Heart of the Castle

Chapter 384

The northern border of the Kingdom of Arthur has always been sparsely populated, and the weather in winter is extremely cold, especially in the area north of the Sealand River. When the north wind hits, the snow rolled up is several meters deep, and the snowflakes that fell in early winter It won't melt until the following spring.The river was frozen by solid ice, the swamp became as hard as a rock, and the creek was frozen to the bottom. The endless black forest was also covered with white robes, and everywhere you looked was a world of pure white ice and snow.

Generally speaking, at this time, the farmers in the northern border would hide in their huts, heat up the firepit, chat and eat and drink to spend this time when the dripping water turned into ice.Only when they run out of firewood do they go to the nearby forest in groups to cut down trees and gather firewood, getting enough fuel for a week at a time.

However, the winter of this year was unusual. The messengers holding the Griffon Battle Flag rode their horses between the villages, conveying Li Wei's order to the guards there, and then the guards blew their horns, Gather the farmers in the village to the meeting place, and deliver Li Wei's order to the ears of every villager.

Mine Village also ushered in such a messenger. When the sound of hooves sounded hurriedly, dusk had already fallen, and wisps of cooking smoke were coming out of the houses of Mine Village, adding a touch of choking to the cold air. The smell of fireworks.The soldiers guarding the mine village were alarmed by the sound of hooves, they carried their spears and bows and arrows to the watchtower behind the wooden wall, and narrowed their eyes to look at the man on horseback galloping in the twilight.

The man was fully armed, with a thick fur cloak over his body, a thick leather armor studded with metal plates, a long sword hanging from his waist, and a spare battle ax hanging from the saddle of his mount.Seeing a figure appearing on the watchtower, the man reined in his mount, raised his head and shouted loudly.

"Hey, Guardian, is this the Mine Village?"

"This is Mining Pit Village! Who are you? Where do you come from?" The guards replied loudly, while preparing their bows and arrows vigilantly.

"Open the door, I am the messenger from Forever Frozen Fort, with orders from the Guardian of the North and the only lord, Lord Levi Stone!"

The soldiers guarding the village heard this and saw the griffin flag raised high by the cavalryman. They hurriedly shook the winch and opened the wooden door. As soon as the heavy wooden door opened, the cavalryman couldn't wait to squeeze in.He had obviously traveled a short distance, and both the man and the horse were covered with a layer of fine snow, exhausted and stomping their feet in the cold.

"Who is the captain of the guard here?" The orderly asked hurriedly while panting heavily.

"It's the quasi-knight of Ashby." A soldier replied.

"Take me to see him immediately, I brought the mobilization order from Master Li Wei!"

More than ten minutes later, the big house in Mining Pit Village, which was used as a meeting hall, was ablaze. The exhausted orderlies were placed at the nearest place to the firepit, holding a wooden bowl full of hot oatmeal with many turnips and oatmeal in it. Minced meat, warm and fragrant meat.The quasi-knight Ashby, the captain of the Mine Village guard, and Father Ruhr, the village elder, were sitting not far from him. They were putting their heads in front of a piece of parchment, watching carefully by the light from the firepit.

Soldiers and villagers from the village also gathered here, smoking water pipes, drinking soju, and discussing with each other. Many elderly villagers had worried expressions on their faces, but young people seemed to be in high spirits.

"Father Ruhr, what did the lord's order say?" the quasi-knight Ashby scratched his head and asked softly.Like other quasi-knights promoted from soldiers, he could neither read nor write, so although he pretended to read for a long time, he couldn't see anything.

"The situation is not good..." Papa Ruhr sighed, with a worried expression on his face, "Our lives are miserable... The threat of the evil disaster has not completely disappeared, and a large number of demons are gathering on the extreme northern ice sheet. It is possible to cross the Heihe River at any time, ravage the land, massacre villages, burn market towns..."

"My merciful Father God, have mercy!" The crowd was silent for a while, and then there was a murmur of fear.

"Father Ruhr, did the order say anything about evacuation?" A farmer asked.

"Evacuate? The order didn't say anything." Father Ruhr shook the parchment in his hand and said, "Master Li Wei issued a general mobilization order to mobilize all the labor force in the territory to build a road along the Heihe River that is sufficient to protect The strong fortifications of the entire territory can resist evil disasters."

"Protect the entire territory? It's impossible!" An old man who looked older than Papa Ruhr, but had a crippled leg and white spots on his eyes, exclaimed, "I've lived for more than 80 years , I haven’t heard of anyone who can build such a huge project.”

"But you haven't heard of anyone who can get the gift of Kagino, the god of the earth, and distribute the wheat seeds with divine power to us peasants?" A reckless voice retorted.

This sentence obviously angered the blind old man, he stood up, stomping his crutch viciously, "Who is it? Who is talking nonsense in front of me, Elder Habi?"

"It's me." Ah Dang stood up with a flush of excitement on his face, "I believe that Master Li Wei can do it." Immediately afterwards, several young people shouted after him. "We also believe in Master Levi!"

