Chapter 339: The Burning Backyard — The Freezing Magic That Shatters Life

Longsuosi suddenly realized something. He pointed at the hysterical, laughing waiter and said to the inn guard captain beside him, "Watch him for me, don't let him run. Something must have happened in the back. Militia! Follow me and hurry over to provide support."

Once he finished speaking, he no longer paid attention to the waiter or the female thugs who had been entangling and framing him, and led the militia who had followed him to hurry back.

The inn's backyard, where supplies were organized and transported, was still some distance away. Listening to the continuous sounds of clashing weapons and roars and shouts coming from the backyard, he immediately changed his pace from a fast walk to a run.

Originally, in noble etiquette, one should never run under any circumstances, especially when the noble himself was the person of highest status present; one should maintain noble poise and dignity.

But Longsuosi truly felt that things were serious. If he could not complete this mission entrusted to him by Knight Kela, would it affect the future loyalty of the knights toward him?

He dared not think about this question; the more he thought, the more he felt these bandits were cunning and vicious.

While leading the militia to quickly kick open doors that had been closed due to the darkness, he thought about what had just happened in his mind; it was most likely a trap specifically set by the bandits to lure him and his militia away from the supplies.

There were only a few mercenary guards in the backyard hired by merchants. The merchants had originally tried every possible way to get a piece of the action regarding the transport of the Magic Beast carcasses, which he had been quite unwilling to allow.

After all, the Magic Beast had been taken down by a team led solely by his father's subordinate, Knight Lanisha. There was really no need to let other forces get involved.

But now, he only regretted that the merchants had invited too few mercenary guards.

He did not know if those few mercenaries could withstand the bandits' attack.

As his thoughts raced, he guessed that the bandits probably did not have many men; otherwise, there would have been no need to set a trap to lure him and his militia away.

The closer they got to the backyard, the more chaotic and terrible the situation appeared. Several waiters responsible for guarding and feeding the livestock at the inn fled from ahead, shouting things like "It's on fire! It's on fire!"

Longsuosi gritted his teeth. Just as expected.

The bandits' main goal was to use fire to destroy the supplies provided to the frontline militia. If food and such among these supplies were burned, it would be easy to resolve, as there were plenty of such basic supplies in Bingxun Pass, and as long as one could afford the price, one could get a large supply.

But among these supplies, the most important things were actually the Bujie Nujian crafted by the craftsmen of Kendall City. These items were numerous and uniform in specification, and were the most important guarantee of the militia's combat effectiveness.

Without the crossbow bolts, the bows and crossbows that every militiaman possessed would lose their utility. Relying only on farmers who had been trained for half a month to fight against brutal bandits, they relied more on this kind of organized long-range projectile weapon.

Approaching the backyard, Longsuosi and his men smelled the massive firelight and thick smoke from the burning supplies; their noses were filled with choking fumes.

Fortunately, the inn was not short of money; most of its backyard was built of stone, and the supplies were basically placed in the open space in the middle of the backyard.

Finally, crossing a wooden door, the situation in the backyard finally entered Longsuosi's line of sight.

A side entrance to the backyard had been smashed open, and some supplies directly opposite were being ignited by several bandits, while other bandits were using clay pots on their chests to splash some flammable grease.

This made Longsuosi's eyes split with rage: "Quick, stop those bandits splashing oil!"

The militia subordinates who had been following Longsuosi immediately unslung the bows and crossbows from their backs. Without needing to use their feet for leverage, these experts from various places, trained for many years, pulled the crossbow strings directly by hand, nocked arrows, and aimed and fired at the bandits, borrowing the light from the burning supplies.

Swish, swish, swish, swish.

Two bandits who were only focused on splashing grease were shot directly through the chest by the crossbow bolts and fell to the ground, screaming.

And some bandits who had become alert and prepared for battle upon seeing the militia appear dodged the aimed shots of the crossbows at the last moment.

On the other side of the backyard, the few mercenaries who were entangled in a fight with the bandits were overjoyed and immediately roared in unison, temporarily forcing back the Refining Qi bandits they were fighting.

