Jingūji

The moment Qing Chen leaped off the mountain peak, the Onmyoji did not move, but all three shikigami he controlled chased after him down the mountain.

Fox Fire swayed its red body, its white feet stepping on blue flames, leaping nimbly back and forth in the mountains, reaching the halfway point in the blink of an eye.

The Mountain Child from the other direction clung to the rock face with his hands as large as gongs. He swung around a few times, but his speed was a fraction faster than that of the Fox Fire.

Crimson Leaf Hunt was even more terrifying, for she leaped down from the mountaintop, her tall figure wrapped in a blue and red kimono, and floated down like a maple leaf, completely defying the pull of gravity.

As she landed, the snow on the rock face behind her billowed up, creating an exceptionally impressive sight.

The vast snow-capped mountains were desolate and cold. Qing Chen, Fox Fire, Mountain Child, and Crimson Leaf Hunt were like four threads being pulled together, weaving a net.

As Qing Chen descended the mountain, the net that had been set up to lock him down tightened even more.

Qing Chen glanced at it, laughed, and leaped eastward. He slightly changed direction, and the three shikigami followed suit.

This Joint Defense defensive formation is designed to trap him, the prey, in the net, waiting to be hunted.

Only the young Onmyoji remained standing, making his judgment.

This Onmyoji named Kamishiro Unichi is a genius from the Kamishiro Family who achieved reverse time travel through neuronal possession.

He is from the Inner World, and also a rare Onmyoji genius that the Kamishiro Family only sees once every ten years.

Now, however, I have no choice but to become one of those who have had to reset their accounts and start over.

Kamishiro Unichi's father, Kamishiro Seisho, is a powerful figure in the family, so he was qualified to summon shikigami as soon as he was promoted to B-Class.

But fate played a cruel trick on him. He summoned three shikigami in a row and ended up with three useless shikigami Zashiki-warashi, Nekomata, and Dojoji Bell.

If it were someone else, they would have been offered up as a high priest at a shrine. However, thanks to his father's power, Kamishiro Unichi managed to get a chance to reset his account and start over. He even became Time Walker, controlling half of the Mysterious Affairs Department in the Outer World.

This time, he lived up to expectations and won the ninth-ranked Crimson Leaf Hunt in the Divine Bridge.

This was his first time hunting, so he needed to carefully observe his prey.

Before arriving, Kamishiro Unichi had carefully examined the battle traces on Mount Okuhotaka. Although the scene looked extremely terrifying, Kumashiro still couldn't figure out what kind of attack it was.

But being a master, he discovered a problem...

That is, none of them, including Takeda Hideo, were seriously injured.

The wound was only two or three centimeters inside the skin, yet Takeda Hideo was still able to get up and run away after being attacked.

This suggests that while the killer possesses extremely formidable wide-area killing capabilities, his individual killing ability does not seem to be truly at the top level in the Outer World.

This wide-area killing power is good for crushing ants, but its weaknesses will be exposed when facing skilled opponents.

In fact, Kamishiro Unichi's judgment was not wrong. If Qing Chen used cloud energy to attack indiscriminately, he would indeed have no way to deal with experts above B-Class for the time being. At most, he could only pockmark the faces of B-Class experts, which would not constitute a fatal injury.

Generally speaking, superhumans who have a clear advantage in area-of-effect damage tend to have weaker individual combat abilities.

This is also why Kamishiro Unichi dared to come hunting.

At this moment, Kamishiro Unichi stood on the mountaintop and saw that Qing Chen did not rush towards him, but instead turned around to greet the Mountain Child.

He looked coldly down the mountain and said softly, "Foolish."

Everyone knows that to defeat Onmyoji, you must concentrate all your strength to attack the main body, rather than getting entangled with the shikigami.

Those who are unaware of this common sense are no longer worthy of being a match for Onmyoji.

It was all for naught that he had left a backup plan on this mountain, but it turned out to be completely useless.

