Chapter 475: Monkey Pelts, Blue Dragonfly Cunzi

Jier waved to everyone, which counted as thanking them for their cheers, then he rode his horse alongside the supply wagons, bleeding the monkey carcasses on his horse's back one by one, and then tossing the bled monkey carcasses to Weier.

"Keep them with you for now, just hang them on the wagon. When we take a short break later, we'll skin the monkeys together," Jier said to the swordsman Weier.

But Weier looked troubled: "Knight Jier, I don't know how to skin animals."

This actually surprised Jier a little: "No, then how did you handle the pelts of the beasts you hunted while you were wandering the mountains and forests with the bandits?"

"Others always handled that. I didn't really live the deep bandit life; I was just on good terms with the leader of the bandits, and I just hung around his bandit group to intimidate other bandit groups. But Knight Jier, I imagine skinning is just a technique of cutting with a Dagger, and I don't think I'll have a problem with that," Weier explained hurriedly, while keeping his voice very low, trying not to let too many people hear about his connection to the bandits.

Although everyone in the team knew this, knowing was one thing, but as long as no one brought it up again, it was easy for Weier to blend into the team without worrying about being constantly ostracized by people.

"Yes, you're right, it's not difficult, it's very easy. As long as you master the details, don't puncture the pelt, and don't leave too much subcutaneous fat on the pelt at once," Jier nodded and said, then he tossed the bled monkey carcasses one after another to Weier, letting Weier secure them, after which Jier took out a cloth to wipe his hands and rode his horse to the front of the convoy.

The road, which was rarely traveled by anyone recently, kept extending, passing through one forest after another, both large and small.

Interestingly, Jier discovered that every forest the road passed through was claimed by different animals as their own territory.

Sometimes it was the territory of a group of wild boars; the clever wild boars, upon seeing the human convoy, did not take the initiative to attack, but instead nimbly hid in the depths of the forest, only peeking at the entire convoy through the bushes.

After confirming that the human convoy was just passing through their territory, these wild boars would swagger out of the bushes where they were hiding, grunting and following behind the convoy, trying to find things like plant seeds that might have fallen while the convoy was moving.

And when Jier was patrolling the front and back of the convoy on horseback, seeing this group of wild boars, he playfully charged his horse toward them, immediately scaring these seemingly strong guys into scattering and fleeing.

"Hahahaha, a bunch of cowards!" Jier laughed wantonly. It wasn't that he was arrogant, but that Jier was bored to death. Ever since he had a fierce fight with the Great Bird God last time, he hadn't had a battle of any level for several days.

This made his hands very itchy, and he wanted to find some opponents to fight.

And when the convoy passed into another forest, the 'masters' here were still that kind of noisy monkey. This time Jier had experience; he didn't let them demonstrate or make noise at all, and directly took out his bow and arrow to shoot the closest monkey to death.

The monkeys fled immediately, but soon there was a tendency for them to gather again.

Jier fired another arrow, shooting the closest one to death.

Only then did the monkeys realize that they were no match for this group of humans, and they retreated to the depths of the forest one after another, only staring fixedly at the human convoy from the treetops, but they dared not let out any threatening roars.

"Look, that's how you deal with beasts, let them know who is strong and who is weak. Otherwise, those beasts without dignity will just take us, who are in a hurry, as being afraid of them!" Jier said loudly to everyone in the convoy.

Everyone responded in unison, and several archers even requested to let them do the shooting to drive away those beasts next time.

Jier didn't dampen their enthusiasm and agreed to their request, but he additionally required that each of them have at most five Arrows; if they still hadn't succeeded in driving away the beasts after shooting them, then it would have to be left to him to handle.

And as for them, they should go down and practice their skills well!

Not long after, the convoy took a temporary rest in a flat piece of wild land near the road.

The drivers fed and watered the horses, and the Warriors could also get off the wagons to stretch their hands and feet and go to the Toilet.

You ask how to go to the Toilet when there isn't one around?

It's too simple, you just need to use a shovel to dig a rectangular shallow pit on the ground, and this is a simple Toilet. Before the convoy leaves, just fill the excavated soil back into the pit.

When the Refugee Team was still there before, because there were many people and they were divided by gender, they would at most put a wooden board over the pit and use a few wooden boards to cover the Toilet.

Taking advantage of the break, Jier called Weier over and skinned the monkeys one by one, which were already dead and whose bodies had begun to stiffen. Although Priest Bata'er was also free at this time, because he was a Priest of the God of Agriculture, he could not participate in this kind of hunting and harvesting work, so he had to sit on the side and watch the two of them work.

