Chapter 671: The Darkest Moonless Night (Part 8)

In the deep, dark, ancient Shulin, on a clearing covered in tall Glowing Moss and Glowing Mushroom.

Jier's figure appeared.

He stepped onto the platform ground made of clusters of mushroom caps, let out a breath, and relaxed.

"Whew, that was close."

Jier tossed the Double-edged Metal Long Spear in his hand toward the distant clearing, then lay flat on his back on the tough yet resilient mushroom cap platform.

He opened his Faceplate, then removed his Helmet.

The parts where the Helmet connected to the Neck Armor were deformed; Jier had to use his gloved fingers to pry them a few times, snapping the deformed Lock back into place before he could remove the Helmet.

He stroked the surface of his armor with a touch of heartache. Scratches from arrows were left everywhere; every time an arrow hit, it left a long or short dented scratch on the surface of the armor.

On the outside of the steel shoulder guards and arm guards, the scratches and impact dents were very slight, but on the inside of his arms and the areas on his back and waist—places that generally wouldn't be attacked by weapons—Jier had let the Craftsman Ganna, who made the armor, use ordinary iron materials.

Although both were iron metals, the hardness and toughness of steel were much stronger than ordinary iron.

Sighing, Jier estimated that he would definitely have to find an Armor Craftsman later to give his armor a thorough repair.

It was mainly because these scratches and abrasions all over his body really didn't look good on the armor.

He lay comfortably on the mushroom platform, letting the Glowing Mushroom beneath him and all around gradually brighten the strange patterns on their caps, slowly but effectively healing his body.

Jier knew that the passage of time in the You'an Milin Mengjing was not consistent with the outside world, so he lay there leisurely, healing his body and easing his tense spirit.

With his mouth idle, he began to whistle, blowing a lively little tune with a "whew-whew" sound.

Thinking of the thrilling situation just now, which had been entirely within his calculations, Jier couldn't help but reveal a happy smile.

"Haha, I wonder what that guy looks like now. But it won't be long before I can see for myself. Hmph, 'King of the White Wall,' how ridiculous; he's nothing more than a fallen Noble family that lost power in noble struggles and turned into bandits."

After this rant, Jier scraped the stubble growing on his chin with his fingers, thinking of the weapons and equipment his opponent possessed.

"Heh heh, they're all mine, they're all mine~"

He drew his Hunting Sword, and after carefully sitting up, he lightly scraped the blade against his chin to shave off the stubble that had been growing wildly during this puberty-stricken body's phase.

The Hunting Sword in his hand vibrated slightly, seemingly dissatisfied that Jier was using it to shave his beard instead of killing enemies.

But it was immediately intimidated by Jier: "Hey, this is me loving you, trusting you, get it? Why wouldn't I use other weapons? It's just that I don't trust using other sharp blades to shave my beard."

"Otherwise, I would have just used the newly acquired Magic Dagger to shave; it's even lighter."

The Hunting Sword was persuaded and immediately behaved.

Jier discovered that there was one benefit to using a Spirit weapon to shave: as the owner of this Spirit weapon, the weapon in his hand would consciously be careful not to let the sharp blade hurt him while he shaved.

Feeling his chin smooth again, Jier satisfiedly returned the Hunting Sword to its Sword Sheath.

After sitting on the mushroom platform for a while, he felt his body much better; although the continuous fierce fighting had consumed a lot of his stamina and Life Energy, at least his injuries had healed significantly.

Breathing in the cold, moist air of the dreamland more often also made his spirit feel invigorated.

But as for stamina...

Jier climbed up from the mushroom platform, and after hesitating for a moment, he crossed his hands over his ribs on his armor, then communicated with the Divine Power pattern of the blessing on his skin.

The leaf blades sensed his strong intent and immediately emitted a strong cyan light of Divine Power; if it weren't for the metal armor blocking it, if he were only wearing ordinary clothes, the intensity of the cyan Divine Power light would likely have penetrated the clothing.

But unlike the cyan light emitted from his ribs on the body surface, the true, powerful Divine Power extended into the interior of his body.

From the blessing pattern inward, countless tiny Divine Power tentacles, like roots, extended to make contact with his internal Viscera, and even spread along every Blood Vessel to all the physical tissues of his body.

