Chapter 812: The Alarm Bell Ringing in Yemei Town

Having said so much, Lanu had basically told them everything he and his companion knew, and at this moment, a large crowd of people also entered the village, their stomachs rumbling with hunger.

The village was not large; although there were over a dozen farmer houses, they could not hold many people. Many of the houses themselves were already very dilapidated, and lacking constant maintenance by humans, several months had passed, with many houses leaking when it rained or collapsing, leaving them in very poor condition.

But this also made the incoming crowd feel at ease; after all, they were all refugees from various places, and in the past, they had basically lived in similar farmer houses. Let alone going inside to spend the night, just approaching and looking at them made many of the people feel very emotional.

Under the loud command of Mr. Bafute and Xueya Site, groups of people were assigned to individual farmer courtyards. Those whose farmer houses were still in good condition were suitable for everyone to move into, while those where the house conditions were not very good and posed a risk for living, everyone built their own tents inside the courtyards of each farmer's home.

The young people from the lumberjack team held torches, and amidst loud laughter, they chopped down the farmer's fruit trees in the village one by one, then split them into firewood on the spot. As for some of the collapsed farmer houses, they did not spare those either; several young men aimed a series of flying kicks at the half-collapsed earth walls, kicking those dangerous structures down completely, then picked through them and worked together to pull out the building timber from the original houses.

This kind of timber was top-notch fuel; thick and heavy, a small piece could burn for more than half the night.

And the cooks waiting to prepare food urged the lumberjacks to transport the processed firewood back and forth even more; they directed the setting up of iron pots, drew clean, ice-cold well water from the wells, and then prepared the bagged divine-gifted grain.

The flames ignited and burned rapidly under the vigorous blowing of the young men and women helping in the kitchen. After the water boiled, handfuls of plump wheat grains were tossed into the boiling water.

Besides this, there was also crushed salt. The large chunks of salt bought from Dorn Town were smashed with a hammer, and then repeatedly ground into smaller particles by a small stone mortar with a wooden pestle. The cooks checked back and forth on the side, and once they saw the size was appropriate, they used a wooden spoon to scoop the fine salt grains into the wheat porridge.

At this time, Jier walked over and gave a few instructions, and the cooks added more salt to the wheat porridge, as well as some dried meat they usually treasured.

This dried meat was carefully cut into small bits, and then stingily sprinkled by the cooks into pot after pot of wheat porridge.

Today, everyone walked faster and further, so to replenish the physical exertion and nutrition, they had to add more salt and meat.

Otherwise, such rapid marching would only make the entire team more exhausted; although it wasn't visible or obvious over these two days, the impact was there, real and tangible. This was something Jier had learned in the army when he followed the Kendall Army south.

As for Lanu, he had been stunned ever since he saw these countless people pouring into the village. Only then did he realize just how many people had been waiting outside the village to get in when he was talking to that young Knight just now.

So many people left him at a loss; he watched these strangers walking back and forth past him, some looking at him with curiosity, while others went about their own business, ignoring his existence entirely.

Standing by the village well, he saw many people, men and women, all coming to the well to fetch water. He wanted to go up and help, but these young people, who were about the same age as him, were all much stronger than he was; not just the men, even the women were stronger than him, having hidden and gone hungry for so long.

This made him feel so awkward he didn't know what to do.

And when the team's wounded tent was also quickly set up in the center of the village, Lanu saw his companion Qiaoyi being helped and placed on a blanket inside the wounded tent.

Only then did Lanu trot over to check on his companion's injuries.

"How is it? I told you to be cautious at the time, be cautious, sigh."

Lanu complained about Qiaoyi's recklessness, while Qiaoyi, lying on the blanket, looked at the countless busy people outside the tent with weakness mixed with confusion: "What on earth is going on? Nuzi? Am I hallucinating? Am I going to die?"

Lanu sat on the ground nearby and gave Qiaoyi's face a hard slap: "Enough! You're fine. This isn't a hallucination, it's just a passing team. There are even a Knight and a Church Priest leading them; the number of people does seem a bit too high."

Qiaoyi breathed a sigh of relief and finally lay down on the warm blanket with peace of mind, but soon his stomach let out a loud rumbling growl, which made him ask Lanu, who didn't look too hungry yet: "Good brother, do you have anything to eat?"

It would have been better if he hadn't said anything; as soon as he mentioned it, Lanu's stomach also began to growl. They had only eaten some berries scattered around the village during the day; they were sweet enough, but they didn't stave off hunger. They had originally planned to find wild root vegetables to dig up and eat in the nearby farmland full of weeds and wildflowers at dusk, but they didn't expect to be blocked in the village by Jier and his men.

