Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 1233 - 1226: West Outer Heaven

Chapter 1233: Chapter 1226: West Outer Heaven

"We can’t put it that way," Zhuyan Yu waved his hand and said, "The conflicting sides can always change. Right now we might be enemies, but that doesn’t mean we will still be enemies in the future. The first civilization we encountered was the Demon Clan civilization, and regardless, there’s bound to be a prejudice because of that encounter. Moreover, even if we had first met the Dongsheng Empire, I don’t think we would have helped them invade. After all, aggression in war is fundamentally unjust, and as Earthlings, we should understand this better than they do."

"Should we chase down and eliminate the trouble at its root?" Hu Daoke asked, making a gesture.

"Let it be, never mind whether we can catch up; even if we could, I reckon they won’t be easy to deal with. Let them go. The priority is to follow Danggui to Lingyuan City and send the message; that’s what’s important," Luo’er said, waving his hand.

"How much farther is it to Lingyuan City?" Cheng Ziang asked Danggui.

"Head northeast, and after about two more mountains, you’ll be there," Danggui said, pointing in a direction.

"Let’s go then. Shall we accompany you?" Cheng Ziang nodded and said.

"Is that okay?" Upon hearing this, Danggui seemed somewhat excited.

"Are we not welcome?" Luo’er asked.

"No, no, not at all," Danggui hurriedly waved his hand and said, "We are very welcoming of guests from the Western Continent to visit Lingyuan City. At a time when our existence hangs in the balance, we, Abisien, must unite all the forces we can."

"Your ideology seems quite advanced." Hearing Danggui say such words in the language of the Demon Clan, Luo’er couldn’t help but shake his head and laugh.

Afterward, Luo’er sent a message to the aerial fleet, briefly explaining his intentions, requesting that after they complete their reconnaissance, they should move towards Lingyuan City. Now, with the Dongsheng Empire sending a formidable force across the border, Luo’er felt that the presence of the aerial fleet should deter the Dongsheng Empire from reckless actions.

Along the way, he and Zhuyan Yu bombarded Danggui with questions like an interrogation, one after another, leaving Danggui parched and tongue-tied. However, once their vigilance was lowered, this fox-eared youth was surprisingly forthcoming, disclosing everything he knew without any concealment.

Through his words, Luo’er learned a lot about the East Continent. Their region was known as West Outer Heaven.

West Outer Heaven lay at the far western edge of the Continent, overall shaped like a parallelogram, bordered by the sea on the west, south, and north, and to the east by the high plateau mountain ranges called the Thousand Peaks Cloud Top, somewhat similar to the Tibetan Plateau.

The Thousand Peaks Cloud Top blocked the pathways from east to west, only leaving small portions of the southeast and northeast regions passable. The Dongsheng Empire, which the Demon Clan frequently mentioned, was located east of the Thousand Peaks Cloud Top.

Historically, the Human Race empires and the nomadic tribes to the east had attempted to invade West Outer Heaven multiple times, but their efforts were stymied by the insurmountable barrier of the Thousand Peaks Cloud Top. As such, the Demon Clan people referred to their region as West Outer Heaven, implying a land beyond the heavens in the west, which was roughly the idea.

Regarding Abisien, after much back-and-forth communication, everyone eventually came to understand the meaning of this term. It was actually a new concept, literally translating to ’Resolute Alliance.’

The Resolute Alliance emerged after the genocide of the Rabbit-ear Clan by the Human Race Empire. The Demon Clan of West Outer Heaven was shocked by the annihilation of the Rabbit-ear Clan. They realized that if they did not unite, they would likely suffer the same fate. Thus, they formed strategic alliances, creating the Resolute Alliance, or Abisien, to resist the invasion of the Dongsheng Empire together.

It could be said that Abisien was a loose confederation of states, somewhat akin to a tribal federation system. Its highest decision-making body was the Executive Council, attended and presided over by the elders of the major tribes.

When the Human Race Empire first invaded, West Outer Heaven still operated under a primitive tribal system. However, after the establishment of Abisien, the balance of power gradually evened out between the Human Race Empire and the Demon Clan alliance. The Human Race Empire, attacking from afar, often found it challenging to counter the well-prepared Abisien, resulting in several failed invasions.

Nevertheless, despite this, Abisien still paid a heavy price. After several wars of resistance, the livelihood of the various tribes declined, and it took a long time for them to recover.

The view of vast primitive forests that everyone now saw in West Outer Heaven was a consequence of those wars. War forced the Demon Clan people to neglect production entirely and engage wholeheartedly in resistance, leaving them with little time to develop the vast West Outer Heaven.

