Chapter 788: Arrows in the Woods, Charging Bravely at the Enemy, and the Bandit Ambush

After a while, several young bandits walked out of the bushes, looking dejected.

They looked at each other in silence, and without exchanging a word, the group decided to follow the Bandit Leader's orders from before they came out and go ahead to assist the veteran bandits with some support work.

As one young man walked, his hands kept rubbing vigorously against his clothes and pants; his hands, which did not look very dirty, seemed to be covered in something heavy in the eyes of this young bandit.

In the bushes, the burly Bandit Leader grabbed a bloody corpse and threw it with all his might behind the bushes. Following that, he took out a dry cloth, picked up the steel dagger stained with the blood of the innocent from the ground, and wiped it off casually.

Looking up at the lackey who had been standing to the side without moving, the Bandit Leader asked, "Why are you still standing here? Go out and call for another batch of people. Hmm, you did well, continue doing it."

The lackey shuddered, came back to his senses, then nodded heavily at the Bandit Leader, gave a fawning smile, and immediately turned to walk out of the bushes.

The lackey touched his 'smiling face' and found the entire face was stiff, then he let out a heavy sigh, muttering words about divine protection under his breath.

Just like that, batch after batch of small groups of young bandits were tricked by him using simple methods into the bushes, where they received a thorough 'bandit professional spirit education' from the Bandit Leader, successfully transitioning from ordinary people to officially stepping onto the path of a bandit with no turning back.

Of the eight innocent people, only one middle-aged Merchant remained in the end. Just as this Merchant was weeping bitterly, thinking he could escape with his life today, the Bandit Leader grabbed the man's head and carefully looked into the eyes of the man who seemed to have survived.

"Although it's a pity, you won't live either, after all, you saw some things you shouldn't have seen."

After speaking, without waiting for the Merchant to react, he directly twisted the man's neck.

With a crack, the person was dead.

Like the other innocent people who died miserably, the Bandit Leader threw the corpse hard into the depths of the bushes, gifting this batch of human corpses to the beasts wandering in the Shulin.

After doing these evil deeds, the Bandit Leader clapped his hands indifferently, rubbed his shoulders, twisted his neck, picked up his Great Axe, and walked out of the bushes as naturally as could be.

It seemed he had only done a trivial matter in his view.

"This kind of thing should have been done long ago. Hey, I'm still too kind, and I can't bear to part with the money and people I've already gotten my hands on."

Muttering to himself, the Bandit Leader rejoined the command of his bandit subordinates.

Sporadic Arrow fire shot out again from the Shulin not far from the Shanglu, which made Jier feel somewhat annoyed; he did not expect these bandits to be like chewing gum stuck to the sole of a shoe, both annoying and impossible to do anything about.

He spurred his horse to charge toward the Shulin, and these Arrows that posed no threat to him stopped; vaguely, through the sparse cover at the edge of the Shulin, one could see the figures of the bandits holding bows and arrows retreating rapidly.

But when Jier rode his horse a little further away, the scout bandits hiding somewhere in the Shulin would blow whistles imitating birds to call back the archer bandits who were retreating quickly.

And so, very soon, scattered bows and arrows would be shot again from the Shulin toward Jier and the Refugee Team on the Shanglu.

These bows and arrows, which lacked force and were crudely made, posed no threat to Jier, who was clad in heavy Metal Armor. Not to mention that he was constantly moving on horseback, even the Arrows that luckily hit him would just go 'ding' and bounce off after shattering the arrowhead.

Jier did not even need to take out his Elven Metal Shield for additional defense.

But these seemingly scattered Arrows brought great trouble to the Refugee Team.

Some bandits with good stamina and decent Hunting Bows did not target Jier, but specifically used parabolic shots to attack the Refugee Team, which was huddled together and moving slowly along the Shanglu.

Often, once an arrow was shot, as long as the wind direction did not change, it would mostly go straight into the Refugee Team, wounding an unlucky civilian or hitting the supplies carried by the civilians.

Often, once someone was hit, it would cause a small riot within that section of the team. Arrows shot from this distance were not very likely to hit vital parts of the human body, but as long as someone was wounded, that person would often lose the ability to move.

After all, few people could endure the injury of being hit by an arrow while carrying supplies. Most could only have other empty-handed people carry or support the wounded, and the supplies could only be handed over to others to carry.

