CHAPTER 462: CHAPTER 462: THE SEEMINGLY ABSURD CAUSE OF WAR

In the Kafezaro Desert, countless people are buried by the sands each year, rendering it a forbidden zone for life. Even if a few more people disappear throughout the year, no one would know.

It was the fault of the slave hunters that led He Meng and his brother to be stranded in a foreign land; after Yang Yu toyed with them, Iyas showed no mercy and shot through their hearts, burying them in the yellow sands.

A night without words.

The next day, Yang Yu and Qing Shi waved goodbye, making sure no one else wanted to treat them as a bus. After joining up with Lotcar outside the town, they officially headed towards Wansheng Country.

In the boundless yellow sands, even the usually swift Lotcar slowed down. Moreover, they had to stop moving during the hot noon, and it would take Yang Yu and his group at least a week to cross the vast desert and reach Wansheng Country.

As the temperature rose, Iyas tugged at the scarf around her neck, trying to fan herself on the neck to cool off. But, in the desert, even the wind was hot, and blowing it into one’s clothing only made one feel the unbearable heat.

Once they were far enough from the town, Qing Shi reminded Iyas that if she felt hot, she could take off the stifling clothes without worrying about revealing her subhuman identity.

During the strategy at the "Hall of Courage," Iyas had never taken off the scarf or the turban around her neck, always concealing her elf identity from Qing Shi.

When Qing Shi mentioned that she was a subhuman, Iyas was quite surprised.

Qing Shi explained with a wry smile that subhumans often sought out desert guides, hoping they could help them cross the desert.

Qing Shi’s father, Jiao Sha, had hosted many subhumans, but he almost never told others about secretly hosting them.

Slave trading had existed for a long time, and many subhumans would cross the desert to Serti to find their captured kin.

When desert guides reached Wansheng Country, these subhumans often found them and offered substantial rewards, hoping the guides would lead them through the desert.

Subhumans who successfully rescued their kin and wanted to return to their own countries would also seek out desert guides.

To avoid being recognized, these subhumans usually dressed securely and quietly sought out desert guides under the cover of night before quietly departing.

During Qing Shi’s childhood, he was often awakened by these subhumans.

At first, Qing Shi found these thoroughly wrapped people quite scary, but after following his father deep into the desert with them, he realized that subhumans were essentially no different from humans, except in appearance.

In the world of subhumans, there were both good and bad individuals. Young Qing Shi understood that those who risked their lives to find their lost kin were definitely not bad people.

Unfortunately, as the war between Wansheng Country and the Luoze Empire gradually escalated, Qing Shi’s town became a frequent haunt for slave hunters, and very few subhumans came there to find desert guides anymore.

Conversely, whenever a desert guide reached Wansheng Country, large numbers of subhumans would seek them out, either by coercion or by pleading, to get the guides to lead them through the desert to Serti.

Thus, Qing Shi was not surprised by the appearance of subhumans.

If there were subhumans in the team, the desert guide would offer special services, maintaining a distance from others trying to cross the desert to avoid too much contact with other human groups.

After obtaining Yang Yu’s permission, Iyas slowly removed her scarf and turban, revealing her elf identity and her stunningly beautiful face.

Qing Shi couldn’t help but take a few more glances when he first saw it, and then sheepishly smiled and awkwardly looked away.

After one or two days, Qing Shi had adapted and was able to communicate normally with Iyas.

Then, during a midday break one day, Yang Yu, as usual, took out the tools to relieve the heat, allowing the team to rest on the spot.

Unknowingly, Yang Yu and his team were getting closer and closer to the center of the Kafezaro Desert.

The most common scene in the desert was the seemingly endless dunes that looked alike; if they lost their direction, Yang Yu and his team could potentially circle back to their original route, making their effort futile.

Along the way, they occasionally saw a few mirages, but Qing Shi was always able to sharply discern that those were just illusions, saving Yang Yu and his team the stamina that would be spent checking them out.

There were also oases in the Kafezaro Desert, and many desert guides would base their routes on these.

However, the appearance of an oasis was often accompanied by ferocious magic beasts. Since Yang Yu’s group was well-prepared, not needing to restock resources or make major adjustments en route, Qing Shi adjusted their path to avoid the oases and took the shortest route to the Wansheng Country.

Outside the tent, the scorching sunlight twisted the air, and the golden sand was hot as if it was a boiling pot, where an egg could instantly turn into a fried egg.

Inside the tent, the melted ice took away most of the heat, and even Lotcar, covered in fur, felt bursts of coolness and could comfortably lie down to rest.

Bai Jin, following the method taught by Qing Shi, kept practicing to enhance her Magic Perception Ability.

He Meng, Iyas, and Hake leaned against the ice blocks. Iyas, trying to use the knowledge she learned from books and the milk, eggs, and sugar she got from Yang Yu, attempted to make soft, mushy ice cream but kept failing, ultimately freezing the mixture into a block of ice.

Yang Yu sat next to Qing Shi and started to learn about the war between the Luo Ze Empire and the Wansheng Empire.

Qing Shi didn’t have much intelligence but still did his best to tell Yang Yu everything he knew.

The war between the Luo Ze Empire and the Wansheng Country had lasted a full eight years.

The cause of the war was also absurd.

The Luo Ze Empire itself was quite fascinating; they had a habit of erecting ancestral sculptures along their borders, believing that as long as their ancestors’ statues stood at the frontier, they would protect the empire’s strength generation after generation.

Once a boundary was established, new sculptures would be erected at intervals along the border.

Since the sculptures were of the empire’s ancestors, they were highly valued, and the empire even incorporated into their law that no damage should be done to the sculptures.

Any act daring to defile or damage the empire’s sculptures was seen as tarnishing the glory of the empire.

The spark of the war occurred in a city that had close ties between the two countries—Miqielustan.

It was a commercial city that the Luo Ze Empire opened to the Wansheng Country for trade, historically a bustling commercial hub where subhumans and humans coexisted peacefully.

That was until one day, without warning, one of the empire’s sculptures suddenly collapsed.

There were children playing around the sculpture at that time, and a passing Fox Beastman Swordsman leapt forward, using his sword to cut through the falling sculpture, saving the children.