Chapter 823: On the Way to Lead the Team to Cut Wood

Jier said so, and everyone on the horse-drawn carriages believed him.

They had no choice but to believe; on a galloping carriage, only a fool would jump off at a time like this. Everyone could see that the monsters emerging from the left, right, and behind could not catch up to their group at all. Only the few monsters ahead could rush up to fight and entangle them.

Thus, everyone watched as Knight Jier urged his sturdy Tianxuecao to charge ahead at a speed much faster than the convoy to engage the monsters.

Boom-boom, boom-boom—

The iron hooves of Tianxuecao trampled rapidly over the dirt road that hadn't seen carriages for some time, crushing the short, newly sprouted grass to pieces. Jier whispered nonsense to stir up his spirit before the fight, pulling the Jiansheng with one hand and gripping his Long Spear with the other to adjust the horse's direction, his eyes locked on a limping parasitic monster closest to him, aiming the tip of his Long Spear vaguely at it.

The monster had an injured leg, seemingly hurt during a previous attack on humans. The gaunt-faced creature wore tattered clothes and was shouting loudly; although somewhat garbled, it was surprisingly still in the common tongue.

"Offer humans to the great Prophet! Long live the Hanging Ghost—"

Before the declaration of victory was finished, Jier rode past the monster wearing human skin. The Long Spear swept across its torso, the tip and shaft stabbing and flicking, directly tossing the monster into the air.

As it was tossed away, the monster was sliced in two by the Gun-blade that had pierced through its chest.

The people on the front carriages saw the monster's upper body land in the wild farmland to the side; many plant roots emerged from the severed torso, but after thrashing about wildly for a moment, it lost its vitality.

As for the lower body, when it was tossed to the side of the dirt road, although it fell, it kept trying to move its legs to stand up.

But as carriage after carriage and donkey cart after donkey cart drove past, everyone pointed at the half-body of the monster trying to stand, letting out continuous mocking laughter. It seemed they realized that a human lower body alone could not stand up or fight.

Then, from the severed opening of the monster's parasitic, broken human abdomen, a cone-shaped object soon crawled out. Its flat bottom was a human face, and the cone behind it was covered in tiny plant roots. After this thing crawled out of the broken human body, it crawled in circles on the spot, then slowly stopped moving and hardened amidst the low cursing of the human face.

It was like a sprouted Potato, though this thing wasn't dead, just simply dormant.

Later, when other companions followed the scent to find it, they could recover it and hand it over to the partners responsible for parasitic transformation.

After killing one monster, Jier did not stop, changing direction while galloping to charge at another parasitic monster trying to intercept them.

Seeming to have seen the miserable state of its companion ahead, this fellow was very cunning, lying prone on the ground far away, waiting to climb up only when the carriage drove by. But Jier had a strange look on his face, wanting to laugh but too embarrassed to actually laugh out loud.

He rode directly toward the monster, and before it could get up from its prone position, he drove Tianxuecao to trample and charge right over it.

The creaking sound of human limbs being crushed was chilling, but fortunately, it was all drowned out by the rumbling sound of the warhorse running.

Jier didn't even look to see if the monster was dead; anyway, the limbs of the parasitized human body had been crushed quite a bit, and even if the Parasitic Core hadn't been smashed, the monster had lost the means to stir up trouble.

The group moved west for another distance, and ahead, yet another group of parasitic monsters appeared to block the road—a group of five. These monsters were wearing neat human clothing and had run out together from a Cunzi by the side of the dirt road.

Unlike the other parasitic monsters, they each held a sharpened wooden stick in their hands, blocking the middle of the dirt road just like that.

If not for these parasitic monsters roaring about how humans should die and offering them to the Prophet, Jier would have found it hard to distinguish them from humans for a moment.

"Monsters, die!"

Jier was already a good distance ahead of the carriage convoy, so he had some time to tangle with the blocking monsters.

