Chapter 154: Dawn, Unexpected Discovery, Discussing the Bounty at the Dining Table

Through the vision of the Shadow Bird flying in the air, Jier saw those unidentified individuals running through the wilderness.

Watching them move one by one toward the direction of the Suishi Cheng trade route, Jier didn't understand what they were doing in the middle of the night at first, but he quickly realized that those people were preparing to ambush his caravan at a suitable section of the road!

Because it was a bird, it flew very fast, so it didn't take long for Jier to maneuver the Shadow Bird to a place several dozen kilometers east of 【Meiqian Chakou】.

Compared to the intersection, this place was actually closer to Suishi Cheng, but it would still take the carriages another day to reach the Suishi Cheng area. And in this relatively open and flat region, there were several buildings that had long since turned into ruins; those scattered people who had come over in the dark gathered here.

The Shadow Bird circled down and finally landed on the top of a half-collapsed brick chimney, staring with its red pupils at the unidentified armed personnel who had arrived at this place.

These people all carried some weapons on them, mostly Cleavers, single-handed logging axes, and other metal implements that were half-weapon and half-tool, while some guys who were being surrounded carried practical weapons at their waists, such as Long Swords, Changdao, and Two-handed Axes.

There were also some who carried a few throwing spears on their backs, rode local Nanyangshandima, and brought five or six underlings with them, shouting and hollering about something.

Unfortunately, the Shadow Bird controlled by Jier could not hear the sounds at the scene; it could only see what was happening in the distance and transmit it to Jier in real time. But this was already quite good; at the very beginning, the Shadow Bird Jier controlled couldn't even transmit messages in real time, and he had to wait for it to return along a predetermined route before Jier could know what had happened far away.

The Shadow Bird saw that, under the command of the guy riding the horse, some scattered armed personnel were reluctantly using shovels to dig temporary hiding places in the wasteland a few dozen meters away from the road.

But looking at that place being completely exposed, Jier wore a look of disdain.

"These Bandits, do they really have brains in their heads? If they really hide people in this kind of open-air hiding spot, won't more than half of the people inside be heat-stroked by the sun tomorrow during the day? Don't tell me that before my caravan even arrives here, these people will have already heat-stroked to death by half?"

He was almost amused to the point of anger, not because the other side dared to ambush and attack his caravan, but because of the stupidity of these people.

But the stupidity of the enemy is always better than their cunning, right?

Jier disconnected his control of this Shadow Bird, but he didn't let it dissipate naturally; instead, he left it in place, while Jier himself closed his eyes to rest.

"Boss, look over there, at the highest point of those ruins, there's something staring at us!"

Among the few Bandits who had killed people and were monitoring the underlings of the Bandit Group digging the hiding trenches along the trade route where they would ambush Jier tomorrow, one guy who liked to look around pointed tremblingly at the Shadow Bird not far away.

The Shadow Bird was pitch black and almost invisible in the night without much moonlight, but its bright red eyeballs emitted a faint red light, hanging alone at a high place, looking ghastly.

A main leader of the Bandit Group riding on horseback glanced at his underling and expressed disdain for his cowardice, but after all, it was his own underling, so he should give him some face. Thus, he boldly rode his horse over, cautiously pulling a throwing spear from behind him, guarding against whatever Monster of the wilderness it might be.

But when he got close and the Torch in his left hand shone over, he saw it was actually a dazed red-eyed crow. For some reason, this thing hadn't gathered with other crows to spend the night, but was boldly standing alone at a high place, watching them work.

"Hey, I thought it was something else, it's just a silly bird. Not staying in its nest in the middle of the night, but running over to watch us work. Truly bold or stupid, don't you know that nocturnal birds of prey will eat other birds?"

This small Bandit leader sneered and took an Iron Coin out of his money bag, throwing it at the Shadow Bird.

But he didn't know if his eyes were playing tricks on him, did the coin pass right through the big bird?

"Must be because it's a bit dark." He muttered, turning back to explain his discovery to his cowardly underling.

But a cowardly person is a cowardly person; even if they have killed people, their nature is still to fear everything they don't understand, as well as things they consider mysterious.

"B-Big Brother... they all say that crows and such pitch-black birds can sense the death aura on people in advance. That thing staring at us like that, could it be..." Before the Bandit finished speaking, he was rewarded with a whip by the Bandit on the horse.

Crack!

"Talk sh*t! Nonsense! Stop spreading panic here, shut your sh*t-spraying mouth!"

Not satisfied after one lash, this Bandit Leader whipped him again: "Listen up, even if the rumors are true, these damn mourning birds are reporting the funeral for those people in the caravan! You might not know, right? This time, several of the biggest groups have sent out all their manpower, let me count, five, ten, fifteen, twenty..."

