Chapter 166: The Scorching Sun Shines (End)

"Don't be in such a rush to leave, Mr. Oakes."

Jier had barely arrived when his booming voice echoed across the ranks of the panic-stricken farmers; many had watched with their own eyes as Jier charged over, running and leaping with a terrifying agility that no human should possess.

He was like a Magic Beast in human form.

Hearing Jier's shout, Da Oakes's expression turned ghastly; his younger brother, of whom he was most proud, hadn't even been able to withstand a single blow from Jier in the previous skirmish, and now, with both arms fractured, he had passed out from the pain while slumped over his horse—had it not been for the farmers supporting him, he would have fallen from the saddle long ago.

Until the battle moments ago, he had still believed that by relying on the bandits under his command and the inn staff he had trained, he could use their numerical advantage to restrain or defeat the Knight.

But he had clearly miscalculated; the true battlefield combat prowess of the Knights—those figures often portrayed as foolish background props in the stories sung by Bards—was truly beyond his imagination.

How could there be such a massive disparity in combat power between one person and another?

When Jier was mounted on his warhorse, it was nearly impossible for ordinary infantry to pose any lethal threat to him. He could drive a crowd a hundred times his size at will, peeling them away layer by layer like an onion, killing them from the outermost edge inward.

In truth, there were faster ways to kill, but Jier was reluctant to use the limited-use Divine Art ability of the Agricultural God Church, 【Grass and Wood Source】, or the recharged magical means within his Magic Dagger in a battle as controlled as this.

As for 【God's Shadow Bird】, it was currently daytime; to force the use of this ability, he would have to activate 【Grass and Wood Source】 in advance, utilizing its infinite stamina trait to use the Shadow Bird's Shadow Raid technique almost indefinitely. Otherwise, on this brilliant, sun-drenched afternoon, the Shadow Bird would be dispersed by the sunlight the moment it appeared, failing to amount to anything.

Da Oakes knew that if Knight Jier wanted to kill him, it would likely take nothing more than one effective charge into the crowd; the farmers from his own village who appeared so loyal and reliable were numerous, but they could never stop Knight Jier from forcing his way through to reach him.

As soon as the opponent charged over and severed his head with a single swing of his sword, these useless, showy village farmers would likely scatter in a panic. After all, the combat conditions he had offered were merely a reduction in land rent; compared to their own lives, these habitually cunning farmers would certainly choose their own survival.

Don't look at how he and his brother were complimented and treated with humility wherever they went in the village; once the two brothers were dead, the other relatives in the family would likely not be thinking of avenging them, but rather of fighting over the family assets, right?

Jier felt it strange that after he called out, Da Oakes—whom he had seen just last night—did not respond, but instead sat trembling on his horse with sweat beading on his forehead. He didn't think this man was afraid of him; after all, the fact that he dared to lead a ragtag group of over two hundred people to play the fisherman reaping the rewards of the snipe and clam showed just how precise his grasp of the situation was, and how great his desires and greed were.

A person like that wouldn't be unable to speak out of fear, would he?

Thinking of this, Jier lost interest in exchanging words with the opponent. He turned his head to glance at his own Warriors and Dwarf soldiers who were rapidly catching up, flicked his Long Sword to shake off the blood staining it, raised his Shield in his left hand, and rested his Long Sword on the upper edge of the shield with his right.

"Everyone, since you have appeared here today, it means you have also set your sights on me and the caravan under my command. Since you want our lives and our property, you must also be prepared and ready to lose your own lives."

Pausing for a moment, Jier pressed his legs down slightly and said his final words: "Fight."

With a surge of force from his legs, he launched himself like an arrow released from a bow, leaving two shallow pits in the ground as he crashed into the crowd.

The farmers, armed with various metal farm tools, could not stop Jier at all; he knocked several people over with his Shield as he moved, and with a few right-handed slashes of his Long Sword, he severed the necks and arms of several farmers.

The shouting rose instantly; the farmers near Jier wailed continuously, while those slightly further away looked on with a hint of excitement, wanting to step up and strike Jier to show him their prowess.

But as Jier fought, short, brilliant flashes of white light would occasionally flare; the intensity wasn't high, and from a distance, it just felt like one's eyes had been stung by a bright glare.

However, the experience for the farmers 'fighting' in close proximity to Jier was vastly different. Although the strong light was brief, it left their vision white, rendering them unable to see, and even caused their eyes to tear up profusely due to the slightly aggressive stimulation of the white light.

Never mind fighting Jier, they couldn't even tell who was who among the people around them for a moment.

This was a trick Jier had only just figured out; he didn't force the Divine Power white light to erupt violently from the Hunting Sword, but rather released it in short, high-intensity bursts within a few meters around him. His intention was to blind the eyes of the enemies engaging him at close range.

And because the consumption was low, Jier could release it once every few seconds.

