Intuition and Unease

The world is like a roll of cloth torn apart.

The illusion vanished, and the familiar mist returned to their eyes.

Su Qing'an sheathed his sword, his muscles twitching and spasming in an instant—the price of concentrating all his strength for the second time in a short period.

But he immediately took control of his entire body, adjusting the muscle spasms into natural, flowing waves, his blood flowing smoothly and quietly, and his body returned to its optimal state once again.

Before the Artificial Stigmata transplant, Su Qing'an's physical strength wasn't even enough for him to unleash a single [Time Cutter].

But now, with the ultimate control he has achieved in the State of Still Water, he is confident that he can unleash a third strike.

However, a significant drawback is that such a specially named tactic cannot be used as the key to breaking the deadlock indefinitely.

Moreover, Su Qing'an failed to kill the Living Doll this time.

The sword strike missed.

Even though the illusion was shattered, the Living Doll remained alive.

It floated in the void, tilting its head to look at the two of them. The dense sword marks made its body look tattered, like a cheap toy discarded in a junkyard.

The Living Doll's hands and feet were shredded by the Honkai Energy sword threads shaped by the [Time Cutter]'s aftereffects.

The once magnificent kimono was now mostly torn to shreds, with the remaining hem sparsely covering her snow-white thighs and joints, making her look quite disheveled.

It remained quietly in place, its empty eye sockets simply gazing at the two of them, its faint smile unchanged.

The Living Doll seemed to have lost its desire to attack; it even stopped making any further moves to create illusions.

This is strange.

"Your sword didn't deviate. It was its defense that strengthened at that moment. The illusion shattered because the Living Doll gathered all the Honkai Energy that created the illusion in front of it before you struck it."

"In other words, in order to protect itself, it practically tore the entire illusion apart so you could use it as a target to attack."

Satou Yunona calmly analyzed the situation and gave a vivid description of the unexpected outcome.

"Its illusion was strange; my body felt a little heavy, and this hasn't changed even now that the illusion has shattered."

Su Qing'an looked warily at the seemingly motionless Living Doll and pointed out the strangeness of the illusion.

But apart from that...

That's strange.

Intuition was warning him of something else, a piece of information that Su Qing'an could not easily ignore.

Although it sounds mystical, his premonitions were surprisingly accurate as his Soul Essence gradually strengthened.

Is there anything wrong with this?

After its first death, the Living Doll ceased its attempts to attack the two, and after the illusion was shattered, it made no attempt to recreate it. The increasingly dense and outward-spreading fog...

Right, spreading? Why is it spreading outwards? If Yuno is right, then the Living Doll undoubtedly possesses the ability to manipulate the Honkai Energy environment here. So what reason would it have not to concentrate all its Honkai Energy kill us, but instead choose to continue spreading the fog?

After sorting out his thoughts, he finally understood the reason why the Living Doll did this.

There is only one answer.

For Kambara Yuu.

For the girl who should have had her blood and life drained by it at this time.

"Yuno! Use your ability to try and sense the area beyond the fog." Su Qing'an gave the order in almost a second after completing her thought process.

"Okay." Without asking for a reason, just from hearing the slight fluctuation in the boy's tone, Satou Yunona understood the importance of the matter.

The girl's power had already usurped control of the forest during the previous preparations, so there was a reason why she only symbolically attacked the Living Doll with vines and handed over the main attack to Su Qing'an.

Demolishing the shrine and letting the incendiary bombs continue to destroy unnecessary things to expose that thing is only part of the plan.

Half of this scheme lies in the tiny root system that wanders underground. These roots silently and gradually meander and extend throughout the shrine and the surrounding underground space. The root system, shaped by Honkai Energy, is naturally more sensitive to Honkai Energy and is an excellent tool for searching.

Satou Yunona's attention was almost entirely focused on manipulating and observing the underground landscape and Honkai Energy fluctuations, so when attacking the Living Doll, she naturally gave the impression of putting in a little effort but not putting in any real work.

Even though she focused most of her attention on the search, the Honkai Energy fog made it even more difficult for her to search, to the point that even with the Honkai Energy sensing and power assistance of Pseudo-Herrscher, she still hadn't found any clues.

At this moment, some of the underground root system surged out in other directions.

Then they encountered obstacles.

The girl frowned and remained silent. Sensing the answer transmitted back from the roots, she shook her head at Su Qing'an and said, "Besides using the Honkai Energy accumulated over the past ten years to form mist, the Living Doll has also created something like a barrier. At the same time, I suspect that this barrier is connected to the Honkai Energy of the environment."

"And... those villagers aren't in the same place anymore either." Her expression was rather grim, clearly indicating that she had realized the dire situation before her.

A shadow fell over Su Qing'an's face. Satou Yunona's words had confirmed his suspicions. He calmly analyzed and explained:

"The fog is still spreading outwards. The creation of that illusion seems to have accelerated this process. It wouldn't be surprising if the fog drifts to the Kambara Family; in fact, it's exactly the result the Living Doll wanted."

"If I'm not mistaken, the most likely scenario now is that the villagers have gotten rid of your toxin and are going to cause trouble for the Kambara Family."

"I noticed something was wrong with the villagers' bodies before, but it was so subtle that I only noticed it now. It could very well be a sign of them becoming Zombie."

"Yuno, your toxin was specially formulated for ordinary humans, so if the target's constitution becomes no longer human, it will naturally have no effect."

Satou Yunona fully understood Su Qing'an's meaning. Her gaze towards the doll held an even colder killing intent than before. She said softly:

"That's why it hasn't shown any aggression since it was killed the first time. Rather than going through the trouble of killing us unpalatable sacrifices, it's much better to find Xiao Xi, who is more to its liking."

Su Qing'an nodded and said, "We can't drag this out any longer and play this tug-of-war with it. If necessary, we should break the barrier and switch the battlefield to the Kambara Family."

"Given the current combat power of the Living Doll, either of us could suppress it for a short time, freeing up our hands to quickly eliminate the villagers who might turn into Zombie."

The client's safety is the top priority.

The two immediately reached an agreement.

Neither Kambara Shuichi nor Kambara Yuu wanted anything to happen to them.

Su Qing'an thought to herself, "Uncle, you're still responsible for taking that girl to see the aquarium, the zoo, Himeji Castle, and Kiyomizu Temple to see the cherry blossoms. How can you just die like this?"

Besides, if you die, who will that girl be able to rely on in this world?

So hang in there a little longer.

For some reason, at that moment the boy suddenly recalled what the man had said to him in the Maybach.

"Life is but fifty years, and the past is like a dream. Is there anything in this world that can live forever?"

This famous quote, which originated from Oda Nobunaga, was uttered by Kambara Shuichi. On that day, the man's expression was so carefree yet concealed a resolute determination to disregard life and death.

Even so, I don't want you to die.

The boy gripped his sword tightly.

Even if we haven't broken our promise.

I would also feel unhappy.

The mysterious patterns drawn in vermilion on the back gradually emitted a faint glow...