He calculated messily for a while: "I've counted, in the end, there will be nearly seven hundred people! Spread out, that's almost a thousand people! That caravan has at most a hundred or so people, facing at least several times, uh, ten times the numerical difference, you tell me, how can we lose? Huh? How can we lose?"

Naturally, there were sycophants around who took up the conversation: "That's right, tomorrow will definitely be a crushing defeat for them and a big win for us!"

"Exactly, it must be thanks to your command, Boss, that we can take down those Caravans every time! I think although our group is small, as long as the Boss is here, we can hold off at least a hundred people!"

"Bullsh*t! I think the Boss can hold off two hundred people!"

"Three hundred! The heroes sung about by the Bards in the taverns probably don't have the command ability of the Boss!"

Under the continuous flattery, the words of that cowardly Bandit had long been turned who knows where by these loud-mouthed Bandit guys.

And when it was almost dawn, the cowardly Bandit went to look for the red-eyed crow at the high point of the ruins again, but didn't find any trace of it, finally letting out a sigh of relief.

In fact, it was just Jier, after taking a nap, reconnecting to the monitoring Shadow Bird before dawn to confirm the situation there, discovering that the hiding pits the Bandits dug in the wilderness were a complete mess, but the number of Bandits gathered here to ambush had increased by a lot.

And when Jier let the Shadow Bird fly into the air, preparing to disperse it, he accidentally caught a glimpse of people moving more than ten kilometers away.

So Jier let the Shadow Bird fly over quickly before the sun rose, and finally, when the morning light shone on the Shadow Bird, he saw another group of people gathered and preparing in a place far away from where the Bandits were ambushing his caravan.

These people were also mostly Bandits, messily divided into several smaller groups, seemingly cursing each other; it seemed their usual relationship wasn't very close, which was very different from the previous Bandits.

The Bandits ambushing Jier on the trade route were more numerous, and although they were roughly divided into several groups, they weren't very hostile to each other; instead, some small leaders could even command the ordinary Bandit underlings of other groups to do things.

This difference caught Jier's attention.

"Speechless, looks like today is going to be very busy. Many people in this area seem to have gathered together. Could it be because of my caravan?"

Jier hesitated, not knowing if he should turn north at 【Meiqian Chakou】, head to the Shangen Zhen in the north, and take a detour from there to go the long way to Suishi Cheng?

But at the thought of his own skills, as well as the presence of thirty armored Warriors and over forty Dwarf Warriors under his command, Jier couldn't help but hum lightly. The number of those Bandits was indeed not small, but they were all just scattered soldiers and defeated generals; how could they be the opponents of his well-organized, trained armored Warriors?

At the crack of dawn, the inns at the three-way Chalu also began to get lively.

The people who got up greedily breathed in the cool air; they knew that after the sun baked the earth for a while in the morning, the air would become scorching, and it would even become burning hot by the afternoon.

Because it was dry and there was no rain, the air was not only burning hot, but also carried the smell of dry soil.

By then, even breathing would be an uncomfortable thing.

The Warriors fetched water to wash up, and Jier also arranged for someone to make a trip to the tavern opposite, asking the tavern owner to just get some food and send it over. His drivers usually were responsible for the team's diet, but since they were staying at an inn, how could they not let them rest a bit?

After all, the Warriors could doze off in the carriages, as long as they weren't afraid of the bumps. But the drivers had to be careful and cautious to drive the carriages the whole time, mainly to avoid some large stones on the road.

While Jier was dressed neatly and eating in the lobby of the 【Siren Ganzi】 inn, Kuaitui Maomao, who had been roaming all night, found him with sleepy eyes. It jumped onto the chair beside him and whispered in Jier's ear for a while. Jier nodded from time to time and rewarded it with a piece of meat with bone, but Maomao had eaten quite a few insects and frogs it caught last night, and even accidentally arrived in the underground passage of 【Meiqian Chakou】, killing a few blind Slime Monsters!

However, it didn't say much about this underground space, but told Jier about some changes at the 【Zihonghua】 inn.

Sending away Maomao, who returned to the Wooden Box to rest, Jier ate the meat with bone in his mouth, crunching it with his teeth, then sucked clean the Bone Marrow and soup inside the bone, and finally spat the chewed bone dregs into the finished Wooden Bowl.

"Hmph, looks like the boss brothers of that 【Zihonghua】 inn also want to get involved in today's battle, huh? Good, the more people the better; it's been a while since I fought against Human opponents. I hope those guys can produce a few who are capable and can fight. And my Shadow Bird, perhaps it can level up again?"

Muttering, Jier summoned Xueya Site, Aoni, Weier, and other main figures among the Warriors, carefully informing them in advance of what might happen today.

