Chapter 219: Desperate Lao Bali, Bright Warriors

"What monster? What kind of monster!" Lao Bali muttered in terror, his mind frantically cycling through all the types of monsters he knew while he fled in a panic.

What kind of monster would be active in the dead of night?

What kind of monster would pounce from the treetops to launch a sneak attack?

What kind of monster possesses flexible, fur-covered limbs?

And it even makes a sound like a sharp blade being drawn from its sheath when its claws and teeth extend?

And it isn't very large in size?

Yet, after running through these conditions in his mind, he still couldn't think of what sort of thing had attacked him here.

"What do I do? I think I'd better run!" he asked and answered himself, but because he was too panicked, he suddenly tripped over a tree root on the ground; he let out an "Ouch," and just as he was about to scramble up, the tendon area of his right hind leg was slashed by something hard and cold.

His right foot suddenly lost all strength, causing him to collapse limply to the ground just as he had started to climb up.

But Lao Bali was an old bandit; it wasn't as if he hadn't encountered similar desperate situations before, so he didn't give up struggling at this moment, instead crawling forward rapidly while his mind raced to find a way to survive this predicament.

'Got it!' He suddenly realized something and shouted, "Pulisi!! Save me! It's me, Bali! Save me quickly!"

The forest was silent for a moment, a moment that made Lao Bali's heart sink to the bottom, but the next instant, a response came from a tree ahead.

"Bali? Save you? What's going on?"

It was the voice of a young man, filled with impatience and reluctance, even carrying a hint of sleepiness.

Lao Bali felt overjoyed and scrambled forward in a flurry. At the same time, the attack from behind stopped for some unknown reason.

In reality, the pursuing Kuaitui Maomao was completely stunned! Because it was absolutely certain that the bandit sentry hiding in the tree ahead had definitely been finished off by it!?!?

What was going on?

Don't humans die after a dagger is stabbed into their brains? But it had indeed confirmed that the person had no breath and their chest wasn't beating after it killed them! Can a person come back to life after dying?

The stunned Maomao froze in place, even forgetting to chase after them to kill the fleeing bandit as quickly as possible and prevent the two from successfully meeting up.

But in this short moment of delay, the bandit with the severed heel tendon had already run to the base of the large tree ahead. He was leaning against the tree, holding his weapon toward the location where Maomao was, waving his weapon around in a panic, and kept saying to the person in the tree: "A monster attacked me! I don't know what kind of monster it is, but it's very insidious, not big, and moves very flexibly! Come down and help me! If I die, the boss will have to send more people out later! Don't you want to know if the three of us succeeded this time?"

"Monster? A monster attacked you? Tell me the situation clearly first, then I'll come down."

The bandit in the tree continued to talk without making any move, which made Lao Bali, who felt he was struggling to hold out, furious: "You dog! Hurry up and come down to help me! You were only able to get a wife in the village because I introduced her to you! Is this how you treat a brother who has helped you?"

"Alright, alright, I get it."

The voice from the tree sounded somewhat helpless, but for some reason, there was an unconcealable sense of glee in the words.

Maomao didn't know whether it should attack now; its sense of mission demanded that it go up and finish off these two alert bandits, but its intuition and the chaotic logic of the situation made it stand where it was, even urging it to flee this place as quickly as possible.

It was as if the thing coming down from the tree was not the bandit about to meet up, but something even more terrifying.

If the 'resurrection' of the bandit it had originally killed was related to this thing that kept stimulating its intuition, it made Maomao gradually believe it should follow its intuition and flee from here.

So it immediately turned and ran, not even returning via the treetops, but running quickly along the forest floor, avoiding those glaringly obvious crude traps, and running toward Jier's location without stopping for a moment.

Lao Bali seemed to hear the footsteps of the attacker in the darkness moving away, which made him let out a long sigh of relief, knowing that the situation of two humans meeting up had indeed made the attacker retreat in the face of difficulties.

"Phew, I, ah, have saved my life once again..."

He panted heavily; once his tense spirit relaxed, he finally felt the intense pain from his right foot, and other parts of his body that had been bumped and scraped during his panicked escape also began to sting and sound the alarm.

"Damn it, why are you so slow? But luckily you're here this time. Hey, I'm still the capable one, being able to accurately distinguish direction and distance in this pitch-black forest. When I was attacked by that thing just now, I estimated that I wasn't too far from you, finally..."

