A Pawn’s Passage

Little Yin smiled at Qi Xuansu, revealing two tiny canines. Instead of finding them cute, Qi Xuansu was reminded of Desmond's vampire fangs, so he felt a chill running down his spine.

Little Yin pleaded, "Since we're already here, we can't leave empty-handed."

Qi Xuansu replied firmly, "No. I'm here to meet Suzuka Gozen. I can't afford any complications."

Little Yin begged, "I promise I can finish it all! There won't be any trouble."

Qi Xuansu said angrily, "Even if you can eat it, we are now in the Ise Province, so this seal is most likely set up by Ise-jingu. If we destroy the seal, wouldn't we be alerting the enemy and exposing our whereabouts? When they come after us, you might be reborn on that Emperor Willow of yours, but I only get one life!"

Little Yin pouted, her dark eyes staring at Qi Xuansu.

Qi Xuansu was not sure if it was just his imagination, but her cute little face seemed to be slightly distorted.

Noticing this, Qi Xuansu thought,Was she also affected by the eeriness of Fenglin? After all, this land could turn living humans into monsters. Even Tamamo-no-Mae and Yamata-no-Orochi weren't exceptions, let alone Little Yin.

Just then, a sudden gust of yin wind rose, as if ten thousand spirits were howling. Qi Xuansu's robes fluttered, and the surrounding trees swayed violently.

Then came a faint sobbing sound, echoing through the dense forest like mist drifting through the air, worming directly into one's ears.

Qi Xuansu's body froze instantly. A chill crept up his spine, his scalp tingled, and sweat beaded on his forehead.

This time, he was truly in trouble.

In an instant, the surrounding trees began to twist and contort. Faces seemed to sprout from their trunks, each one bearing a sinister and eerie smile that was terrifying to behold.

Qi Xuansu let out a thunderous Blood Roar, which dispersed the mist and sent leaves cascading from the trees. The human faces on the trunks twisted in agony and gradually blurred.

The essence of magic was to turn illusion into perceived reality. The higher the skill, the more convincing the illusion. These tricks were not particularly refined, so they were easily dispersed by Qi Xuansu's roar.

Qi Xuansu's body spirits flared all over his body, radiating a dazzling glow that pierced through the gloom of the forest.

Then, Qi Xuansu punched the trunk of a large tree, snapping the entire tree in half. A wisp of black mist rose from within. Due to his searing blood qi, the black mist sizzled with faint wailing before dissipating into nothing.

Qi Xuansu repeated the process, breaking apart all the trees that bore human faces.

Just then, a massive tree nearly 10 meters tall uprooted itself, pulling its roots from the ground like a person extracting their foot from a mud pit. It began to move slowly, while countless vines swept toward Qi Xuansu from all directions.

Qi Xuansu kept punching, his intent as sharp and fierce as blades, severing each vine one by one.

Unfortunately, he had not learned the Five Thunder Celestial Heart Method. If Zhang Yuelu were here, she could have broken these ghostly trees with just a few thunder techniques with no need for brute force.

In the next instant, countless vines twisted together into a massive whip with a meter radius, swinging sideways at Qi Xuansu's waist.

Qi Xuansu drew Flying White Shadow. Using the Demonic Blade's intuition, he instantly located the vine's weak point and struck at it.

With a deafening boom, the entire forest seemed to tremble. Countless leaves cascaded down.

The giant whip unraveled into dozens of loose vines.

Human faces appeared all over the trunk of the giant tree. Their eyes, previously shut, opened all at once, filled with nothing but whites. These eyes were densely packed and terrifying. The branches morphed into skeletal eagle talons that extended to grasp at Qi Xuansu.

Qi Xuansu swung his blade to cut them down, but the branches regenerated quickly, restoring themselves in the blink of an eye.

This was the monster known as the Jinmenju, or the Human-Faced Tree.

According to legend, a man's beloved died, and he was so grief-stricken that he followed the advice of a wicked ghost and planted her head in the backyard. After 49 days, a tree sprouted; in one hundred days, it bloomed; and in a year, it bore fruit that bore the woman's face. The demonic tree drew the wrath of the authorities, who launched a purge. In the end, the man perished in flames alongside the Jinmenju.

At the center of the trunk was a gigantic human face, surrounded by many smaller ones. Its gaping mouth spewed seed-like objects also bearing a human face, only these shrieked as they swarmed toward Qi Xuansu like a plague of locusts.

Qi Xuansu dared not underestimate this attack. As he spun his body, the Nine Yang Fiery Dome Replica at his waist swayed violently. With an infusion of magical power, several crimson fire dragons burst forth, roaming around him and reducing the seeds to ashes.

He reached to his waist and pulled the Nine Yang Fiery Dome Replica into his hand. At this moment, he did look somewhat like a proper demon-subduing Daoist.

Just then, Little Yin suddenly blurred, transforming into a mass of pitch-black mist and blending into the surroundings as she drifted toward the Jinmenju.

The Jinmenju remained fixated on Qi Xuansu, entirely unaware of Little Yin's movement. It continued attacking with vine lashes and claw-like branches, while massive earthen spikes shot up from below in ambush.

