Heart of the Castle

Chapter 500 The Missing Magic Mountain, The Abandoned Iron Rock City

Iron Rock City is located in the south-central part of Westwind County. It guards the important traffic channel between the port city of Aleus and the capital of Fermeyer - the Oath River. , rugged and weird, the color of the mountain rock is like obsidian that has been smoked and roasted all year round.

This is the Magic Mountain, the legendary holy place where the god of war Balud killed the tyrannical flame lord D'Artagnan, and it is also the place where the once vicious Mountain robbers haunted.These tough robbers call themselves black people, they live by plundering passing merchants, and they never follow any law and order. By virtue of the rugged and rugged terrain of the Magic Mountain, they have repeatedly thwarted the Celestia Kingdom's dispatch to eradicate them with iron and fire. An army of robbers.It wasn't until the leader of the Devil's Mountain lowered his unruly head to King Arthur that the robbers of the Devil's Mountain became a term in history. The leader rebuilt the original cottage into Iron Rock City, and let it change from the famous tumor on the Oath River to the city in West Wind. The importance of the county is second only to the military town of Xifeng, the county seat.

This is the origin of the huge castle of Iron Rock City. Although it has left such a strong mark in history, the architectural style of this castle is actually extremely rough and messy, and it vaguely has the feeling of being a robber's cottage back then.The building materials of the castle were mainly black gravel that could be excavated nearby. Since they had not been carefully polished, each stone had sharp edges and corners, which looked like a huge unhealed abscess.

The closer you get to Iron Rock City, the more dilapidated the castle looks. It seems to be rotting away. Most of the stucco covering the rocky crevices on the castle surface has fallen off, and the outer walls are covered with dark green vines and gray-black thorns. Wrapping around the castle like gaunt, slender fingers, many of them dead, their broken places ominously gray and white, like countless broken bones.

Li Wei took a deep breath, raised his left hand, and signaled the team to stop.Looking up from here, the whole castle can be said to be heavily guarded.There are many guards standing on the crenels of the city wall of Iron Rock City, which is more than ten meters high. The cold light of spears and swords flickers, and the black triangular magic mountain flags have one every ten meters, fluttering in the wind.

However, in the field of vision of the exploration technique, the castle was as dark as an abyss, and even the smallest light spot could not be seen.There are only two possibilities for this to happen. One possibility is that a powerful magician has enveloped the entire castle with a wide-area enchantment spell that avoids detection; the other possibility is that the castle has been completely destroyed. Give up, there is no one alive inside.

"This big stone house seems to be empty." A burly orc wearing a full set of knight armor walked up to Li Wei and commented, wagging his nose.After Li Wei paid a batch of weapons and armor enough to equip [-] roaring orc warriors, Karmos fulfilled his promise and set aside two smaller orc tribes to serve Li Wei, and the pig worship tribe was one of them. Even Zhuang Zhu, the leader of the tribe, agreed to be loyal to Li Wei because of his excellent set of steel armor.

"Chief Zhuangzhu, how did you find out?" Li Wei asked him casually.

"There is no human smell, the nose can smell it." The leader of the strong pig proudly patted his breastplate and made a clanging sound.

Even with the double guarantee of detection skills and a strong pig's nose, Li Wei still asked the Griffin Troops to conduct an aerial reconnaissance. The leader of the little spirits, Si'er, volunteered to undertake this task. Several griffins full of little spirits were flying over Iron Rock Circled several times.At first they flew cautiously at high altitude, then descended lower and lower, and finally flew back almost brushing against the city wall and the spire.

"No one, not a single one." After Si'er jumped off the griffin, the first sentence said in a positive tone, "An empty castle, there are only rubble and weeds inside, and there are fallen and collapsed houses. Above the city wall The guards were scarecrows, clad in rags and forged armaments of rusted iron."

"Iron Rock City is empty?" Li Wei's eyes showed doubts, and his fingers subconsciously tapped on the side of his legs. "Why was it abandoned? Was it attacked by demons and fell? Or..." His eyes Looking around subconsciously, Iron Rock City is quite far away from Kaidar Castle. Although they set off early in the morning, it was almost evening when they came all the way.The afterglow of the setting sun is like a golden sharp arrow piercing the darkness of the Magic Mountain. However, these golden lights are gradually dimming due to the sunset, as if it indicates that the power of darkness is rising steadily and is about to engulf the entire world.

"Since the Earl of the Magic Mountain is not in Iron Rock City," Sir Rodriguez rode over and whispered to Levi. "Master Li Wei, should we leave now?"

Li Wei shook his head after thinking for a while, "No, Sir Rodriguez, we have been running around all day and we must rest. Besides, it will be dark soon, the mountain road is too steep, and the Magic Mountain will become very dangerous. He raised his hand and pointed to the huge and ugly castle in front of him, "We will be camping in Iron Rock City tonight. By the way, we will check the castle carefully and see if we can find any clues."

Sir Rodriguez nodded, and then loudly ordered the team to move on. They soon arrived at the gate of Iron Rock City. Several orc roaring warriors walked over to open the gate, but no matter how hard they pushed and pulled, the two wrapped The iron-clad oak gate remained motionless, as if it had been welded together.

