Miko watched Ye Xing, whose left arm had become the pale ghost hand, radiating an aura that made one's heart tremble. She pursed her lips tightly, her eyes reflecting a mix of shock and envy.
His talent was simply astounding.
Whether it was Soul Materialisation, merging with his manifested soul, or manipulating evil spirit power to form weapons—
All of it had been accomplished by Ye Xing alone.
Miko even suspected that in the entire history of Japan, perhaps even the world, he was the first to develop these abilities.
There was one more thing.
Though Rio Futaba's rational analysis was also important, the connections between the Reverse World, the surface world, and the Gate—had Ye Xing not travelled within the Reverse World to gather vast amounts of intel, these relationships would likely still remain shrouded in mystery.
At this moment, Miko Yotsuya recalled the chuunibyou line Ye Xing had uttered on the day Rio Futaba joined their club.
"I am the chosen one, the sole hope selected by the heavens to save this crumbling world! A prodigy blessed with unbound potential!"
Could it be...
Was he actually right?
"Just... who are you people?"
Haruno Yukinoshita was utterly dumbfounded.
Everything had happened too suddenly. She found herself completely unable to comprehend any of it.
What were those things?
And who was this boy and girl who looked like high school students?
What on earth was happening right now?
"Stay quietly behind me and don't run around."
Hearing Miko's completely emotionless words, a bitter smile of helplessness surfaced on Haruno's face.
Did she even need to be told that?
Originally, even when facing the terrifying horde of evil spirits, Haruno had managed to maintain her composure and still had the strength to swing her baton.
But upon seeing Ye Xing and Miko appear, and hearing from their conversation that they seemed to have ways to deal with these things, she had unconsciously let out a sigh of relief.
With that relief came the realisation that her body now felt sore and weak, completely drained of energy.
Even if she wanted to run, she couldn't.
"Open your eyes, Hyakume."
With Miko's quiet command, Hyakume appeared before her, dressed elegantly in a kimono and wooden sandals.
Miko gripped her longsword with both hands, took a deep breath, and stared directly at the restless evil spirits. Her golden eyes shone with unprecedented determination and resolve.
"Let's go, Hyak—"
"Come at me!"
Just as Miko was mid-sentence, Ye Xing's voice interrupted her, brimming with madness and excitement.
The next moment, she saw the usually cautious and rational boy charging straight towards the evil spirits without hesitation.
Before Miko could even call out a warning, what happened next became a sight neither she nor Haruno would ever forget.
Bang!
Ye Xing extended his pale left hand, fingers clamping onto an evil spirit's crown. With just a slight exertion, the spirit's head instantly exploded into dissipating black smoke.
And this was merely the beginning.
"Spear."
Ye Xing's eyes burned with flames of excitement and joy as evil spirit power coalesced in his right hand, forming a long spear.
He hurled it with full force, piercing through over a dozen evil spirits in one go—like skewering candied hawthorns at a festival.
Silence fell over the area.
From not far away, Miko and Haruno watched as the horde of evil spirits actually took a collective step back from where Ye Xing stood.
Could evil spirits... feel fear?
"What's wrong?"
Ye Xing smiled at the retreating spirits—a strangely warm expression that contrasted sharply with the madness in his eyes.
"I'm just warming up. Don't disappoint me now."
As the words fell, Ye Xing instantly appeared before one of the evil spirits.
This particular evil spirit stood over two metres tall with a hulking frame, a black chain hanging across its chest that occasionally clinked. Combined with its twisted, terrifying visage, anyone faint-hearted encountering this creature in the dead of night would likely faint from fright.
Yet now, the tables had completely turned.
Seeing Ye Xing appear before it, the evil spirit's bloodshot pupils filled with terror.
Before it could react, Ye Xing's pale left hand seized its throat.
Thud.
With a dull impact, Ye Xing slammed the evil spirit violently onto the ground in one brutal motion.
"Keep going."
Ye Xing raised his foot and planted it on the creature's head.
Crunch.
Without hesitation, he crushed the evil spirit's skull beneath his boot, cruel pleasure flashing in his eyes.
"No... that's not right."
Miko Yotsuya watched this scene unfold, her gaze complicated.
Though Ye Xing's combat style against evil spirits appeared similar to before, she sensed a subtle yet crucial difference.
Previously, Ye Xing had never shown mercy to evil spirits, always ensuring their complete destruction until they dissipated into black smoke.
But back then...
His sole objective had been "elimination" - every action aimed solely at destroying the evil spirits.
Now though...
Miko had an indistinct feeling.
Was Ye Xing... enjoying the slaughter?
She couldn't fathom why this change had occurred. She only knew one thing.
In this state, Ye Xing's intimidation factor against evil spirits surpassed even his usual fearsome presence.
"Groan... hiss..."
The evil spirits emitted incomprehensible noises, retreating continuously as if genuinely frightened of being slaughtered.
