Fight to the Death

Tsuchimikado Underground Base, loft.

After Kippei left, Tsuchimikado Kazuo stood in the loft with his hands behind his back, gazing up at the star-filled sky as he pondered his thoughts.

What did it mean to protect? Everyone had a different answer.

To Tsuchimikado Kazuo, it meant fighting for the living and protecting those he cherished.

He had walked the path of fighting demons and malevolent entities for over twenty years. He had never stopped, nor had he ever regretted it.

But at this moment, his life had reached its end.

Though he felt regret, he was not afraid.

He had long known this day would come. He simply had not expected it to arrive so soon.

Just days ago, while fighting a powerful malevolent entity, he had been contaminated by poisonous gas it spewed. The poison was terrifying; even his powerful physique, tempered by Eight-Fork blood, could not endure it.

After exhausting every option, the clan physicians regretfully informed him that there was nothing more they could do.

To die in battle was the fate of an Earth Warding Clan warrior. Just like the warriors of the Zhong Kui Group, few Earth Warding Clan warriors died peacefully.

The moment he became the head of a branch family and declared that he would fight for the living, Tsuchimikado Kazuo had already foreseen his own ending. Thus, he had never been surprised by it.

Yet he still had attachments and unfinished concerns.

That concern was Tsuchimikado Kippei.

Kippei was his only child. Kazuo had placed great hopes on him, hoping that one day he would inherit his position as branch family head, follow the ancestral teachings, and continue fighting on the front lines against demons and malevolent entities.

But Kippei was a deeply rebellious child.

Raised in the new era, his views