And he provided some technical guidance to Weier, who was skinning for the first time.

It is funny to say that Priest Bata'er cannot participate in the skinning work of hunted animals, but he can participate in the skinning and slaughtering work of domestic animals raised by farmers.

Because the processing of domestic animals is also considered a broad agricultural activity and is within the Divine Essence of the God of Agriculture.

But hunting is not; it belongs solely to the Divine Essence of the God of Hunting, and only the Priests of the God of Hunting can participate in it.

Jier and the others were only using the short time during the break to process the monkey carcasses, so their movements were very fast. The pelts that were peeled off originally needed to be carefully cleaned, but now they wouldn't bother; they just used the surrounding twigs of bushes to prop up and spread out the pelts so that they wouldn't curl up and the flesh and blood on them wouldn't stick together.

Later, further processing of the pelts would be needed, removing the Grease, flesh, and blood from the back, and at the same time cleaning the excess Grease and debris on the pelts with hot water. Although those monkeys loved to be clean and often dealt with parasites and the like among themselves, it was impossible to say that they were hygienic.

The pelts would definitely be stained with some soil, wood bark fragments, dust, dander, and other debris and dirt. A high-quality pelt must be carefully cleared of these things. The final pelt processing must use some special substances to tan the pelts, making the skin under the pelts lose its activity so that it would not rot.

"What about the monkey carcasses? Should we eat their meat?" Weier pinched his nose, looking at the skinned monkey carcasses all over the ground, his eyes full of disgust.

Jier clapped his hands and said: "Leave it to me, I am a good hand at digging. Watch me dig a pit and bury them all deep."

After speaking, Jier took an Iron Shovel from the wagon and started digging the pit with fast movements.

The onlookers were all a bit surprised, looking at this scene in astonishment. On the contrary, Priest Bata'er nodded with satisfaction, feeling that he was worthy of being a Warrior of the God of Agriculture; his ability to work in the fields was strong, and he was even more capable of working than an average able-bodied Farmer.

Sure enough, as he said, the originally heavy and solid soil was as smooth as egg pudding under Jier's movements. One shovel went down without any obstruction, and coupled with Jier's great strength and excellent endurance, he didn't even rest, his hands didn't stop, the shovel made a whirring sound, and in a short while, he had shoveled out a large pit big enough to bury all the monkey carcasses.

The idle Warriors came up one after another to help, throwing those monkey carcasses into the pit. Some people even took the opportunity to cut off a few monkey claws, intending to dry them and use them as lucky amulets.

Jier saw this and complained: "That thing is dirty and smelly; if you wear it on your body, won't you stink wherever you go! Besides, luck? They can't even protect themselves, so how can they bring you so-called luck?"

The superstitious Warriors looked at each other, only to hear Jier say again: "If you really want to seek the arrival of luck, it would be better to go to some big towns to find the Pantheon and pray to the Statue of the God of the Goddess of Luck in the Pantheon. If the Goddess favors you, it might be even more effective!"

The Warriors felt that what Knight Jier said made a lot of sense, so they threw the small monkey claws in their hands into the deep pit. But they discussed privately that compared to monkey claws, rabbit feet were more spiritual. They would forget about the monkey claws; Knight Jier didn't like them, so they wouldn't take them to avoid touching the Knight's bad luck.

Jier then filled the excavated soil back in and let the Tianxuecao walk back and forth on the slightly raised mound of soil to compact the soil. In this way, it would not be easy for ordinary beasts to dig out the carcasses, and the carcasses underneath would not easily become zombies and cause trouble. Of course, a group of monkey carcasses, even if they turned into living corpses, would have no danger.

Then he checked the time, greeted everyone to get on their horses or wagons, and continued to move forward.

The speed of Jier and the others today was much faster than usual. Not only did they walk a bit more last night, but they also set off before dawn this morning, so they had already seen the Blue Dragonfly Cunzi on the plain ahead before dusk this afternoon.

That was a large village. Because this place was far from the area where the Siege Fish lived, the surrounding terrain was flat, there were many forests, and there were no large beasts, so the scale of Blue Dragonfly Cunzi was very large.

Even a bit too large.

Jier shielded his eyes with his hand and looked into the distance at the village, which was the size of a town, feeling puzzled.

Priest Bata'er naturally saw the puzzlement of the Warrior Jier; everyone who saw Blue Dragonfly Cunzi for the first time had doubts about this.

"Warrior Jier, you didn't see wrong, Blue Dragonfly Cunzi is that big, but it's actually not that big," Priest Bata'er said, speaking words like a tongue twister.

Jier smiled: "What does that mean?"

