Chapter 418: New Xiwang Town and the Speculations of the Defeated Army

The two walked and talked; Jier mainly asked questions, while Mr. Bafuer loudly voiced his plans for the new town.

He was speaking primarily for the surrounding people to hear.

After all, once Jier left on this trip and returned, he would not be able to stay for more than two days before he had to take the Dwarves and leave; once he left this time, he would not be coming back.

He even had to participate in the war! Whether they would meet again in the future was hard to say.

After all, the Southern Province had conscripted too many soldiers and laborers for the war, and the Noble Lords and Knights responding to the call to war were clearly not few in number.

To put it bluntly, whether the young Knight Jier could survive the war was an unknown.

At least that was what Mr. Bafuer believed.

The two arrived at the place where they ate, and Mr. Bafuer happened to ask the final key question: "Then, what should this new town be called in the future? The name hasn't been decided yet; neither you nor Priest Bata'er have given any suggestions, and everyone else is unable to make a decision."

Jier greeted the Cook, picked up a bowl of bean and vegetable soup kept specifically for him, and said while sipping it, "Ah? It hasn't?"

"It hasn't." Mr. Bafuer shrugged, then he said: "How about we call it..."

Before Mr. Bafuer could finish, Jier interrupted: "Let's just call it Xiwang Town; it's simple and easy to remember."

Mr. Bafuer looked troubled: "Xiwang Town—there are too many towns and villages with that name. I've been a merchant for many years and have been to places with similar names; I can't even count them on one hand."

Jier shrugged: "It's still better than using the original name here, calling it Babotali Town, right? I heard that in the language of some parts of the Empire, this name means prison. Everyone clearly isn't being imprisoned right now, so calling it by a prison town name isn't appropriate—it's too inappropriate."

Mr. Bafuer actually quite liked the name Babotali Town, but since Knight Jier didn't like it, it naturally couldn't be used.

"My lord, how about calling it New Xiwang Town? Adding the word 'new' would at least distinguish it from the eighty percent of Hope Towns, Hope Villages, Hope Farms, and Hope Settlements out there."

Snap! Jier snapped his fingers: "Your suggestion is excellent. In the future, this town shall be called 【New Xiwang Town】."

With the town's name settled, Jier finished his breakfast. He didn't eat bread to fill his stomach, as that would take too much time; since he had gone out early in the morning and only just returned, the departing team was actually already waiting for him on the west side of the camp.

"I'm leaving now. Even if things are resolved quickly, it will take ten days or so; if it doesn't go smoothly, it will take more than twenty. I leave this place to you, and the management of the personnel remaining from the Armed Squad is also handed over to you. Remember, be on guard against those Dwarves who retreated into the mine, and at the same time, keep a certain distance from the villagers of Tuolitu Cunzi until I bring the Dwarves away from here in the future, so as to avoid provoking those Dwarves."

Jier summoned his warhorse; Tianxuecao was already fully armed. The horse armor was draped over its body, and the weapon rack was hung full of weapons: steel long spears, bows and arrows, quivers, the damaged and unrepaired Elven Metal Shield, and so on, along with bags containing other necessary items also hung on the horse.

He stepped on the stirrup and vaulted onto the horse. Finally, he instructed Mr. Bafuer: "Remember to keep your distance from the other groups here, but don't let our own work fall behind. Fight if you encounter danger; the men I've left behind are enough to handle the vast majority of trouble."

Mr. Bafuer took off his soft cap, stepped back, and bowed to see Jier off, while the other people around also spoke up or bowed to see Jier off.

Jier raised his right hand high and shouted loudly: "Hunt! Come! Hunt! Come—"

The sound was loud and spread throughout the entire camp; even the nearby Dwarf mine and Tuolitu Cunzi could faintly hear it.

Everyone in the camp knew what Knight Jier was doing, so they didn't panic, just cast their gazes toward Tuolitu Cunzi on the east side of the camp.

Not disappointing the people, a white light flashed in the center of the village. A bright spot quickly bounced from the direction of the village center, bouncing rapidly at a distance of dozens of meters at a time, coming toward Jier half-jumping and half-flying.

In a few breaths' time, the white bright spot flew over the vast fields and arrived outside the camp. It bounced one last time, and the long sword, its blade shimmering with the Sun God Divine Power, flew into Jier's right hand just like that.

"Good! You've worked hard these past two days." Jier praised. His left hand, wearing a steel armor glove, wiped across the white-light-wrapped blade, wiping away some of the dirt it had picked up, before he sheathed it with a *clang*.

"I'm off, see you all later!"

After Jier finished speaking, he lightly tapped the horse armor on his warhorse's belly. Tianxuecao slowly lifted its hooves, took small steps to bypass the crowd seeing him off, and passed through the camp.

Outside the west side of the camp, a fast carriage team composed entirely of a wagon train was already waiting there. Priest Bata'er rode his horse in circles around the team. Seeing Jier come out, he immediately shouted to the entire team: "Warrior Jier is here, let's set off!"

