Chapter 420: Camping and Fresh Milk, Vegetable, and Bean Soup

Although the caravan's speed was quite fast, the road the Dwarf had built through the Huitou Forest was intentionally designed with twists and turns, so by the time Jier and the others had wound their way out of the Huitou Forest, it was already afternoon.

"Let's take a break. The horses need to rest and eat. Everyone on the wagons also needs to stretch their legs; you can't sit still all day, or your bodies will have problems."

Jier said this after the caravan had officially exited the Huitou Forest, raising his hand to signal everyone to stop.

Bataer Jiaoshi had also been riding for half the day, and his buttocks and thighs were aching faintly, so although he was anxious about the situation of the villagers in Changmai Village, he had no choice but to nod and agree to the rest.

The Priest slowly climbed down from his horse, then used his hands to pat his buttocks and thighs to get the blood flowing there, while silently praying and secretly casting Divine Magic Healing on his legs and buttocks to soothe the soreness, making sure no one else saw.

He had always done this, maintaining superhuman stamina and condition in front of others, which would make the other people in the team look up to him and help maintain his status and prestige as a Church Priest.

These were the valuable experiences summarized by well-known priests during his time learning at the church. When he was studying, he felt they were useless, too vulgar and utilitarian. As it turned out, he was now repeatedly reciting and memorizing every lesson he could still remember, so as not to forget them.

Jier was much more at ease.

He jumped off Tianxuecao, then placed the packs and weapon rack from the horse's back onto the ground to lighten the warhorse's load. As for the Horse Armor, it wasn't very heavy, and it was too much trouble to take off and put on every time; plus, Tianxuecao was strong enough, so Jier let the warhorse wear it while traveling.

The twenty warriors of the Original Armed Squad climbed down from the wagons one after another. Some of the guys had never traveled by wagon for such a long time, so as soon as their feet touched the ground, they felt as if the whole earth were shaking, and they fell to the ground, trembling and unable to stand, which made everyone laugh heartily at each other.

Stretching their bodies, letting the horses and people drink water, feeding the horses beans and fodder, and cleaning the rotting leaves off the horses' hooves and the wagon wheels—by the time these things were all taken care of, quite a while had passed.

"Let's travel a bit further today and set up camp at dusk. As for building the camp, just do it casually. When the time comes, circle the wagons to protect the horses and people in the center, and just set up the tents simply on the wagon beds to cover the middle; that will barely serve as a windbreak. As for rain in the middle of the night, I suspect it won't rain for many days to come."

Jier said this to everyone.

Xueya Siter took out a coin, a copper coin with a missing corner, and said enthusiastically: "I also don't think it will rain, but wouldn't it be boring if we all guessed the same thing? Let's make a bet, one copper coin each, and I think it will rain tomorrow."

"It won't rain for the next few days, not a drop of rain," Jier said, fishing a copper coin out from somewhere and flicking it to Xueya Siter.

The Priest walked over, rolled his eyes, and said: "Whether it rains or not depends on how the gods decide; what good is guessing? I'm not participating in this bet. Besides, no rain will have a huge impact on farming. Farmers will have to put in several times the effort to transport irrigation water from the source, bit by bit, using ox carts or carrying it on their shoulders to water their own fields."

"It is very hard and exhausting," he added painfully at the end.

Afterward, drivers or warriors came over and gave their own judgments; some said it would likely rain tomorrow, while others thought it would rain tonight, and they all took out copper coins and handed them to Xueya Siter as stakes.

Xueya Siter took paper and pen from Jier's wagon and simply recorded everyone's guesses. Although Xueya could not write the full Human Common Language, he knew some simple vocabulary and could write it in a crooked way that others could recognize.

Even this was better than most ordinary people. The vast majority of people had no one to teach them literacy, and they rarely had use for the Common Language in their lives. Most of the time, communicating through speech satisfied all the needs of life.

Among all the drivers, only the one driving the Mao Mao wagon did not participate in the bet. He looked helpless; he didn't have much money to begin with, and today he had even had one of his precious copper coins snatched away by those hateful walking-upright kittens, so he couldn't bear to spend any more money on a bet he wasn't interested in.

Everyone chatted and rested for a while, feeling that they had rested enough and their strength had recovered, so they climbed back onto their respective wagons and set off, striving to cover more distance before dusk arrived.

But Jier, who was leading the team, intentionally adjusted the speed of Tianxuecao, which caused the entire caravan following him to slow down by a notch, though no one noticed this slight change in speed.

Soon, dusk arrived.

The scorching fireball in the sky finally approached the open but undulating horizon in the distance and gradually sank below it. A not-very-bright moon had already risen over half the sky.

Jier examined the moon phase of the Moon God for the day and found it to be a first-quarter half-moon, which made him heave a sigh of relief.

With a half-moon, as long as there weren't two or three moons dancing in the sky at the same time, the night wouldn't be too bright, and there would be relatively suitable conditions for the ritual.

