Chapter 618: The Fall of Yeluba, Meeting Up with Everyone

With his state enhanced, Sipulu moved faster, his battle knife whistling as he swung it, snatching a fatal strike in the exchange with a speed a fraction faster than his opponent.

This strike was too inconspicuous, merely whistling as it grazed the hilt of the long sword the opponent was holding, yet it resulted in terrifying consequences.

Half of the opponent's palm flew off.

In fact, it was only when the defeated soldier, who had been fighting with a long sword held in both hands, saw half of his left palm fly away that he realized in the tension of battle that his left hand was injured.

This fellow was indeed a soldier of some ability; he immediately switched from a two-handed grip to holding the long sword with his right hand alone, forcing Sipulu back with a desperate horizontal slash, intending the next moment to trade his life for the enemy's.

But Aoni rushed in from behind this man—this tall, heavily armored fellow with a shield, who charged back and forth on the battlefield like an armored carriage, helping Weier here and Bawei there, and now rushing over to help Sipulu.

"Hey? I don't need help!" Sipulu hurriedly shouted in advance, but he called out too late; Aoni, who had charged out from behind the enemy, knocked over the defeated soldier with the injured left palm in one go.

"Oh, don't mention it, no need to thank me!" Aoni shouted loudly, then charged toward the other enemies who had just climbed to their feet.

Sipulu let out a helpless breath, stepped forward to flick away the weapon of the enemy who had fallen to the ground, then kicked out, striking the enemy's helmet, leaving the enemy dizzy and disoriented, before inserting the tip of his battle knife into the gap at the opponent's neck to sever the enemy's vital point.

At this moment, Weier was pulling his blood-stained long sword out of Yeluba's wide-open mouth; he had just entangled his long sword with the opponent's, spun twice to gain momentum, forcibly deflected the enemy's long sword, and seized the chance to step forward and thrust, piercing straight into the brain of Yeluba, who was open-mouthed and cursing.

With one sword stroke, he finished off the culprit who had attacked Changmai Village.

Jier saw this scene and gnashed his teeth, feeling that Yeluba dying just like this was letting him off too easily; the opponent should have been put on trial and executed in an extremely cruel manner to make the hate-filled villagers feel satisfied.

"Forget it, this will do too."

Bawei, Weier, and Sipulu solved their respective enemies one by one, then turned to the three defeated soldiers still alive on the scene.

"Ha, everyone's movements are quite fast. Leave this enemy I've knocked down twice to me, you guys split the remaining two!" Aoni shouted boldly, once again using his shield to knock over the shield-bearing enemy he had already knocked down twice.

Weier and the others looked at each other; Sipulu had already killed two, so he took the initiative to retreat a few steps, moved to Jier's side, nodded silently at Jier, and said nothing more, just watching the others.

Sipulu voluntarily ceded the opportunity, so Weier and Bawei naturally accepted it with a smile.

Weier took the initiative to find an enemy without a shield, while Bawei weighed his two-handed axe and walked toward the last shield-bearing defeated soldier with a grim smile.

Aoni had been practicing the shield bash move for the past two days; although this fighting style was somewhat reckless, Aoni had truly practiced it into something.

While practicing with his comrades, he gradually discovered that the shield bash move didn't depend much on technique; it basically only depended on the weight of the two parties involved in the collision.

The side with more body weight and heavier armor always had the advantage. In the thumping collision practice, he could always knock his comrades who used the same shield flying.

The reason was obvious: he was tall and heavier, and the heavy plate armor Jier had modified for him was much heavier than the armor used by the other warriors. This led to shield-bearers who were also specialized in shield techniques always failing to knock Aoni over during practice.

It was the same now; the shield-bearing defeated soldier used the same shield as Aoni, but the two were of different heights, and the plate armor they wore was different—Aoni's plate armor covered more area and was denser, naturally making it heavier.

In a one-on-one fight with a different combat style, Aoni would certainly be at a disadvantage in close-quarters entanglement, but it was different now.

The defeated soldier had nowhere to retreat; he had no room to maneuver, nor did he have the precious time to look for an opening.

Upon seeing his last two companions—one having his hands severed and then killed by a sword through the neck, the other having his shield broken by an axe and his helmet shattered by a heavy blow before falling to the ground dead—this defeated soldier suffered a mental breakdown.

Perhaps he had also eaten some hallucinogenic poison mushroom powder?

This defeated soldier let out a loud "hahahaha" laugh, threw away his weapons and equipment while dancing wildly, and then fiercely struck a large tree trunk beside him with his bare hands.