Facing the parasitic monsters lined up in a row holding sharpened wooden sticks, Jier didn't foolishly let Tianxuecao charge head-on, although Tianxuecao, wearing a set of Horse Armor, wasn't very afraid of sharpened sticks no thicker than a child's wrist.

When he was still some distance from the blocking monsters, he charged straight at them, so these monsters really thought Jier would charge straight in to fight to the death. But when the distance was less than twenty meters—a distance that vanished in an instant at the high speed Tianxuecao was running—Jier pulled the Jiansheng in his left hand slightly, and at the last critical moment, made Tianxuecao shift slightly to the left.

Thus, when the two sides crossed, Jier's Long Spear on his right swept across the one on the very edge of the blocking monsters.

The steel Long Spear directly severed the sharpened wooden stick in the opponent's hand, and then, like the sharpest broadsword, swept horizontally across the parasitic monster's torso.

The sharp blade of the Long Spear carried a band of light reflecting the sun, slicing and tearing the parasitic monster diagonally into two pieces.

The severed hand and the broken sharpened wooden stick flew into the sky and then landed on the road to the side. The severed half-body rolled onto the ground one after another; it seemed luck was on his side, as Jier's strike had directly destroyed the Human Face Core of the parasitic monster.

Five became four, and the other four roared in surprise.

Then they all turned around at once.

But as they stood in a row and turned abruptly, the sharpened wooden sticks in their hands ended up knocking their companions to the ground.

After charging past, Jier turned his horse's head and saw this comical scene of the monsters.

"Hahahaha, a bunch of idiots!"

It was unclear whether Jier was cursing these monsters or the local ordinary people who had been attacked, killed, and captured by these monsters.

He shook his head, slowed down, turned the warhorse, and accelerated again to charge at the monsters.

After repeating this three more times, only the last flustered parasitic monster remained on the narrow dirt road. All around were the limbs and legs left behind from Jier's repeated charges and stabs. The parasitic monsters that were lucky enough not to be dead struggled to gather thick plant vine tentacles, clumping them together like a true non-human monster, picking up the original human limbs of their companions to use as their own weapons to block the road.

Jier switched the Long Spear to his left hand, took the Yueshui Skull Two-handed Axe from his back with his right, and ignoring the last parasitic monster that still had a human form, leaned over and slashed at the clump of vine monsters on the road ahead.

The monster threw the human limbs controlled by the twisted vines at Jier in advance. Jier didn't even block, letting these things hit him and Tianxuecao in the face, then fall off.

The blue blade of the axe fell heavily, its own weight combined with the speed of the swing and the force of the warhorse's charge, directly splitting the monster in two from the ground up!

The last humanoid parasitic monster to the side seized the opportunity to thrust its sharpened wooden stick into Jier's side waist. But this thin wooden stick was not made of very tough or heavy timber, and it was unknown where these parasitic monsters had gotten it from the nearby Cunzi. After hitting Jier's body, it only made Jier grunt, and then his right arm, like an iron pillar, snapped the thrusting stick.

After charging past, Jier slowed down, turned his horse's head again, and charged toward the monsters.

The sharpened wooden stick as tall as a person in the parasitic monster's hand had been snapped in half by Jier's arm, and now only a short stick less than a meter long remained in its hand. The parasitic monster didn't know what to do with it, so it could only throw the thing hard at the mounted Human charging toward it.

Jier didn't even look, letting the short wooden stick hit Tianxuecao's head, then bounce off. The Long Spear in his left hand pierced the chest of the monster as they crossed, lifting it up entirely.

While riding forward and slowing down, he held the axe in his right hand with a single grip, raised it, and chopped off the parasitic monster's neck with one blow.

The unlucky Human Head controlled by the parasitic monster fell into the barren farmland to the side, and immediately, a large number of plant roots accompanied by vine tentacles emerged from the neck of the parasitized human.

But Jier snorted, raised the axe in his right hand, and swung again. The newly emerged vine tentacles were sliced off, and the severed ends immediately exuded a fragrant, pleasant scent, with purple juice splashing out and landing on Jier's Long Spear.

