Chapter 82: Subjugation and Attempted Reconciliation

Time passed in this increasingly eerie atmosphere.

Although they felt it was strange, the two newly arrived Church Hunters quickly finished the flatbread; as for the plate of mixed fresh flowers, they kindly left about half for the young hunter.

Seeing this, the young hunter nodded.

Of the two hunters who had arrived, the slightly older one carefully pondered their conversation just now, and the more he pondered, the more he felt something was wrong.

"You said just now that you were a bit hungry because you dealt with that Earth-Shattering Bear yesterday? Wasn't that famous local Earth-Shattering Bear killed by a young Knight named Jier leading his men?"

After the words left his mouth, he also felt something was wrong.

The young hunter sitting at the entrance of the tree hollow looked at them with a smile: "That's right, that guy was a bit troublesome. After being parasitized by the Monster, it lost some of the weaknesses it originally had as a beast. We had to completely destroy the inside of its body."

"Uh, what do you mean?"

"What else is there to say! This person is strange!" Only then did the other hunter connect the dots; his hair stood on end, and he was about to draw the Arrow he carried, intending to fight in the small space while gripping the dangerous Arrow.

But at this distance, against an opponent they could not handle, they were given no chance at all.

Jier did not activate the Magic on the Magic Dagger he held, instead using it as an ordinary Dagger to instantly stab forward, piercing the arm of the hunter who had made a move and pinning his right hand directly to the wooden wall of the tree hollow behind him.

The other hunter wanted to resist, but as soon as he stood up, his expression changed and he sat back down on the ground.

He spoke quite arduously: "What did you feed us?"

The young hunter—no, Jier, wearing the clothes of the young hunter he had captured—said with a grin: "What else could it be? Mushroom flatbread. Not only were the mushrooms carefully selected by me in the forest, but I also added some Poison Mushroom Powder to the flour just now. Does it taste very delicious?"

"What a pity, I, the maker, have never tasted them even once. Everyone who has tasted them praised the flavor before they defecated all over the floor!" Jier made no other movements, just watching the two of them.

The Church Hunter sitting back on the ground while clutching his stomach had no time to curse Jier for being insidious, nor did he have time to put up a desperate fight; his stomach was churning, and it immediately erupted.

First came the vomiting, then a 'pfft' sound, and with the sound of flatulence came a foul stench; the two Church Hunters could not control themselves and released their bowels in the tree hollow.

After a round of release, the Church Hunters still wanted to resist, but the subsequent continuous abdominal pain interrupted any of their actions.

Holding his nose, Jier stepped forward to take the Special Hunting Bow and the dozen or so differently shaped Arrows from the two hunters, who were too busy to resist. He also helped them unbuckle their belts and remove their wide, drab Cloaks.

"Don't say anything else, just let it all out for a while."

Jier let out a strange cry and left the foul-smelling tree hollow, carrying the weapons and equipment.

The tree hollow was seven or eight meters above the ground, part of a rather large, aged tree in the mountain forest. The trunk of this tree was thick, but there were few branches and leaves at the top; clearly, not only was the heart of the tree hollowed out, but its vitality was also gradually weakening, and the various nutrients absorbed by the roots were difficult to transport through the overly thick trunk surface to the canopy at the top.

After Jier landed, he blew a loud whistle, and soon, Weier and the others ran over quickly from the distance.

"Jier, how did it go?" He asked, but looking at the weapons and equipment Jier was carrying, it was clear he had successfully taken down the two third parties who had been lurking in the shadows.

Jier smiled triumphantly: "When I take action, could I possibly fail? Send a few people up to keep an eye on them. Once there is nothing left in their stomachs to excrete, tie them up, feed them some salted water, and you can bring them back."

Waving his hand, Jier let his men take over, while he himself looked happily at the weapons in his hands, carefully examining the differently styled Arrows. Ever since the last time he confronted the hunters of the Hunting God Church, Jier dared not underestimate the Special Arrows used by these hunters.

Who knew if another terrifying flame capable of burning life would come? Last time, it was fortunate that they were in a small patch of forest, but now they were in a vast mountain forest; if something went wrong, perhaps everyone would die because of one of his careless mistakes.

Therefore, Jier only took a look at these newly acquired items; he dared not fiddle with them himself.

After walking in the mountain forest for a while, Jier returned to the place where everyone was staying for the night.

