Chapter 9 Chapter 8 The Road to the Free Cities

As the infection worsened, Aaron had to walk on crutches, hunched over, and was nauseated and vomited until his stomach was filled with nothing but bile. Dizzy, he tried to find a focus for his eyes—he seemed to see a wisp of white smoke—there was a building beside the road in the distance, a stone wall covered with vines, almost covering the building behind the wall.The white smoke is curling up from the building. Finding somewhere inhabited gave strength to his tired body, and he staggered forward.He leaned against the wall, leaning on it, trying to find the entrance.The stone walls are riddled with holes and cracks.Green vines protruded from holes in the stone walls.If there were no vines to implicate, the decadent stone walls would have collapsed long ago.

With the support of the stone wall, Aaron found a stone arch.Two rusty iron gates lay among the weeds.Inside the arch was a spacious courtyard with vines on the walls and weeds on the ground.In the courtyard, there is a pond formed by accumulated silt and collected rainwater, and a low building covered with vines, which cannot be seen unless you look carefully. Aaron walked carefully along the courtyard wall.The ground was full of crumbling stone slabs among the weeds; huge wooden columns toppled over mossy boulders.Aaron found many deep claw marks on these slabs. He was surprised to find that there were no sigils on the stone slabs, and that the castle had been built before the return of the demons.If so, this place has been deserted for at least three hundred years.

The gates of the low buildings were as decayed as the gates.A small stone entrance leads to the chamber within.There are many metal wires hanging from the walls, and the artworks that hung on them are already tattered and dusty.Thick tapestry was also stuck to the wall.Claw marks from ancient times were carved on the walls and furniture, and debris was strewn all over the floor. "Hello?" Aaron called. "Is anyone there?" no respond. His forehead was burning hot, although the temperature was not high, and his body was shivering with cold.He didn't have the energy to continue searching - there was obviously white smoke here just now, and there should be someone if there is smoke.The thought gave him strength, and led him to a dilapidated castle, and he went up the stairs.

Most of the top floor of the building is in the sun, and the roof is dead in name only; many strips of rusted copper protrude from the waste walls. "Is anyone there?" Aaron called.He searched the top floor again, but still only found a piece of ruins. Just as he was losing hope, he saw white smoke through a window on the other side of the hall.He rushed to the window, only to find a burning branch in the back yard, covered in claw marks and several flames still burning, belching thick white smoke. His face was contorted with disappointment, but he didn't cry.He'd thought about sitting there and waiting for the demons to show up, hoping they'd give him a treat before the infection kicked in.But he had sworn he would never voluntarily hand over anything to the devil; besides, Mariah's death was obviously not happy at all.He looked down at the window, at the flagstone courtyard below.

Falling from here would definitely kill him. He pondered for a while, and a sense of dizziness hit him. Just falling out of the window seemed to be an easy and correct choice. Like Corley?asked the voice in his head. The sling came back to his mind.Aaron came back to his senses, tried his best to stabilize his body, and backed away from the window. No, he thought, Corley was as bad as Pa.Even if I had to die, I was killed and died, not because I gave up. Through the windows of the top floor, he could see very far.Beyond the stone wall, on the road, people were coming and going, and they were walking towards him—Regan—Aaron squeezed out the last bit of strength, jumped down the stairs at an almost normal speed, and quickly crossed the yard .As soon as he ran to the road, he was exhausted and fell to the ground.Panting, he clutched the wound on his side tightly.It felt like a thousand pieces of sawdust suddenly added to my chest.

He raised his head and saw that the other party was still far away, but he could already see himself.He heard a call—and the world fell into darkness. When Aaron woke up in the sun, he found himself sprawled on the ground.He took a breath, feeling a tight bandage around his body.His back still hurts, but the burning has gone.For the first time in days, he didn't feel his cheeks burning.He put his hands on the ground and wanted to stand up, but a sharp pain hit him immediately. "Don't rush to get up," Regan advised. "You're lucky to be alive." "What happened?" Aaron asked, looking up at the man sitting in front of him.

"You passed out on the side of the road." The man said, "The wound on your back is infected. I have to cut the wound, squeeze out the venom, and then sew it up." "Where's Kirin?" Aaron asked. Regan smiled and said, "It's inside. Qilin has kept a distance from you for the past two days. He was bleeding, and when he first saw you, he was vomiting all over the floor." "Two days?" Aaron asked.He looked around and found that he was still in that ancient courtyard.Regan camped here, his portable sigil guarding their bedding and mounts.