Because the bandits were limited by the weapons in their hands, it was difficult to deal with the few mercenaries who were focused on defense and entanglement; the short-handled tools in their hands could not deal with the sturdy Mudu held by the mercenaries.

The bandit leader here, seeing that the lured-away militia had returned and that his men had already set fire to the supplies for the militia,

felt that it was time to retreat.

These supplies were all tied together with Wooden Box and oil-soaked Rope, and with the Lamp Oil they brought, they were very easy to ignite. Moreover, because there was Grease inside, it was difficult for a few people to extinguish.

"Go! The mission is a success! Everyone, retreat quickly!" the bandit leader roared. Hearing his words, the other bandits also threw the clay pots on their chests toward the supplies, then waved their weapons casually, preparing to return through the side entrance of the backyard they had charged in from.

As long as these militiamen were still thinking about saving some supplies, there would be no problem with the bandits' escape.

When they had a moment, they could still set fires at will in Bingxun Pass to increase the chaos at the pass. As long as the merchants felt the situation was tense, it would be difficult for these militiamen to get a new batch of supplies in a short time.

Perfect!

The bandit leader's mouth split wide open. He had completed this mission very well; upon returning, he might even be able to use this to become the new leader of Luodai Cave. Hahahaha, he laughed exaggeratedly, and illuminated by the flickering fire of the burning supplies, he looked exceptionally ferocious.

Longsuosi was so angry he was about to explode. He saw those bandits retreat immediately upon seeing him and the militia arrive, and they did not forget to throw the oil pots they were carrying into the fire points while retreating, helping the flames burn even more vigorously.

"Don't think you can leave so easily, all of you die!" Longsuosi no longer cared about anything else. He stepped out from among the militia, stood in a relatively open small space, and fixed his eyes on the few bandits who had been setting the fire and were running the fastest after receiving the signal.

He raised both hands, lightly supporting the metal parts on both sides of the Magic Crown, stared fixedly at those damned bandits, and shouted softly: "Frozen Glacier!"

As soon as the command word for activating the Magic was spoken, the Gems on the Magic Crown flashed.

The blue square Gem instantly gave birth to a blue torrent as thick as a finger, which shot out from Longsuosi's forehead, and then, following the aim of Longsuosi's eyes, instantly struck a bandit who had run to the side entrance of the backyard.

Longsuosi only scanned the bandit with his eyes for a moment, then immediately skipped over this bandit and stared at the next one.

The blue torrent swept left and right over this bandit, and then large patches of ice crystals condensed out of the air. The bandit only felt his body go numb, and then his body fell to the ground uncontrollably.

The parts not swept by the blue torrent were fine, and the bandit controlled them to support his fallen body, but when his right arm was surrounded by a large amount of ice crystals in the air and then gently hit the stone floor, it immediately made a distorted sound and then snapped.

The bandit watched helplessly as his right arm began to break from the hand upward, and he was about to scream in terror. But as soon as he lowered his head, he saw that the right half of his body had already been covered by a large amount of ice crystals. He wanted to breathe, but found that his body was gradually becoming paralyzed. Only then did he discover that he felt a cold sensation coming from the right half of his body.

This bandit lay on the ground, eyes wide open, but his body gradually lost control, and he died just like that.

Longsuosi scanned the two bandits with his eyes, then calculated the time in his mouth, turned his head, and looked at several bandits who were bypassing the burning supplies and running toward the side entrance of the backyard.

As Longsuosi turned his head, the sweeping blue torrent also crossed half the backyard and swept directly toward those bandits.

"Crawl down!" Seeing the miserable state of his subordinates in front, the bandits, who were confused by this sudden strange scene, were urged by the bandit leader to let his men crawl down.

He himself crawled down at the first moment, but from the time his subordinates heard his words to the time they reacted and took action, it was already too late.

The deep blue torrent swept back and forth twice over the running bandits, and then extinguished directly.

Longsuosi breathed a sigh of relief, his hand still supporting the crown, and without turning his head, he said to the militia subordinates: "Wait a moment, the bandits are dead for sure, wait for me to extinguish these flames."

The militiamen all held their bows and crossbows, staring blankly at the Gem crown that Longsuosi had been wearing on his head, not knowing what they were all thinking.

