This young master truly has the ambition of a hero.

Carajo's ancestors were said to be nobles, but they fell into decline several generations ago. Their family has berserker blood, and their bodies become stronger when they are angry.

Caraccio killed the corrupt governor in a fit of rage because he had been driven to the brink of ruin. His house and land had been taken away, and his wife and two youngest children had been killed by the governor. In a fit of extreme anger, Caraccio, wielding two berserker axes, hacked down the corrupt governor and his group of bodyguards in the street.

Unfortunately, Caraccio had little talent in martial arts training, only reaching the level of a low-ranking warrior; otherwise, his combat power would have been even stronger with the enhancement of his bloodline.

Carracci felt no affection whatsoever for his cousin; on the contrary, he deeply resented him.

Years ago, Caraccio and his three remaining sons fled to the mountains to live as herders. Karem, who was then the leader of the Deer Head gang, wanted to win over his cousin, who was infamous for killing the governor. However, Caraccio knew that his cousin believed in some very evil things, so he always kept his distance from him.

Undeterred, Karem, seeing that his cousin Carajo was unmoved by his words, turned his evil intentions to his three nephews. As a result, he misled Carajo's second son, leading him astray. In order to become stronger, Carajo sold his soul to the stag god, ultimately meeting a tragic end where he died and his soul was destroyed.

Because of the hatred caused by the killing of his son, Carajó completely broke with Karem. He tried to take revenge several times, but all his attempts ended in failure. Karem's strength was no less than his own, and he also had the blessing of the deer-headed god. As a result, his challenges all ended in failure.

Later, Caraccio's eldest son also died of illness. The berserker, who was already in his twilight years, seemed to have his spirit forcibly cut off, and could no longer feel anger.

Ironically, Caraccio stopped seeking revenge, but a certain cult leader thought that his stubborn cousin had finally come to his senses and accepted his fate. In order to fight against the new governor's anti-bandit campaign, he actually sent people to contact Caraccio, wanting to join forces with the Valley of No Name. Even after Caraccio clearly refused, he tried to use those disgusting and despicable methods to force him to submit.

Thus, fueled by both old and new grudges, Caraccio chose to seek refuge with the governor.

As for how to deal with the Deer Head Gang, Dick's idea was to first find out the details of that Deer Head God.

Compared to the already destroyed Vulture Gang and Blood Wolf Gang, the Deer Head Gang, these cultists, genuinely possessed some special abilities. Like this assassination attempt, if Dick hadn't been prepared and had so many skilled guards around him, the usual guards of a governor might not have been able to stop that sinister shadowy figure.

After thinking for a while, the cautious Dick decided to seek help from outside help.

……

"So you're plotting against me, trying to get me to do something, is that it?"

Inside the cave where Behemoth was cultivating, the old magician squinted at the gift Dick presented with a beaming smile, his expression one of knowing everything, but there was not a trace of anger between his brows.

Clearly, after listening to Dick's story, he also became somewhat interested in this deer-headed god.

"Senior Uncle, I dare not presume before you. I truly wish to ask for your assistance this time."

"You were right not to act rashly and to come to me first, otherwise you would have suffered a great loss."

"Uncle-Master, do you know anything about this Deer-Headed God?"

"I haven't heard of it, but these kinds of evil gods that hide in remote areas and develop in secret usually like to incite their followers to perform human blood sacrifices because they have few believers. This way, they can gain a lot of faith all at once. If you lead your troops directly to kill them, you will be used by them one hundred percent."

Dick was also aware of Behemoth's warning.

Generally speaking, when cracking down on cult members, it is best to avoid a direct assault and instead try to capture them alive.

The reason for avoiding killing is not out of pity for the cult members, but out of fear that they might be manipulated into using killing as a form of sacrifice. This could lead to the cult members strengthening the evil god they worship and summoning something deadly.

Similar situations have occurred within the Empire.

A local lord, unaware of the dangers, discovered a cult group entrenched in his territory. In a moment of rashness, he led his troops to attack and annihilate them, resulting in a fierce battle. As the fighting progressed, the cult's altar lit up, summoning a great demon!

