The sun that, yet again, released its heat all day long, began to fall towards the west.
The vast forest gradually turned dark, causing everyone’s shadows to lengthen in the sunset, the shadows completely covered the deep pitfall trap before them.
In the deep pit, a monkey tail brown bear was shouting.
Its shouts were extremely weak and soon, its aura vanished as it fell into a pool of its own blood.
Its body was full of arrows; the pit was also a mess; it was filled with many shattered wooden stakes the bear had bumped into. The pit’s four walls were also not smooth, it was clear the monkey tail brown bear had spent a lot of effort climbing up.
Thump.
Zong Ge was the first to jump down.
He leaned over to inspect the monkey tail brown bear’s situation, after determining the latter was completely dead, he called the others to come down and process it.
Blood was also gathered, since it could be exchanged for goods, it could not be squandered.
Because the entire bear was too big, it started to be dismembered. Each part of the carcass was tied onto a harness and pulled out of the hole through everyone’s cooperation.
After spending roughly half an hour, the monkey tail brown bear carcass was processed.
Zong Ge led everyone back to camp.
Besides four monkey tail brown bears, there were several monkeys, squirrels, and snake carcasses, and a half elf corpse.
After killing the monkey tail brown bear, this half elf was the first to jump down, they wanted to harvest the bear carcass. But the bear was not completely dead, rather it was comatose. After waking up from the pain, it slapped the half elf’s waist and smashed a kidney to pieces.
With such a heavy injury, and without a divine spell or magic, after the half elf gasped for a few breaths, they completely died.
Since then, Zong Ge was always the first one to jump down so he could personally inspect the monkey tail brown bear’s condition.
The sunset twilight illuminated the entire group.
As the group returned from a rewarding journey, although a comrade had died, everyone’s face welled up with joy from the harvest.
People laughed as they returned.
They were once employed by a mercenary corps; they already viewed the deaths of themselves and their comrades indifferently. Some were even happy for the half elf——this guy no longer needed to endure this strange island!
Zong Ge walked in front, he still remained cautious as he concentrated his attention into detecting possible sneak attacks.
Tripleblade walked in the middle of the group.
He scampered over to Zong Ge’s side and fished out a map: “My Lord, there aren't many bears. I believe that we better annihilate these ones tomorrow. If we march like this, we can lessen the time and energy we consume.”
Zong Ge took a glance, seeing where Tripleblade’s finger was pointing to, he knew the route Tripleblade looked into was no different than the one he tentatively planned out.
As for the map, Zong Ge had already memorized it. This was an outstanding tactical accomplishment he had cultivated in the army.
Tripleblade was deeply worried and sick at heart: “After killing these last three monkey tail brown bears, we need to choose another target.”
“My Lord, I believe we cannot touch flying squirrel groups for the time being. Flying squirrels are very small, not everyone has extremely reliable archery skills. Most of us are close combat experts, but magic beast flying squirrels can discharge electricity, this restrains us too much.”
“My Lord, how do you feel about crocodile head hammer tail boas?”
“On the exchange list, a crocodile head hammer tail boa is worth almost as much as a monkey tail brown bear.”
Zong Ge shook his head slightly.
He had encountered a crocodile head hammer tail boa before, they were a difficult foe.
“The boa has thick skin and most of our arrowheads are either wood or bone. We don’t have many iron arrowheads, and only iron arrowheads can injury the crocodile head hammer tail boa.”
“If we really want to deal with crocodile head hammer tail boas, I cannot impede it head on. Pits do not limit the crocodile head hammer tail boa’s climbing.”
Zong Ge explained his reasoning.
“In that case, the target we will take on will still be bat monkey groups.”
“That is also Zhen Jin’s target.”
“On the exchange list, bat monkeys are not worth much, but victory nets a lot of them. In the forest around the camp, the most common beasts were bat monkeys.”
“But if this happens, we will be fighting Zhen Jin’s group over these bat monkey groups. Comparing archery skills, we are still somewhat inferior to them.”
Tripleblade analyzed.
His precise vision accurately evaluated the strengths of both parties.
Zhen Jin’s party indeed had stronger long range firepower, and Zhen Jin himself was a formidable crossbowman. The other sailors were all ordinarily trained archers. After all on a sailing ship, cannons and crossbows were conventional weapons.
Tripleblade rolled up the map and put it inside his clothes, then he took out the exchange list.
Ever since he had received this list, he mulled over it whenever he was free.
Tripleblade was a goblin, even if he had integrity, his ethnic shrewdness did not disappear. He was once the commander of the Tripleblade Mercenary Corps, and he knew how expensive oil, rice, salt, and sugar were.
“My Lord, this is my analysis. We have already exchanged for new arm crossbows; thus our hunting efficiency has gone up a lot today. Drop the talk about the other crossbows, exchanging for foot lever crossbows and the like is not worthwhile in the short term. Replacing the arm crossbows sooner than planned would be tantamount to squander.”
