Chapter 806: How to Deal with Him or It?

"By the God of Hunting! These monsters are quite troublesome."

Behind the bushes at the edge of the Shulin, two Church Hunters who had been tracking Jier—having lured the monsters into a chase and then hidden to watch—were now lying prone on the ground, carefully observing the battle taking place over a hundred meters away through the branches of the shrubs.

The one who sighed was the young Hunter, while the old Hunter lying and observing alongside him, though he said nothing, actually felt a sense of relief in his heart, glad that his judgment of the enemy's strength had not been mistaken.

To be honest, these parasitic monsters, which looked like normal Humans on the surface, were truly deceptive. If one carelessly let such an enemy get too close and became entangled, even he and this young companion beside him could potentially capsize and fall in this small place.

"The things happening in this place do not look like a minor matter."

Hearing the old Hunter say this, the young Hunter suggested: "Should we notify our companions in the rear? Call over a portion of the manpower hunting the remnants of the Faith to take a look? Or should we purge this place?"

"That is not a matter for us to consider; only the Priests of the Church have the authority to decide how things should be handled. You and I just need to report what we have seen back."

"That is enough?"

Faced with the young Hunter's repeated questioning, the old Hunter also felt that reporting the discovery so superficially seemed inappropriate. If other Hunters following behind encountered more of these parasitic monsters in this area and failed to maintain the necessary vigilance, then the two of them would be at fault.

After pondering for a moment, the old Hunter said: "How about this, do you remember the path we took here over the past two days? Let us go back and walk it again; I have a premonition that we should find something."

"That is decided then, old man, let's go quickly; I think that Knight has noticed us." The young Hunter climbed up slightly, then, using the cover of the bushes, crawled backward into the Shulin.

The old Hunter snorted and followed, crawling carefully, muttering to himself: "I noticed it long ago, didn't I..."

The parasitic monster, hoisted up by a Long Spear, was sliced into two sections by Jier in mid-air. Of the two halves of the body that fell to the ground, plant roots were still emerging from the severed chest of the upper torso, but the next moment, Jier used the Long Spear to stab twice into the place on the upper torso where a human face might be hidden. Accompanied by the purple fluid brought out by the spear tip, the plant roots of the parasitic monster stopped moving all at once.

Looking left and right, seeing there was no more fighting to be done, Jier immediately shouted: "Everyone pay attention! Do not touch the monster's corpse with your bodies! Light Torches, burn these corpses, and at the same time, use fire to scorch your weapons!"

The Armed Civilians, who were just about to cheer for the victory in battle, were caught off guard by Jier's order. But under Jier's repeated command, they felt a wave of lingering fear, and recalling the terrifying appearance of the monster's corpse while it was still active, many of them turned pale.

They hadn't thought much while fighting just now; since the monsters were in human form when they charged and were far less skilled than them, everyone's fighting spirit had been very high.

And when the parasitic monsters revealed their true forms, most of the group had been suppressing the monsters in battle. Roars, commands, and various shouts were mixed together; no one had thought about anything, just swinging their swords and blades continuously.

At this moment, many people looked at the light purple fluid on their blades and swords, wishing they could immediately throw away the weapons they usually treasured so much.

Seeing that many were still dazed, the Squad Leader of the Armed Squad who commanded the archers stepped forward to push the dazed people and fan the heads of those at a loss, making everyone get moving.

Jier was not afraid of these parasitic monsters; in his view, these monsters were actually just that—although their vitality was somewhat tenacious, their combat effectiveness was truly very limited.

He had just wanted to return to the middle of the Refugee Team to maintain the previous alert posture, but the Squad Leader of another Armed Squad that had participated in the battle came over, dragging an Armed Civilian who was securely bound with a Rope, accompanied by a companion.

The Squad Leader's face was very ugly, and the young man being dragged by the rope, apart from his head, face, and neck being abnormally swollen, looked better than him.

"What is wrong? Is this a deserter who ran away out of fear of the enemy?" Jier guessed.

"If he is a deserter, don't bother binding him; just have him hand over his weapons and equipment and follow the main group to move supplies. Anyway, I see there are still plenty of people who want to join the Armed Squad; we don't lack one person like this."

