Chapter 824: The Return Journey, the Little Tactical Harnesses of the Maomao

The return journey was not peaceful either; those scattered parasitic monsters that had not chased them to the Lumber Yard earlier appeared once more as Jier led the team back.

It seemed they were led by a monster leader, or perhaps they had learned from their previous experience, for those monsters did not rush over in a reckless, scattered manner, but instead gathered together—more than twenty of them lying in ambush by the roadside, waiting to deliver a devastating attack on Jier's team.

But it was not night, and the monsters did not know how to use any cover other than the darkness; each one was still wearing the clothes the humans they parasitized had worn in life, and they lay prone in the abandoned farmland by the road, exceptionally conspicuous.

Especially since several of the parasitic monsters had been merchants in their original form; their conspicuous and brightly colored clothing left Jier at a loss for words.

Those clothes, with which the wealthy merchants had flaunted their riches and financial power, had the exact opposite effect at this moment, allowing Jier, mounted on his horse, to spot them from far away at a single glance.

The moment he saw them, Jier had the team stop and everyone gather together to protect themselves, while he spurred his horse forward to break the monsters' ambush.

The monsters had some intelligence, but not much, and their ability to adapt varied, even more so than between humans. Some clever and cunning monsters scrambled up the moment Jier charged quickly, then gathered together to charge. But some slow-witted fellows, without the command of a monster leader, and being creatures that couldn't even speak properly, just lay honestly on the ground, still waiting to ambush the passing caravan.

There were about a dozen monsters that scrambled up and charged, accounting for more than half of the total number of these parasitic monsters. Some had been injured somehow earlier, and now, to fight Jier, they extended a large number of vines and roots from their severed limbs in advance.

To avoid being knocked to the ground by the human's Armored Warhorse, these fellows actually used these vines and roots to connect themselves to one another, holding tools found in the deserted Cunzi or weapons that their parasitized hosts had originally carried, shouting and hollering to intimidate Jier.

Jier raised his Long Spear and charged past the left side of these clustered monsters, the Gun-blade of the spear slicing across the torsos of two parasitic monsters in succession, but unfortunately, he only killed one; the other immediately used its vines and roots to quickly fill the damaged part of its body.

The parasitic monster that had been killed had the vines and roots extending from its severed arm still clutching the fellow next to it, dragging the dead parasitic monster along with the entire group of monsters. Its stiff legs dragged across the wild grass, quickly leaving a long dragging trail on the ground.

Jier circled around and attacked from the other side of the monster group, but these monsters were not stupid; they quickly turned around and charged to meet Jier.

If Jier were to truly fall into this "human pile" of gathered parasitic monsters with his horse, he would inevitably be surrounded by vines and roots grabbed from all directions; while they might not be able to do anything to Tianxuecao in a short time, Jier might very well be pulled off his horse.

Of course, Jier was not actually afraid of being pulled off his horse, but that would be truly unsightly. Even if he won, it would be very messy, and might even lead to further complications.

Thinking of this, Jier proactively pulled the Jiansheng, making Tianxuecao turn and avoid the surging monsters.

It seemed there was nothing he could do about them, but Jier felt that the way these monsters looked right now was like a group of students playing a three-legged race, and also like a bunch of bowling pins tied together.

Thinking of this, Jier took out the Yueshui Skull Two-Handed Axe, shouted loudly to boost his spirit, and then, as the blue light on the axe flared brightly, he threw it horizontally.

The axe whistled and spun rapidly, the blue light emitted by the axe itself forming a blue ring of light in its rapid rotation; it neither flew up nor fell, but spun forward at the height of a normal human's chest to slash.

It was practically like a lawnmower; some tall cogon grass and weeds in the barren farmland were directly cut down, then tossed into the air by the force of the axe, falling evenly and scattered all around.

This scene exceeded the expectations of these somewhat clever parasitic monsters; these fellows, who had only been born for a few months, even if they had absorbed the memories and some impressive insights of the human bodies they parasitized, were, after all, in Sasi County, a relatively remote Baron territory.

Many parasitic monsters, even if they had parasitized a human merchant who had traveled far and wide, did not have much insight, and at the very least, the scene before them was far beyond their expectations.

At this moment, although the whistling, spinning axe had not yet reached them, these parasitic monsters, gathered together and connected by vines and roots to resist the charge of the warhorse, had no desire to experience this taste.

