In the midst of the gloomy night, ghostly shadows lurked everywhere.
The sun had long since set, and the last mottled remnants of twilight were fading away bit by bit.
Beyond this, amidst the spreading shroud of Demonic Aura, the barrier enveloping the village stood firm and unyielding, motionless like a true, towering wall.
Kōbe Hikaru’s system panel flickered at this very moment.
Hikaru stared at the panel, stunned for a moment.
‘What a coincidence.’
‘There’s more.’
‘As expected, this passes the check!’
‘So, yōkai can actually be Demon Slayers too—as long as they find a partner,’ Hikaru mused inwardly.
And his partner, currently standing on the stone steps thirty yards away, drew her second arrow in his direction.
Once again, she did not aim at Hikaru.
Instead, she aimed at a spot three steps to his rear right—where two One-Eyed Demons were raising their Spiked Clubs, flanking him from his blind spot.
A white light pierced through, reducing both One-Eyed Demons to ashes simultaneously.
The residual Spiritual Power rippled outward, conveniently purifying the corpse of a Centipede Spirit that Hikaru had already struck down nearby.
For some reason, however, this did not increase his Affinity.
Hikaru had no time to worry about that, nor did he even turn his head to look.
He didn’t need to look.
Through the drifting blood mist behind him, he already knew who the arrow had struck.
He also knew—
Kikyō had chosen to cooperate with him.
It wasn’t out of trust.
Kikyō didn’t know him at all.
But she had made the most accurate judgment.
This was the battlefield intuition belonging to the Strongest Shrine Maiden of the Sengoku Period.
It only took her a few breaths of observation to understand one fact—
This Ghost Samurai possessed the Jewel of Four Souls, and the Straight Spirit of the Jewel of Four Souls was glowing.
The Straight Spirit represented benevolent intentions, and the Straight Spirit was never wrong.
Therefore, this yōkai, at least for this moment, was not an enemy.
That was enough.
On the battlefield, no further reasons were needed.
The third arrow closely followed, striking a spot five steps to Hikaru’s front left.
A Snake-Body Demon attempting to lunge at his ankle from the ground was swallowed by the white light, turning to ash along with two other yōkai corpses he had previously slain nearby.
The fourth arrow shot right above his head, blasting a swooping Bird-Head Monster into fine dust in midair.
Every single arrow missed his body by a hair’s breadth, striking only the yōkai surrounding him with absolute precision.
A mere foot away.
Some arrows even whistled right past his ear.
The residual Spiritual Power they carried made his skin feel slightly hot, yet they absolutely did not harm him in the slightest.
And as those ripples of Spiritual Power spread, they simultaneously purified the corpses of the yōkai Hikaru had previously slain, reducing them to ash.
Slaughter and purification proceeded in perfect sync.
He was on chopping duty.
She was on cleanup.
“She actually caught on…”
Hikaru muttered under his breath, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly beneath his oni mask—after all, he hadn’t even had the chance to reveal the slightest hint of the Jewel of Four Souls.
But despite having no prior communication, their coordination on the battlefield was surprisingly fluid.
Wherever his blade passed, yōkai corpses were left behind; wherever her arrows reached, they turned to ash.
Offense and defense, sword and bow, Demonic Aura and Spiritual Power.
These two diametrically opposed forces—Demonic Aura and Spiritual Power—had somehow formed a bizarre yet tacit collaboration in this moment.
Hikaru cleaved through a lunging Green-Skin Demon with a single strike, then flipped his blade to seamlessly sever the appendages of a Centipede Spirit beside it.
Behind him, Kikyō’s arrow purified both corpses.
He deliberately kept his fighting position within a range of thirty to forty-five yards from the outer edge of the barrier—this distance was perfectly within Kikyō’s optimal firing range, and just right for the residual Spiritual Power to cover the corpses he left behind.
Too close, and Kikyō’s arrows might accidentally injure him.
Too far, and the residual Spiritual Power wouldn’t reach, leaving the purification incomplete.
Thirty to forty-five yards was the optimal solution.
And Kikyō had clearly understood his intentions in a very short amount of time.
Her arrows were almost perfectly synchronized with his killing speed—for every three or four he killed, she would fire an arrow, its residual Spiritual Power perfectly covering those corpses.
As expected of Kikyō.
Even if she wasn’t at her peak yet, this level of battlefield insight was already absurdly strong.
She didn’t even need to fully open her eyes; relying solely on her Spiritual Power perception, she could perfectly grasp his position, his rhythm, and the location of every corpse he left behind.
And then, she would fire that arrow at the most opportune moment.
Not a moment too soon.
Not a moment too late.
Without the slightest deviation.
“For once, it actually made sense,” Hikaru quipped, continuing to swing his blade.
But just as he slaughtered his thirtieth piece of trash—that four high-level yōkai finally made their move.
Compared to Hikaru’s visible delight, the mood of these four high-level yōkai was clearly not as pleasant.
In fact, it was downright terrible.
As yōkai at or above the Six Stages—according to Hikaru’s definitions—their intelligence was obviously incomparable to those muddle-headed lesser demons.
They could think, they could coordinate, and they could even curse.
*Thrum!*
Another Exorcism Arrow was fired.