Jier waved his hand, letting the Squad Leader go handle it himself without needing to come specifically to him. To be honest, Jier did not care much about these barely organized Armed Civilians; after all, he could not take them with him, and nominally these people followed his orders, but in reality, they were just a force for self-rescue and self-protection for these hundreds of Refugees.

Unless he could settle down somewhere with these Refugees and formally become their Knight Lord, they would always part ways, as they were only temporarily gathered together.

The Squad Leader holding a Shield looked down worriedly at his unconscious companion who was bound, then looked up at Jier the Knight, who was impatient on his warhorse, and said stammeringly: "My Lord, actually, uh, this companion of mine, he..."

Jier turned his head toward the direction of the Shulin where the parasitic monsters had come from, urging the Squad Leader to speak clearly: "What is going on? Tell me clearly what happened? What is wrong with this person?"

Sighing, the Squad Leader finally said it: "My Lord, Ka'er, he... he had those monsters crawl into his mouth."

"Oh, hmm?"

Jier had originally been using the Divine Art granted to him by the Great Bird deity to enhance his vision, observing the two peepers who had disappeared at some unknown time, but when he heard this, he immediately turned his head, widened his eyes, and asked again: "What? Say that again, what is wrong with this person?"

At this time, the Armed Civilian who had been fighting alongside the Squad Leader kicked the bound, unconscious young man and answered for the Squad Leader: "Knight Jier, during the battle just now, Ka'er was grabbed by the head by that brown tentacle of the monster, so the two of us fought desperately against the monster's body. We didn't expect something to be squeezed out of the monster's body and crawl into Ka'er's mouth along that tentacle."

He scratched his head: "Ka'er resisted desperately, even using his hands to tightly pinch his own neck, but it still crawled into his stomach along his mouth and neck. What is even more terrifying is that a large mass of brown tentacles, big and small, all crawled into this unlucky guy's head through his nose, ears, and so on. You see, his head is swollen as if he had been stung by a swarm of bees, twice as big as it was before."

The Squad Leader added: "That is how it is, My Lord, what do you think?"

After listening, Jier immediately lifted his Helmet Faceplate and said with a serious expression: "Now, immediately, get away from this guy right now! He is very dangerous! You immediately send someone to call Priest Bata'er over! Forget it, you go yourself!"

"Yes, My Lord! I am going now!"

The Squad Leader was frightened by Jier's reaction and immediately pulled his companion to run toward the middle of the slowly moving Refugee Team, not caring at all about the parasitized companion on the ground.

Jier jumped off his horse, drew his Long Sword, and stood beside the unconscious young man, raising his hand, then lowering it. After repeating this several times, he finally gave up.

Because although the surrounding people did not know what had happened here, seeing Jier holding his sword toward the bound young man on the ground, they still understood that the Knight had the intention of swinging his sword to kill this young man.

Not far away, the Armed Civilians busy lighting fires to burn the monster corpses and scorching their weapons to clean them looked over frequently, and the passing Refugee Team also watched this scene silently with expressions of curiosity, intolerance, confusion, and fear.

Without knowing the cause and effect, no one stopped him, and no one dared to stop him, but everyone was watching him.

Jier sighed, feeling it was not worth resolving the matter this way.

It would be easy to cut the parasitized young man down with a few sword strikes on the spot and then deal with the parasitic monster that had crawled into his body. But clearly, in the eyes of others, it would look like something else entirely.

Just like when Jier first saw the bound, unconscious young man dragged over by the Squad Leader, he thought this person must have been cowardly during the battle and ran away, which was why he was bound and brought over to ask for his opinion on how to handle him.

Naturally, the surrounding people, without understanding the situation, would also immediately think that Jier swinging his sword was to punish the young Armed Civilian who had retreated in the previous battle.

Even if he explained the truth to everyone afterward, no one would believe it; people would always believe the judgment they made based on their experience at the first moment and then be convinced of it. Explaining at this time would have a strong sense of cover-up after being seen through.