Even though they were monsters and did not fear death.

They were all clever monsters; the parasitic monsters in the middle who saw they were about to face the power of the axe head-on chose to squat or lie down, attempting to get close to the ground to dodge the powerful strike aimed at their chests. Although the Human Face Core of some parasitic monsters was not in the center of the chest but in the abdomen, they also knew that a body cut in two would lose the possibility of parasitism.

And the parasitic monsters on the left and right did not dare to guarantee that the spinning battle axe coming with such power was not aimed at them; the monsters on the left wanted to run further left, and those on the right further right, all attempting to dodge. But almost all the monsters had forgotten that they were still connected!

The measure taken to resist and even surround the human warhorse had now brought them disaster.

The monsters that wanted to crouch down were pulled by the left and right, and the somewhat elastic vines and roots yanked them back up. Some fellows tried hard to curl their legs, some tried to flatten their bodies, but all of this was ruined by the actions of the "idiots" on both sides. After all that, these fellows in the middle of the team were still in the same place, their bodies connected to each other by vines and roots; where they were before, they were still there now.

"##%%#!!!"

The monsters let out some curses that only they could understand, and then the blue axe spun past.

Severed limbs and heads flew up, and the vines and roots cut into segments scattered in the sky. The monsters fleeing to the left and right suddenly lost the pulling force and fell to the ground one after another; before they could rejoice at having dodged the terrifying blue axe's spinning slash, Jier's warhorse accelerated and charged over from the side.

The parasitic monsters that had fallen to the ground were the best ground for the iron hooves of the warhorse; the galloping Armored Warhorse was like a tank made of flesh, trampling the parasitic monsters in a mess on the ground into pulp.

Afterward, Jier used his Long Spear to pick them up one by one, then drew his sword to slash and shatter the front of the monster torsos picked up on the spear tip.

The Human Face Cores that had been slashed open poured out a pleasant-smelling light purple plant liquid, and then, even if the parasitized human bodies had intact limbs and heads, the parasitic monster, once shaken off the spear and smashed onto the ground, would not move again.

Those monsters defeated by Jier that were not yet dead severed the vines and roots connecting them one after another; some wanted to play dead but were slashed into real corpses by the Two-handed Axe Jier threw, while others ran for their lives, and they even ran in separate directions.

But the problem was, on the open, abandoned farmland, those parasitic monsters with two legs really could not outrun the four legs of the Tianxuecao under Jier.

However, repeated pursuit was quite time-consuming, so Jier only killed two parasitic monsters that wanted to join up with those not-so-clever parasitic monsters. As for those fleeing in other directions, Jier just watched them run away.

There were also two unlucky fellows who, in their panic, or perhaps because they had not yet given up the intention of attacking the caravan, actually ran straight toward the direction of the caravan.

Seeing this, Jier shouted to the Lumberjacks gathered at the caravan: "Whoever kills that monster, I will reward them with one Silver Coin!"

As soon as the words fell, the Lumberjacks, who had been gathered by the wagons watching the Knight fight from afar, shouted excitedly one after another, chasing each other as they raised their respective logging axes and took the initiative to charge toward the two parasitic monsters.

Each of them shouted things like "I won't be polite," and rushed up in a swarm.

The parasitic monsters were not very strong, but they were not weak either; ordinary people really couldn't beat them. But there were only a mere two parasitic monsters in front of dozens of Lumberjacks—more wolves than meat—and with an absolute numerical superiority, these Lumberjacks grew bold.

One by one, they were fearless, charging to the front, resourceful, planning before acting, and getting hands-on.

Question: What does it feel like to be slashed head-on by at least twenty sharp axes?

Jier felt that those two parasitic monsters must have felt very satisfied; after all, dozens of sturdy lumberjack men rushed up, sweating like rain, rising and falling, jumping up and down, back and forth—those two parasitic monsters were so satisfied they didn't make a sound.

Looking as if they were too happy to speak.

Withdrawing his gaze, Jier turned his horse's head and charged toward those dull parasitic monsters that had only just reacted.

However, these dozen or so fellows who looked dull now fled one after another toward the nearest Cunzi, and Jier stopped chasing after a while.

It was not that he couldn't beat those parasitic monsters, but compared to the open, abandoned farmland where he could come and go freely, the houses, walls, and so on in the nearby Cunzi would restrict the movement and speed of the warhorse. He had an advantage, so naturally, he should make good use of it; abandoning his own advantage was not a wise course of action.

