Chapter 302: The Forest Outskirts — The Bandit Winter Camp and the Ravenous Magic Beast

Zhao Ji used his shield to slide toward the forest at a brisk pace; to his pleasant surprise, he easily discovered signs of human activity at the edge of this forest.

After all, animals would not leave those conspicuous markings on tree trunks.

Some gregarious monsters might, but those monsters likely wouldn't be a match for human bandits and would find it hard to survive in this fairly large mountain forest.

After all, humans are not vegetarians; even without the presence of Knight-rank Warriors from the towns, these fierce bandits who lick blood off their blades are not something ordinary monsters can handle. One can tell just by the fact that these bandits have managed to occupy a piece of land deep within this mountain forest.

Putting away the shield he used as a snowboard, Zhao Ji carried his Long Spear and waded through the snow into the forest.

Before long, he relied on the smoke from the fire, which was burning brazenly even in the daytime, to locate the bandits' winter camp where human presence was likely.

The bandits here are truly bold; they likely have never been struck by the Militia here, so they don't take any measures to eliminate the smoke from their campfires. Many damp logs stained with snow water are thrown directly into the campfire, sending up large plumes of white smoke that extend into the sky.

The wind here is almost non-existent, so Zhao Ji quickly used the direction of the smoke trails in the sky to sneak close to the Bandit Camp nearest to him.

As expected, the bandits did not gather together for the winter; it was because they didn't trust other cutthroat bandits, fearing they would be double-crossed, so even though there was no crisis of wild beasts or Militia raids, they did not relax their patrolling sentries.

Zhao Ji carefully hid in the thick snow, letting the few bandits walking in an arc pass by.

These bandits were all young, able-bodied men, draped in thick animal furs on the outside, with various clothes snatched from previous raids worn underneath. They lacked qualified furriers to process the pelts and skilled tailors, so they simply threw the crudely tanned animal furs over themselves and tied them at the waist with a rope.

These bandits' weapons were quite decent; as far as Zhao Ji could see, those who could be brought here by the Bandit Group were likely the backbone or main force of the group. Those newcomers who hadn't been on two raids, and the drifters who repeatedly defected between various Bandit Groups, were left behind in the mountains and forests around Bingxun Pass to fend for themselves.

When the next year came and they emerged from the mountains again, a new batch of thugs who didn't want to farm or displaced people would join them.

Repeating this year after year, the true backbone of the bandits had never been struck, especially since these bandits had found and occupied such an unknown place.

Avoiding the patrolling bandits, Zhao Ji snuck closer to this Bandit Camp. As he walked, he very carefully buried the path he had taken with snow again, so that no one would ever discover him.

There were at least thirty people in this Bandit Camp; a simple wooden house made from felled surrounding trees stood in the very center of the camp, and right at the door of the wooden house was a large, constantly burning campfire.

Surrounding the large campfire were five simple tents made of branches and large pieces of cloth. Some idle bandits were gambling with dice in the open space in the middle of the camp, and a strong bandit was wrestling with another strong bandit.

These two bandits were not fighting badly, and Zhao Ji could see that they were using more of a wrestling-style unarmed combat technique. At this moment, the ground was covered in snow packed down by their shoes, so falling wouldn't hurt.

Scattered, scrawny bandits were cheering for the wrestlers; it sounded like they had even opened a betting pool. Heh, aren't they afraid the two bandits fighting are throwing the match? They are bandits rotten to the core, and if they don't even have this much awareness, they deserve to end up like this.

Zhao Ji lay in the snow, with only a small mound of snow protruding, his eyes watching the Bandit Camp not far away through a small hole. He was calculating when the Magic Beast following behind would arrive. Before entering the forest, he had specifically observed the Magic Beast's state and found that it was likely afraid of repeating the situation where it tumbled down the snowy slope, so this time it was carefully crawling down the mountain bit by bit.

At that rate, it would probably be night by the time it got down and followed him here.