This situation is disgusting. Cult members deliberately set up sacrificial ritual arrays in their hideouts. When the army attacks and a fierce battle breaks out, whether the soldiers kill the cult members or the cult members kill the soldiers, flesh and souls are indiscriminately sacrificed.

Some cults that have already gained influence will even draw sacrificial circles on the bodies of their cannon fodder and then incite them to go and die.

If nothing unexpected happens, the Deer Head Gang is probably planning to use the same method to deal with the Governor's Office's encirclement and suppression forces. Those wild people captured by them are both cannon fodder and sacrifices.

Dick enlisted the help of his master, Behemoth, and brought him back to the outpost. The captured assassin was also transferred from Valley Village to this location and placed under strict guard.

The moment Behemoth saw the little monster, he smiled and told Dick that he had caught something very interesting.

“This is a servant of God.”

"Servant of God?"

"They are believers who have received special gifts from the gods and have undergone 'ascension'. Orthodox religious servants usually receive the blood of the gods, and the sect will give them some more respectable titles, such as sons of the gods, saints, or child prodigies. As for this (pointing to the cage), judging from its wretched appearance, you can tell that the deer-headed god they worship is not a respectable figure. This cannot be considered as ascension; it is more like mutation."

After carefully examining the little monster, Behemoth looked at it with disdain.

When the little monster saw the old magician's gaze, it immediately started cursing in a language that Dick couldn't understand. To its surprise, Behemoth also spoke up and cursed back in the same language, leaving the little monster stunned.

Dick then realized that the little monster spoke an ancient Elvish language, and a rare dialect of a remote clan, which was vastly different from standard Elvish.

Although Behemoth didn't think much of this thing, he roughly estimated the level of the Deer-Headed God based on the little monster's mutated state. It was probably about the same as his strength, that is, between the Saint rank and the Demigod.

Considering that this guy is influenced by faith, he would probably be slightly stronger than Behemoth in a one-on-one fight.

However, as the old saying goes, there's no need to talk about chivalry when dealing with these crooked and evil ways.

Neither Dick nor Behemoth ever intended to have a fair fight against cultists!

Chapter 048: Dead or Alive

The Deer Head Gang's stronghold is located in the heart of the western mountains, in an ancient forest surrounded by towering mountains and filled with giant fir trees. The Deer Head Gang built a black stone altar in the center of this forest to worship the "Deer Head God" they believed in.

At this moment, a large number of people, numbering over a thousand, knelt around the altar.

In addition to the original members of the Deer Head Gang, there were also the "believers' villages" in the surrounding area who were originally subservient to them, as well as many wild people who were coerced by them.

Karem, who is both a bandit leader and a high priest, is dressed in traditional orc shaman attire and is performing a "shamanic dance" on the Blackrock altar.

After the dance, Karem waved his hand, and his followers escorted ten sacrifices onto the stage.

These people were captured savages who refused to convert to the Deer-Headed God. Karem took a sharp knife and a black, foul-smelling stone bowl from a servant, and then slit the throats of the sacrifices one by one to bleed them, quickly filling the entire stone bowl.

Then, a strange thing happened: the blood in the stone bowl suddenly boiled and quickly turned from crimson to pitch black. Kareem was overjoyed at this sight. This meant that the Deer-Headed God had accepted his flesh and blood sacrifice and was rewarding them with a gift.

Karem then beckoned to a boy of about fourteen or fifteen years old in the first row below the altar, signaling him to come to him.

"Child, you have been chosen by the gods. Drink it and become the new messenger of the gods."

As Karem spoke, he reached out and pinched the boy's cheek, forcing the disgusting black blood into the boy's mouth. The moment the black blood entered his mouth, the boy seemed to lose his mind, his eyes rolled back, and his whole body convulsed. The black blood was like a living thing, not something the boy drank, but something that "crawled" into him on its own!

Soon, the entire bowl of black blood was swallowed by the boy. Afterward, the boy lay on the ground, letting out a roar that was not human. His body was mutating at a speed visible to the naked eye. His skin turned bluish-gray and became as dry as tree bark. A pair of antlers grew on his head.