Putting down his sword, Jier just stood there leaning on it, guarding the parasitized Armed Civilian on the ground, waiting for Priest Bata'er to come over to see if the Priest had any way to deal with it.

"He is beyond saving, unfortunately; the inside of this young man's body is already filled with that thing."

Priest Bata'er squatted on the ground, covering his palms with the Divine Power of the God of Agriculture, and carefully touched the young man's face.

When his palms, filled with Divine Power, touched the young man's cheeks, it seemed to be stimulated by the Divine Power of an alien god, and a thin plant root immediately extended from the young man's nostril to probe outward.

Seeing this scene, not only did Priest Bata'er say the above words, but Jier, who was waiting while leaning on his sword, as well as the Squad Leader and his other companion who had fought alongside the young man, all sighed.

"I should have found a way to entangle that monster earlier! Damn it! It is all my fault."

The Squad Leader was quite self-reproachful; after all, they were companions who usually ate and trained together, and everyone had been imagining their future lives, and this Ka'er was even considering whether to put down his weapons and go farm like everyone else when the time came.

Jier pursed his lips and asked the most important question at this moment: "So, how should this matter be resolved?"

The Priest raised his head and glanced at Jier: "You resolve this matter yourself. By the way, after seeing this, I think I must check the Warriors who participated in the battle just now one by one. Jier, you also engaged with those monsters; how do you feel now?"

The Priest knew he could not go up and check them like ordinary Armed Civilians, so out of respect for Jier the Warrior and recognition of his strength, he only asked verbally.

Jier nodded: "No problem, my armor blocked it for me. It is just that purple fluid that sprayed out when they were injured; I don't know if that is a problem?"

The Priest was unsure for a moment, but fortunately, there was dried purple fluid from the parasitized creature on the Hunting Sword at this time. The Priest reached out to touch it, making slight contact with the stains on it with his fingertips, and then whispered a Divine Art Prayer consisting of a few sentences.

The green light of the Divine Power on the Priest's fingertips touching the Hunting Sword flashed, and after provoking a fierce reaction from the Divine Power of the Sun God Church on the sword, Priest Bata'er got the answer.

"The answer the Divine Art gave me is that it is non-toxic and can even stimulate biological vitality. Hmm, it seems that it is this thing that keeps the parasitized Humans alive." After the Priest finished speaking, he saw Jier's eyes light up, and he immediately warned: "I know what you are thinking; it is too dangerous. That thing is not something that ordinary people, or even the armies of general local lords, can handle."

Jier pursed his lips, shrugged, lifted the Long Sword in his hand to wipe it with a cleaning cloth, and then returned it to the Sword Sheath.

Afterward, Jier brought the cleaning cloth used to wipe the blade to his nose and sniffed it; the purple stains left on the fabric indeed emitted a pleasant, faint fragrance: "What a pity."

He then said to the Squad Leader standing to the side: "Send someone to take this—uh, Ka'er, right? Find a wooden pole, thread it through the Rope, and carry him. When we rest in a while, I will deal with him. Remember, you heard what the Priest said just now and understand how dangerous the Monster inside his body is; be careful when transporting him. Do not touch his body even a little bit."

"If something happens, for instance, if large plant roots suddenly sprout from his mouth, throw him aside immediately, do not go near, and call for me. By the way, does this Ka'er have any relatives or friends in the team? People from the same Cunzi?"

The Squad Leader replied: "Ka'er has an older sister and a brother-in-law, both are in the team. Should we notify them?"

"Of course, but wait until we reach the rest stop to notify his relatives. To avoid any trouble on the road."

After a while, the Refugee Team continued to advance along the Shanglu. This mountain range was not large, and they would soon reach a wide, flat river valley plain ahead.

After the previous battle, the team had not been attacked by Monsters or Bandits along the way. This was also within Jier's judgment; he had noticed familiar prying gazes in the Shulin during the previous Monster attack and judged that the wave of Monster attacks was a little road-trip entertainment arranged for him by the Hunters of the Hunting God Church.

The meaning was self-evident: don't let Jier forget that someone was watching him. Or perhaps it was simply using the local entrenched Monsters to test his strength or the power of the team under his command.