Up until now, they hadn't eaten anything.

At this time, the pots of wheat porridge made by the cooks began to emit a rich fragrance; even amidst the smoke of the firewood, this fragrance was exceptionally clear and alluring. Especially for hungry people, it was an irresistible temptation.

"Gurgle, I'll go see the dinner they're making; if I can beg for some to eat, that would be great."

After saying this, Lanu walked out hesitantly. Behind him, his companion Qiaoyi hurriedly reminded him: "Don't forget my share! Please!"

Jier wasn't hungry, and he didn't pay much attention to the affairs of the villagers who were already skilled at setting up camp for the night. At this moment, he was leading a team patrolling the outskirts of the village.

The hired long-haired lynx Beastmen had also been sent to patrol the barren farmland outside the village a moment ago. Jier found the leader of the alien race, Mao Mao, sitting on a carriage at the village entrance, grooming his fur.

"Give your clansmen a heads-up to be careful of small groups of parasitic Monsters wandering at night. Their vision at night might be much better than humans'. Some merchants and caravans that passed through here before were attacked at night. Don't underestimate those Monsters."

Yongqi Maomao flicked his tail and called out confidently: "Rest assured, powerful Human. Mao Mao, night, most, powerful! Monsters, night, hunt, Mao Mao, night, hunt. Not, opponent, Mao Mao!"

Jier shrugged, but still reminded him: "If you discover any unusual activity nearby, remember to come find me first; don't try to face them alone. Honestly, those guys, whether it's for my men or you, would be a handful for anyone, not to mention they always move in groups of several at least."

Jier turned his head to look at the lively and brightly lit village center and let out a breath: "It's so lively, and since this isn't in the mountains but in a plains area, let alone the Monsters wandering around not being blind, I suspect the people in the town not far away have also discovered the situation here."

He gave the alien Mao Mao one last reminder: "Help keep watch well tonight. After dawn, I'll have the girls in the team make you a few carrying rigs so you can carry weapons, so you don't always have to hold those Short Swords and Daggers with your tails or carry them in your hands. You can totally carry them on your backs, or like me, hang them at your waist."

After saying this, Jier patted the Long Sword on his belt and the Blue Axe hanging under his cloak on his back.

Yongqi Maomao touched his whiskers and asked suspiciously: "Carrying rig? Contain, metal?"

Jier exhaled: "Most don't contain metal, but they are great partners for metal weapons. Whether you have them or not makes a big difference to a Warrior."

Yongqi Maomao was not stupid, so after thinking for a moment, he nodded cautiously: "First come, take a look. Easy to use, keep! Not easy to use, Mao Mao, want to trade, metal!"

"Fine, fine, do as you please."

On the city wall of Yemei Town in the distance.

Although this was a town, its development over the years had been rapidly moving toward the scale of a city. The Stone Wall built outside the town at the cost of considerable manpower was one piece of evidence.

Generally speaking, a town of this scale would only build a wall of earth and wood, and only cities or important pass castles would specifically spend a lot to build walls with stone.

Of course, the rulers of Yemei Town cleverly replaced the high grain taxes that the surrounding villages should have paid with forced labor for the Noble Lord. Therefore, except for saving a lot of grain that couldn't be eaten or sold every year and mostly rotted in the underground Grain Warehouse, they paid nothing; without spending a single coin, they solved many things that other Noble Lords would have to spend many coins to achieve.

That was still fine; in the Empire from which they migrated, ordinary people even had to work for the Noble Lords for free for half a year, and if they didn't, they would even be imprisoned and punished.

Anyway, at this moment, on the Stone Wall that had been built for only a few years and was still very new, some sentries responsible for keeping watch and scouting had already seen the gradually brightening campfire light in the abandoned village by the Shanglu in the northwest direction.

"Go notify the Captain quickly! Let him come over and see!"

A sentry shouted loudly, and after he finished shouting, he looked at a Small Iron Hammer placed at his post, his expression somewhat hesitant. Because he didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing, he hesitated whether to ring this thing.

If he rang it, everyone in the town tonight, including the thousands of Villagers who had come here to take refuge, would probably have to spend a sleepless night in fear.

And if he didn't ring it, the sentry remembered the incident a while ago when Bandits attacked the town at night. The sentry that night didn't issue a warning in advance, which led to a large area of houses on the south side of the town being burned down in the chaos that night.

After that night passed, many people were executed on the execution platform in the town.

