Chapter 200: Unexpected Monster, 'Black Mud', and the Comatose Tusi Brothers

After dealing with the farmers who had been acting as bridge guards for a time due to an accident, Jier's caravan had almost entirely crossed the bridge; on this side of the river, only he, his subordinate Warriors, and the Merchants remained.

"Let's go, we should all cross the bridge too. Since these people aren't real bridge guards, we don't need to pay them any damn toll."

Jier smiled and led everyone across the bridge as the last ones to leave.

The Warriors felt a bit regretful, as they had been busy for a while and seemed to have gained nothing, but the Merchants on the side didn't think so; through this small, unexpected incident on the road, some of the Caravan Stewards who had newly joined the caravan gained a simple understanding of Jier himself.

Last night they had briefly learned of Jier's own combat strength, and today they learned of Jier's style of handling affairs.

Overall, it was quite good—neither incompetent nor cruel. He was not overly merciful or kind-hearted, yet he wouldn't leave poor people truly unattended.

In short, following such a person, there was certainly no need to worry about this trading trip failing due to some ridiculous drama!

When finally crossing the bridge, Jier, who was walking at the very end of the group, looked at the sturdy, unobstructed bridge deck, judging in his mind the possibility of pushing someone off the bridge to kill them, while his eyes inadvertently glanced toward the distant river surface downstream.

But with just that look, he saw something different.

Not far downstream, the river had a sharp bend where a steep rock cliff faced the river's erosion, and where the cliff met the water, there seemed to be something strange in the recessed shadow?

He didn't know if his eyes were playing tricks on him, but those shadows looked more and more like several humanoid shadows huddled together.

"Wait!" he suddenly shouted.

Jier then muttered to himself for a moment, using the Divine Art ability taught to him by the Spirit of the Great Bird to enhance his vision, then turned his head to look again; this time he saw clearly what those damn things were!

They were actually pitch-black human figures stuck together, half-black shadows and half-rotted black flesh, all leaning against and adhering to each other, soaking in the recessed hole under the cliff by the river!

Seeming to realize that someone was watching them, those things acted as if they had sensed something, suddenly twisting the parts of their bodies that resembled human heads to stare back at Jier from afar.

"@&! What the hell is that? This damn Ke'er Shan Jun has really opened my eyes!"

Jier's shout and unexpected actions made the people around him stop and look in the direction of Jier's gaze.

After all, there was a distance between them, and the water mist rising from the river obscured much of the view, so many people on the bridge couldn't see the thing clearly, only a patch of wriggling shadows under the river cliff.

The Tusi Brothers, however, had good eyesight and barely made out the strangeness of the thing in the distance, their faces full of horror, because when they had just captured those hunting Farmers, they estimated they were no more than forty meters away from that thing's location. Who could have imagined that under the steep cliff, where it touched the river, such a bizarre Monster was lurking?

At this moment, Jier shouted to the two of them: "Tusi Brothers, shoot an arrow and see! What is that thing!"

Although their hearts were pounding, the Tusi Brothers still followed orders, taking their Large Bows from their bodies and nocking a Large Arrow on each string.

Because the distance was not very far, they aimed slightly and fired an arrow almost simultaneously with tacit understanding.

Jier saw the shadows of the two Large Arrows instantly trace smooth parabolic trajectories, accurately hitting the largest part of that damn thing's body.

The thing's overall size shrank for an instant.

The next moment, a ring-shaped shadow expanded in broad daylight like a blown-up balloon, suddenly spreading outward from the Monster for a distance of ten to twenty meters.

Large swaths of plants on the cliff turned to ash and became brittle, unable to support themselves, falling one after another into the river to be washed downstream. The scattered fish, shrimp, crabs, and insects that flipped up in the river were also swept away all at once by the rapid current.

Jier's head felt a bit dizzy; he shook his head, which made him feel better, but with two thuds, the Tusi Brothers, who had fired the arrows, rolled their eyes, blood flowing from their noses, and collapsed directly onto the wooden bridge deck.

Fortunately, the bridge deck was sturdy and wide; unless someone pushed them maliciously, it was difficult to fall off the bridge just by tripping.

"Quick, quick, quick! Help the Tusi Brothers up! Let's leave here! This Monster..."

It was Jier's first time encountering such a bizarre and inexplicable Monster. The feeling this thing gave him was different from the arachnid Magic Beasts or the powerful Alien Evil Gods he had seen before. Most importantly, if Jier were alone, he would have had to test that thing, and even if he couldn't beat it, he would have had to land a few hits. But at this moment, he had many subordinates and a massive caravan to manage and be responsible for, so it was not a good opportunity to deal with such a Monster.

