Chapter 548: The Situation at the Enemy Stronghold (Part 3)

As soon as Knight Adjutant Piluo stepped out of the dim wooden house, his eyes were dazzled by the brilliant sunlight outside.

He covered his eyes with his hand and scrambled out of the pit at the doorway of the wooden house. Once out, he leaned against the wall with one hand, shielded his forehead with the other, and slightly opened his eyes to look outside.

Some of the Defeated Soldiers who noticed him immediately averted their gaze upon seeing him look over; they even subconsciously moved away from the Knight Adjutant, laughing and chatting with others as they walked far away.

Frowning slightly, Piluo, who had originally wanted to berate these traitors, could not spare the energy for such a small matter. After letting his eyes adjust to the light, he immediately looked around the house.

He even looked up at the sky, hoping to see something different.

But he was disappointed; everything around was quiet, and all affairs in the camp were in good order. Patrol teams were constantly patrolling the walls in pairs, while the idle Defeated Soldiers in the Stronghold Yingdi were either practicing martial arts, preparing food, or molesting the hurrying female Villagers, even dragging them into their small Tents.

Not far away, some male Villagers who had been permitted to come out worked with their heads down, occasionally casting hateful glances at the surrounding Soldiers, especially those dragging female Villagers into their Tents.

Knight Adjutant Piluo took it all in, but he did not care. He did not care about the villagers' hatred, nor did he care about the alienation of the surrounding Soldiers. He did not care about their lives or deaths at all.

He only cared about whether his master could recover. According to the agreement, they had done what they were supposed to do; it just depended on whether the other party would keep their end of the bargain.

He had opposed the choice of Knight Hartna from the very beginning, but there was no help for it. After the Knight was captured by the enemy, he was threatened—it seemed to be an extremely serious threat that forced Knight Hartna to choose the plan provided by the enemy.

Lead men through the Southern Mountains, restart the abandoned Mine, and dig and smelt enough Metal Ingot before the agreed-upon date.

In exchange, the enemy would release Knight Hartna, provide him with a safe route to withdraw his team from the occupied territory, and provide the Knight with a group of reliable guides to lead them "safely" through the Southern Mountains. And, after receiving enough Metal Ingot on the agreed-upon date, they would give Knight Hartna a special potion to heal his body—the 【Lizardman Transformation Potion】.

This famous transformation potion was originally a demi-human transformation potion that could allow the user to transform into a non-human race for a duration of one or several days. During the effect, the user could gain some of the innate racial abilities of that demi-human race.

But later, people discovered that Lizardmen were born with extremely strong self-healing abilities. Whether it was severe Viscera injuries, limb disabilities, or even partial brain loss, Lizardmen could heal themselves rapidly as long as they had enough food.

Therefore, people soon felt that compared to transforming into other races and gaining little temporary help in strength, temporarily transforming into a Lizardman was actually a disguised treatment method that could easily heal one's own injuries.

This was much more convenient than taking a Potion or having the Church use a Healing Divine Art.

Especially since the former two each had their own limitations.

Healing Potions are often primarily for replenishing the blood lost by the human body; most contain drugs that stimulate the body and mind, allowing a Warrior injured and bleeding in battle to stop the bleeding, replenish blood, and quickly restore combat effectiveness after drinking. But for physical damage, although they also have a healing effect, they are generally not known for this.

And while higher-level Magic Potion are more effective, Magic Potion are hard to find. Alchemists won't make a bottle of hard-to-sell Healing Magic Potion in a month or two, and the potions often have a shelf life. Once the safe drinking period is over, even the Alchemists themselves won't drink the Magic Potion they made.

Who knows what kind of adverse reactions there might be after drinking it.

It might not heal the person, but instead kill them outright.

The Healing Divine Art of the Church Priests also has its shortcomings.

First, the user must be on good terms with a certain deity's church; if the relationship is not good, the Priest will not expend their own Divine Power to heal a certain Knight or Warrior. Secondly, although the Healing Divine Art is miraculous, it ultimately consumes the physical nutrients of the person being healed.

The greater the physical damage, the more of the body's fat and stored nutrients are consumed during healing. Minor injuries are fine; one can replenish them by sleeping more and eating a few more meals. But when the body is severely damaged, unless the Healing Divine Art uses a large amount of Divine Power to replace the necessary body substances, the person will become several sizes thinner after one healing.

