Chapter 711: Ms. Feiniya's Treasure

Jier came to the front of the group and called out for everyone to take a temporary rest in the open space at the entrance of the ruined inn by the roadside.

According to the simple explanation Xueya Site had given everyone, the young people with combat capability were now basically divided into four groups, each controlled by one of the four young men who followed Jier's orders. They were the same four from last night.

Their organizational skills were decent, they had been brave in the battle the night before, and most importantly, the young people holding weapons could mostly be called by name by them.

Do not underestimate this point; after all, most people came from over a dozen different Cunzi and did not really know each other. Being able to be remembered by name already made them more suitable than other, fiercer young people to assist Jier in controlling the group.

Besides, no matter how fierce these young Refugee were, compared to a Knight like Jier, they were far outclassed. Even the most shameless person would not dare compare their own meager spoils of war to Jier's.

Jier directed the group to spread out and rest in the open space near the inn ruins, while the open space at the entrance of the central inn was left for the other hundreds of ordinary young Refugee to sit and rest.

"Go and invite Ms. Feiniya from the Merchant group over."

Jier said this to the people from the small-scale groups who had listened to him from the start. This batch of people was different from the other groups and could be considered the first to defect to Jier. Their numbers were few and their combat capability was hard to say, but at least they could get things done for him.

Two young boys who were close by and quick on their feet remembered the name Jier said and went off into the long line to find the person.

Jier rode his horse around the inn ruins twice and discovered that the well behind the inn was barely half-destroyed. He jumped off his horse, approached it, and inspected the well, catching a whiff of a thick, foul stench.

"Damn it, someone dumped corpses in it. How truly mean-spirited. But didn't Ms. Feiniya's men all get taken away by Shanlang Bani in advance? Where did these corpses come from?"

Although curious, Jier knew it was hard to get an answer to such things, so he let it go. He walked to the front of the inn ruins and greeted the Refugee who had been walking for quite a while, telling them all to sit and rest on the open ground where a large amount of new grass had grown.

"Drink the water you brought yourselves; the well in the back is ruined and can't be drunk from."

Jier repeated this instruction, and then he saw Ms. Feiniya, who was accompanied by her one remaining sister.

Ms. Feiniya had changed into a simple Linen Cloth long skirt of an ordinary farm woman at some point, but her tall stature and curvaceous body still made her look far better in the same clothing than other ordinary Farmer women.

Jier noticed that this lady had tied up her hair, which had originally been draped down, using hair from other areas to cover the parts that had been forcibly torn out when she was being tortured.

At least her spirit looked much improved.

"Sir Knight, this is my original inn."

Ms. Feiniya looked at her biggest former asset with a face full of regret: "When I evacuated, I had already had people move the things I couldn't take into the courtyard, leaving them for other Bandit Group to take away later, just hoping to preserve the general structure of the inn."

Shaking her head, she continued: "But I didn't expect it to end up like this. I didn't believe it when Bani told me before, but now... sigh."

Jier shrugged: "If you moved the supplies outside, those other suspicious Bandit would also suspect that something was hidden somewhere in the inn. Besides, even if they burned this place down, they wouldn't leave it for the next person. That's how Bandit are."

Waving his hand, Jier continued: "Then, the wealth you said was definitely hidden—could it have already been found by the Bandit who came later?"

Regarding this doubt, Ms. Feiniya was actually quite confident: "Please rest assured, although the things are hidden here, they are not inside the original inn."

She pointed to a sparse small Shulin along the river not far to the south of the inn: "It's right there, let's go over."

Jier waved his hand, and ten young people immediately followed. The dozen or so of them walked toward that place together.

It was only fifty meters from the inn, with a dozen or so crooked deciduous trees growing sparsely. The ground was covered in dense shrubs full of flowers, but interestingly, although it should have been a perfect habitat for small animals, no burrowing small animals appeared around these shrubs.

