Chapter 313: The Interception Point — Burning the Corpses and the Panicked Kesilusi

Jier came to the door of the wooden hut nearest to him and kicked it open with one foot.

To his surprise, two terrified screams immediately erupted from the dim wooden hut. He frowned; he could tell from the sound that they were female voices. He hesitated for a moment, but walked in anyway.

By the dim light that barely managed to shine in after the wooden door was opened, he saw two females huddled on a wooden bed in the corner of the room. They were wrapped in large pieces of animal fur, and upon seeing Jier's figure, they immediately let out a continuous stream of screams.

This put Jier in a very difficult position. He didn't know what to do, so he had to look toward an old Hunter who had walked over upon hearing the female screams: "Grandpa Kabu Ka, look, there are two women inside. What should we do?" Earlier on the road, Jier had briefly exchanged names with the hunters in the group; he only knew the names of the six young hunters simply, but he had actually remembered the names of the four old hunters.

The old man was still dragging the corpse of a dead Bandit, which had already been stripped bare, pulling it across the snow by one leg. He glanced into the wooden door, saw the two females still screaming, pursed his lips, and instructed Jier: "Hurry and clear this room out; send them to another room first. Also, be careful with them." After saying this, he gave Jier a look.

Jier immediately understood his meaning. Those who mixed with the Bandits could be relatives of the Bandits, or women who had turned to the plundering life of the Bandits. Their men had just been killed by Jier and his group, so one shouldn't assume they wouldn't be capable of anything.

Of course, it was more likely they had been brought here by the Bandits for amusement due to their beauty; without asking, it was hard to say.

They had no time for questions now. Thinking of this, Jier strode inside and, amidst the two females' screams, pulled them up.

However, it seemed they weren't wearing any clothing under the large, cold-resistant animal furs, which made Jier blush a deep red. He had no choice but to wrap them each in the furs, and ignoring their screams, he hoisted both of them onto his shoulders and walked out of the wooden hut.

After coming out of the wooden hut, seeing the situation outside actually made the two females stop screaming. Instead, they began to laugh hysterically, laughing and crying at the same time, dancing about while wrapped in the furs, cursing the dead Bandits around them with the most vicious words, and even, after finishing their curses, neurotically continuing to praise some deity.

It didn't sound like any proper deity. In the two females' chaotic words, there was only unsettling talk of revenge, vengeance, and sacrifices.

Of course, Jier didn't care about this. They were just ordinary people, not Priestesses; no matter what they said, it was of no use at all. After all, it was said that the words of Priests and Pastors held supernatural power, but what could an ordinary person's words do, even if said ten thousand times?

Would a deity respond to them? Hah.

Carrying the two people, Jier strode to another wooden hut, stood steady, and kicked the wooden door of the hut off its hinges. Interestingly, female screams immediately erupted from inside as well.

Jier didn't care at all. He tossed the two females wrapped in furs onto the ground and hurriedly turned to run toward the previous wooden hut, saying one sentence to the people inside before leaving: "Stay inside honestly, don't go out."

It was unknown what the people in this wooden hut were thinking, but they immediately stopped screaming, gave a submissive response, and stopped crying out.

Not bothering with them anymore, Jier went to the previous room, flipped over the wooden bed inside, and dragged it out of the wooden hut.

This thing could burn, so Jier leaned the wooden bed against the outer wall of the wooden hut. Returning to the wooden hut again, Jier threw everything he saw that had some value in front of a tent outside. He also dragged a large box containing who-knows-what out of the house.

Immediately after, he stomped his feet on the empty wooden hut floor, confirming the location where the Bandits hid things through the different vibrating sounds transmitted by the large floorboards.

Honestly, these Bandits really had no imagination when it came to hiding things. But thinking about it carefully, it seemed they didn't have many places to hide them; there were so many people in the Yingdi, and if they hid them outside, they might be secretly stolen by others, so it was better to just keep them under their own floor.

Jier pried up the floorboards and dug out a small box. He threw this thing outside as well, piling it up with the other things he had found.

Immediately after, Jier carried the Bandit corpses that the hunters had moved to the door of the wooden hut inside one by one, stacking them tightly on the floor of the room.

After a short while, the hunters had stripped all the Bandit corpses bare, and they were stacked inside the wooden hut by Jier. They then brought over the fuel from the campfires in the Yingdi, piling it inside and outside the wooden hut.

