Chapter 769: Priest Bata'er's Worries

It was impossible for Jier to bring five more old men into the group, and the old men themselves were unwilling to leave the Shuiche Cunzi where they had lived their entire lives.

Even if the once peaceful and prosperous little village was now nothing but ruins.

But it did not matter; the original Shuiche Cunzi had not even been ruins, just a stretch of wilderness, and those five old men were among the migrants who first settled there. Never mind that the village had become ruins; even if the village had been razed to the ground, they could build it up again.

Not to mention that they still had younger generations; even if the young people had fled to take refuge, surely those young people would return once the war ended and the rampaging bandits were cleared out by the lords who brought their troops back?

As long as there were people, the village would be rebuilt.

And in the future, if there was a future, they would definitely build a tall, solid wall around the village, no matter how many years it took or how much manpower it cost. They would not be like Dorn Town, which did not build walls for protection.

Dorn Town was so wealthy and powerful, so naturally, it did not fear the harassment of scattered bandits.

But Shuiche Cunzi could not afford that.

In the end, Jier represented Bata'er Jiaoshi and moved some of the god-given grain from the group's supplies, handing it to these few old men. The old men accepted the grain readily and directly, but they refused further help from Jier the Knight.

"Although we are old, our skills remain, and we still have some strength in our bodies. Finding usable wood in the village to build a simple, temporary shelter is still possible."

That is what they said.

As for the few young men who had coerced the old men and stolen the wealth buried by the villagers, Jier tied them up and took them away.

The young man who had suffered a serious head injury was bound tightly and handed over to the Priest to care for, while the other two had leather straps tied to their bodies to help the people in the group pull the handcarts and donkey carts.

In short, they could not be idle; they were taken along as well.

Of course, their punishment was not limited to this, but Jier did not punish them directly; instead, he kept them in the group first to get their labor for free.

This midday complication delayed them for quite a while, but in the end, Jier still had the group continue moving forward, striving to cover more ground before dusk.

As for the so-called treasures of the Shuiche Cunzi villagers, it left Jier unable to laugh or cry; they were merely some exquisitely crafted farm furniture. The furniture could not be called elegant in style, but the Craftsman who made them had been quite diligent, and the materials were solid, making them easy to sell at a stable price on the market.

Those three young men with crooked minds had also treated Shuiche Cunzi as a treasure vault to be raided at will; by digging up a courtyard in the village, they could unearth quite a bit of the furniture the villagers had buried before fleeing.

Moving these items to Dorn Town would easily fetch enough money for the three of them to live lavishly for a while.

Of course, Jier could not carry this furniture in the group; it was bulky and heavy, and there were simply no extra carts to transport such things.

Thus, he abandoned them directly and led the group to continue along the Shanglu.

That evening, while outside the group's overnight Yingdi, Jier felt as if he were being watched.

And it was not just one or two gazes; the feeling was that there were many more, and the skill levels of the observers were uneven. For those with average skill, Jier, riding on horseback, saw the faint reflection of the metal objects they carried from far away, aided by the lingering glow of the sunset.

And there were several other more secretive, highly skilled, and hidden gazes.

If one were to scan only along the high and low bushes on the horizon, one would never discover these watching eyes.

Only by using the long-distance vision ability granted to him by the Great Bird Deity, combined with the increasingly sharp eyesight he had gained after Knight Training, could Jier discern that under a certain bush hundreds of meters away, there was actually a figure crouching there.

Or perhaps at the top of a slightly taller tree in the distance; if an ordinary person were looking, they might not even be able to see the distant tree clearly, but Jier could now distinguish whether the thing crawling on the treetop was a beast patrolling its territory or a Human wearing a Cloak.

Or perhaps an exceptionally large bird of prey?

He asked the Great Bird Deity, and the deity said that none of His apostles were present nearby. This made Jier heighten his vigilance against the people watching from afar.

"We won't go far for logging tonight; the Lumberjacks can just chop down a few trees near the overnight Yingdi. As long as it's enough, that's fine."

Jier shouted this to the Lumberjacks waiting for his lead.

"I won't be following you this time. This is a test to see if you guys can complete the amount of firewood everyone needs without my help."

The lead Lumberjack immediately patted his chest and guaranteed: "No problem! We will definitely chop down several large trees and drag them back to the Yingdi before dark!"

The other tall and sturdy Lumberjacks behind him all raised their axes high and shouted in unison.

Of course, Jier could not let the logging team go out to log without his protection, even though these men each had an axe and were strong enough individually, looking like they were not to be trifled with.

But this did not mean these people had sufficient combat capability; fighting was not a simple matter, and one could not win in battle relying solely on hot-bloodedness and roaring.

It required sufficient equipment, technique, training, coordination, and awareness for dozens of people to gather together and exert combat power.

Even though there were dozens of Lumberjacks, if they were to fight against a small Armed Squad of twenty-five, they would certainly be no match for the opponent.

After all, before even making contact, the hunters in the Armed Squad could take out five or six people with a few volleys of arrows before the two sides engaged at close range. And for one side to lose five or six people in advance would be devastating to the morale of the battle.

