Joel had been in the stables of the corner tavern for a morning, because Anthony had brought him a carriage early in the morning, and there were two horses pulling it, one was a docile but slightly small as a pack horse, and the other was an old horse with a mixed hair, and one eye was blind. However, Joel had nothing to be picky about now, and he was even a little happy. He could take Hermi and Simoken away from this place of trouble, which made him feel that he could finally put down his burden.

But what will happen in the future? Joel couldn't explain it clearly, and he was uneasy, but no matter what, there was nothing more uneasy than staying in Golden Falls. Although winter had come and the cold wind was blowing, fortunately, the horse's hooves of the Snow Baron had not yet stepped onto this land. Joel could reach the southern border through the Wind Valley Pass before the winter snow came, and the winter there was much milder than the north.

Anthony told Joel that he was assisting the Ghost Sword Brigade - the group of women wearing red and blue cloaks - to investigate the matters about the wizard, assassin and curse, so he might delay the matters about going south, but at least he helped Joel find the carriage. He said that he would buy good supplies for Joel tomorrow at the latest, and he could take Simoken and Hemi away from Golden Falls. Although Anthony had the intention to keep him, he did not say it. He just smiled and patted Hemi's head, "You can go to Sentinel Town first, and I will go to you immediately after I finish the matter here."

"Are you planning to travel with us in the future?" Alps was a little surprised by Anthony's decision.

"That's right, you are also a member of my 'learning'!" Anthony joked, "And after this incident, Golden Falls may be in a state of full restoration, and I can't help if I stay here."

"It's good," Alps nodded, then looked at Lianda beside him, "Did you hear that? Anthony is going to the south with us. Are you really not going to stay and help him?"

Lianda looked at the Alps and then at Anthony. Her hesitant look made Anthony laugh and cry. "If you want to go, go, you can't help much in Golden Falls! I guess you will have to be swallowed by them every turn when you face the monsters!" Anthony said with a wry smile.

The hot-tempered Lianda was rarely talked back. She thought for a moment and then replied seriously: "If the opponent is human, it's okay, but even if I do, I can't guarantee that Xiao An can be unscathed."

"What is Xiao An?! Don't give me nicknames!" After Anthony said that, he smiled and said goodbye to them and left.

Joel borrowed buckets and rags from the tavern owner, then cleaned the carriage carefully, then spread dry straw inside, and waited for Anthony to help buy food and blankets and put them in. But Joel was a little uneasy when he looked at the carriage, because it was just the most common carriage on the roof and could not resist arrows at all. What if he met a robber in the Valley of Wind?

Just as Joel was thinking, the old man's ghost appeared behind Joel in silent steps. The horses in the stable began to feel uneasy. Joel knew that he was coming when he felt a cold.

"Is there something wrong?" Joel turned around and looked at the old ghost. When he first saw this old man in the underground castle, Joel did not realize that he was a ghost at first, but now in the pale sun at noon in winter, the old man stood there like a black shadow, and he felt a little unreal at first glance. He was not tall, and if he saw him from a distance, it would really make people feel a sense of terrifying that his heart suddenly contracted. Fortunately, Joel was almost used to it.

"Are you really going to take her away?" the old man asked again. This was his third time asking Joel. Every time Joel had the urge to draw his sword.

"How did I answer you last time?" Joel asked impatiently, then he turned around and walked to the little mare to calm his emotions.

"This will be an unprecedented good opportunity! This can make her reborn!" the old man said excitedly.

"No." Joel said coldly. She didn't need to be reborn. She was enough for herself. "Don't ask this question anymore, otherwise I will really find a way to expel ghosts to deal with you."

The old man fell silent for a moment, and finally when Joel thought he had left, he asked in confusion: "What are you afraid of?"

Losing her. Joel replied subconsciously.

"What are you afraid of?" In order to hide your emotions, Joel turned around and asked in anger, "What are you afraid of? The mercenaries in the city are staring at my head, wanting to exchange it for money! The guards are wanting me, and those damn monsters will break through the city gate outside the city wall and kill into the city at any time! What kind of damn wizard and assassin is there now? You are still asking what I am afraid of?"

"Witch and Assassin? What is that?" the old man asked in confusion.

Joel paused, and suddenly remembered that when he heard about the "wizard and assassin" from the woman named Meka, he planned to ask the ghost if he knew anything. Anyway, the more information, the better. As Joel thought so, he answered the old man's gaze: "A villain who appears in the city can extinguish all the fire in a hall in an instant, and it can turn into smoke and disappear."

"Are you sure this is a wizard?" The old man frowned, and the wrinkles on his face also touched. "I think this is more like a 'devil'."

