The Mountain Whale Heavenly Craft in Mikawa Is Nearby! Retainers Everywhere? Souls Turned to Ash Everywhere!

"Lord Yoshimoto, stop for a moment!"

On the slightly desolate plain, Uesugi Tetsu immediately tugged on the reins and ordered the horse beneath him to stop. It gave a faint whinny and halted.

Because he had already smelled the stench of decay.

Though the stench was still faint and light at this distance, it was incredibly deep, intense, and pungent.

It was the kind of smell that, once experienced, could never be forgotten.

This was not a physiological odor, but something more like a scent rooted in one's genes—something the human body instinctively rejected...

The stench of a dead member of one's own species was probably especially strong, far more intense than any other smell.

When humans approached the corpse of one of their own kind, there was a high probability that this mechanism would be triggered.

It was as though nature were warning everyone nearby to stay away from potential danger.

Uesugi Tetsu's gaze was indifferent.

If his guess was correct, everyone in that village had already died, and they had been dead for more than a day.

Otherwise, given the current weather, the smell could not have drifted this far.

Besides, ordinary people would have found it difficult to survive in such harsh conditions.

Not to mention that the village might contain the culprit behind the mass deaths—the Disease and Suffering Retainers.

Uesugi Tetsu lowered his head and looked at the horse beneath him. Apart from being relatively sturdy, it had no other merits. If there was an epidemic spread by the Disease and Suffering Retainers in that village, the horses might not be able to resist it either.

As for Imagawa Yoshimoto, she had yet to establish a hardened-energy circulation. It was possible for viruses to invade her body as well, so he would have to teach