Miss Hebe is Slaughtering Her Way Out of the Lostbelt!

"You fox spirit!"

"A bride goes up the mountain," Hebe repeated the Bake-danuki's words. "Are you sure?"

"I saw it before when I was at Mount Ōe," the Bake-danuki replied with a firm answer.

Hebe shook her head. "Let's go, let's go take a look."

"Sagura, let's go."

"Woof!" The little black dog demon happily ran ahead.

Sagura was the name of this little Shiba Inu. Theoretically, this was quite presumptuous—because the posthumous title of the fifty-second Emperor was also Sagura. However, none of those present were well-mannered, so it didn't matter.

Most importantly, the little dog demon liked the name very much.

Then let's call him that. Besides, Emperor Sagura himself didn't have any objections.

The mountain path wasn't difficult to walk, but it took more time than expected. By the time Hebe and her group arrived, they could only see the tail end of the procession.

"It's not too late."

Hebe calmly tucked her sleeves in and openly trailed behind the group.

Saburo was already very tired.

They carried the bride's palanquin, crossed two desolate mountains, passed through the dark black wind over the large lake, and entered a place with lush grass and abundant water.

In this long procession, the bride sat in the palanquin at the front, while a horse-drawn flatbed cart followed behind.

A monk in black sat cross-legged on the flatbed cart.

'So tired! So tired!'

Saburo felt his body letting out a mournful cry. The place where his shoulders touched the crossbar felt as if it were burning like fire, making his steps unsteady. He also seemed to be hallucinating.

In fact, after being carried by many people, the long crossbar wasn't that heavy on him alone. Yet, Saburo felt as if he was about to collapse under the burden.

There were many people like Saburo. They exchanged glances secretly, seeing the exhaustion and fear on each other's pale faces.

—As long as the monk sitting on the flatbed cart didn't speak, they couldn't stop.

If this continued, they would all be tired to death before they could even deliver the bride to her destination.

The convoy moved slowly through the lush grass and abundant vegetation. Those who had been playing music at the beginning had now joined the group carrying the palanquin.

Suddenly, the horse pulling the flatbed cart neighed. Its hooves lifted and fell, leaving deep hoof prints on the meadow—the prints grew deeper and deeper, gradually sinking into the meadow and mud.

The horse neighed unwillingly, but it could no longer move an inch!

"Mmm..." The monk in black meaningfully released his hand seal and looked at the sky, which had dimmed at some unknown time, and the rolling clouds in the sky.

"We're here."

The monk's words reached everyone's ears clearly.

If it were before, this sentence would have been no different from a divine decree from the celestial palace. But now that strange things were happening and a dark wind was howling from the sky, how could these commoners with little knowledge be at ease?

The palanquin carrying the bride was placed on the meadow. Everyone anxiously ran towards the monk in black.

The monk in black remained seated on the flatbed cart, looking up at the sky.

"All those without surnames, without enshrined deities, and without official positions, close your eyes and cover your ears."

As soon as he finished speaking, the vast majority of people closed their eyes, covered their ears with their hands, and crouched on the ground trembling.

The few guards around the monk in black did the same.

Heavenly pillars crack the earth, five corpses dissolve, three stars invert, nine luminaries kill together... Hum. Ha. Mi. Fu. Luo. Zha.

The monk in black raised his left hand, formed a hand seal at his brow, and then pushed it onto the flatbed cart.

An inverted pentagram appeared on the flatbed cart.

The monk in black chanted in authentic Tang pronunciation: "As urgently as Master Ashiya Dōman's miraculous technique commands."

A black wind howled up from the ground, lifting the monk in black and the guards who had not closed their eyes or covered their ears, and they vanished in an instant.

"...Monk? Monk!"

The guards abandoned by the monk roared in despair, waking all the commoners who were still crouching on the ground.

After they realized they had been abandoned by the monk, their last sliver of hope turned into despair.

At this moment, the brewing storm in the clouds was descending.

Coincidentally, Hebe and her group were also within the storm's range.

"Let Miss A-Long do it!"

Miss A-Long, who was itching for action, volunteered and transformed into her true form.

A giant flood dragon coiled in a dense black wind flew off the ground. It raised its head and spat towards the clouds.

A dense flame erupted from the Great Serpent's mouth, tearing through the clouds like a sharp sword, scattering the brewing storm into chaotic gusts of wind. The people on the ground could not stand steady, and they could only prostrate themselves on the ground, wishing they could bury their heads in the earth!

"Eh?" a voice of surprise echoed from the clouds, "Such potent divine energy! Could it be that it's about to transform into a Dragon?"

As the words fell, two thick layers of clouds gathered once more.

This time, what was brewing was not just a storm, but also bolts of blue and white lightning.

Miss A-Long remained silent after transforming into her true form, only for her throat to surge, and another stream of flame light erupted.

"Hmph. I offered you kindness, yet you repay it with ill will, to be used by evil... Very well, I shall make you suffer a little!"

The person in the clouds flapped their wings, a fan turning in their hand.

Heaven and earth turned gloomy, up and down, near and far became inverted. White and purple lightning suddenly burst from the west, while strange winds and dark clouds rose from the earth. Roaring thunder caused rocks on the ground to explode into dust; the storm swept through, uprooting ancient pines at the foot of the mountain.

The lush mountains of Bungo Province seemed to have lost their color, and the rivers flowing through them appeared to flow upside down.

The Tengu on the clouds laughed heartily, watching the Great Serpent, which had been so arrogant moments ago, now being tossed about like a straw rope in the wind. With ample composure, it descended on the wind, landing on the mountaintop in its stilts and wooden clogs.