Afterward, a lit wooden stick was thrown into the wooden hut, igniting the small bucket of animal fat they had found.

Amidst the crackling, the lit fat ignited other flammable, cluttered items, which then set the entire wooden hut ablaze.

Everyone finished tidying up, ready to fight the Magic Beast at any time.

Kesilusi, the Young Leader of the strongest Bandit Group in the Forest, rode his horse with his two trusted subordinates toward the place where the Magic Beast's cries were coming from.

During the approach, they kept hearing the painful cries of the Magic Beast, which led the three of them to have various guesses.

"Kesilusi, what do you think the situation is up ahead? That guy's movements don't seem small," one Bandit said, riding his horse closer to Kesilusi.

Guiding his horse through the thick snow, Kesilusi said disdainfully: "Listen to this sound, what can you hear?"

The two Bandits said one after another: "A huge Monster!"

"It might have a huge mouth!"

"%￥%! You two idiots. It's pain! It's begging for mercy, it's submitting. When you catch the trash from other unruly groups and beat them, they make this sound." Kesilusi laughed loudly.

The two Bandits pondered for a moment, and listening carefully again, it was indeed somewhat familiar.

By the time the three riders approached, no matter how they urged their horses, they dared not move forward, and even crouched down, burying their long horse faces into the snow.

The three Bandits looked at each other, having no choice but to get down from their Muan and wade through the snow to get closer.

Under the cover of the trees, they saw what was there.

A ball of white, thick fog was pressed onto the ground, and the Magic Beast's cries came from within it. After getting closer and hearing the sound again, they realized their own bodies were trembling involuntarily.

This made Kesilusi very unhappy; he cursed his body in a low voice while using his fist to punch the parts of his body that were trembling.

"How is it? I only see a strange ball of thick fog, I don't see the shape of the Magic Beast," he asked in a low voice.

"Me too, a ball of thick fog."

"Does it look like it's natural?"

Kesilusi slapped his subordinate on the head: "Are you stupid? In such cold weather, where would there be thick fog? There would only be snow fog."

"Should we go closer and take a look? Maybe that guy is seriously injured? The place where the thick smoke rose earlier seems to be the Blood Leg Gang's Yingdi; those trash must have caused serious injury to this Monster!" one subordinate said, eager to try.

Kesilusi considered it and nodded in agreement.

The three of them spread out slightly, five meters apart, and approached the thick fog ahead. All around were large areas of fallen trees, and in many places, the snow had been kicked up, leaving a scene of devastation.

Just as they approached to within thirty meters of the thick fog, in another direction, not far in front of them, another plume of black-gray smoke rose. Even the snowfall and the dark snow clouds could not block the black smoke that had suddenly risen.

"What's going on? Isn't that the direction of the Rat Gang's Yingdi? Isn't the Magic Beast here? How did it catch fire over there too?" Kesilusi was shocked; the sudden situation made him feel that something was wrong.

Just then, a clear, beautiful female voice came from the thick fog: "Very good! Today is your death day! I know you can understand what I'm saying, ha!" At the last sentence, a loud noise came from the thick fog, sounding like two hard objects colliding.

Kesilusi waved his hand: "Quick, retreat! No! There are others nearby!" After saying this, he and his two subordinates hurriedly retreated, but they were still spotted in the air by Knight Lanisha, who had jumped out of the Magic Beast's thick fog.

"Didn't I say not to come near! No! You..." She landed, the heavy impact shaking and pushing away the snow within a meter of where she landed.

After landing, she shook her head, opened the Faceplate of her Steel Helmet, and stared at the three panicked young men: "This attire, so they are just some scum hiding in the woods." Subconsciously, she flicked the Single-handed Heavy Sword she held in her hand, shaking off the large amount of translucent mucus stained on the blade, and then put it back into the long Wooden box on her back.

Next, she drew the Armor-piercing Rapier from her waist, but just as she raised the tip of the sword, she realized that her target was mainly the Magic Beast that had been entangled with her for a long time.

The Magic Beast hiding in the thick fog let out a hateful cry: "Chi!!" and immediately risked shooting its long, pitch-black giant mouth out from the thick fog, sweeping past a Bandit who was covering his ears and had fallen, swallowing him into its mouth.

