Mercenaries and Adventurers

Kiel headed eastward with more than 20 people rescued from the bandits' lair. Before noon, they were blocked by a pit full of bones.

They had always walked across the mountains and forests in a straight line before, but although they would not go astray in the mountains and forests by walking this way, the physical strength and extra time consumed were still unbearable to them.

After all, these people who have been hurt by bandits are seriously lacking in physical strength and energy at this time. After climbing two mountains, they can only move forward at what can be called a slow speed.

Keel had no choice but to stop going straight and move along the natural road in the forest. On the flat ground that was easy to walk on, the speed of the team finally increased.

But in this way, their team can only move forward along the terrain of the nearby mountains and forests, which is indeed very easy to be chased by the bandit team that may be chasing.

Before the next crisis came, the front of the team was blocked by such a pit that bandits used to dispose of dead bodies.

This earth pit and depression happened to block their way forward. If they want to switch to another safe natural mountain forest road, they have to climb over a mountain that is not high but is very strenuous for the rescued people.

It's not that Keel is afraid of any corpses, but that this place where bandits dispose of dead corpses is really too evil!

---

Keir was lying on a rock not far from the hollow of the corpse pit, with only a few men in good condition beside him, and they were observing the corpse pit ahead from a distance.

"Damn! Why do those corpses stand up and walk around?" A tall and thin man beside him asked in surprise.

This question is also what Keir wants to know the answer to. Unfortunately, he is not a real local, and he does not have an answer to why the corpses thrown by the bandits in the potholes stand up and walk around by themselves.

However, another male who looked a little older was a little speculative: "I wondered a long time ago why the pastors of the Church of the God of the Dead kept asking everyone to burn the bodies of the dead. The hand answered me and said: "After people die, sometimes the corpses are not completely dead, especially because of young people who died in accidents. After death, the corpses are easily occupied by some evil spirits wandering in the wilderness, so as to manipulate the dead bodies to wander around and hurt people." .'So all the cities and towns require our people to burn the bodies of their dead relatives, and it seems that there is nothing to do after turning them into bone ashes. Well, at least a lot less. To be honest, this is the first time I have seen dead bodies come to life."

"Me too. This kind of monster was only in the stories my mother told me before. I didn't expect to see it with my own eyes now." Someone said in surprise.

Someone else showed sadness and said slowly: "If we didn't turn to the bandits before, or were tortured to death by them, wouldn't we be thrown into this corpse pit by the bandits in the end?"

As soon as these words came out, the few men beside Keel saw the small number of corpses moving in the corpse pit, and they were not all afraid. In the fear, there was also some unspeakable sadness and physical pain mixed with it.

Keel didn't know what to say, and he also saw that this corpse pit was not far from the place where the dead bodies were disposed of in the bag hole. The bandits directly found a deep pit in Jiagu where the corpse could not climb out, and threw the corpse into it, which was considered a simple disposal of the corpse.

It is estimated that the bandits did not expect that someone would be able to touch the place so close to their lair. At the same time, the terrain here is also very remote. If Keel hadn't led the people to take an unexpected route, they might not have found this place. of.

The road ahead was blocked by the corpse pit. Although it was impossible for the walking corpses in the corpse pit to climb out of the deep corpse pit, it is estimated that after the cold winter, when the weather warmed up, those corpses would Corruption turned into a skeleton, unable to move anymore.

But they actually blocked Kiel's way forward.

"How about I go down and deal with those slow-looking corpses?" Kiel asked left and right, thinking that those fearful people would not be able to pass through this place unless these terrifying-looking moving corpses were destroyed. Yes, it's not a solution to be blocked like this all the time.

These rescued people are very fond of Kiel, a young warrior, and don't want this young man to take such a risk. After all, no one knows if there is anything special about those walking corpses. If Kiel When I went down to destroy them, I was injured, even if I sprained my ankle, it would be a big problem for a fleeing team like them.

In the end, Mr. Simmons Jr. knew the situation and he came up with a way.

The rest of the team covered their heads and faces with the rotten sackcloth they were wearing, and led by the bravest people in the team, they entered the mountain forest a little bit, bypassing the corpse pit that blocked the way.

As long as you walk through the corpse pit and walk a certain distance, after you can't see it, you can change this measure back, and then move east along the gentle passage in the natural mountain forest with all your strength.

Regarding this method, Keir has no objection, after all, the people are worried about his safety. In fact, Keir still really wants to meet these walking corpses. Although no one has issued a bounty commission for these corpses, he personally destroyed a few walking corpses that he didn't know what to call them for the first time. It feels quite novel and interesting.

In the end, the team bypassed the corpse pit according to the method proposed by Mr. Simmons Jr.

Although everyone in the team didn't know what was ahead, but for the trust of the companions who escaped together, the others still obeyed the order and wrapped the warm sackcloth around the eyes, head and face, led by a few brave people without covering up. , everyone held hands and slowly walked around the edge of the corpse pit together.

I don't know why, although the corpses in the corpse pit found Keel and the others, they only gathered on the side of the corpse pit where they walked, stretching their arms and pulling the steep pit wall, although their mouths were full of rotten The teeth kept opening and closing, but there was no roaring sound as expected.

