I, Guinevere, am going to crush you, you curry stick, today!

As they walked, they gradually veered off the main road, and the path became rugged and difficult. The stretcher was put down halfway, and Stout carried his injured brother instead. For Stout, who was most skilled at moving in the mountains, this was a piece of cake and not difficult at all. However, Percival stayed by his side without leaving for a moment, his face full of worry, afraid that he would not be able to help in time if something unexpected happened.

Compared to his overly unrestrained father, this boy in his early teens seemed much more well-behaved. Since the group met, he had hardly uttered a word, but it didn't seem like he was unwilling to speak because he was bothered by being followed earlier. Perhaps... he simply didn't know what to say.

If they weren't still relatively unfamiliar with each other, Guinevere would have loved to pat him on the shoulder and say, "Your quiet, shy demeanor is quite reminiscent of my younger self." Of course, this was just a thought. She followed behind Perinoa, occasionally reaching out to steady Nemia if she might stumble, but her gaze remained fixed on the swaying golden ponytail, as if she wanted to protest with her eyes against his earlier "shameless" betrayal of his teammate.

But it clearly had no effect.

As they moved forward, the eerie roar, like the barking of dozens of rabid dogs, grew louder and louder.

"What is that sound...it's really unsettling."

Thanks to her keen intuition, Lily was most sensitive to the malice contained in the roar. As she got closer, the negative emotion seemed to solidify, causing her to feel a slight, needle-like pain. The sensation was so realistic that she raised her hand and gently pressed it against her cheek a few times, only to breathe a sigh of relief when she found no blood.

"Is that the cry of the Water-Seeking Beast?" Guinevere asked the old man. Of all those present, Perinoa was the most knowledgeable in this regard. He continued walking, stepping through the rubble, and shook his head: "You could say that, and you could say that it isn't."

After what could hardly be called an answer, the old man didn't keep the crowd in suspense. He paused for a moment, then continued, "The so-called Water-Seeking Beast is simply a nickname given to it because people always find its tracks near water sources. Among scholars and druids, it's more common to call this creature 'Avank'—the Beast of Unpredictable Change."

“The juvenile and adult Avank are vastly different, almost like two different creatures. For the first two to three years after birth, it looks like a giant beaver. At this time, the Avank is docile and harmless. Because it is very timid, it rarely appears in front of other animals, but hides deep in the wilderness where no one lives all year round.”

“Young Avangards feed on poisons and harmful substances. Whether it is poisonous snakes and insects, polluted water, or even ‘disease’ itself, they can absorb it in some way and purify it within their bodies. Because of this unique habit, some people would deliberately capture young Avangards and sell them to others in need for a high price. It is said that hundreds of years ago, Druids even raised Avangards like cattle and sheep.”

“It sounds like the Waterseeker… the Avank is not only harmless, but actually a benevolent beast that benefits humans.” Lily tilted her head. “But if that’s the case, could it be that the legend of it appearing during a plague outbreak is simply to find food?”

"That's one possibility. If you're lucky enough to see an Avank that looks like a beaver near a village in the future, it means that a plague, or some kind of curse that's even more terrifying than a plague, is about to break out and spread, and it has sensed this and is coming to fill its stomach. But in most cases, the Avanks that come with the plague are already adults."

“An adult Avank?” Guinevere repeated.

Perinoa nodded: "Sometime between the ages of three and five, this creature begins to 'transform.' Aside from sleeping, it spends all its time hunting, frantically absorbing all sorts of impurities without purifying them, storing these toxins in a certain part of its body. Once the toxins have accumulated to their maximum, the Avank will find a sufficiently large reservoir—most often a lake, but sometimes it will choose to dive directly into the sea, immersing itself completely in the water and entering a state similar to slumber."

"During this time, Avank will slowly transform into the form you just described: a snake's neck, a leopard's body, a lion's rump, and deer hooves. Meanwhile, some of the deadly poison accumulated in its body will be absorbed and transformed, while the rest will be expelled when it completes its growth and awakens. If it's in a sufficiently distant ocean, it won't have much of an impact; at most, the surrounding fish will suffer. But if it chooses a lake as its transformation location—"

The old man paused at this point.

