Chapter 659: The Desolation of the Eastward Road and Hidden Dangers

Just as the other party began to move amidst their cursing, Jier judged their next move.

It was merely a subconscious judgment, but he understood that the other party's flying kick could not actually do anything to him.

Therefore, his upper body did not move at all; he simply pulled his right foot back half a step, planting his feet firmly.

Boom!

The young gang leader's flying kick landed squarely in the center of Jier's chest, but Jier's body only swayed slightly, and he calmly received the attack.

His right hand lifted and grabbed from his metal belt, catching the person's right ankle.

Looking at the sturdy young gang leader, his ankle was not actually thick; once grabbed by Jier, he was lifted up. Jier's left hand also grabbed the person's waist amidst their panicked screaming, lifting them as well.

A full-grown human was lifted above Jier's head as easily as a pet dog.

No matter how the person twisted or waved their palms to slap and pry open Jier's metal hand, it was to no avail.

"What are you all standing there for! Come save me!"

The young gang leader shouted for help from his subordinates, but out of the dozen or so people, only three, including his woman, rushed up.

"Laughable."

Jier scoffed and threw the guy he was holding above his head toward the few people rushing at him.

He didn't use much force, fearing that if he exerted too much strength, he would break their bones and tendons, which would be troublesome and require Priest Bataer to use Divine Magic Healing.

Amidst a clattering sound, these few people fell and tumbled together; the guy who had been thrown had even wet his pants in fear, with thin trickles of water seeping through his linen cloth trousers and dripping onto the face of the companion pinned beneath him.

That person wanted to call for help but didn't dare open their mouth.

Jier patted his own chest with his hand, producing a harsh scraping sound between the steel, which served as a warning, making all the young people around realize the difference in strength between the two.

"You might think that things like a 'safe village' are impossible, but don't think that I can't do it, understand?"

Jier pointed at the few people scrambling up in a disheveled state and said loudly to the people around him.

The young gang leader who had wet his pants was filled with shame and anger; he pulled a short knife from his waist and rushed over in a fit of rage. Jier didn't even look, his left hand reaching out to grab the blade of the short knife, then with a hard tug, he snatched the short knife from the other's hand.

The young gang leader, now without his weapon, was like a castrated pet dog, suddenly becoming obedient.

Jier held the short knife backhanded in his left hand and gestured to the others around him, then gripped the handle with his right hand and the blade with his left, exerting a little force and guiding the Life Energy in his arm to provide assistance; the iron short knife was thus bent into a U-shaped piece of trash by his hands.

Casually throwing the thing onto the ground, Jier smacked his lips.

"Everyone, please believe me, this power can still accomplish something. I have no prejudice against any of you. If you assist me and Priest Bataer in completing our mission on this trip and rescue the people, I guarantee that you will safely pass through this chaotic time."

With such a 'performance,' the vast majority of the young people present accepted Jier's statement, or at least no longer opposed it, preparing to see if Jier would truly do as he said.

Jier saw the reaction of the hundreds of people around him, then patted the shoulder of the young gang leader who was still standing in front of him with his head lowered in a daze: "Pick up your toy and step back honestly."

This guy stiffly picked up the bent short knife on the grass by his feet and silently lowered his head and stepped back.

His companions also awkwardly lowered their heads; when the four of them returned to the rest of the gang's group, they were immediately shunned by others. It was unclear whether they were being shunned for the urine-soaked pants or the shameful performance just now.

With Jier having initially settled the crowd, Priest Bataer also stopped his prayer to the Small Nongshen Statue.

The priest put away the protective statue with its chaotic fluorescence, then had dozens of people around him follow him, and then communicated with Jier.

"What now?"

The priest looked at the large group of people around him and asked, feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Jier shrugged: "What else can we do? Set off. We have food to provide for them, right? Then let's set off first." As Jier said this, he took out the map he had just obtained from the small backpack hanging behind his armor.

Unfolding it, Jier pointed to the map, which had been redrawn on the original, and said: "Set off first, head east, reach Yidong Town, and reorganize the team there. I've already thought it through; we'll follow the way our Kendall Militia is organized. Organize them first, and then on the road heading southeast, we'll arm them a little."

Priest Bataer looked surprised: "Arm them? With so many people, even if we sold ourselves, we couldn't do it! Given the current situation, it's impossible for any merchant or blacksmith shop to sell weapons. They probably don't even have enough to arm themselves!"

Jier smiled and whispered: "Who said we have to spend money to buy them?"

"You mean?" Seeming to have guessed Jier's idea, Priest Bataer found it incredible: "Those guys aren't stupid, are they?"

"That's hard to say. When they see delicious food placed in front of them, one or two guys with firm willpower and life experience might be able to restrain themselves and a few others, but once the number of people grows, greedy desires cannot be stopped by one or two people."

Jier answered mysteriously in a low voice.