Then, the neck of the headless parasitic monster stopped sprouting plant vine tentacles.

"Daring to fight back? Not dying obediently, but fighting back against me! See how I deal with you!"

Jier cursed, raised the axe again, and slashed the arms of the parasitized human into an inverted U-shape, directly severing both arms. Sure enough, after the monster's body struggled, plant vines emerged from the severed ends of the arms.

No longer needing the axe, Jier put the Yueshui Skull back onto the Weapon Rack behind him, reached out himself, grabbed the vines emerging from the monster's left arm position with his right hand, squeezed them hard, and gave a tug.

Then he grabbed the vines at the monster's right arm position and directly tore off the emerging plant vines.

Having lost a large amount of controlled vines and blood, the monster soon became docile.

But Jier held the shaft of the Long Spear with his left hand, closed the distance to the monster, tore open the clothes on the torso of the human body it controlled with his right hand, and directly exposed a Human Face Parasitic Core full of terror on its left rib.

Eye to eye, the Human Face Core hissed and screamed; clearly a murderous monster, it instead emitted weak wails.

Jier directly grabbed the core of the human face with his right hand, the tip of his Gauntlet, reinforced with steel armor, stabbed fiercely into the human body beside the face, dug, and pulled, and the greater part of the Human Face Parasitic Core was gouged out by Jier.

However, having suffered such a heavy blow, the thing died immediately.

Before it died, Jier's gaze locked firmly with the palm-sized human face until the thing in his hand had no more reaction.

Crushing this thing in his right hand, Jier looked up and ahead; not far in front, he could already see the gradually rising terrain, as well as the vast Forest before the distant, rolling mountain ranges.

And, at the edge of the Forest, a very conspicuous Lumber Yard.

The Lumber Yard was like a gluttonous child, having gnawed away a large swath of the Forest at the edge of the vast, undulating woodland.

Jier slowed down Tianxuecao to merge with the caravan that had been maintaining a steady speed behind him.

As soon as he merged, he received cheers from everyone on the carriages.

Jier waved his hand, signaling everyone not to be too excited: "It's nothing! Just a small matter!"

He spoke lightly, but the others could not take it as truly easy; after all, they had seen clearly just now as Knight Jier intercepted and killed those Monsters at the front of the team, skewering and killing a parasitic Monster with a single charge.

The final brutal killing of the parasitic Monster made everyone feel avenged. After all, many already knew that the people in Yemei Town had been tormented enough by that kind of Monster these past few days, and Knight Jier had, in a small way, vented some frustration for them, the Humans.

"Everyone be careful, it goes without saying that there must still be Monsters entrenched in the Lumber Yard ahead."

Jier raised his Long Spear, pointing at the Lumber Yard, which was composed of several large wooden houses and a large amount of logs stacked and scattered together one kilometer ahead, and said.

From far away, he cast a Divine Art to enhance his vision and saw clearly that among the few houses in the Lumber Yard, one had been painted red by the Monsters with flesh and blood; everything else looked normal, only that place was unusual.

If it were before, seeing that house covered in red flesh and blood outside, he would certainly have been afraid and dared not approach, wary of encountering a difficult or even unbeatable opponent. But now he understood that it was merely a place for the Monsters to breed.

Looking terrifying, it was actually no better than other places; according to the intelligence obtained, there should only be a single parasitic Monster responsible for 'breeding' parasites present there.

Just like when he first encountered a parasitic Monster.

It was just slightly different here; there were no tall trees around the Lumber Yard, so the parasitic Monsters had no other choice but to use the crude houses made of high-quality timber as big trees to 'parasitically breed' their companions.

Jier led the team to approach the Lumber Yard and patrolled for a round, discovering that the parasitic Monsters that had been chasing behind the caravan earlier had all disappeared; he did not know if they were scared off by Jier defeating the Monsters blocking the road, or if they knew they were no match and retreated on their own.

Anyway, regardless, there was not a single wandering shadow around at this moment.

