Chapter 264: Thieves of Luodai Cave, Northeast Section — Walking Corpses and a Nighttime Raid

Jier led the twenty-some people rescued from the bandits' lair as they headed east, but before noon, they were blocked by an Earth Pit filled with bones.

They had been traveling in a straight line, crossing mountains and forests, but while this kept them from going off course, the physical exertion and extra time spent were more than they could bear.

After all, these people who had suffered so much at the hands of the bandits were severely lacking in physical strength and energy, and after crossing two mountain ridges, they could only move at what could be called a slow pace.

With no other choice, Jier stopped traveling in a straight line and instead moved along the natural paths in the forest. On the easier, level ground, the group's speed finally increased.

However, this meant their path was constrained by the terrain of the surrounding forest, which made it very easy for any pursuing bandit group to catch up.

The crisis from behind had not yet arrived, but the front of the group was blocked by this Earth Pit used by the bandits to dispose of dead bodies.

This Earth Pit was situated right in the middle of their path; to switch to another safe, natural forest trail, they would have to laboriously climb over a mountain ridge that was not high, but very difficult for the rescued people to traverse.

It wasn't that Jier was afraid of corpses, but this place where the bandits disposed of the dead was simply too sinister!

Jier lay on a rock not far from the pit, with only a few men in decent condition beside him, and together they observed the pit in the distance.

"Hell! Why are those corpses standing up and moving on their own?" a tall, thin man beside him asked with eyes full of astonishment.

This was a question Jier also wanted the answer to, but unfortunately, he was not a true local, and he had no answer as to why the corpses the bandits threw into the pit to dispose of would stand up and move on their own.

However, another man who looked a bit older had a guess: "A long time ago, I once wondered why the Pastors of the Church of the God of the Dead always demanded that everyone burn the bodies of the dead. When I asked, the Pastor in my hometown replied: 'People do not always die completely after death, especially young people who die suddenly from accidents. Their corpses are easily occupied by evil Spirits wandering the wilderness, which then manipulate the dead bodies to wander and harm people.' So, all cities and towns require us to burn the bodies of our deceased relatives; once turned into bone ash, it seems there are no more issues—well, at least there are fewer. To tell the truth, this is my first time seeing a dead body come to life."

"Me too. Only in the stories my mother told me did such Monsters exist. I never expected to see one with my own eyes today," someone said in surprise.

Another person looked sorrowful and said slowly: "If we hadn't surrendered to the bandits earlier, or if we had been tortured to death by them, would we have ended up being thrown into this corpse pit by the bandits?"

Once these words were spoken, the few men beside Jier looked at the small number of corpses moving in the pit, and their fear was no longer pure; it was mixed with an indescribable sadness and the pain of feeling for their own kind.

Jier didn't know what to say either. He also realized that this pit was where the Thieves of Luodai Cave nearby disposed of the bodies of the dead. The bandits had simply found a deep, narrow valley pit from which corpses could not climb out and tossed them in—a simple way to dispose of the bodies.

The bandits probably never expected anyone to be able to reach a place so close to their lair. At the same time, the terrain here was very remote; if Jier hadn't led the people on an unexpected route, they might never have discovered it.

The path forward was blocked by the pit. Although the Walking Corpses in the pit could never climb out of the deep hole, it was estimated that after the cold winter passed and the weather warmed up, those corpses would rot into skeletons and would no longer be able to move.

But they were truly and effectively blocking the path Jier and his group needed to take.

"How about I go down and deal with those slow-looking corpses?" Jier asked those around him, feeling that if he didn't destroy these terrifying, moving corpses, the people who feared them would never be able to pass through here, and being blocked like this was no solution.

These rescued people valued Jier, this young warrior, and did not want him to take such a risk. After all, no one knew if those Walking Corpses had any other special traits. If Jier were to get hurt while eliminating them—even just a sprained ankle—it would be a big problem for a fleeing group like theirs.

In the end, Mr. Xiao Simengsi learned of the situation, and he came up with a method.

