Night was indeed when the Tensen were weakest, but everyone forgot to consider one thing.
Would the Tensen allow them to continue waiting on the island?
Originally, most of the Tensen, with the exception of a few individuals, didn't care about outsiders on the island, because most ordinary people couldn't survive on this island and would be turned into flowers by those bizarre Paradise Butterflies.
But in just one day, two Tensen were severely injured and one was missing, so the internal forces of Hōrai would inevitably be mobilized.
However, these Tensen also clearly knew that whether Takatsuki and the others wanted to leave or wanted to seize what they desired, they would definitely come to the palace, so holding their ground was the best option.
And the expulsion of outsiders would be left to the group known as Taoists under heaven.
The so-called Dōshi are similar to Tensen; they are beings that transform into human form through Tao and other species.
Therefore, although these Doshi have human bodies, their heads are all strangely shaped.
For example, the Doshi standing in front of them right now had a bug for one head and tentacle-like appendages for the other.
These Doshi possessed the means to command the island's flora and fauna.
The bug-headed Doshi controlled creatures resembling centipedes—except instead of fangs, rows of wriggling fingers lined their heads.
The tentacle-headed Doshi, on the other hand, commanded man-made giants in battle.
While individual centipedes were weak, their sheer numbers made them terrifying once they swarmed.
"Eww!"
Both Sagiri and Nurugai instinctively shrieked at the sight of the densely packed, revolting bugs. Only Yuzuriha handled it better; being a shinobi, she had seen far nastier things.
"Bugs, huh..."
Before anyone realized it, the village they were in had been completely surrounded.
Gabimaru pulled down his face mask, staring straight at the advancing swarm of centipedes.
"Ninja Art: Fire Pillar — Fire Bridge!"
Forming a fist with his right hand in front of his mouth, he blew with immense force. A roaring wall of flames erupted instantly, blocking the dense tide of centipedes on the other side.
Flames, is it...
Takatsuki watched the fire Gabimaru spat out. Although the flames clung to their target like maggots on a bone, their fundamental nature remained ordinary fire; they were nowhere near as exaggerated as his own abilities.
Does this world have supernatural powers outside of Tao?
No matter how closely Takatsuki observed, he couldn't tell how Gabimaru generated the flames, nor did it seem like he was using tools.
Could it be another application of Tao?
Well, since someone else has already set a precedent, it shouldn't matter if I reveal a bit of my own power.
Though he had already exposed his flame manipulation in front of Tenza earlier, anyway.
"Those who do not understand Tao can never defeat us."
Though inferior to the Tensen, these Doshi still possessed basic control over Tao.
"They are drawing the Tao from those bugs into themselves to bolster their own strength."
Takatsuki couldn't see it, but others nearby could. Mei thoughtfully explained the current situation to him.
Although her Tao had recovered, Mei disliked conflict and had no desire to join the fight.
"Is that so? In that case..."
Glancing at Gabimaru, who was currently controlling the flames of Hibashira, Takatsuki condensed a fireball of his own in his hand.
This move immediately caught Gabimaru's attention.
Clearly, this was also the first time Gabimaru had ever seen a non-ninja from his village use an ability so similar to Hibashira.
The ninjutsu of every shinobi village were closely guarded secrets that rarely leaked. The only scenario where they did leak was... rogue ninja.
Even if Takatsuki were a rogue ninja, it had nothing to do with him, but Gabimaru still had to be on guard in case Takatsuki was an assassin sent by his village to eliminate him.
However, after a single glance, Gabimaru discarded that thought. Not only because he had never seen Takatsuki before, but because given the combat power Takatsuki had previously displayed, there was no need for him to act so secretively. Furthermore...
This ability didn't seem to be Hibashira, but rather something similar.
Gabimaru watched as the fireball in Takatsuki's hand rapidly shifted colors. While Hibashira could also alter the color of flames, it remained a single, consistent hue throughout; Takatsuki's fireball, by contrast, kept shifting continuously.
With his innate sensitivity to fire, Gabimaru could sense that with every color shift, the threat posed by that fireball grew exponentially larger.
Having mastered Hibashira, Gabimaru could naturally endure the extreme heat of ordinary flames, yet his instincts frantically warned him: if hit by that fireball, even he would likely die on the spot.
Though it sounds like a drawn-out process, the shift in temperature occurred in a mere split second.
The sphere of extreme, terrifying heat was hurled straight at the centipede-merged Doshi in an instant.
"What is this?! So—"
Before the Doshi could even finish his cry of alarm, the extreme heat melted him into nothingness.
The gap between these Doshi and the Tensen was simply too vast. Doshi had poor regenerative abilities, far smaller reserves of Tao, and were essentially ruined once their Tanden was destroyed.
They were roughly on par with ordinary humans who had trained in Tao. While they possessed strength and speed surpassing mortals, that was the extent of it—they couldn't even defeat the others present.
Gabimaru's eyes widened as he stared at Takatsuki. Now he was absolute sure: what Takatsuki used was definitely not Hibashira.
Hibashira could never reach such extreme temperatures; otherwise, wouldn't it be completely invincible?
"That's it?"
Clapping his hands together, Takatsuki looked toward the other side, where a Doshi stood atop a giant's hand.
Having witnessed his companion's gruesome end, the remaining Doshi immediately blew the whistle in his hand to command the monsters, attempting to make his escape.
What he failed to notice, however, was a figure lurking in the shadows of the corner.
"Heheh, gotcha."
Yuzuriha's voice rang directly in his ear.
The Doshi looked back in sheer terror at Yuzuriha, who had suddenly appeared behind him: "How could you?!"
These Doshi did not view the world with their eyes; instead, like Shion, they perceived it through sensing Tao.
Although it still manifested as a form of "vision," if they couldn't sense someone's Tao, that person was essentially invisible in their eyes.
The fact that Yuzuriha had closed in on him completely undetected left him utterly terrified.
It meant she possessed the ability to conceal or control Tao.
Before he could even beg for mercy, a kunai pierced his Tanden from behind, instantly stopping the generation of Tao within his body.
Stepping on his shoulder, Yuzuriha cleanly sliced the Doshi's head off with a single stroke and snatched the whistle from his hand.
In just a few short minutes, the fierce battle had come to an end.
With a look of slight disgust, she tossed the whistle—which the Doshi had just blown into—to Senta: "Senta, use this to control those monsters."
"Yuzuriha-san, got it."
Showing no aversion to using something the Doshi had used, the chubby Senta raised the whistle straight to his lips and blew it.