"Leave here first! Hey! You guys look over there, at the bottom of the cliff where the river bends, there seems to be a powerful and bizarre Monster! This place is no longer habitable; if you want to survive, pack your things and run for your lives now! If that Monster can't come up, I still think it's best not to stay here for long."

After Jier warned the fake bridge guards, he immediately rode his horse to catch up with the others who were crossing the wooden bridge as if fleeing, shouting and scolding the end of the caravan that had stopped out of curiosity to accelerate immediately and leave this place as soon as possible.

As for those fake bridge-guarding Farmers, they mustered their courage to lie on the edge of the bridge and look toward the place Jier pointed out; then, after many of them had blood and tears flow from their eyes and nosebleeds from their noses, they immediately scrambled to call their wives and daughters, grabbed their hidden money jars, abandoned everything else, and ran west along the Shanglu as fast as they could.

While running, a few young children were still puzzled, muttering why the adults didn't play with the 'Black Mud' for a while when they saw it, but instead ran away?

'Black Mud' was the name they gave to the Monster lurking under the cliff, because it was pitch black and its whole body was like a lump of mud. It usually had to shrink miserably into the recessed shadow of the cliff washed by the river. When the children first discovered the thing, although they were startled, they weren't too afraid, because although 'Black Mud' couldn't leave the water, the pitch-black stuff on its body would be washed away by the river, and it couldn't climb walls, so while it looked scary, it was actually quite fun to tease.

'Black Mud' didn't like the Stone and soil the children threw down to tease it, but it quite liked the insects, crabs, and jumping frogs the children threw at it. After it ate, it would even turn into the appearance of the pitch-black children and call them down to 'play' together.

But the children weren't truly stupid; they mocked 'Black Mud' for its ugly transformation, and by lying on the rock wall and throwing a few large Stones down, they would smash 'Black Mud's' ugly transformation back into its original form.

The Monster wasn't really angry; after all, every day when the children were bored, they would throw some small animals they caught for it to eat. Since it had eaten several Humans who fell into the water in one go a few days ago, it hadn't had the good old days of eating Human limbs and fragments every few days.

In the forests of Ke'er Shan Jun, there were all kinds of ghosts and monsters. The children, who had grown up listening to their mothers tell them scary, bizarre stories, hadn't revealed the matter of 'Black Mud' to the adults, but today they were very unlucky; the powerful adults passing by discovered the thing, and the adults were so frightened that they left the place without even packing their things.

"I, what happened to me?"

Zhongtusi woke up slowly, and only after he regained his senses did he realize that he and his brother were lying in an empty carriage specially cleared out for them.

Looking up at the sky outside, he found it was dim, probably close to sunset.

There was a commotion, and the carriage was gradually slowing down. Zhongtusi patted his brother and found his younger brother's mouth was drooling, and there were slight red bloodstains under his nose; it looked like someone had wiped it, but some traces remained.

Seeing this, he also touched under his own nose; his nasal cavity felt blocked, and there was also some smell of blood.

The events before he lost consciousness suddenly came to mind.

"Ah! Hell, what was that thing?"

Zhongtusi couldn't help but cry out, attracting the attention of the driver: "Oh! Kangniersi, you're awake! The Lord gave instructions that once you wake up, you should rest well. If there is anything wrong with your body or spirit, you can immediately call him and Mr. Zuojigela, although Mr. Zuojigela said you only suffered some mental shock and it doesn't seem to be anything serious. He said, uh, he said that after taking some herbs to calm the spirit, you will be fine."

"So, do you feel anything wrong with yourself?"

The driver asked with concern at the end. The Tusi Brothers were the teachers for everyone's archery training in the team. Because Jier had limited time to teach at night, he was mainly responsible for everyone's combat response strategies and mounted combat, while the Tusi Brothers were responsible for teaching archery, and the use of the Long Sword was recently handled by Weier. Aoni was responsible for assessing everyone's basic skills in using the Shield.

Even these drivers had to learn some things after setting up camp at night when conditions permitted. Knight Jier would give rewards to companions who performed well; although not much, just one or two Silver Coins, it was not a small amount on days without fighting.

"Me? I don't feel anything wrong. But that Monster! Was that Monster dealt with by Lord Jier? Damn it, it happened so suddenly, I don't even know how I fainted..."

Zhongtusi got up and leaned in the carriage, stretching his neck to look at the environment outside. He found that they were approaching a village/town in the middle of a river valley; it was hard to tell if it was a village or a town, but the overall scale was neither large nor small. This area, which was quite spacious, was the first area with contiguous farmland they had seen since entering Ke'er Shan Jun.

