Chapter 424: The Fall of the Bird Flock

Jier was covered in cold sweat; his body had originally been producing hot sweat, but as he galloped on horseback, the cold wind blowing against him turned it all into cold sweat.

He kept making Tianxuecao run in circles, while he himself turned back to shoot arrows.

A quiver of arrows was shot empty in a few moments, and another quiver was quickly exhausted; Jier's breathing also became increasingly rapid.

It was not because he was tired, but because he was truly nervous.

Although Jier still had a trump card—he could hide in the Lady's Dream at any time to avoid disaster—this also had a problem.

That is, the passage of time in the Lady's Dream is inconsistent with the outside world. The last time he used this trick to avoid a forest fire ignited by Demon Flame, he ended up stranded in the dream for several months.

Those were several extremely painful months for Jier; after the food in the camp by the pond was finished, he could only hunt the Mushroom Boys that ran and jumped under the old fairy, which resulted in his fairy always being unhappy.

He himself was also very miserable; eating only those mushrooms that couldn't fill his stomach every day left him neither able to starve to death nor able to get full, and his stomach was full of sour water. As for drinking water, he could only rely on squeezing moisture from the moss in the dream. And as for the Memory Water Pond right by the camp, he didn't dare touch it at all; that thing was more terrifying than the most potent acid, and a slight touch would cause one to dissolve into the Memory Water.

Miserable, oh so miserable.

Bitter, oh so bitter.

He endured for several months in the dream, but only one night had passed in the outside world; however, it at least allowed him to survive the Demon Flame that came and went quickly.

If he hid in the Lady's Dream again this time, and the Great Bird Deity just stayed in place waiting for him to come out, he didn't know how long he would be stranded in the dream again.

Several months? Half a year? A year? Or would he grow old and die in the Lady's Dream?

He didn't want to live that kind of miserable life again, and for that, he would rather fight with his life.

As Jier thought this, he reached out to grab arrows, but another quiver was quickly exhausted; he had no choice but to grab the empty arrow quiver and throw it hard at the flock of birds chasing closely behind him, instantly smashing to death a dozen or so of the most hateful birds that were following closest and flying fastest.

"Only the last quiver of arrows left..."

After hesitating for a moment, Jier didn't continue to shoot arrows; he put away the Hunting Bow in his hand, picked up the steel Long Spear, and then adjusted the direction of his warhorse's run, grazing the flock of birds chasing behind him at just the right angle to collide with them.

Crackle, flesh and feathers splattered everywhere.

One side of Tianxuecao's body was instantly covered in the smashed bodies of birds and the various feathers, claws, and beaks that stuck to it, and Jier was the same, his whole body a mess.

"Pfft—pfft pfft ptoo—ptoo."

Jier blew hard, only then blowing away the bird flesh and feathers blocking his Faceplate, and the Long Spear in his hand had also become covered in flesh and wet, disgusting slime from the collision just now.

He knew he couldn't let these flocks of birds chase him; if he did, it wouldn't be long before he was completely surrounded, and as long as his speed slowed down, he would be completely submerged and torn apart by the countless flock of birds.

Therefore, to catch the thieves, one must first catch the king; he should take advantage of the warhorse's speed while it lasted to strike directly at the Wooden Carving that the Great Bird Deity, who was still hiding in the 'Shadow Small House' and commanding the flock, depended on.

The Great Bird Deity was hiding in the 'Shadow Small House' and seemed to be able to accurately know what was happening outside, so when He discovered at the first moment that Jier was risking danger to break through the obstruction of the flock to get close to Him, He immediately chose to abandon the result of resisting in place.

One of the Shadow Wall sides of His 'Shadow Small House' had already been rammed and hit by Jier at full speed on horseback twice, and it simply couldn't withstand another impact. And He didn't have extra Divine Power to continue controlling the flock to create shadow phantoms while repairing the Shadow Wall that was about to break.

So the Great Bird Deity directly canceled the five Shadow Walls around Him, retracted part of the shadow Divine Power, and the black-gray small bird Wooden Carving that He depended on flapped its wings, using a movement that violated the flight of a real bird, and flew straight up into the air as if lifting off, mixing with the countless other flocks of birds and shadow phantoms.

To be safe, the Great Bird Deity even gave up the opportunity to open His mouth to mock Jier, silently laying a layer of shadow on the surface of His body, thereby blurring His image and completely blending into the surrounding flock of birds.

He was self-satisfied, thinking that in a little while, that hateful brat Jier would die under His flock of birds.

Just a little while, only just a little while.

"Caw, what a pity..."

