Love and passion, cutting up the wasteland

After another few days of trekking, it was approaching dusk.

The road gradually became soft and wet, and water would seep out if you stepped on it. If you were not careful, you would sink into the mud.

All around, there are lush pastures growing, which are green, tender and juicy.

However, no wandering tribe here dares to graze their cattle.

It is already located at the junction of the swamp and the borderland. No one will take the risk of being attacked by jungle beasts or being kidnapped by sand bandits to grab such a bite.

It's a pity this time.

The herdsmen of the Shandi tribe could not help themselves.

"Ouch!"

A herdsman stepped on the ground, but it suddenly became empty under his feet. It turned out that there was only a layer of floating sand turf on the upper layer, but there was flowing mud below.

He staggered and fell to the ground.

"Get up!" The bandit beside him raised his hand and whipped him, "You want to be lazy, don't you?"

The herdsman was in pain and struggled for a while, but he still couldn't get up.

He couldn't stop moaning from his mouth.

When the bandits saw this, they wanted to fight again.

"Sir, wait!" Ethan rushed forward and could tell at a glance based on his experience, "It's pitiful...he has a broken bone."

The herdsman's previous kick dug directly into his calf, and he was hit by inertia again.

I'm afraid the tibia is broken.

Several herdsmen came up and lifted the man up.

After hearing this, the sand bandit put down his whip, but he snorted coldly and pointed directly at Ethan: "Then you take his place."

The old man was speechless, so he had no choice but to lead the army of sand bandits forward together with the herdsmen from other clans in front, avoiding the collapsed dark caves.

They are also equivalent to mine clearance.

Along the way, these captured civilians helped the bandit army avoid different traps and terrain, and blocked several waves of ferocious beast attacks.

Of course, every time, corpses of herdsmen were left behind.

At this time, Matt, the commander of the sand bandits, was sitting on the back of a docile camel, swaying and leisurely, almost falling asleep.

He was also complacent in his heart.

During this march, he actually took a slightly longer detour and went to the border of Shendi to loot, which seemed to waste some time.

But sharpening the knife never misses the woodcutter.

After preparations were completed, their progress accelerated.

Moreover, his marching route also changed somewhat.

Even if Rotten Town expected the bandits to attack, this move would catch them by surprise... Matt shook his head slightly. Unfortunately, with the strength of Rotten Town, they couldn't take the initiative to attack. The opponent's chosen strategy must be to hold on.

Otherwise, they might be able to defeat the army they were attacking.

"King Sand, I should be the first to win this battle." He thought to himself.

A group of people from the merchant guild followed him not far away, surrounded and protected by bandit soldiers.

As a guest of extraordinary origin, this is also equivalent to courtesy.

"Have we reached the swamp yet?" Peng Li looked at the mud under her feet with disgust.

"It's... it's not here yet." Zeng Jian held the knife, still looking indifferent, "Geographically speaking, this area already has a swamp climate, and the various ecology is not so obvious, but it is actually indistinguishable from the hinterland of the swamp. How many - haven't we seen a swamp velociraptor running out before?"

Velociraptors like to attack crops, and their meat is generally inedible and must be specially treated or fed to the bees... Only leather is of some use.

"but……"

"Geographically, it belongs to the swamp, but it is not controlled by the factions in it."

Natural boundaries easily evolve into political territories, but they often do not overlap.

If the swamp was a force entity, its scope of influence would have been bounded by the outermost edge of Rotten Town in the past - this dense forest swamp was indeed easy to defend and difficult to attack, but correspondingly, it was also difficult to expand outward.

This is the advantage and disadvantage of a small world of its own.

It is difficult for the outside world to interfere with it, but even if there is some great person inside, it will be difficult to expand its influence, like a mountain king.

The rest are all the forces of various bandits.

Peng Li nodded: "It seems it will take some time..."

She was suddenly stunned and looked up.

"Why are there so many carrion birds in the sky?"

Along the way, even if there were civilians among the Sand Bandits who died of exhaustion and starvation, they would not keep them - they would either feed the beasts of burden on the spot or leave them behind.

What are these scavengers doing here?

The black wings hovered low in the sky.

However, some bandit crossbowmen were eager to try, thinking of hunting down one for extra food.

"who!"

At this time, a small scream sounded from the front army of the sand bandits.

A vanguard officer of the sand bandits grabbed his whip and pointed forward and shouted.

"What's going on?" Matt frowned.

"It's okay, boss, he looks like a passerby." A follower reported back.

The bandit army dispersed, and Matt, who was sitting on the camel's back, also took a look: it was indeed a passerby, but he was also riding a wild bull.

"Let him go."

The sand bandit commander estimated the distance and found that the opponent was just outside the range of his crossbowman, so far away that he couldn't even see clearly... So he closed his eyes again.

If it were in the past, it would be in the borderland.

Just for the sake of his cow, the bandits would go up to kill people and rob him.

But this time, they captured more than a dozen Shandi tribes.

Although these tribes are small, together they have hundreds of pack oxen. If they can't afford to waste time for this one person, ordinary infantrymen may not be able to catch up.

Take down Rotten Town as soon as possible and plunder as much as you want.

That's the bulk of the spoils.

"Did you hear that?" The vanguard officer of the Sand Bandits licked his lips, looking quite regretful, "Get lost!"

As if he had heard the warning, the passerby riding the wild bull reined in his steps and hesitated.

In front of him.

The Sand Bandits' army was endless, and there was no end in sight whether it was forward or to the left or right. From a distance, it was like a dark cloud pressing down from the sky to the ground, sweeping in from the vast and wild border land, making people breathless.

This was not a village fight or a gang fight.

It was a real war.

Under the unification of the King of Sand, the originally loose desert bandits were no longer a mob, and an army had already formed in the wasteland and stone mountains. They even defeated the expeditionary force of the Shak Kingdom - even if there were many coincidences, the world only looked at the results.

Now, with the might of Qi Sheng.

The vanguard of this Sand Bandit was about to invade the swamp and complete the first step of the expansion of the King of Sand. The murderous aura above the army formation was as real as substance.

As an ordinary passerby.

Facing them, being able to escape with one's life was already a kindness of the commander of the Sand Bandits.

And with such a large-scale army formation blocking the way, it was impossible to take a detour.

The only route was to turn around and run away with all one's strength, praying that the Sand Bandits would walk slower and give oneself more time...

However, no Sand Bandits noticed.

An old herdsman suddenly trembled all over when he saw the figure in the distance.

"Yes, it's him..." It was as if an electric current surged through Ethan's back, "Why is he here!"

This figure wearing a gold and iron hat and a gray long coat.

Wasn't it the passerby who had reminded himself that the war was coming?

What shocked Ethan even more was.

He vaguely saw that on the neck of the tall wild bull, there was a small figure riding on it that could not be seen without careful observation.

The little boy was covered in mud and looked tired.

He held the bull's horns with both hands, but tightly, as if he had used up all his strength.

It was Dibu, the old herdsman’s grandson.