Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 189 Standing in front of the divine barrier

   Seeing a corpse dressed in pagan clothing, Winters was more convinced of his previous speculation:

   The torrential rain that nearly collapsed Sackler's layout was by no means a natural phenomenon, it was a spell, a spell of unimaginable scale.

   But this idea, Winters didn't tell anyone.

   He is no longer the stubborn boy who happily demonstrates magic to Ike, and keeping secrets is the first rule of a spell caster.

  A total of eight corpses were counted around the campfire Winters.

  The corpses are all wearing clothes decorated with animal bones, bluestone, metal, and ribbons, their limbs are strangely twisted, and their expressions are extremely painful.

   "hiss" and "hiss" cracked the silk twice, the door curtain was directly cut open, and the strong wind blew away the smoke in the felt tent.

  Jesska, Andre and other officers led people into the felt tent, and everyone was so frightened that they were speechless at the horror inside the tent.

  Without the door curtain, the inside of the felt tent becomes bright, and Winters can see more details hidden in the dark:

   Strange symbols are painted on every inch of the carpet in the tent. Sacrificial vessels and small flags with the same unfamiliar symbols are strung together with strings and hung densely on the tent wall.

   "Pagan priests?" Lieutenant Colonel Jesska asked with a frown.

   Winters nodded: "It should be."

  Ciel pointed to a place beside the bonfire with sharp eyes and asked, "What is that?"

  Others followed the sound and saw a golden plate placed on the bluestone slab in front of the bonfire.

The    dish was full of half-dried blood and a dagger.

   "Wouldn't that be human blood?" Andre suddenly felt nauseated.

   "It shouldn't be..." Bud's face was also a little uncomfortable: "It may be the blood of the blue horse outside."

   Winters walked to Lieutenant Colonel Jesska and discussed in a low voice, "Lieutenant Colonel, I'm afraid there is something weird here, so let's get everyone out first."

  Jesska nodded in agreement.

  The militiamen were not willing to stay long at the strange pagan altar, and they hurriedly retreated outside the tent after receiving the order.

   "Charle!" Winters whispered to Charle who was leaving the tent: "Bring me Bell."

  Ciel nodded and went to find the little hunter.

   Only a few officers remained in the felt tents.

  Andre looked around, this reckless man who was usually fearless suddenly stood up all over his body, and he felt a chill for no reason.

   He folded his arms, shrugged his neck, and hummed, "Why don't we go too? Don't stay here... eh? Winters! What are you doing?"

   Winters, who was examining the body, replied without looking up: "We have to find out how they died?"

   Several watched as Winters examined one of the slightly stiff corpses from head to toe—across the clothes.

  Andre swallowed a mouthful of saliva and asked, "What did you find?"

   "They are indeed dead," Winters replied, wiping his hands.

   "Nonsense!" Andre almost vomited blood: "I can see that too!"

"do you have anything else?"

   "It's strange because I didn't find anything else." Winters' nose twitched slightly: "No trauma at all."

  Andre took a deep breath and subconsciously took a few steps back towards the tent door.

   "No trauma? Could it be poisoning?" Mason's face was also very uncomfortable. He looked at Lieutenant Colonel Jesska and asked, "Sir, do the Hurds still engage in human sacrifices?"

  Jesska smiled bitterly: "I'm not from Hurd, how would I know."

   Concerning the caster, Winters didn't reveal much - he simply didn't say anything, just continued to examine the other corpses.

  Bud took a few steps back, looked at a corpse, and said, "Why do I feel like this person is dancing and suddenly died?"

   Several officers realized at this moment: the "distorted and weird" death state of the corpse... It really resembled some kind of dance.

   "What dance can you dance to death?" Mason asked, frowning.

   Winters also followed Bud's steps backwards, trying to look at the eight corpses in the tent from a holistic perspective.

   "No!" Winters' face changed suddenly.

   "What's wrong?" The officer in the tent was puzzled.

   But Winters had already rushed out of the tent, shouting at his militiamen: "Bell! Where is Bell?"

   "Here!" Ciel pulled the little hunter and ran over panting.

   Winters grabbed the little hunter's arm with such force that the little hunter gnawed his teeth in pain.

   "Bell!" Winters asked urgently: "What is the most important number of the Hurds?"

   "Huh?" Bell was momentarily confused.

   Winters became more and more impatient: "The most important, the most auspicious, the most solemn number! The number for sacrifice."

   "I remember it was [three], offering three sacrifices." Bell tried hard to recall: "At the most solemn time, three sacrifices each had three heads, that is... [nine]."