Upon realizing the possibility described in the words, everyone present was momentarily stunned.

"The entire lake will turn into poisonous water..."

“It’s not that simple.” Hearing Lily’s murmurs, Perinoa turned around. In the darkness, his gaze was quite solemn. “The poison will spread continuously with the water, the wind, and with people and animals that come into contact with it. If it is not detected in time, it can cause a tragedy that turns a country into a wasteland and kills hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of people in just three to five days.”

"And this roar is the prelude to Avank's imminent completion of his transformation and awakening from his six-month-long slumber."

As they spoke, the atmosphere gradually became oppressive. When the mountain breeze blew in, it seemed to be carrying damp moisture. The group had already guessed what was going on, and they exchanged glances, their moods slightly somber. Even the youngest girl, Nimiao, seemed to sense something. She looked at the two girls she was closest to and, contrary to her usual behavior, also fell silent.

"really."

When the elderly man at the front stopped, the view suddenly opened up, and Guinevere couldn't help but take a soft breath—before they came into view was a vast and clear lake. Hidden by mountains, the lake was located in a blind spot; if it weren't for Perinoa leading the way, they might not have been able to discover its existence from other angles.

The moonlight was as white as frost.

Corresponding to the bright moon in the sky, a crescent moon floated on the lake's surface. Ripples spread outwards, and in the very center of the lake, a huge beaver floated quietly, belly up, revealing its four short legs, motionless as if asleep—it was over two meters long, plump, and covered in long, curly, dark brown fur. At first glance, it resembled a tumbleweed, its bright fur appearing very soft.

With slow, long breaths, the "beaver's" body rose and fell in the water, each movement causing ripples to spread outwards. As the ripples spread, from its round belly, the howls of dozens of rabid dogs rang out once again.

As the distance closed, the sound became like thunder. As soon as it rang out, the unprepared crowd was stunned and their ears rang. Only Perinoa had anticipated this and skillfully plugged his ears beforehand.

Nimiao's little mouth twitched, and she was almost about to cry, but suddenly a hand reached out from the side and covered her mouth.

The girl looked up.

Seeing that Percival also looked distressed, but instead of covering his ears, he put one hand to his lips, his ears ringing and he couldn't hear anything clearly. He didn't speak, but just shook his head at her, then released his hands, pointed at Perinoa, and then made the gesture of covering his ears again. The girl was stunned for a moment, then followed suit, looked at the boy, and suddenly laughed.

"Thanks--"

She mouthed it.

Percival blushed and turned his head away again.

……

P.S.: It's the beginning of the month, please recommend and vote with monthly tickets~ I'll see if I can update another chapter later? (￣△￣?) (?￣△￣)?

Chapter 89 A Familiar Name

After the roar subsided, silence returned, the wind whistled, and the moonlight shone brightly. Guinevere gazed at the "Great Beaver," its belly exposed, fast asleep in the center of the lake, and couldn't help but swallow hard: "This is..."

She subconsciously lowered her voice, as if afraid that if she made a sound, she would wake the other person from their sleep.

"Avank".

Perinoa's voice, however, remained as loud and penetrating as ever. He pointed to the lake: "Don't worry, it's like a newborn baby right now, it can't see or hear anything. Otherwise, the noise of my arrow just now would have woken it up hundreds of times already."

“That makes sense.” The girl patted her chest, letting out a small sigh of relief. “So… Sir, the reason you blocked Plymouth’s path and wouldn’t let anyone else pass was also because of this water-seeking beast?”

Perhaps because the barking of dogs at close range had been so overwhelming, the silence seemed all the more profound now. The old man crossed his arms and said, "If we drive one person away now, we might have one less obstacle in the future. As for those guys who have some skills and can beat me in some way, they probably won't die from a mere plague. If they do die... well, they deserve it!"

He pursed his lips, chuckled, and said, "I happened to be passing through here about two weeks ago and stumbled upon this thing undergoing its transformation. As far as I know, besides Plymouth, seven or eight other villages nearby draw their daily water from this lake. Once it awakens, the lake will be polluted, and at least several hundred people will fall ill and die. And this is just the beginning; if it continues unchecked—"

"A terrible plague."