The others in the group covered their heads and faces with the tattered Linen Cloth they were wearing, and led by the bravest few in the group, they entered the forest slightly to bypass the pit that was blocking the way.

As long as they passed by the pit and walked for a distance until it was out of sight, they could remove these measures and then push forward to the east along the natural, level passages in the forest as best they could.

Jier did not object to this method, as the people were worried about his safety. In truth, Jier quite wanted to encounter these corpses that could move on their own. Although no one had posted a bounty for them, destroying a few of these Walking Corpses—which he was seeing for the first time and didn't know what to call—felt quite novel and interesting to him.

In the end, the group followed the method proposed by Mr. Xiao Simengsi to bypass the pit.

Although the people in the group didn't know what was ahead, they trusted their companions who were escaping with them, so they followed instructions, wrapped the tattered Linen Cloth strips they had for warmth around their eyes and faces, and led by the few brave ones who didn't cover their faces, they held hands and slowly bypassed the edge of the pit together.

For some reason, although the corpses in the pit discovered Jier and his group, they only gathered on the side of the pit where they were walking, stretching their arms and constantly clawing at the steep pit walls. Although their mouths with rotten teeth kept opening and closing, they did not make the kind of roaring sounds that had been expected.

Jier boldly approached the edge of the pit and examined these moving corpses at close range. He wondered if his own Spirit or whatever it was didn't possess this body, would a corpse that died in the wilderness without being cremated also turn into this?

The many corpses at the bottom of the pit held their hands high and waved them at Jier, but it was of no use. Jier stood up, patted the dirt off his pants, and left the place, catching up to the group that had already walked far ahead.

If he came back later, he would try to kill these moving corpses—no, he couldn't say kill them, as they were already dead; he should say completely destroy them.

After bypassing the pit, the group traveled a considerable distance along this natural, level terrain in the forest. By the afternoon, Jier called for the whole group to stop.

"It won't work. Our group's direction is already significantly off," Jier said, explaining to the people in the group: "Although you might not feel it, we have actually been moving in a southeasterly direction. Even though we are heading east, the forest terrain here will cause the entire group to move further south the further we go."

Jier concluded: "In the end, we might just end up walking in a big circle and arriving directly south of the bandits' lair."

"You mean the further we walk, the more we'll be heading back?" Mr. Xiao Simengsi often went out for business and had plenty of experience with long journeys. Although his experience was on safe trade routes, he understood what Jier meant.

The natural paths in the forest were actually the low-lying, level areas between mountain ridges. They followed the direction of the ridges; whatever way the mountain terrain went, they naturally went the same way. Since the nearby mountain ridges generally extended southward, the level terrain sandwiched between these ridges would eventually extend southward, regardless of which direction it started in.

This was exactly what the bandits wanted, but for the people who wanted to escape the bandits' lair, it was not good news.

They could no longer follow this convenient, level terrain. To escape the potential pursuit of the bandits and get away from their lair, they had to climb over the mountain ridges.

Hearing the explanation, although everyone was hungry and tired, they all understood that to survive, they had to endure the hardship of climbing over one mountain ridge after another during the winter.

Everyone rested on the spot, and then, taking advantage of the fact that it wasn't dark yet in the afternoon, they helped each other climb over the first mountain ridge beside them.

As soon as the group climbed over this ridge, it immediately turned dark.

Darkness in the mountains falls so quickly. Although the sun had not yet sunk below the horizon, the sunlight was already blocked by the mountain ridges. The sky above was still glowing, but the ground in the mountains was already pitch black.

The group was already very exhausted, so Jier could only let everyone spend the night where they were. After all, it wasn't like the night they had just escaped the bandits' lair. Back then, they needed to get far away from the lair under the cover of night, but now they had already traveled some distance, even if they weren't very far from the bandits in terms of straight-line distance.

But after all, it would be very difficult for the bandits to track their traces at night.

