They were like a retreating deserter. Their faces were as gray as rotten, their eyes were dull, their armor was ragged and covered with blood and dust. They carried the cremated ashes of their companions through the city gate in silence.

It was the time when the sky was bright, but there were very few pedestrians at the city gate. Only a few old women selling vegetables walked together, walking in a hurry and were full of panic. Leo thought they were afraid that their team was dead and with swords and guns were usually avoided. However, today, when several women selling vegetables saw them, they seemed to see the holy white knights of the Andal Church. They suddenly showed an ecstatic expression on their faces, and they leaned against each other, regardless of the swords and guns.

Li Ou did not let the guards drive them away and let them follow them all the way. However, more people joined along the way, and the women carrying baskets and vendors all followed them closely. The swords that they hated in the past seemed to have become their protective shield, making them flock to them.

What's wrong with this? Everyone has changed their temperament?

When they turned into another gate of the circular wall, Li Ou finally discovered something strange. The usual downtown market became extremely quiet, as if it was dead. There were only people walking around in groups of three or three, and almost all the shops on both sides closed.

Leo stopped, "What happened in the city?" he asked the group of people following them.

But they suddenly scattered like they were avoiding the plague. Fortunately, a guard was quick-eyed and grabbed an old woman. "Master, please let me go, let us go, I don't know anything." She begged, almost kneeling on the ground.

"Tell me what happened and let you go." Li Ou comforted her.

"It's really like this? Won't you kill me?"

"Who will kill you?"

The old woman shrank her neck and looked around.

"Don't be afraid, we are here." Lu Yuewu comforted softly.

After a long time, the old woman said hesitantly in a faint trembling tone, "Something that is invisible."

Leo could almost hear the muttering in her throat. "What is invisible?"

The old woman hesitated for a while before she slowly opened her mouth, "They appeared at night. They emerged from the ground, walked through the walls, and floated in the air, and once they found the living mouth, they rushed up. They said, they longed for blood."

"Who are they?" Li Ou asked.

"Fa...Masters."

"Did the mage say what they are?"

"No, no. They didn't say anything." The old woman shook her head vigorously, "They just told us not to go out at night." It was simply nonsense! Li Ouxin said. "In fact, we don't dare to go out without them. It is said that those who go out at night are dead."

"All dead? Has anyone seen a corpse?"

"Corps...corpse?" The old woman took a step back in panic. Leo felt her whole body trembling. "I don't know this... maybe... maybe it was eaten by them?" She guessed in horror.

Seeing that he could not find anything valuable, Li Ou waved her to leave. The old woman quickly turned around and left, throwing away the vegetable basket, and fled quickly as if she was avoiding war and famine, and ran back along the way she came.

"Do you have any clues?" Lu Yuewu asked.

Li Ou rubbed his eyebrows, "I guess it might be a ghost, but maybe it's something else. I can't say it." He felt extremely difficult. "I can't judge without seeing the body. Miss Evela, what do you think?"

"There are many possibilities," said the Bachelor's. "But like you, you must first see the body and the witnesses. Nothing can be determined by rumors alone."

Walking together, this is a time when they rarely have consensus. While Li Ou hopes that this will be the case in the future, he also thinks it is best to reject each other. "Okay, that's fine." He heard himself say hard, "I'll ask you for the investigation. I don't have the ability to talk to the dead."

At the end of the road was a well-connected fork. Li Ou planned to leave the team with the girls and go straight home, wash up and then go to the Insights of the Sword Tower. However, the bachelor's lady stopped them.

"Please visit my house." She sent an invitation, "My family will definitely welcome you. You are my saviors."

If it weren't for us, that wouldn't have happened at all. He politely refused, "No need, we have important things to do." They were just unknown people, and they would probably be eaten to the point of not even leaving their bones when dealing with Black Thorns.

"The sun will still rise tomorrow. Of course, you have to hurry up and do the important things." She smiled at him, "but no matter how important the matter is, it is not urgent, because it is about you."

You forgot her last name again. Li Ou slapped himself hard in the face in his heart. Black Thorns were never easy to meet. He understood what she meant: the morning light will eventually come, and you have to work hard to climb up before this. The little man has no room for resistance, unless he becomes a big man. She guessed Joe Hull and his plans clearly without any omission.

