Chapter 460: The Lost Sacred Artifact, the Suspected Jier

"What's wrong? Knight Jier."

Outside Jier's tent, the other drivers and warriors who had gotten up to cook and pack were all attracted by Jier's strange cry.

"My lord, what have you lost? Is it serious?"

Jier noticed the people gradually gathering outside the tent and immediately replied: "It's nothing. I had a dream, and in the dream, I lost something, so I was suddenly startled awake."

"Hey! Is that all."

The crowd felt bored and dispersed one after another. Some went to cook, some to wash up, and others shook their companions who had drunk too much in the village tavern the night before to wake them up, preparing to set off.

Priest Bata'er also stretched, crawled up from beside the campfire that still had embers burning, and, unable to care about much else, with his lower abdomen feeling like it was about to explode, hurriedly ran toward the Church's toilet, familiar with the way.

At the entrance of Jier's tent, Xueya Site did not rush to leave. He frowned and stayed at the entrance of Jier's tent. Seeing that the people around had walked away, he then whispered to Jier: "Jier, it's me, Siter. You aren't the type to be scared by a dream, so what's actually wrong?"

The tent flap was lifted, and Jier pulled Xueya Site in with a grim expression.

Once inside, Jier lowered his head and rummaged through the sparsely furnished tent: "A wooden bowl, uh, a translucent object that looks like a wooden bowl, have you seen it?"

"Oh, of course I've seen it." Xueya Site shrugged.

Jier immediately stood up and asked him hurriedly: "Where? When?"

"Hey, it was just last night. When I came back from the tavern, I saw you and Priest Bata'er using it to drink, right? When did you two secretly hide a barrel of wine? I guess the local priestess provided it specifically for you two, right?"

Jier slapped his forehead, knowing he wouldn't get anything more out of Xueya Site, while Xueya Site kept rambling about his views on Big Tree Cunzi: "This Big Tree Cunzi is actually not bad, it's just that there are too few trees in the nearby Shulin, the village doesn't have enough fuel, and it's hard to improve the overall scale. Let me tell you, I discovered a long time ago that what limits a place's population is often not the local grain yield, nor the land area, but how many trees can be collected for firewood; that determines how many people can live there."

Jier shook his dog fur sleeping bag back and forth several times, but failed to find anything inside it. He had also searched his own body; none of the leather pouches on his belt had it, and the chamber pot and water bucket in the tent didn't have it either.

He had slept very soundly and had not gotten up to urinate in the middle of the night, so the chamber pot was empty, and he was in no mood to wash himself with water at the moment, so the water bucket had not been touched either.

Jier looked up at the herb bag on the top of the tent, reached out to grasp and squeeze it, but unfortunately, apart from the dried insect-repellent herbs, there was nothing else hidden inside.

"Is the item very important? Looking at how nervous you are?" Xueya Site had not yet realized the seriousness of the matter and asked in a relaxed tone.

Jier took a deep breath, exhaled, forced himself to calm down, and quickly and quietly told Xueya Site about the identity and value of that seemingly ordinary wooden bowl.

"Wha—t?" Xueya Site also let out a strange cry, but he quickly realized he couldn't shout loudly, so he switched to a whisper and said to Jier: "A Sacred Artifact personally bestowed upon Priest Bata'er by the Agricultural God, and you're telling me you kept it on your person after drinking! Couldn't you have stuffed it into Priest Bata'er's clothes? If it were stolen by someone, or taken back by the Agricultural God, it would have had nothing to do with you! How could you be so foolish!"

Jier looked helpless: "I was just afraid of losing it, so I thought it couldn't be left on the dead-drunk Priest Bata'er, so it would be safer on me."

"Yes, so safe. The problem is you were drunk too. Priest Bata'er was passed out on the ground, and how much better off were you?" After Xueya Site finished speaking, he joined Jier in searching, but Jier's tent really didn't have many things, and the two of them finished searching in half a minute with no results.

"You'd better think again, where else did you go after you two finished drinking last night." Xueya Site asked.

Jier pointed outside and then at his sleeping bag: "I remember, after we finished drinking, I didn't go anywhere else and went straight back to the tent. I remember very clearly, I even took a sip of the wine in the bowl before I went to sleep."

Jier opened his mouth to breathe, and the smell of alcohol made Siter cover his nose.

"People who drink, their memories are completely unreliable. Some people even think they went to the moon when they were drinking after they wake up, humph, and even went swimming in the %%￥. Xueya Site looked helpless and suggested to Jier: "The priest should be awake too. Should we tell him about this? Maybe the priest can rely on Prayer to sense the location of that Sacred Artifact?"

Jier's eyes lit up. He hadn't thought there might be this solution. Just as he was about to agree, his tent was lifted from the outside again.

The person who entered was none other than Priest Bata'er.

The priest was flustered, with water marks on his face, and the sleeves of his slightly reddish robe were rolled up; it looked like he had been washing up after getting up.

