Chapter 468: The Moon on Qiumu Island is Especially Round

On the lake beach at the southern end of Qiumu Island, there are ruins of a castle on the towering rock wall.

A small fire was lit among the broken walls covered with cobwebs and mosquitoes. In the starry night of late summer, the air still contained humid water vapor.

The jumping bonfire emitted light and heat, gradually illuminating five tired faces.

One of them covered his shoulder, and blood slowly seeped out from the gray cloth binding the wound.

In order to clear the remaining shrapnel in his body, he enlarged the original wound almost twice, but some broken fragments were still stuck in the muscles and bones and could not be removed.

"Curse this devil's lightning rod!" The man named Aigalang had a pale face and sipped low-alcohol rice wine to suppress the pain.

"I told you to run away when you see that screaming lightning stick, otherwise your body will be devoured by the evil spirit. Look, it's come true." Favaleri, the leader of this group of demon hunters, put away the herbal bag and sat down without saying a word.

Aigalan moved his body to make way for Favaleri: "How do I know there will be several veterans in the yard next to me?"

"Avar is dead, what's the point of talking about this now?"

"I have to go to work tomorrow morning, so tell me what's going on."

Unlike the fully armed Aigalan, the remaining demon hunters, including Favaleri, were all dressed in short and light clothes.

There was mud under their fingernails, and they were sitting on the rotten crossbars, holding their waists.

"Don't you care who killed Awal?" Aigalan looked at his companions in disbelief.

"In our line of work, death is common, and it's surprising if people don't die." A demon hunter pounded his waist, "I'm telling you, don't be unconvinced. We demon hunters live today and die tomorrow. Who are we making money from? We have no children, and we're risking our lives."

"Some died in natural disasters, some died at the hands of gangsters, some died under the trampling of lords, and some died at the hands of farmers' pitchforks... He only died once, so just report it when you get home. Why should you care?"

"This?" Aigalan looked at Favaleri in confusion.

Favaleri shooed away flies and coughed, "After all, Avar is our companion, so we should still care about him. Aigalan, what are the results of your investigation?"

"Last night, I returned to the builder's hut, ready to meet Avar, but Avar was not there." Aigalan scratched his head, "I heard from his roommates that he went to poke the drain blocked by the slime.

The next morning, I got up early and went to ask again, but he still hadn't come back, so I felt something was wrong.

After pretending to go to work, he climbed over the construction site wall, changed his clothes, and went to the alley where Awal was to find him.

But when I found him, he was already dead. Someone had brutally used lightning to electrocute him, and his internal organs, clothes, sticks, and hair were all turned black by the lightning.

There were three other innocent people who were electrocuted as well.”

Although they were not very interested in the cause of Avar's death, in order to return as quickly as possible, these witchers still used the little knowledge they learned in the witcher castle to ask.

"A lightning-casting wizard interfering?"

Aigalang shook his head. "I feel so, but if it was really them, the Pope's Palace would have posted a notice long ago. It's impossible for them to block the news and then conduct a secret investigation."

"You mean, there's a third party?"

"Maybe. Maybe the secret party from Black Snake Bay has also sneaked in."

"Impossible." Favaleri immediately shook his head and said, "There's a war going on in Mound in the north, so the road is blocked, and there are checkpoints along the way.

There is only one road from the south leading into Daze Township, the road through the Wild Spider Forest, and it has to be checked at every level. The road we came in from is probably only known to us.”

Thinking of the strange tunnel, the piles of bones and the eerie twin statues, several witchers who were used to seeing many storms shuddered at the same time.

"If we leave later, we should take the water route or go through the Wild Spider Forest."

"agree."

"I support it too."

"Yeah, we have to think about how to escape." Aigalang tried to stretch his arm helplessly, but he shuddered in pain.

"Wait." The demon hunter sitting opposite Aigalan suddenly stopped shaking his body. "What do you mean by considering running away?"

"Didn't Favaleri tell you?" Aigalan blinked, "The witch doctor in the town dissected the body and revealed that there are demon hunters on the island. They are now investigating. If we don't take action, we will probably be the ones to be investigated."

"what?!"

“No, can you two young people take care of the life and death of the old senior?

