Witch Monastery

"The most typical cases are plants growing wildly and developing tumors, and animals going crazy and attacking others. The residents living here always have nightmares all night, get sick, or even become mentally ill..."

Annuo explained, and the final conclusion was clear: "So, when we get to the Rock Seekers' camp, we can easily catch the devil by investigating the plants that suddenly decayed and died, or the animals that went crazy, etc. They will definitely tend to hide, but this kind of thing cannot be hidden."

Huo Sang and the others listened attentively. In fact, he also had experience in this area. After all, he had at least passed the Pure Love game.

But knowing is one thing, and now it is another to put it into practice in reality. It's like many boys have watched movies and know the skills, processes and movements, but when it comes to new real combat, they still...

cough!

In short, accompanied by the wheels rolling over the hill and the clanging and collision sounds of the carriage, Annuo shared the knowledge he had learned.

The sun gradually moved southward, but the mountain wind was still chilly in late autumn. Feeling drowsy, the group continued to drive towards the rock-seeker camp.

Chapter 254: Resolution of the Five Permanent Members of the Alliance

The interior of the central tent of the Mountain Worshipers tribe.

The five leading tribes of the Mountain Cleansers Alliance are holding a crucial meeting. This is the first secret gathering of the five tribes since the establishment of their alliance.

Representatives from the Mountain Riders, Highmountain, Owlbeast, Stoneskin, and Greenvine tribes all gathered here and sat on the wooden stakes prepared for them by Archdruid Ilarod, with their legs together, backs straight, and solemn expressions, waiting for the meeting to begin.

The theme of today's meeting is actually very simple. It is the alliance's next policy. Should it first concentrate its forces to eliminate the demonic pollution that is spreading everywhere, or should it first eliminate the human forces that are becoming more and more unscrupulous and hunting and digging in the mountains to reap profits?

Each tribe joined the alliance for different reasons: some because their pastures were destroyed by adventurers from Libel Harbor, some because their burial grounds were stolen by adventurers, and some because their tribe members were abducted by adventurers and used as sex slaves...

Other tribes that often live in the mountains do not often deal with adventurers from Port Liberl. Instead, they join the tribe because they are suffering from the pollution of demons and are unable to fight against them.

If you can't give a good reason and convince everyone to work towards the same goal, then the huge alliance will easily become demoralized and will soon fall apart.

But before giving this reason and making those small tribes willing to risk their lives, the five major tribes must first reach a consensus and then work together.

Seeing that everyone was present, Ilarod nodded with satisfaction, and then announced: "The meeting will begin. Everyone, please express your opinions."

When convening the general meeting, Ilarod intentionally demonstrated his noble character by letting Toren show the spotlight while he hid behind the scenes. But now, behind the scenes, in this meeting between those who truly hold power, he no longer has to pretend and can preside over the meeting openly to tell everyone who is the real ruler of the alliance.

As he finished speaking, the first person to raise his hand was the representative of the Owlbeast Tribe, the future heir of the tribe, the young Chimera tamer Danqi Owl.

The young half-orc, whose body was painted with three colors of paint to form a head, raised his large hand like a palm leaf fan and spoke in a muffled voice: "Well, after a detailed discussion within our tribe, we advocate that we take action immediately to eliminate the demons. We cannot let those abominable creatures continue to pollute our mountains!"

His word

He recited the words his father had taught him, his eloquence was more than one level weaker than Toren's, but fortunately, his meaning was clear.

Destroying the demons is what their tribe urgently needs to do. One of the main sources of power for their tribe is the Chimera they control.

However, it should be noted that the Chimera was originally a monster created by the demon prince Demogorgon who came to the material world. It was a mixture of many creatures. Its origin was the creation of the devil, so there was no rationality in its multiple heads, only madness.

The Owl Beast Tribe used secret magical means to control them, making them tend to be calm, close to the Owl Beast Tribe's trainers, and able to obey their orders.

However, this kind of calmness is actually extremely fragile. Once it is stimulated to a greater extent, it will get out of control.

And now, as the demonic pollution spread among the mountains, the Chimera in their tribe were greatly affected. They had been very restless for many days, craving for killing and blood.

Although they are still very obedient now, can feel the comfort of the trainers, and have no signs of attacking the trainers, but no one can guarantee that if things continue to deteriorate, the foundation of their tribe's survival will turn around and deal them a fatal blow!

