Chapter 196: Setting Off! The Terrible Ke'er Shan Jun

Knowing that he would gain nothing from further sparring with Jier in long spear techniques, Captain Gulisiman decided to quit while he was ahead; he announced to the crowd that the match was over, declaring it a draw.

This outcome caused some soldiers who had made impromptu bets to lose heavily, but no one cared about the wailing of these gamblers; most soldiers, taking advantage of the bright light Jier had brought and the experience of watching the two men's duel, spontaneously paired up and picked up their long spears for combat practice.

With the crackling sounds of sparring, the soldiers' practice looked quite serious.

After a brief inspection, Captain Gulisiman nodded and walked alongside Jier; in a less crowded area of the roughly oval-shaped barracks, they circled around and chatted.

It was only then that Jier learned from Captain Gulisiman that the reason he had been invited to spar in the barracks in front of everyone was to maintain a certain social order at the Libie Guanka—to prevent outside groups from acting too recklessly at the checkpoint due to their size or strength.

And that Priest of the Church of the God of Wealth, who seemed to be biased toward the unreasonable caravan guards, was actually doing so for the sake of long-term order at the checkpoint.

When the Priest believed that the caravan guards—who were essential for trade activities at the checkpoint—had been wronged, he would find ways to compensate these guards, who lived hand-to-mouth, with some resources; and when the merchants passing through the checkpoint needed help, he would also coordinate the various forces under his command to provide sufficient assistance to the merchants in need.

"This is a multilateral balance that needs to be maintained at all times; I hope you don't have any prejudice against our good Priest."

Captain Gulisiman explained carefully and patiently to Jier.

Jier waved his hand: "I don't have any prejudice; of course, I am not a foolish person, and this kind of situation can be seen on the spot, so there is no need for you to specifically point it out like this."

But Jier's overly young face made his statement seem to lack credibility.

Captain Gulisiman had seen many young and frivolous traveling Knights and knew that young Knights of this age who dared to travel usually had considerable skills, but having just started their travels away from their families, most lacked social experience, especially since they were very concerned about their reputation. So he nodded and said no more, only telling Jier about some special things to pay attention to when taking the middle route after entering Ke'er Shan Jun.

It could be considered a 'reward' for Jier's good performance in the sparring match just now.

After listening for a while, Jier couldn't help but click his tongue; in Captain Gulisiman's words, the various settlements of all sizes in Ke'er Shan Jun were simply like dens of bandits of all sizes, and it seemed there wasn't a single good person in them!

"Is it really that chaotic there? It sounds like there isn't a single good person, just fleas or ticks sucking blood on the trade route?" Jier was somewhat skeptical; he had traveled a long way from the Northwest Province, and even in the relatively chaotic Western Province, the villages on the trade route were not that exaggerated.

"Believe it or not, in any case, Knight, you will soon witness it with your own eyes. I just want to remind you, try not to handle those troublesome matters emotionally. If someone blocks the road, pay the money if you should, but for some things that seem particularly unreasonable, you can let the merchants in your team handle them. You and your men just need to be on guard against the bandits on the side of the road who have lost their minds due to greed. In that rotten place, the local residents and the local bandits must have all kinds of connections, and there is even no difference between them. Sigh, for decades, that place has always been that rotten, bringing too much trouble to my work."

Captain Gulisiman shook his head: "Since I was a child, the people there have been like that; after all, compared to our Cuikuang, Ke'er Shan Jun is really poor enough; there are many mountains and forests there, and wild beasts, Monsters, and Magic Beasts are everywhere. But the land that can be cultivated is very scarce, and even if people work hard to farm, the harvest is not enough for those wild beasts and Monsters to ruin."

"And, it is difficult for people there to live to old age peacefully; too many people die or are injured in various accidents regardless of age, which has meant that they have never had stable cultural inheritance and long-term judgment. Naturally, when facing passing caravans, they will fleece them as much as they can. I must remind you one last time, do not handle sudden situations emotionally; leave it to those merchants. Otherwise..."

Speaking of this, Captain Gulisiman shook his head, looking quite regretful.

"Otherwise what? If others are unreasonably extorting me, do I have to accompany them with a smiling face and agree to their extortion?" Jier asked back.

"That is the case."

Unexpectedly, Captain Gulisiman gave an answer.

He continued to explain: "Basically, every year there are major incidents where outsiders in the caravan cannot bear the shameless extortion of the people of Ke'er Shan Jun and end up fighting with the locals. Ordinary mercenaries or civilians are fine; even if there are bloody incidents, the scale is very small. The locals are not afraid of death, and are those who travel for business and travel good children? So in most cases, both sides suffer losses; the locals suffer a loss and retract their greed, and the passing merchants suffer a loss and restrain their tempers, becoming much easier to talk to. However, occasionally some young and reckless Knight youths will cause results that are difficult to clean up."

