There were enemies.
The six Desert Bandits were all prepared. They held their standard spears in their hands.
At the end of the sandy route before them, where moonlight waned, seven to eight shadows were standing at the dune by the side of the route. They were not moving. It was as if the enemy was staring down at them.
"Get ready for combat."
Kant's voice was heard. He reached for the light crossbow behind his back.
He pulled the string and loaded a bolt onto it. He lifted his arm. He aimed at the shadow faraway with his finger resting on the trigger.
The Desert Bandits unraveled the sacks on their backs, exposing the pilum just behind their necks.
The Desert Bandits were more versed at throwing those projectiles while riding horses.
All of them were ready to fight.
"Be careful."
Kant reminded them as he rode slowly forward.
They were still at a safe distance, which was why they dared to continue closing in. That was an action backed by the fact that they were cavalry units. If they found the enemy's fighting capacity was beyond what they were capable of resisting, they would immediately retreat.
Cavalry units were known for their superb mobility. They were able to come and go like a gust of wind.
Despite being vigilant, the shadows on the dune paid no heed to them.
It was as if they were simply standing on the dune watching Kant and his people without bothering to move away. No movements were detected from the enemy, and no sounds were made by them either.
"My Lord, something isn't right," a Desert Bandit said.
They eyed the dune. The Desert Bandits, who were all experts at fighting in the desert, did not let the cold freeze their brains over. Their thought processes remained astute.
They looked at the shadows above and instinctively found something was off.
"Let's go and have a closer look."
Kant nodded. He noticed something was off as well. In a low voice, he still told his men, "If anything happens, retreat immediately."
"Understood," the Desert Bandits replied.
They slowly moved forward along the desert route.
They gradually closed in. Kant frowned as he continued to eye the shadows far away.
His eyes did not fool him. While his sight was somewhat blurred by the dark of night, Kant was able to tell that those shadows were from Jackalans.
They had beast-like heads and bodies covered in fur.
Those were notable physical traits of Jackalans. There was no way that Kant, someone who fought them over and over, was mistaken.
However, his frown instantly deepened.
"Why do those Jackalans on the dune look so weird?" he asked.
"Indeed."
The Desert Bandits nodded at the same time, looking serious as they did so.
In their minds, the Jackalans they were closing in on looked very unnatural. They look shriveled, and their heads were hanging low. It was as if they were tied to something.
The bright moonlight above made the dune look even clearer.
Kant's pupils slightly contracted.
"What the..." He unconsciously mumbled, feeling his emotions fluctuate like he was riding a roller-coaster.
"My Lord, be careful!"
The Desert Bandits behind him kicked their horses. All six of them moved quickly forward, tightly holding their spears. Their eyes swept vigilantly around them.
There was nothing out of place to be found.
There were no enemies.
All of them breathed a sigh of relief. They refocused their eyes onto the dune. All of them looked shocked.
There were indeed seven Jackalans at the top of the dune. They all sported tusks on their lower jaws and were coated in grey fur all over their bodies. They all had jackal-like heads and human-like bodies.
However, all of the Jackalans were tied to wooden posts.
The Jackalans were securely tied up with thick ropes from their thighs to their torsos.
"What is happening?"
Kant still tightly held his light crossbow, but he slightly kicked the belly of his horse instead.
The warhorse he rode was perceptive enough to sense the magnitude of force being applied. It slowed down even more.
The Desert Bandits behind him all looked on with grim expressions. Their gazes were fixed on the seven Jackalans. One of them said, "All of them are dried corpses. Judging by the temperature of the Nahrin Desert, they have been tied to the posts for at least a week."
"A week?"
Kant narrowed his eyes on the bodies. "Was it some kind of punishment?"
"I believe it was an execution," a Desert Bandit replied.
If that was not an execution, these Jackalans would not have ended up turning into dried corpses.
Their death sentence was carried out by tying them to wooden posts and mercilessly exposing them to the scorching sun of the Nahrin Desert. The Jackalans slowly dried up while they were alive. It was one of the cruelest punishments that could have been given.
"Why were they executed in the first place?" Kant frowned even harder.
However, he did not fear anything. He vigilantly scanned the dune before him before telling the Desert Bandits, "Stay sharp. We'll go out and have a look!"
They were all cavalry units, so there was nothing to be afraid of.
Besides, the legs of Jackalans were no match for the horses.
Furthermore, Kant did not believe that the Jackalans would have found all seven of them.
It was even more ridiculous to think that they had been trying to ambush them by setting up such an obvious trap.
If that truly turned out to be the case, the Jackalans would have simply attacked the Oasis Lookout instead. Compared to mobile cavalry units, a village that was unable to go anywhere was a larger, more obvious, and lucrative target.
"Hyah!"
Kant flicked the reins. His feet tightly cradled the horse beneath him.
He aimed his light crossbow ahead. When they arrived at the top of the dune, there was no enemy to be found.
Kant looked at the dried Jackalan bodies. With their fangs bared, they still looked ferocious. He frowned and said, "They really died horrible deaths."
A Desert Bandit nodded and said, "Being dried up alive without drinking a single drop of water is brutal."
Such penalties had been doled out by desert people and races before.
The Sarrand Sultanate had once employed such penalties, but it was only to deal with ferocious, unforgiving enemies or to sentence criminals who had committed horrendous unforgivable crimes.
"This is a pity."
Kant moved his eyes elsewhere. The dried corpses served to shock and scare enemies.
They died horrible deaths, but they were still used after they were dead.
However, he hardly felt sorry for them since they were all Jackalans, which were his enemies. If possible, he would have been willing to sentence all of them to die by sun exposure. That would have dealt with a serious problem early on.
"That... That is..."
Kant turned his eyes around and looked at the place.
When he looked at the northern horizon of the dune, his pupils dilated considerably. "Alkali soil!"
Kant shouted in surprise.
Under the bright moonlight to the north of the dune, a sea of white was seen spreading all over the place. It was as if the sea of white were about to swallow the entire desert.
That was the very alkali soil that Kant and his men were looking for.
It also verified the Desert Bandits' speculation that there was indeed a naturally exposed salt mine somewhere in the desert.
"This is real."
Kant gulped while tightly holding onto his light crossbow.
From the perspective of contemporary humans back on Earth, that place was but a useless piece of alkali soil. All the salt found on the ground was poor-quality and coarse salt. It was so bad that it only served industrial purposes. It would have never made it into the lives of common people.
During the middle ages, all that salt was considered a luxury.
There was an underground salt mine in Poland from his previous life that served as the main source of edible salt. It supplied the needs of Europe for hundreds of years. The salt mine also contributed to about 30 percent of tax revenue for Poland every year. That alone spoke volumes of how profitable the salt trade had been.
"My Lord, those tents over there."
A Desert Bandit direct Kant's attention elsewhere. They had found something out of the ordinary.
They saw 40 to 50 ragged tents erected at the edge of the salt mine.
From the looks of it, it was the Jackalans again.