Every time he used it, the small circle of farmers closest to him would stop their attack, forced to free up their hands to rub their eyes, unable to launch any offense or defense. These farmers wanted to retreat, but they were surrounded by others behind and to their sides, leaving them no room to maneuver or dodge.

At this moment, Jier would swing his Long Sword in circles, coordinating with his rapid, circling footwork to kill several farmers within a three-meter radius around him at once.

After two rounds of this, the area around Jier suddenly cleared, and no more farmers holding hoes or pitchforks dared to approach him.

Because Jier had barely moved after charging into the crowd, after a bout of slaughter, the ground around him was already carpeted with a thick layer of dead and dying farmers.

Jier himself was even standing on top of the corpses at this moment.

"Are you not coming anymore?"

Jier felt a bit regretful and somewhat disappointed. He ignored these farmers whose morale had been shattered and strode toward Da Oakes, who was staring blankly from not far away while mounted on his horse.

At this, Da Oakes finally gave a violent shudder, as if he had regained his senses; with a pale face, he yanked the Jiansheng, abandoning even his own brother, and spurred his horse to flee toward the west.

As he ran, he shouted loudly to drive away the farmers blocking his path: "Get out of the way! Don't block the road! This man is a Demon, how could anyone be this powerful? How could this Knight be human? How could he be human!"

Jier pursed his lips, feeling offended.

He took two quick steps, shoved aside the farmers in his way, pushed the unconscious Xiao Oakes off his horse, and mounted the prairie horse himself.

"Go! Catch up to that man!"

Jier gave the prairie horse a forceful tug, and the horse obediently followed his command to turn around. Jier then squeezed the horse's flanks; the horse, already stung by the spurs, felt the pain and immediately neighed, breaking into a gallop and chasing along the path through the crowd that Da Oakes had left behind while fleeing.

Nearby, some farmers still wanted to poke Jier with their tools, but Jier swept his cold gaze over them, and they sheepishly withdrew their arms.

At this moment, Aoni and the others finally arrived by carriage.

They had actually come quite quickly, but by the time they arrived, the farmers before them had clearly lost the will to fight; the Oakes Brothers, who served as their leaders, had one fleeing and one unconscious, and the ones among them who dared to fight had all died at Jier's hands in the battle just moments ago.

The remaining eighty-some farmers saw more fierce, armored Warriors arriving, and especially seeing that these men were all covered in blood splattered during the battle, they looked terrifying.

They didn't know who shouted "Run!", and the next moment, everyone scattered and fled.

Bawei rubbed his nose awkwardly and complained: "The results of the competition are out; we have zero, and the Dwarfs have zero. It looks like only Lord Jier is leading everyone by quite a bit."

Weier instantly surged forward a few steps, cut down the nearest fleeing farmer with a single sword stroke, and only then turned to say: "We have one kill on our side; now the only ones with zero are the Dwarfs."

When the five panting Dwarf soldiers ran over, they were furious, their teeth nearly grinding to dust.

Although they hadn't made a formal bet, they still felt that losing this contest was like the Dwarfs losing to the Humans, which made them quite unhappy.

Especially since they felt it would be difficult to answer to old 'Iron Fist' upon returning.

In truth, the old Dwarf didn't care about such things; he only cared about what kind of existence their Dwarf combat power was in today's human society, and whether they could, without causing major trouble, protect everyone to find other Dwarf companions legally residing in human society, and ultimately return safely to the Dwarf Kingdom.

Jier rode in hot pursuit of Da Oakes, not necessarily because he had to kill the guy, but because he wanted to know what the opponent's plans and reliance were for doing all of this.

After all, it was impossible that he thought those two hundred-odd pieces of trash could take down him and his thirty-some armored Refining Qi Warriors, and forty-some armored Dwarf soldiers, right?

A mixed force of over seventy armored Humans and Dwarfs could crush a common group of two hundred people in a single charge, let alone the fact that the force under Da Oakes was a ragtag mixed group.

"Don't run! I swear that as long as you stop and surrender, I will spare your life!"

Jier shouted from the saddle.

But Da Oakes spurred his horse to run even faster.

The opponent had a better horse, and his equipment was much lighter than Jier's; after all, the Hunting Sword in Jier's hand weighed nearly fifteen kilograms, and the curved shield in his left hand, looted from Knight Hart, also weighed over ten kilograms. Not to mention his Hard Cowhide Armor reinforced with Metal Armor Plates, plus all the miscellaneous items, Jier's equipment was about as heavy as his own body weight.

In other words, the prairie horse Jier was riding was carrying nearly two riders while chasing the target; it was only natural that he couldn't catch up.

But Jier was not satisfied as he watched the target running further and further away. He violently threw the Hunting Sword forward and shouted loudly: "Go, knock that man off his horse, or kill the prairie horse in front!"