Especially if the Lumberjacks had not anticipated the cruelty of battle and had not built up the psychological preparation for death, scattering and fleeing would be the mildest outcome.

It was even possible that the majority of them would surrender directly.

Therefore, Jier directly had one of the four Armed Squads, with a full complement of personnel, escort the logging team to log in the vicinity.

The group's overnight Yingdi was busy and noisy at this time, with everyone rushing about, striving to finish the preparations for the night before dark. The bald young man captured at noon had long since woken up, but now he had been stripped bare by the others, with only a tattered piece of animal skin wrapped around his waist, and he was laboriously digging a deep pit for the wooden pillar of a simple tent.

Because it was a simple tent, the main wooden pillar supporting the tent did not need to be dug very deep, but a depth of half a meter was still necessary. At this moment, the bald young man was digging the pit with a sour face.

Beside him, a Villager from the group who was driving in Wooden Nails mocked him: "I heard you guys were doing this kind of work before anyway, so this job is left to you. Work hard!"

The bald man cursed under his breath, but his fellow surrendered companion beside him still wore a fawning smile, bowing and scraping to the Villager in charge of monitoring them: "Yes, yes, yes, we promise to finish the work well."

Regarding his companion's appearance, the bald man was quite disdainful; he had previously thought this companion was a tough character, but when it really came to a life-or-death situation, he was a coward, revealing the true, weak nature he had previously hidden.

His disdain naturally could not be hidden from his fawning companion, who also showed an expression of "you don't understand" and, in the gaps of his hard work, whispered to the bald man: "You don't understand. Death isn't scary, and it isn't hard; what's truly not easy is living."

"Pah." The bald man spat in his companion's face.

The companion wiped his face indifferently: "If I were as tough as you at noon, tell me, would we both still be alive right now?"

The bald man's eyes widened: "Why are you so afraid of death? If you die, you die. Before dying, maybe you and I could join forces and take a few old men with us, or land a hard blow on that Knight."

The companion's eyes widened, and he hurriedly covered the bald man's mouth, fearing he would say more nonsense: "%￥%, do you think you're very tough? Never lost a fight since you were a kid? Stabbed the belly of a bandit who bullied your parents, and drank a few rounds of wine in Dorn Town that others paid for? That makes you fierce? Can you really have any great skills? Bullshit, I'm telling you."

The companion looked left and right, then said to the bald man with a fearful expression: "I heard about it while pulling the cart this afternoon. Do you know? That young Knight who subdued us at noon."

The bald man disdainfully interrupted his companion: "Only I was subdued; you useless scum surrendered directly, didn't you?"

"Fine, fine, I'm useless, I'm useless. Do you know? That Knight who talked to us, the young Knight, just a short while ago, in order to protect this group of Villagers, fought against a large group of bandits who attacked at night. Don't take it lightly; those bandits were not the cowards from our hometown; they were a bandit group that had survived long-term fighting on the Shanglu, over a hundred people! All of them were killed by that Knight alone! He even wiped out the bandits' lair overnight and burned it to the ground with a fire!"

At first, the bald man did not care, because that young Knight looked a few years younger than him, and although he had a full set of equipment, removing those things, he did not think the other person was that powerful.

But after hearing that the other person had killed over a hundred brutal bandits alone, he first did not believe it, his face stubborn.

But looking at his companion who was staring at him, and the group of hundreds of Villagers around, he had to start doubting: "Really?"

"Really! I asked several people; the Villagers in the group basically experienced the event I mentioned, a true story that happened just a short while ago."

Thus, the bald man shivered and reached out to touch his brow, thinking of the last moment before he lost consciousness.

"How is it? Do you have a connection with the 'Great' Agricultural God?"

Beside the campfire in the center of the Yingdi, Jier was trying to cover the front of his Elven Metal Shield with a piece of soft cowhide he had bought, but although he was full of strength, he was not very handy at these technical tasks; it was clearly very easy when the Craftsman Ganna repaired this shield, wasn't it?

Beside him, Priest Bataer, who had just finished the evening Prayer with the believers, looked exhausted and plopped down on the other side of the campfire.

In the past, every time Priest Bataer finished leading the believers in Prayer, he would be full of vigor; his poor state at this moment was clearly because he was still worried about the disaster in his hometown.

It was not just his hometown, which had suddenly fallen into chaos, but also the safety of the Agricultural God Church parish in Borisfa City, which was even more important to Priest Bataer, that had been weighing on his mind.

After hearing about the incident earlier, he had relied on contacting the Agricultural God, letting the Agricultural God give him guidance and comfort, and only then had he managed to suppress his chaotic thoughts.

But this noon, he learned that the chaos in Borisfa City was caused by unknown outsiders impersonating their Agricultural God Priests, and that the real Agricultural God Priests there had been placed in a dangerous situation.

He truly could not maintain a calm mind.

When performing Divine Magic Healing in the afternoon, it took three times the energy and Divine Power to barely heal that young man with the head injury.

Compared to the time he had continuously healed the injuries of over a hundred people in one night, it seemed to him at this moment like an impossible God's Miracle?

