Chapter 679: The Darkest Moonless Night (XV)

Jier stopped paying attention to the surrendering bandit and looked silently for a while at the still-dejected Bata'er Jiaoshi, then let out a breath.

"Don't be like this; this is just the fate of every ordinary person."

Jier comforted his companion this way, but he himself did not believe in such logic.

"I," the Priest spoke, his voice somewhat choked: "I originally had a chance, if I had run faster. Before entering the forest."

But at this moment, the surrendering bandit interjected again: "My Lord, Priest Lord, you didn't have a chance; this was a trap, just waiting for you."

Just a moment ago, in the slow, dim light, this man had kicked the fallen Bata'er Jiaoshi more than once, but now he was using honorifics.

The Priest lifted his head, wiped his face with his dirty Robe, and stared at the bandit: "What do you mean?"

Jier did not speak or move to reprimand him, and the surrendering bandit, wanting to stay alive, had nothing he wouldn't say: "From the time we attacked and captured the Refugees, once we changed from initially driving the Refugees to move, our leader intended to set a trap to lure you into the forest and defeat you."

"Impossible! I, I, I."

After saying "I" several times, the Priest could not say anything substantial, because he himself realized at this moment the strange aspects of the bandits' previous actions.

"But what was your purpose in luring me into the forest to set a trap?" Bataer looked puzzled; he could not understand, with all this mess on the ground, the mutual harm, coercion, and slaughter between people, what was it all for?

The bandit lay on the ground but looked up greedily at the Amber Metal Long Staff standing beside the Priest; although he did not speak, everything was implied.

Jier and Bataer followed the other's gaze, looking at the much dimmer Amber Gems on the Metal Long Staff. Jier sneered, while Bata'er Jiaoshi felt even more distressed.

"For this?"

This was said by Jier.

"Yes, yes, yes, our leader said this treasure could sell for at least two hundred Gold Coins, but I say, since this thing could suddenly emit a large burst of light just now, I think it should sell for at least three hundred Gold Coins. That guy, he misjudged it."

The more this bandit talked, the more absurd he became, and Jier really couldn't help it, bursting into loud laughter.

This man himself was within the range of the dim light, so he hadn't discovered the true power of this Amber Metal Long Staff just now—two hundred Gold Coins? Three hundred Gold Coins?

This bunch of guys, they really didn't know what they were thinking.

They were too ignorant.

Jier shook his head and didn't say anything more to the bandit on this point; he let Bata'er Jiaoshi squat to the side in depression, then asked the surrendering bandit: "Then among these corpses on the ground, which one is your Bandit Leader?"

But after Jier asked this, the bandit lying on the ground showed a strange expression, and after struggling for a while, he answered decisively: "None! He is not here. After the attack on the Priest Lord began, I didn't notice whether he was there or not. And some others who weren't fighting weren't there either."

"He probably returned to a lair nearby. The leader's plan was to capture the Priest and then retreat to the lair in the forest to wait and avoid any subsequent trouble. Anyway, he said we had already obtained the biggest piece of meat from this joint attack. The remaining scraps of the Refugees would be left to other Bandit Groups."

"Where is that lair of yours?"

"How are the Refugees just scraps? They have nothing left!"

The two questions, one after the other, were asked by Jier and Bataer together. Jier shrugged, signaling for the bandit to answer the Priest's question first.

Facing this question, the bandit who had been eager to speak earlier began to stammer, looking as if he didn't want to say.

Jier wiped his various weapons with a piece of torn bandit clothing, not rushing him, but Bata'er Jiaoshi couldn't help it; he raised his Hushin Statue of the God with his left hand and aimed it at the surrendering bandit lying on the ground: "You had better answer!"

"Yes, yes, yes, I'll answer, I'll answer."

The bandit glanced at the Knight who was silently wiping his weapons and, for the first time, stammered extremely as he stated the value of the Refugees.

Bata'er Jiaoshi became angrier the more he heard; his face, which had been pale from sadness and guilt, was now flushed.

Seeing the Priest's palm trembling with anger, as if he might unleash a fatal attack at any moment, Jier quickly interjected to stop him: "He answered according to your request, don't accidentally kill the bandit who surrendered and is willing to share information."