Jier brought this up, and Ms. Feiniya smiled and said: "When I set it up, I specifically buried poisonous things in the nearby soil. Also, I used to frequently scatter crumbs of poisoned rat food around. Over time, Caoshu, birds, or wild rabbits and such stopped appearing nearby. I was just afraid they would chew through the box I hid and ruin the things inside."

Jier nodded, feeling he had learned another trick. When burying things underground in the wild, if it's for a long time, one must definitely prevent the possibility of small animals burrowing and discovering the buried items.

Therefore, one must make preventive preparations beforehand.

"Then, where is the thing buried?"

Jier looked left and right but found nothing different. The ground had no depressions from loose soil collapsing after being dug up and meeting water. There were also no sufficiently conspicuous dead trees or old trees with tree holes.

There were not even the marks on tree trunks commonly used by Bandit.

No matter how one looked at it, it was just a very ordinary small Shulin along the river.

Ms. Feiniya lifted her skirt and walked in front of the group, saying as she walked: "First, find three different Fruit Tree. Although they look about the same, among these trees, there are actually three that are Fruit Tree."

"If you came to look in autumn, or in a few days when the Fruit Tree bloom, it would be easy to distinguish them."

After walking for a while, she stopped and pointed three times: "These are the three, three pear trees. And then, it's the midpoint between them."

After gesturing for a while, Ms. Feiniya walked up to a plant with a beautiful flower stalk and sniffed the beautiful flowers on the flower branch: "Feinier Ye Meigui. A type of flower that grows everywhere in my hometown."

She took a deep breath: "Just like me."

Jier curled his lip: "Can we stop with the nonsense? Is it under this wild rose?"

"Yes, Sir Knight. I dig it up every year to replenish and replace the hidden wealth inside. Every time, after shoveling away the wild rose on top, I replant one. I planted this one last spring."

After finishing, Ms. Feiniya took out a small cloth bag she had prepared in advance, snapped off the flowers of the Feinier Ye Meigui one by one, and packed them away.

Jier waved his hand: "Go, dig this place up. Everyone, be quick, try to get it done before the group finishes resting."

"Yes, sir."

Everyone knew what they were there for, and they were also curious and excited about digging for treasure, so they moved very fast. There were several shovels for digging on Jier's carriage, and they were all handed to them at this time. Others were not idle either; holding woven baskets or small wooden buckets, they assisted from the side by transporting the dug-up soil to a distance to dump it.

They worked for a while, and because everyone's physical strength was not as good as when they were in the Cunzi, the work was done in rotations. After digging about half a meter deep, the shovel at the bottom poked something.

"Seems like we hit something, sir."

Jier stepped forward and saw the top lid of a sturdy wooden box: "Expand outward and get this box out directly."

The young people who heard the instruction cleared the soil from the top of the box and began to expand the excavation toward the surroundings.

"How big is this box? Did you do it all by yourself before?"

Jier asked Ms. Feiniya, who was leaning against a tree to the side.

Ms. Feiniya was dismantling the flower petals one by one, and after hearing the question, she replied: "The box is quite big. I only ever opened the lid; I didn't take the box itself out. I couldn't get it out either, it's too heavy. Oh, I did it all by myself before. I know what you're thinking—no one knew, no one discovered it. I was the innkeeper; they couldn't control what I wanted to do in a day, and they didn't dare to."

Jier knew that before she had a falling out with Shanlang Bani, her backer was the somewhat famous Shanlang Bani nearby. The Shop Assistant and girls in the inn simply did not dare to provoke or defy this lady.

Even if she came to the woods behind the inn every year and mysteriously disappeared for a day.

While they were talking, the outline of the box in the Earth Pit was revealed. It was indeed a large box; stuffing two adult men inside would not be a problem.

"Sir Knight, should we take it out and open it?"

"Lift it up first. If it's too heavy, just open it."

Jier said so.

Thus, the soil around the four bottom corners of the box was shoveled away, and the Rope they brought was looped around the corners of the box. Then, the four young people above exerted force and pulled, and the box rose up.