Even though the existence of supernatural powers makes the gap between the upper and lower limits of this world unimaginable to ordinary people, and there are many ways for clergy, druids, shamans, witch doctors, magicians, and so on to deal with plagues, the general medical level of this era is not much different from that of the same period in another world. It is still very backward. Once an infectious disease breaks out, it will affect hundreds of miles around.

When that time truly comes, ordinary people can only hope that someone will step forward and resolve the plague as soon as possible. As for how many lives will be lost before that happens... one can only imagine.

The worst-case scenario is that the area within a hundred miles of this lake will become a wasteland, devoid of any human habitation.

After briefly imagining the scene, Guinevere's heart sank. She glanced at Lily, whose eyes seemed to be focused on the same thing, her small face tense and full of seriousness.

"Can't we just kill it now?"

Although she asked this question, Guinevere understood that if it were so easy to stop, the old man would have no reason to delay until now and would have taken action long ago.

As expected, when Perinoa heard this question, he waved his hand and said, "If we could kill it before it transforms, it would be a clean break, but it's too late now. Not to mention killing it, it's injured now, and the blood it bleeds out is poisonous and will still pollute the water source."

"What if we could find a way to wake it up earlier..."

"The moment Avank awakens from his long slumber, the transformation will end prematurely, no matter how far it has progressed. Although he will become weak as a result, the toxins accumulated in his body will still be expelled, which means that nothing has changed."

Guinevere then offered several more ideas, all of which were rejected. It makes sense, considering that Perinoa had been given half a month to come up with a solution. He wasn't stupid; he couldn't have missed the ideas that Guinevere could come up with in a hurry.

But by the same token, half a month has passed since he discovered Avank, a full fifteen days. Even if he couldn't completely evacuate the people of Plymouth and the surrounding villages to other places, there shouldn't be such a complete silence as it is now.

unless.

"You should already have a solution, right?"

The girl asked directly.

The old man did not deny it: "Since we can't stop the lake from being polluted, we have to start from somewhere else."

“Other places…” Guinevere’s mind raced. “You mean… to purify the polluted lake water again?” Seeing the old man nod, she understood without having to ask any further questions.

If there's anything on this land that could be useful in this situation...

There is only one answer.

"Poseidon's Trident—"

Legend has it that this sacred artifact possesses the power to control the sea, and it is also the origin of the title "Fisherman King" Peles, the master of this place. But recalling a certain piece of information Merlin once mentioned, the girl frowned slightly: "I heard that after the Fisherman King defeated the sea monster, he was worried that this extraordinary weapon might fall into the hands of evil people when he grew old, so he specially disassembled the Trident of the Sea God into three parts and entrusted them to his three closest people for safekeeping."

"The Scepter of the Sea God is held by Fisher, the son of the Fisherman King. Now that the Fisherman King no longer appears, he is the de facto ruler of this territory." The two had heard Merlin say this together, so there was no question of who knew and who didn't. Guinevere said a few words, paused, and Lily smoothly continued, "The Pearl of Wisdom is entrusted to my daughter, Elaine. Princess Elaine is also an excellent magician, especially skilled in illusion. It is said that even the famous Merlin once suffered a minor loss at her hands."

Although this "report" came from Merlin himself, considering his personality, its authenticity is highly questionable. You see, one of the great pleasures of this female magician is to play dumb to deceive others. In order to make the slap in the face more satisfying, she spreads all sorts of true and false, messy things all day long. Even if it's just that someone stole a small piece of potato while she was eating, she can exaggerate the incident as if that person almost chopped off her neck with a sword. And she often tells it so vividly that she can almost convince the person involved.

On the other hand, to hear from Merlin, who usually considers himself an illusionist, that someone's illusion magic is quite good is enough to prove that this person does have some skill. Perinoa smiled; "Although I don't know much about it, little Elaine's skills are indeed quite good." As Perles' brother, Fisher and Elaine are his nephew and niece in terms of seniority, and he spoke of them in a familiar tone, indicating that the two seemed to have a fairly good relationship.