"I, I am just angry! How can they be like this? Everyone is raised by parents; how can they kidnap people and sell them to scum who trade in humans for money! The Kingdom inherited the Empire's laws, which strictly forbid the human trade!"

Jier threw the blood-stained, tattered Beast Skin Clothing onto the ground and said mockingly: "The Southern Province is in such chaos; it seems some people have returned to the old ways of getting rich."

Jier added: "By the way, with the Southern Province in such chaos, where have the local Nobles and Knights gone? Why don't they maintain social order? Letting these dregs of the past resurface?"

Bata'er Jiaoshi didn't know and couldn't answer for a moment, but the bandit lying on the ground knew a thing or two.

"Knight Lord, I know this." The bandit was clearly more than ten years older than Jier, a young man, but at this moment he had a fawning, punchable expression.

"If you know, then say it; don't hold back your farts here."

But this bandit started talking to Jier about a deal: "My Lord, my Lord, let me get up; don't make me lie here so uncomfortably, and I will be willing to talk."

Jier smiled and patted the Long Sword at his waist: "Can it make you talk?"

"I can talk, but I might also choose to die."

"Heh, you insist on getting up?"

"My Lord, although I have done many bad things, I am usually well-informed; the various horses stolen by the group were all ridden by me to other places to sell to fences."

Jier thought for a moment, waved his hand, and let him get up: "But your arms must be tied."

"Of course, of course."

The bandit scrambled up from the ground, and before he could rub his arms, which had been folded behind his back, Jier walked over, pulled a rope from the bandit's waist, and tied the bandit's arms and body together in a large circle.

"Speak, don't talk nonsense."

The bandit's answer was simple and direct, making Jier somewhat regretful.

"Those gentlemen all took their troops and, I heard, gathered toward the Province Capital. Our area originally had many mountains and rivers, so there were quite a few people like us in this line of work. So after those gentlemen took their troops away, I heard that after the bandits in various places were quiet for a while, they became completely active. Also, some soldiers who were scattered last year fled home, but they didn't dare to live at home directly, so many of them joined the local bandit teams nearby."

Jier snorted, and Bata'er Jiaoshi's expression was very ugly.

Because the bandits on the western border of the province had much more sensitive information than the people of their Changmai Cunzi. If they had known earlier that the Nobles and Knights who had maintained local peace had all taken their men to the Province Capital, they should have done like other towns or villages: either seal themselves off or flee early.

At least their lives and property could have been largely preserved.

After all, he had heard from the young Refugees under him that those bandit villains did not engage in production, and the Farmers' greatest asset—land—would not be taken away.

So as long as they buried their valuable farm tools and furniture in their own courtyards before the villagers fled, most of the time when they returned later and dug into the ground, the things would still be there.

As for the houses, although they were not easy to build, there were whole villages of empty houses, and not many bold bandits would dare to live alone in an empty village.

This way, they were afraid that the bandits would be annoyed and burn the village down. But even so, the losses for the villagers who chose to flee would be limited at least.

After asking a few more things he wanted to know, Jier then arranged the bandits' corpses one by one, and if there were any valuable things, he wrapped them in the bandits' clothing to be used later by those among the Refugees who had no weapons.

As for the corpses, he left them there for now; although they might attract a large number of wild beasts, the corpses were heavy and troublesome, and Jier did not want to make several trips to transport the corpses out of the forest.

When it was daytime, and everything tonight had settled, he would bring people over to deal with the corpses.

He still remembered what the Priests of the Church of the God of the Dead in Kendall City had preached to him: human corpses should be cremated after death as much as possible. Otherwise, wandering evil Souls would drive these dead bodies, gather the aura of death, and attack and devour the lives of living people and creatures.

Every time Jier thought of this, the corners of his mouth would twitch, because he himself had come to this different world by possessing a corpse.

No one ever knew his other identity, his other name—Zhao Ji.

Tianxuecao carried various bandit weapons and items packed with rope, all wrapped in smelly beast skin clothing, slung across the horse's back on both sides.