If the Mountain Child and Fox Fire can hold out until the Crimson Leaf Hunt gets close, this person will surely die.

However, at that very moment, Kamishiro Unichi saw the boy carrying the little girl on his back running faster and faster down the mountain.

The boy showed no fear whatsoever; instead, he shouted excitedly, "Come on!"

Just as the Mountain Child and the boy met, the Mountain Child up and waved his gong-like hand in the air.

In the blink of an eye, the snow was flying everywhere.

The boy's hand struck first, and before Kamishiro Unichi could even see how he made the move, a crisp "smack" rang out from the valley, and the Mountain Child had already been slapped across the face, flying backward and crashing into the rocks.

Taking advantage of this time, Fox Fire stepped on the blue flames and ascended the steps in mid-air, as if there were an invisible ladder to heaven in the sky.

It arrived in the air behind Qing Chen, preparing to open its mouth and spew flames.

But after the boy slapped the Mountain Child away with a simple, unadorned palm strike, he turned around, leaped up, and pinched the Fox Fire's mouth shut.

Before the blue flame could even burst forth, it was abruptly suppressed!

The boy landed lightly on the snow, holding the Fox Fire's head in one hand and stepping on the Mountain Child with the other.

The battle began in an instant and ended in an instant.

The boy suddenly looked up at the mountain peak, completely ignoring the approaching Crimson Leaf Hunt, and instead smiled at Kamishiro Unichi on the summit, saying, "Come down!"

Kamishiro Unichi's pupils suddenly contracted. He had been a core member of his family since childhood and had witnessed countless battles between experts.

Within the family, there is also a special archive containing video recordings of battles fought by top federal fighters, which helps them establish references.

Therefore, Kamishiro Unichi insightful; he knew that the young man had not taken any shortcuts in the process of subduing the Fox Fire and the Mountain Child.

He completely crushed the opponent by virtue of his superior physical abilities!

One force can overcome ten techniques!

Although the Mountain Child and Fox Fire are not particularly powerful shikigami, when attacked from both sides, even other B-Class experts would have to tough it out to defeat them, or they would have to use their most powerful abilities.

The quality of a shikigami, aside from some peculiar attributes, also depends on its correlation with the Onmyoji's strength.

For example, Mountain Child and Fox Fire, even though Kamishiro Unichi advanced to the middle B-Class, their strength could only be inherited at the peak of C-Class.

Crimson Leaf Hunt was able to reach the peak of B-Class when her Onmyoji was only at the mid-level of B-Class.

If Kamishiro Unichi day advance to Rank A, then with just Crimson Leaf Hunt, he would be virtually unmatched among Rank A players.

Hyōzubushi, Aobōzu, Shuten-dōji, Gozu Raksha, Mezu Raksha, Kyōkotsu, and Hannya are all like this.

Therefore, once a demigod-level Onmyoji appears in the Kamishiro Family, they can live in peace for a hundred years.

This is why the Kamishiro Family worships their ancestor and goes to great lengths to help him clear his name.

Although Kamishiro Unichi is not yet an A-rank, he can still give ordinary B-Class enemies a headache with just Mountain Child and Fox Fire.

And now, this boy, a prodigy who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, has completely overwhelmed the Mountain Child and Fox Fire with sheer speed and power.

This physical condition is already at the standard of an A-level expert!

Kamishiro Unichi this thought. Could this be the Chosen One of Jiuzhou, deliberately setting a trap for him here?!

That's not right either. What A-level expert would clumsily fight with just one punch and one kick?

In fact, Kamishiro Unichi didn't know whether he was using the word "clumsy" correctly, because the boy's fighting style was definitely over the top!

Etc!

Etc!

Kamishiro Unichi's pupils contracted; he finally knew what the boy was up to.

The opponent wasn't stupid; they didn't know they should attack the Onmyoji's main body first.

