Chapter 482: Killing the First Defeated Soldier

To avoid making too much noise by stepping on the dry leaves and twigs beneath his feet, Jier simply pressed his soles to the ground and slid as he walked!

Although this still could not prevent the faint sound of moving and pushing aside the leaves and twigs, the noise was far less than when he had been carelessly crushing them before.

Jier followed the path dragged out by the Defeated Soldiers as they handled the corpses of the dead Villagers, and it did not take long before he discovered the Temporary Yingdi the Defeated Soldiers had set up in the very center of this Shulin.

He did not act directly, but instead stayed dozens of meters away, with plenty of tree trunks providing cover, and carefully observed the situation over there.

At the same time, Jier slightly removed his Helmet and pricked up his ears to listen to the sounds from that direction.

Jier saw that this so-called Temporary Yingdi was truly small, with only about three two-person Tents standing there. Surrounded by the Tents was an unlit campfire, and the Defeated Soldiers had swept the ground of their little camp spotlessly clean, exposing the dry soil underneath and leaving not a single bit of combustible material on the camp floor.

Looking at it this way, they had clearly anticipated that setting up a camp in a dry Shulin could lead to being burned to death, but they did not choose to build the camp outside the Shulin, insisting instead on building it inside; this was clearly because it was more concealed and in a straight line, closer to Lanse-Qingting Cunzi.

Compared to setting up the camp behind the Shulin, which would require going around or through the entire Shulin every time they acted, by building it here, they only needed to cross half the Shulin to have a direct line of sight to Lanse-Qingting Cunzi.

Furthermore, when a person is inside a Shulin looking out, they can see outside, but people outside cannot see into the Shulin.

These guys could be considered to have some ability.

Besides the Tents and the unlit campfire, Jier also saw two adult males kneeling by the campfire without any clothing, and four Soldiers standing or sitting, surrounding the two kneeling Villagers and saying something.

In the short time Jier was observing, he saw those Soldiers casually insulting and beating the two Villagers. The Villagers seemed to have their hands and feet bound, so other than maintaining their kneeling posture, they could only let out low groans without any further reaction.

"Boring, I'm going to relieve the Scout." A Defeated Soldier who had hit the Villagers a few times felt bored, and after urinating on the bodies of the two Villagers, he picked up his weapon, said a word to the others, and walked toward the direction of the village.

"Be careful! A group of people arrived today and actually entered the village directly. I don't know if that's the rescue the village called for, but the village will definitely take action later." A Soldier who was sitting and cutting food with a Dagger reminded him, and the Soldier going to relieve the other waved his hand without saying much.

Jier narrowed his eyes, feeling that the number of enemies was wrong.

There were four at the scene, and considering there was one, or at most two, responsible for scouting the village situation, that was only six people?

It still did not match the scale of about ten people he had estimated.

But clearly, this was a good opportunity; Jier did not move directly toward the enemy's camp, but instead quietly bypassed their camp and pursued the Defeated Soldier who was going to change shifts.

He intended to eliminate the scattered enemies outside first, and finally deal with the enemy camp that held hostages, so as not to make a commotion when clearing the camp and scare off the other enemies outside.

He did not intend to let any enemy go; these people had caused many innocent deaths and injuries, and were wicked to the core, so they deserved to be killed. At the same time, Jier also wanted to kill some enemies to provide some "nourishment" for his Shadow Bird to grow.

Yes, when the Shadow Bird dealt with the vengeful spirits and lingering obsessions that entangled Jier's spirit or soul, it could obtain a certain degree of improvement, and the simplest way to be entangled by vengeful spirits and lingering obsessions was to kill the enemy with one's own hands.

And since he would not kill ordinary people at will, the lives of these Defeated Soldiers, whom Jier had already stripped of their human rights, were naturally already reserved by him.

"Hmph, you're all going to die anyway, and being able to help me improve my abilities can be considered the only thing with any positive significance you've done after all your evil deeds, right?"

Muttering softly to himself, Jier slightly took down his Hunting Bow, drew an Arrow, and nocked it on the Bowstring.

There were many trees providing cover here, but Jier still chose to use a bow and arrow as his means of attack. For one thing, because of the dry leaves and branches on the ground, whether it was him or those Defeated Soldiers, walking in the Shulin would make a certain amount of noise.

The Defeated Soldiers did not care about this, walking casually and sometimes even deliberately crushing dry branches to make loud snapping sounds for amusement. But Jier could not; if he got too close to engage in close-quarters combat, even if he slid while walking, the noise of his movement would still be heard by the other party at close range.

He was terrified of being discovered by the other party, followed by a shout that would alert all the enemies in the quiet Shulin that someone had come. Whether the enemies would run was one thing, but rescuing the hostages would clearly become very troublesome.

Secondly, Jier was still somewhat confident in his archery skills, and the enemy probably did not want to wear a stuffy Helmet while doing scouting work, so there was no protection above the neck.

