Chapter 38: Revisiting Yemei Town, the Huge Trench, and the Incident

The next day, the group continued on their journey. They were not far from Yemei Town now, and the surrounding area was a vast plain. Although the vegetation on the surface appeared desolate due to this year's drought, villages and small patches of forest that did not directly touch the main road would appear sporadically across the plain.

There were no large forests here; it was clear they had all disappeared due to years of logging by the people settled here, all taken to be used as materials for houses. In the end, only small patches of woodland remained in place, providing firewood for the villages.

Because of this, there were no wild animals on this plain, except for the long-eared rabbits and Caoshu that burrowed in the fields.

The roads here were also much easier to travel than in other places to the south, and every kilometer or so, a stone marker would stand by the dirt road, recording with patterns and text how far they were from Yemei Town, as well as the names and distances of several nearby villages.

By looking at these stone signposts, Jier judged that their group could basically reach Yemei Town that afternoon.

This was great news. The entire way here had been nothing but deserted villages and abandoned fields, which truly filled everyone with fear.

Especially for the portion of Changmai Village Villagers and Dwarfs who had never been here before, this first impression was truly poor, leaving them greatly disappointed with this place.

To the Warriors from Changmai Village who had joined Jier's command, Yemei Town was a big city in their minds, and Northern Sasi County had always been described by fellow villagers who had been there in the past as a prosperous place with a large population—at least, it seemed much better than Southern Sasi County.

But here and now, what they saw with their own eyes was not as good as they had imagined. No, it should be said that it was terrible.

Although the scale of the villages here was larger and the fields outside the villages were wider and more numerous, why was there no one? Under their fighting, those parasitic Monsters were not impossible to resist, so where had all the people gone?

As for the Dwarfs, although they had witnessed the combat effectiveness of the Human Warriors and the strength of the parasitic Monsters they fought over the past few days, which made all the Dwarfs secretly heave a sigh of relief, the situation before them still made them scratch their heads. The Humans had only left behind empty villages, allowing those Monsters or beasts to occupy them for nothing.

Then what about the people who were originally in the villages?

To say they were all defeated by those parasitic Monsters, which were only present in some numbers, was something the Dwarfs did not believe. Jier said that the population of the villages around Yemei Town had all been recalled to the vicinity of Yemei Town by the local Baron family, thereby slowing down and guarding against the possibility of parasitic Monsters breaking through Human villages and turning the entire village into Monsters. But this kind of thing sounded very ridiculous; at least the Dwarfs did not believe it.

However, when the team approached Yemei Town that afternoon, they had no choice but to believe it.

Was there really someone stupid enough to temporarily gather a population ten times larger around a single town? What appeared before their eyes was a scene of a town surrounded by a huge trench, with a chaotic, massive crowd gathered outside.

Before their eyes saw this scene, a stench drifted over, which was even more shocking.

The stench drifted from a huge circular trench that surrounded the entire gathering place of the people and the town. Clearly, this huge trench—which did not exist when Jier led the Refugee Team away from this place—had been treated as a natural garbage pit by the people temporarily living here.

Feces, trash, and ash—all kinds of garbage were dumped here by the people.

And this garbage clearly also brought a lot of trouble to the parasitic Monsters outside the huge trench. If it were just a deep trench several meters deep, some parasitic Monsters could form human ladders to climb over, but with the addition of this garbage, these trenches became a place the Monsters did not want to touch either.

"Truly spectacular! How did they dig such a big trench in such a short time? There was a trench before, but it was nothing like this astonishing one," a Warrior who had passed through Yemei Town last time muttered to himself.

"So many people! As expected, the population from villages everywhere has gathered here. Finally, finally I see so many people gathered together again; it's truly lively!" A Warrior from Changmai Village was seeing so many people gathered together for the first time. Although the place smelled bad, the excitement covered up this shortcoming, making all nine of them very excited.

The Dwarfs looked at each other in surprise. Hearing Jier talk about how the people here had gathered together to resist the parasitic Monsters, they hadn't thought much of it at the time, only feeling that this method was very stupid. But seeing so many Humans gathered together with their own eyes now, they were still very shocked.

Only then did they realize that although the Humans were much weaker than them, especially after the Dwarfs were armed, the number of Humans was simply too large. Just hearing about it didn't give them a real sense of it, but seeing the Villagers densely packed between the huge trench and the town, they could realize their own insignificance.

After all, they were only a Dwarf team of a few dozen people. Such a team could only take care of one remote Dwarf Mine, but it was absolutely incomparable to the many people before them now.

