Chapter 375: The Rock Mountain Jiedian in the Forest

After receiving the appraisal from Knight Lanisha, both Jier and Feike were satisfied and settled down.

The next day, the hunters loaded the tools and supplies they needed into the carriage, and the villagers helped lift the items. Once everything was packed, Knight Lanisha led everyone to set off.

The villagers would spend the coming time in the safe watchtower, and they needed to use tools to simply process the timber brought back early that morning from where the trees were cut yesterday.

Jier and the others would find a location with dangerous terrain in the northern forest to build a subjugation Jiedian, providing the female knight and the hunters with a safe place to rest in the vast forest; otherwise, it would be difficult to clear out the Northern Wolf Pack for a long time.

After setting off, they quickly crossed the ancient riverbed covered in gravel and entered the vast forest covered in white snow.

Although the forest here was not as open as the forest in the south, at least the terrain undulations were not obvious, and it basically rose gradually in a gentle slope.

If not for Knight Lanisha saying so, Jier would not have even felt that they were heading to higher ground as they moved north.

After walking for two days in the snow-covered forest, they encountered many animals that had come out in winter to look for food, but the hunters did not take action, and Knight Lanisha only spurred her horse to drive them away and paid them no further mind.

It was difficult to resupply the hunters' arrows here, so it was best not to use them too much, and the female knight also did not want to hunt more prey, so as not to provoke the Northern Wolf Pack before the watchtower was established.

At the very least, they could not let the wolf king of the pack know they had arrived.

Knight Lanisha had already found the place to establish the Jiedian in the forest. She had entered the forest many times over the past few years and had discovered many places with special terrain.

The location they were going to now was one of them.

It was a small rock mountain that stood abruptly in the gentle forest. The terrain above and below was very rugged, with steep cliffs on three sides and a slope of large and small rocks on one side, while the top had a small platform that was just right for them to use to establish the Jiedian.

By noon, they could see the rock mountain ahead even through the cover of the trees in the forest.

Knight Lanisha said the rock mountain was not high, but from such a distance, Jier and the others could still see it. It seemed the height of the rock mountain was not low either.

After getting closer, as soon as they left the forest, they could see the tall rock mountain towering before their eyes. Jier estimated that this thing was at least one hundred meters high, and it should have been caused by a whole piece of rock being lifted from the strata.

Their position was exactly on one side of the rock mountain's cliff, so if they wanted to go up, they had to take a detour to the front.

The sloping ramp up and down the rock mountain was located on the north side, which was the side facing away from the sun, so the accumulated snow here had not melted at all, and the whole thing was covered in the shadow of the rock mountain's peak.

The sloping rock ramp looked like it was not meant for people to climb up at all, let alone carriages and horses.

Regarding this difficulty, Knight Lanisha smiled, led everyone to dismount and lead their horses, and after bypassing rocks as big as houses, they actually discovered a smooth slope going up behind the rocks.

"Don't look at me, I only discovered this by accident; who knows what kind of 'people' built this thing. After all, a hundred years ago, this was not land owned by us humans," she said, because she really couldn't stand the expression of everyone looking at her in surprise.

Jier secretly guessed that this must have been something built in the forest specifically by an intelligent species, though it had certainly been abandoned.

While walking up, Jier paid attention to the surrounding rocks to see if he could find any traces left by the original owners here.

However, he was disappointed; all the way up, he only found many traces left by weapons hacking at the rocks, and there were no other signs of life at all.

Either a fierce battle had taken place here, causing all original traces to be destroyed, or this was originally just a surveillance outpost, just like what Jier and the others were doing now.

After all, this vast forest had to be watched by someone, right?

After all, they were all intelligent beings; if humans were harassed by monsters and Magic Beasts from the deep mountains and forests, presumably other races living here were also harassed by them.

If those people did not want to be harassed by things from the forest, they would certainly also build outposts in the forest to monitor the surroundings.

Thinking of this, Jier felt that his guess should be correct.