This is the attitude of the Owlbeast Tribe.

"I propose that we must first eliminate the threat from Libel Port."

Torun Gaoling said, with hatred flashing in the eyes of the minotaur: "The threat of demons is still far away, and there is no trace of them, but the threat of Libel Port is imminent. Everyone, we can't turn our backs to our enemies!"

"Everyone, please think carefully. The greedy adventurers in Libel Port, based in the Rock Seeker Town, are constantly devouring the resources of the mountain area every day. We must stop this behavior first, otherwise we will work hard to eliminate the demons and lose a lot of strength, while they will steal the resources that originally belonged to us, eat their fill, and even have the energy to destroy us..."

"Is this what you all want to see?"

Although he was just a minotaur, he was an excellent eloquent person, and his words were full of incitement. Even Danqi Xiao, who had just insisted on destroying the demon first, couldn't help but waver at this moment.

After all, they actually have many conflicts with Port Liber.

"I agree with Toren. Let's kill the might of Libel Port first!"

On the other side, Ruger Stoneskin, the representative of the Stoneskin tribe, who currently appears in human form but is actually a subspecies of the shapeshifting bearman, also raised his hand and said, "I suggest that we destroy the town of Rockseekers. After destroying it, we can eliminate the demons without any worries!"

Toren nodded with satisfaction. They and the Stoneskin Tribe were all die-hard Eagles. As a result, the decision on Libel Harbor, or more precisely, on the Rockseekers Town, instantly had two votes.

But then, a clear and beautiful voice rang out: "I don't think so."

When everyone turned their heads, they found that the person who spoke was the chief of the Green Ivy Tribe, the nearly fifty-year-old centaur matriarch, Willow Green Ivy.

The female druid, who had short curly blond hair, smooth and white skin like milk, and human-like appearance but sheep-like ears, wrapped in her withered yellow leaf robe, said slowly: "Everyone, the reason why the demons have not revealed their true form for so long is because they are secretly preparing to contaminate the more terrifying things sleeping at the bottom of these mountains."

"We must eliminate them first, otherwise the consequences will be disastrous!"

She also has a vested interest. The ancestors of the satyrs are fey creatures from the Fey Wilds, so they are more sensitive to this nature and the crazy pollution that has infiltrated it.

Even more sensitive than the Archdruid Ilarod.

Therefore, no one present knew better than her how urgent the situation was. No matter what, the alliance must make the elimination of the demons a priority today!

Sitting in the first seat, the Archdruid Ilarod of the Mountain Riders tribe looked at Willow Greenvine with approval, and then looked at Toren with regret. Although he didn't know what the "more terrifying existence" the former was talking about was, he knew very well that his family was also suffering from the pollution of demons.

Tulong can’t hold on any longer.

"I agree, too. Let's eliminate the demons first." He said, "The demon worshippers have broken the ancient rules. They are far more hateful than the people of Libel Port. Even though the latter are hateful, it's just a dispute over interests; while the actions of the demon worshippers are polluting the entire world!"

At this point, the votes were three to two and the resolution was passed.

Chapter 255 An Nuo takes a bath, but is there a demon?

Time continues to move forward.

"Huh...it's getting late, let's set up camp here."

Looking at the rock wall in front of him that was sheltering from the wind, Hawthorne let out a long sigh, then turned his head to look at the western sky, only to see that the orange-red sun was approaching the edge of the horizon and would soon set.

In fact, there was still some time before dark, and they were still full of energy. However, if they continued to go deeper, he was not sure if they would be able to find such a good shelter again.

If their luck was a little worse, they would have to grope around in the dark to find a good place to camp, which would have been foolish.

It is already late autumn, it gets dark early and gets light late, and it will be a miserable night without a good spot to camp.

"

Well, that's fine."

Glancing at the sky, An Nuo felt anxious, hoping to find the demon as soon as possible. They had already spent nearly a week in the mountains, asking around and traveling, so she was extremely anxious. Her patience was almost exhausted.

But considering that she also needed to rest, she had to suppress her urgency, nodded, and prepared to set up camp and rest.

After all, they had experienced the pain of braving the mountain wind in the middle of the night and searching for a suitable place to camp. No one wanted to experience that feeling a second time.

So, even though it was still bright outside, the group still stopped under the rock wall, took out the folded tents from their dimensional bags, and began to set up camp.