He calculated in his mind that there was one more environmental condition for the ritual: it had to be a cloudless night.

Jier looked up and found that there were few clouds in the sky; the few remaining clouds reflected the glow of the sunset, far more beautiful and brilliant than gold.

"This should work, right?"

Jier muttered to himself. He stopped his horse, lifted the faceplate of his helmet, and used his face to feel the wind in the environment. Although the wind speed and direction on the ground had little to do with those at high altitudes, Jier didn't feel much wind, which at least meant the wind in the sky wouldn't be very strong, right?

If the wind in the sky wasn't strong, there wouldn't be many clouds tonight. After all, the movement of clouds relied on the wind to blow them; they couldn't move on their own.

At this time, Jier was still naively relying on these common knowledge and experiences to make judgments and decisions. It wasn't until a long time later, after he encountered a powerful Monster disguised as a cloud, that these common sense and experiences caused him great suffering, and he gradually discarded and chose, building a practical knowledge system truly suitable for the other world.

"Stop. Everyone will camp here today. We have few people now, so everyone has to do more work. I'm no exception, haha."

After Jier finished speaking, he jumped off his horse. He directed the caravan to form a circle on a flat piece of terrain nearby, then unhitched the Pack Horses pulling the wagons and drove the horses into the circle formed by the wagons.

Bataer Jiaoshi directed a group of ten warriors to clear away the wild grass and flowers on the ground, stamping down and blocking ant nests and various small holes. Then, because of his experience, the Priest himself was able to identify which of the pulled-up wild grasses were poisonous and which were not, and could be fed to the horses, so he called two people over to specifically busy themselves with this.

Jier found and brought over some stones from the surroundings, forming a small circle on the ground in the middle of the camp, and the others took the firewood and fire-starters already prepared on the wagons and quickly started a campfire in the stone circle.

An iron rack was set up over the campfire, and a large iron pot that had been specially brought was hung on the rack. Clear water from a wooden barrel was poured in and heated, and those among the drivers and warriors who knew how to cook took supplies from the wagons and began to prepare dinner.

Jier greeted the Mao Maos, who had woken up, and after they drank some water, they went to the surroundings to keep watch and guard for the night; at the same time, during this process, the Mao Maos would hunt for food on their own.

What they ate was very different from humans. Although it seemed they could eat what humans ate, based on Jier's brief observation, the Mao Maos preferred to hunt insects in the bushes and birds in the trees.

According to the Mao Maos themselves, insects were crunchy and delicious.

Beetles that sucked tree sap were clear and sweet when bitten, and flying insects that spent their days licking flowers were even better snacks, tasting sweet; insect larvae parasitic under the bark and in the trunks tasted milky and were mostly snacks for the young Mao Maos to satisfy their cravings. Insects in the ground were the most filling; just by digging a couple of times in the damp soil, one could usually dig out these "edible" insects with an earthy smell.

Besides insects, the Mao Maos were better at hunting birds. Of course, in the mountains of their hometown, overly large and fierce birds would also hunt them at night. Every night, the forests in the mountains staged scenes of hunters and prey, and often life, death, hunger, and fullness depended on whose skills were superior.

The winner ate meat, and the loser was eaten; it was that simple and rustic.

The tails of the Mao Maos were very suitable for hunting birds. They didn't need human projectile tools like slingshots or bows; their tails were natural hunting Divine Artifacts. With just a small, smooth stone, a Mao Mao's tail could lash out like a whip or a baseball bat, striking the small stone and hitting the noisy, delicious birds in the trees.

Experienced and highly skilled long-range Mao Maos could even achieve the excellent result of killing hundreds of birds in one night, feeding at least dozens of Mao Maos.

Therefore, the batch of Yongqi Maomao under Jier's command, who were excellent warriors brought out from the tribe, never had to worry about food in the wild. As long as humans provided them with a safe place to rest during the day and some clear water to quench their thirst, these Mao Maos could feed themselves and perfectly undertake the night watch and Scout missions.

The Mao Maos' vision at night was as clear as during the day. Even on a moonless night when the Moon Gods did not appear, the Mao Maos could barely hunt and move in the forest, something humans could not do at all.

Although the Mao Maos' safety risk was greatly increased because of this.

When camping tonight, everyone didn't bother to fully set up the simple tents Jier had bought earlier.

It was enough to simply wrap the tent tarpaulin around the wagons to keep the cold air outside from getting in and to keep the heat generated by the campfire from escaping.

Once everyone put their bedding on the ground, which had been sprinkled with some freshly burned charcoal ash, and slept huddled close together, it was warm enough.

"What are we eating tonight?" Jier walked in carrying his weapon rack and the pack from his warhorse, asked after dumping them on the ground.

The few young people cooking rubbed their hands and pointed to the large amount of supplies prepared on the wagons, responding: "We don't know yet, Lord Jier. With so many supplies, you pick for us; whatever you choose, that's what we'll eat tonight."

