Mount and Blade Central Asia

This two-handed weapon feat provides Li Rufeng with the following choices: [Powerful Control] or "Wooden Shield Buster".

[Powerful Control: (Individual) Your control of two-handed weapons increases by 10%, (Captain) Soldiers in your formation gain +30 proficiency in two-handed weapons.]

[Wooden Shield Buster: (Individual) When using two-handed weapons, the damage you cause to shields is increased by 30%. (Captain) The damage taken by the shields of soldiers in your formation is increased by 15%.

Li Rufeng looked at the "Wooden Shield Buster" specialty for a while, and finally chose another specialty - "Powerful Control".

Because he had obtained similar expertise in riding skills, he knew how much of an advantage that 10% improvement meant to a rookie like him, and how much of an improvement that full 30 points of skill proficiency bonus meant to a senior soldier.

As expected, after selecting the "Powerful Control" feat, Li Rufeng could clearly feel his control over the magic sword had reached a new level. At least he no longer had to chop down enemies with the tip of his sword.

The author says:

Author's words: The "Cold Weapon Collection" that I previously crowdfunded on Modian is coming soon. I will show you the pictures when the time comes.

Chapter 142 Purification

In order to avoid causing misunderstanding from Brother Mengjiang and to prove that he was not bewitched by the magic sword, Li Rufeng did not execute the other three surviving black wizards. After all, he was a shaman, and leaving people with the impression of being bloodthirsty and bloodthirsty would greatly affect his personal image.

Haishaer knew that now was not the time to talk, so he just followed Li Rufeng and volunteered to be his bodyguard.

"Did you bring Parisa back as well?" Li Rufeng asked in a low voice, and at the same time, he took his brother Mengjiang and his personal guards through the door opened by Jatalehun into the basement of the monastery.

"She and one of my apprentices are in your camp now. We haven't alerted anyone else, so there's no need to worry about Parisa's identity causing any trouble." Haishar is a well-traveled ranger who is well versed in the ways of the world. Naturally, he knows how much trouble Parisa's identity could cause at a time like this.

The political value of Parisa alone is no less troublesome than that of the magic sword. To give a simple example, if Li Rufeng had forcibly married Parisa at that time, the position of Dost Wanhu would have directly become rebellion, and all the Armenians below would probably have to run away, and half of the Persians would have to run away as well.

The secret passage leading to the basement was guarded by Li Rufeng's personal guards.

They were able to have a safe and private conversation.

It seems that all monasteries have the habit of building basements. Those priests probably fear in their dreams that the pagans next door will suddenly come and kill them, so they dig such deep secret passages.

After going down two spiral staircases along the stone wall, you will enter the underground space of the monastery. Thanks to the superb craftsmanship of the architects at that time, the ventilation holes hidden in the dark make the underground space not feel stuffy.

At this time, Jatalehun's soldiers had lit the torches that had been extinguished on the wall, completely illuminating the place.

At first glance, the entire basement should have been a place where the monastery used to imprison prisoners. There was a long corridor with four cells on each side. At this time, the cells were full of people.

It was literally packed with people. These people were like sardines in a can of sardines, or like passengers on an Indian train. Inside the train, outside the train, on the roof, and under the train, there were people everywhere. A quick glance showed that there were more than a hundred people held in eight small cells.

Most of these people were already in an extremely weak state. Even when they saw the Mongol soldiers, they just looked at them silently and lifelessly. Li Rufeng saw that in the cell closest to him, several prisoners who looked older had lost their vital signs.

But because there was no space, their bodies were squeezed together with the living people and could not even fall down, and the living people next to the bodies could only endure their situation.

Master Li couldn't bear to see such a scene, so he walked forward and broke the door lock with a sword. Several bodyguards came up to open the door and held up the prisoners who fell through the door, leaving only a narrow exit for others to drag people out of the cell one by one. Otherwise, the previous attack would probably cause some casualties among the prisoners.

"What's going on?" Li Rufeng asked Jitalehun.

