148: Chapter 149 Still Wanting More

A small mountain had piled up outside the East City Gate.

The corpses of Demonic Wolves were transported back in batches, piling higher and higher on the open ground outside the city gate.

The commoners in the city were attracted by the commotion, standing on the city walls to look down, and upon seeing it, they gasped.

Those were Demonic Wolves.

Demonic Wolves!

The very things that terrified all the drifters on the wasteland were now piled up at the city gate like firewood.

An old woman stood on the city wall, watching the Mercenaries walking back, laughing and joking as they carried the corpses of Demonic Wolves below. One of them was her son. The corners of her mouth curled up involuntarily, but she quickly tightened them, muttered "Brat" under her breath, and turned to descend from the city wall.

She took two steps, then turned back to take another look.

There was a lot in that look, but she couldn't put it into words.

When the thin, dark-skinned man who had bid farewell to his wife that morning passed by his own door carrying two Demonic Wolves, he deliberately slowed his pace.

His wife was sitting on the threshold making a shoe sole—the one she hadn't finished in the morning.

When she saw him, the needle and thread in her hands stopped.

Her eyes moved from his face to the two Demonic Wolves on his shoulders, then back to his face.

The man stood there, grinning, his face full of an annoyingly smug expression.

His wife looked at him for three seconds.

Then she lowered her head, continued stitching the shoe sole, and hummed.

"Come back and wash your hands for dinner."

Her voice was much softer than it had been in the morning.

The man's smile widened.

He turned his head to look into the courtyard, where his son was peeking from behind the door frame, his eyes wide and round, his mouth open in a small "o".

"What are you looking at?" The man tilted his chin at his son, "Your dad killed these!"

His son's "o" turned into a "wow".

In the Mercenary Guild hall, Lei Lie sat in the very center.

On the table in front of him lay a simple map of the area around Flower City, marked with many charcoal notations—where the Demonic Wolf dens were, where the herb production areas were, and where the mineral veins were; all results of the scouting he had done in advance over the past few days.

A pot of tea that had gone completely cold sat beside the table.

From morning until now, he hadn't taken a single sip.

It wasn't that he forgot.

It was that he didn't have the time.

Half an hour after the first batch of Mercenaries left the city, someone ran back to report— "Minister Lei! We ran into a Demonic Wolf ahead! Just one! Finished it off in seconds!"

He nodded.

In less than the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, someone else ran back— "Minister Lei! Five of them! Completely wiped out! Not a single person injured!"

He nodded again.

Later on, more and more people ran back to report, and the numbers they mentioned grew larger and larger.

"Dozens!"

"Hundreds!"

Every time a report came in, the subsequent Mercenaries waiting in the hall for task assignments would stir with excitement.

Lei Lie's expression remained unchanged throughout.

He knew this would be the result.

Tens of thousands of Professionals leaving the city at the same time—this wasn't a battle, it was a harvest.

But knowing it was one thing; seeing the battle reports come in one by one was another.

Within a ten-mile radius, over three thousand Demonic Wolves.

Half a day.

Lei Lie looked down at the marks on the map within the ten-mile radius indicating Demonic Wolf dens; they should all be crossed out now.

He leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh.

By evening, the Mercenaries began to return to the Mercenary Guild hall one after another to report their results.

The hall was suddenly packed with people, even livelier than during the founding ceremony in the morning.

Everyone had a similar expression on their face—not Killing Intent, but radiance.

The kind of radiance that only those who had truly put in the effort, sweated, and accomplished something with their own hands possessed.

Some people were loudly recounting how they had split the heads of two wolves with a single strike, while others called them braggarts, causing them to get agitated and pull their companions over to bear witness.

Some were competing to see who had killed the most.

A burly man patted his chest, claiming he had chopped down seventeen, while another disagreed, saying he had killed nineteen.

The two nearly started fighting but were pulled apart by those around them.

Others steered the conversation toward techniques—how to use the recoil from a shield bash to gain momentum for a second strike, how to dodge to the side the moment a Demonic Wolf pounced to give the mages behind them a window to shoot, and how to use the terrain to herd the wolf pack together and wipe them all out with area-of-effect Spells.

The more they talked, the livelier and louder it became.

When Lei Lie stood up, the hall fell silent for a moment.

He swept his gaze over the group of people before him—sweat-drenched faces, shining eyes, and irrepressible smiles at the corners of their mouths.

"Is the mission complete?"

"Completed!!"

The sound was so loud it shook the dust from the rafters, causing it to fall in showers.

"Within a ten-mile radius, not a single living Demonic Wolf remains?"

"Not a single one left!!"

Lei Lie nodded.

Then he saw the small mountain of Demonic Wolf corpses piled outside the hall, and looked back at the group of people before him, who were as excited as if they had just won a great battle.

The corner of his eye twitched.

"Not bad."

Just two words.

But coming from Lei Lie, they carried considerable weight.

The hall fell silent for a breath, then erupted into cheers even louder than before.

Lei Lie raised his hand to press down, and the cheering quieted slightly.

"The Demonic Beasts have been cleared, but there is more than just Demonic Beasts within a ten-mile radius."

He picked up the map on the table and flipped it to the other side—it was marked with herb distribution points and the locations of suspected mineral veins.

"These herbs and Ores were previously too dangerous to harvest due to the threat of the Demonic Wolves. Now that the path is clear—"

Before he could finish, someone in the front row was already shouting.

"I'll go! I'll go harvest them!"

"I'll handle the Ore! I was a miner before!"

"I recognize the herbs! My mother used to be an herb farmer!"

Lei Lie's mouth twitched.

"…I haven't finished speaking yet."

No one was listening to him.

The hall had already descended into chaos.

Some were spontaneously forming teams, some were fighting over tasks, some were asking what the herbs looked like, and some were trying to cozy up to the person who used to be a miner.

Lei Lie looked at this group of people and took a deep breath.

"Alright, alright, alright!" He raised his voice, "First, deal with today's Demonic Beast corpses! Sort the hides, bones, meat, and crystal cores, and send them to the Granary! The tasks for herbs and Ores will be issued tomorrow—"

"We'll go now! It's not dark yet!"

"Yeah! It only takes an hour or two to go and come back—"

A vein on Lei Lie's forehead throbbed.

"Look at the sky!" He pointed outside the door, "The sun is about to set!"

Everyone looked out following his finger—indeed, the horizon was already a vast expanse of orange-red.

"Furthermore," Lei Lie lowered his voice, his tone becoming severe, "Harvesting herbs and mining Ores is different from killing Demonic Wolves. Demonic Wolves are Black Iron Rank; you can take them down in one strike, and the risks are manageable. But I haven't scouted the situation beyond ten miles yet—who knows if there are Demonic Beasts of a higher Rank? Who knows if there are dangers around the mineral veins? If you rush out blindly, what will you do if something happens?"