Chapter 380: Rock Mountain Jiedian — The Descent of the Gryphon Knight

When Jier returned to the Jiedian, several old Hunters had already begun to cut off another hind leg of the frozen wild boar, placing it near the campfire to thaw, preparing to provide a hearty meal for the old Hunter who had been guarding the Jiedian.

Just as everyone was getting busy, preparing to cut the thawed wild boar hind leg meat into cubes and then boil it together with whole-wheat Bread to make a pot of meat broth full of savory aroma.

In the sky, faintly, a sound of wings flapping appeared, growing from small to large.

The old Hunter who had been left on guard slapped a wooden stump and said loudly: "That's the sound, that's the sound. It's here again, everyone come out and see, is it that Gryphon you all mentioned?"

Jier rushed into the Tent and woke up the young Hunters who had just fallen asleep one by one.

When he came out of the Tent, he saw the old Hunters all looking up at the sky.

He also looked up.

In the gloomy sky, a tiny black dot high above was circling the Rock Mountain where they were currently located.

And as he watched, that small black dot was descending from the sky, the sound of flapping wings growing louder. He focused his eyes and discovered that the thing was indeed a very large animal, yellowish all over, with four sturdy and powerful giant claws beneath its body, and a pair of very large and powerful brown wings on its back.

Atop that monster-like body sat a massive eagle head, its long, hooked beak appearing to be a meter long, and its eyes were looking down at Jier and the others.

Everyone noticed that on the back of this Gryphon was a set of leather saddles capable of carrying three riders. At this moment, two riders wearing form-fitting, seamless leather coats were also looking down at them, just like the Gryphon.

It was likely that, considering the Rock Passage where Jier and the others were located was too narrow, the Gryphon did not descend directly from the sky, but instead circled the Rock Mountain, looking for a place to land.

The two riders on its back gestured to communicate something, frequently pointing to the top of the Rock Mountain; it seemed they wanted to land on the platform there.

That made sense; either land in the open space at the foot of the mountain or on the platform at the top, as there didn't seem to be any other place around for such a large, fierce animal to land.

Actually, the Gryphon's body wasn't extremely large; as Zhao Ji observed, it was about the same size as a light truck from his previous life. It was just that those wings were too wide, almost like the rotor blades of a helicopter.

The noise was huge, and it required an open field to take off and land.

"It's a Gryphon! It really is a Gryphon!"

"Awesome! This is the first time in my life I've seen something so cool."

"Are the heroes in the stories the ones who ride these things to soar through the sky? So, although the heroes in the legends don't usually have great endings, they look pretty good when they perform their epic feats."

Most of the young Hunters expressed these opinions; they weren't afraid that the two riders on the Gryphon's back would harm them. After all, Kendall County and several other counties on the northwestern border of the Kingdom all relied on the Border Knight Order stationed by the Empire in the north to defend against the invasion of different races from outside the border, and the powerful Magic Beasts bred in the wilder environments beyond the border.

Although in the last few decades, the county's own Knights had gradually replaced their positions, and those high-and-mighty Knight Order Knights rarely traveled to other places, the residents who had lived in Kendall County for at least three generations could still occasionally learn about the past deeds from the older generation.

Just as everyone was gathered together, thinking about whether to cut more wild boar meat to treat the two riders on the Gryphon's back later, a huge sound of heavy objects hitting the ground came from below the Rock Mountain, *thump, thump, thump*.

The sound came from far to near, and it sounded like the massive clatter produced by metal objects colliding with rock.

Although the sound seemed aggressive, all the Hunters, including Jier, did not show any signs of vigilance, but instead revealed expressions of relief.

That was because this sound was exactly the clatter produced by the hard metal Knight boots of the Knight Armor worn by Knight Lanisha as they collided with the rocks on the ground.

They were all somewhat familiar with it; as soon as they heard it, they knew Knight Lanisha was back!

"Hehe, looks like this half-side of wild boar meat won't be saved today," an old Hunter chuckled.

Everyone was happy; no matter what, at least they would be able to have a good meal today.

Jier hurried to pick up the wooden door bolt on the Wooden Wall of the Jiedian, set it aside, and then pulled the wooden door open.

The loud noise outside landed one last time, emitting a dull thud like a giant rock hitting the ground. Everyone looked through the wooden door and saw that it was indeed Knight Lanisha, but at this moment, Knight Lanisha was covered in deep red blood; her hard Knight Armor and the animal skin cloak behind her were all stained deep red, looking exceptionally terrifying.