"The inside is blocked, and bags full of stones can be seen through the crack of the door." After observing for a while, Sir Rodriguez raised his head and explained, and then his brows frowned. Strange, how did those people blocking the door come out?"

If it is an ordinary army, there may be no way to deal with this kind of strong city defense.But for Li Wei and others, there are not too many ways to open the door.Whether it's Sir Rodriguez's star iron giant sword, the smoke bombs carried by the little elves, or Li Wei's explosive fireball technique are all the keys to open the door, but in the end Li Wei chose the most troublesome way to enter the city, then It is to take the griffin to enter the castle in batches without destroying the gate of the castle.

In addition to considering that Iron Rock City is the residence of Gregor, Earl of the Magic Mountain, directly destroying the gate may cause other problems, Li Wei also has a hunch that it is very important to keep the castle intact, and this night may not be as imagined in such peace.

Before night fell, Li Wei took the last batch of Griffin into Iron Rock City. This batch included several orc rangers and their horses.For these war horses, flying in the air is really a novel experience, and the unique beast breath of the Griffin makes them very uneasy. Restraining the panic, the neighing of war horses cut through the quiet twilight.

In contrast, since the horses of the Griffin Knights were all alchemy creatures, they behaved much calmer, which made the straightforward orcs admire.The strong pig even twitched its nose next to the most majestic and tallest Black Nightmare in the Northern Territory, its eyes seemed to be burning with fire, and it seemed that it wanted to ride on it and run for a while.However, the Dark Nightmare in the Northern Territory obviously hates the approach of orcs. After a few hissing warnings to no effect, he kicked the strong pig dozens of meters away and fell into a half-decayed house, which made the orc leader come back again. Be honest.

In Li Wei's memory, the name Iron Rock City is often closely associated with many exciting and frightening legends. A large part of this impression comes from the legendary stories told by Knight Ston.This castle was once occupied by robbers, bandits and other outlaws, until King Arthur knocked the pass alone and started a thrilling duel on horseback with Frodo Gregor, the leader of the Magic Mountain at that time, known as the Dark Lord.It was a battle worthy of song, and the Dark Lord's great sword was swung at King Arthur's head countless times, but every time he returned without success.King Arthur, on the other hand, showed extremely magnificent skills with his double swords, and knocked the Dark Lord off his horse three times in a row, but he didn't suffer any damage worse than being covered in dust.

In the end, the Dark Lord bowed his unruly head to King Arthur, and swore to become King Arthur's blood knight in front of the oath and the sword of victory.King Arthur did not treat this powerful knight badly. Frodo Gregor was named Earl of the Devil's Mountain, guarded Westwind County for the kingdom, and became one of the nine pillar families supporting the Kingdom of Arthur.The bandits who once gathered at the Magic Mountain became sharp and wild whips in the hands of the Earl of the Magic Mountain. They whipped the orc tribes who came rushing from the Moon Whisper Plain and tried to loot human villages and homes.

It was a very important chapter in the legendary story of the founding of the Kingdom of Arthur, but there were still some cold dissonant notes hidden in the passionate melody.Starting from the first Dark Lord, the successive Earls of the Mountain have had a very bad reputation, and many of them are vicious and disregarding the laws of the kingdom. Iron Rock City is also described in these legends as a ghastly hell on earth. Rusty spears poking human heads stood behind the crenels of the city walls, and every cornerstone of the castle was soaked in blood, so that when one stepped on it, black and red marks would appear in the cracks between the stones.

Li Wei didn't see black and red traces on the ground, he only saw an empty square surrounded by many dilapidated old buildings: thin and short shrubs grew and spread from the houses, a twisted oak tree grew from the Growing out of the holes in the roof, stretching out pale arms towards the night sky; the dead leaves were blown across the square by the wind, rustling, looking like countless cockroaches and mice crawling; The moss, the roof of the hall they supported has completely collapsed, burying everything below in the rubble.

Everything in front of me has nothing to do with the terrifying Iron Rock City in the legend.Only the night wind blowing through the dark windows of the house made a disturbing whistling sound, which was probably the only thing here that could have anything to do with horror.

Several Griffin Knights walked over from the ruins holding torches, and knocked on their breastplates towards Levi and Sir Rodriguez. "My lord, Lord Rodriguez, according to the order, we have conducted a preliminary search of this place, and we have not found any left behind, and there is not even any sign of any short-term activities."

"There is no sign of anyone's activities in the short term?" Li Wei frowned, "This is impossible, the information provided by Director Bamilian shows that Gregor, Earl of the Mountain, just returned to this castle not long ago, even if the castle It should be a matter of a few weeks before being abandoned." The Griffon Lord said to himself, then turned his head and said, "Sir Rodriguez, please organize your staff to re-examine this castle carefully. If the Gryphon Riders are not enough, even the Orc Warriors can be used. I hope that every house, every column and every ruin will be spared, especially pay attention to those floors and walls that are unusually thick. There are likely to be many secret passages in this castle, you should know that."