"How about that? You Great Serpent, on the verge of becoming a Dragon! Do you recognize the name Kishibō Hōgen?!"

"What is she muttering about?"

Miss A-Long looked at the Tengu who had suddenly descended from the clouds and was now performing a "golden rooster stands on one leg" pose on the ground.

This Tengu was not quiet after landing either, sometimes laughing, sometimes getting angry, muttering incoherently.

"I bet she's under Lady Tamamo's illusion magic, and now she thinks she's amazing and has defeated all of us," a Bake-danuki said casually.

The laughter gradually faded, and the white-haired Tengu gradually regained clarity.

She shook her head violently, her expression changing drastically: "When, when did I fall to the ground—no, come to think of it, just now—I was actually under an illusion?!"

The Tengu's gaze lingered on Tanutarō for a moment before meeting Hebe's eyes.

"Golden-Furred, Jade-Faced Nine-Tailed Fox?" The Tengu laughed self-deprecatingly, "Ha, falling into a trap due to excessive pride, that's the nature of a Tengu. I never thought I, Kishibō Hōgen, would become such a negative example."

Hebe's long, graceful eyebrows twitched slightly.

Kishibō Hōgen, that name was often linked to another famous figure from the Eastern Lands.

—Ushiwakamaru, or rather, Minamoto no Yoshitsune.

As one of the most legendary heroes in the legends of the Eastern Lands, Minamoto no Yoshitsune was forced to become a monk in his youth after experiencing a change in his family. As an adult, he crossed eight warships and slew several generals of the Taira clan during the Genpei War.

After that, Minamoto no Yoshitsune fell out with his elder brother, was betrayed, and ultimately died.

Kishibō Hōgen was precisely Minamoto no Yoshitsune's tutelage teacher, a Great Tengu from Mount Kurama.

Legend had it that she possessed the military treatise "Six Paths and Three Strategies" from Zhendan.

And now, this Tengu was anxiously seeking an answer.

"When exactly did I fall under the illusion?" the Tengu kept asking, "I was clearly flying in the sky, my gaze never met yours... When exactly did I fall into 'Kongming's trap'?"

Was it during the fight with that Great Serpent? Or in the very moment she stirred up the wind and thunder?

Kishibō Hōgen could barely believe her own memory, so she desperately wanted an answer.

Hebe simply tucked her hands into her sleeves and shook her head with a smile.

"Miss A-Long never crossed your path."

The Tengu's expression stiffened like a stone.

In other words, she had fallen into the illusion from the very beginning.

Upon realizing this, the Tengu's gaze towards Hebe was filled with dread.

"What a Fox Spirit!"

66 The Fox Spirit's Reasoning

"You Fox Spirit!"

This Great Tengu, renowned in legends for her wisdom and bravery, now looked at Hebe as if she were seeing the most terrifying thing in her life.

It was perfectly normal for Kishibō Hōgen to have such a reaction.

This was because she could not be sure if Hebe's illusion was still active at that very moment.

Once the seed of doubt was planted, it became incredibly difficult to uproot.

Hebe remained noncommittal, unconcerned by the Tengu's indignant words... Speaking of which, aren't Tengu also a type of dog? Then this Great Tengu before her could also be considered a defeated dog.

"More than that, I'd rather know what's going on with the bride coming up the mountain?" Hebe gestured towards the palanquin covered with a white cloth veil.

The Tengu's expression turned somewhat gloomy: "This is precisely what I wanted to talk about... Follow me."

They approached the palanquin, and the Tengu extended her hand, sending a gust of clear wind to blow away the white cloth covering the palanquin.

There was no one in the palanquin, only a wooden puppet with yellow talismans attached.

The talismans depicted an inverted pentagram—an inverted bellflower crest.

"The black-robed pháp sư who escaped on the wind earlier was Ashiya Dōman's disciple," the Tengu said. "I don't know what Ashiya Dōman is planning, nor do I care about his grievances with that brat Seimei, but if he dares to set his sights on us, he must be made to know the consequences."

She deliberately used the word "us," trying to bridge the distance with the Golden-Furred, Jade-Faced Nine-Tailed Fox.

If Minamoto no Yoshitsune represented the warrior, then Abe no Seimei and Ashiya Dōman, this pair of old rivals, were the hallmarks of Eastern Lands' onmyōji. Thanks to later reinterpretations, the fame of these two onmyōji even surpassed that of Minamoto no Yoshitsune.

"Hmm... so that's how it is." That being said, Hebe had no intention of getting involved in this matter. "In that case, Tamamo wishes you boundless prospects and swift revenge. Perhaps we will meet again in Heian-kyō in the future."

"Eh?"

Now it was the Tengu's turn to be dumbfounded. She hadn't expected that the communication skills she had learned from the military treatise Six Paths and Three Strategies would be completely useless against Hebe.

"Weren't you deceived by that fellow Ashiya Dōman?"

"I've never met him."

"Then why did you come up the mountain with them?"

"Because I suspected someone was performing a blood sacrifice."

"And if it truly was me performing a blood sacrifice, what would you do?"

"Nothing in particular." Hebe kept her hands tucked in her sleeves. "If I happened to see it on the way, I'd just deal with it."

Her tone was neither hurried nor slow, as if she were discussing what to eat tonight rather than something related to execution.

The Tengu was so choked up she couldn't utter a word.

Was it relief at not being a malevolent god who truly enjoyed blood sacrifices of living people, or was it fear of the situation Hebe described, or perhaps a mix of both?

The Tengu's face paled slightly, and she remained silent for a long time.

"But I didn't actually do those things."

"Yes, I saw that." Hebe nodded. "That's why I'm willing to say these things to you."

This time, the Tengu quickly indicated her understanding.