Chapter 472: Advancing the Adventure at Dusk, Beware of the Fish Path

Jier casually took a book from a shelf and discovered that these books of various styles were all imprinted with the emblem of the Agricultural God; it was clear that this room was specifically for storing various books and documents related to the Agricultural God Church.

The book in Jier's hand was a record from several years ago, and surprisingly, this book had been written and produced by Priest Feilina; the content concerned the area of farmland owned by each household in Big Tree Cunzi, the labor invested, the corresponding work efficiency for that area and labor, and the ratio of crop output to farmland area.

It was very detailed, detailed to the point that there was data for every single household in Big Tree Cunzi.

Jier flipped through it casually and discovered that the more a farming household was marked as a devout believer of the Agricultural God, the higher their crop yield.

Of course, Priest Feilina had also made her own assessments in the book; it was clear that the more devout a farming household was, the more accustomed they were to following the Church's teachings, taking the initiative to improve various farming techniques and agricultural tools, and basically increasing efficiency every year, naturally resulting in crop yields that were a cut above other households.

But further down, Priest Feilina had also calculated the various costs incurred to improve production efficiency, and these expenses were not low.

Comparing it this way, the farming households that continued to use old methods and original old agricultural tools actually had a higher total annual household income than the devout households that followed improved production methods, and they were able to save more wealth.

Looking at it roughly like this, it seemed that the devout families who listened to the Church were the ones who actually suffered a loss?

That was not quite the case, because Priest Feilina, representing the Church, provided an interest-free loan every year to the devout farming households; in this way, the Church only used money that was a small amount to them to harvest the fixed devout faith of the farming households, as well as the grassroots promotion of updated agricultural production technology.

Being all in one village, other farmers would only see that the devout farming households' crop yields were increasing every year, and would not see that they had received private loan assistance from the Church, so other ordinary believing farmers who had not applied the new methods and new tools, after seeing the benefits, would also spontaneously seek out the Church to update their farm tools and learn new farming techniques.

This was the demonstration effect of a leader. After all, everyone was in the same village, and whose crop yield was high was something everyone could see; they would naturally think of ways to catch up, as no one would feel that their own grain yield was too low.

Jier put the book back in its original place with an expression of admiration; he had originally thought that the Agricultural God Priests stationed in the village were only responsible for spreading the faith of the Agricultural God and that it was enough to just talk about how great the Agricultural God was on a daily basis.

He had not expected that grassroots Agricultural God priests like Priest Feilina and Bataer Jiaoshi would have such complex work, and that their professionalism was not low at all.

"It seems that a supra-national religious organization has its own merits in terms of organizational power, talent cultivation, and institutional construction," Jier muttered to himself, following the others out of the room.

"By the way, didn't see that animal thief? Only saw the Sacred Artifact it dropped, didn't see its figure? Where did it fall to?" Xueya Site looked left and right, still wanting to find that thieving crow that had delayed their affairs and teach it a harsh lesson.

Jier hurriedly stopped him: "Forget it, it's just a stupid animal, what is there for you to compete with or punish it for? Besides, crows are animals with a strong sense of revenge; if you punish it, we will pat our butts and leave Big Tree Cunzi in a carriage later, and if those crows harbor revenge afterward and torment the villagers here in Big Tree Cunzi, what should be done then? Who will be responsible?"

"That's true." Xueya Site scratched his head, feeling that what Jier said made sense; what was there for him to say to a crow? It was enough that the item was found back.

Bataer Jiaoshi breathed a sigh of relief, looked at the position of the sun, and immediately said to Jier: "It's already this time, a lot of time was wasted this morning, but fortunately the final result is good. Warrior Jier, let's have the caravan set off immediately."

After saying this, he was about to pull Jier and Xueya Site to rush to the courtyard behind the Church, where the caravan had been waiting for them for quite a while.

"Hey, Luosa, your Sacred Artifact!"

The Sacred Artifact was still being toyed with in Priest Feilina's hands; seeing that Bataer Jiaoshi was in a hurry to leave, she immediately called out to him, grabbed Bataer Jiaoshi's hand with one hand, and gently placed the Sacred Artifact into Bataer Jiaoshi's hand with the other.

"Don't lose it again! Keep it well, and also, observe its existence and structure more, rather than recklessly using it and drinking the endless ale it provides. The gift of the great Agricultural God is not to be squandered like this. Finally, I wish you a smooth journey and that you save those poor believers."

Bataer Jiaoshi couldn't help but grip Priest Feilina's strong and powerful palm tightly; he shook it forcefully and replied affirmatively: "I will succeed! Thank you for your blessing, may the Agricultural God bless you and me, and bless every living creature that believes in Him."