Regardless of the pain, he broke the skin on his hands, then drew blood, and kept going until he had smashed the bones in his own fingers.

Aoni was a bit stunned; he looked at Jier not far away, but Jier didn't speak, only making a gesture across his own neck, and Aoni nodded.

He drew his side dagger, struck from behind the crazed defeated soldier, and slit the opponent's throat.

"Let's go, pile the corpses together first, then return to the camp with me. By the way, cut off this man's head; he is the captain of the enemy soldiers, and his head must be shown to Priest Bata'er and the surviving villagers of Changmai Village."

Bawei used an axe, so the job of cutting off Yeluba's head could only be done by him.

The group gathered the corpses together, then carried Yeluba's head and followed Jier back to the opened camp gate.

"Hey—Siter! Don't stay in the tree, come down, everyone come over to rendezvous!"

After Jier brought the people back, seeing that there was no one inside or outside the camp gate except for some scattered Mao Mao, he stood guard at the gate and shouted at Xueya Siter, who was still in the tree.

Weier and the others were still discussing the battle just now, complaining about Aoni always interfering in the actions of the other three, when they saw a twisted and changing plant vine moving at the place where Jier was shouting, slowly crawling down from the top of a large tree not far away.

Everyone was quite surprised, even feeling horrified, as they had all seen those terrifying parasitic vines in the north of Sasi County. At this moment, the twisted vine crawling down from the tree really looked like those plant vines that parasitized and controlled human bodies.

"Is that Brother Xueya Siter? Is it for real?" Aoni raised his eyebrows and asked, but the shield in his hand was faintly pointed toward Xueya Siter's direction, ready to be raised at any time.

"When did he learn this skill? He really kept it from everyone for a long time!" Bawei complained, carrying his two-handed axe on his shoulder, while his feet took a large step in front of the others. To deal with parasitic vines, he felt his axe was the best weapon to respond!

Sipulu said nothing; he glanced at Jier beside him and didn't think Knight Jier would be mistaken about anything—the person coming over must be Xueya Siter. As for when Xueya Siter possessed this astonishing skill, he didn't care, nor was he envious; after all, this was someone else's secret, and he wouldn't be curious about others' secrets unless they told him voluntarily.

Weier glanced at Jier; he had heard from Priest Bata'er that the Agricultural God Church had lent them a batch of weapons and equipment, the amber metal long staff in the priest's hand being one of them, and this abrupt skill of Xueya Siter's was most likely another one.

Looking at the twisted image in the forest that constantly changed with the surrounding environment, Weier felt quite interested; if he had possessed such a tool back then, he wouldn't have been chased and driven out of the Southern Alliance Kingdom so miserably.

Perhaps he could have even used this thing to ambush and kill a few members of the hostile family and avenge his family.

When the twisted plant images that adapted to the surrounding terrain disappeared, the few people beside Jier saw that Xueya Siter was wearing a strange cloak. Clearly, it was this cloak that gave Xueya Siter the ability to change.

"Siter, have the priest and the others returned?" Jier greeted and asked.

Shaking his head, Xueya Siter took off the plant concealment cloak, folded it casually, and handed it to Jier: "Not yet. I saw Priest Bata'er leading the others earlier, chasing another batch of soldiers who had escaped from the camp to the other side of the camp wall and into the forest. That batch of soldiers was about a dozen or so, slightly more than the people the priest was leading."

"How can that be? Let's hurry over to support them!" Bawei was the most proactive, but perhaps not for the safety of the other comrades, but hoping to get more bounty rewards?

Weier said: "I hope Priest Bata'er won't encounter danger; after all, the combat power of the other warriors is unlikely to be stronger than these soldiers."

Jier waved his hand: "No need to worry, these defeated soldiers are no good. They didn't eat in the morning, and at noon, they ate food I had laced with poison mushroom powder, guaranteeing their strength is less than half of what it was before. Plus, they fled from this camp, their courage is already gone; with such extremely low morale, how can they fight against us, who are in high spirits?"

"I hope it's as you say, Lord Jier." Aoni shrugged, then asked: "Then what are we going to do now? We aren't just going to stand here, are we?"

Jier smiled and nodded: "Of course, we will just stand here. Wait for all the agitated dust to settle and give us a result."

As Jier expected, Priest Bata'er and the others returned victorious.

But what exceeded Jier's expectations was that the priest and the other warriors had only killed a few enemies, and the rest of the defeated soldiers had surrendered all at once. This made Jier pout and frown.

