Chapter 291: Yinyulin Cunzi — Returning to the Cunzi and Celebrating!

These fangs varied in size; the large ones were only found on the outer ring of the Magic Beast's giant maw, each fifteen centimeters long, thick and hard. The small teeth inside the Magic Beast's maw were much shorter, but sharp and keen, just like miniature daggers.

Jier tapped the Magic Beast's teeth with his Steel Dagger, producing only the clinking sound of hard objects colliding. Jier then scraped the edge of the dagger against the Magic Beast's teeth to compare which was harder; the result was as expected: the Magic Beast's teeth far exceeded steel in hardness.

I really don't know how the monsters in this world grow.

It was still very early. After the intense battle, Jier felt no desire or inclination to rest at this moment. He stuck his Agricultural God Badge to the inside of his broken lower leg and bound it tight, checking to see if this thing was as effective as the Agricultural God Church claimed.

Then, he began to use his Dagger to cut open the Magic Beast's body tissue, attempting to extract those sharp fangs for other uses.

"Jier, this thing still needs to be shown to the Lord Baron of Kendall later; this is the key evidence proving that a Magic Beast has appeared!" Steward Irupachi sat to the side, reminding Jier of the importance of this item.

"It is the spoils of battle, and I have the right to decide how to dispose of it. I want the teeth inside its mouth now. You can watch, but please don't stop me, okay? Mr. Steward?" Jier was not polite about this; this was something he had obtained only after a life-or-death battle, and he could handle it however he pleased.

"Alright, please go ahead. By the way, how did you defeat this Magic Beast just now? Can you tell me? I was just hiding in the pit the whole time. Also, will that Magic Beast come back tonight?" Steward Irupachi chattered on, clearly still not having recovered from the previous terror.

While using the firelight from the campfire to trim the flesh around the Magic Beast's teeth, Jier answered Steward Irupachi casually: "It likely won't come back tonight. Cautious animals won't go to places that bring them harm. As long as it still has a bit of brains, it will know it shouldn't come here again."

Afterwards, Jier briefly explained how he had managed to remove such a large pile of the Magic Beast's giant maw.

Hearing that the giant maw was mostly severed by the Magic Beast's own attacks, Steward Irupachi stroked his beard: "It must have panicked, only caring about wanting to defeat you, and didn't even pay attention to its own body tissue."

Jier smiled. If it weren't for the support of the Red-eye Mushroom, how could he have accurately judged the timing of the Magic Beast's attacks? Leaving the Magic Beast's giant maw too early or too late would have resulted in vastly different outcomes.

If it were too early, the Magic Beast would have adjusted the landing point of its sharp legs, and even if he had barely dodged it later, it would have just been returning to the state before the battle.

If it were too late, the Magic Beast's attack would have truly struck his body, and he didn't think the Hard Cowhide Armor he was wearing could block anything.

The next morning, Jier's broken leg had actually healed more than halfway. Relying on the newly made splint, he no longer felt much pain when walking. Seeing Jier's Agricultural God Badge, Steward Irupachi seemed to have a sudden realization and no longer questioned Jier's strength.

It seemed Steward Irupachi had misunderstood something, but Jier, who had acted under the name of the Agricultural God Church many times, had already anticipated this result.

He didn't say much, just hung the Agricultural God Badge—whose gems had dimmed significantly—back around his neck, tucking it inside his armor and clothes, right against his chest.

Jier had extracted over ten large teeth and more than two hundred small fangs from the giant maw left behind by the Magic Beast. These things filled his Backpack to the brim, but the weight wasn't heavy, because the inside of the Magic Beast's fangs were somewhat hollow.

They weren't hollow originally; they were filled with the Magic Beast's tissue, but after he carefully hollowed them out with his Dagger, these teeth became light all at once.

"So, we're just going to leave the rest of the Magic Beast's mouth here? Not transport it back?" Steward Irupachi seemed to want to bring these Magic Beast tissues that Jier didn't want back to the village, and then use a cart to take them to Kendall City to show the Baron and the Knights.