Including the sentry on duty that night and some patrolling Soldiers, as well as the Soldier Captain responsible for the guard on the south side of the town, all were beheaded.

Thinking of this, the sentry no longer hesitated; he knew that compared to his own life, having the whole town sleep one night less was nothing.

Dang-dang—dang-dang—dang-dang—dang-dang—dang-dang—

Two consecutive bell sounds rang continuously from the watchtower on the town wall, and then two other watchtowers at a distance also followed suit and rang the alarm.

Soon, all the watchtowers surrounding the town rang with the continuous alarm bell sounds of dang-dang-dang-dang.

After a while, the alarm bells of the other sentry towers stopped, while the sentry who rang the alarm first was still holding the Small Iron Hammer, striking the small alarm bell at his side.

This was to remind everyone in the town of the danger, and then give everyone the exact direction from which the danger was coming.

The Refugee Villagers outside the northwest wall of the town crawled out of their respective dilapidated shacks, bleary-eyed. They began to look at each other, but soon realized something and all became nervous.

The men turned and took out pointed wooden sticks used for fighting from the earth pits and shacks they had just dug, or the Pitchforks or hoes from their homes. The children in the family all huddled shivering in the pitch-black shacks, and the Farmer women who were heads of the household also bravely held wooden spoons and short sticks, determined to fight the invading Bandits to the death.

Some farmers with few belongings, or those who had relatives elsewhere in the town, all urgently set out on the road to flee, while more farmers had nowhere to go; having no property or familiar relatives, they could not enter the town, and outside the town, only this small piece of land in the Northwest direction had been allocated to them by the Noble Lord family for residence.

Therefore, the vast majority of people could only stay here, facing everything that was about to come. Whether it was good or bad.

Mostly bad, after all, since the beginning of this year, everyone had not encountered any good things.

But fortunately, due to the requirements from above, during this period, the farmers had built another three-meter-high earth wall outside the town's original Stone Wall. On the outer side of the earth wall was a trench more than three meters wide and about two meters deep; added to the height of the earth wall, the height difference was about five meters.

With this defensive measure, presumably the vast majority of Bandit Groups would not be able to break in, right?

And the Bandit attack on the south side of the town some days ago was also mostly to take advantage of that last opportunity to cause a scene before the earth wall was built.

This was the thought of most farmers, uh, it could not be considered wrong either.

Although they did not know that the so-called Bandits were actually parasitic Monsters that had occupied Human bodies, nor did they know that simple walls could block beasts and most Monsters, but could not block parasitic Monsters that could extend plant roots.

After all, how could earth walls and Stone Walls block plant roots?

As long as those Monsters extended short plant roots slightly from their hands and feet, they could firmly root themselves into the earth wall, or cling to their bodies on the hard Stone Wall. These things could not block this kind of Monster.

As the alarm bell on the town's watchtower rang, the Baron's Mansion in the center of the town also quickly raised lights and torches; a tower at the highest point of the Baron's Mansion even activated a Magic Warning Light. Under the reflection of the semicircular mirror, a bright beam of light quickly turned horizontally from the tower toward the Northwest direction of the town. After the observer in the tower confirmed that the guards in the Northwest direction of the town were still normal, they immediately checked the entire city wall of the town horizontally in a clockwise direction again.

Last time, it was because of carelessness that this means of night lighting to direct defense was not activated early enough, allowing the chaos to continue from the south side of the town for a long time before it subsided.

And a team of Cavalrymen also rushed out from the gate of the Baron's Mansion, quickly heading along the Shi Ban Dao Lu inside the town toward the wall in the Northwest direction. After the Cavalrymen rushed out, the thick wooden gate slammed shut, and Refining Qi Soldiers also rushed out from the rooms one by one, arriving at various defensive points of the mansion to supplement the defensive strength.

The temporary manager of the Baron family needed to know as soon as possible why the alarm bell had rung, so they dispatched the family's Refining Qi strength.

Soon, on the streets of the town that were also covered with tents and shacks, this team of Cavalrymen met the messenger sent from the wall side. A Cavalryman grabbed the messenger running on two legs onto the horse, then turned the horse and galloped toward the Baron's Mansion.

The other Cavalrymen continued to advance toward the wall in the Northwest direction of the town under the leadership of the Captain.

Along the way, the refugee Villagers living on the streets, as well as the townspeople who opened their windows and turned on lights, all looked at the galloping Cavalrymen. Some opened their mouths to ask what had happened, some asked if help was needed, and others watched all this with cold eyes.

