Chapter 8: Heat, Overnight Stay, and Dagger Training

The next morning, more than an hour after the sun had risen and shone upon the earth, Jier's caravan finally drove slowly out of Lanse-Qingting Cunzi and headed north.

The drivers steering the carts were yawning one after another, but their faces bore expressions of excitement as they gestured animatedly, telling the Warriors sitting beside them about the celebrations from the night before.

"I'm telling you, the girls in Lanse-Qingting Cunzi are just too hot and too passionate," a certain driver said, waving his hands.

"Need you tell me? Hmph hmph." The Warrior beside him gave a smug smile, but he didn't say much about what made him so smug, instead bringing up the Long-Haired Lynx Beastmen who had played the wildest during last night's festivities.

"Ha, I didn't expect them to be such good dancers; their hands and feet are truly nimble. They could even incorporate their tails into the celebratory dance."

Last night, the Mao Mao who joined the celebrations were very lively, instantly becoming the absolute focus of the festivities. At first, the Villagers of the village were a bit put off by these outsiders, but upon hearing that these Mao Mao had made no small contribution during the journey south to save people, they became exceptionally welcoming toward them.

Everyone invited the Mao Mao to come out and dance. They had intended to teach them some human village celebratory dances, but they didn't expect the Mao Mao to have a set of very proficient dance moves of their own.

They surrounded the campfire, stood upright, and stomped their feet hard against the ground in time with the stomping and clapping of the crowd, their hands swinging back and forth in a dazzling display that perfectly matched the rhythm. Even their tails swayed up and down constantly, and some Mao Mao even hooked their tails together to perform high-difficulty moves within the dance.

Yongqi Maomao's dance moves were the most outstanding; it was lifted up by the tails of its subordinates, flipping back and forth in mid-air, instantly bringing the celebratory atmosphere to a climax.

However, the consequence was that at this moment, they were all exhausted, curled back into the boxes on the carts, and fast asleep.

Jier, however, was in high spirits. He rode Tianxuecao, snacking on small treats, and kept patrolling back and forth around the entire caravan.

Sometimes he would ride ahead of the caravan for a distance to check the forks in the road ahead and make eye-catching marks to prevent Xueya Site, who was at the very front of the caravan, from taking the wrong route.

It would be one thing if they ended up in another village, but the fear was accidentally following the "fish paths" made by the Siege Fish during the summer and ending up at some pond lair where the Siege Fish were entrenched.

That would be a disaster.

Sometimes Jier would also ride into the woods beside the road to look around. Of course, he wasn't afraid of the animals or beasts in the woods; he was a hunter, and he was the highest-level predator in this region. He went into the woods to hunt.

The Shulin Deer he had hunted on the road yesterday had been cut up and stewed in soup during last night's celebration. The meat was delicious, and the deer soup, which made people feel fiery all over, was very popular among the Villagers, Warriors, and drivers. Everyone even came over to drink a bowl of meat soup before leaving in pairs, only to walk away excitedly with mysterious smiles.

Jier drank the deer soup but felt nothing physically; it was neither nourishing nor did it make him feel hot and restless. Compared to the deer soup, the small treats he kept popping into his mouth were more satisfying.

These small treats were all made from the meat of that monster that had been flying in the clouds in the sky previously.

He had dried the chunks of meat, chopped them up, and then repeatedly stir-fried them in an iron pot to thoroughly remove the moisture from the dried meat, turning them into small snacks that could be stored for a long time and tasted savory and salty.

However, this stuff was hard and dry. If it weren't for his good teeth and the fact that he kept drinking water while eating, even he wouldn't be able to eat much of it.

But the benefits were also obvious: after consuming the small treats, the total amount of Life Energy in his body, which had been stagnant for a long time, finally began to grow and increase again.

Even if the increase per meal was small, compared to eating only daily food, the growth was still very significant.

"Ha, look at what I've hunted again!"

Jier rode his horse through the caravan at this moment, letting everyone see clearly the new prey carried behind his warhorse.

"It's a wild goat! Ha, there was even a leopard that wanted to snatch the prey I killed. Look, it ended up in my hands too."

After saying this, Jier held up a leopard the size of half a person to show everyone.

Unlike the goat, which was killed by an arrow piercing through its torso and heart, this leopard had been shot through the eye by Jier, leaving its fur completely undamaged. This move made the three archers in the team very envious; they also wanted to have Jier's superb archery skills.

"This requires talent, correct technique, and constant practice, and of course, important real combat experience," Jier said. "With these, you can also do this. So, practice your archery skills when you have time, communicate with each other, and also bring other Warriors along to practice archery. Strive to have all the Warriors learn how to shoot a bow."

Jier finally made a request to Aoni: "I don't require all Warriors' archery skills to reach a certain level; that's not realistic. Everyone is good at different things, and you can't force them to reach a certain technical level. But every one of them must learn how to use a bow fundamentally; this will allow them to do many things they otherwise couldn't at necessary moments."

