Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1563 1535. The One Who Breaks Inertia

"Hey! What's going on?"

After Wuming was picked up by Lan En and put on the horse's back, he was obviously stunned for a long time. It was not until Qilin rushed out of the marching team and sped up that he glanced at Lan En from the side.

"The general left the battle formation. Your army will not be disbanded on the spot, right?"

At this time, Wuming was pulled by Lan En to Qilin's broad back and let her stand behind him.

And A Xiu was dragged to the front.

The ball of fluff was squeezed directly into the middle by Lan En and A Xiu.

The kitten kicked its legs hard and meowed in the middle, then arched its head out between two thick and round obstacles.

Although Qilin is much larger than an ordinary horse, with Lan En on its back, it would definitely be crowded for three people and one cat.

"Phew! I'm saved, meow!" The fluffy ball stuck out his tongue and lay on Ah Xiu's shoulder, then turned his head to Lan En behind him and complained. "Boss, at least leave some space next time, meow! Tell me first, so I can run over Qilin's head!"

The rapid airflow created by the Qilin's running made the trees more than ten meters away from the road rustle.

He uttered a mocking snort without hesitation.

The fluffy ball bit its little fangs on the spot, and flapped its hind legs, trying to pull its entire body out from between Lan En and A Xiu, and jump onto the head of the Qilin to talk to it.

Lan En didn't do anything, but Ah Xiu seemed to be afraid that the two of them would have a conflict, so she hurriedly pressed the ball of flannel down.

The flannel ball kicked around causing Ah Xiu's body to flounder violently.

"In two months, although most of it was spent on research and study, and I didn't have time to come up with a usable military system, it wasn't so bad that after I made the arrangements, they would fall apart if I left for half a day."

Lan En stroked the fluffy ball's head to comfort it while responding to Wuming behind him.

"And if Saito Yoshitatsu's army is really in collusion with the Jōzaiji Temple on Jūrinzan that we broke into earlier, then this is not a battlefield that ordinary people can enter."

"If we don't know the situation, there's no use for the army. There's no use for scouts or vanguards. We have to go in person."

Wuming frowned slightly, obviously recalling the scene of breaking into Changzai Temple two months ago.

But Ah Xiu was not quite clear about it. She and Lan En first met in the Thirteen Sakura Village behind.

Immediately, Wuming briefly described to Axiu what the situation was in Changzai Temple, and Axiu also frowned.

Being able to maintain [constant darkness] over a large area and a wide range. This is indeed not a problem that a normal army can solve.

In [Eternal Darkness], ordinary people who stay still will slowly exhaust their physical strength and vitality, and die from loss of yang.

Not to mention high-intensity physical exercises such as fighting and marching.

It would be really exhausting for an ordinary person to run a few steps in the [darkness].

A large area of ​​"permanent darkness" that can be maintained for a long time like the Changzai Temple is equivalent to a natural disaster terrain.

Can the army march through mountain fires and lava? Can it fight in floods and earthquakes?
The damage caused by [Chang'an] to human life is almost the same as that caused by natural disasters. Everyone will die anyway.

If we don't deal with the disasters and terrain first, any army that comes will be left with only a tingling fear in their scalp.

"But, can Yoshitatsu really do this? As a daimyo, she colluded with monsters. Isn't this already a great rebellion?"

After Wuming reacted, he frowned and opened his mouth several times, but in the end he could only utter these words with difficulty.

Although the Japanese imperial court seems weak and ridiculous now, it does play a positive role in their history.

For example, eliminating demons and protecting the human world.

There is a legend that generals like Sakanoue no Tamuramaro, Minamoto no Raikou, Minamoto no Yoshitsune, and Kusunoki Masashige received orders from the imperial court to conquer great monsters.

Since Ashikaga Takauji established the Muromachi shogunate, most of the conquests on the Japanese archipelago have occurred between human daimyo.

However, we have rarely heard of legends like "a big monster occupying a country and causing chaos in all directions".

From a historical perspective, compared to the earlier Asuka, Nara and Kamakura periods, there is no doubt that the rebellion of monsters was increasingly effectively curbed generation after generation.

To this day, although the world has been plunged into great turmoil since the Onin War eighty or ninety years ago, there are still no monsters causing chaos that are too fierce.

At most, it was just a small monster causing trouble in the countryside.

This is because in every era, the Japanese court has already regulated this island nation: people must fight against demons no matter what.

Even if the world is in chaos and the court seems like a ridiculous decoration, this norm is still followed due to the inertia of the times.

But the so-called "inertia of the times" is ultimately just something that runs on its own without anyone maintaining it.

As the duration of unrest in the world becomes longer and longer, and the intensity of wars between daimyo becomes more and more intense, the bottom line and normal concepts will of course become increasingly vulnerable.