"Only you daredevils believe it." Elder Habi said angrily, "I've lived to be more than 80 years old, and I don't believe that kind of thing at all." His words aroused the approval of the older villagers, although No one spoke up to support his words, but there were quite a few people who nodded their heads.

"If we don't trust Master Levi, who else can we trust?" Father Ruhr suddenly said, "When Lord Viscount Lane was the lord, the life of our farmers was miserable! Whether it is land rent or labor, everything is under pressure. It made everyone breathless." He turned his head to Elder Habi, "Isn't it the same for you? Isn't it thanks to Master Levi that you can live in such a house and drink soju?"

"That is, Master Levi is a benevolent lord. This, I, Elder Habi, will never deny, but he is too young to know what he is doing. A line of defense that protects the entire territory? How can he do it? ?” Elder Habi replied.

The captain of the guard, the quasi-chevalier Ashby, moved his mustache on his upper lip slightly, put his hand on the hilt of his sword, and was about to stand up and scold him, but Papa Ruhr shook his head to stop him. "Leave it to me, Lord Ashby, this time is not suitable for a tough and rude attitude."

The quasi-chevalier Ashby was quite convinced of Papa Ruhr's prestige and wisdom. Hearing this sentence, he nodded and let go of his sword hilt. "Father Ruhr, I'll leave the matter to you. Anyway, we soldiers must obey the orders of the lord."

"Everyone listen to me!" Father Ruhr turned to face the villagers and said loudly, "Many of you may have doubts about Master Levi's order, which is not surprising, because I am also uneasy, and I don't know what we are doing. Whether this young lord has chosen the right path."

"In my opinion, we should run!" Elder Harpy interrupted.

"Run? Where are you going?" Father Ruhr said to him unceremoniously, "Our home is here. If we leave the northern border, we will not be yeomen who own our own land, but homeless people with nothing! And if Master Li Wei can't stop the demon army, no lord north of the Dusk Forest can stop it, not even Lord White Wolf!"

"That's right, I once saw with my own eyes that Lord Cedric, Lord of the White Wolf, who led the Lord's Union Army, was once forced to retreat by Lord Levi's army at the Green Castle. Although they did not really compete, Master Cedric obviously Not an opponent." The Ashby quasi-knight explained.

"As for traveling through the twilight forest in winter..." Papa Ruhr sneered, "I'm afraid it's almost as difficult as staying here and praying that the devil can't be found?"

"Papa Ruhr is right!"

"He is right, he is indeed our wise elder!"

"Help Master Li Wei, we have no other way to go." The villagers shouted in unison.A'Dang and several other young people had the loudest voices, while Elder Harbi's face was ashen, he muttered and couldn't speak.

"Master Ashbey, apart from the old, the weak, women and children, the Mine Village can mobilize a total of 180 villagers, all of whom will be led by you to Heihe." Father Ruhr said with satisfaction, "As for the old man, I won't go. Although the bones of the body can still move, but instead of trudging through the ice and snow and causing trouble to you, it is better to stay here... maybe it can reduce the possibility of trouble." As he said, his gaze coldly shifted from Elder Habi's. Swept over.

The quasi-knight of Ashby showed joy at first, and then frowned, "Father Ruhr, if I take all these villagers away, what will happen to the defense of Mine Village?"

"You don't have to worry about that. The girls from the farmer's family are not easy to mess with. Some of them are better at archery than men." Father Ruhr explained with a smile.

The same thing happened in every village north of the Xilan River. Although the general mobilization order issued by Li Wei was questioned by many parties, there were refugees who had been favored by the young lord in every village. Wei's benevolent reputation and his status as the patron of the God of the Earth also played a big role, and finally dispelled most of the villagers' worries.

From the second day onwards, many peasants bid farewell to their families, some drove carts, some rode livestock, and of course more went north on foot.The soldiers who had been guarding the village also took action, escorting the villagers through the dense forest.There are dangers everywhere in the northern border in winter. Although the goblins and half-orc robbers were killed by Li Wei many times before, they were either buried in the mouth of the big lynx or fell under the swords and spears of the soldiers, but the hungry beasts And wolves remain a dire threat.

Fortunately, Li Wei had anticipated this danger, and sent Mengmeng and all his big bobcats to drive away all the herds in the snow forest, so that they had no chance of approaching the forest trails.Mengmeng is also very happy to accept this task, because while completing the task, they can also get a lot of extra meat as a reward.

Within a few days, the northernmost Heihe River in the Kingdom of Arthur became lively. On the south bank of the Heihe River stretching for hundreds of kilometers, strange equipment more than ten meters high was erected everywhere. Giant, with a huge bucket tethered to the end of each thick arm.Under the concerted efforts of dozens of people, the multi-armed giant's arms rose and fell suddenly, and buckets of Heihe water were scooped up to the south bank.

This river, which is as black as ink, is always rushing and roaring, and never completely freezes even in the coldest winter. It seems that there is a special substance in those rivers that never freezes.However, after leaving the river channel, the river water, which was still light black at first, will soon lose that characteristic, and become no different from the river water in other places. Not only will it become clear and transparent, but it will also quickly freeze into ice in cold weather. .

