Warhammer Fantasy: I Have Total War System

Chapter 89 Ancient Tree

The inner palace of the Dragon Palace, the sleeping quarters.

Flowing patterns of light emanated from the main hall where the Dragon Pearl was located and rippled into Li Lin's bedroom.

The calming incense by the bedside had long since burned out, leaving only a thin layer of grayish-white powder.

Xing Ganqi lay on the soft bed, his lips pale and his whole body soaked in cold sweat.

Li Lin had given him medicine, changed his clothes, and fed him liquid food just two hours ago, but he still shows no signs of improvement.

The jar of all spirits wrapped around the chest of this man from Nanli was dim and did not emit any healing mist.

Li Lin thought that since he could use the poplar bow and the branches of the deep forest, he might be able to use the Jar of All Spirits, but he was wrong.

There's another reason why the first two magical items were chosen from this Nanli person.

It involves a conflict between a foreign ethnic group and the Celestial Empire.

And this entanglement is gradually emerging from Xing Ganqi's fragmented dream.

He dreamed of a green field.

It's not the lush green of the Southern Bamboo Forest, nor the eerie green of the edge of the Dimensional Stone Desert.

Instead, it is the natural greenery that covers the mountains and fields, soothing the soul.

The mountains and rivers were beautiful, and the forests stretched endlessly. His soul told him that this unfamiliar forest was the land of China, and that it was a place he had been before. But he could not imagine where this place was.

The sweet scent of mountain spring water wafts on the wind.

He saw a city.

A magnificent city, towering into the clouds, with floating fortresses and a heavenly waterfall, stands amidst high mountains and forests.

The huge plaque above the city gate prominently displayed the two characters "Xinwu".

Xinwucheng.

The former capital of the province of Vysilière, countless years ago.

At that time, Binlong had not yet taken control of the Western Regions. The Dragon Emperor was still ruling over the four directions in Kunlan. When he was working in the fields, the people of Zhen Dan often saw the pointed-eared Osuan elves and the Nehkara people, who carried the scent of sand and honey, traveling through the provinces of Zhen Dan.

Everyone lived a simple and peaceful life, and everyone firmly believed that Aurora would surely prosper and that countless business opportunities and knowledge awaited the people of Aurora to explore.

He continued to drift.

Beyond Xinwu City, beyond rolling hills and emerald lakes.

At the edge of the forest, an extremely ancient being was calling to him.

It is older than mountains, older than cities, and even older than the Cinnamon Empire itself.

It was an ancient tree that stretched to the sky, its top invisible.

The trunk is as thick as a city wall, and countless branches, like the veins of the earth, branch out from the main trunk, layer upon layer, blocking out the sky and the sun.

When Xing Ganqi looked up, he could only see the dense, mountain-like canopy of trees stretching endlessly in all directions, with a faint, otherworldly light floating among the leaves.

For a moment, he couldn't tell which side was land and which side was sky.

Herds of deer strolled in the shade of the trees, brightly colored birds preened their feathers on the branches, and countless translucent spirits swam among the leaves.

Everything was natural and pure, like a firefly dream on a midsummer night.

But suddenly, the sky changed.

A pitch-black despair shrouded the sky.

A huge, dark green fireball descended from the sky.

No sound.

Everything in the dream was silent; there wasn't even the sound of the wind.

All he could see was the dark green flames falling into the depths of the distant Mourning Mountains, stirring up a sandstorm thousands of feet high, carrying with it an eerie green flame.

Mountains crumbled, the earth cracked, and evil spread like festering sores on a smallpox patient, unchecked.

Crops, grasslands, and forests—the vegetation began to wither and die in large swaths.

It was like a silent, smokeless fire that burned underground, draining all life away, leaving only a withered shell and cracked, sandy land.

The towering tree began to rot and ooze pus from the inside.

The tree trunk swelled up with pus-filled lumps, and the bark cracked, oozing a dark green liquid.

The animals began to run aimlessly, their eyes clouded with white film, their mouths foaming at the mouth, and they died one after another.

The air was thick with the smell of rust and rotting corpses.

The unfamiliar green land began to transform into a familiar sight in his eyes.

Dust filled the sky, and the dimensional stone, like the claws of an evil spirit seeping from the earth, tore through the ground and was raised high into the sky.

The towering ancient trees died along with the forest, buried by this boundless, empty sea of ​​sand, their whereabouts unknown.

Xing Ganqi suddenly felt an indescribable sadness.

This sorrow originates from the depths of the earth, and from every blade of grass and every fallen leaf in China.

It's as if an incredibly beautiful part of the world has vanished forever, never to return.

The illusory scene slowly dissipated, and a ball of green light appeared before Xing Ganqi, extending an invitation to him once again.

"No." The Xing Ganqi in the dream rejected it once again.

