Chapter 201: The Monster Crusading Team of the [Merchant Guild of Sweet Fruit]

The caravan set up camp for the night in an open space on the north side of the village, a short distance away from the settlement.

This appeared to be a clearing where farmers dried their crops; since it was early summer, the wheat in the fields had not yet reached harvest season, so aside from the occasional bold farmer driving away birds and beasts at night, there was no one else present here after dark.

After setting up camp, the merchants accompanying the caravan repeatedly instructed everyone in the group that unless it was necessary, it was best not to go into the village to wander or relax, because for most of these settlements in Ke'er Shan Jun, any outsider who entered had to pay a fee first. Furthermore, every time one entered, they had to pay that fee all over again.

The various taverns, Red Houses, and general stores in the village that bought and sold goods didn't care where you came from; they would gouge you mercilessly. The more of an outsider you were, the more they would gouge you for money.

Therefore, if you felt you didn't have much spare cash on hand, you should avoid running into the village to wander around and get fleeced.

However, even just spending a night in the open space outside the village required paying a fee to the local administrator; this fee even included camping charges, waste disposal fees, pit-filling fees, compensation for crop damage near the campsite, and so on.

Among these, the crop damage fee was said to be because the clearing was close to the surrounding farmland, and there was always some clumsy fellow in every team camping overnight who, mostly out of boredom at night, would use their whip or self-defense weapon to wantonly ruin the nearby crops.

So, to avoid disputes, the local administrator simply collected this money in advance. They didn't care at all whether such things would actually happen.

Jier didn't mind, because the various expenses for tonight's camp were the responsibility of the various merchant groups accompanying the caravan. Just now, when the caravan arrived and communicated with the local administrator who came to meet them, Jier only explained the strange monster they had encountered; the other costs for camping and the like were all taken over by the merchants.

On the way after fleeing that bridge, Jier had also asked the various merchants to see if he could obtain any intelligence regarding that kind of monster.

But unfortunately, the others had no information about this type of monster. One person had seen a similar monster before, but there was no further intelligence. Because at that time, the caravan guards in charge had lost two men and hurriedly led the caravan to flee the area where the monster was active.

It was just that the caravan guards seemed to call that monster a "Corpse Mud Monster."

"Corpse Mud Monster, hmm, as far as its appearance goes, that's quite fitting. It's just that the name doesn't point out the monster's special abilities. To be able to inflict multiple injuries on people from such a distance—it's not an easy opponent to deal with."

Jier spoke about the monster to his companions while eating.

Aoni patted the shoulder of the Tusi Brothers, who were eating with him, and asked with concern, "How is it? Do you two feel any discomfort in your bodies?"

Zhongtusi shook his head and put down the half-eaten wheat porridge: "No discomfort, I just can't eat anything; I have no appetite."

Xiao Tusi was the same. While everyone else had already eaten two bowls of wheat porridge, he hadn't even managed to finish half of one, but he was unwilling to waste food and was currently still struggling with his half-bowl of wheat porridge.

"Alright, stop fighting with those poor wheat grains. If you can't finish it, don't eat it. How's your appetite? Do you want to eat some meat? There are still several barrels of cured meat bought in Kagali Town; shall I open one for you two?"

Hearing Jier's words, Xiao Tusi actually wanted to eat, but Zhongtusi rejected Jier's suggestion in advance.

Mr. Zuojigela, who was sitting and eating with his family, spoke up at this moment: "Don't be nervous, Lord Jier. Their condition isn't serious. In a while, I'll go to the nearby village to buy some common herbs, grind them up, and boil them into a medicinal soup for them to drink, and there won't be any problems. I guarantee they'll be eating and drinking heartily by the next day!"

It seemed not to be as it appeared on the surface; Zhongtusi actually had some hidden anxiety about the situation of his two brothers. Hearing Mr. Zuojigela's affirmative statement, he immediately stood up and invited: "I will accompany you. I heard from the merchants that the people in the town are very cunning, stingy, and greedy."

Jier had wanted to go along, but considering that before eating he had seen a group of people from the 【Merchant Guild of Sweet Fruit】 depart from the town with various weapons and equipment, heading west along the Shanglu, he guessed that they had received Jier's report, and upon the local administrator's relay, they had set out immediately to resolve the monster that might endanger the Shanglu.

Although those people's protective gear wasn't very good, the various weapons and equipment they carried looked quite professional. Besides several foot-pedal-tensioned crossbows, there was actually a heavy crossbow that required turning a handle to tension; that thing was even mounted on a carriage, and the crossbow bolts used were as thick as a child's arm and a meter long.

It looked like the equipment was quite professional.

Therefore, Jier wanted to use the Scout of the Shadow Bird at the campsite to see if those people could handle the monster of unknown strength.