When he said this, he looked at Jier, and Jier pointed at himself, shaking his head speechlessly, indicating that he was not like others.

"Constantly extorted by the locals, there are always young Knights who get angry and pick up their weapons, starting a killing spree, resulting in the entire village or settlement being wiped out. The locals are very stubborn; if they suffer a one-sided loss, they would rather die than surrender. And after such things happen, Ke'er Shan Jun issues a wanted notice, and the reputations of those young Knights who did stupid things are also ruined. And I heard that the Knights who generally commit such slaughter do not end well, is that so?"

Jier responded vaguely: "More or less; after people are killed, there are things that will haunt the killer. It's nothing for an ordinary person to kill a few people, but if you kill too many people at once, there will be problems. You have to use some special Magic Potion to deal with it."

"Similar Magic Potions are not cheap, right?" Captain Gulisiman asked tentatively.

Jier indicated that he was not very clear; he hadn't paid for the Lion Potion he got from Bell in Sasi County, so he didn't know the cost of related Magic Potions.

However, those days were indeed hard; he didn't dare to sleep every day, because as long as he slept, he would be chased endlessly by the resentful spirits and remnants of the humans he had killed himself, whether in a dream or in the Soul Land; often, barely sleeping for a night was more exhausting than not sleeping at all.

But people cannot go without sleep, so Jier was even afraid of resting at night at that time.

But he is not afraid now; ever since he mastered the ability of the 【God's Shadow Bird】, he is no longer afraid of those dirty things that would haunt him, and even hopes that more of them will come so that his Shadow Bird ability can increase.

However, although that is the case, Jier cannot spread slaughter at will; after all, he still has to mix in human society; good news doesn't go out, but bad news travels a thousand miles. Once he dares to take action against ordinary people at will, such things will always spread as if they have wings, thereby ruining his reputation.

Therefore, Jier likes those bandits who deserve to be killed by everyone the most; however, in the future, when he officially joins this border war, using this opportunity to improve the ability of the Shadow Bird in the war seems to be a safe and reliable path?

After coming out of the barracks, Jier saw his soldiers gathered together nervously, ready for battle at any time, so he smiled and told them to relax and rest.

"Lord Jier, was everything alright with your sparring in the barracks just now?" Aoni asked with concern.

They couldn't enter the barracks, so they had to prick up their ears to listen to the cheers and noise of the soldiers in the barracks to judge the situation. However, Jier's call never sounded, so they had to suppress their feelings and wait anxiously in the camp.

On the contrary, the Dwarves had a lax attitude, not thinking that Jier would have any trouble; they did what they had to do and slept when they had to. However, on the surface it looked like that, but in secret, the old Dwarf had let 'Shishou' prepare to rush in and save people if something really happened.

"It's fine, I just exchanged some techniques on the long spear with Captain Gulisiman. Everyone go and rest; don't train hard today, just get enough energy. I heard from Captain Gulisiman that this Ke'er Shan Jun is not a peaceful place." Jier said so, waving his hand to let everyone disperse.

He still had to meet the newly arrived merchants accompanying the team and talk to them about the conditions for temporarily joining his team.

Most of the Warriors dispersed, and some impatient Warriors took off their equipment, picked up their money bags, and went in groups of three or five to the nearby 【Libie Guanka】 to play.

"I hope I won't be woken up by someone again tomorrow to go to some casino to redeem people in a sorry state."

Jier complained, and Aoni immediately patted his chest and promised: "Don't worry, my Lord, I have told them firmly this time. Whoever causes trouble again will be kicked out! Let him go back to Xinxiwang to farm!"

Jier looked at the confident Aoni and responded speechlessly: "I hope so."

But Jier miscalculated; he really had a good night's sleep that night.

When he got up early in the morning, he was quite surprised while washing his face; the soldiers under his command were really reliable this time and were not set up and detained at this trade checkpoint where all kinds of people mixed, forcing him to go and redeem them early in the morning.

But when he came out and asked Xueya Site, he learned that Aoni had given a strict order to the soldiers who went to the checkpoint to play: they could spend money and play, but everyone must gather together and could not act separately!

In this way, the local shops did not dare to cause trouble because the soldiers were a collective, and thus would not use any crooked ideas on the soldiers.

Of course, this had to do with the fact that the soldiers didn't go to places like casinos. After all, when Jier went to redeem people in Duoen, it made Aoni furious.

To this day, those two Warriors hadn't even paid back a fraction of the ransom to Jier, and everyone didn't want to end up in the same situation, so they avoided the casino like the plague.

