Chapter 766: The Uncollapsed Courtyard, and Mao Mao Mistaken for a Goblin

Although covered in black ash, this actually increased the fear felt by the ordinary people who did not know the true nature of the Long-haired Lynx Beastman Tribe; the three young men let out a strange cry and turned directly, wanting to rush out of the courtyard and run away.

But Yongqi Maomao picked up the black ash piled on the top of the courtyard wall, pinched a few charcoal chunks, and threw them to its companions, letting them use their tails to whip them over.

Pop! Pop!

With two sounds, the scattered charcoal chunks hit the fleeing young men directly in the face and head.

At this moment, the melee Mao Maos also let out strange cries, leaped off the wall, and pounced on the three young men who were rubbing their eyes and coughing.

The several old people on the ground could not bear to see the three young men, who were fellow Humans and had just wanted to kill them, die like this under the attack of the "Monsters"; they picked up clods of dirt from the ground and threw them with all their might at the pitch-black, short "Monsters."

They also shouted loudly with their mouths: "Run! Young men! Run!"

This made Yongqi Maomao furious; it personally led three ranged subordinates along the wall to the courtyard gate, turned around, and used its tail to whip the young men who were protecting their heads and faces with their arms.

This was much more powerful than the short leather whip in the hand of one of the young men; with a "pop," it whipped the bald young man to the ground. The other two saw their companion fall, but did not go to help him up, and ran even faster.

But the other three ranged Mao Maos also whipped their tails out, directly hooking the ankles of the other two young Humans who were running for their lives.

Although the Mao Maos were very light in weight, it still made these two fall miserably.

Splat, splat—the two fell heavily to the ground, making pained sounds in their mouths.

"Help! Help!"

The young man holding the shovel waved his tool around wildly in a panic, which forced the melee Mao Maos who wanted to get close to subdue him to back away. This person's panicked counterattack for self-preservation, while lacking order and technique, was something their small bodies could not withstand if the iron shovel head accidentally hit them.

The bald one who fell first was the most clever; knowing it was not good to tangle with a large number of Monsters in an open space, he took advantage of the fact that all the Monsters were attracted by his companion waving the shovel wildly, and quietly crawled up to escape toward the house that had not yet collapsed.

And the five old people on the ground were also afraid of these attacking "Monsters," so they could not care about their previous conflicts with these young men and helped each other escape toward the Villager house in the center of the courtyard.

The sturdy walls constructed of stone blocks and river mud could still bring people a sense of security. Even though they had been scorched by fire before, they were now teetering on the edge of collapse.

The young man holding the leather whip was also afraid that his companion's wild attacks would hit him, so he wanted to run far away as soon as he got up.

But his head and face were immediately attacked by the charcoal chunks whipped over by the Mao Maos; the scattered charcoal ash blinded him, making him unable to open his eyes, and it poured into his nose, making him sneeze incessantly; even more got into his throat when he was breathing heavily with his mouth open, which forced him to cough violently.

Seeing this person's miserable expression, the melee Mao Maos originally wanted to swarm up and take him down, but just as they were about to move, this young man holding the leather whip had the misfortune of being hit in the head by his companion's shovel, and he collapsed on the spot with blood on his head.

The young man who was attacking wildly only opened his eyes at this moment, but seeing that he had accidentally knocked down his companion—and possibly killed him—he let out a scream, abandoned the shovel, and ran for his life toward the house.

"Quick, quick, come in!"

At the house entrance, an old man shouted for the young man who had accidentally hit his own person to hurry into the house to hide, but the bald young man looked fierce and wanted to tightly close the wooden door of the house that had been scorched by fire: "Why bother with him! Close the door! You old thing!!!"

But the old people ignored him entirely; not until the young man outside the door scrambled into the house did the old people close the wooden door together, then leaned against the back of the door, using the weight of their bodies to block it.

"Quick, there are still windows! And the skylight and the chimney—"

An old man who was familiar with the structure of this house shouted loudly, and the two young men in the room, ignoring their previous rift, used all their strength to lift the charred wooden pillars that had fallen inside the house and block them against the windows and the chimney opening.

