.

  "Sir!" A Khunk'kht scout slid down the vines on top of the ridge, panting loudly as he shouted, "Forty miles due west, in the hills, a large army is approaching! The War God is above..."

  Choi Min-ji's face suddenly fell.

  "Ah! The bandits from Razor Hill have finally arrived!" Old Liu yelled, cigar in mouth, as he rallied the militiamen to don their armor.

  The mournful sound of the conch shell awakened the entire Jadeite Crag.

  The slaves who were digging the city moat have all been returned.

  Evacuation and pre-war preparations are proceeding in an orderly manner.

  The merfolk of the trench were preparing their harpoon guns, while the skunk people of Kunk had readied their slings and stones. In the battle array of Feilongcuo, they appeared as long-range supporting firepower. This was also a last resort, as Feilongcuo did not have professional archers, according to Vieli's words, it was fortunate that this was only a fight against bandits.

  All the human weapons captured were distributed to the hands of the militia, and the surplus was assigned to the bear and ogre slaves. The slaves used such shiny things for the first time, and they looked awkward no matter how they looked.

  The brave ones cut down bamboo poles one by one, sharpened the front into a slanting point, and made temporary javelins.

  Witch doctor Nochadamas was the busiest person, as the configured poison could never keep up with the actual demand of Feilongcui. Doctor Nochadamas had an idea and borrowed the blood of those magic beasts that the lord had seized as a substitute. After all, the blood of these magic beasts contained some kind of severe poison anyway.

  Because his prophecy was very accurate, this time the lord did not make things difficult for him as an exception.

  Those over a hundred Musketeers suddenly pulled out self-made cowhide slingshots from their pockets, which were filled with riverbed pebbles. They also wanted to come up and help, but were chased away by Liu Zhen.

  "Put everything back in the cave and go heal your wounds. What's the point of taking out this kind of toy?" Liu Zhen said.

  Chui Pei-qian glanced sideways at him and pointed to the wooden shafts on his leather shoulder pad, then looked at Helen.

  Helen covered her mouth and giggled secretly.

  A dry wind picked up a whirl of dust.

  The militiamen and slaves all hid quietly in the bamboo forest, some didn't even dare to breathe, others had dull eyes.

  Only Liu Zhen was left standing at the crossroads, carrying two huge tortoise shells on his shoulders, with Guo Guo standing on his shoulder beating a bamboo clapper and Lotus Falling, while Xiao Zhuai Qiu Sha crouched by his feet. A line of ants proudly carried a frozen insect across the ground in front of Qiu Sha.

  The beautiful ladies of the Azure Dragonfly stood behind the lord, with a hint of tension, accompanying this solitary figure to stay outside the green barrier.

  There were always Kunk tribe sentries on the top of the red earth slope observing the enemy situation and reporting back to the lord in a tense manner. The hedgehog messengers stumbled and staggered from time to time, feeding these messages back to the lord.

  The undulating hills blocked the view, Liu Zhen shocked put down the turtle shell and sat on it.

  "This army has stopped twenty miles away, and several knights are rushing over here." This was the last message fed back to Liu Zhen.

  "Knight?" Liu's expression became somewhat comical. When did bandits have knights? Had the White-headed Crow Barbarian Tribe found those human bandits to be their helpers?

  The wait was long, Liu's neck had grown longer as he gazed out at the distant hills where a few horsemen finally appeared, a lone flag fluttering gently in the cold wind.

  There were four guests in total, all riding on a short breed of horse native to the wasteland. They slowly walked into the lord's line of sight.

  The legs of these dwarf horses were covered with a tangled mess of long hair, the four knights had no saddles and almost sat bare-bottomed on the backs of the dwarf horses. The knights all had faces that were sparse and bearded. Through their whiskers, you could clearly see skin that was speckled with grayish mold-like spots.

  Their bodies were short and stout, with muddy-colored eyes full of cunning. Each knight wore a simple armor - this armor was made up of animal tendons and some aged copper pieces strung together.

  These knights all held a bronze long spear covered in green rust, and a nauseating stench wafted from them, this disgusting smell seemed to combine all the dirty things in the world, just a little bit of it drilled into the nostrils and oozed into the brain.

  When did the strong earth spirit thief also play knights? Liu Zhen was almost suspicious of his own eyesight.

  The stench is the name card of the land spirit. On the entire continent, there is no creature that has this indescribable smell, not even the cockroaches in the sewers are an exception.