"Hoo—"

The Priest covered his face heavily with his hands and said in a muffled voice: "There is a balance. On one end, there are recent friends whose faces I am familiar with; on the other end, there are friends from my youth who were not kin but were more like kin. They are all trapped there, suffering, perhaps suffering. Jier, how would you view all of this?"

Jier silently gestured with his chin toward Xueya Site, who was sitting on the other side of the campfire; it was clear that Jier had already told Xueya Site about the previous matter.

After considering it, Jier then said: "Isn't one supposed to choose one side on a balance?"

"How can I choose? I dare not choose, they are all so important..."

Speaking to this point, Priest Bataer, who was covering his face with his hands, began to sob.

This left both Jier and Siter at a loss.

Taking a breath, Jier simply said: "How about this, we don't choose, how about we want it all? An adult should have the Yongqi and spirit to want it all! Think of a way, we should be able to have it all."

"Yeah, yeah, there must be a way to handle it all," Xueya Site added.

Jier continued: "Besides, the development of things is sometimes not something that can be decided by one or two people; of course, our mission doesn't count. If the Agricultural God could call me here, then it must be certain that we few can handle this matter. As for what we can't handle, I don't think the Agricultural God would let us get involved in it."

Seeing that Priest Bataer did not react, Jier hurriedly said: "I am not saying that the matter in Borisfa City is not important. Listening to you, there is a large population there, and the towns and villages are distributed across a vast plain valley, so of course it is very important, especially since it involves the lives and destinies of many people. However, this is clearly not a place where a handful of people can make a difference."

"Other more powerful and capable people have likely already gotten involved in the matters there. It might be better to leave the matter to them. The Agricultural God clearly wouldn't abandon the management of an entire parish, right? Think about it, the Great Agricultural God did not even abandon the believers in a small place like Changmai Cunzi, so He certainly won't abandon such a large and important region."

"Think about it, like Montoka City where we met before, the Agricultural God Church there is powerful enough, right? I guess it is stronger than the Agricultural God Church in Borisfa City, and the manpower there hasn't been mobilized by the Agricultural God, so clearly things haven't reached that point yet."

Jier looked at Xueya Site: "It's not that bad, is it?"

"Definitely not. When I was asking for news in Duoen Town, didn't the merchants returning from Borisfa City say that although the acting lord of Borisfa City ordered other churches in the city to take down the local Agricultural God Church, the other churches didn't really put in any effort; they were just putting on a show for that muddled Noble lord to see."

Xueya Site said with a look of certainty; although he did not know if the news was true or false, a look of certainty was enough. After all, whether the news everyone knew was true or not was not important; what could it matter if it were true or false?

Could they fly to Borisfa City at this moment, descend lightning from the sky, and clear out all the troublemakers in one go?

The gods might be able to do this, but since even the gods had not done so, there was no point in them agonizing over these things at this moment; soothing the distraught Priest Bataer was what mattered.

After hearing the comforting words, Priest Bataer's mood seemed much better. He took his hands off his face, and although his expression remained gloomy, his lips were no longer tightly pressed.

The Priest even asked for a bowl of Wheat Porridge and began to drink it in large gulps.

After the evening Prayer ended, his followers had all rushed to eat dinner at the first opportunity, but he had been worried about things in his heart and had not eaten.

"It's fine, don't worry. We just need to fulfill our own mission."

Jier said so.

The Priest nodded and did not say anything more. After finishing the Wheat Porridge, he simply lay down on the ground by the campfire with the Amber Metal Long Staff placed beside him. The Priest looked up at the vast starry sky in the night, and the emblem of the god hanging high in the sky competing for orbit with the moons, staring without blinking.

Perhaps finding the dim yellow light emitted by the amber on the Amber Metal Long Staff to be a nuisance, the Priest reached out and patted the large amber Gem at the top of the staff, causing the staff to stop stimulating the hidden power within the amber Gem.

Jier had always coveted this staff weapon, but Priest Bataer did not let others touch this borrowed, precious item much.

Among the things Jier and his group borrowed from Montoka City, not counting the three powerful blessing abilities, this Amber Metal Long Staff was the most precious.

Priest Bataer still understood this point.

Looking at that thing, Jier suddenly remembered that among the things borrowed at the time, there were two Plant Concealment Cloaks that could hide one's figure, so he asked the Priest for one.

"What are you doing so late?"

Both the Priest and Xueya Site looked at Jier. Jier was not wearing his full-coverage Metal Armor, but had taken out the Hard Cowhide Full-Coverage Armor that he had not worn for some time.

"What am I doing? There are some things spying on us outside the Yingdi, and I have to drive them away."

Jier wore the Hard Cowhide Full-Coverage Armor and then put on the Plant Concealment Cloak that could change its form according to the environment. He did not take his usual Hunting Sword and Yueshui Skull Two-Handed Axe, but only equipped the safe 'Heart Fire' Magic Dagger, a bow and arrow, and a short crossbow he had captured earlier.

"Watch the Yingdi, I'm going out for a turn."

After giving instructions, Jier called a few Mao Mao to accompany him, then left the bright Yingdi and slipped into the dark and vast wilderness.