When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

A breeze blew through Horn's hair, carrying a few cool drops that landed on his neck, slowly sliding down the raised scar.

In the eerie silence, the metallic friction of Horn drawing his hand-and-a-half sword was exceptionally loud.

Looking back at Jeanne, she covered her mouth, afraid to move, but her eyes remained clear.

Thankfully, Jeanne wasn't affected. If something had happened, he could always use "Jeanne, help me."

Waiting a second and seeing that these people were still swaying slowly in the mist, Horn immediately stepped forward, approaching Jeshka. Ignoring the saying about not waking sleepwalkers, he went up and shouted loudly.

"Jeshka!"

Jeshka, who had been swaying in place as if sleepwalking, shuddered, the confusion in his eyes vanished, and he belatedly widened his eyes, cold sweat visibly forming on his forehead.

As if triggering a chain reaction, several young and strong villagers woke up.

But they weren't as calm as Jeshka, screaming "Quack, quack!" in fright.

"Quack, it's the Green Piper! Run!"

"Quack, the piper must have blown us into a stupor, probably to force us to be his slaves!"

Before Horn could say anything, Father Cosette jumped out and slapped each of the screaming villagers hard on the face: "What are you doing with such good imaginations? Don't you see the Holy Grandson and the Holy Maiden are here? What are you afraid of!"

Horn sighed softly, watching Father Cosette maintain order.

Such is the heart of a parent. Even Father Cosette, who vaguely suspected Horn was a fake Holy Grandson and was somewhat uncooperative, displayed extraordinary enthusiasm in this matter.

But it's been over a decade. Hope is slim.

Wait, Horn suddenly realized, the villagers thought it was natural that Horn wasn't controlled because he was the Holy Grandson, but he knew his own situation; he was just a fraud putting on a show.

Jeanne wasn't affected by the piper because she was the Queen of Demons, a genuine hellhound, and immune to a mere piper.

But how did he break free? Was it because he was holding Jeanne's hand?

Before Horn could figure it out, he heard someone scream again: "Hey, what are you doing? Where are you going?"

A thin, fourteen- or fifteen-year-old boy had entered the stream at some point, walking forward as if no one else was there.

In the previous screams, almost everyone who had been in a daze had awakened, but this boy showed no reaction. In the end, he simply ignored everything and walked forward.

A companion beside him tried to pull him back, but Horn stopped him: "Don't call him. Get a rope and tie it around his waist. See where he's going."

Once again grabbing Jeanne's hand, Horn whispered, "Jeanne, pay attention. If anything unusual happens, don't hesitate. Act immediately. Don't be afraid of friendly fire. This is to eliminate demons. Mother will forgive you."

Tied with a rope, the boy advanced in the stream, while Horn and the others followed on the bank.

After walking for some distance, the trees on both sides became sparser, and the terrain gradually rose. Horn and the others finally arrived at a cliff face.

The clearing in front of the cliff clearly showed signs of artificial clearing. The nearby trees had been uprooted, leaving small mounds and pits, with only a few gray-black rocks remaining.

On the cliff, vines hung like a curtain, but the dark entrance inside could still be seen through the gaps in the vines.

The melodious flute sound came from inside this entrance.

Compared to before, the flute sound was much clearer due to the proximity.

It seemed that the piper was in the cave.

Tying the entranced villager to a tree, the able-bodied men gathered in front of the cave.

"Leader Jeshka, look, rabbits!" A vagrant shouted, pointing ahead. In front of the cliff, three fluffy white rabbits were leisurely nibbling on grass.

The closest one was only seven or eight steps away.

This was too rare. They had searched the forest for more than half a day and hadn't even found rabbit droppings. Yet here was one.

Unable to suppress his excitement, the vagrant, after shouting, took out his longbow before anyone could respond and shot an arrow at the rabbit.

Opportunity knocks but once. If they ran away or burrowed into a hole, who knew when they could be caught.

"Thwack—" The sound of the bowstring still echoed in his ears. The arrow pierced the air, heading straight for the white rabbit.

The arrowhead glinted coldly, about to pierce the rabbit's soft fur and penetrate its blood vessels and heart, but in the blink of an eye, the rabbit jumped up, its powerful hind legs kicked the arrow shaft, directly deflecting the wooden arrow.

Before the crowd could express their regret, the rabbit landed and leaped up again. This time, everyone felt something was wrong.

