The Divine Hunter

In the empty hall, there are torches hanging between the stone pillars.

The fire swayed, and a fresco with golden light appeared on the dark wall.

The objects in the painting are like a sturdy tree growing from the bottom to the top, and the lush branches of the tree are composed of rows of golden numbers and addresses written in ancient languages.

Arrange at least a hundred.

Roy stared at it with deep eyes.

fresco of unknown meaning

?

...

"1150, Dol, 20000..."

A low male voice read out the bottom line.

The six demon hunters present, at first glance, only recognized the meaning of the letter in the center: Dole Breitner.

The meaning of the remaining two numbers has not yet been determined.

...

"1170, Vizima, 12000"

"1186, Tretogor, 5000"

"1198, Oxenfurt, 1000"

"1220, Kingdom of Kovir and Poviss, 5000"

...

Everyone browsed more than a dozen lines in one go, and finally got a clue.

"The first number increases gradually, no doubt, records the year," Lambert said triumphantly. "The second is the address of the event, so the third number should refer to how much money they made."

"Using the first line as an example, the person who carved the fresco, in 1150, Dole Breitner, earned 20,000 ducats?"

"What the hell! Did you lose your money?" Leto bluntly denied, "It took a long time to write a ledger on the wall? Wouldn't it be more convenient to write it on parchment?"

"And there's no unit of currency... Ducat, why don't you say it's krona, oren, fasin?"

"There is no doubt that the third number does not refer to how much money is earned." Aiden was also determined, "Can you imagine that a witcher who loves doing business is hiding in Heinkawich Castle? Put down such a bunch of numbers to let your compatriots guess riddles, jealous?"

"What exactly does that mean?"

"Unknown for now."

"Have you noticed that the addresses involved aren't just in the North..." Geralt's fingers taped one of the lines - 1230, Nilfgaard, 3000.

"The city of the urn in Nilfgaard."

"It means that this businessman has extensive contacts and business all over the world?" Lambert joked.

"Come on, don't talk about businessmen, business!" Roy shook his head. "To figure out the meaning of this mural, we must first find out who left it."

"Is it the bear witcher who used to live here, the man who sacked the castle, or the great master Ellen and the mysterious manipulator behind him?"

"It doesn't look like these ink marks have existed for decades or hundreds of years..." Jielon wiped the dust on the mural with his fingers and pondered for a moment, "Don't you feel that the ink marks are still a little moist... There are at most two or three. year."

"I didn't think you had this kind of eyesight?" Cohen praised.

"I used to ask old Kelda about ink and quills when I was in Kel Siren, and he's an expert in it."

Cohen couldn't help but look sad.

"So, the mural is most likely left by Ellen." Roy wrapped his right fist with his left hand and walked around the empty hall, "Does he want to remind us of the mysterious manipulator of the latecomers? ."

"No, no..." Leto retorted with his strict logic, "Recording this mural is no small feat. Elan has such a long awake time, why not directly contact the outside world... And it is so conspicuous, unless the mysterious man is blind. , otherwise it will never be possible to let Elan's behavior go."

"Then we can think that the recorder of this mural is actually the mysterious person." Geralt said, "The year, location, and number of this line have some special meaning to him."

"Like a diary?"

"Implicitly he manipulated Master Elam,

And the goal of staying in Heinkawich. "

...

"Come on, everyone." Lambert scrutinized the mural with a tangled face. "A private diary of a powerful being speculated out of thin air? We are not prophets."

"Prophet?" In an instant, everyone realized what, five pairs of beast-like vertical pupils locked Roy.

"The Chief Prophet of the Witcher Brotherhood..." Geralt said in a long syllable, as if in revenge for his previous threat, both nervously and jokingly, "Activate your ability to explore people's privacy at will, tell me mercifully. We, what does this mean?"

"Guru." Roy swallowed his saliva and glanced slowly at his expectant companions, especially Cohen and Geron, breathing quickly.

Ghosts are prophets!

