Chapter 96: There Was No Road in the World

That said, Miss Vilyric intended to take a good stroll in the Mountains of Ten Thousand Demons, experience the local customs, and visiting the Moonshadow Clan’s base along the way wouldn’t be a problem.

In fact, even if Tiyelu didn’t organize all these fancy things, the Priestess would likely want to go take a look anyway.

With both sides settled, Vilyric’s group entered through the side gate and cut in line.

While being led by Walter into the fortress, Vilyric asked him some not overly important but necessary information about this special country controlled by the Ten Thousand Demons Alliance.

First off, due to geographic and various other factors, there are basically no cities built on plains like humans in the Mountains of Ten Thousand Demons. Instead, they are primarily divided into areas based on various sized settlements of different races.

To take the three strongest pillars as examples, the Moonshadow Magical Wolf Clan now has around forty-thousand members, divided into several large and small communities scattered across a vast hilly area. Each community has its leader and territory, with the largest community in the center being led by the clan chief, who is also the leader of the entire Moonshadow Clan.

Thus, this entire area is the territory of the Moonshadow Clan. Other magical beasts will not easily step into it unless they are vassals or permitted individuals; intruders will face the ruthless retaliation of the Moonshadow Clan.

Simultaneously, there’s a much larger area surrounding the Moonshadow Clan’s territory, where more numerous wolf-like magical beast communities or closely related clans of the Moonshadow Clan are scattered. This larger area is called the Wolf Clan Territory.

The Moonshadow Magical Wolves are the leading group there.

Of course, the Wolf Clan Territory doesn’t solely consist of wolf-type magical beasts; small groups or species closely related to the Wolf Clan can also settle nearby and receive protection.

Following the same reasoning, expanding the range even further to the entire southern region of the Mountains of Ten Thousand Demons, it is composed of dozens of types of regions similar to the Wolf Clan Territory, such as the Ghost Tribe, Tree Spirit Tribe, Merman Tribe, etc.

Among these major clans, there are also respective leader clans, like the Ghost Warrior Tribe where Walter is from, the Flower Spirit Clan among the tree spirits, and the Bright Merman Clan among the merfolk. These races support each other under the leadership of the Moonshadow Clan while maintaining their independence.

So, the term “Alliance” in the Ten Thousand Demons Alliance is not just for show.

The poachers typically hunt those groups far from the central stronger clans, which are smaller in scale and weaker in average individual strength, making it difficult for them to protect themselves.

In the Mountains of Ten Thousand Demons, there are far too many and too chaotic racial settlements, so even if the powerful clans intend to offer protection, it’s impossible to do so without oversight, which is why they are repeatedly exploited.

However, that was all in the past.

After entering the mountain range, Vilyric didn’t linger at the fortress at the entrance of the Demon Tracks Canyon. After some brief preparations, they continued to move forward.

In fact, there wasn’t much to see here; unlike Demon Town, this fortress doesn’t have many residents. Most of the occupants are troops from various strong clans in the south, and there are hardly any facilities related to production or trade.

Since this was the first cooperation between the United Kingdom and the Mountains of Ten Thousand Demons, and it was a major deal, Walter, this legendary peak southern Guardian, needed to stay behind to hold things together. Thus, he sent another strong individual to accompany Vilyric and the others as a guide inside the mountains.

And it was someone familiar, the Moonshadow Clan’s great demon general, Aiste.

Coincidentally, this general also wanted to return to report to her clan alongside little Princess Noviya. With a local like her accompanying them, the Priestess should save a lot of trouble along the way.

Aiste seemed to know something about Noviya being in a deep sleep, but she didn’t ask too many questions; as long as she confirmed that her life was not in danger, she relaxed and continued on.

The Moonshadow Clan’s territory is in the southern region of the Mountains of Ten Thousand Demons, near the outer parts of the central core area. Although it appears far, due to the flat nature of the mountains being long from east to west and short from north to south, it is actually only a straight-line distance of about six or seven hundred kilometers.

…

After two days of plain and uneventful travel, Vilyric’s group quickly encountered a new problem.

There was no road.

To be precise, the official road laid down by humans three hundred years ago abruptly stopped here. Although Vilyric didn’t quite understand why they only laid the road to this point back then, giving a feeling of it being incomplete, that’s just how it was.

According to Aiste, there are several different ways to proceed from here.

If it’s a human merchant caravan heading north for trade, they usually choose to take a longer, safer, and smoother route through valleys or forests, but since Vilyric’s group consisted of no more than six or seven people, they didn’t really need to do that.

“So, you mean we have to climb the mountains?”

Getting off the cart and standing at the end of the already somewhat mottled stone road, Vilyric asked the Moonshadow Clan’s great demon general.

“That’s right. Lady Vilyric, you saw that fortress outside the Demon Tracks Canyon, right? You should understand that we magical beasts also have the ability to build roads and structures.”

“The reason we haven’t been doing so is that most races are self-sufficient, quite closed off, and engage in very little trade. Furthermore, many magical beasts we raise or magical beings themselves can easily carry heavy objects through the mountains and forests. The mountainous terrain is not suitable for building wide roads, so naturally, we wouldn’t want to do that futile labor.”

Watching as the magical wolf lady confidently carried a certain royal brat wrapped in cloth on her back like a package, Vilyric didn’t rush to refute but turned to glance at her companions, who were jumping down from the wagon one by one, and thought for a moment before posing the most critical question.

“I understand everything you said, but is there a possibility that everyone here is not the magical beings you mentioned, but bipedal creatures?”

“Uh… No, it’s fine! Lady Vilyric, if I remember right, there’s a small group of mountain wolves not far ahead, they are a side branch of my clan. Although their bloodline isn’t very strong, their endurance is excellent, and they are especially good at climbing mountains.”

“My thought is that everyone can bear with it, bypass these few mountains, stay with the mountain wolves for a night, and then ask them to lend some able-bodied youth to act as footmen, allowing us to proceed directly along the mountains. Ideally, we would only need about one or two days, and we could reach our clan’s territory.”

After saying that, Aiste quickly blinked, as if trying to take credit for her brilliant suggestion, but the Priestess merely closed her eyes and gazed at the seemingly towering, desolate mountains ahead, frowning soon after.

“Aiste, may I ask how many of ‘these few mountains’ you are referring to?”

“Ah? Um… I haven’t come here much myself, so I’m not too sure. Probably around seven or eight mountain peaks, definitely no more than ten!”

“…?”

“?”

In the end, Vilyric decided to adopt the magical wolf lady’s suggestion.

Although Aiste seemed to have a misunderstanding about climbing seven or eight peaks that are at least three-thousand-meters high in one afternoon, fortunately, there weren’t any ordinary people in Vilyric’s group.

She and Little Dragon Daughter were certainly up to the task. Leila, Renée, and Edwina also had legendary-tier strength. Even Renée, being a sky mage of the special bloodline White Winged People, had endurance far beyond that of ordinary individuals.

The only slight trouble might be Tilysha.

But no worries, Tilysha was, after all, the blessed one appointed by the Life Goddess, and as someone who was said to have often worked in the fields as a Little Village Girl in the past, her physical ability shouldn’t be weak, so climbing a few mountains shouldn’t be a problem.

Yes, just like that!

   

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