The Final Cleanup

Just as I thought...

Gu Mo let out a long sigh of relief. If the previous level up had caught his attention, now it was completely confirmed.

A very classic RPG setup—

The character is instantly at full status upon leveling up, removing all debuffs. No matter how battered they were before, even on the verge of death, they would instantly regain full health and mana, not only recovering to their peak state but also seeing their Status Panel improve compared to before.

Because he leveled up, of course...

As for whether the opposing NPC monsters who bore the brunt of this were cursing internally, nobody cared about that.

With the weight lifted from his chest, his reddish-black vision quickly cleared up. Gu Mo looked at his reflection in the water, and as he let out a long breath, the nerves that had been taut suddenly relaxed, followed by a wave of psychological fatigue.

It seemed that the System could replenish losses like "stamina" and "mental energy" through leveling up, directly restoring him to full status.

However, losses like "attention" and "concentration" seemed unaffected. Perhaps because these losses were psychological, even the Idiot System couldn't perform such subjective conversions?

Thinking this, Gu Mo endured the urge to lie down immediately. It wasn't that he was truly tired and wanted to fall asleep on the spot, but he had been too tense just now and really wanted to relax.

The main reason was this damn sense of security...

Glancing at his reflection in the water, he could see the black-haired girl standing beside him, staring at him blankly, seemingly too shocked to speak. It was basically because of her presence; after all, her performance throughout this journey had been too reassuring.

Gu Mo had no doubt that even if he fell asleep right now, nothing would happen.

That was why he was so relaxed...

However, precisely because of this, the girl's image had become more and more vivid in his mind throughout this journey, becoming flesh and blood. She was no longer just the superficial "game character" he remembered, or rather, not purely so... On the basis of the basic character design he understood, she had become more real.

His thoughts were a bit jumbled. As Gu Mo space out pondering, he closed the leveling up page and began to wash the bloodstains from his hands and arms.

As the sky gradually brightened, the river surface was no longer as dark as ink, and the clear water could be vaguely seen. However, with his movements and the rippling water, dark, blood-red hues still spread across the surface, containing both his own blood and the blood of Yokai.

Since nearly half of his body was stained with blood, it was difficult to get completely clean at this time. Realizing this, he could only wash selectively.

He washed his hands clean, wiped his face, and then cleaned his chest area—

That was where the most severe injury had been, a bloody mess just moments ago.

Although the wound had healed directly after leveling up, just as torn clothes wouldn't mend, the blood that had flowed out and the shattered flesh had not been removed. Clotted blood, blurry broken skin and flesh were all mixed together, making it particularly uncomfortable... and disgusting.

He quickly finished washing and stood up, sighing as he looked at the torn front of his clothes.

This would have to do, but thankfully he had added a little Strength attribute. While his physique wasn't exactly great, no eight-pack abs or anything, at least there was no excess fat, and there were some muscle lines... Hmm, maybe if he added a little more Strength later, he might get eight-pack abs?

Anyway, judging by the growth rate, it was quite possible. At the very least, even if 12 points of Strength didn't achieve that effect, 13 points would definitely exceed that threshold.

Shaking the water from his hands, he turned around and waved his hand again, full of energy—

"Alright, I'm fine now, but I still have to thank you, Axiu."

"..."

"..."

The black-haired girl behind him looked at him with an extremely strange gaze. She felt that this scene was full of déjà vu, as if it had happened not long ago. The only difference was that last time, the other person was too tired, and after washing his hands, he became energetic.

This time, however, this person was clearly on the verge of death, yet he managed to drag himself to the river to wash his hands and became lively again, showing no signs of having been injured...

Such thoughts filled Hidechiyo's mind, and her strange gaze couldn't help but linger on this person's chest and arms. Not to mention the terrifying injury on his chest that looked like it could expose his heart, she clearly remembered the bizarrely twisted posture of his arm that she had seen before.

But now, there was nothing. Everything from before seemed to have never happened.