"My leg is broken; although it's a bit better, I can't exert any force. So, you intend to carry such a large pile of things back to the village by yourself?" Jier pointed to his right leg, which was still wearing a makeshift splint, and teased Steward Irupachi, looking at his not-so-sturdy frame.

Looking at the large pile of the Magic Beast's remaining mouth tissue, Steward Irupachi said sheepishly: "Then let's hurry back to the village. As soon as I get back, I'll organize some men to transport these things back. By the way, Jier, you don't want these things anymore, right?"

"Please feel free. I need to find a comfortable bed in the village and get a good sleep." Jier leaned on a wooden stick and hobbled toward Yinyulin Cunzi.

They returned to the village very quickly. After bidding Jier farewell, Steward Irupachi ran quickly toward his home as soon as he entered the village. Before long, he led a large group of other village stewards and Villagers, pushing and pulling a wooden cart, shouting and yelling, and trotted out of the village.

The news of the Magic Beast's appearance spread through this remote little village as if it had grown wings. By the time Jier slowly arrived at Steward Irupachi's house, it seemed the entire village had come out.

Whether it was the men or the women who were busy feeding the domestic animals at home, everyone walked out of their houses, asking everyone they met about the news of the Magic Beast outside the village.

A drunk farmer pointed at the Forest outside the village, swearing that the Magic Beast must have come from the depths of the Forest.

Isn't that a waste of breath? If such a large Magic Beast wasn't birthed from the Forest, could it have grown out of your backyard?

Jier's armor was covered by a wolf-fur Cloak, so no one noticed the outsider passing through their spirited discussion. If it were normal, like yesterday, an outsider like him would have been fodder for the bored Villagers' gossip.

But today was different. Who would pay attention to an outsider now? Everyone was guessing if this Magic Beast was the reason why the Merchants and Shop Assistants had been disappearing for no reason on the road before?

From the conversations and bragging of the Villagers Jier passed by, everyone seemed to believe that the previous disappearances were caused by this Magic Beast. Speaking of this, some middle-aged men waved their fists and shouted that if the young people in the village hadn't gone to participate in Militia training, they would have organized a team to defeat that Magic Beast in one fell swoop.

Steward Irupachi's house remained the most impressive and lively place in the village. Steward Irupachi had brought the news of the Magic Beast and had taken people out of the village in a hurry.

At this moment, those curious people in the village had gathered at his house. Everyone, along with the Steward's family, discussed the news Steward Irupachi had just told while curiously waiting for those people to return.

Jier pushed the door open and entered.

Those who hadn't seen him before glanced at Jier and then looked away. Steward Irupachi's family, however, hurried over to let the warrior Jier sit down and rest.

After sitting down, Jier took off his Cloak, and his appearance in armor was finally seen by everyone.

The armor was stained with a large amount of the Magic Beast's tissue fluid and some scattered bits of Magic Beast meat. Although the Magic Beast's blood was translucent and had no strange odor, once it solidified, it still gave the armor a very different feel.

Once everyone saw this, they knew that this person had experienced a very intense battle before.

Someone asked Jier about the situation last night. Jier didn't know how Steward Irupachi had explained it to these people, so he had to briefly and roughly describe what happened last night.

It was very simple, roughly summarized as: Yesterday we left the village, then set up bait, and then hid. At night the Magic Beast appeared, discovered us, we fought, let the Magic Beast cut off its own body tissue, and then the Magic Beast fled. This morning we returned.

Jier's stomach was growling with hunger. After yesterday's battle and the work of trimming the Magic Beast's fangs at night, he was extremely hungry now.

Soon, Steward Irupachi's family brought him hot food. Jier didn't care that so many people were watching; he took off his Helmet and used the Bread he had just taken from the oven to go with the wine-braised radish and mutton stew, eating every last bit.

"Phew! That was satisfying. This stew is really delicious, the meat chunks are very flavorful."

After finishing his meal, Jier temporarily bid them farewell, took back his Handcart, and pushed it to the small inn next to Steward Irupachi's house. He opened a cheap room, Jier closed the wooden door, propped it shut with the Handcart he had pushed in, didn't even take off his armor, only removed his Helmet, lay down on the cheap bed covered only with wheat straw, and immediately fell fast asleep.