As for the skylight on the roof, it could only be guarded by the Dagger in the bald young man's hand.

At this time, the seven people in the room realized that the "Monsters" outside had not followed up with an attack; they panted and looked at each other, the old people's eyes full of sorrow, guessing that they, as Humans, would find it hard to survive the night and would likely all end up in the "Monsters'" stomachs.

Several old people looked at each other, but felt that dying here and now was not so bad. After all, when they didn't follow the Cunzi young people to flee, they must have thought of this day.

And the two young men's gazes met and then crossed; the young man who lost the iron shovel still remembered that the bald one had wanted to close the door early and lock him outside. If he hadn't been in the room at that moment, he would surely have been killed by those little "Monsters" outside.

Thinking of this, he gritted his teeth.

And the bald one, while tightly gripping the Dagger in his hand, was also guarding against the skylight above, careful that one or two little "Monsters" might suddenly crawl in from the roof. He certainly hadn't forgotten how his other young companion in the room had just "killed" their own person with a shovel.

He didn't know if the Monsters killed or ate people, but his own companion was the truly dangerous one.

The bald one also realized that his sudden performance just now must have annoyed his companion in the room.

What to do? He didn't want to die yet, especially not in this remote, ruined Cunzi. Clearly, these past few days, by threatening and coercing the few old people who were unwilling to leave the Cunzi, they had already taken possession of some of the property the Villagers couldn't take with them before fleeing.

This was the critical moment for future carefree spending; he really didn't want to die.

"Meow meow?"

A Mao Mao pushed Yongqi Maomao, asking it to go up and check if the guy who took a shovel to the head was still alive.

Yongqi Maomao grumbled, reluctantly approached carefully, and reached out to pat the blood-covered Human face; with two "paps," the person did not react, and the wound on his head from the shovel was still oozing blood in a small stream.

"Meow meow ruru!"

Yongqi Maomao said something affirmatively, then waved its hand, telling everyone to surround the house where these people were hiding; as for whether to save this person or not, it had to go back and ask the powerful Human.

After arranging its subordinates and ensuring the people inside couldn't run away, Yongqi Maomao trotted on its pair of short legs, this time taking the Cunzi's main road and running toward the Wooden Bridge.

The entire Cunzi was covered in traces of fire, and it was unclear whether it was caused by an accidental fire or if someone had deliberately set fire to burn down this deserted Cunzi.

The main road of the Cunzi was covered in black ash and charcoal; Yongqi Maomao lifted its paws to look and found that the pads on the soles of its feet were all pitch black, which made it somewhat unhappy; after all, in the Long-haired Lynx Beastman Tribe, it was a well-known handsome fellow—not to mention its glossy, beautiful, fluffy fur, its intelligence and courage were very attractive to a large number of female Mao Maos in the tribe.

It also wondered how its children in the tribe were doing; it hoped their mothers could take good care of them.

Thinking of these distant things, Yongqi Maomao soon trotted across the half-burned Wooden Bridge and arrived in front of the Knight Jier's team on the Shanglu on the other side of the river.

"Where are your subordinates? Why did you come back alone, Mao Mao?"

Jier sat on horseback, leaned down, and looked suspiciously at Yongqi Maomao, whose body was stained with quite a bit of dirty ash. Although the Mao Maos all looked similar, Jier still tried his best to remember the appearance of the leading Yongqi Maomao.

"Companions, siege, Humans, house! Yongqi Maomao, return, report!"

Yongqi Maomao dared not get close to the tall and powerful Tianxuecao, so from a distance of two or three meters, it jumped around while answering the powerful Human's question.

Jier supported the chin part of his Helmet with his hand and asked suspiciously: "Siege? What did you find in the Cunzi? The Monsters that burned the Cunzi?"

Yongqi Maomao shook its head vigorously, its long tail swaying from side to side as well, indicating a negative meaning.

"Humans! Attack, Humans! Mao Mao, appear, stop, harm! But, Humans, unite, hide, Mao Mao. Mao Mao, not, Monster! Is long, fur, mountain forest, fierce, Beast! Like, metal, not, Monster! Not, Monster!"