Lao Bali listened to the movement of someone climbing down from the tree, his whole body relaxing until he couldn't stand, and he sat down on the ground with a thud. He could smell a strong stench of urine around him; oh, that was because he had wet his pants in his nervousness just now. That didn't matter; he would just find a place to rinse it off after dawn.

Besides the stench of urine he brought with him, he could also smell a strong scent of blood, which was also normal, after all, his right heel tendon had been cut by the monster's 'sharp claws', and he had clearly lost quite a bit of blood.

He subconsciously reached out to probe his wound, but his palm only felt a small patch of sticky blood at the wound; the amount of bleeding did not match the strong scent of blood in the air at all.

Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump...

Lao Bali's heart was beating violently in his chest, beating even more intensely than when he was attacked by the monster in the darkness, reflecting the horror he felt at this moment.

His breathing stopped for a moment, and at the same time, the sound of climbing down from the tree also seemed to stop along with his breathing.

His breathing then returned to as normal as possible, and the sound of climbing down from the tree started up again.

Thump-thump-thump-thump, thump-thump-thump-thump...

This made Lao Bali's heart beat even faster. His face twisted into a terrifying and desperate expression in the darkness. His right hand gripped his cleaver tightly, while his left hand tremblingly pulled a handful of soaked, glowing flowers from his wet leather pouch.

Although the illumination of the flowers, which could barely emit fluorescence, was greatly reduced after being soaked, they could still bring a faint light to this pitch-black forest.

By this faint light, Lao Bali saw a person lying on the ground just two meters away from him. Just from the mottled old tree bark the person was wearing, Lao Bali knew this person must be that old killjoy, Pulisi.

The expression on his face completely collapsed, his hanging heart feeling as if it had finally died. Not daring to look up, he opened his mouth and asked: "Pulisi, you %￥ thing, do you still remember that you owe me a large sum of money from gambling?"

The voice from the tree responded casually while climbing down: "What's wrong? It's just two Gold Coins! Wait a couple of days and let me find a way to get some money, and I'll pay you back! Stop urging me, I'm coming down right now."

Although the amount answered above was indeed the true amount owed, Lao Bali felt even more desperate.

He summoned his courage, gripped the cleaver in his hand, and finally resolutely lifted his head. The handful of glowing flowers clutched in his left hand also lifted, illuminating the 'Pulisi' climbing down from the tree.

"Ah————" Lao Bali screamed in despair; this was the last sentence he ever uttered.

Kuaitui Maomao returned to the camp by the Shanglu at high speed. The camp was full of Human Warriors prepared for battle. These tall, large Warriors wearing Metal Armor Plates all watched the tiny Maomao running in from outside the camp.

They shouted happily at it: "The Lord's 'Scout' is back! It ran so fast, it must have found the location of those guys!"

"Well done! Maomao!"

"You fuzzy little thing, although you're tiny, you're really reliable. All the way, whether it was Changmai Village or now."

The Warriors cheered for Maomao one after another, which made Maomao, who was anxious to see Jier and explain the situation, feel ashamed. It hadn't been able to summon the courage to stop the two Human bandits from meeting up in the end, and because of its reckless decision, the bandits probably already knew they were being attacked, and in the worst case, those people might have already run away.

Even if the other party hadn't run, they were probably prepared for battle, which was a completely different situation from Jier and his men launching a surprise attack.

Jier was fully dressed, sitting by the campfire talking to several important subordinates participating in the battle. Aoni, Weier, Sipulu, and the Tusi Brothers were all by Jier's side, while Xueya Siter would not participate in this battle because he had replaced Sipulu to guard the captured bandits.

To be honest, Jier didn't really want his good friend to participate in this battle with unknown risks and unclear circumstances.

Even if the other party was just a group of bandits with some ability.

"Ah, you're back. Did you find the camp where those people are spending the night?"

Jier was the first to see Kuaitui Maomao and beckoned it over.

"Found. But, but, Kuaitui, failed, messed up, things, all." Maomao walked up to Jier, first answering loudly that it had found them, then lowered its head and timidly explained that it had messed things up.

"What went wrong?"

Jier was somewhat surprised; this Mao Mao was very reliable, so it was unlikely such a mistake would occur, right?

The others waited for Mao Mao to explain the situation, but Mao Mao spoke Human Common Language in a stumbling manner. After finally managing to convey the situation, the others had varied expressions, but Jier's eyes rolled around, and he guessed what had happened.