  These few sturdy earth spirit thieves had straight waists, just like the human knights Liu Zhenyun had heard about from the River Horse Poet's mouth, at least on their facial expressions they had learned that knightly spirit of pride to perfection.

  A stunned Pique stared at them, one of the knights who seemed to be the leader slowly drove his horse closer and nodded towards Lord Feilong.

  "What's a Daichi Spirit?" Jingyu and Aiwier were stunned.

  Chui Pei-ching and Helen were also stunned, only Ko Tanni still had that icy expression.

  "Ladies, I am Emre, a knight of the Kingdom of Gnome." The gnome knight corrected the two beauties. He wore a suit of armor he had made himself, with a breastplate that looked like a broken copper shield, its edges bearing dents and cracks from being hammered repeatedly, and in his hand he held a flag, which was a gray linen cloth depicting a razor and an angry bear-like monster.

  This pattern is a bit abstract, and Liu Zhen was stunned, rolling his eyes for half a day before he finally figured out some of its meaning.

  "Is your flag that of the Razorstone Hill Goblins' Stronghold Tribe?" Liu Zhen asked, laughing and crying at the same time as he looked at this earth-elemental knight.

  What's going on? The bandits are selling ointment? Instead of swarming in, four sons-in-law came to the door. Liu was shocked and confused.

  "Your Excellency, I am from the Darnassus Great Wilderness Razor Hill Gnome Kingdom, not the gnome tribe you mentioned. My identity is King Deko III of the Gnomes, a noble knight of the great gnomes." The earth spirit corrected Liu Zhen's statement again.

  "Has the Goblin Tribe become the Goblin Kingdom?" Liu Zhen was barely able to hold back his laughter: "Greetings! My dear knight. I am Baron Richard, Lord of Baimon, and you and your army have come... what is it that you want?"

  "The King of the Kingdom of Earth, respected Deko III. Officially notify Lord Bimon below, our country will launch an attack on your territory in one hour." The earth spirit knight solemnly pulled out a letter made of birch bark from his chest armor and threw it at Liu Zhen: "This is a declaration of war, you can now choose to retreat north of the Sanggan River or surrender, the land south of the Sanggan River does not belong to you Bimon at all."

  "What's wrong with you?" Liu Zhen shook his head, circling around the earth spirit knight three times: "Bandits are bandits, how did they suddenly become the Earth Spirit Kingdom? And what's with learning from humans, playing at sending out declarations of war?"

  "This wilderness belongs to the dwarves, not to Bimon. If you want to live on this land, you can choose to join our great dwarven kingdom." The dwarven knight turned his horse's head and galloped away.

  "Shall we leave these few goblins behind?" Belami asked, running over from the bamboo forest.

  A large group of militiamen and vassals pushed aside the bamboo leaves, standing at the edge of the bamboo forest, curiously pointing and gesturing towards the four returning earth spirit knights.

  "Has Bellamy gone mad too?" Liu Zhen was so shocked that he tore the birch bark letter in his hand into powder: "When two countries are at war, they don't kill the envoys. If we capture these messengers, aren't our morals even lower than those of bandits?"

  "Why would a goblin thief also learn that set from humans? And even hand over a letter of challenge?" Jingyu was also at a loss.

  "My mind is also in a mess, completely confused." Liu Zhenhong scattered the birch bark fragments in his hand into the sky: "Now I only know that this is no longer a group of robbers who only know how to rush up like a swarm of bees and escape like a swarm of bees when they encounter a little setback."

  "The earth spirit has actually summoned a knight. How rare." Evie laughed and said, "After coming to the wasteland, you'll see all sorts of things."

  "This battle is not going well." Cui Peishan looked at Liu Zhensheng with a very serious expression.

  "Who knows, the Gnome tribe suddenly transformed into the Gnome Kingdom. This matter is already shocking enough, and unexpectedly, they even brought out a pre-war messenger." Liu was shocked and scratched his head, with dandruff flying up and down: "I think these gnomes are well-trained, seemingly more regular than our own earth warriors."

  "No compromise with bandits! Richard, prepare for battle!" Instructor Choi said.

  "There's nothing much to prepare." Liu Zhen looked back at the militiamen, "Our Feilongcui militiamen are always ready for battle at any moment! Right?"

  "Right!" The militiamen shouted loudly, the vassal warriors' voices were sparse, and the slaves were silent.

  The twenty-mile journey took the bandit army a full two hours to complete, and when they appeared on the plain in front of the red earth slope, Liu Zhen had several more intricately carved wooden axes in his hand, with a pile of snow-white wood shavings at his feet.