Just as Anno said, the traces of the devil were not difficult to find. After arriving at the Rock Seekers' camp, they asked the returning adventurers and the old hunters among the mountain people and got a lot of clues.

Strange tumors grew on the trees somewhere, the stench of corruption suddenly came from somewhere, the animals somewhere suddenly showed signs of madness, no longer afraid of hunters and beasts, but would actively attack, and so on.

After all, it has been several months since the demons arrived in the material world. Even if the Lord of the Abyss restrains himself, the pollution will spread wildly - if they can really control themselves, they will not be called demons - so this information is easy to get.

Moreover, when the old hunters came back from hunting and drank a few glasses of wine in the tavern, they would easily talk about the strange things they had encountered. As long as they were willing to spend a little time with them and then summarize, Hawthorne and his party could easily get a general direction.

After reaching the conclusion, they continued on their way deeper into the mountains.

Then, they had to sleep outdoors for three days. The distance between the target location and the Rock Seekers Town was a little further than they had initially estimated. In addition, it was already late autumn and the daytime was getting shorter, so they had to sleep outdoors while traveling.

There were villages deep in the mountains, but those villages were inhabited by pure mountain dwellers. They might send people to the Rock Seeker town to trade, but generally speaking, they were extremely hostile to outsiders and would never allow Huo Sang and others to enter their village, lest they plotted something bad or tried to get information.

Even though Hawthorne and his group said they were here to destroy the devil, because there was zero trust in them from the beginning, no matter what they said, the mountain people responded with absolute rejection.

On the first night, they planned to rest in a village, but they were turned away and wasted time, so they had to brave the mountain wind and grope in the dark to find a suitable place to camp on the mountain again.

Now, having learned their lesson, they avoided these villages and chose some sheltered places to set up camp.

Just like it is now.

After deciding to set up camp, the group began to divide the work. Nidalee used natural magic to grow a circle of vines and fences around the camp, and set up spices and magic traps to drive away wild animals as further defense.

Although these methods cannot deal with real dangers, they can reduce the harassment from wild beasts such as wolves and tigers.

Heidi and Celine worked together, summoned the wizard's hand at the same time, took out the tent from their respective dimensional bags, and then stood it up.

They set up three tents in total. Hawthorne slept in one, Heidi and Nidalee slept in one, and Shireen and Anno slept in one - of course, this was the apparent division. As for who might sneak into Hawthorne's tent late at night, that was hard to say.

As for Hawthorne and Anno, they lit a bonfire in the middle of the camp and then set up an iron pot on it. Anno filled the endless water bottle with clean water to prepare to cook vegetable soup tonight. Hawthorne took out a marinated lamb leg from the dimensional bag and put it on the grill after it was cooked.

In fact, with the magic of the magic berry, they no longer need to eat. Swallowing one berry can meet their nutritional needs for the whole day.

But unfortunately, the godberry can only meet the nutritional needs of a person's body, but cannot satisfy their taste buds' needs for food. In addition, this long night is so lonely that it is really hard to get through it without doing something, so cooking has become their way to relieve loneliness.

It’s also a good time to exchange feelings.

In short, with the combined efforts of several people and the help of magic, a simple camp was slowly formed. But Heidi and the others intended to leave time and space for Hawthorne and Anno, so until the two roasted the lamb legs, the three of them finally gathered around, tasting the food and chatting casually.

Heidi and Celine behaved the same as always, but this time they had the godberries as an excuse, so they could openly not eat a single bite; Nidalee ate quite a bit, because these ingredients were all pre-processed in the monastery kitchen, and the stimulation to her taste buds made her, as a mortal, unable to refuse.

Of course, Hawthorne and Anno ate the most. They were both strong and muscular, and they had to adapt to the high-intensity physical confrontation in close combat.

Naturally, their appetite would also increase. The amount of meat in a leg of lamb was not a problem for the two of them.

The whole dinner lasted nearly two hours. After all, it took a long time to cut the meat from the lamb leg with a knife.

It's a time-consuming and laborious task.

After the meal, the group did not rush to put away the dishes and cooking utensils. They sat around the campfire and continued to chat about the many interesting things in the world. They seemed to have endless topics to talk about, from the free country established by the gold dragon and the gold elves on the other side of the ocean in the east, to the tyrannical empire established by the red dragon tyrant who loved to wear medals in the far north, and the strange small countries in the distant black soil continent that were endlessly fighting each other.