To avoid being discovered, Jier stopped everyone from lighting a fire. Because if they lit a fire on a windless night, the firelight would illuminate the smoke above the fire pit, which was very dangerous and would point out their location to the pursuing bandits.

After all, the bandits were certainly very familiar with the various Jiedian they had set up in their territory; an extra spot of firelight would definitely be them.

Without a fire, the night would be hard to endure. If they didn't do something, everyone would freeze to death at night. Although constant movement could keep the body warm, the exhausted people had been walking for more than half a day and could absolutely not move any further.

Jier took out his Long Sword and Dagger, found a soft spot with plenty of dead branches and leaves, and dug a large pit in the ground that a person could crouch into. Jier had everyone huddle together in this pit, person against person, each covering themselves tightly, and only then did he let everyone eat, drink, and rest.

Although they could only sit on the ground and huddle together, they were surrounded by earth, and the ground was covered with a layer of the driest branches and leaves, so it was still a little warmer.

After arranging for the people, Jier forced himself to stay alert. He couldn't rest yet. Because the people were physically weak, each person didn't carry much. With over twenty people eating and drinking, the food could last for two more meals, but the water was not enough. Tonight, he could only let everyone drink barely enough, but if there was no water tomorrow, the group definitely wouldn't be able to move forward.

After all, without food, people could endure and keep moving, but without water, a person couldn't last a day.

Back in the bandits' cave, they really couldn't find more water containers, so after carrying a few leather Water bottles, they could only let everyone drink their fill, barely satisfying their water needs for today.

Jier and the people were not bandits who had lived and hung around the area for a long time, so they didn't know where there were natural small rivers or spring pools nearby. Therefore, Jier could only try to target the bandits' Jiedian tonight.

The bandits' Jiedian must have enough water containers and drinking water.

Since the group was resting in the leeward side after just climbing over a mountain ridge, Zhao Ji was spared the effort of climbing high again. Traveling alone, Zhao Ji moved at great speed. He stepped over tree roots and small Stone blocks, and in a few moments, he reached the ridge at the highest point of the mountain.

This place was also covered with tall trees. Zhao Ji used his Steel Dagger to dig a few footholds into the thick tree trunks, and only after reaching the branches of the large tree could he easily climb upward.

Reaching the treetop, Zhao Ji faced the cold wind, tightened the wolf-fur hood of his Cloak, and wrapped the wolf-tail scarf tightly around his face to prevent the cold wind from freezing his face and nose.

After protecting himself, Zhao Ji looked around and clearly saw the situation for more than ten kilometers.

At the lair of the Thieves of Luodai Cave, one could still see smoke columns with a faint glow. Because it was night, they were not as conspicuous as during the day, but they were still easy to distinguish.

Next was the light from the fire at the entrance of the bandits' lair. Although he couldn't look directly at it due to the obstruction of the mountain ridges, the firelight reflected by the smoke columns still betrayed the location of the fire.

Apart from those two obvious bright lights, the scattered points of light from the Jiedians in the surrounding area were not so easy to find; this was mainly because the terrain here at Luodai Cave was more complex, lacking the flat topography of the Yaguijing Bandit Group nearby.

Of course, for the Bandits, this was a great advantage; the more complex the terrain, the better they could preserve the group's overall strength during a large-scale sweep by the Militia.

Zhao Ji looked around in a circle, focusing on the Jiedian to the east that they were planning to head toward. After memorizing the general direction and distance, Zhao Ji did not choose the eastern Bandit Jiedian.

The reason was simple: those Jiedians were the sources of supplies for their group tomorrow or the day after. To ensure there would be supplies later, Zhao Ji could only go to attack the nearest Bandit Jiedian in another direction tonight.

Since the road to the south was easy to travel, Zhao Ji chose to attack a small Bandit Jiedian to the south. The three moons of the waxing crescent provided decent brightness in the first half of the night, allowing Zhao Ji to travel through the mountain forest without needing to carry a Torch.

This was only because it was winter and the trees had already lost their leaves, which was why the forest could be seen clearly during the day and night. If it were summer or autumn, let alone at night, the mountain forest would likely be pitch black even during the day.