"Siter, you go to the town with Mr. Zuojigela and Zhongtusi to buy some medicinal herbs for treatment; I won't go. By the way, it's best to bring along a merchant who is familiar with the local town. If any locals give you trouble, let him step forward to handle it. However, if anyone dares to use force to threaten you, Zhongtusi, you protect everyone and get out first, then find me to bring people over to reason with the locals again."

After Jier finished speaking, he hurriedly dropped his finished rice bowl and returned to his tent.

The group gathered around the campfire looked at each other, and Aoni shrugged: "You heard it all; let's do as Lord Jier ordered."

Mr. Zuojigela still wanted to feed his young child a few more bites of dinner, but Zhongtusi standing beside him waiting for him to set off made Mr. Zuojigela feel a bit awkward. He hastily handed the child's rice bowl to one of his wives and reluctantly got up to find Xueya Siter.

The group then found a merchant familiar with the local town and, carrying a Torch, walked south through the night toward the town, which had few lights at night.

Jier returned to his tent and lay down on his comfortable dog-skin bedding. A black shadow emerged from his right eye, and it quickly transformed into a half-man-tall, shiny black Shadow Bird in the middle of the tent.

"You're a bit too big. Shrink down, preferably to an inconspicuous size."

Jier lay on the ground, grabbed the slightly extended shadow wings of the massive Shadow Bird, and shook his hand, absorbing most of the Divine Power within the Shadow Bird's body, finally leaving only a Shadow Bird the size of a common bird, twenty centimeters tall with a half-meter wingspan, in his hand.

"This size is much more appropriate. Go, and in my stead, see how those people are doing in their crusade against the monster."

Jier lifted the corner of the tent that touched the ground, reached his hand out, and released the pitch-black Shadow Bird, which could blend into the night, to go and Scout.

He lay back down on the dog-skin bedding, closed his eyes, and linked his consciousness with the Shadow Bird flying in the air.

The original black night vanished, and the entire world suddenly transformed into a clear, gray-like vision. One must know that it was night, there were clouds in the sky, and Ke'er Shan Jun was full of high mountains and rivers; if viewed with the naked eye, even with three moons hanging in the sky, the wilderness of Ke'er Shan Jun would be pitch black everywhere.

It was almost impossible for an ordinary person to move in the dark at midnight relying solely on the naked eye. Even with a Torch, it was easy to slip off the steep hillsides beside the Shanglu, not to mention that the wilderness at night was the world of beasts; the Shanglu relied on stretches of mountain forests, and no merchant dared to be active outside at midnight.

Unless it was a twenty-person team crusading against a monster.

The Shadow Bird flew in the low air twenty meters above the ground, flying west along the clearly visible Shanglu in its field of vision, and soon found the crusading team carrying torches.

This team from the 【Merchant Guild of Sweet Fruit】 was just as Jier had seen before; although there were not many men, the several compact, fast carriages were loaded with some weapons. Besides the vehicle-mounted winch-crossbows Jier had seen earlier, they actually had unknown weapons packed in clay jars.

Jier guessed they were some kind of fire oil; the best way to counter a troublesome monster was fire, as large areas of flame could suppress most monsters' extraordinary recovery power.

Thereby suppressing the monsters' self-healing abilities.

The Shadow Bird circled and flew in the low air, not attracting any attention at all.

Not long after, this team from the 【Merchant Guild of Sweet Fruit】 approached the bridge ahead.

The sturdy middle-aged Warrior leading the team raised his arm, opened his mouth to say something, and the entire team slowed down and stopped.

Very cautious; the Merchant Guild personnel immediately distributed the weapons loaded on the carriages, strapping a clay jar onto each member of the team. They then laboriously tensioned the crossbows that required foot-pedals and loaded the Heavy Crossbow Bolts.

The personnel on the carriages also exerted all their strength to tension the heavy winch-crossbows and loaded a crossbow bolt as long as a Spear.

Jier also saw some details: ever since approaching the area where the incident occurred, these people had unhitched the horses from the carriages in advance and tied the horses that pulled the carriages to nearby tree trunks.

There were three carriages in total; these people used manpower to push the carriages forward along the Shanglu in batches, while the heavy winch-crossbows on the two rear carriages provided cover for the front.

The Shadow Bird nodded after seeing this, seemingly approving of these people's method of operation.

Finally, approaching within two hundred meters of the bridge, these people spent even more time than it took to travel from the village to cautiously close in.

Once the first carriage was pushed onto the bridge by several men, these people looked toward the downstream of the river.

The fast-flowing river was pitch black; even with two moons in the sky at this time, things near the river surface could not be seen clearly, let alone the pitch-black monster in the pit beneath the cliff.

