Chapter 625: On the Journey Back (Part 1)

The selected villagers stepped forward one by one, grasped the Hunting Sword stuck into the ground, pulled the heavy long sword out, and swung it for a while, trying hard not to fall over.

With the demonstrations and incorrect displays from the previous villagers, the performance of the following few villagers was much better.

But there were shortcomings; Jier discovered that three people appeared to be swinging the long sword, but in reality, when they swung the weapon, their entire bodies exerted force incorrectly, and their physical movements were uncoordinated, as if they were being led by the weapon.

This might be because they were naturally unsuited for combat, or perhaps it was the result of the wrong habits or hidden injuries branded into their bodies from working desperately in the dark, sunless mine these past days.

Compared to the others, their movements clearly had hitches and an exceptionally awkward feeling. Since there were other suitable candidates, Jier naturally did not need to spend time and energy to correct these three villagers, so—

"You, you, and you. You three haven't been selected, it's a pity. As for the remaining nine people, go find my subordinate Warrior Aoni; he is at the very front of the team. Go register your personal names, ages, and families."

Jier pointed at three people, then waved his hand to signal them to withdraw, and gave instructions to the remaining nine.

"Joining my ranks means you must obey my orders. I will pay you wages. Besides combat rewards, there will also be daily wages to maintain your lives. Although we are currently in a remote area, you wouldn't be able to spend money even if you had it in your hands."

After Jier finished speaking, he beckoned toward his own Sword held in the hand of the last villager; the Hunting Sword automatically broke free from the other's control and then flew through the air into the Sword Sheath at Jier's waist.

He deliberately used the Sword Sheath to bump against the Sword of the Knight Hartna that Jier was also wearing at his waist.

Jier soothed his weapon, then directed the team, preparing to continue moving.

The nine selected villagers excitedly looked for the Warrior named Aoni, and soon found Aoni, who was leading the way at the very front of the team, by asking others.

This guy was currently holding a glowing small stone ball in his hand, leading the team forward according to the guiding fluorescence projected onto the small stone. Although they could barely see the vague traces left by them when they came yesterday on the road, as well as the tree trunk scratches left by the Scout Mao Mao warriors who were a step ahead, these things were unreliable. Only this set of magical tools provided by the Agricultural God Church that guided the direction was the safe guidance method recognized by both Jier and Priest Bata'er.

Because the movement traces left on the ground in the forest could be faked. Especially with Jier already knowing that intelligent Shapeshifting Monsters existed in the surrounding mountains and forests, he naturally would not trust these movement traces that had been out of sight for a night.

Who knew if these so-called 'traces' were really left by the warriors when they came over yesterday, or if they had been modified by a Shapeshifting Monster? If they really just moved along these traces, thinking of returning to the Forward Yingdi like this, they might be led by a fake route created by a Shapeshifting Monster deeper into the mountains and forests, perhaps even reaching the nests of some dangerous monsters.

So for the sake of safety, before setting off yesterday, Priest Bata'er left the guiding nail in the center of the Forward Yingdi underground. Both he and Jier had matching small stone balls on them. No matter where they were in this mountain forest, as long as they followed the fluorescent guidance on the stone ball, they could walk in a straight line back to the Forward Yingdi.

Of course, the Mao Mao were extremely sensitive in the mountain forest and had a strong sense of spatial direction, so if the former failed, Jier would also settle for the next best thing and rely on the Mao Mao to return to the Forward Yingdi.

Rather than simply relying on the movement traces left on the ground earlier.

After the nine villagers found Aoni, Aoni scratched his head, quite helpless. As he walked, he shouted: "Where would I know how to register your information? Right, Weier! Weier! Come help! You come from a high background, you must be able to help me complete this work."

Weier was not far away helping to maintain the formation of the team. Hearing Aoni's plea for help, he curled his lips: "Coming, let them come find me. Right, to register information, neither you nor I have paper and pen, how do we register?"

This question stumped Aoni and the nine villagers who ran over to register. Everyone looked at each other; none of them looked like civilized people who possessed paper and pen to write things down at any time.

So Weier took the nine of them and walked back to find Priest Bata'er, who definitely had paper and pen.

Priest Bata'er had a good relationship with Weier, and hearing that it was Jier's subordinate Warrior accepting new recruits, even if these villagers were all former villagers of Changmai Cunzi, Priest Bata'er was willing to provide help.