He shrugged. "Sorry, I can't. My predictions are as fickle as the June weather."

He closed his eyes and touched the mural lightly, shaking his head, "It's blank."

"Failure at a critical moment! It just broke my heart!" Lambert blinked, "After punishing you to go back, help me ask Ms. Ke Lin out."

"The problem is that we have thoroughly explored the castle, and the clues we have so far are all obscure..." Geralt interrupted Lambert's delusions, "Instead of studying that metal plate and brass bottle cap, I would rather Use your brains and think about this mural."

...

This is the most helpless option, but also the best way at present.

The six witchers sat cross-legged as if meditating, their eyes staring at the murals.

But the opportunity came sooner than expected.

While the others were still analyzing word by word, Roy's gaze turned directly to the top row of records, and suddenly solidified——

1263, Marnadal, 17000

tra, 4000

Sodden Hill, 48000

He fell into a long absence.

"Damn it..." Lambert followed his gaze and screamed, "If I remember correctly, today is January 1, 1263."

"Could it be that it took that guy a day, no, half a day to earn seventeen thousand crowns in Manada and four thousand crowns in Sintra. He made forty-eight thousand crowns in Sodden, and he still doesn't know what to do with it. Jue ran back to the castle and left this record?"

"Shut up, pig head! Manada is a poor valley, earning three times as much as the city of Sintra! And Suoden is even more inaccessible, except for a few military fortresses empty. One thing!" Aiden stretched out his hand and knocked on the back of his head, Lambert rolled his eyes and immediately stopped, then he was surprised, "That's right, according to common sense 1263 at the beginning of the new year, nothing will happen in time, and there should be no records. ."

Geralt's face was solemn, "Unless You-Know-Who is unpredictable... Or is this some kind of plan for the future?"

"Manada, Sintra, Sodden... 1263... Prophet?"

Roy muttered to himself, "Guys, don't you think this year and place sound familiar?"

"Familiar?"

"In Cintra, Geralt and I predicted when we met Queen Calanthe and East." Roy leaned close to the wall in disbelief, "The main force of Cintra will meet at Manada with The Nilfgaardian imperial army fought fiercely and was nearly wiped out."

"Three days later, Nilfgaard invaded the city of Sintra, burning, killing and looting... Sintra was completely occupied."

"Afterwards, the northern kingdoms realized that Nilfgaard was a terrible threat and sent allied forces to fight to the death on Sodden."

Geralt's dark cat eyes flashed with surprise,

"You mean, this line of text records the three upcoming wars?"

"Then I have a guess about the final numbers. War, war often means death."

"So the last number represents..." Jiron's face was horrified.

In an instant, there seemed to be a bone-piercing cold wind passing through the hall, penetrating the back of everyone's neck, and the six people were all horrified.

"The number of deaths?" Roy's face was bitter. "All the Sintra troops died in the Manada Valley, so the numbers in Manada are even more terrifying. The most tragic civil war broke out in Suoshan, with more than 100,000 participants, and the battlefield was like a meat grinder, so sacrifices were made. It can exceed 40,000 people,"

"Year, place, death toll, if it follows that pattern."

Everyone's eyes eagerly turned to the earliest record in the first line to seek verification——

"1150, Dole Breitner, 20,000... What happened more than a hundred years ago, 20,000 people died?"

"This place is also called the Valley of Flowers... It is located in a valley at the eastern end of Adian, at the foot of the Blue Mountains, bordering Leiria and Livia." The bald man recalled in a low voice, "My hometown before I joined the Snake Sect was in Gulta near there."

"And I've heard since I was a child that the Valley of Flowers used to belong to elves, but after a tragic war, humans completely drove the elves into the Blue Mountains and occupied their homes."

"And that war happened in 1150. Adian sent a large army to conquer the Valley of Flowers and killed countless elves."

The cold air pouring in from the back of the neck further enveloped everyone.

"No, is this a coincidence?"

A pair of eyes then moved upwards,

"1170, Vizima, fifteen thousand..."