So compared to other common treatment methods, this 【Lizardman Transformation Potion】 is exceptionally convenient. During the process of transforming into a Lizardman, one just needs to eat more, and no matter how severe the injuries on the body are, they will soon be healed.

Furthermore, there is no need to rely on a deity's church, nor is there a need to have a Church Priest by one's side at all times.

Anytime, anywhere, one can drink it immediately upon obtaining the potion. And compared to Magic Potion, the transformation potion is in a critical state between a potion and a Magic Potion. If you call it a potion, it has the miraculous effects of a Magic Potion; if you call it a Magic Potion, its production is much simpler than a Magic Potion. Legend has it that a qualified pharmacist can make it using only a few materials.

It does not involve complex Magic or Magic Material changes, so even a pharmacist can start making it.

The Knight Adjutant quickly took in everything in the Jiedian, but did not find what he was looking for.

Recalling the instructions of Knight Hartna, he immediately squinted his eyes and looked up at the sky.

Unlike other parts of the Southern Province, in the Southern Mountains, even in the edge of the forest regions, there are clouds and rain, and because of the changeable climate, it can rain at any time.

Piluo looked at the surrounding treetops, the sky, and the clouds, wishing that what he was looking for would suddenly pop out and appear before his eyes.

But everything seemed to be no different from normal conditions?

The wind blew through the treetops, causing them to sway slightly.

Most of the sky was clear and blue, and those with good eyesight could see very far.

Some clouds near the mountains were absorbing moisture while unceremoniously bringing rain to the forest beneath them.

Piluo looked at the rain from those small clouds and couldn't help but frown, because when they had passed through the Southern Mountains before, it was these seemingly small rain clouds that often brought no small amount of trouble to the team.

Don't look at these rain clouds as small; compared to the mountains, they are only a tiny size. But their volume and the rainwater stored inside often exceed human imagination. When they really float over the team's heads, even the light can be blocked out.

Daytime can turn into night.

And then comes the sudden, violent downpour.

Everyone in the team would be drenched by the heavy rain and then washed away by the landslides and floods that came at any time. The originally clear small river in the forest would also instantly turn into a terrifying, roaring river.

And some channels in the forest that seemed low-lying and easy to walk through were actually flood discharge channels for these sudden rainstorms. The first few casualties of the team came from their initial carelessness in letting the team walk through these seemingly easy-to-walk channels.

"Nothing? Nothing at all? Could it be a mistake?"

Knight Adjutant Piluo muttered to himself, but he suddenly thought, could it be that the Knight was not mistaken, and someone had indeed come, but the other party had not sought them out, but instead found the actual leader of the team at this time?

Found that damned traitor! That guy who blasphemed loyalty!

The more he thought about it, the more he felt it was possible. After all, the other party in the agreement only wanted this batch of Metal Ingot, and it was hard to say whether the ownership of these Metal Ingot currently belonged to Knight Hartna or the actual manager of the Soldiers.

Logically speaking, the Knight Lord of this team of Soldiers was Knight Hartna. It was Knight Hartna who gathered them in the territory, trained them, and armed them. Although the bulk of the money for the weapons and equipment on these Soldiers came from Knight Hartna's superior—Baron Beliers—Knight Hartna had also contributed part of the funds to prepare these fine weapons and equipment.

Therefore, the bulk of the war exploits, captured enemies, and looted wealth obtained by this team should be owned and controlled by Knight Hartna.

But after all, that is logically speaking; many times, things are not decided by logic.

Ever since Knight Hartna's health had been getting worse by the day, even though everyone understood that the reason Knight Hartna's health was getting worse was because he fought on the front lines in place of others, making his injuries increasingly severe.

But even so, these Soldiers still gradually encroached upon the various powers of Knight Hartna.

From the logistics management of the team to the distribution of the harvest after defeating Monsters, to interfering with command during battle, and finally, they even snatched away the power to decide where to go and what to do.

Knight Hartna had told him that he had originally planned to reach this Mine, let everyone go down to dig out enough Mineral Ore, and smelt it.

As long as they reached the quantity agreed upon with the other party, they would not need to do anything else.

But when the management power of the team was all taken away, these things changed their flavor and direction.

The Soldiers attacked a village nearest to this place and captured all the Villagers of the entire village, regardless of gender or age.

They threw all these Villagers into the Mine and made them replace the Soldiers to go down and dig.

And the Soldiers used the food seized from the other party's village to threaten them into working, with everyone having to eat the food. They even used this food to oppress these Villagers, making the women among the Villagers serve them.

