It felt so good to be close to the witch!

"Bon Voyage."

Watching the grain purchasing team depart, Roy turned around and returned to his residence.

Carrying a bowl of hot porridge, Roy headed toward Shanika's room.

According to Shanika's daily routine, it should be around the time she wakes up now.

……

"Gululu..."

The wooden wheels moved forward on the uneven road.

Red rode his tall warhorse at the very front of the procession.

At this moment, the grain purchasing team had not yet transported any grain and had no burden, so they moved very quickly. In the middle of the day, they left Blackstone Territory and crossed Greenland Territory to the north. It was estimated that they could reach the town entrance of Red Ridge before dark.

When Red shouted, "Everyone, quicken your pace! We'll reach Red Ridge in two hours!" the entire team's chivalrous spirit visibly lifted.

The long journey always leaves people tired, but the thought of the warm bathwater and hot food in the town's inn made everyone's steps lighter.

The group continued their journey, but had to stop about five kilometers from Chiling Town.

Because in the middle of the official road, there was a dug channel, as well as obstacles such as broken stones and logs.

Red narrowed his eyes.

He looked around. In the secluded mountain forest, birds occasionally flew up, and it was unusually quiet. There was no sign of anyone being there.

But Red knew very well that somewhere in the mountains, there must be bandits' spies watching the grain-buying team.

Perhaps out of fear of the purchasing team's strength, not a single bandit appeared in the mountains until the knights cleared the roadblocks and filled in the ditches.

Red snorted coldly, his icy eyes sweeping over the surrounding mountains and forests before directing the grain purchasing team to continue their journey.

But after walking only a few hundred meters, Red, who was at the front of the group, seemed to have noticed something. His expression changed slightly, and he raised his hand to signal the group to stop.

His gaze fell on the forest to the left of the official road, where a large area of ​​shadow was hidden by the dense canopy of trees.

"rustle……"

A gentle breeze rustled the leaves, and a huge creature slowly emerged from the shadows beneath the trees.

It was a giant bear, much larger than a normal black bear, with a shoulder height of almost 1.5 meters. If a person stood up, it would be at least 4 meters tall!

Its eyes were bloodshot, and foul-smelling saliva dripped from between its teeth onto the ground.

Red's expression turned serious.

"How could there possibly be ferocious animals at this time?!"

The giant black bear could not possibly answer Red's questions.

"Roar!"

With a roar, the giant black bear charged towards the grain purchasing team, its terrifying weight causing the rubble on the ground to tremble.

The overbearing and fierce aura caused the pupils of the official knights of the grain purchasing team facing this scene to gradually dilate, not to mention the apprentice knights, whose hands gripping their weapons were slightly twitching.

Imagine how it would feel to have a terrifying giant bear, at least four meters tall, charging towards you when it stands upright.

Even an ordinary black bear is several times stronger than a normal person, let alone a giant black bear whose size far exceeds that of an ordinary black bear.

In the face of such monsters, trainee knights are almost no different from ordinary people. Even if they wear armor, they will still be dented if they are hit by the monster. What's more, most trainee knights do not have the funds to buy metal armor for themselves. They only wear ordinary leather armor, so they are easily injured by a graze or killed by a touch.

While formal knights are much better than apprentice knights, their physique is at most twice the limit of an average person. With such physical abilities, they are not much different from apprentice knights in front of the black giant bear. The biggest difference is that formal knights at the very least have a set of chainmail, so as long as the attack does not hit a vital part, they are unlikely to die.

Of all those present, only one person showed a slight composure in the face of the black giant bear's charge—that was Red, who possessed the strength of a bronze-level three-star!

Once a knight reaches the Bronze rank and cultivates battle aura, he officially becomes diametrically opposed to ordinary people.

Only knights who have officially embarked on the path of the extraordinary are qualified to fight against such ferocious beasts as the black giant bear.

"call……"

Red exhaled a deep breath, the slightly hot air forming a visible white mist in front of him.

A pale white aura of battle qi emerged from his body and spread all the way to the knight's sword in his hand, and even the warhorse beneath him was covered in the glow of battle qi.

"hiss……"

With a pull of the reins and a neigh, Red and his warhorse transformed into a black meteor, crashing head-on into the charging black bear.

"boom--!"

With a loud bang, Red, who was riding his warhorse, was forced to stop. In front of him, the black giant bear was in much worse condition. Not only was its charge forced to stop, but it also lost control and fell to the ground.

"Sorry..."

With a long neigh, Red steed began to move quickly. Taking advantage of the moment when the black bear was unable to get up after falling to the ground, the knight's sword, imbued with battle aura, left deep wounds on the black bear's body, and bright red blood splattered all over the ground.

Red, riding his warhorse, was extremely mobile, while the black giant bear, whose charge had been halted, was physically superior to Red but too clumsy, and Red easily dodged several of its attacks.

The pain drove the giant black bear even more mad. A normal creature would have retreated by now, but the giant black bear was different. Its eyes turned increasingly bloodshot, and it had clearly lost its mind, only thinking about tearing apart the tiny creature in front of it that was constantly causing it pain.

Unfortunately, no matter how much the black bear struggled, it could only suffer a crushing defeat against Red, who possessed skillful techniques and high mobility.

It lost a lot of blood and collapsed to the ground, powerless.

"Thorn-"

Red's knight's sword pierced through the black bear's eye socket, penetrating its brain and ending its life.

Looking at the black bear carcass that was barely able to fit on the two carts that had been joined together, Red's eyes were full of contemplation.