"We found you around noon two days ago." Regan said, "Today is the fifth day. During this time, you have been delirious, sweating profusely and convulsing in the process of fighting the illness. " "You cured the demonic infection on me?" Aaron asked in surprise. "That's what the people of Tibe Creek call it?" Regan asked, shrugging. "Good name. But it's not some magic disease, boy, it's just an infection. I found some pig roots by the side of the road." , make an ointment and put it on the wound. I will use it to make some herbal tea and drink it for a few days, and you will recover soon."

"Pig roots?" Aaron asked. Regan held up a handful of grass that was everywhere. "Every courier's herb bag will prepare the herb, but the fresh one is the most powerful. It will make you dizzy, but the magic is that the medicine will cure the disease." Aaron started crying.Mother's disease can be cured only by using this kind of weed that I often pull out on my own farm?This is just unbelievable. Regan waited quietly, giving Aaron some room to vent.After seemingly stagnating forever, the tears began to stop, and the choking sound gradually weakened.Regan silently handed him a dry cloth, and Aaron wiped the tears from his face.

"Aaron," asked the messenger, "what have you come so far for?" Aaron stared at him for a long time, not knowing where to start.After thinking for a while, he told the messenger one by one what had happened in the past few days, from his mother's injury to his escape from his father's side. Regan listened silently to Aaron's experience. "I feel sorry for your mother, Aaron," he said at last.Aaron groaned and nodded. When Aaron talked about how he planned to go to Sunshine Ranch, but accidentally stepped on the road to the Free City, Qilin walked in.He listened intently to Aaron's description of the first day of spending the night alone and stepping on the magic seal.The bard turns pale with horror when Aaron tells how he repaired the sigil before the demon killed him.

