Chapter 693: The Dawn of the Contest (Part 2)

Jier taught these young people some simple methods for crafting weapons, and estimating that the carriages had empty space and the young people departing had rested enough, he stood up to stretch.

He rummaged through his own carriage for a bag containing dried meat strips, pulled one out, and used his hands to snap the incredibly tough dried meat strip into small pieces, just like breaking steel bars.

After a moment of hesitation, he popped a small piece into his mouth to suck on. He also packed a few into a leather pouch at his waist, and put the rest back into the bag to store away.

"You're just eating that? Don't you want to eat more food?"

Xueya Site was sitting on the driver's seat of the carriage sharpening his Sword, and seeing Jier only eating these small things for the past two days, he asked.

Jier waved his hand: "This is enough, it's a secret, don't ask. Speaking of which, this stuff is truly awful, ptooey."

As he spoke, he spat out a tiny grain of salt that had been stuck to the dried meat. When roasting the dried meat, Knight Kela must not have dissolved the salt water properly.

"Keep an eye on things here; I'm taking some men to destroy the last Bandit Group nest and will be back. You watch the sky; as soon as it's light, organize people to chop wood. The corpses must be burned. Dig the Earth Pit for the ashes first."

Jier checked the weapons and equipment on his body and his horse, and Xueya Site handed over the crossbow bolts and Crossbow: "Take these?"

"No need, the Hunting Bow is the same. A portion of the young people who can fight will stay here too; have them also take charge of some guard and sentry duties."

Xueya Site nodded and hung the bag of crossbow bolts back onto his belt.

Jier mounted Tianxuecao and turned to head toward the carriages outside the clearing.

At this moment, the place was filled with various Wooden Boxes and commercial goods unloaded from the carriages. The middle-aged Merchant Long-Bafute was already directing his men to stack the large boxes in one place, while other smaller goods that could be carried on one's back or shoulder were being re-sorted and packed.

He personally divided the goods into two piles: one that had been recorded and processed, and another that remained in the state it was in when first unloaded. The Merchant held a piece of wood and paper he had found somewhere, carefully recording the names and quantities of the goods with a charcoal stick. Beside him, a young man was specifically holding a Torch for lighting to provide the Merchant with illumination for writing at night.

"How is it? Is there enough manpower? Are there any other troublesome spots?"

Jier rode his horse over and asked.

The Merchant performed a courtesy; it seemed the dejected mood and expression he had shared with the other merchants when they first met in the first half of the night had already vanished from him.

Even though it was already the second half of the night and many people looked sleepy, this middle-aged Merchant was full of energy, his eyes frighteningly bright.

"Sir Knight, it's very good, I am very good, and everyone assisting is also very good. The only problem is that the small items need people to carry them, but there aren't enough Rope and wooden sticks! This is a problem."

Facing the Merchant's request, Jier nodded: "My partner, Xueya Site, oh, he is an experienced Caravan guard, and he is right there by my carriage. I have already given instructions; after dawn, he will take people to chop wood. At that time, you can have him help you get some wooden sticks for carrying things. As for the Rope, I still have some on my carriage, and besides, I will try to get more for you from the Bandit nest later."

Speaking up to this point, Jier sat on his horse and looked at the other rescued people gathered by the fire not far away: "Your companions, why don't they come over to help you? Wouldn't it be faster to do it together?"

The middle-aged Merchant gave a bitter smile: "Many people's lives are completely ruined, and several people are still in debt up to their ears; they don't have the heart to consider too much. I will talk to them later; I hope some of the young people can pull themselves together again."

"That would be best."

After giving instructions, Jier arrived at the carriages, where the three carriages and twenty young people were already prepared.

Besides them, there was also a Bandit who was a leader of the Mountain Wolf Bandit Group; this person was also there, currently smiling ingratiatingly at Jier.

Smile, even if he smiles, he won't be let go.

Jier waved his hand, and the group set off.

According to the directions and claims of the surrendered Bandit, their group's nest was somewhere in this Shulin to the north of the clearing.

If it were daytime, it would be easy to discover the location of that nest, because the nest was on a low hill protruding from a Shulin.

The flat Shulin protruded a section, making it an easy place to spot during the day. Of course, if one didn't know that it was a Bandit nest, no one would ever notice what was in the monotonous Shulin.

"Why choose such a conspicuous place?"

Jier was puzzled, and the surrendered Bandit answered this way: "There are big trees on the hill, the terrain is high, and we can see far. We don't need to run too far during the day; just by sitting in the tree branches, we can see the situation of passing merchants on a large section of the Shanglu to the south."

"Of course, other reconnaissance methods are still used. For example, arranging lookouts in the inns outside the checkpoints, and at the place where the Shanglu exits the Nanbu mountain pass to the east, there are also familiar friends helping us watch the passing Caravan."