Looking at the mutated boy right in front of him, a burst of maniacal laughter came from beneath the Kareem mask.

Meanwhile, a thousand meters away from this evil ritual, on the trunk of a cedar tree, the trio of female ninjas were lurking in the shadows, secretly observing this terrifying event.

If it weren't for Momiji stopping them, Kasumi and Ayane would have almost resorted to violence.

"Sister Hongye, are we just going to stand by and watch?"

"That Karem is right there. If the three of us team up and attack him..."

"You two, do you remember what the Lord repeatedly told you before we set off? Our mission was to scout out the enemy and bring back useful intelligence, not to act on our own. And that altar... there's something strange about it!"

Before her transmigration, Momiji was the Dragon Priestess of Hayabusa Village, so her perception of evil forces was stronger than that of Kasumi and Ayane. Therefore, even from a great distance, she could sense the evil aura emanating from the altar and its surroundings.

Before transmigrating, Momiji had already personally experienced the scenario of an anti-demon ninja infiltrating the lair of evil spirits and then falling into a monster's ambush.

If Dick hadn't summoned her to this world just when she was in danger, she couldn't imagine what terrible fate awaited her if she had fallen into the hands of those monsters.

Under the persuasion of Hongye, who had been through similar experiences, Xia and Ayane decided against acting recklessly. The three of them used the tall cedar trees around the camp to find high ground, and after scouting the perimeter, they quickly drew up a new layout map of the Deer Head Gang's camp. They then safely returned to the rear and informed Dick of their latest findings.

"So, that means Karem is mass-producing elite monsters?"

After hearing Hongye's description, Dick immediately thought of the little monster that had come to assassinate him. Behemoth was currently studying that monster, thinking about how to turn it back into a human.

In addition, during their retreat, Hongye and her group discovered that many deer-headed spirits had appeared in the cedar forest.

These monsters roamed around the outskirts of the Deer Head Gang's camp like sentinels. When Hongye first went into the mountains to scout the Deer Head Gang last year, she had not yet encountered these monsters.

In other words, these deer-headed spirits were summoned to help.

"Judging from this, the Deer Head Gang has been hiding its strength all along."

"That's normal. These cult groups don't dare to be high-profile for fear of attracting a crackdown from the authorities and orthodox religious sects."

As Behemoth spoke, he entered from outside the door, glanced at the three voluptuous female ninjas, and his gaze shifted back and forth between them and Dick, as if he had discovered something.

Dick waved his hand, telling the three of them to go and rest first, and then asked Behemoth to sit down.

"Uncle-Master, have you made any new discoveries over there?"

"I came here to tell you this. I was arguing with that little servant of the gods for an hour when he suddenly started coughing up large amounts of black blood. Then his aura of evil god weakened a lot, but his life force also began to drop significantly. However, he was able to speak human language."

"what?"

According to Behemoth's judgment, the little monster's ability to speak the ancient elven dialect is an effect of being corrupted by the power of the evil god, which is probably also the language used by the evil god's true form.

But the reason why evil gods are called evil gods is that the power they bestow often comes with many strong side effects, and you can only enjoy it for a short time. After the pleasure is over, you will have to pay with your life.

In contrast, orthodox deities do not easily bestow blessings upon mortals, but once they do, there are generally no side effects, nor will it endanger the life of the person receiving the blessing.

In light of this, Behemoth concluded that the blessing of the deer-headed god was time-limited, its power would gradually weaken over time, and it would place a considerable burden on the one who bestowed the blessing, ultimately leading to their death. This was very likely the intentional act of that evil god.

"Speaking of which, didn't you contact any orthodox churches?"

"I've contacted them, but they don't want to come. What can I do?"

Dick spread his little hands, revealing a rather helpless expression. He had previously contacted the Holy Light Church, the nearest church in Shannan, saying that he had discovered a cult group there and requesting their assistance. However, the church leader replied, politely declining on the grounds of the long distance and inaccurate information.

Dick read the reply and sneered inwardly, thinking to himself that these charlatans were truly hypocritical.