"The problem lies with the third party."

Lily said, "After the Fisherman King dismantled the Trident of Poseidon, he entrusted the scepter and the pearl to his children to prevent others from taking the opportunity to attack. However, the last treasure remains shrouded in mystery. No one knows what it is or who it was entrusted to. Perhaps his two children know, but even though they have faced several dangers in the past thirty years, the Trident of Poseidon has never reappeared. This suggests that even if the two of them know, they must be very cautious about this matter. Getting them to agree is probably not easy."

“That’s exactly what’s giving me a headache,” Perinoa admitted. “If it were just the jewel or the scepter, I could always borrow their face, but Avank’s poison isn’t something that can be easily purified. The slightest mistake could result in hundreds or thousands of people suffering, so I’m thinking that we have to use the complete Trident of Poseidon no matter what. Lives are at stake, and if Peres were here, he would probably agree… The problem lies with Fisher and Elaine.”

"These two guys are so young, but their heads are as hard as wood. No matter what I say, they won't agree. I was thinking of just beating them up, and if they still don't budge, I'd tear down the castle, hang them up, and beat them three times a day in front of everyone until they understand the seriousness of the situation..."

That's way too brutal!

Guinevere smirked. This old man really wasn't going to give her any face at all. She didn't know if the Fisher siblings would agree if she actually did it, but she was certain they'd probably grab weapons and fight him to the death...

"...But a young man who happened to be passing by stopped me. He said that such methods should be saved for last and only when there were no other options. He had a way to persuade the brother and sister to lend the Trident of Poseidon. He asked me to stay here and keep an eye on Avank's situation until he returned with the Trident of Poseidon, and at the same time, try to prevent anyone else from coming north. He seemed to say something like, 'As long as they hear your name, smart people will know something is wrong. As for fools, they probably won't be able to get past you. Although I have no sympathy for those idiots, the more fools there are in the world, the smarter I am will seem.'—that makes some sense."

This way of speaking... it sounds strangely familiar...

Lily frowned slightly, realizing that things didn't seem so simple.

At this moment, Henwas, who had been listening to the three's conversation, finally interjected weakly, "But you didn't say your name... If I had known that you, Sir, were King Perinoa, how could I have drawn my sword..."

Perinoa laughed: "It's because in the first few days, as soon as I gave my name, those people would immediately turn around and leave. There wasn't a single fight for several days. Although it was a good thing, it felt too boring, so we changed it to waiting until after the fight before giving names. Sure enough, it became much more interesting that way."

"You're really something. I have a big hole in my stomach now, and it feels really cold..."

"Hahaha!"

Ignoring the young man's complaints, the old man laughed heartily a few more times, then seemed to remember something: "Speaking of which, although that young man is a bit lacking in skill, he's still a promising talent. Moreover, he comes from a prestigious family. It's a pity that he hasn't accomplished anything noteworthy yet. However, as long as he doesn't accidentally die on the roadside, he'll become famous sooner or later."

"May I ask what the knight's name is?"

For Perinoa to praise someone so highly, that person must be someone "with a name," perhaps even a future member of the Knights of the Round Table. Thinking that she might have heard of that person's name—and their legendary adventures yet to unfold—Guinevere curiously pressed for more information.

And the next moment.

She realized that this person was indeed someone she knew.

"His name is Kai, and he's Hector's son. I don't know if you've heard of him, but the famous King Arthur is apparently Hector's adopted son. In other words, they're brothers, haha, I just don't know if they look alike."

It doesn't resemble it at all.

Guinevere glanced at Lily, who was completely stunned upon hearing her sworn brother's name, and thought to herself.

Lily is much cuter than him—

P.S.: This is the second update at 2 AM. Everyone's probably asleep yet, so when you wake up and see how diligently Qingbai has worked, remember to vote with your recommendation tickets and monthly tickets!

Chapter Ninety: "Handwritten Letter"

A sleeping rare beast, a thorny problem.

