Chapter 846: Going Out Alone, the Suspicious Small River

Seeing that his warning had no effect and Jier showed no intention of stopping his preparations, Priest Bata'er grew nervous: "What about the Refugee Team? If you leave the team just because of curiosity, what will happen to them? And your mission..."

Jier patted the Priest on the shoulder: "Don't worry, I'm just going over to take a look out of curiosity, it'll be fine. As for the forest that people supposedly never return from, I'd rather believe there are powerful monsters inside than believe there's anything truly strange about it. Don't forget, with my skills, ordinary situations can't do anything to me."

The two companions looked at each other. Seeing the look of keen interest on Jier's face and knowing they couldn't dissuade him, they took a step back and said: "Then how about you at least give us a time for your return?"

Xueya Site also said: "If you are going to leave the team temporarily, what should we tell the others?"

Jier rolled his eyes and said with a half-truthful smile: "How about this: if anyone in the team asks, just tell them I went to find a safe place for everyone to settle down."

Xueya Site rolled his eyes: "What kind of reason is that? If you use that excuse, why not just settle the team in Shichui Cunzi? It doesn't look like there are any parasitic monsters around here, the surrounding environment is decent, and the houses, stone walls, and farmland are all ready-made. We can all live here until the original farmers and villagers return."

Priest Bata'er disagreed: "That won't work! How many people were in Shichui Cunzi originally? How many are in our team now? Not to mention anything else, there aren't enough houses in the village for everyone; we would have to build new ones. But the area within the village's stone wall is too small, there isn't enough space. Even if we put new houses outside the village, it wouldn't be safe enough. And when the original villagers return in half a year or a year, what are we supposed to do then?"

"There will be a serious conflict!"

Xueya Site was displeased: "This won't work, that won't work! What do you suggest we do?"

Seeing that the two of them were about to start arguing, Jier quickly stepped between them: "Alright, I'm not an unreasonable person. Going to check out that Huitou Forest this time really does include the goal of finding a safe settlement for the refugees."

Priest Bata'er looked helpless: "You're just talking nonsense now. Huitou Forest is truly dangerous. Those who went in out of curiosity, and those who went in to look for them, really never came back."

Despite saying that, Jier still prepared a backpack of supplies, took it out, and loaded it onto his horse's back. He then jumped onto the horse and said to his two companions: "Three days! No matter what, I will definitely be back in three days! The team should rest in Shichui Cunzi for now; the work of pacifying the people is left to you."

"By the way, Priest Bata'er, during this time, try your best to persuade those believers from Yemei Town to find a place nearby to hide their excess belongings so they don't carry them and slow down the team."

"Mr. Siter, you and Weier keep an eye on the village's safety, especially watch out for a small number of parasitic monsters that might follow us here. Try to keep the team members from leaving the village if possible. Although we haven't seen those guys since leaving Yemei Town, I think they are likely following us."

After giving his instructions, Jier rode his horse toward the edge of the village.

When he reached the village entrance, the Armed Civilians guarding the gate looked at Knight Jier, who was about to leave, with confusion. But under Jier's order, they still opened the village gate and let Jier ride out.

"This village gate looks too dilapidated; that won't do. Go find Mr. Bafute in the team and have him look for villagers who have some craftsmanship skills to reinforce this gate."

After Jier went out the gate, he turned and instructed the Armed Squad Captain who was watching him.

"I understand, my lord. But Knight Jier, what are you going to do? Are you going out?"

After asking this, the Armed Squad Captain had more to say, but he stopped himself, looking as if he had something on his mind.

Jier smiled: "Don't worry, I see that the environment here is good, so I plan to scout around this village; it will only take two or three days. If it's suitable, the team will settle here."

Hearing this, the Armed Squad Captain felt relieved. The tall, sturdy man wearing captured leather armor patted the stone wall of Shichui Cunzi and said reassuringly: "That's true. Compared to other places, this village actually has a circle of stone walls, which really does look more reassuring."