Jier naturally hated this very much, but he was somewhat afraid of those Refining Qi Hunters who could pull out terrifyingly powerful Arrows at any moment, so he dared not rush over to find trouble with them.

At this moment, this situation where both sides were aware of the other's existence but did not easily make contact was quite to his liking. He only needed to wait for the big bird deity that brought the trouble to resolve his trouble, and then he could attempt to shake off this accidentally encountered ancient deity.

Jier believed that this ancient deity would also be willing to switch to a more easy-to-deal-with target.

However, it was certainly not appropriate in this remote area; Jier felt that after he finished dealing with the matter of Bata'er Jiaoshi and arrived at the capital of the Southern Province, that large city full of people would surely be more to the ancient deity's liking.

A large city with a mix of people is naturally not a place in the wild suitable for those Hunters to perform.

It was even possible that those church Hunters would not even come near the large city, as that was the territory of various orthodox gods and their churches.

When the team stopped and gathered into a circle according to previous experience to rest temporarily, Jier climbed onto the roof of his carriage.

He carefully stepped on the support pillars of the roof to avoid his own heavy weight breaking through the roof. Once he stood steady, he waved to the curious civilians looking over and shouted: "Everyone! Everyone!"

Jier's voice was loud, and the place where hundreds of people gathered was not very large, so almost everyone heard him and looked over.

"Everyone pay attention, look over here, gather around a bit. Very good, very good. I have something to announce, it is about the battle with the Monsters that attacked us just now."

Upon hearing Knight Jier say this, almost everyone perked up and moved closer.

"Regarding the Monsters that attacked our team just now, I actually don't know much, since I have never been here before, and of course, that includes the Southern Province as well. However, the Warriors who fought the Monsters just now have all seen it and realized that the Monsters have an extremely bizarre appearance and abilities."

"When an arm is cut off, twisted and terrifying plant roots will surge out from the bloody stump of the arm, replacing the original arm to fight."

As Jier spoke, he used his left hand to make a slashing motion at his right shoulder, then his right arm mimicked the Monster's plant roots, swinging back and forth.

The civilians below gasped and began to discuss among themselves.

Many Armed Civilians who had fought the Monsters immediately indicated in the crowd that it was indeed so, and some civilians who were not far from the battlefield at the time also told those around them what they had seen; some lively young people even gestured wildly to imitate the Monsters, even mimicking the way the Monsters limped because of knee injuries with vivid detail.

This caused the surrounding civilians to either laugh out loud or turn pale.

Jier on the carriage continued: "Not only that, some Monsters had their skulls split open by me during the battle; I didn't expect that there wasn't much human brain inside the skull, but it was filled with large and small clusters of root tentacles. They would even surge out from the broken skull to act as another hand on top of the head to launch attacks."

At this point, there were not many people below who were still happy; many people felt nauseated and terrified just thinking about a new hand sprouting from the top of a skull, especially since this was not a folk bedtime story their mothers used to scare them into sleeping when they were young, but something that had truly and tangibly happened right in front of them, just a short while ago.

Those Monsters were hiding in the nearby Shulin, spying on them, greedily craving human flesh.

"But fortunately, the number of those Monsters is not large, and our Armed Civilians are quite heroic. However..."

Jier paused here and said with a pained expression: "However, these Monsters are monsters after all, and our Armed Squad still suffered casualties in the battle. The corpse of the dead Warrior has already been burned in the flames along with the Monster's corpse, turning into ashes. But what I want to talk about here is another matter, and that is the casualty who was injured in the battle."

Everyone looked over, not knowing what Knight Jier meant by saying all this.

But the faint sound of a woman crying in front of the carriage gave everyone a bad premonition.

"It is regrettable that a young Warrior named Karl Buste was inadvertently covered on his head and face by large clusters of tentacles extended by a Monster in a desperate situation during the heroic battle. As a result, that Monster abandoned the previously hollowed-out human body and transferred its Parasitic Core into Karl's body. Since then, this young man has been unconscious, and after a careful examination by Bata'er Jiaoshi, that hateful parasitic Monster is gradually devouring this heroic young man from within."