"I probably know this..." Cohen licked his dry lips, "Mr. Kelda once talked to me, that year the Black Death plague broke out in Vizima..."

"Fifteen thousand dead souls?"

...

The six people are more than 500 years old together, and there are both Lesso from the Southern Snake School and the Northern Griffin School, who are under the tutelage of Kelda, the old school. Knowledge... 90% of the records on the murals can find the corresponding terrifying historical events.

"In 1220, there was a coup d'etat between Cowell and Powis, known as the 'Powis Split', and lost control of the Eastern Frontier region. Aldunn took the opportunity to declare Humphoth independent and established along with the Arc Coast region. A small independent kingdom. Civil strife killed 5,000 people."

"In 1226, King Velfurel of Aedirn defeated the army of the King of Temeria at the fortress of Hagi, and took control of the strategically important Pontar Valley, with 8,000 casualties."

"In 1230, there was a coup in the Nilfgaardian Empire. A nobleman overthrew Fogus Enreth and usurped the throne. 3,000 people died in the coup."

"In 1233, after Queen Calanthe took the throne, she led the first important battle in her life, the Battle of Hoche Buz, in which more than 6,000 soldiers were killed on both sides. Now, only the glory of the Queen in this battle is sung. The song of deeds is still alive in the world."

"In 1239, Nilfgaard annexed the small countries such as Ebin, Medina, Mechet, and Nasser one by one, officially opening the prelude to the Northern War. The death toll was 20,000."

"In 1257, Emhyr Enreth returned to the Nilfgaardian Empire, executed the usurper and ascended to the throne, repeating the Great Purge, with more than 6,000 dead."

"In 1263, Manada and Sintra, Sodden..."

...

The dimly lit hall became silent, as if there was an invisible devil holding everyone's throats, unable to speak for a long time.

The entire mural can be called the history of wars and disasters in the human world in the past 100 years.

In other words, it's all about the dead.

The light of the shaking torches illuminated six stiff figures.

"What is the purpose of Mysterious Man recording these historical events?" Geralt asked, his voice hoarse as if ill.

"Just as a record? No, according to our previous analysis, these historical events have a special meaning to him." Reso made a bold hypothesis, gasping from his nose, "even he was involved in it."

Everyone imagined it, and couldn't help but tremble.

What does this guy want?

"And this guy is most likely a divination master, or he has some incredible predictive ability like Roy." Cohen turned his eyes to the last line, the 1263 memorabilia that had not yet happened, "Can you predict the specific number of deaths in the war? Accurate to within a thousand people?"

Roy shook his head without changing his face, only he knew that he was not a prophet at all

"What's wrong with this world? Prophets appear frequently, and they are almost becoming popular." Lambert said in surprise, "Could it be that the end is coming soon?"

"No, this is not necessarily the prophecy of the mysterious man. Have you forgotten the magic bottle you found earlier?"

Roy reached out and waved, and a bottle cap with a cross and a nine-pointed star drilled out of his palm, "Do you think Dijing can predict the future?"

...

Everyone was stunned for a while, and then the clues in their minds were connected all at once, "The mysterious man released Di Jing and used it to make three wishes and gain insight into the future war in advance?"

"If this is true..." Lambert took a deep breath, excitement and anxiety mingled in his amber pupils, "We seem to have discovered a great secret—"

"For more than a hundred years, there has been a mysterious existence secretly observing wars and disasters, and he has also manipulated the Grandmaster of the Griffin School to serve him."

"All these inferences are based on guesswork..." Geralt stressed.

"True or false, documenting the three wars that hadn't happened in 1263...is not just for observation."

Roy's eyes were clear and he said loudly, "Think of where we are, the mysterious and hidden castle in 'Gongor Mountain', and the Nilfgaardian army gathered on the Mag Tugar Heights not far to the south. To the north, across the pass, Illenwald, is the Manada Valley."