Jier was dizzy from this chaotic long string of words from this fellow, but he tried his best to extract the important vocabulary: "You mean, you saw someone in the Cunzi harming other Humans? So you stepped in to stop it?"

Yongqi Maomao nodded, looking as if to say you guessed right.

"So, what is the situation now?"

"Harm, Humans, harm, harm, Humans, metal, shovel, plop, attack, head! Fall, bleed! Mao Mao, return, ask, powerful, Human, treat, harm, Humans, whether?"

Jier was confused by its previous words, but he barely understood the meaning behind them: "Someone has a head injury? Hmm, can you be sure there are no ambushes or other people in the Cunzi?"

Yongqi Maomao nodded repeatedly: "Cunzi, burned, Humans, only, one, three, five, eight. Eight! Only, eight, Humans!"

Upon hearing this, Jier turned to the Armed Squad behind him and said: "There is no ambush in the Cunzi, and there aren't many people inside, but the situation is very complicated. So, one squad follow me, the other squads continue to be responsible for protecting the civilians, keep an eye on the surrounding areas that can obscure vision, and if possible, have the hunters in the squad keep watch from nearby high ground. I'm going in to take a look now."

Jier's orders were quickly passed down. The second, third, and fourth units of the Armed Squad adjusted their respective distances and positions for guarding the civilians, while the first unit of the Armed Squad at the very front, all twenty-plus people together, followed Knight Jier, lining up in two columns behind his warhorse as they crossed the mostly burned-out wooden bridge over the river.

Yongqi Maomao walked at the very front to lead the way for Jier, while Jier carefully controlled the Tianxuecao, not letting it walk too fast or stray, otherwise, if it stepped on an unstable part of the bridge deck, both man and horse would fall into the river.

Although this small river was not deep and could not submerge the tall Tianxuecao, it would still be embarrassing enough.

For the sake of his prestige within the team, Jier did not want to be embarrassed like that.

Leading the team across the fire-scorched wooden bridge, Jier officially entered this former Shuiche Cunzi from the front of the village.

His gaze swept along the riverbank on the village side, and he soon discovered a ruin of a building near the riverbank not far away. Unlike other places, that ruin not only had a part extending into the river, but the ruins of black ash burned by fire were also exceptionally tall.

It was obvious that the huge waterwheel that once served as the symbol of the village had likely turned into a large amount of unburned wreckage in the ruins by now.

While leading the way, Yongqi Maomao hopped and skipped to avoid the thick ash on the ground, not letting the pads on its feet become black and dirty. Its mouth also intermittently reported its previous discoveries to Jier.

"The village is burned like this, yet there is no stench of corpses? Hmm, it seems the villagers of this village are no longer here. They likely ran to the surrounding towns to take refuge. Since this place is so close to Duoen Town, I reckon many people ran to the town."

But when Jier thought about it, it didn't seem right: "That's not right either. Refugees rarely run to Duoen Town. After all, taking refuge there—not to mention whether the fat-dripping place of Duoen Town can remain safe in the future chaotic situation—just the difficulty of living there is not suitable for most farmer families in the village to go and take refuge."

Duoen Town is, after all, the territory of the Church of the God of Wealth. Not to mention the discrimination and oppression against farmers who have Faith in the God of Agriculture, just by the farmers with little property going there to take refuge, the people in Duoen Town would mostly use various inferior and treacherous means to gradually turn the refugee farmers into debt-ridden laborers.

He did not think that simple young people from farmer families who grew up in the village could resist the insidious methods of causing people to fall into debt in Duoen Town.

Even many bandits who looted on the Shanglu fell for this trick, let alone ordinary farmers.

Because his line of sight was high while riding on horseback, Jier keenly noticed that several villager courtyards along the main road of the village had traces of recent digging by people. The excavated loose soil was still piled up inside the walls of the villager courtyards, with no intention of backfilling at all.

This discovery made Jier narrow his eyes, lost in thought.

Associating it with what Maomao said about humans hurting humans, humph, things were getting interesting.

Soon, because the village was not large, with only a few dozen households, under the guidance of Yongqi Maomao, Jier and his twenty-plus people quickly arrived at the only villager house inside the village that had not yet been burned into ruins.

