Version Answer and Luck Increase

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

Oh, it seemed "Battle Mage" wasn't quite right either. After all, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Considering that what he was currently studying and mastering were Onmyoji Magic, and the official name for his spellcasting profession was Onmyoji, the correct term should be...

—Onmyo Warrior!

—That's right! This is it!

Gu Mo's expression was very subtle. He recalled some strange memories and couldn't help but sigh—so the right path had been known to him all along; he just hadn't reacted in time. Truly, history spirals upward, and humanity always repeats the paths already trodden.

Yes, he was very familiar with the path of the Onmyo Warrior, even highly skilled in it.

The most iconic Onmyo Warrior in the game, Saitō Toshimitsu, left a deep impression... Calling him an Onmyoji, yet his Odachi swung faster than a Tachi, with hyper-armor on startup and instant combos; calling him a warrior, yet he spammed instant-cast Onmyoji Magic, charging light beams at range, and in the gaps of close-quarters blade exchanges, he'd often throw an unscrupulous spell right in your face.

Plus, his talisman granted permanent damage reduction—high health, high defense, high stamina. Trying to outlast him was suicide; his Wind Repelling Talisman reflected all ranged attacks, be they arrows, matchlock guns, or even cannons, bouncing them right back where they came from.

In short, in the game, he was an utterly disgusting divine humanoid enemy. Countless players had met their end under this yin-yang bastard, dying until their consciousness blurred, smashing keyboards and throwing controllers, then raging online—

And then...

The late-game meta answer turned out to be a very subtle result.

Hundred Weapons Mastery, Dual Mystic Arts—crush everything! Supplement with Onmyoji, master Mystic Arts, infinite sustain!

—Everyone hated the Onmyo Warrior, but in the end, everyone became the Onmyo Warrior, even more excessive than Saitō Toshimitsu.

But there was no helping it. That was the meta answer. This path was simply strong, the universal solution... And people were hypocritical. Hating an enemy for being an Onmyo Warrior and disgusting you was one thing; being an Onmyo Warrior yourself and disgusting the enemy was another—they didn't conflict.

Gu Mo felt he was gradually understanding everything.

So, this really was the meta answer after all! Had it already been revealed in the game? Truly, art imitates life!

The battle, under a one-sided slaughter, quickly drew to a close. With a powerhouse like Hidechiyo leading the charge, not only did she account for over ninety percent of the damage with her violent output, but she also constantly kept an eye on the battlefield's other movements, ready to save the day.

So the soldiers also let loose. After the matchlock ashigaru's first volley dealt surprise damage, it was temporarily useless, so they switched directly to cold steel for close combat. Under normal circumstances, this would have come at a huge cost in casualties, but now it was different.

Even Tokichiro charged forward, wielding his Tachi and shouting especially loudly. His earnest effort was impossible to ignore.

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

Gu Mo twitched the corner of his mouth and cleaved a Lesser Hungry Ghost that lunged viciously at his face out of the air. But in that gap, another Yokai on the other side roared and charged at him with claws bared, like a maddened bull!

This was no joke. Its burly body, a full size larger than a normal man, had skin like tanned leather, bulging with sinewy veins and muscles, arms as thick as an adult's thigh. The force of such a Yokai charging recklessly and fiercely was no less than a heavy cavalryman's impact.

Gu Mo hadn't had time to sheathe his blade and was in the small recovery window of his swing. If it had been before, he would have panicked. But now was different. Yesterday's hour of beatings... ahem, an hour of practical training, had not been meaningless.

He might not have truly mastered those skills yet, but his body had at least firmly remembered one thing.

Back then, Minamoto no Raikou's attacks were like a storm—fast, urgent, and vicious. Caught in that flurry of blades and shadows, hearing the shrill sounds ringing in his ears, feeling attacks graze his cheeks and nose, watching afterimages flash before his eyes... it was inevitably very chaotic.

His instinct was to close his eyes, back off, raise his arms to shield himself—and then he'd get hit even harder and more painfully.

When yielding to panicked instincts and conditioned reflexes led to getting beaten, and beaten badly; when overcoming instinct, forcing himself to calm down, observe carefully, and find opportunities to counterattack, meant getting hit less... pain was indeed the most effective muscle memory.