At this time, Jatalehun was standing at the end of the corridor, at the entrance to another room. When he turned around, his face was pale and his words were stumbling: "It seems to be some kind of evil god sacrifice ceremony. Shaman, please take a look..."

"You are saved. Those black wizards who hurt you have been killed by me. I am the shaman of Changshengtian, Li Rufeng. I will give you food, water and freedom." Li Rufeng walked forward, swinging his sword left and right, and splitting the lock of the cell door.

His personal guards followed Li Rufeng's movements, just like before, and led the weak prisoners out one by one, letting them sit on the floor in the corridor to make more space in the cells.

These people were too weak. Many of them had not eaten or drunk anything for two or three days. Only the strongest ones stretched out their hands weakly and touched Li Rufeng's robe like zombies, and then knelt on the ground for a long time without being able to raise their heads.

Li Rufeng walked through the crowd and stood beside Jitalehun, seeing what Jitalehun saw.

An altar, a circular altar with steps going down gradually, about fifteen meters in diameter.

In the center of the altar, there was a small platform for placing items. A cloud emitting cold air was floating on it, and on the steps were densely packed circles of people lying, all facing the cloud. Their wrists were cut, and blood flowed down the steps one by one, finally gathering in the center of the altar.

The blood in the blood pool was about palm-high, and the blood continuously turned into wisps of mist and gathered in the cloud on the platform, maintaining its existence.

The body of a black wizard lay not far from the altar, with four Mughals frozen into ice sculptures standing beside him.

"It's becoming increasingly easy for these lunatics who believe in the Four-Part God to gain power." Haishar walked forward with a sullen face, picked up the dark wizard's body from the ground with one hand, and ripped off his hood to reveal a bald head with tattoos. "I know him, Gamsetti Holden. He used to be active near Baghdad. He's very cunning and always manages to avoid our predators."

"How can we interrupt this ceremony?" Li Rufeng stood at the edge of the altar and saw that several of the sacrifices were still breathing. They heard someone talking and opened their eyes with difficulty, then opened their mouths but could not say anything.

Li Rufeng looked at them with regret, feeling helpless.

Although he was known as a miracle doctor, he was helpless in the face of patients with severe blood loss unless he could solve the various problems of allogeneic blood transfusion on the spot.

"If we follow the normal process, scholars of the religion would need to find the corresponding meanings of those symbols in the scriptures, and then arrange the purification ceremony based on these meanings." Haishar looked at Li Rufeng with some emotion. "If there are no scholars present, or if we can't find a suitable purification ritual, we will completely erase this altar physically, but you..."

"Just do what you are good at." Haishar concluded. The sigh in his tone was not sure if it was because he remembered the days when he smashed the altar with a sledgehammer.

Upon hearing this, Li Rufeng tucked his magic sword under his arm, took out some fine salt from his cowhide bag, and walked around the edge of the altar, sprinkling it with salt. "I say, going against nature is bad. Those who lost their lives in vain for this will finally be freed by the grace of Changshengtian."

As Li Rufeng spoke, the blood in the pool began to churn and boil as if it were being burned.

And those sacrifices who breathed in more than they exhaled also took their last breath while Li Rufeng was chanting.

"I say, anyone who uses the power of evil gods is bad..."

The author says:

Author's words: It's gone tonight

, go to bed early, and update tomorrow

Chapter 143 Showdown!

The purified blood pool no longer bubbled, nor did it gather into a cloud emitting a cold breath. Finally, after a sip of strong liquor from Shaman Rufeng, the cloud dissipated directly into the air, as if it had never existed.

But the affected natural environment cannot change immediately; it is a gradual process.

At this time, the outside temperature has dropped below zero degrees due to the snowfall. Without the subsequent influence of supernatural forces, the temperature in the entire area will rise rapidly, the snowflakes will turn into raindrops, and the snowfall will turn into rainfall, and the water vapor will soon be consumed.

This also means that they don't have much time left. If Doste is not stupid, she should have known that something was wrong at the monastery the moment it started raining.

