Chapter 268: Profane Steel and Corrupt Flesh

The area of Gray Valley is very large.

Regarding this point, Xia Nan had already learned through Village Chief Clapham before coming.

It was just because it was filled with gray rocks, terrain that was the same, even during the safe period before the Axe-beak Bird flock appeared, very few villagers had this leisure to penetrate deep inside to explore.

Right now, it looked like he had been following behind the adventurer squad for a long time.

But because the team in front needed to be vigilant against possible enemies, the marching speed became increasingly slow, they were estimated to not even have walked half of the valley.

And as they penetrated deeper and deeper, the mist filled in the air also became dense visible to the naked eye.

Although it didn't contain magic particles, this point was very similar to the environment in the Mist Forest.

And compared to the latter, these mists that seemed to be just normal natural phenomena, after the density reached a certain critical point, possessed a certain mild ability to distort the sense of direction and distance.

Xia Nan observed very carefully, these gray-white mists permeating every corner of the line of sight not only made the propagation of sound become stagnant and faint in it, but also seemed to carry a certain mild ability to distort the sense of direction and distance.

If it were an ordinary person, no matter how good they were at recognizing the road usually, if they were put here and walked around twice, they would definitely be confused.

It was precisely because his perception ability was outstanding that he appeared at ease.

Didn't see the few adventurers in front, even the footsteps of walking became much slower compared to when they just entered the valley.

Speaking of which, it was also a coincidence, going back and forth like this, the mist instead became Xia Nan's natural protective color in this place.

No need to hang far behind like before, even if he walked a little closer, with his slightly inferior lurking technique, he would not be discovered by several people at all.

"laluf (Orcish dirty word), this ghost place is like the Mist Forest, Gorge can't even see the road."

Walking at the very front of the team, the Half-Orc Gorge muttered.

As the front-row "meat shield" in the squad, and the "consumable" in the eyes of squad captain Marcus, walking at the very front to explore the way in such a dangerous environment had already become his habit.

It wasn't that no one in the tribe opposed it, but to be honest, if one really wanted to let an adventurer squad at the professional level accept such a teammate who was grumpy, stupid, extremely irritable, and unstable in state, one could only do it in this way.

This is the fate of the vast majority of Half-Orcs who are unwilling to live a poor life in the grassland tribe.

Perhaps in some future that probably wouldn't arrive, after Gorge developed the habit of saving money, or his intelligence improved, he would choose to break away from this dangerous lifestyle and change a way of living.

But right now, he could only move forward carefully in the direction of some place he had no feeling for under the command of the humans behind him.

In the squad, those with relatively outstanding perception ability were squad captain "Blood Blade" Marcus, and ranger archer Xili.

The former was behind Gorge, pointing out the road for the Half-Orc; the latter was protected in the middle of the team, focusing all her attention on being vigilant against possible dangers around.

As for that mountain dwarf "Shifu" named "Shifu," he was carrying his double-edged giant axe whose end was almost dragging on the ground, walking at the very end of the team.

Looking a bit restless.

After being judged by Marcus that there might be an ancient ruin hidden in this valley, the dwarf's spirit was obviously active.

If it weren't for worrying about the enemies hidden in the mist, he would have wished to lick every inch of the ground from the entrance of Gray Valley, not letting go of a single copper coin.

Right now, he could only stare at the thick mist on both sides, staring with his greedy eyes flickering with fine light.

And just when he was annoyed in his heart about the fifth high-quality enchanted equipment he might have missed in the mist.

The longbow in the hands of the ranger in front, which rose and fell slightly with the movement of the body, stopped abruptly.

Cold light flickered in her eyes, and an arrow with black tail feathers was already placed on the bowstring.

"What's the situation?"

Realizing that something was wrong, he immediately gripped the handle of the giant axe, stepped forward quickly, and asked the two people walking at the very front of the team.

"Shh!"

Answering him was Marcus's stern gaze carrying a warning meaning, and the stiff back of the Half-Orc Gorge crawling on the ground without moving.

Following the direction the two were facing, what entered his eyes was a narrow small square that gave people a feeling of suffocation.

Yes, narrow-square.

In the vast majority of cases, these two words were not suitable to be placed together, but in the eyes of Shifu right now, using them to describe the open space in front was extremely appropriate.

First, it was indeed a square, the brick texture faintly revealed under the cover of stone powder, and the open area that could stand hundreds of people, existed in front of his eyes truly.

In the center of the square, there was even a small dried-up fountain pool.

But at the same time, the open space was surrounded by dense buildings.

Towers, civilian houses, and even small churches... they either had already collapsed leaving only a few dilapidated walls, or were shrouded in mist revealing blurred shadows.

It seemed as if there was no planning at all during the design, these building ruins were violently piled together in an extremely dense way.

Complex and messy.

Huge stones, broken beams, twisted metal brackets... building waste squeezed and supported each other like beast corpses, piled into a circle of dilapidated high walls that looked like they would collapse at any time around the square.

Even the brick roads between those buildings that should have led to the deeper parts of Gray Valley were squeezed into narrow paths under the pressure of the ruins on both sides.

The firmament covered by gray fog and stone powder, the brick walls hanging and about to fall, the shadows quietly spreading on the ground, and those miserable wind sounds twisted in the ruins and echoing gloomily in the dead air...

Making this small square look like a corpse of a town that had already died and had its throat strangled.

Wherever the eye could see, it was filled with the breath of suffocation and decay.

The bizarre and abrupt environment was just one aspect.

The real reason why the Blood Blade squad stopped was the huge and twisted figure composed of profane steel and corrupt flesh standing quietly in the center of the square.

A knight.

A knight fully armed, wearing heavy armor all over his body.

Perhaps in his lifetime, he had made outstanding contributions to himself, to his lord, and to the ordinary people in his territory, and was rewarded with this expensive and sturdy armor with great achievements, being a big shot looked up to and feared by countless bottom-level people.

But right now, he had already become a corpse.

A corpse that was completely deformed and could not be seen in its original appearance. ===== CHAPTER 269 =====