He was clear about the strength of Kuaitui Maomao; if it said it had finished off that sentry Bandit with one strike, then it had certainly killed the opponent. After all, with a Dagger stabbed into the back of a human's head, it was impossible to survive, right?

Combining this with the other circumstances he had arranged, there was only one possible explanation for the matter.

Jier smiled: "Don't worry, you didn't mess up. On the contrary, someone took the opportunity to sneakily do something extra, which is why your situation occurred. It has nothing to do with you. Well done, Kuaitui, you completed the task I assigned. Now don't worry anymore, take a rest, drink some water, and lead the way immediately."

Jier handed his Water Bag to Kuaitui Maomao, then stood up and loudly ordered the Warriors to assemble. Because they were conducting an annihilation operation deep into the Shulin at night, the group could not stay together and had to be split into several small squads.

The Shulin was quite dry, and they could not use the usual oil-soaked Torch for lighting, as that would ignite the Shulin.

Therefore, Jier cast a glowing Lighting Orb onto the bodies of the familiar Warriors leading each squad, letting them serve as the main commanders and provide battlefield illumination for the other Warriors.

Jier himself did not need one; he had his Hunting Sword.

At this time, seeing Kuaitui Maomao finish the water in a daze, Jier picked it up and placed it on his left shoulder, letting Mao Mao sit on his shoulder to point the way. Jier held the Hunting Sword in his left hand and the Dwarf Soldier Spear in his right. Under his cape behind him were the Knight Curved Shield and the Yueshui Skull Two-Handed Axe. Clad in heavy Metal Armor Plate Armor, he led the few Warriors who also had glowing bodies, followed by more than twenty laughing and joking Warriors, and strode into the nearby Shulin.

Xueya Site followed the Dwarf Warriors to fill in the defense of the Yingdi after Jier and the others departed.

Although Xueya Site was not used to cooperating with Dwarves, he had no choice but to hold his nose and temporarily guard the Yingdi with the old Dwarves and the others.

Before entering the Shulin, Jier had the group split up. Each familiar Warrior led several subordinate Warriors, and each squad was equipped with Shield users and archers as much as possible, forming small squads with complete combat functions.

At the same time, the squads would not be spread too far apart; basically, even after entering the Shulin, they would remain within a distance where they could see Jier with the naked eye.

Only after truly engaging the Bandits would the squads disperse to surround them.

Jier went alone; he did not need others to follow and assist. It was not that no one wanted to coordinate with Jier, but that Jier's strength was too great to coordinate with the subordinate Warriors. Since that was the case, it was better to let him fight alone, which was simple and convenient.

After walking in the Shulin for a while, Mao Mao pointed the way for Jier while whispering to ask why Jier did not criticize it.

Jier smiled, found an opportunity to stuff a Gold Coin he had prepared earlier into Mao Mao's hand, and replied: "Because it really isn't your fault. You'll know in a moment."

"Not my fault, I, know?"

Kuaitui Maomao was a bit confused, only feeling that Jier was just like the Great Wizard of their tribe, muttering and chanting some obscure words all day that made the Mao Maos dizzy, sometimes even shrieking strange words that were not in the Mao Mao language.

Under Mao Mao's guidance, everyone carefully avoided some simple traps and alarm devices the Bandits had set on the ground in the forest; they were all simple mechanisms meant to deal with small animals or make a sound upon collision.

If the sentry were still there, they would likely have sounded an alarm upon hearing these mechanisms, a loud sound like metal clashing, to notify the people in the Yingdi to fight or flee.

But at this moment, Jier and the others arrived under the large tree where the sentry should have been. There were no Bandits waiting in full battle array as Mao Mao had expected, nor was the guard post empty; there were only two headless corpses, which left Mao Mao unable to understand.

"It's right that you don't understand; you'll know later. Not far ahead is the Yingdi where the Bandits spend the night, right? Hmph, they were quite clever to set up a large black cloth facing the Shanglu, but it's just petty cleverness. Because they will know that this bit of petty cleverness will also kill them."

Jier mocked them in a low voice, turned to his subordinates who were watching him from a few meters away, pointed forward with sharp movements, and then signaled for everyone to disperse and surround them.

Then Jier strode toward the front. When passing the corpses, he even used the blood on the corpses to activate the Dwarf Soldier Spear held in his right hand.

He and his subordinate Warriors would give these impolite local Bandits a return gift, which could be considered a 'decent' response to the 'hospitality' these local Bandits had shown them tonight.