"I have dispersed the heavy snow that was affecting the siege. What are you going to do next?" Li Rufeng turned and asked Jitalehun. He was Qinggelinayan's younger brother, and the responsibilities that came with his status made him shoulder more things.

For example, now, Li Rufeng can actually retreat through the secret passage after finishing his work, while Jitalehun still needs to take his men to meet up with the people in the river and wait for the opportunity to create chaos and take over the city gate.

"After you leave, we will stay in that warehouse and wait for the signal to attack the city." Jitalehun looked at Li Rufeng with some envy. If possible, he would not want to take this task. Going deep behind enemy lines and taking risks has never had any good results.

"In that case, you go ahead and leave me a guide. I still need to deal with the altar and the bodies here." Li Rufeng glanced at the messy scene and said to Jialalhun, "As for those prisoners, I'm worried that if they die here, the ceremony will continue. My people must evacuate them."

Li Rufeng made up a few excuses, the main purpose of which was to get them to leave quickly so that Master Li could focus on finding the hidden wealth.

Judging from the density of gold, if two tons of gold were all gold bars like those in banks, it would probably fit into three or four large suitcases, but most of what these dark wizards brought out from Tabriz were gold items.

You should know that gold is very ductile. If someone has good skills, one kilogram of gold can be hammered into 530 square meters of gold foil. So Li Rufeng has no idea how big the gold weighing about two tons is.

Having experienced the previous scene, Jatalehun hesitated for a moment and obeyed his will. After leaving behind a reluctant guide, he took advantage of the night and hurried back to the warehouse with his remaining men.

He would send someone back to report to Qinggelinayan what happened here, and at the same time wait for more people to enter the city of Mardin through the secret passage and wait to capture the city wall.

Seeing that all the troublemakers had left, the offerings were sent to the upper level. Guards were guarding the door to prevent them from scattering and exposing what was happening here. Of course, with these people's physical strength, they couldn't actually run away.

"What do we need to do to clean up the mess here?" Haishar followed Li Rufeng and became more alert. The upright and brave brother thought that there was a hidden black wizard working in secret.

"This group of black wizards brought out a treasure from Tabriz, and I plan to go treasure hunting." Li Rufeng did not hide this secret from Haishar, because the other's clear eyes exuded the light of my lack of interest in worldly money.

"Oh." Just as Li Rufeng thought, Haishaer immediately lost interest when he heard that it was just a worldly treasure. But out of consideration for Li Rufeng's safety, he planned to follow and find out.

Azadirim said that these dark wizards who were good at playing tricks on others could not trust each other, so these treasures were kept under close watch by everyone during the entire transportation process.

After entering the city of Mardin, due to internal strife, the slaves transporting the treasure escaped, resulting in the loss of a small amount of gold. Although those slaves finally paid the price for their greed, the lost treasure could not be recovered after all.

The treasure was buried on the second floor of the monastery's basement and was guarded by a bewitched Turkmen warrior. To get through his guard, all the dark wizards had to agree.

Because every time these dark wizards use the power of the blue wind to cast a spell, it will be sensed by other colleagues nearby, so if someone intends to use the power of witchcraft to steal the treasure, it will definitely alert others.

Without using witchcraft, these dark wizards would not be a match for the Turkmen warrior even if they were tied together. They used a very simple but practical trick to ensure the safety of the treasure.

Azadirim also told Li Rufeng that these treasures were stolen from the treasury before they left Tabriz and belonged to all of them. They could have divided the gold equally, but no one was willing to do so.

Everyone thought they could eliminate the others and eventually take the treasure for themselves. So, this small group of wizards, who believed in the Azure Wind and were called the Eye of Enlightenment, originally numbered 27, but they slaughtered each other along the way, leaving only 14 people left when they arrived in Mardin...

Of course, that was just the number when Azadirim left. Li Rufeng actually saw only eleven people. Obviously, three more people were eliminated in this endless werewolf killing game.

In this matter, what surprised Li Rufeng the most was that there was a second floor in the basement of this broken monastery. How many shameful things did those priests hide there at that time?

