It took Kobe Hikaru three full days to cross the mountains from the inner region to the outer side.
It was not because he was slow, but because there were far too many “roadblocks” along the way.
The aura of the Shikon Jewel was like an undying signal tower.
Every stretch of road drew in a new batch of yokai—large and small, strong and weak, lone wanderers and whole packs, every kind and breed imaginable.
Most came for the Shikon Jewel, but some were merely passing by and got lured over.
Others heard the screams of their own kind and ran over to watch the excitement, only to become part of the screaming themselves.
In short, it was absurdly hard not to break down.
Hikaru had already lost count of how many he had killed.
All he knew was this:
[Demon Blade Muramasa: Current Affection: 72.]
In three days, the weapon’s affection had risen by twenty-two points.
The efficiency was not exactly impressive, but at least it was steady.
And now, at this moment—
“We’re almost there.”
Hikaru stood on a mountaintop and looked down over the distant plain.
The land before him was vast and open, completely different from the endless mountains he had just crossed.
Beneath the sky, the plain stretched out in a sea of green, grass and trees swaying in the wind, and at the edge of his vision stood several dozen thatched wooden houses clustered together into a village.
It was not large.
In fact, it could even be called small, with only a few dozen households, but it was the most common kind of human settlement in this era.
By now, it was dusk.
The hour when demons stirred.
A wooden fence surrounded the village, and exorcism talismans hung from its posts, giving off a faint glow beneath the setting sun.
At the center of the village stood a shrine, its red torii especially striking beneath the shade of an enormous sacred tree.
That was within the borders of Musashi Province.
The destination mentioned by the old man from the demon slayer village.
The place where Kikyo was.
“Finally.”
Hikaru let out a breath of relief.
For the past three days, he had barely rested.
Although the body of an oni samurai did not tire in the usual sense, his demonic energy had been drained again and again.
If this continued, even if he was not bitten to death by yokai, he would end up hollowing himself out.
For a corpse moved entirely by demonic energy, running out of it meant collapsing on the spot, and the result of collapsing in the wilderness was easy to imagine.
Thankfully, he had endured it.
Even more thankfully, he had arrived.
He took a few steps down from the mountaintop, sweeping his gaze across the plain.
Then his steps stopped.
No.
Something was wrong.
Around that village—
There were things.
A lot of things.
Hikaru’s pupils suddenly contracted.
At that moment, his [Sharp Eye Change] took effect, pulling the distant scene closer, magnifying it, and making it clear. Get faster updates on g.com.
In front of the wooden fence surrounding the village, a massive number of figures crouched and gathered.
Gray-green, dark red, blue-black—blue-skinned oni, one-eyed oni, snake-bodied yokai, bird-headed monsters, centipede demons…
All kinds of yokai had surrounded the entire village like a tide, sealing it so tightly that not even water could pass through.
From the top of the mountain, they looked like a writhing lump of filthy gray-green sludge wrapped around that tiny village.
At a rough estimate—
Three hundred?
No.
Five hundred?
Still no.
“…At least seven or eight hundred.”
The corner of Hikaru’s mouth twitched.
This formation was even more ridiculous than the wave that had chased the old man three days ago, almost equal to every yokai he had encountered along the way combined.
But that was not the worst part.
The worst part was that they were already attacking.
The yokai horde surged toward the village from all directions, roaring and shrieking loud enough to shake the air.
All kinds of attacks poured down like a storm—bone clubs smashing, claws tearing, poison spraying, demonic energy crashing forward.
And against that overwhelming assault, what stopped them was a light.
A pale-white, translucent barrier.
It was shaped like a half-dome, covering the shrine at the center of the village and the area around it for roughly twenty jō.
[Note: 1 jō = 3.0303 m]
Inside the barrier was a clear and peaceful world.
Outside the barrier was foul, stinking demonic energy.
The two sides were sharply divided, as if they belonged to separate worlds.
“Is that… a barrier?”
Hikaru stared at the light screen, secretly shocked.
Three months ago, the demon slayer village elder had displayed a similar ability, using spiritual power to form a film of light around himself.
But that light film could only protect one person at most, and it had nearly collapsed after a short while.
This barrier, however, covered a radius of about twenty jō, shielding the entire shrine and dozens of villagers within it.
Even under the frenzied attacks of seven or eight hundred yokai, it remained as steady as a boulder, showing no sign of wavering.
Whoosh—!
A sharp white light shot out from inside the barrier.
It was a demon-purifying arrow commonly used by shrine maidens, carrying powerful spiritual energy specifically meant to counter demonic energy and cleanse all impurity.
The arrow passed through the light screen without any obstruction and struck a blue-skinned oni that was climbing over the top of the barrier.
The blue-skinned oni let out a scream and turned to ash.
That barrier seemed to work in only one direction.
It blocked attacks from the outside, but did not interfere with attacks from within.
Then came a second arrow, a third, and a fourth.
Each arrow struck at least one yokai with a roar, and every yokai hit by the arrows died on the spot, some even bursting apart from the inside out.
Bowstring, arrow release, impact, death.
All in one seamless motion.
In just a few dozen seconds, more than twenty yokai had already fallen beneath those arrows.
On the stone steps above the shrine stood a figure.
White kosode, red hakama, black hair flowing like a waterfall.
Her hands were clasped together, her eyes half-closed, and her lips moved softly as if chanting some kind of incantation.
Pale-white, translucent spiritual power flowed endlessly from her body, becoming the nourishment that sustained the barrier.
At the same time, a bow and quiver rested by her right hand.
Every few seconds, she would open her eyes, draw the bow with one hand, and loose another arrow.
She did not even need to fully open her eyes.
With spiritual perception alone, she could lock onto every yokai’s position.
Hikaru did not need to think to recognize her.
That was Kikyo.
Under her bowstring, beneath those clear eyes that were only half open, the yokai that roared, howled, and threw themselves at the barrier with all their might were nothing more than moths.
Moths flying into a flame.
“So that’s the strongest shrine maiden of the Warring States period…”
Hikaru murmured.
The demon slayer village elder had already been the strongest human spiritual power user Hikaru had seen before this.
Being able to create a barrier with his own power made him powerful among human spellcasters.
Ordinary spellcasters needed an altar, rituals, and sometimes even shikigami assistance to create a barrier.
But compared to Kikyo, even someone like that was nothing more than a firefly before the bright moon.
The power of one person.
A barrier covering twenty jō.
Protecting every elder and child in the village.
And at the same time, continuously firing demon-purifying arrows to counterattack.
Both offense and defense, without a single gap.
She was absurdly powerful.
However, Hikaru also understood something else.
The shrine maiden before him was most likely not at her peak.
At the very least, she was not yet the strongest version of Kikyo from his memories.
In Hikaru’s impression, Kikyo’s displayed strength had gradually risen as the story progressed.
Early on, when facing dense swarms of ordinary lesser yokai, she had once been exhausted, injured, and even fainted; otherwise, a certain half-yokai from later generations would never have had any chance at all.
That was a scene from the original Inuyasha story, and Hikaru remembered it very clearly.
Compared with the Kikyo who came afterward, she could still grow stronger.
Even so…
Seven or eight hundred yokai.
Even if most of them were small fry, their numbers were overwhelming.
Enough ants could still bite an elephant to death.
And—
Hikaru’s gaze swept across the yokai horde, catching several figures near the front that were clearly different from the rest.
Those were not small fry.
They were real threats.
But at this moment, he had no time to study those special beings carefully, because he had something more important to do.
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