Chapter 497: The Smelly Priest Bata'er, The Grain Depot

Jier identified the direction and carefully walked toward the position from which he had jumped in.

He did not know if those Defeated Soldiers had set up alarm devices in the village or hidden sentries, so Jier had to sneak along the shadows of the farmers' buildings on both sides to reach the perimeter wall.

It stank to high heaven here; not even the Defeated Soldiers were willing to go near the place where feces were dumped, all choosing to stand guard at perimeter wall sentry posts further away. This resulted in the sentry post on top of the culvert being completely unmanned.

Jier noted this down; although it was of no use for tomorrow morning's battle, in the future, when he attacked similar villages and towns, he could absolutely have people launch an attack from such a place.

Seeking advantages and avoiding harm is human nature; it is not something that can be covered up by good training.

"Priest? Priest Bata'er?" Standing in the shadow closest to the culvert where the feces were dumped, Jier covered his mouth with his hand to direct his voice and whispered toward the culvert ahead.

As soon as he called out, a hand swayed in the deep culvert; Jier had sharp eyes, and even though the surrounding lighting was insufficient, he still saw it.

Jier carefully approached, but just as he was about to reach out to pull Priest Bata'er up from inside, he was driven away by the smell on Priest Bata'er.

"Hey, hey, hey, warrior? Warrior Jier?" Priest Bata'er was particularly troubled; he saw Jier approach two or three times, only to retreat each time and leave him there.

With no other choice, Priest Bata'er had to extend his hands to brace against the black, dark walls of the culvert on both sides, use his hands to touch those black-colored, highly suspicious substances, exert force with both hands to lift himself up, then step his feet onto the sides to brace himself, then move his hands, then move his feet, and finally flop onto the ground outside.

At this moment, Jier did not know where he had found a piece of wood and extended it toward the priest's face.

Priest Bata'er grabbed it with annoyance, and then this piece of wood quickly dragged him out and hauled him all the way into the shadows of the surrounding farmers' houses.

"I thought you had abandoned me, Warrior Jier, simply because the place I was in looked dirty." Priest Bata'er stood up and said with annoyance. He rubbed his feet hard in the yellow soil on the ground and also grabbed two handfuls of dirt to scrub his hands vigorously.

This method, which did not look like much, was actually very effective; soon, the suspicious substances that had stained Priest Bata'er's boots and hands were rubbed off.

"It's not a question of whether it's dirty or not, Priest. Hey, don't come near me. It's the smell, do you understand the smell? My nose is very sensitive. I can tolerate ordinary stenches, but do you understand how heavy the smell is from the feces-dumping culvert in your village that hasn't been properly cleaned for years?"

Jier pinched his nose, not daring to get close to Priest Bata'er, who was still covered in the smell.

Hearing Jier's words, Priest Bata'er raised his hand to smell himself, but he didn't smell anything too disgusting, which made him feel a bit helpless: "There's no smell? Don't worry, because it hasn't been used for a while, so neither the cesspit outside the village wall nor the dumping culvert inside the wall is very dirty. There isn't much inside. The little that is there has dehydrated and solidified at the bottom of the cesspit; stepping on it is firmer than the mud bricks of a house."

Jier hurriedly raised his hand to stop Priest Bata'er from saying anything more. It wasn't as if he hadn't seen similar things; wasn't the swamp in the south of Kendall City created by Kendall City's sewage system? His first pot of gold was earned by hunting slime monsters there.

But today, Jier learned that there is a big difference between one sewage system and another.

Kendall City had an ingenious sewage system, which simply didn't seem like something a remote town in another world should have, while the towns in other places, although their level of garbage and feces treatment wasn't very high, were at least within a range Jier could tolerate.

Until today, facing Priest Bata'er, who had just bravely crawled out of a cesspit, Jier had completely admitted defeat.

Although he understood that this was mostly related to his various sensory organs becoming sensitive after Knight Training, the moment he thought about Priest Bata'er walking boldly on the smelly and hard feces inside the cesspit, he felt a wave of nausea.

"Ugh..." The more Jier thought about it, the more nauseated he felt. He hurriedly waved his hand at the unenthusiastic priest: "How about you change this priest's robe you're wearing? Find a way to change your shoes? Also, wash your hands a few more times, how about that? If you only rely on rubbing them with the dirt on the ground, I won't shake hands with you!"

Jier suggested, and his attitude was serious.

With no other choice, Priest Bata'er had to take off his boots and the robe on his body, wearing only the close-fitting fine linen clothes under the robe.

