Chapter 538: Beginning the Scout, the Spirit Beast in the Heart

For the entire second day, Jier and the idle Warriors traveled back and forth between the Forward Camp and the Temporary Camp, moving the large quantity of grain transported by the drivers in wagons, as well as the convoy's supplies, bit by bit into the Forward Camp.

Once enough grain bags had been transported to meet Jier's required amount, Xueya Site led the drivers to hide the wagons in a remote spot around the Temporary Camp, and after ensuring they were covered and protected against moisture and rust, he brought the horses over to personally transport a large amount of grain.

If a rescued Villager were to eat enough to be fully satiated and recover their health, they would need to consume nearly one kilogram of grain; without any side dishes, this was considered quite a lot, and naturally, this was how Jier calculated it.

If at least three hundred villagers were rescued, they would consume three hundred kilograms of grain a day. One bag of grain weighed about fifty kilograms, meaning the villagers would consume six bags of grain a day; a semi-old wagon, to avoid harming the Pack Horse, could transport five hundred kilograms of cargo at once, which was ten bags of grain.

Over these two days, the convoy made several trips and finally transported nearly ten tons of grain.

At this time, they had to have each horse carry two bags of grain, slowly transporting the grain from the Temporary Camp to the Forward Camp.

Everyone complained bitterly, but Jier still relied on his prestige to make them complete this work.

When the last bag of sufficient grain was placed on the log rack in the Forward Camp, Jier finally breathed a sigh of relief: "Now, we can begin the scouting work."

Over the past two nights, he had already taught the Warriors the combat methods for squad-based offense and defense; next, during the time he and Xueya Site were out scouting, the Warriors would honestly train in basic martial arts and squad-based offense and defense within the Forward Camp.

The drivers were to take care of Jier's and the convoy's horses, ensuring that these tall horses could maintain their weight and activity levels while being confined in this small Forward Camp. Furthermore, the daily work in the camp, such as fetching water, sanitation, and handling waste in the latrines, was all done by them.

The female villagers who had been rescued and brought along were responsible for everyone's meals, striving to make more durable, hard bread these days; this required an oven, but fortunately, after the ground had been heated by the campfire, it had become much harder and firmer, so mixing it with water to make a small mud oven for temporary use was possible.

Each time the campfire was lit, one only needed to throw large pieces of burning red charcoal into the four sides of the oven, then insert the bread dough; as long as the temperature was controlled, one didn't need to worry about it, and the bread would bake itself.

Freshly baked bread was naturally delicious, and the Warriors and drivers were very satisfied just eating this these days.

As for Bata'er Jiaoshi, he needed to try to recover more of the Agricultural God's Divine Power consumed in previous battles while managing the entire camp; even if each small-group Prayer only recovered a tiny bit of the Agricultural God's Divine Power, every little bit helped, as there would inevitably be people injured or even fatally wounded in future battles.

When that time came, a little more of the Agricultural God's Divine Power might just save the life of one of their own!

On the morning of the third day of establishing the Forward Camp, Jier looked at the spacious Forward Camp, which was gradually reaching a diameter of fifty meters, and nodded with satisfaction; he and Xueya Site finally tidied up their equipment.

There was naturally nothing to say about him; he was still in his old equipment, except that the Hard Cowhide Full-Coverage Armor he wore had an extra layer of dense Metal Armor Plate shell, and his right eye would sometimes eerily flash with a black light, but because few people would look directly at Jier, no one noticed this abnormality.

That was the Shadow Bird, which had finished absorbing the souls of the enemies who died under Jier's hand these days; its power had increased again, and it had already slightly revealed a different aura.

It was just that without experimentation, Jier himself did not know what growth the Shadow Bird's power had achieved; he vaguely knew in his mind that it seemed he had gained a new ability. At the same time, some of the previously mastered abilities seemed to have been strengthened along with the Shadow Bird becoming stronger.

The most obvious one was 【Shadow Concealment】; previously, when turning one hand into a shadow form, it was both difficult and slow, and he didn't know what use this thing had. But now, after checking, Jier discovered that when he used this ability of the Shadow Bird on himself, he could turn any part of his body into a shadow state within a single breath.

This was very powerful, because he had tried it himself; ordinary swords could not hurt the parts of his body that had turned into a shadow state. The place where the sword touched was empty, and even if he reached out with his hand to grab it, he couldn't touch his own body, other than grabbing a mass of black shadow.

Feeling it was interesting, Jier even turned his head into a shadow while sleeping at night, but he immediately lost his vision and hearing; although his thinking ability remained, it still gave him a fright.