Too fast. The speed at which the rabbit jumped was too fast. It seemed to be flying in low altitude, turning into a white light and pouncing on the archer's face.

"Ah—" A sharp scream came from the archer's mouth. He reached out to grab the rabbit's ears, but couldn't pull it away.

Curved claws extended from the delicate fur, piercing the archer's skin and flesh, clamping onto his collarbone.

The three-lobed mouth opened, and saw-toothed fangs quickly bit open the archer's throat, greedily sucking his blood.

Jeshka lightning-fast drew his bow and fired an arrow, but the rabbit gracefully stepped on the archer's chest.

Using this force, it did a backflip, not only dodging the arrow but also using its front claws to sever the archer's head.

A burst of intense bloody aura exploded, the rising blood column spraying in a figure-eight pattern, turning the water mist red.

Snow-white rabbit fur was stained with scarlet blood, forming small spikes at the ends of the fur.

At this moment, red eyes stared intently at this group of uninvited guests.

"Quack, it's a monster! Run!"

"Quack, the monster will bite us to death, probably to force our souls to be his slaves!"

"It's you two again!?"

Watching the white rabbit in front of him, Horn was not flustered. He slowly drew the long sword from his waist, raised his chin, and pointed the sword tip at it.

Seeing Horn's provocation, the rabbit's beastly face showed no expression.

Its hind legs suddenly tensed, and it leaped up again. In the blink of an eye, a white light pounced towards him.

"Holy Grandson, be careful!"

"Protect the Holy Grandson!"

The most ⊥ new ⊥ small ⊥ said ⊥ at ⊥ six ⊥ 9 ⊥⊥ book ⊥⊥ bar ⊥⊥ first ⊥ hair!

His body remained motionless, Horn smiled proudly: "Lightning, come!"

Behind Horn, a lightning bolt instantly exploded.

The lightning flashed across the sky, striking the rabbit's body hard. Bright white light flickered continuously, making the originally dim forest a bit brighter.

When everything returned to normal, the white rabbit, emitting an enticing aroma of cooked meat, had fallen to the ground, its hind legs still twitching.

Casually sheathing his sword, Horn didn't look at the fallen monster. He smoothed his hair that was ruffled by the wind: "A mere monster… Jeanne, help me!"

Two arcs of lightning flashed across the sky again, striking down the other two leaping demon rabbits.

Brushing the grass and dirt off his knees, Horn awkwardly got up from the ground.

Coughing lightly, he put on a serious face: "Jeanne, my holy maiden and knight, I order you to immediately clear away these rabbit monsters and kill these servants of the devil!"

"I obey your command, my lord."

"And you, tidy up the body of this brave archer."

"Yes, Holy Grandson."

For the next three minutes or so, lightning flashed and thunder rumbled in the clearing in front of the cliff, and the air was filled with the faint smell of ozone and cooked meat.

While Jeanne was clearing the demon rabbits, Horn was still thinking about the villager who had been lured away by the flute.

If the demon rabbits were blocking the cave entrance, there should be his body on the ground, but the footprints extended all the way to the entrance.

Why wasn't the person who was lured away by the flute attacked? Where did these demon rabbits come from? Was the piper raising these rabbits?

Temporarily putting aside these doubts, Horn walked to the eight demon rabbits that had been electrocuted.

Four large and four small, a whole family neatly emitting a faint aroma of cooked meat, causing many people's stomachs to growl.

The meat of this kind of monster is very expensive, even equivalent to gold.

Knights can accelerate the process of knight breathing by consuming this monster's flesh and blood. Wizards need this monster's flesh and blood to perform ritual magic. Even priests need this flesh and blood to refine the auxiliary materials for holy unguent.

Stepping over these murderous demon rabbits, Horn came to the cliff and looked up at the cave in front of him.

He originally wanted to use Jeanne's lightning to lure out the possible "piper," but there had been no movement from inside the cave so far.

He can really hold his breath.

The piper could hold his breath, but Father Cosette couldn't sit still.

As if afraid that he would run away, he volunteered and jumped out. After obtaining Horn's consent, he carried a pig-slaughtering knife and strode inside.

The bright, notched pig-slaughtering knife waved at the vines, and the vines at the entrance were split open, finally revealing the scene inside to everyone.

"This, this is…"

This, this is—

Everyone couldn't believe their eyes.

In the cave behind the vines, several blood-colored characters were engraved on the wall:

"Seeking Recommendation"

"Seeking Collection"