"Don't worry, you have me; those enemies will all be defeated by me," Jier said, patting his own chest.

"That's right, with Jier here, it will definitely be possible to successfully rescue the trapped villagers," Xueya Site said, proudly patting Jier on the shoulder.

But listening to their confident statements, Priest Feilina sighed, feeling that being so confident would always lead to trouble. So she finally reminded them: "I remember that Dashu Bi'ao gave you two Prophecy Poems; remember to carefully ponder the Prophecy Poem about the villagers of Changmai Cunzi on the road."

"Ha, but in the end, finding the Sacred Artifact had nothing to do with the Prophecy Poem. The Prophecy Poem told us to look back into the depths of our hearts, but the Sacred Artifact was stolen by a crow; could it be that a crow lives in the depths of the heart?" Xueya Site was skeptical of those Prophecy Poems at this moment; he felt that what they relied on to find the Sacred Artifact in the end was their own efforts, and it had nothing to do with these mystical things.

Bataer Jiaoshi was not sure if it was because of his previous act of repenting and confessing to the Agricultural God that the crow that stole the Sacred Artifact appeared above their heads and was discovered by them. It might be, or it might not be.

But as a Church Priest of the Agricultural God, he naturally believed there was this reason.

So he just nodded, indicating that he would have Jier write down that Prophecy Poem.

And Jier looked elsewhere in embarrassment, because he was the one who knew best that the Prophecy Poem was extremely accurate; that Dashu Bi'ao was indeed very powerful, not only far exceeding humans in soul and spirit, but also, as could be seen from its answers to the pilgrims' questions, it truly possessed very powerful wisdom.

This made him feel uncomfortable, and he couldn't wait to leave Big Tree Cunzi and stay far away from this incomparably powerful wise existence. When the group passed through the middle courtyard, Jier even helped Priest Feilina put the copper Divine Statue back into the locked room, and then when passing by Dashu Bi'ao, he looked up at this big tree one last time.

The leaves of the big tree swayed, making a rustling sound, appearing very satisfied.

Jier did not know that Dashu Bi'ao was very satisfied with the method Jier had used to deal with the situation just now; although it was a bit risky, it was quite good. Especially the shadow ability he used, the Divine Status and possible changes hidden within it all made it look at Jier, this warrior of the Agricultural God, with higher regard.

And Jier's ability to disappear and reappear made Dashu Bi'ao ponder deeply; this way of spatial movement was far from the common spatial movement methods of humans and Dwarves.

It was very efficient and profound; when the space changed, there was almost no impact on the surroundings. There was no airflow caused by different air pressures, nor was there any difference in the gravitational field generated during spatial transfer due to changes in gravity, which would have caused the church building to vibrate slightly.

It had once probed the air composition at the same location after Jier disappeared when Jier had vanished.

It had felt the cool and fresh breath of a forest; the other side of Jier's spatial transfer must be a wonderful place with water and a forest.

It seemed to be related to Elves.

It remembered that it had once heard the Hounds of the Sky say that the spatial transfer of Elves was a spatial exchange performed on a one-for-one basis, so, was Jier related to Elves?

The caravan left Big Tree Cunzi.

After they could no longer see Big Tree Cunzi from afar, Jier finally breathed a sigh of relief while riding on the back of the Tianxuecao; the feeling that had always made him instinctively vigilant finally disappeared.

As if a burden on his spirit had been lifted, Jier stretched, a smile on his face, and happily galloped back and forth on his horse.

"Hey, Jier! Is riding a horse that happy?" Xueya Site, who was sitting in the driver's seat of the lead carriage, shouted loudly at Jier, who was running back and forth.

"Of course, partner, of course. This is also a kind of horsemanship practice; I'm not just wasting the horse's energy, you know. Riding my own warhorse can improve my coordination with it and increase my own horsemanship experience!" Jier rushed past the caravan again; he not only accelerated, decelerated, turned, and stopped suddenly while riding, but also occasionally drew his weapon to use the bushes and dwarf trees by the road as imaginary enemies, using his steel Long Spear to poke these poor plants through.

Xueya Site shrugged when he heard Jier's explanation: "But I drive the carriage all day, and I don't feel that my technique for driving a carriage has improved?"

"Ha!" Jier rushed past from the left side of the caravan again, waving his steel Long Spear while answering Xueya Site: "That's because you treat driving as a job, not as a skill to actively practice. This is a change in concept, partner. When you feel that your driving is interesting and requires a certain skill to support it, your technique for driving the carriage will improve!"

"Is that so?" Xueya Site rubbed his chin with his hand, and then began to try to control the Jiansheng with only one hand to adjust the route of the horses pulling the carriage.