"Very good, then prepare to set off! Notify the caravans in the checkpoint, everyone gather at the gate of the checkpoint!"

Jier issued the order, and immediately the Shop Assistants of the caravan who were specifically left in the camp ran to notify the news.

Unlike Jier and his team who had a good night's sleep, the caravans that joined the convoy at the checkpoint had been preparing the goods for loading all night.

Most of the caravan Shop Assistants didn't sleep all night and could only find a place to lie down and rest for a while after preparing the goods and carriages in the early morning.

As soon as the sky brightened, these assistants had to get up and set off, embarking on the journey of this trip.

—

The gate of 【Libie Guanka】 did not have a real city gate or a huge wooden door; after all, this checkpoint itself was not a military point, but just a trade point for collecting taxes.

The checkpoint gate was actually a 'pass' composed of two towers next to an open space. Early in the morning, several tax officials with professional Tax Soldiers were checking other departing caravans and counting the taxes on the goods carried by the departing caravans.

Jier didn't care about these; he let Weier take the pass document given to him by Captain Gulisiman yesterday to show the tax officials, and then waited for the accompanying merchants to arrive one by one.

"Good morning, Knight Jier, may the God of Wealth protect us."

A newly joined caravan Steward came over to say hello; this person's eyes were red, obviously having been busy all night without sleep.

"It's time. Have your group move close to my caravan and follow tightly; the tax officer won't collect your crossing tax then."

The Merchant immediately smiled and directed his subordinates, having the drivers of the Caravan pull the fully loaded wagons close to signal that they were all together.

"Good morning, Knight Jier! May you and I travel far and return with full loads! May the coins in our pockets shine bright!"

Another newly acquainted Merchant had arrived, and the greeting in his mouth was different, which Jier found interesting.

Waving his hand, Jier signaled for this person to also have his Caravan merge into the wagon train.

He was a bit curious about what the next Merchant would say.

"Ah! Mighty and powerful Knight Jier! May you have a good appetite! Shall we set off now? I can hardly wait!"

The third one was a chubby middle-aged Caravan Steward who, upon approaching, handed Jier a bag of roasted nuts, and then, from somewhere on his person, pulled out a small bag of dried meat, popping some into his mouth and smacking his lips.

Jier smiled, waved his hand to accept the nuts, and let his Caravan merge into the group's wagon train.

The last Merchant arrived late, complaining incessantly that his Shop Assistant had loaded the goods incorrectly the night before, which was only discovered during a re-inspection at dawn; having received the news, he couldn't care about anything else and had hurried over.

Jier chewed a handful of nuts, somewhat dissatisfied that this person hadn't come early in the morning to offer a lucky greeting like the others.

He said nothing, merely nodding, and after letting his Caravan merge into the wagon train, he rode his Tianxuecao to lead his Warriors and the now nearly doubled wagon train, under the gaze of the Libie Guanka tax officer, to officially step onto the land of Ke'er Shan Jun.

—

While it was called stepping into the neighboring county's land, there was actually no difference on either side of the checkpoint; it was just a boundary marker between counties standing by the roadside, on which was recorded in High Noble Language—which most people could not read—when the marker was established, along with a crudely carved topographical map of the vicinity, with a strip of colored metal of unknown material dividing the map from south to north.

Jier did not know much High Noble Language, but fortunately, Weier in the group knew quite a bit.

"It hasn't been long, my lord. According to what is written, the boundary marker was established only about twenty years ago. Heh, and this marker was actually funded by Cuikuang to mark the boundary along the Shanglu." Weier, riding a common southern horse captured from a Bandit, explained to Jier, who was staring at the marker.

"So that's how it is. It seems that compared to Ke'er Shan Jun, Cuikuang has a greater need for a clear boundary to protect its own interests."

Jier cast his gaze past the boundary marker and looked ahead.

Not far past Libie Guanka, almost immediately adjacent to the border, the plains and hilly terrain seen everywhere in Cuikuang vanished instantly; the elevation rose visibly to the naked eye, and at the same time, the previously smooth and accessible Shanglu became rugged and uneven.

The road surface had clearly not been repaired for a long time and had been pressed into many deep ruts by the wheels of heavy wagons.

This forced the wagons behind to follow the ruts of those in front.

Jier sighed: "Although I haven't seen how terrible the people here are yet, I've certainly seen this rotten road firsthand."

A Merchant heard Jier's complaint and laughingly took up the conversation: "Sir Knight, half a day's travel will bring us to the village at the fork in the road; your wish will be fulfilled immediately! Haha, I guarantee you'll have a deep impression of this Ke'er Shan Jun in one go!"

Hearing this teasing, the other Merchants nearby all revealed knowing smiles, making Jier imagine several ways in which the locals could be terrible.

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