They kept switching hands to pull the Rope, and the box gradually emerged from the ground.

Jier walked forward, spread his arms, and hugged it as it was lifted.

"What's inside? It's quite heavy."

Jier certainly wasn't foolish enough to open it on the spot; after placing the box on the open ground, he used his old method, tightening the unlocked lid with a rope, then driving the surrounding people away, while he stood far off behind a tree to the side.

"Sir Knight, there is nothing harmful inside; you don't need to be so cautious."

Lady Feiniya sighed helplessly.

She had just wanted to go up and open the wooden box directly, but was shoved aside onto the ground by a sudden push from Jier: "What do you think you're doing? Let me tell you, I'm the one in charge here. Stay put in the back; how to open the box is my prerogative, no need for you to step up and do it."

Jier was afraid that this woman had indeed set some dangerous trap in the box, and seeing Jier was cautious and not falling for it, she even insisted on opening the box herself regardless of her life.

One couldn't say there wasn't that possibility, so Jier was not polite at all, even if he had seemed quite polite before.

Lady Feiniya was not stupid either; after being stunned on the ground for a moment, she stopped saying anything, climbed up, and stood honestly in the distant crowd, letting her sisters help her brush the mud off her body.

Jier prepared his Shield in his left hand, then pulled the rope in his right, yanking the lid of the wooden box open from the edge of the Earth Pit.

Nothing happened.

All was safe and sound.

Jier shrugged and loudly salvaged his dignity: "This is my experience from previous adventures; although it was nothing, you all should learn from it."

Where had he been this cautious before? It was just that back in Kendall County, the local productivity meant such traps wouldn't appear there. The Bandits there were straightforward; they were nothing like the Bandits in the Southern Province with so many tricks.

After waiting a while longer, the group gathered around. Lady Feiniya only remembered roughly what was in the box, after all, it was only turned over once a year, and it was impossible to record the contents on paper normally. Relying only on her memory, she could only remember a few things that left an impression.

The inside of the large wooden box was relatively clean; although there was a musty smell, there was no obvious mold inside, and the box as a whole was quite sturdy and solid.

In one corner of the box's interior was a fairly large pottery jar. Jier opened the lid and found it was packed full of coins—gold, silver, and copper coins were all there; he didn't know how much money there would be.

But Jier estimated there wouldn't be a lot of money, because it was mixed with copper coins, and the value of copper coins was not high, so they must make up the largest portion; therefore, the real value of this jar of coins was limited.

It was not even as good as a small stack of Gold Coins.

Beside it was a square Wooden box. Jier took it out and opened it, discovering that it was actually a set of gorgeous long dresses, made with expensive fabric and decorated with Gems.

Just by unfolding it slightly, Jier realized that this was not a complete set, but rather several individual pieces matched together.

"Lady, is this yours?"

Jier asked the lady standing to the side. The young people around looked in surprise at this long dress decorated with Gems, and even the eyes of Lady Feiniya's sisters sparkled with stars.

Instead, Lady Feiniya smiled regretfully: "This was nothing more than a naive idea of mine. These clothes were individual items I saved money to buy at shops that received Nobles in various places. I originally intended to wear them at my wedding. Heh, hahaha, now there is no longer any possibility of that."

As she spoke, she seemed to lean helplessly against her companion: "The man I expected had long since changed his heart, which is even more terrifying than dying in some battle. You take them and sell them; I never want to see them again for the rest of my life."

Jier shrugged, folded the clothes simply, and packed them back into the original square Wooden box.

Next was another long box. Before he even opened it, Jier had a premonition of what was inside.

He reached out to take it from the large wooden box and weighed it; Jier judged that it was a Long Sword inside. It was just that the box holding the sword was so narrow that it might not be a Long Sword style that Jier liked.

