Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1495 1467. Contempt for Gods and Buddhas
"My lord! My lord!"

Inside the castle tower of Inabayama Castle, a samurai general hurried up the stairs amid the clanking of his armor.

He was jogging and shouting at the same time.

But after reaching the top floor of the castle tower, he stood outside the gate and did not dare to go in directly.

He just stood outside the door with his head bowed respectfully, reporting inside.

"Many people in the city saw some strange phenomena happening at the Jōzai-ji Temple on Mount Jōzai, across the Nagara River. It seems like there's a demon at work!"

Inside the sliding paper door, through the light of the candle, a figure wearing a majestic suit of armor was projected, even when not at war.

That set of armor is undoubtedly a heavy weapon in Japan today, and it is a top-notch set of armor in the world.

It is precisely because of his attitude of wearing military equipment without any care in wartime or peacetime that he enjoys a high prestige in the army.

I just don't know if it's an illusion.

The samurai general only felt that compared to before, the front horns on his lord's helmet - the pair of devil horns decorated on both sides of the forehead of the helmet. Have they become a little bigger?
Through the paper door, the ghost horns were faintly emitting purple light?

Did you hire a craftsman to do some new modifications?

But there was only a brief silence from behind the paper door, and then a female voice was heard, which sounded muffled because she was wearing a "half-head" (a mask covering the nose and the lower part of the face) and was separated from her by the paper door.

"Demons. Trouble?"

Somehow, the samurai general who came to report the abnormality felt a little chill in his heart.

It's like, it's like, I'm not talking to a 'human'.

But how is this possible?
"Lord Yilong! Please make a decision as soon as possible! People in the city are in a panic now."

"Decision?" The dull female voice pondered for a moment, but it seemed as if she was listening to the advice of an invisible counselor beside her. "No, don't worry about it."

"Ok?"

The samurai general was so shocked that he subconsciously raised his head which had been lowered respectfully.

"Don't worry about it." Saito Yoshitatsu repeated calmly behind the paper door, "It's probably Master Higo. The survivor of the Nagai family is going crazy. He's just a stray dog."

"This"

"Do it." Saito Yoshitatsu gave the order in an irrefutable voice, and the samurai general could only agree immediately.

"Yes! I understand!"

"besides."

"Please speak."

"How's the work of burying the spirit stones in various places in the city going?"

"You mean the golden stones?" The samurai general bowed and said, "I am arranging them, but can these stones really make Inabayama Castle stronger? This is already one of the strongest castles in the world."

"You just don't understand the power of the spirit stone yet. Just do it."

"As ordered!"

The warrior general lowered his head and stepped back, feeling mixed emotions.

Although the new lord has only been in office for a few years, his look of contempt for gods and Buddhas is truly frightening and admirable.

Buddhism is a widely-held belief in Japan, so naturally the samurai generals also believed in it. Although they would not kill those who disrespected the gods and Buddhas, they still had many taboos.

But on the other hand, the Japanese seem to have an innate admiration for this kind of "daring to defy gods and Buddhas", which is quite contradictory.

It seems that the inexplicable "relief" that Master Higo had felt in his heart about Saito Yoshitatsu is indeed trustworthy.

But unfortunately, his own vigilance and resentment towards Saito Dosan's son caused him to get rid of this "peace of mind", and then in today's desperation, he directly turned the Buddhist temple into a ghost den!
"The good news is: we can now go up the mountain at will. After using the barrier on the mountain to guide the [Residual Filth] to form [Eternal Darkness], the function of the barrier itself should have been washed away by the filth."

In the dead silence of the gray forest, Lan En clenched and unclenched his hands.

Keenly perceive the changes in physical energy consumption caused by tiny movements.

“But there is bad news.”

Wu Ming continued with an unpleasant expression: "The bad news is: we have to bear the pressure brought by this large area of ​​[Eternal Darkness]!"

Although the barrier of Changzai Temple is a combination of Buddhism and Yin-Yang magic to dissipate the energy of intruders, in Bai Ze's words: it is quite immoral.

But at least this is still magic in the human world.

As for [Eternal Darkness], it not only dissipates the energy of human beings, but also slowly drains away vitality, consciousness, and other elements that make up life. If a person is not possessed by a guardian spirit in [Eternal Darkness], even if he does not move to conserve his energy and avoid being exhausted to death, he will die from the uncontrolled drain of vitality.