Most of the Warriors were already up, organizing their equipment and eating breakfast. And here at his Yingdi, there was an extra captured young hunter.

This poor young man had been stripped of his clothes, his weapons and equipment had been confiscated, he was firmly bound with Rope, and even his mouth was gagged. There were many wounds on his body, all left behind when the Warriors interrogated him for information after Jier caught him last night.

Originally, Jier had not discovered this person's tracks yesterday; after all, the other party acted cautiously and only observed the movements of Jier and his group from afar. But while Jier and the other Humans did not discover any traces, the Mao Maos used their keen sense of smell to detect a human scent that was different from that of Jier and his group.

When Yongqi Maomao reported their discovery to Jier, Jier even curiously sniffed himself carefully, but did not find any special scent. One had to know that after his Knight Training, his nose had become much sharper, and other than the sweat he produced, there was no obvious odor on him.

"Sweat, pungent, nose, Mao Mao, clear." Yongqi Maomao then pointed in a direction not far away: "Over there, human, scent, none, sweat."

Jier's eyes rolled: "There is a human scent, but no obvious sweat scent like ours?"

He thought it was another parasitic Monster hiding in the distance, so he didn't take it to heart. Carrying Yongqi Maomao in his hand, he strode straight toward the hiding place of the person who was spying from afar.

But Jier did not expect that after the other party discovered Jier heading straight for them, they immediately shot out several Arrows with outrageous trajectories.

These Arrows were like Poisonous Snakes in the air, attempting to bite Jier's wrists and ankles from various angles.

Anyone could guess with their heels that these were poisoned arrows. Jier dared not let them hurt him even a little; he used all his strength and finally managed to shake off the pursuit of these Arrows, then kicked and broke the trunk of the tree where the person was hiding.

Then he subdued the young hunter who fell from the tree.

"Not a parasitic Monster?"

Jier was somewhat surprised.

The person struggled constantly, but was subdued by Jier one by one.

"Who are you? Why are you spying on me and my team from afar?"

Facing Jier's questioning, this person did not answer at all, only struggling nervously. Jier had no choice but to knock him out first. It was only when checking the weapons and equipment on the person that Jier discovered this person was a subordinate hunter of the Hunting God Church!

Jier thought of many things at once. He hadn't dealt with these people for a while. When the Bird Spirit first entered the Southern Province, it often complained to him about the nervous pursuit and cleaning up by the Hunting God Church.

But by the time Jier entered Sasi County, these people seemed to have lost their tracks.

And the Bird Spirit also seemed to have shaken off its burden at that time, becoming complacent for a while. Of course, this also laid the foundation for the conflict that later erupted between Jier and it.

Unexpectedly, after this period of time, Jier had once again discovered the tracks of these people from the Hunting God Church near the nest of the parasitic Monsters.

He suspected that the Hunting God Church had likely set its sights on the Alien Evil God behind the parasitic Monsters, because no matter how you looked at it, compared to an ancient, fallen Spirit, this kind of Evil God that caused trouble all day long had more hunting value.

Jier's guess was not far off; the facts were exactly as he thought.

It was precisely because the people of the Hunting God Church shifted their hunting target that they let Jier off the hook.

But at this moment, looking at the knocked-out Church Hunter in his hand, Jier was at a loss for a moment. He had no choice but to bring the person back, remove the other party's weapons and equipment, and wake the person up.

But this Church Hunter was not only stubborn, but that naked gaze seemed to not treat Jier as a powerhouse to be faced head-on at all, but rather as prey to be hunted.

Jier did not like this gaze, so he gave this young hunter a severe lesson.

After being beaten, the person's gaze became much clearer.

But his mouth remained stubborn.

However, in this world, many people do not have a correct judgment of their own willpower after being captured.

Under the interrogation methods where his subordinate Warriors each brought out their unique tricks, this young hunter had to confess most of the things he knew.

Including the intelligence information this person had just sent back, and the new order given to him by the Priest of Banbo Wood Village not long ago—to receive the two hunters coming to support and deal with the Divine Dependency on Jier's side together.

"Divine Dependency?"

Upon learning this news, Jier looked at the other party with suspicion. The young Hunter, who had been tortured by the Warriors with various novel interrogation methods, immediately explained: "It is just some weak gods on the verge of extinction, a few items, or even living beings, that serve as proof of their existence in the world. Most of these things contain the core essence and Divine Essence of these gods."