Speaking to the end, this Bandit shrugged: "But these have all disappeared recently! Once the Southern Province is in chaos, the number of Caravan decreases significantly; there are many Bandits and few merchants. Everyone is lying in the Shulin every day staring at the Shanglu, just hoping for a carriage to pass by so we can pull a job."

This person became more long-winded as he spoke, practically pouring out all the complaints of these past days: "Everyone prayed to all kinds of gods—the ones in the sky, on the ground, and underground—but either they didn't come, or the ones that did were large Caravan armed to the teeth."

The surrendered Bandit shook his head: "At that time, everyone could still endure for a while, so the joint attack on Caravan proposed by our boss was not listened to at all by the other Bandit groups. Hmph, later everyone was poor to the point of madness, and Caravan came less and less; those who dared to run at this time all had large numbers of mounted guards protecting them."

"What about the inns along the road? What's going on with them?"

The surrendered Bandit hummed twice: "Sir Knight, you also know in your heart why an inn can open in this place, right?"

"Isn't it just that they are all in cahoots? I reckon the merchants passing by also understand this in their hearts," Jier said disdainfully.

"Yes, yes, yes, it's just a relationship of snakes and rats; we are the snakes, and those inns are the rats. If they weren't still somewhat useful, and could usually provide some goods or other entertainment, how could we let such fat sheep go without attacking them? The inns along the Shanglu are all protected by groups like ours, and everyone understands this. As a result, just a while ago, someone finally couldn't help it and attacked the inns of other groups. People were killed and robbed, and the food, drink, and valuable things were all taken away under the cover of night. No traces left."

Speaking to this point, this surrendered Bandit licked his lips with a weird smile.

"Everyone hadn't had a 'opening' for a long time, and the fat meat originally at our mouths was very hard to resist. As a result, someone opened the floodgates, and within less than two days, you attack the inn I'm protecting, I attack your inn; this last bit of meat was finally not left at all."

Jier rolled his eyes and retorted: "You say you're protecting them, what exactly did you protect? Air?"

"How could that be? Others might not know, but at least our boss pulled the people out of the inns we were protecting beforehand. Although there was no time to save the goods, the people were brought out. Hehe, they are right at that nest we are going to now."

Seeing this person's appearance, Jier guessed that the fate of those people would not be very good.

Bandits are all guys worse than wild beasts, using violence at will and yielding to their various desires. They either grow larger like a snowball or quickly fall apart.

The twenty-two of them walked and stopped along the way, basically walking along the outer edge of the Shulin to the north of the Shanglu. It was a rainy night, and the visibility was very poor, so they had to rely on the surrendered Bandit to identify the special symbols left on the trees to determine the direction.

While the surrendered Bandit was identifying the symbols carved on the tree trunks, Jier was also curious about this thing and asked: "What's the story with this set of symbols of yours? Tell me, and I'll have someone untie you!"

Originally, the surrendered Bandit didn't want to reveal this intelligence knowledge that allowed him to be useful after surrendering, but the Knight said he would have him untied, a condition that really tempted him.

After all, his arms had been tied for most of the night, and the craftsmanship of those Bandits for tying people was really poor; if it wasn't tied tightly, they would just use force to tie it dead with the Rope. It was heavy and painful, and he had reacted several times, but each time his reaction was met with a good beating.

He learned to be obedient; between the pain of his arms being tied and getting beaten, he chose being tied.

Because the degree of damage to his body from this was something he could foresee and judge, while those Refugee young people hit without any sense of proportion, which was very dangerous.

Considering it, he still hoped to be more relaxed, especially since these people were going to attack their nest in a while, and there would be plenty of opportunities to escape. Once his arms were untied, the probability of him escaping would increase significantly.

"Sir, I'll tell you right now."

The Bandit walked to the trunk of a big tree at the edge of the Shulin, barely managing to point with his head at a symbol carved on a tree burl under the illumination of the Torch.

"Sir, look, because this area is all our group's territory, all the symbols have a special wolf head image left on them!"

Jier sneered: "That's called a wolf head? Why does it look like a dog head to me?"

"It's enough to have that general meaning. The position of the wolf head also represents the situation of our territory. The closer to the bottom of the tree trunk, the closer it is to the boundary of our territory; the higher it is, like the position of this wolf head on a tree burl over two meters high, it indicates that our current location is in the middle of the group's territory."

Jier tapped his Helmet: "So, at the junction of two Bandit territories, one could see two image marks on the roots of a single big tree at once?"

"That's how it is. Sir Knight, you are truly wise!"

"Stop flattering me. Keep talking, what other tricks are hidden in there?"

The surrendered Bandit was not afraid after being scolded; he kicked the roots of the large tree that extended into the soil in several directions with his foot and explained to the Knight: "My lord, my lord. Look at this, there are markings on the roots too."

