Astral Apostle

  Chapter 37 Ross: The more melons, the more ruthless the knife

   "It turned out to be the food harvesting team. Is it the end of the year?"

  Balon was taken aback.

  The villages under the rule of Baiyuan City have to pay agricultural taxes. The grain harvesting team visits each village every year and removes part of the grain as tax revenue, while the village receives the protection of the town.

   Zhou Jing turned to look at Baron.

   "Do we need to go and help?"

   "It's not necessary, the village chief will call the villagers to carry the food, we don't need us." Baron shook his head.

"alright."

   Zhou Jing rolled his eyes and responded like this, but he still wanted to take a look and see the situation.

  Baron didn't take the grain harvesting team to heart, he paused, and said:

   "By the way, go to the town in two days. Wes will give us the money for selling the prey, so you can go get it."

   "You're not going?"

   "I'm too lazy to move, you already know the way anyway." Balon waved his hand.

   He only went to the city when he needed to do errands, and stayed in the village the rest of the time.

  Some alien hunters have been on the line of life and death all the year round and need to vent. Many hunters like to find hotel maids. Baron doesn’t know if Zhou Jing has any hobbies in this regard. Anyway, he is not interested and only likes to play iron.

   So Baron didn't plan to follow this time, lest "Jason" be embarrassed to have fun.

   "Okay, then I'll wait until tomorrow, when Weiss should have received the money."

   Zhou Jing nodded in response.

   He has been to Baiyuan City several times in the past three months.

  Balong's visit this time was mainly to express his support for Zhou Jing to go out and explore. After the matter was finished, he also left.

   Watching Balong leave, Zhou Jing thought about it and walked to the entrance of the village.

   At this time, the entrance to the village was very lively. A pack of beasts pulled carts to park at the entrance of the village. More than a dozen soldiers from Baiyuan City were guarding them. The tax collector of the grain collection team, with his subordinates, was negotiating with the villagers of Shuangmu Village.

  The atmosphere is fairly peaceful, and many villagers seem to have little resistance.

  The two sides soon finished the discussion. The village chief organized the villagers to take out bags of grain from the mill and sent them to the entrance of the village. The staff brought by the tax collector was responsible for the inventory and loading.

   Zhou Jing watched for a while and found that there was no villager riot or anything like that.

   When he looked up the information of the Middle Ages in the countries of the main world, he saw a lot of records of grain collectors being stabbed to death by pitchforks, but the villagers in the alien world were very cooperative in paying taxes.

  ‘It seems that it is also because of the threat of alien beasts. The village cannot do without the protection of the town, so it is willing to pay taxes. ’

   Zhou Jing nodded and confirmed that there was nothing wrong, so he was not going to stay here any longer.

   Just as he was about to leave, his gaze swept across one of the food-receiving team and suddenly stopped.

   In the crowd, a man with a goatee was counting the food with a list, which made Zhou Jing look familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere.

   "This person..."

   Zhou Jing thought for a while and thought of this person.

  When I went to Baiyuan City for the first time, I almost bumped into a person in the pharmacy, and it was this goatee man.

   If I remember correctly, this person seems to be a drugstore clerk, but now he is not wearing the drugstore's coarse uniform.

   But it's familiar, it's just a one-sided relationship, there's no need to go up and talk.

   Zhou Jing took a second look, then walked away, went to the training ground to start a day of exercise, and went to sweat.

  …

   It's almost afternoon.

  The grain harvesting team has finished counting the grains, and they don’t want to rush on the road at night. They plan to stay in the village for one night and leave early tomorrow morning.

Although   Shuangmu Village is small, there is also a simple tavern. A few villagers were temporarily hired to help in the back kitchen, and they barely received the members of the grain harvesting team. There were about ten tables in the open air to provide meals to the grain harvesting team.

   The people from the food harvesting team talked about the mountains while eating and drinking, and said the villagers of Shuangmu Village were stunned for a while.

  Reiner and a group of village children gathered around them and listened to the stories outside, fascinated.

   When Zhou Jing returned from the setting sun with sweat all over his body, what he saw was a noisy scene.

Looking at the dozens of people in the food collection team who were eating and drinking, Zhou Jing didn't answer. Thinking about how to deal with it directly, he went straight to the back kitchen of the tavern to get two freshly cooked meals, which were similar to potatoes. The same thing, steaming hot and steaming white.

  The chef of the tavern saw that it was Zhou Jing, and he did not stop him. He must have the privilege of being a hunter of alien beasts.

   Zhou Jing returned to the house with the meal, and dealt with Ross at will, and then did not go out of the house, instructing Ross to practice breathing techniques.

   This is what he must do every night when he arrives in person, and it is almost as headache as helping a child with homework.

  The red glow faded, and the moonlight fell.

   The grain harvesting teams who came to visit were full and rested.

  The night is getting darker, the outside is no longer noisy, it becomes as quiet as usual.

   After a tiring night of counseling, Zhou Jing was upset and asked Ross to make the bed and walked to the window by himself, ready to close the curtains and turn off the lights to sleep.