Keir boldly approached the edge of the corpse pit, and looked at these moving corpses up close. He thought in his heart that if his own soul is still not attached to this body, will the uncremated corpses that also died in the wilderness become like this?

Many corpses at the bottom of the corpse pit raised their hands and kept waving towards Kiel, but it was useless. Kiel stood up, patted the dirt on his pants, left here, and chased forward to catch up with the team that had gone far. .

If he came back later, he would try to kill these moving corpses, no, he couldn't say kill them, after all they were already dead, it should be said to completely destroy them.

---

After bypassing the corpse pit, the team advanced a long distance along this natural gentle terrain in the forest. By the afternoon, Keir still stopped the whole team.

"No, the direction of our team has shifted a lot." Kiel explained to the people in the team: "Although you may not feel it, we have been moving in the southeast direction. Although they are all heading east, the further forward the mountain and forest terrain here, the more southward the whole team will go."

Keir finally concluded: "At that time, we may instead make a big circle and arrive at the south of the bandit's lair."

"You mean, the more we go, the more we will go back?" Mr. Simmons Jr. often goes out to do business, and he is also very experienced in long-distance travel. Although he has some experience in safe business routes, he still I understood what Keir meant.

The natural roads in the mountains and forests are actually some low-lying and gentle places between the mountains. They all walk along the direction of the mountains. They follow the natural path of the mountains. Since the nearby mountains basically extend southward, the gentle terrain sandwiched between these mountains will eventually extend southward no matter which direction it faces at the beginning.

This is just what the bandits like, but it is not good news for the people who want to escape from the bandit's lair.

After that, they can't walk along this easy and flat terrain. If they want to escape the bandit's possible pursuit and escape from the bandit's lair, they have to climb over the mountains.

Hearing the explanation, although everyone was hungry and tired, everyone understood that if they wanted to survive, they had to work very hard over the mountains in winter to survive.

Everyone repaired on the spot, and then before it was dark in the afternoon, you helped me to climb over the first mountain beside you.

After the team crossed the mountain, it immediately became dark.

It was getting dark so fast in the mountains. Although the sun hadn't sunk into the horizon, the sunlight had been blocked by the mountains. The sky above was still shining, but the surface of the mountains was completely dark.

The team as a whole was already very tired, and Keir could only let everyone stay where they were for the night. After all, it wasn't the time to escape from the bandit's lair last night. At that time, it was necessary to stay away from the bandit's lair at night, but now they have traveled a certain distance, although they are not far away from the bandit in a straight line.

But after all, it is difficult for the bandits to track their traces at night.

In order not to be discovered, Keir stopped everyone from making a fire, because when there is a fire, on a windless night, the fire will illuminate the smoke above the fire, which is very dangerous and will point out their location to the pursuing bandits .

After all, the bandits must be very familiar with the various strongholds they have arranged on their territory. If there is an extra place with a light on the fire, it must be them.

If you don’t light a fire, the night will be very difficult. If you don’t do something, everyone will freeze to death at night. Although non-stop activities can keep your body warm, the tired people have already walked for more than half a day, and they are completely exhausted. Can't go any further.

Keir took out his long sword and dagger, found a soft place with mostly dead branches and leaves, and dug a big hole in the ground that people could squat in. Keir asked everyone to huddle together in this pit, next to each other, and everyone covered themselves tightly, and then let everyone start eating, drinking and resting.

Although they could only sit on the ground and huddle together, the surroundings were covered with mud, and a layer of the driest branches and leaves was spread under their feet, so they could still be a little warmer.

After arranging the crowd, Kiel was so strong that he couldn't rest yet. Since the crowd lacked physical strength, everyone didn't have much to carry. More than 20 people ate and drank once, and they could eat two more meals. But the drinking water is not enough. Tonight, everyone can barely drink enough, but if there is no more water tomorrow, the team will definitely not be able to move forward.

After all, if there is no food, everyone can bear with it and continue to move forward, but without water, people can't bear it for a day.

When we were in the bandit's cave, we couldn't find any more water containers, so we could only bring a few leather water bottles to fill everyone up, barely enough for today's water. share.

Neither Kiel nor the people were bandits who had lived in the local area for a long time, and they didn't know where there were natural small rivers or spring pools around them. So Kiel can only go to the big bandit stronghold tonight.

There must be enough water containers and drinking water in the bandit's stronghold.

--

Since the team happened to rest at the leeward place after turning over a mountain, Zhao Ji was spared the effort to climb higher. Zhao Ji, who was walking alone, was very fast. He strode over tree roots and small rocks, and arrived at the highest ridge of the mountain in a few strokes.

This place is also full of tall trees. Zhao Ji used a steel dagger to dig out a few fulcrums for stepping upwards on the thick trunks. After he touched the branches of the big trees, he could easily climb up.

Coming to the top of the big tree, facing the cold wind, Zhao Ji fastened the wolf head hood of the wolf fur cloak tightly, and wrapped the wolf tail tightly around his face to prevent the cold wind from freezing his face and nose.

