CHAPTER 12: [The curse land] - [Smell lost] - [The Aankh temple is empty?]

A day had passed since The discussion between the two generals, the army had rested and after a good night's sleep the soldiers were more than ready to launch an assault on the temple of Aankh. Some soldiers were waking up while others were putting away their tents, after 2 hours all the soldiers had folded their tents in their bags and after taking back their formation the army walked forward.

After what was somewhat an hour of march, the generals that headed the army could see the temple's wall in the distance. The wall was painted in orange using pigments from multiple plants, it wasn't only a way to show the temple's appearance to the monkey tribe but also a powerful beast repeller.

Indeed, it disturbed and was unpleasant for most beasts in the forest, as they had a very developed sense of smell they didn't approach the temple's perimeter.

As the army walked closer to the temple, the soldiers started to tense up, they knew that war was coming and that meant losing friends and comrades. Almost all the soldiers could now see the tall orange wall of the temple. The soldiers started surrounding the temple as planned by the generals, after the temple was completely surrounded most of them took flight while some stayed behind to close up the perimeter.

The soldiers crossed the wall, but they still couldn't see any sign of the monkey soldiers, they became even more stressed as they anticipated a trap or sudden attack of the monkeys. The soldiers cautiously landed in the temple's outer court and walked to the temple main building.

Ying-ba was leading them followed by his general, he punched a wall destroying the room behind it. After waiting for a while, he entered and arrived in what used to be the council room, that was now unrecognizable now that he had created an entrance.

Ying-ba walked ahead proudly and manifested his aura, his every steps were filled with pressure and could be felt by all the soldiers. Even though they knew he wouldn't attack them, they felt that their existence meant nothing compared to his. He was like a wall that is so high that it can't be crossed and so strong that it can't be broken.

The soldier followed their general with now assured footsteps, after all, they could all feel that they couldn't be defeated with such a powerful leader. Ying-ba had intentionally shown his aura for two reasons, firstly he wanted to reassure his men, secondly he wanted to scare any hidden enemy.

Ying-ba opened the door and after verifying the whole structure using his *aura sense*, he confirmed it to be empty apart from one room that seemed to have a complicated formation protecting it from being seen through withe *aura sense*. The soldiers were sent in all directions of the building to verify if anyone had got through his detection.

Ying-ba and his general went to the room that had protective formation, it was the temple head's room. Being the room of the most powerful habitant of the temple it was normal for it to have this much protection but what was strange was the fact it was completely empty as if no one had ever lived here. Even if the monkeys fled, taking all their precious positions, they wouldn't have taken the time to clean it like this.

Apart from the protective formation Ying-ba couldn't know which formations were in place, he could feel there was more to this room than the eyes could tell. He asked all the generals to exit the room and was left standing in its middle. He took his bone spear from behind his back and closed his eyes while extending all his other senses to their limit. He had taken a straight hit pose and didn't move for 5 minutes, suddenly he threw his spear at the ceiling.

What happened next was shocking for all the generals that were quietly watching their leader with expressions that showed doubt. The whole room shattered, not in a literal sense, only the illusion surrounding it broke to pieces, giving place to a more old looking room filled with all kinds of scrolls and odd looking objects.

Ying-ba opened his eyes and smiled in contempt as he casually caught his spear that fell down after breaking the strong illusion. The illusion was a very complicated spider web like formation that would look flawless for anyone that could feel it, but Ying-ba was at an even higher level, he had been able to find the one small flaw. He was able to break through a small hole in the formation and shattered it with one strong and precise spear throw.

He and his generals then proceeded with the examination of the room and its content, after searching for a while they concluded that those books were normal teaching writings that weren't suitable for them or their soldiers. As for the objects, they were magic weapons. These objects all contained magic stones that were used in their making, so they had usefulness. How ether only low magic weapons were left, the monkeys most likely fled with all their most precious belongings, leaving the rest hidden in the illusion.