Using the 'Grass and Wood Source' blessing for the first time, it activated slowly; the Divine Power tentacles extending to all parts of his body for the first time made Jier feel slightly itchy all over, and it felt as if his body, already full, had been filled with another set of nerves and Blood Vessels.

The Life Energy within his body did not block these new friends, because these Divine Power tentacles looked no different from the Sun God Divine Power that had originally been in his body, just stronger and more overbearing.

Some Life Energy moving along his Blood Vessels naturally came into contact with the tiny Divine Power tentacles that were also spreading along the vessels. As soon as they made contact with this Divine Power, Jier's Life Energy felt as if it had received a supply, and the Life Energy that had been largely depleted became active once again.

Moreover, Jier suddenly had a feeling: previously, when performing movements that exceeded the limits of the human body during battle, he would inevitably consume a portion of his stored Life Energy.

But now, he felt that during the time the 'Grass and Wood Source' blessing of infinite energy was in effect, no matter how he performed movements supported by Life Energy, his Life Energy would not be consumed; instead, the powerful Sun God Divine Power that came with the blessing would be consumed as a substitute.

Jier's eyes lit up; he suddenly drew his Long Sword and slashed forward with great force.

Whoosh—

A powerful slash, bringing with it the whistling sound of air full of momentum.

This was something that had never happened before.

Because it wasn't that he couldn't do it, but that he hadn't needed to.

With this slash, even if ten people were stacked together, they would likely be cut through by the sheer force of the Long Sword.

And his enemies nowadays were mostly ordinary Human beings. Even the Bandit Leader Nobi-Feisibilu, whom he had just fought, feared his simple arrow shots and clearly didn't have many special defensive means.

Well, as a former Noble, even if he had turned to banditry, he probably still had one or two Protective Magic Items for self-defense, such as the time he exempted himself from the Blinding attack of his Sun God Divine Power white light.

But pure physical attacks were not so easy to block; after all, the attack of the white light of Divine Power only lasted for one wave, but once he got close, he could swing his Long Sword and unleash more than ten strikes in a single breath, each one fatal.

Putting away the Long Sword, Jier jumped off the mushroom platform, picked up the Double-edged Metal Long Spear that was stuck in the ground, and swung it heavily.

The heavy Metal Spear whistled as it swung in his hands; although the speed was not fast, the force was extremely heavy, and the wind it stirred up swept up the surrounding Glowing Moss flowers.

An earthy-yellow old sprite poked its head out from a tree trunk; it yawned, and seeing Jier acting crazy by himself in the clearing he always entered, it became excited.

It summoned its mount and floated in the air, watching Jier swing the Metal Spear, striking left and right like a churning river, and stabbing continuously like a scorpion's tail stinger.

It clapped and cheered, making chirping sounds of encouragement.

Jier didn't know that at this moment, because he had activated the 'Grass and Wood Source' blessing, his entire eyes were emitting a glowing grass-green light. Of course, his vision was not affected; on the contrary, because his Life Energy was being consumed as a substitute for a period of time, his eyesight had actually improved slightly.

"You little thing, watching me perform tricks, are you?"

Jier stopped his experiment and shouldered the tens-of-kilograms-heavy Metal Spear.

Seeing Jier stop, the old sprite felt bored with its tiny face; it waved goodbye to Jier, then floated away toward the nearby Qicai Chitang.

Jier happened to be a bit thirsty and planned to go over to drink some of the fresh water he had stored there previously, so he followed.

The old sprite noticed Jier following behind; it raised its eyebrows, which were not even as big as sesame seeds, and turned to look at Jier.

"What? Not allowed for me to walk toward the Pond too? After all, there's only one path."

Just as Jier finished speaking, the old sprite sank into the ground riding its palm-sized Snail Shell and then disappeared without a trace.

"Hey, you miser."

Muttering this, Jier started walking again, heading toward the Pond.

But when he walked over, he immediately went mad with rage.

"The grain I prepared! The clean water I prepared in advance! Damn it, these aren't raw materials for you to cultivate Mushrooms with! Aaaaaah!"

Jier shouted and yelled, because before his eyes, the bagged grain and the clean water stored in the Water Jar—which he had taken the time to prepare as supplies for his dream—were now covered in 'poisonous' Mushrooms of various colors and shapes.

