Qian Jin uttered a sigh when seeing the totally different attitudes of Boss Leong and Duren Burg. Every book described the warriors of the Zence Empire as a crowd of people respected by the entire country, including his majesty the emperor. However, what was hidden behind the recorded history was that the warriors that were venerated by the people were those who were powerful, instead of the warriors at the bottom.
“You three, get prepared.” General Wind waved his hands, “Put away your weapons and fetch a soft leather-armor in the military supply depot.”
Quite a lot of mercenaries cast an envious looks at the three warriors because generally, mercenary equipment needed to be paid for out of pocket, among which, the cost of soft leather-armor was relatively high, but these three guys were given a piece of soft leather-armor for free upon their participation in the army.
Qian Jin found a quiet tent to stay, but after careful deliberation, he still didn’t take out his Zhanmadao from his warrior dimension, as it would be too eye-catching to hold both a bow and a blade. Instead, he took out a quiver of arrows and hung it around his waist, carried the Shoot Moon Bow forged from purified iron and then walked back to the caravan.
The mercenaries didn’t pay much attention to Qian Jin or his forceful bow. In their point of view, a qualified warrior would usually carry weapons made for close quarters combat such as blades, spears, and swords. Unless you were an archer from the Yuri Family, you wouldn’t possibly enjoy too high of a position. Even though the forceful bow you were holding looked powerful, it was nothing but…a fake!
Some descendants of the high-ranking officials and the nobility had limited strength but still dreamt of putting on airs. In that case, they would ask some artisan to tailor a weapon which took on a pretty appearance and looked finely-fabricated and powerful, though with poor utility.
Once there’s a demand, there’s a supply. Fake Forging Techniques enjoyed high popularity in the big cities of the Zence Empire, which could make hundreds of thousands of items take on the look of a warrior weapon, though incapable of killing even a slightly larger bird.
The mercenaries’ attention was largely placed in Fanta Kunge, who, though not born a bloodline warrior, had become a Demon Fighter at such a young age. Since they may still run into each other in the future, it was better for them to get familiar with him from now on.
Duren Burg was striding forward with a two-foot-long spear on his shoulder, paying no attention to the people surrounding him. The body of the spear was bent into a slight angle with his arms laid backward on, indicating that the spear body was finely elastic. Yet the tip of the spear was glistening in cold light against the radiating sun.
The mercenaries weren’t attracted to Duren Burg and his spear whose body was made of Fraxinus wood. Though of fine quality, it couldn’t be classified into a great weapon.
However, when Qian Jin peeped at the spearhead carried by Duren Burg, he showed great admiration as it was of warrior weapon level. Fabricated into the spear’s body was ordinary Fraxinus wood. Combined with such a tip, it harbored some implicit meaning.
The three Thousand Man Captains didn’t find any prohibited goods on their inspection, and then General Wind waved his hand to permit their leave.
Walking in the middle of the caravan with weapons held in their hands, Qian Jin and his two buddies imitated those mercenaries in looking around.
[The Demons were mortal enemies of the Zence Empire.]
Such had been an ironclad rule deeply rooted in every civilian’s mind in the Zence Empire, yet not every one of them was clear what the Demons looked like and how they were living their lives.
As for Qian Jin, he had only read an introduction to Demons in books without seeing them with his own eyes.
Stepping out of the Reventment Fortress, the tension amid the entire trade caravan intensified, and all mercenaries had begun displaying their professional abilities, among whom two soldiers disguised as scouts rode their horses and dashed forward to glean information, and the rest of them were left attending to the surrounding environment watchfully.
There was a belt between the Zence Empire and the Demons that was not under the jurisdiction of both sides, in which every part enjoyed different lengths and widths. The farther places were several hundred miles apart, which were out of control by both sides, and the closer places had a distance of only one dozen or several miles, which were set as the buffering areas of both sides.
If the borders were within close distance, battles would be happening every day. But after so many years of battle experiences, both sides had jointly drawn a comparatively safe line between each other’s territories.
Near the Reventment Battlefield, there was an area of one hundred and fifty miles between the Demons and the Zence Empire which was not under either side’s jurisdiction and was thus deemed as the heaven for thieves and bandits. Here, hooligans of the Demons species, as well as bandits of the Zence Empire and the Barbarians were jubilantly gathered.
It was nothing unusual to see a crowd of robbers which was formed by the Barbarians, the Demons and the Humans in the non-jurisdiction areas.
The trade caravans hired the mercenaries to safeguard themselves from the harassment of bandits along the way.
After several miles’ journey, a crisp and lofty groaning suddenly rang from the carts.
Qian Jin glanced at the cart from the corner of his eyes and quickly got to understand for whom the pretty and imperious female mage uttered that complaint—Duren Burg!