After communicating with Danggui, everyone had more or less clarified the types and numbers of the Demon Clan’s various tribes. On the vast lands of the western part of the East Continent, there were over ten different forms of the Demon Clan, to be specific, ten that could be spoken about. Among these ten, the proportion between the Beast-Ear Race and the Beast Head Tribe was forty to sixty, meaning that the tribes with animal heads on their necks were actually the majority on the East Continent.

There were in total four types of the Beast-Ear Race, which were the Fox-Ear Tribe, the Cat-Ear Tribe, the Leopard-Ear Tribe, and the Rabbit-Ear Tribe to which Taran belonged. Among these, the Rabbit-Ear Tribe had already gone extinct on the East Continent, and the branch that had escaped to the Western Continent became the only remaining bloodline of the Rabbit-Ear Tribe.

There were altogether six types of the Beast Head Tribe, specifically the Wolfman Clan, the Tiger-human Clan, the Bear-man Clan, the Sheep-man Clan, the Minotaur, which is the Bull-man Clan, and an outlier, the Centaur Clan.

Among these tribes, the Sheep-man Clan and the Minotaur predominantly dwelt in the Thousand Peaks Cloud Top, while the Centaur Clan mainly resided in the mountains and grasslands of the northern part of the East Continent. The remaining three clans, the Wolfman Clan, the Tiger-human Clan, and the Bear-man Clan, mainly lived in the West Outer Heaven, and they were the main force in opposing the Human Race Empire.

In terms of naming and translating these tribes, Zhuyan Yu had her own opinions and thought it reasonable to adopt a certain translation for documentation. She believed that since they were tribes of the East Continent, they should be named using Eastern translations.

Thus, it took her over half an hour to assign an Eastern translation to each tribe.

First were the tribes of the Beast-Ear Race, the Fox-Ear Tribe was translated to the Qingqiu Clan, the Cat-Ear Tribe to the Maoyou Clan, the Leopard-Ear Tribe to the Jin Qian Clan, and the Rabbit-Ear Tribe was translated to the Laurel Family.

Next were the tribes of the Beast Head Tribe, the Wolfman Clan was translated to the Xiaotian Clan, the Tiger-human Clan to the Luwu Clan, the Bear-man Clan to the Zilu Clan, the Sheep-man Clan to the Bluebird Clan, the Minotaur to the Zhuhuai Clan, while the Centaur Clan was translated to the Yingzhao Clan.

Many of these names were derived from the classic ’Shan Hai Jing’, such as the Fox-Ear Tribe’s Qingqiu Clan, the Tiger-human Clan’s Luwu Clan, the Minotaur’s Zhuhuai Clan, and the Centaur Clan’s Yingzhao Clan.

Some, like the Maoyou Clan, the Jin Qian Clan, and the Laurel Family, were named based on mythological references and intuitive impressions. As for the other appellations, Luo’er and the rest genuinely couldn’t find any references for them.

Despite these translations, amongst those from Abisien themselves, they essentially called things as they appeared, without uniformity.

Later on, they finally understood from Danggui why he was so fearful of the Dongsheng General. Quite simply, because these people were all Cultivators.

The Dongsheng Empire revered martial skills, and the Empire’s Emperor was even called Emperor Wu, and being mainly comprised of Cultivators, the Dongsheng Empire followed a set of civil and military governance rules.

In the military, this rule meant that non-Cultivator military officers were mainly responsible for deploying troops and waging war, known as Commanders or Marshals.

Those who were Cultivators among the military officers were primarily responsible for leading assaults and were called Generals.

As Cultivators, these people could often match a thousand troops on the battlefield, halting armies of thousands or even tens of thousands single-handedly, playing a vital role in the direction of the war.

Therefore, on the East Continent, when one hears of a ’commander and general’s force’, it generally signifies an army with complete martial and scholarly capabilities, difficult to contend with.

However, such a system was inherently flawed, and this flaw had existed for hundreds of years, persisting until the present. It was the issue of command authority between commanders and generals.

Generally, since commanders could not cultivate, they could only rely on their troops for combat. These individuals were quite adept at engaging in warfare, with most expeditions led by commanders with generals as their deputies.

However, the Human Race Empire, or the Dongsheng Empire for that matter, has always held martial prowess in high esteem. This led many Cultivator generals to look down on commanders who only knew how to lead troops and not dare to charge into battle, resulting in discord between commanders and generals.

This problem has persisted for hundreds of years, occurring in nearly every Human Race army dispatched to conquer the West Outer Heaven, and it has been almost unavoidable. If the relationship between commander and general was decent, it wouldn’t be a problem, but if they were inherently incompatible, it would be particularly prone to mishaps.