Chapter 417: The Shadow Bird and Setting Off Again

The early morning, one day later.

The sky had not yet brightened, and the sun had not yet crossed the mountains on either side of the valley to cast its light upon this vast valley region.

Jier had already risen early by this time; he washed his face casually to wake himself up, then had the guards stationed outside his tent pack it up and store it on his carriage.

"Lord Jier, are you not eating breakfast? The cooks are almost finished." The two guards helping Jier watch his tent were both young men who had a good relationship with him, so they spoke quite casually.

Jier looked up at the sky and replied offhandedly: "Of course I am eating, but we are setting off today. Before we leave, I plan to walk around the vicinity once more to see how things are prepared here at the camp."

After saying this, Jier, wearing his full-coverage armor and carrying no obvious weapons, walked out of the camp with a clanking sound.

He did not actually go around the camp; instead, he walked straight toward one side of the valley. Before long, he followed a straight line in a north-south direction to the edge of a sparse forest on one side of the valley.

This place was already near the base of the mountains on one side of the valley; the slope underfoot was no longer gentle and began to grow steep. The sensation under his feet was no longer soft, and the stones and gravel on the ground had increased significantly.

However, although the mountain rocks had increased, because of the meltwater from the mountains and the nourishment of the mountain water veins, there were still many trees and shrubs at the foot of the mountain.

Although they were not as tall as the trees in Huitou Shulin, they were still large trees nearly ten to twenty meters high, all of which had never been felled by anyone.

"How about here?"

Jier muttered to himself. He did not go deep into the forest, but only wandered around the edge of the forest at the foot of the mountain, as if looking for something.

Soon, he found what he wanted—a tree hole in the trunk of a large tree.

The tree hole was not near the ground, but at a spot about four meters high. This did not stump Jier; he bent his legs and leaped, jumping onto a thick branch near the tree hole. He then grabbed it with both hands and flipped himself onto the branch.

The thick branch was enough for a person of his weight to sit on directly, so Jier braced himself with one hand on the branch, gave his hips a twist, and sat down.

Holding the trunk with one hand, Jier used the other to open the armor lock at his neck and pulled out the gray-black wooden carving of the Great Bird God.

"Hey—hey—hey, can you hear me? Can you hear me?"

Jier tapped the head of the bird-shaped wood carving a few times with his finger, attempting to summon the ancient, primitive god residing within it.

Soon, as the eyes of the great bird on the wood carving emitted a light even darker than the gloomy forest around them, Jier stopped tapping the wooden bird's head with his finger.

"What is it? Little one, why do you urgently summon me to come at this time and in this place?"

The voice of the Great Bird God sounded directly in Jier's mind.

Jier sighed: "I called you because I am about to set off again. I can finally get rid of the refugee mess I took on earlier. Next, I will lead a small number of combat personnel to quickly take the carriages south to rescue those villagers who were abducted from Priest Bata'er."

The pitch-black eyes carved from wood turned, and the Great Bird God's voice sounded in Jier's mind again: "That is fine, but you do not need to notify me, do you? Just set off on your way."

Jier smiled slightly: "Hmm, no beating around the bush. I will just say it directly: I want to get rid of you, oh ancient God!"

The Great Bird God's tone suddenly became urgent, losing its previous calm: "What? You want to get rid of me? Get—rid? Why? Are we not on good terms? You must understand, this place that allowed you to shake off those slow-moving refugees was found for you by me!"

"What? After I helped you, you want to cast me aside? Mortal, your behavior is too despicable! Doing this will only enrage me! Caw! Despicable! Especially despicable! Caw!"

The Great Bird God was aggressive and stern, carrying a sense of resentment at being abandoned.

But Jier had been prepared. He shifted his body, straddling the thick branch of the large tree with his legs, leaning his back against the tree trunk, which was slippery from the morning mist. He reminded the Great Bird God in a gloomy tone: "My behavior is despicable? Oh, I wonder who made a trade agreement with me a while ago."

The Great Bird God was immediately silenced.

But Jier did not stop: "At that time, I was plagued by the vengeful spirits after the slaughter, mentally exhausted and unable to sleep. A certain God made an agreement with me: if I could prepare a batch of wooden God statues for Him and help Him promote the spread of Faith, that God would grant me a special power to get rid of the vengeful spirits."

"It seems that power was called 'Shadow Bird'. It can help me resist vengeful spirits and has various other uses."

Having said this, Jier pulled the Great Bird wood carving in his hand outward, snapping the thin cord hanging around his neck, and then placed the wood carving in front of him—on the slippery branch, facing him.

