“Still alive?” Zhen Jin indifferently inquired.
Mu Ban nodded.
“Lend that to me.” Zhen Jin looked at the crossbow Mu Ban was holding.
Mu Ban blanked out, however his body subconsciously acted, both hands offered up the crossbow.
Zhen Jin grabbed the crossbow trigger in one hand while continuing to hold the sword in the other.
Upon seeing this, Mu Ban wanted to say: your posture is wrong, you should have a hand under the crossbow to stabilize it. The other hand was just for operating the trigger.
After a moment, another bat monkey pounced.
Zhen Jin’s hand lightly trembled, as did the crossbow when it fired a single arrow.
Plop.
The pouncing monkey died.
Zhen Jin’s wrist swayed, and the crossbow’s top notch bow string tightened with a click.
Another bat monkey screeched, it cunningly attacked Zhen Jin from behind.
Zhen Jin did not turn his head; he simply pointed his crossbow and fired an arrow.
The arrow pierced through the bat monkey’s big mouth, penetrated its spine, and shot out of its back.
The bat monkey kneeled to the ground, slid across the ground from its inertia, and arrived next to Zhen Jin’s heel.
Its face looked up because of its upright body, but it then fell forward into its stomach. It seemed it was using its life to beg forgiveness from Zhen Jin.
But offending one’s elders and offending a noble knight was an unforgivable sin!
“Who is that person?”
“What skilled archery!”
“Am I in a dream?”
The people being saved shouted as they gazed at Zhen Jin.
Zhen Jin attracted the attention of all of the bat monkeys, however every time they charged in, they would die on the approach.
Zhen Jin stood in place with bat monkey corpses piling up around him.
His posture and control of the crossbow was extremely lax and nonstandard. But every time he fired; he would expertly hit a bat monkey’s weak point.
Even if a bat monkey got near Zhen Jin, the ice-cold silver flower sword would surely reap the bat monkey’s fiery life.
Seeing the bat monkey group was suffering disastrous damage, the iron level bat monkey in the air lost its patience.
It curtly screeched repeatedly.
Hearing its order, the bat monkeys routed.
“Think you can run?” Zhen Jin perked his brows.
His wrist trembled as he shot an arrow towards the iron level bat monkey.
The iron level bat monkey flapped its wings and dodged the arrow.
Then it suddenly sucked in air and puffed up its chest.
At that moment, it opened its mouth and screeched, the intense sound could be seen by the naked eye as a translucent sound wave.
The sound wave grew bigger and enveloped the entire wooden house. Everyone was in pain, they bent their backs, and did their best to block their ears in an attempt to isolate themselves from the sound, however it was useless.
Zhen Jin’s brows creased, his bodily essence surpassed that of ordinary beings, however the sound wave immediately made him nauseous.
After a few breaths, he felt dizzy.
Based on the current trend, his eardrums would invariably suffer serious damage.
The crossbow continued to fire, however the iron level monkey either dodged them or caught the arrows.
The iron level bat monkey was nimbler and had a stronger body than a bronze level bat monkey.
But at that moment, Zhen Jin suddenly threw a dart.
The dart had followed an arrow and hit the iron level monkey’s left eye.
The iron level bat monkey was seriously hurt, and its screeching came to a spontaneous end. It had a dart in its left eye, blood flowed from it, however it did not take revenge, rather it turned and fled at once.
The remaining bat monkeys turned around, gathered into a group, and fled into the forest.
The ruined camp quickly became tranquil.
Half an hour later.
Some fighters were dispersed to investigate around the camp
Others began to fix the fence around the camp, the arrow lodge, and some were pulling up posts to reinforce the wooden house.
From time to time, they looked towards the camp and whispered amongst each other, phrases like “major character”, “formidable warrior”, and “knight” were said again and again.
Some of the seriously injured were sitting on the ground, some were looking up at the sky, and some were still unconscious.
Zi Di examined these injuries and pondered about what kind of potions she needed to make.
