Chapter 49: The Return Journey (Three)

  Even a barbarian warrior who grew up in the harsh north could not withstand such serious injuries. When Will pushed away the wanderer behind Isaac, Isaac had already fallen to the ground. His hands were still tightly grasping his battle-axe, but he was unable to get back up, and could only lie on the ground, gasping for breath, helplessly and reluctantly awaiting his final moment.

  But that final moment never came. As Will cut down the enemy in front of him, Eidas had already recovered from his initial panic. He raised his shield to protect himself and muttered a prayer incantation under his breath.

  Sanctuary Technique

  To the wanderer who was attacking Edas, it seemed as if in an instant his enemy had vanished. The wanderer remained in the same fighting stance as before, but could no longer see his opponent.

  Where did you go?

  Aidas gazed at the wanderer who seemed to have lost his sight, looking around in all directions in front of him, and secretly laughed in his heart: Can the power of God be understood by you insignificant mortals? He stood still, reciting a new spell once again.

  "That's strange." The vagrant looked around and shook his head, "It was just here a moment ago."

  Since the enemy was gone, he changed his target and walked towards Will's direction.

  At this time, Eidas's divine technique was completed.

  Qigong

  For some unknown reason, the wandering man felt that his body no longer belonged to him. Like a statue, he stared fixedly ahead, wanting to break free from this restraint, but couldn't muster up any strength.

  The battle on Will's side was still fierce. After Aizar fell, he was attacked from both front and back, although he dodged quickly, his left arm was still cut by a short sword. Danger lurked everywhere for a while.

  Aidas, riding on the wanderer who was pinned down by himself, released a barbaric technique and cast a dark fire technique on the weapon in his hand. A flash of red light flashed in his eyes, and a flame ignited from his hammer. Aidas took big strides towards the poor wanderer and smashed his head with a heavy blow, ending his life.

  Black flames burned quietly on the corpse. Eddard shouted: "In the name of Daenerys, accept the trial of justice!" Rushed to Will's side and frantically smashed at the wanderer who was trying to sneak up on Will.

  This vagabond was the leader who had previously licked his short sword and put down cruel words. However, even the leader couldn't stop a priest in full armor with a weapon burning with black flames empowered by the barbarian technique. The vagabonds were not good at frontal attacks to begin with, let alone against a priest wearing fine steel plate armor. Before long, the last two vagabonds fell to the ground, their limbs still twitching slightly, but they were beyond salvation.

  Laying down his weapon, Eidas knelt down, muttering prayers under his breath as warm light emanated from his hands. Under the illumination of the light, the terrifying wounds on Isaac's body gradually healed. The barbarian warrior who had fallen into a coma slowly opened his eyes.

  "Thank you, Sun God." Will clasped his hands together in front of his chest and exclaimed loudly.

  Ezak didn't believe in Daenerys, but the other had saved his life, and a thank you was always in order. After a moment of tidying up, Will shot Ezak a stern look to stop him from glancing at the corpse with an idiotic expression, and asked his brother, "Aidas, what do we do next?"

  This is a good question, and Eidas didn't know what to do either. At the time, he heard that the evil Erl was leaving the city from the north gate, heading straight north, and without thinking much, he rushed out. Now standing on the main road, with the bodies of the attackers by his side, Eidas really didn't know what to do.

  Seeing Idris's bewildered expression, Will shook his head and turned to ask Isaac: "Can you find any leads on those people?"

  Aizak, a barbarian who grew up tracking beasts, is far more reliable than Edas, who has just emerged from the temple.

  Hearing his old partner Will ask him, Isaac withdrew his greedy gaze from the corpse and furrowed his brow to answer: "I don't know what characteristics the person we're chasing has, I don't know where they're going. And the footprints on the ground have been messed up, many people have come here before us, Isaac doesn't know which footprints belong to that Ailuer."

  After listening to Isaac's somewhat stiff common language, Will knew that this trip was probably in vain. If the fifty gold coins had left any clues, they had already been destroyed by the dead mercenaries. The only clue was the three piles of mutilated corpses, but unfortunately, they were all along the road and had no reference value.