From the various Mushrooms sprouting caps from the grain bags and the Water Jar, Jier recognized some that he had previously handed over to the sprite.

That was how the strange Mushrooms appearing all over his dream had come to be.

But he hadn't expected that, just because he hadn't been to the Pond for a while, the supplies here would be ruined by the sprite like this.

"Hey! You, come out here! Didn't we agree that you weren't allowed to mess with the things I put in the boxes? You can only use things I put by the Pond that are meant to be thrown away! But look at what you've done! I'm out there fighting, and now I can't even get a drink of water here."

Jier paced back and forth on the open ground by the Pond, accusing the sprite at the top of his lungs.

The sprite heard his words and cheekily popped out from the ground; it grinned and patted the Water Jar, which had been for water but was now full of Mushrooms sprouting from its mouth.

Pat, pat.

The jar, having been slapped hard twice by it, wobbled slightly, and the sound of sloshing water came from inside.

Chattering away, it patted its chest and pointed proudly at the Water Jar beside it, clearly saying that it had still saved some water for him to drink.

But Jier's face was twisted with anger; he suppressed the urge to curse loudly and tried to explain to the sprite, which was less than the size of his palm: "I am a Human, do you understand? A complex and fragile intelligent animal. We Humans cannot drink water contaminated by poisonous Mushrooms. We will die."

He sighed: "Even if it doesn't kill me, after drinking this unknown liquid, vomiting and diarrhea will make everything very terrible. Can you understand that?"

But to Jier's explanation, the sprite nodded to show it understood, yet still maintained the look of 'come on, have a taste of the clean water in the jar.'

"Sigh, forget it. A sprite's common sense is indeed different from a Human's; I shouldn't have held out hope for this."

Jier sighed, shouldered his Long Spear again, put on his Helmet, and prepared for battle once more.

He pointed at the grain bags growing Mushrooms and the Water Jar sprouting Mushroom caps: "You deal with them as soon as possible. When the opportunity is right later, I will prepare more supplies to bring in. You, sigh, I will specifically prepare some supplies for you to tinker with those poisonous Mushrooms."

After saying this, Jier's figure quickly vanished.

After Jier disappeared, the sprite laughed triumphantly; it floated up and patted the poisonous Mushrooms it had cultivated and bred one by one. Eerily, those Mushrooms also wobbled their caps slightly and emitted joyful cackling laughter.

On a grain bag, the largest, palm-sized, thick Mushroom with a red cap and spots struggled to shake its base, and then, with a plop, it fell off the grain bag sitting on the shelf.

The sprite excitedly summoned its mount and flew to where the Mushroom had fallen.

This poisonous Mushroom struggled on the mossy ground for a moment, then the mycelium at its base grew into a pair of feet, and it stood up, wobbling.

The sprite jumped off its Snail Shell mount, circled the poisonous Mushroom that was as tall as it was, patted it with satisfaction, took a set of colored pens out of the little vest it was wearing, and then drew a Human face on the Mushroom's thick stalk.

Looking closely, one could see that the face was drawn after Jier's likeness; and truth be told, its drawing skills were quite good—it looked exactly like Jier's face.

The sprite patted its new follower with satisfaction, no longer riding its Snail Shell mount; it walked in front, and the long-legged poisonous Mushroom followed behind, swaying as they patrolled this small open space by the Pond.

Pointing at the 'tall' Weapon Rack in the distance, the sprite chattered something to the long-legged poisonous Mushroom behind it. The poisonous Mushroom couldn't speak, only emitting some cackling, strange noises similar to laughter.

But the sprite understood; it patted its chest, indicating that there were uncleaned bloodstains in the crevices of some weapons on the Weapon Rack that the poisonous Mushroom could taste.

Thus, the tiny team, with the gray-bearded sprite leading and the long-legged poisonous Mushroom following, strode toward the Weapon Rack.

Still in the pitch-black Shulin, in a small clearing.

Nobi-Feisibilu looked at the empty clearing with a strange expression, baffled that the young Knight, who should have been severed by the secret technique, had simply vanished into the mouth of the Skull driven by the secret technique.