  Waiting is a very boring thing, especially when there are a lot of people on the other side and still twenty or thirty miles away. Liu Zhensheng had to carve his own war song scroll in his spare time.

  The "V" formation of the bandit alliance was displayed in front of Liu Zhen about six hundred paces away, and this thick attacking formation made many soldiers of Feilong Village feel a chill.

  The army of the Cold Arms era was even more shocking than the southern border battlefield. Liu Zhen was not unfamiliar with the mobilization of large troops, but it was the first time he saw so many warriors lined up in front of him on a large scale.

  "This is an ambush formation." Vieri reminded his boss.

  The vanguard of the robbers' coalition was a row of sturdy Dwarven warriors holding large wooden shields, the massive shields were made up of thick wooden planks, with bronze rivets that shone in the sunlight. These shields were so huge and heavy that it took four Dwarven warriors to lay them flat and move them.

  This row of shields, if placed upright, would have a height of at least two blades.

  "This is used against us, but Mammoth Knights are fearless even in the face of steel shields." Korina cackled.

  "The bandits have really become clever, the dwarves are indeed worthy of being the most intelligent race." Liu said without raising his head.

  Among the slow-moving ranks of robbers, the tall and imposing figure of the high-ranking dwarf officer stood out starkly among the sturdy dwarf warriors, who were generally around five feet in height. The rear ranks consisted of countless bizarre-looking robbers. These robbers included savage-looking wildmen with ape-like faces, cannibals, and even a hill giant carrying a wooden club and shield.

  These disorganized bandits also wielded strange weapons, including worn-out long knives, bows and arrows, as well as stone mallets, all sorts of them.

  A cavalryman of the allied army held a bronze long spear to guard the left and right wings of the bandit formation, the Mongolian horse was constantly snorting in the dry and cold air, occasionally lowering its head to nibble on one or two wild grasses.

  The robbers' orderly manner left Liu stunned, and a murmur of whispers erupted behind him.

  Liu Zhen was shocked and surprised that among these stolen things, he actually found the figure of Bimont, it was indeed Bimont! There was Wolf, and there was Pig.

  He was just about to take the Dragon Crystal. Using the "Ron Song" - "Unknown Creature Identification Song" stored inside it for a test, he was stopped by the sweet voice of the beautiful snake instructor.

  "Don't be surprised, Richard." Cui Pei's voice was calm: "There are also big thieves and bad eggs in the Bei Mong area."

  "What should I do?" Helen grasped Liu's trembling hand, her palm was covered with sweat.

  Helen was facing this kind of scene for the first time, and it wasn't just her, most people here hadn't experienced such a scene before. Liu Zhen's eyes swept back and forth, seeing many pale faces, the tense atmosphere quietly spreading.

  The Kulong tribe's skunk people and the Haigou tribe's hedgehog people were the most tense, with Liu Zhen even seeing their hands shaking as they grasped their weapons.

  More than 200 goblins and troll slaves looked no better, the thick formation of the bandit alliance. At a glance, there were at least more than 5,000 people, the most slaves had only experienced battles of hundreds of people. Faced with such a heavy battle array, the expression on their faces had already clearly written "definitely can't win", if it weren't for the regular militia led by Feilongchui pressing the formation from behind, they might have fled on the spot.

  What shocked Liu was that those Musketeers did not follow his order to rest, standing row by row behind the vassal tribe, their tall and thin figures had some white-robed ghosts flashing behind them.

  No need to guess, those 13 or 14-year-old boys must have disobeyed his orders and snuck onto the battlefield too.

  "Our formation is not even as good as a bandit's." Evie sighed. Having been born into an imperial family since childhood, she naturally knew the importance of formations in a battle. As soon as these words came out, even Gatanee, who had always been at odds with her, nodded in agreement.

  "I didn't think bandits could form a formation, although it's still a bit amateurish, but at least they've already got the embryo of an army." Kotani removed her own insignia.

  The formation of the Feilongcui warriors had nothing to do with a battle array, some were hiding in the bamboo forest peeking out, while others were clustered together. The slaves held the weapons they had captured last time, still bearing the elephant hoof prints on their chain armor, a large group was crowded on Liu Zhen's left side, behind them stood a row of Feilongcui militia with icy and concentrated gazes.

  It's just that this group of militiamen can still give people a sense of security, facing a bandit army tens of times stronger than their own forces, only they can maintain an expression as solid as a rock. The hippopotamus poets even have the leisure to tuck long swords under their arms, pull out pens and paper from their pockets, and write and draw on them.

