Spiritual Power and Demonic Power are two completely different extraordinary forces in this era.
Hikaru had been transmigrated for three months now; he was no longer the newcomer—or rather, the new corpse—who had woken up in a pile of bodies at the beginning.
He had a basic understanding of one point.
Demonic Qi originates from the murky energy of heaven and earth and the resentment of living beings; it is the foundation upon which monsters rely to survive.
This power is cold, decaying, carries a certain instinctive desire for destruction, and is mixed with all kinds of desires.
When it circulates within a monster, it naturally erodes reason, amplifies desires, makes the weak bloodthirsty, and makes the strong go insane.
Hikaru himself was a living example.
When he first became an Ghost Samurai, his mind was filled with the urge to kill, and he almost started gnawing on corpses on the battlefield.
Fortunately, he was not a truly newborn monster after all, but a transmigrator with complete human cognitive memories due to the existence of the system. His willpower was strong enough that he forcibly suppressed that instinct and regained his sanity—
But the influence originating from the resentment of living beings still existed. The biggest characteristic was that, as a corpse, he still possessed all kinds of desires and even instinctive reactions driven by Demonic Qi, and they were no less than when he was alive.
Though dead, he was like the living; that is why he was a monster—both bewitching and strange—but ultimately, he was not truly alive.
And Spiritual Power was completely the opposite.
It came from the pure belief of humans and was the guardian of order.
Spiritual Power was clear, bright, and carried a trait of purifying everything.
Humans who cultivated Spiritual Power were called Demon Slayers, Onmyoji, Monks, or Shrine Maidens; their names varied, but their essence was the same.
The purer a person's belief, the more powerful their Spiritual Power.
They were all the natural enemies of monsters.
Spiritual Power had a natural restraining effect on monsters, just like boiling water to ice, or the scorching sun to gloom.
Even if just grazed by Spiritual Power, a monster's body would feel intense burning pain, as if a hot iron were rolling over their skin.
This was also why, when Hikaru perceived that aura of Spiritual Power in the distance, his first reaction was vigilance rather than excitement.
"It's here."
He stood on the hill, his crimson oni mask showing no expression, only those scarlet eyes locked onto the distant skyline.
That massive Demonic Qi was already close enough to be visible to the naked eye.
The gray-green murky energy across the mountains and plains surged like a tide, churning and boiling, almost dyeing the entire night sky a turbid color.
Within the murky energy, countless black dots were densely mixed in; those black dots were moving rapidly, emitting earth-shattering roars and screams.
Those black dots were monsters.
Small monsters.
Scum even weaker than those five Blue-skinned Oni from just now.
Hikaru narrowed his eyes, attempting to count how many there were.
One, two, three... ten... thirty... fifty...
"Damn."
He gave up counting.
Because it was impossible to count them.
There were at least three or four hundred of them, densely packed together; from a distance, they looked like a huge mass of writhing gray-green sludge.
This was the largest group of monsters he had seen since his transmigration.
Even in the great battle three months ago that caused his transmigration and immediate death, the number of monsters born on the battlefield was not this exaggerated.
"Where the hell did this Night Parade of One Hundred Demons come from?"
Hikaru looked at the overwhelming swarm of monsters, his scalp tingling.
Although they were all small fry if taken individually, ants could bite an elephant to death if there were enough of them.
He didn't think he had the ability to fight three hundred alone; if he really got stuck in, he would likely be submerged in the monster swarm, then have his Demonic Qi exhausted and be torn to pieces.
But his attention quickly shifted away from the monster swarm itself.
Because he discovered that the aura of Spiritual Power was right in the center of the monster swarm.
Hikaru's gaze pierced through the layers of monster shadows and landed on an incongruous figure at the core of the swarm.
It was a person.
An old man.
From such a distance, even Hikaru could only see a blurry silhouette.
The old man was wearing a gray-white robe, his figure hunched, his left hand seemingly holding something, while his right hand kept waving; every time he waved, a circle of light would explode, repelling the small monsters rushing at him.
Spiritual Power kept overflowing from his body, appearing exceptionally glaring in the night.
But that light was already very weak.
Getting weaker and weaker.
Just like a candle in the wind, it could go out at any moment.
Hikaru could tell that the old man's situation was dire.
His movement speed was getting slower and slower, his Spiritual Power fluctuations were getting weaker, and his injuries seemed to be worsening.