He was really tired. He had arrived at Yinyulin Cunzi yesterday, stayed for half a day, and then went out in the afternoon. It was digging pits, life-and-death fighting, and then forcing himself to endure the discomfort to dig out the Magic Beast's fangs.

He didn't know how long he had slept, but a groggy Jier heard someone knocking on the door, *thump, thump, thump*.

"Who is it?" Jier shouted, lying on the bed without moving.

"It's me, Irupachi. Jier, are you up? It's already evening, and I just woke up too." Steward Irupachi said from outside the door.

Jier rubbed his face, found the wooden urinal in the inn to relieve himself, and then opened the door.

Steward Irupachi had two large dark circles under his eyes, clearly looking sleep-deprived.

After he took people out in the morning, it must have been afternoon by the time he returned, plus the time spent explaining to other Villagers, he probably hadn't slept for long even if he had tried.

"It's already evening? What's wrong? Is there something urgent? As for the commission fee, we can talk about it tomorrow during the day; I'm not leaving until tomorrow." Jier sat down at a table in the main hall of the inn with Steward Irupachi.

Listening carefully, some of the Villagers who had come to drink were still talking about the Magic Beast. The difference was that this time, most were sharing their own thoughts after seeing the pile of giant maw tissue left by the Magic Beast.

I won't go into detail about some of the colorful vocabulary. Steward Irupachi whispered to Jier: "Do you remember the spherical hard object left by the Magic Beast that you put at my house yesterday?"

Jier nodded: "Yes, at the time you said it was useless, so I just gave it to your son to play with. What's wrong? Could that thing hurt people?" Looking at Steward Irupachi's expression, it didn't seem like it.

Shaking his head, Steward Irupachi said in a surprised whisper: "No, it didn't hurt anyone, but that thing was accidentally ignited by my son today."

Jier couldn't believe it. That thing was harder than steel; how could it be ignited by fire?

"What happened? Please tell me in detail."

"It's exactly as it sounds. The thing just got close to the fireplace at home, and then it started smoking, and after that, it started emitting a burnt smell while catching fire." Steward Irupachi described it simply.

Jier rubbed his chin: "That shouldn't be. Could it be that this substance left behind by the Magic Beast is actually something secreted by the Magic Beast itself?"

Steward Irupachi nodded with a smile at this moment: "It was created by the thing itself. When I watched that thing ignite, I immediately thought of something."

"What thing?"

Steward Irupachi pointed to several corners of the inn's roof: "Spider webs."

"That Magic Beast is a spider? How could it be? No, that's not right. If it really were a very huge spider, then everything would make sense. How it ambushed pedestrians and animals on the ground from the air." Jier suddenly realized.

Immediately, Jier frowned again: "But what about that long mouth? Where would a spider have such a long mouth?"

Steward Irupachi tapped the table: "Please do not think that Magic Beasts and spiders are the same, Jier. A Magic Beast is a Magic Beast, and a spider is a spider."

"What do you mean?"

"That Magic Beast might have once been a spider, but after it turned into a Magic Beast, although it might still have some spider-like features, it definitely also has many differences. It doesn't just become a Magic Beast from an ordinary animal because its body size increases many times over. You must understand, besides having Magic, Magic Beasts have many more changes compared to ordinary animals."

Jier was silent for a moment, then nodded, acknowledging this point.

"These were all things my elders once told me, only I was still small at the time and didn't know what they all meant. It wasn't until this afternoon when I guessed what that Magic Beast came from that I knew what their words back then meant."

The two were silent for a while, and Jier asked the inn's Shop Assistant for two mugs of ale, which he and Steward Irupachi drank one each.

"Then, have you made arrangements for the remaining Magic Beast body parts?" Jier asked.

Steward Irupachi, who was frowning while taking a sip of ale, shook his head: "When I was young, I liked drinking these things, but at this age, I didn't expect that I can't even swallow this taste now. Oh, those remaining things? I have already arranged for people to load them onto a donkey cart and go to Kendall City with another village steward."