Afterward, he dared not experiment with these strengthened abilities again.

At this time, he was fully prepared, and Xueya Site, who was on the side, was not bad either.

These days, besides building the Forward Camp, the Warriors had basically focused their main energy on the captured enemy Soldier Armor. Because the enemy's Soldier Armor could not be fitted to their own Warriors' bodies, everyone mainly found the Base Armor of enemy Soldier Armor that was similar to their own height and build, and then re-threaded the disassembled, cleaned, dried, and oiled Soldier Armor plates onto the Base Armor with thin ropes.

Jier gave them different degrees of armor protection according to each Warrior's different performance in previous battles.

For instance, Aoni and the shield-bearers wore the thickest Soldier Armor, with Metal Armor Plates layered one after another; although this greatly increased the weight of the Armor, the defensive power was impeccable, and even if Jier slashed at them with a sword, he couldn't hurt them, other than knocking the Warriors flying.

Even the Soldier Bow could not penetrate this type of heavy Armor.

Coupled with a Shield, a few such Warriors could play an extremely important role in close-quarters combat.

As for the medium level of Armor protection, it was similar to the previous enemy soldiers; they were protected by Armor all over, but the degree of protection was not high, and one could only say it existed—as for how good the defensive power was, don't ask.

It was enough to defend against several forceful slashes from ordinary swords. This level of Armor was basically equipped by the ordinary Warriors in the team.

Weier and the three archers chose an Armor layout scheme where most of the body was not protected, using Metal Armor Plates only to protect vital parts of the body. Because they needed to maintain the flexibility of their bodies, and their arms and legs required large-scale movements, they could not add extra burdens to many parts of their bodies.

Weier was very satisfied with the Armor he was wearing at the moment: a Chest Armor protecting his torso, a Skirt Armor protecting the vital parts of his lower body, and a Helmet—that was it; his arms and legs had no extra protection, and he didn't need these. He even felt that adding an extra Armor plate to his arm would weaken the speed and force of his arm's swing.

As for Xueya Site, he was currently carrying a folded, plate-covered heavy Armor on his back, while he wore a set of ordinary Soldier Armor, draped with a Plant Concealment Cloak, and carried the captured Crossbow and several quivers of Heavy Crossbow Bolts, looking majestic.

"How is it? This outfit of mine?"

Xueya Site proudly swayed the Plant Concealment Cloak on his body to show everyone, and everyone praised it one after another, saying that this sortie would surely be able to accurately scout the enemy's detailed intelligence, and even eliminate some scattered enemies in advance.

"Since everyone thinks it's good, then let's set off."

Jier had long been unable to wait; if it weren't for confirming that the Forward Camp had to at least get on the right track, he should have scouted the enemy's movements ahead as early as the first day he stepped into the Forest.

Delaying here for two days and two nights had already made Jier's intuition feel uneasy.

But he couldn't leave this place alone and really set off to scout as early as possible; after all, if the Forward Camp wasn't handled well, not only would it be impossible to rest here after rescuing the villagers, but also because in such a harsh Forest environment, without a safe and complete Yingdi, his Warriors would probably not wait for the battle to begin before suffering non-combat casualties due to one reason or another.

This was very serious.

After all, Jier's Warriors basically had no experience living in forest areas and could not perform strict personal protection for themselves.

Unlike their enemies, the Defeated Soldier, regardless of the enemy's morality, at least the fact that the enemy could survive crossing the entire Southern Mountains showed that the enemy possessed rich experience in surviving in mountain and forest areas.

"We are setting off, Priest, look after everyone, let the Warriors focus on training, the drivers take good care of the Yingdi, don't worry about the Mao Maos, they will take care of themselves. Let the female villagers eat more and keep their bodies healthy. As for you, ha, wait for my good news."

After speaking, Jier flicked his Cloak and led Xueya Site out of the temporarily built wall of the Forward Camp.

From the outside, one couldn't even tell there was a Yingdi here.

Except for a clearing in the Forest here and the occasional smoke rising, one couldn't even see it without looking carefully.

This was because Jier had the Warriors smear the wet mud from the ground onto the built wooden walls, then sprinkle a layer of dead branches and leaves on the wet mud to stick; after it dried completely, the wall was completely hidden in the identical environment around it.

Whatever color or appearance the ground had, the Yingdi's wall had the same color and appearance, making it hard to distinguish even when looked at closely with the naked eye.