The legend about "devil" has always existed. It is not a race. It is just an independent existence. No legend tells its origin and origin. It suddenly appears like a shadow in the song of the bard. People even doubt its existence and think it is just a fantasy of singers after drinking. However, scholars firmly believe that it exists and claim that it has terrifying power. Some even think that it is a lost god. When people argue endlessly, it disappears like the fictional characters in the story without a trace.

"I'm sure that's what they told me," Joel replied.

"It is impossible for people to turn into smoke." The old man said affirmatively.

Joel nodded and asked again, "So what about extinguishing the fire? A wizard can still do such a thing, right?"

"If it is to call for a rude wind, or to raise the alchemy smoke that can extinguish the flames, it can be done." The old man nodded, then raised his eyes and looked at Joel, "or..."

"What?" Joel felt a little uneasy at the old man's gaze.

"Or the assassin used some kind of evil and ancient prayer." The old man's voice became gloomy, as if he had become consistent with his identity.

"Pray that it can extinguish the fire?" Joel scoffed at it.

"Prayer can ignite the fire, why can't we extinguish the fire?"

The old man's words reminded him of the time when he was deep in the snow field, Ximoken sang a hymn and lit a torch, leading them out of the darkness. Every time he recalled that scene, Joel felt unbelievable, but this time, he felt uneasy.

"Pray to the Lord of the Fire to ignite the fire, so which god can pray to extinguish the flame?" Joel asked in confusion as he looked at the old man.

"He is not praying to the gods," the old man replied in a low voice, "but to the darkness."

...

"Brother Beggars?!" Anthony's eyes widened, "What's the matter with the Brother Beggars?"

He had heard of the organization, and he had learned about it well when he was heading north and passing through Sentinel Town, but he had never heard of any connection between the Beggar Brotherhood and the Wizards.

"You don't know this, right?" Varin said and looked around. "I'm so tight-lipped about this information to a customer. I'll tell you this time!"

Looking at his eyes, Anthony took out a silver coin from his arms impatiently and slapped it on the four silver coins that had been folded. Walin nodded with satisfaction, "I will definitely not sell such news like this, but after all, the Golden Waterfall City may be almost finished. If it expires in your hand, it will be a loss." As he said that, Walin picked up the wine glass and took another sip.

Anthony asked patiently: "You just said that the Beggar Brotherhood is related to the wizards in Golden Falls. What's going on?"

"Hehe, don't worry, man, listen to me slowly." Walin cleared his throat, put his head forward, and said in a voice that only he and Anthony could hear, "What kind of organization is this Beggar Brotherhood? Naturally, I won't say more than me, right?" He saw Anthony nodding and continued, "Although the Beggar Brotherhood is in Sentinel Town, its origin is in Golden Falls."

"Oh?" This is the first time Anthony has heard this secret. In "Adam", a lot of intelligence is hidden. Only after staying in the local area for a while and having to investigate it may you know it. However, because the time and energy required to obtain intelligence and the risk of "in the end, you may get information that you don't need." Most players are more willing to look for intelligence dealers, and the intelligence dealers who have mastered the "secrets" are even more popular, because these "secrets" often hide some important information related to the plot, so players who explore the plot are happy to pay for the "secrets".

"The reason why the Beggar Brotherhood claims to be a 'beggar' is because they think they have the bloodline of the 'beggar King' Renn." After seeing Anthony's expression, Varin smiled with satisfaction, and continued, "It is said that when the Beggar King Renn went to Jinshui City through Sentinel Town, he took away a lover. The lover finally gave birth to a illegitimate son of the beggar King in Jinshui City. The bloodline of this illegitimate son has been passed down to this day and has become the Beggar Brotherhood. At least that's what they say."

"This is very interesting," Anthony nodded, "so how does this beggar brotherhood have something to do with the wizard?"

"I got information from a colleague while in Sentinel Town," Walin lowered his voice again. "He said that the Beggar Brotherhood has been making some shameful things recently."

"What?"

"They seemed to be holding some ritual in secret, but my colleagues assured me that it was not a ritual to worship any god. He said that even the terrifying gods would angrily drop their wrath when they saw that kind of ritual." The thing that Valin whispered made Anthony raise his eyebrows.

"Cult rituals?!" Anthony had heard of this before, but he had never seen it true, because many times this news was just a misinformation. Some people regarded the sacrificial rituals of terrifying gods as cult rituals, and spread rumors. Many people on the continent of Adam believe that there are unknown cults in the dark corners. They worship not any gods on the canopy of the world, and they can't even count as gods. But this is just a legend, because no one has really seen the so-called cult rituals and cultists.

So Anthony was half-believing about the news about Warrin. "So what does this have to do with Golden Falls?"

"Hmph, man, don't hide it from me now. Judging from your appearance, you probably know some inside information?" Varin nodded when he saw Anthony not speaking, "It seems that I guessed it. I will only ask you one thing, is there something really wrong with the Duke's daughter?"