With this population of over ten thousand Humans, just one spit or one pee from each person could drown them.

"I have to retract some of my previous views." The old Dwarf sat on the ox cart and stood up in surprise, saying to the surrounding Dwarf companions: "When the population reaches this level, temporarily gathering these people together is far more useful than letting them be broken through, captured, and transformed by Monsters in their respective villages."

Many Dwarfs agreed with the old leader's view.

Jier had the team stay alert, and everyone armed themselves, because where there were people, there were naturally parasitic Monsters. They had only encountered a gathering of Monsters in a village once on the road, because the surrounding Monsters needed to drink water at the village well, and with so many people here, it was clearly impossible for there to be no parasitic Monsters lurking about.

"Put on your Armor and equip your weapons, be ready to be attacked by a large group of Monsters at any time!" Jier shouted loudly.

But what Jier did not say was that he had the Warriors arm themselves partly to show off his force to the people of Yemei Town.

After all, this time his subordinates did not have a Refugee Team of hundreds, nor a Militia team of over a hundred. To raise his status, he had to let the locals see that the few dozen people under his command were all Refining Qi Warriors who could fight.

"'Iron Fist', have your people arm themselves too; there might be large-scale parasitic Monster attacks here." Jier rode his horse over to the Dwarf team and shouted to the old Dwarf.

The old Dwarf did not know if Jier was right, but he was clearly a cautious person and immediately ordered all the Dwarfs to take their equipment from the ox carts and arm themselves.

The convoy stopped for a while, not only to let Yemei Town see them, but also to take the opportunity to put on Armor, turning the Warriors from ordinary Human Warriors into armored Refining Qi.

With such a group of dozens of armored Warriors in hand, Jier would not be looked down upon by anyone, no matter where he was.

Not to mention that his team also had a Dwarf Warrior team of dozens of people.

"There is a large-scale gathering of Monsters in the south! Quick, sound the alarm! Quick, sound the alarm!"

Beside the newly dug huge trench, there were naturally newly erected warning wooden towers. Several Town Guards who knew how to use bows and arrows were on these towers, and these people were the first to see Jier's team coming from the southern road.

However, because the distance was still more than a kilometer, they could not identify whether the arrivals were a Human team or a gathering of parasitic Monsters.

But having been fighting against parasitic Monsters all these days, they could not imagine that there were still Human teams of any size that could reach them from the south all the way to the north, so the alarm bell they rang at this time was a warning signal that a large-scale gathering of Monsters was attacking.

Dang, dang, dang, dang, dang, dang...

The continuous, crisp sound of metal striking spread throughout the entire area surrounded by the huge trench. A large number of Villagers who were still basking in the sun on the ground immediately panicked, pushing and shoving each other to hide back into the residential caves they had dug.

This chaotic scene really made Jier and his group, looking from afar, frown.

Jier and the others certainly did not know that in order to expand the original trench, the town had organized these Villagers outside the town, and after suffering over a thousand casualties in the constant attacks by Monsters, they had finally created this huge trench that could block Monster attacks.

It was precisely because their own people had suffered so many casualties in Monster attacks that the Villagers were so afraid of those parasitic Monsters. After all, seeing their own relatives hissing and pouncing on them was a nightmare for anyone.

After the warning signal came from the outer warning towers, a team of guards immediately rushed out from under the defensive Jiedian of the only remaining passage facing west on the huge trench, and immediately and skillfully occupied the defensive platforms built of mud several meters high.

On the only passage in and out of the town's huge trench, there were two layers of defensive facilities built of mud, wood, and stone. The guards lived in temporary caves under the facilities to rest during the day, and at night, they had to be on duty all night. Not only that, they would organize patrol teams to patrol continuously along the inner side of the huge trench, firstly to guard against parasitic Monsters climbing over the trench under the cover of night, and secondly to maintain the public order of the Villagers' living area outside the town at night.

Originally, the internal public order of these Villagers living together was quite good, basically organized by the elders of each village who managed a portion of the young and strong in the village to maintain order and safety in their own 'territory'.

But with the previous huge trench project, many Villagers died or were injured in the constant sneak attacks by Monsters. Many people were depressed and dark, with a sense of anger in their chests that could not be released. Coupled with the start of the project, the original 'territories' of various villages were constantly broken by other Villagers passing by, so many criminal incidents occurred during this process.

Often, Villagers from other villages passing by would see young boys and girls or farm women who came out to bask in the sun or work, and would have evil intentions, kidnapping them or assaulting them on the spot.

