The twilight gradually thickened, the sky changed from clear blue to silty purple, and then dyed black, and finally the stars occupied the night sky of Winter City.

In the dim little courtyard, Thorne sat cross-legged on the ground with his upper body naked.

At this time, he only felt that a breath mixed with burning heat and strong acid was slowly infiltrating from the surface of the skin as time passed, gradually infiltrating the flesh, blood, and bones of the whole body.

He was very familiar with the pain.

Half a month ago, the black dragon Sigrid gave him the same feeling when he performed the dragon blood baptism ceremony.

The methods of use of the two are extremely similar, and they should all be from the time of the Arcane Empire.

However, the pain was more than ever.

After all, the strength of this red copper dragon is two steps higher than that of the black dragon, and the pain and damage suffered are naturally more serious.

Although this time, there was no Lilia Hou beside him who kept giving him healing spells, but he could clearly feel a gentle aura whenever his will became blurred and he was about to be unable to resist. The energy surged throughout his body, giving him a new lease of life.

Moreover, he was fortunate that the pain of the two times of strong acid mixed with burning was very similar, and he quickly adapted to it after having experienced it once.

As we all know, the dragon blood of black dragons contains strong corrosiveness, and the same is true of red copper dragons. Because the aggressive dragon breath mastered by these two dragons is strong acid spitting, their blood naturally contains strong corrosiveness. .

However, unlike the black dragon, the red copper dragon also holds the power of rock and earth.

Therefore, as long as he is baptized by the blood of the red copper dragon, he can successfully activate the moves of the Shilong School, and then use the energy of Qi to convert it into the power of rock and earth.

Night has fallen completely, and the stars and lights echo each other.

The salty sea breeze slapped against the window panels of the small courtyard, and ruffled the tapestries hung in front of the windows, which were devoured by insects.

When Thorne noticed that the pain of this torture was quickly fading, he was about to breathe a sigh of relief, and suddenly felt a wave of cold shadow energy hit him, which was constantly eroding his body.

So much so that he couldn't help fighting a cold war, and his whole body trembled again.

Soon, pea-sized beads of cold sweat continued to drip down his pale cheeks.

At this time, he seemed to have just emerged from the stove in the winter, and was instantly thrown into the bone-piercing lake.

Thorne shivered and breathed extremely hard. He wanted to scream, but unfortunately he couldn't make any sound. He wanted to struggle, but his whole body was paralyzed by the cold shadow energy and couldn't move.

This is a low-level ancient ritual "Shadow Touch" of a pair of Shadow Hand Gloves. To activate the equipment attributes, the wielder must carry it through the touch of shadow damage.

That is to say, in order to activate the ancient equipment, he is suffering from the pain of Shadow Touch.

A soft white light flickered in the dilapidated small courtyard. Through the bright light, it could be found that the chattering Loli Dragon had long since disappeared, and the old man leaning on the rattan chair also closed his turbid eyes, as if in contemplation. It's like sleeping again.

Only Andrina, who looked nervous, stood in the wind, keeping a certain distance from Thorne, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground, and looked at him worriedly.

She felt that her legs were numb from standing, and the salty sea breeze from the Sea of ​​​​Glory blew on her face and became as sharp as a knife.

As the night gradually fell, Andrina looked at Thorne, who was still trembling slightly, with a faint look of anxiety on her face.

It's a pity that Thorne had warned her very solemnly for some reason not to come within five meters of him, so that she could only stand here in a hurry.

I don't know how long it took, when the bright moonlight sprinkled a faint silver light on Thorne's naked upper body, he finally opened his eyes, and there was a glimmer of light in the black eyes that seemed to be integrated with the night. .

"It's all right." Seeing Andrina looking anxious, Thorne warmed his heart and greeted her with a smile in a slightly weak tone.

Then, he let out a long breath and stood up with difficulty on the ground with his hands.

Looking down, I saw that his lean body surface was tangled with muscles, and the silver light was flickering, like the most ferocious cheetah. The streamlined body looked extremely explosive, and it was hard to imagine that this was a half-elf race.

At this time, Thorne felt that all the pain disappeared in an instant, and there was an indescribable heartyness and comfort in his body.

He couldn't help but want to cry out to vent all the pain he had endured.

However, what he didn't expect was that he just got up for such a short time, and immediately noticed that an extreme sense of weakness surged through his body at an extremely fast speed, his body stumbled, and he fell directly towards the ground uncontrollably. .

Immediately afterwards, he felt himself leaning against a warm and soft body, the waterfall-like long hair just stroked his chest, followed by a familiar fragrance.

Thorne smiled at Andrina, and then with the help of her hands, she struggled to stabilize her body.

"The ancient equipment not only needs some kind of ancient ritual to activate, but also consumes a little life force of the wielder to leave its own life mark on the equipment.