"Ahem, don't look at me like that, I'll get shy..." Gu Mo awkwardly tried to cover up, turning to the side. He wasn't used to this feeling of having his chest and stomach exposed. He chuckled and made a very cold joke, which of course the black-haired girl didn't laugh at.

She maintained a slightly furrowed brow, seemingly bewildered by everything that had happened to the person in front of her. How could an ordinary Human have such astonishing performance?

She had a lot to say about this, as her own recovery ability as a Half-Yokai was extremely astonishing. After all, she had lived alone since childhood, making a living by hunting Yokai. As the saying goes, "He who walks by the river is bound to wet his shoes," yet she had survived to this day.

But even with her experience, she still found this scene a bit fantastical. However, no matter how she looked, there was no Yokai Energy or Yokai Power on this person; he truly seemed to be a pure Human.

"Oh, by the way, Axiu, do you want to wash your hands too?"

At this moment, feeling uncomfortable under the girl's gaze, Gu Mo wanted to divert her attention.

Subconsciously glancing at the river beside them, Hidechiyo, whose thoughts had been interrupted, gently shook her head. She knew that she definitely couldn't achieve this level, and it certainly wasn't a problem with the river itself, so there was no need to attempt such a foolish thing.

"You're not washing? Hmm, it seems you really don't need to... What do we do now?"

Gu Mo cleared his throat and continued to pretend to be clueless. Of course, he knew what the girl was struggling with, but it was a difficult question for him to explain, so he simply didn't explain it.

Anyway, in a world full of Demons and Monsters, it was better to let Axiu imagine a reasonable explanation herself than for him to fabricate a flawed and temporary one... Another point was, since the girl hadn't asked, he would just pretend he didn't know.

The black-haired girl, deep in thought, raised an eyebrow, then hesitated slightly before turning to look towards the back mountain. Under the faintly lit sky, the dark silhouette of the mountain forest had a sense of mystery, and in her view, a surge of Yokai Energy was coiled around the temple halfway up the mountain.

There was one place left untouched; there were still stragglers there.

She gave him a deep look, knowing that he was unwilling to explain the secret of his hand-washing and healing. Hidechiyo no longer dwelled on it, putting the matter aside and instead planning to solve the problem of this village first.

Seeing that the girl was no longer staring at him with that intense gaze but had turned and was walking down the mountain path they had come up, seemingly preparing to return the way they came, Gu Mo breathed a sigh of relief and quickly followed.

However, looking at the girl's thin back and slender shoulders, he hesitated. Remembering some of the signs he had noticed and the plot he was aware of, he couldn't help but ask:

"How about... we rest for a bit first?"

Although he knew there shouldn't be any problems, he also noticed that the girl's state seemed somewhat erratic. For example, not long ago in the Ancestral Hall, she could have dealt with those Yokai faster, but she couldn't. In the end, when facing the Ape Fiend's ferocious desperate counterattack, she was in danger and almost made a mistake.

Considering that she could easily deal with the Ox-Head Demon, it didn't make sense that the final Horse-Headed Demon in the plot would instead put her in a dangerous situation...

There might be a deeper reason for this, which is why Gu Mo was somewhat concerned.

The black-haired girl didn't speak. She felt her own Yokai Bloodline, and it seemed the previous restlessness was gone. The wild instincts and impulses also seemed to have completely subsided. There shouldn't be any problems going forward. Anyway, there wasn't a third Perpetual Darkness in the temple they had just left.

Fighting twice consecutively within the Perpetual Darkness domain of Yokai made her Yokai Bloodline increasingly active... It wasn't much of an issue when she was a child, but for the past two years, she had been troubled by this. It seemed that as a Half-Yokai, the Yokai aspect was growing stronger as she grew older.

Although each time her Yokai Bloodline became active, her Yokai Power would significantly increase, and her physical abilities would become more inhuman, still...

The violent urge hidden deep within her bloodline, the one that seemed capable of destroying and breaking everything, that wild intensity, made her, who had vaguely sensed the true nature of her Yokai side, instinctively suppress this process.