Li Rufeng brought a few

The guards knocked and searched in the basement for a long time before they found a secret wooden door on the south side of the altar that continued downwards. The door was tilted at a 45-degree angle to the ground and was covered with clothes stripped from the dead body, so it could not be noticed at first.

The guards opened the wooden door, and a narrow passage that was only wide enough for one person appeared in front of everyone. The passage was about one and a half meters long, with small wooden steps on the ground and a light at the end. A guard holding a shield ventured down and made sure it was safe. Then another guard also went down with a short spear in his hand.

Li Rufeng gestured to Haishaer, "I heard there's a tough guy down there. I'd really appreciate your help."

Haishar nodded silently. After all, this was the territory of the believers of the Four-Part God. As a member of the Eagle of Order, it was his duty to eliminate evil.

Li Rufeng confirmed through the personal guards who stayed outside the monastery gate that there was no movement around for the time being, so he went down and planned to end the battle quickly, because the wind and snow outside had begun to subside.

Under the secret passage was a relatively spacious "large space", about ten square meters. Including Li Rufeng, four fully armed adult men crowded the place. There were two closed wooden doors in front, and a slowly burning torch on each of the walls on the left and right.

At Li Rufeng's signal, the guard holding a shield walked forward and checked the door on the left first. He slowly pushed open the wooden door that opened inward, and the next second, a sharp arrow shot out from the gap!

Bang! The arrow almost pierced through the shield, the bright arrowhead nailing the shield to the guard's helmet. The guard screamed and used up his last bit of willpower to close the door again, then fell to the side and moved back in pain.

Another bodyguard avoided possible arrow shooting angles and approached the wooden door from the side, ready to stab anyone who walked out of the door.

"Be careful!" Li Rufeng reminded. After all, mental command can only convey direct orders and cannot replace communication between people. However, the current situation is undoubtedly not suitable for communication.

Before Li Rufeng could finish his words, Haishaer's big hand pulled him against the wall!

bang!

Another sharp arrow pierced through the wooden door and passed through the place where Li Rufeng had just been, and was nailed to the wall behind. When Li Rufeng looked over, the tail feathers of the arrow were still trembling.

Haishar made a gesture of silence to Li Rufeng, then walked forward and dragged the injured guard back. Li Rufeng saw the arrow pierce the shield, and then he brought the shield-bearer back to hit the shield-bearer's cheek. The arrow went through the shield and pierced the cheek guard of the helmet.

The injured guard's face was covered in blood, but the specific injury could not be seen because the wound was covered by the shield.

Li Rufeng pointed at the half of the arrow exposed outside the shield and made a chopping gesture to Haishaer. The brave general immediately raised his sword and cut off the back half of the arrow, helping the soldier pull the shield off the arrow.

Two guards who came down from the top of the secret passage tried to go down and carry the wounded away. However, just when they were halfway down, another sharp arrow flew out from the previous hole and hit the steps by a hair's breadth.

It can be seen that the archer's shooting was not inaccurate, but was limited by the shooting angle, which resulted in a slight difference.

Li Rufeng felt a bit of a headache looking at the not-so-big wooden door. Now he knew how the Turkmen warrior got his title.

This kind of CQB combat is a problem even in later generations, especially when one's side has already cleared the area and does not want to suffer any additional casualties.

Haishar raised his bow and gestured to Li Rufeng, then tiptoed towards the torch, pulled it down and threw it in front of the wooden door to prevent his subsequent actions from being reflected by the changes in light and shadow by the fire.

Another torch was also thrown in front of the door by the spear-wielding guard. Then Haishar looked back and forth several times at the hole in the door and the position of the arrow behind him, and roughly determined the position of the archer in the house according to the method of determining a straight line between two points.

He drew out an arrow and slowly pulled the bow, then rushed from one wall to the other like lightning. He shot his arrow while in mid-air, and then rolled over like a nimble monkey, clinging to the other wall.