"But, the honest and pitiful Jier quickly and properly accomplished the things he needed to do, yet that God has not fulfilled the agreed-upon work He was supposed to do, has He?"

Jier fastened his neck armor and flipped up the faceplate of his helmet, revealing an aggressive expression: "Then, oh God, can I assume that You do not wish to fulfill Your promise? If that is the case, I hope You can understand why this poor young man is 'despicably' getting rid of an 'honest', 'trustworthy', and 'earnest' ancient God?"

Questioned by Jier in this way, the Great Bird God's wood carving began to tremble. Black, feather-like mist overflowed from its surface, and it looked as if it would fall from the tree at any moment due to the vibration, but the wood carving maintained its balance and showed no sign of falling.

Subsequently, the Great Bird God spoke again, but the voice did not sound directly in Jier's mind; instead, it was a hoarse voice emitted from the Black Bird-Shaped Wood Carving.

The sound was somewhat strange, likely because one was a direct vocalization and the other was a sound echoing in the mind. The former had to diffuse through the air and pass through the ear holes of the helmet before finally being received by Jier's ears, so it was vastly different from the voice that usually sounded directly in his mind.

"Caw! Young man! Jier! Regarding this, did I not provide compensation? I spent quite a bit of time finding this valley for you to solve the problem of your Refugee Team. Does this not deserve your gratitude? Caw—ah?"

Jier smiled: "Does compensation require gratitude? So, You gave compensation, and I accepted Your compensation. That is all, correct?"

"Correct..." The Great Bird God's voice was somewhat hesitant.

"Then!" Jier's tone turned stern: "Then, oh honest and reliable God, when will You fulfill Your agreement? Those 'Shadow Birds' of Yours, those little birds You boasted to me about before, when will You grant them to me?"

"Is it now? Or some day in the unknown future?" Jier stared intently at the bird eyes on the palm-sized wood carving before him. Those eyes were entirely black and flashed with a light even darker than shadows.

It looked strange and terrifying, but Jier was not afraid; he understood this God's current situation too well.

At worst, he would break ties with this God and just consider the things he had done and the coins he had spent as having been accidentally lost somewhere.

After all, the current situation was not that Jier needed the other party, but that the other party needed Jier.

This was a major premise of the current situation.

"If it is some day in the future, then we must have a good talk about the interest for the unfulfilled agreement. And it must be a serious talk," Jier said in a low voice.

The Great Bird God screeched: "Damn it! Disrespectful mortal, disrespectful Jier! Abominable young man! You, this fellow, actually want to discuss interest with an ancient God? You actually want me to pay you interest? Caw! Caw! Caw!"

Jier folded his arms, leaned against the trunk, and coldly watched the Black Bird-Shaped Wood Carving that was trembling and emitting hoarse, crow-like cries.

The Great Bird threw a tantrum and cawed wildly for a good while. Seeing that Jier was completely unafraid and had no reaction, it finally quieted down again.

"Are you calm now? Then, are You going to fulfill the agreement? Or shall we discuss the interest that needs to be paid for not fulfilling the agreement? If You, this 'honest and reliable' God, do not want to discuss either, that is fine too. I will leave Your wood carving here. Oh, there is a tree hole nearby that seems quite suitable for Your wood carving to stay in temporarily. I specifically found this for You today; birds should stay in bird nests, right?"

"I still have to go back to eat in a moment, and then take people on the road. Priest Bata'er is very anxious right now; before the refugee team was settled, I had not noticed he was so anxious about the abducted villagers."

After Jier finished speaking, seeing that the Great Bird God still did not reply, he was not in a hurry. He knew the other party was weighing the situation. So he took out his Heartfire Dagger and carefully picked the dirt from under his fingernails with the tip of the blade.

As for trimming nails, the edge of the Heartfire Dagger was not sharp enough and was not very easy to use.

After a while, whether the Great Bird God had been waiting specifically for it or not, only after Jier had finished cleaning the dirt from his fingernails did the Great Bird God speak: "Caw! I will give you the Shadow Birds, I will give you the Shadow Birds!!! But you need to prepare the implements required for the ritual, a suitable environment, offerings for me, and the power needed to conduct the ritual. Only after completing these preparations can I grant you this ability I am so proud of."

"Caw, Jier, it is not that I do not want to fulfill my agreement with you, it is just that if these requirements are not met, you cannot obtain this powerful ability."