Following the mountain path back to the Ancestral Hall, Gu Mo took the opportunity to check the Yokai corpses scattered across the courtyard, wanting to see if anything good had dropped.

He had actually seen the item light spots earlier, but at that time, he didn't have the time to pick them up and could only have Axiu quickly take him down the mountain to the river to wash his hands. Now that they were back, he found that the item light spots hadn't disappeared, which made him breathe a sigh of relief.

It seemed that leaving the battlefield wouldn't despawn the loot, and the team relationship did exist. Although he didn't know if they could share experience, at least "teammates" killing monsters could drop items.

It was just a pity that the person who did the killing couldn't see them...

Glancing at the black-haired girl's expression and eyes, Gu Mo nonchalantly reached out and scooped up the item light spots from the air.

However—

Regarding the fact that Axiu killed the monsters and Axiu dropped the items, yet Axiu couldn't see or touch them, and these unidentified loots seemed to not exist for her at all, ultimately benefiting himself entirely...

Hmm, the more I think about it, the more something feels off. It seems I'm getting more and more freeloading... Gu Mo smacked his lips. This was truly great... Cough cough, this really made one feel uneasy.

And there was another thing, was Axiu too lucky? Or was he too unlucky?

He had cut from the beginning of the village to the end, and only dropped a Lesser Spirit Stone... How come in this small courtyard, there were items dropped all over the ground? Looking at the Inventory, which could only be seen with his special "vision," there were suddenly five new items. Gu Mo was deep in thought.

No, it must be because he was grinding Lesser Hungry Ghosts, which were cannon fodder mobs, while Axiu was killing higher-level Yokai, so the drop rate naturally increased.

Hidechiyo didn't know what the strange client was doing again, but she was somewhat immune to it by now. She quickly checked the Ancestral Hall to confirm there were definitely no stragglers before hurrying out of the courtyard and continuing up the mountain path.

A certain slacker followed closely in the footsteps of the boss, while also checking the spoils they had just acquired.

Five new items, three of which were Spirit Stones...

The remaining two were an Ape Fiend's Soul Core and a regular Yokai's Soul Core...

They were like red fruits entwined with fresh blood, yet they pulsed like hearts, swallowing and exhaling Yokai Power with each beat... These were the heart cores of Yokai, the essence condensed from their power. The description indicated their use as materials.

And—they could be used as Skill badges.

This made Gu Mo's eyes light up. So, relying on the System's conversion function, he was actually no different from Axiu in this regard? He could utilize the Soul Cores of the Yokai he defeated and turn the power of countless Yokai into his own?

As he pondered, the path ahead reached its end. Along with the muffled sound of the heavy gate being pushed open, the temple courtyard, which had been shut tight at the end of the mountain path, appeared before the two of them.

An incredibly giant cherry blossom tree was revealed to Gu Mo and the black-haired girl as dawn arrived.

The trunk was so thick that probably three to five people couldn't wrap their arms around it. The spreading canopy was like an endless umbrella, covering the entire area around the temple. Cherry-colored petals, blown by the early morning breeze, fell in large quantities, like falling goose feathers, exceptionally beautiful.

This scene was breathtakingly beautiful. Gu Mo even had the idea of taking out his phone to take a picture to use as wallpaper—

If there wasn't a giant Horse-Headed Monster under that tree, slowly turning its head while stopping its action of sawing the piled-up corpses of villagers one by one with the huge sawblade in its hand, then this moment's scenery would truly be flawless.

Hidechiyo gritted her teeth. Her expression changed slightly as she quickly drew her sword and charged forward.

At the same time, the hunched-over Horse-Headed Monster turned around and stood upright. Its long horse face revealed a long mouth filled with sharp fangs, and it let out a roar. It was as if an invisible air pressure exploded from its center, and the entire world quickly plummeted from the human realm into the demon realm.

The colors were close to black and white, Spider Lilies bloomed and withered rapidly, and the air was as heavy as dark water...

—In this small Thirteen Cherry Blossom Village, the third consecutive Lord of Perpetual Darkness at this moment unleashed the domain of Yokai Power it had previously retracted!