On the other side, the mercenaries saw a young man suddenly release Magic, and they were also so frightened that they shrank behind their shields. After hearing the bandit leader say to crawl down, they were also so frightened that they lay on the cold ground and covered their heads with the Mudu in their hands.

Several bandits who were running were swept left and right by the blue torrent, and after they ran a few more steps, they suddenly fell to the ground.

After the bandits fell, their entire bodies were actually broken into two pieces from the waist. After the lower body fell to the ground, the legs were still twitching, but the fallen legs could only hop on the ground. And the upper bodies of the bandits, sprawled on the ground, had their mouths wide open in terror, but they couldn't say anything, because their lungs had been frozen, and no airflow could pass through their throats, so their mouths couldn't make a sound.

At the broken sections of the bandits' bodies, only many Viscera and intestines frozen into fragments were left, and even the spine was frozen stiff, making a clattering sound when it fell to the ground.

The bandit leader opened his eyes wide, watching his subordinates struggle and flap their arms, gradually becoming motionless. His brain couldn't quite turn the corner; was everything in front of him a dream? Was he still sleeping in the resident's house they had occupied? This nightmare-like thing was so unrealistic, it must only exist in a dream.

Right! He must be dreaming. Closing his eyes tightly and knocking his head against the ground, maybe he could wake up.

Thump, thump, thump.

But no matter how he knocked his forehead against the ground, he could not rid himself of all this.

Longsuosi watched the flames, which were still burning ever more fiercely, and stopped his subordinates from their attempt to fetch water to extinguish the fire.

"Do not move, all of you stand behind me. The fire will be out immediately," Longsuosi said. The Militia had seen that magical blue light just moments ago, how it swept left and right a few times and shattered those Bandits into pieces. Since Lord Longsuosi had said so, they believed him.

Longsuosi took a few steps forward, adjusted to a suitable position, and then, still gently supporting the Metal Coronet with both hands, softly chanted a Magic command: "Cold Air Ice Plain."

After the Square Sapphire at the center of Longsuosi's forehead received the command, it immediately bloomed with an even more intense blue Magic Power. After a moment, it projected a formidable force of Magic Power from the center of the gem, rapidly condensing a fist-sized, ice-blue sphere of Magic Power before Longsuosi's eyes.

This sphere of Magic Power did not rotate, and inside it seemed to be a solid structure condensed from ice. Longsuosi knew that was merely an illusion; the so-called solid ice structure, as he had heard from the Mage who sold him the item, was actually a rapidly constructing Magic framework.

He concentrated his spirit, following the instructions he had once read, and extended his spirit through the coronet onto that sphere of Magic Power.

Because it was a Magic item bound to him, he accomplished this step very easily. Immediately after, Longsuosi controlled the sphere of Magic Power and released a low-temperature air mass—which he had heard was as cold as the air on the ice plains during the polar night in the Far North—toward the burning supplies in the middle of the backyard in front of him.

Whooooooo.

The low-temperature air mass simulated by Magic was even visible to the naked eye; a large amount of water vapor in the air was condensed by the low temperature into ice crystals, which then fell to the ground one after another.

Once the massive low-temperature air mass covered the burning supplies, it first contended with the flames and high heat, and then completely overwhelmed all the burning fire.

Even with the Grease and the burning wooden crates and oil-soaked Rope providing fuel, the flames were no match.

The Militia saw the blue sphere in front of Longsuosi release a cold air mass that continuously shed fine snowflakes, covering the supplies. In just a moment, it completely and rapidly extinguished the flames, which would have been difficult to put out due to the Grease inside helping them burn.

"Extinguished! It's extinguished!"

"Truly amazing, could Lord Longsuosi be a Mage from the legends?"

"I heard Mages all live in very tall towers built of stone."

"Those Bandits, if not for Lord Longsuosi, they might have succeeded; how cunning they are."

"I wonder how much of the supplies can still be saved. Will Knight Kela be furious?"

Longsuosi heard the whispers of the Militia behind him and could not help but feel anxious. The fire on the supplies had been extinguished by the power in his Magic Gemstone coronet, so he estimated that quite a lot could be saved, but he did not know what Knight Kela would think of him once he heard about this.