While covering Hikaru, it drew their attention—exploding right beside the One-Horned Demon, forcing it to flee in a panic to avoid being instantly obliterated.
“What the hell did this shrine maiden grow up eating?
She’s so fierce!”
The One-Horned Demon cursed profusely, its green-faced, fanged visage contorted into an extremely ugly expression.
At the same time.
*Boom—!*
It swung the Spiked Club in its hand forward, smashing it against the surface of the barrier with a deafening crash.
Ripples cascaded across the barrier.
“Blast it open!”
The One-Horned Demon roared.
It knew they couldn’t afford to drag this out any longer.
If they kept stalling, that shrine maiden might eventually tire out, but they would definitely die first.
Only by shattering this barrier and charging inside did they have a chance of winning.
And only by getting close could they pose a threat to that shrine maiden.
As its words fell, the Giant Serpent opened its gaping maw and spewed a thick cloud of dark green poisonous mist, blanketing the side of the barrier.
The Three-Eyed Crow dove from high above, its three eyes simultaneously firing three beams of demonic light that blasted the top of the barrier.
A three-pronged assault.
Cracks finally appeared on the barrier.
Seizing the opportune moment, the Hannya-Mask Ghost Samurai swung its blade at the fractures.
A dense Demonic Aura erupted from the rust-mottled tachi as the downward slash tore the cracks even wider.
“It’s working!” the One-Horned Demon rejoiced.
“Keep going!
Blast the barrier open!”
But inside the barrier, Kikyō opened her eyes.
Her gaze swept over the cracks without the slightest hint of panic.
She merely spoke a single word softly.
Just one word.
“Seal.”
More Spiritual Power surged from her palm, transforming into countless threads of light that flew toward the fractures.
Like needle and thread, those strands of light stitched the cracks back together bit by bit.
In an instant, the barrier was restored to its original state.
The tiny opening that the four high-level yōkai had painstakingly created hadn’t even lasted half a breath before vanishing completely.
“How is that possible?!”
The One-Horned Demon was in disbelief.
Even with the four of them joining forces, they still couldn’t break through?
After fighting for so long, how did that shrine maiden still have such abundant Spiritual Power?
However, Kikyō’s brows furrowed slightly.
She could feel that while her Spiritual Power was still plentiful, her physical stamina was draining at an accelerated rate.
Maintaining the barrier, firing arrows to purify the yōkai horde, covering the Ghost Samurai who brought the Jewel of Four Souls, and repairing the cracks—fighting on four fronts simultaneously was beginning to put pressure even on her.
The speed of her arrows began to slow down.
Her original rhythm of coordinating with Hikaru was disrupted.
Hikaru also sensed this change.
“Looks like they’re getting serious,” he muttered.
He looked toward the four high-level yōkai.
The One-Horned Demon, Giant Serpent, and Three-Eyed Crow were continuing to bombard the barrier.
But the Hannya-Mask Ghost Samurai—it had stopped attacking the barrier.
It turned its head.
It had noticed the anomaly behind it, and it saw Hikaru.
The gazes of the two Ghost Samurai met across the battlefield.
Behind the Hannya mask, a pair of deathly gray eyes burned with cold killing intent.
“You!”
The One-Horned Demon finally noticed the commotion on their flank.
Pointing at the Hannya-Mask Ghost Samurai, it roared, “Go kill that traitor!”
The Hannya-Mask Ghost Samurai said nothing, merely tightening its grip on its rust-mottled tachi.
Then, its figure vanished from its spot.
At the same time, Hikaru sensed an aura of danger.
It wasn’t perceived through the blood mist.
It was instinct.
The instinct of a Ghost Samurai facing another Ghost Samurai.
He dodged sideways.
A flash of a blade sliced through the spot where he had just been standing, leaving a deep trench in the ground.
The Hannya-Mask Ghost Samurai stood five steps away, its rusty blade dripping with blood.
It was Hikaru’s own blood.
A gash had been cut into his left shoulder, and faint gray smoke rose from the wound—the mark of Demonic Power erosion.
“A yōkai, yet you help humans kill yōkai?”
The Hannya-Mask Ghost Samurai spoke, its voice as hoarse as if it had crawled straight out of a grave.
Hikaru did not answer.
He simply tightened his grip on Muramasa and lowered his center of gravity.
He knew the opponent before him was different.
It was stronger than all the trash he had killed so far; it was an entity at least at the Six Stages of Body Transformation.
The Six Stages were already the pinnacle of ‘Body Transformation’, possessing six distinct mutations that differed from normal creatures.
Meanwhile, he was only at the Five Stages.
The gap was obvious.
But—
With Kikyō providing support, he naturally wouldn’t let this opportunity slip by.
He just didn’t know if Kikyō could spare a hand right now…
Those three high-level yōkai were attacking the barrier again, and she was busy repairing the cracks they blasted open.
Which meant—at least for the short term, he likely wouldn’t have any ranged support.
‘Then…
I’ll just have to hold my own for now.’
Since he had already made his move, there was nothing left to hesitate about.
It was nothing more than a battle.
Along his journey, he had already experienced far too much.
Living on the edge of a blade, absolute safety was an utter impossibility anyway.
Opportunities always walked hand-in-hand with danger.
At least this time, he wasn’t alone.
Behind him, there was someone helping him.
That was enough!
“Bring it on!”