Blood and tears

  Madilgaran and Mushteril are not far apart, so the villagers' pace of action is not fast. It took several days to pack up their things, and soon they arrived at the pine forest on the shores of Lake Mushteril, which is less than a day's journey from the city. Along the way, Panni was inquiring about the internal affairs of Laiserman:

  "It's actually none of our business, folks from the poor countryside like us...” Kaelith Sunshadow snorted in disdain. After a few days of contact, they had become familiar with these outsiders: “It's just a bunch of guys sitting on our heads, bored and biting each other."

  "Dog eat dog?" Penny coughed, somewhat incredulous.

  "It's because of the Iron Throne succession issue." Spernill added, "The previous Iron King died three years ago due to illness, leaving behind a son and a daughter. The witch association didn't like Prince Wang, suggesting that Princess Wang should inherit the throne instead, but Prince Wang is actually quite capable..."

  Panni was stunned. The so-called Iron King, also known as the nominal king of Laiserman and the leader of the Krazy Warrior tribe, had a position that no longer relied solely on bloodline evaluation since 400 years ago, but rather required the adoption of the Witch's opinion.

  Because in the eyes of the witches' coven, an uncontrolled berserker tribal leader is unsafe.

  Now, this provision obviously has a problem, but one of the details makes Penny frown: "Since the prince is so capable, why would the witch not support him?"

  "Because he has always been singing discordant notes with witches and is said to have colluded with evil creatures."

  Penny nodded silently, it seemed that this form of state with a religious organization and a monarchical system coexisting was indeed impossible without contradictions. In that case, the matter of that prince was quite worth investigating.

  "What does all this have to do with us, anyway? We're only concerned with hunting, and maybe keeping an eye out for when those bald-headed idiots from the south come knocking. Then we'll just grab our gear and chop them down - worrying about big-shot stuff is a waste of brainpower!" Spiny said, and then shut up.

  Upon hearing these words, Xien, as a Cielian, felt extremely embarrassed.

  At noon, over a hundred villagers, along with a dozen or so warriors, as well as the elder, witch, and holy warrior, stopped to rest and start a fire for lunch. Parn sat by one of the bonfires, lost in thought, when suddenly Sela walked up carrying a water skin: "Mr. Xien, would you like some water?"

  "Thanks." Penny smiled and nodded, seeing Cera holding her cheek squatting beside looking at herself: "What's up?"

  "No, nothing." Sara shook her head, but didn't mean to change her posture.

  "So why are you looking at me?"

  "This...this... shouldn't be against the law, right..." Sera's face turned red.

  "That day you said... never mind..." Panni mumbled, bringing the water bottle to her lips, suddenly becoming alert: "Where did this water come from?"

  "It's lake water..." Cera said, her face suddenly changing color, a thread of fresh blood oozing from the corner of her mouth: "Is it poisonous?"

  The people around him, even the elder Oukurus, started vomiting blood. Even with their weapons in hand, they found it hard to stand upright.

  Among them, those experienced holy warriors still had shocked expressions on their faces.

  Generally, adventurers know that water in the wild cannot be drunk casually. If there is a spellcaster in the party, detecting poison spells are essential, but in fact, this zero-level spell does not work every time, like this time.

  Luckily, Penny had coincidentally seen this poison somewhere before.

  "Enemy attack!"

  The crazed warrior of the watchtower went wild, several huge fireballs flew into the temporary camp, and in the earth-shaking explosion, a piece of crying and screaming!

  Four red figures appeared in mid-air, and at the same time, more than thirty black-clad men holding sharp blades emerged from the outer perimeter of the camp!

  Pan Ni clearly saw the tattoos on these people's bald heads, and his heart immediately sank. The surrounding area had already erupted in terrified screams:

  "Red Robe Master?!"

  "All you northern barbarian friends, the road of travel has reached its end." The red-robed figure in the center smiled, looking chilling: "Do you want to enter the lake water by yourself? Or do you need me to send you on your way?"

  A group of people who drank the poisonous water on the ground all looked pale, those who were knocked down by flames and poison were still wailing, several careless drinkers were rushing to the streets, the fierce warriors and holy warriors had strong vitality and could still support their bodies. Cilla saw a few children nearby who were close to death due to poisoning, foaming at the mouth and turning blue in the face, wanting to cast a spell to slow down the poison, but found that she couldn't sense any divine grace, and was shocked.

  "This... uh... Saint Warrior Miss, it's no use, don't waste your energy. Actually, if we had known about this situation earlier, we should have informed the Tir Church not to interfere unnecessarily." The red-robed mage spread his hands and said with a hint of helplessness: "But now it's too late."

  Cerra saw several young children dying in extreme agony and glared angrily at the red-robed mages in the air: "You cruel guys! You can actually do such a thing!"

  "There is no distinction between enemy and us, there is no saying that is not cruel." The elder Oculos said in a calm and low voice: "Today's events, together with all the memories you have given us over these 400 years, we will one day return in full."