It wasn't that he begrudged the extra bounty rewards for capturing enemies, but that letting his subordinate warriors kill enemies to gain combat experience was part of Jier's plan.

If the enemy was routed and surrendered merely because of morale, then the warriors' skills and abilities wouldn't be trained. Only the situations reflected in real combat could make each warrior realize their own shortcomings and where their strengths lay.

Only then could they take their combat power a step further.

And besides, didn't those surrendered defeated soldiers see the Agricultural God Church mark on Priest Bata'er's priest robe?

Were they blind? Surrendering to an Agricultural God priest, did they really know what kind of punishment they would receive afterward?

The surrendered soldiers who had been disarmed were still wearing their armor, but their helmets had been removed, and their hands were bound behind their backs, so they could no longer stir up any trouble.

"Priest Bata'er! It has only been two days, yet I feel as though we haven't seen each other for a long time!" Jier walked up with a grin and handed the head of Yeluba he was carrying to the Priest.

"That is because too many things have happened in these past two days. But Warrior Jier, what is this?" Looking at the head in his hand with its eyes still wide open in death, Priest Bata'er took it in bewilderment, feeling quite flustered.

Jier used his hand to adjust the expression on Yeluba's face to make it look more peaceful, then said: "Don't you remember? This man is the culprit who attacked Changmai Village. The one who commanded the soldiers and attacked Changmai Village back then was this guy."

Priest Bata'er was startled and nearly dropped the head in his hand. He stared blankly at the head, his expression shifting from shock to hostility, to hatred, to relief, and finally to tragic grief.

"Did this man die in pain?" he asked.

Jier shrugged: "Not particularly painful, but clearly he was not reconciled to this ending. This man had quite the ambition, but he lacked the caution, strength, and a bit of luck to realize it. The possibility that could have reversed his current fate was right within his grasp, but his blind eyes could not see that possibility. So, he ended up in this state."

Jier was speaking of the fact that Yamila had stayed in this Yingdi for several days, yet during those days, no one had discovered the arrival and departure of this Magic Apprentice.

When Yamila left, it caused Yeluba to lose the possibility of turning the tables.

"The Villagers, right, the Villagers! How are they? I must go see them immediately and present the head of this enemy to them as an apology for my delay."

Priest Bata'er had been interrupted by the battle earlier and only now realized that the Villagers he had been thinking about day and night should be not far from him. Since that night of separation dozens of days ago, he had been parted from his Villagers for too long.

Jier smiled: "They are in the Mine in the Yingdi. Rest assured, I have taken good care of them these past two days. Come to think of it, everyone surely wouldn't believe it, but in just these two days, the Villagers have even grown tired of eating meat soup."

If these outrageous words hadn't come from a sober Jier, the Warriors present would certainly have given the speaker a few slaps. But since it was Jier who said it, and Jier didn't look like he had been drinking—he was clear-headed and seemed to be in a good mood—they held back.

Priest Bata'er blinked, thinking Jier was probably joking. After all, the intelligence he had received earlier indicated that the Villagers trapped here were in a very bad situation, needing to dig for Mineral Ore very laboriously every day just to barely fill their stomachs, and if they had family to support, they had to put in even more effort.

Perhaps Jier could let everyone have a full meal, but Priest Bata'er didn't quite believe Jier could let everyone have meat soup, let alone to the point of being tired of eating it.

Humor; if he really wanted to let the Villagers have a full meal, it would depend on his, Bata'er's, own ability. The food bestowed by the gods would surely bathe the Villagers once again in the mercy and care of the great Agricultural God!

Watching Priest Bata'er carry Yeluba's head and rush into the Yingdi, Jier scratched his head. It was truly frustrating that no one believed him even when he told the truth.

"As for these surrendering guys, hmph, find something to plug their ears and put their Helmets on them, but put them on backward! Can't see, can't hear—that is my minimum requirement for restraining them! Get to it."

Once Jier gave the order, the Warriors escorting the surrendering Soldiers immediately plugged the ears of these Soldiers and used the Helmets to cover their eyes.

"A few others, follow Xueya Site; go and retrieve the corpses and weapons and equipment of the sentries nearby. Bring Torches for light and keep an eye on the Forest. So many people have died here; it might attract some bad things when night falls."

"The rest of you, follow Aoni; go and bring back the corpses and weapons and equipment of the few people killed just now. Same thing, bring plenty of lighting gear."