This made Tianxuecao somewhat unhappy; as it walked out of the Shulin, it kept bumping its long horse face against Jier's shoulder, trying to explain that riding it was fine, but letting it carry cargo was not.

It was not just some ordinary horse without dignity or status; in its old master's stable, any horse that saw it had to be bullied by it.

Jier, meanwhile, walked while guarding the surrendered bandits whose arms were bound, urging them to walk faster and not to dawdle.

"Walk faster. Don't think that leader of yours, the one with the nickname Mountain Wolf, can come to save you. Smart people are best at calculating, you understand."

Jier gave the dawdling bandit a hard shove; the other kept his head down and continued to dawdle, seemingly unwilling to leave the Shulin after realizing that his capture was a foregone conclusion.

Following to the side, Bata'er Jiaoshi rode a grassland horse, with a bundle of blood-dripping beast skin clothing on the horse's back in front of him.

He heavily supported the blood-dripping beast skin bundle with his hand, his expression very grim. Inside it were the parts of that female Refugee, among the human severed limbs and bodies he had tried his best to search for and retrieve while accompanied by Jier.

"Bata'er, don't be like this. At least the person was brought back to some extent." Jier comforted his companion this way, but it was met with Bata'er Jiaoshi glaring at him.

Jier didn't care at all, raising a finger to point at the clearing beside the Shanglu, the only place that had become bright in the darkness not far away.

"You don't think you guys suffered heavy casualties here, do you? Do you know how many bandits came to join the attack south of the clearing? Take a guess."

Jier's relaxed tone sounded as if he were talking about something unrelated, which misled Bata'er Jiaoshi's judgment: "Forty people?"

The Priest had stated a number he felt was high, but as soon as this number left his mouth, the captured bandit wanted to turn his head to speak, only to be directly slapped on the head by Jier raising his hand: "Did I tell you to speak?"

The bandit swallowed his words back into his mouth, but still turned his head to look at the naive Agricultural God Church Priest.

Bata'er Jiaoshi was not stupid either, knowing he had guessed wrong: "Just tell me straight. Exactly how many people? What were our casualties?"

Jier shrugged: "Three waves of bandits, the total number was around one hundred to one hundred and ten. The first wave retreated and ten or so escaped; the rest fought to the death with the refugees and, of course, me. Phew—there was even a former Noble descendant who called himself the King of White Wall, and he had a few troublesome Magic weapons and items in his hands."

Jier changed his tone: "Of course, except for those who escaped, the rest were killed or captured by me and those brave fighting civilians."

Jier's words made the captured bandits gasp, not to mention Bata'er Jiaoshi.

"What were our casualties?"

"Hmph, the bandits all had weapons, while the young refugees were mostly empty-handed, or only had Stone, and a few had a few Short Knife and Dagger that looked like pieces of iron."

"I am asking you, what were the civilian casualties!"

Bata'er Jiaoshi's eyes widened, and his face turned completely white from nervousness and panic. He questioned Jier at the top of his lungs; it was unclear whether he was afraid of hearing that terrifying number, or if he dared not face Jier's next words, so he had to vent all his heartbreaking emotions onto Jier.

Jier turned his head to look at the young Priest, who was not only questioning him loudly but also nervously clutching the flesh-and-blood bundle in front of him tightly. He had clearly been acting cautiously before.

The steel Helmet Faceplate did not reveal Jier's expression at this moment, but the voice from under the Faceplate carried a hint of mockery: "I didn't count, but probably over a hundred casualties. At least, the number of dead is not lower than one hundred."

Then came the talk of how many people were killed in the panic during the first wave of the bandit raid, and how many young refugees who dared to fight were taken down by the Short Bow volley from the bandits who arrived later.

These words only buzzed in the Priest's ears; his breathing was rapid, his eyes were dull, and after swaying, he fell off the horse's back all at once.

"Hey, hey, hey, what's going on?"

When Bata'er Jiaoshi woke up again, he realized it was bright all around as soon as he opened his eyes.

At this time, he was lying in the center of the clearing, on a few of the bandits' smelly beast skin clothing. His surroundings were relatively spacious, with no other people or things. But further out, it was full of young refugees groaning and crying out in pain, and the figures of female refugees, who were numerous among the refugees, taking care of them.

