Kanbe Hikaru landed in front of Kikyo.
His grey clothes flapped, and his pale long hair rose in the night wind.
The crimson hannya mask covered most of his face, revealing only a pair of equally crimson eyes that glinted coldly under the moonlight.
Kanbe Hikaru did not look back.
He just stood there, his left hand holding the Thunder Horn slightly raised, purple electrical arcs still dancing between his fingers.
But this silence finally allowed Kikyo's hanging heart to settle a little.
"The Demonic Qi from all four directions has vanished."
Kikyo said.
"It's settled."
Kanbe Hikaru's tone remained flat: "The Thunder Beast, Gakimaru, the Venomous Flood Dragon, the Nekomata... they're all dead."
Kikyo didn't ask for details.
She just watched his back, looking at the nape of his neck faintly visible under his long pale hair.
[shikon no tama: naohi: favorability +1]
[Current favorability: 58 (Trust)]
[Good job — it said]
Kanbe Hikaru saw the prompt on the panel.
But he didn't have time to respond.
Because—
"Interesting."
Kidomaru's voice came from ahead, aged, cold, carrying lingering fury and astonishment: "You are that Kanbe Hikaru?"
He stood thirty meters away, his long blade hanging down, the blade shimmering with an eerie blue light.
Those cloudy old eyes were staring at Kanbe Hikaru, as if sizing up an interesting toy.
"Killing four demon leaders in a single night..."
His gaze fell on the Thunder Horn in Kanbe Hikaru's left hand.
"To think, you've even claimed the Thunder Beast's power for your own?"
Kanbe Hikaru didn't answer.
He simply raised his left hand, the purple light within the Thunder Horn growing a few shades brighter.
"You are strong."
Kidomaru continued: "Stronger than I imagined."
"But—"
He vanished.
Almost as if he had disappeared into thin air.
Kanbe Hikaru's pupils constricted.
Fast!
Too fast!
He instinctively swung his blade to parry.
Clang—!
Metal clashed, sparks flying everywhere.
Muramasa collided with that eerie blue blade, the shockwave blowing away all the surrounding vegetation.
Kanbe Hikaru's arm went numb, and he was forced back more than three steps.
And Kidomaru—
Still stood in his original spot, his posture unchanged.
"Good reaction. Though your Demonic Qi isn't strong, this physique of yours is indeed not something an ordinary small demon can compare to."
The old demon's voice came from behind.
He seemed quite impressed.
Kanbe Hikaru, possessing the Bone Soul Transformation, didn't have a dense Demonic Qi, but in terms of pure combat power, he could indeed rival an ordinary seventh-transformation demon.
However...
Kanbe Hikaru spun around abruptly, Muramasa slashing horizontally, but it only cut through the air.
Kidomaru had already appeared on his right, the tip of the blade only inches from his ribs.
"Pity, still too slow."
Kanbe Hikaru didn't hesitate.
A Bone Spike erupted from under his ribs, aiming straight for Kidomaru's wrist.
[Bone Soul Transformation] activated.
White Bone Spikes, like suddenly blooming flowers, erupted from all over his body simultaneously.
A dozen, then twenty.
Forming a spherical barrier of Bone Spikes.
"Oh?"
Kidomaru's figure vanished again.
The next second, he appeared thirty meters away, a small tear now visible on his sleeve.
"Bone Spikes... an ability similar to Gashadokuro? Somewhat interesting."
He looked down at the tear: "Much weaker than that priestess's arrows, but harder to dodge."
Kanbe Hikaru didn't reply.
His right hand had already pulled something else from his robes.
It was a dark purple scale, palm-sized, covered in eerie patterns.
—The Venomous Flood Dragon's Reverse Scale.
This was the loot he had obtained after killing the Venomous Flood Dragon.
The Venomous Flood Dragon was an old serpent that had cultivated for hundreds of years; its poison could corrode anything, even turning the air toxic.
And this Reverse Scale was the essence of its entire toxicity.
Although the favorability system's analysis of these remains wasn't complete, basic usage was already possible.
Kanbe Hikaru poured demonic energy into the Reverse Scale.
Sizzle—
A cloud of dark purple mist billowed from the scale, spreading towards Kidomaru.
Wherever the mist passed, plants withered and the earth cracked.
Deadly poison.
A poison that even demons of the Materialization grade could not withstand.
On his own, he certainly couldn't compare to Kidomaru, or even keep him occupied, but by borrowing external power, he could hold his ground for a moment.
Fighting above his level in a very short time!
But—
"Useless."
Kidomaru's voice remained calm.
He simply gave a light wave of his hand.
A flash of blade light, invisible to the naked eye, streaked across.
The toxic mist was sliced in two, drifting past his sides without touching his body at all.
"The essence of the Transformation of Speed is not making oneself faster."
Kidomaru walked forward slowly, each step deliberate yet exerting a sense of pressure: "It is making everything around you slower."
"Within my domain, no matter how fast your toxic mist is, it is but slow motion."
Kanbe Hikaru's brow furrowed even tighter.
He pulled out a third item.
It was a withered cat's claw, black as ink, with several wisps of cold aura still lingering on it.
—The Nekomata Claws.
Nekomata were demons capable of controlling the corpses of the dead, making them move like puppets.
This claw was the vessel for that power.
Kanbe Hikaru poured demonic energy into the claw.
Hiss—
A cold aura surged from the claw, seeping into the ground.
The surrounding demon corpses, which had been pinned down by Kidomaru's presence, suddenly began to tremble.
One, two, ten.
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