“Lord Doctor, I don’t want to die, please save me.” A wounded person weakly implored.
Zi Di smiled: “I am not a doctor; I am a pharmacist. Be at ease, your injury is not fatal. Although you do not have a light injury, staunching the bleeding in time allows for proper treatment, nothing will happen to you.”
Her mouth was consoling, however Zi Di’s heart understood: to recover, one needed to rest, however she did not know how long this one needed to. This place was not safe. During the recuperation process, those seriously hurt could only be tended to, not only were they powerless to do anything, they also would consume a lot of resources.
“Lord, Lord President? Is, is ,is it you? It is really, really you?!” A voice interrupted Zi Di’s train of thought.
Zi Di turned around and saw a large weeping fatty.
“Your awake Fei Lao?” Zi Di smiled and greeted him.
Hearing this, the fatty kneeled to the ground, covered his face with his fat right hand, and looked up with a crying face: “Boo hoo hoo……ama...amaz...amazing, our president has grown up and isn’t dead. You, you are still alive.”
Tears flowed down his cheeks and formed two tear stains.
“Good, good, come here.” Zi Di had to walk over to pat the fatty’s shoulder, “Follow me, let us pay our respects to Lord Zhen Jin.”
“Zhen, Lord Zhen Jin, Lord? Isn’t that Lord your fiancé?” Fei Lao took his hand back and expressed his doubts.
Zi Di explained: “I ask Fei Lao not to blame me for hiding a few things from you all. When going to White Sands City, I did go before the Bai Zhen Clan. The true intention of this was to cover our tracks and escort Lord Zhen Jin to White Sands City in advance. The troops provided by the Bai Zhen Clan met with misfortune along the way, when I and Lord Zhen Jin discussed this incident, we felt that this was a malicious rival obstructing us.”
“One can only run for City Master within a certain time period. If Lord Zhen Jin did not run within that time period, he would miss a majority of the share. In order to prevail over a rival plot, I traveled under pretense, concealed Lord Zhen Jin’s identity, and together we climbed aboard the Hog’s Kiss.
“So, that’s what happened.” Fei Lao suddenly realized.
In the camp clearing, Zhen Jin sat on a wooden bench with Lan Zao standing behind him with a sword.
Zhen Jin sized up the crossbow in his hands.
This was the crossbow he had been shooting with during the battle.
It was different from ordinary crossbows; it could continuously fire arrows from a cuboid box. The arrow box had a black “8” written on it and could hold many arrows.
The trigger for the rapid firing crossbow was a wooden handle. Constantly pressing it up and down could wind up another arrow.
“Did you design this?” Zhen Jin’s gaze shifted from the crossbow to the one in front of him.
A middle aged man was kneeling in front of him, he had a yellow face and an injury on his stomach that had been wrapped up.
It was Mu Ban.
Mu Ban said at once: “Yes Lord Zhen Jin, I designed this rapid fire crossbow.”
“What does this 8 stand for?” Zhen Jin pointed at the arrow box, “Is this your eighth work?”
Mu Ban shook his head: “No. The lumber used to make the rapid fire crossbow was from the highest quality wood I could find around camp. The lumber had the 8 written on it.
After stopping for a moment, Mu Ban presented: “Not only can I make this kind of rapid fire crossbow, I also can make ordinary crossbows. Only the lack of metal crossbow mechanisms prevents me from mass producing them.
Zhen Jin nodded.
The finest part of a crossbow was the mechanism. Normally, this component was made of metal.
Zhen Jin looked at the rapid fire crossbow, although the trigger was special, the metal mechanism inside was still the same.
Zhen Jin had just used this rapid fire crossbow.
Compared to an ordinary crossbow, the rapid fire crossbow had a smaller range and weaker arrows. When dealing with the iron level bat monkey, Zhen Jin’s darts had results, however the rapid fire crossbow could not hit or harm the iron level bat monkey.
The fire rate of ordinary crossbows had always been a subject of criticism.
