"You..."
Kakugyo Ki was dumbfounded.
Clearly, this was a situation that had even taken him by surprise.
Who was he?
Dojikumaru, a Demon King who had survived for over a thousand years. His power was unfathomable. In terms of accumulated spiritual power alone, he was on par with Ashiya Douman. Even Miyaji Hanao could probably only fight him to a draw, with neither side gaining the upper hand.
Yet now, he had actually lost in a pure contest of strength—and had lost so decisively. How could Kakugyo Ki not be stunned?
Dojikumaru, on the other hand, was not surprised at all. Instead, he looked even more disdainful.
"You're too weak. Do you even deserve to be called Ibaraki?"
Dojikumaru actually began to rebuke him.
Kakugyo Ki grew furious and was just about to step forward when Harutora raised a hand and stopped him.
"I'm curious." Harutora looked straight at Luo Zhen—or rather, at the shikigami around Luo Zhen. His eyes flashed with wisdom as he said, "Some of them are clearly already dead. How did they appear here again?"
Harutora asked the question aloud.
Luo Zhen raised his eyebrows, then suddenly smiled.
"Is that really so surprising?" Luo Zhen shrugged and glanced at Yakushimaru and Kumomaru. "Yase Doshi over there was also already dead. Isn't she alive again now?"
Everyone immediately understood the implication.
"Could it be the 'Taizan Fukun no Matsuri'?"
Hishamaru's murmur voiced the guess in everyone's hearts.
Everyone assumed that the reason Otake Maru and the other great demons had reappeared in the world was because Luo Zhen had used the 'Taizan Fukun no Matsuri.'
With a forbidden secret ritual capable of manipulating souls, life and death could be switched freely.
But...
"Ordinary souls would be one thing, but even such ancient spiritualities have been revived—and so