The cold air mass was quickly retracted into the sphere of Magic Power, and then it turned back into cold Magic Power and returned into the Square Sapphire.

Gradually, the ripples of Magic Power on the surface of the gem disappeared, and the cold sensation no longer came from his forehead; Longsuosi lowered his hands from the coronet. He turned around and ordered his Militia to bypass the still-cold supplies, first to call up the hiding mercenaries, and then to check on the situation of those Bandits.

A moment later, his subordinates brought over a living Bandit.

This Bandit's eyes were vacant, and his forehead was bleeding from having struck a hard object.

"Captain, this is the only Bandit left alive. The others were mostly frozen and shattered, and they are all dead," the Militia holding the Bandit reported.

Nodding, Longsuosi had an estimation of his coronet's power; when he bought the coronet a few years ago, he had used livestock to test the power of the Magic, knowing that living beings without Magic Power protection basically had no possibility of survival when facing this kind of freezing.

After thinking for a moment, Longsuosi began to instruct his subordinates: "First, hold him here. Send a few people to call the manager of the inn, as well as the inn's Guard Captain and his men in the lobby; of course, bring the waiter who was identified earlier as well. At the same time, notify the main officials of Bingxun Pass to strengthen the garrison's defensive forces tonight."

He paused, looked at the mercenaries sitting to the side pointing at the frozen supplies, and said: "Those mercenaries performed a great service today; if they hadn't held back a large number of Bandits at the first moment, these supplies would likely have been burned up by the time I arrived. Both they and the Merchants who hired them must be rewarded. Call all the Merchants who came over to discuss sending men earlier. It seems their strength is also very important."

"Yes, my lord. I will go notify the inn Guard Captain."

"My lord, I will go notify the officials in charge of Bingxun Pass."

"My lord, I will go notify the Merchant employers of the mercenaries."

"My lord, I will go notify the other Merchants."

Facing the last subordinate who was to notify the other Merchants, Longsuosi took a piece of paper from the small bag at his waist, used a delicate Charcoal Pencil to cross out the name of the Merchant who had hired the mercenaries, and then handed the paper to the Militia: "Here is the list. Find an inn Steward; they are familiar with where those Merchants are staying in this inn. He surely knows which Merchants have residences in Bingxun Pass as well; ask him about that too."

"Yes."

Watching these Militia, Longsuosi waved his hand: "Go. Reassure everyone you meet who asks about this. Tell them all the Bandits have been brought to justice, and the supplies—well, although there was some loss, the loss is not great; only some food was burned."

After the Militia who received the orders departed, Longsuosi called two Militia to follow him. After checking that the temperature around the supplies had returned to normal, he immediately led them to approach the supplies that had been burned.

He muttered to himself: "Must not have burned the Crossbow bolts, must not have burned the Crossbow bolts." Although he appeared very calm, he was actually blaming himself many times over in his heart.

At this critical juncture when supplies were being prepared for transport to the front line, any unusual event should have been treated with caution. If he had arranged for half of the Militia to be here when he went to the lobby before dusk, relying on his Melee Militia with their high combat level, plus those mercenaries with excellent combat skills, it would have been impossible for those Bandits who broke in to burn the supplies.

Everything was because he had been too careless, taking it for granted that it was safe inside Bingxun Pass.

But according to what the Merchants had said earlier, and what the commoners who led the Militia to the Bandit lair had said, that Bandit Group of Luodai Cave was extremely bold and not afraid of the local garrison Soldiers at all. Not to mention setting fires to burn supplies, these Bandits even dared to send people to intercept and kill surviving commoners directly inside the inn at the pass after they had escaped their den.

Fortunately, Longsuosi checked the condition of the various supplies and found that the most important Crossbow bolts only had half a crate burned, and the other types of supplies only had the top layer of items in each crate burned.

Longsuosi breathed a sigh of relief and looked toward the direction that should be the Bandit lair, narrowing his eyes. Thanks to his timely use of the Magic Gemstone coronet, which only a Noble could purchase, the important supplies had been saved.

Those Bandits—for the first time, Longsuosi felt those fellows were extremely detestable.