As long as he could shoot the other party in the head with one arrow, he could silently take out an enemy in one go.

Just as Jier was preparing to draw his bow and release the arrow, a change occurred.

In front of the Soldier who was going to change shifts, there was first a rustling and snapping sound, and then a figure passed through the trees and approached the Soldier quickly.

"Who!"

This Soldier immediately drew his Long Sword from his waist, stood his ground, and faced the unknown figure approaching quickly from the opposite side with his sword held ready.

"It's me, you idiot."

The person who arrived was blunt, opening their mouth to curse. The Soldier who heard this, however, relaxed: "Oh, it's you. Weren't you scouting those Villagers at the edge of the Shulin with Lan-Jiao? Why did you come back alone?"

"Calling you stupid is an understatement! Use that pathetic brain of yours to think: why are there always two people in a scouting group? It's so that if something is discovered during scouting, one person can continue scouting while the other reports the situation back to the team in time! Idiot, 【expletive】."

The scolded Soldier was embarrassed; he scratched his head, and seeing that it was indeed the Deputy Captain of the scouting team who had approached, he could not find a rebuttal, so he had to say something meaningless to ease the awkwardness: "So that's how it is. I never paid attention to this before, but now I know: scouting is done in pairs, that's the arrangement. By the way, what did you find on your side? Did you need to rush back? We caught two people at noon; those Villagers couldn't possibly be bold enough to come out, could they?"

"Those Villagers won't, but the new outsiders who arrived this afternoon are hard to say. Just a moment ago, a Cavalryman on horseback, likely some kind of Caravan guard, came out of the north gate of the village and left alone toward the north, while a group of people came out of the south gate of the village and headed south."

The scolded Soldier did not care about the "Caravan guard" heading north; his attention was entirely drawn by the group heading south: "A group of people headed south? What are they going south for? Besides that village that turned into ruins, there are no other Humans in the south, right?"

The Deputy Captain of this scouting team shrugged, indicating he did not know: "Who knows? I'm going to tell the Captain and see what he decides. It just so happens that there's only one person on Lan-Ni's side, so you go and take my place."

"Yes! I'll go right away. By the way, the Villagers we caught at noon are really boring; they don't even make a sound when you hit them, each one like a rock. So boring."

Hearing this Soldier's complaint, the Deputy Captain of the scouting team snorted coldly: "Just play with them a little and leave it at that. Don't be like before and beat someone to death! The Captain has set a minimum number of captives for us; if we're short on people, we'll use you to make up the numbers in the end!"

This Soldier was immediately terrified, and he waved his hand with a forced smile: "Haha, forget it. People die in the cave every day; I don't want to go in there, who knows when I'll die. I finally made it through that nightmare of a mountain forest, and I have plenty of time to enjoy myself in the future; don't use me to fill the quota, Deputy Captain."

"Hmph, if you don't want to be used to fill the quota, catch more people next time!"

"Yes, yes, yes, I promise to run faster next time and catch one more to make up for the Villager I played to death before! Just watch my performance next time!"

After some joking and laughing, the two finished talking; one continued to walk toward the outside of the Shulin, while the other quickened his pace toward the Temporary Yingdi.

However, Jier's sensitive ears still heard something interesting.

The Soldier who was going to fill the vacancy for scouting outside the Shulin, after getting a little distance from the Deputy Captain, muttered to himself: "Damn bastard, it's just playing one Villager to death. You were the one who was careless and let a captive escape, causing the difficulty of catching people to increase for everyone else; why don't you fill the quota yourself? Damn it, damn it, damn it!"

And the Deputy Captain of the scouting team, after walking a few steps, also cursed: "There are so many idiots in the team, it's really 【expletive】 hard to lead. Catching people was already getting harder, and then someone 【expletive】 beat one to death. I'll just stuff you into the cave next time and let you go in to work! These stupid people can only do manual labor."

Jier heard their conversation and quiet muttering clearly; although there was a lot of complaining in their words, he still picked up some information.

But now was not the time for him to ponder the intelligence. Jier glanced at the Deputy Captain and found that this person was wearing a Metal Helmet wrapped in animal hide. Although this Helmet could not protect the neck, it at least protected most of the head within the metal, so it would not be easy to kill the other party with one arrow.

Since there was no metal Faceplate protecting the front of the Helmet, if Jier were face-to-face with the other party, it might be possible to use a sneak attack to shoot directly into the other party's face and kill them in one blow.

But now the other party was standing at his side, so this was clearly not feasible.

As for the other enemy, they had no Helmet.

Jier did not think much and quietly pursued the previous Soldier.

After putting a little distance between himself and the enemy Deputy Captain, Jier drew his bow again.

He aimed slightly at the other party's head, calculated the enemy's movement and the flight trajectory of the Arrow in his mind, and then his right thumb released the hooked Bowstring, firing an arrow.