Instead, the other party was so confident that they wanted to crush what he was most proud of into the ground.

Is this confidence... or arrogance?

In a daze, a mountain breeze blew by.

Maple leaves shot out continuously around Crimson Leaf Hunt, their red color appearing ethereal and elusive in the air.

Kamishiro Unichi came to his senses, he focused his gaze and saw the boy in the valley slamming the Fox Fire to the ground, kicking up the snow.

In the blink of an eye, the boy's fingers lightly touched the delicate snowflakes.

A rumbling sound came, and with each snowflake the boy flicked out, it was like the huge recoil force of an anti-materiel sniper rifle, causing the snow behind him to vibrate and scatter.

The boy's clothes were blown backward by the fierce wind, and his half-long hair swayed in the snow.

Normally, he could restrain his strength and make less of a commotion, but now he was determined to go all out.

When Qing Chen first used this move, he was still at the C-Class, so the full power of this move was not yet known.

The last time he used this move, he had just exhaled all his cloud energy and was so exhausted that he had no choice but to strike the mole. He did so lightly and without using his full strength.

Things are different now; this is his first real confrontation with someone of the same rank since his promotion.

Kamishiro Unichi was unaware that he had just been promoted, so he didn't know what he wanted to do at first.

Right now, Qing Chen just wants to test where his limits are.

In the words of the shadows...

When a tiger arrives in a new territory, it will devour all the wild animals there to see where it stands in the food chain.

At that moment, the whistling snowflakes struck the maple leaves with pinpoint accuracy, demonstrating Qing Chen's masterful ability to calculate trajectories.

The maple leaves were all broken, but three snowflakes remained.

These three snowflakes forced Crimson Leaf Hunt to spin around and dodge, stopping her lunging motion.

As the maple leaves and snowflakes shattered simultaneously, they disintegrated into a dazzling display of red light and shadow. Jingūji Maki secretly peeked out to watch this scene, finding the battle incredibly exciting and her brother incredibly powerful.

So there really are no rivals...?

But at that moment, a phantom flew out from among all the shattered maple leaves.

This is the secret weapon of Crimson Leaf Hunt: the invisible maple leaves...

Qing Chen simply tilted his head slightly and dodged it.

However, a thin bloodstain was left on the cheek of Jingūji Maki, who had secretly peeked out, by the maple leaf.

The little girl's eyes widened. Her first reaction wasn't pain or fear, but rather a little worry that Qing Chen would blame her for being careless.

But when Qing Chen noticed the injury on her cheek, he simply asked softly, "Does it hurt?"

"I'm fine..." the little girl said guiltily.

Qing Chen shook his head. How could a nine-year-old child not have a childlike mind? If a child makes a mistake, it is the adult's responsibility.

He turned to look at Crimson Leaf Hunt, deciding to deal with the enemy first.

As a result, Qing Chen was stunned when he turned his head, and Kamishiro Unichi was also stunned.

As blood dripped from Jingūji Maki's cheek, Crimson Leaf Hunt Kari gently gathered up her kimono skirt and quietly knelt down.

Moreover, it's not simply kneeling down, but rather "sitting down".

This is an island nation's etiquette, which involves prostrating oneself in apology or supplication. In ancient times, it was used to express humility to people of high status, but now it is generally used to express the deepest apology or a sincere request.

This kneeling was exceptionally sincere and humble.

Qing Chen suddenly recalled a record of Outer World history.

"During the Nara period, Jingūji were set up in shrines and major shrines. By the Heian period, Jingūji were set up in shrines throughout the country. By the end of the Edo period, the influence of Jingūji reached its peak."

Among them was the Jingūji clan, skilled at subduing demons, and none dared to disobey them.

Qing Chen sighed. Could the Jingūji clan have truly been the corpse collectors of demons in the past? A little bloodshed actually made Crimson Leaf Hunt kneel down!?

And this bloodline can even intimidate demons and shikigami in the Inner World.