From the churning, viscous black mist emerged hundreds upon thousands of terrifying pairs of eyes, all locking onto Ye Xing simultaneously.
For a normal person - even someone with nerves of steel like Miko - being stared at by so many evil spirits would likely be unbearable.
Yet facing this sea of terrifying gazes, Ye Xing merely yawned and stretched lazily.
"This feels a bit like being a pop star under the spotlight during a concert."
Waving enthusiastically at the black mist, Ye Xing cheerfully called out.
"All my friends in the back rows, wave your hands in the air, let me see your passion, alright?"
Silence.
Only silence.
Unsurprisingly, there was no response from the black mist.
Shaking his head with a smile, Ye Xing murmured to himself.
"As expected... trying to cute my way through won't work here."
The playful smile on his face gradually faded as his clothes billowed without wind. The pure black mask seemed to ignite with flames, subtly distorting.
An ethereal, barely perceptible voice echoed in Ye Xing's mind.
[Finally decided to shed all pretence and unleash your full power?]
[Since the world has become so bizarre, why still constrain yourself with so-called 'normalcy'?]
[Devour all the evil spirits and create the world you deem worthy of being called real.]
[Here, call forth my true name.]
Listening to the voice in his head, Ye Xing swept a glance through the black mist.
That viscous, tide-like black fog didn't appear from nowhere.
It was the coalesced Qi emitted by hundreds, thousands of terrifying evil spirits gathered together.
Now.
The evil spirits revealed their true forms.
Just by passing through a Gate, the difference between Kyoto in the Reverse World and the surface world was like that between heaven and hell.
"Using that ability here..."
Facing the astonishing number of surrounding evil spirits, Ye Xing murmured softly before chuckling and shaking his head.
"Just this much isn't necessary yet."
As Ye Xing condensed a black Tang blade in his right hand, preparing to attack the clustered evil spirits, he suddenly saw the previously aggressive spirits begin fleeing in panic.
And they were emitting panicked shrieks like wild animals.
"This is...?"
Ye Xing looked up into the distance. A ragged, humanoid figure, barely clad in coarse hemp cloth, stood about two metres tall, with decaying, grey skin, and slowly approached.
Though its appearance was bizarre and clearly non-human, compared to other evil spirits inhabiting the Reverse World, it seemed almost normal.
At least it had a humanoid form.
The other evil spirits looked like Cthulhu-esque evil gods.
The zombie-like creature showed zero interest in Ye Xing. It simply reached out, grabbed a fleeing evil spirit, and opened its mouth to an exaggerated width before viciously biting down.
Evil spirits feel pain, too.
Being devoured alive naturally produced deafening screams.
But the zombie-like freak didn't slow its movements at all. Like an emotionless machine, it tore the massive evil spirit apart piece by piece, devouring the fragments.
Ye Xing witnessed the entire process.
Not showing the slightest fear, he even commented with interest.
"Your table manners are utterly graceless. The occasional scream can enhance dining pleasure, but maintaining this throughout? Far too vulgar. My verdict: like Zhu Bajie eating ginseng fruit - tasteless."
The zombie evil spirit paused, seemingly lacking the intellect to comprehend Ye Xing's words.
Meanwhile.
Ye Xing studied this anomaly among evil spirits.
Evil spirits did consume each other.
But this pure, instinct-driven hatred in feeding? That was new.
Could it be...
"You're from Attack on Titan?"
"To drive out all evil spirits from this Reverse World without leaving a single one behind?"
Joking aside, Ye Xing had already roughly guessed the true identity of this zombie-like evil spirit.
One of the Hyakki Yagyō—the Slaughter Demon.
As for how the Slaughter Demon came to be, folklore offered many theories, but they all agreed on one point.
That despite being an evil spirit, the Slaughter Demon ceaselessly slaughtered its own kind, earning it the title...
Grim Reaper of Yokai.
"Ah, brother."
At this thought, Ye Xing took two steps forward and, without hesitation, reached out to pat the Slaughter Demon's shoulder, speaking with great enthusiasm.
"So you're the Slaughter Demon! What an honour. We're in the same line of work, you and I."
The Slaughter Demon was utterly baffled.
Unlike other powerful evil spirits, it didn't possess human-level—let alone superior—intelligence.
The Slaughter Demon was a machine-like existence, driven solely by instinctive hatred towards evil spirits, endlessly exterminating them.
Ye Xing's familial tone of voice fried its already poorly functioning CPU completely.
The Slaughter Demon stood frozen for a long while, before finally sniffing—well, not exactly sniffing.
After all, the flesh around its nose had long rotted away, leaving only two pitch-black holes.
In any case, the Slaughter Demon leaned in close to Ye Xing and took two sniffs through these holes. Its dimly glowing green eyes reflected a confusion unseen for centuries.
A human?
But why... did it smell of evil spirits?
The Slaughter Demon shook its head and finally fixed its attention on Hachishaku-sama and the pale ghost hand trailing behind Ye Xing.
"Brother..."
Ye Xing studied the Slaughter Demon's two faintly glowing green eyeballs and smiled meaningfully.
"Mind lending me your eyes?"
"..."
"Not answering? Silence means consent. Don't worry, I'll be quick."
"ROAR!!!"
"What's all the yelling for? I left you one, didn't I? Be grateful you can still see. What, you wanna watch 3D movies or something?"
...
Over ten minutes later, 6:00 PM.
"Why isn't he back yet..."
Miko Yotsuya bit her lip, staring intently at the Gate before her, her eyes clouded with deep worry.
According to the news reports from the scene, the hostage situation at Kyoto Municipal Kindergarten had been resolved at least half an hour ago.
If Ye Xing still hadn't returned...
Had something happened to him in the Reverse World?
At this thought, Miko took a deep breath and turned to Yui Yuigahama beside her, speaking softly.
"Wait here. I'm going in to find him."
"Eh?!"
As Miko moved to step forward, Yui—though unable to see the Gate—swiftly grabbed her arm in alarm.
"You're going in alone? That's practically suicide!"
"I have to. What if he's hurt in there!?"
"If even he could get hurt, wouldn't you stand even less of a chance?"
As the two girls were arguing, Ye Xing emerged unhurriedly from the Gate, his Sobu High School uniform impeccably neat without a single hair out of place, appearing completely unscathed. He smiled lightly at Yuigahama Yui and Miko Yotsuya.
"Butter Shooter, making a triumphant return!"