This greatly ensured the safety of the Forward Camp, and coupled with the circle of Sound Traps specially set up around the perimeter of the Yingdi and the Mao Maos moving around, the Yingdi would know the first time an enemy appeared nearby.

Jier and the other walked step by step in the Forest; after Xueya Site followed Jier in silence for a long while, he finally couldn't help but ask: "Jier, which direction are we moving in? You said you have a special method to accurately find the enemy's location; if you have one, then bring it out!"

Jier smiled and said while walking: "Of course I have one, this is a special ability specially given to me by the great Agricultural God! God-given, do you understand! That was when the Agricultural God came in person and gave me an ability!"

But he then curled his lips: "But this ability clearly doesn't belong to the Agricultural God, and I don't know where the Agricultural God got this ability from."

Speaking of this, Jier looked left and right, as if he had arrived at the place he needed to reach: "It's here. Do you know where this is?"

Xueya Site looked around carefully, but he looked closely at the surrounding big tree trunks, tree roots, towering branches, and the dead leaves and branches all over the ground. He didn't find anything unusual; the surroundings were just an ordinary place in what looked like a very ordinary primeval Forest.

There were curious birds following them in the sky, and there seemed to be small animals hiding around, but other than that, there was nothing different.

"I don't see anything, Jier," Xueya Site replied.

But he then added: "But since you can ask that, obviously this isn't just any random forest ground, right? Don't speak only half the truth, tell me the answer."

Jier smiled and pointed in a direction, which faced the sun; occasionally, a few beams of sunlight passed through the dense forest and projected onto the ground, forming mottled light spots.

Xueya Site looked carefully in this direction, looking again and again, and finally managed to see something.

"Uh, the dead leaves on the ground don't look quite natural; it seems there are places where they've been stepped on and depressed?" he guessed.

Jier pursed his lips: "Is that all you can see? Take another look?"

"I can't see anything else, give me the answer, Jier."

Jier stopped playing coy and pointed to the ground over there: "You were right about one thing; starting from here, the ground to the north has messy footprints, but starting from here, they disappear."

"The people disappeared?" Xueya Site was shocked.

But Jier waved his hand: "You're joking, how could it be that creepy? Actually, it's just that the enemy didn't care about the footprints left by the group walking through here before. But starting from here, the enemy meticulously handled the places they walked, making it impossible for people to see their movement tracks."

"Besides this, there are also scattered traces of bark falling off the tree trunks over there, which are clearly man-made. But starting from here, these traces left by humans on the bark have disappeared."

Xueya Site exclaimed: "They can even control plants!"

Jier rolled his eyes: "It's more like the opponent tightened the Rope tied to the arms and legs of the Villager! This makes it impossible for the Villager who want to lean against the tree trunk to rest to perform those actions."

Jier summarized: "In short, starting from here under my feet, the enemy has carefully eliminated the traces of a large number of people moving; clearly, the enemy has done some professional work. Unless we can move away a layer of dead leaves from a large area of the surrounding ground, it will be very difficult to find the traces of a large number of people moving on the ground. But this is obviously unrealistic; it consumes too much time and isn't worth it."

"And the enemy has also tightened their guard over the captured Villager; the various traces that the Villager subconsciously left before are basically impossible to find now."

"Then what should we do?" Xueya Site asked anxiously.

But after he asked, he realized he had asked a stupid question.

Weren't they just discussing how to find the enemy's tracks, and Jier had already said he had received an ability granted by the God of Agriculture to deal with this very problem.

Therefore, Xueya Site said with a smile: "Jier, what are you waiting for? Why don't you try your ability! Let's see what the great God of Agriculture has given you!"

Jier had the same intention, so he nodded, first closing his eyes slightly, carefully recalling how to activate the divine blessing ability granted by the God of Agriculture.

It didn't seem difficult; the activation method was exceptionally simple.

Jier raised his hands high: "I, at this moment."

"At this place."

"To the Spirit beast in my heart."

"Issue an invitation."

"Come! Come! Come!"

"I need your help!"

"I need to find the enemy's tracks."

"Therefore, respond to my..."

As Jier said this, the pattern of an infant holding a spherical object on his stomach under his armor changed; the spherical pattern in its hands transformed into the image of a dog.

Woof!

A dog's bark seemed to come from the air.

Jier raised his eyebrows and looked around, but he did not see or sense any dog.

"Siter..."

Jier just turned his head, wanting to say something to Xueya Site, but as he turned, he saw a huge dog, stretching its body out, sniffing his companion with a nose the size of a fist.

What a huge dog!

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