While being pushed toward the depths of the mouth by many new small teeth growing inside, the still-living Bandit let out a shrill scream: "Kesilusi! Kesilusi! Save me! Save me, I beg you!"

Kesilusi and the other Bandit were both terrified; they also covered their ears, staring with wide eyes as their good friend, their good brother, was grabbed by a pitch-black thing thicker than a person and swallowed inside.

"Ah Ah Ah!!!!" As the pitch-black giant mouth retracted, the Bandit's screams gradually lowered as he entered the thick fog, and then fell silent.

Even though it was the middle of winter, both Bandits broke out in a cold sweat. The sweat from riding their horses all the way here, plus the sweat from wading through the snow, now felt like something ice-cold, making them both shiver.

Knight Lanisha frowned; she could not let the Magic Beast continue to swallow humans. The Magic Beast's recovery ability was extremely strong; as long as there was enough 'food' present, that guy could quickly recover from the damage caused by their group in just a short time.

Without thinking, she began to run forward, the snow kicked up by her legs splashing out and falling on both sides of her, the Fine Sword in her hand pointing straight at the Bandit carrying the Long-handled Round Hammer.

However, the Magic Beast did not want to let go of this "little snack" that had delivered itself to its door, and once again shot out its long, giant mouth, biting toward another Bandit.

Compared to killing a Bandit, preventing the Magic Beast from eating more Humans was more important; Knight Lanisha leaped up, performed a side-flying kick, and struck her foot toward the Magic Beast's pitch-black giant mouth.

Bang! The two collided mid-air. Knight Lanisha's kick was full of force, and the Magic Beast's pitch-black giant mouth was not actually hard, so it was unexpectedly kicked right into the mouth by her. Half of her lower leg was fiercely thrust into the outside of the mouth, and a large amount of mucus splashed and gushed out.

The Magic Beast then let out a cry of pain. Compared to its other hard and rough limbs, this mouth was a very soft and flexible part of its body. Once struck, it immediately caused it immense pain, and it frantically thrashed its mouth, attempting to shake off Knight Lanisha who had kicked onto it.

Knight Lanisha also felt uncomfortable being tossed around by the Magic Beast, so she kicked with her other foot and pulled herself out.

The free Knight landed right beside a Bandit who was scrambling to crawl away. She flipped her body, stabbed her sword into the Bandit's leg, breaking one of his legs. Just as she was about to finish off this Bandit, she saw the Magic Beast retract its giant mouth, and the entire mass of Mist, half-covering the snow, crawled rapidly toward the front.

The direction was exactly where the thick smoke was rising ahead.

Unable to care about the other Bandit carrying a long-handled weapon, Knight Lanisha dragged the Bandit with the broken leg by his ankle with one hand, rapidly leaping and bypassing the Magic Beast, deciding to have a final battle with this Magic Beast where her Hunters were ahead.

Kesilusi scrambled back along the path they had come from. After running to where the horses were huddled, he immediately mounted one, but no matter how he urged the horse beneath him, it refused to get up. He drew his Dagger and stabbed the horse in the rump; the horse neighed in pain, stood up in two movements, and ran forward aimlessly.

"Not this way, you fool! Idiot! Moron! Go back, don't run forward." Kesilusi exerted force with both arms, and his legs clamped tightly against the horse's belly, forcing the horse's head to turn around.

After pulling hard for a while, he finally stopped the horse's panic and corrected its direction, running with all his might toward the way they had come.

Seeing his horse get up and the monster that terrified the horses move far away, the horses of his two subordinates also shook their heads, stood up, chased behind him, and followed along as he returned the way they came.

Kesilusi whipped his horse hard on the wound he had just stabbed, and the pained horse galloped rapidly, returning to the mixed Bandit main force at a speed several times faster than when they came.

He panted; although it had only been a brief moment, it still broke him out in a cold sweat. The giant Magic Beast, its form hidden in the Mist, could shoot out thick limbs and swallow a strong Bandit in one bite; there was simply no possibility of resistance.

The female Knight wearing thick Steel Armor all over her body—this fellow was even more dangerous, as could be seen from the fact that the Magic Beast had been letting out cries of pain while the Knight didn't have a single scratch on her.

This is bad; both of these fellows are hard to deal with. Can their mixed group of over a hundred people handle this?

Is there any possibility of realizing their various plans from before?

