Kevira anxiously awaited news from the men he had sent out at his manor, even though Lynd had said yesterday he would resolve his troubles for him, he still didn't fully trust Lynd's abilities.
Because after Lynd left, he recovered from the shock of Lynd's reputation and regained his composure.
He himself was willing to believe that Lynd's ability was as powerful as the rumors, but he knew very well that rumors could not be fully trusted; a small achievement could be exaggerated to an unmatched degree, and he was very worried that Lynd's reputation contained such exaggerated elements.
So, in his opinion, if Lynd failed to solve his troubles, he would still need to find a way to save himself.
Therefore, the lookouts he had sent to the lower reaches of the Little Lorne River were not recalled, the hundred Unsullied ambushing around the manor did not cancel their vigilance, and the defensive arrangements in the Water Fortress also remained unchanged; he even did not heed Lynd's instructions to disperse the guards in the manor.
Afterward, for a day and a night, nothing happened; the downstream lookouts reported back regularly, stating that they had not seen Uda U's boat sailing upstream, and the people on the shore had not found any abnormalities, which made him vaguely believe Lynd's words, but he still had no intention of following Lynd's instructions to retrieve Uda U's body from the lower reaches of the Little Lorne River.
Instead, before dawn, he very cautiously sent out a subordinate to check the situation downstream.
As it gradually brightened, a pole boat quickly sailed from the direction of the lower reaches of the Little Lorne River, landed near the Water Fortress, and quickly ran towards Kevira's manor.
The guards on the road, seeing the approaching person, all asked the same question in unison: "What's the situation with White Skull Udau?"
However, the man said nothing; he ran through the guards in the manor, all the way to the entrance of the hall where Kevira was, and then, panting, he shouted loudly, "Dead! They are all dead."
"Uda U and his cannibal skeletons are all dead?" Kevira immediately stepped forward and asked anxiously.
"All dead!" The man gasped, "They all froze to death."
Hearing this, Kevira was completely stunned and couldn't help but ask, "Frozen to death? What does that mean?"
"It's, it's, it's frozen to death, it's frozen to death in ice and snow..." The subordinate didn't know how to describe it for a moment, so he could only anxiously gesticulate while explaining with the limited vocabulary in his mind.
Kevira understood what his subordinate wanted to express, but he found it somewhat absurd; although the environment of the Velvet Hills was not as hot as the coastal areas, there shouldn't be icy or snowy weather, considering it had been years since snow had been seen here.
However, Lynd quickly came to his mind, along with Lynd's words; after a slight hesitation, he immediately gathered his subordinates, leaving a hundred men to guard the Water Fortress, and taking nearly two hundred men, led by his subordinate, rushed towards Uda U's camp.
However, before they even reached the location, the ice- and snow-covered trees on the riverbank already made them feel that something was unusual.
As the boats continued downstream, they soon had to pull ashore because the river was covered by a layer of ice; although some of the ice had already broken into chunks, it still completely blocked the river, making it impossible for boats to navigate.
After landing, guided by the earlier scout, the group followed the riverbank to the junction of the Little Lorne River and the Upper Lorne River; Kevira remembered there was a spacious river beach here, and he figured Uda U should be stationed there.
When they arrived near the river beach, although they were mentally prepared, everything before their eyes still made them gasp.
From the pole boats frozen on the river and the people on board, hundreds of Uda U's strong cannibal skeletons were frozen into ice sculptures standing there; their fear was clearly etched on their faces at the moment of death, preserved by the ice sculptures, allowing anyone who saw them to clearly feel their desperate fear at that time.
Uda U's ice sculpture stood out particularly among a group of suicidal corpse ice sculptures; he held his hand high, mouth open as if shouting something, and several fingers were missing from his right hand, looking as if something had been broken off and removed from his palm.
Seeing everything before him, Lynd immediately came to Kevira's mind, because besides Lynd, he couldn't think of anyone else who would help him solve such a big problem in this manner.