The internal conflicts that broke out because of this resulted in no fewer casualties than those caused by Monsters.

Amidst the dang, dang, dang alarm, a team of fifty Town Guards immediately rushed out from the gate of Yemei Town. They carried Long Spears and Shields, jogging to urgently support the defensive facilities on the only passage at the huge trench.

But by the time they ran non-stop to the defensive facilities on the passage and took their respective battle positions, what came before them was not some parasitic Monster, but Jier, who had arrived on horseback a step ahead.

This left them somewhat dumbfounded.

"Hey, be careful with your bows and arrows, look clearly, I am a Human. Some people might still remember me. I am Qiao-Jier, a young Knight who previously led a team of hundreds of people past here heading south."

When Jier mentioned his identity, these Town Guards remembered something. Many of them shouted excitedly, competing for the opportunity to report this news to the town. But in the end, three Town Guards who had connections above took the news and ran quickly toward Yemei Town, while the others could only regretfully let Jier wait here for a moment.

However, they only had to wait a moment before they saw Jier's entire team following behind.

Although they were far inferior to the previous Refugee Team of hundreds in terms of numbers and momentum, the few dozen fully equipped, Refining Qi Warriors at this time made the Town Guards guarding here even more nervous and afraid.

Because one armored Warrior could easily defeat three or four Warriors without Armor, and there were less than a hundred Town Guards guarding here, they were naturally far from being the opponents of these people under Jier.

Not only that, when the fully armed Dwarfs also came over, these Warriors who had never seen Dwarfs turned their heads to ask their companions in low voices: "What is going on? When did Knight Jier get so many powerful Refining Qi under his command? And why don't the ones who look the most powerful seem very tall?"

Most Dwarves do not reach the height of a normal Human's stomach; even when wearing the Metal Armor they craft themselves, their height does not exceed a normal person's shoulder. Thus, although they looked like a Human troop from afar, the fact that they were all a head shorter than normal people made these inexperienced Town Guards feel puzzled.

Fortunately, more than a dozen Cavalrymen soon arrived from the town. The person in the lead was the actual administrator of Yemei Town at this time, the eldest son of Sasi Baron, the Baron Heir of the Sasi Family—Bell-Sasi.

"I have been waiting for you for a long time! Jier!"

Before he even arrived, the shout of the young Baron Heir named Bell reached them. As a Baron Heir, he rarely shouted loudly in public, but he was truly too urgent and anxious in his heart, which was why he acted so "unrestrained" for once.

Of course, to guard against the possibility that the guards had misidentified them, or that Jier had met with misfortune and been defeated by the parasitic Monsters, thereby coming to trick the gate open, the gate in front of the passage remained closed even after Bell, the highest authority in Yemei Town at the moment, arrived. It was only after Bell jumped onto the platform at the top of the several-meter-high gate and confirmed the identity of the visitor through the sensing and rejection of Life Energy between Knights that he verified the person was Jier.

Furthermore, Jier flipped up the Faceplate of his Helmet, revealing his face; he was smiling broadly, so it was impossible for him to be the expressionless Monster that had been parasitized.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting."

Jier pointed behind him: "Finding a place to settle those hundreds of Refugees is not an easy task."

When Bell first saw Jier, although he found it strange that Jier had changed the Armor on his body, it was nothing; he himself had two sets of Armor for different occasions, so he was not surprised by this. What truly astonished him was that the nearly thirty Warriors standing neatly behind Jier at this moment, as well as those even more Refining Qi, short Warriors guarding the ox carts further away, were all clad in Plate Armor!

And those slightly shorter Warriors in the back were not wearing Plate Armor, but thick Metal Armor that was not inferior to Knight Armor!

How is this possible?

Where did such a group of people come from?

This discovery made his scalp tingle, and he immediately shouted subconsciously: "Everyone, heighten your vigilance! Prepare for battle!"

Jier knitted his brows, wondering if this Baron Heir had gone mad. Ordering his men to prepare for battle now—to deal with whom? Him and his people?

"Hey, hey, hey? What is wrong with you? Have you gone mad?"

Jier also subconsciously drew the Dwarf Soldier Spear from his back and waved a hand at the Warriors behind him. Although surprised, the Warriors still raised their Shields one after another to step forward, protecting their companions who lacked Shields, while the drivers and others on the carriages all let out cries of alarm and shrank back into the carriage cabins.

As for the Dwarves further back, they looked at each other in dismay.

Things, it seems, are not as smooth as Jier said?

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