The Cavalrymen did not know the answer either, so they did not answer the refugee farmers and the fellow villagers of their hometown; they were just rushing on their way.

On the side of the Baron's Mansion, before the Cavalryman carrying the messenger reached the mansion gate, he shouted loudly about his life, asking for the small wooden door next to the gate to be opened. Soon, when he brought people close and dismounted, the small door had not been closed for long before it was opened from the inside, letting the messenger in.

And the Cavalryman turned around to continue his previous mission.

As soon as the messenger entered the Baron's Mansion, his Long Sword at his waist and a short Crossbow on his back were roughly removed by several tall Soldiers wearing iron armor.

The weapons were thrown aside casually, and the Leather Armor on his body was also stripped off after the leather straps and locks were torn; soon, amidst the messenger's shouting, he was stripped clean.

Then, several Priests carrying various styles of armed equipment stepped forward. They had different god emblems depicted on their bodies, and the clothing and attire of each church were also different.

These Priests came up and extended palms with Divine Power to touch the messenger's body and torso. After touching for a while, amidst the nervousness of the surrounding armored Refining Qi Soldiers, these Priests gave an answer that made everyone heave a sigh of relief.

"There is nothing suspicious," said a Priest of the Agricultural God Church.

"There are no new wounds on the whole body, and the thinking and consciousness are clear," a Priest of the Sun God Church said in a low voice.

"Life is vigorous, singular, no problem," the tall Priest of the Craftsman God Church also said.

"The soul is pure, safe," the Priest of the Church of the God of the Dead said finally.

After the several Priests finished the inspection, they retreated, and the Butler of the mansion who had been waiting on the side for a long time took a set of simple but necessary clothing and stepped forward to help the messenger put on this set of clothes.

After all, he had to see the Noble Lord, although it was not the person himself, but the temporary successor designated by the other party before leading the troops away, but he couldn't go over naked, right?

The messenger put on his clothes while cursing, and then followed the senior attendant, under the supervision of two Refining Qi Soldiers, and walked quickly to the main hall of the mansion.

At this time, it was brightly lit here. Because it was necessary to use the hall suddenly, the attendants could not care about lighting the candlesticks and chandeliers in various parts of the hall. After asking the Butler, they directly turned on the Magic lighting that had been arranged in the hall for many years but was not often used.

The crystals on the walls emitted pure white light, making the already magnificent room even more dazzling.

However, at this moment, the several relatives of the Baron Noble Lord who had been waiting here, as well as the designated temporary manager within the family, could not care about appreciating the gorgeous scenery around them. As soon as they saw the messenger being led in, they all opened their mouths to ask what had happened.

The messenger withdrew his eyes that had been dazzled by the surrounding artworks and various shiny decorations, knelt on the ground, lowered his head, and said: "My lords, just now, our sentries on the watchtower discovered that in the Northwest direction of the town, at a village ten kilometers away from the town, many light spots similar to campfires suddenly lit up. The matter was sudden, so the alarm bell was struck to give a warning."

An old man with white hair hammered his waist with dissatisfaction, squinted his eyes and looked at the messenger: "So you don't know what happened either? And you just woke up everyone in the town? Pity my old and useless bones; I had just fallen asleep, and I am afraid I won't be able to sleep tonight."

The messenger lowered his head a little more, and did not refute, or say more words.

Another middle-aged woman sat on a backless square stool with a cushion. She heaved a sigh of relief and said: "Uncle, don't complain. Although we don't know how things are, at least it's not the kind of tragedy from a few days ago. Seriously, it really scared me a few days ago. As long as nothing happens in the town, it's fine. When my brother comes back, humph, those Monsters must all be burned to death in the fire one by one."

After speaking, she also 'viciously' used her long fingernails to pretend to scratch, in order to express her dissatisfaction.

The other three people sitting in the lower seats did not speak. After realizing that it was just a 'false alarm', they yawned and chatted in low voices.

At this time, it hadn't been dark for long. To be honest, it was not the time for these Noble family members to rest, but the current situation was not very good. All the shops for entertainment in the town, except for the tavern that would never close, basically closed early. Some entertainment venues that specifically operated at night were closed down some days ago because there were few people coming to consume, and it was unknown when they would be able to open again.

The few of them discussed whether to go play Magic Cards for a while, and no longer paid attention to the matter that had not yet affected the town.

And the young man sitting in the main seat, a male in his twenties, coughed twice and asked the messenger: "Do you have any other details you can say? And that village at that distance, which village is it specifically? Bring the map up and let our messenger help identify it."

The messenger thought for a while, and then said.