Chapter 616: Slaying the Knight, Pitch-Black Sword Mark, and the Arriving Crowd

Jier narrowed his eyes; he had already extended such an obvious "invitation," yet it seemed Knight Hartna was determined not to engage him in battle.

"Since that is the case, then watch closely. Watch how your adjutant dies before you first. Do not think me cruel; compared to the Changmai Village villagers humiliated by these Defeated Soldiers, you people not only deserve to die, but should have been allowed to die only after long-lasting torture."

Jier held his Hunting Sword high in his right hand, and pitch-black Divine Power of the Spirit rose upon the blade: "You should be grateful to me for slaying you now."

He swung his sword down in a slash. Adjutant Piluo watched the terrifying weapon hurtling toward him with a face full of shock, struggling to raise his Cavalry Sword and using his left hand to block at the tip of the blade, lifting the weapon with both hands to parry.

Jier followed the other's intent and slashed his sword onto the blade used for blocking.

With a crisp *crack*, this excellent Cavalry Sword snapped in two from the middle. The extending Long Sword then sliced open the cavalry armor on Piluo's body. It appeared as if it had barely failed to kill him, but in reality, the Divine Power of the Spirit on this strike had already spread onto Piluo's body along the blow.

"Ah? Ahhhhhhh!!"

Piluo let out a miserable shriek, his entire body seemingly wrapped in pitch-black, shadowy flames, with the greater part of him covered by the pitch-black power. He shrieked, he fell to the ground, and he tried to roll.

But the feather-like, misty Divine Power of the Spirit was not fire; it would not be extinguished by rolling on the ground. Nor was it fire scorching the body through high heat; rather, driven by Jier's will, it destroyed everything it touched, containing the intent of destruction.

Such as the body of Adjutant Piluo.

Every patch of skin that touched the pitch-black power of the Spirit felt as if it were being fiercely pinched by countless hands and then twisted with force. Or, it felt as if it were being bitten and torn by the claws and teeth of a terrifying Monster.

The flesh collapsed and shattered, the pain extreme.

Knight Hartna's movements paused; clearly, he was not as heartless as he claimed, he simply had no other choice.

In such a painful state, Piluo threw the half-broken Cavalry Sword in his hand fiercely toward Jier, but the object merely clattered to the ground after hitting Jier's armor, having no effect at all.

Amidst the miserable howling, Adjutant Piluo was ultimately killed by the Divine Power of the Spirit.

After slicing through the chest armor, a significant amount of Divine Power of the Spirit surged in through the wound, crushing all the Viscera in Piluo's chest and killing this loyal adjutant.

"I didn't want to kill him myself originally. After all, I still have some Warriors under my command; they need enemies, they need battle merits. Originally, this adjutant of yours, or Yeluba, they were the opponents I had pre-selected for my men. In the battles against them, my people would have grown quickly."

Knight Hartna heard Jier's words, gave a bitter laugh, and continued to look for water.

Seeing that this fellow had lost his will to fight, Jier narrowed his eyes and thought about it. He felt that since Knight Hartna was unwilling to "fight" him and accumulate combat experience for his men, he was useless. Moreover, such a difficult opponent was clearly not very suitable for his Warriors to face.

They would die. Although he could easily defeat the Lizardman-transformed Knight Hartna, the others could not possibly be a match for Knight Hartna.

Even Priest Bata'er, if he had not prepared defenses, might be easily killed by Knight Hartna.

Therefore, to eliminate future trouble and pave the way for subsequent battles, Knight Hartna had to die now.

"Is it my turn?" Knight Hartna poured another water bottle over himself, feeling the tangible killing intent coming from behind him, and muttered to himself.

However, although he knew he was going to die, he did not make many other moves.

He was a Knight; he knew all too well how much strength another Knight possessed, and it was not something his current state could withstand. Since that was the case, it was better to accept his death date calmly and make himself comfortable before dying.

The Hunting Sword held in Jier's right hand was pitch-black throughout, with a large amount of feather-like, solidified Divine Power of the Spirit gathered on its surface. Even the inscribed eulogies of the Great Sun God were submerged at this moment beneath the ever-gathering Divine Power of the Spirit.

Through the 【Grass and Wood Source】 Divine Art ability granted by the Agricultural God Church, Jier was using and accumulating Divine Power of the Spirit onto his sword without consumption. Although he did not quite understand it, it was one thing for the Agricultural God's Divine Power to freely replace the Life Energy in his own body, but it was astonishing that it could also perform a free, boundless replacement of the Divine Power of the Spirit, which was also a god's power.

This was simply too absurd.

He did not understand the laws and principles behind it, but that did not mean Jier could not utilize this point.

He gathered a large amount of Divine Power of the Spirit on his sword, preparing to unleash the strongest 【Enhanced Shadow Raid】 he could control via 【Shadow Weapon】. These were all part of the abilities of the 【God's Shadow Bird】. If he relied solely on Jier himself killing enemies and letting the Shadow Bird devour the enemies' lingering souls to accumulate and strengthen, the damage he could inflict at this time would only be a tiny bit—enough to kill a person or two, but it would be far from enough to deal with the Lizardman-transformed Knight Hartna.