Clearly, in the current situation, it was not suitable for Bata'er Jiaoshi to go over to care for and treat the wounded. Not to mention that he still had to command the team to move forward and soothe the nervous emotions of the civilians, even if he handed the work to others, this was not the time to treat the wounded.

No matter how capable he was, he simply could not handle the number of wounded that was increasing at any moment.

Therefore, at this time, he could only try his best to have the civilians pass through this section of the Shanglu that was too close to the roadside Shulin as quickly as possible, and after reaching a place with more open terrain ahead, they would be out of the position where the team was being attacked by the bandits in the Shulin, and only then would it be a good time to start treating the wounded.

That was how things were to be done, but to soothe the emotions of the civilians, an explanation still had to be given.

"Watch out for Arrows! Pay attention to protecting your head and neck! Those hit by Arrows, stop the bleeding first! Hand the things in your hands to others to carry, and you yourself must follow the team with the help of others! Now is not the time to treat arrow wounds! Everyone, do not slow your pace! Walk faster, once we reach the open area ahead, we can catch our breath! Watch out for Arrows!"

Bata'er Jiaoshi shouted loudly while riding his prairie horse, trying his best to make the content of his words heard by the civilians in the team.

When everyone's emotions were tense, it was best to give them a target they could see with their eyes; with this target, everyone could try to ignore the danger around them and struggle to move toward the goal.

But this defensive strategy of being passively beaten really made Jier feel incredibly frustrated; this gang of bandits was truly too persistent. They should have clearly seen the gap in strength between him and the bandits earlier, so why were they still pestering them like this?

"Do they think I am too soft-hearted?"

Jier gritted his teeth; if it weren't for the fact that the issue of the vengeful spirits pestering him after mass killing had not yet been resolved, he would have long since charged up with his spear and sword.

Whoever dared to harass them, he would kill that wave of bandits.

Whoever dared to kill or wound the civilians in his team, he would kill that wave of bandits.

Presumably, those bandits were not things that grew out of the ground like weeds, right? They were all humans; no one would come to cause trouble for him under the circumstances of certain death or unilateral loss.

"Looking at it this way, the losses haven't reached the bandits' tolerance threshold yet. Or perhaps, it is the size of my team that makes the bandits feel that the loot gained from risking their lives is worth it?"

Jier did not want to kill people with his own hands, but seeing the way these bandits were pestering them, it seemed he had to give them a taste of their own medicine.

Thinking of this, Jier, who was galloping on his horse, thought of a way: he himself did not have to kill; the matter of killing could be left entirely to his subordinates! He only needed to knock down the bandits, and the matter of killing or wounding the bandits could be left to others.

Thinking of this, Jier rode his horse to the front of the team and shouted to the Armed Civilians guarding the Refugee Team: "Give me twenty Warriors who think they can fight and dare to fight. Come with me into the Shulin nearby to clear out the archer bandits! Those who think they can fight, follow me!"

Jier's voice was loud, and the team of hundreds of people on the road heard it clearly.

The next moment, out of the more than one hundred Armed Civilians, at least half of them surged toward Jier all at once.

The remaining people were not necessarily not brave enough, it was just that some were carrying wounded civilians, and some had other tasks and could not just follow to fight.

"Too many, too many! Everyone look at each other, how many times twenty people have come? You, you, you, you, you..."

Jier picked out some of the dozens of Armed Civilians who had gathered whom he could name, or whose protective gear looked decent enough. As for the rest he had no impression of, or whose equipment was not very good—at least not as good as the bandits'—Jier did not ask them to follow.

"Those not called, go back to your original positions! Those I pointed at, move quickly, come over here, and follow me to charge straight at the archer bandits in the woods!"

Jier shouted, turned his horse around, and after waiting a moment for those following to gather, he let his warhorse walk at a small trot, charging straight sideways toward the Shulin closest to the team.

At this time, the bandits there had just fired a scattered round of Arrows, and the Arrows were gradually thinning out; it looked like the bandits were preparing to put away their bows and move to a place further ahead to continue harassing Jier's Refugee Team.

"Charge! Attack! Whether you know each other or not, form combat formations in groups of three or five!"

Jier shouted, let Tianxuecao speed up slightly, and guided the Armed Civilians following behind to all start jogging, shortening the time spent moving on the exposed Shanglu.

"Roar! Charge!"