Because the lush leaves of the trees in the mountain forest would block all the sunlight, not a single bit of sunlight would fall to the ground.

It was different now; with the support of the scattered moonlight, Zhao Ji walked quickly for over an hour, far exceeding the distance he had led the commoners in traveling for an entire afternoon during the day.

He arrived at the nearest Jiedian to the south.

Because this place was not particularly far from the Bandits' lair, there were not many people here, and the scale of the Jiedian was not large.

One could even say this Jiedian was the type of simple Jiedian that was convenient for the Bandits to dismantle at any time, and once dismantled and hidden, it would be completely invisible to outsiders. Thinking of this, Zhao Ji understood the Bandits' reasoning.

Their lair was different from other Bandits; their lair was very secure, and as long as the traces were covered, it was difficult for visiting Militia to discover it. Therefore, in order to hide the location and traces of the lair, these Bandits could not prepare a well-equipped patrol Jiedian very close to the lair.

Because the Militia could completely confirm the location of the Bandit lair at the center of these Jiedians by discovering and destroying the outer Jiedians.

This Bandit Jiedian had four people; the Bandits had only set up two Tents and lit a fire as the facilities for this Jiedian. It was not very late yet, and those few Bandits had no intention of resting; they were sitting in pairs around the fire, their weapons placed on their belts at their sides, talking.

Zhao Ji crawled slowly from the direction of the Bandit Tents, using the cover of the Tents to get very close to these few Bandits.

Not in a hurry to eliminate them, Zhao Ji lay on the ground, pricked up his ears, and first listened to what these Bandits were talking about.

It was likely because these few Bandits had all been patrolling nearby dangerous spots during the day, or leading the way for the large group that had gone out to track, that they only had the chance to gather together at this time of night.

They threw dry, hard Bread into a small pot, then knocked a few ice cubes out of a wooden bucket that had frozen into a solid lump of ice and put them into the small pot.

After the few Bandits finished fooling around with their dinner, they gathered together, waiting for their dinner to be ready while talking about what had happened during the day.

Compared to the escaped prisoner commoners, what these underlings among the Bandits actually cared about were the heads brought back by the patrol team during the day. Hearing the patrol team members say it, that head was the head of one of the Bandit companions who had been lax on watch last night. After chopping off two people's heads and two people's hands and displaying them in the lair, they had the patrol team carry them around to let the Bandits at each surrounding Jiedian take a good look and understand what the consequences of negligence were.

However, these few Bandits also heard from acquaintances in the patrol team that those two who were careless on watch were because they had drunk quite a bit of bitter wine they had hidden away while on watch at night, which was why they somehow hadn't noticed the dozens of escaped commoners at all.

One Bandit was somewhat gloating, complaining repeatedly that ordinary Bandits like them who stood watch outside never had the chance to get wine to drink; there was nothing in these mountains, and it wasn't as happy as when they were farming in the Cunzi before they became Bandits.

Regarding this Bandit's words, the other three Bandits either agreed or refuted.

The refuting Bandit felt that although being a Bandit in these mountains wasn't free enough, their leader didn't leave them, these outer Bandits, lacking in food or clothing. Not to mention, every time after a raid, they would receive more coins than they got from farming before.

To this statement, the Bandits all nodded in agreement.

Just then, the meal was ready; the hard, dry Bread in the small pot had already been turned into a thick soup wafting with the fragrance of wheat by the boiling hot water.

The meal was ready, and Zhao Ji also decided to strike; how could he let these damned Bandits eat this pot of dinner? He had only eaten a few pieces of dry, hard jerky at dinner. Although the jerky was fragrant, how could it compare to such a pot of hot, moisture-filled thick soup?

Licking his cracked lips, Zhao Ji had only drunk a little bit of water today to take care of the injured commoners who lacked strength; he now desperately wanted to drink that pot of soup.

Thinking of this, Zhao Ji slowly drew the Long Sword from his waist.