Mercenaries and Adventurers

Zhao Ji returned to the rented room in the hotel and rested for the night.

The next day, he set off to look for the bandit's lair. This matter is not easy to do. After all, I heard that the militiamen have cleared up the bandits in the mountains on a large scale several times before, but they have not found this group of bandits in the "pocket hole".

If he wanted to find it, he had to think of a way, or make some serious moves. Walking on the noisy checkpoint road, Zhao Ji touched the backpack behind him, and remembered some weird mushrooms that the goblins got after eating them when they burned the goblin altar.

Lao Duomu gave him the dried mushrooms as a gift, and Zhao Ji decided to find a bandit who had killed people to try this weird mushroom. At first, you can use this kind of mushroom that you don't think is a good thing to scare the captured bandits, and try to get the other party to tell the location of other bandits' lairs. Secondly, you can try to see what strange effects humans will have after eating this mushroom.

Zhao Ji felt that if humans became as powerful as those red-eyed goblins after eating this mushroom, they could use this mushroom as a trump card to improve their combat effectiveness.

After all, he himself was deeply impressed by the fighting power of those weak goblins after taking mushrooms.

--

On the east and west sides of Bingxun Pass are the Kendall River and a small number of houses on the east side, and a large forest on the east side. The west side is directly connected to a large area of ​​mountains and forests.

There are some continuous walls and sentry towers scattered between the checkpoint houses and the forest, and only the main entrances on the north and south sides can enter the checkpoint.

Zhao Ji went out from the north gate. Because he didn't bring a cart, the soldiers guarding the gate just checked Zhao Ji's backpack and let him go without collecting taxes on the goods.

Zhao Ji looked at the large forests on the east and west sides, and after some consideration, he decided to look for the bandits in the forests on the west side. Because the roads from Kendall County to other counties and provincial capitals are here, if those bandits want to easily track and loot the caravan, they must concentrate their manpower on the west side of the checkpoint road.

Since there is no convenient bridge to cross the river for more than a day's journey to the north of Bingxun Pass, as for whether there is a bridge on the road downstream, Zhao Ji guesses that there is no, otherwise the east side of Bingxun Pass will not fail to develop.

Without a bridge to cross the river, those bandits would not want to row across the river every time they went out to rob caravans, that would be too troublesome. And as far as Zhao Ji saw yesterday, the boats on the river basically gathered in Bingxun Pass to provide services for the residents on both sides of the pass.

Those ships are all inside the checkpoint, and they can't get out of the checkpoint. The stone pillars and metals on the river hinder access to the upper and lower reaches of the Kendall River. It cannot be used by thieves.

After leaving the checkpoint, Zhao Ji walked west and entered the forest.

Unlike the previous forest floor in the south of Doral Forest Village, the ground here can clearly see the traces of frequent people coming and going. Some places that are convenient to walk around have even been stepped out of the aisle.

The bandits also used autumn leaves to hide the aisles a little bit, but Zhao Ji easily saw through them.

Using his feet to push aside the hidden road on the ground, Zhao Ji began to walk along this vague road.

Because he was carrying a full set of weapons and equipment, except for the armor, he was carrying everything, so Zhao Ji walked unhappily all the way. After walking for about two hours, the winter sun still crawled upwards, and the sunlight behind the upper layer of the forest with fallen leaves was just like a man with kidney problems, listless.

Zhao Ji marked every fork in this vague road. Either engrave some symbols on the trunk, or cut off some small branches to form a bracket and make a conspicuous mark.

After a while, Zhao Ji came to the end of the aisle selected by another fork.

It seemed that there was no way out, Zhao Ji scratched his head and his nose twitched.

He smelled something different from the woods.

Looking around, Zhao Ji found a hole dug out by someone behind a tree here, and a lot of food residues were scattered in it.

Excited, Zhao Ji quickly judged that these were food scraps that would only be found near human settlements. Zhao Ji judged that this should be domestic waste produced by a small hidden camp arranged by some bandits nearby. Because it could not be found, those bandits dug a pit not far away to dump domestic waste.

Around this pothole, Zhao Ji also found that many small animals in the forest came to eat the animal path produced by the waste abandoned by humans.

It seems that even the animals in the forest have included the bandits hiding in the forest as part of the forest ecology.

It's really interesting.

Zhao Ji retreated along the aisle where he came, and chose another direction at the previous fork.