Without needing Jier to say more words to encourage fighting, the Armed Civilians following behind Jier had long been unable to stand the anger brought about by these bandits continuously shooting arrows at them. Jier sped up slightly, and these young men all ran one after another, shouting to increase their momentum, charging toward the patch of Shulin closest to the team.

The next moment, a wave of Arrows shot toward Jier's side from the Shulin, but Jier swayed his horse left and right, blocking a large number of the Arrows that lacked force.

The bandits probably hadn't anticipated this, and this wave of Arrows was shot in a rush.

But Jier knew that if he got any closer to the Shulin, the enemy's arrows would be more powerful, more accurate, and they would not aim at Jier himself, because the bandits knew they couldn't hurt him.

"Watch out for arrows!"

Jier did not hear any wailing behind him after the first wave of arrows flew over, and knowing no one was hurt, he reminded the Armed Civilians once more.

He himself spurred his horse to accelerate, charging toward the Bandits first to force them to aim their arrows at him.

Humans are subconsciously like this; they always place their focus on the enemy that poses the greatest threat.

Since they were not far from the Shulin to begin with, Jier only needed a few seconds to approach the Shulin after accelerating his horse. At this moment, the Bandits were still struggling with whether to retreat deep into the Shulin or to have a fight here with the Knight and the people the Knight brought.

Jier did not know what the Bandits were thinking, but he saw the archer Bandits, who should have been firing their second and third waves of arrows, instantly retract the bowstrings and Hunting Bow arms they had already drawn amidst the whistling sounds echoing in the Shulin, and flee toward the depths of the woods as if running for their lives.

"Don't think about running!"

Jier let out a loud roar, jumped off Tianxuecao as it slowed down near the Shulin, and relying on the horse's momentum and his own leaping ability, he 'flew' directly into the Shulin from several meters in the air.

While in mid-air, he saw a short Bandit riding between the high branches of a lush tree not far away, with branches and leaves stuck to his body.

If this guy weren't blowing a command whistle in his mouth, it would have been almost impossible for Jier to discover such a Bandit squatting high up in the tree within the Shulin.

Deal with this one first!

Clad in iron armor, Jier broke through many branches of varying thickness amidst a clattering sound of impacts, but he used this to slow himself down in the air and took the opportunity to grab the trunk of a large tree mid-air.

The large tree swayed with a rustling sound, but Jier clamped his legs firmly around the human-sized trunk as if riding a horse.

Once his body stabilized, Jier drew his sword to chop off a branch of suitable thickness nearby, sheathed his sword, and then used his Steel Gauntlet to strip the branch, quickly removing the twigs and leaves before throwing it at the thin, small Bandit preparing to flee above him not far away.

Whoosh—thwack!

The branch spun, carrying full force, and struck the Bandit just as he was preparing to climb down from the treetop.

The guy's vision went black, his body lost its strength, and he fell from the high tree.

However, the lush tree's branches of varying thickness slowed the Bandit's fall, and even caught his body in mid-air, leaving him hanging in the tree.

But as soon as this dazed Bandit regained his senses, the tree he was on shook violently, as if the trunk were being rubbed by a Forest bear. Before he could figure out what was going on, his ankles were grabbed by someone and he was yanked downward.

"Wuwawaaaa—"

With a panicked cry, the short Bandit had just seen what was attacking him when his abdomen took a heavy punch.

Held in mid-air, the Bandit curled up like a shrimp due to the pain in his abdomen.

Jier glanced at this guy and discovered that one of the Bandit's hands was a prosthetic, with several wild beast claws embedded where the fingers should be, and it was even stained with blood.

With a snort, Jier kicked off the trunk with both legs, jumped down from the tree, and upon landing heavily, tossed the Bandit—whose legs he was holding—to the Armed Civilians who had just caught up: "He's yours. Kill him and then follow me!"

Jier threw the person away, stopped looking behind him, lifted his feet from the ground where they had sunk due to the heavy landing, and chased in the direction the archer Bandits had retreated.

The short Bandit with the prosthetic hand was thrown by the Knight and landed, and before he could recover, swords and blades accompanied by roars fell upon him.

"This is for Ruby! You shot and injured her face!"

"And another partner from our village! This sword is for the arm he had shot through!"

After a few roars of revenge, the Bandit's skull was smashed by someone, and white brains splattered out. One could see how heavy the anger of the Armed Civilians following Jier was at this moment.

Just after killing the man, someone ran past the Bandit's corpse and said quickly: "Don't just stand there, hurry and follow Knight Jier! We have to assist him in the fight! Otherwise, the enemies will all be killed by the Knight!"

