Chapter 254: Small Bandit Yingdi - The Efficacy of the Mysterious Mushroom

Zhao Ji was fiddling with the new Dagger he had just acquired when the Bandit tied up nearby began to writhe on the ground, which drew Zhao Ji's attention back.

Taking a closer look at the Bandit's condition, Zhao Ji discovered that the Bandit's eyes had become blood-red, just like the goblin that had consumed the Mushroom earlier.

This Bandit was glaring fiercely with blood-red eyes at the Bandit observing him.

Wanting to know the state of this Bandit, Zhao Ji yanked out the dirty clothing stuffed in the other's mouth.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you! What did you feed me? What is it!" the Bandit roared viciously.

Reaching out to wave a hand in front of the other's eyes, he judged that after consuming the Mushroom and having its effects take hold, the other still possessed relatively clear consciousness, though they seemed somewhat agitated; the other had completely forgotten that they were tied up and lacked the strength or possibility to actively question Zhao Ji.

Smiling, Zhao Ji thought about stuffing the curved Dagger in his hand into the other's mouth, but after a moment's thought, he stuffed his own Steel Dagger into the other's mouth instead. As for the Dagger that looked more valuable, he put it away first.

Although the Bandit's eyes were blood-red and their spirit tense and frantic, after the young man stuffed the Dagger into their mouth, they still instinctively bit down firmly on the Dagger with their loose teeth.

They bent their waist, brought their bound hands in front of them, and used the sharp edge of the Steel Dagger to rub vigorously against the cloth strips binding them.

Zhao Ji stepped back a few paces and just watched the other attempt to escape, merely resting a hand on the hilt of the Long Sword at his waist, making no other movements.

Seeing that the young man did not come to stop them, the Bandit seized the opportunity, regardless of the outcome, and swung their bound hands back and forth vigorously. Soon, the cloth strips on their hands were sliced open, and the Bandit picked up the Dagger and once again cut through the belt on their knees.

Simply binding their injured lower leg to stop the bleeding, the Bandit stood up, gripped the Dagger, and kicked off the ground with one foot to lunge fiercely at the young man watching them.

Clang!

Zhao Ji drew his Long Sword and parried the Dagger thrust at him.

The Bandit lunged downward, and the Dagger in their hand went straight for Jier's lower body.

Not giving the other a chance to hurt him, Jier utilized his advantage in legs and feet, retreating two steps to dodge the other's offensive. This Bandit had become much more formidable after eating the Mushroom.

Jier swung his Long Sword to counterattack, only to be blocked by the Bandit, who was holding the Dagger in a reverse grip. Sure enough, whether in strength or reaction, this Bandit was more than a notch stronger; before, when facing them, they had no ability to resist, but after eating just one Mushroom, the other was not only no longer mentally afraid of him, but their agility and technique also seemed to keep up with his offensive.

Zhao Ji circled with the Bandit casually, discovering that it was not the other's technique that had improved; the effect of the Mushroom did not enhance the other's technique, as it was not some martial arts manual or the like.

Rather, the Mushroom had increased the other's reaction speed!

Jier stared intently at the other's blood-red eyes and found that the pupils were dilated, and the entire eyeball was constantly darting back and forth in the socket as their weapons clashed.

The other's breathing was also quite rapid; he did not know if it was to provide air to the body during the fight, or to supply the oxygen from the breathing to the other's brain or something else.

Unlike the Bandit's rapid breathing, Jier's breathing was always under his own control. When the offensive was fierce, he would increase the frequency of his breathing; when dodging and defending, Jier would slow his breathing, adjusting his entire body's energy distribution so that the rhythm of the battle remained under his control.

As Jier gradually gained the initiative in the casual exchange, he also saw the effect of this Mushroom. This Mushroom could significantly improve the consumer's neural observation and control capabilities; he estimated that in the other's eyes, the flow of time in the entire world felt like it had slowed down. But in fact, that was an illusion, likely caused by the increase in brain activity.

It was not that the world's time had slowed down, but that the Bandit themselves had sped up.

But mere improvement in thinking and nerves was useless; their own body had injuries on both hands and feet, and they themselves had not mastered any effective combat methods before, plus the gap in physical fitness was too great.

This Bandit could not hurt Jier in the slightest.

Jier felt the situation was well under control, so he used his Long Sword to deflect the other's Dagger, and while the hand holding the Dagger was pushed aside, Jier suddenly reached out his left hand, grabbed the other's hand holding the Dagger, and twisted it, forcing the other to release the Dagger.

Jier kicked away the fallen Dagger, let go of the Long Sword in his right hand, and used both hands to subdue the Bandit.

No matter how the other resisted, it was useless; the gap in physical strength and power between the two could not be ignored by these enhancements. The subdued Bandit was re-tied by Jier, with hands and feet tightly bound, and their mouth stuffed with the same piece of tattered clothing from before.

Because of the intense battle just now, the wounds had reopened and were bleeding.