"Clever, dull—it's really hard to say."

Jier muttered, then he turned around and hurried back to the caravan, and told the Lumberjacks, who were arguing in a mess about who had killed the parasitic monster, to hurry back to the wagons, continue to form a team, and follow or help push the wagons forward.

On the way back, those parasitic monsters had not gone far; there were always some appearing, one or two popping their heads out from the wild grass in the distant farmland, chasing them with emotionless gazes.

Jier particularly loathed the monsters' scrutinizing gazes, feeling that in the eyes of those monsters, they humans were just moving meat.

But the problem was, Jier was not one of the local people who were bullied; he was neither a poor Farmer clinging to the Cunzi, reluctant to part with the pitifully little wealth at home, nor was he an outsider Merchant whose Shanglu had been cut off, taking risks to rush out of Yemei Town to purchase local specialties at low prices.

On the contrary, in situations where the parasitic monsters had not gathered in large numbers, he had not yet suffered a single defeat in his battles with these monsters.

On the road, he tried to pursue the few parasitic monsters that were watching them from afar, but these fellows were very cautious, or rather, cowardly; it seemed the previous battle had made these fellows realize some gap in strength. Facing the mounted Human charging at them, these fellows dived straight into the grass, and wherever the grass and flowers were dense, that was where they would dive.

After trying twice, Jier stopped bothering with them.

Soon, as the sun was about to set, Jier led the fully loaded caravan back to Yemei Town.

Because a circle of deep trenches had been dug outside Yemei Town by the nearby Villagers taking refuge, let alone wagons, even normal people with slightly inferior climbing abilities could not easily climb over the trenches and earth walls to get in; therefore, Jier's caravan loaded with firewood returned to the south side of the town, the area under his control.

The trenches here had never been finished during that previous "Bandit" night raid—which was actually a Monster attack—and Jier had also had his men fill this part in, creating a passage for entry and exit.

However, this passage was only temporarily piled up with loose soil, and while ordinary wagons and empty wagons could enter and exit normally, Jier was not sure if the wagons fully loaded with firewood at this moment would cause the wheels to get stuck in the soft road of this passage.

Therefore, he did not let the vehicles enter directly, but instead had them stop outside the perimeter of the trench, calling over a hundred people who were resting to help unload part of the firewood from the vehicles. Only after repeatedly unloading some of the firewood and seeing that the carriage wheels would not sink into the soil did he allow the lightened vehicles to enter one by one.

The unloaded firewood was then carried in by hand, bit by bit, to be stacked.

By the time the last donkey cart entered the passage, the sky had already turned dark. Clouds had drifted over in the evening, and once night fell, they obscured all the artificial or natural celestial bodies in the sky; as the curtain of night descended, the natural world was plunged into pitch blackness.

The crackling of torches sounded around Jier. The Armed Squad guarding the trench entrance had lit their torches before dark to provide light for everyone and to stay vigilant against any monsters that might approach.

Once all the vehicles had entered the inner side of the trench, Jier, surrounded by the crowd, quickly passed through the passage.

Inside the passage, besides the Armed Squad members who were quickly taking up their posts, there were wooden boxes stacked together. As it grew dark, the long-haired lynx Beast-men, who had stayed inside the wooden boxes all day, poked their heads out one after another, revealing pairs of green eyes that reflected light in the darkness.

Without needing to say much, the Yongqi Maomao were already accustomed to their usual tasks. They jumped out of the boxes, adjusted their newly acquired equipment with slight discomfort, and communicated with each other in their alien meows.

Jier jumped off his horse, gave Tianxuecao's rump a firm pat to let it go find the Grooms to unload its Armor, and then walked toward these small aliens: "How is it? The equipment I had the girls in the team make for you?"

The Yongqi Maomao could understand Human Common Language, but basically none of them could speak it, except for their leader, who could speak it 'fluently'.

"Partners, still, not, used to it." Yongqi Maomao used its tail to pat a companion: "Stripes, long ears, don't really like."

It then used its tail to pat the other four Yongqi Maomao: "Blue eyes, short whiskers, short legs, and Kuaitui, like."

Finally, it used its own palm to pat the two Yongqi Maomao in the team responsible for logistics: "Dunan, Huange, especially, like."

Jier smiled: "And what about you?"

