Chapter 604: In the Mine—Jier's Confession

In the deep, profound mine tunnel, a foul odor drifted constantly.

Because of poor ventilation, the smell in the mine was indescribable; the stench of rotting food scraps, the smell of excrement, and the stuffy, hot temperature of the mine combined with the fact that many had not bathed for days made the odor on many people's bodies extremely pungent. The smell on these humans was, in fact, the reason why many Mao Mao warriors did not like them and did not get close.

Unless they wanted to steal the Mineral Ore mined by the humans, they rarely approached those Miners.

Even the elderly humans who did not mine and some half-grown children were not approached by the Mao Mao, because even though they seemed to be in good condition aside from hunger, the smell on their bodies was unbearable to the sensitive noses of the Mao Mao.

Jier was different; there was almost no smell of sweat, armpit odor, urine, or excrement on his body. Every time he was in the ladies' dreams, he would go to the camp by his Pond to bathe, eat, and sleep. It looked like Jier had only disappeared for a short while, but in reality, he had already rested for quite some time in the dream.

The Mao Mao could not smell any foul odors on him, which was an implicit prerequisite for Jier to be able to have a proper dialogue with the Mao Mao.

As for the Villagers in the mine, because they had stayed there for a long time, their noses could not smell anything different, and naturally, they could not smell the special aspects of Jier.

Compared to humans, the Mao Mao in the same mine were actually very clean; the warriors with kinship ties among them would lick each other's fur, and they would find time to dispose of their daily excrement when they went out for Hunting.

Their urine had a strong smell and was very easy to attract Monsters in the Forest, so since ancient times, the Mao Mao had developed a good urine disposal process; no matter how free and undisciplined a Mao Mao was, they had to dispose of their urine in a designated place.

A Mao Mao who could not do this would be immediately driven out of the tribe.

And for the Long-haired Wild Cat Beastmen living in the mountains and forests, once they left the tribe, they basically could not live for long. Even the most seasoned Mao Mao hunter could not survive for long in the wild, rugged mountains and forests without the reliance of companions.

At this moment, among the Villagers resting after eating their fill, a few young boys with sensitive ears looked suspiciously toward the depths of the mine.

In the pitch-black, downward-sloping mine tunnel, there seemed to be a series of loud, crashing sounds coming from within.

"What sound is that?"

"What did you hear?"

A young man pointed his finger toward the depths: "It seems to be coming from the direction where those alien Beastmen live; there is a huge crashing sound coming out?"

"It seems so. Hey, should we notify the old men? They have lived for a long time; perhaps they know about these things in the mine."

But before these few sharp-eared boys could discuss it further, the meowing cries of the alien Beastmen gradually rang out and approached.

"It's, it's the Long-haired Wild Cat Beastmen! They're coming out again! Don't they ever rest? I can't eat any more of that Poultry Bird meat." The half-grown boy who said this rubbed his bulging belly with his hands; he really couldn't eat any more meat, this kind of thing was simply absurd.

You have to know that although Changmai Village produced grain, meat was not something that could be eaten every day; basically, it was only possible to slaughter a chicken or some raised sheep during the annual festival.

A pig would only be slaughtered every year during the Harvest Festival and salted as a supplement for winter food. As for the Plowing Ox, they would never actively slaughter it; they could only wait for the family's Plowing Ox to die of old age or illness, and only then could the whole village eat some beef.

And since yesterday, large amounts of Poultry Bird meat and meat soup had completely fed everyone, turning the young girls, young men, and even the elderly into short-term carnivores.

But eating like this for a short time was something many people couldn't stand; eating one meal was great, but eating it every meal was a disaster that made them dizzy.

The shouting of the alien Beastmen gradually approached, but it was different from the meowing they had heard before; it contained anger and dissatisfaction that could be easily detected.

"Something seems wrong?" A boy quickly stood up and shouted to the Villagers resting nearby: "Something's wrong! The alien Beastmen are coming out, but they are shouting, and the shouting is scary!"

Many adult Villagers heard the young man's words and smiled disdainfully: "If those alien Beastmen want to come out, just let them walk by; anyway, they should be going out to hunt, this is the cooperation content Jier negotiated with them."

But this person's words were quickly overturned.

The Mao Mao walking out from the middle layer of the mine were getting closer; although they had not yet appeared in everyone's line of sight, the impatient and angry shouting of those Mao Mao still reached everyone's ears.

At this, everyone heard that something was wrong; many people subconsciously climbed up from their lying positions, nervously looking at each other.

But no one had any ideas; after all, this strange turn of events came too quickly. Before the elders among them could discuss a plan, the Mao Mao surged out from below the mine in a swarm.