"Okay." He lowered his shoulders, "I'm happy to accept your invitation."

The bachelor's lady raised her beautiful eyebrows, as if she was showing off. Leo suddenly felt disgusted.

Their team walked along the circular city wall, and two ten-foot-high statues of warriors holding swords and shields stood on both sides of the gate leading to the sword and shield area. Two bunches of thorn vines were like snakes climbing from the door post to the eaves, intersecting each other above their heads.

He rarely came here. Although his mother was born into a noble family, her family had long been ruined, and she was left alone. Although she liked to come here for a walk, when her father passed away, she became depressed and never set foot here again. Therefore, when Leo walked along the wide road at this time, he was filled with sorrow.

"It's here." The bachelor's lady looked at the pointed building surrounded by the flowerbed in front of her, supported by flying arms, and turned her head to smile at him, "It seems that my memory is not wrong. Please come in, everyone."

The room was filled with warmth, the hollowed-out horns were filled with wax oil, and a wick poked out from it, revealing candle flames.

"Ah, sister!" Joe Hull jumped up from the black velvet sofa, his face filled with joy, "You have changed after not seen each other for a year." His tone was intimate and gentle.

Miss Bachelor's Clause and Joe Hull hugged gently, "So too, my brother."

Although they spoke intimately, Li Ou saw that their hug was about to part with a touch, and even the intimate veneer was just a fake one. Who did it for me? This is impossible. That is the other people in the room? Li Ou looked around the room, but there was no one else in the living room.

"Brother, where is our elder brother? And what about my father?" asked the bachelor's lady softly.

"Luther is upstairs, and he told the maid not to disturb him." Joe Hull shrugged, "Only father can let him leave the sand table. But what about our father? Today is Hyacinth Day, and the Council is holding a January meeting."

"It seems that I should go home later." The bachelor's lady said with a smile.

Joe Hurl covered his chest with exaggerated expression, "Oh, would you be so uncomfortable to see me?"

"No, I just traveled all the way and was tired. When I thought of having to visit my father at night, my legs trembled."

"You still remember..."

"How can I forget?" Miss Bachelor blinked, "He actually beat us hard with a belt."

"Now he can't bear to take action against you." Joe Hull said distressedly, "But for me, I think he wants to use a knife and stab me hard."

"Then please beg yourself for good fortune, brother." The bachelor's lady chuckled, "I'll go and rest for a while first, please take care of my friends, they saved my life."

"Of course!" Joe Huer glanced at Leo quickly, "I will thank them for you."

"Don't forget your promise." She pointed and reminded her maliciously that Li Ou's back was completely soaked in cold sweat for a moment, for fear that she would say something more. Her words were enough to reverse the facts. But then she stopped talking, glanced at Li Ou with a smile, and took the lame girl upstairs.

Joe Hull let out a long breath and slammed heavily on the sofa. I think he had the same feeling as himself. Miss Bachelor talked more tired than playing the piano at a cow. He made a malicious analogy. Joe Hull rubbed his brows, "I heard." He said, "You guys had some accidents that should have been avoided on the way."

Avoid? How to avoid? Wake your tails and beg for mercy from those bastards, asking them for water to quench their thirst like a beggar? Leo sneered in his heart and said nothing.

"Luckily Ivera is fine, otherwise the old man will definitely kill you." Fortunately, Rosie is fine, otherwise I will kill you to the mage tower and kill you by the way. "I arranged a good job for you, but you almost smashed it!" He roared in a low voice.

What a good job? "You and I have a tacit understanding of the so-called good job, Mr. Joe Hull." Li Ou looked at him coldly without giving in. "I am not your subordinate yet. Besides, your subordinates and those mages seem to have not taken your order seriously."

"Who initiated the battle, your guard must have told you all the answers." Lu Yuewu continued.

Finally, it was Rosie. "Eye for an eye, tooth for an tooth," she said.

The three of them bombed in turn, leaving Joe Hull unable to interfere. "You are harder to tame than wild dogs." He cursed without any grace, and Leo just thought he was bullshit. "That's how you repay my trust?"

Li Ou felt more and more that he was taking advantage of the problem. People often say that the means of controlling people are nothing more than sweet dates with one hand and big sticks with the other? Sweet dates have been given, and now is a good time for big sticks to come. But Li Ou and the others don’t take this trick.