Moreover, this should not be an ancient Elf Ruins; after all, the places where elves lived always had huge, towering plants. Here, there were rocks everywhere, and it didn't look like ruins left by elves at all.

Jier led his horse and approached a rock on the side of a slope. He stroked the rock surface with his thick-gloved hand, his fingers carefully tracing the marks left by sword hacks.

A simple inspection surprised him; these hacking marks could not possibly have been left a long time ago, because some of the places where the rocks were cut were still very sharp.

He told the knight and the other hunters about this discovery, and everyone stopped to inspect the surrounding marks.

"Sure enough, this cut is very neat; one look and you can tell it was hacked out by a very powerful weapon," an old hunter pointed to a knife-cut mark next to him.

Knight Lanisha also touched several marks to inspect them.

She was silent for a while, then drew the Armor-piercing Rapier she often used from her waist. She swung the Fine Sword instantly, and the tip of the sword grazed the hard rock surface; accompanied by a sharp cutting sound, the Armor-piercing Rapier left a two-centimeter scratch on the rock surface.

Everyone crowded over to take a look and found that although the new marks left by Knight Lanisha and the previous weapon marks were different in weapon type and the marks left were different, they both had the same destructive result.

Clang, she sheathed the Fine Sword and said: "Indeed, these marks remaining in the passage from the entrance all the way to the top of the rock mountain were certainly left by some human knights. Look at the attack height of these weapons; this was definitely left by a battle between humans or humanoid creatures. Judging from the different results of environmental erosion between the two, it has been about a hundred to several decades."

She continued: "It definitely isn't a mark from recent years; Kendall City has no relevant records. So many marks indicate that an exceptionally fierce battle broke out here back then."

Jier interjected: "And both sides were Knight-rank powerhouses! Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a fight from the bottom of the passage all the way to the top."

"Jier is right, and it's my fault for not paying attention before; after discovering this place, I only did a simple check to see if there were any Northern Wolf Pack hiding, and then left in a hurry. It seems a battle broke out here before the Kendall Baron family arrived. Heh, to be able to mobilize so many Knight-rank Warriors, needless to say, it must have been a battle initiated by the Knight Order guarding the border."

After a moment of silence, she continued: "It's just that I don't know who the opponent was, or why they fought the Knight Order here."

Everyone put away their curiosity; after all, the battle that happened decades ago had nothing to do with them now, and they were only borrowing the terrain here to establish a safe Jiedian.

Walking along the not-so-steep slope toward the top of the rock mountain, they finally reached the summit.

However, they still retreated from the summit, which had an open space. It wasn't because of anything else, simply because the wind up there was too strong. Walking in the passage with rocks on both sides, they hadn't felt it, but once they reached the summit, they discovered that the cold wind up there was truly too strong.

Kendall County in winter was already below freezing, and in a place with cold wind blowing, the temperature was even lower. The clothing on everyone's bodies could not resist the continuous heat loss caused by these cold winds, and even the tents they set up were constantly being blown crooked or knocked over.

Having no choice, everyone had to establish a safe Jiedian in the sloping passage with the sky above and large and small rocks on both sides.

At least here, due to the cover on the left and right sides, there was no wind blowing. Even because the sloping passage was not a straight line, the wind from the bottom of the mountain could not blow straight up along the passage.

It was just that the ground was slanted, making it difficult to build a platform for living.

Therefore, the first step in building the Jiedian was to move and pick up large and small rock blocks from the passage to build small platforms in the sloping passage where they could set down their tents.

The carriage was only used to park horizontally at the entrance of the passage at the foot of the mountain; for one, it could serve as a gate, and for another, the carriage itself could act as an obstacle to block the road.

Half the people followed the knight to move and pick up rocks to build the Jiedian in the middle part of the passage. Half the people took boxes of Metal Clamps out of the carriage, and everyone carefully pried open the sharp teeth of the Metal Clamps, waiting until the metal piece at the bottom was bent and caught by the mechanism, emitting a light click sound.