The seven Church Priests nearby, upon hearing this, covered their ears in horror. As priests serving gods, they were not supposed to know information that discussed the extinction of the existence of great gods. They were horrified that the Hunting God Church actually treated the hunting of other gods as a major church activity.

This was something unimaginable in the hearts of these priests.

Gods should be high and lofty, existing eternally.

Yet the Hunting God Church was actually hunting gods.

Although they were only minor gods whose names they had never even heard of, they were still gods! This kind of irreverence toward great existences was truly too much for these priests to bear, and they fled in a hurry.

Returning to the present, Jier's subordinate Warriors soon endured the stench and brought back the two Church Hunters, who had been stripped of their clothes and had their lower bodies rinsed with clean water.

The three people saw each other and understood exactly what had happened.

"Dam... n it, don't you... get cocky."

Of the two new Hunters, one still had a stiff mouth, but before he could finish his sentence, his stomach churned, and he defecated again.

At this moment, being so humiliated in front of dozens of people, he was instantly so ashamed that he wanted to crawl into the most remote Shulin in the world and never come out again for the rest of his life.

The other person was much more cautious, keeping his mouth tightly shut and struggling to control himself from defecating in public.

"Hmph, hoist them up."

At Jier's command, the two unlucky fellows were tied to wooden stakes set upright by the Warriors.

Facing interrogation, the two had originally wanted to resist, but their weak bodies and poor mental state meant they only lasted a short while before they had to confess honestly.

These two didn't even last as long as the young Hunter tied up next to them.

After the interrogation was finished, Jier did not torture the three any further; after they were tied up, he walked aside alone to ponder.

"Banbo Wood Village? And they secretly helped Bell's side, wanting Bell's men to assist them in pinning down the majority of the parasitic Monsters. In any case, this matter must be notified to Bell's side. But what choice will Bell make?"

"Will he choose limited cooperation, or to be wary of the other party?"

Jier tried to put himself in Bell's shoes to think, and finally discovered that if he were Bell, he would most likely cooperate. After all, in terms of exterminating the Evil God and clearing out the parasitic Monsters, everyone had common ground.

If the Hunting God Church did not exist, Bell's best result this time would only be to drive away the Evil God and destroy the ritual or Altar or whatever the other party used to appear here.

Perhaps for Bell, it would be a great achievement, enough to secure his position as the Baron Heir.

But from a bigger picture, letting the Evil God run away did not improve anything; in the future, that guy would still find remote places in Human society where power could not reach and cause massive trouble.

"So, from the perspective of the best result, I still have to assist the Hunting God Church in their work, right? But what about me? These guys treated me as a target to be hunted, even sending only two people to deal with me, trying to take the Divine Dependency of the big bird god. Hmph, what Divine Dependency, it's just that Black Bird-Shaped Wood Carving, right?"

Jier shook his head. He was now caught in the middle of the cooperation between the two. Although neither Bell's side nor the Hunting God Church's side knew yet, Jier himself knew his current disadvantageous situation.

Don't look at how easily he took down the two Church Hunters sent to deal with him; that was because he had prepared for the unprepared and had mastered relevant intelligence in advance. In terms of absolute strength, the Hunting God Church, which could hunt gods, was undoubtedly the strongest party here and now.

Next was Bell's side, who had almost infinite human resources in Sasi County and the support of local church forces. He himself was also at the Knight Rank of Life Energy Training, and without considering some extra differences in weapons and equipment, he was at the same level as Jier.

If Jier's own Warriors, plus himself, were counted as one force, then it was undoubtedly the weakest.

And now that the first two had consistent interests and might tacitly cooperate, what should he do?

The Warriors finished packing up and prepared to set off again. But Jier showed no signs of leaving. After he sent a messenger to notify Bell about the news of the Hunting God Church, Jier even kept saying something to the three tied-up Church Hunters.

"Hey, can we reconcile? If you are looking for the Divine Dependency, I can only say that thing is not in my hands right now."

Jier spread his hands and explained: "A small Black Bird-Shaped Wood Carving, right? A few days ago, I had a falling out with that one, and the other party took that thing and flew far away."

The three Hunters looked at each other, their faces suspicious.