"Here, this is my paper and pen." The Priest handed the items to Weier, then exhorted the villagers who had joined the Warrior team: "Be careful when fighting in the future, choose targets according to your own abilities, don't lose your head when doing things. If, if you feel you can't do it anymore, tell Jier, he will let you come back. Come back to find me, returning to your hometown is also fine. Don't feel embarrassed."

But these nine villagers were so excited that their minds were full of the stimulating life of the future, slaying demons and eliminating monsters, defeating one group of enemies after another, and earning large amounts of wealth; they couldn't listen to Priest Bata'er's exhortations at all.

"Don't worry, Priest, we definitely won't lose face for you, just rest assured!"

"That's right, although the nine of us come from different families, we are all from Changmai Cunzi, we will look out for each other."

Hearing that although they had developed gaps between each other in the mine, they could still be concerned about being from the same village and would look out for each other, the Priest felt half relieved: "I hope you can be as you say now."

"Name, age, and family situation?"

Weier asked while walking on the side of the villager team with paper and pen in hand, turning his body.

They reported their names and respective information one after another, and after finally reporting their family situations, they asked: "Big Brother Weier, right? Why do you need us to provide family information?"

Weier gave a cold laugh: "What else for? So that when one of you dies, we can send the things left behind by the deceased back to their family. You can rely on reliable Caravans, or specifically hire people to do this kind of thing. And most importantly, to send your ashes back in pottery jars or wooden barrels after you die."

Once these words were spoken, it was like a basin of ice water poured over the heads of the few villagers, and immediately someone began to hesitate.

"Want to leave? Too late! The information has already been registered. If you don't want to join us now, that's fine, but how Knight Jier will view you people from Changmai Cunzi afterwards, that's hard to say."

When Weier said this, the nine villagers looked at each other, but not one dared to speak of quitting. After all, if they ran away now, the remaining eight people would be looked down upon by Jier and have a hard time in the Warrior team; that would all be the fault of the person who ran away.

No one wanted to take this responsibility, so even if they had to bite the bullet, they all stubbornly stated they would not back down.

"Then Big Brother Weier, now that the registration is finished, what do we do?" a young man asked.

Weier looked at the situation of the team: "The most important task now is to evacuate to the Forward Yingdi; there is nothing else you need to do. While there are still a few days, before the team reaches a safe area and separates, you had best gather well with your family and talk. Don't wait until the future when you miss your relatives at home and regret not communicating more at this time."

Speaking to the end, Weier himself felt a bit sad.

He was studying at the Swordsman Academy when something happened to his family. So his last impression of his parents and siblings was from before he set off for the Swordsman Academy. He thought at the time that it was just three or four years of free time, not only could he learn solid skills, but he could also suffer less restraint from his family. His mood at that time was exceptionally excited, and he was quite impatient with the care and retention of his family.

But he did not expect that would be the last time he saw his family.

By the time the other Noble families who attacked his family found the Swordsman Academy, he escaped with the assistance of his teachers along with a few unfamiliar young people of the same generation from his family. But the others all died, and only he survived.

The only surviving Weier was hung with a high bounty, causing him to be unable to stay in any city or village where the bounty was posted. He could only flee all the way north, and finally stumbled into the Saint Hors Kingdom.

Weier looked at these scattered young villagers, watched them excitedly discussing the unknown life after joining Knight Jier's command with their families, and cheering together.

Jier's popularity among the Changmai Cunzi villagers was still very high; regardless of gender, age, or seniority, everyone liked this young Knight who was very capable and took care of them. For the young people in their families to be able to join Jier's command, they were quite happy. Regardless of the welfare and treatment of Jier's subordinates, being able to work for Jier was also a way for these villagers to implicitly repay Jier.

After all, Jier seemed to lack nothing, only having relatively few subordinates; this was the way they found to repay him.

Besides this, Jier also sent back some valuable items seized from the Defeated Soldiers, especially some items with unique shapes and the signatures of their owners, to the villagers through Priest Bata'er last night.

Although these things were not many, at least they allowed the villagers to have a little comfort in their hearts.

Of course, the news that made the villagers unable to hold back after hearing it was the news that some Farmer families' houses in Changmai Cunzi had been destroyed by fire. Many people found Priest Bata'er last night to ask if their own homes had been burned down.

