Mark stood there with his hands raised, not daring to make any unnecessary movements.
Looking against the moonlight, twelve heavily armored guards appeared from the shadows of the blood crystal ore piled on one side of the mine.
They were covered in silver steel armor and wore steel visors on their heads.
The fierce aura and energy he exuded while walking clearly showed that he was not an ordinary town guard.
Look at the heavy crossbows in their hands with magical halos flowing through them. These are not weapons that ordinary people can use.
It seems that only the Kingdom's Royal Knights and the Church's direct legions can be equipped with similar equipment.
"The Holy Knights!?"
Mark's heart skipped a beat. A team carrying such weapons shouldn't have appeared in the small town of Stone Hammer.
Combined with the news from Champagne Town, the name of the legion immediately flashed in Mark's mind.
But it only took a moment for him to dispel his speculation.
Although the Holy Knights also use heavy crossbows, they would never wear armor without emblems.
Even if the Holy Knights go to massacre a city, they will wear the Holy Light Inscription Armor of the Holy Light Church openly, just like Father Stan did before.
"Who are you? Why are you entering the mines?"
Twelve strong men in silver armor, who were a head taller than Mark, surrounded Mark in a semicircle and asked nonsense questions.
Mark couldn't see the status bar above their heads, but it was obvious that the strength of this group of people was at least level three.
So he naturally had no intention of resisting and answered honestly: "I am a clergyman named Mark. The guards of Stone Hammer Town asked me to go down to the mine..."
"Are you from that caravan? Why did the others come up long ago, but you are only here now?"
The leader of the twelve men was particularly strong. He took a step forward and asked in a cold voice.
I would like to come up earlier!
Mark spread his hands helplessly and said, "The mine tunnel collapsed, and my friend and I are buried underneath!"
"You have any friends?"
"Look at what you said. Do I look like a friendless guy?"
"Shut up!" The leader glared at Mark in dissatisfaction and said, "Where are your friends?"
"Look, over there! The one lying there is from the Church of Holy Light. Can you guys save him first?"
After hearing what Mark said, the guards looked at each other, and then half of them went to check on Kyle's condition.
"search!"
At the leader's command, the rest of the people reached out their hands to Mark, searched his body everywhere, and when they found nothing, they took Mark aside.
After bringing Kyle over, these people searched Kyle roughly without caring about his injuries.
The wound on Kyle's back that was burned by the holy light was casually left by these people on the gravel-covered ground, which made Mark frown.
"Everyone, who are you? This person is a clergyman of the Holy Light Church. Are you not afraid of the Holy Light Church by treating him like this..."
"Ha!" The man frisking Kyle sneered. "Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk! He's a clergyman! Look how utterly miserable he is! If you hadn't told me, I'd have thought he was a pagan who had infiltrated Stone Hammer Town! Boy, you think I'm afraid of the Church of Holy Light? It sounds like you're going to report what you've seen to them?"
"Haha, how can that be! Just do whatever you want!" Mark lowered his head and narrowed his eyes into a line.
"Humph, you're a spineless wimp. No wonder you were able to switch jobs and become a clergyman, becoming a servant of the Holy Light Church!"
I'm not afraid of you speaking arrogantly and threatening me, I'm just afraid that you will be like your leader and pretend to be deep without saying a word.
Although this man only threatened Mark in a provocative tone, he didn't know that Mark had already got the information he wanted from his words.
Firstly, these people were not members of the Holy Knights and were even hostile to the Church of Holy Light. Secondly, they had a strong sense of belonging to Stone Hammer Town.
This is very interesting. The state religion of the Lily Kingdom is the Church of Holy Light. Even if the army under the official power does not believe in the Holy Light, they will not say disrespectful words about the Church of Holy Light in their daily lives.
Not only were these people able to arrive at the mine immediately after the accident occurred in the mine controlled by Shichui Town, they also possessed special weapons that only official forces had.
In this way, Mark could boldly guess that this group of people were either private soldiers raised by a noble who believed in a church that was hostile to the Holy Light.
Or maybe they are simply an army secretly established by the Lord of Stone Hammer Town that is not under the supervision of the Church of Holy Light!
No matter which situation it is, as long as the Holy Light Church knows the identities of these people, they will not have a good ending!
But as the saying goes, a good man never suffers a loss in front of him.
The fact that this group of people didn't kill him immediately after he came out proved that they didn't dare to kill people easily, and Mark wouldn't be so stupid as to expose his thoughts and attract the murderous intentions of this group of people.
After searching Mark and Kyle, the group carried them to a temporary camp near the blood crystal mine.
When Mark arrived at the camp, he found that all the people from the previous caravan had been brought here.
The caravan's carriages were parked neatly on one side of the camp, and guards in heavy armor were patrolling in batches outside the camp.
All the people in the caravan gathered in the center of the camp, gathered around three campfires, or lay on the ground with their eyes closed to rest, or huddled together and talked in low voices.
After bringing Mark and Kyle here, the twelve men left them behind and turned back towards the mine.
When leaving, the guard who had threatened Mark before arrogantly gave him the middle finger.
Mark lowered his head and pretended not to see it.
When the group left, Mark could still faintly hear the curse of "softie" coming from the air.
“Hiss!”
After those people walked away, Mark gasped and jumped on the spot. He whispered hurriedly: "Xiao Mu, come out quickly! Can't you take the things and hide first? You have to rely on me!"
At Mark's urging, Xiao Mu slid out of Mark's trouser legs, then climbed onto Mark's shoulders affectionately and tried to get close to his face.
Mark immediately pushed Xiao Mu away with disgust and said, "Get out of the way! If you don't want to take a shower, don't touch me first!"
But why didn't the guards find anything on Mark and Kyle?
It turned out that the moment Mark was attacked by the crossbow, he realized that there must be people from Stone Hammer Town guarding outside the mine.
He asked Xiao Mu to hide with his cross necklace and forbidden scripture, and he would come back to find Xiao Mu later.
But he never expected that Xiao Mu did it somehow. After swallowing the two pieces of equipment, these two mythical equipment turned into the size of ping-pong balls and hid them in some indescribable place along Mark's trouser legs.
That feeling... is so scary!
Mark was just glad that Xiao Mu was just attached to him, instead of suddenly turning into some kind of plug-in!
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