Chapter 272: Bingxun Pass — The Moment Before the Slaughter

Entering the depths of the dim alley, not long after walking, a questioning voice came from the high, cluttered walls on both sides of the alley: "Why are you back so early today?"

The Bandit carrying charcoal looked up. In a slightly higher spot, a lookout accomplice was hiding, holding a sharp Dagger in his hand, tossing it back and forth casually.

"The target we were waiting for has arrived, hurry down. I guess we'll have work to do soon," the Bandit carrying charcoal replied.

Hearing the news, the Dagger-wielding Bandit hiding in the shadows jumped down from the height and joined him. His position was very insidious; if any ill-intentioned people wanted to break into the Jiedian they were hiding in at the pass, he could not only see them early from here but also strike first, leaping down from above to take out one or two of the people in the lead.

Of course, if the other side had many people, it would naturally be hard for him to survive. However, the Bandit who dared to take this lookout position was basically the type who didn't value his life and wasn't afraid of dying in battle.

The Jiedian of this Thieves of Luodai Cave group at Bingxun Pass was temporary. Although unreliable, the residents who dared to live in this mixed neighborhood, lured by the power of coins, were naturally not good people either.

This household didn't care what these fierce-looking people were going to do. After receiving the rent and hush money given by the Bandit Leader, the family moved directly to the home of relatives also living within Bingxun Pass.

The footprint of this family's house wasn't very large, but the house was fortunately built with two floors above ground, and there was a basement for storing sundries. For the Bandit Leader Lao Feisi, it was actually enough for the elite Bandits he led to live in cramped conditions for a while.

Their group was not large, only nine people, but every one of them was an elite. Besides the three sent out to scout and keep watch, and the one keeping watch in the alley, and the three drinking, there were only two other Bandits in the house besides Lao Feisi.

After the Bandit carrying charcoal entered the house and put down the charcoal, they went up to the room where the leader was temporarily staying. The others stood outside, and this Bandit entered the leader's room after knocking and receiving permission.

'Lame Catcher' Lao Feisi was playing a wooden Magic Chess game by himself. Calling it Magic Chess, in fact, this set of pieces had no magic. It was just something ordinary people had imitated. It was said that real Magic Chess could directly obey the player's commands and then move and attack on its own.

This Bandit hurriedly reported his news to Lao Feisi.

Lao Feisi, who had stayed in Bingxun Pass for many days, threw the chess pieces aside and let the Bandits outside all come in. He first sent people to call back the other two who were still keeping watch at the North Gate and inquiring for news in the tavern.

Then he had the Bandit who had been keeping watch in the alley go to the inn where the escaped civilians were currently staying to scout and see the situation of those civilians.

Lao Feisi then had the remaining Bandits who only knew how to fight and brawl prepare their weapons and black Cloaks for concealment. Once it got dark, they would go to where the civilians were staying, preparing to slaughter those civilians tonight so that none of their news would leak out.

Lao Feisi himself would not go out because his legs were inconvenient. Although his own combat ability was very strong, his leg was lame after all; he could walk slowly usually, but it was inconvenient to go out to handle affairs.

Soon, his men were ready. Lao Feisi also used this time to have his subordinates arrange a method of retreat. In a while, after they slaughtered those escaped civilians, although those useless Soldiers wouldn't come to deal with such things so quickly because it was a cold winter night, the pass lockdown and inspection afterwards would be unavoidable.

Several of the Bandits under him were on wanted lists, so it was inconvenient for them to hide inside the pass. Lao Feisi prepared several waterproof leather bags for them. After the business was done tonight, these wanted Bandits would directly run in the dark to the Kendall River on the side of the pass, put on the waterproof bags, hold small empty buckets to provide buoyancy, and pass directly through the intercepting fishing nets and wooden piles and Wooden Nails at the pass to leave the city and wait for them at a pre-reserved place.

After telling these Bandits the plan, they all began to eat and drink to save their strength for the night's battle.

On the other side, after parting with the civilians in the afternoon and agreeing to drink happily together at night, Jier brought Mr. Xiao Simengsi back to the Simons Chamber of Commerce located by the Kendall River.