"Are you ready?"

Jier seemed to be talking to himself, and upon hearing this, Knight Hartna quickened the speed of his hands, smashing open a newly found water bottle and pouring it over his head all at once.

"Come! Give me a quick end!" Knight Hartna responded loudly.

Subsequently, a semi-arc-shaped pitch-black sword mark, after Hunting was swung, detached from the sword blade. Like a physical entity, it flew from in front of Jier to behind Knight Hartna in an instant, appearing slow but actually fast.

Knight Hartna did not dodge; he also knew he could not dodge.

What would be the point of dodging? To trade for a more painful and humiliating way to die? Dying under the opponent's ultimate move was, after all, a tragic death befitting his status.

The powerful pitch-black arc-shaped sword mark tore through the ground, the air, and every obstacle along its path, hitting Knight Hartna's back accurately. The tall Lizardman body did not have much defensive power against this and was straightforwardly split in two by this powerful pitch-black sword mark. A significant amount of body tissue was simultaneously annihilated and disappeared within the attack range of the pitch-black sword mark.

Subsequently, this attack extended all the way, skimming across the ground through more than half of the Yingdi, and incidentally opened a gap in the towering wooden fence that could easily allow people to pass through. It flew straight into the Forest, causing a burst of trees to sway and collapse, and finally, the whole thing was annihilated and consumed in its unwise confrontation with the earth.

Jier opened his eyes wide, looking at the powerful might of his own move.

If one did not consider that the prerequisite for using this move was the use of the Agricultural God Church's 【Grass and Wood Source】 Divine Art ability, relying on his own killing to cultivate the Shadow Bird's ability, he did not know how long he would have to wait to accumulate so much Divine Power of the Spirit to release in one breath.

Moreover, the power accumulation stage before unleashing this move, the long accumulation of Divine Power of the Spirit, also made it unlikely for this move to be used in a normal battle.

But its power was truly capable; to say nothing else, it could almost be compared to the area bombardment of the Magic Power hut he had witnessed yesterday at noon.

Before that, it was roughly weaker than the terrifying ultimate move released by the spider-type Magic Beast.

However, that Magic Beast's ultimate move had a larger attack range, but its lethality was not sufficient; compared to the power of this sword strike that killed Knight Hartna, it was not in the same league.

"Alright, now let me see, what else can be continued of this messy battle plan?"

Jier looked at the nearly empty, dilapidated Yingdi, let out a breath, and shook his head helplessly.

Originally, he had intended for the formal battle to start only after dark today. Having experienced internal chaos, poisoned food, and alien rebellion, the Defeated Soldiers would likely have only one or two tenths of their original strength left by the time it got dark. Letting the Warriors launch an attack at that time would inevitably yield twice the result with half the effort.

In terms of training the Warriors and arranging battles of moderate difficulty for them, Jier's original plan could not be called anything but precise and brilliant.

But now, everything was in a mess.

It all started from the moment Knight Hartna suddenly killed his way out of the house; the entire battle plan had been disrupted.

Naturally, Jier could not allow the super-powered Knight Hartna to crush the Mao Maos before the alien Beast had caused enough damage and weakening to the Defeated Soldiers, and then let Knight Hartna take advantage of the situation to resolve the internal contradictions of the Defeated Soldiers.

If that had really happened, then Jier's weakening plan would probably only have been slightly successful with the poisoned food; after all, no matter what, the Defeated Soldiers still had to eat. If they were afraid of the poisoned food and dared not eat, that would also work—the decline in physical strength and energy caused by hunger could also effectively weaken the group of Defeated Soldiers.

But correspondingly, once it got dark, Jier would probably have to join the Warriors' Tiaofa Dui and assist them in crushing the group of Defeated Soldiers, who would likely still have seven or eight tenths of their combat power left.

However, looking at it now, the center of the entire Yingdi was filled with collapsed tents, and the corpses of Human Soldiers and alien Mao Maos were everywhere. Most of these corpses were killed by both sides during the battle between Jier and Knight Hartna. The casualties caused by the previous fighting between the two sides did not even account for half of the corpses on the ground.

"That's fine too; so many people died, so their strength has been weakened regardless."

Jier shrugged and looked around, discovering that almost no living creatures could be seen in the entire Yingdi. The Defeated Soldiers and the alien Beast had all fled from this Yingdi. He did not know if they were still fighting outside the Yingdi, but not a single person could be seen in the Yingdi at this moment.

"This is troublesome; they've all scattered, so how can I crush the Defeated Soldiers? I hope Priest Bata'er and the others can arrive as soon as possible, otherwise, the Defeated Soldiers running further and further away will really have all escaped."

Jier was just planning to return to the Mine to check the situation there, but at this moment, a commotion came from the Forest in the northeast direction of the Yingdi.

Jier's ears were sharp; he clearly heard some familiar voices, including the shouts of Priest Bata'er, Weier, and Aoni.

"Fortunately, the time of arrival is not too late."