Unable to see clearly while mounted, Jier jumped off his horse, landing with a thud, and then walked over to take a look. The glowing Magic pendant he had seized at his waist provided better lighting conditions.

Jier saw that, sure enough, the large tree that had been marked on its burl also had something on its roots.

"What does this mean?"

The surrendered Bandit used his leg as a pointer, kicking vaguely in the direction the roots extended: "This is a directional indicator, showing that there is something in that direction. Look at this root facing the southeast, towards the Shanglu; there is a nested box carved on it, along with two vertical bars. The meaning is that if you walk in this direction for about two hours, you will be able to find an inn built on the Shanglu."

(Note: Regarding time units, for the sake of readability, I have used modern time units directly. Everyone understands, surely people in the story would not use hours and minutes to express themselves. The same applies to distance and length units.)

Jier nodded and pointed his finger at the marking on another root: "The vertical bars indicate the time of travel, and also represent distance. Then what is this? Three hollow dots? And the three solid dots next to them?"

The surrendered Bandit looked carefully at the markings on the root, then looked at the direction, and replied: "The hollow dots indicate a water source; if you walk in that direction towards the interior of the Shulin, you can find a water source where you can drink. However, we generally do not go to water sources in the Shulin to fetch water."

The Bandit shrugged: "It's too dangerous. Not only are there ferocious carnivorous beasts, but some Monsters also go there to drink. Marking them specifically is just to let everyone go around them."

Jier snorted coldly: "If someone with half-baked knowledge really walks in that direction, they would instead be targeted by beasts and Monsters? That's quite sinister."

The Bandit chuckled: "It was all thought up and arranged by the boss. The three solid dots next to it represent a special rock wall in the mountains. Large herbivorous animals often go there to gnaw on the stones and lick them; it is also a dangerous place that one cannot go to."

"Why?"

"Large herbivorous animals easily attract the most powerful predators, and when herbivorous animals are in heat, they are even more dangerous than well-fed beasts."

Jier nodded, confirming this statement: "Then, which mark points to your lair?"

"None."

"What? What do you mean none?"

The surrendered Bandit explained: "For safety, there is no specific mark pointing to our lair."

The young men around had been listening to the conversation between Jier and the surrendered Bandit, and at this moment, someone finally could not hold back and interrupted: "Then how are you going to take us there? Are you tricking us? Do you want to die!"

This hot-tempered young man was wearing simple leather armor and was one of the four young men under Jier who could be considered a minor leader.

Jier did not speak; he also looked at the surrendered Bandit, watching how this person would answer.

The atmosphere suddenly became dangerous for this person, and the surrendered Bandit immediately pursed his lips and said: "I remember the terrain around the lair clearly. As long as I know those two dangerous places I mentioned earlier, and the area we are currently in within our territory, I can find the specific location of the lair even at night, without looking at the sky."

Jier reached out to stop the young subordinate who wanted to rush up and beat the surrendered Bandit: "Then lead the way. The pleasant conversation time is over, let's go."

"Knight, my lord? Do you see this?"

The Bandit did not say it explicitly, but Jier waved his hand, and only then did a young subordinate go up to untie the tightly wound Rope, adding viciously: "We will all be watching you, don't think about running away."

The surrendered Bandit rubbed his wrists with a smile on his face: "Of course, of course. I remember clearly the fate of those guys who ran away before. They didn't get far. No, I mean, I won't run."

Thus, the group continued walking east for a while and soon stopped.

The surrendered Bandit approached two large trees that were very close together and pointed at them, saying to the group: "It's right here. These two large trees are very close together, and because it's convenient for climbing, we often, uh."

"Often what? Speak."

The Bandit was a bit hesitant, but still said: "We often hang the people we are about to execute here after strangling them."

The surrendered Bandit looked up at the upper part of the large tree and then swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

"Caw!"

The cry of a crow happened to come from above.

Like messengers of death, in the illumination of the Torch, one could see not only the red-eyed crows standing high in the large tree looking down, but also several corpses whose flesh had been pecked away, leaving only skeletons and tattered clothes.

Jier muttered something, though it was unclear what he was cursing, but his young subordinates were all startled by the corpses and the crow calls that suddenly appeared above their heads.

"Waaaaah!"

"Ghosts!"

"Is it the enemy!"

Jier jumped off his horse, waved his hand for the group to move away, then drew his Long Sword and swung it back and forth a dozen times, cutting down the two hanging-corpse trees together to the ground.

"Knight, my lord, aren't you afraid that the lair will discover this noise?"

The surrendered Bandit asked Jier loudly amidst the roaring sound of the large trees collapsing, and Jier replied: "Perfect, it is only when a turtle sticks its head out that it is easy to cut off its head."