Heh, that Magic Beast just happens to be more active at night; I hope that by tonight, these bandits will like the fresh gift he has brought to the bandits living here.

The snow nest where Zhao Ji was hiding was not very cold, so after wrapping his wolf-fur Cloak tightly around himself, he rested for a while. After the sky outside darkened rapidly, Zhao Ji woke up, ate some frozen-hard food, and scraped up some surrounding snow to drink as water.

Shivering, Zhao Ji quickly licked his teeth with his tongue; the icy snow had irritated his teeth just now when he ate it.

After finishing, he leaned toward the observation hole and looked into the Bandit Camp.

The bandits were eating; a large black pot was boiling the winter food supplies the bandits had prepared long ago. He couldn't see clearly what was in it, but the smell wafting over made Zhao Ji's stomach growl.

"Quiet, quiet, once the Magic Beast wipes out these bandits, you'll have something to eat." Zhao Ji whispered to himself, soothing his stomach. Although he had just eaten, he was still hungry; crossing two mountain ranges in succession had consumed much of his body's accumulated nutritional reserves and also built up a lot of fatigue.

Although the fatigue had been relieved after his short nap, the small amount of food he carried was still not enough to satisfy his stomach's demands.

He carefully hid in the snow nest, watching as the bandits received their food one by one and sat around eating. To Zhao Ji's surprise, some bandits actually opened a cellar dug out next to the large campfire and brought out several women with their hands tied. These women were only haphazardly wrapped in large pieces of animal fur, their hair disheveled, and they were being watched as they obediently ate the food distributed to them.

Some bandits rushed to finish eating and crowded around these women, getting handsy.

It wasn't until a tall man, who appeared to be the leader of the Bandit Group, stood up and scolded a few impatient young bandits. The scolded bandits were then arranged to go out on patrol and sentry duty; they would have no part in the coming entertainment.

After finishing his meal, the bandit leader picked a woman and took her into the only wooden house in the camp, while the remaining women were divided among the other bandits through gambling, and taken into the tents.

The other defeated bandits continued to sit around the campfire, gambling and brawling to expend their energy and pass the unbearable winter.

Zhao Ji sighed; he currently had no ability to rescue those women, and after a while, when the Magic Beast tracked them down, there likely wouldn't be any living people left here.

Although the bandits were definitely doomed, those female civilians captured by the bandits would also die in the Magic Beast's mouth. He felt a bit sad, but the cold snow around him reminded him that this world is just this cruel and cold. He did not yet have the power to uphold his own principles; perhaps he could in the future, but for now, he could only lie low.

Just like a cicada nymph hiding in the soil for many years, one must lie dormant underground before spreading wings to fly and chirp.

The Magic Beast dawdled as it slid down the gentle snowy slope to the edge of the forest. Some small cliffs and Stones that were obstacles for Zhao Ji were not any hindrance to a monster of this size, other than the possibility of slipping on the slick snow.

Arriving at the edge of the forest, the Magic Beast gently touched the scattered trees at the forest's edge with its legs; some scents that humans could not perceive were actually very obvious to the Magic Beast.

After its bristles made contact with the trees, it discovered that this forest had not had any powerful creatures for a very, very long time. Other fierce beasts that would use scents to mark territory had also not appeared here for a long time; the freshest scent was at least ten winters old.

It was very happy; this meant that this forest, where many humans lived in a scattered manner, had no master. As long as the humans weren't like the human wrapped in metal from before, they would be easy to deal with.

Rubbing its legs and the bristles on its body, the Magic Beast wanted to summon the Mist of Magic Power to conceal its huge body like it did when hunting in the past, but it couldn't succeed after fiddling for a long while.

It was puzzled for a long time before it realized from the feeling of weakness and hunger in its body that it had become so weak. Although it still had many Soft Silk Threads accumulated inside its body and its Magic Power was still sufficient, its physical strength had been exhausted during its previous escape and crossing of the high mountains.