“The thing we need most now is iron arrows!”
“The iron output is consistently low; thus I propose we first exchange our stock for iron arrows, then exchange for other goods.”
Zong Ge nodded and clapped Tripleblade’s shoulder: “Good, your analysis is great, let’s follow that plan then.”
After receiving Zong Ge’s approval and affirmation, Tripleblade’s eyes quickly flashed with happiness.
However, when they wanted to implement their beautiful exchange plan in camp, they were informed that all the iron arrows had already been rounded up by Zhen Jin.
“He, they returned earlier. The first, the first exchanges first.” Fei She was in charge of the exchange.
“Last time was the foot lever crossbows, this time its iron arrows……this won’t do! Why can’t we ever exchange for the most valuable goods?” Tripleblade was very angry.
“You, you guys can return, return earlier.” Fei She replied.
Tripleblade sneered: “The reason why we returned late is because we spent time purging beasts. Look, this is our harvest today, no less than four monkey tail brown bears!”
“We paid a big price to kill so many silver level magic beasts, we even lost one of our members.”
“But because time is a burden, this instead resulted in us not being able to acquire the goods we want. Do you think this is fair? Is this fair?”
“I remember that the templar knight Lord Zhen Jin once guaranteed fairness to us. But now, this thing is unfair.”
“Hold on, what is that?”
Tripleblade’s sharp gaze saw Bai Ya holding an iron cage while walking towards a distant tent.
Tripleblade immediately ran in front of Bai Ya, his eyes glaring with anger: “An iron cast cage? I really am not mistaken. Who can give me an explanation?”
“The iron output is continuously small, yet you guys use iron this way?”
“We want iron arrows, but you guys made it into a cast cage. Don’t you guys know how many iron arrows we could have made?!”
Bai Ya blocked Tripleblade and looked at the goblin, although he was an iron level cultivator, Bai Ya did not fear him.
He held the iron cage and used his height to look down at the goblin: “Lord Tripleblade, this iron cage is far more useful than you can imagine.”
“Oh? Boy, I want to see what kind of excuse you can find.” Tripleblade crossed his arms and sneered.
Bai Ya smiled: “It seems you guys don’t know, well just yesterday, Lord Zhen Jin received god’s instructions during his night patrol. He courageously penetrated deep into the night forest alone; there he found that cowardly silver level bat monkey had killed a flying squirrel group in the middle of the night.”
“Lord Zhen Jin killed the silver level bat monkey, seized the opportunity and eliminated the biggest flying squirrel group near camp, and brought back many comatose magic beast flying squirrels.”
“This iron cage is used to imprison iron level and bronze level flying squirrels.”
“With these live flying squirrels, Lord Zi Di can constantly test her potions on these flying squirrels and greatly improve potions that target them.”
“We all understand that with our current methods and strength, purging flying squirrel groups is very hazardous.”
“What?” Tripleblade and the others exposed their astonishment.
Even Zong Ge’s eyes contracted.
This indeed was the first time they had heard this information.
They were veterans of a hundred battles, and they understood that Zhen Jin’s new accomplishment was greater than the four monkey tail brown bears.
Because the four monkey tail brown bears were easy to deal with, eliminating the chaotic flying silver level bat monkey as well as the largest flying squirrel group was far harder.
“Emperor Sheng Ming……directed Lord Zhen Jin again?”
“Such good luck!”
“Templar knight……”
“That’s just how luck is, anyways, who would even dare venture into the forest alone? The territory of that flying squirrel group is extremely far from camp.”
“It seemed like a bargain, but in fact, it was a huge problem. The silver level bat monkey was not heavily injured……Lord Zhen Jin is truly gallant.”
The people discussed this.
Bai Ya’s smile grew, and his face gradually looked up
Even though Bai Ya had heard such comments many times already.
During the whole day, everyone in camp had been discussing Zhen Jin’s accomplishment, everyone praised it.
Bai Ya still felt pride, honor, and joy when he heard these people assessing it.
“This is the Lord Zhen Jin I follow……”
Zong Ge was silent, his hand subconsciously touched the hammer on his back as he inwardly made a decision: “This cannot continue, I must fight Zhen Jin as soon as possible! A sacred duel……a templar knight has no justification to refuse me.”
Notes
It’s not a crime against humanity if its animals, its just animal cruelty. You know, the author never specified how many flying squirrels Zhen Jin brought back, all I know is that there were at least four based on words I guess. That means that Zhen Jin flew around with and lugged at least 6 magic beasts on his back, but this isn’t the most unbelievable feat of strength in this chapter. No that belongs to Bai Ya, who somehow carries an iron cage by himself whose purpose is to cage magic beasts… The plot armor is strong with this one.