Herag glanced at the spot Robert was pointing to, right at the valley entrance, at the mouth of the One-Line Sky Canyon.
"Why did they die?" Herag pondered over this question, not rushing to go inside.
The squirrel’s cry just now bothered him; animals usually have very sharp senses, and that was a warning cry.
Of course, it could also be warning its companions of these two outsiders.
"Shenlan, check if there’s anything unusual around." To be cautious, Herag had Shenlan perform a comprehensive scan of the surroundings.
"No anomalies detected."
"No Magic Power flow detected."
"No Magic Power residue detected."
Herag scrutinized Shenlan’s detection results; everything appeared normal.
He glanced at the valley and took a step inside.
Nothing unusual, and nothing happened.
Herag closed his eyes to sense, finding the free Energy Particles around were very normal, with no special fluctuations or flows.
The light in the Heaven’s Edge was relatively dim. The cliffside at the roadside was somewhat damp, with water flowing down in some places.
Herag followed the mountain road, quickly passing through the canyon area of the One-Line Sky Canyon, finding the view ahead wide open.
A small town sat on a distant hillside with wooden houses quietly nestled among the mountains, occasionally seeing people walking by.
The town entrance had a small tavern. When Herag entered, there weren’t many people inside, only three people split between two tables, with Butter Beer on the tables.
As Herag and Robert entered, the tavern, which had been filled with conversation, quieted down.
The two sitting together looked like hunters, while the man sitting alone seemed like a blacksmith from his clothes.
When the two hunters saw Herag and Robert, they frowned, appearing wary of them.
The two picked up their glasses and drained their Butter Beer in one go, then left without saying a word.
The blacksmith glanced at the two of them, smiled, and took a sip of beer. ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ noⅴelfire.net
His glass still had more than half full, indicating he wasn’t planning to leave soon.
Herag went over and smiled, "Mind if we share a table?"
The blacksmith was a Big Beard uncle, he laughed, "Of course not, you’re new faces here. Are you here for business?"
Herag pulled out a chair and sat down, telling the bartender, "Two Butter Beers, please."
After ordering, he turned back to the Blacksmith Uncle and said, "I won’t beat around the bush. I’d like to ask if you know about a death on the mountain road outside, around two months ago."
"Two months ago?" The Blacksmith Uncle stroked his beard thoughtfully, "No, I don’t think so. This is a small place. If someone died, we locals would surely know, but I haven’t heard of such a thing."
He took a sip of beer and continued, "This place is usually very peaceful, rarely any murders. There aren’t many people here, connections are simple, and as far as I know, there’s seldom deep hatred."
The beer Herag ordered soon arrived, two large, full mugs.
He wasn’t accustomed to it at first, but got used to it after drinking more, mainly because there weren’t many options.
After taking a sip, Herag said, "Hmm, we just heard about it, so we came to ask."
The Blacksmith Uncle realized, "I see, then the news must be wrong. You know how it is, some stories drift far and deviate from the truth."
"Hmm, we’ll ask elsewhere later," Herag nodded.
The Blacksmith Uncle continued, "You must be from the Storm City investigation team, I guess you came to investigate after hearing about a murder. You’ll likely be making a trip for nothing. I’ve been here for years; there couldn’t have been a murder without me knowing."
"Investigation team? Storm City no longer has such an organization. Now it’s the Adventurers’ Association handling these matters," Robert interjected.
The Blacksmith Uncle said in confusion, "Adventurers’ Association? It seems I’ve fallen behind on the news, hahaha."
He laughed, taking a big gulp of beer, exhaling contentedly.
After chatting with the Blacksmith Uncle for a while, not gaining any valuable information, Herag paid the bill and prepared to leave the tavern.
"Thanks!" the Blacksmith Uncle thanked from behind. Herag also covered his share of the beer.
Herag pushed open the tavern door and found it had already turned dark outside.
This place had no street lights, so except for some houses in the distance with their lights on, the roads were completely dark.
"Robert, have we been inside for that long? If I remember correctly, it was only afternoon when we entered." Herag noticed something was off.
He got no response from behind, and when he turned around, Robert, who had followed him out, was gone.
Herag turned back into the tavern. The lights were still on, the Butter Beer on the tables remained, still bubbling.
But there was no one inside the tavern.
The Blacksmith Uncle was gone, and so was the tavern owner.
Herag checked around with Shenlan’s feedback, the entire tavern was empty, deathly quiet without a sound.
Picking up a Butter Beer mug, Herag found nothing unusual; the Butter Beer seemed normal with nothing strange about it.
Taking a deep breath, Herag walked out of the tavern.
Lights still glowed on distant houses, and silhouettes could be seen behind the windows.
Stumbling in the dark, he headed towards a house; it seemed there was more than one person inside.
Reaching the door, he faintly heard conversation and a woman’s laughter inside, as if an old couple were whispering at night.
He knocked on the door, and instantly, it fell silent, a deathly stillness.
No one questioned him, and no one came to the door.
Herag’s knocking seemed to have pressed a pause button on the world, and the people inside seemed frozen, without making a sound.
After a while, he heard the dull sound of something being dragged behind the door, and the harsh noise of a hard object scraping the ground.
A muffled sound suddenly erupted, Herag listened intently and it sounded like an axe hacking into flesh.
The sound of the axe swings had a rhythm, slow and steady, reminding Herag of butchers slaughtering livestock.
The door suddenly shivered, something behind it seemed to be violently battering it.
The whole house started shaking; whatever was behind the door was clearly accelerating its assault, desperately trying to break out.
The door’s quality was unexpectedly high, the entire house trembled from the pounding, yet the door remained unmoved.
If it were an ordinary wooden door, it might have shattered in one or two hits.
Herag felt a foreboding premonition, sensing a strong danger behind the door.
Instinctively, this thought surfaced, and he quickened his pace to leave the house.