The Version's Answer and Increased Luck

Gu Mo felt that he had grasped the true essence of a mage—the core philosophy of how to become a proper "Battle Mage."

Oh, calling it a "Battle Mage" did not seem quite right either. After all, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Considering that everything he currently studied and wielded was Onmyoji Magic, and that the formal title for spellcasters was Onmyoji, the correct term should be...

—Onmyo Warrior!

—That was right! Exactly that!

Gu Mo's expression turned rather subtle. He remembered some strange things and could not help sighing that he had known the right path all along; he simply had not realized it immediately. History truly spiraled upward, and humanity was always repeating paths it had already walked.

That was right. He was extremely familiar with the path of the Onmyo Warrior—one could even say he was highly proficient in it.

The game's most iconic Onmyo Warrior, Saitō Toshimitsu, had left a particularly deep impression on players... Call him an Onmyoji, and his great tachi attacked faster than a tachi, with instant-cast combos and hyper armor; call him a warrior, and he could endlessly fire off instant Onmyoji Magic, backing away to knead out light cannons, while even in the gaps between melee clashes, he would shamelessly slam an Onmyoji spell straight into someone's face.

His protective charms constantly reduced damage, his health was high, his defense was strong, and his stamina was deep. Trying to outlast him was asking for death. His Wind Repelling Talisman reflected every ranged attack; bows, guns, even cannons would be bounced right back along their original trajectory.

In short, he was an incredibly disgusting, godlike humanoid monster in the game. Who knew how many players had repeatedly died in hatred at the hands of that Onmyo bastard, until their minds went numb from dying so much that they smashed keyboards, threw controllers, and went online to rage—

And then...

The answer to the later version meta produced a very subtle result.

Hundred Weapons Mastery, Dual Mystic Arts—smash through everything! Supplement with Onmyoji Magic, master Mystic Arts, and gain endless endurance!

—Everyone hated Onmyo Warriors, but in the end, everyone became an Onmyo Warrior. Some were even worse than Saitō Toshimitsu.

But there was no helping it. That was the version's answer. That path was strong; it was the universal solution... Besides, people were all hypocrites. Hating an enemy for being an Onmyo Warrior and making your own enemy sick by becoming an Onmyo Warrior were not contradictory.

Gu Mo felt that he was gradually understanding everything.

So this really was the version's answer! Had the game already revealed it all along? Art truly came from life!

The battle rapidly approached its end amid a one-sided slaughter. With a powerhouse like Hidechiyo carrying the entire field, she not only accounted for over ninety percent of the violent damage output, but also kept watch over every development on the battlefield even while maintaining her high-speed, efficient slaughter, always ready to rescue someone.

The soldiers therefore fought without restraint. After the matchlocks had dealt their first wave of surprise damage, they were temporarily of little use, so they simply drew cold weapons and engaged at close quarters. Under normal circumstances, that would surely have cost them tremendous casualties, but things were different now.

Even Tokichiro raised his tachi and charged at the front, shouting especially loudly. His energetic performance was impossible to overlook.

Sure enough, there was a reason people like him could rise to prominence.

Gu Mo curled his lips and split a Lesser Hungry Ghost that had viciously pounced at his face right out of the air. Yet in that opening, another oni was already roaring and charging at him with fangs bared and claws outstretched, like a crazed bull!

This was no joke. Its burly body was a full size larger than an ordinary man's, its crimson skin like tanned leather covered in bulging veins and muscles. Its arms were nearly as thick as an adult man's thighs. The force of such a savage, brutal oni crashing directly into him was not much weaker than a heavy cavalry charge.

Gu Mo had no time to retract his blade and was still caught in the brief recovery after swinging. The old him would probably have panicked, but things were different now. He had been beaten up for an hour yesterday... Ahem. He had undergone an hour of practical training. It had not been meaningless.

Perhaps he had not truly mastered those techniques yet, but at least his body had firmly remembered one thing.

Minamoto no Raikou's attacks at the time had been like a violent storm—fast, urgent, and vicious. Standing amid that flashing steel, listening to the shrill sounds ringing beside his ears, feeling attacks seemingly brush past his cheeks and the tip of his nose, watching afterimages constantly whistle past his eyes... It had been impossible not to panic.

Instinctively, he had wanted to close his eyes, retreat to create distance, and raise his arms to protect his body. Then he had only been beaten harder and more painfully.