Zhao Ji had no choice but to bandage the Bandit tightly again, stopping the blood.

Putting away his two weapons, Zhao Ji looked at the tightly bound Bandit and sat down himself. He did not know how long the Mushroom's effect would last, so he could only sit here and wait.

After sitting for a while, Zhao Ji remembered that there was still one person from this Bandit Group out scouting for targets, and he did not know when they would return.

Therefore, Zhao Ji moved the Bandit to the center of the Yingdi, covered the bound areas slightly, and created the illusion of someone lying on the ground resting. He himself hid inside the Bandit's small Tent, covered his Boots, and pretended to be a sleeping Bandit.

Of course, in order to observe the condition of the Bandit who had eaten the Mushroom, he specifically used his Dagger to cut a large hole in the Bandit's small Tent, making it convenient for him to observe from inside.

The sky transitioned from the rising sun to the afternoon sun.

At this time, the sun still had a hint of warmth, as long as you could be directly exposed to the sunlight.

Zhao Ji drank a little water in the Tent and ate some Bread bought from the inn. This Bread was not nearly as good as the clerk had said, and Zhao Ji could only barely eat half of the dry, hard Bread with water.

Regardless, the Bread here was at least made from wheat flour that had been repeatedly ground by stone mills, so at least it didn't scratch his throat when eaten. Being out in the wild, Zhao Ji wasn't that delicate; if he hadn't been worried about when the last Bandit would return, he would have already been eating the Bandits' food by the campfire.

But thinking about it, coming out to deal with Bandits this time, there was no need to worry about food at all. Just take the food of the defeated Bandits and that's it.

As for drinking water, Zhao Ji still didn't trust the water sources in the wild; if there was no other way, he still didn't want to drink wild water. Mainly, he was afraid there might be parasites or something in the water.

Even with the badge issued by the Agricultural God Church that had the effect of curing diseases, he didn't want to suffer from any illness.

Because he didn't know how effective the healing of this badge was, and he wasn't very confident in truly placing his chances of survival on this thing.

Just as Zhao Ji was boredly thinking about these things, an undisguised sound of footsteps came from the other side of the dirt mound.

The other's footsteps sounded quite urgent, and it seemed they were in a hurry.

Before the person had even rounded the dirt mound, they shouted: "Get up, everyone get up, I've been watching for a whole day, and finally found a target that's easy to handle. There are only two of them, pulling a cart of goods toward Kendall City. Hurry, hurry, hurry, while only I have discovered them, let's set off immediately to intercept them."

The Bandit lying by the fire unable to move still had blood-red eyes, and upon hearing their companion's voice, they writhed urgently on the ground, wanting to warn their companion of the danger and tell them to run.

But their companion was quite urgent, and after walking quickly into the Yingdi and seeing one of their own still lying on the ground writhing and not taking the news they brought seriously, they became angry and kicked the person writhing on the ground in the butt.

At the same time, they cursed: "%&%! I've been watching people for a whole day, carrying bags at the checkpoint and asking for information everywhere, and you guys are just sleeping here in the Yingdi! It pisses me off, are you still going to work or not! If not, let's break up! Just get the hell back to your hometowns, watch others live their lives, and just die old alone!"

After kicking them twice, this person felt something was wrong. Because they had said several sentences, but no one in the entire Yingdi answered them; the bad seeds who usually liked to be noisy were actually silent, which made them feel that something was wrong.

They looked down carefully and saw that the guy who liked to take advantage and was the most cunning among the accomplices had eyes that were glaring blood-red, which was very strange, and the whole person was tied up tightly, with a whole wad of dirty clothing filling most of their mouth.

The other's strange eyes were constantly sending them a message to run away.

This person felt a shiver run through their whole body, and when they turned their head to look, the figure that seemed to be sleeping in the Tent in the Yingdi just now had disappeared, and behind them, an unfamiliar young man was standing with his arms crossed, sneering at them.

Zhao Ji watched as this Bandit discovered that something was wrong and then suddenly turned his head to find him. He said: "Don't think about harming people anymore, surrender obediently, and I will only hand you over to the Soldiers at the checkpoint. Otherwise, once you resist! If you get hurt or die, don't blame me!"

How could this person surrender directly? These Bandits were all people who lived with their heads on their belts; bullying and threatening others was their daily routine, and being cruel and cunning was their true nature.

This Bandit crouched down and wanted to escape, but Jier took two steps forward, caught up, and kicked the fleeing Bandit down with one foot.

This kick sent half of the Bandit's body into the campfire; because no one had added firewood to the campfire for a long time, there were only some charcoal embers that weren't exactly scorching hot left.

But even these charcoal embers made the Bandit scream in pain!

The clothing on their body, which was still relatively normal, was also ignited, but because this Bandit had been rushing to the Yingdi the whole way, the sweat on their body had saved their life.

