Chapter 303: Bandit Winter Camp — Before and After the Magic Beast Arrives

Although Zhao Ji was wearing armor and carrying various weapons, he still tried his best to minimize every sound he made while walking through the accumulated snow.

The snow-covered forest at night was extremely quiet; there was no chirping of insects or birds, only leaves rustling in the wind and the muffled roars of wild beasts. The forest, having just been covered in snow for the winter, felt to Zhao Ji like the quietest place he had ever seen; in such a place, he was afraid that even the sound of his own light breathing would travel far and be heard by others.

Zhao Ji was overthinking it.

In reality, his tiptoeing progress at this moment was already the quietest in the vicinity.

Not far away, that Magic Beast which had eaten some humans was incessantly crashing through the branches of low trees, crawling almost in a straight line toward the lively Bandit Camp in the distance.

As the human corpses it had consumed were digested, the stamina it had previously exhausted was finally gradually returning. With stamina, it could once again utilize the Magic Power filling its body, and the Mist covering its surface was expanding and thickening bit by bit.

Zhao Ji stopped, took off the Wolf Head Cloak hood he was wearing on his head, then turned his Helmet at an angle, focusing his attention and listening intently to the sound of the massive object moving, which could not be hidden in the silent snowy night.

Smacking his lips, Zhao Ji put his hood back on and slightly avoided the direction from which the noise was coming, to prevent himself from bumping into the Magic Beast. He took a curved path and walked slowly toward the place where the heavy object had landed earlier.

Although it was pitch black all around, Zhao Ji, who often traveled at night, had his own methods for distinguishing directions. This was experience he had gained from spending long periods dealing with Monsters in pitch-black ruins and at night.

Moreover, he usually ate well enough and had sufficient nutrition, so his eyes could barely see a few things in this snowy night with clouds thick as lead overhead.

If only I could light a Torch, Zhao Ji thought to himself. But if he lit a Torch, it might attract the Magic Beast, even though he roughly guessed that the Magic Beast knew where the human, Zhao Ji, was.

After all, when crossing high mountain snowy regions before, it would have been impossible to find Zhao Ji's tracks relying solely on eyes and ears. Yet that Magic Beast could know Zhao Ji's location through some other method.

Thinking about it, that might stem from the ability derived from the Magic Beast's spider-like appearance.

The Bandit Camp.

"Haha, watch me, open! Hey, three Knights!" A burly Bandit opened the Dice Cup in front of him; the six-sided dice inside did not show dots representing numbers, but rather a Knight figure carved and filled with blood for color.

The two Bandits participating in the gambling game nearby wore troubled expressions; although the Knights were not large, it was difficult for them to win when he had rolled three identical figures at once.

The idle Bandits watching from the side, upon seeing that all three dice were Knights, shouted excitedly, urging the other two Bandits to open the Dice Cups they had rolled.

"Open it quickly!"

"Open it! Let me see."

A spectating Bandit wanted to reach out and lift the Dice Cup, but was pushed away by the Bandit participating in the game: "Don't interfere! I'll open it!"

He kept one eye tightly shut, while the other was wide open, staring straight at the result under the Dice Cup.

Then, a chorus of boos erupted around them. "One Noble, two Peasants. Not bad, but it's lacking. You lost." A Bandit grinned and mocked.

This Bandit slapped his forehead, then turned to stare at the other Bandit who had yet to open his Dice Cup: "You open yours too, don't lose to him; I bet the harvest of two raids on this."

The last Bandit was also very nervous; he rubbed the beard on his chin hard with his hand, using this small gesture to relieve his tension. The burly Bandit opposite him crossed his arms, head slightly raised, with an expression of certain victory.

There were not many results that could beat three Knights; individual random results would not work, and only a result of a pair of Nobles with a Priest could beat the three Knights. Furthermore, if three Peasants, three Soldiers, three Mages, or three Priests appeared, none of them were a match for three Knights.

Unless it was a tie with the same low-probability three Knights, or a landslide victory with a result of three Nobles.

But the probability of such a result appearing in a gambling game was truly too small; this Bandit had rarely encountered it in many years, and even if he had, there usually wasn't a large stake in the game.

This time, the gambling-addicted Bandit opposite him had actually bet quite a few coins in the game, and on his side, he had very rarely rolled a result of three Knights.