Anthony hesitated for a moment, then looked at the people around him, and finally tapped his chin quietly.

"Then I'm sure that this 'wizard and assassin' incident is definitely not related to this beggar brotherhood." Walin said with a serious expression. Although he is a cunning speculator, his way of thinking about problems made Anthony feel that he is more like a detective or scholar. "As I just said, Golden Waterfalls is the origin of the Beggar Brotherhood, and it is natural that they have their own power here. The beggars, taverns, scams, prostitutes, and even the Black Tree Party in the city may be a member of the Beggar Brotherhood."

"The day after the Duke's banquet appeared, a rumor appeared in the city."

Anthony nodded: "Saying the Duke's daughter committed adultery with the devil, so the disaster brought to King Falls."

"Yes, I was very confused about this. I asked my colleagues who came out of the city. They had never received any news about the youngest daughter of the Duke of Golden Waters - this was strange in itself. When rumors spread, there was no news about the people slandered by the rumor. Since then, I felt that things were not simple, but the focus of the matter was not here, but 'Who spread the rumor?' If it were just the assassination of the Duke of Golden Waters, most people would not think that his daughter would have any accidents, and the rumor pointed all the fingers at her."

"This rumor is obviously opposite to the Duke of Golden Falls. Whether it is its meaning or the people who spread it, it must be done by those who are hostile to the Duke of Golden Falls."

"Because no one will offend such a harsh lord for no reason, then the question arises: what is the motivation of the person who spreads rumors? And who is the easiest thing to do?"

"So I came to the following conclusion: the person who spreads the rumors is in the hostile face of the Duke of Jin Falls, and at this moment he is also in the hostile face of him, so there are two possibilities. The first is 'the two forces are on the same side', and the second is 'they are not the same group but are all enemies of the Duke of Jin Falls'; and the second question is, among the organizations I know, the easiest and most capable of spreading this rumor is naturally the Beggar Brotherhood."

"Thinking of the information I got from Sentinel Town, 'The Beggar Brotherhood has a connection with a certain cult ritual', I infer that there must be some connection between this wizard and the Beggar Brotherhood! They may even be in the same group."

"Excellent!" Anthony couldn't help but exclaim. He almost wanted to clap his hands, but he endured it anyway.

"Hmph, how about it? Is this information worth adding some more money?" Walin suddenly showed a cunning face, completely different from the rational appearance he had when he was reasoning just now, as if he had changed his other person.

"Yes, it's really worth it." As Anthony reached out to put his hand in his pocket and took out another silver coin, while Varin smiled and reached out to take all the silver coins on Anthony's table.

"Hey, man, this amount of money is usually not enough to buy a quarter of the information I just had. But I like you very much, so I just thought it was a favor for you," he said, and picked up a cup of silver coin and bit it. "You must remember it for me."

After hearing this, Anthony couldn't help but shake his head and smiled, "I'll do my best."

As he said that, Varin shouted that Uncle Ryan came over, and then the two of them settled the accounts loudly, and they almost started to argue. Just as they were spitting against each other, Anthony immediately calmed down and began to sort out the information they had just obtained.

To be honest, the information he received this time was a bit unexpected. He had never expected that the Beggar Brotherhood, far away in Sentinel Town, had contact with the wizard and assassin in Golden Falls, and the situation was far more dangerous than he expected. The strength of the Beggar Brotherhood lies in its pervasiveness. In Sentinel Town, half of the ten people may be their members. Although he didn't know how in Golden Falls was, if this matter involved the Beggar Brotherhood, Anthony felt that he might have been under their surveillance long ago.

He looked up and looked around. Although this was a mercenary camp, there were many NPCs coming and going. He even felt a little nervous that someone was looking at him in the dark.

Anthony stood up silently and had to go back immediately to tell Meka the information he had received.

"I'm leaving now." Uncle Ryan stopped arguing with Varin when he saw him stand up.

"Well, something is wrong," Anthony said with a smile, then took out two copper plates from his bag and placed them on the table, and hurriedly left.

"It looks quite busy." Uncle Ryan said as he picked up two copper plates.

"Hmm?" Then he looked up and saw Anthony walking back quickly.

"Did you forget what you have?" Walin asked with a treacherous smile.

"You look pretty good at fighting," Anthony said to Varin, the cunning mercenary showed a confused look for the first time. Then Anthony took out a small purse from his arms and threw it to him, "When I was a bodyguard for a while, this was a deposit, and I would pay you another part after the matter was done."

Varin took the purse, weighed it, and then smirked and stuffed it into the pocket of his cape, "I like generous customers."

"Especially clients who are as brainy as I am, and who are generous at the same time."
Chapter completed!