The glowing Long Sword, like an energy projectile, emitted a whistling sound as it chased the fleeing horse from behind.

Da Aokesi turned his head to look, his soul frightened away, and he shrieked, "Didn't you say you would spare my life?"

"Hmph, I would only spare your life if you stopped to surrender; now, you brought this upon yourself!"

Jier responded loudly.

But perhaps due to the instinct for survival, Da Aokesi urged his horse again, causing the already fleeing prairie horse to increase its speed even further, so much so that the Long Sword thrown by Jier while riding actually failed to hit and landed on the ground after chasing for over a hundred meters.

Jier clicked his tongue and beckoned the Hunting Sword, which had stabbed into the ground after landing, to return.

After the Long Sword bounced back into his hand, Jier rolled his eyes and whispered a few words to his weapon.

He didn't care if his Long Sword could understand him, and once again threw the Spirit weapon in his hand forward with force.

This time, he didn't throw it straight ahead, but aimed at a forty-five-degree angle upward into the air. The moment it left his hand, the Long Sword began to spin on its own, emitting a sharp whistling sound as it projected diagonally into the sky.

By the time the Long Sword was about to catch up to the target fleeing ahead and its throwing momentum was about to be exhausted and fall, the Hunting Sword condensed all the Sun God Divine Power it contained within its blade, making it look like a small, glowing white ball in mid-air.

The next moment, everyone looking toward the southwest of the battlefield could see—the scorching sun shining.

The intense white light of Divine Power burst forth indiscriminately; except for Jier, who was unaffected, all creatures with vision within a radius of nearly half a mile, including the prairie horse he was riding, had their sight blocked by the white light of Divine Power.

Regardless of whether they were looking at the Long Sword blooming with white light in the sky, as long as their bodies were illuminated by the white light of Divine Power, they were subjected to Blinding.

Jier first used his hand to cover the eyes of the prairie horse beneath him; although this temporarily slowed his movement speed, by the time the white light of Divine Power shone, the prairie horse, whose vision had been blocked by Jier in advance, was not much affected. After all, vision being completely black and vision being completely white were the same in terms of effect.

As for Da Aokesi, the situation was quite miserable.

Hearing a series of miserable neighs from the horse ahead, followed by the sound of the horse flipping over at high speed, Jier looked up and couldn't help but click his tongue.

The fleeing horse ahead failed to adjust its state while going down a gentle hill, stepped into empty air, and flipped onto the ground, falling very miserably; the entire horse even rolled several times, most of its hooves and legs were broken, blood sprayed from its mouth and nose, and it was breathing more than it was inhaling.

And Da Aokesi, who was riding on the horse, was also in a bad state.

At the moment the horse fell, Da Aokesi, who was experienced in riding, jumped off the horse in time, but jumping off a horse running at high speed had the same consequence as jumping off a speeding car onto a highway.

Although he avoided the result of being implicated and crushed by the flipped prairie horse, this guy also tumbled an unknown number of times on the barren hill going downhill.

When Jier slowed down to approach and look, Da Aokesi also looked like he was finished; his hands and feet were broken, with bone shards exposed at the fractures. If it weren't for the Helmet and the sturdy-looking hard leather armor he was wearing, this guy would probably have died instantly.

"Sigh, why bother? Wouldn't it have been better to stop and surrender?"

Jier jumped off his horse and reached out toward the sky; the next moment, the Hunting Sword flew backward into Jier's hand.

Clang—

The Long Sword, its blade no longer glowing with white light, returned to its sheath, and the entire sword seemed to radiate a feeling of great satisfaction.

"Cough, cough... anyway, anyway, it's... all, death. Hehe..."

Da Aokesi said while vomiting blood, staring with a pair of dazed eyes.

Even now, his eyes had not yet recovered from the Blinding white light of Divine Power; it seemed that at the last moment of his life, this Da Aokesi died in a field of pure white before his eyes.

"I have a question: what made you think that just by relying on the power you gathered this time, you dared to provoke me? Did you think you had me cornered?"

Jier asked, but in his heart, he was thinking about the Caravan staying at the 【Zihonghua】 inn last night, and how those Caravan Stewards and the Oakes Brothers seemed familiar and close. If the other party thought they had him and his convoy cornered, then the key to the matter must lie with those Caravans in the convoy.

Did the Caravan suddenly rebel at a critical moment?

Or did the Caravan poison the food, poisoning him and the Warriors under his command?

Or perhaps, did those Caravans have some powerful means that could settle the matter in one blow?

But Da Aokesi's answer left Jier somewhat confused.

"D... damn it, it's all to blame, all to blame... those stories... misled me. Stupid... useless... trash Knights!" In his final moment of lucidity, he said a garbled sentence: "Whoever believes in these things is the truly stupid person—"

In the end, it seemed he died with hatred.

Jier twitched the corner of his mouth, unable to comment on Da Aokesi's final words.

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