It stood there blankly for a long while before finally deciding to just enter the forest and eat something first. It hadn't been able to sense any larger animals on the outskirts of the forest; it seemed that only humans, this kind of formidable prey, existed in the entire forest.

There was no other way; it had to take some risks and quickly hunt some humans to eat.

It no longer had the strength to climb trees, and the trees in this strange forest were not very thick or tall; it wasn't impossible to crawl on them, but it would be more troublesome.

Its huge body plowed through the trees blocking its way; the Magic Beast just pushed over some small trees that it considered small and crawled toward the place where humans had appeared nearest to it.

Just right, that human it couldn't catch seemed to be in this direction too.

"The boss is really something, why does he never let us have some fun too." A young bandit stomped his foot on a tree trunk nearby, causing the snow on the branches to fall.

The other bandits were all wearing hats, so they weren't afraid of snow falling on their heads, and they followed suit, each stomping on the surrounding tree trunks, causing a large patch of snow to fall in a flurry.

While complaining, they patrolled around the camp along the snow path that had been packed down by the patrolling bandits who had walked there many times before.

Crunch, crunch.

A series of sounds of trees collapsing came from the direction near the edge of the forest. This made the few young bandits feel strange.

"Did the snow on the northern slope slide down?"

"Maybe."

"You mean the sliding snow pushed those trees over?"

"How would I know? Why don't you go over and take a look, we'll wait here."

"Dog@! Why me? You go take a look."

"Hmph, how about we bet on it? Let's bet with this coin; heads you go, tails I go." A bandit took out a polished, shining Silver Coin and spun it on his finger to show off.

Several young bandits holding Torches crowded over; compared to who would go over to see if the snow had collapsed, they were more interested in seeing which of these two would win or lose.

By the light of the Torch, a young bandit gritted his teeth and thought for a while before saying, "I'm illiterate, I choose heads."

Another Bandit who took out a Silver Coin spat and said, "As if any of us are literate; if that's the case, then I'm a scholar."

With a *clang*, the Silver Coin was flicked up by his thumb, reflecting the shine of the precious metal under the light of the Torch, before landing on the ground.

Several Bandits leaned in to look, only to find that the Silver Coin had landed perfectly on its edge, sticking right into the solid snow on the ground.

"Damn it! Neither of us is right. Neither guessed it, again, again."

Another Bandit was just about to bend down to pick up the Silver Coin on the ground, but a Bandit beside him interjected, "There's a saying back in my hometown: if a coin stands upright on the ground, something bad is bound to happen."

"Pah, pah, pah, I have Faith; that witch-like nonsense from your hometown can't affect me." The Bandit picking up the money was halfway bent over, and just as his fingers touched the coin standing on the ground, he turned his head to retort to his Bandit companion.

As he turned his head to look at the pitch-black, cloudy sky, he seemed to see something crashing down toward them; the light of the Torch could only illuminate a radius of less than ten meters, so he couldn't clearly see what was falling toward them.

That was the final moment for these few Bandits.

A breath later, the Magic Beast leaped with force from fifty meters away and crashed directly onto these few Bandits. Even though the Magic Beast had used its five legs to cushion its landing, the immense impact force still crushed the few small Torches and the standing Humans instantly.

Thud.

A dull sound traveled outward.

The Forest in this vicinity had a fair amount of accumulated snow shaken neatly from the branches.

The Magic Beast moved its body aside and carefully extended its soft mouth to suck the severed pieces of the Human bodies into its mouth.

It was lucky enough to find one Human who was not yet dead, and it hurriedly took advantage of the fact that this Human was still alive to swallow them into its belly first with the tiny teeth in its mouth.

Ah, it had Human 'eyes' again to talk and chat with.

It hoped these 'eyes' wouldn't always curse it; why curse it? Clearly, there were many Humans, but they were all very lonely. After becoming its 'eyes', everyone was together; how wonderful that was.

After swallowing the living person, the Magic Beast then swallowed the other Humans it had crushed into pieces. It also used the deep teeth in its mouth to cut through the things wrapped around these Humans and the metal trinkets they held in their hands.