By the time it was nearly noon, the eight hundred or so refugee youths were still gathered in a long line, following Jier and the others who were leading the way, slowly moving along the main commercial road heading east.

Although most of them had barely eaten two bowls of rice since last night and this morning, the young people, most of whom were farmers, possessed real physical strength and resilience. Despite the confusion and panic in their hearts and the hunger and weakness in their bodies, no one fell behind, and they followed the team in their familiar groups.

Xueya Site drove the carriage at the very front of the team. He did not interfere with any of the actions of Jier and Priest Bataer, and fearing that he might say the wrong thing and be overheard, he spoke much less after the team began to move.

As for Priest Bataer, who was riding a borrowed prairie horse, he let the horse follow slowly behind the carriage. Behind him were dozens of 'Nongshen Believers' who had specifically gathered together. Although it was unknown how many of them truly believed in the Nongshen and had faith in the Nongshen, the priest did not care about this at the moment. As long as he could unite the people around him through religion and faith, he could reduce the number of people causing trouble for Jier.

After all, he was a priest of the Agricultural God Church, naturally higher in social status than the general public. Regardless of whether their faith was true or false, these believers had to obey his actual instructions and orders once they had declared their faith and inclination.

This was the benefit brought by the church and social ruling consciousness.

In addition to the dozens of young people who declared their faith, the friends, brothers, and lovers of these people also came out from their original village groups and followed behind the former's team.

This group also numbered in the dozens, and the two combined totaled roughly one hundred people. Priest Bataer rubbed the protective statue in his hand, while decomposing and disposing of the chaotic spiritual faith on the protective statue, feeling that being able to help Jier handle the trouble of at least one hundred people was already a very good result.

His gaze swept over the ruins of a solitary stone house by the road, and Priest Bataer vaguely remembered seeing it when he came.

At that time, this stone house was still a roadside rest inn guarded by thugs. He didn't expect that in just over twenty days, it, like the inn outside the east gate of the Baishi Chengqiang Guanka, had been destroyed and burned by someone.

The stone walls had collapsed inward because the internal supporting wooden beams had been burned, burying other ruins and trash inside the building under the stones. He didn't know how many people were buried inside.

Just then, Jier happened to be riding back from patrolling the rear of the team. Seeing the priest's gaze fixed on the building ruins by the road, he asked: "What? Is there something strange about this building?"

Shaking his head: "Nothing strange, it's just that when I came, this place was still operating. Although business wasn't good, refugees fleeing here could probably buy a meal at double the price." Priest Bataer said so.

Jier, however, found it interesting. He spurred his horse to approach the ruins quickly, maneuvering the horse to circle the collapsed stone and wood building, which occupied quite a large area, before returning.

"Interesting. After getting close, I could smell the thick smoke and ash rising from the collapsed ruins. It looks like it was set on fire and destroyed only a few days ago."

After finishing, Jier looked thoughtfully at the deserted sides of the road.

The north-south mountain range in the distance was lush and green because it was spring. In places with low elevation, trees of various sizes grew, and the trees gathered into forests, forming patches of forest in areas with gentler terrain.

The trees were budding and unfolding their leaves, swaying with the blowing of the spring breeze.

Looking left and right, Jier rubbed his teeth and rode his horse to the very front of the team, quietly saying to Xueya Site: "Slow down the carriage speed a bit more. Can we not get out of this mountain pass before dark?"

Jier's words confused Xueya Site. What did he mean by whether they could or could not get out of here?

Do you want to get out, or do you not want to get out of here?

After calculating and observing Jier's expression, Xueya Site finally understood Jier's meaning. He said cautiously, "If that is the plan, we can let the group walk for a while and then rest; after all, these young people are physically weak and lack stamina. Furthermore, once the group stops to rest, it will be much more troublesome to get people to set off again. After all, not every group is like you Kendall people."

Jier smiled: "Good idea. Then, you slow down the speed first. I will see where is suitable ahead, and then let everyone find a place to rest."

After saying this, Jier nudged his horse's belly and galloped ahead first.

This main trade route in the mountain range was paved with stones collected from the mountains, so after Jier's Tianxuecao ran quickly, the horseshoes and stone fragments collided, making a loud clattering sound.

As Jier instructed, Xueya Site slowed down the speed of the carriage, and the long line of young refugees following behind also unintentionally slowed their walking speed.

Some people with better stamina felt the decrease in speed during the uncomfortable march, but the other panting young people had their ability to think long since stripped away by the misery of physical exhaustion, and they could not perceive the difference in forward speed at all.

Jier ran forward for a while and found a flat open space by the side of the road that was relatively wide; it just so happened that the open space was next to a small stream, so everyone in the group could also replenish their water here.

This open space also had traces left by previous passing merchants who had rested here, but this place was actually not far from the Baishi Chengqiang Guanka, and passing merchants would not stay overnight in this place so close to the checkpoint.