Soon, he vigilantly noticed signs of human activity behind a raised earth bag not far ahead. Zhao Ji immediately climbed down and put the backpack at the root of a tree. The gray wolf fur cloak on his body, which was more conspicuous in the forest, was also put into the backpack.

He didn't bring the two-handed ax when he came out this time. After all, the opponents he had to deal with were humans. He had already made a promise with the blacksmith Bodell before that he would not kill humans with the ax he gave him, so he didn't bring that ax when he came out this time. thing.

In fact, Zhao Ji also somewhat disliked the heavy weight of the axe. It would be fine if he had a trolley, but he had to carry all the things by himself. He still disliked the ax being too heavy. After all, I don't know how long I will stay in the forest this time.

Zhao Ji lay on the ground concealedly, with the spear behind his back, and carefully crawled forward. Looking at the fallen leaves on the soft ground around him, Zhao Ji looked at his clothes again, and wondered if he needed to prepare a camouflage suit for concealed actions in the forest?

Thinking about these things, Zhao Ji slowly approached the soil bag in front of him.

A little distance from the soil bag, Zhao Ji heard the sound of someone talking and breaking branches to add to the fire. A little bit of smoke from behind the soil bag was diluted and dispersed by the branches of the big trees before flying out of the forest.

Zhao Ji lay still on his stomach, listening carefully to the slurred speech on the other side, and tried his best to judge how many people were there on the other side.

He has never dealt with human enemies before, and now he doesn't know whether the person facing him is a deer hunter who went hunting in the mountains, or a smuggler who broke into the forest to bypass the checkpoint in order not to pay taxes.

Or, is it a small group of bandits who are hiding here and preparing to rob?

---

"It's not..., it's all..., have you been wiped out?" There was a burst of clearly audible words from the opposite side of the soil bag, and the voice sounded like a rude man speaking.

The response that came to mind was the same rude words: "￥%!...Dare to come back and say no, I...he!￥%￥%." There were a few words mixed in the ugly curse, which made Zhao Ji judge that the earth bag There were at least two people behind, and they didn't look like they were doing anything good.

They were waiting for someone to come back, which meant there was at least one other person out there.

Just when Zhao Ji was lying on his stomach and wanted to listen to the conversation to judge the number of people on the other side and what they were doing, a rude middle-aged man dressed casually but wrapped in various clothes to keep warm walked out from the opposite side of the soil bag.

The other party untied the belt tied to his trousers while walking, as if he wanted to go farther to release water.

But the other party had only taken two steps when he saw Zhao Ji who had no time to dodge behind the tree.

Before he could fasten the untied waistband, the other party questioned loudly, grabbed the trousers with one hand, and pulled out the curved dagger at his waist with the other.

"who!"

Seeing being discovered suddenly, Zhao Ji stood up and did not speak. He still hadn't figured out whether the other party was a bandit, and it was hard to make a move. He had to dodge behind the nearest tree trunk and show half of his face to observe the other party's situation.

Following the loud questioning of the man who released the water, two rude men in the same miscellaneous clothes walked out from behind the dirt bag, both of them holding weapons.

One was holding a long-handled tree-cutting axe, the other was holding a machete, with a short black bow on his back, and a quiver made from animal skin on his waist.

Zhao Ji looked at the clothes and weapons of these people, and guessed that they were not good people.

"Several! What are you guys doing in this forest? I'm out hunting, and I don't want to conflict with you." Zhao Ji said to the three slowly approaching with half of his head exposed.

Unexpectedly, as soon as his words came out, the three people slowly approaching laughed and laughed: "What is this %% kid talking about, we brothers are all~'good guys', you stay here and don't move, we won't come here .”

They couldn't explain it, but in fact the three of them were still walking slowly. The bandit at the end who was about to release the water didn't put on his belt anymore, and just approached while winking at his two accomplices.

After walking in, the two bandits with machetes and axes didn't coax them anymore, and they directly shouted to Zhao Ji who was hiding behind the tree to put down his weapons and crawl over on his stomach, otherwise he would suffer a bit.

"Don't come here, I will cut off your feet in a while, and let you crawl back like this!"

"What else are you going to do, just hack this kid to death, and find our camp and keep him alive?"

The two bandits seem to be going in slightly different directions on how to deal with Zhao Ji's arrangement.