"That's right. Compared to the trenches dug by hand outside the town before, a sturdy wall makes one feel safer," the Deputy Captain of the squad added from the side.

Jier waved his hand at them: "Since everyone thinks so, that's great. Guard the village gate well. Without the orders of the Priest or Xueya Site, don't let anyone leave the village. No one can say for sure if it's safe outside right now. Remember to reinforce the gate!"

After speaking, Jier kicked the belly of Tianxuecao hard, and the warhorse raised its hooves and began to gallop forward.

Pulling and controlling the reins, Jier let Tianxuecao trot along the dirt road outside the village, flanked by neat farmlands that had been abandoned for some time. Shichui Cunzi didn't have a large population, but it wasn't small either, so the farmland outside the village didn't extend very far.

Interestingly, just as Priest Bata'er said, because the village backed onto a rocky hill where stone was easy to obtain, the villagers here chose to use stone to build 'scarecrows' in the fields.

In the center of a field—whether neat or shaped by the terrain—there often stood a 'scarecrow' piled up from stones. The body was made of one or several stacked stones, a cylindrical shape wrapped in simple 'clothes' woven from tree leaves or wheat straw. The arms were either wooden sticks inserted horizontally or rare stick-like stone bars, inserted into the left and right sides of the 'scarecrow's' body.

The head was mostly an egg-shaped stone brought from the river, with a human face painted on it using simple local natural pigments. Some looked happy, while others had unhappy expressions.

The corners of Jier's mouth curled up as he watched.

Although these 'scarecrows' looked strange, they were effective. Whether it was because there were no crops planted in the fields or because of the protection of the 'scarecrows', the birds outside the village really didn't approach the fields. Even if they did, they only flew along the edges of the fields to catch small insects jumping around.

Jier first followed the road outside the village to move away from Shichui Cunzi, then used the sun to identify the direction and set his course toward the north-northeast of the village.

Tianxuecao left the dirt road, stepped across the abandoned farmland covered in weeds and wildflowers, and arrived in the wild where lush shrubs grew. Keeping his direction in mind, Jier used the conspicuous rocky hill behind him as a reference point, trying his best not to lose his way in this place he had never been before.

Circling around a sparse forest near the village where villagers usually gathered firewood, Jier had Tianxuecao run to higher ground on the gradually undulating terrain to avoid going in the wrong direction.

Before dusk arrived, he found a small, murky river.

Jier identified it and confirmed that this small river was the one formed after the two different rivers he had seen earlier merged. Therefore, as long as he followed this river upstream, he would be able to find that gray-black river that looked ominous from a distance.

"Let's go, Tianxuecao, follow this river upstream!"

Jier urged Tianxuecao, but his warhorse didn't seem to like the river beside them and refused to get close to it no matter what.

He observed for a moment and found that it wasn't that the horse felt the river was dangerous, but rather that it seemed somewhat disgusted by it.

"What's wrong with you? Tell me if there's a situation."

"Oh, I forgot, you can't talk. Even the Mao Maos can speak some common language, why can't you?"

Tianxuecao snorted in dissatisfaction, making some grumbling sounds in its mouth.

In the uninhabited wilderness, Jier finally let go of the airs he had maintained at the front of the Refugee Team, behaving in an unconstrained manner. Although his soul was not as young as his body appeared, his young body still made him look like a young man.

After walking along the river for a while, although Jier looked idle sitting on the horse's back, he was actually paying attention to the surroundings. After all, it was the wilderness, and a ferocious beast or a strange monster could pop out from anywhere.

Moreover, this place was not far from the continuous mountain ranges. Although Priest Bata'er said that there had been no Magic Beast activity in Sasi County for a long time, on unfamiliar land, he still had to keep his guard up while alone.

"Caw—"

A hoarse and unpleasant crow call sounded. Jier subconsciously looked at his chest, thinking the Great Bird Spirit was speaking to him. As it turned out, after he said "hello" a few times, the unpleasant crow call came from the sky.