   Sure enough!

  Winters strode back to the felt tent and shouted, "No! One less person!"

   "What do you mean?" Andrei couldn't keep up.

"Look at these people!" Winters dragged Andre all the way back to the tent door, pointing to the corpse on the ground: "They don't stand casually! Their positions are regular! This dance lacks people! There's a lead dancer! The lead dancer isn't dead! Find him!"

Winters rushed out of the tent, jumped to the heights, and shouted at all the militiamen with loudspeaker: "Find them all for me! Find the Heard in fancy clothes! Dig three feet to find him! No! Go get me all the Heards in the city!"

  Bell cautiously walked into the tent and was taken aback by the sight in front of him. He stuttered: "Why...so many priests...how did they die?"

   Winters rushed over to ask: "Are these priests? Are these the shamans of the Hurds?"

   "Yes." Bell nodded hastily.

   "Go find it!" Winters yelled again at the militia outside the tent.

  The militias ran in a panic to carry out their mission.

   Winters' mood swings were so great that all officers noticed the difference.

   "What's the matter?" Lieutenant Colonel Jesska asked.

   Winters couldn't answer. He finally understood why the secrets of court mages could be kept for thousands of years.

   Because no one wants to share this knowledge.

   Like Winters reluctant to share this knowledge casually with the Platoons.

   What a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to capture a weak magic user alive.

   is probably the closest time since Antoine-Laurent established the alliance spellcaster system, the closest time the magical barrier was broken.

  Be aware that no one can capture the caster alive unless the caster voluntarily surrenders.

   No one can get a word out of their mouth unless a spellcaster speaks up.

   Binding Winters' hands and feet, he can still explode the enemy's head with a cracking spell...or his own.

   Similarly, no one can capture the magic user alive.

   Capture mages and priests alive and interrogate them?

   Might as well just kill them, that's easier.

   The only time a person with a spell ability is alive is when they can't use the spell ability.

   Winters was almost certain that the Hed shaman who led the dance must be the one who led the spell.

   The other eight shamans all died violently, and the shaman who guided the spell would never be any better.

   "The resonance of multiple spellcasters can push spell power to unimaginable levels."

   The idea had been echoing in Winters' mind for a year and a half.

  The idea began to sprout from the night the fire tornado swept through the city of Guitu.

   It was just a casual thought at first, like a murmur in the wind.

   As Winters' experience increased, the idea was not only not forgotten, but took root.

   After seeing how the Hed shaman destroys all gunpowder weapons with a torrential rain, the murmur in the wind has turned into a rolling thunder.

   A voice yelled in Winters' heart: "It must be so! Find that shaman!"

   But he was too impatient, too gaffe—and he knew it.

   Winters didn't want to play tricks with Lieutenant Colonel Jesska, but he also didn't want to tell the caster's knowledge.

After    stabilized his mind a little, Winters asked back: "When I first arrived on the battlefield, I almost lost consciousness, do you remember?"

"Um."

   "I'm afraid it was some kind of attack from these Hed shamans. I want to find that shaman and find out how he did it."

   This is another speculation by Winters.

   "He is in the city, you are outside the city. How can you attack you at such a distance?" The lieutenant colonel raised his eyebrows.

   "I don't know either, so I have to find him and ask him clearly."

  Jesska thought for a while, then said casually: "Have your people search from nearby. All eight died so miserably, the one alive will be half disabled."

   Winters nodded again and again, turned and was about to run outside the tent, but was grabbed by Lieutenant Colonel Jesska.

   "Don't get your hopes up too much, if this shaman is really important..." Lieutenant Colonel Jesska started pacing around the felt tent: "...I'm afraid he has already been sent out of the city by the Hurds."

   "Here, it's here!" Jesska stopped and stabbed the saber on the ground with his backhand, and the tip of the knife sank into the ground a palm-deep.

   Lieutenant Colonel suddenly pulled out with force, and the carpet and the wooden planks below were pulled up together, revealing a dark tunnel entrance.

   "Barbarians are the most cunning." Jesska patted the dust on his body, and seemed not surprised: "I taught you."

  …

  The interior of the tunnel is damp and cramped, and only thin people are allowed to bend over.

   Winters couldn't get in at all—he could crawl through tunnels without armor, and he would get stuck if he did.

  Lieutenant Colonel Jesska also did not allow Winters to enter the tunnel.

  Because there may be enemies waiting inside, no one knows whether it is a tunnel or a tunnel.