At the same time, he had already understood that the legends about Lynd were true; Lynd truly possessed abilities like a god.
At this moment, he also thought of the conditions he had agreed to with Lynd; originally, he had felt that Lynd was taking advantage of his predicament, but now it seemed that this might be the most correct choice he had ever made in his life.
At this point, he thought of the other two troubles, and couldn't help but take out the iron coin Lynd had given him and look at it in his hand, feeling that this iron coin should be able to save him from the Faceless Men, just as Lynd had said.
And just as Kevira took out the iron coin, he did not notice that his personal guard beside him was looking at the iron coin, and a slight look of surprise appeared on his face.
On the other side, after dealing with the river pirate Uda U yesterday, Lynd returned to his small boat, using telekinesis to propel the boat along the waterway of the Upper Lorne River, heading towards the northern edge of the Velvet Hills.
According to the intelligence provided by Kevira, the group of Dothraki who often roamed between Norvos and Kohor were currently encamped near the Bottomless Abyss on the edge of the Velvet Hills.
Because he only knew a general area and not the exact location, Lynd disembarked near the Valyrian Road arch bridge and searched for a day and a night before finding the Bottomless Abyss that Kevira spoke of.
This deep pool was near a canyon, surrounded by a ring of pillars, and a lone female sphinx statue stood beside it; from the marks on the grass next to this sphinx statue, it could be seen that there should have been another sphinx statue here, presumably a male.
On the edge of the deep pool, there were about five hundred Dothraki warriors camped, all adult men, without any old, weak, sick, or disabled, and no wagons or other supplies; moreover, all of their braids had been cut off.
After seeing these Dothraki, Lynd had originally intended to deal with them using dense fog and the Ice Dragon Rune, just as he had dealt with the river pirates yesterday, leaving only one or two alive.
However, before he acted, he suddenly discovered that among this group of Dothraki, there was also a person dressed in Archmaester robes who was recording the runes on the stone pillars by the deep pool; judging by the Dothraki's attitude towards this Archmaester, it was clear that this Archmaester was not their captive, but rather a guest of special status.
Lynd couldn't help but be curious about the identity of this Archmaester, as someone capable of being treated as an equal by a group of Dothraki was certainly no ordinary small fry.
So, Lynd changed his strategy, walking directly down from the hillside where he had been observing these Dothraki, and along the path towards the group of Dothraki.
Lynd was quickly discovered by this group of Dothraki; they found nothing unusual about Lynd, the only extraordinary thing was that he wore two knight's Greatswords, and this kind of mercenary attire was not uncommon now.
Since Lynd's rise, many mercenaries have dressed like this, fantasizing about becoming the second Lynd, but ultimately such people have died in various battles due to using inappropriate weapons, so among mercenaries, those who equip two Lost Knights Greatswords are mocked as fools.
These Dothraki obviously also thought Lynd was such a fool; they didn't care about Lynd's approach, nor did they think of attacking Lynd, not because they were so kind, but because in their eyes, Lynd was already in their pocket; when they left, they would capture him and sell him to slave traders or mine owners, which would be an extra small income.
The undisguised malice in the eyes of these Dothraki was naturally seen by Lynd; they held ill will towards him, and he likewise held no good intentions towards them; as he walked down the hillside, he had already crushed several wax balls of sleeping powder, and controlled the breeze to bind these powders around his body, gradually spreading them towards the Dothraki as he moved.
When Lynd walked up to the nearest Dothraki, that Dothraki raised the scimitar in his hand and was about to ask Lynd's origin when a dizzying sensation rushed to his head, followed by his vision going black, and he slumped onto his horse, fast asleep.
At the same time, not only this Dothraki, but also the Dothraki behind him fell down in swathes.
This abnormal situation naturally attracted the attention of the other Dothraki; they completely didn't understand what was happening, shouting some words in Dothraki that Lynd couldn't understand in terror, while jumping onto their warhorses, wanting to escape.