Aoni nodded, yawning, and indicated that he would organize basic archery training for the Warriors later. He himself was also starting to practice archery now. The team had captured many Soldier Bows from the Defeated Soldiers, along with more Arrows; these things were enough for them to use for a long time.

As long as they didn't hit hard objects, causing the arrowheads to shatter or the shafts to break, the Arrows could be recovered and used again.

At noon, the sun heated the surface of the earth too much, and the air showed obvious ripples. Not to mention the horses pulling the carts, even everyone in the carriages was drowsy one by one.

"Walk a few more steps, there's a forest ahead to rest in. The caravan will rest in the shade at the edge of the forest."

Jier was in good condition. Wearing only his Inner Armor and a sun hat on his head, he didn't feel as hot as everyone else. Tianxuecao, on the other hand, seemed to have become much stronger than before during this period because it had drunk a lot of water containing monster blood.

After running back and forth like this for the whole morning, it was still energetic.

When the caravan arrived in the shade of the forest beside the road, everyone jumped off the carts one after another, either stripping off their clothes and sitting against the wheels to rest, or crawling under the carts, not wanting to touch even a tiny bit of sunlight.

The surrendered Soldiers were also incredibly hot, sitting on the ground in pairs and falling fast asleep after drinking their fill of water.

Unless one was extremely sleepy, it was hard to fall asleep on the carts.

Because the ground was not level, the carts had to constantly go up and down along the undulating road, climbing slopes and going down hills, and the dirt road was covered with Suishi, which made the carts, lacking shock absorption, bump incessantly, making them unsuitable for sleeping.

Jier himself was full of energy. No village girl had asked him on a date last night, mainly due to his status and position, plus his ordinary appearance; without the setting off of armor, he didn't have much of an advantage in charm compared to the subordinates around him.

Or, perhaps, the Old Priest who had talked to him for half the night was right there—could that have hindered Jier's chances?

While everyone was idle resting and avoiding the heat, he took the opportunity to skin the leopard he had just obtained and buried the carcass in a casually dug pit; leopard meat wasn't necessarily edible, so burying it was the best way to handle it.

The wild goat was definitely edible, but wild animals in the wilderness had many parasites and weren't clean, so after removing the horns and skinning it, Jier threw away the goat's Viscera and head, leaving only the four legs and the two sides of the torso meat.

After a simple cleaning, these were hung inside the carriage away from the sun, and they could be eaten by the evening.

Because there were many people in the team now—ten drivers, fifteen or sixteen surrendered Soldiers, the nine newly joined Warriors, and the dozen or so Warrior subordinates from before—Jier's team had reached a size of about fifty people.

This bit of meat certainly wasn't enough for everyone to eat, but after chopping it up and adding it to the soup, it was sufficient. This gave the soup a meaty aroma, some mutton, and enough fat, and paired with wheat cakes or Bread, it was definitely enough for everyone to eat.

Because they had set off a bit late today, they would inevitably have to spend the night in the wilderness tonight.

Jier himself was keeping an eye out for the Tiger-Headed Eagles in the sky, but the others, who had never seen a Tiger-Headed Eagle, were not worried at all about this legendary Monster.

From Lanse-Qingting Cunzi north to Big Tree Cunzi, if walking, it would take nearly five days, but if moving by cart, it would only take a day and a half to cover this distance.

So it was estimated that by tomorrow evening, the caravan would return to Big Tree Cunzi to report the news of the successful trip to the Villagers of Big Tree Cunzi and Priest Feilina.

Or, had Priest Feilina already learned of it through Dashu Bi'ao?

That night, Jier waited and waited, but the attacking Tiger-Headed Eagles never came. Only then did he lie down on the ground, just like everyone else around him; there was no need to set up tents for the night, they just needed to sit around the campfire to spend the night simply.

The earth had been baked scorching hot by the sun all day, and even at night, the surface still carried heat.

The various wild grasses and flowers in the wilderness were withered and wilted, lacking both precipitation and being baked dry by the sun.

When stepping on them with one's feet, one could actually hear a crisp crunching sound.

It was just unbelievable.

And when spending the night, there were even fewer mosquitoes and insects, which made the insect-repelling measures that Jier and Xueya Site had set up seem somewhat redundant.

"Jier, I guess the bugs were all baked to death by the sun, right?" Xueya Site said, poking at the campfire.

"I can't say for sure about others, but the ones in the surface soil are definitely dead. The soil is too dry, and the little bugs just dry out completely with a snap."

Jier then pointed in a certain direction from their overnight Yingdi and said to Xueya Site and the Warriors around who hadn't fallen asleep yet: "But I know that if you head in this direction, it won't be long before you see a large number of mosquitoes and insects flying about. Fulfilling your wish to see them."