   But just as he was about to lower the curtains, Zhou Jing was across the window when he suddenly noticed a few sneaky backs, moving in the village, just turned a corner not far away and disappeared from his sight.

   At a glance, he recognized one of them, the goatee man he found in the morning.

   "Huh? Why are you wandering around the village without sleeping these few big nights?"

   Zhou Jing moved in his heart.

   He thought for a while, and asked Rose to follow him. The two of them walked out the window and followed them quietly.

   Zhou Jing is so agile that it is difficult for ordinary people to discover. On the other hand, Ross has stealth characteristics such as [Night Camouflage] and [Light Steps], and is better at tracking. Zhou Jing sometimes doesn't notice his existence, and it's no problem.

   The two of them were adorned behind the goatee and the others, and followed them all the way, and soon found out that these people were walking out of the village.

The direction of    is the pharmacist's hut where the witch doctor lives outside the village.

   "Yo, there is a situation!"

   Zhou Jing's eyes lit up, and he suddenly became energetic.

   After staying in Frostwood Village for half a year, the witch doctor Jiama has always been very low-key, and there has always been no situation, and he is not easy to find trouble with others.

   After leaving the village, it was a continuous field, and it was difficult to hide. Zhou Jing and Ross stopped and walked. After a few people walked into the sparse woods surrounding the pharmacist's hut, they followed behind.

   Zhou Jing hid behind the tree and saw the scene of the pharmacist's hut.

  I saw the man with the goatee knock on the door lightly. Jiama quickly opened the door and welcomed several people in.

  The door closed again.

   Zhou Jing rolled his eyes, dodged and hid under the window, hiding in the blind spot of his vision, pricked up his ears, and listened carefully to the movement from the room.

The    alien blood enhancement slightly enhanced his perception, and the conversations in the room were picked up by hearing.

   "Gama, what about the goods this time?" This seemed to be the voice of the man with the goatee.

"it's here."

  Jama opened his mouth to speak, his voice was no longer as old-fashioned as usual, but full of vigour.

   There was a sound of turning over boxes and cabinets, followed by the sliding sound of some kind of mechanism, and then the sound of several boxes slamming on the ground, mixed with the crisp clanging of bottles and jars.

   After a while, the goatee man said with dissatisfaction: "Why is it so small, it is far from the previous number."

  Jama's tone was helpless: "The village hunters have suffered a lot, and they are busy training new recruits during this time, so there are fewer opportunities for me to bring herbs, and the materials are not enough, so I can only do so much."

  Goatee man: "Forget it, the price per bottle is still the same."

   Jingle Jingle…

   A sound of coins colliding.

  Jama laughed twice, then whispered: "When you came over, no one found out, did you?"

  The goatee man didn't care: "Don't worry, the whole village is asleep, no one can see it."

  Jama was unhappy: "You should be more cautious. There are outsiders in the village. Six months ago, a guy named Jason Wood came to live in the village and became an alien hunter. He is an unstable factor..."

   The man with the goatee sneered: "Looking at how timid you are, what about outsiders? Will people definitely notice you?"

   "I..." Jiama said with suffering.

  The man with the goatee shook his head: "If you are so afraid, then we don't have to do business. Anyway, I have other pharmacists to supply."

   "Don't!" Jiama hurriedly said, "I can do it."

   Zhou Jing listened to the corner for a while. Although he didn't see the scene, he almost understood the situation.

   If I'm not mistaken, Garma is selling potions to the goatee man, a deal that may have been going on for years.

  ‘Shuangki Village provided Jiama, and Jiama provided medicine and medical services. The two sides cooperated, but he hid some of the medicines and lied that making medicines was easy to fail. ’

   Zhou Jing probably guessed it.

   If it is in the interstellar era, similar things may be common, and it may even be possible to turn a blind eye.

   But in the simple concept of the villagers in the alien world - for you to eat and drink, you are still cutting corners and enriching your own pockets, so you are not human.

  The villagers would definitely not be able to accept it. As long as the incident happened, even if Jiama was a rare pharmacist willing to stay in the village, 80% of them would be kicked out.

   All kinds of thoughts flashed by, but Zhou Jing did not jump out immediately.

   He gestured to Ross, who was hiding not far away, and motioned for Ross to show up and make some noise.

  Ross got up silently, came to the door of the pharmacist's hut, and slammed his head against the wall.

boom!

   is very loud.

  The sound in the room disappeared, and it was so silent that the needle fell instantly.

  Wow!

   The door slammed open, and the goatee man didn't see anyone at first glance. He looked down and saw Ross who was squatting at the door and covering his head.

"catch him!"

   The goatee man's tone was startled and angry.

   There were three valetes beside him and immediately rushed up and grabbed Ross.

  Ross raised his eyes and looked under the window sill, but Zhou Jing, who was originally here, had disappeared and was quietly hidden.

   Seeing this, Ross was silently pressed to the ground without resisting.

   Seeing that the uninvited guest was restrained, the goatee man breathed a sigh of relief, frowned and looked at Ross:

   "Who is this man?"