"Where do you know? Those legendary stories about putting children to sleep?" Sir Rodriguez shrugged his shoulders, with a strange and nostalgic smile on his face, "Those stories can't be done accurately, when you were young , although I have been to Xifeng County, but I have not been lucky enough to visit Iron Rock City."

"Visiting Iron Rock City is not a lucky thing." Mr. Dish said in a heavy voice, "There are more secrets buried under this castle than you imagine, and each one is soaked in blood and filth. I would rather They will never be unearthed."

"Mr. Dish, do you know the secret of Iron Rock City?" Levi showed a curious expression on his face, but Mr. Dish did not answer right away, but pondered, twirling his carefully groomed snow-white beard with his fingers.

"I know, but Master Li Wei, it's better to bury these secrets. No matter who is right or wrong, those things have already become the past, and it was the past hundreds of years ago." The old magician had a slight smile on his face. With a wry smile, his tone inadvertently reveals emotion full of vicissitudes.

Sir Rodriguez returned from the darkness not long after he left, nodded to Levi with a serious expression, and said, "Master Levi, I found a secret passage leading to the underground, and the entrance to that place has been disrupted. The gap is covered by stones, and the gap can only allow children to crawl in and out. If the leader of the little spirits, Si'er, hadn't gotten in because of his excessive curiosity, I'm afraid those of us would not be able to find it after several times of inspection."

There is nothing like the secret passage under the ancient castle that can arouse young people's interest in exploration. Li Wei said almost without thinking, "Then let's go and have a look." Just two steps away, the Griffin Lord stopped again. He stepped down and told the orcs who followed him, "Chief Zhuangzhu, Iron Rock City has been abandoned strangely. The reason is unknown. We can't relax our vigilance. The task of guarding the top of the city wall in the middle of the night is entrusted to you and your tribe. I'll let the Gryphon Riders take over."

"I know, Zhuangzhu will handle it well." The burly leader of the orc tribe nodded heavily, then licked his lips greedily and made a condition, "Complete the task, Zhuangzhu and his people must eat meat and warm wine Humph."

"I'll satisfy you with barbecue, but not alcohol. We'd better stay vigilant tonight, even when we're resting." Li Wei warned the orc leader with a serious expression, making Zhuang Zhu's eyes vigilant and friendly. Get excited.

"We're going to war, huh? Strong pigs like it!" the orc leader announced loudly.

There is nothing that makes an orc more happy than fighting and eating and drinking, and after getting the good-fitting and beautiful armor, the leader of the strong pig is very eager to have a good fight.While yelling loudly at his orc warriors, he walked up the dilapidated ramp to the city wall of Iron Rock City. The machete, which could only be lifted by ordinary people, was already tightly held in his right hand. Night waving.

"It's such a powerful race!" Li Wei couldn't help sighing when he saw those orcs rushed to the top of the city with excited expressions after hearing that there might be a battle. "Orcs... for the subjects of the Kingdom of Arthur, are they formidable opponents or reliable allies?"

"Father God created this warlike race, perhaps as an incentive for human beings who tend to be content with the status quo. With such a cruel and bloodthirsty neighbor, the people of the Kingdom of Arthur can always maintain enough vigilance." Dish There were some emotions that Li Wei couldn't recognize in Mr.'s voice. The old magician seemed to be explaining seriously, but what he said made the young Griffon Lord feel even more confused.

"Keep vigilant? Mr. Dish... Well, Steward Frederick, you mean to say that the orcs' looting of human villages is a good thing instead?" Li Wei shook his head in disapproval. "I think what you said, I'm afraid those villagers whose homes have been burned and their properties have been plundered will have different opinions?"

Mr. Dish looked at Levi with a gentle smile. On that young face, he saw stubbornness, stubbornness, persistence, and kindness that had not changed much from the beginning to the end. "Of course there will be." The old magician nodded affirmatively, "For those villages and towns in Westwind County that have been infested and looted, the orc tribe is of course a very bad existence. But for the entire Kingdom of Arthur, the infestation of orcs can Sharpening the combat experience of the Guards isn't all bad."

"Butler Frederick is right." Sir Rodriguez nodded in agreement with Mr. Dish, and then added, "That's why the Death Knights, which often use the orc tribes to train soldiers, are among the four major knights in the kingdom. Ranked second, only under the Knights of Ashes; while the Knights of Lightning guarding the four counties in the south, which is rich and safe, is not inferior to the Knights of Death in terms of equipment level and number of knights, but it ranks at the end of the four major knights... ...Um, what is that thing coming over?"

The thing that came staggering out of the darkness looked like a human child, but with a frighteningly large head, with two bull-like horns growing on it.Li Wei held down the hilt of the knight's sword at his waist, and was about to ask loudly, but the short monster spoke first, with a high-pitched and thin voice.

"Master Griffin Lord, the four chiefs asked Mumu to come, the giant's chair was rigid, and the helmet was big. Mumu found it, and Mumu wore it!"

　The Year of the Dragon is coming, and the giant dragon is about to come to the heart of the castle. In the new year, Shen Duxing wishes all book friends all wishes come true, everything goes well, golden rain falls from the sky, white lotus springs from the ground, all men are Kings, all women are queens!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)