“Rumble, rumble, rumble!” The thunder of hooves came from behind him.
Kamamara, who had been traveling alone, paused and turned to look.
Not far away, a group of cavalry was galloping toward him, kicking up a large cloud of dust behind them.
In this world, not only did yōkai kill one another, humans and yōkai were constantly fighting as well.
Even among human lords, wars never stopped.
During this time, Kamamara had often run into the armies of various local rulers.
So when he saw this group of horsemen, he was not surprised.
With a calm expression, he stepped to the side of the road to let them pass.
Before long, the riders reached the area near him.
However, the moment they saw Kamamara standing by the roadside with a giant club on his shoulder, greedy and excited grins appeared on their faces all at once.
They let out wild, arrogant whoops.
The man at the front, who seemed to be their leader, wore a battered red suit of armor.
He suddenly drew the katana at his waist, pointed the blade straight at Kamamara, and shouted with excited killing intent, “Kill him!
Take his weapon!” “Yes, boss!” The riders behind him answered in unison.
Laughing wildly, they drew the katanas at their waists and followed their leader as they charged toward Kamamara.
“More blood-crazed idiots.
No matter how many I kill, they never seem to end.” Kamamara sighed helplessly, impatience flashing through his eyes.
“I’m carrying a weapon this eye-catching, and they still don’t think twice?” Before he even finished speaking, the leader’s warhorse had already rushed right up to him.
The katana sliced through the air toward his neck.
Kamamara’s eyes sharpened.
He tightened one hand around the giant club resting on his shoulder and swept it out fiercely.
The heavy iron club collided with the fragile katana.
The blade snapped in two instantly, while the club continued forward without slowing and smashed heavily into the cavalry leader’s chest.
“Crack.” The crisp sound of bones shattering rang out.
The leader on horseback was sent flying like a broken rag doll.
After rolling several times across the ground, he lay there motionless.
The savage grin had not even faded from his lifeless face.
Blood gushed from the corner of his mouth.
At the same time, the now riderless warhorse brushed past Kamamara’s side.
Kamamara twisted his wrist, caught the horse by the neck like lightning, tapped the ground with his foot, and flipped onto its back.
In the same motion, he grabbed the reins and pulled hard.
“Neigh!” The warhorse reared and cried out, forcibly stopping its mad charge before turning to face the remaining riders.
When the rest of the cavalry saw their leader killed instantly and his horse taken, panic seized them.
They hurriedly pulled their reins and stopped.
Their arrogance vanished at once, replaced by fear.
“He threw away his weapon!
Kill him and avenge the boss!” Just then, someone among the riders suddenly shouted, trying to stir up morale.
It was true.
When Kamamara had mounted the horse just now, he had been worried that the iron club was too heavy and might crush the horse beneath him, so he had left it by the roadside.
However, the instant that man finished shouting, Kamamara locked onto him.
Kamamara’s fingertip moved slightly.
A wind blade shot out in an instant, slicing across the man’s neck in the blink of an eye.
The man’s grin froze on his face.
His complexion turned pale at once.
A few seconds later, his head rolled from his body, blood spraying into the air.
The headless corpse swayed slightly on horseback, then fell to the ground.
The scene fell into dead silence.
Then terrified screams erupted.
“He’s a yōkai!
Run!” All the riders immediately turned their horses and fled in every direction.
Kamamara sat on horseback and watched quietly, making no move to chase them.
In this world, bandits, mountain thieves, deserters, men who killed for pleasure, trash like that were as common as ants.
They could never be killed off completely.
Their strength varied wildly.
The weak ones were starving refugees who gathered together to rob others.
The stronger ones were defeated soldiers with horses and armor who used slaughter to vent their fear.
“Consider yourselves lucky.
Since you delivered two horses to me, I’ll spare your lives.” He glanced at the bandits who had already fled into the distance and ignored them.
Then his gaze fell on the two corpses on the ground.
With a thought, he opened his panel.