"Powerful? You are not boasting, are You?" Jier said mockingly: "And to obtain the ability, not only do I have to fulfill my agreement with You, but I also have to prepare everything for obtaining the ability myself? Then, do You not need to do anything in this?"

"Uh, caw caw! It seems you do not need to prepare the power required for the ritual. Thanks to those wood carvings of yours, even though nearly half of them have been destroyed by now, they still gathered a lot of power for me. At the very least, caw, at the very least, it is enough to hold the ritual and grant you the Shadow Bird ability."

After the Great Bird God finished speaking, Jier clapped his hands: "Look, You are quite capable, aren't You? Let me think, the... implements required for the ritual. So what does this implement refer to? You never mentioned it before; if You had said so earlier, perhaps I could have prepared it in advance in a large town."

"The implement is not some light tool that can be bought, caw. It is actually a large tree, a solitary large tree with wide space around it. The large tree must have enough branches for the Shadow Birds I summon to land on during the ritual. Caw, the large tree cannot have too few branches, but it cannot have too many either. At the same time, the large tree cannot have too much vitality, as this will cause the Shadow Birds to dislike landing on it."

Jier tapped his Helmet, making a clanging sound: "That doesn't sound too hard, got it! I remember there is a large tree near the exit of the Huitou Shulin, and the surrounding area is quite spacious. Also, the tree is a dead tree; it is guaranteed to have no vitality, so it won't make your Shadow Bird feel annoyed."

"And then, what comes next?" Jier urged.

"A suitable environment. Caw! Jier, this environment must be at night, with no clouds in the sky and no overly bright moonlight." The Great Bird Deity answered honestly.

"This isn't hard either, you see, aren't things being solved one by one? Oh, the power of the ritual, you didn't want to fulfill the agreement before, it's because you didn't want to lose this power, right?"

Facing Jier's guess, the Great Bird Deity sternly refuted: "Caw! Nonsense! Not at all! It is clearly just that those conditions are not easy to achieve. It is absolutely not because I am reluctant to part with the power that I accumulated with such difficulty. Caw!"

Jier shrugged; this fellow had already let the truth slip.

"Fine, fine, fine, let's skip these topics and talk about the last item, the sacrifice offered to you. Let me think, this is hard to handle; do you still need a bird that glows all over? This thing is really not easy to get." This last item truly stumped Jier.

But the Wooden Carving of the Great Bird Deity emitted a faint voice: "It does not necessarily have to be that kind of rare sacrifice; some common things are also acceptable. For example, human life; this is a very good sacrifice."

Jier narrowed his eyes and locked gazes with the eyes of the Great Bird on the Wooden Carving.

The atmosphere suddenly became strange.

Jier returned to the Yingdi; he certainly did not get rid of or discard the Wooden Carving of the Great Bird Deity, but the Rope had broken, and he had no intention of restringing it, so he put the Wooden Carving of the Great Bird Deity into the small leather pocket on the right side of his armor's metal belt.

It was placed together with a cloth he usually used to wipe his weapons.

The Great Bird Deity was initially reluctant, but when Jier suggested putting the Wooden Carving into the bag on his back, the deity held its nose and accepted the matter.

Entering the Yingdi, Jier walked toward the place where they ate while responding to the people who greeted him along the way.

"I wish you victory on this trip." A member of the public blessed Jier.

Jier nodded and responded: "You all must work hard too; I hope that when I return from this trip, everyone will have already started building houses to live in."

Mr. Bafuer walked over with a glowing face; he had been fully entrusted by Jier and Bata'er Jiaoshi to manage the affairs of the Refugee Yingdi, and a new town would be established here later, and Mr. Bafuer was clearly the incumbent new mayor.

"Knight Jier, it's not that fast. Haha, the Lumberjacks have to cut down trees first and process the timber, and the newly felled timber cannot be used directly; it must be dried first to remove the moisture inside, and the wood must also be smoked with fire to kill insects, and smoked timber will not be easily eaten by insects in the future."

"Oh, so many steps?" Jier actually understood these things, but seeing that Mr. Bafuer intended to show off his knowledge, he played along to help Mr. Bafuer increase his prestige and trust among the people.

"Not only that! While logging, everyone remaining in the Yingdi has to borrow the Dwarf tools exchanged for yesterday to dig the foundations for the future town's buildings in the area replanned in the Yingdi. The more you want a house to last, the deeper the foundation must be dug." Mr. Bafuer shook his finger proudly, pointing at the temporary tents everywhere, imagining the appearance of the future new town.

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