Chapter 28: Back on the Road, the Flowering Monster

"Shishou" rubbed his not-very-long beard with his hand and pondered, saying: "Weapons are an extension of a warrior's arms and will. Although warriors of your level and mine possess combat power beyond that of ordinary people even when empty-handed, having weapons allows for better execution of various combat operations."

"Not to mention that compared to the warrior themselves, weapons have more variety and are more easily imbued with various required abilities and effects by forgers."

He clenched his fist, and his knuckles let out a crackling sound: "We warriors are more like the foundation of destructive power on the battlefield, while the ultimate destructive effects extended from various weapons on top of this foundation are what others feel more directly."

Jier scratched his head, feeling that what "Shishou" said was a bit abstract and too metaphysical, but he roughly understood what the other party was saying.

Nodding, Jier specifically added: "A warrior's body is the foundation of destruction, but I think the purpose of fighting and the determination to fight are the most core things in a battle. When I play around with ordinary enemies, I don't use all my skills at once; instead, like a kitten playing with a mouse, I use simpler methods to kill time and hone my techniques."

Jier became serious: "But when I am in a truly necessary battle, I will bring out all my combat capabilities, even those exceeding my own strength, because I know those are battles I cannot lose."

Jier stood up and pointed to his subordinate warriors who were still heatedly discussing the battle from earlier: "I have these companions behind me, as well as many more civilians who are far inferior to them. When fighting for them, I cannot lose."

Looking at "Shishou," Jier narrowed his eyes and asked: "But I have never felt this same will from you. 'Shishou,' would you fight with your life for your Dwarf companions? Do you have a battle that you absolutely cannot lose?"

"Shishou" chuckled: "Wasn't the battle with you back at Torito Cunzi a battle that couldn't be lost? At that time, I really couldn't see what your purpose was, so I had to fight hard and try my best to defeat you. After all, although you didn't kill any of my companions at the time, who knew what the true intentions of an outsider like you were?"

"But when I was defeated, you didn't kill me. That was when I roughly understood that you truly held no murderous intent toward us. Perhaps things were not as some people thought at the time. I subconsciously took a risk and trusted you once from the bottom of my heart, and looking at the result, I didn't judge wrong."

At this moment, the campfire in front of the two heated the water in the iron pot. An empty Wooden Basin was placed to the side, and after pouring in cold and hot water, the temperature was just right. "Shishou" did not care about the gazes of others; he took off his clothes and began to scrub himself with a piece of Linen Cloth.

Especially on his head, the dust in his beard was repeatedly washed clean.

A basin of water quickly became murky. After pouring the water out and drawing another basin of clean water to adjust the temperature, "Shishou" rinsed the Linen Cloth and scrubbed his entire body again. Finally, he used the semi-murky warm water to wash his feet, and the water was poured out again.

The whole person was simply cleaned.

"Shishou" had already taken out his change of clothes from his Shoulder Backpack and put them on, while the dirty clothes were simply scrubbed by himself after drawing more water.

The summer night remained dry and sultry; as long as it took half a night, the washed clothes would dry thoroughly, and they could basically be packed into the Backpack before dawn.

Jier was much simpler. The wife of the Herbalist Zuojigela did not just sit in Jier's carriage without working; she took over the laundry work for Jier and Xueya Site, as well as the feeding and grooming of the two horses pulling the carriage.

Jier also simply scrubbed his whole body on the spot with water, especially his hair, which was full of dust and some tiny debris accumulated from the wooden house for a long time. Just washing his hair made a basin of clean water dirty and murky.

Jier himself had many sets of clothes on the carriage, so he just put on a loose one and handed the dirty clothes to Zuojigela's wife to wash for him.

As the leader of the team, he did not need to spend extra time on these trivial daily matters.

Before returning to the Dwarf tent to rest, "Shishou" specifically asked Jier: "By the way, we collapsed a house in this village; does it matter?"

Jier smiled: "Collapsed? The two of us did it? Who outside the team saw it? Which Villager of Shichui Cunzi saw it? Didn't it collapse naturally? Or was it collapsed by those animals that temporarily occupied the house? By the way, it was that leopard you threw out; it was the one that collapsed the whole house."

He became more and more outrageous: "It's not an ordinary leopard; it's a beast, a powerful Monster, so it's normal to destroy the house during the battle, right?"