[Gate of Opening: 100%] [Gate of Healing: 100%] [Gate of Life: 100%] [Gate of Pain: 2%] “Killing humans really doesn’t raise the progress bar.” Looking at the progress bars that had not changed at all, he sighed in disappointment.
During this period, aside from searching for swordsmiths, he had been going into the mountains to hunt yōkai and fill the progress of the Eight Inner Gates Formation.
This world had as many small-fry yōkai as rats.
Although improvement became slower the farther he advanced, quantity would eventually create results.
After working hard for so long, he could now open the first three Gates.
It had taken him eight days to open the Gate of Healing.
After that, the Gate of Life had taken more than twenty days before he finally pushed its progress to 100%.
But starting from the fourth Gate, the Gate of Pain, the demonic power required increased exponentially, and the physical requirements rose sharply as well.
Over the past ten days, the cannon-fodder yōkai he had hunted had barely helped.
They had only pushed the Gate of Pain to 2%, completely killing his idea of relying on weak yōkai to grind progress.
He closed the panel, dismounted, and walked over to the corpse beheaded by the wind blade.
He grabbed the reins of the other riderless warhorse and smiled.
“Not bad.
Akegawa Town is pretty far away, so having horses will make the trip much easier.
I can sell the extra one in some castle town.” He searched the headless corpse for a moment and only found a few copper coins.
With some distaste, he withdrew his hand.
Then his gaze fell on the katana hanging from the corpse.
He casually drew it and inspected it.
Finding that it was still fairly sharp, he hung it at his own waist.
Then he walked toward the leader’s corpse, the one he had smashed to death with the giant club.
As soon as he reached into the man’s robe, he pulled out a bulging coin pouch.
“As expected of the boss.
At least you had some money on you.” He weighed the heavy pouch in his hand and nodded in satisfaction before tucking it into his robe.
“Whoosh!” At that moment, the sound of something tearing through the air suddenly rang out.
An arrow filled with vast spiritual power struck the ground beside his foot.
Kamamara lowered his head and looked at the arrow still trembling slightly by his foot, his expression calm.
He had already noticed that the arrow had not been aimed at his body.
It was clearly only a warning, which was why he had not dodged.
Kamamara raised his head and looked in the direction the arrow had come from.
At the end of the road stood a young woman in red and white priestess robes.
She held a longbow drawn tight, the arrow aimed in his direction.
Kikyo.
“You are… Kikyo?” Seeing the cold, beautiful face of the bow-wielding priestess, Kamamara’s eyes showed surprise.
“Hm?
How do you know my name?
Have we met?” Kikyo frowned slightly.
The bow in her hand did not relax.
Her cool voice carried a trace of surprise.
Kamamara glanced at Kikyo’s distinctive red and white priestess robes, then turned his gaze toward a tree not far behind her.
A little girl in an orange-yellow kimono was peeking out from behind it, nervously watching this side.
He thought to himself, with the two of you as a pair, how could I possibly not recognize you?
Still, he was genuinely surprised to run into Kikyo here.
“Answer me.
Why do you know my name?” Seeing him stare blankly at her and her sister, Kikyo tightened the bowstring.
Spiritual power surged over the arrow as she asked again in a cold voice.
“Uh…” Kamamara came back to himself.
Of course, he could not tell her that he knew the plot and had recognized her easily.
Kamamara did not know whether, after opening the Gate of Life, he could defeat Kikyo or escape from her.
But he did not want to come into conflict with her.
After thinking for a moment, Kamamara looked at Kikyo and explained, “A priestess as powerful as you is naturally famous.
Of course I’ve heard of you.” He paused, spread his hands, and added seriously, “After all, as a yōkai, if I want to stay alive, I need to know which priestesses are dangerous.
If I run into one, I can flee early.” As he spoke, his gaze fell on the bow in Kikyo’s hand.
“Just like now.
I called out your name, and you didn’t immediately attack me, did you?” “Heh.
Is that so?” Kikyo listened to his explanation and nodded slightly.
Then her gaze swept over the two corpses on the ground, and her voice turned cold.
“Why did you kill them?”