"Young people, can't you just go to work? Why do you have to meddle in other people's business?"

The demon hunters stood up excitedly, lowering their voices, but unable to conceal their anger. "What's wrong with you?" Aigalan was still puzzled, "We shouldn't have stayed here for long."

"Oh, is this your first or second time coming out, you don't understand!"

According to the rules of infiltration of demon hunters, after entering, they will pretend to be refugees and find a part-time job in the local area to secretly collect intelligence or cause sabotage.

But when they actually started looking for part-time jobs, they realized something was not right.

The daily wage here is a bit high. After they calculated carefully, they found that part-time jobs are actually higher than full-time jobs!
The most important thing is - daily payment! No final payment!

The construction workers in the city completed their daily piecework tasks and received a daily wage of 1.5 dinars, which was paid on a daily basis. As long as they were not afraid of peeing blood, they could earn 45 dinars a month.

A harvester outside the city earned piecework wages of about one and three-quarters dinars for harvesting and baling an acre of flax.

If the cultivators are willing to be paid as wages, they can earn 6-9 dinars for cultivating one acre of land in the Holy Hoe Monastery.

It just so happens that flax is planted in April every year and harvested in August every year, and now is the harvest season.

These demon hunters are strong and agile, and they work much more enthusiastically than the convicts. In their peak state, they can harvest 4 acres of land or cultivate 1.5 acres of land a day.

This is equivalent to a high salary of 7 to 9 dinars per day!
Of course, ordinary people cannot achieve such a high level, but demon hunters have extraordinary powers.

The farmers on the island even provide free dinner, occasionally including meat and dried fish.

Although the meat tastes weird, like chicken but without the bones, it does not prevent it from being meat.

Since there is not work every day, a rough estimate is that each of them can earn more than 1 gold pound a month.

They only paid 4 gold pounds per person for this mission, and each person only had a deposit of 1 gold pound. It was not known when the remaining balance would be paid.

It's not like they haven't done hard labor outside before. Those priests and knights were paid less than 1 dinar for harvesting an acre of land, and there was no oil in their meals.

Even most of the lords don't provide food.

These demon hunters finally decided to put secondary matters aside for the time being. When can't assassination and intelligence gathering be done?

Focus your energy on the most important thing: making money!
Isn't it just harvesting? It's not like we haven't done it before.

It's just a bit hard and tiring, but no one will die.

At least they can save enough money for the New Year's Day, so they don't have to suffer so much. While others are celebrating the festival, they are still looking for damn monsters in the woods.

They also wanted to not have to eat black bread in the dark and cold when everyone was reunited.

They also wanted to drink hot chicken soup, drink beer and play cards with their old brothers in the same castle.

Maybe they could even find a chance to heal their hidden injuries and illnesses. Although demon hunters don't live long, they still want to live a few more years.

Once I discovered this, things changed instantly.

Originally, it was supposed to be two people in the countryside and four people in the city gathering intelligence on their own, but in the end, everyone was scrambling to go to the countryside to "gather information."

Only the stubborn Avar and the young Aigalan were willing to stay in the town, while the rest of the witchers went to the countryside to harvest flax and cultivate the fields.

Because the demon hunters were fast and strong, and were good at fighting and stealing jobs, they drove the original beastman labor gang from the east bank of the Para River to the west bank.

The monster hunters and foreign human laborers basically took over the work on the farms on the east coast. When new laborers arrived, they even had to pay their respects to Favaleri and deliver salted fish to him.

But now, once the entire island begins to investigate and search, and verify their identity information, these illegal workers will definitely be exposed.

They plan to work until November, hoping to earn money for the New Year's Day through this wave.

You know, even if the harvest season is over, they can still work as reclamation workers and earn at least 100 dinars a month.

This time, at least half of them are gone, so these demon hunters are of course getting anxious.

"You idiot, who will give me the gold pound I'm short of?"

"I should have earned three pounds on this trip and lived comfortably, but because of you, I have to go hungry on New Year's Day!"

Faced with the combined attack of several veteran demon hunters, Aigalan was almost at a loss. He didn't even understand what he had done wrong.

In the end, he could only look for help to Favaleri, who had remained silent beside him.

(End of this chapter)