After confirming that it was really a bandit, Zhao Ji also let go of his worries about accidentally injuring ordinary people. At this moment just now, he judged from the two people holding weapons and their unprepared postures that they were just two miscellaneous fish.

There's nothing to worry about other than being aware of the shortbow being used at a distance by the man with the shortbow, and the ax of the man using the long-handled feller's axe, let alone the comical one-handed holding of the man behind. A curved blade dagger, holding the fallen pants with one hand.

Clang.

Pulling out the long sword from the scabbard, Zhao Ji slowly walked out from behind the tree.

Just when the other party finally saw Zhao Ji clearly, Zhao Ji directly rushed towards the bandit with the short bow.

When the opponent wanted to slash the machete to force back the charging Zhao Ji, Zhao Ji swung his long sword obliquely in the direction of the opponent's machete, deviated from the path of the machete, and approached the person at close range.

With the hilt in front, Zhao Ji hit the bandit's neck with the hilt, causing the other party to stare out of his eyes in pain, and whimpered for no reason.

Another bandit saw that his companion was being attacked, and immediately swung a logging ax with a specially lengthened handle and slashed at Zhao Ji from top to bottom.

Zhao Ji's face was ugly. It wasn't the opponent's offensive that made him feel embarrassed, but the opponent's sloppy footsteps, the redundant movements of raising and chopping the ax and the time-consuming, all these made him feel hot.

Just this movement of rushing two steps forward, raising the ax vigorously, and then chopping straight down, probably an old man with a slightly better eyesight can dodge it.

Zhao Ji felt that the strength of these bandits was too strong. If the bandits in southern Kendall County were all of this level, then he felt that the real difficulty of this entrustment was not to deal with the bandits, but how to deal with them. Find out in this vast mountain forest.

Zhao Ji shrugged his shoulders because the other party was slow, and then Zhao Ji took a step back. At the same time, he hooked his right foot and let go of the machete. He covered the neck of the painful and nauseating bandit, and let the other party point to the place where Zhao Ji was standing just now. fall down.

Needless to say.

The bandit with the ax couldn't hold back the felling ax with all his strength, and directly smashed the ax on the head of his companion who was lying on the ground. Katz made a crisp sound, which was indeed worthy of a felling axe, and easily knocked the bandit out. His skull was cracked open.

The ax went in from the back of the head and came out from the front, splitting the entire head of the hapless bandit in two.

The two bandits who were still alive were dumbfounded. It's not that they haven't killed people before, and naturally they have killed their own people too. But they had never seen this kind of death.

The bandit behind who grabbed his trousers even asked the bandit who killed his own man: "What did you # do! Why did you cut your own man!"

The bandit who still wanted to explain a few words just wanted to speak, but Zhao Ji, who was ignored, rushed forward, and sent the long sword into the mouth of the bandit who had just opened his mouth. UU Reading www.uukanshu.com The sword entered through the mouth and pierced through the back of the head, stabbing the bandit to death instantly.

The other party's wide-open eyes could no longer be closed, and he lost control of his whole body like that, and then fell to his knees, his hands still tightly grasping his axe.

Those eyes that couldn't be closed kept staring at the companion who had just been hacked to death by him.

Zhao Ji was not interested in closing his eyes on this bandit. He found that stabbing a bandit to death with a sword and a human being was actually no different from stabbing a goblin to death.

If anything, the expressions on human faces are richer and more recognizable than those of goblins. The green faces of the goblins, apart from their screams, Zhao Ji couldn't tell whether the goblins were scared or excited.

The bandit behind him, holding his trousers in one hand and a curved dagger in the other, just wanted to escape from here. After all, they seemed to have offended a particularly powerful opponent, which was beyond his ability to deal with. At least a dozen or so talents would have to be assembled. Good siege.

However, before he could take two steps, he was overtaken, and the steel blade of a long spear pierced his calf.

Probably scratched his hamstring, the bandit fell to the ground directly, but instead of hugging his legs and crying in pain, he crawled on the ground without even a dagger, trying to get out of here.

However, his hand was then pierced by the spear and nailed into the soft soil, deeply piercing it.

The bandit turned his head in horror and looked at the standing man.

The figure of the other party blocked the light of the feeble sun, making it impossible to see the other party's face clearly.

The bandit hissed and groaned in pain, begging the young man for mercy while trembling all over.

There was only a disdainful snort from the other party.

"snort!"