Chapter 566: Hunting Party Outing, Xueya Site's Observation

Jier was currently tailing the last batch of relocating Mao Mao, following them into the next level of the abandoned mine tunnel.

The ground here was covered in pockmarks and traces of excavation; the villagers had already swept clean every bit of mineral ore they could find, leaving not a single speck visible to the naked eye.

The Mao Mao were meowing and complaining about the uneven ground; pits and depressions that were ankle-deep or calf-deep to a human were unacceptable craters to the Mao Mao.

After all, they were less than a meter tall, and that was even counting their fluffy ears.

Fortunately, the Mao Mao were tribal warriors who had lived through hard times in the mountains and forests, so small depressions in the ground couldn't really stop them. Complaints aside, the metal they had harvested in this recent period was far more than what they had scavenged or stolen from human-discarded tools at the edge of the forest over the past many years.

Many Mao Mao warriors proudly stroked these metal lumps, feeling that they had truly gotten a great bargain during this time!

A single metal lump like this could easily be traded in the mountains for a hunting ground rich in life, and one hunting ground was enough to support at least twenty-some Mao Mao families in their tribe.

With this massive amount of metal lumps, many Mao Mao who were bad at counting couldn't even calculate how many times they could expand their tribe after returning this time!

"Please organize your hunting parties as soon as possible and set off! When you return, I will let you see what a truly equal trade is!"

Jier curled his lip in disdain: "Instead of the so-called equal trade where those defeated soldiers skim off the top and act stingy."

Subsequently, Jier discussed with the four Mao Mao leaders the method for calculating the harvest of ore and prey, agreeing that a small pile of ore could be exchanged for one plump wild chicken from the forest. Birds smaller than a plump wild forest chicken would be exchanged for a small pile of ore based on their volume and weight after plucking.

Both sides felt they were making a profit.

Jier felt that using a plump wild forest chicken to make soup, as long as a little bit of wheat grain was added, could produce a large pot of chicken soup porridge that would fill many villagers' stomachs. With the replenishment of meat and grease, the villagers' bodies would surely recover quickly. With just a day or two of rest, or even a few consecutive full meals, everyone would likely have the physical strength for long-distance travel in the forest.

Because Jier had discovered the "Messenger of Flame," he did not want to wait a few more days; after all, waiting one more day might lead to changes. Although he still did not know why that "Messenger of Flame" had already arrived at the defeated soldiers' jiedian but had not revealed their identity to trade with the other party, he couldn't keep betting that the other party would never appear or reveal their identity, right?

After all, if the other party suddenly revealed their identity in front of the soldiers and summoned that terrifying magic creation, Jier would not be able to handle the other party's strength while they were allied with the soldiers in the jiedian.

The previously invisible Spirit Dog seemed to have scared off the overly cautious party, but no one knew when they would return.

He could only strive to nurse the villagers' bodies back to health, organize them, and defeat this group of soldiers as quickly as possible to evacuate the Changmai Village villagers from here before the other party returned.

If the other party truly wanted that batch of metal ingots that had already been mined and roughly smelted, Jier could even leave these metal ingots for them. Although these metal ingots were indeed important war supplies at this time when war had broken out, for Jier, completing the mission of rescuing the villagers was the most important thing.

The road of rescue that he had embarked upon with Priest Bata'er had already been too long, too far, and too distant.

He originally should have followed the Kendall Army from Montoka City in the Western Province, heading east, passing through White Stone Pass, crossing the provincial border that no one dared to provoke in peace, passing through Dorn Town, and then quietly crossing the chaotic Southern Province to reach the agreed-upon rendezvous point with the Southern Province Noble Coalition to reorganize and prepare for battle!

If Jier hadn't agreed to rescue the Changmai Village villagers this time, he estimated that he would have been eating monster meat the entire way, and the accumulation of Life Energy in his body would likely be much higher than it was now.

But the improvement in strength might not necessarily be as strong as it was now.

Because on this journey, he had fallen out with the Great Bird deity and defeated its only remaining important dependency, gaining the ability of the Shadow Bird.

This ability was truly powerful; not only could it easily eliminate the lingering soul entanglement on Jier's soul, but it could also provide him with several new and practical abilities.

Especially the aggressive drive of the shadow Divine Power, which had granted Jier rare supernatural power. This was different from the sun's Blessing Ability on the Hunting Sword, and different from the strange ability on the Yueshui Skull Two-Handed Axe; this was an ability he had completely mastered. When Jier told it to go east, it would not go west.