The Chamber of Commerce was still tightly shut. Mr. Xiao Simengsi had no strength and couldn't shout, so Jier had to pat the gate himself to call for someone.

"I'm really sorry, even though it's my own home, I still have to have you, Jier, help me open the door." Saying he was sorry, but Mr. Xiao Simengsi, whose smile hadn't left his face since entering Bingxun Pass, was clearly very happy.

"It's fine, the last time I came, it was the same," Jier said, patting the wooden door of the Simons Chamber of Commerce until it thundered.

Before long, a response came from inside: "Coming! Stop knocking, who is it? We are currently renovating and don't plan to take on any cargo transport."

"It's me, Jier!"

"Which Jier?" The person inside seemed not to recall the name of this young man they had only met once.

Mr. Xiao Simengsi beside him spoke up at this time: "Doddell, it's me, Thrace! Open the door quickly!"

There was a silence inside the door, and then the wooden door opened immediately. A rough-faced man looked at Mr. Xiao Simengsi standing outside the door in surprise: "Great Lord of Wealth, Thrace, it's you, come in quickly, come in quickly."

After saying that, he saw Jier beside Mr. Xiao Simengsi: "So it's you, no wonder I felt your name was familiar, but I just couldn't remember who it was."

Jier chuckled twice and helped Mr. Xiao Simengsi through the wooden door of the Simons Chamber of Commerce.

The Chamber of Commerce member named Doddell closed the door and then shouted loudly toward the interior of the Chamber of Commerce: "Thrace is back! Everyone, Thrace is back! Come out quickly, come out and see, Thrace is back."

Although the people at the Simons Chamber of Commerce hadn't taken any jobs recently because of the previous incident where Bandits broke in and kidnapped people, the Simons Family and some old staff all lived in the Chamber of Commerce. At this time, following Doddell's rough shout, the people in the Chamber of Commerce all came out from various places to the main hall of the Chamber of Commerce, stepping forward to embrace the little Simons who had returned after a brush with death.

Jier looked left and right; besides Mr. Xiao Simengsi's family, there were several old staff members of their Chamber of Commerce present, but the most important person was not there at this time.

He asked the rough-faced man Doddell, and the other party explained to him that it turned out that Big Simons, that is, Mr. Kendo, had gone to Kendall City a few days ago to contact people, and it was estimated he would be back in these two days.

Jier nodded. As long as Mr. Kendo was fine, he indeed needed to rest well in Bingxun Pass, maintain his weapons, eat something good, and reward himself for his hard work these days.

Watching Mr. Xiao Simengsi and his family crying together, he estimated that he, who had kept calm and composed while escaping before, was also suppressing his emotions.

He was still doing okay; after all, the Bandits kidnapped him just because they needed the Simons Chamber of Commerce as an intelligence connection for the Bandits in Bingxun Pass. Besides suffering quite a bit himself, their Chamber of Commerce actually didn't have any major issues.

But the other escaped civilians were different; either their entire Caravan had been looted and only they survived, or their whole family had been looted and only they survived. Their losses had far exceeded what they could accept.

Jier estimated that for those civilians now, finding a way to take revenge was the most important thing. Tomorrow, the clerk of the pass would come to question those civilians, register one by one what happened to those civilians, and also the specific location of that Bandit lair. Not long after, Knight Kela would lead a large number of Militia to begin the annual Bandit clearing.

This Bandit Group that had avoided the clearing many times—Luodai Cave.

Presumably, this year would be their doomsday.

Jier felt some regret. Besides killing quite a few Bandits, he hadn't managed to take down any of the Bandit Leaders he had heard about from Mr. Kendo, and because he had to lead the civilians to escape, he hadn't been able to bring back the Bandits' spoils or their heads or any captured Bandits.

These were money after all, and live Bandits here in Bingxun Pass were worth more; dead Bandits didn't count unless they were people on the wanted list.

After all, no one could confirm whether the head you brought back was a real Bandit or an innocent civilian killed at random.