Muttering in a low voice, the Great Bird Deity suddenly felt that killing Jier, this disrespectful Human, was indeed a bit of a pity.

Although he had always been disrespectful to Him, his ability was indeed very outstanding; compared to the last Human who cooperated with Him, he was truly far more excellent.

The last Human who cooperated with Him was very respectful, but his strength was limited, and his own range of activities was also limited, only operating in a few Noble territories in the Northwest Province.

The latter point was fatal to Him, because ever since He 'escaped' from the control of the Hunting God Church, the Hunting God Church had been continuously pursuing Him and clearing out the Human believers He developed and the wild bird flocks He controlled.

The Human who cooperated before mostly operated in one or two areas, so the local Faith situation developed relatively well, and the Human believers in several Villages had some numbers, but this also made it easy for the Hunting God Church to wipe them all out.

That's right, not long after Jier obtained the Wooden Carving that the Great Bird Deity depended on, the Human believers and part of the bird flocks that the Great Bird Deity had previously accumulated were destroyed in one fell swoop by the Hunting God Church. Among those Human believers, the poor without status were directly ambushed and killed by hunters, while the commoners with some status were reported to the local lord and taken away by the Hunting God Church to be imprisoned, forcibly using various means to make those commoners change their Faith.

They even made some of the Great Bird Deity's believers perform blasphemous acts to disgust the Great Bird Deity and destroy the foundation of His Faith.

And when Jier was walking on the Shanglu of the Western Province with the Kendall Army, that period was actually the most vulnerable period for the Great Bird Deity.

At the most dangerous time, He really only had this Wooden Carving left to depend on in the present world.

"Caw, it really is a bit of a pity..."

But before the Great Bird Deity could sigh a few more times, the situation on the scene changed again.

Jier broke through the obstruction of the flock to strike directly at the 'Shadow Small House' where the Great Bird Deity was, but before he could get close again, the 'Shadow Small House' that he was targeting as his attack goal dissipated on its own.

Subsequently, a wooden bird less than the size of a palm rose straight into the sky against common sense, and in a few moments, it blended into the countless flocks of birds in the sky; after the numerous wings flapped a few times, it completely lost its trace.

Jier immediately understood; this was the Great Bird Deity seeing through his intentions, so He abandoned the solid defense on the ground and turned to try to hide Himself in the flock of birds, just like if you want to hide a cup of water, the best way is to pour it into the sea.

But at this moment, Jier revealed a triumphant smile; his left hand immediately drew the Hunting Sword, holding it high toward the sky, and while making Tianxuecao dodge the flocks of birds rushing in crazily from all around, he urged the Divine Power of the Sun God on the Hunting Sword in his heart.

White Divine Power gathered—entangled—expanded—released!

The blade of the Long Sword first emitted bursts of white light like water waves, and then these white Divine Power lights entangled and attached to the surface of the blade, and with Jier's rising will, they expanded again and again, and again and again, finally turning into a violent flash that illuminated everything around and blinded all hostile life around in Jier's shout.

"Bloom with all your power! Blind all the enemies around me!!!"

Swish—

The white light spread silently, illuminating the entire clearing in the forest in just an instant.

In the sky and among the forest land, a massive amount of feather-like shadows were dispersed, and the countless birds that had been called over wailed and collided with each other, then fell to the ground.

They flapped their wings and struggled, but because they couldn't see the situation around them, they squeezed and pushed each other into a ball; they either flew and hit the tall trees around them head-on, or they got the direction of heaven and earth wrong after being blinded and wanted to fly up, but crashed straight toward the ground, causing feathers to fly everywhere and a noisy, chaotic sound of bird cursing.

"Ha! You were careless, weren't you! You forgot I still have this trick!"

Birds fell from the sky one after another, and the shadows were dispersed; only then did Jier discover that the number of birds falling from the sky was not as many as he had imagined, perhaps only one-tenth of what he had seen at a glance before?

%￥#￥! He had been played by this damn Deity!

Only then did Jier see clearly that there was no such thing as countless flocks of birds that could submerge him!

Although the number of real birds around was still large, at a rough glance there were at least ten thousand, covering a large area of the forest clearing. But if he were to hide in the surrounding forest to move and fight, this number of birds couldn't do anything to him.

After all, as long as he didn't run in circles and tried to walk in a straight line, the birds of all sizes in the flock would stretch out the entire pursuit team because of their different body sizes and flight speeds.

Large birds of prey were troubled by the dense trees of the Huitou Forest and could not fly normally, while small birds could hardly cause serious damage to Jier; at least, armor-piercing was something palm-sized birds could hardly achieve.