The moon gradually rose higher, and stars appeared in the night sky, indicating that the night was getting darker and darker. Hawthorne felt a little urgent, so he got up and went to the woods far away. As soon as he left, the campfire, which had been very hot just now, immediately became quiet, as if it had lost its backbone, and they no longer wanted to say a word.

But An Nuo didn't feel anything about the sudden silence. She was a little tired, so her senses were a little dull. Her eyelids with long golden eyelashes drooped slightly, and she dozed off. She felt that she had pressed something and suddenly woke up: "Oh... Oh yes, Miss Heidi, this is back to you."

As she said this, she reached out, took out the endless water bottle she had used when cooking, and handed it to Heidi.

The latter did not answer, but kept smiling and said to her: "Miss Annuo, do you want to take a bath together?"

Hearing this, An Nuo, who was still a little drowsy, suddenly woke up: "I..."

She was very excited. She had been sweating a lot from climbing mountains and crossing rivers in the past few days, and her schedule was very tight. She had no chance to take a shower at all. So now, she felt sticky and really wanted to take a good shower to solve her personal hygiene problem.

But then again, in this adventurous wild...

"Isn't it a bit wasteful?" She looked a little embarrassed, "And if we run into danger..."

She was a paladin, and if she wanted to fight, she had to put on plate armor first - and even if she was very skilled at it and had someone to help her, it would take at least five minutes to put it all on, which was simply too much time.

In response to this, Heidi immediately put on a smile and said, "Don't worry, Celine is here, nothing will happen."

After a pause, seeing that she was still hesitating, Heidi immediately added: "I want to wash it too, and I want someone to help me wipe my back. Miss Anno, can you help me with this?"

On the side, Xilin also nodded slightly and said, "Well, go wash up, Miss Annuo. Don't worry, we will help you keep watch, and no one will peek over."

She was hinting at something, and Annuo's face suddenly turned red, obviously he had understood what she was hinting at.

"I don't have any concerns in this regard." She explained with some difficulty, "I don't doubt your character..."

"Well, well, let's go over there and just give ourselves a quick wipe."

After saying this, the two of them stood up together and walked behind the rocks in the other direction.

Just as she left, Hawthorne came back from the woods after using the toilet. He only saw the backs of Anno and Heidi hurriedly leaving, and for a moment his expression was confused: "What happened? Where did she go?"

"She went to take a shower." Celine smiled. "She felt dirty, but was too embarrassed to ask for the endless water bottle, so Heidi gave her a way out and they went to take a shower together."

"Oh." Hearing this, Hawthorne sat down in his previous seat and began to clean up the dishes. He didn't think much about this kind of thing, but Celine moved closer to him and said, "Master, don't you want to take a look?"

Hawthorne rolled his eyes: "Are you asking me to go over and peek?"

"Aiya, let's play some word games!" Celine said with a smile, "This is not called peeking, this is looking openly!"

"Master, believe me, she won't mind. She might even be secretly happy about it!"

Hawthorne smiled, then shook his head, firmly rejecting the proposal: "No, An Nuo is a very serious girl, this kind of word game will only disgust her."

"When you are with serious people, you have to be serious too. You can't..."

Before he could finish his words, he heard a sudden scream from a distance: "There's a demon!"

Chapter 256 A Short Bath Towel

Immediately, Hawthorne's expression became serious, while Celine raised her eyebrows and a smile appeared on the corner of her mouth: "It seems that, Master, you have to go over now."

As she spoke, before Hawthorne could give an order, she suddenly stroked her forehead and said, "Oh, I feel dizzy all of a sudden... Master, I can't fight anymore, so you should go and save them both!"

Huo Sang looked helpless. He pinched her arm, stood up, put on his night vision goggles, and rushed over there: "I'll go, you come with me!"

Celine then stood up and followed Hawthorne, rushing towards the direction of Anno and the others. Nidalee, who had been playing the role of an invisible person, also stood up, deliberately lagged behind, and ran over there.

In front, Hawthorne, who was leading the charge, rushed into the depths of the dense forest and saw two white bodies screaming and retreating while covering each other. They were none other than Heidi and Anno who came here to take a bath.

They could be said to have good luck, as the demon they had been searching for for so long finally showed some signs of itself; but it could also be said to be very unlucky, as it showed up when they were taking a bath...