"Jier, Warrior Jier, it's good that you're here. By the way, by the way, have you seen the wooden bowl we used when we were drinking last night?" Seeing that Xueya Site was also in the tent, the priest paused for a moment before asking Jier in a rather roundabout way.

Jier was stumped by the question. He wanted to say that he had taken it for safekeeping, but he had lost it in the process. He wanted to deceive the priest and say he didn't know, but he felt bad about lying to a companion. He wanted to honestly tell the truth, but he was afraid he couldn't bear the consequences of losing a Sacred Artifact.

He couldn't just kill Priest Bata'er and Xueya Site with one sword right now, could he?

If the two of them were dead, then indeed no one would know that he had lost a Sacred Artifact of the Agricultural God Church, but how would he face the other warriors in the team afterward? How would he face Priest Feilina in the Church? The villagers of Big Tree Cunzi? The refugees in Babotali Valley? And the Agricultural God and the Agricultural God Church who favored him?

He couldn't kill the two of them and then kill everyone in the Church, and then kill everyone in Big Tree Cunzi.

Then no one would be able to point the finger at him, because there would be no one else left alive around.

Jier looked conflicted, and the two people present also watched the conflicted Jier.

Priest Bata'er didn't know what Warrior Jier was conflicted about. If he had seen it, he had seen it; if not, everyone could just look for it together. The courtyard was only so big, there were people on guard duty at night, and Priest Feilina would carefully close all the gates of the Church in the second half of the night, so there was no possibility of outsiders approaching.

To be honest, Priest Bata'er thought it was more likely that he had accidentally dropped it somewhere in the courtyard after getting drunk last night, and it was very possible that someone had picked it up after dawn.

Xueya Site, however, knew what Jier was conflicted about. Admitting one's own mistakes is something that requires great Yongqi; not everyone can frankly admit their own mistakes, especially serious ones.

As a caravan guard, he had seen too many cases over the years where people refused to admit their mistakes after doing something wrong. But this kid Jier was a brave person, and he should and must have the Yongqi to bear his own mistakes.

"Sorry, Luosa." Jier looked apologetic and reached out to grab Priest Bata'er's shoulder.

"After we finished drinking last night, I saw that you were drunk and unconscious, so I thought that important Sacred Artifact couldn't be left on you, so I took it myself. I thought that would be safer."

Priest Bata'er breathed a sigh of relief early at this moment: "That's good, that's good, you have experience after all. It's indeed much safer with you. After all, I was sleeping by the campfire and there were too many people around. You have a tent to yourself, and no one would come to touch your things."

Jier felt even more ashamed. His mouth opened and closed a few times, but he couldn't say what happened afterward.

It was Xueya Site who saw Jier's embarrassment at this moment. He spoke up to replace Jier and said it directly: "Priest, I'm sorry, just now. After Jier woke up, he also discovered that the Sacred Artifact the great Agricultural God bestowed upon you is gone."

"Oh, hmm? Ah!"

Priest Bata'er's face changed three times in an instant; it was spectacular!

He looked at Jier. Jier dared not meet the priest's eyes, so he lowered his head and nodded, confirming that what Xueya Site said was true.

He looked at Xueya Site. Xueya Site shrugged and pointed to the sparsely furnished tent: "Jier checked his body, it wasn't there, and it wasn't inside the tent either. There are only so many things here; he checked once, and I followed and checked once, and it wasn't there."

Priest Bata'er's hands were shaking. He used his right hand to press hard on his shaking left hand and asked with a trembling voice: "Could it have fallen somewhere when going to the toilet? After all, you have to undo your belt, and many things are often lost that way."

Jier pointed to the chamber pot and water bucket in the tent, and Xueya Site explained: "Jier has things for relieving himself in his tent. He slept straight until dawn last night and didn't get up at all. By the way, Priest Bata'er, I know it's important that the item is lost, but do you have any way to Prayer and confirm the location of that important Sacred Artifact?"

He gestured: "Like that method where you pray and an object glows."

"I, I don't know. The Agricultural God, He only bestowed it upon me a few days ago. I, I don't know much about that Sacred Artifact yet."

After speaking, Priest Bata'er's face turned pale, and he couldn't stand, collapsing directly to the ground.

"Hey, hey, hey, Priest, Priest, pull yourself together."

"Luosa, Luosa, are you okay?"

Jier hurriedly placed Priest Bata'er on his dog fur sleeping bag and had Xueya Site bring over the fresh water from the bucket nearby, splashing a little on the priest's face.

After patting his face gently, the priest soon regained consciousness, but he was listless, muttering to himself: "How could it be lost? How could it be lost? This is a test, right? Yes, yes, yes, this must be the great Agricultural God testing me! The wooden bowl can flow with wine; the Agricultural God must be testing whether I can withstand the temptation and test of the wine! Sob, sob, I am so useless, I didn't withstand this test. I shouldn't have wantonly drunk that endless wine. That wine was surely meant for all the warriors and the rescued people to drink when celebrating the victory. I shouldn't have been the first one to drink it. I have sinned, please let the Agricultural God punish me, sob, sob."