"Shishou" understood Jier's meaning. Since no one from the local area came to point fingers, the damage caused by them as passing travelers naturally didn't matter.

Even if they had burned the empty village to the ground before leaving, it wouldn't have mattered, though doing so would be very evil and very jerky. And none of them were bored enough to do such unnecessary things.

The next day, the team set off as usual, but compared to usual, everyone's spirits were not very good today.

Many people privately discussed the battle between Jier and "Shishou" until midnight. Although everyone didn't even have one-tenth of the strength of the two, this did not prevent everyone from discussing and judging their combat power and so on.

Many Dwarves were privately considering whether to convert to their Dwarf God of Strength on this journey. After all, no matter how you look at it, this return journey was a path that required strength to rely on. By having Faith in the God of Strength, one could be blessed by the priests of the God of Strength in battle with a strength-boosting effect.

Their Dwarves were already very strong, so increasing their strength would naturally make them even more formidable.

Not to mention anything else, wearing their respective armors would make running much easier.

This actually surprised the Wild Priest, who was constantly being asked about matters of faith conversion today. In the past, when in Babotali Valley, his missionary work was very difficult to carry out. Everyone basically didn't need much strength in their work and life. Although everyone was a Miner in the mine, because communication with the Dwarf Kingdom was cut off, everyone basically just went through the motions in mining work over the years.

Except for the internal Work Points designated by old "Iron Fist" needed to exchange for land and house building in the village, everyone basically only went into the mine tunnels to dig for Mineral Ore when they remembered to.

After all, the rare Mineral Ore dug out could not be sent back to the Kingdom after refining, so it could only be left to pile up in the warehouse in vain.

Later, they even disbanded the Soldiers guarding the warehouse, and all the Soldiers in the mine were transferred to deal with the wild beasts and Monsters invading the Valley.

As for the Human team, they discussed the skills and abilities of Knight Jier more enthusiastically.

After all, compared to the Dwarves' side where it seemed easier to obtain strength, becoming stronger than "Shishou" required the attention and importance of the gods, which was not something mortals could control or predict.

Simply put, the strength improvement of the Dwarves in the team at this time had a certain limit.

But on the Human side, Jier had said before that he was just an ordinary person who had undergone Knight Training from his Knight teacher to have the various abilities that now exceeded human limits.

This made many warriors fantasize about how they would act, how they would adventure, and what kind of new life they would obtain after possessing the same martial power as Jier.

Some thought they would make a fortune with this ability!

Some felt that it would be even better to return to their hometown and become a Knight Lord after becoming a Knight, and they must take revenge and suppress all the bad guys who used to bully them.

Some wanted to go to the big city to make a name for themselves, see the places where the stories sung by those Bards happened, and see if they could also make a great name for themselves with such skills.

Others swore to snatch back their beloved girl, even if the other party was already married and had children, they had to snatch her back by their own ability.

Discussing wildly like this, many people actually talked for a whole night. Some of the later nonsense even sounded like they were making wishes. What did they think Knight ability was? A genie in an Oil Lamp?

Jier himself had a fairy companion, and he knew that those guys were not such docile existences.

As a result, many people didn't get much rest all night, just discussing these things. This made Jier furious after getting up in the morning.

"I'm telling you, you have to sleep when it's time to sleep, otherwise how will you have the physical strength and energy to walk the next day? It's fortunate that everyone is young; otherwise, if those older people were tossed around like this, they would definitely die on the road."

Jier shook his head, really having no way to deal with these companions who were nodding off while walking.

There was no other way; he could only adjust the time and speed of the journey, shorten the time of each leg of the journey, and at the same time extend the rest time, so that everyone could take a nap during temporary breaks.

Dragging along like this, it wasn't until the afternoon that many people barely recovered their spirits.

And it was at this time that on the main road leading north from Shichui Cunzi to Yemei Town, the front of the team finally saw 'people' appearing.

The first to see the 'person' was Xueya Site, who was driving at the very front of the team. His eyesight was naturally very good, and he noticed someone suspected to be sitting by the side of the road resting, so he immediately asked the Herbalist sitting next to him.

"Hey, hey, hey, Zuojigela, look over there, is there someone sitting on the ground?"

Xueya Site nudged the Herbalist, who was squinting and dozing off, with his right elbow, and asked twice before waking the Herbalist from his drowsiness.