On the courtyard wall outside this house, seven Maomao were crouching there on guard.

And inside the courtyard gate, just a few steps away, a young man was lying face down on the ground, his head having suffered a not-insignificant injury. The murder weapon that caused the injury was an Iron Shovel on the ground nearby.

Jier knew at a glance that this injury was definitely not caused by the Maomao. After all, that Iron Shovel was taller than the Maomao, and its weight was not light; it was not something the small Maomao could lift, let alone swing to hit the head of a human young man.

A tall tale.

Jier jumped off his horse outside the courtyard and strode into the courtyard.

He waved his hand at the people behind him and said loudly: "Surround this house, don't let a single person escape. Maomao!"

"Yes, Knight!" the villagers of the Armed Squad replied, then scattered to surround the house.

"Maomao, here!" Yongqi Maomao shouted, letting its subordinates gather, then jumped high beside Jier to respond to the powerful human's summons.

Jier waved his finger at the surrounding collapsed ruined houses and instructed: "Take your people to every courtyard and house in the surrounding village to take a look, thoroughly figure out the situation here, and if you have any unexpected discoveries, come and notify me."

"Maomao, understand! Task, reward, metal!"

As Yongqi Maomao said this, it stared quite greedily at the blood-stained Iron Shovel on the ground.

Don't look at the Iron Shovel as a tool that cannot be used for fighting in most cases, but to the Maomao, these were not things they cared about; they only cared that the Iron Shovel looked like it had a lot of metal content.

Greedy, want it.

"This thing, after figuring out the situation here later, will be given to you as a reward. Now go and scout the surroundings."

After Jier finished speaking, he took out a long, thin piece of cloth from his lower back and first simply wrapped the wound on the head of the injured person on the ground to stop it from bleeding further.

Then Jier arranged for one person to tie the person's wrists with a Rope and watch them carefully.

As for treating the injury? This person was not one of his own, so Jier didn't care much whether they lived or died, unless this person was innocent and joined his team; only then might the Priest Bata'er in the team treat the injury on this person's head.

In other cases, this person could pray for their own luck.

After making the arrangements, Jier walked straight to the door of the house that had not yet collapsed. From the moment he brought people into the courtyard, there had been constant arguing inside this house.

Jier, with his keen ears, barely heard the gist of it. It was very interesting; there were only seven people—two young men and five old people from this village—yet they were divided into three factions with different opinions inside the tightly closed house.

"People inside, listen. I am Knight Qiao-Jier, leading a team passing through this Shuiche Cunzi. Although I am not clear about exactly what happened here, I use the power brought by the swords held by me and my men to order you to open the door and come out to accept my questioning and arrangements."

Jier's voice was loud, his hands resting on his belt, his standing posture casual.

"Otherwise, I don't mind using force to compel you to come out. But I will not accept or be responsible for the series of losses and misunderstandings caused by this."

As soon as Jier finished speaking, the people inside the house started arguing in a mess.

"Don't open the door! These people are in cahoots with those 'Monsters'!"

"Hell, he says he's a Knight. In this day and age, anyone can call themselves a Knight."

"But this young man is wearing armor, and he has a full set of weapons..."

"But what about those 'Monsters'? Gray-black fur, sharp cries, short stature—they must be the goblins from the stories! Can anyone who drives such monsters as goblins be a good person?"

"I think we are dead today. Sigh, I thought we had barely managed to pass these days safely and could finally wait for our children to return."

These were the voices of several old people. Obviously, these old people had not only never seen a long-haired lynx Beast, but they had not even seen a goblin with their own eyes. Clearly, there were goblin combat performances in Duoen Town, not far from here.

How should one put it? Age and experience really have no direct connection.

And the two young men, who were particularly nervous, were like sitting on pins and needles at this moment, sweating profusely.

They actually hoped that the situation would return to before; compared to the dozens of people surrounding the house outside, they felt safer with only a few monsters.

Being surrounded by monsters, they might still have a chance to escape, but if they were really caught by the person outside calling himself a Knight, they feared they would lose their lives ten times out of ten.