Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 27 The First Moment of Greed
Yun Ce's gaze fell on the sixth sheep cart from the bottom. It was still very quiet here. Even though the battle was so fierce, the warrior leader still arranged for twenty people to guard this place, half of whom were warriors.

There must be something very important in that sheep cart. Unfortunately, although those pigs and bears have some rudimentary intelligence, they haven't yet grasped the essence of a targeted attack.

It was too close to the battlefield, so the men, women, and children of Hekou Village wisely left their houses there and moved towards the back gate of Hekou Village, which is closer to the river mouth.

If the fighting is quelled by the caravan, they will naturally come out of the back house, organize their goods, and continue trading with the caravan.

If the caravan is destroyed, they will hide in the hills behind the stronghold. In short, there are not many ways to avoid the harm of war, and staying away from the battlefield is a very effective method.

On the battlefield, the scales of victory were tipping in favor of the caravan. A pig, bound by a fishing net thrown by the warriors, was squealing loudly. Before it could utter more than a few cries, a spear pierced its throat, silencing it abruptly.

A heavy hammer slammed down on the bear's head. Although the raging bear tore through the warrior's armor with its claws, a spear pierced its chest. It staggered a few steps on the ground with the spear in its hand before collapsing with a thud.

Zhao Jin was undecided, and Yun Ce didn't want to cause any more trouble. He felt it was fine to let things continue as they were, regardless of whether the wild beast or the caravan won, it was none of his business.

However, the situation is already clear: if the caravan wins, the people of Hekou Village may be held accountable; if the wild animals win, they will most likely flee immediately.

Therefore, Yun Ce actually hoped that the beast would win.

Seeing that the outcome of the battle was already decided, Zhao Jin called on the disabled and strong women in the village to take weapons such as pitchforks and torches and go forward to help the caravan. The reason for doing so was that he wanted the caravan members to be punished less after the victory.

Yun Ce was naturally in the crowd, and he was the loudest among them all.

The tide of battle turned in their favor, and the warrior leader finally stopped constantly drawing his bow and shooting arrows, instead using the time to glare hatefully at the people of Hekou Village.

He didn't see Yun Ce release the bear, but he stubbornly believed that the wild beast's escape from the cage must be related to Hekou Village.

Just now, when the wild beasts ran out, not a single person from Hekou Village helped them fight. They even closed their doors tightly and hid in the shadows to watch the excitement. Now that they see the caravan is about to win, they come out to put on a show. This makes the Wu clan leader vent his anger over the loss of so many men on the people of Hekou Village.

When people are enraged, they will use a hammer if they have one, and a fork if they have one. The warrior leader was a very skilled archer, and his way of venting his anger was to fire three arrows in succession in the direction from which the people of Hekou Village were surging.

The arrow struck down the three strongest cripples standing at the front. The arrow entered through their throats and exited through the back of their necks. There wasn't much blood loss, but the three cripples, who had previously been full of vitality, died instantly.

When Eji and the others saw that someone had died, they shouted and turned to run away. While she was running away, she held onto Yun Ce, who was running slower.

In the chaos, Yun Ce, who was holding a torch, dropped it, grabbed E Ji with one hand and Zhao Jin with the other, and ran faster than anyone else.

Cloth tree fiber is flammable, especially when the bark and starch have been removed and the fiber has been dried. In his panic, Yun Ce dropped a torch that landed on a pile of cloth tree fiber. It first ignited a small flame, and then a raging fire appeared next to the caravan.

When a caravan of sheep-drawn carts begins trading, they naturally arrange their carts in a circle. The purchased goods are placed inside the circle, while the goods that have not yet been purchased are placed outside the circle. Goods that are on fire are separated from goods that are not on fire by just one cart.

When the flames outside suddenly shot up five or six meters high, the goods that had just been acquired inside the circle spontaneously combusted without any wind.

The samurai leader, who had just calmed down, saw the sheep carts catching fire one after another. His eyes widened in fury, and he disregarded the wild beasts that were about to be killed, and ran frantically toward the sixth sheep cart from the bottom.

The sheep cart was already on fire, and the guards were desperately trying to put it out. The samurai leader cut the connection between the panicked sheep and the cart with a single stroke, grabbed the cart shaft, and pulled the cart out of the fire.

Eji and the others ran a long way in one breath. Just as Yun Ce was about to lead them to continue running for a while and leave Hekou Village completely, the group suddenly stopped. Led by Zhao Jin, they looked at the dangerous battlefield from afar like a group of silly roe deer.

Yun Ce ignored the struggling beasts and instead focused his gaze on the sheep-drawn cart that the warrior leader had rescued. The cart's roof was now ablaze, and flames were rapidly spreading downwards. The warrior leader roared in despair, "Put out the fire! Put out the fire quickly! 95%!"

