchant said loudly.

Several guards looked at each other, frowned, and said to the elf merchants, without looking at the half-blood elf covered in wounds:
"Wait here for a moment. I will report to my superiors."

After saying that, a half-elf guard turned around and ran towards the city hall.

A little half-elf girl chased up along the stone steps. She had run such a long way, her face was flushed and sweaty. When she saw the middle-aged half-elf tied up with ropes, she pounced on him.

(End of this chapter)