Yongqi Maomao tugged at the tactical leather belt on its body, looking at the row of small pouches fixed to the belt. These pouches were too small for humans, but just right for the Yongqi Maomao; one pouch could hold a metal nail for throwing.

It raised its head, looking at Jier's young face revealed after he lifted his Faceplate: "Like. All Yongqi Maomao, all, have, will, be, especially, good."

Jier gently patted the head of the Yongqi Maomao beside him with his palm: "As long as you like them. Can you help keep watch tonight? Those monsters are peering at us from the darkness in the distance."

The Yongqi Maomao all nodded, meowing to each other as they communicated about their new equipment, then jumped over the earthen wall and trench, merging into the darkness ahead.

At night, they were not only keeping watch for Jier's team, but it was also their time for hunting insects and small animals, playing and training, scouting the terrain, and grooming their fur to repel parasites.

They were very busy.

Jier returned to the team and was immediately surrounded by many people who had been waiting for him.

The team had been grinding together on the road for many days; aside from new matters that required his judgment and decision, other situations basically did not need him to step in. For internal unity and trivial matters, one could go to Priest Bata'er, and regarding the use of supplies and everyone's work, one could go to Mr. Bafute; if Mr. Bafute was too busy, one could also go to the other Merchants appointed as his deputies.

If it concerned Jier, one could go to Jier's companion, Xueya Site. As for serious matters regarding the protection of the team, besides finding Xueya Site, one could also find the four Squad Leaders and deputy squad leaders of the Armed Squads.

The people who had come now were naturally not from Jier's team. By the light of the campfires in front of the various tents, it turned out to be the few people from the Yemei Town Government Office he had seen at noon.

Although they had not met for long, Jier had not forgotten their faces. He removed his Helmet and asked about their purpose.

"Greetings, Knight Jier. We come uninvited regarding you and your men, ahem, the firewood you just transported back."

After the leading official from the Government Office finished speaking, he added in a low voice: "I dare not hide it from you, but the town is currently in urgent need of fuel for cooking, and the town hopes to have this batch of firewood handed over as soon as possible."

He rubbed his hands and said with a fawning face: "It would be best if you could let your vehicles enter the town directly without unloading the firewood."

Jier did not answer directly; he looked left and right and shouted loudly: "Mr. Bafute? Come here, I have some questions."

His voice was very loud; even though Jier's team had many people and the tents were cluttered and obstructive, his voice rang out clearly through the surroundings. Soon, a middle-aged fat Merchant wiping sweat followed the sound: "Coming, coming, Lord Jier."

Once the man arrived, Jier asked: "While I was away this afternoon, how did the matter regarding the material exchange with Yemei Town go?"

"Uh, this..." Mr. Bafute glanced at the cold-faced local Government Office official and chose his words carefully: "They came, and we exchanged some of the weapons captured from the Bandits for a few boxes of Iron Nails, but..."

"But what?" Jier asked.

Before Mr. Bafute could say anything more, the Government Office official immediately interrupted: "Not many merchants from the town came. Tomorrow, tomorrow I will personally bring people and have the merchants come again. This time, I guarantee it will be all the remaining merchants in town. Whatever supplies Knight Jier's team needs to exchange, you can contact those merchants directly."

Jier looked at Mr. Bafute, the 'Butler' responsible for the supplies and work arrangements of the entire Refugee Team, who just shrugged his shoulders.

Only then did Jier nod: "Our team will not stay in Yemei Town for long; we will set off again the day after tomorrow morning. I hope this official can honestly do what he said. If not, I think my team will need to stay here for a few more days, and the Lumberjacks in the team probably won't have much enthusiasm when working."

The Government Office official immediately understood the meaning, but Jier added: "I met your masters at noon, the people of the Sasi Baron Family; perhaps they would not want to see the things I just mentioned. Therefore, my team's material trading must be completed before dark tomorrow. I do not want to make things difficult for you, but if there are any changes, I think the Baron Family will certainly make things difficult for you."

The Government Office official and the others behind him all nodded in unison.

"Now, the necessary communication is over, let's do something useful. Mr. Bafute, have our vehicle team not unload; reload the firewood that was just unloaded, and have this Government Office official send some people to accompany the vehicles into the town. That damned firewood is indeed what Yemei Town urgently needs right now."

Jier shook his head: "For those things, I personally killed quite a few 'Bandits' wandering outside the town who were blocking me this afternoon."