Watching the guy pull out a cloak from somewhere and vigorously swing it to extinguish the fire, it seemed that he cherished his longbow very much and, fearing it would be destroyed by the fire, deliberately placed it on a tree not far away.

While everyone was watching the spectacle with bated breath, Yun Ce tiptoed away, leaving only E Ji watching his retreating figure with worry in silence.

The tarpaulin covering the sheep cart was quickly burned away. Yun Ce, who was stealing the bow and arrows, was on high ground and could see a pair of deep blue eyes staring intently at him. The reason he ignored everything except the eyes was that the most distinctive feature of this creature was its eyes; Yun Ce had never seen an animal with such large eyes before.

The huge cage contained only an animal the size of a fox. Although the animal was small, its eyes were larger than those of an adult cow. Most importantly, its eyes were perfectly round, just like the full moon in the sky.

After staring into those eyes for a while, Yun Ce felt a little dizzy. The sudden dizziness almost made him let go of the tree trunk and fall.

Seeing that the tarpaulin covering the sheep cart had been completely burned away, the samurai leader let out a strange cry, drew his knife from his waist, and fiercely stabbed the big-eyed animal in the cage.

"Gah-guh—" the big-eyed animal cried out loudly, then jumped around in the cage trying to escape.

Listen, 21%.

With this shout, the once bustling battlefield paused for a moment, perhaps so slightly that humans couldn't perceive it. The pigs and bears that hadn't yet been killed by the caravan warriors stopped attacking their opponents indiscriminately and instead moved towards the sheep carts in unison.

When Yun Ce returned with his bow and arrows, E Ji immediately put the bow, with its string removed, into her large cloth bag, along with the quiver, so that it wasn't very noticeable from the outside.

Yun Ce approached Zhao Jin, who was still grieving the loss of his clansmen, took the wooden tablet from his hand, and saw that it read: "I want to kill him."

Yun Ce rewrote: "I've thought it through, let's find an opportunity to kill him."

"Kill him, and I'll stay behind to pay with my life. You can leave."

Yun Ce glanced at the lifeless Zhao Jin and curled his lips, saying, "Taking Eji away may be my responsibility, but the rest of the people are none of my business. That's your responsibility. Don't even think about making me feel guilty by committing suicide, and then putting the burden you've carried all your life on my shoulders."

Stop playing the victim. Someone like you, who crawled out of piles of corpses on the battlefield, what obstacle would you have in killing someone?

Zhao Jin angrily wrote on the wooden tablet: "You disgusting nobles, what's the point of being so clever? You don't leave any way out for us!"

Yun Ce wrote with a smile: "If I were a member of a noble family, someone like you would never even see me. So, don't be sad that I've exposed your little scheme. As long as others can't see through it, that's fine."

This is my final warning. If you use Eji as a matchmaker again, don't blame me for burying you with sheep dung.

Just as the two remained silent, a wounded wild boar finally overturned the sheep cart with its long snout, and a giant bear with arrows stuck in its back struggled to pry open the iron bars. As the big-eyed little beast escaped its cage, the warrior leader no longer cared about harming them. With a strange cry, he ran towards the tree where the bow and arrows were placed.

When he looked up and didn't see his bow and arrow on the tree trunk, he was stunned for a moment before a wild boar weighing over a thousand pounds lifted him up with its long snout. The instant he was lifted up, he plunged a knife into the boar's eye and then used the momentum to straddle the boar's back.

The battlefield situation changed once again. Although only five pigs and bears remained, their fighting strength increased rather than decreased. This was mainly because the big-eyed little beast standing on the bear's back did not rush to leave. Instead, it commanded the remaining pigs and bears to launch a counterattack against the caravan warriors and their companions.

The scene was full of twists and turns, leaving the people of Hekou Village dumbfounded. The wild boars fighting haphazardly and the wild bears fighting with command were so different in combat strength.

A wild boar launched a surprise attack, followed by a giant bear. With the bear protecting it, the wild boar launched its attack and was invincible.

The samurai leader had his arms grabbed by a bear. He tried to break free several times, but was forced to give up due to the bear's large mouth. At this point, he was in a situation where he had to fight the bear with his strength.

The huge circle formed by the sheep cart created a giant ring of fire. The big-eyed little beast actually made the wild boar and bear overcome their fear of fire and retreat into the fire circle. Then, it would occasionally break out of the broken fire circle and launch surprise attacks, inflicting heavy casualties on the caravan's warriors and crew.

This was the second time Yun Ce had been tempted by greed in Hekou Village. The big-eyed little beast seemed really magical, and he really wanted to befriend it.

The wristband remains as calm as a lake, showing no respect whatsoever for advanced intelligent life.

(End of this chapter)