The trade caravan had just moved forward for several miles, but Duren Burg had already familiarized himself with the coachman. And now, leaning over the straw of the cart, he was basking in the sunlight, indulging in the fragrant cigarette and the tender breeze. He looked relaxed like he was going out on a camping trip. No sense of tension could be seen on him.
While the driver sitting next to Duren Burg manning the reigns was the very one they met on the third cart, a cigarette was pinched between his coarse and broad hand, and dim blue smoke was roaming into the sky from the brim of his hat.
Is this to say that Duren Burg had also noticed something wrong with this driver? A puzzled look flashed through Qian Jin’s eyes, at which time a howling of an eagle came out of the blue.
The mercenaries were suddenly alerted, and two archer mercenaries who were holding powerful bows made of Nanmu wood immediately pulled out the arrow and nocked at the flying eagle.
The scout eagle of the bandits! Qian Jin once read in an introduction to the bandits that some would use people as their scouts, while the others would use such animals as eagles, swallows and even jumping rabbits.
However, as rabbits were fairly easy game, the mercenaries of trade caravans would immediately barbecue their trophies after they shoot them. Consequently, bandits hardly used rabbits as their scouts recently for fear that their spies would become supper for the mercenaries.
Eagles were now used as a scouting means by both bandits and the army.
With a clear whizzing sound, two forceful arrows soared into the sky, and as they reached higher, their speed slowed. Whereas, the eagle swung its feather lightly, leaned to the other side and grasped the arrows incisively with its claw.
After a round of howling in the sky, the eagle hovered for one circle above the caravan in a scornful way and then dropped the arrows down onto the ground.
“Gross! How dare you people call yourself mercenaries when you aren’t even capable of shooting down an eagle?” Abela put on a sneer and glanced at the mercenaries who were holding the bows, “How dare you ask for any mercenary fee?”
On hearing this, the two archer mercenaries swiftly flushed, and then lowered their heads. It was such a shame for the mercenaries to have failed in shooting an eagle, for whatever reason this eagle flew much higher than ordinary eagles.
While the other mercenaries more or less put on an angry face. Since they joined this caravan, every day they had to suffer the insults of this girl. However, they had no way to fight, as this girl was not only a Level 3 Mage but also a member of the Mage Union.
“Oops, it seems that you archers and warriors have to rely on we mages, without whom you will be of no use.” Abela held up her delicate hand and slowly rose up. Her mage robe which looked like a piece of crimson gown dancing with the wind, “Let me help you to see the supremacy of a mage.”
Abela slowly lifted her wand and started chanting softly to conjure her magic power, by which the spiritual power was gradually connected to the ruby of her mage. She didn’t use the magic scroll to swiftly start up the magic power; rather, she took on the chanting method.
At the sight of what Abela was doing, Qian Jin couldn’t help forcing a smile. There were quite a number of mages who had this kind of hobby of showing their mage chanting ability whenever they got the chance. They’d rather slowly adjust their spiritual power to gather the magic elements than taking the simpler yet more useful method. Was she put into a fight with Gloria, she would have been finished off by her opponent for more than ten times.
“Spirits of fire element, please follow my commands and appear!” The wand held by Abela was brimming with red light, which then flickered to gradually form a Fire Arrow, “Activate! Fire Arrow Spell! Shoot down the trivial rival!”
With a crisp bang, the Fire Arrow soared into the sky and plunged at the eagle in an overwhelmingly forceful manner. It then left a vaguely red trace in the sky, as if the sky had been ignited by it.
Seeing the roaming Fire Arrow, the eagle turned its body, faced its wings towards the Fire Arrow and then produced a strong wind, under which the Fire Arrow was becoming smaller and smaller into a wispy flame, and finally disappeared.
For the time being, the trade caravan turned desperately silent. As could be seen by Qian Jin, the mercenaries’ faces turned red as they were suppressing their urge to mock this female mage. They couldn’t laugh out loud since they were afraid of crossing her. Nevertheless, it was quite a strange occurrence to have such a mighty Fire Arrow blown out by the eagle’s wings than having the arrows grasped by it.
“Hahahahahaha…”
A loud laughter broke out from the silent trade caravan. It was Duren Burg who was rolling over the straw on the cart. His hand, on which there was a cigarette pinched between, was used to wipe away the tears flowed out of his eyes.
“Funny! It’s really funny!” Duren Burg looked at Abela, laughing as he spoke. “Hey pretty girl, do you feel that this trip is so boring that you have to do something funny to make us laugh? It’s interesting! More than interesting! If you fail to find a job in the future, you can just go to the circus and give performances. For example, you can display a trick of conjuring a Fire Arrow and having it blown out by a mouse. I’m sure you will be a hit.”