An Armed Civilian let out a breath and said heavily: "The Lord should have done this long ago; a dead Bandit is a good Bandit—he taught us that himself."

Another Armed Civilian took a step and said while walking: "If it weren't for us dragging him down, the Lord would have killed all the Bandits long ago; no need to wait until now."

"If only we were a bit stronger, then the Knight wouldn't have to worry about taking care of us."

"It's not too late now. Everyone follow, don't fall behind. The surroundings are all Bandit territory; who knows where else they are hiding. Everyone keep up!"

With a Squad Leader of the Armed Civilians commanding these self-appointed warriors, they moved in groups of three or five, holding Mudu and swords in their hands, and followed the continuous wailing sounds blocked by the trees ahead, chasing quickly.

It was funny that Jier had originally only designated twenty presentable Armed Civilians to fight with him, but at this moment, the Squad Leader counted the heads and found that, including himself, at least thirty people had followed over here.

Of course, there was no time to drive the extra ten people back; it could only be said that these ten guys were truly bold, and their desire to fight was indeed strong.

"How did this happen."

The Squad Leader muttered and followed the team.

Outside the Shulin, Tianxuecao was dissatisfiedly digging at the grass with its hooves, not even sparing the lush and delicious grass on the ground, trampling it all flat with one hoof after another.

It was very dissatisfied with the fact that its master had left it behind to fight in the Shulin alone, but as a qualified warhorse, if the master didn't summon it to fight inside, it had to wait in place, waiting for a summons or for the master to return.

Today's battle truly satisfied the violence-filled Tianxuecao; compared to today's exhilarating fight, bullying the horses in the same stable or the donkeys newly added to the team in the past seemed truly boring and dull.

Suddenly, its ears flickered, and it noticed some faint movement. Although the human shouts and roars in the Shulin were rising and falling, it still noticed something.

"Neigh—"

It snorted, feeling something approaching from behind.

So Tianxuecao moved its legs, turned around to take a look, and oh, it was a Human.

At this moment, this Bandit, still covered in fallen leaves and mud, was staring intently at the Knight's warhorse, and at the Steel Long Spear on the warhorse's back that looked heavy, as well as the fixed Hunting Bow and several bags of Bow and Arrow.

"Haha, that bunch of idiots are still fighting to the death in the Shulin; the ones in ambush probably have a bitter fight ahead too. But, I am the biggest winner today! Ho-haha, relying on this bit of luck I have, it seems you, Goddess, haven't given up on me yet!"

This Bandit, needless to say, was the number one lackey of the Bandit Leader in this Bandit Group, a guy who was a Bandit but believed in the Goddess of Luck.

As the leader's lackey, he naturally didn't have to go out to kill enemies, and no one in the group said anything. But just now, a thought occurred to him, and in the temporary plan set by his companions to lure and ambush the Knight, he relied on his keen intuition to find a point of profit that many people hadn't noticed.

Since the Knight was lured into the Shulin to be ambushed, wouldn't his warhorse, which was inconvenient for riding in the woods, be left unattended?

Generally speaking, a Knight's warhorse would be left in the care of one of the Knight's attendants, but the Bandits had observed for a long time and hadn't seen anyone else riding a horse fighting alongside the Knight.

There were people riding horses in the Refugee Team, but looking from afar, the other party didn't look like Warriors, but rather like those Priest lords in the church who wore Robe and preached doctrine.

So the lackey specifically hid under the fallen leaves and mud at the edge of the Shulin, and after changing positions several times, he finally waited for his opportunity!

"I'm rich! Haha! Once I sell this warhorse and equipment, I won't be a Bandit anymore! Whoever wants to suck up to people can go do it; isn't living in a big town better than fawning over others in this remote village? Pfft, I'll never have to do these nasty, disgusting things again. Hahaha, good horse, don't worry, I'm not a big bad guy, close your eyes, one, two, three, wake up, and turn into gold!"

While singing a little song he made up on the spot, the lackey smiled and raised his hands, slowly approaching the Knight's warhorse that was staring at him.

At this moment, the smile on his face was finally no longer faked; that smile, blooming with both skin and flesh, even carried the future new life he was imagining.

However, Tianxuecao, not far away, looked at this Bandit walking toward it with a puzzled expression.

Did this stupid Human think that Master Tianxuecao was a fool?

I am very smart, okay?