Mercenaries and Adventurers

Zhao Ji slid close to the forest with the shield at an unpleasant speed. Surprisingly, he easily found signs of human activities on the edge of the forest.

After all, animals will not leave those conspicuous marks on the trunk.

It might be possible for some monsters living in groups, but those monsters are probably not the opponents of human bandits, and it is difficult to survive in this not small mountain forest.

After all, human beings are not vegetarians. Even if there were no knights in the town, these fierce bandits licking blood with blades were not something ordinary monsters could deal with. It can be seen from the fact that these bandits can occupy a place in this deep mountain forest.

Putting away the shield that was used as a ski, Zhao Ji walked into the forest through the snow with a spear on his shoulder.

In a short while, he was relying on the bandits who might have been there for the winter, who also blatantly started fires and smoked during the day.

The bandits here are really bold. They probably have never been attacked by the militiamen here, so they didn't do anything to eliminate the smoke from the campfire. Many wet firewood stained with snow were directly thrown into the campfire, and large Strands of white smoke extended into the sky.

There was almost no wind here, so Zhao Ji quickly sneaked up to a bandit winter camp that was closest to him through the direction of the smoke trail in the sky.

Unsurprisingly, the bandits did not get together for the winter, it was because they were worried about other bandits with black hands, and they were afraid that other bandits would be blacked out, so even if there was no danger of wild beasts and militias clearing up, they would not let go of the sentinels who patrolled .

Zhao Ji carefully hid in the thick snow, letting the bandits walk past the arc.

These bandits are all young and strong men, with thick animal fur on the outside and various clothes snatched from the previous robbery inside. They didn't have qualified tanners or tailors who could handle the fur, so they just split the animal fur that had been simply kneaded on their bodies, and then tied it around their waists with a rope.

The weapons of these bandits are not bad. As far as Zhao Ji can see, the people who can be brought here by the bandit gangs are probably the backbone or main members of the gang. The defectors who took refuge in various bandit gangs were all left in the mountains and forests around Bingxun Pass by them, leaving them to fend for themselves.

When they come out again next year, there will be a new batch of gangsters or landless people who don't want to farm to join them.

This goes on and on, year after year, and the real backbone of bandits has never been hit, especially when these bandits find and occupy such an unknown place.

Stepping aside from the patrolling bandit, Zhao Ji approached the bandit's winter camp secretly. When he walked by, he carefully buried the place where he walked with snow, so that no one would find him at all.

There were at least 30 people in this bandit camp. A simple wooden house made from felled trees was in the middle of the camp. At the door of the wooden house was a big campfire that kept burning.

Around the big campfire are five simple tents made of branches and large pieces of cloth. Some idle bandits were gambling with gambling tools in the middle of the camp, and a strong bandit was wrestling with another strong bandit.

The two bandits were not bad at fighting, and Zhao Ji could see that they used more hand-to-hand combat techniques such as wrestling. At this time, the ground is covered with snow compacted by the shoes, and it will not hurt if you fall.

Scattered and thin bandits were cheering for the scufflers, and it sounded like they had even opened a handicap. Heh, are you really not afraid of the fake fight of the two bandits who started fighting? They are all bandits who are so bad to the core, they don't even have this awareness, they deserve to be mixed up like this.

Zhao Ji lay on his stomach in the snow, with only a small snow bag protruding from the snow, looking through a small hole at the bandit camp not far away. He calculated in his mind when the monsters following behind would come over,

Before entering the forest, he specifically observed the state of the monster, and found that it was probably because the monster was afraid of rolling down the snow-covered gentle slope again, so this time it climbed down the mountain carefully and slowly.

With that in mind, after I figured it out, I would have to wait until night to follow him.

Hey, that monster is more active at night, I hope these bandits will like the fresh gifts he brings to the bandits living here at night.

The snow nest where Zhao Ji was hiding was not very cold, so after wrapping his wolf fur cloak tightly, he rested for a while. When the sky outside quickly darkened, Zhao Ji woke up and ate some frozen Food, and then picked up some of the surrounding snow as a source of water to drink.

Shivering, Zhao Ji hurriedly licked his teeth with his tongue. When he ate snow just now, the cold snow irritated his teeth.

After finishing, he leaned over to the observation hole and looked into the bandit camp.

The bandits were eating, and a big black pot was boiling the winter food reserves that the bandits had prepared long ago. He couldn't see what was there, but Zhao Ji's stomach gurgled through the wafting smell.

"Quiet, quiet, after the monsters wiped out these bandits, you will have something to eat." Zhao Ji whispered to himself, soothing his stomach. Although he had just eaten, he was still hungry. His previous crossing of two consecutive mountain peaks had consumed a lot of stored nutrients in his body, and he had also accumulated a lot of fatigue.

Although the fatigue of the body has eased after taking a nap just now, the small amount of food on his body is still not enough for his stomach.