If they were to stay overnight, they would stay in the large open space outside the checkpoint, waiting for the east city gate of the checkpoint to open the next day.

Interestingly, the Baishi Chengqiang on the west side of the Baishi Chengqiang Guanka would never close its city gate due to lighting reasons, while the man-made stone city wall on the east side would close its city gate after nightfall.

The main reason was that the west side of the checkpoint was Mengtuoka City, where law and order were good, so whether the city gate was closed or not was not important. But the east side faced this vast wilderness in the mountains; in such an unmanaged place, he felt that anything could happen.

However, after seeing the inn by the road that had been burned down by people, Jier realized that the most common thing here must be bandits who robbed and plundered passing merchants.

Jier turned his horse back, thinking and considering as he rode.

The fact that this large area was so desolate was naturally not unrelated to being too close to the mountain range.

There were many monsters and Magic Beasts in the mountains, which was not suitable for establishing settlements.

In the past, there could still be some inns along the road that relied on stone buildings to resist monster attacks, also because this was a must-take trade route from the Southern Province to the Western Province.

With profits to be made, some bold operators would take the risk to run inns here to serve passing merchants.

And there were likely quite a few human bandits who made a living by plundering.

Everyone was in the same line of work, all relying on passing merchants to make a living, so the bandits probably would not attack those inns; after all, they themselves might need those inns for consumption and enjoyment, or even to sell some stolen black-market goods there.

Mutual benefit and reciprocity; they kept to their own business.

But previously, a war broke out in the border area of the Southern Province, and the failure of the war gradually spread to other parts of the province. Chaos and instability gradually spread along with the lack of violence.

The local Noble Lords withdrawing soldiers who maintained law and order to participate in the war was likely a major reason. And the deserters and defeated soldiers from the battlefield who lost their organization and supplies due to the war's failure also led to more serious consequences.

Just thinking about it, some soldiers who had killed people on the battlefield fled back to their hometowns; these people likely had to join various underground forces nearby to avoid punishment from local ruling powers.

Bandits who gathered in the mountains to rob the road, gang thugs in towns who parasitized the people, and petty thieves who stole and robbed in secret.

All of them poured in at once.

Coupled with the lack of local law enforcement, the entire Southern Province likely gradually became worse like this.

Merchants' caravans were killed and robbed one after another, leading to a rapid decrease in outside merchants who dared to leave the city to do business or come here.

This led to a problem.

Jier stood by the road and shouted to the carriages and the many young refugees following behind him: "There is an open space by the stream ahead, let's rest there temporarily for a while!"

He repeatedly told the people passing in front of him, and many young people who were weak from hunger breathed a heavy sigh of relief; their bodies also had a little more strength, and their foot speed increased slightly.

Jier followed at the very back of the group, nodded to the team of refugee gang members he had specifically arranged to bring up the rear, and followed at the end of the group, thinking again.

The deterioration of law and order in the Southern Province led to a significant decrease in merchant guilds and traveling merchants who dared to come to do business or do business locally.

After all, powerful merchant guilds were not common anywhere, and those who accounted for the proportion of personnel in the industry had always been small and medium-sized merchant guilds and caravans.

If these small and medium-sized caravans and guilds did not dare to come out to do business, then who were the bandits and the inns operating in the area where Jier and the others were currently located eating and drinking from?

With a cold laugh, Jier understood after a little thought: at the beginning, the black and white forces that relied on this main trade route for a living were probably still watching. But as fewer and fewer merchants passed by, only some villagers fleeing as whole villages passed through here.

Although the refugees were poor, they were not without oil and water; the bandits and inn operators could still pinch their noses and barely make a living, but as time went on.

Jier guessed that this was about the time after Priest Bata'er passed through here heading west. Even the refugees from the noble territories on the west side of the Southern Province who wanted to flee west to the Mengtuoka City area of the Western Province gradually disappeared.

Without people passing by, the bandits and inn operators who relied on the trade route for a living became the only 'residents' here. Of course, some armed large caravans probably still passed through here, but the bandits probably suffered heavy losses after fighting a few times, so they no longer futilely attacked the large merchant groups.

Instead, in the few days before Jier and the others arrived here, they set their targets on the locally operated inns.

One side had knives, the other side was meat.

The result was self-evident.

However, how many bandits could a few inns feed? For how long?

They must be like hungry wolves at this moment, in the woods far away on both sides of the road, revealing eyes that had turned green from hunger, staring tightly at their group of people.

Jier placed his hand on the hilt of his Hunting Sword, pulled it out slightly, revealing the black-gray blade.

He whispered to this weapon of his: "Wait a moment, wait a moment. It probably won't be long before the battle and slaughter that can satisfy you and me will arrive."

The long sword vibrated slightly in the Sword Sheath, and Jier smiled as he inserted the long sword back into the Sword Sheath.