  Jama also hurried out at this time, seeing Ross's face clearly, he was stunned for a moment:

   "This person is the follower of that alien hunter Jason, and he is a mute with a problem in his brain."

   "Mute?" The goatee man's face loosened slightly, and then he asked, "Then why did he appear here?"

   "I-I don't know either. This fool usually follows Jason, but occasionally runs around... Maybe it happened to us?"

  Gama looked stunned.

He immediately thought of something, his face changed, and he muttered: "That Jason has been staring at me, maybe he will send this person to monitor me... No, it doesn't make sense, this is a dumb, or a fool, even if Jason suspects me , it is impossible to send him here."

   "Doubt you?" The goatee man was puzzled: "What else did you not tell me? Why is that Jason staring at you?"

   "I...I just didn't cure his brother,"

  Gama faltered.

   "It's that simple? Impossible!" The goatee man looked suspicious: "You still want to hide it from me now?"

   Hearing this, Jiama had no choice but to explain:

"Six months ago, the hunters picked up a victim named Will in the forest. He happened to be seriously injured. Because he was an outsider of unknown origin, I was worried that it would affect the transaction, so I deliberately left him dead. There is a brother, that Jason, who came to him."

   Hearing this, the goatee man twitched the corners of his mouth and said angrily:

   "You are less courageous than a hamster, so afraid of outsiders, why didn't you poison that Jason together?"

   "What nonsense are you talking about! I never thought it would turn out like this!" Jiama hurriedly shook her head.

   At most, he dared not to treat the seriously wounded on purpose, as long as the condition deteriorated, it was enough, and he didn't have to do anything, so he didn't mind dying.

   But poisoning is another nature, and he doesn't have the guts.

   The goatee man took a deep breath, not wanting to struggle with this issue any more, pointed to Ross on the ground, and asked in a deep voice:

   "How bad is this fool's brain, are you sure he won't reveal what's going on here?"

   "I, I don't know either." Jiama swallowed and said with luck, "Maybe he didn't hear anything?"

   The goatee man's face changed, he hesitated for a few seconds, and suddenly made up his mind.

   "Can't risk letting him go, kill him!"

The voice of    fell, and one of the attendants immediately drew out a dagger.

   "Don't kill anyone!" Jiama was shocked and quickly grabbed the goatee man's clothes.

   It’s just a reselling of potions, and it’s not a big business. Is there a need to silence it? !

  The man with the goatee turned his head and said in a dark voice, "As long as we kill him, bury him somewhere and make him disappear, nothing will happen."

   "But that Jason..." Jiama looked hesitant.

   "Anyway, this is a fool. It's normal to get lost, right? You're just too guilty. You always feel that everything will be suspected by Jason, but if the follower is lost, he has no reason to doubt you, right?"

  The goatee man kept talking, and continued in a cold voice:

"And you think clearly, if this fool accidentally discloses what happened here in some way, you will definitely be driven away by Frostwood Village, and you won't be able to earn this money. With your poor potion level, you can find another one. Are you willing to support your village? Can you still care for the elderly?"

  Gama's brain was in a state of confusion and his heart was numb, but he involuntarily let go of his hand.

  The man with the goatee snorted, looked at the attendant, and made a throat slit.

   The valet nodded, his face turned ruthless, and the dagger rubbed against Rose's neck.

Snapped!

   At this moment, Ross exerted his strength to break free, throwing off the person who restrained him with a strong force.

   He jumped up and squeezed the palm of the servant holding the dagger.

   In the shocked eyes of the other party, Ross turned expressionless.

  Crack!

"what!"

   The attendant screamed while clutching his broken wrist.

   However, before he could make a second sound, Ross quickly pulled out the dagger hidden in his waist, stabbed it into the man's abdomen at once, and pulled it up without hesitation.

   crackling... my intestines fell to the ground in an instant.

   His body fell to the ground with his dismembered stomach, only twitching, his eyes widened, and his fear froze.

  The ruthless expression on the man's goatee's face instantly turned into panic, he was terrified, he stumbled back and tried his best to stay away from Ross, who was covered in blood and expressionless.

  Ross didn't change his face and was about to continue killing when Zhou Jing's voice suddenly came from the woods.

"okay."

  Ross stopped immediately and stood still.

   Everyone present looked at Ross in horror, but no one dared to move, they were all frightened by the aggressive Ross.

   At this time, Zhou Jingcai Shi Shiran came out of the woods.

   He didn't show up at first because his identity as a hunter of alien beasts was too intimidating, and it was estimated that people would be scared when he came out.

   So he simply hid and let Ross, who had already established the image of a "fool", be the bait to seduce the group and catch fish.

  I was watching the situation secretly, watching the actions and attitudes of these people, and at the same time, be careful.

  I didn't expect that there was really a gain. As a buyer, this goatee man was even more excited than Jiama, and he was so decisive to kill... I'm afraid it's not that simple.

   "Looks like we have a lot to talk about."

   Zhou Jing squinted at the man with the goatee and Jiama, whose faces changed drastically, which was very meaningful.

   (end of this chapter)