Miss Heber is fighting her way out of the Lostbelt!

As soon as he finished speaking, the Tengu flapped its wings and stabbed Heber's eyes with its sword.

She was as fast as a flash of lightning, and when the blade was approaching Heber's eyes, the angle didn't even change at all.

There were cries of surprise from the seats at the banquet, especially the loudest cry from the demon raccoon.

Tanuki Taro thought that if it were him, even ten of them would be pierced by Tengu's sword.

Lady Tamamo neither retreated nor avoided. Was she frightened or did she intend to surrender directly?

The next moment, they knew the answer.

Hebe raised his hand and waved the sword and scabbard in front of him.

Snapped!

The sword in Tengu's hand was bent by the overwhelming force, causing her to stumble and be thrown to the side.

"It's so heavy!" Tengu was powerless to block it, and his head was dizzy from being hit by Heber's swing of the stick.

Kala Kala.......

Heber raised his hand and hooked his finger at the Tengu who had just stood up from the pile of rocks: "Come again."

She was holding the katana decorated with gold, gems and mahogany scabbard, and she didn't look like she was using a sword at all. Instead, she looked like a mountain hunter holding a stick, looking for pheasants in the forest.

Tengu is that silly pheasant.

The surroundings were silent.

Tengu's arms trembled slightly, a mixture of anger and disbelief - she shook her head, shaking off the remaining drunkenness.

"rise!"

This time she tiptoed and climbed up between the branches. In the process, the clouds gathered on her sword blade, and a cold feeling came over her face.

Tengu swung his sword in the clouds, twice as fast as before.

The large sword drew an arc in the mountains and forests, like a swallow touching the water. It was about to gently kiss Hebe, and then before ripples of blood spread, it would once again disappear into the clouds.

Heber raised his long eyebrows slightly: Achievements?

No, it's not "merit", but it does have the flavor of a combination of multiple marks... It's thinner and more aggressive than "merit".

Heber swung his arm as usual, and the sword still landed squarely three inches from the edge of Tengu's sword.

However, before that, a semi-illusory sword blade suddenly extended from the tip of the large sword and landed on Heber's wrist first.

The sword blade passed through the girl's slender white wrist.

Tengu's body went from extreme movement to stillness, her face full of confusion and disbelief.

"How could this be? How could this be? How could this be?!"

Heber turned his wrist, and his delicate, fair skin had no scratches at all, and it didn't look like he had been hit by a sword.

Tengu looked at Heber, who was unharmed, and felt extremely aggrieved. "I just swung my sword twice. The first one didn't have the divine power of the Secret Sword, but it did have the form of a Secret Sword. This one is invincible against ordinary monsters and mages... The second one is the complete Secret Sword - Tengu Copy—"

"The key to Tengu Chou is 'speed,' 'speed,' 'speed!'" Tengu shook his head. "When I perform the true Tengu Chou, I will be able to summon clouds and strong winds, increasing my speed even further. At the same time, my sword will split into phantom blades to attack. No matter what, I will be faster than the opponent."

"But I didn't expect that this sword couldn't even cut through your skin..."

Hebe was speechless.

She finally understood what the so-called secret sword of the East Country was.

It's the mechanism.

Children who often play games know that bosses and some elite monsters often have some strange mechanisms - for example, when using a big move, the higher the opponent's health, the higher the damage; or when the opponent's own health drops to a certain level, the damage is converted into spell damage.

The same goes for the secret sword.

To explain Tengu Tsao in gaming terms, it greatly increases the movement speed, and there is a chance that a sword shadow will be created to attack the target when attacking, and the damage this time is only one-third of that of a real sword.

If everything in the East Country Scroll was quantified at this time, Gui Yifa's sharp eyes would be able to see a line of large words hanging clearly above Heber's head - your attack failed to penetrate the enemy's armor.

Not even a symbolic blood loss...

With Heber's current physical condition, even if he stood still and let Gui Yifayan hit him with a sword, he would not be able to break his skin.

As for why Heber could see through the Secret Sword Tengu, it was because after swinging the sword twice just now, the sword lent to her by Guiyi Fayan had been broken into pieces.

It was not the two collisions that shattered it, but the terrible power exerted by Hebe and the "Sobek's Exercise" that produced the effect.

The swordsmanship of Daitengu Guiyi Hōgan had now become a complete memory for Heber. Although he had not yet mastered the Secret Sword Tengu Tsō, Heber could clearly see the principles behind it.