The middle-aged leader commanding the team directed everyone to disperse and do their respective tasks.

It seemed that the monster Jier and his group couldn't understand was already clear to him, and he knew the method to counter that monster.

Some Merchant Guild personnel crossed the bridge and arrived at the wooden house where the bridge-keeper should have been.

But there was not a single person in the several wooden houses that had originally been full of people. The houses were full of traces left behind in a panicked rush to pack up.

The scouting personnel seemed to curse a few times, grabbed some kindling, and came out.

On this half near the bridge, they lit a bonfire for illumination. And to make the fire bright, one of them even took a bottle of something from his person and poured some onto the bonfire, causing the fire, which had been slowly growing, to suddenly flare up violently.

At the same moment, Jier's Shadow Bird saw that on the other side of the bridge where there were more people, the men from the Merchant Guild had all extinguished their lighting Torches.

For a time, there was no movement on the scene; after a while, the Warrior leader observing from the shadows continued to issue instructions, having the team members on the other side light up illumination bonfires along the steep riverbank.

However, this dangerous task was not really left for just a few people to do; everyone in this Monster-hunting Tiaofa Dui was rotating.

Although Jier's Shadow Bird could not hear the sounds at the scene, he could still understand the oppressive and serious atmosphere from what he saw.

Every time a hunter risked going to the opposite bank to light an illumination bonfire, they would carefully and quickly offer a Prayer to the deity of their respective Faith.

Jier saw through the Shadow Bird that these people had quite a lot of Faiths; aside from the God of Agriculture, it seemed that all the mainstream deities were represented?

—

Just like that, six illumination bonfires were lit in succession on the right bank of the river, and the person in charge of observation finally saw the form of the Monster Jier had reported through a specially made Telescope.

The Shadow Bird, perched on the top of a large tree with an excellent line of sight by the riverbank, saw that after the observer saw the Monster, they immediately whistled, and all the others pulled out small, glowing water bottles from their bodies and drank them dry in one gulp.

There were also some people who took out small objects with divine emblems from their bodies, bowed quickly, and then stuffed them into the clothes on their chests.

Next, at the command of the leading Warrior, the vehicle-mounted winch-powered Heavy Crossbow parked on the bridge deck, under the direction of a person beside it, fired a long and large Heavy Crossbow Bolt toward the pitch-black area on the river surface.

"Bang—"

Because the Shadow Bird could not hear the sounds at the scene, this sound of the Crossbow firing was a sound effect Jier added himself.

The Crossbow Bolt traced an arc and struck directly into a hollow under the pitch-black cliff.

The naked eye might not see it clearly, but Jier's Shadow Bird saw that the power of the Crossbow Bolt was not small; it not only hit the Monster's body but pierced straight through it, with the palm-sized steel Crossbow Bolt head pinning directly into the rock cliff behind the hollow.

The Monster's body shrank hard, trying to break free from the restraint of the bolt that had pierced through it, but it failed to do so.

The next moment, the Monster's body swelled violently, and a grayish-white circular energy ring spread out from the Monster.

Because the environment around the Monster had already been damaged by this move in the afternoon, there was no impact, only a few scattered small fish floating belly-up from the river, being washed away by the current.

As for the members of the Tiaofa Dui on the bridge opposite, they all acted as if they had received an invisible attack; some threw their heads back, some stumbled and could not stand, and others had the divine emblems hanging on their chests emit bright light, as if they had been provoked, radiating a trace of scattered Divine Power to protect the devout believers holding them.

Although Jier's Shadow Bird was not the main target of the Monster, its vision was unstable for a moment, like a drone receiving communication interference.

But Jier slightly increased the supply of shadow Divine Power, and the reconnaissance image stabilized again very quickly.

With this back-and-forth, Jier was curious: did the Monster scare off the Merchant Guild's Tiaofa Dui, or did the Tiaofa Dui's attack scare away this strange Monster?

The Shadow Bird's vision became clear again, and after twisting its bird head left and right, it saw two Tiaofa Dui members in the carriage on the bridge deck working hard to pull the mechanism, struggling to cock the winch-powered Heavy Crossbow.

Another person next to them could not help, so they held a Heavy Crossbow Bolt in their hand, ready to load and fire at any time.

They looked to be in good condition.

What about the others?

Jier had the Shadow Bird look over and discovered that the leading Warrior was directing others to carry over a second carriage loaded with a winch-powered Heavy Crossbow.

It seemed that this person was aware of the Monster's pained reaction just now.

Jier estimated that this kind of 【Rot Mud Monster】 was not common in other places, and the locals of Ke'er Shan Jun should be well-versed in dealing with it.

?? My tooth doesn't hurt today.