  "Old man, spouting nonsense isn't a good habit. You can't even use one spell now, and even if you will eventually pay back today's hatred, I'm afraid you won't live to see that day, right?" A group of red-robed figures burst into mocking laughter.

  The people in the temporary camp who had not yet been poisoned gradually showed a desperate look on their faces.

  "Alright, but can you answer an old man's question." The elder looked around at the soldiers who were lying horizontally and vertically, poisoned by the toxin and unable to exert themselves, and silently sighed, nodding slightly: "Although it's not surprising that the red-robed mage would take advantage of the chaos in Laisemann, but you seem to have known we were coming?"

  "This doubt, the elder will take it to hell, be careful!" The red-robed Taoist's pupils suddenly enlarged, a light point appeared not far from his feet, and burst into a circle of light. All five red-robed Taoists were illuminated by this circle of light. Only three soft sounds were heard, and the flight technique effects of three red-robed Taoists were instantly broken. They fell to the ground tens of feet below, screaming, and before anyone could react, they smashed into three puddles of flesh.

  Penny threw away the scroll that had just been used to dispel the magic, pulled out another one and began to chant quickly.

  He harvested a lot of magic scrolls in the semi-plane, his casting ability was limited, and he could only use scrolls to achieve certain tactical effects.

  "This little guy can still cast spells, kill him!" The two surviving mages were shocked and furious, hastily falling back to the ground, using flight magic to escape. Originally, it had a great deterrent effect and was convenient for aerial bombing, but they obviously didn't expect someone to actually dodge the poison invasion and even cause them such heavy damage!

  The black-clad assassins around also looked extremely foolish, and after hearing the order, they hesitated for half a second before rushing towards the camp, but it was already enough time for the mage to finish guiding the second scroll.

  Boom!

  A wall of flame appeared in the path of the black-clad assassin's charge, several assassins were caught off guard and set ablaze by the rising flames, and the emergency braking that followed was accompanied by a flurry of frantic activity!

  Panny walked up to the elder and pulled out a 'Disease Suppression' scroll, beginning to chant.

  Two red-robed figures with changing facial expressions began to cast their spells, and a several-dozen-foot-long firewall apparently couldn't stop the assassins' charge either. They circled around once more before charging towards the camp again.

  After all, in their view, there was only one threatening person left in the camp, and it wasn't difficult to deal with.

  "Block them!"

  The battle situation changed suddenly, and three red-robed mages turned into minced meat in the blink of an eye. It seemed that their side was not without resistance. In the temporary camp, several sturdy berserkers and holy warriors barely withstood the toxic invasion of their bodies, raised their weapons and charged forward, colliding with a group of assassins!

  The red-robed mage's spell dispelled the firewall, and upon noticing the scene in the camp, he waved his hand with a somewhat heavy expression: "Retreat."

  A beam of light spilled from Penny's hands onto Oakley, who felt a surge in his spirit and the toxins within him being suppressed. He began to cast spells, gathering intense heat around his body. In an instant, ten massive fireballs flew into the retreating assassins, followed by another deafening boom!

  Fifth-level spell Flame Seal, a caster as powerful as that is already enough to turn the tide of battle. What's more, Penny was also using the same scroll to suppress the toxins in everyone's bodies. This surprise attack had actually been ruined from the start.

  The enemy fled quickly, and the people fell powerless to the ground, gazing at their dead comrades, overcome with grief.

  "We can't move forward anymore, we have to find a safe place to hide." Oakley surveyed the desolate campsite and sighed: "This spell can only suppress the toxin's effects for now, but if we don't find an antidote soon, it will continue to take effect, and when these assassins come back to attack us again, we'll be in danger. We have to find a safe place to settle down and slowly remove the toxins."

  The elder looked at Penny with a puzzled expression: "You didn't drink water just now, how did you recognize this toxin?"

  "The Silent Executioner, that's the name of this poison." Penny looked at Long Zhe with an even more puzzled gaze, suddenly realizing she had misspoken, and hastily added: "I saw it in a book."

  "A book?" The elder was somewhat surprised, as the red-robed Leithman had managed to identify a poison that even he couldn't recognize in "a certain book" from the Komihr Magic Guild.

  Moreover, he also discovered that since the appearance of these red-robed cultivators, this cultivator from Komir had been somewhat off, but couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.

  "How did these red robes find their way here?" Witch Sally Fen frowned.

  "I think I understand..." Panni walked up to a corpse in a red robe that had been smashed to death, and lifted the lapel of the robe. On the left chest was a huge empty hole.

  "Is he dead?" The crowd that had gathered around him shrank back in unison.

  Those who knew more about the situation were even more surprised. This organization, in their impression, seemed to be against the Sai people.

  "More questions, I think the lady would be happy to answer for us." Panni fell silent, turning his head towards the other side of Lake Muirgheilt, where a typical Letheman witch wearing a mask was riding a horse that was almost out of breath, with several riders wielding swords and knives in pursuit.

  ……