Jier held his head high and shouted to everyone: "Believe that before long, in a day or two, or even by nightfall today, this heroic young man who opens his eyes again will no longer be the Karl his relatives and friends are familiar with."

"Under the same skin, there will be an evil Monster."

By the time he said this, the civilians below were already in a panic, not only looking at everyone around them with worry but also secretly sizing up the Armed Civilians who had been boasting about fighting the Monsters, fearing that among these people, there might be one or two who had been parasitized by a Monster.

These people didn't think much; if it were really that easy for a Monster to parasitize, how could human society still exist today?

People would have all died out long ago.

But fortunately, with a wave of Jier's hand and a shout of "Hoist him up!", everyone's attention was drawn back.

In a small open space in front of Jier's carriage, a tree trunk that Jier had run to the edge of the Shulin to cut down before the team rested was stood upright in a hole dug by someone, five meters high.

Afterward, the Lumberjacks, under the direction of Mr. Bafute, piled some burning firewood at the base of the tree trunk.

And at a height of three meters in the middle of the tree trunk, a young man whose head, face, and neck were abnormally bloated and swollen was being tightly bound and hung in mid-air by a Rope.

The woman's crying grew louder; it seemed that at this very moment, this scene, like an execution platform for punishing criminals in a large Cunzi or town, had completely shattered all the woman's hopes.

People in the crowd were whispering; everyone only then realized that the person who had been crying was the older sister of Karl, who had been parasitized by the Monster. And his brother-in-law was holding his wife tightly to the side, not letting her go up to cause trouble.

Bata'er Jiaoshi was at this time reluctantly invited by Jier onto the roof of the carriage. At Jier's signal, the Priest sighed, first performed a Divine Art to strengthen his voice as per custom, and then said after a light cough: "It is regrettable that we must use such a method to burn a brave Warrior to death. Like other heroes who fought for us, he held back the Monsters and Bandits, bringing a safe breathing space for all of us."

"He may still be alive at this moment, but I must say, that is worse than being dead. A brave Spirit being tortured by a Monster before my eyes makes me feel very uncomfortable. I hope the scorching flames can purify his body and send his Spirit back to the Underworld of the dead. And the Monster entrenched in his body deserves to be destroyed by the flames."

"Alas, may the great Agriculture God bless this brave Spirit."

After speaking, the Priest looked at Jier. Jier nodded and waved his hand, ordering the people below to light the fire: "Light it, there isn't much time for rest, it's good to let everyone sit and rest for a while longer."

The Torch was passed to the young man's feet, and soon, the firewood piled at the bottom and the wild grass used for kindling that could be found everywhere were all ignited.

The fire started small, with constant thick smoke, choking the unconscious young man tied to the tree trunk until he woke up.

He shouted loudly, calling for help.

And his sister's crying was earth-shattering, even requiring several people to hold her back to prevent her from rushing up to take him down.

Jier on the carriage had his hand faintly resting on the hilt of the sword at his waist. The Priest beside him sighed and pressed down on Jier's wrist: "Rest assured, this is merely the struggle of the parasite before death."

Jier gripped the hilt tightly, watching the terrified shouting of the young man not far ahead; the young man could even clearly call out the name of the Squad Leader who had fought alongside him.

Seeing his comrade being held by the shoulders and arms by other Armed Civilians, the young man called for help from his sister and brother-in-law.

His sister was cursing Jier and Bata'er Jiaoshi like a madwoman, claiming that her younger brother was fine and that the current cry for help was proof. And the young man's brother-in-law, an ordinary farmer, stared unblinkingly at Jier behind the thick smoke, his hand gripping a Short Sword made of iron that Jier had given him a few days ago.

This farmer knew he was no match for either of the two people on the carriage, but he secretly swore in his heart that if all this was just a misunderstanding or a lie, then even if he had to fight to the death, he would leave an insignificant scratch on Knight Jier's armor and a tear in the Priest's Robe, which appeared red from being repeatedly soaked in the blood of the wounded.

Right in the midst of this deathly silence of the crowd, and the insignificant cries for help and weeping.

Things gradually began to change.