He carefully hid in the snow nest, watched the bandits not far away receive food one by one, and then sat around and ate. To Zhao Ji's surprise, some bandits opened a hidden cellar dug out next to the big campfire, and led out several women with their hands tied. These women were wrapped in large pieces of animal fur in disorder. With disheveled hair, they were guarded and obediently ate the food distributed to them.

Some thieves rushed to the side of these women after eating, and started to do their hands.

Until a tall man who was supposed to be the leader of the bandit gang stood up and scolded a few impatient young bandits. The bandits who had been reprimanded were sent out to patrol and watch, and they had no part in the rest of the day.

After the bandit leader had finished eating, he selected a woman to take back to the only wooden house in the camp, while the rest of the women were divided up by other bandits as winners with gambling tools and brought to the tent.

The other defeated bandits still sat around the campfire, gambled and fought, exhausting their energy and spending the unbearable winter.

Zhao Ji sighed, he has no ability to rescue those women for the time being, and after a while, when the monsters track them down, there probably won't be any living people left here.

Although the bandits must be dead, those women who were captured by the bandits will also die in the mouth of the monster. He was a little sad, but the cold snow around him reminded him that this world is so cruel and cold, and now he has no strength to defend his own principles, maybe in the future, but now he can only temporarily hibernate.

Just like the cicada larvae that hide in the soil for many years, they have to stay dormant underground before spreading their wings to fly and sing.

---

The monster slid slowly along the snow-covered gentle slope to the edge of the forest. Some small cliffs and stones to Zhao Ji are not obstacles to a monster of the size of the monster, except that it may be in the slippery snow. Outside of falling.

The monster that came to the edge of the forest lightly touched the scattered trees on the edge of the forest with its legs and feet. Some scents that humans cannot feel are actually very obvious to the monster.

After touching the trees with the setae of its body, it found that there had been no powerful creatures in this forest for a long, long time. Some other ferocious beasts that use scent to mark their territory have not appeared here for a long time, and the freshest scent is at least ten winters.

It was very happy, which showed that this forest, where many humans lived scatteredly, had no master. Humans are easy to deal with as long as they are not like the metal-wrapped humans before.

Rubbing the bristles on the legs, feet and body, the monster wanted to cover its huge body with a magical mist like it used to hunt, but it failed for a long time.

It was puzzled for a while, and then realized from the feeling of weakness and hunger in its body that it was already so weak. Although there were still many softened silk threads accumulated in its body, and its magic power was still sufficient, its physical strength had already escaped and crossed the mountains before. When consumed.

It stayed there for a while, and finally decided to just go into the forest and eat something. It failed to perceive some larger animals on the outskirts of the forest, as if only powerful prey like humans existed in the entire forest.

No way, it can only take some risks and quickly hunt and eat some humans.

It no longer has the strength to climb on the trees, and the trees in this strange forest are not very thick and tall. It is not impossible to crawl on them, but it will be more troublesome.

The huge body waded through the small trees that blocked the way, and the monster just turned over some small trees in its eyes, and crawled towards the place where the nearest human appeared.

Coincidentally, the human being that couldn't be caught seems to be in this direction.

--

"It's true, boss, why don't you let us do it too." A young bandit stomped on a tree trunk beside him, causing the snow that fell on the branches to fall.

The other bandits all wore hats, so they were not afraid of the snow falling on their heads, so they also muttered and stomped on the surrounding tree trunks one by one, causing a large amount of snow to fall profusely.

While complaining, they patrolled around the camp along the snow-covered road that the patrol bandits had stepped on many times before.

Kua Cha, Kua Cha.

There was a sound of falling trees one after another near the edge of the forest. This made several young robbers feel strange.

"Did the snow slide down the north slope?"

"Maybe."

"You mean the falling snow knocked all those trees down?"

"How do I know, why don't you go over and have a look, we'll wait here."

"Dog@! Why is it me, go and have a look."

"Hmph, how about a bet? Bet with this coin, you get the head, I get the text." A bandit took out a polished silver coin, and twirled it with his fingers to show off.

A few young bandits came over with torches, they wanted to see who would win and who would lose than who would go to see if the snow had fallen.

With the light of the torch, a young bandit gritted his teeth and thought for a while, then said: "I can't read, I will choose the head."

The other bandit who took out the silver coin spat: "As you said, everyone can read and write, then I am the one who can read and write."

With a clang, he bounced the silver coin with his thumb, reflected the light of the precious metal under the light of the torch, and then fell to the ground.

Several robbers looked over, only to find that the silver coin fell on the edge of the coin and hit the solid snow on the ground.

"￥#! Neither of us. We didn't guess right, come again, come again."

Another bandit was about to bend down to pick up the silver coins on the ground, but a bandit next to him interrupted and said, "There is a saying in my hometown that if a coin stands on the ground, something will happen."