It kept all those extra things in its long mouth, wanting to find the place where it had previously spat things out, but this was a Forest it was unfamiliar with; having no choice, it had to spit all these sundries out onto the ground.

*Cling-clang*, the Bandits' clothing and the small trinkets on their bodies, along with the weapons they carried, were all spat out by the Magic Beast where they had died.

Retracting its long, soft mouth, the Magic Beast chirped softly in satisfaction, then focused all its energy on digesting the Human body tissues it had swallowed into its belly.

Once it had recovered some of its strength, it reluctantly released a tiny bit of Magic Mist, shrouding the surface of its body in a layer of Mist.

Even with just this tiny bit of Mist covering it, the Magic Beast felt very satisfied; it seemed everything was starting to return to normal, and there were more Humans ahead.

It hoped those Humans wouldn't run away; after all, the trees in this Forest were not tall, making it difficult for it to move quickly in the treetops, and no matter what, it could not outrun Humans determined to flee in the Forest.

Following a dull sound that came from the north side outside the Yingdi, the sound of the wooden bed shaking inside the only wooden house in the Bandit Camp stopped.

A moment later, the door of the wooden house was opened, and the Bandit Leader, casually draped in animal fur, walked out with a foul expression.

"Who can tell me what new trouble those brats who went out on patrol have caused me this time?" he said, looking at the other Bandits by the campfire.

The other Bandits had all stopped what they were doing after the dull sound came from the northern Forest, and it was only when their leader asked that these Bandits became active again, answering in a cacophony of voices.

"They must be angry at the boss, so they chopped down a big tree to vent their anger."

"What do you mean? They took that big tree as the leader, right? So they chopped it down?"

"I think that's it; young people are still hot-blooded. By the time they reach my age, where would they have the energy to think about those things? Eating and drinking well is better than anything."

"Stop talking nonsense, all of you. I guess the big tree was crushed by the accumulated snow; after all, no matter how you think about it, short spears and Cleavers couldn't break a tree in such a short time."

The Bandit Leader rubbed the thick beard on his chin; he felt that what his subordinates said was all possible. It was possible for those young brats to knock down a big tree to vent their anger, but someone else was right—the previous heavy snow had been very deep, and it was indeed possible that old trees in the Forest had been crushed by the snow, and the Cleavers equipped to their gang were not good for chopping down big trees. They could hack at people, but for chopping trees, the few Bandits in the gang who used axes could do it, but those people were all in front of him.

Unable to figure this out, he snorted coldly and said to his subordinates, "Forget it, notify me when those brats come back in a while, and I'll ask them then."

After speaking, he picked up the water jar by the campfire, which contained clear water from melted snow warmed by the fire; it was just the right temperature to drink in this weather.

After finishing it, he returned to the wooden house.

On the other side, Zhao Ji, hiding in a snow hollow, naturally heard that dull sound as well. Without needing to think, he immediately knew it was the sound made by the Magic Beast.

Considering the direction the sound came from, it was exactly the direction the Bandit patrol team that had just gone out had taken.

Heh, those Bandits must be finished by now.

Thinking of this, Zhao Ji stretched his hands and feet, then carefully emerged from the exit of the snow hollow, bypassed the Bandit Camp, and circled from the dark outer perimeter toward the place where the sound had come from earlier.

He was not afraid of running into the Magic Beast on the way. If he really did, he would at most lead this equally exhausted Magic Beast toward the Bandit Camp; he believed those Bandits would certainly be easier to catch than him.

And he could then ambush and kill some Bandits who wanted to escape from the outside.

As for not running into it and missing the Magic Beast attacking the Bandit Camp.

Zhao Ji hoped for this result even more; he knew the Bandits all deserved to die, but those abducted civilians were innocent. Unfortunately, the Magic Beast did not distinguish between Humans; everyone in that Bandit Camp was truly nearing their end at this moment.