“Crack, crack, crack!” The harsh sound of breaking clay suddenly echoed through the mountain forest.
Kamamara stopped walking.
All around him, the yellow-brown shells covering countless clay figures suddenly cracked and peeled away, revealing pale-faced warriors dressed in armor beneath them.
The clay soldiers stiffly turned their heads.
Their empty eye sockets locked onto Kamamara as they advanced with heavy steps, slowly surrounding him from every direction.
“Hmph.” Kamamara gave a cold snort.
Demonic power quietly surged around his body as his right hand drew the katana at his waist.
The next instant, his figure blurred and shot toward the nearest clay soldier like an arrow released from a bow.
Demonic power wrapped around the blade, forming a sharp edge of wind.
Kamamara raced through the crowd of clay soldiers.
Wherever the flash of his blade passed, the armored figures shattered into fragments that scattered across the ground.
However, the clay soldiers throughout the forest seemed endless.
Each time one group was destroyed, more awakened in the shadows and steadily converged on him.
Kamamara split apart another clay soldier lunging from the front.
Looking at the broken pieces piled beneath his feet and the encirclement closing around him once again, impatience flashed across his face.
He raised his head and saw a thin column of bluish smoke rising into the sky ahead.
In mountains this remote, the smoke could only be coming from Urasue’s kiln as she fired more clay soldiers.
“I’m done playing with you.” The moment he spoke, a violently spinning tornado erupted around him.
Howling winds swept through the approaching clay soldiers, throwing them in every direction and crushing their bodies into powder.
By the time the remaining soldiers climbed back to their feet, Kamamara had already vanished, leaving the mindless puppets to wander aimlessly through the forest.
Kamamara was now flying through the air, heading directly toward the rising column of blue smoke.
It did not take long before a massive kiln built into a huge boulder at the mountain’s summit came into view.
Bright orange flames burned within its opening.
Waves of heat rolled outward, carrying the combined scent of clay and freshly disturbed grave soil.
“Found it.” A smile appeared on Kamamara’s face as he lightly landed in the clearing before the kiln.
The moment his feet touched the ground, an ugly old woman slowly emerged from its entrance.
Her hunched body carried a massive scythe taller than she was.
Wrinkles covered her face like the bark of an ancient tree, while her bulging eyes stared at him with a sinister light.
Urasue the Ogress.
Kamamara recognized her immediately.
This was the yōkai he had been searching for, the same creature who would later resurrect Kikyo using graveyard soil.
“Half-demon, who are you?” Urasue demanded, fixing her protruding eyes on him.
“Why have you trespassed into my territory?” “Urasue the Ogress?” Kamamara’s gaze paused briefly on the enormous scythe in her hands.
He had never noticed before that Urasue wielded the same kind of weapon once favored by the original owner of his body.
“Who are you, half-demon brat?!” When he did not answer, Urasue questioned him again.
Her hand tightened around the scythe, and a vicious gleam appeared in her eyes.
“I heard your sorcery can bring the dead back to life.” Kamamara looked directly at her and went straight to the point.
“I’m interested in learning it.” “Impudent half-demon!
Die!” Urasue’s expression turned cold.
Anger flashed in her eyes as she swung the enormous scythe.
A dark golden blade of demonic power shot straight toward Kamamara.
“Clang!” The katana at Kamamara’s waist left its sheath in an instant.
He swept the blade horizontally, releasing a white arc of demonic power that slammed into Urasue’s attack between them.
The two blades collided violently, bursting into a storm of radiant demonic energy.
“Gate of Healing, open!” Kamamara had no intention of dragging out the fight and immediately opened the first two Gates of the Eight Inner Gates Formation.
The demonic power inside his body erupted.
His figure became an afterimage and abruptly disappeared from Urasue’s sight.
“He vanished?
Where did he go?!” Shock crossed Urasue’s face.
She frantically turned her head, searching the area around her.
“Whoosh!” Kamamara suddenly appeared directly in front of her.
His foot tore through the air and struck her squarely in the chest.
“Gah!” Urasue was hurled backward, spraying a mouthful of blood through the air.
Kamamara stamped hard against the ground.
The stone beneath his foot shattered instantly as he transformed into another afterimage and caught up with her flying body.
He circled behind her, twisted his waist, and delivered a heavy kick directly into her back.
Urasue’s backward momentum stopped abruptly.
She was then launched forward like a cannonball, slamming into the huge boulder beside the kiln.
“Boom!” The boulder shattered, cracks spreading outward in every direction.
Amid the rising cloud of dust, Urasue’s body lay deeply embedded in the rubble.
Blood covered her from head to toe, and she had completely lost consciousness.
Kamamara walked over at an unhurried pace.
He reached into the debris, pulled her out, and tossed her onto an open patch of ground nearby.
Then he removed the pack he had been carrying on his back.
From inside, he took several specially prepared powders and ritual tools.
Drawing upon the spellcraft preserved in his memories, he quickly began creating a complex formation around Urasue.
The inscriptions glimmered with faint spiritual light, firmly enclosing her at the center.
Kamamara was not surprised that Urasue had been defeated so easily.
Her true strength did not lie in direct combat.
Her primary ability was using the bones of the dead to create clay soldiers and overwhelm enemies through sheer numbers.
Her own fighting ability was actually quite poor.
That was also why she preferred using the remains of human warriors instead of the bones of yōkai.
Under normal circumstances, powerful yōkai corpses would have made far superior clay soldiers.
For example, if Urasue could turn the Great Dog Demon’s remains into a clay puppet and control him, she would never remain hidden in some isolated mountain kiln, producing soldiers from ordinary human bones.
The problem was that she lacked the power to control anything that strong.
She could suppress the clay soldiers made from human warriors through brute force and compel them to obey her commands.
But if she resurrected a truly powerful yōkai, there was no telling which of them would end up controlling the other.
Although Urasue’s sorcery could resurrect the dead, it lacked a powerful means of controlling them.
Anyone who had possessed overwhelming strength in life would not obediently submit to her after being revived.
In the original story, after she resurrected Kikyo, the newly awakened priestess regained her will and killed Urasue instead.
“Finished.” Kamamara dusted off his hands and stood.
He carefully inspected the ritual formation.
After confirming that nothing had been overlooked, he reached inside his robe and removed a small wooden doll.
Complicated markings had been carved across its entire surface.
Two small openings had been cut into it, one over the heart and another between the brows.
They corresponded to the heart gate and the soul gate.
Kamamara approached the unconscious Urasue and glanced at the blood already covering her body.
After hesitating briefly, he drew his katana and drove it straight into her heart.
“Ahhh!” The agony of having her heart pierced tore Urasue from unconsciousness.
She released a shrill scream and stared at Kamamara in terror.
Yōkai possessed tremendous vitality.
Despite her severe injuries and the sword piercing her heart, Urasue did not die.
An injury that would instantly kill a human could be recovered from by a yōkai, so long as the heart itself was not completely destroyed.
“Who are you?
What are you trying to do?!” Urasue struggled desperately as pain tore through her chest.
Kamamara remained expressionless.
He planted one foot against her chest and swiftly pulled out the katana.
The moment the blade left her body, blood erupted from the wound.
Kamamara immediately held the wooden doll over it.
The blood splashed across the doll and was instantly absorbed by its engraved markings and openings.
When Urasue clearly saw what he was holding, absolute terror filled her eyes.
She thrashed wildly beneath his foot.
“Shikigami Binding?!
You’re trying to turn me into your shikigami!
Half-demon, let me go!”