Whoosh—

With a squelch, the Arrow entered from the right side of the back of the other party's head and pierced directly through the left side of the person's face, that is, the left cheek.

This Soldier wanted to scream, but he lost his strength, his hands and feet trembling as he went limp.

Shot through the brain by an arrow, this person was not yet dead, possessing extremely tenacious vitality; after Jier walked over, he discovered that the person's hands and feet were still twitching, though they were already largely uncontrolled.

He gave a cold snort, lifted his foot to step on the person's head, and then gradually applied force.

"This arrow is to avenge the innocent Villager you beat to death, and now, it is time to punish you for your evil deeds."

After Jier finished speaking, he continued to exert force under his foot; the entire head of this Defeated Soldier, who had not yet died completely, was crushed into the ground by him. The dead branches and fallen leaves were somewhat soft, and the top layer of soil was not very dense, but that was all; the earth was dense, and there was no more soft material for the person's head to sink into—on one side was the dense earth, and on the other was the sole of Jier's hard cowhide boot, which was gradually applying force.

First, it deformed slightly, and then, as the force reached a critical point, more than half of the head was directly crushed by Jier.

Looking coldly at the person's shattered brain, Jier rubbed his left foot against the person's messy hair to wipe away the blood and brain matter.

Only then did he carefully examine the armor of these Defeated Soldiers.

At this look, he frowned.

The enemy's upper body wore a leather chest protector inlaid with armor plates; he inspected the plates and found they were composed of sturdy metal, which ordinary swords and blades could not easily damage.

The amount of these plates used was not small, protecting at least the enemy's chest, back, shoulders, upper abdomen, and both flanks. On the shoulders, the enemy also had detachable leather shoulder guards; although they were not as good as the hard cowhide shoulder guards Jier was currently wearing, they still provided sufficient protection against ordinary swords and blades.

The enemy's forearms were covered by a set of arm guards, with the inner side made of leather and the outer side protected by Metal Armor Plates.

One could still see many traces of defense on the plates; Jier examined them carefully and found traces of sword and blade slashes, but there were more small scratch marks.

What kind of animal's sharp claws could leave such deep marks on Metal Armor Plates?

Jier did not know, but he guessed that this kind of animal must count as a fierce beast.

The opponent's lower body was a leather battle skirt, with Metal Armor Plates added to the front to protect the legs and the middle area. Further down, the knees and calves had no further protection, only leather trousers barely protecting those parts.

As for the enemy's boots, Jier discovered that the person had wrapped a piece of fur around them; he unwrapped the entire extra fur and, smelling the person's foul foot odor, realized that the soles of the enemy's boots were basically mostly destroyed, likely forcing them to wrap the boots with animal hide.

"How should I put it? Overall it's quite average, but important defensive positions all have this kind of uniformly mass-produced Metal Armor Plate protection. The more important the place, the more Metal Armor Plates there are, and one only needs to provide a single standardized Metal Armor Plate to barely suffice for most of a Soldier's full-body protection. This is a good approach, though it doesn't suit me personally. Using it for my subordinates, the Warriors, would be an economical and practical plan."

Jier had learned something; considering this Defeated Soldier was previously a Soldier of the Southern Province, it turned out that equipment for mass-equipped Soldiers could rely on this single type of Metal Armor Plate to prepare gear for the majority of Soldiers.

Aside from the Helmet, one only needed to look at the Metal Armor Plates on a Soldier from top to bottom, front to back, to judge exactly how much defensive capability they had.

If there were few plates, one only needed to use a small amount of plates to protect the chest and abdomen of a Soldier wearing Leather Clothing or cloth clothing.

With an average number of plates, one could provide plates on the chest and abdomen and the vital thigh areas of the lower body, just like this Soldier, and the forearm areas that needed to block, which could support the defensive needs of a qualified Soldier.

And if a Soldier were given a sufficient amount of Metal Armor Plates for defense, Jier estimated that, aside from the Helmet, the Soldier's chest, abdomen, back, thighs, calves, shoulders, upper arms, and forearms could all be completely protected by Metal Armor Plates.

To take down such a Warrior or Soldier, one would have to fight with four or five times the number of people. And this was just the change in the quantity of plates, which could produce such an effect.

"A very simple, but very practical method of making armor for ordinary Soldiers." After Jier finished speaking, he stripped the weapons and equipment from the Soldier's body, and after holding them in his hands, his body disappeared; he reappeared later, but the loot in his hands was gone.

"As for the corpse?" Considering the issue of living corpses, Jier used his sword to hack the Soldier's corpse into several pieces and threw them far away into the surroundings.

Without a complete corpse, living corpses basically would not appear.

Moreover, although there were no large animals in this Shulin, there were still small carnivorous animals, so he would just give it to them as dinner.

After dealing with this enemy's corpse, Jier followed the direction the Soldier had been walking and headed forward.

There was still an enemy Scout in the edge of the Shulin, and since the opponent was alone, he could conveniently take care of them.

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? (End of this chapter)