Everything in the original plan was in chaos; more and more Mineral Ore was dug, and more and more Metal Ingot were smelted.

Although it was not explicitly stated, Knight Adjutant Piluo knew that the damned Soldier Captain had been frantically producing these Metal Ingot ever since he learned that the other party in the agreement needed them.

Because that person wanted to exchange these Metal Ingots for more and more wealth.

And he himself could accomplish this matter without expending much energy.

"That person is likely not planning to exchange the Metal Ingots for the 【Lizardman Transformation Potion】 at all. Because for that person, a Knight who cannot live is what he needs."

Thinking of this, Piluo gritted his teeth fiercely and strode toward the wooden house where the other party was located.

He was going to question them, no, to be safe, he was going to investigate to see if the agreed-upon person had really arrived and had linked up with that Captain. If the other party had really done so, then they were not without the power to fight back on their side.

Even though Knight Hartna was seriously injured, as long as he drank the last bottle of 【Courage Potion】, he could still kill the disobedient Soldiers in a short time.

And his, Piluo's, skills were about the same as the other party's; if he launched a sneak attack, he might be able to kill the other party in one blow.

As long as that damned rebel died, the agreed-upon person would have no choice but to trade with them.

As long as they could obtain the 【Lizardman Transformation Potion】, the wounds on Knight Hartna's body would be able to heal, and once they healed, all troubles would no longer be troubles.

Piluo thought this way, thinking so naively.

Jier stood on the treetop, his gaze naturally seeing an enemy walking out of the wooden house.

The armor worn by this enemy was very different from the armor of the Defeated Soldiers; compared to the uniform standard Metal Armor Plate Soldier Armor worn by the soldiers, this person's armor looked more like?

Jier raised the emblem cloth in his hand and discovered that the Cavalryman's attire on it was not much different from the attire of the enemy walking out of the wooden house at this moment.

"A Cavalryman?"

Jier asked in confusion, then he looked carefully at the entire Jiedian and found a post for tethering animals, but there were no animals or livestock present at this time.

He understood as soon as he thought about it; this was the post used by the four Plowing Oxen from the enemy's grain transport team in the morning.

And excluding those four Plowing Oxen, there were no other large livestock in the enemy's entire Jiedian.

Let alone horses, even another Plowing Ox could not be found.

"Where is his horse?"

Jier pondered for a moment: "A Cavalryman without a horse, then that Knight's warhorse also seems to not exist?"

He thought about it, and from the intelligence obtained previously, it was indeed never mentioned where that Knight Hartna's warhorse had gone; most likely, the Knight's warhorse had perished in the battle against the enemy general on the battlefield last year.

And a Knight without a warhorse would have his combat effectiveness drop by a large margin.

This was equally applicable to Jier; whether he was riding Tianxuecao or not, both in terms of impact and mobility, it was far incomparable.

With a warhorse, a Knight could use mobility to occupy the initiative in battle, able to fight and run, maneuvering at any time. The enemy could only be beaten unilaterally and would find it difficult to land effective strikes on Jier.

Of course, when fighting for one's life at close range, whether there was a warhorse or not did not matter.

"This is actually good news. However, in the Forest, warhorses are of no use anyway. Otherwise, I could ride Tianxuecao to break through this place myself."

Jier shook his head, gave up on the daydream, and waited for Big Nose to bring him news.

However, Jier also noticed that the unidentified Cavalryman who came out of the second wooden house, after looking at the Jiedian for a while, walked toward the fourth wooden house on the west side.

Big Nose ran back at this time and used woof-woof barks to tell Jier that the third wooden house on the west side was packed full of bagged grain.

Jier understood as soon as he thought about it; this grain was transported from Changmai Village. And with so much grain stored here, the enemy still had to send out a grain transport team; it looked like they intended to live here for a long time?

And the large quantity of grain in the house was also mostly forced by the Defeated Soldiers, who demanded the poor Villagers to carry it on their backs when they escorted the Villagers to this place.

This was clearly the Villagers' own grain; these hateful Defeated Soldiers not only demanded the Villagers go to the trouble of carrying it over, but also unreasonably demanded the Villagers go down into the mines and use the excavated Mineral Ore to exchange for the grain that was originally their own.

Even some Villager families who had difficulty obtaining Mineral Ore had to endure humiliation, using the bodies and dignity of the women in their families to exchange for the grain that was originally theirs.

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