However, just as everyone was about to ask how the Knight was, Knight Lanisha flipped up her Helmet Faceplate, which was also covered in a large amount of blood, revealing her fair face underneath: "Don't be surprised, I'm fine!"

An old Hunter still asked: "Then these bloodstains?"

Rolling her eyes, the female Knight walked in with heavy *thump, thump, thump* steps, scanned the interior of the Jiedian, and then said: "Found a wolf den, just slaughtered some wolf pups. However, I saw a Gryphon circling our Jiedian in the Forest outside just now. There are two people on it, where are they?"

Jier pointed toward the top of the mountain: "They seemed to be looking for a place to land earlier; they should be on the top platform of the Rock Mountain right now. It should be fine for a Gryphon with such huge wings to take off and land there."

Knight Lanisha nodded, checked the equipment on her body, and after realizing it was inappropriate, said to the Hunters: "Jier, go down the mountain and bring my warhorse up. I was in a hurry just now and abandoned the warhorse to leap up. Guys, find me some water and cloth to clean up; this look won't do, it's too impolite. We cannot let the Knights of the Knight Order look down on us Kendall people."

The Hunters realized the importance of the moment and immediately started shoveling snow, bringing out the Wooden Basin or Wooden Bowls they had dug out, and some even hurried to light a larger fire, attempting to melt the ice and snow. Other Hunters immediately returned to the Tent to take out the items Knight Lanisha used to maintain and wipe her armor.

One old Hunter was quite clever; he suggested whether they should take out the Northland wolf skins the Hunters had hunted earlier and hang them up to show off everyone's hunting achievements.

"Of course, please be quick, they could come over at any time." Knight Lanisha took off the cloak behind her that was stained with a large amount of wolf blood; this thing couldn't be cleaned in a short time, so she took it off directly, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it behind her Tent into a corner.

Watching everyone busy, Jier also hurried to run down along the Rock Passage. The road was covered in ice and snow, and although they had cleared some, it was still dangerous and slippery.

Jier carefully used the walls of the rough Rock Passage to slow down, and in steep places, he simply stepped directly onto the ice and snow to slide down.

Although his backside was aching, his speed was not slow.

At the bottom of the Rock Passage, Jier first lifted one end of the carriage, creating a gap for the horses to enter and exit, and then carefully moved the Metal Clamps on the opposite side of the carriage one by one.

This couldn't be done quickly, and actively activating the clamps was too dangerous, so Jier had to use his feet to move the clamps one by one along the bottom edge of the Metal Clamps. Only after creating a spacious passage for two horses to pass through did Jier leave and run outside.

He didn't know which side of the Rock Mountain Knight Lanisha had returned from, so he had to run counter-clockwise around the Rock Mountain, trying to find the Knight's warhorse.

Fortunately, Jier was lucky and immediately discovered Knight Lanisha's warhorse; it was standing obediently in the same spot where the Knight had left it.

After Jier walked up, he discovered the trembling marks left on the snow-covered ground when Knight Lanisha had leaped from that spot earlier.

A large area of snow had been shaken up by the female Knight's jump at the time, and on the ground, there were even a pair of footprints that had been pressed from snow into solid ice. It was likely that the immense pressure had compressed the loose snow until it was solid, and even turned into water due to the pressure, only to be frozen again.

Very interesting, but it had nothing to do with his mission.

The female Knight's warhorse opened its eyes wide and looked at Jier as he walked over. It recognized that this was its mistress's subordinate, so it was not on guard against Jier's approach.

But when Jier grabbed its Jiansheng, wanting to take it away, this guy didn't cooperate.

No matter how Jier pulled, it only paced in place. Having no other choice, Jier had to talk to and gesture to this strong and stubborn warhorse, letting it know that its master was on that Rock Mountain ahead, in the Jiedian it had also stayed in, and was waiting for it to go over and reunite.

It was unknown whether the truth Jier spoke made this guy believe him, or if this guy really knew that Knight Lanisha had abandoned it just now to leap in this direction, so when Jier led it in that direction, it was willing to try walking.

"Neighhh." The warhorse let out a loud cry, then gently bumped Jier with its armored horse face, causing Jier to stumble, which made the warhorse quite dissatisfied.