When he had it imbued onto a weapon, the weapon would gain an attack bonus from the shadow Divine Power.

When he had it go out to patrol, it could turn into his eyes, flying out like a drone to conduct reconnaissance for him from a distance.

There were other abilities as well; although they were not very easy to use right now, as the Shadow Bird's strength grew, they would inevitably become more powerful in the future.

Jier felt that now that he had the Knight's Life Energy, plus the Shadow Bird's ability, his future achievements could not possibly be lower than Knight Kela's. Although the powerful strength Knight Kela displayed on the way south made the current Jier feel out of reach, Jier felt that if given a few years, he would not be weaker than the current Knight Kela.

After agreeing with the Mao Mao leaders on the trading items for ore and prey, Jier personally watched them organize three Mao Mao hunting parties, preparing to set off while it was still dark.

"Why not organize one more? I see you have quite a lot of manpower, don't you?"

Jier scratched his head and asked, puzzled.

A Mao Mao leader gave Jier a look of disdain and, without answering, pointed into the mine tunnel at the Mao Mao warriors who were either unconscious or awake and rubbing their injured parts. If their numbers were added up slightly, they could just organize another hunting party.

"Ah, hahahaha, yes, yes, yes, that makes sense. Ah, there's no helping it, they were going for the kill against me at the time, aiming for my life. The fact that I only beat them up and knocked them unconscious was already the result of me not using my full strength."

Jier shook his head with an awkward expression, while the several Mao Mao leaders around him looked skeptical. They felt that it was already absurd enough for a human like Jier to defeat a team of Mao Mao warriors without injury, and now Jier was saying he hadn't even used his full strength just now?

Really?

Seeing that they didn't believe him, Jier had no choice. He couldn't just disappear and reappear on the spot, put on his full-coverage armor, and come out fully armed to show them, could he?

Wouldn't many of his secrets be exposed then?

Who knew if these Mao Mao were big-mouthed and would leak his information, making everyone know.

Jier shrugged and followed the Mao Mao hunting party out of the mine, standing at the entrance and watching them aggressively wake up the sleeping defeated soldiers, making those defeated soldiers open the jiedian gate for their hunting party.

Only then did Jier see for the first time how the jiedian gate was opened and closed.

"A bit troublesome. I have to think of a way; otherwise, with this four or five-meter-high wooden fence and this gate that requires many people to open from the inside, my warriors won't be able to get in."

Jier watched those defeated soldiers lazily assemble, working together to pull the ropes to lift the several tree trunks that served as the gate, and then slowly lower them to block the only entrance and exit of the jiedian.

At this moment, the completely shadowy Spirit Dog, Big Nose, ran over from nearby, woofing and barking to report to Jier, then loyally came over and nudged Jier with its wet nose.

"No trace of the other party around the jiedian, right? Well done, good dog. Whether this operation succeeds or not depends on you."

Jier touched Big Nose's nose and rubbed his dog head vigorously.

This left the few villagers who were following Jier's orders and guarding here confused. They didn't know what Jier was doing, rubbing and patting at empty air all by himself.

But they were too embarrassed to ask, so they just watched in bewilderment.

After Jier finished rubbing the dog's head, he noticed the villagers under his command watching him, so he walked over and gave an awkward smile: "My arm was uncomfortable just now, so I was just moving it around! If your arms are tired from mining, you should also pay attention to moving and relaxing your arm muscles, otherwise, you'll either get cramps and scream in pain, or excessive activity will also cause physical discomfort."

"You can tell this by urinating."

Jier then spoke about how excessive activity would lead to the excretion of dark brown urine, which was a sign of poor physical condition. Of course, Jier certainly wouldn't tell them the specific underlying reasons, like cell damage or anything; he said this, and he didn't know if these villagers, who barely knew any characters, would believe him.

Jier stood at the mine entrance with nothing to do, so he approached a nearby campfire and, using the light from the fire, waved toward the north side of the jiedian.

He didn't know if Xueya Site on the north side of the jiedian had noticed him.

But he had been missing since the afternoon, so he had to show his intelligence and news to his companion, right?

"Jier, that guy, I knew it, heh!"

On a large tree at the edge of the forest on the north side of the defeated soldiers' jiedian, Xueya Site, wearing a plant concealment cloak, shook his head and complained in a low voice.