"I sympathize with your plight, but I am a citizen of Zhen Dan, and I am loyal only to the Dragon Emperor and his son."

The radiant light fell silent.

The scene of ancient trees rotting and oozing pus, as they died, reappeared in the surrounding area.

Sadness, anger, and anxiety filled Xing Ganqi's dreams, followed by a strong sense of impending death.

"No," Xing Ganqi murmured.

"I am not afraid of death," he refused again. "My ancestors are waiting for me in the underworld. After I have met with them, I can continue to serve the Dragon Emperor."

The green light got angry.

No matter what illusions it conjured up or what terrifying death scenes it threatened, Xing Ganqi remained unmoved.

His consciousness began to become intermittent.

Suddenly, the sound of flowing water appeared in this dreamlike state.

The waters of the Longjiang River surge from the depths of the soul, and the spirits of the ancestors appear and disappear, gradually taking shape, to guide the people of Zhen Dan into the palace of the Nether Dragon.

The green orb knew that if it could do nothing more, it would lose the dreamer forever.

It no longer throbbed wildly, no longer created terrifying scenes, but instead transformed into the shape of a drop of water, suspended in mid-air, shifting attention from the dream to the outside world.

Just as Xing Ganqi was about to be completely swept away by the water.

He suddenly appeared on the hillside outside Li Lin's military exercise site.

Everything was so lifelike, as if someone had lifted him out of this nothingness and thrown him back into the human world.

He saw the familiar hills, the familiar official road, and the familiar bamboo forest.

On the outskirts of the allied forces, on a vast plain, the deafening sound of war drums resounded.

He saw Li Lin, the lord he had sworn allegiance to.

He was dying; his eyes were bulging out, and blood was flowing from his nose and ears.

The comrades from the Southern Garrison, dressed in black, lay around Li Lin, like crushed clay figurines, sinking into the earth piece by piece.

In the distance, Shen Du, Ma Mingyuan, and the group of merchants and officers behind them wore expressions he had never seen before, expressions that were hard to believe—they were laughing, laughing loudly at the dying Li Lin.

Guided by the green light, Xing Ganqi began to travel to the other side of the real world, to the deepest part of people's hearts.

He saw Shen Du in a dimly lit tea room, whispering with the heads of several major business empires.

I saw these merchants hiding large sacks of grain in the compartments of the wagons, and I saw them calculating on their abacuses at a speed louder than the groans of corpses on the battlefield.

He saw behind these people, the nobles sitting deep inside the caravan, leisurely pouring tea, waiting for the four unruly wild horses to have their legs broken and be thrown back into their cages.

These people realized that this nationwide rebellion was unlike any other challenge Aurora had ever faced.

China is about to enter a new era of war and chaos.

Dynastic changes, upward social mobility, and self-establishment as kings will no longer be mere fantasies.

And all of this requires money, large amounts of gold, weapons, and soldiers.

Soon, China will be filled with refugees carrying huge sums of money.

These people are resources that absolutely cannot be let go.

The price gouging within the allied forces was just a minor incident. Once they reached Nangao, the various powerful clans would mobilize their entire networks, and that would truly reveal the extent of their exploitation and the complete ruthlessness of squeezing the people dry of their wealth.

However, all of this is predicated on the premise that no one will report this matter to the court of the Dragon Shadow.

In fact, the minor squabbles within the Allied Forces, even if they reached the Dragon Palace, wouldn't affect the big shots behind the scenes.

This is an experiment, and also a test of obedience.

Those troublemakers need to be dealt with first, those opportunists can be won over, and those families can be allied with.

Li Lin, this reckless man who doesn't know how to blend in, is clearly one of those who must be eliminated.

This military exercise is an attempt to remove all his sharp teeth and claws.

Even if this attempt fails, there will be plenty of ways to target him and hold rallies in the future.

Even if a military commander is personally appointed by the Dragon Emperor, once he loses his position as the governor of his city, he is ultimately nothing more than a stray dog.

Moreover, Nanli was isolated and helpless, and even suffered a devastating defeat at the hands of the Biaolong.

Upon returning to Nangao, the allied forces had countless ways to make Li Lin wish he were dead, a situation that was like a long-awaited rain after a drought.

Let the dragon princes have their headaches! Let those brainless generals like Li Lin fight the war!

They will gradually unite the local gentry, control the land and defense, and finally firmly grasp the lifeline of the entire Zhen Dan, becoming a noble existence that even the dragon prince has to humble himself and negotiate with!

They will become the future kings and generals of China!

Li Lin was merely an insignificant pebble before the start of this journey, a pebble that would soon be used as a warning to others and crushed into dust.

"No."

Xing Ganqi suddenly opened his eyes.

"I will never allow such a future to happen."

>