  A low, powerful horn sounded in the midst of the bandit army, and amidst loud shouts, ten massive, dull-gray badgers emerged from behind the formation to the front. These badgers were over five feet tall, with enormous bodies rivaling those of earth dragons. They resembled slow-moving mountains of flesh, their upright gait making them appear like gigantic rats with razor-sharp claws and gleaming tusks.

  On each of the great badgers' backs sat a sturdy earth spirit clad in copper armor, holding dual spears and ceaselessly shouting commands.

  These terrifying behemoths utterly shattered the morale of the Phalanx slaves and vassal warriors, with several immediately turning to flee.

  A swift and fierce flash of the knife, two bear-like slaves who had just run out a couple of steps had their heads flying into the sky, their bodies slanting and flying out, their skulls rolling on the ground.

  In front of the two corpses was a blood-stained ivory machete, Korina's eyes were colder than ice and harder than iron. On his back were inserted four ivory machetes, each handle wrapped with fine strings. The mammoth tribe's ivory had been fully deployed for this battle.

  "Who's going back?" Corina bellowed: "This is what happens!"

  The slaves and vassal warriors in this thunderous roar, shrinking their bellies again turned their gaze to the bandit alliance.

  A clear and melodious battle hymn rose, after all, it was the experienced and aged Quan Zhang's sacrificial ceremony. The beautiful snake instructor used the "Quiet Light" of the Tongling song to quietly comfort the trembling hands and feet of the attached tribe.

  An Yonglan and the monks comforted these weak warriors and slaves with "Prayer Light", the monks' "Prayer Light" was more effective than war songs, especially in calming the mind.

  Although the war songs and prayers could not eliminate the fear of these vassals, at least after listening to the war songs and prayers, their teeth no longer chattered, and their hands and feet no longer trembled like they had malaria.

  Helen suddenly came to her senses and followed the instructor's steps, sprinkling "comforting light" to the surrounding vassal warriors.

  The lord seems to have completely forgotten his identity as a sacrificer and is still carving the wooden axle in his hand like an idle person. He has begun to pursue art and wants to carve a double dragon playing with a pearl on the axle, but he still needs to carve out the eyes of the dragon.

  His calmness is the backbone of the entire Feilongcui. Cui Peishan finally acknowledged this in her heart.

  The bandit army also saw the beheading of the fleeing soldiers, and the bandits let out unscrupulous ridicule, with the sound of weapons striking shields demonstrating back and forth.

  The mighty Mammoths blew a whistle, twelve heads with copper armor and rattan armor, colorful aura under the abdomen swaying in the wind, shaking their big buttocks, trampling a large pile of bamboo forests, revealing their strong bodies like mountains to the robbers.

  "I'd die before you, you wooden board! Corina, what's wrong with your mammoth elephant that it has to trample a whole bamboo forest?" Good looked at Corina Knight with a slanted gaze.

  The robbers' jeers vanished in an instant.

  In the midst of the mammoth elephant's thunderous "crackling" sound, even the great earth badger knights were reining in control of their massive steeds, and the tall shields instantly stood upright.

  Two dazzling and sacred rays of light flashed by, a giant raccoon dog with copper chain armor and an iron cross beast with silver armor also appeared in the field of vision of the robbers.

  Giant otter with a shiny black coat, saw its close relative the groundhog, and disdainfully snorted. The iron cross beast was as if cast from black iron, shaped like a large elk but with cow-like hooves, and on its head were a pair of sharp cross-shaped horns.

  Two guardian knights leapt up, grasping their large kite shields. Gottani held a four-bladed silver cross spear in her hand, while Vieri wielded an axe. The two guardian knights kissed their own insignia badges and solemnly pinned them to their helmets, lowering their faceplates.

  Templar! Bronze Templar and Silver Templar!

  These two names are by no means unfamiliar to those who are familiar with the legend of Robin Hood.

  The robbers' formation began to show signs of disturbance, the noisy rural sound was like a bustling city opening, and the boisterous atmosphere separated the slightly stiff battlefield atmosphere.

  "After all, who is the real bandit? No matter how well you arrange your battle formation, it can't compare to the humans who invented the battle formation." Vieri's loud voice still shook through his helmet.

  "All I know is they retreated," Good said.

  "We've lived an extra hour," said Bellamy.

  "Despair is a luxury of the weak," O'Neill said.

  "I don't know if I can still live to see tomorrow's sun," Karu said.

  Stupid. The militiamen all said.