"Impossible? Where did something go wrong? Is it—no, that's not right. Killing that Knight before didn't result in this situation. But there had never been a manifestation of a secret technique before; I didn't even know the secret technique involved driving a Skull that crawls out of the ground."

Just as the Bandit Leader was half-crouched in the clearing, suspicious and uneasy.

At the spot where Jier had originally stood, where the secret technique Skull had emerged to bite upward.

Suddenly.

Jier's figure, carrying his Long Spear, reappeared there.

Nobi-Feisibilu widened his eyes in disbelief. After all, his gaze had never left that spot, yet Jier had just suddenly appeared.

"What's going on? Answer me! What's going on?"

He shouted and yelled, completely unaware of his current and impending situation.

Green light emanated from the eye holes of Jier's Steel Face Mask, looking extremely eerie, but Jier himself was unaware of it.

"Who knows. Save the question for the world after death and ask the people you murdered."

As soon as he finished speaking, Jier stomped on the ground with a boom, his whole body exploding forward. He held his Double-edged Metal Long Spear with both hands, leveled it, and thrust it straight toward the Bandit Leader's chest.

Jier's speed was too fast; the Bandit Leader had no time to react. He was struck directly in the chest, sent flying, and slammed into the trunk of a large tree at the edge of the clearing with a boom.

The steel tip of the Long Spear pressed hard against Nobi-Feisibilu's chest, and at his chest, a small, twisted cyclone of repelling air was desperately trying to push Jier's Long Spear away.

But Jier did not retreat a single step; he even held the spear with both hands to pin the opponent down, while his legs kept stepping in place on the ground, pushing even greater force forward.

"So you really do have a protective Magic Tool, but how long can it be of use?"

Jier roared viciously.

The magic cyclone at the chest kept retreating, having already been pushed onto the Bandit Leader's chest. The exquisite clothing he was wearing was torn to shreds, and the skin beneath was also shredded and splattered by the magic cyclone, followed by blood and the muscle tissue of his chest.

The protective magic cyclone had now become the harshest punishment he was inflicting upon himself.

The Bandit Leader Nobi-Feisibilu was in such unbearable pain that he struggled to use his hands to block the cyclone, but the protective magic cyclone had a violent temper; it cared for nothing other than defending the user of the magic protective item from Jier's Long Spear taking their life.

Even the Bandit Leader's own attempt to push away the magic cyclone that was torturing him was completely futile. As soon as his fingers touched the magic cyclone, they were directly shredded by the high-speed, twisting, rotating Magic Power air, and then his palms were shredded into minced meat along with them.

"Aaaaaah, kill me, I beg you, kill me quickly—"

Nobi-Feisibilu wailed in agony; the Magic Power cyclone at his chest was shredding his chest bit by bit as Jier pushed forward.

This was undoubtedly a cruel punishment.

"The protective gear is your own, hah, it has nothing to do with me. Let your wails be a tribute to the innocent Refugees who died tonight."

Jier had no intention of finishing off his opponent immediately; he even moderately relaxed the force of his push, moving the opponent's protective magic cyclone toward the opponent's abdomen.

But Jier had overestimated the Magic Power reserves of the magic protective item the opponent was using.

Being a Magic Tool meant for only brief protection against one or two attacks, it was rapidly consuming the Magic Power stored within the item in the face of Jier's sustained push with a Long Spear capable of piercing through a person.

Accompanied by a flash of Magic Power erupting from a small Leather Bag on the waist belt of the Bandit Leader Nobi-Feisibilu, the Magic protective Qi vortex on his chest finally dissipated.

Then, with a *puchi* sound, the steel double-edged spearhead pierced through Nobi-Feisibilu's chest and body the very next moment, and with another *puchi*, it went straight through the tree trunk behind him as well.

Spitting blood from his mouth, Nobi-Feisibilu gurgled a few words and then died.

"You got off easy."

Jier exhaled, raised his foot to kick the body, then tugged on the Long Spear, pulling it out with great force, and the corpse fell to the tree roots, blood flowing onto the ground.

After the battle ended, insects crawled out from the grass on the ground, following the scent of blood to find the corpse.

It pinched off a tiny piece of flesh and walked back satisfied. On the way back, it would call for more companions to share this windfall that had fallen from the sky.