If the swordsmen of the East Country play with mechanics, then Heber is the opposite - she doesn't have a mechanism like a secret sword, but she has numbers!

"Tengu's physical fitness is actually much stronger than that of the swordsmen. Even she can't break the defense of me...that ordinary human swordsman——" Heber twitched his mouth.

On the other side, Tengu was squatting on the ground with a lost look on his face.

She was not heartbroken that her beloved sword was destroyed. In her opinion, this was a normal result of fighting against the secret sword.

Heber walked over and asked: "Is this the only secret sword you possess?"

"How many more could there be?" Tengu asked subconsciously, "A secret sword is the integration of essence, energy, and spirit. Naturally, a person can only have one secret sword."

"So are you a swordsman or just an ordinary swordsman now?"

"What swordsman?" Tengu frowned. "I only learned the secret sword from the military manual 'Six Strategies and Three Strategies' three years ago."

Heber was stunned. Could it be that in the Heian period, there was no so-called system of swordsmen, sword masters and sword saints, and there was no standardized system to incorporate the secret sword mechanism into the system.

"Yes, because this system was not widely accepted by the world until the end of the Heian period, which was already the shogunate era!" Heber suddenly realized.

She then relayed the knowledge about the swordsman that Mordred had given her to Tengu.

The Tengu squatting on the ground widened his eyes. "I see! Swordsman, sword master, sword saint—I get it! So I'm just a mere swordsman, not even a master yet!"

The next moment, Hebe saw the grass blades on the ground swaying, and the lines twisted to form words that only she could see.

"Scarf Father's wait has finally paid off. The art of swordsmanship has taken root and sprouted. Following the cracks of this seed, unprecedented divisions will emerge among the Canglang's followers, and Scarf Father will not let this opportunity slip away."

[Wrestling Status: "Scarf Father" holds the upright position! ]

After Heber told Tengu about the swordsman system, Scar Father suppressed Canlang for the first time in the wrestling match!

In the night sky, the light of Mars dimmed, while Jupiter, which had always been somewhat dim, now shone brightly.

The former is a symbol of the crippled wolf, while the latter is regarded as the incarnation of Scar Father.

When Heber came back to her senses, Tengu was looking at her excitedly: "Lord Tamamonomae, please accept our greetings!"

Gui Yifayan knelt on the ground and bowed deeply to the golden-haired, jade-faced nine-tailed fox.

"If it weren't for Tamamo-sama, I don't know how many more years I would have had to grope in the dark! But now I've come up with a 'Sword School'... Haha, maybe it's even the oldest sword school in the East! I developed it after traveling through the West and receiving guidance from Tamamo-sama!"

Heber heard the excited voice of Tengu echoing in the mountains and forests.

"This sword style should be called the Heavenly Fox Instruction: Kurama Eight Streams... From now on, all of our disciples will take you as their master!"

ps: Caught up!

Eastern Region Volume 68: Observations on Mount Oeyama

With a wooden face, Hebo left Bungo Province amid the farewell of Guiyi Hōgen.

The Tengu seemed to have their own way of communicating with each other, and although the Tengu of this era had not yet invented the profession of reporter, they had already developed the habit of "going wherever there was excitement."

And they do fly fast.

Originally, the anecdotes about Hebe were only circulated in Hyuga and Bungo, but after being spread by this group of chattering Tengu, they instantly became popular throughout the entire East.

Walking with dragons, taming the raccoon demon, fighting against the great Tengu with a sword, founding a sect... every single one of them is a legend.

Both monsters and humans talk about it with great relish.

The nobleman named Minamoto from Hyuga Province even wrote dozens of Chinese poems and Japanese songs with a flourish.

It's said that even in Heian-kyō, nobles have recently begun to inquire about "the fox fairy from China, possessing both wisdom and beauty."

And Heber still seemed very unhappy.

The reason is that they are currently in the Dajiang Mountain area - their high fame has attracted the attention of the ghosts, who are trying to find the legendary "fox fairy".

As to why he had to go to such great lengths, the ghosts had different opinions: some said that Ibaraki Douji wanted to take precautions and eliminate unstable elements that might overthrow the Oeyama regime in advance; others said that Shuten Douji heard that the fox fairy possessed amazing wisdom, so he wanted to meet it.

No matter what the reason, Heber and others must remain silent and leave no trace when they travel on the territory of Dajiangshan.

This is very difficult, because Dajiangshan is the territory governed by the ghost tribe and is also the front line of the struggle between the two rulers.

