Demon King: Hero, don’t run away!

Chapter 478: Chapter 478: The Abandoned Village

Glancing back to confirm no one was following, Yang Yu steered Lotcar forward on the road.

The strong wind tossed his disheveled hair as Bai Jin looked at the Race Disguise Necklace in her hand,

”Yang Yu, did you know from the beginning that our identities would be seen through?”

Yang Yu shrugged, ”I wouldn’t say that.

Beastmen’s senses are superior to humans, and I wasn’t sure if the Race Disguise Necklace could fool them completely.

I was just prepared to be uncovered at any time.”

Lotcar possessed extremely acute hearing and smell; the Silver Teeth Clan could transform into huge wolf-like demons, but they were also canine Beastmen.

Most other canine Beastmen also likely had extraordinarily sharp senses, something Yang Yu had to be cautious of.

It just hadn’t occurred to Yang Yu that Wansheng Country had specifically trained canine Beastmen to easily distinguish human scents from other races.

As for how they were actually trained,

honestly, Yang Yu was very curious.

Were they waving clothes scented with human odor in front of them all day, or did they put objects with a human smell into a pile of various scented items and had them pick them out?

If it were up to Yang Yu, he would use stinky tofu, dirty socks, and surströmming, wiping them one after another onto cloth strips not tainted with human scent. Every half hour, he would have the canine Beastmen choose one—if they didn’t pick correctly, they weren’t allowed to eat.

This wasn’t just about disgusting the Beastmen.

According to Yang Yu’s past experience, some people would stop at nothing for gain.

What if they used the sensitive noses of these canine Beastmen, thundered a cry of ”Do it, for the glory!”, and exposed the Beastmen’s noses to an unprecedentedly strong stimulus, causing them to faint by accident?

Sometimes, having too keen senses wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

Therefore, it was essential to train their endurance.

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Continuing along the road, Yang Yu and his company passed through swamps, crossed plains, and journeyed towards the Life Forest.

On their path, they encountered many patrolling soldiers, and the deeper they went, the higher the Level and attributes of their adversaries.

Most of the patrolling Beastmen were still canine in kind, and when they couldn’t be avoided, Yang Yu had no choice after unsuccessful communication but to incapacitate them temporarily, strike a pose that suggested he could take their lives at any moment, and swagger away.

So far, Yang Yu hadn’t killed a single Beastman.

This wasn’t because he was kind-hearted, but because he wanted to leave behind a reputation.

Two humans with two elves and riding a giant wolf barged into Wansheng Country, yet they hadn’t killed or taken any Beastman. The purpose of their intrusion would definitely leave outsiders room for speculation.

The more people relished and tirelessly discussed it, one day, these rumors would naturally reach the ears of the country’s rulers.

By then, casting off his human identity temporarily and climbing ranks wouldn’t be a difficult feat.

Continuing on their journey, a few more days passed, and Yang Yu’s group finally stepped into the outskirts of the Life Forest.

Throughout this journey, Yang Yu had seen many abandoned villages.

After arriving at the Life Forest, Yang Yu finally found a village that had living people.

Away from the village, Yang Yu wrote some notes and had Iyas deliver them with Hake to inquire.

In addition to asking for directions, Yang Yu also inquired about why the village had been abandoned.

Only then did Yang Yu learn that, as the war between the Luo Ze Empire and Wansheng Country grew more intense, many scattered beastmen had been concentrated into a few large cities.

Wansheng Country didn’t force those who did not wish to move, but it hoped they could provide some resources from the forest, which the nation would purchase at normal prices.

Wansheng Country sent quite a few people into the countryside and villages to spread propaganda, explaining the current situation and the potential consequences of a defeat to the subhumans living in the forests.

The villagers were most impressed by the propaganda that mentioned the wars of the Dark Age.

Originally, subhumans had been widely distributed across the world.

But due to the wars of the Dark Age, humans began a mass campaign of exclusion, which ultimately led to a divide between the human world and the subhuman world.

This situation has persisted until today.

On the human side, there were the Terun Republic, Luo Ze Empire, Sethis Kingdom, and the absolutely neutral All Things Library; on the subhuman side, there was Wansheng Country, dominated by beastmen, the multi-racial country ruled by giant dragons, Dragon God Evaluation Country, and the island nation dominated by various sea-dwelling species—the Ocean Duchy.

Among them, the history of the founding of Wansheng Country was the most rugged.

Giant dragons were the most powerful creatures in this world, and the nations they established were also the oldest in history.

Anyone who attempted to invade the Dragon God Evaluation Country would be completely crushed by the giant dragons like ants, including the historical Sethis, which had been the most powerful and had nearly unified the entire human world.

At that time, Sethis had been at the height of its glory, a step away from completing the unification of humans, only to be shattered upon contact with the recuperated giant dragons, shrinking in size to three quarters of what it was before the conquest war started.

The Ocean Duchy was located at the southernmost part of the world, and since the Dragon God Evaluation Country served as a natural barrier that stopped humans, they essentially did not need to worry about external enemies, at most there were some disputes over territorial waters among different sea-dwelling species.

Only Wansheng Country lacked an overwhelmingly powerful figure to hold power, surrounded by formidable enemies.

Before humans started their extermination and exclusion campaign, different kinds of subhumans were like scattered sand, undergoing various slaughters, and it was during this time of crisis that someone finally stood up, uniting all the subhumans and establishing Wansheng Country in the west of the continent.

The character for ’prosperity’ in Wansheng Country’s name can be read to mean ’thriving’, signifying that subhumans can prosper on this land, but it can also be read as ’abundance’, meaning that all kinds of subhumans can find a place to live on this land.

Therefore, when they knew what crisis the nation was facing, many villages responded to the national call, moving to secure areas, and contributing their strength to the war.

This had led to the ”ghost” villages Yang Yu saw.

Iyas also received an official promotional brochure from an old beastman they inquired with.

Yang Yu took a look, and inside were simple and clear illustrations and easy-to-understand text that even children could comprehend, all for propaganda purposes.

Unfortunately, such concise propaganda also had its drawbacks. In order to emphasize this as a war of justice, the Wansheng Country officials had already started demonizing the Luo Ze Empire...

Yang Yu wondered whether this would hinder the cease-fire between the two sides.

Surprisingly, at the back of the booklet, there was even a recruitment advertisement.

The recruitment requirements, benefits, and locations were all listed in detail, and after he had finished up with some minor matters, Yang Yu could even use this booklet to sign up directly for the military.

After all, there was nothing written on it that said it had to be a subhuman who enlisted.

Yang Yu carefully folded the booklet brought by Iyas and stored it in the System. Then they once again mounted the back of Lotcar.