Thinking about these messy things, Kesilusi kept whipping his horse and returned to the slowly moving large Bandit group.

As soon as his figure fell into the sight of the Bandits on the periphery, it caused some unease among them. Because he was riding his horse back at full speed through the snow, while the other two horses following behind were empty, just honestly following along.

It was clear that five people and five horses had gone out not long ago, but now only one person and three horses were returning.

It would have been better if only one person had returned on horseback; they could have at least assumed he was back to report news.

But looking at the so-called Young Leader with a panicked expression, the Bandits all felt that the situation ahead might be dire.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Seeing the Old Bandit Leader, Kesilusi finally regained some spirit and calmed down slightly.

The aged Bandit spat out the dried meat in his mouth, wrinkled his face full of wrinkles and his brows, and looked at his son's panicked appearance: "Look at yourself, calm down!"

Kesilusi reached out and wiped his face with his rough palm, then pulled on the Jiansheng to bring his horse closer to his father's horse.

Staring at his son, the Old Bandit Leader asked in a low voice: "Where are your two subordinates? I only see their horses, hmm, the horses don't have bloodstains either. What happened?"

Kesilusi whispered to his father: "One of them was swallowed by the Magic Beast, and the other was captured by a female Knight. Damn it, I hope his mouth is tough enough."

"A female Knight? Ridiculous! Where in the world is there such a thing? Even if there were, where would such a person be in this remote place? Unless it's those fellows from the old Empire in the Northern Border," the Old Bandit Leader muttered to himself.

"Tell me the process of what happened just now in detail. By the way." Having said this, the Old Bandit Leader looked up and shouted for a stop. The Bandits who had been frequently looking back toward them, no matter which group they belonged to, all stopped at this loud shout.

"What's going on! Where are my men?"

"That's right! And my men too!"

From the Bandit Groups on the left and right sides, the voices of the other two Bandit Leaders came out.

"Don't worry about them, you just give a simple account first. They'll be here soon; say what you should say, and bluff your way through what you shouldn't," the Old Bandit Leader instructed his son.

Kesilusi, who had approached his father's side, finally calmed down after taking a large gulp of strong liquor, at least on the surface: "The three of us took the other two and detoured a bit, then according to the plan, we slaughtered those two."

"Hmmph." The Old Bandit Leader glanced with the corner of his eye at the other two Bandit Leaders who were approaching.

"Then, after we buried the corpses in the snow, we moved toward where the Magic Beast was calling. After getting close, the horses didn't dare to go any further," Kesilusi said in a low voice.

"Not bad, ignorant animals will fear strong Magic Beasts, but they don't know that it is Humans who possess true power," the Old Bandit Leader added.

But Kesilusi shook his head, then paused, and nodded again. This sequence of actions left his father confused, but Kesilusi continued: "Then we walked over; the Magic Beast hadn't moved from its spot. After getting close, we discovered that there was a large mass of White Mist standing on the ground. We couldn't see inside, and we couldn't hear any sounds other than the Magic Beast."

The Old Bandit Leader was experienced: "Other than the Magic Beast? Was there anything else?"

Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, Kesilusi continued: "Yes, the one who had been fighting the Magic Beast the whole time was a female Knight. She was suppressing the Magic Beast, because when the Magic Beast was fighting her in the White Mist, one could only hear the Magic Beast's cries of pain. That Knight didn't have a single scratch on her body. By the way, she was also wearing a suit of Steel Armor; it didn't look like something an ordinary fellow could damage."

The Old Bandit Leader glanced at his son; he knew this fellow was no coward: "Then what made you so panicked? Did that Knight attack you?"

Pausing for a moment, Kesilusi nodded: "Uh, Dalong seemed to have been attacked by her and didn't manage to escape in the end. But that Magic Beast."

"That Magic Beast?"

"That Magic Beast doesn't seem as easy to deal with as the one we dealt with last time. Tinier was swallowed into its belly in one bite by the Magic Beast, and the Magic Beast only had to extend one long limb to do it." Kesilusi's eyes widened, looking at the empty space in front of him, as if his consciousness was seeing the scene again of his companion shouting his name and then being swallowed into its mouth.

The Old Bandit Leader frowned and slapped Kesilusi on the head: "Snap out of it! Don't think too much if they're dead; we'll avenge them later."

After saying this, the leaders of the other two Bandit Groups had already approached on horseback.