At that moment, the python-shaped evil spirit, coiled on the ground, suddenly constricted its vertical pupil.
A sound Miko knew all too well - one that had haunted her nightmares multiple times - resonated through the floor again, like hundreds of people whispering in unison.
"What's... that noise?"
Hearing Haruno's question, Miko stepped back protectively in front of her, her expression turning grave.
"Be careful. What comes next... I might not be able to protect you."
Before coming here, Miko and Ye Xing had discussed the peculiarities of this serpentine evil spirit.
Among all the evil spirits Miko had encountered, this one stood out as exceptionally abnormal.
Its sheer size defied logic - far beyond what any human soul's obsession should manifest as.
Coupled with those eerie whispers...
Only one conclusion made sense.
The true nature of this serpentine evil spirit...
"ROAR!!!"
Hundreds of evil spirits on the floor shrieked simultaneously in agonised howls.
Then, like fanatical believers marching to their deaths, they moved with puppet-like rigidity, hurling themselves towards the serpentine evil spirit's body.
All the evil spirits' bodies dissolved into black mist and flesh, vanishing into the serpentine evil spirit's form in the blink of an eye.
Yet its body didn't grow larger—instead, it shrank rapidly, taking on a human-like appearance from the neck down.
Only its neck remained grotesquely unnatural.
Stretching three to four metres long, it twisted like a rubber hose, dangling the vertical-eyed head mid-air in a swaying motion.
"I see."
Watching the serpentine evil spirit's transformation, Ye Xing showed no surprise, merely chuckling softly.
"So, it's a Nukekubi."
The Nukekubi was another yōkai recorded in the Hyakki Yagyō.
According to legend, its danger level was roughly on par with Hachishaku-sama—both were beings that killed, yet relied on subtle methods, never revealing their true forms in public.
Of course.
This Nukekubi couldn't possibly be equated with the ones from historical records.
After all, its true form was a fusion of hundreds of evil spirits, combined with the lingering resentment of multiple victims from recent construction site accidents—a far cry from ordinary evil spirits or yōkai.
This wasn't Ye Xing's first encounter with a legendary yōkai, either.
Aside from Hachishaku-sama, who had signed a contract with him and become the Society's Employee of the Week, he had also met—and devoured—another legendary yōkai just yesterday.
The Hannya, who had disguised herself as a kindergarten teacher and manipulated yakuza members to hijack Kyoto Municipal Kindergarten.
"Don't disappoint me."
Though amusement laced Ye Xing's voice, his expression remained utterly blank as he stared into the Nukekubi's vertical eye.
"Come, give me more pleasure!"
The Nukekubi let out a piercing screech from some unseen orifice, nearly rupturing the eardrums of Miko Yotsuya and Haruno nearby.
The next instant, its neck elongated like a viper's strike, the vertical eye widening as rows of gleaming fangs lunged for Ye Xing's throat.
Faced with the Nukekubi's inhuman speed—far beyond what ordinary eyes could track—Ye Xing's excitement only grew. With a soft utterance, a massive black fan materialised in his right hand, woven from evil spirit power.
"Home run."
Thwack!
Swinging with textbook-perfect form, Ye Xing treated the fan as a bat and the Nukekubi's head as the ball.
The impact sent the head crashing into the wall, its neck stretching over a dozen metres before slumping limply to the ground—a ludicrous sight.
"Is that all?"
As if responding to his taunt, the Nukekubi's body suddenly sprouted a dozen twisted heads, all surging toward Ye Xing with gnashing teeth.
"Now we're talking."
Just then, one of the heads abruptly veered away, its pupil gleaming with malice as it lunged toward Miko and Haruno.
"Hyakume!"
With Miko Yotsuya's sharp cry, Hyakume moved with lightning speed, her hands forming claws as her sharp nails plunged deep into the neck connected to the floating head.
"Don't even think about it!"
The current Miko was no novice exorcist. Without hesitation, she swung her blade, severing the neck attached to the Nukekubi's head.
Without pause, she reversed her grip and drove the blade directly into the disembodied head now lying on the ground. Only when she saw it dissipate into black smoke did she finally relax.
Exorcist Handbook Rule One:
Always pierce the evil spirit's head and watch it dissolve into smoke for absolute certainty.
"How utterly revolting."
Ye Xing's eyes glinted coldly as he observed the Nukekubi's ambush tactics.
Facing a dozen evil spirit heads lunging to bite him, his pale ghost hand shot forward, fingers piercing straight through one skull's temple. The remaining heads he ignored completely.
With a sickening squelch of punctured flesh, the dozen spirit heads sank their jagged teeth into his body.
Haruno's pupils contracted in shock as she saw Ye Xing's blood drip from his clothes onto the filthy ground. "Go... go help him!" she cried out in panic.