Jier walked over and took a look. Besides the barrels of Glowing Wheat Grain that the Refugee Team already had, and the bags upon bags of dried beans obtained from Dorn Town, there was also the various food exchanged just yesterday from Torito Village.

Bread baked just yesterday, finely milled high-quality wheat flour, sun-dried delicious Mushrooms, several smoked lamb legs, pickled fatty meat in small wooden barrels, bundles of sun-dried vegetables, bundles of freshly picked vegetables, and a large pile of root vegetables.

There were even a few packs of hard, dry cheese and a jar of fresh goat milk!

After considering it, Jier decided to finish off the items with short shelf lives as soon as possible.

"How about this: let's eat this jar of goat milk and the fresh vegetables in the next two days; they can't be stored for long. When cooking, add some root vegetables and beans; we have the most beans, so let's eat more of them. Also, add some extra Glowing Wheat Grain; these God-Bestowed things contain the great power of the Nongshen, so eating them often should be good for the body, right?"

Jier finally asked Bataer Jiaoshi, and the Priest nodded and explained: "They are all the plumpest wheat seeds; just by eating them, Nongshen Believers can live healthily."

Although they were not the professional cooks of the team, the few young men doing the cooking had decent skills; it was just that their hands were a bit unpracticed.

After a while of clattering, the aroma of food continuously wafted from the iron pot. After adding a jar of fresh sheep's milk, the milky fragrance constantly teased everyone's noses, making everyone's stomachs growl.

This smell was different from every meal the group had eaten on the road before. Freshly chopped vegetables tumbled back and forth in the soup; because of the addition of diced root vegetables and God-Bestowed Wheat Seed, the soup also became thick, looking exceptionally filling.

With ground salt grains and the few types of spice powders—also scarce in Torito Village—added in, the large pot of soup became even more enticing.

Bata'er Jiaoshi distributed a piece of Bread to everyone, while Jier received two. The group gathered around the campfire, holding their Wooden Bowl and Bread, waiting for the contents of the pot to be completely finished.

"Alright! Time to eat, time to eat!" Jier was the most impatient; he had the largest appetite after Knight Training, so when not in a combat state, he was the first to get hungry.

Regardless of the heat, Jier extended his Wooden Bowl, letting the young Warrior who was cooking ladle him a full bowl of the fragrant, milky-scented Vegetable Bean Soup.

Because it was too full, it was difficult to soak the Bread in his hand to soften it, so Jier first took a few small sips of the fragrant, thick soup along the edge of the bowl, then dipped the Bread in his left hand into the soup, and after it softened, he tore into it with his mouth.

He ate extremely fast, and his movements were not elegant or refined, because he had things to do tonight. The rest of the team had nothing to do, so they sat around the campfire, talking and chatting slowly while eating their delicious, fragrant dinner.

Bata'er Jiaoshi specifically prayed for a while before the meal, which also served to let the thick soup cool down a bit so it would be easier to eat. Xueya Site ate while talking about a previous, unsuccessful, and brief business experience of his; the rest of the team, who had never had any business experience before, listened attentively to Xueya Site's account.

Of course, it was mixed with some elements of boasting. Jier clearly noticed that what Xueya Site said today was the same story he had told him before, but there were specific differences where he had exaggerated and boasted about himself.

The Swordsman Weier unhurriedly used the Dagger for self-defense that the old Merchant had given him to cut his Bread into thin slices, eating with elegant and quick movements as he dipped the bread slices into the soup.

He noticed that Jier Knight was eating exceptionally fast and exceptionally crudely tonight. Usually, although Jier Knight also ate quickly, at least he would be somewhat particular while dining, showing his background—which was different from others—and the good dining education and habits he had received.

But today, Jier Knight directly took the whole piece of Bread and soaked it in the soup, just dipping it casually before putting it into his mouth, chewing it a few times haphazardly, and swallowing it into his stomach. He didn't even use a spoon to drink the soup; it was fine if others didn't have their own spoons, but Jier Knight certainly had a spoon and table knife, yet he still lifted the Wooden Bowl and brought the soup to his mouth.

It was as if he were in a rush.

But tonight the group had nothing else to do, and there were no alarms or enemies appearing, so why would Jier Knight do this?

Weier put down the food at hand, carefully moved to Jier's side, and asked in a low voice: "Jier Knight, I see you are eating so fast today; do you have something to do tonight?"

He asked directly because he knew Jier Knight was not a young man who liked to beat around the bush.

Young men from Noble families liked to beat around the bush. Judging by his usual actions and behavior, Jier Knight had a good background, but he was not from a Noble family. Weier could confirm this point.

Because when he was in his family before it suffered a great change, he liked to beat around the bush when speaking. It was only after the incident, when he fled the Southern Alliance Kingdom and wandered all the way until he mixed with the Bandits, that he changed a lot, and his speech became as straightforward as the Bandits'.

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