Ying-ba sighted as it turned out that there was nothing worth his time in the room, he ordered the generals to make the soldiers loot the room and exited it, walking back to the new entrance he had created previously. He arrived back to the council room still thinking about the reason for hiding such weak magic weapons in the room, losing such items wouldn't have been a big loss for them.

'These items can easily be made, the only relatively good thing about them is the magic stone used for their construction…no, it couldn't be that.' Ying-ba suddenly turned back as he was exiting the building and faceted the *purple wood* table that was the only intact part of the room.

The reasons for his actions, he had just imagined the possibility that the temple's head illusion was only a way to divert their attention to hide something a lot more important. Ying-ba got to the table and tried moving it using his sheer strength, and found it to be very heavy compared to normal tables. *Purple wood* is not only extremely durable it is extremely heavy, only by infusing aura in it can you easily lift it, the better the quality the more sturdy and heavy it is.

This table had been strong enough to resist one of Ying-ba's punches and didn't seem to have any scratches on its surface, furthermore it weighed enough for Ying-ba to find it heavy using all his strength. Ying-ba turned the table and placed it back in its original position, the middle of the room.

If one looked at the table with the intent to find something hidden they would be able to see aura fluctuations, of course not anybody could see them even if they tried very hard. There actually was a formation on the table, from what Ying-ba could feel it was a sealing formation, but he couldn't find how to unlock it as he was not an expert in the field.

Ying-ba's mood lightened as his finding could prove useful in the future if he could find a way to understand the formation and open it to see where it leads. Soon after, the generals arrived in the room, and explained to them the situation. The illusion was most likely a way to divert their attention from the table. This time, Ying-ba didn't ask for his generals to take care of the table and took it inside his space bracelet that served him to transport his most precious belongings.

After a while, all the soldiers that were asked to meet up in the main training field had arrived and were quietly waiting for their leader to talk while keeping a straight military pose.

"Soldiers today we had a victory over the monkeys, but it can't be called a true victory as they fled without even facing us. In the future, victories won't be won easily as today, you shouldn't expect them to be like today. Don't expect the monkeys to let themselves be defeated, they most likely fled with the intent of coming back harder at us. Don't ever think of leaving your guard down, or they will use it without a doubt against you. On those words, let's continue with a winning spree until we have regained what is ours!" Ying-ba gave his soldiers a speech that showed that they had won but shouldn't put their guard down and encouraged them to continue to the best of their abilities.

"Victory to the eagles! Victory to the lord! We will triumph! For our ancestors!" All the eagles started shouting in union, the war chant that they had decided to use after every victory.

After the speech of ying-ba all the soldiers were assigned a room and night quickly arrived. Everyone ate their dinner and returned to their respective rooms for the night, only the night patrol remained awake to secure the perimeter in the event of an attack of the monkey during nighttime.

——{The next day}——

The general and Ying-ba were in the temple head's room for their war meeting, as they had to discuss their next moves.

"Generals, as we all know the monkeys have fled, we have no clue on where they went or how long ago they left. For these reasons, we can't expect to find them any time soon, although we can expect that they went to the Kaan temple to seek refuge. They must have followed the river until they reached the temple, as we didn't see any signs of them. "

"If I may, my lord?" Asked one of the generals in the room.

"Yes?"

"I think they left about seven days before we arrived. I found stuffed bread that had been left in the room that I used for the night. I am no expert on the subject, but I am sure it has been at least one week since it was left. That is why, I suspect, it was left by one of the monkeys before they left."

"So if we say that they left around one week ago and are following the river, they should be in between one and two quarters of the distance between their temple and the temple of Kaan." Said Gu-washi while looking at the map of the jungle they had put on the wall.

"I will personally go to the eagle settlement that should be somewhere at the left of the temple, I have seen that if we just send a massager they will most likely refuse. During my absence send the night patrol soldiers to our camp, we will assemble all the eagles in this temple. After my return, we will be going through each eagle settlement and widen our army until we reach the Kaan temple." Explained Ying-ba after listening to the different elements in hand. He knew that if they didn't go through each settlement, they wouldn't have enough soldiers to rival the monkeys' forces.

TO BE CONTINUED…