Yokai did not have that many rank distinctions—at least not in Yingzhou. Usually, there were only two kinds: ordinary yokai and great yokai.
Ordinary yokai included the grotesque fodder yokai that attacked villages only to be wiped out in droves by Kikyo's single strike, as well as the centipede demoness whom Kikyo had likewise killed instantly before.
These yokai varied in strength. The weak ones could be beaten by ordinary people, while the strong ones were monsters like the centipede demoness, capable of tearing open the ground and knocking down huge trees with ease.
Great yokai, however, were completely different from ordinary yokai. It was a pure qualitative leap.
Every great yokai possessed extremely high intelligence and the ability to take human form. Their true bodies could be enormously large, like small mountains.
Every great yokai possessed the terrifying power to move mountains and overturn seas. They were disasters in every sense of the word.
Of course, because of this, great yokai were exceedingly rare—at least in Yingzhou. After all, not every world was like the one recorded in Journey to the West, where great yokai were everywhere and demon sages roamed the land.
In truth, every great yokai was unquestionably a regional overlord, an existence that ruled over part of Yingzhou. Nearly every one of them commanded a yokai kingdom.
Now, for unknown reasons, these yokai that had once been active in ancient Yingzhou had entered the Ninja World just like Kikyo, bringing immense calamity to the Ninja World itself.
In fact, those famous great yokai had already claimed territory throughout the Ninja World and established their own yokai kingdoms.
However, the lands they occupied were all small nations incapable of resisting them.
Major nations such as the Land of Fire possessed the power to contend with great yokai,