Then they had to handle the Metal Clamps with care and place them in the rock passage.

Everyone placed the clamps conspicuously and without a pattern, just to guard against the wolf pack.

Afterward, those who had finished placing the clamps loaded the supplies from the carriage onto the horses' backs and carefully led the horses to the middle section of the passage, this Jiedian currently under construction.

Repeating this, soon, through human carrying and horse backing, the supplies from the carriage were all transported into the Jiedian.

On the Jiedian side, the construction of platforms where people could stand steadily was mainly done with rocks and ice and snow.

Because the ground was uneven, the ground of the passage did not need further treatment; they only needed to sweep away the ice and snow on the ground first, and then place rocks of different sizes along the slope in sequence.

At first, they were small stones, and then the steeper the slope, the larger the stones placed down.

But it was impossible to use stones that were too large; after all, even Knight Lanisha could not move tons of rock blocks in the sloping passage.

The veteran hunters set up a campfire using wood they had brought along, then used the small iron pots they carried to scoop up snow and melt it. It didn't need to be boiled; just melting it into water was enough.

Then, they poured this freshly melted, cold water onto the rock platform.

This icy water slid along the freezing rock, and by the time it flowed down, it had already been frozen back into ice by the air temperature and the cold rock.

Everyone stuffed small stones into the gaps in the rock, then shoveled away the ice that had flowed out and frozen, reheated it to melt it, and poured it again.

Just like this, they repeatedly placed stones and poured icy water to freeze it into hard ice.

After everyone busied themselves for a long time, long after dark, they finally built four platforms that were reasonably stable.

Consequently, the four horses were driven onto one platform and crowded together; after being wrapped in cold-proof tarps and fed, the horses, though crowded, were very well-behaved, standing still and pressed against one another.

As for the remaining three platforms, everyone set up tents for people to live in.

Lanisha the Knight had a small tent, and at the same time, many metal clamps that hadn't been used yet were placed around her tent, which could both block the wind for warmth and create an independent space for the female knight.

As for the others, they connected their small tents together, building two relatively large tents on two separate platforms. All the hunters squeezed inside; although it was a bit cramped, it at least shielded them from the wind and rain, and it was still considered warm.

The place for cooking was a depression that Lanisha the Knight had carved out directly using her metal spear. This way, a small iron pot could be placed on top, and a small fire could be lit underneath to heat it.

By the next day, everyone divided into two teams again; one team continued to build platforms for stable living in the middle of the Rock Passage, while the others, led by Lanisha the Knight, went to the forest at the foot of the mountain to fell trees and cut wood.

After felling two large trees, Lanisha the Knight dragged one tree up by herself, while the others dragged a smaller tree up together. The metal clamps at the bottom of the passage were naturally moved carefully to the corners on both sides of the passage beforehand, so they would not collide with the large trees.

The large pieces of this timber were chopped into wood blocks to be used for heating.

The small ones were bound with rope to make simple branch walls to block the wind.

There were no tools here, and things like wooden boards still had to be produced by the villagers at the previous Supply Point Yingdi.

After the construction of the Jiedian was mostly finished today, Lanisha the Knight took a small number of personnel south to return to the Supply Point Yingdi to transport more supplies from there.

In this way, as long as the forward Jiedian lacked supplies, they could travel back and forth between the two Jiedians within four or five days to replenish them.

The villagers only needed to stay inside the safe watchtower camp and continuously process the large trees felled by the Knight into the materials the hunters needed.

More than ten days later.

After making three round trips and transporting a large amount of various supplies, primarily processed timber, Jier and the others had successfully established a safe Jiedian within Rock Mountain.

The main gate of the Jiedian was specifically built in the middle section of the passage, right next to the Jiedian, and was not placed at the entrance of the passage at the foot of the mountain.

At the entrance, the hunters placed the vast majority of the metal clamps and specifically placed the leftover meat scraps from their meals carefully in the middle of the clamps to lure all sorts of ravenous animals into venturing across.