"You're the one who cut off that stone demon's arm?" Regan asked suspiciously after a moment; Kirin looked as if he was going to throw up again. "I'm not going to do it again," Aaron said. "No, I think so." Regan chuckled. "Still, crippling a fifteen-foot stone demon is a feat of heroism, eh, Kirin?" He nudged it. Bard, but that seemed to provoke Kirin's sense of vomiting.He covered his mouth and ran out.Regan could only shake his head and sigh. "Since we found you, we've been harassed every night by a giant one-armed stone demon," he explained. "I've never seen any monster attack the Sigil field like it." "Is he all right?" Aaron asked.After Qilin came back, he rushed out again and vomited. "It's okay," Regan muttered. "Let's get something to eat first." He helped Aaron to sit against the saddle.The movement made his body tingle, and Regan noticed the pain on his face. "Chew this," he suggested, handing Aaron a stiff grass root. "You'll be a little light-heavy, but it will ease the pain." "Are you an herbalist?" Aaron asked. Regan laughed. "No, but the courier has to learn a little bit of everything if he wants to survive." He groped in his saddlebags and brought out a metal pot and some pots and racks. "I hope you will teach Colleen the effectiveness of pig roots." Aaron mourned his mother. "If you know she doesn't know," Regan said, "I'll teach you." He filled the pot with water and hung it on a tripod over the fire. "It's hard to imagine how people can forget so much knowledge." While he was fiddling with the fire, Qilin came back, his face still frighteningly white, but his vomiting had subsided. "After taking you back, I will definitely mention this matter." "Go back?" Aaron asked. "Go back?" Kirin repeated. "Go back, of course," Regan said. "Your dad will be looking for you everywhere, Aaron." "I don't want to go back." Aaron said, "I want to go to the Free City with you." "You can't run away from problems, Aaron," Regan said. "I'm not going back," Aaron said. "You can drag me back, but as soon as you let go, I'll escape again." Regan stared at him for a long time.Finally, he looked at Qilin. "My thinking is," Kirin said, "I don't want to make another trip at all because it's going to take at least five days." Regan frowned and turned to Aaron. "I will write to your father when we reach Miln," he warned. "You're just wasting your time," Aaron said. "He's never coming to me." The flagstone floor of the courtyard and the high surrounding walls provided ideal shelter for them that night.The carriage is parked in a large portable magic circle, and the horse is tied in another magic circle.They were in two concentric circles of magic seals, and a fire was lit in the middle. Qilin lay in the blanket, huddled up, trembling all over, not because of the cold, but because he was afraid of demons—every time when the core monsters tested the magic seal, he would twitch violently. "Why do they keep attacking when they know they can't break through?" Aaron asked. "They are looking for flaws in the magic seal." Regan said, "You will never see the earth core monster attacking the same point repeatedly." He tapped the side of his head. "They remember. The earth core monsters are not smart enough to study the magic seal to deduce the weakness, so they directly attack the force field and use this method to find the weakness. They rarely break through the force field, but the chance is still high enough It's worth trying." A wind demon jumped over the high wall and hit the magic seal force field.Kirin immediately let out a scream in the blanket. Regan looked at the bard curled up in the blanket and shook his head. "He seems to think that as long as he can't see the earth core monsters, they can't see him." "Has he always been like this?" Aaron asked. "The one-armed demon scares him more than usual," Regan said. "The guy who can't stand upright in the sigil circle." He shrugged. "I need a bard to go with me temporarily, and the guild assigns Qilin to me. Usually, I won't go with such a weak person." "Why did you bring the bard with you?" Aaron asked. "Oh, be sure to take a bard with you when you go to a remote village," Regan said. "The villagers will be very cold without it." "A remote village?" "A small village like Tibe Creek," Regan explained. "It's remote, the Duke can't easily control it, and most of the residents are illiterate." "What difference does it make if you can read or not?" Aaron asked. "People who can't read don't need messengers very much." Regan explained, "They will need salt and other necessities that are in short supply, but most people will not go out to find you or provide rumors, and collecting rumors is what messengers do. Main mission. Just take the bard with you, and people will drop all their jobs to enjoy the show. I'm not just spreading the word about Kirin's show to help people." "Some people," he continued, "can be merchants, bards, herbalists, and couriers at the same time, but such people are as rare as benevolent geogens; most couriers who run the village route employ bards. poet." "And you don't usually run the village route." Aaron said, remembering what he said before. Regan blinked. "The bard can attract the villagers, but it will only hinder you in front of the duke. The duke and the rich merchants have their own bards. The only thing they are interested in is trading and news from all over the world, and the price they pay is much higher Everything old Hogg can afford." Regan was up before dawn the next morning.Aaron was awake early, and Regan nodded his approval. "The courier has no right to sleep late," he said, reminding Qilin with the sound of a pot banging, "We can't miss even a ray of sunshine." By the time Aaron got in the car and sat next to Kirin, he was already feeling better.The mule cart headed toward the raised outlines of what Regan called mountains on the horizon.To pass the time, Regan told Aaron some interesting stories about the trip, and introduced the herbs on the roadside, telling him which ones to eat and which ones not to touch, which ones can heal and which ones will make the injury worse.He points out the best places to defend overnight and explains why, while warning other wild predators he should be aware of. "Demons prey on the slowest and weakest animals," says Regan, "so the ones that survive are the smartest, strongest, or best at hiding. Out in the open, the inner-earth monsters aren't the only ones who see you as Predator of prey." Qilin looked around nervously from time to