The Priest explained: "The village looks big, that's because the village wall is built very large, and it completely encloses a Pond of considerable size within the village wall. Saying it's not big is because in terms of population, it's actually not as good as Big Tree Cunzi, and it only has twice the population of my Changmai Cunzi, with the whole village having less than a thousand people."

"But why completely enclose an entire Pond? I can count on my fingers and know that when the village wall is built like this, it will cost more resources and manpower. And maintaining it every few years is not a small expense."

Jier didn't understand, so he asked.

"It's very simple, because even though Blue Dragonfly Cunzi is already some distance away from the hilly area of Big Tree Cunzi, every summer, there are still Siege Fish that want to occupy the Pond in the village as their territory. The original migrants who first settled here spent a considerable price to kill the Siege Fish in this Pond. They won't let those Monsters occupy this place again."

The Priest pointed to the surroundings: "The Pond in the village is already the only water source for a large area around here. Of course, the small streams, rivers, and small puddles in the forest are not included."

Only then did Jier nod, having a general understanding of Blue Dragonfly Cunzi.

Because of the situation at Big Tree Cunzi before, this time, Jier let the convoy stop far away from the village and let Priest Bata'er go to Blue Dragonfly Cunzi alone to notify the Cunzi Priest and Villagers there.

Jier remained in place with the caravan, watching Bata'er Jiaoshi ride his horse over and call out to the entrance of the village, until he was welcomed inside.

"The Priest has entered the village; let's wait a moment, he should be back soon."

Jier said to the people around him.

Only then did his gaze shift from the village gate to other places, and he soon discovered something unusual.

Although the villagers of Lanse-Qingting had clearly not noticed the arrival of his caravan, the situation outside the village was much the same as when Big Tree Cunzi had discovered them: it was as if they had been halfway through their farm work, dropped everything, and run back into the village.

Some water buckets brought by villagers to irrigate the fields were still left where they were, and some bold birds landed by the buckets, occasionally leaning down to drink water or jumping inside to wet their feathers, using them as a bath.

Jier even saw valuable farm tools left lying between the ridges; one could roughly tell the villagers had been weeding, but what kind of behavior was it to leave farm tools lying in one's own fields?

Did the local villagers really like to store their farm tools this way? The village was full of familiar fellow villagers, so there was no fear of things being stolen, but was it really okay to discard them so carelessly?

But Jier soon realized, how could anyone do such a thing? It was clearly some sudden, unexpected situation that had caused the villagers to panic, drop their tools, and run back into the village.

Thinking this through, Jier quickly swept his gaze across the area and discovered that large swathes of farmland outside Lanse-Qingting were left uncultivated and unwatered in many places; this was not normal.

But Jier's gaze seemed to discover something; in a green eggplant planting area near the west side of the village where trellises were set up, there were shadowy figures hiding among the waist-high green eggplant trellises, seemingly trying to use the vines and large green leaves to conceal themselves.

Because the distance was too great, exceeding the visual range of an ordinary person, even Jier could not see clearly, so he silently recited the Prayer incantation taught by the Great Bird Deity to enhance his vision.

It was not strange for him to use this ability before, but ever since Jier had knocked down the Great Bird Deity's important surviving vessel—that Black Bird-Shaped Wood Carving—he had felt it was strange; when Bata'er Jiaoshi and the others used Divine Art and Prayer, they had to consume the Divine Power in their bodies to release them, yet his own ability to see far away looked like a type of Prayer ability, but he himself did not pay anything extra besides reciting the words?

Then how was he using this ability to enhance his vision? What was the source of the energy?

Was he borrowing power from the Shadow Bird on his body? Or was he borrowing power directly from the Great Bird Deity? If it were the latter, how could that be possible!

He had beaten the Great Bird Deity up, and for the Great Bird Deity to still give him Divine Power to use was simply too absurd; Jier felt it was quite impossible.

But Jier did not know that this kind of thinking would naturally not occur to ordinary deities and the priests under them, but the current situation of the Great Bird Deity was clearly not normal.

He did not know that, different yet similar to that Black Bird-Shaped Wood Carving, he himself had even been recognized by the Great Bird Deity as an important vessel for Its existence in the current world. As long as Jier did not die, did not forget the Great Bird Deity, and kept using the Great Bird Deity's power, the Great Bird Deity would not be completely hunted down and extinguished by the Hunting God Church.

For this reason, the Great Bird Deity had hidden this from Jier, concealing the situation extremely deeply; ordinary people, or even deities, would not discover this point without carefully examining Jier's Spirit and memories.

It can only be said that, in order to survive, an ancient deity can also lower Its posture to think of methods It previously looked down upon.

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