"In the dream built by Ms. Ke Lin, Master Elan appeared in this place. My first impression...he was for—"

"Investigation!" Jielon continued in a deep voice, "Look at this line of records - it is normal to record the two basic elements of time and location, but what does that guy mean by specifically writing down the number of deaths instead of the number of participants? Could it be that? Does this number mean anything to him?"

"Master Elan, and the mysterious person behind him want to intervene in this war?" As soon as Cohen said that, he was startled.

But when everyone heard this, they couldn't help nodding at the same time.

"We had a run for it at Heinkawih," Cohen shouted, "but we know where Grandmaster Arlan will go next."

His fingers tremblingly pointed to the word on the wall - "Marnadal".

"No matter where he is, when the war breaks out, he will definitely show up near Manada!"

"Find him, find the person behind him... Confirm whether Grandmaster Aiga, Grandmaster Evil Eye, is with them!"

...

There were several heavy gasps in the hall.

"Hey, guys, calm down, calm down for me!" Lambert asked in return, "This is war, not hunting monsters and fighting swordsmanship."

"Don't say it's a witcher, even a golem of steel and iron bones will be submerged and crushed by the horse's spear!"

"You go to the battlefield to find someone, let's not say whether this inference is tenable or not, you want to die!"

It was like pouring a bucket of ice water head-on at noon in midsummer, and Roy and Lesso instantly regained their composure.

And Jielon suddenly laughed, his thin cheeks showed relief and determination, he was going to chase the answer, even if he was shattered!

"Brothers, at this point in the investigation, you have done enough for me." He bowed solemnly to everyone, "When I return to Nuocheng, I will join the Brotherhood. Command me to do my best."

"But I only have one request, I have to go to Manada," his indigo pupils looked around the crowd, his tone was unspeakably firm, "and I can only go alone."

"No, the Griffin faction has no precedent for abandoning its comrades." Cohen shook his head.

"Dude, do you want to completely cut off the inheritance of the school?" Geron stared straight at his companion, pleading with his eyes, "Or do you have the heart to leave Igsena alone to die alone?"

Cohen's face turned pale, and he was in a tangle.

"Why do I feel that you are determined to die?" Roy couldn't help shaking his head and said uncertainly, "Don't be so pessimistic, there is still... a while before the battle of Manada."

But he made no promises.

Whether to enter a war must be voted by the Witcher Brotherhood collectively.

rather than his own assertion.

"The kid is right..." Lesso emphasized, "Since the two are already members of the Brotherhood, then we must abide by the rules and regulations of the Brotherhood... Obey the collective, and return to Gawain's house to discuss. Of course, we will take extra into account. Your strong desire."

...

"I..." Jeron moved his lips.

"Dude...Leave it to us." Lambert hooked his shoulders familiarly, "Trust us, we will satisfy you and make the most suitable arrangement for the best of both worlds."

...

In the following time, everyone stayed in the castle for another two weeks, and searched it inside and out several times. Unfortunately, except for those experimental equipment, everything else was swept away. The Xiong Pai herbal decoction was not available.

They also couldn't wait for Elam.

Before returning to Gawain's House from Heinkawih, Roy used a shape-shifting crystal on Golphine, and fate made Golphine into a beautiful thrush with olive feathers.

She flew over Mount Gongor alone, passing over the heads of the black armoured cavalry with winged helmets patrolling along the ridge, and no one paid any attention to such an inconspicuous little fellow.

She flew to the south side of the Alme mountain.

Pass the picture in the eyes to the witcher.

The sun was about to set over the snow-capped mountains, and the snow-covered pine forests became dark.

The wind picked up, and the silver sun wheel flag flapped, like a school of fish jumping out of the water and leaping upstream.

A huge black shadow crawls on the Mag Tuga Heights, so large that it occupies the entire height.

Countless military tents make up its torso, 12,000 black armored infantry trained in neat squares form its limbs, and the mage battalion is its sharp eyes.

Circled around the army, the black knights make up its flying hair.

Nilfgaard just stood there quietly, it was a vicious beast waiting to choose someone to devour.