A Hidden Threat / Am I Important to Miko?

Yuria was slightly out of breath, her face already deathly pale.

In the previous moment, she suddenly had a flash of inspiration and poured all the Profound Nether Qi that Yotsuya Miko had given her into the puppet, thus creating a tunnel. If it weren't for her spiritual energy, she would never have been able to do such a thing.

Such a stripping away of the Profound Nether Qi naturally comes at a price, as evidenced by her current appearance.

Where are we going?

"We'll see how it goes."

Okita Qishen had never encountered such a situation before, and he simply continued to look around based on his memory, estimating whether there were any houses available for refuge along the road ahead.

He freed one hand and touched his head, suddenly feeling a headache.

He figured he probably hadn't slept well before.

Chapter 245 Potential Hidden Dangers

Flames burned fiercely.

If it were just that, it wouldn't be surprising.

One Kyojun's gaze dimmed as he looked at the villa complex being licked by the eerie purple behemoths. Despite the heavy rain, the eerie purple flames had not been extinguished in the slightest and continued to burn.

Flames shot skyward, and even from a distance, one could feel the slight pain of scorched fur. In the dim light, this blazing, purplish-red flame stood out starkly.

The Wagen Family is probably ruined, Xu Jun thought.

The moment that earth-shattering rain fell, the Wagen Family's resistance became utterly ridiculous.

The army ambushed in the villa, the evacuated clansmen, and even the fake body of One Iu, all vanished in the flames. Even the bombs that were supposed to be detonated lost their power due to the might of the gods.

Before the divine, these products of modern technology become the worst joke.

"Where is One Iu?"

The black-haired goddess questioned, standing high in the sky, her cold golden eyes looking down at the survivors on the ground.

One Kyojun simply stared at the ruins engulfed by the fire, even as the heavy rain soaked him to the bone, leaving him disheveled and exhausted.

"Splash--"

Time seemed to have passed for a long time, yet it also felt like it had only been a blink of an eye.

He moved his lips, but his voice was hoarse and inhuman.

He is --

"Monster..."

At the foot of Kamikakushi Mountain, Okita Qishen looked at the old man in the warehouse before him with a serious expression.

Beside her, Yuria also clutched the Straw Rope Doll in her hand.

Their luck was not good. Shortly after getting off the bus, they thought they had found a warehouse where they could temporarily take shelter from the typhoon, but there was already someone standing in the open warehouse.

No, to be precise, it's a monster.

The white-haired old man had two demon-like horns growing from his forehead. Apart from this strange feature, his limbs were also twisted and deformed.

"Has it finally arrived?"

The demonic old man bared his fangs, seemingly pleased to see the two people before him, or more precisely, Yuria.

"What does it matter if Heavenly Mandate Holder, or possesses the power to change the world?"

It stared intently at the blonde girl, with the meticulousness and seriousness of an autopsy. Finally, it made clear what was going on.

"Heavenly Dao Oath."

Despite the great difficulty in identifying this creature's inhuman and ghostly appearance, Okita Qishen finally confirmed its true identity after a long period of observation.

"One Iu? The Wagen Family... how could this be..."

He didn't know what "One Iu" meant, but he was extremely shocked by his appearance.

"Who exactly are you...?"

"I?"

"One Iu" grinned, silently counting the numbers in his mind. Although he was wary of Yotsuya Miko, who could cause such a heavy rain, he could not afford any accidents at this moment.

"I am One Iu's inner demon; you may call me the Heavenly Demon. I'm sure that Miss Yotsuya will find that name familiar."

"So, all of these accidents were caused by you?"

The demon wanted to buy time, and Yuria was also trying to heal him. Although she didn't know why he wasn't acting quickly, every extra breath she had meant she could use more spiritual energy to manipulate the Straw Rope Doll and wait for Yotsuya Miko to arrive.

If she weren't unaware of the monster's speed, she would have even pulled Okita Qishen straight into the car and sped away. Who knows how this could have happened at the warehouse Okita Qishen saw, with a monster specifically blocking the way?

"You can think of it that way; it's mostly One Iu's own idea, and I'm just a backup plan."

"Your backup plan... that white car was your doing, wasn't it? It has the same peculiar ability as Miko, but judging from your expression, you probably didn't dare to mess with Miko, so you targeted the weak me instead?"

Yuria was on high alert, and because of this, her thoughts were much faster than usual. In just a few words, she deduced the meaning behind the monster who called himself "Heavenly Demon" and didn't forget to make a sarcastic remark.

"What a pity, your plan has failed. All those methods to deal with Miko were ineffective, weren't they? Now that I think about it, this heavy rain was created by Miko's power. Don't you think it's like a mantis trying to stop a chariot by fighting against such a powerful deity?"

"Then there's no need for Miss Nibutang's concern. I have my own way."

These words did not shake the Heavenly Demon in the slightest. It had heard far worse trash talk for years, and Yuria was no different.

It simply continued its standoff with Yuria, waiting for a possible opportunity.

"Splash--"

A flash of lightning streaked across the sky, followed by a deafening roar.

Neither Yuria, Okita Qishen, nor Tenma remained unmoved, silently keeping a watchful eye on each other.

Okita Qishen touched his back and carefully picked up a gun, but he hadn't been able to use it because he was driving.

