Chapter 77: The Kingdom of the Tyrant with Evil Eyes

  "You're not the first batch of humans to come here!"

  Just over twenty years ago, some humans came here, those people did not conflict with the tree people, but also encountered Old Wood and then entered the canyon, attempting to kill the evil Eye Tyrant, as a result...

  Old Wood pointed kindly at the stone statue of a human knight at the canyon entrance... Unfortunately, it had already been trampled into pieces by a treant companion in a previous battle.

  Du Wei immediately remembered what the captain of the Snow Wolf Mercenary Corps, Bayinrich, had told him: As far as recorded history goes, humans have only ventured into the deepest part of the Ice Forest to this very canyon! It was about twenty years ago that a great magician brought some high-ranking knights here, resulting in almost all of them being wiped out. The magician himself barely escaped with his life, and all the high-ranking knights who followed him were killed!

  Even the map given by Captain Bayinrich in Duweiwai is said to be the one that was passed down from the magician who escaped at that time!

  The tree people's way of expressing themselves is a bit clumsy, but the underlying meaning is still very clear: I've seen some powerful humans come here, but they were all defeated by the evil Eye Tyrant, so... we tree people don't believe you can defeat the evil Eye Tyrant...

  "Thanks for the reminder. But this doesn't harm the Tree People, does it?" Du Wei smiled: "We'll go take out that evil guy. If we fail, it's not related to the Tree People either. And if we succeed, consider it compensation for what happened earlier."

  Du Wei's words left Old Wood without a reason to pick faults.

  But Tree Man once again showed its incredibly kind and simple heart!

  Old Wood slowly bent down, then fumbled around on his own trunk for a while, and pulled out a golden leaf... Du Wei noticed that the leaf was golden!

  "If... there's danger... stick it... in the ground, maybe it'll... protect you guys for a little while."

  Du Wei was stunned, to think that they and the Tree People were still in a state of opposition! The kindness and simplicity of these Tree People, their ability to forget hatred... Du Wei sighed, such a race, even if their population increased, would probably find it difficult to survive.

  With a sigh, Du Wei returned to the back of the rock and looked at his two companions: "Hey, did you guys hear that clearly? I think we have something to do now... Evil Eye King, what kind of monster is that?"

  Hussein said calmly: "No matter what it is, I don't think there's anything in this place that can be my opponent. I'm only interested in that spring water."

  "Oh, yes." Du Wei smiled and said: "That spring water should be able to cure your injury."

  "No!" Hussein sneered coldly: "I don't care about my wound... but that's a place Aragorn has been to! I must go and take a look!"

  "And you?" Du Wei looked at Dada Nil and said: "My friend, what do you mean?"

  Dadanier's face turned serious, he pulled the bow behind him and said solemnly: "Maybe there is a golden-eyed python in the canyon! That stone statue, obviously was petrified by magic! Maybe there is a golden-eyed python inside!"

  Alright.

  Du Wei muttered a sentence and smiled: "Then let's go in and take a look."

  Old Wood directed the "companions" to move away the boulders that blocked the entrance of the canyon, and with ease, the powerful Tree People "companions" moved those massive rocks, clearing out space at the entrance. Then Du Wei and Old Wood bid farewell, accompanied by their two companions, and the three stepped into this canyon...

  Just how big the canyon was, Du Wei and others did not know. Although from Tree Man Old Wood's introduction, it is said that this canyon "is not big". But to know, that is measured by the height and volume of the tree people.

  At least at this moment, Du Wei felt that this place was probably "not small".

  After entering from the entrance of the canyon, it's a bend about ten meters away. What made the three people frown was that they were facing a thick fog.

  This is the real "thick" fog. Du Wei could clearly feel the humid feeling in the air, very strong, and even as if walking in the fog for a while, his body would be covered with a lot of water vapor.

  The visibility here is quite poor, and the effective range of vision is no more than five steps! Du Wei has never seen such a dense fog before.

  Walking in such a place with poor visibility, and there is also an evil powerful guy living in this valley. It's definitely not safe. So Duwei tried many ways. He tried to use magic to bring a small gust of wind to disperse the fog, but after the wind passed, it was still white in front of him, and Duwei confirmed one thing... This fog is made by magic.

  With great difficulty, a torch was lit... This was still a branch that Du Wei had casually pulled from the body of a tree person companion before entering the canyon. The strongest Hou Sai walked at the front and took the lead, while Dadanier followed closely behind, with Du Wei walking in the middle.

  After walking in this thick fog for a while, Du Wei's spiritual power remained at full force, carefully sensing the movements around him. However, neither Du Wei nor the extremely sensitive Hussein detected anything suspicious.