"Bah, bah, bah, I have faith, your old witch-like nonsense can't affect me." The robber who picked up the money bent down halfway, and just touched the coins standing on the ground with his fingers, before turning to his fellow robbers to refute talking.

As a result, when he turned his head to look at the dark cloudy sky, he seemed to see something falling towards them. The light from the torch could only illuminate a radius of less than ten meters around, and he couldn't see clearly what was falling towards them. thing.

That was the last moment of these bandits.

After a breath, the monster jumped up from 50 meters away and landed directly on the bandits. Even though the monster had already used five legs to cushion itself when it fell, the huge impact force directly crushed several small torches and standing humans.

Boom.

A dull sound came out.

The nearby forest was shaken off a lot of snow accumulated on the branches.

The monster moved its body away, carefully stretched out its soft mouth, and sucked the broken human body into its mouth.

It was also lucky to find an undead human, and quickly swallowed the human with the tiny teeth in its mouth while the human was still alive.

Ah, it has human 'eyes' to talk and chat again.

I hope this 'eye' doesn't keep cursing it. Why do you curse it? Human beings seem to be many, but they are all lonely. After becoming its 'eye', everyone is together. How wonderful.

After swallowing the living, the monster swallowed other humans crushed into several pieces by it. And through the teeth that grow deep in the mouth, they cut through the things wrapped around these humans and the metal things held in their hands.

It held all those extra things in its long mouth, and wanted to find the place it had found before, but this was a forest it was not familiar with, so it had no choice but to spit out all these sundries on the ground.

Jingling, jingling, the bandits' clothes and gadgets, together with the weapons they carried, were all spit out by the monsters where they died.

Withdrawing its long and soft mouth, the monster squeaked softly in satisfaction, and then digested the human body tissue swallowed into its stomach with all its strength.

After it regained some physical strength, it barely released a little bit of magic mist, covering its body surface with a layer of mist.

With even such a small amount of fog to cover, the Warcraft is also very satisfied, it seems that everything is starting to normal, and there are more humans ahead.

I hope those humans will not run away. After all, the trees in this forest are not tall, and it is difficult for it to move quickly on the top of the tree. No matter what, it cannot catch up with the humans who want to run in the forest.

---

After a dull sound came from the north side of the camp, the shaking of the wooden bed in the only wooden house in the bandit camp stopped.

After a while, the door of the wooden house was opened, and the bandit leader casually dressed in animal fur came out with a stinky face.

"Who can tell me, those stinky boys who went out to patrol, what new troubles have caused me this time?" He said, looking at the other bandits by the campfire.

The other bandits stopped their movements after the dull noise came from the forest on the north side. It wasn't until their leader asked questions that these bandits became active again, answering in one go.

"They must be angry with the boss, so they cut down a big tree to vent their anger."

"What do you mean? They took that big tree as their leader. So cut it down?"

"I think that's the way it is. Young people are still full of energy. When they reach my age, how can they have the energy to think about those things? Eating and drinking more is better than anything else."

"Don't talk nonsense. I guess the big tree was overwhelmed by the snow. After all, no matter how you think about it, the short spear and machete can't break a tree in such a short time."

The bandit leader rubbed his beard on his chin, he felt that what his subordinates said was possible. It is possible for those young boys to knock down a big tree to vent their anger, but some people are right, the previous heavy snow fell heavily, and the old trees in the forest may indeed be overwhelmed by the snow, and their gang equipped Machetes are not good at cutting down big trees. It is fine to chop people, but if it is to chop down trees, a few robbers in the gang who wield axes can still do it, but those people are all in front of him.

Unable to understand this kind of thing, he snorted coldly and said to his subordinates: "It doesn't matter, let me know when those brats come back, and I will ask them when the time comes."

After speaking, he picked up the pitcher next to the campfire, which contained clear water melted from the warm snow that had been warmed by the campfire, and it tasted just right for drinking in this weather.

After drinking, he went back to the cabin.

--

On the other side, Zhao Ji, who was hiding in the snow nest, naturally also heard that dull sound. Without thinking too much, he immediately knew that it was the sound made by a monster.

Considering the direction from which the sound came from, it was officially the direction that the bandit patrol team had just left.

Hehe, those bandits must be finished.

Thinking of this, Zhao Ji moved his hands and feet, and then carefully came out from the exit of Xuewozi, bypassing the bandit's camp, and detoured from the surrounding dark place to the place where the sound came from before.

He is not afraid of encountering monsters on the road. He really met him, and at worst he led this tired monster to the direction of the bandit camp. He believed that those bandits would be easier to catch than him.

And he can attack and kill some bandits who want to escape outside.

As for not meeting, I missed the Warcraft attacking the bandit camp.

Zhao Ji hoped that this would be the result. He knew that the bandits deserved to die, but those captives were innocent. It's a pity that monsters don't distinguish between human beings. Everyone in the bandit camp is really about to die now.