The problem was right in front of them, and there were only two solutions: either evacuate the people as soon as possible, start the quarantine to prevent anyone from accidentally drinking contaminated water, or arrange for people to kill the adult Avanka.

This is undoubtedly the safest solution, but it also means that the lake and its tributaries will be unusable for people to draw water from now on. Even if the toxins are purified in some way later, it is foreseeable that the surrounding area will become uninhabitable for some time to come.

What this represents.

This resulted in the displacement of hundreds or even thousands of people, leaving them homeless.

Perhaps it was for this reason that Perinoa did not issue an order for the people of Plymouth to evacuate as soon as possible. As the brother of the Fisherman King, although he did not have his own territory, he was still nominally the ruler of a country and the king of the islands. If a real crisis were to occur, he would indeed have the right to bypass Fisher and Elaine, the two juniors, and directly issue an order to mobilize the army.

Even though doing so would inevitably shake the authority of the Fisher siblings and could potentially create a rift in their relationship, given the old man's personality, he probably wouldn't be bound by it or have any concerns.

The reason he hasn't taken any significant action yet is because he's pinning his hopes on another possibility.

Convincing the Fisher siblings that a complete Trident of Poseidon could indeed neutralize the poison in water in a very short time—there was precedent for this. Thirty years ago, after Pelles defeated that ferocious beast, its ghastly green blood flowed into the sea, killing any fish or shrimp that accidentally touched it, leaving no living creature within a hundred miles.

At that time, Pelles also relied on the power of the Trident of Poseidon to travel throughout the southern region and gradually purify the poison in his blood. In less than half a month, he restored the sea to its blue color and there was no longer a drop of the pale green poisonous blood.

No matter how terrifying Avank's poison is, it can't compare to the monster that once severed Britain's connection with the other side of the sea. The Poseidon's Trident succeeded last time, so it shouldn't fail this time either, and it won't have a significant impact on the current situation.

The only problem.

The question is how to persuade the brother and sister.

Logically speaking, this is the territory of the Fisherman King, and every blade of grass and every tree belongs to him in a sense. Allowing the water source on which thousands of people depend for their livelihood to be polluted by poison is hardly beneficial.

But the Fisher siblings rejected the proposal.

According to the old man, during the previous negotiations, Fisher rejected his proposal decisively, leaving no room for negotiation.

This left Guinevere completely baffled.

After much thought, they could only guess that there was some other reason they didn't know that forced Fisher to make this completely illogical decision. As for the specific reason, it might be that there was a problem with the third treasure besides the scepter and the orb, or that the reappearance of the Trident of Poseidon might trigger some kind of chain reaction, etc... The current clues are so few that these ideas are destined to be nothing more than unfounded speculation.

In any case, Guinevere and Lily's original purpose for this trip was to obtain the complete Trident of Poseidon, in order to cooperate with Merlin's plan and bring the Tower of Glory back into the world.

Although they didn't know exactly what the Tower of Radiance was, Merlin said that by using the power of this tower, they could not only remove Guinevere's dragon curse and restore the glory of the Star Sword, but also lay the most important step in King Arthur's great cause, killing three birds with one stone.

Of course, just like most prophets who refuse to speak plainly, Merlin didn't elaborate on the last sentence, but simply waved his hand and said, "You'll understand when the time comes. Spoilers are bad civilization!" After saying these inexplicable words, he disappeared with a grin before the two could ask him any more questions.

But since Perinoa's goal, and the key to solving this problem, is also the complete Trident of Poseidon, their interests align, and cooperation becomes a matter of course.

Furthermore, she had heard that Kay had already gone ahead to persuade Elaine—his choice to prioritize his sister over Fisher was indeed very Kay-like. Although Guinevere felt that this future Knight of the Round Table, a veteran who had lived through the Battle of Camlann, couldn't possibly perish here so easily, given the precedent of the Sword in the Stone, she wasn't sure if her own time travel would cause any butterfly effect. Just to be on the safe side, she still had to go and see what was going on, and offer help if necessary.

After all... if everything goes smoothly, he's going to be my future brother-in-law.