He looked up and saw a large black-feathered bird flying from directly ahead in the sky. This thing didn't look unfamiliar; it was exactly the large raven that had been following the Refugee Team recently.

Having communicated with the Great Bird Spirit before, he knew that this large raven was an envoy sent by the Great Bird Spirit.

"Hey! I'm here—"

Jier waved at the raven. This was redundant; birds had good eyesight, not to mention this raven that had been specially strengthened by the Great Bird Spirit. The other party had long since seen Jier and his warhorse, which was why it flew over unhurriedly, riding the wind.

However, after the raven flew closer, it didn't land as Jier had expected to show closeness, but kept circling above his head, which made Jier somewhat dissatisfied.

He still remembered that when this raven followed the Refugee Team before, it especially liked to fly over the team and defecate, causing a commotion and dissatisfaction within the team.

And this guy sometimes liked to approach Jier's single-person tent at night and peck or pull at the top of his tent with its beak.

Hey! That tent was newly bought and wasn't cheap. Therefore, when sleeping, Jier would always instruct the guards on duty outside the tent to drive away this annoying large raven.

After greeting the raven a few times and seeing that it had no intention of being friendly, Jier ignored it and rode his horse past clusters of wilted shrubs along the river, continuing upstream.

The river didn't have much water, but the riverbed was quite wide, obviously changing with the seasons. Although it was spring, it hadn't rained recently, and in the pebble riverbed as wide as two carriages, only a small amount of water flowed in the center.

Unlike other riverbeds, there were no common frog calls here, the plants on both banks didn't grow lushly, and even the various small flying insects that usually hovered over riverbeds were nowhere to be seen.

Jier had extensive experience in the wild and had long since noticed this wrongness.

The further he went, the more doubts he had in his heart.

Soon, Jier jumped off his horse, let Tianxuecao follow him along the riverbank, and walked to the center of the riverbed, stepping on dry pebbles of various sizes to observe the water, which was no more than half a meter wide.

The river water was somewhat murky, but the riverbed was visible; Jier sniffed, but he did not smell the fishy odor often found by rivers, though there was indeed an indescribable strange smell, albeit very faint.

Walking slowly upstream along the river, Jier was surprised to find that in several pools of accumulated water, there was not a single small fish, despite this being a place where small fish should logically exist.

He drew his Hunting Sword, stirred the bottom of the water with the tip of the blade, and flipped over several stones at the edge and bottom of the small pools, yet he found no signs of small fish, shrimp, or even other aquatic animals living there.

If it weren't for the few thin water weeds occasionally drifting in the water, Jier would have even suspected that the water in this river might be poisonous.

Poisoning all the animals and plants in the river.

Shaking his head, Jier muttered, "A strange place, it certainly has some strange signs."

Although it was a bit odd, Jier was not frightened; he wiped the tip of his sword and, without sheathing it, continued along the river while holding the Hunting Sword. Tianxuecao followed slowly on the grassy riverbank not far away, looking leisurely.

After walking for a while, the large raven overhead let out a loud caw, which was different from the sound the creature made when flapping its wings, sounding more like a warning given to Jier in advance.

Looking up at the creature, Jier silently lowered the faceplate of his helmet, left the riverbed, and returned to the side of his warhorse; he did not mount, but instead let the horse follow behind him while he walked along the riverbank.

Sure enough, after walking for over a hundred meters, Jier saw the place where the rivers converged.

Although he had sensed something was wrong when looking from the top of the rocky hills, it was only after he arrived in person that he discovered this place was even stranger.

The water quality of the small river on the left was black and gray; not only did the river water look highly suspicious, but there was not a single plant growing on the riverbank, and it completely looked like a place unsuitable for any life to survive.

The small river on the right, however, had clear and cold water; the pebbles of various sizes in the riverbed were covered in moss, the sound of frogs came from the river, various flying insects danced in the air, and there were even small fish in the water swimming hard, as if they did not want to be passively washed away by the current.