"Everyone get off the carriages, hurry, hurry, hurry! No picking and choosing, just this pile of logs; try to chop enough firewood to fill all the vehicles before dark! Move fast!"

Jier did not choose much, just pointing at the large pile of logs closest to everyone.

The Lumberjacks jumped off their respective carriages, quickly moving their bodies to warm up, then the agile young men climbed onto the log pile, using both hands and feet to push down a thick log, and immediately everyone swarmed up, each choosing a spot, swinging their axes with all their might to first chop a whole log into two-meter-long sections, then splitting the team to avoid crowding, and then in groups of a few, chopping a large piece of log into arm-length firewood.

The forests here in Sasi County were all virgin forests, and every log in the Lumber Yard was chopped from a tree one meter thick.

Therefore, even though Jier had many people here and everyone was moving fast, the work did not go that quickly.

A single log over ten meters long, when chopped into firewood of appropriate size, was enough to fill several of Jier's carriages.

Amidst the work chants gradually raised by the Lumberjacks, Jier jumped off his horse, then jumped onto a nearby log pile, keeping watch on the surrounding situation.

In the few houses at the center of the Lumber Yard, only that wooden house painted flesh-red by the parasitic Monsters seemed to have some movement inside. But it seemed that compared to Humans fearing Monsters, a single Monster was also somewhat afraid of a large group of skilled Humans.

At least when Jier stared at the house, he could see a very cautious and careful figure inside that wooden house.

Jier reached out and pointed at the other party, and the other party quickly slammed the wooden window of the wooden house shut with a 'snap', not daring to peek at the Humans outside again.

Time passed quickly; it was already afternoon when Jier and the others set out. Although the time spent on the way here was not long, and at this moment everyone was working very fast, carriage after carriage of horse-drawn and donkey-drawn carts were filled to capacity; after a few logs, all the vehicles in the caravan were filled with firewood.

At this time, the sun had only set halfway.

Someone in the team suggested that since it was still early, they should wait a while before leaving, as they could just chop some more firewood needed for tomorrow.

But Jier looked into the distance at Yemei Town on the eastern plain and rejected this proposal.

"We must return to Yemei Town before dark! This is not a large team with sufficient defensive strength; although I am confident I can be active here at night, I cannot protect all of us."

Jier said decisively.

"But Knight Jier, isn't it still early?" someone asked loudly in return.

Another Lumberjack said: "That's right, it only took us such a short time on the way here, we can still make it back when the sun is about to set!"

But Jier rolled his eyes: "Use your brains; when we came, everyone sat in the carriages, which is why the speed was so fast. But look at those carriages now, they are all filled with firewood and heavily loaded, no one can sit anymore; on the way back, everyone except the drivers will have to walk back!"

Once this was said, many people realized that they sat in carriages on the way here, but would have to walk back on the way home. And although the Lumber Yard was not very far from Yemei Town, that was the moving speed for carriages; relying on human walking, it would take two or three hours.

At this time, the sun was halfway down the sky; although it was still early before dark, there were only a few hours left.

"Assemble! Assemble! Count the heads, everyone bring your own tools; if anyone leaves their axe behind, don't blame me for not being soft-hearted about giving you a few lashes when we get back!"

Jier had the Lumberjacks count the people and their respective logging tools, then had the Lumberjacks guard the side of each loaded horse-drawn and donkey-drawn carriage, pushing the vehicles while guarding them, and began to return.

Compared to when they came, the speed was much slower now; the vehicles creaked when fully loaded, the draft animals gave their all to pull the vehicles forward, the Pack Horses bought in Dorn Town were panting heavily, and the donkeys were silent, even though the straps on their bodies were chafing them painfully.

But fortunately, only the distance from inside the Lumber Yard to the dirt road was difficult to travel; once the caravan reached the dirt road, the relatively flat ground made the four-wheeled carriages no longer so difficult to pull, and the animals only needed to provide a forward pulling force, and the fully loaded vehicles could move forward on their own.

Jier rode Tianxuecao, constantly circling around the entire team, ready at any time to give some guys blocking the road a taste of his power.