Sure enough, opening the box, inside was a long rapier used by men. This type of weapon was commonly used by people associated with the Nobility. It had a certain armor-piercing capability and was also conducive to the spectacle of duels.

Don't even think about using it on the battlefield; weapons of this type were too light and couldn't block the hacking of any weapon at all.

But Jier liked it quite a bit; after all, it was a weapon.

He took it out and played with it in his palm. The off-white, slender Sword Sheath was very elegant, with silver-decorated plant patterns on it. It was clearly intended to lean toward an Elven style, but unfortunately, Jier had come into contact with Elves, although they were ancient Elves. Elves did not use rapiers because they had no armor-piercing need that relied on stabbing with weapons.

Elves mostly used slender, elegant Magic curved sabers, at least that was how it was with the Elves he had seen in his dreams.

Rubbing the weapon body lightly with his hand, Jier discovered that his palm wearing Steel Armor Gloves could not use this weapon; he had to take off the gloves and use more form-fitting, lightweight leather gloves.

He then used his fingers to pinch the slender, milky-white, unknown-material sword handle and drew it out.

Drawing the weapon was slightly stiff, but a reflection flashed by, and the slender sword body revealed afterward was not rusted. It was likely that it hadn't been oiled and lubricated for a long time—and that made sense, as Lady Feiniya clearly couldn't use this weapon.

"How did you get this thing?"

Jier easily pinched the sword handle with his fingers and swung it casually; it was light, convenient, and a very good weapon.

Although it didn't suit him.

Lady Feiniya smiled: "A gambler passing through on the Shanglu lost it to me at the gambling table. He claimed himself to be a well-known Noble Heir. Heh, I don't believe a single word of it."

After listening, Jier carefully examined the rapier again. Sure enough, as he expected, he found an inconspicuous inscription on the sword body and the Sword Sheath: 'Sword bestowed upon the victor — Swift Gaze'

"Swift Gaze." Jier muttered the name of this weapon. Clearly, this was a competition prize won by a victor. Having its own name, it clearly had a significant background.

Jier did not know that when he read the name of the rapier, the entire Long Sword flashed with a secret radiance, but it seemed the power was insufficient and very dim, so much so that no one saw it.

Moreover, Jier was pinching the sword handle with Steel Armor Gloves, not holding it normally, so he missed the special blessing ability the weapon granted to the user when its name was recited.

Clang—he put the weapon away, and Jier hung the small steel chain with silver decorations on the Sword Sheath onto his belt, letting Swift Gaze keep his hunting weapon company for the time being.

Besides this, there were more than ten books in the box.

"You read books too?"

Facing Jier's doubt, Lady Feiniya looked strange: "Why can't I read books? They were all bought with great difficulty. Although they are just some poetry and introductions to local customs, this is a very normal thing, right?"

Jier coughed twice, because what surprised him was not this, but that after being in this other world for so long, this lady was the first person he had discovered who had the habit of reading.

Other big shots certainly had more books, but they were people whose wealth and status were at a certain level; looking downward, the vast majority of people did not have the habit or wealth to read books.

"This is a good thing, a good thing."

"Then, Sir, could you return them to me?" Lady Feiniya asked tentatively.

Jier put on a straight face: "According to the agreement, they are mine now. Besides, I haven't even looked at what they are."

He pulled out one and found that the relatively new cover was written with "Kadier Meteor Shigiji"; he pulled out another, and it was written with "Sights and Sounds of Ring Eagle City".

"Where is this Ring Eagle City?"

Jier opened the book, carefully using his gloved hand to turn the pages, which were not thin. The book contained illustrations and maps; it looked like an introduction to the sights and sounds of a certain place, but it was limited to just one place and one city.

The whole book was not thick, about a hundred pages or so. Each page had limited text and not much information; the maps and illustrated diagrams had the most information.

Lady Feiniya thought for a moment: "I remember, it seems to be the territory where a Noble Viscount of the southern border, who is currently fighting, is located, right?"

Hearing this, Jier narrowed his eyes.