Perhaps because a river with a gentle current flowed through the middle of the village/town, the farmland in this area was not short of water; it was lush and green, unlike the withered and yellow farmland they had seen everywhere along the way.

Zhongtusi saw Knight Jier on horseback talking to an old man on horseback at the very front of the caravan. The other party was leading a dozen slovenly Soldiers holding Long Spears, looking like the administrators of this place.

The driver scratched his head and answered Zhongtusi's question: "That Monster wasn't dealt with by the Lord on the spot, because I heard from others that it was too bizarre at the time. From a distance away, you and your brother both had nosebleeds and fainted directly, and other people who were staying on the bridge to watch the situation were also uncomfortable. Knight Jier also said he felt a wave of dizziness. For the safety of the caravan, he didn't deal with the situation of that damn thing and took everyone to evacuate that bridge immediately."

The caravan seemed to be moving again. The driver waved the horse whip in his hand and lightly brushed the rump of the Pack Horse pulling the carriage. The Pack Horse, knowing the driver's intention, stepped forward obediently and continued to move forward at a steady pace.

It seemed the caravan would not stay on the west side of the village/town, but was heading toward an open space on the north side of the outskirts of the village/town. It looked like everyone would set up camp there for the night.

"The Lord said the situation of that Monster is unclear, and we aren't righteous heroes who do good deeds all day, so he decided to ignore that thing and just report the situation of the Monster to the administrator of this nearest village/town. Oh, I know what you're worried about—those fake bridge guards, right? The Lord persuaded those people to leave at the time, and they all ran directly to Si Chalu Kou Cun, so don't worry about their safety. By the way, the Lord gave instructions that regarding the matter of those fake bridge guards, everyone should keep it a secret for them in this village/town; after they run out of Ke'er Shan Jun, we can say whatever we want."

"I see. Did the Lord say what the origin of that Monster was? Even he doesn't know? There are so many well-informed Merchants in the caravan; they should know something, right?"

Zhongtusi was still brooding over the bizarre Monster that had hurt him and his brother. Not to mention taking revenge himself, at least he had to know the name and abilities of that Monster, right? If he encountered something similar next time, he would definitely retreat at the first opportunity.

However, after he finished asking, he smacked his lips, thinking of the command of Knight Jier before he fell unconscious, as well as the consequences for the two of them; he reckoned Knight Jier had never seen that thing either.

Sure enough, the driver shrugged: "The lord doesn't know either; he said he had dealt with massive Wolf Packs of hundreds in the Northwest Province and giant arachnid Magic Beasts, and having traveled all the way from the Northwest Province, he had certainly seen his fair share of things, but he had never seen anything like that. He hadn't even heard of it."

Zhongtusi nodded regretfully; at this moment, seemingly awakened by the sound of the two talking, Xiao Tusi smacked his lips and woke up, and upon seeing his second brother right beside him, Xiao Tusi first mocked the dull bloodstain under his second brother's nose, but he soon remembered what happened before he lost consciousness, and he could no longer laugh.

Consequently, Xiao Tusi asked the driver who was driving the carriage the same questions that Zhongtusi had just asked.

The driver, who was actually afraid that no one would talk to him, tirelessly explained the situation after they had fallen unconscious once again.

"So that's it? That ghost of a thing just played us all for fools like that?" Xiao Tusi had a more active personality and did not want to just let it go, even if they were the ones who had provoked that strange Monster hiding at the junction of the river and the cliff.

"What? You want to go again?"

Zhongtusi did not want to get involved in anything related to this strange Monster anymore and retorted to his brother.

"Of course not, but Lord Jier is so powerful; if you ask me, he definitely won't just let it go. I reckon he'll ride back and forth on horseback tonight and slaughter that pitch-black Monster," Xiao Tusi clamored.

"Avenging you? You really have a lot of nerve," Zhongtusi mocked his own brother.

"Of course not, uh, just like those Bards in the tavern sing, isn't it a glorious thing to crusade against such a Monster? Isn't that what the Knight lords love the most?"

Put that way, Zhongtusi and the driver were not so sure; if one were to say Jier was not the type to value glory, that wasn't quite right either, but if one were to say Jier valued money, Jier had done many things where it was impossible to see how he could profit. For example, those Refugees in New Hope Town; although Jier had worried himself sick for those Refugees who had fled their homes and had subsidized quite a lot of supplies and energy into it, if one were to ask how much he himself had gained from it, everyone was not blind and could see that Jier had actually gained nothing.

Perhaps, just as Knight Jier said, he was a warrior of the god of agriculture, and he was happy to do things for the displaced people who held Faith in the god of agriculture.

Zhongtusi thought to himself.

?? Toothache, it makes me unable to think.