After protecting himself, Zhao Jicai looked around and saw the situation of more than ten kilometers around him clearly.

At the robber's lair in Luodaidong, you can still see the smoke column with a little light. Because it is night, it is not as eye-catching as it is during the day, but it is still easy to distinguish.

Then there was the bright light of the fire at the entrance of the bandit's lair. Although it was impossible to see directly there due to the obstruction of the mountains, the light of the fire reflected by the smoke column of the fire still betrayed the position of the fire.

Except for the two obvious bright lights, it is not so easy to find the dots of stronghold light around it. The main reason is that the terrain here in Luobag Cave is a bit more complicated, and it is not as flat as the tooth ghost bandit gang next to it.

Of course, this is a great advantage for the bandits. The more complex the terrain, the more they can preserve the overall strength of the gang during the militia's sweeping sweeps.

Zhao Ji looked around and focused on the eastern stronghold they were going to. After remembering the approximate location and distance, Zhao Ji did not choose the eastern bandit stronghold.

The reason is simple, because those strongholds are where their team's supplies will come from tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. In order to have supplies in the future, Zhao Ji can only go to attack the nearest bandit stronghold in other directions tonight.

---

Since the road to the south is easy, Zhao Ji chose to attack a small bandit stronghold in the south. The three moons of the first quarter moon were not too bright in the first half of the night, which allowed Zhao Ji to travel through the mountains and forests without lighting a torch.

This is still winter and the trees have no leaves, so they can only be seen clearly in the woods during the day and night. If it is summer and autumn, let alone night, it is estimated that during the day, the mountains and forests will be completely dark.

Because the luxuriant leaves of the trees in the forest block all the sunlight, a little sunlight will not fall on the ground.

Now it is different. With the support of the moonlight, Zhao Ji walked briskly for more than an hour, far exceeding the distance that he led the people to walk in an afternoon during the day.

He came to the nearest southern stronghold.

Since it is not very far from the bandit's lair, there are not many people here, and the scale of the stronghold is not large.

It is even said that this stronghold is the kind of simple stronghold that is convenient for bandits to withdraw at any time, and outsiders will not be able to see it after withdrawing and hiding. Regarding this, Zhao Ji thought about it for a second, and he understood what the bandit was thinking.

Their lair is different from other bandits. Their lair is very safe. As long as the traces are covered, it is difficult for foreign militiamen to find out. Therefore, in order to hide the traces of the location of the lair, these bandits cannot prepare a well-equipped patrol base very close to the lair.

Because the militia can completely confirm the location of the bandit lair in the center of these strongholds through some outlying strongholds that were discovered and destroyed.

There were four people in this bandit stronghold, and the bandits just set up two tents and lit a fire as the facility for this stronghold. It was not too late at this time, and the bandits had no intention of resting. They were sitting in front of the fire in twos, with their weapons on their belts, and they were talking.

Zhao Ji crawled slowly from the direction of the bandits' tent, and then the tent's view was blocked, and he got very close to the bandits.

Not in a hurry to destroy them, Zhao Ji lay on the ground, pricked up his ears, and first listened to what the bandits were talking about.

--

It is probably because during the day, several of the bandits are patrolling several dangerous places nearby, or leading or guiding the team that is going out to track. At this time of night, these bandits have the opportunity to get together.

Throw the hard dry bread into the small pot, and then crack a few ice cubes out of the frozen wooden bucket into the small pot.

A few bandits got together after messing around with the dinner, and while waiting for the dinner to be ready, they talked about what happened during the day.

Compared with the escaped prisoners, what these gangsters really cared about was the heads brought by the daytime patrol. UU reading www.uukanshu. I heard from the patrol team that the head was that of one of the bandit companions who were lax on guard last night. After beheading two people and showing their hands in the old lair, they were taken by the patrol team, and the bandits in the surrounding strongholds took a good look at it to know what the consequences of negligence look like.

However, these bandits also heard from acquaintances in the patrol team that the two careless guards were because they drank a lot of hidden bitter wine when they were guarding at night. Ten escaped citizens.

One bandit gloated a little, and repeatedly complained that ordinary bandits like them who were on guard outside had no chance to get drinks. There is nothing in this mountain, and they were not as happy as when they were not bandits before when they were farming in the village.

Regarding this bandit's words, the other three bandits agreed and refuted.

The bandits who retorted felt that although being a bandit in this mountain was not free enough, their leader did not give them such peripheral bandits as lack of clothes and clothes. Not to mention, after each looting, you will receive more coins than you got from farming the land before.

The bandits all nodded in agreement with this statement.

Just when the rice was ready, the hard rough bread in the small pot had been turned into a thick soup with the aroma of wheat by the tumbling hot water.

The meal was ready, Zhao Ji also decided to take action, how could this pot of dinner be eaten by these **** bandits, he only ate a few slices of dry and hard jerky for dinner. Although the jerky is very fragrant, how can it compare to such a pot of hot and watery thick soup.

Licking the corners of his chapped mouth, Zhao Ji only drank a little water today in order to take care of the injured and physically weak people. Now he really wants to drink that pot of soup.

Thinking of this, Zhao Ji slowly drew out the long sword at his waist.