"Hands! Wash your hands twice with water too!" Jier pointed at the priest's pair of hands.

But this farmer's house had no well, and the water vat for storing water was completely empty. The two had no choice; before conducting reconnaissance inside the village, they had to find a well to draw water for the priest to wash up!

There were three wells in Changmai Cunzi, basically arranged evenly in a triangular pattern at three locations in the village.

Because Priest Bata'er judged that one well was within the area where the village was on fire, there was no need to look for that well. Even if the well wasn't crushed by the collapse of the burnt building debris, it was estimated that a large amount of ash fell into the well during the fire, and without careful cleaning, that well could not be used.

Therefore, the two of them could only go to the other two places to take a look.

"But if there are only two wells in the village, then such places are likely guarded by the enemy, right? Priest, before you wash your hands, please don't get your hands too close to me?"

As Jier spoke, he warned Priest Bata'er righteously not to get too close.

The idea of wanting to tease Warrior Jier was immediately seen through; Priest Bata'er shrugged and stepped back two paces.

He carried his boots and the bundled-up robe in his hands, and the belt and other tool leather bags that were originally on the robe had also been transferred to his current person. This actually had no effect on the priest's combat power; as long as the Agricultural God Wooden Statue was held in his hand, he could easily defeat many enemies who underestimated him.

"Turn left ahead, at the side of that villager's house, where there is a place paved with stones, that is the well. But you are right, warrior, those bad guys will probably arrange for people to watch by the well."

The priest pointed out the location of the well and then affirmed Jier's judgment.

But in reality, no one was guarding the well.

This made Jier feel a bit discouraged; he had overestimated this group of Defeated Soldiers, and he had also overestimated this group of people stationed in Changmai Cunzi. Perhaps in the initial period when Changmai Cunzi was captured, there might have been people watching here, but after these many days had passed, and no danger had come to Changmai Cunzi, these soldiers clearly would not think that the perimeter sentries had been discovered, and that no one in the village would sneak in here.

Jier still had a few bags of Poison Mushroom Powder, and he was considering whether to pour these Poison Mushroom Powders, which would cause various different symptoms after being consumed, into the well to let these people have a good time.

But considering that if there were not many people here, he would launch a direct attack tomorrow at dawn, it was unlikely that he would find an opportunity to make everyone drink the water in this amount of time.

Thus, Jier gave up the opportunity to use these Poison Mushroom Powders at this time.

"Find a wooden bucket, draw some water, and wash yourself well, Priest Bata'er!" Jier said to the priest.

Priest Bata'er threw his original boots and robe on the ground, searched back and forth in the farmer's house next to the well, and finally found a wooden bucket for holding water. Then he carefully went to the well, lowered the water-drawing bucket on the windlass, and then carefully turned the windlass without making too much noise to bring up the bucket that had already drawn water.

But the water-drawing, which was usually simple, made a slightly harsh creaking sound as it turned because the well's windlass had not been properly maintained. This startled Priest Bata'er, and he stopped his hand, not daring to draw water in this quiet night anymore.

But Jier narrowed his eyes and whispered to the priest: "Don't stop! Stopping the water-drawing because of the fear of being discovered is actually very suspicious! If the enemy is confident in their own defense and vigilance, they are unlikely to suspect that the internal well for drawing water is not being used by their own people."

After being reminded by Jier, Priest Bata'er immediately realized and continued to turn the handle on the windlass, and soon drew up a small bucket of well water.

"Again, don't worry that normal things like drawing water will be discovered by the enemy; how could this be abnormal? Don't those Defeated Soldiers drink water? Don't they draw water to wash up? Right, Priest, continue."

Jier hid in the shadows and encouraged Priest Bata'er to continue drawing water.

Sure enough, as Jier said, even though the windlass for drawing water made a creaking, unpleasant sound for a long time, the Defeated Soldiers stationed in the village and responsible for night vigilance did not express any doubts about this.

Because people have to drink water when they are thirsty, and there was only one small river near Changmai Cunzi, it was impossible to go out of the village to fetch water in the middle of the night, so they could only draw water from the wells in the village. Perhaps the only suspicious thing was that the priest did not light a torch to illuminate while drawing water.

But in the eyes of the vigilant soldiers looking over from around, it was also possible that the person drawing water was too lazy to light a torch; anyway, one wouldn't be so stupid as to fall into the well while drawing water in the dark, right?