Qi Xuansu was not afraid of the Jinmenju. He kept slashing with his blade and continuously activated the Nine Yang Fiery Dome Replica, gradually gaining the upper hand. However, the Jinmenju was at least at the Heavenly Being level. It even held the advantage of terrain. Thus, taking it down would still require considerable effort on Qi Xuansu's part.

Just then, Little Yin, in her mist form, appeared behind the Jinmenju and spat out a mouthful of corpse qi at the center of its back.

Since corpse qi was highly corrosive, it burned a gaping hole through the tree's trunk in an instant, revealing a hollow inside where a female head pulsated like a heart.

The Jinmenju cried out in pain, and the nearly thousand faces across its body wailed in unison.

Little Yin reached out and ripped the tree's heart without hesitation. Her mouth instantly expanded to the size of a well's opening so she could swallow the heart whole. After which, she let out a satisfied burp.

Having suffered such a severe blow, the Jinmenju turned all its defenses toward Little Yin, sending every vine lashing her way. But Little Yin had already succeeded and did not stay put. She had turned back into rolling black mist and dispersed into the surroundings.

The tree's vines struck nothing but air. The faces on its trunk continued to wail, and the countless vines thrashed wildly without any coordination.

Qi Xuansu quickly seized the opportunity, closing in and plunging his Flying White Shadow into the gaping mouth of the largest face on the trunk before twisting it with full force.

Having had its heart stolen by Little Yin, the Jinmenju was gravely injured, so it could no longer withstand Qi Xuansu's assault.

With his right hand gripping the blade and his left holding the Nine Yang Fiery Dome Replica, Qi Xuansu summoned searing flames that wrapped around his entire fist. He then struck the trunk three times in rapid succession. The combination of fire and blood qi made the trunk shudder. Leaves rained down, and blood poured from the orifices of thousands of faces. Cracks rang through the trunk as Qi Xuansu shattered it from within using his brute strength.

In a flash, all of the vines withered, and its once lush green leaves turned yellow, falling like rain. The tree ended up as a twisted, withered husk.

Qi Xuansu pulled out Flying White Shadow and looked toward Little Yin, who was gently rubbing her belly. "This is a nice little snack, but I'm still not full."

As she spoke, her gaze became fixated on a certain spot.

Qi Xuansu's heart skipped a beat as he followed her gaze.

Sure enough, that stone stele remained unchanged, which indicated that the Jinmenju was not the sealed demon suppressed by that stele. Instead, it was a guardian, likely a shikigami left behind by an Onmyoji as a final safeguard for the seal. Now, this guardian had been slain by the combined efforts of Qi Xuansu and Little Yin.

Worse still, those crisscrossing, web-like red threads had been mostly destroyed after all that chaos.

Qi Xuansu had never intended to break this seal, yet under Little Yin's manipulation, he had gradually undone it step by step.

Little Yin grinned. "Big Brother, can you help me smash this stone stele too? I promise I'll listen to everything you say once I'm full!"

Qi Xuansu's face darkened. "Since you're so powerful, why don't you smash it yourself? Why ask me?"

Little Yin pouted. "This stele is strange. It specifically suppresses yin creatures, so I can't get close to it. But you're a Heavenly-Being Martial Arts Practitioner with overflowing blood qi, so you won't be affected. Just one punch will do."

She tugged at Qi Xuansu's sleeve and pleaded with a whiny tone, "Just one punch, pretty please?"

Just then, a woman interrupted them, speaking in the Wa language. "Who are you people? What are you doing in this forbidden place? Are you the ones who damaged the formation outside?"

Qi Xuansu turned around and looked toward the woman.

A miko stood at the forest's edge, dressed in a white top and red hakama, with her long hair tied in a high ponytail. She looked valiant with her bow drawn and an arrow aimed directly at Qi Xuansu.

Qi Xuansu was about to explain when the miko spotted the destroyed red threads and the now-withered Jinmenju. Her face changed drastically. "You're trying to break the seal?"

Before she even finished speaking, she released the bowstring, and an arrow shot forth.

In an instant, it tore through the air toward Qi Xuansu.

Qi Xuansu did not dodge. The arrow struck him in the chest. But with the Longevity Heart within him, the arrow froze midair for a moment before shattering into fragments.

The miko's expression changed slightly, but she wasted no time in drawing again. Her longbow radiated black and white energy that circled around her and quickly gathered at the arrow tip, forming a rapidly growing black-and-white sphere.

This time, she did not aim at Qi Xuansu's chest but at the space between his eyebrows.

Qi Xuansu no longer tried to explain himself. He put away the Nine Yang Fiery Dome Replica and drew his Dragon Painting Pistol, aiming it at the miko.

The miko remained calm, as if she had not noticed the gun in Qi Xuansu's hand. She released her fingers and shot the second arrow.

At the same moment, Qi Xuansu showed no mercy. He pulled the trigger and fired the gun.

Blood gradually bloomed on the miko's chest as she staggered backward.

Qi Xuansu stood his ground. Though his Demonic Blade instincts had helped him shift his head aside at the last moment, he had not fully evaded the arrow. It managed to graze his face, tearing open a horrific wound that exposed his teeth and bloody gums.