The Bandit rolled on the ground a few times, using the dry soil to extinguish the flames on their body. However, Zhao Ji had already arrived behind them, using his knees to press down on the Bandit's upper back, twisting both of the Bandit's hands behind their back to control them.

Zhao Ji then used the prepared linen rope to bind the man's arms, then tossed him to the side, slamming him onto the ground.

Bang!

"Behave yourself. Your group has already been wiped out by me, so just obediently admit defeat." Zhao Ji had nothing he wanted to ask this man. Seeing that the man was still spouting filth after being tied up, he took off the man's shoes, pulled out the foul-smelling piece of Linen Cloth stuffed inside, and shoved it directly into the man's mouth.

The man immediately began to twist incessantly, reacting very violently! Zhao Ji brought his hand to his nose and took a slight sniff, feeling nauseated, and quickly rubbed his hand on the ground to eliminate the stench.

Ignoring the violently reacting last Bandit, Zhao Ji this time walked openly to the side of the Bandit who had been fed the Mushroom earlier. He looked at the man's eyes and discovered that after half a day, the blood-red color in the man's eyes had faded significantly, though about a small half remained.

Checking the man's physical condition again, he discovered that this Bandit's physical state was actually still fine, even slightly stronger than when he had just been injured.

It seems this kind of Mushroom can not only enhance the user's abilities but also slightly recover one's physical condition. This is truly a rare and good thing.

Just as Zhao Ji thought this thing was good, he discovered that this Bandit's spirit seemed somewhat scattered. He patted the man's face, and after removing the cloth blocking the man's mouth, the man asked for water in a dry, hoarse voice.

Only then did Zhao Ji remember that this man had been injured, fought, and terrified, and hadn't even drunk a drop of water yet.

Thinking that he would have to hand these two Bandits over to the soldiers at the pass later, he couldn't carry these two people out of the forest; he had to let these two walk out of here after being captured.

Zhao Ji fed this Bandit some of the drinking water from their Yingdi, which was all stored in wooden barrels. Picking up a Wooden Bowl to scoop a bowl of water, Zhao Ji fed it to the man.

Looking at the sun and estimating that he could return to Bingxun Pass before sunset, Zhao Ji scavenged the things in this Yingdi, made the two bound Bandits carry them, tied the two of them with a rope, extinguished the campfire, and then Zhao Ji pulled the two Bandits toward the direction of Bingxun Pass.

Zhao Ji's timing was just right; he arrived at the north gate of Bingxun Pass at dusk.

Initially, when they saw from afar a young man pulling two bound people walking over, these gate-guarding Soldiers were quite nervous.

These Soldiers were uniformly dressed in leather half-body Armor, wearing leather helmets with iron plates added on their heads, holding Spears and Long Swords, and some Soldiers carried Crossbows on their backs with half a quiver of crossbow bolts slung at their waists.

However, after Jier took out a gleaming green Agricultural God Badge from his chest, these Soldiers set their minds at ease. At the very least, they knew this person was not some strange individual; the other party should be someone from a church.

After Zhao Ji arrived at the north gate, he handed the two bound Bandits over to the Soldiers, pointing at the clothing on the other party that came from many different people to accuse these two of being Bandits who intercepted and killed traveling merchants. One of them was a person who gathered information while active in the pass, and the other three were hidden in the mountain forest, ready to strike whenever they received news.

Jier let the Soldiers inspect some scattered goods brought back on their backs; they were all blood-stained, uncommon goods. Common items had already been exchanged for money by their Bandit Group and squandered, leaving only these blood-stained goods that were hard to sell.

Many people gathered at the north gate to watch this sudden excitement. The onlookers did not expect that someone would be bold enough to run into the mountain forest where Bandits swarmed and wipe out a small Bandit Group all by himself. Some praised the young man Jier on the spot, while others disdainfully and quietly slandered the young man Jier as nothing more than a show-off.

But everyone basically acknowledged that these two were not good people, and most people didn't care about it; they just loved to watch the excitement.

The Soldiers also loved to watch this kind of rare excitement. Usually, they saw more of some well-armed Caravan breaking through some underpowered Bandits who dared to come and rob them during their journey, escorting the defeated Bandits back to exchange for a small bounty.

Today, they actually saw a case where it might have been one person going out, defeating two people, and capturing two people.

A Captain among the Soldiers also found himself in a difficult position when encountering this situation. He first consulted the Tax Officer who held a higher position than him at the north gate. Under the other party's instruction, he requested Jier to follow his small squad of Soldiers to lead the way and inspect the Bandit Camp, first to confirm the situation of the two people who were killed, and secondly to bring back all the remaining things in the Bandit Camp for inspection.

Having guessed that this situation might occur, Jier led a squad of ten Refining Qi Soldiers toward the previous Bandit Camp.

As for this gate-guarding Soldier Captain, after thinking for a while, he had the Soldiers first lock these two Bandits in the Jianlao and ordered all the Soldiers at the north gate to be on alert.