  It was Dardanel who had once had an adventurous experience, and he raised a question: "Have you found that... the ground here, the snow seems to be getting less and less as we walk."

  This reminded Du Wei and Hussein, and the two suddenly found that the snow under their feet was getting less and less. Du Wei sniffed his nose hard, frowned and said: "It's not that there is less snow, but it seems to be much warmer in the canyon than outside, you see."

  Du Wei pointed at the ground and slowly crouched down, stretching out his hand to grab a handful of it. This handful contained some snow as well as some damp and soft mud.

  "If it were in a forest, the frozen soil would be hard to cut even with a knife. But here, the soil can be picked up with just one grab."

  As they walked further ahead, the snow on the ground almost completely disappeared! Under their feet was the muddy land that had been transformed from the melting snow. The three of them trudged along, their boots and pants covered in mud, making every step uncomfortable. Fortunately, as they ventured deeper, the terrain gradually rose, and dry land became more abundant underfoot...

  Du Wei stopped in his tracks again, his eyes flashing: "Have you discovered it?"

  Hussein and Dadanil also stopped in their tracks, nodding at the same time.

  Du Wei's hands touched the ground and then he laughed: "The ground is hot. My god, is this canyon a precious geothermal area?"

  "So the snow here has just melted." Dathanil said with a smile.

  Du Wei thought carefully for a moment and suddenly realized something.

  The dense fog after entering the canyon!

  This is the cold air outside the canyon and the warm air inside the canyon colliding together, gathering at the mouth of the canyon, melting the accumulated snow here, water vapor rising, forming more and more misty fog... And it seems that someone on the other side has used some kind of magic to solidify this piece of fog. It turned into an area where the wind cannot disperse and the water vapor cannot evaporate.

  The further into the canyon you go, the drier the ground becomes and the air temperature gradually rises.

  What made Du Wei and others helpless was that this canyon had been walking in a mountain valley that was not too wide since they entered. This mountain valley is like having nine turns and eighteen bends, the three of them turned several bends, left and right, finally waiting for the thick fog in front to thin out gradually, and the ground under their feet was already dry. Even under the rocky cliffs on both sides, a few green wild grasses and moss could be seen!

  Compared to the icy and snowy weather outside, the cold wind. The temperature in this canyon is much more comfortable.

  "It seems that the evil-eyed tyrant has seized a good spot." Dandanil couldn't help but laugh and say, "In this haunted forest, there's actually such a great place. If it were me, I wouldn't let go of it even if someone begged for it. It's freezing outside!"

  Du Wei had already unbuttoned the top few buttons of his leather coat, exposing his neck to get some air. It was quite warm here and wearing a leather coat made Du Wei feel like he was about to sweat. He even took off his fur hat and stuffed it into his bosom, then carefully looked around.

  The thick fog here has thinned out to the point where it can be ignored. Du Wei felt a bit more comfortable: the dense fog just now not only affected his vision, but also the heavy humidity that made Du Wei cough. Du Wei had no doubt that staying in that kind of fog for too long would cause people to get pulmonary edema due to the excessive water content in the fog.

  Now that the thick fog has lifted, the three of them can finally take a good look at this place.

  As we move further into the canyon, the road gradually widens, and the cliffs on either side still have strange rock formations. The exposed rock layers display a grayish-green color, and in the crevices of the rocks, a few clusters of unknown plants occasionally poke out stubbornly. Even Du Wei saw many piles of rotten wood on both sides of the canyon, with tree roots that had already decayed, who knows how many years ago.

  "Look, there's something interesting here." The leading Hussein suddenly let out a strange cry.

  Duvall and Dadanel immediately followed up and saw Hussein standing in front of a "stone tablet".

  It's called a "stone tablet", but it's a bit of an exaggeration, this is clearly just a large rock by the side of the road, as if a piece had been cut off, revealing a neat cutting surface with several lines of dense writing... Suddenly, it's in the Empire's common script!

  "Evil Eye Kingdom Announcement:"

  Beware, you have set foot on the territory of the Evil Eye Kingdom. This is a land under the rule of the great Evil Eye King. According to the decree issued by the great Evil Eye King himself, any creature passing through this kingdom's territory, whether it be a magical beast, a treant, a human, or anything else, must pay tribute to the great Evil Eye King: every single creature that passes through must offer up one of their eyes!

  "This proclamation is the highest decree of this kingdom. If any outsiders fail to obey the laws of this kingdom, they will be executed without exception!"

  (Okay, don't forget to vote for this book after you finish reading it, thank you~)