In the end, Priest Bata'er had to summon the heads of each family and the elders among the villagers to uniformly inform them of the situation of fires in Changmai Cunzi during the period of control by the Defeated Soldiers.

Villagers whose houses were burned naturally wailed and cried. As long as someone in the family died but they could still have children, or their own children were still alive, the family still had hope. But their own house being burned down was the second most serious situation in the village after their land being confiscated.

For the villagers, building a multi-story wooden house that could accommodate a family was not easy; it often required more than ten years and the accumulation of one or two generations to achieve.

The thick tree trunks that served as the main beams and pillars of the house needed to be found by risking trips to the forest in areas further away around the village. After selecting a large tree, it had to be felled, and a Plowing Ox had to be rented in winter to drag the tree trunks back to the village.

The tree trunks had to have their bark removed, then air-dried for one to two years to remove moisture from the trunks and make them tougher. Only then could they be used as the main beams and pillars of the house.

The foundation of the house was also very troublesome. Land in the village was free, and after everyone discussed and designated it to a family, this new land belonged to them. But the foundation required summoning the male labor force of the village during the farming off-season to dig deep Earth Pits into the ground. They had to spread charcoal ash, ram the new soil, and lay out a large number of Stones or rock blocks as a base according to needs.

This was laid layer by layer until it was flush with the ground or slightly higher than the ground.

The latter was to prevent heavy rain in summer from causing water to backflow into the house.

Only then could they use the prepared wood to build their own house.

This would often consume a lot of time for a family, as well as a lot of accumulated assets and favors.

And now? The villagers who heard that their houses had been burned down were in extreme pain, no less than the grief of relatives passing away in this disaster, and perhaps even more so.

During another rest in the middle, the nine Villagers found Jier and expressed that as Jier's new subordinates, they hoped to do something.

Jier slapped his forehead and said to them with a persuasive tone: "How should I put this? Given your current physical condition, I think the best help you can provide is to do nothing at all. First, nurse your bodies back to health, rest more, eat more, and don't do things that harm your bodies—try to minimize intimate activities with your wives."

Jier spread his hands: "Doing that already counts as helping me. Of course, once your bodies recover and you can at least perform physical training, I will drill your martial arts and skills ruthlessly. For now, how about each of you finds one of my Warrior subordinates and assists them in maintaining the order of the group's advance? Keep an eye out for strange noises coming from the Forest, or if you see anything odd in the woods, report it to me immediately!"

Although they were not very satisfied, this was the only thing they could do in their current physical state, so the nine new Villagers had no choice but to respond with a scattered "okay" before dispersing to find Jier's Warriors.

This was also a means to get familiar with the group and get to know each other.

The fastest Villager went straight to find the Captain of the Warrior group—Oni Longsi, a guy wearing thick plate armor who carried a Soldier Shield in his left hand at all times.

This was the Captain of the Warrior group; naturally, building a good relationship with him would allow one to smoothly integrate into Jier's Warrior group.

But in the end, only one person could follow Oni, so the Villager with the fastest feet won the lead.

The others had no choice but to look for other targets.

Weier, who had previously registered their information, was also a popular target; although Weier's speech was not very pleasant, he was literate, and being able to read and write made him better than many others. Most of the first batch of migrants who moved from the Empire were literate, but after settling in the Saint Hors Kingdom, the lack of basic universal education in their respective Villages led to the second generation of new migrants mostly acquiring their knowledge from their parents.

And it was unlikely they would surpass their parents.

But family education was truly too random; after all, not everyone was good at teaching things they understood themselves—this was a skill that required training.

Therefore, the things the second-generation migrants knew were fewer than those of the first migrants who settled there.

By the time it reached the third generation, many people appeared who could not write; after all, everyone was busy farming to survive, and since writing was troublesome and mostly useless in daily life and work, many people let it slide.

The fourth generation was even worse; many people not only could not write, they did not even know various vocabulary words of the Human Common Language. They could only communicate fluently by mouth.

But if it was only fluent verbal communication, what difference was there between them and those alien races who had spent a few months or a year or so mingling in human society?

Under the influence of some unknown god of human language, the Human Common Language was very easily mastered by humans themselves, and even by other alien races.

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