Heh, truly divine protection.

Thinking of this, the burly Bandit chuckled.

The idle Bandits around all crowded over, some kneading his shoulders, others pounding his back; they were all losers trying to sponge a bit of luck from him.

The last Bandit, unable to stand the incessant chatter of the others, lifted the hand pressing on the Dice Cup in one go, revealing the dice hidden underneath.

The result revealed on the small wooden table was—two Noble figures, one Priest figure.

His expression went from uneasy to ecstatic in an instant: "Haha! I won! I won! I won!"

He shouted, and the Bandits who had been crowding around the burly Bandit all flocked to this Bandit's side, spouting flattery so easily that the Bandit who won the game couldn't stop grinning.

Although the other Bandit participating in the game had lost the money he received from the first two raids before winter, he could barely accept it since the money hadn't gone to the burly Bandit opposite him.

At this moment, this Bandit mockingly slid the money bag that had been pressed in the middle of the gambling table to the seat in front of the Bandit who had won the game, showing the action slowly to the burly Bandit the whole time; that look of finding joy in misery was truly asking for a beating.

The burly Bandit's previously smug expression had been frozen on his face since just a moment ago. He twitched the muscles at the corner of his mouth and barely squeezed out a few stubborn words of congratulation.

No matter what, he had never expected that among many possible results, the guy opposite him would actually roll a dice result that trumped his three Knights.

If it had been any other result, the opponent's two Nobles and one Priest would have been useless.

He saw the Bandit who had lost the large sum of money making that face specifically for him to see, and snorted in disdain; what a gambler. Look at him, clearly he was the one who lost the most money at the table, yet he acted as if he had won.

He himself had only lost a dozen or so copper coins, while that guy opposite must have lost at least two hundred copper coins.

That guy would die at this gambling table sooner or later.

The burly Bandit thought to himself.

Just as these Bandits were bustling because of the gambling, from the direction of the northern forest edge where the muffled sound had come from earlier, a series of continuous branch-breaking sounds and the crunching sound of accumulated snow being pushed aside by something had been coming toward their Bandit Camp.

An elderly Bandit sitting by the campfire warming himself was the first to notice something wrong; he stood up and squinted toward the distant forest.

Because the ground was covered in white snow with strong reflection, even though this was the only large campfire light source in the entire Bandit Camp, it could illuminate a large area around it.

Borrowing the light, the elderly Bandit watched for a while; in the direction the sound came from, besides the white snow, there were only some trees that had shed their leaves.

Nothing else.

Strange, there was clearly nothing there, so why were there still continuous sounds coming over?

As those sounds drew closer, not only did this highly vigilant elderly Bandit notice, but some of the Bandits nearby who were talking and bragging also noticed this unusual situation.

The Bandits tapped others on the arm or shoulder, letting everyone pay attention to the direction from which the strange sound was coming.

But besides the white snow and trees, they did not see anything else.

"Hey, hey, hey, stop playing, something is coming," a Bandit shouted, which drew the attention of the other Bandits who were entertaining themselves.

The soft cries of the woman in the crude Tent nearby also stopped, and a disheveled Bandit crawled out from inside; he said to the people outside with an impatient face: "What happened? Is it still those brats playing tricks? Boss? Shouldn't you find an opportunity to teach those young brats a lesson later? At least let them know who actually calls the shots in our team?" The last few sentences were shouted by the disheveled Bandit to the Bandit Leader in the wooden house.

The Bandit Leader in the wooden house roared impatiently: "Got it, tomorrow, we'll talk about it tomorrow. I'll give them a good one."

The other Bandits also felt it might be a prank played by those young brats, so even though those sounds were moving toward them, the other Bandits relaxed their vigilance.

With this interruption, the gambling game the Bandits were surrounding could not continue; the Bandit who had won the money was pestered by the Bandit who had lost the large sum, who insisted on forcibly borrowing a sum of coins that had been his own not long ago.

And the burly Bandit felt he had lost face, so he didn't sit at the gambling table, but picked up an empty wooden cup and came to the campfire, wanting to scoop a cup of water from the bucket to quench his thirst.

He bent down with effort, and just as he thought to reach the wooden cup into the warm water in the bucket, he froze.

