Chapter 99: Black Bone Swamp and Beastmen
After a morning of rest, at noon on October 10, all the citizens of the Papal States finally set foot on the starting point of a long road of blood and sweat.

It is still 350 miles away from Jeanne d'Arc.

Horn stood on the carriage, his hands on the awning, looking into the distance.

On both sides of the long winding road are continuous mountain ranges that appear to be close at hand but are actually very far away.

The Blackbone Swamp is actually a peat swamp in the mountains, and it was once a river channel.

During the movement of the mountains, the original river channel was blocked, and the river water was diverted to merge into the Nauan River, and this swamp appeared in this small river valley basin.

According to Sissi, this river valley is shaped like a three-ball gourd, and the outermost exit is the wild spider forest.

The part where the second ball is located is the lowest and most dangerous uninhabited swamp.

The entrance area where Horn and his companions were located had patches of reeds and waterfowl flying up and down on both sides, as well as beastmen and savages living there.

After walking through the narrow valley, a vast swamp area appeared before our eyes. Beneath the green grass and reeds were muddy and dark ditches.

The culvert was filled with loose mud, not unlike the water, and full of moss and dead animals.

In the few places where there was water, dirty green mud floated, and dead white trees protruded from the mud, like the bones of giant beasts piercing the skin.

Horn asked someone to try it. It turned out that a puddle the size of a washbasin required a spear more than three meters long to reach the bottom. It took all their strength to pull the spear out.

If a person gets stuck in this, he or she may never be able to get out.

"Tsk tsk tsk." Horn couldn't help but sigh.

Even so, smoke could be seen rising from the distant foothills and even from the highlands in the swamp.

It is a miracle that the long road built by the El Empire in such a piece of land has not been damaged.

"El technology is number one in the world." Madelan looked at the long road that stretched all the way to the horizon and couldn't help but sigh, "The slogan of the El people is not empty talk. El scholars account for more than one-third of the Salin Scholars Association."

"A parasite resting on his laurels." Bonard muttered in a low voice.

Horn turned his head: "Why do you say that?"

The people around also looked at Bonard. After all, Horn's Papal States was established based on the template of the El Empire. There were even elders who called themselves the Third El Empire.

Bonard looked at the unfriendly eyes of the people around him and swallowed his saliva: "Back then, when the Aiel Empire moved eastward, the Aiel people inherited most of the civilization heritage of the Aiel Empire and held on to it tightly.

This caused the civilization of our three kingdoms to regress for a thousand years, and some ancient engineering machinery cannot be manufactured even now."

"The El Empire is the country of the El people. There shouldn't be any problem for him to inherit their legacy."

"No." Looking at Horn, Bonard didn't know how to address him, so he could only say, "Sir Wanpiao, the Aiel people in the Aiel Empire are not the same as the Aiel people here."

The Aiel actually means half-elves or elves. After the unification of the Seven Hills Kingdoms, the elven bloodline of the Aiel has been becoming increasingly diluted.

By the end of the empire, only the thousand-year-old families who had intermarried among their high-ranking members still retained some elven characteristics.

The rest of the Aiel had long lost all their elven characteristics through constant intermarriage.

The demonic disease that broke out at the end of the empire had a special attack on the elven bloodline. Those who survived either turned into vampires or had almost no elven blood left.

"Those so-called El people, with their dyed blond hair and fake ears, really think they are El people," Bonard said sarcastically.

Horn nodded thoughtfully.

Hmm wait, doesn’t this mean that the vampire nobles in the current Flesh and Blood Court are actually the true descendants of El?

"The reason why the priests are hostile to the Aiel people," Sissi interrupted Horn's thoughts, "is because the Salin Scholars have trained a large number of mathematicians, legal scholars, and philosophers, and have usurped a large amount of authority that originally belonged to the church. Your Majesty, don't think that they are really considering the people."

Bonard directed his angry eyes at Sissi. "Look at our poor little one, he's so cute when he's angry." After pinching Bonard's cheeks gently, Sissi picked up the blue feather fan again, covered her mouth and laughed.

At this moment, Horn was also observing Bonard.

Horn kept the priest by his side mainly to seek out intelligence about the church and the monk's extraordinary abilities.

To be honest, Bonard had used the holy oil Horn that he had brought with him before for experiments. It was just ordinary animal fat mixed with herbs.

He even applied some on himself, but apart from feeling a cool sensation on his head, like Tiger Balm, it had no other effect.

Putting his worries aside and looking at the sky, Horn knew it was time to set off as it was already getting late.

"Okay, let's keep going. We have already walked 150 miles. We need to walk another 300 miles and enter the territory of Duke Darnay of Kush. Then we will be safe."

Following Horn's order, the entire Papal States began to move again, and the newly joined citizens also began to march forward along with the veterans.

Due to the two previous battles, although both battles were won, there were still nearly thirty casualties.

In addition, due to the reputation of Shengsungen, some refugees who had long been dissatisfied with the church nobles simply joined in, bringing the population back to just over 1,200.

Walking on the Sweat Road, Horn looked to both sides and saw puddles of water connected to each other, with scattered bushes between the puddles.

From time to time, one or two water voles would poke their heads out from the roadside and then suddenly retract them, and some otters would swim by with branches in their mouths.

The long, sweat-and-blood road in front of Horn was slightly higher than the surrounding terrain, a bit like a dam, and the width of the road was about enough for two carriages to run parallel.

The ground is made of hard rubble, and the gaps between the rubble are filled with unknown materials. Although it is not as good as a cement road, it is much better than the rammed earth road.

There are some ginkgo and lantern trees growing on the roadside, and occasionally there is a wooden bridge or a pile of soil extending from the foot of the distant mountain all the way to the roadside.

"If we take these roads, can't we attack those beastman villages?"

"Yes." Xixi answered immediately.

"Then why didn't the Empire attack the village directly from these small roads?"

Jieshka smiled and replied, "The nobles in Qianhe Valley have tried it several times before.

When they marched and attacked, these beastmen would hold long poles, jump between ditches and puddles, and attack them.

These paths were too narrow, only enough for two people to walk side by side. They couldn't get out, especially since they were wearing armor. Once they were pushed into the mud on the side of the road, they couldn't climb out at all.

The nobles organized three attacks, but each time they were defeated by the beastmen and savages. In addition, after investigation, they found that there was no profit in this land, so they gave up. "

Is that so? Horn did not ask any more questions, but continued to urge the villagers to hurry up and go to the other side of the mountain path.

If a road like this that runs through puddles of water were attacked, the people would probably suffer the same fate as the nobles of Qianhe Valley.

Because he needed to practice riding skills and had captured a number of horses previously, Horn did not continue walking but instead rode a horse.

Just as he was thinking about the beastman, he looked up and saw a pair of fluttering animal ears flash past at the intersection.

"Did you see that just now?" Horn asked Jessica beside him.

Jeshka nodded solemnly: "Yes, they are probably sent by the beastman village. We have to be careful next time."

Before he finished speaking, he heard a whistling arrow rising into the sky.

　ps sneak attack!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)