"Set off!" Bloodtooth Steer, who was driving Jier's own carriage, also shouted at the right moment. He and the carriage he sat in were at the very front of the team, so he swung his whip, producing a crack in the air, and the pack horse pulling the carriage obediently stepped forward, dragging the carriage as they set off.

Following them were two carriages carrying the combat personnel for this trip, loaded with about twenty warriors from the Armed Squad who had volunteered to participate in this operation. These people had also contacted Jier privately over the past two days, explaining that they would follow Jier in his adventures in the future; of course, starting today, Jier would need to pay them wages.

It was just that the specific amount of the wages was still being discussed and had not been finalized.

However, since this operation was to rescue the villagers of Changmai Cunzi, Priest Bata'er offered to bear the full wage costs for these warriors, with the expenses to be paid by the local Agricultural God Church—that is, the Yemei Town branch.

Behind the two carriages carrying the warriors were several carriages carrying the supplies needed for this trip. Some useful items from the Refugee Team, such as a caravan trap mechanism accidentally obtained from the Bandits, as well as barreled grain, two simple tents, water buckets, and the like, were all loaded on them. There were also some supplies and tools exchanged from the villagers of Tuolitu Cunzi and the Dwarves in the mine over the past two days, all being transported on these carriages.

In addition to the drivers, these supply carriages were uniformly under the protection of the Swordsman Weier, who had volunteered to participate in the operation. The old Merchant Fentijia and the youth Bobo, whom Weier had been looking after, would of course not participate in such a bumpy, fast-paced operation, so they stayed at the current camp, the future New Xiwang Town.

The last carriage of the team was the one Jier specifically requested to bring: the group of long-haired cat Beast-men.

Originally, these Mao Maos were particularly fond of metal, and there were even more excellent metal tools in Tuolitu Cunzi and the Dwarf side, which had left these inexperienced Mao Maos unable to walk away for the past two days.

Jier even requested that every household in Tuolitu Cunzi keep a close eye on their own metal tools, guarding against these nocturnal Mao Maos running over to steal things with their nimble hands.

For the large pit in the center of the village, he also had both sides add extra guards and sufficient lighting, also to guard against these light-footed little things 'picking up' the metal weapons and metal farm tools that were 'unwanted' in the large pit.

He specifically called them along for this operation; otherwise, he couldn't say how much trouble these Mao Maos would cause if left unattended in the camp while he was away.

In any case, over the past two days, the leader of the Mao Maos, Yongqi Maomao, would have eyes that practically glowed every time he saw a Dwarf, especially a Dwarf Warrior wearing a full set of Dwarf armor.

There was no ready-made road from Tuolitu Cunzi to Huitou Forest, so even with a team moving entirely by carriage, the speed of the entire team still could not be increased.

Jier was not in a hurry; after all, so many days had already been wasted, so this bit of time didn't count for much. He calculated in his mind how to let himself fall behind the entire team and perform the ritual for the Great Bird Spirit tonight.

"The problem of the sacrifice..."

He muttered, distressed that there was no suitable sacrifice to hold the ritual. Although the Great Bird Spirit said he could use a Human as a sacrifice, there were no Bandits here, so where could he find Bandits who could be abandoned of their human rights and toyed with at will?

"Forget it, if it really doesn't work, I'll just wait a bit longer."

Just as Jier finished saying this, the voice of the Great Bird Spirit rang out at his waist: "I heard that, young Jier, *Gaa*! It was you who said to wait, not that I intentionally failed to fulfill the agreement. *Gaa gaa gaa*!"

At the end, the Great Bird Spirit seemed to let out a series of mocking calls.

"What sound is ringing?"

Priest Bata'er rode his horse over, looking left and right, unable to tell where the red-eyed crow was *gaa-gaa*-ing in the surroundings.

Jier laughed it off: "Probably a pitch-black and arrogant crow squatting in a bush somewhere nearby, right?"

His waist vibrated slightly; clearly, the Great Bird Spirit was dissatisfied with Jier calling it an arrogant crow, but with the Agricultural God Priest by his side, It was not easy to say anything, so It could only remain quiet.

"Oh, is that so. Jier, how many days do you think it will take us to reach Changmai Cunzi?" The Priest was a bit absent-minded, frequently looking toward the approaching Huitou Forest.

Jier snorted with laughter: "Priest Bata'er, I have never been to Changmai Cunzi, so how could I know exactly how many days it will take to get there? You're too nervous, aren't you? This doesn't look like your usual self."

The Priest took a deep breath, his hands gripping and releasing the reins, releasing and gripping again; clearly, his mood was not calm: "I am a bit nervous. Sigh, when I was worried about the Refugee Team before, I was too busy, so I didn't feel like this. Now that I've let go of the Refugee Team and put all my attention on rescuing the villagers, I can't help but worry—worry about how much they have suffered these days and how they have been abused by those degenerate soldiers."

He paused: "And, when we arrive, how many people will still be alive? I don't dare to think, but I have to think; whenever I think of this, I get so nervous I can't stand it. I'm terrified, terrified that I'll be too late..."

Jier added: "Terrified that if you're too late, they'll all be dead?"