  "What? You mean you can't find him? What are we going to do? Are we just going to let that despicable villain escape God's punishment?" Eidas exclaimed.

  Alas, I still have to persuade this stubborn brother of mine to go back. Will had a headache.

  "Isaac, take a look around and see if there's any new leads." Will looked at Isaac, then glanced at the corpses, raised his head to look at Isaac again, and blinked. Seeing Isaac nod in understanding with a smile, he turned to Idas and said, "Let's go back first and see if there are any new leads."

  At least it won't be a wasted trip, he thought.

  Aidas was reluctant, but he had no choice. Some things can't be done with just enthusiasm, and he understood that. Sighing, Aidas turned his head and went back the way he came.

  Less than two hundred steps away, Will suddenly heard Isaac calling out behind him. Turning back to look, sure enough, that sturdy figure was running towards them.

  "A clue! A trail! I've found it!" Isaac exclaimed, waving his hand wildly.

  Aidas eyed Eizarak strangely as he approached. He saw four short swords, four pouches of money, and a suit of leather armor.

  "This is gathering information, gathering intelligence." Will explained, wiping sweat from his brow. "We have to know who wants us dead."

  "Brother, I'm not a fool." Eidas said with a frown of discontent. "I know what you're doing!"

  Will clamped his mouth shut and stared tensely at his younger brother.

  "This evil person's possessions didn't belong to them in the first place, so taking them is no problem." He continued, letting out a sigh of relief from Will. Looks like he had thought too rigidly about the temple.

  The so-called clues and trails were on the side of the road. The fallen but not yet recovered flowers and grasses pointed out a path leading to the forest.

  "Have they gone into the woods?" Eddis asked, looking at this trail that had been trampled out. "Can you be certain it's them?"

  Isaac shook his head.

  Aida gazed at the quiet forest, muttering to herself: "Why not take the main road, but instead go through the woods? It must be that scoundrel. Along the way, they killed three groups of people who tried to intercept them, so they should already know someone is chasing after them. Hmm, yes, that's right."

  Having made up his mind, he turned back and said calmly: "We're pursuing!" He had the grandeur of a great general, just like the teacher who taught them the history of war. Eidas felt that he was getting more and more like him.

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  "Duke Jiang beheaded the demon Daji with one sword on the altar of sealing gods. From then on, the Shang Dynasty was destroyed, and the Zhou Dynasty rose from its ruins, becoming the new master of the Central Plains." Joni paused here, took out his water bag and took a big gulp.

  I'm so thirsty I could die.

  "Wow..." Astrid was still savoring the previous brilliant demigod battle. Eir was disdainfully snorting in derision.

  "What a ridiculous story, I've never heard of such a thing. What's this Aethoria continent, what's this Chai'ra Empire? Where does one end and the other begin? Nonsense."

  Joni finished drinking water, touched his mouth and looked at Ailar with a slant: "Your Universal Language isn't learned well, I remember I said this is a story, what kind of deaf ears can hear 'story' as 'history'?"

  "You...!" Elar's words got stuck. As a noble descendant, an elegant minstrel, he couldn't exchange insults with this country bumpkin in front of him. But not exchanging insults was really frustrating!

  "Oh dear, Elara, don't be noisy!" Astrid waved her hand, then looked at Joanie with concern, "And then? What happened to the Zhou Kingdom later?"

  Since the three people knew about Ailar's origin, his status plummeted, especially in Estry's eyes, from a handsome and elegant wandering poet to the level of "lust demon" and "evil rascal". After that battle, he even slid down to the bottom of "incompetence".

  I am your boss!!! Of course, he didn't dare shout it out.

  "Wait a minute, I've said so much already, I'm dying of thirst. Let's take a break and continue later." Johnny added with a pause.

  Odara, who had been quietly leading the way, suddenly turned around: "Alright, let's take a break here." After everyone sat down on the ground after simple cleaning, he leaned close to Joanie and looked at him with curiosity.

  "Kid, how did you know so much?"

  Jony's cold sweat came down instantly. It seemed that what he had shown in the past few days was indeed beyond the level that his current age should have possessed. No, probably it was beyond the level that the current civilization should have possessed.