Unlike their previous hunting trips, this time the Mao Mao were armed; they all carried one or two sharp metal tools they had obtained, and some Mao Mao responsible for long-range attacks also carried some scattered, sturdy Mineral Ore in leather pouches. When this stuff was whipped out by their long tails, the power was much greater than ordinary dirt clods and stones.

"What are they doing?" The Villagers at the edge of the crowd were terrified; they wanted to run, but there were people behind them, and they couldn't squeeze in, while the alien Beastmen were rushing toward them, scaring many people until they went limp on the ground.

Some people ran in a panic to the side passage specifically for people to pass up and down, but they hadn't run far before they were caught up by the Mao Mao chasing from behind.

"Ah!!!" The person screamed, because in an instant, several Mao Mao jumped onto his body; he closed his eyes in despair, preparing to close his eyes and wait for death.

But he didn't die.

The person was knocked down, and the subsequent turn of events exceeded his imagination—he was thrown out of this passage by the surging Mao Mao who exerted force together and tossed into the crowd huddled together nearby.

Although he was thrown over and knocked into the crowd, causing some chaos, the situation was fine, and no one was hurt.

"Don't panic! Don't panic!" someone shouted.

"These alien Beastmen should be going out as a group; it's no different from the small-scale hunting teams before! Don't panic!"

"Clear the passages up and down! Everyone stop lying down, get up, stand aside! Let them out! No matter what they are doing, let them out!"

Some middle-aged Villagers shouted hoarsely, barely stabilizing the panicked Villagers. After stopping a few panicked and screaming female Villagers, these aggressive alien Beastmen, who looked like they were looking for a fight, finally passed through the place where the Villagers were staying, harmless to humans and animals.

"That was close. What's going on with these aliens? They just ran out in a swarm." A young man standing at the edge of the crowd guarding the Villagers asked loudly in confusion.

Everyone had just recovered from the panic and was discussing all this in a hubbub. Before they could discuss anything, a tall figure, more fully armed than the Defeated Soldier outside, walked out from the lower layer of the mine where the alien Beastmen had surged out.

At a glance, this figure not only looked scary because of the weapons and equipment on his body that could easily take a person's life, but also made everyone who saw him feel a sense of awe and shrinking that arose after realizing the huge gap in strength.

Yes, everyone who saw this abruptly appearing person would subconsciously feel that they were like weak long-eared rabbits, while the mysterious newcomer was a strong forest wolf.

Just by opening his mouth slightly, he could easily bite any one of them to death.

Or all of them.

"This... this person, who is he?"

"You, who are you?"

Someone gathered the courage to ask.

"Which Soldier sir is this? How did you come up from the lower layer of the mine?"

The question was filled with fear; the Villagers responded to this abruptly appearing, fully armed, mysterious enemy with a reaction ten times more fearful than they had been toward the alien Beastmen just now.

"Hmph—"

Jier snorted; he wouldn't joke with these Villagers anymore. Today he would defeat those soldiers and rescue the Villagers before him; it was time to reveal his identity.

He hadn't intended to reveal his identity at this time, but rather to wait for Priest Bata'er to bring people over and let Priest Bata'er take over the management of these Villagers, because although these Villagers seemed to be acting in unison and following management under Jier's methods, they were actually divided into several distinct groups internally.

These groups, apart from being able to communicate with him, did not even speak to each other.

The conflicts between them could not be made up for by some food Jier brought.

The hatred had already been planted, and sooner or later it would bloom into flowers, either pitch-black or bright red; it couldn't be stopped.

"Soldier? I am not one of those Defeated Soldiers without honor. Listen carefully to my voice, use your brains to judge, who am I?"

As Jier spoke, his young voice, which had left a deep impression on the Villagers, immediately stunned many people: "No, you are Jier?"

"Jier?"

"How is this possible? Where did he get this set of equipment?"

Once the crowd heard it was Jier, even though they could still feel that easily perceptible, terrifying gap in strength from him, people still slowly approached. It was truly because Jier had brought everyone so many surprises and help before; subconsciously, everyone believed Jier would not harm them.

In fact, that was indeed the case.

A few little girls, seven or eight years old, upon hearing it was Jier, burped and ran out happily, crossing the "line" that the surrounding people were subconsciously afraid of, and hugged Jier's thigh, which was covered in Metal Armor Plate: "Jier! Jier! We're full! We ate lots of delicious food! You come eat too!"

Jier retracted the Hunting Sword held in his left hand, gently rubbed the tops of the heads of the few bold little girls who had approached, and only then lifted the Faceplate on his steel Helmet, revealing his young face.

"I've already eaten, don't worry about me."