Maybe I should follow her wishes and obediently eat the stick? But then he is not Li Ou. "Look, we have done this for you." Li Ou said, "Miss Ivera is unscathed and returns safely. You are still worried about the process."

"Do you want to anger me?" The black thorns revealed the thorns.

"I don't mean that." Li Ou said calmly, "I just want to say that your accusations are unreasonable..."

"Continue...I want to hear what you are going to say." He narrowed his eyes, the narrow slit was like a scimitar of nomads on the other side of the narrow sea-but they had to ride on their horses first.

"I do what you ask. I did it, it's that simple." Li Ou pondered for a moment, and then said, "If you want an obedient dog and it's everywhere around you, you might have been tired of it."

Joe Hull didn't say a word. But the corners of his eyes had softened. This was the struggle between freedom and prison. Leo was walking on the dangerous steel wire. Under the steel wire was a forest of swords and guns, but opposite was a bright future and a broad road. He had to remain neutral in front of the black thorns, with their power, and not with them. He almost exhausted his energy for it. But it was still worth a try.

"What you need is a trouble solver, a spokesperson."

He was silent for a moment, "Who do you think you are?"

The nameless person. "Alchemist."

"What an alchemist." Joe Hull kept sneering.

But Leo knew that he had passed the test successfully. He won a great victory in the battle between the alchemist and the mage. So he calmed down and pretended to lower his eyes, allowing him to perform, just thinking that he was an actor. However, someone walked down from the building.

The man had a facial contour similar to Joe Hull and Evera. He must be what Joe Hull called "Luther" - their brother. Just Luther? Black Thorns are very different from his younger brother and sister. He wore a rigid military dress and his face was filled with inhumane indifference and cold cruelty, which made Leo frown involuntarily.

"Is this your guest?" he asked in a stiff tone.

"It's our sister too." Joe Huer replied without raising his head.

"You don't need to explain." He interrupted, "I have no interest in your friends at all, and I don't want to know what they have to do with you. Where is Evila?"

"I want to ask her about her experiences along the way? Let's wait for her father to come back and ask." Joe Hull snorted coldly, "Our sister has no good temper and will repeat the same words again."

"That's for you." Even Leo felt disgust in his eldest son Luther's eyes.

"No one will do this." The bachelor's voice sounded just right, turning their sharp confrontation into invisibility. She quickly walked to her brother and took his arm, "Brother Luther, can I let me accompany my friend first? I will go to find you in the evening. I have many stories and experiences that you are interested in."

Luther was as obedient as a wolfdog in front of the bachelor's lady. Leo suddenly thought of it. He raised his eyes and glanced over Joe Huer and the others, then raised his legs upstairs silently and disappeared into the stairwell.

"Good brother, what did you talk about just now?" She changed into a long, white dress and sat down gracefully on the sofa, and was completely different from being in the hotel, forest and desert. "My little maid seems to have a quarrel. Are you not friends?"

The Black Thorn Family has a unique skill to change your face. Li Ou thought and replied, "Just worry about your safety."

"Didn't I come back smoothly?" Miss Bachelor smiled sweetly, and Joe Hull seemed to melt into her tenderness. At least Leo could not see any intention of resisting. "Your friend did his duty perfectly."

"Of course, I have never doubted this." Joe Huer looked at Leo and smiled with a false opinion. "He won my trust with his actions." But Leo felt that he could not believe even one-third of this. He watched coldly, watching the brother and sister playing tricks, trying to guess what their purpose was.

"Black thorns have always been rewarded for their kindness." The bachelor's lady reminded again, "Brother, don't forget your promise."

“Commitment? What kind of commitment?”

"Of course it's the promise and rewards I made before departure." The bachelor's lady tilted her head, and the sun shone on her face, but Leo only felt a chill. "You don't look like my father at this point."

Lu Yuewu suddenly leaned into his ear, "What kind of reward did he promise you?"

"Kill people to be granted a title." Leo briefly explained.

Lu Yuewu nodded and said no more. But her eyes made Li Ou feel misunderstood. He did not deliberately cause trouble. However, the arguments and discussions between the two in front of him almost made his suspicion become facts. I wonder if the two ladies were willing to believe his explanation. He thought with distress.
To be continued...