"You think my footing is unstable, don't you? Hey, you're even looking down on me." Jier wanted to mount it, but the warhorse refused, so Jier had to pull its Jiansheng and walk quickly toward the Rock Passage of the Rock Mountain.

Soon, they returned to the entrance of the passage. The ground full of Metal Clamps made the warhorse very afraid; even when Jier pulled the Jiansheng, it was unwilling to walk over.

"Coward, watch closely, see how I walk." Having no choice, Jier had to let the warhorse watch him from where it stood, watching him walk back and forth through the passage between the Metal Clamps twice.

Thus, when Jier tried pulling the Jiansheng again, this warhorse finally stepped forward cautiously.

"Coward, coward." Jier made faces at the warhorse following him; he didn't expect that it probably recognized what Jier said, or saw that Jier was calling it timid.

So the warhorse stepped forward, squeezed Jier aside, and quickly passed through the passage surrounded by Metal Clamps.

Jier couldn't help but laugh; this guy was quite tsundere.

After passing through the metal clamps, Jier first looped the warhorse's reins onto the carriage, then returned to move a portion of the metal clamps to the center of the passage, blocking the path above and below.

Although it was a bit troublesome, these traps served to provide them with protection and safety, so one could not complain about the trouble for such a matter.

After all, when it comes to safety, there is no such thing as trouble. Because when you are truly deep in danger because of safety, compared to small matters like the Nono metal clamps, that is a real, major problem.

Passing through the narrow side of the carriage where only one horse could walk, Jier waited for the warhorse to pass before lifting the carriage back into place. Unexpectedly, the warhorse also knew how to help; seeing Jier exerting effort while lifting one end of the carriage, it also stretched its massive horse head over, pressed its nose against that end of the carriage, and with a light push, easily lifted and moved the carriage that Jier had needed to use great effort to shift.

Jier pursed his lips, and after moving the carriage into place, he patted the horse's head and wanted to touch its long ears, but it dodged him by nimbly twitching its ears.

He was left between laughter and tears.

Jier had no choice but to pull the warhorse's reins and continue upward.

By the time he led the warhorse back to the entrance of the jiedian, there was already a tall figure wearing form-fitting leather clothing inside the jiedian.

This person was dressed from head to toe in exquisite leather clothing that did not reveal a single gap; it was impossible to tell what material it was made of, but judging solely by the texture, it was surely no ordinary item.

This person wore a belt at their waist, from which hung a long, slender curved saber of elven make, and on the other side hung a wooden gem short staff. What was astonishing was that this short staff was inlaid with a red gem three centimeters wide; just by looking at it, Jier seemed to be able to feel an intense, scorching heat radiating from that huge red gem.

Even though it was currently a world of ice and snow.

This knight carried a fairly large pack on their back, the bundle tightly integrated with the leather clothing, looking like a set of equipment that could not be separated.

Most interestingly, the knight's helmet was also made of leather, completely sealing and wrapping the entire head, yet two holes were left in the eye area. Surprisingly, those two holes seemed to be inlaid with something like transparent glass, which did not obstruct the view but could separate the knight from the outside world.

Knight Lanisha, on the other hand, was in a somewhat disheveled state; she had just roughly wiped the main body of her armor with ice water, and a large amount of blood, soaked by the water, flowed to her feet and then froze.

Seeing that the knight on the gryphon had already dismounted, Knight Lanisha could no longer clean her armor, so she had to give up wiping it, took off her helmet, revealing her coiled long hair and face, and paused her steps to shake the ice and blood off her knight boots.

She walked forward to introduce herself.

"Your Excellency, Knight from the Border Knight Order, I am Knight Janni-Lanisha, a knight under the command of Kendall Baron. My fief is at Umi Lake Village, a village not far from here. May I ask your name?" As Knight Lanisha spoke, she held her chest and struck her shoulder with one hand while keeping the other behind her back, all the while continuously gesturing to the hunters.

The hunters all understood the meaning of the knight's gestures and immediately lined up according to age.

Jier happened to walk in at this moment, immediately tied the warhorse's reins to the gate, and hurriedly stood at the far left of the hunter line.

Because he was not yet seventeen, and when spring arrived in this different world, this body was only about sixteen years old. Among the hunters, he was the youngest.

A group of nine people stood behind Knight Lanisha, displaying Knight Lanisha's status as the leader of the team.