   In the end, the lieutenant colonel selected a few short and sturdy militiamen to find out the tunnel situation, while Winters was anxiously waiting for news in the city.

  At the same time, organized and unplanned looting was going on in Bianli.

  The war is too hard, and most of the spoils have nothing to do with the soldiers.

   For the soldiers, looting after breaking the city is the only way they can get [compensation].

  If an army can keep from looting after a war, there must be something more sublime than material supporting them—and the Platonic soldiers obviously don’t have that.

   But in Winters' view, the Platoons were gnawing on the skinny leg of lamb.

  The best loot is of course the portable and valuable things like gold and silver jewelry.

   However, there was nothing in Bian Li's longhouse, and the Hurds were literally destitute.

  Bianli City is poor, and Hailan Street has more wealth than the entire Bianli.

   Most of the warehouses in the city are empty, and the wealth of the white lion is not placed in the border.

   "I will allow you to be the first to enter the city," said Arpad to Lieutenant Colonel Jesska.

   Winters didn't think so at the time, but looking back on it now, he was flattered.

  Because there was only a tiny bit of valuable things in the city, all of them were taken away by the first group of Jesska brigade who entered the city.

   The troops who entered the city at the back had almost nothing, and the only property that Bian Li could sell in the end was "people".

   Those old, young, women, children, and the wounded who failed to follow the White Lion to break through are inevitably becoming slaves.

   Winters witnessed the quartermaster imprison, register, and catalog the Hurds in the city with great efficiency.

  The slave traders who came out of nowhere spoke various dialects and bargained with the Palatine quartermaster.

  The Paratus are preparing the carriage, and the Hed slaves will be transported back to Paratus before being exported - because the Paratus do not use Heard slaves.

  The Veneta and the United Provinces were quite shocked, but Lieutenant Colonel Jesska was calm.

   Finally, the militiamen sent to the underground cave ran back from outside the city.

  …

   "This is it! Sir!" The militiamen kept Winters and Bud to the northeast corner outside the city.

  The tunnel exit outside the city is protected with double-layer wooden boards and covered with mud.

   Winters noticed that the soil on the planks even grew grass, just like the surrounding turf.

   This meant that the tunnel had been repaired since at least last summer, which made Winters even more uneasy.

  Bianli has a high terrain, and the tunnel runs diagonally upwards. About ten meters in from the exit, there is a small space inside, with several boats stacked.

   "Oops!" Seeing the boat, Winters turned and rushed out of the tunnel.

The    exit is very close to the confluence river, and there are vague traces of boats dragging on the river beach.

   Looking far into the distance, how can there be any trace of the boat?

   "Run?" Bud followed Winters out of the tunnel.

   "Can't run!" Winters shouted: "Bring the boat out!"

   The militiamen hurried to the tunnel again.

Winters began to take off his armor and said quickly: "The boats in the tunnel are very small and can't carry horses. There are no boats on the other side of the beach, and the white lion is defeated, and the north shore is all our people. That Hed Shaman Must have gone downstream by boat."

   "Do you want to continue chasing?"

"Chase!" Winters handed the reins to Bud. "You take people across the river from the pontoon and chase them on the north bank. Let Andre lead people to chase them on the south bank. I'll chase them in a boat. I don't believe you can't catch them. to him!"

   "Wait." Bud raised his eyebrows: "You can swim?"

   Winters breathed for a while: "Then you go to chase by boat, and I will lead someone to chase on the north shore."

  Several cavalry galloped from the river bank, led by Andre.

   Winters shouted excitedly: "Andre! You came just in time!"

   "Where is it?" Andre pulled the warhorse in front of Winters and said breathlessly, "The lieutenant colonel told you to go back immediately."

   "What happened?" Winters had a bad feeling.

   "The legion has ordered to destroy Bianli, dispose of all the Hurds, and burn all the materials that cannot be carried." Andre smiled bitterly: "The whole army retreats! Immediately pull out the camp!"

  …

   "W.M's Spell Book"

  Item: Prayer for Rain

   Level: Anti-military

  Principle: unknown

   Method of operation: unknown

  Remarks: The boy Bell said that during the dry season, the shamans of the tribe would perform rain prayers. Some are spiritual, some are not. Isn't this a typical bluff? But the rainstorm could not be faked. The shaman in the tent didn't seem to be doing anything else, except to jump to the great god... but in the end, he jumped to his death. Could it be that the rain prayers of the Hurds are genuine? In this way, isn't the prayer for rain equal to the conversion of civilian spells to military use?

   Another note: there must be a cloudy weather…

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   (end of this chapter)