Chapter 67: The Battle of Bitter Water Cunzi

By the time Jier arrived at Bitter Water Cunzi, the warriors under his command, with the assistance of the Sun God Priests and the Farm God Priests, had already breached the south gate of Bitter Water Cunzi and begun fighting the monsters house by house within the village.

Warriors, usually in small groups of three or five, would follow behind a Church Priest wearing robes; upon encountering ordinary parasitic monsters, the warriors would quickly rout them with the support of the various Divine Arts bestowed upon them at the time. When they encountered more troublesome parasitic monsters, the accompanying priests would step forward to use Divine Power Impact or other means to entangle the flowering monsters.

The metal long staffs held by the Sun God Church priests were inlaid with large pieces of coal stone at the tips, allowing them to release intense light and heat at a short range according to their will, without the need for cumbersome prayers or chanting.

For the powerful flowering monsters, this was simply impossible to avoid.

As for the Farm God Priests, they would throw a handful of bean seeds at formidable monsters and activate those seeds with a short prayer, causing the beans on the ground to rapidly transform into bean stems, entangling the targets the priests wished to restrain. Often at this moment, the warriors nearby would excitedly swarm forward, hacking to death the powerful monsters that they had found quite difficult to handle.

The more numerous civilians entered the village in turn through the main gate; they did not dare to venture too deep into their own village, which was occupied by monsters, but instead followed behind the valiant warriors. As the warriors took a house, they would occupy it in turn, preventing the monsters from flanking them from the rear and expanding their own position.

The injured warriors and villagers were temporarily settled in houses already controlled by their side, with several archers on the roofs providing support with bows and arrows to other warriors not far away.

Jier's arrival, while raising the spirits of the civilians outside the village, meant the gate he entered through was blocked; Jier had no choice but to detour along the village wall to another gate. After throwing the Yueshui Skull Two-Handed Axe to blast open the Cunzi West Gate, Jier rode his horse into Bitter Water Cunzi.

No one knew exactly how many parasitic monsters were entrenched in Bitter Water Cunzi; after all, the monsters from the entire North Sas County were scattered and rushing over to attack the Sun God Priest's party. They could not stand against humans under the scorching summer sun. Because the human side was very close to Yemei Town, the logistics wagons organized by the Merchant Guild could easily carry water barrels filled with water and food to arrive, dropping off the food and water before quickly retreating, leaving the monsters unable to intercept them.

Therefore, if the monsters needed to replenish their water, they had to rely on the nearest location, Bitter Water Cunzi.

The cool, shaded interiors of human houses allowed some monsters to hide inside when it was not their turn to replenish water. Thus, although there were over two hundred monsters surrounding the Sun God Priest's party in the wild outside, the actual number of monsters inside Bitter Water Cunzi was slightly lower than that.

This was something none of the people attacking the village had anticipated, but since they had already fought their way in, it was completely unrealistic to want to retreat back outside the village to fight a war of attrition with the monsters. Therefore, the warriors could only take turns attacking the villagers' houses, guessing how many monsters were entrenched in each one. The others rested as quickly as possible, replenishing water and food.

After all, it was a hot day, and having fought all the way here, everyone had long since sweated profusely and was in dire need of replenishing fluids.

Jier did not need to replenish much; Tianxuecao had been drinking water containing monster blood recently and seemed to have undergone some different changes—at the very least, its energy was much more vigorous than before, its stamina was better, and of course, it was more combative.

The Divine Arts Jier had been blessed with had long since been exhausted, so after charging into the village, he moved toward areas where fighting was taking place, attempting to have the Sun God Priests re-bless him with Divine Arts.

After all, when he possessed such Divine Arts, his combat efficiency increased significantly.

Swish—

From behind a thorn hedge in a nearby farmhouse courtyard, thick vines lashed out suddenly, heading straight for Jier himself.

Jier let out a muffled grunt, his metal armor plates clattering and flying off; he only managed to avoid being knocked off his horse by this sneak attack because he gripped his warhorse tightly with his legs.

He immediately counterattacked, throwing the Dwarf Soldier Spear in his hand directly backward behind the hedge, pinning a flowering monster hiding there to a thick fruit tree trunk in the courtyard.

"Go!" The Yueshui Skull was thrown by him, shredding both the monster and the tree into withered fragments.

Jier did not bother with the two weapons, drew his long sword and shield, and jumped off his warhorse.

He really did not want to experience such a despicable sneak attack again; it was safer to walk. The village was not as spacious as the outside, where one could ride a horse at high speed. There were many obstacles in the village, and if the parasitic monsters wanted to sneak attack, it was truly too easy for them, as they did not even need to breathe.

On the second floor of a villager's house ahead, a monster was peering at him from a window. Jier saw at a glance that the guy with wrist-thick vines emerging from its mouth was a monster, so he turned and took the heavy crossbow from the weapon rack on the back of the following Tianxuecao.

He pulled the heavy crossbow string in one motion and loaded a heavy crossbow bolt.