Or forget your identity as a living person and assimilate into the [eternal darkness].

The environment here is similar to the underworld, and it is not a place where living people should stay for a long time.

To be honest, even those who are blessed by the guardian spirit will not feel comfortable here. They will not be able to exert their normal combat power in battle.

There has to be a discount anyway, it just depends on how big the discount is.

At the moment, Qilin obviously feels a lot more relaxed, but Wuming, Flannel Ball, and Lan En all feel that they are even more suppressed than before.

The guardian spirit of the soul was also suppressed.

In this environment that is close to the underworld, because all the bright colors have disappeared and the color difference has disappeared, it is more difficult for people inside to distinguish the things around them.

"Ouch!"

"Meow!"

"Stab!"

A hungry ghost suddenly got up from the ground in the weeds, opened his mouth and screamed strangely, and rushed towards the fluffy ball passing by the weeds!

But Felynx reacted quickly.

Although the enemy was not detected in advance, a light red halo suddenly burst out from the [Thundercat Sword] in his hand and its body!
As its figure flashed, it let out an instinctive cat cry, and the [Thunder Cat Sword] had already cleanly cut off the deformed big head of the hungry ghost that pounced on people and bit them!
What spurted out of the hungry ghost's severed neck was not physical blood, but black smoke similar to that of [Eternal World] and [Eternal An].

Afterwards, the hungry ghost's body disintegrated into black smoke.

But the ball of fluff that had just erupted with [fighting spirit] also took a few breaths.

Compared to this world, the combat skills of the New World are relatively crude in terms of precise control of physical strength.

This is also because the hunters in the New World don’t have to care about ghosts and gods at all, they can just fight the monsters head-on.

Therefore, all the techniques are basically based on accelerating physical energy consumption as a prerequisite for improving explosive power.

The fluff ball had already started learning the [Fighting Qi] technique under Lan En's guidance, which greatly improved its movement efficiency and attack capabilities.

Like this time, even if it was ambushed by a hungry ghost lying in the bushes, it was still able to take the initiative and kill the enemy instantly.

However, this technique of improving oneself by accelerating the consumption of physical strength is a bit inappropriate when used in [Eternal Darkness].

After a wave of outbursts, the fluff ball took two deep breaths before returning to normal.

This is just a simple burst of [Fighting Spirit]. If one wants to use proper skills, such as the [Demon Transformation] of the dual swords, I'm afraid its physical strength will be drained directly!
"Fluff Ball!" Lan called out from the front. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" The fluff ball immediately responded positively, "I'm here, meow!"

Not only was the fluff ball attacked by the hungry ghosts lying in the grass by the roadside, but this group of living people was like a guiding light in the [eternal darkness].

When the demons and monsters saw this, they all rushed over here!
Lan En had previously keenly noticed through his [spiritual vision] that the original barrier of Changzai Temple played a guiding role for [Chang'an].

So even if the effect of the barrier disappeared later, he still planned to dismantle the remaining three lotus stone pillars first.

See if it can have an impact on [Constant Darkness], it would be best to weaken it.

However, the difficulty of advancing along the way is completely different from before!
“Roar, ahhhh!”

The monkey's cry echoed violently in the mountains and fields, but the sound was not as sharp as that of ordinary monkeys. Instead, it had a deep resonance from the chest of a large creature.

The sound was not surprising because the monkey was really big!
That body size is almost the same as Lan En's!

The monkey, who was originally hanging on the tree with one hand, waiting to attack passers-by, let go and smashed down a rock half the size of a man!
It has a huge body, with thick and strong limbs, yet it has the flexibility of an ape. One arm alone is as thick as an ordinary person's waist, and it is full of muscles!

On its head was a crystalline horn that emitted a dreamy golden glow. On its shoulders and body were also crystalline horns of the same texture that protruded from beneath the skin.

He had a tattered piece of clothing draped over his body and held a twisted spear in his hand.

It was as if it disliked several spears because they were too light and thin, so it simply twisted them together with brute force and used them indiscriminately.

Lan En could tell at a glance that these should be the clothes and weapons of the monks who used to be in the temple!
This is the monkey in the mountain that was contaminated by filth and turned into a monster!
The screams from [Eternal An] just now should have been caused by it slaughtering those weakened monks.

Such a strong monster would not appear to be small and weak even if standing in front of Lan En.

But this is just appearance after all.

Internally, it is not on the same level as Lan En.

(End of this chapter)