"Ha, I don't like those wretched little things at all!" Xueya Site laughed.

After chatting for a while, the heat of the day finally began to dissipate, and since it was still early in the night, the Warriors lit torches for illumination, gathered around the supply wagons, and began their individual martial arts training.

What was special was that the new Warriors, who had previously not been allowed to participate in martial arts training, finally received permission from Jier today to choose from the captured weapons according to their personal preferences and aptitudes and begin their martial arts training.

Jier's main consideration was that the bodies of these nine people were already the best among all the rescued Villagers, and he had limited their daily training over the past few days to prevent their weakened bodies from being under too much strain.

He just let the nine of them do nothing, eating and sleeping well all day to nurse their bodies back to health.

By today, although their bodies were still very weak in Jier's view, they could already begin some of the most basic martial arts training.

"Then, let's start with combat training for personal self-defense Daggers!"

Jier said loudly.

This left the new Warriors, who had all been thinking about grabbing a Soldier Sword, quite disappointed.

"Sir, Jier sir. Look at my arm; it's already strong enough. Everyone knows how to use a thing like a Dagger; there's no one who hasn't used one."

A new Warrior shouted out.

"Heh heh, you know how to use it?" Jier smirked, beckoned to this new Warrior, and tossed a Steel Dagger to the other party.

"Attack me! Let me see what this 'knowing how to use it' of yours is all about."

The man was stunned, taking the thrown Steel Dagger in a fluster; he didn't know whether to hold it or not, and holding it felt even worse. He felt some regret; the others who joined at the same time didn't say anything, only he had too much to say.

The surrounding Warriors from the same village, lacking loyalty, stepped back and scattered, leaving him and Jier the Knight in the open. People from other caravans who were watching the fun looked over from afar, putting immense pressure on this young man.

"Relax, the first step of combat is to ensure a steady combat mindset."

Jier beckoned to Bawei, who was closest to him, and Bawei immediately tossed his own Steel Dagger over. Jier caught it in mid-air, held it in a forward grip and feinted a few times, then switched to a reverse grip and swung his arm to slash at the air a few times.

"Come on, attack me."

Jier's order had to be obeyed; the new Warrior gripped the Dagger handle with both hands, let out a loud "Ahhh!" and rushed toward Jier with quick steps.

Seeing this posture, Jier showed a helpless, bitter smile on his face. He didn't use a weapon to parry, but shifted his feet sideways a few steps, dodging the other party's overly direct and obvious "attack."

If that could even be called an attack?

Jier dodged nimbly, while the new Warrior couldn't stop his momentum, running forward for another seven or eight meters before barely managing to stop, then turning around to face Jier again.

He was met with loud laughter and mockery from the surrounding Warriors and drivers.

"Hahahaha, is he trying to laugh me to death?"

"This move should have been performed during last night's celebration; it would have been perfect as a comedy act."

"Don't laugh, you weren't much better before. Don't forget, when you were in the initial group of assembled civilians, how much better did you perform when you got your hands on captured Bandit weapons?"

"Can you not bring up my embarrassing past?"

The Warriors laughed and joked, losing the heart to train, and one after another they leaned in to watch the performance of these newcomers.

Jier did not mock the other party; after all, he already had plenty of experience training newcomers, and he estimated there would be more similar experiences in the future.

"Heard those laughs? In the eyes of those around you, the so-called 'knowing how to use it' that you and the other newcomers have is actually not good enough."

"First of all, your method of using the weapon is problematic."

Jier intended to correct the mistakes the other party had just made, one by one. He gathered the new Warriors close and, amidst their embarrassed expressions, gave them a practical explanation.

Jier imitated the movements of the young Warrior from just a moment ago—gripping the Dagger handle with both hands, holding the weapon at his waist and abdomen, and making a thrusting motion.

"Do you know where the problem lies?"

Before these new Warriors could speak, a watching Warrior immediately chimed in: "A Dagger is only that big; there's really no need to hold it with both hands."

"Exactly, I use a larger and heavier steel one-handed Soldier Sword with one hand, and only hold it with both hands when I occasionally put force into a Heavy Cleave."

Jier glared at them unhappily: "You guys talk too much! So you're very good at using a one-handed sword, are you? Swing a one-handed sword a thousand times tonight! Call out the count for every swing, Aoni, you go watch those two!"

Suddenly, the two punished Warriors and the unlucky Aoni all slumped their faces, and the three of them ran to the side to accept their punishment.

The two chatterboxes not only had to swing their swords a thousand times, but also had to call out the count loudly. The former was fine, but calling out the count would be difficult for the two Warriors.

Once they counted past a hundred, they didn't really know how to count anymore, and it was very easy to get the count wrong!

Aoni, meanwhile, didn't want to watch two stupid guys all night, and he would also have to correct the counts that the two were bound to get wrong.

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