It wasn't that they were unwilling to provide support, but rather that they didn't want to provide it immediately. On one hand, they were "hinting" that Dick should donate money to the church, and on the other hand, they hoped that their knights would make a dazzling appearance as saviors once the cult actually started causing damage to Lagug.

This will earn more gratitude from the locals and generate more faith and donations.

This behavior is considered to have been "tacitly approved" by the gods above.

But as governor, Dick couldn't let those cultists grow too powerful and threaten his fiefdom.

The previous governors dared to do whatever they wanted because they all had powerful backers. Someone was willing to cover up their mistakes and exaggerate their achievements in front of the Duke. Sometimes, pillow talk was more effective than any advice.

But Dick couldn't do that; if he wanted to keep his position secure, he couldn't afford any mistakes.

At least at this stage, absolutely not!

In front of Behemoth, Dick frankly admitted his current situation. The Deer Head Gang was the final piece of his second phase of bandit suppression operations. He not only had to win, but he had to win spectacularly!

After a moment's thought, Behemoth spoke to Dick.

"I have an idea..."

Two days later, Dick assembled a "large army" of 1,600 men at the outpost. In addition to 400 regular soldiers from the private army, the force also included 1,200 militiamen who were temporarily conscripted, more than 100 of whom were former villagers from the valley village.

The team then set off in a grand procession, heading deep into the mountains where the Deer Head Gang was located. The troops only traveled a dozen miles a day, and their formation was loose, like a slow-moving slime.

This hastily assembled army perfectly embodies the characteristics of this era in every way; the chaotic military camp is almost constantly noisy.

This kind of march, which resembled a picnic, naturally offered no concealment whatsoever. If the Deer Head Gang's scouts wanted to spot them, they could hear the commotion from hundreds of meters away.

Upon learning that the governor's mansion had assembled a sizable army to encircle and suppress them, Karem vaguely sensed that something was amiss. This was quite different from Dick's previous style of eliminating other bandits, giving off a sense of incongruity, like a master suddenly dropping to the level of a noob.

However, it cannot be denied that the other party's act of coming to his door in such a blatant manner was exactly what he wanted.

The thought of nearly three thousand people fighting in the Black Forest, even though they were outnumbered, would inevitably lead to a bloodbath with the help of the dozen or so deer-headed spirits summoned by the Deer-Headed God. All of this bloodshed would become a sacrifice to the Deer-Headed God.

"Hmph! They've come at the perfect time. I was worried they wouldn't come!"

Although the governor's army moved slowly, it made steady progress every day and soon reached the outskirts of the ancient forest in the heart of the territory.

The army encountered no attacks until it crossed the canyon and reached the edge of the forest. In addition, its large numbers boosted its morale, so the army was in high spirits.

However, when everyone finally saw the legendary "Black Forest" and saw the towering giant fir trees stretching out like a city wall, many people couldn't help but shiver and felt a chill run down their spines.

"This forest looks really eerie!"

"I have a feeling there might be monsters inside."

Seeing that the morale of the militia seemed to be wavering, John immediately rode around to quell the untrained militiamen and calm them down before returning to the central command to report to Dick.

Dick nodded and immediately ordered them to set up camp near the river valley on the outskirts of the forest, without venturing into the forest rashly. Naturally, all of this was observed by the scouts hiding in the shadows.

Chapter 049: The Magical Honey Trap

Upon learning that the governor's army had reached the outskirts of the forest, Karem was initially overjoyed, but soon realized that something seemed amiss.

Those 1,500 or 1,600 people had no intention of entering the forest at all. Instead, they set up camp on the outer riverbank and began to build fortifications on the spot. This left Karem, who had personally gone to scout the edge of the forest, somewhat bewildered.

What do you mean? Weren't you here to encircle and annihilate them?

In Karem's original plan, the governor's army would assume that they had the advantage in numbers and march into the forest in a grand manner. They would first fight the deer-headed spirits wandering around the perimeter, and when the deer-headed spirits suffered heavy losses, Karem would then take advantage of the chaos to launch a surprise attack.