The night was dark and the cold wind was biting.
Yun Zhe and Jelock, cloaked, quietly returned to the tent area Yun Zhe had passed through that afternoon. In the darkness, Yun Zhe had difficulty pinpointing the exact location of the tent from that afternoon. Just as they were fretting, a light slowly approached from a distance. Yun Zhe quickly pulled Jelock into hiding. After a while, the light drew closer, and they could hear a man's heavy breathing and cursing.
"Damn it, a bunch of bastards, they're about to leave, but they still won't let this deal go. And that bitch is just rushing to her death." With that, he stopped at the entrance of a tent not far from Yun Zhe, looked around, and kicked one of the tent's support poles.
Three times later, a faint light shone from inside the tent. The woman's voice from that afternoon rang out again.
“Stanton, I’ve finally waited for you, Stanton!” the woman said eagerly as she lifted the tent flap.
The man named Stanton covered his nose and said emotionlessly, "Is the money ready?"
"Yes, yes, I'm ready, I'm ready." After saying that, the woman fumbled around and took out a gold coin from her body, placing it in Stanton's hand.
Stanton examined the gold coin carefully under the light and nodded in satisfaction.
"Alright, take your daughters and let's go now!"
The woman paused for a moment, then whispered, "I've entrusted my daughters to someone else..."
"Hiss..." Stanton gasped, glaring at the woman with displeasure. "Don't give me that crap," he said, shoving her aside and crawling into the tent. After a commotion, the man emerged from the tent, cursing, and kicked the woman to the ground.
Stanton was interested in the woman's two daughters, not the woman herself who was almost thirty. He hadn't mentioned the daughters to avoid alerting her, assuming she would take them with her. He hadn't expected her to be so selfish! Stanton, who was about to leave, hesitated, then stopped and pulled the woman up. "Come on, let's go. I'll take you to the Elf Forest. They need people there right now."
The woman was overjoyed. She got up, dusted herself off, pulled a cloth bag from the tent and slung it over her shoulder, then timidly asked, "Stanton, could you give me a discount for one person...?"
Stanton gave a cold snort, which was his reply. Seeing this, the woman didn't dare to speak again and quietly followed behind Stanton.
As the lights faded into the distance, Yun Zhe and Jelock jumped out from the corner and slowly followed. Unexpectedly, things had gone so smoothly that Yun Zhe's confidence soared, and he even considered informing Gao and the others to prepare to catch up.
Stanton didn't let his guard down just because today was his last job. Following his plan, he led his prey through a maze of twists and turns, pausing three times in the process. Then, he suddenly sped up, pulling the woman along as they disappeared into a grove of trees.
Yun Zhe and Jerok were stunned for a moment. Yun Zhe instinctively thought that he had been exposed, while Jerok had already accelerated and rushed straight to the edge of the woods.
In the woods, the lights suddenly went out.
Yun Zhe sensed something was wrong. Before he could act, a familiar feeling surged towards him from all directions.
Gray fog!
Jerok was unaware of the situation with the gray fog, but as perceptive as he was, he realized the seriousness of the problem. An unknown blackish-gray substance surged towards him, and he instinctively retreated, not waiting for the surrounding grayish-black, almost tangible things to slowly crowd towards him from all sides.
Yun Zhe drew his elven longsword, and Jerok pulled out his headhunter's axe from his back. The two stood back to back, warily scanning their surroundings. Gray mist slowly spread, crowding towards them from two directions.
Yun Zhe's breathing quickened. Although the gray fog hadn't completely closed in, it had already blocked the path to the forest. Without hesitation, Yun Zhe grabbed Jelock and dashed backward. They barely escaped from the gray fog.
The two were panting heavily when they saw the gray mist come alive, slowly splitting into two streams and enveloping them from both sides again.
Yun Zhe and Jieluoke looked at each other, then shouted in unison, "Run!!"
The gray fog suddenly accelerated, giving chase until Yun Zhe and Jelock reached the edge of a tent area. Only then did the gray fog abruptly stop and slowly retreat.
Jelock felt like he'd been granted a pardon. He ran to the tent area, sat on a tree stump, and gasped for breath. Then he saw Yun Zhe, still standing there, staring blankly at the gray mist.
"Sir, I didn't have a chance to ask what this thing was earlier? It looked really scary!"
“Gray mist, a kind of magic. I asked Xixi about it once, but she couldn’t tell me what it was either,” Yun Zhe replied, but his eyes remained fixed on the grove of trees.
"A messenger announcing the death?" Yun Zhe muttered to himself.
Upon hearing Yun Zhe's words, Jerok paused. "Sir, are you referring to the messenger of death?"
Yun Zhe nodded. "You know them?"
"Ah, sir, I actually did some research on them, but I didn't find anything at all. The name 'Announcer of Death' appears more often in plays and novels. And they're all sorts of... well, how should I put it... all kinds... powerful ones, not powerful ones, humans, vampires, elves, spirits, monsters, and so on..."
Yun Zhe nodded. He had read some plays that featured the role of a death messenger, but those plays primarily served to inform the audience who was about to die; they were more of a sign that the character was about to perish. The presence of a death messenger meant the character was going to die. This was completely different from the death messengers Yun Zhe had encountered.
However, what Yun Zhe was most concerned about at this moment was why there were also messengers of death here? If they were targeting him, they were obviously being discreet; if not, then they were clearly standing behind those human traffickers.
Yun Zhe had a bad feeling that he had gone full circle and returned to where he started.
Yun Zhe stood on the edge of the tent area, looking at the distant woods, and suddenly felt as if he had fallen into a gray fog, unable to see the truth of the matter at all.
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