Placing many dangerous metal clamps here was meant for the Northern Wolf Pack; the passage was narrow, and the four-legged running wolf pack would certainly try to come up along the passage in the subsequent battle, at which point they could be made to taste what human trap tools were like.

Since the forward Rock Mountain Jiedian was finished, everyone could begin the crusade against the Northern Wolf Pack.

Because this Jiedian was already deep in the forest, Lanisha the Knight led the hunters to start circling around the Rock Mountain Jiedian to conduct reconnaissance.

Jier was naturally among the team, while among the hunters, an old hunter who had been feeling unwell recently was left behind at the Rock Mountain Jiedian to look after Jier's three horses and maintain the operation of the entire Jiedian.

At the very least, he had to go to the passage entrance every day to see if any new animals had fallen victim to the metal clamps.

At the same time, he could also build the various platforms to be more stable, allowing the others who returned later to sleep more comfortably.

Led by Lanisha the Knight on horseback, with the hunters (including Jier) following behind, the difference this time compared to before was that everyone carried a metal clamp on their back.

Although this thing was heavy, as long as they discovered traces of the wolf pack, they could set it up in front of them in advance and shrink behind the clamp to attack.

Doing this might be useful, or it might not be, but at least compared to having nothing like before, it was finally one more method, wasn't it?

Jier did not bring his Hunting Sword out this time; he left the long sword at the top of Rock Mountain, specifically knocking a hole in the top platform, placing the hilt of the long sword into the hole, and then using ice and snow to freeze and fix the long sword, with the blade pointing straight to the sky.

He specifically made the side with the church's prayer text face south, so it could be shone upon by the sun every day on the mountaintop, if there was any sun.

After walking in the forest for half a day in a circle, they did discover some traces in the accumulated snow, but none of them belonged to the wolf pack. Some traces were extremely strange, and Lanisha the Knight told everyone not to follow the strange footprints to look for trouble.

Even she had to maintain awe in the forest, because you never know what has been bred in these forests from ancient times to the present.

"Knight, you need to come over and look at the footprints here; they seem a bit off." A young hunter checked the footprints they had checked before while they were resting.

"What's the problem? Haven't we looked at this already? It's just traces of a group of wild boars passing by." The Knight went over, and everyone followed to take a look.

This was a large amount of traces left behind after a family of wild boars had lain in the forest snow; it wasn't just footprints—in order to find food under the snow, the wild boars had arched up the snow and mud near the tree roots, making a complete mess of it.

Although everyone had already discovered the existence of this family of wild boars during the previous circle, since these wild boars were still here, it meant there were no traces of a wolf pack near this family of wild boars.

Because the Northern Wolf Pack, whose body size was a circle larger than wild wolves elsewhere, could hunt the dangerous wild boars in the forest.

To other animals, wild boars, no matter the species, were a dangerous, irritable, and ferocious animal. But to the Northern Wolf Pack, which was large in size and hunted in packs, ordinary wild boars were nothing more than delicious food they could take down in a few quick movements.

Everyone leaned in to look, and the young hunter pointed to the area around the tree roots that had been turned into a mess by the wild boars.

"Everyone look, I discovered that among the various traces left by the wild boars, there are some wolf footprints mixed in. But the number is not very large." He said this, then used his bow to point to a trace that, if not looked at carefully, would not look like a wolf footprint at all.

These traces were all covered by the traces left by the wild boars; if you didn't look carefully, you wouldn't be able to discover them at all.

"Not bad, the size of this footprint is indeed a Northern Wolf footprint. After everyone has confirmed it, all go look nearby to determine exactly how many Northern Wolves are following behind the wild boar pack."

"Yes."

Consequently, everyone started to investigate along the footprints before and after, using this trace as the center, and discovered more footprints hidden among the traces of the wild boars foraging for food.

"What a cunning animal," Jier said to himself.