When following the instinctive panic and conditioned reflexes got him beaten—especially beaten horribly—but overcoming those instincts, forcing himself to stay calm, observe carefully, seek opportunities, and respond with counterattacks meant getting beaten less... Pain truly was the most effective form of bodily memory.

Panic-driven dodges and blocks were meaningless. They only disrupted his movements. Closing his eyes was even more suicidal; it was nothing but an ostrich burying its head in the sand, handing every opportunity over to the enemy... That was the simple lesson Minamoto no Raikou had wanted to teach him.

So at this moment, Gu Mo did not immediately lose his head and panic, unsure what to do. Instead, he instinctively began rapidly considering how to respond and counterattack.

This oni's offensive looked savage and brutal, but compared to that petty woman Minamoto no Raikou, it was so easy to read and so childish that it was practically offering itself up.

With his other hand, he directly flung out a Fire Bullet Talisman. The talisman paper swiftly burned away after leaving his hand, leaving only a condensed sphere of blazing flame. It streaked forward in a straight line and slammed directly into the forehead of the charging oni.

It looked as though the oni had deliberately rushed over and caught the fire bullet with its head.

A muffled boom rang out, and the oni howled. The horn atop its head still glimmered with a faint golden essence, apparently not having suffered much damage. The fire bullet's damage was probably insufficient, and its primary damage type was elemental damage; the physical impact was merely incidental and could not create a shattering effect.

But it had struck squarely in the face, setting the oni's whole face ablaze. And aside from its incomparably hard horns, its eyes were also a weakness.

As it wailed, flailing its claws and wildly slapping at the flames on its face, it became Gu Mo's turn. He drew back his blade, swiftly turned to meet the oni, and then a crescent arc of clear light sliced through the air, cleanly severing its head and both arms in one stroke.

Gu Mo flicked away nonexistent blood from the blade flowing with clear radiance, glanced over the Item Light Spots that had dropped onto the ground, quickly picked them up, then turned and headed toward another part of the battlefield.

His strength was not actually that great. Even with all 12 points invested in Strength, it was difficult for him to cleanly cut through an oni's head and both hands in a single stroke. Bones were hard; even chopping ribs on a cutting board was not so easy, much less under these circumstances.

The true credit went to the Purification Binding Talisman enchantment. Its sacred power to purify filth and dispel Tokoyo gave the blade in his hand a special advantage against oni. That hard hide, originally like tanned leather, was as easy to slice through beneath his blade as red-hot wire passing through solid butter.

The enchantment lasted a long time, and the damage boost from elemental restraint was huge. The Purification Binding Talisman truly was the god of cost-effectiveness!

So using Onmyoji Magic for support and enhancement before drawing a blade to cut people down really was the correct path.

Thinking this, Gu Mo moved forward and casually cut down another two Lesser Hungry Ghosts. Times had changed. Though he felt that his own growth had been limited, compared with the miserable state he had been in at Thirteen Cherry Blossom Village, these Lesser Hungry Ghosts no longer posed any threat at all.

When the final Greater Hungry Ghost was surrounded and killed by a group of Matchlock Ashigaru, its head separated from its body, the battlefield could finally be considered cleared.

Tokichiro was somewhat out of breath as well. He had not only shouted with great enthusiasm along the way, but had also fought the monsters with equal vigor. Yet after catching his breath, looking at the corpses scattered everywhere, and counting the oni bodies, his expression became uncertain—

There were already so many oni here on the mountainside. How many would they encounter if they continued upward to Lord Dosan's residence? How many were inside Lord Dosan's residence itself?

It was not quite normal for so many oni to suddenly appear on this mountain.

Most oni were born from the growth of aramitama. Death and blood, as well as hatred, Grudges, and other evil thoughts of mankind, were the fertile soil that nurtured them. Tokichiro, who traveled from place to place, knew very well that if a location suddenly saw a large number of oni, then either it was a tragic battlefield filled with countless dead and wounded, or it was a populous and prosperous place.

It sounded contradictory, but it was indeed true. Battlefields went without saying: countless deaths and the large amount of life essence dissipating in Bloodshed Land made it entirely normal to nurture or attract innumerable oni. As for populous and prosperous places, beneath that prosperity might lie corruption and filth, with the blood and tears of who knew how many people hidden beneath the glittering surface.

When hatred and Grudges accumulated to a certain extent, they would naturally erupt. Aramitama would proliferate in great numbers, attracting oni, spawning oni, and causing beings who had once been human to fall into oni.