"What do you think will happen afterwards?" Jier asked. He did not know how Kendall County handled such de facto Magic Beast infestation incidents—whether they would pretend not to see it, or send people to investigate and only let a powerhouse of the Knight Rank take action to crusade against it after obtaining conclusive evidence.

Or perhaps, as soon as they knew the exact news, they would immediately dispatch Knights to defeat the harmful Magic Beast as quickly as possible.

After thinking for a while, Steward Irupachi said: "I don't know either. After all, the last time a Magic Beast appeared, I was still a child. It's been so many years, and even the Lord of Kendall has changed. I don't know how Kendall City will handle it. But at least they won't pretend not to see it."

Jier, having finished his ale, asked for another mug. At this moment, Steward Irupachi pushed a bag across the tabletop.

Jier blinked and opened the bag. Inside was a full bag of Silver Coins, a bright and shiny pile. The bag was not large, but seeing it packed so full, there must be quite a lot of money inside.

"How much is this?" Jier wanted to count it directly, but was blocked by Steward Irupachi: "Go back to your room and count it yourself. One hundred Silver Coins. It's not that there are no Gold Coins, it's just that the village needs to keep the Gold Coins to pay the Kingdom taxes. There are more Silver Coins, so please accept them."

Jier looked at the bag of Silver Coins and realized that this amount exceeded the commission fee on the previous contract.

"It's too much, it's too much. Didn't the commission contract say that the reward for finding out what caused the mysterious disappearances on the village road was three Gold Coins?" Jier just wanted to take out the thirty Silver Coins he was owed from the money bag, but was blocked by Steward Irupachi.

"I'm sorry, last night I almost got both of us killed. If I hadn't insisted on verifying your information, and then carelessly shouted out at a critical moment, you shouldn't have been injured last night, and you fought off the Magic Beast alone. This extra money is a small apology from me personally; please, you must accept it." Steward Irupachi said in a low voice.

Jier finally tied the money bag tight and tucked it inside the Chest Armor of his armor.

"There is one more thing, I would also like to trouble you with." Steward Irupachi said in a low voice.

"What?" Jier had received the money and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl up, but then he remembered that he still had an unknown number of tons of Silver Metal Plates hidden outside the Ancient Elf Ruin, yet he couldn't use a single bit of it, which made him feel a bit distressed again.

"It's like this, when I told everyone in the village about the situation last night, there was a small change. Please, when you talk to others, keep to the story that I fought the Monster with you last night. I wonder if that is possible." Steward Irupachi's face flushed red as he finished asking this in a low voice; he held his breath, not daring to let out a sigh.

Jier blinked and shrugged indifferently: "Whatever you say. You fought with me last night, it was just the two of us anyway, right?"

"Phew, yes, yes. We fought off the Magic Beast together last night, and I summoned my Yongqi at the time and slashed that guy's huge mouth twice with my sword." Steward Irupachi laughed, and his voice grew louder.

"Then let's drink some ale to celebrate. Come, boss, two more mugs of ale, large ones!" Jier shouted.

"Hey, still drinking? Why don't we drink some Flower Tea? In this cold winter, it's also very nice to be able to feel the fragrance of summer flowers."

"We'll drink the Flower Tea after we finish the ale. Tonight is a time worth celebrating. Everyone, with the Magic Beast's body parts being sent to Kendall City, the problems with your village roads will surely be solved. Celebrate! The bad days are about to pass, and the good days are back!" Jier said loudly, drawing loud agreement from the Villagers drinking in the inn.

Infected by the atmosphere, Steward Irupachi also shouted: "Haha! Ierwei, tonight I'm treating everyone in the room to ten mugs of ale, put it on my tab. Everyone, as the warrior Jier said, the dark clouds that have been pressing over our village these days are about to disperse. Those damned greedy Merchants will no longer be able to sell us goods at prices several times higher than before! Let us toast to the warrior Jier, it was he who fought with all his might last night and drove away the Magic Beast with me, cheers!"

"Cheers!"

"Cheers!"

"Cheers!"

"Cheers!"