Filled with the anger of being deceived, Jier turned his head left and right to look, and sure enough, he saw the only wooden bird that had not fallen from the sky at this time. That guy was currently covered in feather-like shadow mist, rushing in a panic toward the largest tree in the forest nearest to Him.

Oh no, It is trying to escape!

Having fought to this point, naturally, I will not give It a chance to escape.

Jier did not have time to turn around to grab his bow and arrows, so he jumped directly from his horse's back and swung his right hand in mid-air, throwing the steel Long Spear, Whoosh—

The several-meter-long steel Long Spear was used by Jier as a Throwing Spear, shooting straight out, tracing an almost straight path, and charging directly at the Bird-shaped Wood Carving controlled by the bird God.

Crack!

The Long Spear accurately shattered one of the bird-shaped wood carving's wings, then fiercely pierced through a large tree trunk in front, blasting out a hole the size of a human head, before finally embedding itself into the thick branch of a tree behind it, causing both the front and back trees to shake and tremble violently.

The Bird-shaped Wood Carving that the bird God depended on had one of its wings shattered, and it could no longer fly steadily, spinning as it fell downward.

Jier was just about to feel smug, thinking this time it was a sure thing, but he did not expect that after the bird God fell to the ground into the flock of birds that had been blinded, it would actually let out an angry caw, and then the directionless flock of birds, as if they had found a guiding lighthouse, all rose from the ground, jumping and leaping to throw themselves toward the place where the bird God was currently located.

Jier landed from the air and crushed several large birds, and Tianxuecao also stepped on the various birds covering the ground to reach Jier's side.

The situation changed quickly, making him unable to feel smug anymore.

Because as the bird God kept cawing, more and more birds gathered by Its side, protecting It in the center; they crowded together, wing against wing, body against body, wrapped and fixed together by a large amount of shadow Divine Power surging from the bird God's God Wood Carving, especially from the broken wing.

With the continuous addition of these birds throwing themselves over, a tall, swelling "fused" bird-type Monster that gradually rose from the ground appeared before Jier's eyes.

This guy was over four meters tall and had a roughly humanoid body structure, but the head was a bird head over a meter wide composed of countless bird bodies, and there were no legs; it was directly a two-meter-wide "leg" like a thick stone pillar composed of countless bird bodies.

Those birds wrapped in the Monster's "body" by the shadow Divine Power let out obviously painful cries, especially the birds buried inside the body used as filler; after a few final loud, miserable cries, they gradually lost their lives because they could not breathe and their bodies were being crushed.

Only the layer of birds on the outermost surface of this fused bird Monster could still poke their bird heads out of the covering shadow Divine Power, while staring at Jier, the only Human present, and making various noisy calls.

Even if Jier could not understand the language of birds, Jier could understand that those calls were full of miserable cries of fear, terror, begging for mercy, and madness.

This thing made Jier feel nauseated and disgusted, and it was not just because of its appearance; its appearance was indeed tall and terrifying—a humanoid shadow Monster over four meters tall, with a huge body and bird heads all over it making bird calls. It was that as soon as he thought about the large number of birds that had thrown themselves over and suffocated to death inside the bird-type Monster's body, he felt uncomfortable about all of this.

Creatures grieve for their own kind.

From this scene before him, he saw something more similar and more essential.

Just like this transformation that disregarded the lives of the controlled birds under its command, were human society and religion also like this Monster created by a God, a disgusting "Monster" that disregarded the lives of other subordinates for the survival of the core superior?

Jier did not know, but he had a premonition that he would know soon.

"Jier—Jier—"

That was a terrifying and dull call.

The huge Monster composed of the bodies, corpses, flesh, and feathers of countless birds, connected by the power of shadows, spoke. Being called by name by it, Jier shuddered.

But listening carefully, it was still the same tone the bird God had always used, but now, coming from the mouth of this huge corpse Monster, it took on a different meaning.

"Caw—because of you, I have truly consumed too much, too much power that I had painstakingly accumulated. Caw, so today you must die to repay this consumed power, as well as these birds that could have served as my help."

Jier flipped onto his horse, did not respond directly, but turned around to take out his bow and arrows, shot an arrow, and blasted the head of an owl that had emerged from the Monster's body.

The Monster did not even sway; after a moment of silence, It moved quickly along the ground.

It started off a bit slow, but once it started moving, It became fast. At the same time, when this humanoid Monster with a bird head for an upper body moved along the ground, it left behind a trail of flesh and blood composed of the flesh and feather fragments of the birds that had died inside its body.

These things with complex colors and strong odors were evenly smeared and stuck onto the soft soil on the ground as it moved, leaving a very clear trail.

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? (End of this chapter)