Under the illumination of the large campfire, in the wooden barrel where the water was warm, the clear water from the melted accumulated snow was constantly rippling with increasingly obvious waves.

Gulp. This fat Bandit swallowed a mouthful of saliva. Although his instincts told him that something was wrong, his eyes looked at the bustling scene around him that was no different from any other day, and his ears heard the bragging and nonsense of those wretches who were like vicious mud, yet he still could not find a concrete place for the unease in his heart to land.

A wooden cup reached into the barrel and scooped up half a cup of warm water. The fat Bandit drank it into his throat with small gulps—gulp, gulp, gulp. While drinking the water, his alert little eyes narrowed into slits, and the eyeballs within were constantly scanning left and right.

What is it?

What is it?

What is it?

Slowly turning his body, he scanned his line of sight further out. Finally, he fixed his gaze on the direction from which the continuous sound was coming.

Nearby, a Bandit was using a sturdy fish bone to pick at his mouth full of rotten teeth. He curiously stared at this fat Bandit friend: "'Fat Pig', what are you doing?"

Ignoring the friend who called him by his nickname, the fat Bandit just waved his empty left hand, signaling for this person not to look for trouble where there was none.

After finishing the water, he gripped the empty wooden cup in his hand. He did not notice that his right hand was nervously clutching the cup, his fingers appearing white from the exertion.

His attention was entirely focused on the direction he was looking.

That was the north side of the Yingdi, where there was only white accumulated snow, dark brown winter trees, and a large patch of white things that looked like accumulated snow slowly approaching.

The place where the sound came from was exactly where that white "accumulated snow" touched the low tree branches around it. All the branches blocking the way were snapped by the touch of that "accumulated snow."

To hell with it, that doesn't look like any accumulated snow. But if it isn't accumulated snow, what could that white thing be?

The startled fat Bandit even forgot to swallow the last mouthful of warm water in his mouth; his mouth, slightly agape in surprise, allowed the warm water to flow from his chin along his beard onto the animal fur on his chest.

Making direct eye contact with a Human made the Magic Beast feel that it, having approached "quietly," had been discovered.

Strange, clearly there was already a layer of Mist on the surface of its body, so how did that Human who looked so delicious discover it?

"To hell with it! Everyone, something is approaching." The fat Bandit finally came to his senses and shouted loudly, but it only drew the disdain of the other Bandits.

"'Fat Pig,' put away that performance that couldn't be any faker. Go watch a few more shows at Bingxun Pass, haha. I think your acting could only be used to shine people's shoes backstage at a theater," a Bandit immediately mocked out loud.

Another Bandit, chewing on something, followed up incoherently: "That guy has the talent to lose in a sure-win bet; you don't have that skill, do you? Haha."

A Bandit who had been watching the gambling the whole time also snorted with disdain: "You didn't see how fast 'Fat Pig's' face changed just now. I guarantee that if he could keep this skill, he would definitely be able to get a formal job on stage."

A Bandit who chimed in grinned and said: "What kind of job would suit him?"

That Bandit continued: "He could play the sun. No, the moons would be better; he could play the moons, which change their appearance every day, very well."

"But I heard that it's always the women who play the moons, isn't it?"

"Don't you underestimate 'Fat Pig'; he would definitely be able to play that role well." After saying this, the two Bandits who were talking back and forth both laughed.

The other Bandits also followed suit with boisterous laughter.

However, the fat Bandit with the ugly expression ignored those vicious wretches. He hurried two steps forward, arrived at the door of the wooden hut where the Bandit Leader was busy, and thump-thump-thumped his fist against the dilapidated wooden door of the hut.

A hostile low roar came from inside: "No matter who you are, I will smash your face in. I guarantee it." The wooden door opened with a bang, and the Bandit Leader, who only had a circle of animal fur hanging around his waist, walked out with an ugly expression.

He raised his hand to stop the fat Bandit who wanted to say something, and kicked out directly, knocking the fat Bandit over.

He stepped on the chest of the fallen fat Bandit, lowered his head, stared into the other's eyes, and said: "I said, no matter who it is, if they disturb me while I'm busy, I will smash their face in. Tell me, do you want to keep your left cheek or your right cheek?"

But the fallen fat Bandit did not speak, only looking at the sky behind the Bandit Leader with a face full of terror.