The Priest nodded and said nothing more.

Jier tugged on Tianxuecao's head, not letting it bully the horse the Priest was riding as it approached. He then said: "That shouldn't happen. Think about it, those degenerate soldiers you mentioned—if they wanted to kill and rob, they could have done it right then and there; there was no need to capture the entire village of villagers."

"So they have a purpose in capturing people; they have certain needs that require those villagers to fulfill. I didn't consider that much before, but thinking about it now, this point is indeed somewhat abnormal."

Jier turned his body to the side and took a wooden box from the accompanying luggage on the horse behind him; after opening it, inside was a leather map that Jier had taken the time to remake.

The map was a rough, simple map of the Southern Province, mainly marking the route from White Stone Pass all the way to Shitui Cunzi, all of which were roads he and the entire team had already traveled these past few days. Other areas were marked with brief, general labels; these labels were the approximate locations of most towns and roads on the west side of the Southern Province, provided by other commoners in the team.

Jier unfolded the map, urged the two horses to move close and parallel, and then showed the map to Bata'er Jiaoshi: "Look, we are here, on the east side of Shitui Cunzi. Originally, there were continuous mountain ranges here, and now I will mark the location of the valley and village where Torito Cunzi is."

The priest nodded. He could only barely understand the map Jier had made himself; he could only manage to identify some of the symbols and lines as towns, some as rivers, and some as forests and mountains, but he could not understand the rest.

After Jier fiddled with it for a while, when he displayed the map again, the locations of Babotali Valley and Torito Cunzi had already been added.

"We are here." Jier pointed again to their current location: "At our current speed, we will reach Shitui Cunzi before noon tomorrow. And this is roughly the location of Changmai Cunzi. In between, we can roughly rest and resupply at these two villages on the route. Around the fifth day, counting today as the first, we will be able to reach Changmai Cunzi."

"So fast?" The priest was somewhat incredulous.

"Actually, it could be faster. As long as we don't rest at the two villages in between, we could save more than a day of time, but the overall condition of everyone would be hard to say. After all, don't look at the speed of riding in a carriage; because of the poor road conditions, the jolting of the carriage is also very tiring."

The priest acknowledged this point. In fact, people like him and Jier who ride horses all day are even more tired than those sitting in carriages. Ordinary cavalrymen simply cannot ride horses all day to travel. Horses need to rest, and people need to rest too.

However, he was a Church Priest, and Jier was a Knight; neither of them were ordinary people.

Bata'er Jiaoshi still wanted to rush to save people as quickly as possible, so he made a suggestion: "How about we adjust the two rests at the villages to just one? Is that possible?"

Jier pondered for a moment: "It is possible. Then we will remove the latter rest, the overnight stay at the village closest to Changmai Cunzi, which can save about a day of time. After all, once we reach Changmai Cunzi, we will definitely have to spend the night there. Whether it's to look for traces or to search for the scouts the enemy might have left there."

"Scouts? Would the enemy leave people there?" The priest was somewhat disbelieving.

"I think they would. Because Changmai Cunzi was the first village they encountered after they appeared, and they plundered and captured Changmai Cunzi and its villagers, but did not occupy or station themselves there, it shows that they must have other places to live, perhaps just like here."

Jier pointed to Torito Cunzi, and the priest immediately understood: "You mean, in the mountains near Changmai Cunzi, there is also a place similar to this, where those defeated soldiers can stay for a long time without worrying about the wild beasts and monsters in the mountains constantly attacking them?"

"Something like that. So, to ensure their connection with the outside world, they will most likely leave people near Changmai Cunzi. After all, since they committed such atrocities, how could they not leave someone to see if anyone is coming for revenge, or if the local noble is responsible for the security and governance there?" Jier said with some hesitation, as these were all guesses and could not be taken as certain.

But after their experiences these past few days, Jier had to make a similar judgment.

After all, compared to the places humans have already developed, it is not surprising that strange things and situations exist in the vast mountain ranges. It is not impossible for one or two good places surrounded by mountains with suitable environments to appear.

It is just that Jier does not understand: if those people are a group of defeated soldiers from the Saint Hors Kingdom, then why not appear openly and return home along the road?

If they were afraid of being conscripted into the war again, they would only need to dawdle on the road for a month or two, and they would probably miss the entire campaign this year, right? If the Southern Province won, it would naturally be easy to handle; these armies that were defeated and scattered the previous year could return home on their own. If the Noble Allied Forces in the Southern Province lost again, then no one would care about this small group of people.

And if those people were enemy troops from a neighboring country, why just hide in the mountains instead of causing chaos in Sasi County? Taking advantage of the situation where parasitic plants are raging in the north of the county, they might even be able to crush the entire Sasi County region.

They don't fight, and they don't leave; what exactly are those soldiers doing? They even captured all the people in the village.

Jier could not figure it out.

?? I will strive for perfect attendance in April and see how much of a perfect attendance bonus I can get. Finally, everyone is welcome to support this book with recommendation votes, monthly tickets, and tips. Thank you all.

? (End of this chapter)