Just like this, the caravan moved quickly along the mottled dirt road, all the way south, heading toward the next village.

"The next village is Lanse-Qingting, we wouldn't have been able to reach it today anyway, and coupled with the delay this morning, I feel it's a bit hanging whether we can reach the village before dark tomorrow." In the evening, when preparing to stop the caravan to set up camp, Bataer Jiaoshi whispered to Jier to analyze their journey situation.

Jier frowned and took out the map, using his finger to measure the distance between several black dots on the map.

The slightly larger black dot marked as Big Tree Cunzi was where his finger started; his finger moved a short distance and paused on a faint Charcoal Pencil line: "This is our current position, still a day's distance by carriage from the next village. Hmm, looking at it this way, we only moved this little distance today; it really was because too much time was wasted in the morning."

"There's no helping that; it's all my fault for showing off and taking out the Sacred Artifact last night, which led to the series of events that followed."

Bataer Jiaoshi rubbed his hands with an apologetic expression. Jier's eyes drifted; he was still embarrassed to tell the truth, so he sighed, comforted the Priest, and said: "Don't say that, didn't the Sacred Artifact come back? This shows that the Agricultural God did not blame you. Besides, it was those animal thieves who stole the Sacred Artifact; who knew those crows were so bold as to enter a human camp to steal things."

"Actually, it's my fault too; I thought it was safe to keep the Sacred Artifact on my chest, but I overestimated how soundly I would sleep after drinking. Such a big crow approached me, and I didn't even react. Sigh, if it had been an enemy, I would have died right then."

Jier spoke words without any apology, and quickly turned the topic back to the journey: "I think, why not take advantage of the fact that it's not completely dark yet and walk a bit further south along the road, and tomorrow morning, start a little earlier, striving to set off directly after dawn, and also walk a bit further; this way, added to the movement of the whole day tomorrow, we can guarantee to make up for the time wasted this morning. Time, like a rag, if you squeeze it and wring it, you can always squeeze out some moisture."

Bataer Jiaoshi didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but he looked at the evening sky at this time and hesitated.

"What? I look at the terrain in the Nanbu of Sasi County, it's actually quite open; although hills and Shulin are dense, and there are quite a few small rivers and Ponds, as long as there are no towering mountain ranges and thick, gloomy Da Sen Lin, the evening here is still relatively bright. Look, the sun is still a distance from the horizon, but even if it completely falls below the horizon, the sky won't get dark very quickly. Go! That's it, it's decided! Everyone! Don't stop the caravan, let's take advantage of the remaining light and try to walk a bit further."

Jier shouted loudly: "We'll set up camp when it's completely dark!"

The team members in the caravan who had experience in setting up camp had some complaints, but since Knight Jier had already decided this, everyone had no choice but to follow suit; anyway, this was a decision made by Knight Jier, and Knight Jier was responsible for handling all kinds of unexpected situations.

"Yo! Yo!"

"Forward!"

The drivers of each carriage then swung their whips, cracking them in the air, and with shouts of their own, urged the pack horses—which were preparing to rest—to reluctantly lift their hooves once more and pull the carriages forward.

Jier, accompanied by the mounted Bata'er Jiaoshi, came to the carriage where Weier was, and had Weier take out the lighting supplies exchanged from Torito Cunzi—namely, the torches—from the carriage's stored goods.

"Yes, that box right there. Open it and give some to me and the Priest. Let us ride to catch up with each carriage and distribute them to everyone. Priest, at least two torches per carriage. Tell everyone that as soon as the sun drops below the horizon, they are to light the torches. We will use the burn time of one torch to travel, and the burn time of the other to quickly set up the Yingdi for the night!"

"Very well! Rest assured, Warrior Jier. On the road between Big Tree Cunzi and Lanse-Qingting Cunzi, aside from those Siege Fish in the Pond, there are no fierce beasts or Monster."

Jier nodded: "I hope so."

The caravan then moved forward rapidly. Jier went to the very front of the caravan and drew his Hunting Sword, letting the blade of the sword emit a bright white light to illuminate the way and identify the dirt road leading to Lanse-Qingting Cunzi.

He had to pay attention to the route; if the caravan took the wrong path and ended up on a fish path created by the Siege Fish, they would stray into the territory of the Siege Fish and be attacked by them.

Jier had witnessed the power of the Siege Fish before, so he naturally remained vigilant, eyes wide as he identified the traces of the dirt road on the ground. The faint path with sparse, long grass was actually the correct dirt road to Lanse-Qingting Cunzi, while the wide, firm, grassless surface was the fish path created by the Siege Fish over many years.

This was a path that must never be taken.

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