After all, Humans were different from Monsters. Monsters were harmful to human society, so as long as it was a Monster's head, it could serve as confirmation of killing the Monster, but human Bandits were different.

After all, no one had the word written on their face saying they were a bad guy.

Looking at the Bandits Zhao Ji had killed before, the vast majority of Bandits actually looked very ordinary. They might be farmers who had lost their land, apprentices who couldn't bear their work, small Merchants who had gone bankrupt and were avoiding debt, or suffering civilians who had been coerced.

Of course, there were also those bad thugs who attempted to be Bandits to make quick money.

Watching the scene of the Simons Family crying in a mess, Jier told a staff member of the Chamber of Commerce his lodging place, so that when Mr. Kendo returned, he could go and notify him.

Then Jier left. He first returned to his room in the rented inn where he had only stayed for a short time, put down the various things he had brought back, and, dusty and tired, he could finally rest for a while.

There was still a gathering with the rescued civilians in the evening. Zhao Ji went to the front desk of the inn and spent money to request a bathing service. Taking new clothes, Zhao Ji came to the inn's bathroom. The expressionless clerk carried many buckets of hot water repeatedly. Seeing him working hard, Zhao Ji went up to help.

Seeing Zhao Ji helping, the expressionless clerk's expression finally looked better, and he brought him a small bag of powder, saying that adding it to the water when bathing could help clean the dirt on the body and remove parasites from the skin surface.

And he didn't even charge him for it, giving it to him directly.

After thanking the clerk, Zhao Ji took off the clothes he had worn for a long time in the wild mountains and forests in the bathroom and hurriedly dived into the wooden bathtub where the water was a bit hot.

Although it was a bit hot, the weather outside was so cold that the heat in the bathtub wouldn't last long, so he had to wash up quickly.

The clerk said to use the gifted powder to clean the dirt and parasites on the body, but Zhao Ji didn't find any parasites on his body. Besides some small red bumps caused by clogged pores from not cleaning for a long time, he didn't usually feel any biting sensations.

Zhao Ji held the Agricultural God Badge hanging on his chest up to his eyes to look at it. This treasure, which emitted a faint green light, looked gorgeous, but it wasn't actually that special. After Zhao Ji wore it on his chest, he often forgot about it.

But it seemed to be silently helping him in some inconspicuous little places.

Smiling, Zhao Ji washed it too. After eating the unknown Mushroom before, he had felt some pain in his eyes and body that night, but it was much better the next day. He guessed that besides his own physical reasons, this badge had also played a significant role.

Before the water turned cold, Zhao Ji hurriedly cleaned his body and then put on the other set of clean clothes he had brought over. As for the dirty clothes he had worn before, Zhao Ji spent a little money to have the clerk find someone to wash them for him and then send them over.

It was quite cold in the basement room of the inn, so Zhao Ji lit a fire in the fireplace, which gradually made the room warm. He began to identify and categorize the various spoils of war he had seized during this trip.

He discovered that he hadn't been able to get any good loot from the bandits of the large Bandit Group, but instead, he could find some things that looked quite decent in the one or two small bandit camps he had wiped out before and after.

Zhao Ji piled all the useless weapons and equipment together; later, he would find a blacksmith shop to melt all these metal weapons down into Metal Ingots, which would be convenient for him to use when forging Metal Armor later.

Zhao Ji actually really wanted to use the unknown metal he had obtained from the ruins to forge his next set of armor, but he was afraid of being too shocking, especially since his own strength and influence were insufficient; he reckoned that in the eyes of the upper echelons of Kendall, he was just an ordinary Warrior with a bit of combat power.

If he himself had such an amazingly lightweight and tough suit of full-body armor, he might not necessarily be able to keep it.

After thinking about it, Zhao Ji felt it was better to wait until he learned the method to reach the Knight Rank from Kela before trying to forge this set of armor. By then, no matter how long it took him to become a Knight Rank Warrior, at least in everyone's eyes, he would already be Kela's Apprentice, and by then, his status and position would likely be different.

Before he could wear that full-body armor made of unknown metal in the future, he would just keep a heavy and sturdy set of Iron Armor as his near-term goal.

