As an enemy, Takatsuki had Ran to thank; it wasn't that he couldn't perceive Tao to begin with.
Rather, he had been misled by other forms of life energy.
The technique Ran practiced guided Tao through movement. While imitating, referencing, and observing Ran, Takatsuki finally discovered the Tao that belonged uniquely to him.
"My goal has basically been achieved. If you are willing to step down, I won't kill you."
Takatsuki had no direct conflict with the Tensen, nor did he feel any attachment to the others who had landed on the island.
He could help them as a simple favor, or discard them without a shred of mercy.
However, his "goodwill" was rejected by the Tensen.
"Kill me? Although your Tao is immense and your talent terrifying, in the end, you are merely a human who has just mastered Tao. Your attribute does not conflict with mine—you cannot kill me."
The hermaphroditic Ran spoke with overlapping male and female voices simultaneously.
"Is that really what you think?"
Takatsuki understood that the Tensen on this island had long since gone insane; they were practically begging for release.
He could see that very longing in Ran's eyes.
The Tensen would not commit suicide, nor could they. It wasn't just survival instinct—Rien wouldn't allow them to, either.
Rien was the root of the Tensen's madness.
"Then, I shall grant you a painless release."
It wasn't that Takatsuki couldn't kill Ran; he had simply used Ran to achieve his own ends.
Now that his goal was met, there was naturally no need to keep going back and forth with Ran. After all...
This was Ran's own choice.
Having thoroughly understood the Tensen, Takatsuki naturally knew how to kill one.
Unable to be killed without elemental opposition?
Absurd. The Tensen would die from the depletion of Tao regardless; ordinary humans were simply incapable of killing them. The so-called elemental opposition was merely a critical-hit shortcut, like a crowbar used to pry open a chest. But did the lack of a crowbar mean a chest couldn't be opened?
He didn't bother pulling out Ran's Disc, knowing it was meaningless. At the very least, beneath his Tao-infused fist, Ran died without pain.
Afterward, he encountered two Tensen acting together.
Juka and Tao Fa always operated as a pair, practicing the Taoist sexual art of Bōchūjutsu. Juka permanently maintained a male form, while Tao Fa took a female form.
"More humans, running to Horai to defile this land."
Seemingly out of rage, bulges resembling dark veins flared up across the face and neck of the male-form Juka.
"Tao Fa, leave this guy to—"
Before Juka could finish his sentence, he was sent flying by a punch. While Takatsuki hadn't gone all out, he hadn't held back his strength, either.
Lacking the protection of Ran's Tao armor, half of Juka's body was instantly blasted into pieces.
However, this was not fatal for a Tensen; Tao Fa actually watched the scene with a giggling smile.
"If you leave now, I can pretend you were never here."
Just as he had done with Ran, Takatsuki did not deliver a instant kill blow right away, giving them a chance instead.
"Human! You have enraged me!"
The shattered flesh on the ground quickly recombined. Possessing extreme mobility and physical strength in his male form, Juka shattered the floor beneath his feet with a single stomp and shot toward Takatsuki like a bullet.
Yet in a single pass, his body completely exploded into pieces once more.
"Can I take this behavior as... a refusal?"
A surge of overwhelming Conqueror's Haki crested over them. Takatsuki had assumed Juka, who cherished Tao Fa so much, would choose to leave with her.
But now it seemed...
The Tensen really were insane.
Looking at the monster born from the fusion of the two before him—their Kishikai form—Takatsuki sighed.
A monster formed by two fused Tensen possessed two ovules, which meant two Tanden. Unless one could simultaneously crush both ovules of differing elemental attributes using conflicting elements, it couldn't be killed.
But...
What did that have to do with Takatsuki?
"Quite a big build you've got there."
As he spoke, scorching flames erupted from Takatsuki's body, instantly engulfing the surrounding palace and manifesting into a colossal figure. The heat—reaching tens of thousands of degrees—melted the surrounding bricks and stone into slag.
"However... that's all it is."
Facing the monster that kept launching long-range attacks with Tao, the massive avatar of fire executed a single motion.
Slash!
A giant sword of fire cleaved through the air, cutting straight through the architecture and the monster's body.
Infused with his newly comprehended Tao, a colossal pillar of fire shot into the heavens, swallowing the entire palace and the monster whole.
It was as if the sun itself had fallen to the earth, illuminating all of Horai.
No—calling it just Horai was an understatement. This "sun" lit up the entire island, and the towering column of fire could be seen even from the distant waters.
"Woah, woah, woah... what on earth is that?"
Beside a river valley, a one-eyed swordsman and a blonde samurai wielding dual swords stared at the fire pillar shooting into the sky. "Is that thing on this island, too? Is that really something a human can do?"
"Obviously not something a human can do," the short blonde samurai deadpanned.
Elsewhere, a bare-chested, heavily scarred blonde man with a fierce expression, accompanied by a long-haired, dark-haired Asaemon, witnessed the same scene.
In the blonde man's hand was a Doshi possessing only an upper torso. Looking closely, purple patterns resembling plant vines could be seen across parts of his body.
"Hey! Is that caused by one of those 'Lord Tensen' guys too?!"
Though his tone was extremely menacing, a hidden trace of fear was audible underneath.
What a joke. An attack of that scale was completely different from that guy they met earlier, who could only rely on immortality to wear them down.
Aza Chobei subtly cast a glance at his younger brother. All he wanted was to protect his brother and take revenge on the Tensen who had thrown them into the pit.
"N-No... Even Lord Tensen couldn't achieve something of this magnitude..."
The Doshi's voice trembled violently. Lord Tensen were already terrifying in their eyes, capable of moving mountains and turning seas, but what was this before them?
The sun!
Even Lord Tensen could not command the sun!
"It's not a Tensen? Could it be those other people?! How interesting!"
Faced with a natural disaster-level power that was completely beyond comprehension, Chobei's immediate reaction wasn't fear—instead, he became visibly excited.
At the same time, across the distant ocean surface, a massive ship was slowly drifting along with the current.
"Shugen-sama!"
A ninja clad entirely in black landed before a man dressed in samurai attire. "An anomaly has appeared up ahead."
"What kind of anomaly?"
The man named Shugen looked down at the masked ninja before him with disgust in his eyes, but the ninja paid it no mind, responding simply:
"A... sun has appeared."