In the movie's original plot, the Four War God brothers had let Inuyasha and his companions onto Mount Penglai without taking them very seriously, clearly harboring ulterior motives.
Along the way, Inuyasha and the others had passed through the swampy woods where Kikyo's clone was hidden.
Yet only Shippo had noticed anything.
He had even stopped to examine one of the large trees briefly.
As for Inuyasha and the others? They had chatted as they traveled, with Xiaolan leading the way...
From this alone, it was easy to see that Shippo had remained alert to his surroundings in enemy territory.
The others, well, they were rather hard to describe.
After all, Shippo was certainly not the team's mainstay when it came to perception.
And this little oversight by Inuyasha and the others had foreshadowed the Jewel Box falling into Kikyo's clone's hands, paving the way for the Four War Gods' little scheme to succeed with ease.
Come to think of it:
If Sesshomaru had not entered the fray and helped kill Kyora, avenging Red Evil Oni and Qitian, and if Kikyo had not joined in, helped dispose of her clone, and left behind her longbow and arrows...
If the miko Kanade had not provided the first round of angel investment, helping Inuyasha escape the Cauldron of Resonance...
If the fireflies covering the mountains and fields had not provided a second round of angel investment, restoring Inuyasha and Kagome, who had been injured in battle and could not even crawl, to a state where they could unleash their potential and perform beyond their normal limits...
If not for all these tremendously favorable outside factors...
Hmm... the outcome really would have been hard to say.
With the adorable Xiaolan leading the way, Li Xia and Kagome arrived at those swampy woods.