With a smile on his lips, Jier strode past the entrance of the Mine. Facing the mine gate, which had been narrowed down to allow only one person to pass at a time, he shouted: "Guard this place well! Refuse entry to anyone except me, even if it's a Beast! Do you hear me?"

From the mine entrance came a chorus of responses from many people, but no matter how one listened, a sense of fear could be heard in their voices.

He reckoned these Villagers had seen his fight with the Knight Hate just now and had been frightened.

"That's fine. Once they realize the gap in strength, they'll just stay honestly inside the safe Mine."

After giving the order, Jier strode toward the gate of the Yingdi. Originally, in his plan, those lazy Defeated Soldiers looking to cut corners would have kept the gate open all night to avoid being bothered by the Mao Mao, who frequently went out for Hunting.

But this situation was clearly no longer possible. So, Jier had no choice but to handle it himself, pulling up the Yingdi gate—which required nine to ten people to lift—all on his own.

Generally speaking, even with his great strength, he wouldn't be able to do it, because opening the gate required not only a certain amount of force but also the opener's body weight to be roughly equivalent to eight or nine people.

Opening the gate relied mostly on the weight of the person opening it.

But Jier had a way. He grabbed the end of the opening Rope, walked to the furthest point the Rope could reach, dug indentations into the ground with his feet for leverage, and then took a step back to pull the gate open a crack. At the same time, he twisted his retreating feet back and forth on the ground to create a small pit before using that leverage to take another step back.

In this way, one step and one pull at a time, Jier retreated more than ten steps until the gate not far away was lifted more than two meters, enough for everyone to use. Only then did Jier wrap the Rope around the hilt of his Hunting Sword and drive the Hunting Sword into the ground to secure it.

Don't look at it as just a sword stuck in the ground; it wasn't as secure as the multiple ground spikes used by the Defeated Soldiers who opened the gate before, but the Hunting Sword was no ordinary weapon. Once Jier drove it into the ground, this Spirit weapon would remain firmly fixed and would not be easily pulled out by others.

Even if it were suspending a wooden gate weighing several hundred kilograms that moved up and down via the Rope, it would be the same.

Jier walked empty-handed, quickly exiting the Yingdi gate and heading toward the place where the sounds were coming from.

Before he even got close, he heard the sounds of a skirmish.

"Don't let them get away! Chase them!" It was the voice of Aoni. His voice was loud and passionate; although he was a bit lacking in strength to be the Captain of the Warriors, he was far more suitable than anyone else in the team when it came to calling others to action.

Whoosh—

A sharp whistling sound flew past the edge of the Shulin. Jier looked toward the direction the Crossbow bolt was fired and discovered it was Xueya Site providing long-range support. He waved at that side and chased toward the front.

Soon he saw the Warriors. They were divided into two groups. One group was led by the Priest Bata'er, who was already moving along the edge of the Yingdi wall and the edge of the Forest toward the distance, seemingly also pursuing the Defeated Soldiers who had fled earlier.

Meanwhile, on this side, Aoni was leading several strong Warriors in pursuit of several Defeated Soldiers attempting to escape into the Forest.

Jier had sharp eyes and immediately saw that the leader among the fleeing soldiers was none other than Yeluba.

And these people, were they clearly Yeluba and his trusted soldiers?

Jier saw that the arrow Xueya Site had just fired was not without effect; a soldier hit in the right leg had fallen to the ground and was now desperately drawing his sword to fight Weier.

Weier seemed unwilling to take advantage of someone in a vulnerable position, or perhaps he felt it wasn't honorable to defeat and kill such an opponent, so after another Warrior ran over, he simply stopped and chased after the other fleeing Defeated Soldiers ahead.

"How generous! Picking up a bargain!" This Warrior, who used a Two-handed Axe, was named Duyi-Bawi, the very guy who had publicly announced earlier that he wanted a Spirit axe.

"Perfect. My new axe needs some enemies to start its path of conquest. How about you just obediently accept your death?" After saying this, he swung the heavy Two-handed Axe and hacked at the neck of the fallen enemy.

The enemy resisted desperately, but for some reason, these Defeated Soldiers, who originally had decent strength, were pale-faced, their limbs weak, and they couldn't even exert half of their usual skills. Before the Long Sword in his hand could even be raised, the axe heavily struck his neck and hacked diagonally into the chest of the Defeated Soldier.

One axe to kill!

"Good! That's another Gold Coin earned!" Bawi muttered with a grin. Jier walked over and retorted: "What one Gold Coin? Don't forget, the man was knocked down by Xueya Site from afar and blocked by Weier, otherwise he would have been carried off by the enemy. You only killed him at the end, so at most you get half a Gold Coin, that is, five Silver Coins! No more than that!"

"Ha! It's Lord Jier! You're here? But why only half a Gold Coin?"

Jier snorted: "I've been on the side of the enemy Yingdi the whole time, what do you mean 'you're here'? Don't argue with me. Instead of arguing back and forth, I'll give you at most one extra Silver Coin, but if you can't catch up to the enemies fleeing ahead right now, you'll lose much more than just that!"

Bawi slapped his head: "You're right, I must speed up! There are only so many enemies, I can't let them all get taken by others!"

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