Ferocious animals, as the name suggests, are animals that have lost their minds and become savage and brutal. They are generally much larger than their kind. When non-superhuman knights face ferocious animals, they often need a team of more than ten people to cooperate and pay a heavy price before they can defeat them.

Generally speaking, ferocious animals emerge during the cold winter months and attack the inhabitants of various territories.

There are still about ten days until the arrival of winter, so there shouldn't be any ferocious animals around.

Moreover, the fact that this giant black bear happened to appear near Chiling suggests that the bandits had mastered the method of luring or even driving ferocious animals.

As for controlling ferocious animals? Red immediately ruled that out.

Even if these bandits were once knights of White Oak Territory, they could never possibly control ferocious animals. In fact, throughout the entire empire, no one has ever been known to be able to control such creatures. These monsters are savage and bloodthirsty; they will not spare any living being that comes into their sight.

"call……"

Letting out a soft breath to suppress his doubts, Red directed the grain purchasing team to continue their journey.

The original plan was to enter Chiling Town just before dark, but now that the black giant bear has delayed us, it will probably be dark before we arrive.

Fortunately, the weakest member of the team was a trainee knight, so it didn't really matter.

Although ferocious animals are bloodthirsty and brutal, they are valuable from head to toe. Not only are their specialized attack organs used to make equipment, but their flesh and blood are also precious special food. After processing, they can help formal knights better adapt to the particles of battle aura, so they are quite valuable. This time, with the black giant bear, we can get much more food than planned when we go to Red Ridge.

Hundreds of meters in the air, several seemingly ordinary birds flew silently. If someone could observe them up close, they would notice an unusual red glow in the center of each bird's small eyes, mechanical and indifferent. They followed the grain purchasing team all the way into Chiling Town, like cold, icy watchers.

……

Chapter 123 Experimental Subject

Chiling Town, entrance.

After the guards checked Red and his companions' passes and confirmed that there were no problems, they let them in.

In this era, apart from nobles, anyone wishing to enter the towns of other lords needed a pass.

The essence of a pass is a guarantee from a noble lord for a traveler. If something goes wrong, the noble lord, as the guarantor, will also bear joint liability. Therefore, unless necessary, few lords will issue passes for others.

Of course, this is also to minimize the flow of people – because once people start moving around, the number of people engaged in agriculture will decrease, food production will drop, and the influx of outsiders can easily bring instability.

Without a pass, those who flee their homeland cannot enter other towns, and their chances of survival in the wild are extremely slim. Therefore, unless they are truly desperate to survive, no one would choose to betray their territory.

Led by a steward from Chiling, Red and his group headed towards an inn in Chiling Town.

Merchants who normally come to Chiling to buy grain do not receive this kind of treatment, but Red, as a Bronze Knight, and with a ferocious animal that had recently died tied to the trailer in his procession, naturally received a warm welcome from the manager.

"Mr. Harrison, does your esteemed territory's patrol team travel so frequently?"

On their way to the inn, the grain purchasing team encountered two groups of patrolling knights. Even with the steward leading the way, they were still questioned, which surprised Red. So he asked the steward Chiling beside him.

Harrison was a middle-aged man with a long beard, wearing a black hat, and a warm, welcoming smile on his face.

Faced with Reid's question, Harrison's smile turned bitter, and he sighed:

"Mr. Red must have heard about the banditry around Chiling. Just a couple of days ago, these bandits even stormed the city's granary and stole a large amount of grain."

"A large number of soldiers and official knights were stationed around the granary, but that night, a fire suddenly broke out in the town. Most people rushed to put out the fire, which led to the granary being attacked and the defense failing."

"After investigation, it was found that bandits had infiltrated the town and brought in a large amount of flammable materials through unknown means, which led to the fire."

"In order to prevent such incidents from happening again, the lord has ordered a thorough investigation of the entire town and greatly increased security."

"I see." Red nodded, his expression unchanged, but a hint of doubt appeared deep in his eyes.

This wasn't his first time visiting Chiling; he had come here before to buy grain, so he had some understanding of the situation there.

As a grain-producing area, Chiling has two large granaries, located three kilometers to the left and right of the lord's mansion, respectively. Logically speaking, even if the territory is on fire, most knights would rush to put out the fire, leaving the defense forces weak. As a bronze knight, the lord of Chiling should have been able to rush to the rescue in time.

With the Bronze Knight's strength, this distance will only take two or three minutes.

Even if the granary were opened for the bandits to move within two or three minutes, how much could they possibly carry? Furthermore, with a large amount of grain on their hands, the bandit group would be much slower and would hardly be able to escape.

There are just too many suspicious points.

But Red didn't seem inclined to investigate further.

Regardless of the actual situation, it had little to do with him. He was simply leading a grain purchasing team to buy grain; as long as Chiling could sell its grain, he was unwilling and did not want to get involved in anything else.

After bringing the grain purchasing team to the inn, the manager of Chiling politely exchanged some pleasantries before taking his leave.

It was getting late, and the grain purchasing team looked exhausted; it wasn't the time to discuss business.

With the help of the innkeeper, the knights of the grain purchasing team were quickly settled in. Except for some knights on night watch, most of them ate and bathed before returning to their rooms to rest.

Red stood by the window and released the carrier pigeon in his hand.

He wrote down everything that had happened so far in the letter and told Roy about it.

The carrier pigeons are not fast; it would take them half a day to fly back to Blackrock Territory, but that's still much faster than the entire grain-buying team.

Gazing at the few flickering lights of the Red Ridge in the night, and recalling his encounter during the day, Red felt a vague sense of unease for some reason.

It was as if a pair of eyes were staring intently at him from the shadows.