Seeing the priest go on and on, sobbing softly as he spoke, this appearance was even more painful than when he looked at the refugees fighting the bandits with one or two hundred casualties.

Jier went up and slapped Priest Bata'er: "Stop crying! Stop crying! You didn't cry like this when so many people died, it's just a thing that can be used to drink wine! Is it worth crying like this!"

"The God of Agriculture bestowed that Sacred Artifact upon you as recognition of your previous achievements! It is not a restriction placed upon you! It is a reward for you; where could there be any test, test, test, test! You performed extraordinary feats, and the deity gave you a reward—it is just that simple. It is a Sacred Artifact, so what? What the deity has bestowed upon you is already yours. Stop crying like this, let's just go find it!"

Jier's gaze turned fierce: "No matter who it is, daring to take something from my embrace is no different from wanting my life. They could have just killed me while I was drunk and asleep, but they only took that Sacred Artifact."

Xueya Site spoke up at this moment: "Therefore, that person must have seen this item before and known it was extraordinary. Was the item always carried on the Priest's person?"

Jier nodded: "Yes, the Priest always carried it on his person, carefully wrapped in cloth strips, and it was always very safe."

Shrugging his shoulders, Xueya Site said simply: "Then it can only be that someone saw you drinking with it last night and recognized its extraordinary value."

"And wanted to steal it and claim it for themselves. Hmph, a good calculation. Such a Sacred Artifact bestowed by a deity is indeed of extremely high value. Although its utility is not very great, even if sold cheaply, I estimate it could be worth over a thousand Gold Coins, not losing out to some Magic Items. No, because its Divine Power comes from the great God of Agriculture, there is not a single day it will run out, so compared to Magic Items that require spending money to recharge Magic Power, its value far exceeds them."

"Who could have stolen that Sacred Artifact?" Xueya Site looked at Jier.

Jier was stunned: "No, what are you looking at me for? I took it? And then hid it to pretend it was lost?"

Xueya Site tilted his neck: "Jier, it's not that I suspect you covet its monetary value, I just think, given your level of love for drinking, could it be that you wanted to possess this Sacred Artifact of the God of Agriculture that you can take out for a sip at any time?"

Jier pursed his lips; he was feeling thirsty again. If he could have a sip of refreshing ale right now, that would of course be great—no! This is not the time to be thinking about that.

"Warrior Jier, is it you? If you want to drink, you can completely come find me at any time. The God of Agriculture being able to bestow the Sacred Artifact upon me relies entirely on your help, so if you want to drink, you can always find me to take it out and let you drink your fill. You have absolutely no need to hide it; this is really being too much of a stranger. Aren't we friends? We are still partners who fought together!" Priest Bataer stopped his depressed muttering at this moment, managed to sit up, looked at Jier's face, and said the words above sentence by sentence.

Jier's head was about to explode. He had not hidden it at all. Whenever he wanted something, he always went and took it, bought it, traded for it, or asked for it generously. If the other party wouldn't give it, he would just openly snatch it from their hands; where would there be any need to sneakily hide it and then perform a show of a thief crying 'stop thief'.

He was simply not that kind of person.

"It wasn't me. Even if I love drinking, I would not hide something belonging to Priest Bataer because of it. Just as you said, the three of us have such a good relationship; if I want to drink, I can just ask you for wine, there's no need to deceive everyone for this."

Xueya Site crossed his arms and pondered: "That's true, Jier has always trusted me. All of his wealth is placed in that carriage of his, yet countless times Jier has let me watch his carriage all by myself. This trust and reliance, I have felt it."

After speaking, Xueya Site patted Jier's shoulder forcefully. Jier's face turned red, because in his carriage, he actually only kept some unimportant trifles; the truly important and numerous personal items were all kept by Jier in the Lady's Dream.

Not to mention anything else, just the Elf Silver Plates covering the ground next to the Memory Water Pond—the terrifying quantity used just to pave the floor and the inestimable astronomical value—would scare the two people in front of him unconscious if spoken aloud.

"Jier, is it really not you who secretly hid it?" Priest Bataer asked with a look of anticipation. He actually hoped the matter was as simple as Jier hiding it, because if so, the Sacred Artifact wasn't lost, and Jier would have to take it out to drink secretly eventually; wouldn't he be exposed the moment he took a drink?

"It really isn't me," Jier replied with certainty once again.

Looking outside the tent, Jier said: "It seems I must find it back to truly clear my reputation. Fortunately, I am not without clues."

"Clues?" Both of their eyes lit up.

The Priest said even more anxiously: "Do you have clues about the stolen Sacred Artifact?"

"If you have clues, why didn't you say so earlier! You made me suspect you hid it yourself." Xueya Site complained, then he asked curiously: "What clues? Is it something in the tent? I've heard the story of you in Grass Rat Town, Jier. Can you find back lost things? Ha, could it be people from that organization?"

Jier glanced at Xueya Site: "I didn't expect you to be so well-informed. But my clue is nothing else, it is a dream I had after getting drunk last night."

"A dream?" Both of them were dumbfounded at the same time.

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