"Everyone be careful, my little Scout discovered that not only do some inn owners here have unusual movements, sneaking out in the middle of the night to pass messages to some Bandit spies, but they are also secretly organizing manpower to go out in the middle of the night, not knowing what they went to do. Besides that, there are also many Bandits in the wilderness outside who don't know where they are hiding, having run out from their respective lairs. Hmph, they are gathering and planning to ambush our caravan halfway today."

Once Jier said this, everyone didn't doubt Jier's source of information, but were surprised that they might have a battle with the Bandits today.

Weier felt it was the most incredible; he pointed at everyone, then pointed in the direction of the inn where the Dwarves were: "No, is there something wrong with those Bandits? A group of Warriors with our number, training, and equipment, plus the existence of those Dwarves, is this something a bunch of Bandits can deal with?"

Jier shrugged: "I don't know what they are thinking either. After all, my little Scout saw the owner of this inn pass our information out. It's hard to say about the owner of the 【Wangu Canzhuo】 next door, but at least those Bandits know of my and your existence. But even so, they still chose to move today to plunder our caravan."

Aoni drank the meat soup fiercely, and after wiping his mouth casually, said: "My Lord, then there will definitely be a big battle today, right?"

Jier took a deep breath and nodded: "It seems it cannot be avoided." He did not mention the other group of people hiding apart from the Bandits lying in ambush; after all, compared to the Bandit group lying in ambush on the Shanglu that was easy to see through, the very existence of that other group was somewhat strange.

Who were these people? Who organized them? What was their scale? What was their combat effectiveness? What was their goal? Why did they not join forces with the Bandits plundering the trade route, but instead secretly gathered in the distance?

Jier was not clear about any of this; after all, it was already nearly dawn when he discovered them.

"Then, my lord, since we know there will be a battle, can you tell us in advance what the bounty for the fighting will be? Hehe." Aoni had also learned to be bad—no, perhaps it was that he realized the importance of money in Dorn Town. Having never talked much about money before, he was now willing to strive for some earnings for himself and the brothers under his command.

"Haha, you fellow. But what you say is also right. Since we can already determine that there will be a battle today, then the combat bounty for the enemies cannot go undiscussed. Tell me, how much do you intend to ask for?"

Jier had recently taken in a large amount of money, so he was much more generous when speaking and paying out.

Aoni did not dare to ask for too much, and because Jier had always taken the initiative to state the bounty for enemies in the past, he did not know how much of a bounty should be given for enemies like Human Bandits.

"My lord, whatever you say it is, that is what it is. On behalf of everyone, I agree to the price you set in advance."

"Ha, you really know how to talk. Then let's do this: their numbers will not be small, and I don't know exactly how many people there are, but after all, they are the Bandit group that previously successfully plundered the large Caravan of the Wealth Fruit Merchant Guild, so..."

Jier pondered for a moment, feeling that he had to boost the morale of the Warriors and could not give too little. But the combat effectiveness of the enemies was estimated to not be very strong, and giving too much would not be appropriate; after all, those hard-to-crack Soldiers under the command of the Knight Hate only had a bounty of one Gold Coin each. These newly emerged Bandits who had not been in the Bandit trade for long were poor and weak, so one Silver Coin each—no more than that.

"Like this: for every Bandit, regardless of gender or age, as long as they appear on the battlefield, killing them counts as one Silver Coin. Capturing them counts as two Silver Coins. How about that? Their strength is estimated to not be very strong; it is even possible that after we pierce through their formation a few times, their group will be scattered. Once they scatter, they will likely run everywhere. Chasing them down to knock them out is practically picking up money! Tsk, I even envy you all, envy you all for having such a generous leader as me!"

Aoni and Weier responded to Jier's self-aggrandizement with smiles, and at the same time, they were quite satisfied with this bounty price. However, Weier added: "Then what about the leader-level ones among them? I guess if they are Bandit group leaders entrenched on this main trade route, they should have bounties issued by the Merchants, right?"

"Yo, eyeing the bounties on the others? Then if I let you leave, how about you go become a Bounty Hunter? I think with your skills, you would definitely be able to earn a lot of money?" As soon as Jier said this, Weier immediately realized he had said the wrong thing. He smiled and said he was just joking, while inwardly complaining to himself; after all, he was not following Jier purely to earn money, but hoped to obtain the qualifications for Knight Training through Jier's connections.

For him, all plans for revenge had to wait until he had skills and strength no weaker than Jier's current level; otherwise, with his Swordsman strength at the level of an ordinary person, even if he could fight five or six Soldiers or seven or eight Bandits, he would not even be able to touch the edge of revenge.

Jier blocked this request from Weier, and what he was calculating in his heart was the same plan as that time with Mountain Wolf Bani: scattering money to his subordinate Warriors when dealing with ordinary Bandits to stimulate their courage, while he would recoup the money paid out through the personal bounties of those Bandit leaders.

One out and one in—perhaps in the end, he would even make a profit!

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