Small crabs with their pincers raised were crawling on the stones in the riverbed, and though it was unclear what they were doing, they were very easy to attract birds from the nearby Shulin to peck and carry them away.

The riverbank of the river on the right was lush with plants, clearly completely different from the left side where not a single blade of grass grew.

"What is going on? Is this water really poisonous?"

Jier was somewhat surprised; he knew that by walking upstream along this black-gray small river on the left, he could find Huitou Forest, but looking at this suspicious river where no grass grew and no insects lived, he felt more and more that there was something strange about Huitou Forest.

"Most likely, the people living in the Valley on the other side of the forest have something to do with this river water."

Jier guessed, speaking to Tianxuecao.

"Lululü!"

Tianxuecao nodded, feeling that its master was right; after all, Jier was the master, and whatever he said was correct.

"You think so too, right?"

After Jier finished speaking, he touched the skull of the water-crossing beast he was carrying on his back, and after firming his resolve, he continued forward along the black-gray small river on the left.

In the wilderness near the mountains, it gets dark early.

Just a moment ago the sky was still bright, but not long after Jier led his horse, the surroundings turned dark.

He was just about to draw his Hunting Sword for light, but after thinking about it for a moment, he gave up on drawing the sword and instead took a Torch from the Backpack on Tianxuecao's back. The torch he used was, of course, the best torch in the team; the main wooden stick was a piece of dry wood, with one section split open by an axe, and then wrapped in multiple layers of Linen Cloth soaked in oil. Once lit, it was not only brighter than crudely made torches but also lasted much longer.

Of course, Jier had also seen reusable torches with oil cans, metal lanterns, or auxiliary tools using glowing stones in the previous Duoen Town.

But those things were all expensive, and each one was more expensive than the last. He could have bought one for his own use, but it was impossible to promote them to the entire Refugee Team. Since he had his Hunting Sword, Jier did not purchase any high-efficiency lighting items at the time.

He touched a Magic Badge at his waist that had completely lost its effect; this item was obtained from a battle with the 'King of the White Wall', but as its energy was exhausted and Jier did not know how to use it, it no longer glowed.

This was quite a pity; if possible, he hoped to find someone in a big city in the future to reactivate this item.

As long as the price was not too high.

After all, if it were too expensive, Jier would rather use a torch with an oil can or a lantern than spend money on such things.

There were many ways to provide light, and the most expensive and pretentious one was naturally relying on Magic for illumination. He was not Kendall Baron, covered in Magic Tools; after all, he did not have a prosperous territory behind him to supply his consumption.

Holding the torch and leading the horse, Jier listened to the sound of the small river flowing not far away and walked forward step by step.

As he advanced, he got closer and closer to the big mountain. The surrounding Shulin also became more numerous and gradually grew dense and tall.

In the wilderness at night, animals not commonly seen during the day also became active; they cautiously walked out of their nests, peering from the dense Shulin at the rarely seen Human and horse.

Wolf howls came from afar, and the terrifying shrieks of nocturnal birds also rang out in the Shulin, lacking any of the sentimental, gentle, and elegant atmosphere of forests at night in other places.

But interestingly, even though Jier saw pairs of reflective eyes lighting up in the bushes and shrubs in the nearby Shulin, as well as pairs of eyes clinging to tree trunks and fluorescent eyes drifting silently on the branches, these animals whose figures could not be clearly seen did not approach Jier.

"No."

He said so.

These animals were not unwilling to approach Jier, the Human; after all, they rarely saw Humans and naturally did not know how terrifying Humans were. They were unwilling to approach the river beside Jier.

"Since you don't want to get close, then goodbye, everyone!"

Jier waved at the animals in the Shulin looking at him and continued to walk upstream along the river with a grin.

He had plenty of energy and stamina, and he was not afraid of the wilderness at night, so even though it was now so dark that he could not see his own fingers, he did not intend to find a place to spend the night; traveling through the night was no problem.

Darkness was no problem either; he himself happened to like the dark.