Hebe had witnessed the horrific sight of the nine plagues spreading in the hot land of Egypt, but that was just the aftermath of the rulers' struggle in the wilderness, which was exploited by the Red King after they appeared in the world.

A wrestling matchup is a personal confrontation between the two rulers, involving every angle and every object. This is particularly evident on Mount Oe, where every inch of river water, every leaf, and every rock presents an extremely sharp angle. Here, flames and smoke tear at each other's forms, trees and winds nearly overwhelm each other, rivers and land compete for space, ghosts clash endlessly, and even the thoughts in their minds clash with each other.

As soon as the previous thought is born, the next thought negates it, and it itself is violently torn into nothingness by the later one.

Like meshing gears, like chess pieces locked in a desperate struggle, this is the struggle. It will never determine victory or defeat, but it will reveal the ups and downs, the strong and the weak in an era.

"Here, the power of the two rulers is unprecedentedly strong. The compass needle points to the edge of the sun, and time is blown by the wind. The conflict between beasts and humans ends at the top of the food chain. Between the transition between 'leap year' and 'normal year', the army of the king and father clashes with the gray beasts to the death."

——"As the calendar progresses, the remainder is always the same. The rise of an emperor will inevitably lead to an intercalary period."

The "leap year" is an unorthodox position of honor. It is relatively weak, but it will become a regular position when the opportunity arises. In other words, the transition from leap year to regular year, and from regular year to leap year, is a process of struggle.

"Oeyama is where the two rulers battled each other. Here, the struggle has reached a stalemate, so much so that they are unable to even move the pieces, and can only wait for them to decide the outcome. But that is not the case with you."

Heber withdrew his gaze, and the twisted lines on the water disappeared, turning into meaningless waves again.

Before this, Scar Father had been suppressed by Canlang until he turned the situation around not long ago.

It is conceivable that Canlang will not give up. When he and Scar Father are fighting each other, he will definitely try his best to search for Hebe's whereabouts.

Being on guard against the attention of the remaining wolves was only one of the reasons. More importantly, it was very difficult to control one's emotions after walking all the way from the outskirts of Dajiang Mountain.

......

Outside Dajiang Mountain, the land is barren and the river is filled with the stench of blood. Ghosts vent their desires here, feeding on all living things that stray into this place, even themselves.

Naturally, humans are the favorite food of ghosts, because for them, killing and devouring a person can relieve their inner manic desire for destruction.

Canlang is eager to destroy all order under Scar Father's command, and the ghosts naturally also want to kill all those who belong to "civilization".

If you only look at the outskirts of Mount Oeyama, it looks like the magical land described in all the novels.

But when the perspective shifts to the real rule of Oeyama, everything becomes different.

There are towns and streets here, and all the "order" needed for normal life. The residents here communicate and trade with each other, and there seems to be no problems.

What is even more surprising is that there are not only ghosts here, but also ordinary humans. They even walk side by side on the same road, talking and laughing with each other.

Is this possible? Even within the same category of "beasts," ghosts are at the extreme end of the spectrum. The gap between them and monsters is no smaller than that between monsters and humans.

If blood ties can still remain between humans and monsters, then there is absolutely no room for peace between humans and ghosts.

Because the desire for destruction between humans and ghosts is irreconcilable, they will destroy each other before they can unite.

So, what on earth do the people under the rule of the Great River live for? The answer is simple.

——Ghosts eat humans and monsters.

"Then why can't humans eat demons, ghosts, and humans?" The drunken Ghost King poured out the bloody wine in his cup. "Aren't the nobles always eating you anyway?"

"Drink, eat—so that the hunger and thirst in your bellies may be satisfied, so that you may escape this miserable and painful world... Haha, whether human or ghost, we all wander in this world."

......

This is Oeyama, the real magical realm.

It occupies the southeast corner of the entire eastern main island, bordering Heian-kyo to the north and Bungo Province to the south.

The most ironic thing is that the number of demons is actually limited, and Ibaraki Douji even expelled most of the monsters when he founded the country.

The people who truly prospered under Oeyama's rule were actually the common people who were abandoned by the Heian nobles.

They even look more like ghosts than real ghosts.

......

Hebe gazed at the people who were toasting each other and singing around the fire.

She turned around.

Those who drank blood and ate flesh fell into the fire one after another and were silent in a moment.

These people may have suffered in the past, perhaps because of coercion, perhaps because of a yearning for freedom, or perhaps they simply wanted to fill their stomachs with food, regardless of what they ate... In short, they joined Oeyama and became ghosts that were even better than ghosts.