"What? Oh, someone, yes, there is someone sitting on the ground ahead. I remember it will take another half a day to reach the next village, right? Is this person coming from Yemei Town? Is he trying to sneak back to his village? Even if it violates the Lord's orders?"

The Herbalist picked up the Telescope that Xueya Site had lent him and stretched his neck to look at the person sitting there.

But as the carriage bumped slightly, he fell silent.

"Siter, that person... that person seems a bit strange. Is it the kind of parasitic plant you mentioned that parasitizes people?" Zuojigela had not encountered that kind of parasitic plant on the road when he returned to Yemei Town before, so he didn't know at this time that the situation he was seeing was a Monster appearing before their eyes.

Xueya Site snatched the Telescope and looked ahead.

He gasped.

For what appeared in the small lens tube was a true Monster, wearing tattered clothes, its body looking intact, but in reality, plant branches were extending out from its mouth, nose, eye sockets, and ears, with pure white flowers blooming at the tips of the branches.

Perhaps it had heard the sound of the carriage, or perhaps it had detected someone passing by as the breeze carried the scent of the caravan over. At this moment, this fellow, who had been sitting motionless, was rising with twitching limbs and slowly walking toward the caravan.

"It's a Monster! Although there is only one, it is somewhat strange. Jier! Jier!" Xueya Site finally shouted loudly toward the back.

At the same time, he picked up the Heavy Crossbow placed beside him and skillfully began to use his foot to exert force to cock the Heavy Crossbow. Meanwhile, the Herbalist beside him was hurriedly trying to cock the ordinary Kendall Militia Crossbow he had temporarily borrowed, and he told his wife and children behind him to quickly shrink back into the carriage cabin.

"Everyone hide inside the carriage! No matter what happens outside! Do not come out to look!" Zuojigela said loudly.

His wife held their two children tightly, then felt that this was not safe, and hurriedly looked for a place to hide people inside the carriage cabin.

Jier was currently at the front of the Dwarf team, talking to the old Dwarf sitting on the ox cart. Hearing Xueya Site's anxious call from the front, he used his hand to shade his eyes and looked forward.

"What is it? He is this panicked over one Parasitic Vine Monster? The others in the carriages behind aren't just for show." Jier muttered with dissatisfaction.

But he still intended to go forward to check the situation; after all, this loyal friend of his was a very reliable person and shouldn't be this anxious.

But at this time, the old Dwarf heard Jier's muttering. Although he couldn't see the situation ahead because he wasn't as tall as Jier, he still guessed what had happened.

"Jier, this is a good opportunity. I've heard you talk about this kind of Monster, but we haven't seen one yet. How about letting my men handle this Monster?"

Jier had no objections, so he shrugged: "Then you'll have to be quick; one or two of these Monsters might even die just from being hit by a carriage."

After he finished speaking, he saw the old Dwarf jump directly off the slowly moving ox cart and shout loudly: "Two Soldiers come with me! Let's see what this Parasitic Vine Monster looks like."

The Soldier on the same cart immediately held onto the frame and jumped off the carriage, and a Dwarf Soldier also got off the ox cart behind, walking quickly forward together beside the old Dwarf. Additionally, two of the old Dwarf's trusted subordinates also followed.

The other Dwarves looked forward, but were blocked by the caravan and the accompanying Human in front, so they couldn't see anything. The other three Dwarf Soldiers also got off the carriage, looking somewhat at a loss. After Jier saw this, he told them to be careful and guard the surroundings, then accelerated to let the Tianxuecao run forward from the wasteland beside the road.

He was the last to arrive, but because he was riding a Warhorse, he was the fastest. By the time he rushed to the front of the caravan, he discovered that his eight Warrior subordinates were relying on the Soldier Shields in their hands to fend off a Parasitic Vine Monster that had three crossbow bolts stuck in its body and two fist-sized holes in its chest.

This Monster didn't seem to have anything strange about it, other than the flowering branches extending out from the human-shaped holes on its head.

Yet, a Monster that an average person could defeat one-on-one was actually not being taken down in a short time by eight people with two Crossbows.

This was inherently problematic.

"Jier! Be careful! This Monster is not quite the same as the previous ones!"

Xueya Site stood at the driver's position of the carriage that had already stopped, issuing a warning to Jier while struggling to cock his weapon.

"I see it, it has flowers blooming on its head," Jier said playfully.

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