These seized weapons were not very numerous; after all, some had been distributed to the people so they could protect themselves. Now, he felt embarrassed to ask for them back.

Shaking his head, Zhao Ji felt he still couldn't bring himself to ask; after all, he was the Yongqi who had rescued those people from the tiger's mouth, and he couldn't lose that status.

Next, taking advantage of the remaining time, Zhao Ji counted the scattered coins seized from the bandits. He counted them and found there were actually five Silver Coins, over a hundred copper coins, and as for Iron Coins, there was a small bag full, though he didn't count how many.

After separating these scattered coins, Zhao Ji looked at the sky outside; it was already dark. It was time to go over and join the gathering with everyone. He tidied up his clothes, put on some things he carried with him, and tucked the curved Dagger into his waist as a weapon decoration. He didn't bring any other weapons, so he just locked the door and went out to attend the gathering.

Among the rescued people, a few had a bit of property, and they had rented a small inn, which served as a temporary place for the people who had nowhere else to go.

Jier trotted all the way and hurried to this inn, which had a strange sign hanging on it.

"Jier! You're late, we've already started eating. Come and join us quickly." As soon as Jier entered, several people who were wolfing down their food saw him and shouted loudly for him to come eat something first.

Since they had rented the entire inn, at this moment, besides a few Shop Assistants, it was just them.

Platters of roasted meat and stew were brought out from the inn's kitchen, and piping hot Bread fresh from the oven was also brought over on wooden trays. Several thick candles were lit in the inn's lobby, and combined with the reflection from polished, bright copper plates, the entire lobby was brightly lit. Added to that were the steaming, cheap but hearty food, making the place look very lively.

"Coming, coming! I'm not particularly hungry, let's start with three large mugs of ale first. By the way, everyone should have a mug; this is to celebrate everyone being able to escape alive." Jier picked up a piece of warm meat, put it into his mouth, and began to chew.

"Oh! Let's toast to the Yongqi Jier!" Mugs of ale were soon brought up, and the Shop Assistant even pushed a large barrel of ale out from the kitchen, ladling full mugs of ale into empty cups one by one. In an instant, the entire inn lobby was filled with the fragrance of ale.

Jier took a deep breath, as if he wanted to inhale the entire fragrance of the ale in the lobby into his nose. Satisfied, he took the mug handed to him and held it high.

The nearly twenty people also raised their mugs; they were men, women, old, and young, with the youngest likely only fifteen or sixteen years old, and the oldest nearly sixty.

Everyone raised their mugs and looked at the Yongqi who had rescued them, Jier.

"Let us first congratulate everyone for being free and safe now; everyone is a brave person. In such a difficult situation before, everyone was able to pull through, and I believe that in the future, we will definitely be able to do more incredible things," Jier said loudly.

Everyone took a large gulp.

A person whose entire family had been killed by the bandits said softly: "For example, wiping out those damn guys."

"Indeed!" Jier responded to the person's words: "But they won't be free for much longer. After tomorrow, everyone will know the location of the lair where those damn bandits have been hiding. I heard that in a few days, the Militia will start clearing out the bandits in the mountains; they are just grasshoppers at the end of autumn, they won't be able to jump for many more days."

Winking, Jier said with a smile: "Let us toast to this once again."

"Hahahaha." Everyone laughed, laughing heartily and comfortably.

A large gulp of ale went down.

"Hahahaha." All the people laughed until tears streamed down; they had lost so, so much because of the bandits' plundering.

The Merchants had lost their Caravan staff, as well as their goods and reputation.

The people had lost all their family members, as well as their past and future.

Jier sighed. What could he say? He could only exert his strength more in the future, wipe out the bandits, and give them a satisfying revenge. However, he felt that if these people who had lost everything could muster the Yongqi themselves and go for revenge in person, it would likely be better.

During the subsequent Militia clearing of the bandits, some people could serve as Local Guides, leading a large number of Militia to the Shandong lair of the Thieves of Luodai Cave.

Doing their part to wipe out that group of bandits would surely fill the hearts of some of the people who were full of thoughts of revenge.