So even if the soldier responsible for secret vigilance on the church in the center of the village noticed movement at the well in the southeast of the village and took out a Telescope to scout, he could only see a blurry shadow fetching water by the well because of the night and the fact that the other party did not light a torch.

"What a lazy guy. It's lucky it's in the village; if he dared to draw water in the dark in the wild, humph, I guess he would have disappeared somehow." This soldier responsible for secret vigilance complained and then stopped caring. He enviously cast the Telescope toward the direction of a farmer's house on the north side of the village where everyone lived.

That farmer's house was chosen by them as a station point, and those who were not on rotation could rest there. Simple rest was boring; to appease them and make them stay here honestly, the Captain even handed over ten female villagers from the captured villagers to them.

This made these soldiers, who were under great pressure, extremely excited, and they had been continuously abusing these ten female villagers for these past few days.

It was not until three of them died from the torture that they gradually calmed down, carefully protected the remaining seven female villagers, and internally established a strict rotation system; only after completing the boring days of perimeter vigilance work would they have half a day to step onto the third floor of that building and have fun with the women.

At other times, they were not allowed to step onto the third floor of the room at all.

In fact, some soldiers did not need these captured women to relieve pressure so much; in the army, many soldiers naturally unlocked the means of mutual comfort between the same sex due to physical and mental pressure. (In the real world, many armies are like this, such as the ancient Greek Spartan army, the ancient Roman army, and even the current "corrupt country" of Britain; such things are very common in the army, and the United States is the same.)

Priest Bata'er drew water, felt his way in the dark, and carefully washed his hands and feet. He also didn't know where he found a Pig Hair Brush to brush the outside of his boots, and used water to brush clean the places on his robe that had been accidentally stained.

"Is this okay now? You smell it, there's no smell at all."

Bata'er Jiaoshi looked helpless: "Warrior Jier, you are simply wasting time. If we had this time, perhaps we would have already started heading back by now."

Jier cracked a joke: "Heading back while stinking?"

The Priest did not speak; he pointed to the building in the village with firelight closest to them at that moment, the Grain Warehouse on the south side of the village. It was only two Farmer courtyards away from them, very close.

"Let's go," Jier said, and then the two of them pressed against the Fence of a Farmer's courtyard, using the cover of these buildings to carefully move toward the Grain Warehouse.

"The Grain Warehouse is a very important building in the village; it even cost more manpower and materials to build than my Church," the Priest whispered to Jier by way of introduction.

They were now on the second floor of a Farmer's house next to the Grain Warehouse, standing in the shadows of the room, peering at the side of the Grain Warehouse that could barely be seen outside.

The front of the Grain Warehouse had raised lighting braziers, so it could naturally be seen more clearly, but it would require moving to another Villager's house directly facing the Grain Warehouse, which was troublesome, so they did not do so.

From the side, they could also roughly see the scale of the Grain Warehouse and the guard situation on one side.

"The Grain Warehouse has only one entrance and exit, right at the front. It is divided into five levels inside..."

Before he could finish, Jier said in surprise: "This building, it can actually be divided into five levels?"

"What do you mean? Didn't I say, the Grain Warehouse is one of the most important buildings in the village; one level above ground, two levels above that, and two levels underground. The grain inside is enough for the Villagers to eat until it rots!"

Bata'er Jiaoshi heard the disdain in Jier's tone and immediately explained.

"Alright, alright, I understand, I understand." Jier scratched his head and then asked: "Then there are only two people at the front door, but even a fool knows it's impossible for there to be only two people in this key building. Will the other guards be inside?"

"Most likely they are inside. Every level inside has a place specifically for guards to watch and rest, mainly to prevent the Grain Warehouse from having a rat infestation. In the past, people came here to patrol back and forth every day; now I don't know if there is still anyone inside."

Jier carefully looked through the window at the gate of the Grain Warehouse, then his gaze moved to the top of the Grain Warehouse, as well as the surrounding sides and back: "Does this Grain Warehouse really only have one entrance and exit path at the front?"

The Priest was a bit puzzled, and also a bit hesitant.

Jier continued to guess: "What about the roof? The roof of the Grain Warehouse is built of wooden planks. Although it looks like those planks have been treated, they still need to be replaced every few years, right? And one must also guard against various types of rats digging through the roof to enter the warehouse. So, shouldn't the roof of the Grain Warehouse have a passage that can enter the interior of the Grain Warehouse?"

Bata'er Jiaoshi let out a breath and looked at Jier with an expression of disbelief: "How on earth did you guess that, Warrior Jier?"

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