"This is the Tan Flower."
Under Gui Fa's guidance, Takatsuki easily located the massive Tan Flower that Rien had cultivated.
"Yes. This is no longer the first one Rien has grown; the others all died in short order. However, the volume of Tao contained within a Tan Flower is something no Tensen can compare to."
Gui Fa explained in his characteristically emotionless, inorganic voice.
"I see. Thank you. Where will you go next? I still have a little time before I begin—consider it payment for the information you've provided."
Takatsuki had always been a man who settled his debts clearly. Though Gui Fa was a Tensen, he had indisputably been of great help.
Yet Gui Fa simply shook his head. Aloof from worldly affairs for as long as he could remember, he held little interest in anything else. If the old Horai had once felt like home to him, then the Horai of today... was nothing more than a asylum of madmen.
Fulfilling his duty to Rien had been out of sentiment, but with Rien gone, he wished to pursue a life of his own.
"I am going to take Mei and leave. She is the last family I have left."
Gui Fa spoke quietly. Takatsuki couldn't tell if this was merely a statement of his plans or a subtle request for aid.
"Is that so? Here, take this."
Takatsuki pulled out a Senzu Bean and tossed it to Gui Fa.
"What is this?"
"A Senzu Bean. It can heal even near-fatal injuries. I once used one to restore Mei's Tanden after Rien destroyed it. I don't know how Mei is faring right now—she went to see Rien earlier, and I haven't seen her since."
Takatsuki explained, figuring that while Rien might not kill Mei, she might very well break her Tanden again. Handing over the Senzu Bean served to settle his debt to Gui Fa entirely. "Do you need me to escort you two off the island?"
"No need. Rien made arrangements for a vessel at the rear long ago; it was planned far in advance. The ship is at those coordinates."
Gui Fa stored the Senzu Bean away, gave Takatsuki the location of the harbor, and said softly, "May fate bring us together again."
"Until we meet again."
Gui Fa departed. He took nothing from the island—not even his extensive collection of books.
Having spent a thousand years reading every single one of them, constant reading had merely been his method of preventing himself from slipping into madness like the other Tensen. As the practitioner of meditation, Gui Fa was the only Tensen capable of maintaining his mental stability.
Watching Gui Fa's figure fade into the distance, Takatsuki turned toward the colossal Tan Flower—Pangu.
This Tan Flower was the absolute core of all Rien's research. She had slaughtered countless lives just to cultivate this single entity.
The Tan Flower withered and bloomed repeatedly, its internal Tao ebbing and surging in an endless cycle. A thousand years of accumulation had raised the volume of Tao within it to an unprecedented height.
Even the Tao generated by Takatsuki's life-refined body was a mere drop in the ocean compared to the vast sea before him.
"The source of life... only something like this truly deserves the title. Still, the Tao of plants and the Tao of humans..."
Though he had mastered Tao, Takatsuki knew from the records he'd read that plant Tao and human Tao differed fundamentally.
Mixing foreign strains of Tao carried a high risk of shattering the body's internal energy balance, leading to total structural collapse.
However...
"Tiger Talisman, I'm counting on you."
The Tao in Takatsuki's body hadn't been cultivated through the traditional path of equilibrium, but the energy within Pangu had been engineered by Rien precisely along those lines. Takatsuki could not afford to ignore the path she had laid down.
Yet when it came to balance, what in existence could surpass the power of the Tiger Talisman?
Pangu was merely a passive vessel storing a staggering amount of Tao—it possessed no consciousness, nor any biological instincts. The moment Takatsuki plunged his Stand's arm into its trunk, his only sensation was...
...being utterly swallowed by a raging torrent of Tao.
Unlike absorbing the energy of a Stellaron, which was violently corrosive and triggered multiple defensive mechanisms within him—allowing the Dog, Horse, and Tiger Talismans alongside the System to tame the wild power—Tao was fundamentally different.
If Imaginary energy was a deadly poison, then Tao was a potent tonic.
Could mechanisms designed to counter poison function when overwhelmed by pure nourishment?
The principle of being unable to absorb excessive nourishment held true everywhere.
Time blurred into irrelevance...
Meanwhile, outside Horai, a group of newcomers arrived on the island.
"So this is the so-called dwelling of the Tensen? Doesn't look like much."
Shugen arrived at the shore aboard a Monshin, leading a large detachment of ninjas and samurai.
"These monsters are all minions of the Tensen. Dispose of them."
Upon reaching Horai, Shugen mercilessly ordered the execution of the Monshin. Fortunately, the creatures possessed no sentience; otherwise, such a blatant betrayal after crossing the river would have provoked a desperate death-struggle.
"Move out. Let's go see what these so-called Tensen really are."
Shugen tightened his grip on his heavily notched blade.
The nicks along the edge weren't from wear and tear, nor from slashing through endless waves of monsters. He had deliberately chipped the blade himself—ensuring his enemies wouldn't die too easily.
"Whether they are criminals, those harboring criminals, or monsters... I will slaughter them all!"
Gnashing his teeth in fury, Shugen led his force straight into Horai. Only a single, scruffy swordsman with a stubbled chin was left behind, sighing helplessly as he shrugged.
"Yare, yare... looks like trouble is brewing for real. Should I even bother going in?"
Unlike the other members of the Yamada Asaemon clan, Toha had no desire to follow Shugen's orders. Looking out over Horai, sensing the immense, volatile Tao dormant within the island, his brows furrowed in anxiety.
In the end, he chose to follow the main force inside. At least for now, it wasn't time to break ranks just yet.
Upon entering Horai, the group was greeted by pristine golden decorations and magnificent palaces spanning the area.
Yet all of it had been battered into ruins by the preceding battles, the ground scorched and littered with hardened, cooled lava.
"No one's here... these are all traces of battle. Where did everyone go?"
Before Shugen could search further, the ninjas dispatched to scout the area returned to report their findings. The result was absolute: they hadn't found a single corpse.
"Press forward!"
Shugen gave the order expressionlessly, striding directly toward the main palace while leaving the surrounding side halls for the ninjas to scour.
Stepping into the main hall, Shugen's gaze locked immediately onto a giant flower in the center. From within it, he felt a colossal, overwhelming surge of energy.
"This is... such abundant Waves."
Shugen was a studious man. He had made an effort to stay on good terms with everyone in the Yamada family, humbly learning from them. He knew each member's strengths and had absorbed much of their knowledge.
Naturally, he had learned to sense the Waves just as Shion did. Through that perception, he "saw" it:
An infinite, ocean-like sea of Tao, and...
A lone figure standing beneath that monstrous flower.
"Monster!"
The moment Shugen caught sight of the silhouette, his eyes flared with murderous rage. Not a member of the Yamada Asaemon family.
Shugen made the judgment instantaneously.
And on this island, anyone who wasn't of the Yamada family—be they criminals or islanders—were, in his eyes...
Guilty!
"A samurai must..."
Raising his notched blade high, he glared at the defenceless back turned toward them: "...do his duty!"
"No, wait!"
Toha, who had lingered behind and was just casually strolling in, caught sight of Shugen's motion and instinctively raised his hand to shout a warning. But as Shugen's blade descended, Toha swallowed his words, spun right around, and sprinted back the way he came—moving at a speed so absurd that the surrounding men couldn't even react.
BOOM─────!!!!
Out on the Eastern Sea, a colossal pillar of water erupted toward the sky, as if striving to pierce the heavens themselves. Within that towering wall of water, the entire island was mercilessly crushed, shattered, and pulverized by the relentless waves, raining down across the ocean in countless broken fragments.