"Here you go—"

With a bang of the vibrating crossbow string, Jier fired directly after a simple aim; the powerful heavy crossbow bolt shattered both the wooden wall of the farmhouse and the person behind it.

The monster might not have died, but with a bowl-sized hole punched in its chest by the heavy crossbow bolt and multiple injuries from wall fragments, it was clearly unlikely that this monster would be able to repair its body before the end of today's battle.

Click, Jier pulled the crossbow string again and loaded a heavy crossbow bolt.

"Let me see, where is the next unlucky soul..."

Jier glanced upward and saw a parasitic monster sneaking on the roof by the roadside, intending to pounce from a high vantage point.

No need to say more, reward it with a heavy crossbow bolt!

Bang! The monster was struck from below by the heavy crossbow bolt fired from the ground; its entire body was sent flying, spinning in mid-air before falling to the ground. It seemed the core human face within its body suffered a violent impact from the fall, and it died on the spot, motionless.

"Ha, this efficiency isn't slow at all!" Jier laughed arrogantly, walking while continuously taking heavy crossbow bolts from the weapon rack on Tianxuecao's back.

There were thirty heavy crossbow bolts in total; Jier reloaded and fired rapidly, each shot disabling or killing a monster. By the time he approached the south side of the village where fighting was ongoing, he had easily defeated thirty parasitic monsters along the entire path he had walked.

This was not a small number; after all, the entire village had fewer than two hundred monsters, and with the valiant fighting of the warriors who had entered the village, a monster was being eliminated every minute.

Even at the current efficiency, Jier could completely take this place before dark without even needing to intervene.

But the monsters were not stupid; they could not just passively defend and accept their defeat without flexibility. They communicated with each other and soon gathered from the other three directions of the village, clearly intending to launch a counter-push against the humans, not only to drive them out of the village but also to capture living people or obtain more human corpses in the process.

Although the path to the northwest of Sasi County was blocked by Bell's Hunting Squad, Bitter Water Cunzi had a "Parasitic Nest" containing several "Breeders." As long as there were living humans or corpses, they could cultivate another large wave of parasitic monsters in a short time.

By then, the losses of today could be recovered.

Jier met up with his warriors and was once again blessed with the Radiant Weapon battle Divine Art. However, before he could join the close-quarters house-to-house fighting, he sensed something was wrong.

In the distance, one could hear the constant sound of monster footsteps and the rich fragrance of the flowers on the heads of the flowering monsters.

Furthermore, in the several houses occupied by monsters leading to the center of the village, those parasitic monsters that had originally been avoiding light to reduce water consumption actually walked out of the houses and came into the courtyards and onto the village roads.

"Jier—"

"Jier! They've all come out of the houses!"

On the roof of a house behind him, Tusi shouted to warn Jier.

Jier waved his hand to indicate he had heard.

Indeed, it seemed the monsters were going to launch a counterattack?

"Attention, all warriors, come out of the houses and assemble where I am! Move fast! Priests, gather together as well, because those monsters don't intend to be defeated by us so easily; they are gathering, they are coming!"

Visible to the naked eye, the number of parasitic monsters on the village road ahead was increasing, quickly exceeding one hundred. Moreover, what made Jier frown even more was that there were ten flowering monsters gathered here alone.

'No wonder the floral scent is so strong; they've actually gathered so many flowering monsters at once.' Jier thought.

"Be quick with your movements, they are coming!"

Jier waved his hand at Tianxuecao; the warhorse, understanding Jier's intent, obediently and proactively left the area. The spatial environment here was not suitable for it to perform, so to avoid adding to the chaos, Jier let Tianxuecao retreat to the rear to stand by.

Turning his head to look at the able-bodied people behind him, he found there were fewer than fifty. This even included the number of priests from the two churches. Those merchant caravan guards and shop thugs who had joined temporarily had decent combat power and had played a significant role in the previous battle in the fields. But those guys with no money in their pockets had revealed their true nature as soon as they entered the village; while others were thinking about killing more monsters, they had scattered and were secretly looting the villagers' houses, whether they had been taken or not.

At this point, it was basically impossible to call those guys, who were blinded by wealth, to fight to the death. After all, in their view: didn't I fight to the death just to get money? Now that I am busy looting, how could I continue to fight to the death?

"Town Guards! And brave villagers holding weapons, if anyone wants to contribute to retaking Bitter Water Cunzi, and for the victory of this battle, please step forward, stand with me, and fight side by side!"

More and more monsters appeared in front; because they were in the village, they had also picked up many things and were not coming empty-handed.

The flowering monsters had even managed to find a batch of thick wooden clubs, as thick as a calf's leg and two meters long, seemingly intending to use them to knock down and send flying all the humans blocking their way.

Not many Town Guards came in response to Jier's call, only a few; the remaining dozens stayed outside the village under the pretext of protecting the women and children among the villagers. The Town Guards were basically Yemei Town people, or people planning to move to Yemei Town to live. Therefore, although they were sent to support the priests and villagers on this route, they had no reason to risk their lives for the villagers of Bitter Water Cunzi; during the previous defense, they had also largely held back their strength.