You activate two ancient rituals at one time today. Even if your body has experienced the baptism of dragon blood, it still cannot bear this consumption, so you will be in an extremely weak state. If you want to recover completely, you must rest for a while time. "

The old voice came from behind Thorne, the old man lying on the rattan chair opened his cloudy eyes, glanced at Thorne, whose expression was getting darker, smiled slightly, then grabbed the armrest of the rattan chair and sat up, looking at the courtyard The door direction: "However, you are lucky, someone will help you solve this problem."

"Little Nightingale, you have followed these two little fellows all the way here, so it's time for you to show up." As soon as he finished speaking, the old man shouted to the door with a smile.

"We're being followed?" Thorne, who was dressing, heard the old man's laughter, paused with his hand inserted into the sleeve, and then looked at Anderina, and found that even she didn't know when they were being followed. of.

So, the two of them turned their attention to the dilapidated gate in the courtyard at the same time.

A half-elf woman with a beautiful and refined appearance came into the sight of the two of them. She stood with her hands behind her back, standing quietly at the door, letting the whistling sea breeze lift her long silky flaxen hair, giving people a kind of feeling. Dusty and peaceful atmosphere.

Nightingale Walker, Druid of Emerald Garden, what is the purpose of her presence here?

Thorne and Andrina bowed their heads slightly in silence.

"The Nine Swords Grandmaster of Karatu Continent, the guardian of Winter City, you are still here, Nightingale is polite."

The Nightingale Walker's voice was very soft, and it sounded very comfortable. After hearing this sound, Thorne's extremely weak body actually recovered a bit of physical strength. Although it was a little insignificant, he still clearly felt it.

After the other party finished speaking, he immediately waved to Thorne.

With a light green breath full of natural energy pouring into the body, Thorne immediately felt that his extremely weak body was recovering at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In just a moment, his mental state and physical strength returned to their fullest state.

After recovering, he leaned over and saluted the Nightingale Walker to express his gratitude, and then continued to maintain their respective silences with Andrina.

"This is my home, is it wrong for me to go back to my own home? Little Nightingale." The guardian of Winter City looked at the half-elf woman with kindness in his eyes, as if he was looking at his junior .

"I think you should have heard the story of the start of the world." Nightingale Walker looked at the smiling old man for a long time and said:

"In a period so far away that the entire Toril universe was created and Mother Earth was just born, His divine power brought the Holy Acorn, and the Holy Acorn gave birth to the oldest tree of life, and then as the glaciers melted, the oceans Receding, the dry land emerged from the water, and the great tree of life, Mejurobros, gave birth to countless lives, and the history of each age began to be recorded."

"It seems that you have consulted a lot of information. If you say that, have they handed you the seeds of the tree of life that they have bred." The old man's eyelids jumped a few times and sighed slightly.

"Yes, the Holy Acorn has been buried by me. The time of contempt will come, and none of us will be able to stop it. Then the leaves will fall, the buds will wither, the fruit will rot, the grain will be bitter, the river will dry up, and the earth will crack. When all things in the world return to dust, the great tree of life, Meru Robros, will come down again and give birth to new life for this world."

Is this about to restart the world?

Hearing the words of Nightingale Walker, such a word popped into Thorne's mind instantly.

"Don't worry, even if she buried the tree of life, it would take at least tens of thousands of years to breed. Besides, many great beings would not want to see the birth of the tree of the world, which symbolizes life."

Noticing Thorne's surprised look, Andrina used a spell to send him a voice transmission, and subconsciously pointed to the dark night.

That's true, Thorne nodded slightly, thinking to himself.

However, what puzzled him was what the druid of the Emerald Garden said these words for.

Was the so-called era of contempt brought about by the traversers, or was it caused by the will of some unknown existence.

After all, he also heard the same remarks from the plane merchants in the lich's lair.

The only difference between the two is that the plane merchant is very much looking forward to this era, but the Druid of the Emerald Garden is more like trying to deal with it.

This is like when someone knows that the end of the world is coming, terrorists like plane merchants will be very excited, while people like Nightingale Walker will be worried.

"Little Nightingale, what's the use of you telling me this, and I can't help you." The guardian of Winter City looked at the half-elf woman with a helpless expression.

"You have nothing to do here, you go back first." Then, the old man waved to the two of them.

I saw him think about it for a while, and then explained to Thorne earnestly: "People can deceive the world, but they can never deceive themselves. The more you want to prove yourself, the more you will lose yourself. So, walk with magnanimity. It's enough to follow your own path and do what you want to do."

Thorne bowed to the old man again, and then walked out with Andrina.

"Traditions are dying, and visible values ​​are also being lost. We never follow the laws of nature and go against the sky everywhere, so what do we get? We are like a fish pond..."

As the two drifted away, Thorne vaguely heard the Druid in the Emerald Garden and the guardian of Winter City arguing about something.

…………