Despite the excruciating pain in his head, this was clearly not the time for him to pay attention to such things. He forced himself to remain calm, his gaze fixed on the monster before him.

The throbbing pain started as soon as I started driving and has only gotten worse over time.

Yet it was precisely at this crucial moment, this most critical time, that it occurred.

In the silent standoff, his eyelids were drooping, the pain accompanied by a deep drowsiness, as if something was being ripped from his body. When he looked at the monster again, its figure had become blurry.

Blurred, it blurred into several illusory figures in a daze.

The warehouse was dark, and cold wind and rain poured in through the wide-open doors. The ground was already covered with water that reached above shoes and socks. It was cold, damp, and a terrible feeling.

Okita Qishen finally got his hands on a gun. He knew that this standoff was over sooner than expected, otherwise he would be the first to give up.

Then, gunshots rang out.

The bullet struck the monster precisely in the forehead, with astonishing accuracy.

It seemed that fate was finally going to help him; he could even see the astonishment on the monster's face.

Were they startled by his sudden shot?

Okita Qishen, and then finally realized a strange problem:

How did that monster suddenly appear beside him?

There was clearly a long distance between them, and the person beside him shouldn't be... but rather --

He wasn't given time to think about this problem.

After the gunshot, he lost consciousness.

Chapter 246 Is Miko very important to me?

"Kamikakushi Mountain"

One Kyojun died.

His death was sudden; after he uttered those words, as if something had been triggered, many sharp spikes suddenly grew from his body.

These spikes pierced his skin, riddling him with holes, and the spikes, stained with the man's blood, hurtled towards Yotsuya Miko in mid-air.

But before it could even touch the hem of Yotsuya Miko's clothes, it was completely burned away by the dark purple flames.

She glanced at the corpse lying on the ground, its body riddled with hundreds of small holes, its internal organs completely destroyed, and copious amounts of blood flowing out. The One Kyojun and there was no chance of saving him.

One Iu, no, the root cause of this couldn't possibly be One Iu.

After a single glance, her figure vanished from the air, heading towards the unknown mastermind.

On this land of Jianping, the eerie purple flames finally burned down the villa complex, leaving behind ruins.

Before the ruins, the blood from the dead bodies was washed away by the rain. This was the only body still intact; his eyes were closed, and his face was calm.

There was no resentment, no despair, only regret.

In the hands of this deceased middle-aged man was a cell phone, clutched tightly.

The phone flashed briefly in the dim, heavy rain, then became unresponsive.

In another city, people seeking emergency shelter took refuge in their homes, while many more temporarily hid inside shops, gazing silently at the thunder and rain outside.

Faced with this torrential rain, the country seemed to have become a dead land, devoid of any human presence.

The roar of thunder caused even the Ghosts that should have been wandering among the crowds to die and disappear without a trace.

This is a rain of anger, and also a rain of purification.

In front of the Yotsuya family's house, a ferocious, four-legged beast covered in spikes swept its gaze across the street, its nostrils twitching slightly. Behind this beast were two people already fast asleep.

At the entrance to Baihechuan, the people inside were unaware of what had happened.

"Is this the last one?"

The humanoid monster with two horns on its forehead muttered something and threw a corpse into the heavy rain.

With a thud, another person appeared on top of the pile of corpses that had covered more than a dozen people.

"With it watching over Touko, there shouldn't be any problems. But if anything happens here, it'll be troublesome."

A flame flashed in its palm, and the piled-up corpses were scorched by the eerie purple flames and disappeared.

A tall, imposing humanoid monster stood at the doorway, gazing at the still-heavy rain in the sky, and couldn't help but sigh.

"This child is probably really angry."

If it were indeed the same "Yotsuya Masamori" from before, perhaps I would have some other thoughts. But unfortunately, it isn't.

After the heavy rain, he vanished completely.

"However, I have no regrets now that I was able to protect Touko and Kyosuke before I truly died."

The man's transformation vanished, and he sat down on the ground.

He took out a cigarette from his pocket, looked at the rainy scene before him, and lit it with the flame.

Smoke swirled, and the heavy rain continued.

"Bang!"

Yuria stared in astonishment at Okita Qishen beside her, a pistol pointed at her, the smoke of gunpowder billowing from the muzzle.

The Straw Rope Doll in her hand broke off an arm and fell to the ground.

"Okita Qishen?"

Her doubts, confusion, and anger did not elicit any emotion from Okita Qishen; he was as if he were asleep, and another bullet was fired from the muzzle.

This time, Yuria was finally awakened. As the doll's second arm broke off, she poured her last bit of spiritual energy into the doll's body. A beam of black light shot towards Okita Qishen without hesitation, knocking the weapon from his hand before the third shot rang out.

"Thump!"

The pistol fell into the puddle, and Yuria looked at Okita Qishen in front of her with lingering fear.

Suddenly, her eyes widened, and she abruptly remembered that there was another person in this warehouse—no, a monster!

"What on earth did you do?!"

The monster, with a touch of gentlemanly courtesy, did not take the opportunity to attack her, but instead stood and gazed into the distance, its eyes fixed on the Straw Rope Doll in her hand.

It will break down in three more attempts.

It is being cautious, and it still has plenty of time.

Presumably even the Heavenly Mandate Holder wouldn't know its whereabouts; only One Kyojun knew about his trip to Kamikakushi Mountain because of One Iu.