In Lan En's eyes, it was only a matter of time before this bottom line was broken.

But now it seems that in this chaotic Warring States period in Japan, the first person to use the power of monsters and break through the bottom line would be Saito Yoshitatsu?

Breaking through the bottom line can certainly gain a first-mover advantage, but at the same time, in the eyes of other people of the same generation, you will naturally be a traitor who can be condemned by everyone.

Those who dare to stand at the forefront of the times and take this step first are either truly capable heroes or brainless fools.

But judging from Saito Dosan's evaluation of Yoshitatsu, this is too contradictory. It is so contradictory that Lan En felt something was wrong the moment he heard the news.

When Saito Dosan married his daughter Kicho to Oda Nobunaga, he said self-deprecatingly, "My successor's talent should only be worthy of leading Nobunaga's horse."

This shows that he believes that Yilong is not actually a hero who can lead the times.

But at the same time, he was quite confident in giving up the position of Mino Daimyo.

This shows that he believed that Mino under Yoshitatsu's control would at least not be in trouble.

Overall, this should be a character who is not at the forefront of the times, but is not a mediocre person either.

It is precisely because of this that Lan En feels that this is the biggest abnormality in Yilong’s uprising.

"Incorporating the power of monsters into the war." Wuming murmured in a low voice, still with an unbelievable tone, "How dare Saito Yoshitatsu do such a thing?"

Wuming is still a person whose thinking is constrained by the inertia of the times.

In today's Japan, a daimyo actually used the power of monsters to wage war, which is like pushing the era back to the Nara period.

Ah Xiu also looked solemn because of this.

But Lan En still whispered: "It is still uncertain to what extent Yilong has combined the power of monsters with her army, and how she got this method?"

Most monsters are violent in nature; this is their nature.

Even different kinds of monsters can fight each other non-stop when they get together.

The best guess now is that Saito Yoshitatsu only cooperated with Higo Shonin and used the connection of Changzai Temple to obtain and use a small number of special monsters.

The worst-case scenario
Lan En didn't say it.

However, having seen the bandits and monsters in the mountains not disturbing each other, Wu Ming and A Xiu had become serious without saying a word.

Lan En was right to take them both away directly and investigate first.

That was indeed a situation that ordinary people could not handle.

Following the road, or relying on the Qilin's power to force their way through the forest, they headed towards Iwamura Castle.

Akechi Mitsuhide was sent out to seek support on their way to Iwamura Castle.

He traveled alone, lightly packed, and took less than a day and a half to run this way.

But if we calculate based on an army of 5,000 people, arriving in four days is an extraordinary speed.

At the feet of the ancient dragon Qilin in the New World, even though it deliberately suppressed its speed to a level that would not make the passengers on its back uncomfortable, it only took an hour to complete the journey.

When they arrived at the last location of Mitsuhide Akechi in the memory of the Xuanwu spirit, Lan En and the two girls all had unhappy expressions.

"The evil spirit is very strong."

Lan En jumped off the horse, picking up the two girls one in each hand, whispering.

With Wu Ming and A Xiu's skills, this action was actually unnecessary, but neither of them thought of refusing.

This is a forest, but it is completely different from ordinary forests.

Because it can be seen from the ground that this place was clearly an irregular road not long ago.

But now, the dense vegetation seems to be strangling each other, competing fiercely for growing space.

The native woods dozens of meters away on both sides of the road merged with the vegetation that suddenly grew on this road, making it impossible to tell which was which.

The tree roots that should have been buried deep underground now emerged from the soil like surging waves, twisting and tangling into clusters of wooden nodules and wooden webs.

The plants that should represent tranquility now show a hideous and evil atmosphere.

The thick evil aura dyed the sky over the forest a gloomy gray.

"Bang bang!" Wuming stepped on the twisted tree roots with his straw sandals, making a hard and dull sound.

"It's as hard as oiled shipbuilding wood that has been dried in the shade!" The demon hunter lady said with ease, "This whole forest is polluted by demonic energy. This is just the residual demonic energy left when they passed by. How many demons did they bring with them?!"

Ah Xiu seemed familiar with this kind of forest.

After all, they both had fought against demons in the mountains before, and had seen a lot about the impact of demonic energy on vegetation.

This wood is certainly a great material based on its performance alone.

Just as Wuming said, it is comparable to those woods that have undergone complex processing techniques, and it has zero cost.

But on the other hand, the performance of these woods depends on the evil spirit contained in them.

Without the evil spirit, it decayed quickly.

On the other hand, the demonic energy is actually something foul. Anything made of this wood will almost certainly attract demons, it's just a matter of size.

So no one dares to use it.

(End of this chapter)