time. "Where did we sleep the last few nights?" Aaron asked. Regan shrugged. "Some small landowner's old castle," he said. "There are at least a hundred abandoned forts looted by messengers between here and Miln." "Messenger?" Aaron asked. "Yes," Regan said, "some couriers will spend weeks searching for ruins. The lucky ones who find unnamed ruins go home with all kinds of loot. Gold, jewels, statues, and sometimes even Discover the ancient magic seal. But the treasure they really want to find is the legendary ancient magic seal, the attack magic seal—if such magic seal really exists.” "Do you believe they exist?" Aaron asked. Regan nodded. "But I don't want to risk my life off the road to find them." Two hours later, Regan led them off the road and into a small cave. "As long as there is a chance, it is best to draw the magic seal outside all the shelters that can be used for overnight." He said to Aaron, "This cave is one of the shelters recorded in Greg's travels." Regan and Kirin set up camp, watered and fed the animals, and moved supplies into the cave.The unleashed carriage remained in the magic circle outside the cave entrance.While they camped, Aaron studied the portable sigil circle. "There are some sigils here that I haven't seen before." He noticed, stretching out his fingers to trace the lines along the sigils. "I also saw these new ones in Tibe Creek Town." Regan admitted, "I copied them in my travel notes, maybe you can tell me their functions tonight?" Aaron smiled , I am very glad that I have the opportunity to repay Regan's life-saving grace. While eating, Qilin began to writhe uneasily, looking at the dark sky and surroundings from time to time, but Regan didn't seem to care much about that. "Better lead the donkey into the hole," Regan said, and Kirin immediately obeyed. "Packbeasts hate caves," Regan said to Aaron. "So try to wait until the last moment to drive them into the hole. The horse must go in last." "Doesn't this horse have a name?" Aaron asked. Regan shook his head. "My horses have to work hard to earn their names," he said. "The guild has specially trained them, but some horses are still afraid of being chained overnight in a portable sigil ring. Only horses that I'm sure won't panic will have Eligible to have a name. I bought this horse in the Angels because my old callen ran off and was eaten by demons. If it makes it to Miln safely, I'll give it a name." "It will reach Miln," said Aaron, stroking the horse's neck.When Qilin drove the donkey into the cave, he grabbed its bridle and led it into the cave. While everyone was getting ready to rest in the cave, Aaron looked at the entrance of the cave.The sigil was engraved on the stone, but not on the floor of the entrance. "This magic seal is incomplete." He pointed to the ground and said. "Not complete, of course," Regan responded. "You can't draw sigils on the ground, can you?" He looked at Aaron curiously. "What would you do to complete this sigil?" he asked. Aaron pondered the riddle.The hole is not a perfect circle, but more like a ∩ shape.This shape is not easy to draw, but it is not too difficult, and the magic seals carved on stones are very common magic seals.He picked up the branch and drew the magic seal on the ground, and the lines connected smoothly with the magic seals on the stones on both sides.He double-checked them, then stepped back and turned to Regan for his comment. The messenger studied Aaron's sigil without saying a word, then nodded. "Well done." Regan said, and Aaron smiled, "Your skill in taking vertices is very mature. I can't even draw a denser sigil, but you can still calculate it completely in your head. " "Uh, thanks," Aaron said, though he had absolutely no idea what Regan was talking about. Regan sensed the boy's hesitation. "You have a formula, don't you?" "What formula?" Aaron asked. "That line," pointing to the nearest sigil, "reaches the sigil over there," he pointed to the wall, "crossing this line," he pointed to the other sigils, "and these lines intersect with those lines." Cross," he pointed to the remaining sigil, "simple as that." Regan looked horrified. "You mean you do it by eye?" he asked aloud. Aaron shrugged under Regan's gaze. "Most people measure lines with straight sticks, but I never do that." "I can't imagine how Tibe Creek has survived until now without being swallowed up by night," Regan said.He took out a cloth bag from his saddlebag, squatted in front of the cave, and wiped away Aaron's magic seal. "No matter how well drawn, it is foolhardy to draw a sigil on the ground," he said. Regan picked out a shiny magic seal wooden sign from the cloth bag, measured the distance with a straight wooden stick marked with lines, quickly moved the wooden sign, and re-sealed the magic seal net. It was only an hour after dark, and the one-armed stone demon had already rushed out of the cave.It roared, waved away the little devil blocking the way, and let out a provocative cry.Qilin groaned sadly and retreated to the deepest part of the cave. "This demon has already remembered your scent." Regan warned, "It will always follow you, looking for loopholes in your defenses." Aaron stared at the monster for a long time, thinking about the messenger's words.The demon kept roaring, desperately attacking the force field, but the magic seal flickered and bounced it back.Qi Lin couldn't help whining.Aaron stood up, walked to the entrance of the cave, looked directly into the eyes of the monster in the center of the earth, slowly raised his hands, and suddenly clapped his palms together, mocking the one-armed demon with his intact arms. "Let it waste its time," he said over the impotent roar of the demon. "It can't touch me." They continued on for nearly a week.Regan turned north and climbed higher and higher through the outer hills of the range.From time to time Regan would stop to hunt, throwing short spears at great distances to impale small animals. They spent most of the night in the caves mentioned in Greg's travelogue, though on two nights they camped directly on the road.Like all animals, Regan's horse was terribly frightened by the maddened demon, but it made no attempt to break free from the tether that held it to him. "It is qualified to have a name." Aaron pointed to the steady horse and brought up the matter again. "Okay, okay!" Regan finally gave in, stretched out his hands and scratched Aaron's head, "You can give it a name." Aaron smiled. "Nighteyes," he said. Regan looked at the horse and nodded. "Good name."