However, it was already too late for them; at the moment Lynd walked towards them, the powder had already blown over their heads with the breeze and been inhaled into their bodies.
One by one, they fell unconscious not far after running, tumbling from their bumpy horses and falling heavily to the ground; some even broke their necks and still didn't wake up.
Soon, all the Dothraki lay unconscious on the ground, with only Lynd and the Archmaester by the pond's stone pillars still standing.
What surprised Lynd was that when the Archmaester saw so many Dothraki fall to the ground as if dead, he not only showed no fear or fright, but instead appeared very excited, and his gaze towards Lynd was extremely agitated, as if he had seen a long-lost friend, yet Lynd was certain he had never seen this Archmaester before.
This Archmaester was short and stout, with a thick neck, looking more like a farmer or a blacksmith than an Archmaester; his appearance was also somewhat ugly, his nose had been broken and not corrected, so it was completely crooked to one side, and white hair sprouted from his ears and nose, making him look somewhat comical.
Compared to his appearance, the silver and Valyrian steel necklace he wore around his neck was quite striking, especially after seeing this Valyrian steel necklace, Lynd suddenly thought of someone.
So, he walked up to the Archmaester and tentatively asked, "Excuse me, are you Archmaester Marwyn?"
"Yes." The short, stout Archmaester nodded, then bowed to Lynd and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Divine Chosen One Linde Terra."
"You know me?" Lynd asked doubtfully.
Archmaester Marwyn pointed to the unconscious Dothraki around them and said, "The power that made all these Dothraki fall unconscious, I suppose it must be some kind of magic, and as far as I know, you are the only one in the entire world who can freely use magical power; even the Shadowbinders, wizards, and sorcerers of Asshai don't have your ability."
Lynd once again sized up this Archmaester whom he had sought for a long time.
Years ago, Lynd had inquired about Archmaester Marwyn with Moroa and Qyburn; he had originally wanted to recruit Archmaester Marwyn to join Black Hollow and research various mystical knowledge with Moroa and Qyburn.
However, Marwyn had already gone to the continent of Essos at that time, constantly roaming ancient ruins in the inland wilderness, rarely approaching coastal port cities, which meant the Miracle Merchant Guild had never received any news of him.
What Lynd didn't expect was that he would meet Marwyn here, in this manner.
Marwyn's research into magic and other mystical knowledge could be said to be the foremost in the Citadel; even Moroa spoke highly of him, and believed that Marwyn's talent in researching ancient mysticism was far superior to hers.
When researching the sacrifice stone tablet, she had also mentioned more than once that if Marwyn had joined, their research progress on the sacrifice stone tablet might have accelerated several times over.
Additionally, Moroa had also mentioned that the reason Marwyn left the Citadel and went to the continent of Essos was actually related to her; she had once invited Marwyn to jointly study the mystical knowledge collected by her Hightower family in the Hightower, and Marwyn had gladly accepted.
However, after some time of research, a disagreement arose between them; Marwyn believed that the mystical knowledge collected by the Hightower family had been artificially tampered with, and therefore the Hightower family had been researching in the wrong direction from the very beginning, never gaining any magical abilities from this mystical knowledge.
He believed that truly valuable mystical knowledge should be found in ancient ruins, and he felt that the knowledge from those ruins was worth studying and could grant him magical power; so, he abandoned his research into existing mystical knowledge and turned to studying various ancient civilizations; finally, after completing all related books in the Citadel, he resolutely left the Citadel and went to the continent of Essos.
It now seems that Marwyn's words have some truth; among the various magic-infused items produced by Black Hollow, the vast majority are related to the ancient sacrifice stone tablet.
But he also made one mistake: the best research subject had actually been right before his eyes all along; he didn't need to go to the continent of Essos to search for ancient ruins, he could have just studied the Hightower, but he didn't possess eyes like Lynd's that could see the magic runes of the Hightower.
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