As for the armed civilians composed of young and strong farmers from Bitter Water Cunzi, they stood out in large numbers, gathering behind Jier and standing shoulder to shoulder with Jier's warriors, even though they only wore loose linen cloth clothing and held short swords and metal farm tools.

But this is Bitter Water Cunzi, and this is a battle to reclaim a home occupied by Monsters.

If Jier the Knight and his subordinate Warriors can bravely fight for people unrelated to them, why would these men not dare to stand up?

Not only the young and able-bodied men, but also the sturdy farm women with some strength picked up wooden sticks, gripped their Daggers, and stood together with their husbands, their fathers, their sons, and their brothers, all glaring in anger at the Parasitic Monsters ahead that were baring their fangs and brandishing their claws, becoming less and less human-like as time passed.

Everyone felt fear in their hearts and trembled with cowardice, but not only did no one retreat, the entire group of over a hundred people even moved slightly forward.

The Monsters were not afraid either; they also gathered and, led by the flowering Monsters, walked forward one after another along a narrow dirt road within the village.

Although Jier was also exceptionally excited by the atmosphere at this moment, he did not lose his composure. His gaze swept quickly through the group of Monsters, and he discovered that as the Monsters gradually approached, those flowering Monsters that had originally been walking at the back with thick wooden clubs were gradually moving to the very front of the Monster group.

Just like him.

This was certainly good; a real battle should naturally place the most powerful means and combat strength in the front row, because in a battle, only the side that prioritizes unleashing its combat strength can quickly weaken the enemy's strength and numbers, occupying the advantage in numbers and total combat strength.

If one keeps their strongest card for last, often with the collapse of the battle, there is no longer any need to play that card.

But unlike the Parasitic Vine Monsters with limited means, Jier and his group were Humans, and there were over a dozen Priests from the two divine churches in the ranks.

Not to mention that among those Priests, who were numerous, the god they worshipped was precisely the most powerful god in Human civilization today—the Sun God!

"Priests, if you have any means, then release them now without holding back! And you must be fast; the target is those dozen or so flowering Monsters in the front row opposite!"

Jier did not turn around, facing the Monsters as he said to those behind him: "The victory of this battle, as long as those flowering Monsters in the front row are dealt with, will surely be won!"

Hearing Jier's words, the Priests looked at each other, and soon the two leaders among the Priests realized what Jier meant.

"Jier the Knight, I have read the letter that Bata'er Jiaoshi asked you to pass on. Up to now, have you been fighting with your full strength?" The middle-aged Vice Dean of the Agricultural God Church was also very nervous at this moment; the Agricultural God did not have many Battle Divine Arts suitable for frontal combat, so they could only rely on Jier, who was a warrior of the Agricultural God.

Jier was stunned after hearing this question, but he still answered honestly: "I have not used my full strength; it is about less than half."

At this moment, many people were surprised to hear Jier's words and looked one after another at Jier the Knight in the front row. They did not expect that the Knight who had already performed more impressively than everyone combined in this battle had not even used half of his true strength.

"Then may I ask you to fight with all your might? If there is any consumption of resources, our Yemei Town Agricultural God Church is willing to provide you with a double subsidy."

The Vice Dean had traveled far and wide when he was young and had seen much, so just from Jier's answer, he knew that it was not that Jier himself was stingy or unwilling to use his full strength when everyone else was fighting desperately, but that many means to increase strength require the consumption of various resources.

This includes, but is not limited to, the consumption of one-time Magic equipment, the replenishment of Magic Power for Magic equipment, the consumption of finding Priests to replenish Divine Power for Divine Power equipment that is difficult to replenish, and the non-refundable resource consumption of some rituals, etc.

Many of these require large sums of money to obtain and maintain. And some are even difficult to buy with money, requiring the consumption of status and connections, etc., making them even harder to replenish.

So at this moment, the Vice Dean of the Agricultural God Church stood up to indicate that tonight's expenses would be covered by the great Agricultural God, which was to let Jier use his full strength without needing to worry about consumption. After all, for the Agricultural God Church, there was nothing they could not get.

"Fine, I will fight with all my strength! Do not stand too close to me when you fight later," Jier said affirmatively, while at the same time calculating in his heart how to account for the money when unleashing his various strengths, so he could ask the Agricultural God Church for reimbursement later.

But the Priests of the Sun God Church, the middle-aged Priest leading them at this moment, naturally could not let the Agricultural God Church and a warrior of the Agricultural God steal their spotlight. After calculating in his heart, he quickly spoke to Jier: "Jier the Knight, I have another way, but I don't know if you are willing to make a small sacrifice for the people of Bitter Water Cunzi? Uh, a sacrifice of reputation?"

Jier raised his eyebrows; what time was it, he didn't know what this person was still playing riddles for here.

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