Seeing that it was indeed Jier's face beneath the metal Faceplate, the surrounding Villagers finally let out a breath, and many even sat back down on the ground.

But most people still held doubts. They looked at the drastically changed Jier, and even though Jier was young enough, they couldn't help but use honorifics when speaking: "Jier, er, Lord Jier. What exactly is your identity?"

"That's right, you previously said you were captured from Blue Dragonfly Village. Looking at you now, that's clearly not the case."

"You also said you were from Yemei Town. Oh my, those masters from the big towns wouldn't come over to kindly help us; besides collecting taxes, they never come to our remote little places."

An elder pushed aside the Villagers who were guessing wildly, came before Jier with a serious expression, and asked a question that was not about Jier's identity. They had discussed it before; no matter what Jier's identity was, it was clearly unlikely he would harm them.

"The departure of those alien Beast warriors just now seems a bit off; it doesn't look like they went out to hunt?"

Jier nodded: "That's right, that wasn't going out to hunt, but to fight."

"With whom? Ah, I'm a senile old fool, who else could it be, those Soldiers above?" An elder smiled and shook his head, opening his mouth to probe.

Jier also smiled: "It was those Soldiers who brought the trouble upon themselves; I merely spoke some truths. Although sometimes the truth is also fatal, especially when facing serious deception."

With a few little girls by his side, Jier walked into the crowd, circling the village elders. Almost everyone was watching him, many people were whispering, and they were sizing him up with different expressions.

Jier remained calm and composed, letting everyone size him up, scrutinize, judge, and discuss.

"Everyone, just now the long-haired lynx Beast warriors went out to seek revenge. Ha, you surely can't imagine why those alien Beast warriors are in cahoots with those scum Soldiers, yet what kind of grudge they have between them? Right?"

Jier said loudly, asking the question that was in many people's minds.

Of course, right now most Villagers were most concerned about Jier's identity and background, as well as how he got this set of weapons and equipment that looked terrifying just to behold.

Jier briefly explained how the Defeated Soldier had taken advantage of the fact that the Mao Mao did not know the value of goods, trading metal waste that should have been discarded or re-smelted to those alien Beast warriors as high-quality Metal Ingot.

It would have been fine if this matter hadn't been discovered; the Mao Mao treated the Metal Lump they traded for as treasures and wouldn't let anyone near them, so naturally, no knowledgeable Human could point out what was wrong.

And when Jier had established a trade partnership with the Mao Mao before, he had discovered this matter at close range.

However, he hadn't immediately brought this up yesterday. After all, such a matter was not as important as feeding the Villagers, so he waited until everyone was full and satisfied today before approaching them to tell the alien Beast warriors about it.

"They were furious, even wanting to kill all the Humans in the Yingdi regardless of the consequences."

When Jier said this, the Villagers finally realized the fear.

They had engaged in small-scale fights with those alien Beast warriors, and the result was that the Villagers were completely defeated; they were simply no match for these little things that looked small and had slender limbs.

One Mao Mao Warrior could easily kill seven or eight Villagers.

The gap in strength was immense.

"However, I saw their state at the time, so I quickly put on this set of weapons and equipment I brought in and threatened the few leaders of those alien Beast warriors on the spot. If they harmed the Villagers who were also in the Mine later, I would kill them."

Jier's meaning was to kill all the Mao Mao, but the surrounding Villagers understood it as killing those few leaders of the alien Beast warriors.

The former, unless Jier really did it, the crowd didn't quite believe, while the latter was still within the Villagers' imagination regarding force.

"So that's how it is. No wonder just now when someone blocked their path in the panic, they didn't hurt anyone, but instead threw the person into the crowd and hurriedly ran up."

Someone said loudly, looking like they had suddenly realized the truth.

Jier nodded: "Although these alien Beast warriors have a backward civilization, they can still abide by many of the things they promise."

Subsequently, Jier looked at the pairs of eyes looking at him, looked at the inquiry in those eyes, and couldn't help but smile: "You're all curious about my identity, right? Indeed, it is time to reveal my identity. Originally, I intended to wait until my companions broke in and have him reveal my identity, but since things are already like this, saying it in advance is also fine."

A few Villagers who had seen Jier at the very beginning and mined with him shouted to Jier: "This time it won't be another fake background, right? Haha."

"This time it's real." Jier nodded solemnly.

"Everyone, I am a Warrior of the Agricultural God Church sent by the Agricultural God Church to rescue everyone together with Priest Luosa-Bata'er. My name is Qiao-Jier, but I am not from the Southern Province; I am from Kendall County in the Northwest Province."

The crowd was stunned for a moment, and after their brains processed what Jier had said, a loud "boom" of various excited and jubilant sounds erupted!

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