Calling it care, there was very little they could do; mostly, they just followed the instructions of Knight Jier, using Rope to tightly bind the limbs of the wounded who had been slashed or shot with Arrow, to prevent the wounded from bleeding to death.

At this point, they could not worry about the limbs turning purple or black after being bound tightly for a long time.

Anyway, Knight Jier had said that after Bata'er Jiaoshi woke up, he would be responsible for handling the wounded.

Xueya Site was also taking care of the wounded at this time; following Jier's instructions, he took the not-so-abundant Healing Ointment from the carriage to use on the young people who were most severely injured at the moment.

Not to mention whether it could save their lives, at least the effect of the Ointment in numbing the wounds and reducing pain could make the severely wounded who could not be saved suffer a little less before they died.

"I." Bata'er Jiaoshi scrambled up in a hurry; he finally had a real sense of the hundred-plus casualties at this moment. Interestingly, he now lacked the heartbreaking and worried feeling he had when he heard Jier talk about the heavy casualties before fainting.

The training from the Agricultural God Church made him know what he should do even in such a situation.

"I'm awake, someone come! Where are the severely wounded who are about to die? Someone come and take me over."

As soon as Bata'er Jiaoshi shouted, someone immediately came over, pulling Bata'er and running toward a place where several people were gathered.

"Who is in command now? Warrior Jier? Or Xueya Site? Or someone you all elected?"

He looked around while running and did not see Jier wearing armor, so he asked this.

The two female refugees guiding him immediately replied: "Lord Priest, Mr. Siter is in charge of the arrangements here now; he is leading people to deal with the severely wounded. Please hurry over and take a look at this person first; he was shot in the chest with an Arrow, and it is very dangerous now!"

Bata'er Jiaoshi could not care that his Amber Metal Long Staff was still lying where he had been, and was pulled by someone to a bright campfire, where a young man with an Arrow stuck in his back was lying.

The bow and Arrow had pierced his torso, not killing him directly, but it was not easy for him either.

At this time, the upper body clothing of this youth who had been shot had been removed, and he was lying on his side, blood dripping from his mouth, yet he was still holding a girl's hand, giving his final words to his beloved girl.

Taking a deep breath, Bata'er Jiaoshi rolled up the sleeves of his Robe, first slapping away the hands the man and woman were holding, then saying to the stunned youth who had been shot: "You are bleeding from your mouth; this is because your stomach in your abdomen was injured, and blood is flowing out. What flows out of your mouth is only a small part; the bulk of the blood loss is inside your belly!"

The young man's face was deathly pale; he had clearly lost a lot of blood.

"I am going to break the Arrow and pull it out. Although it will cause a lot of blood loss, with the blessing of the Healing Divine Art, I can manage to stop the bleeding. Someone, someone, find something for him to bite down on; I am going to deal with the bow and Arrow."

After finishing, the Priest remembered that he did not have anything suitable to break the Arrow: "Find me a Short Knife or Dagger; it needs to be sharp."

As soon as the words fell, a companion of the youth who had been shot handed over a sharp Short Knife.

The Priest looked at the weapon and the other person, and the other person immediately explained: "The Knight told us who dared to fight to go and clean up the battlefield earlier. This was captured and distributed to us; it wasn't stolen."

Bata'er Jiaoshi was stunned for a moment, took the weapon, and prepared to cut the arrow shaft: "I don't care if it was stolen or not; where is Warrior Jier?"

Everyone around looked at each other, and everyone said in unison: "The Knight has taken people to attack the bandit lair!"

"What? Where did he go?"

The Priest had not heard clearly, and while he was cutting the arrow shaft with the Short Knife, he asked again in surprise.

The young refugees around repeated it again: "The Knight has taken people to attack the lair of the bandits who raided us. I heard that when he was fighting, he specifically left one survivor for every bandit who came to attack. After you fainted, he interrogated those bandits and took people to wipe out the bandits' lair."

Facing this answer, Bata'er Jiaoshi took a deep breath, feeling that his overall understanding of Jier, this 'newcomer', was still not enough.

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