  Seeing Jony's face turn white, Odala didn't press the question. He changed the subject: "Have you ever thought about what to do after arriving at Ocedin?"

  What was he supposed to do? Johnny detached himself from his previous slight fear and began to think about this serious question. What was he supposed to do?

  The first thing was to marry Astrid. He looked at Astrid and smiled.

  Audrey saw his expression, shook her head, sighed, and then slapped him on the back of the head: "Don't be silly, I'm asking about your life plans. Are you going to die after marrying Astrid or what?"

  Astrid and Jonny were gazing lovingly at each other, but upon hearing Odara's words, they hastily shifted their gaze away, blushing and lowering their heads.

  But then again, it's about life planning. What can I rely on to support my family? Joanie thought with her head down.

  Is that all there is to life? Earn a living, have a kid, teach him how to make a living, watch him have kids, and then die in bed? Although his parents' death made him feel that a plain life was truly good, but it couldn't be this dull.

  Become a mercenary? That's not a bad idea. But I heard that Osedin doesn't have a mercenaries' union, does it?

  Will you continue to follow and gather military achievements as a knight?

  "Sir." Thinking of knights, Joni's way of addressing Odara also changed unconsciously, "Are you a noble in Ocedin?"

  Audra shook her head: "No."

  This road is also cut off.

  What was he doing at Ossadtin? Johnny had no idea.

  "Austdin doesn't raise idle people." Odala saw Johnny's embarrassed face and said, "Every Austdiner has their own job. Most of them join the army, Austdin's Guardian Army is a place where all young Austdinians yearn to go."

  Should I join the army? Jony thought. At this time, he found that he didn't seem to know much about the Osetin Kingdom.

  "Master." Since he wasn't a noble, Joanie didn't stand on ceremony either. "You'd better introduce me to Othello first, or else I really can't think of what to do."

  The Kingdom of Osean is a unified, centralized state, which differs from the Empire of Vilsa Second. Local officials in Osean are appointed by the royal capital and evaluated once a year. At the same time, residents of the kingdom have the right to jointly impeach local officials in their area, and the impeachment documents will be reviewed by a higher-level Odein Church. In the eyes of God, anyone who dares to harm his people has nowhere to hide.

  The Osadin Kingdom has three border defense groups. The Northern Army, also known as the army under the command of Erl Althaeon, is stationed in the northern border of the kingdom and is responsible for resisting the barbarians on the wasteland and the savages in the snowy forest. The Western Army is stationed at the border between Osadin and Tannia, where a fierce battle was taking place when Oudala left his hometown. Fortresses, giant swords, war axes, the people of Osadin used their flesh and blood to resist the impact of the Tannian iron cavalry. In front of these "barbarians" - the term used by the Tannians to refer to them - even the holy warriors and priests wearing heavy armor could not turn the tide of battle.

  The Southern Army garrisoned Ossetia and Wirsu on the border, with no battles on the southern line.

  "The people of Asgard take pride in fighting, take pride in dedicating themselves to the country, and take pride in sacrificing their lives for Odin." Odala glanced at Eir with disdain. "So almost everyone is practicing martial arts. Even an ordinary farmer, as long as he picks up a weapon, is a brave warrior, absolutely not weaker than those soldiers from Velsa in the south, and even stronger in many ways."

  "Besides warriors, aren't there other professions? Otherwise, how would the kingdom survive?" Jony asked strangely.

  "Didn't you hear me just now? Even an ordinary farmer... Of course, we can't all be soldiers."

  Odin preserve us, even in the cold north the harvests are still good. The only worry is the wild men scattered through the deep mountains and dense forests, they are the most fearsome robbers.

  "If you want to cultivate the land, I won't stop you. I don't know if there are fewer barbarians within our borders now, but in the past they were quite numerous. There's no way around it, since the time of the First Empire of Velsa, we've been living on the same land as them."

  It seems like I have no choice but to keep fighting.

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  At this time, under Isaac's leadership, the three of them slowly moved forward in the forest. (Thanks for helping with the author survey about the cover, thank you! ~)