There, a huge white unknown object falling from the sky smashed directly into the middle of the wooden hut the Bandit Leader had just come out of.

Boom!

The entire crude wooden hut built from large tree trunks was smashed to pieces by the huge object that descended from the sky.

The scene was quiet for a second, or two.

Then.

"What is that!" "Damn it!" The Bandits all panicked; they didn't know what had happened.

The Bandit Leader who had been stepping on the man was covered in cold sweat; if he hadn't just walked out of the hut, wouldn't he have been crushed to death directly?

But before the thought of praying for good luck could even form a complete sentence in his mind, he was cut into two pieces from the waist by a horizontal humming sound, and he fell to the ground on the side, one part after the other.

"Boss!" Suddenly, their leader was chopped into two pieces by an unknown attack, which made the surrounding Bandits immediately come to their senses. The cowardly Bandits hurriedly dove into the crude Tents, ignoring the two naked people inside, grabbed their own large bags, and wanted to run out into the Forest.

The brave Bandits immediately drew their weapons and, regardless of whether it was useful or not, threw their weapons toward the huge unknown thing that was composed entirely of accumulated snow or whatever it was.

The thrown metal weapons passed through the white Mist and clattered against the surface of the Magic Beast's body, but other than falling to the ground, they had no other effect.

The Magic Beast, which had long since retracted its spare eyes into its body, stood up and stirred up its Magic Power, temporarily expanding the Mist. In just an instant, it shrouded the entire Yingdi, except for a small area by the large campfire, in a short period of time.

The Bandits' vision was blocked in an instant, which made them even more panicked, and this eerie Mist also had a sound-absorbing effect. Although all the Bandits were shouting and yelling, to the ears of the Bandits, it sounded as if it were coming from very far away.

The Magic Beast's offensive was at full power. As it walked after standing up, every step it took would pierce a Human from top to bottom with its sharp legs.

The lucky Humans would only be pierced through the stomach by the legs instantly, and then they would wail in pain while holding their half-stomachs with intestines spilling all over the ground; the unlucky Humans were directly split in two from top to bottom by the sharp legs, along with their heads and bodies. The two halves of the body fell limply to the ground.

The Magic Beast realized that these panicked Humans didn't seem very powerful, so it became bold. Its long, huge mouth extended from the front of its body and swallowed the Humans who wanted to escape into the Forest into its mouth from afar.

Letting them be torn apart and wail by the sharp teeth that had newly grown in its mouth, the Magic Beast swung its long mouth around, swallowing several Humans who wanted to escape one by one into its mouth, tearing and grinding them with its teeth.

There were so many Humans here that it could pick and choose, selecting a few it liked to swallow whole into its stomach to serve as its new "eyes," and as for the other shouting Humans, it would just eat them as food to replenish its body's nutrients.

The Magic Beast's stamina was still insufficient, so the Mist that covered the entire Yingdi soon receded, and even the thin, sparse Mist on its body dissipated completely. The remaining fewer than ten Bandits were huddled tightly around the campfire, looking at this terrifying creature that had finally revealed its true form with faces full of horror.

"It's a Magic Beast! It's actually a Magic Beast! We're dead, we're dead," an elderly Bandit who had been sitting by the campfire wailed.

The other few Bandits looked at the huge body of the Magic Beast and the corpses and wounded all over the ground; they couldn't even hold the weapons in their hands, and their legs were so weak they were useless.

The Magic Beast retracted its long mouth. It really hadn't expected its stamina to be so insufficient; the Mist that it usually felt was easy to maintain had lasted for such a short time. Being seen in its true form by Humans made the Magic Beast feel very shy, and it even forgot to swallow the half-Human hanging from its huge mouth into its stomach.

The fat Bandit, who was lucky because he was lying on the ground and hadn't been noticed by this huge Monster, was scared silly looking at the half-Human hanging by the Monster's mouth not far above his head, with its legs still kicking and struggling. He numbly rolled over and crawled on his hands and feet toward the few Bandit companions who were still standing.

With his heart beating violently in his chest, he gradually felt his whole head swelling and heating up, his hands and feet gradually losing their strength, and his wide-open mouth could not make a single sound.

After crawling just two steps away, this fat Bandit was scared to death.