He was fighting while retreating in a certain direction, but the surrounding monsters were gathering in greater numbers, almost swallowing him completely.
"Hand it over!"
The shrill clamor came from far away, carried into Hikaru's ears by the night wind.
"Old thing, hand that thing over!"
"Everyone from your shitty village who came out with you is dead, what are you still holding on for?"
"Hand it over and we'll give you a quick death. Such a thing is not something you humans can monopolize!"
"I'm in a good mood today, maybe I'll even leave your corpse intact!"
Jeers, threats, and roars rose one after another; the monsters seemed determined to get the thing in the old man's hand.
The old man did not respond, just gritted his teeth and continued forward.
He seemed to have a clear destination.
Hikaru looked in the direction the old man was heading; over there were rolling mountains.
Further ahead, if his judgment of direction was not wrong...
It should be a human settlement a few mountains away, seemingly a small country named Musashi.
Just as he was pondering, the muramasa in his hand suddenly trembled even more violently.
The entire blade was emitting a low humming sound, like a hungry beast whimpering with longing in its throat.
Hikaru looked down at the system panel.
[ demon blade muramasa: Detected a large number of prey. ]
[ Current mood: Ecstatic. ]
[ It conveyed a strong desire to you: 'I want'. ]
"Calm down."
Hikaru pressed his hand on the hilt, feeling as if he were calming a mad dog.
"That's three or four hundred, not three or four. If we really rush in like that, both of us will end up dead there."
muramasa ignored his advice and continued to tremble violently.
[ demon blade muramasa expresses that it doesn't care. ]
[ It thinks: Dying in a pile of prey is also a kind of romance. ]
"..."
Hikaru fell silent.
Was there something wrong with this blade's train of thought?
And you're a blade, what the hell are you dying for? It's me who would die, okay!
He couldn't be bothered to argue with the blade anymore and shifted his attention back to the distant battlefield.
The old man's situation was getting worse and worse.
His Spiritual Power was almost exhausted; the circle of light that could repel monsters was getting smaller and dimmer.
The surrounding monsters also discovered this, their offensive becoming more and more fierce, and their mockery growing louder.
"The old thing is dying!"
"Charge! Whoever snatches it first gets it!"
Hikaru watched this scene and fell into a brief contemplation.
He was considering one thing.
To strike, or not to strike?
From the perspective of profit, although that group of monsters was huge in number, individually they were all small fry.
It seemed as long as he was careful, took a swipe, and left, the danger wouldn't be great?
Moreover, if he used them to feed the blade... even if it was only one-tenth...
He looked down at the panel.
[ demon blade muramasa: Current Affinity 16 ]
[ Next stage (30) unlocks: Bond Dialogue (II), Special Ability (I) ]
At Affinity 30, he could unlock the first special ability.
This was what he most urgently needed right now.
Relying solely on the increase in the blade's sharpness was not enough for him to gain a foothold in this world rampant with monsters; only by unlocking special abilities could he truly pull away from ordinary monsters.
Three or four hundred small monsters, a large and filling quantity, should be enough to grind his Affinity up to 30.
As long as he was careful, didn't get surrounded, used movement to trade for space, and used space to trade for time, there wouldn't be any issues—even if there were, with his [Ghost Step], escaping wouldn't be an obstacle.
And if he excluded profit, from a moral perspective...
Fine, he was just a monster; he had no morals to speak of. He was doing this for profit, at most adding some unbearable remnants from his time as a human.
Plus, the "treasure" or whatever those monsters were clamoring about made him quite tempted.
You know, in the few months since coming to this world, he had wandered through various battlefields left after humans or monsters fought, and could more or less pick up some relatively intact items, but there were almost none that even monsters would call a treasure.
What his system lacked was precisely this so-called 'treasure'.
And those monsters were just too noisy; their clamoring made him annoyed.
Since it had come to this, there was nothing to hesitate about.
Let's eat first!
Hikaru stood up and drew muramasa from his waist.
The blade shimmered with cold light under the moonlight.
"Since I have to grind for favorability anyway, saving someone along the way won't hurt."
Demonic power surged beneath his feet, and his figure vanished from the spot in an instant.
[Ghost Step].
The next moment, he appeared at the foot of the hill, charging headlong into the surging tide of demons.
"Charge!"