Heian-kyō of old had been like that. Flowers blooming amid brocade, oil poured onto roaring flames—yet after prosperity reached its zenith, it transformed overnight into a demon capital. Hell descended upon the Imperial Palace, a hundred demons marched at night, and countless fiends danced wildly. In the end, fire rose from the southeast and spread northwest, burning all the way to Suzaku Gate. After one night, the capital had become ash.

But now, as Tokichiro surveyed his surroundings, this was a desolate rocky mountain. No matter how he looked at it, it fit neither condition.

Wait, there seemed to be one more possibility...

After hesitating briefly, Monkey buried his doubts in his heart. He had thought of something, but he could not yet be certain. He decided to observe a little longer. Otherwise, if his guess was wrong, he would have exposed Lord Dosan's plan for nothing, and that would not be good.

"Clean up. Sweep the battlefield, inspect the barracks and see if there's anything to be found, then we'll continue onward."

Gu Mo looked around, nodded, and gave the order.

"Oh, and if any corpses are relatively intact, I suggest you finish them off... Don't go up to them right away. Stand at a distance and put a shot through their foreheads. Don't be stingy."

Matchlock guns fired very slowly. Even standing still and firing, most Matchlock Ashigaru could manage only two shots a minute at best. Judging from the battle just now, it would be difficult to have enemies stand still like targets while their side calmly lined up and shot them.

They could only prepare the first round in advance, seize the initiative with a first wave of surprise damage, and then immediately draw their blades...

With that style of fighting, ammunition consumption was not really much of a problem. Gu Mo would not hoard it or begrudge using it. During ordinary fighting, not every shot would hit anyway; most shots missed. Spending one or two rounds to finish something off was not a waste. Keeping these soldiers alive was far more useful than saving one or two bullets.

Within the camp shrouded in thick fog, the Matchlock Ashigaru split into several small groups of three to five and began sweeping the battlefield in different directions.

The strange fog had not dispersed with the rising sun. Visibility remained low, and anything a little farther away became blurry and hazy, difficult to see clearly. The distant mountain paths and forests could only be made out as vague outlines and shadows.

Gu Mo looked around. Under such conditions, he worried that his gaze might overlook some detail. Even though he could see Health Bars, they would not necessarily appear if his eyes did not land on something. That was why he had instructed the soldiers to finish off anything they found suspicious.

From the corner of his eye, he saw the black-haired girl standing nearby, looking over the battlefield as though she were lost in thought. He blinked.

"Axiu, you worked hard. Come on, have some water and rest a little..." Gu Mo walked over, picked up a waterskin hanging from the horse, and eagerly offered it to her. She was a truly massive thigh; this mission depended on her. "You must be tired, right? Want me to massage your shoulders? No? Ah, what a shame..."

As Hidechiyo repeatedly shook her head in helpless but firm refusal, he sighed regretfully, though it was unclear what exactly he regretted.

While waiting, he leaned against that gentle black old horse, slipped a hand into his clothes pocket, sensed the presence of his "inventory," and began counting his gains.

He was not sure how many oni he had killed in the battle, nor had he counted them, but there had been seven or eight Item Light Spots... Gu Mo subconsciously glanced in the direction of warmth and heat that only he could sense. In the air beside him, the invisible great fox stood guard at his side, its nine tails slowly swaying like burning flames.

Some time had passed since he obtained the Guardian Spirit, but there did not seem to have been any particular changes. The effects of its constant protection were apparently difficult to feel, since things like increased fire damage and fire resistance either were not useful in everyday situations or offered no direct comparison before and after.

Only now did he realize that the protection truly existed. Although he did not understand what the "Luck +70" attribute meant, he could clearly feel that the drop rate from killing monsters had increased significantly.

After swiftly reviewing the new items in his inventory, he found that more than half were still materials such as Spirit Stones and Oni Horns. Even with increased Luck, these minor monsters could probably only improve drop rates, not drop good items beyond their own tier.

But there were also two unusual items that seemed useful.

—"Gunpowder Bomb."

One was a blackened-looking ceramic jar wrapped in a fuse. It looked somewhat familiar... Well, it was a Sengoku grenade, the so-called Gunpowder Bomb. Gu Mo sighed. All kinds of strange things could drop, but it was better than nothing.

The other was a bamboo tube-shaped container, its opening carefully sealed...

"Sacred Water."

At last, he had seen this familiar item. It was clearly such a common, ubiquitous consumable in the game, but it seemed to have become rare in this world... Come to think of it, he had never seen an "Elixir" either. It seemed that such an ordinary and common item capable of directly saving lives simply did not exist here.