The rapid fire crossbow solved that issue and instead, made its fire rate its biggest advantage.
Designing such a special crossbow proved that Mu Ban was undoubtedly talented.
“So, you are a crossbow craftsman?” Zhen Jin asked.
“Yes, your Lordship. I Mu Ban, wanted to go to the Wilderness Continent to show off my skills. Your Lordship saved my life, thus this humble one wants to work for you!” Mu Ban immediately replied fervently.
Zhen Jin’s status was already known in the camp.
The Bai Zhen Clan’s sole heir, a member of the templar knights, and a participant in the White Sands City owner competition!
No matter which identity it was, all of them were enough for Mu Ban to actively seek to help from the one who had them.
Normally, he would not have such access to such a large person!
“Good, very good, I await your performance.” Zhen Jin encouraged Mu Ban while internally planning.
With a crossbow craftsman, he could make a lot of crossbows.
Previously, he thought that way.
However, the situation prevented it and there was nothing to make crossbow mechanisms from.
But it was no longer like that.
He had an experienced artisan that could make crossbow mechanisms. When Zi Di was at the oasis, she had gathered a great amount of lizard acid. With those materials, as long as one made a mold, they could make many metal crossbow mechanisms.
“Crossbows are more powerful and have a father ranger than a short bow. But the best part is that it is easy for novices to use. Bows need training.”
“Crossbow training is far shorter than short bow or longbow training.
“The problem is that a crossbow’s rate of fire is low, however as long as we make some rapid fire crossbows, it can make up for the deficiency.”
“My only misgiving is the one Zi Di had warned me about. If a person has a crossbow, they are a hidden threat to their fellow comrades.
“However……”
Zhen Jin thought to himself of the things he had experienced on this island.
“I can now transform and increase my strength to deal with greater threats. Lan Zao, Bai Ya, and the others are my devoted subordinates. Even Mu Ban, Hei Juan, and these people have been saved by me.”
“The most crucial point is that this island is very dangerous. Leaving this place alive is hard! I feel that if these people face a beast group without proper equipment, they will lose their lives. If that happens, even if there is a ship, there will not be enough people to sail it.
Zhen Jin thought of this and decided.
Despite the risks and dangers in equipping many with crossbows, to contend with the external dangers and to increase our hopes of leaving as much as possible, these risks must be carried.
“My Lord. This is Fei She, an elder in the Wisteria Merchant Alliance. When we left for White Sands City, he was my assistant.” Zi Di had come over with the fatty.
“Fei, Fei She pays his respects to his Lordship.” Fei Lao promptly saluted at Zhen Jin with a smile.
He naturally had a good opinion of Zhen Jin.
Because everyone knew the Bai Zhen Clan and Wisteria Merchant Alliance were in a union of benefits.
Although Fei Lao did not personally see Zhen Jin, as a high ranking member of the Wisteria Merchant Alliance, he had already seen relevant information that painted a portrait of Zhen Jin.
Zhen Jin nodded: “tell me, why are you all here? I seem to have heard that you all were forced to leave? Is someone starting an armed rebellion?”
Fei Lao nodded, his complexion sunk: “Inform, informing your, your Lordship, yes, that’s what happened.”
“Stop.” Zhen Jin held out his hand and stopped him at once.
He thought that Fei She was nervous, but upon hearing it the second time, he realized that Fei She had a stutter.
Zhen Jin looked at Mu Ban: “Start talking.”
Notes
Just to make things clear, Fei She and Fei Lao are the same person. I find it degrading that this poor man’s name(s) is literally old fatty and fat tongue. It reeks of the poor man getting stuck with a bad nickname because of his stutter. Thus, I will not be translating these titles(?) or names and will be leaving them as pingying. Now then, it looks like we will finally be getting some good ol man on man action since tussling with beasts all book wasn't enough. When things are in scarcity, human conflict is always an inevitability, but whether said conflict gets bloody or not is for those involved to decide.