Jier hadn't returned since he chased after that Mao Mao hunting party in the afternoon, especially since that Mao Mao party had returned to the enemy jiedian before Jier, which made Xueya Site even more at a loss.

He didn't know where Jier had gone or what he had done.

He also didn't know what he should do now: continue to scout and monitor from the same spot? Or go out into the forest to look for Jier? Or report Jier's disappearance back to the Forward Yingdi to Priest Bata'er?

Who knew what Jier was doing right now!

In such a mountain forest, with grass and trees everywhere, as long as one puts on this Plant Concealment Cloak, even if Jier were crouching right behind him, he reckons he wouldn't be able to find the other person.

"Forget it, if I go back alone, what am I supposed to tell the Priest? Oh, I lost Jier? Or Jier left everyone behind and ran off alone?" Muttering to himself, Xueya Site ultimately chose to honestly wait where he was.

Although he said he was waiting where he was, he still had nothing better to do than continue using the Telescope in his hand to peek at the Defeated Army Soldier Yingdi not far away; after getting the hang of this job, Xueya Site actually found it quite interesting.

He marked the Defeated Soldiers patrolling the walls of the enemy Jiedian, and using their different weapons and equipment, he recorded them from one to eight. He discovered that, despite Soldier No. 1 and Soldier No. 2 patrolling together, the two of them never spoke during the patrol; it seemed they were neither superior and subordinate nor complete strangers, but rather had a conflict. The two were perfectly normal when talking to other soldiers, but when patrolling together, they completely ignored their companion.

"I wonder what they had a conflict over?" Xueya Site speculated. Was it for wealth? Or a woman? Or perhaps there was hatred between the two, but because of their duties, they couldn't just outright kill the other?

Xueya Site did not know.

As for the soldiers patrolling as No. 3 and No. 4, they were very talkative; not only would they speak while patrolling as a pair, but they would also chat with other soldiers they encountered during their patrol.

Many times, Soldier No. 5 and Soldier No. 6 would set off late, but they could always catch up to them halfway and would complain about it for a good while.

Yet those two still went their own way, as if they had an endless supply of things to say.

Soldier No. 5 and Soldier No. 6 were very normal; they were meticulous while patrolling, carefully checking any movement inside or outside the Jiedian, and their combination also walked very fast—in the time it took others to circle the Jiedian once, they had already walked it twice.

As for the soldiers patrolling as No. 7 and No. 8, they were mysterious; they would often split up while walking and disappear somewhere. Xueya Site watched them carefully for a long time, and it wasn't until after the sun set that he realized these two soldiers were light-fingered. Taking advantage of the power to move freely while patrolling the Jiedian, and exploiting the drowsy, listless state of many soldiers who had nothing to do all day, one would keep watch while the other acted, secretly stealing small amounts of property from their fellow soldiers!

He didn't know how long they had been doing this, or why no one had discovered it.

Xueya Site did not know that the reason these two were so emboldened was that every time they stole something, they could pin the blame on the long-haired Beast in the Mine.

After all, when passing through the Southern Mountains, those alien Beast were light-fingered along the way, weren't they?

Although they were now gathered in large numbers in the Mine to extract Mineral Ore, there were still Mao Mao walking around the Jiedian from time to time. Everyone still hadn't let go of their prejudice against these alien Beast.

Not to mention that these soldiers had all heard from the Villagers mining there that these alien Beast had not repented; they were currently focusing all their energy on how to steal Mineral Ore from the Human Villagers in the Mine.

This only deepened the stereotype, causing the soldiers to attribute all the loss of property in the Jiedian to the alien Beast.

These two patrolling soldiers seized this opportunity to boldly steal their companions' property, and then, playing the Thief crying "stop thief," they would wake up sleeping soldiers after each theft, point to the open entrance of the other's Tent, or a corner of the Tent that had been secretly cut open, and point out that the other party had been visited by Mao Mao.

They would then take the opportunity to pin the blame on the not-so-innocent Mao Mao.

"They look like a bunch of ordinary soldiers, so why would such people actually do the abominable thing of attacking innocent Villages and capturing and enslaving Villagers?" Xueya Site still didn't understand how evil and terrifying Humans could become when it came to interests, especially their own private gain.

Those are terrifying thoughts and ideas that even a Demon would be delighted to see, let alone putting them into practice; in many cases, Demons are far less evil than Humans in war—they would have to take a back seat.

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