It was not until Haishaer landed on the ground that Li Rufeng saw another sharp arrow that had been shot out from the door at some point and hit the step behind Haishaer when he was in the air before, penetrating three inches into the wood.

Chapter 144: Otherwise, why not kill an official to liven up the atmosphere?

There was no movement in the underground secret room for a long time, only the heavy breathing of a few people. Among them, Haishar's voice was the loudest. He was very tall and was one of the few big men taller than him that Li Rufeng had seen since he came to this world. He was also very big and muscular. In addition, he was wearing armor and a cloak, and the whole person standing there looked like a human bear.

Haishaer's physical strength is of course excellent, but the extreme conversion between energy and movement has put a lot of test on his body and spirit. The two sides are like a face-to-face blind-shooting duel between peerless sharpshooters, relying entirely on the muscle reaction between life and death. Whoever is faster will survive, and whoever is slower will most likely die.

After taking a few deep breaths to calm his breathing rhythm, Brother Mengjiang walked forward with great confidence, pushed open the wooden door, and kicked the torch on the ground into the room. Sure enough, no arrows were shot out, and a figure of almost the same height stood there.

In the secret room, the firelight illuminated each other's bodies from bottom to top.

Haishar's arrow, which was one size larger than a normal arrow, pierced the opponent through, but the corpse still stood there and refused to fall.

Li Rufeng also walked down, and together with the spear-wielding guards, they held torches to illuminate the room. The archer from before was standing there, his eyes wide open, his hands still in the posture of an arrow leaving the string, but the breath of life had left him.

Haishar's arrow hit the opponent's face right in the face, entering from a position just above the tip of the nose. The huge impact of the arrow made the opponent's entire face concave inward. The arrow head broke the opponent's skull and pierced through the opponent's helmet without a face guard and shot out from the back of the head.

According to Azadirim, this man was a famous warrior among the Turkmen people. They bewitched him and made him accompany them all the way to guard the treasure.

Now, judging from his physique alone, it is clear that he is indeed a warrior. His arms are muscular and his legs are a little bowed, but still strong and powerful. I wonder what kind of warhorse is worthy of such a hero.

You know, the brother who looks equally brave and invincible rides a mixed-breed horse... with blood from another world!

"Amazing." Li Rufeng gave Haishar a thumbs up in admiration, then walked around the body of the Turkmen warrior without hesitation and went to the heavily guarded iron-inlaid wooden boxes behind him.

These boxes are placed along the wall. Each one is one meter long, half a meter wide and half a meter high. There are metal strips crisscrossing on the surface as reinforcements, making it look particularly strong.

There were four such large boxes, placed in two rows along the wall, with some small boxes of different sizes in the gaps in between. Li Rufeng walked forward and cut off the copper lock on it with a sword, opened one of the large boxes, and his eyes widened instantly, and his breathing became rapid!

Gold! Gold! All gold!

Gold cakes as big as a palm and gold coins as small as the diameter of a can were piled up in the box, flickering with an attractive luster under the firelight. Although the box was not full, it was the most exciting scene Li Rufeng had ever seen in his life!

Master Li's eyes reflected the luster of power. He grabbed a handful of gold coins and let them slide through his hands. The collision of gold and gold made a pleasant sound, like the wonderful sound of the immortal world, exquisite and deafening...

As a time traveler, Li Rufeng always boasted that he had seen many storms and waves, and he looked down upon the common people. Even when facing a peerless ruthless person like Brother Mengjiang, he remained calm. After all, no matter how fierce you are, can you be more powerful than the T-800? No matter how strong you are, can you be more powerful than the Big 59?

But he had never seen gold before...especially gold that appeared in large quantities, weighing a full two tons!

Li Rufeng's nostrils dilated like a fighting bull, and he gasped for breath. He was immersed in the joy of getting rich for a full two minutes before he came to his senses.

He had already made up his mind to spend the money. He was just excited at the sight of prey and succumbed to the instinctive impulses that had been domesticated by humans for thousands of years. Just like diamonds, what is the difference between natural diamonds and moissanite?