Yet even as she spoke, Ye Xing appeared utterly indifferent to the pain of being mauled by spirits. His left hand maintained its brutal grip on one spirit's head as he yanked the Nukekubi's body toward him with savage force.
What followed resembled a grotesque game of whack-a-mole.
Ye Xing was the master wielding the toy.
The Nukekubi's stretched neck became the hammer handle.
And its body, the hammer head.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud...
With each dull impact, Ye Xing single-handedly swung the creature's body like a flail, smashing it against pillars, walls and the ground in relentless succession.
After over a dozen brutal collisions, the previously vicious heads biting into Ye Xing's flesh now hung limp and lifeless.
Still, Ye Xing showed no mercy, continuing his brutal assault as if the Nukekubi were nothing more than a plaything to be destroyed at will.
Watching this spectacle, Miko's expression grew complicated. "Help? Help who?"
Haruno stood utterly dumbfounded.
The situation had reversed too quickly and too many times - she was on the verge of breaking down.
First came the despair and terror of being surrounded by monsters, facing imminent death.
Then came the unexpected hope brought by two mysterious strangers, snatching survival from certain doom.
Next, the monsters mutated, and the handsome youth seemed injured and disadvantaged.
And now...
This had become a one-sided display of brutal domination.
Even with Haruno's genius-level intellect, her mind couldn't keep pace with these rapid, violent shifts in circumstance.
Ye Xing continued his whack-a-mole-like torture for nearly two full minutes before finally relenting.
He single-handedly dragged the evil spirit's head, pulling the Nukekubi's true form right before him. Planting his foot on its chest, he stared directly at the vertical-eyed head and whispered:
"Do you know why I'm punishing you?"
The Nukekubi naturally couldn't answer.
Not because it couldn't speak.
But because now, it was already drawing more Qi in than out.
"First point."
Ye Xing raised his right index finger and spoke slowly.
"I could have enjoyed the pleasure of killing hundreds of evil spirits, but now I can only kill you. You've robbed me of my satisfaction - that's your first mistake."
His foot pressed slightly harder on the demon's chest, producing a teeth-gritting crunching sound, before he continued.
"Second, during our fight, you actually split off a head to ambush them. I don't mind such underhanded tactics, but for a lowly creature like you to dare lose focus during combat with me? That's the greatest insult to a professional exorcist like myself."
"Finally, one more thing."
Ye Xing's smile remained as zen-like as ever, but his eyes betrayed cruelty.
"What makes you think you're qualified to steal my pre-selected evil spirit prey right in front of me?"
Bang!
The moment Ye Xing raised his foot, the pale ghost hand reverted to its original massive form, clutching the barely alive Nukekubi within its grasp.
With just a slight squeeze, accompanied by a muffled explosion, the Nukekubi, composed of hundreds of evil spirits, was crushed into dissipating black smoke.
Ye Xing walked slowly towards Miko Yotsuya and Haruno, glancing at the latter slumped against the wall before chuckling lightly.
"Lucky you, we arrived just in time. Otherwise, things would've gone south."
His flippant tone, combined with the smile on his face, made it impossible to associate him with the humanoid evil spirit who'd just been tormenting the Nukekubi like a yo-yo.
Bloody hell, the mood swings are unreal.
Are you some Sichuan opera face-changer?
"The Gate is yours to handle."
"Understood."
Miko sighed helplessly and nodded in response.
It wasn't that she minded the task, but rather felt somewhat disappointed.
She'd thought this would be her revenge battle.
Yet unexpectedly, Ye Xing had developed a new technique that obliterated the serpentine evil spirit turned Nukekubi.
So after all that...
She'd only managed to slay one evil spirit?
It felt like punching cotton, leaving Miko with an odd sense of dissatisfaction.
"You two..."
Haruno took a deep breath to steady herself before addressing Ye Xing and Miko softly.
"Are you... high school students?"
Instead of answering, Ye Xing countered:
"Why assume we're high schoolers? Is it because my companion here has certain physical attributes you'd associate with that age group? That's size discrimination!"
Haruno: "..."
"Then... university students?"
"No, we're high school students."
Haruno: "..."
"Don't tell me you're from Sobu High?"
"Why presume we attend Sobu High? Are you discriminating against our academic standards?"
Haruno looked utterly exasperated.
Are you a dumbbell that gained sentience?
"Then... perhaps Shuchi'in Academy students?"
"No, we're from Sobu High."
Haruno's chest rose and fell rapidly as she drew a deep breath, mentally reminding herself:
'Stay calm. Must stay calm.'
Listening nearby, Miko thought, 'Typical Ye Xing'.
Slaying evil spirits was mandatory.
But abstract humour remained his signature move.
Just then, Ye Xing's smile vanished as he stared directly at Haruno and said flatly:
"Now that you know our secret, how should we handle this?"
He shrugged at Miko beside him.
"Shall we toss her into the Reverse World?"