The gryphon rider opposite slightly raised their head, and with fingers clad in fully enclosed gloves, felt around their neck and under their chin, as if pressing a mechanism, then flipped the leather helmet all the way behind their head with a wave of their hand.

The previously unrecognizable face was finally revealed; it turned out to be an exceptionally beautiful female knight.

To say something disrespectful, the appearance of this female knight who arrived on a gryphon was truly much better-looking than Knight Lanisha, who was somewhat ordinary but pleasant to look at.

Moreover, this female knight had platinum-blonde long hair exquisitely braided and coiled on her head, looking very beautiful.

There was just one downside: it was impossible to tell the female knight's age from her face. She could be in her twenties, but she seemed too serious; she also looked quite like someone in her thirties, but judging by the way her hair was styled, it seemed she was already married, yet she lacked that look of being nourished by love.

Looking closely, it also seemed quite plausible to say she was in her forties.

The young hunters immediately showed expressions of surprise upon seeing such a beautiful female knight, but Jier was not surprised; in his previous life, there were too many beautiful women on the internet, and due to the improvement in living standards, even ordinary women looked good as long as they knew how to dress, apply makeup, and maintain themselves.

In this world, the life of ordinary people was still very arduous, and long-term hard labor left women without the wealth to make themselves beautiful, nor did they have the time to protect their youthful looks from slipping away day after day. Therefore, they were not outstanding in appearance.

Only women from wealthy families and noble families who were detached from labor looked much better.

Speaking of this, Jier felt like complaining about the Western fairy tales from his previous life.

A prince, having accidentally left the palace and come to the common people, met a heroine living a hard life alone; they were basically all moved by the heroine's beauty and kindness, and then, after going through hardships, they were happily married.

How ridiculous; the tired face of a heroine who had to support herself at a young age or labor hard—how could that be something a prince who grew up among rouge and powder would take a fancy to?

Even if the heroine was naturally beautiful, could a prince really give a passionate kiss to those hands covered in calluses from labor? Not to mention that among the mostly illiterate populace, could a young girl who grew up arguing in the market with the mistress of the Ke'en family and learning to haggle and steal vegetables from old granny Weier's family really have common topics with a prince who had received ruling education since childhood?

Could it be that the prince just said that the location of this castle was strategically important or could control the main traffic route, and the heroine responded by asking if there was space in the castle to plant some vegetables?

Would the prince find it funny?

Perhaps, but at least Zhao Ji did not find it funny, and he could not laugh either.

He felt that anyone who could actually laugh in such a situation, and who would seriously analyze whether the training ground for taming horses and drilling soldiers inside the castle could be used to grow vegetables, probably wouldn't last long in their original position.

Returning to the matter at hand, when the sounds of the young hunters beside Jier swallowing their saliva came out, he saw Knight Lanisha, who had her hands behind her back, immediately clench her hands into fists.

He felt that disaster was imminent.

Sir Knight above! I, Qiao-Jier, did not swallow my saliva; it was all those big oafs next to me swallowing their saliva. I am still so young, I don't understand what those big brothers are talking about all day!

You must accurately distinguish with your ears who swallowed saliva and who didn't!

"Huff, Knight Lanisha? I have heard of your family, though it seems that was when your father was still in the knight's position." The great beauty female knight opposite sized up the young Knight Lanisha, focusing on the patches of blood on the other's armor that had not been cleaned off.

Her eyes scanned this small jiedian built in the Rock Passage, and naturally, she saw the newly skinned Wolf Skins hung on the rock wall by the old hunters.

"However, I once heard your father say that you are a girl who loves literature and books more than martial arts training. Hehe, it seems every father will speak well of their children in front of friends."

Knight Lanisha could not spare the time to discipline those guys behind her; she learned one thing from the other's words: "You are my father's friend? May I ask your name?"

The great beauty female knight opposite first blew a loud, short whistle with her mouth, and then introduced her identity: "I am a Gryphon Rider of the Seventh Detachment of the Imperial Border Knights, specifically responsible for patrol work in the Forest area." She slightly raised her head, revealing her slender neck and exquisite chin: "Dailisi-Aomi-Forenster. I am a member of the Aomi Branch of the Forenster Family. I come from the Aomolie Province in the south of the Empire; although it was once prosperous and beautiful, it is now still under the rule of the hateful undead, but one day, all the families will reclaim it."