The moonlight was thin.
Hikaru and Kikyo walked along the dirt road in the village toward the shrine.
The further they went, the more humid and sticky the air became, carrying an indescribable stench of decay.
Hikaru frowned.
"This smell..."
"Demonic Qi."
Kikyo's voice was low: "The concentration is very high. That thing has likely been entrenched here for quite some time."
The silhouette of the shrine gradually became clear.
The vermilion Torii gate looked exceptionally eerie in the night, its paint mottled as if stained with dried blood.
The stone steps were covered in a layer of slippery moss.
No, it wasn't moss.
It was slime.
Hikaru crouched down and picked up a bit with the tip of his blade.
The slime emitted white smoke on the blade, making a sizzling sound.
"It's poisonous."
He withdrew his blade, stood up, and said, "Quite a potent poison."
[demon blade muramasa indicates that this stuff tastes terrible and it doesn't want to eat it.]
"Being a picky eater isn't good."
Although Muramasa's favorability was maxed out and could no longer provide ability gains, its sharpness had long since reached a level comparable to a 'Demonic Tool,' and Hikaru didn't neglect it.
He muttered a word to the fellow and stepped onto the stone steps.
After only three steps, the stone step beneath his feet suddenly softened.
The stone step itself suddenly turned into some kind of semi-liquid substance and was sinking.
Hikaru used Phantom Step to flash to the side, landing on a rock that was still reasonably dry.
"Has the poison corroded the ground... It seems the entire shrine has been 'remodeled' by the yokai inside pretending to be a deity."
Kikyo stood by his side, bow already in hand.
Her gaze swept across the surroundings.
"The ground, the stone steps, even those Torii gates... everything is soaked in its poison."
"This is no longer a shrine; it's its nest."
Hikaru looked ahead.
A dim yellow light shone from the main hall of the shrine, flickering like the breathing of some creature.
"So that's why that old man said we couldn't enter."
He understood now.
"It wasn't some nonsense about divine punishment; it's that one literally cannot enter. For ordinary people, stepping in here would mean the toxic gas would take their lives."
"Yes."
Kikyo nodded.
"But for us—it's not a problem."
Hikaru drew his blade.
The blade shimmered with a faint purple light, a layer of radiance plated by the blood of the demons and ghosts Muramasa had slain along the way.
"Let's go."
He stepped forward.
Just one step.
In the next second, the Demonic Qi and ghostly energy of the Six Transformations yokai erupted violently.
In the next instant...
A demonic wind surged, and his long sleeves billowed out!
The slime beneath his feet was kept at bay by his Demonic Qi, letting out angry hissing sounds.
Boom!
The doors of the main hall were immediately blown open by the Demonic Qi.
A thick, fishy stench rushed toward them.
Hikaru narrowed his eyes.
There was no enshrined deity statue in the main hall, nor were there any incense tables or candle stands.
Only the flickering candlelight on both sides illuminated a muddy swamp in the center.
In the middle of the swamp, a massive creature lay crouched.
The candlelight on either side could only reveal its general silhouette—gray-green skin, short thick limbs, and a posture like a mountain of flesh sitting there.
It was a toad.
A gargantuan toad.
"Hmph."
The toad spoke, its voice hoarse as if squeezed out of rotten mud: "This is no offering... how dare you trespass into this god's residence."
"Do you seek death?"
Hikaru looked at it, the corners of his mouth curling slightly.
"God?"
He laughed.
"You?"
The toad's eyes narrowed.
A cold light flashed in those turbid eyeballs.
"Foolish creature."
It opened its mouth.
A cloud of thick green mist gushed from the depths of its throat, instantly filling the entire main hall.
Poison mist.
Hikaru focused—though as an Ghost Samurai he didn't need to breathe, the fishy stench still made him instinctively want to avoid it.
He took half a step back, holding his blade across his chest.
"Don't go in."
Kikyo's voice came from behind him: "This poison mist will corrode spiritual and demonic power."
Hikaru nodded.
He could feel the mass of green mist eroding everything around them.
Stone walls were smoking, and wooden beams were rotting.
Even the Demonic Qi and spiritual power in the air were being dissolved.
"Troublesome."
He whispered.
This toad's strength wasn't particularly great; judging by the concentration of Demonic Qi, it was only at the level of the fifth transformation.
However, it had completely transformed the entire shrine into its home field.
In this poisonous marsh, its toxic mist was infinite, and its venom covered every inch of the ground.
Ordinary attacks couldn't even get close to it.
Moreover—Hikaru sensed something else.
Something far more difficult to deal with than toxic mist.
It was 'Fear'.
This was a concept he had heard about after spending a long time among demons.
Some demons weren't strong themselves, and their physical mutations only went so far, but they excelled at managing a 'Field'.
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