After adding a certain proportion of alchemy powder called water coagulant, the river water will freeze into solid ice cubes in a few tens of seconds, which is as hard as ordinary refined iron. If you don't use fighting spirit, even Dracon For a man of infinite strength like Xun, he could only cut a few centimeters deep sword marks with his full swing of the sword, and his hands were still numb from the shock.

What's more, this kind of ice cube added with coagulant is not afraid of fire. Even if a bonfire is set up below to bake, it can only slightly melt the surface of the ice cube, and it will refreeze next to it in the blink of an eye.For the demons who are good at manipulating fire elements, this ice wall is still an insurmountable moat.

The construction of the ice wall began to reach its climax on the third day, and priests from the Temple of the Earth and the Temple of Storms also joined in.Due to the different power systems, the priests of the Temple of Storms only brought religious support and some very limited help with medical magic; but the help brought by the priests of the Temple of the Earth headed by the Deputy Archbishop of Beria was real. , They "summoned" dozens of giant earth elements to help.These sandstone giants with a height of more than 5 meters are not only powerful, but can also be transformed into large molds. You only need to pour river water with coagulant into it, and then wait for it to freeze into ice, and then use the earth element to decompose the sandstone. Leaving in the same way, it becomes a thick ice wall several meters long.

For the people who built the Great Ice Wall, this could not have been a better thing.The villagers burst out with great enthusiasm. The only thing limiting the speed of the project now is that the alchemy powder prepared by the little spirits is gradually running out of supply.

The leader of Si'er, who was deeply hurt by his pride, issued an order, and the little monsters began to frantically speed up the preparation of the alchemy powder, followed by violent explosions one after another, and many little monsters collapsed like beans. Heavy, but it slows down the work considerably.The leader of Si'er distributed cloth strips with the so-called "secret magic spell of anti-explosion and safe production of secret rhyme tribe" to the hands of every little monster, and asked them to tie them on their heads, but they still couldn't stop the roaring sound one after another.

The unexpected help came from Master Youyue. When the dark alchemist found Li Wei in the tent, the young lord was comforting the frowning leader of Si'er. Master Youyue had just opened his mouth. What happened next made Li Wei Surprised.

Si'er jumped up like a cat whose tail was burned, pulled out the sword of the secret rhyme knight from his waist, and aimed the blade at Master Youyue. "You...how did you find this place?" The leader of the little elves screamed hoarsely, the hand holding the sword kept shaking, and the two black cauldrons on his body and the kettle used as a helmet also jingled.

"What is this? A little monster with a broken head?" Master Youyue glanced at Si'er with contemptuous eyes, "Li Wei, a little monster is not a qualified alchemy helper, if you don't want your territory to be in a roar If they are reduced to ashes, it is best to keep them away from alchemy raw materials."

"Master Li Wei, stop him, he is the Youyue Demon King of the Tower of Secret Rhymes! Every morning when he opens his eyes, he has to eat three little monsters for an appetizer, and at night he has to eat four little monsters before he can fall asleep!" Screaming and jumping around in the tent, the Rhyme Knight's sword whizzed, cutting everything he could touch to pieces.

"Master Youyue, what's going on?" Li Wei asked with a headache.

"Before I was wanted by the Alchemy Association, I stayed in the Tower of Secret Rhyme for a while. The level of alchemy there was not very good, but the atmosphere of experimentation was quite strong." Master Youyue shrugged and said, "But in the end I I still left, I really can't understand those wastes who repeat stupid failures over and over again, wasting rare experimental materials."

Li Wei looked at Master Youyue suspiciously, "You seem to be hiding something... In the name of the Soul and Blood Alliance, what are you hiding?"

"Conceal it? No, Li Wei, I'm just too lazy to mention it." Master Youyue spread his hands and said, "Before I left, I experimented with the capillary toxin I researched by the way, and the effect was good... probably more than three floors above the ground There are no living people left, right?"

This sentence made Si'er, who was jumping wildly, suddenly froze, and then he widened his eyes and exclaimed, "Could it be...you are both the Youyue Demon King and the angel of death who saved the Miyun tribe?"

In the following conversation, Li Wei was not interested at all. A few minutes later... maybe a few ten minutes, the young lord woke up from his drowsiness, only to find out that Si'er, the leader of the little monsters, hated Master Youyue from the bottom of his heart Became grateful.

"So, do you understand all the steps?" Master You Yue asked softly.

"No problem, no problem!" Si'er thumped the black pot on his chest, "The little spirits will make according to your orders, please rest assured."

"I won't rest assured, never will." Master Youyue showed a somewhat bewitching smile from under the messy hair, "The word rest assured will never have anything to do with little elves, because there is a dwarf in your body that is full of adventure." Spiritual blood."

　An unfortunate news, working overtime on a business trip... When this chapter was uploaded, Shen Duxing should have been on the plane. He had been conducting energy-saving and emission-reduction inspections for three consecutive days, and he had no chance to come back until noon on the 3rd... He could only be free for two days , On the 3rd, try to write a chapter, and then resume the update. The [-] words owed will be made up during the November holiday. Please continue to support the heart of the castle.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)