Panicked instinctual dodging and blocking were meaningless, only disrupting his own movements. Closing his eyes was suicidal, an ostrich-like self-deception that handed the opportunity to the enemy on a silver platter... That was the simple truth Raikou wanted to teach him.

So at this moment, Gu Mo didn't immediately panic, lose his composure, or freeze. Instead, he instinctively and rapidly thought of a way to counterattack.

This Yokai's attack seemed brutal and fierce, but compared to that petty woman Raikou, it was far too predictable and childish—basically a freebie.

His other hand flicked out a Fire Bullet Talisman. The paper burned away instantly after leaving his hand, leaving only a condensed sphere of flame, blazing as it traced a straight line and slammed directly into the charging Yokai's forehead.

It looked exactly like the Yokai had charged forward and taken the fireball to the head on purpose.

With a muffled boom, the Yokai howled in agony. Though the horn on its head still shimmered with a faint golden essence, seemingly unaffected—probably because the fireball's damage was insufficient and its main damage type was elemental, with physical impact as a side effect, unable to cause a fracture—

But hitting the face dead-on, its whole face burst into flames. And besides its incredibly hard horns, the Yokai's eyes were also a weak point.

While it screamed, flailing its claws and slapping at the flames on its face, it was Gu Mo's turn. He withdrew his blade, spun around to face the Yokai, and a gleaming arc split the air, cleanly severing its head and both arms.

Gu Mo flicked the non-existent blood from his gleaming blade, glanced at the Item Light Spot on the ground, quickly picked it up, and turned to walk toward another part of the battlefield.

His strength wasn't actually that great. Even with the full boost of 12 points, it was hard to cleanly cut off a Yokai's head and hands in one swing. Bones were tough; even chopping pork ribs on a cutting board wasn't that easy, let alone this.

The real credit went to the Purification Binding Talisman's enchantment. Its power to purify filth and dispel Tokoyo gave his blade a special advantage against Yokai. Their leathery skin, normally like tanned hide, parted under the blade like a red-hot wire cutting through solidified butter.

Long enchantment duration, big attribute-counter damage boost—truly, the Purification Binding Talisman was the god of cost-effectiveness!

So, using Onmyoji Magic to buff and support, then pulling out a blade to cut—that was the right path.

Thinking this, Gu Mo walked forward and casually killed two more Lesser Hungry Ghosts. Times had changed. Though he felt his growth was small, compared to his pathetic state back in Thirteen Cherry Blossom Village, these Lesser Hungry Ghosts were no longer a threat.

When the last Greater Hungry Ghost was also surrounded and killed by a group of Matchlock Ashigaru, its body separated from its head, the battlefield was cleared.

Tokichiro was also a bit out of breath. He'd not only shouted with all his might along the way but also worked hard at killing monsters. After catching his breath, he looked at the gruesome scene of corpses strewn everywhere, counted the number of Yokai corpses, and his expression turned somewhat uneasy—

If there were this many Yokai just halfway up the mountain, how many would they encounter continuing up to Lord Dosan's residence? And how many were inside Lord Dosan's residence?

This many Yokai suddenly appearing on the mountain was abnormal.

Because most Yokai were the result of wild souls breeding. Death and blood, along with human evils like hatred and Grudges, were the breeding grounds for them. Tokichiro, who had traveled far and wide, knew very well that if a place suddenly spawned a large number of Yokai, it was either a brutal battlefield with countless dead, or a populous and prosperous area.

It sounded contradictory, but it was true. Battlefields went without saying—countless deaths, massive dissipation of life essence in the Bloodshed Land, naturally breeding or attracting countless Yokai. As for populous and prosperous places, behind the prosperity might lie hidden filth, and beneath the bright facade, the blood and tears of who knew how many people.

When hatred and Grudges accumulated to a certain point, they would inevitably erupt. Wild souls would breed in large numbers, attracting Yokai, spawning Yokai, and even causing beings that were once human to degenerate into Yokai.

In the past, Heian-kyō was like that. Flowers on brocade, boiling oil on a blazing fire. Yet after extreme prosperity, it turned into a demon capital overnight. The Great Inner Palace became a hellscape, a night parade of a hundred demons, a pandemonium of dancing monsters. Finally, a great fire started in the southeast, spread to the northwest, burned all the way to Suzaku Gate, and by morning, Kyoto was reduced to ashes.

But now, Tokichiro surveyed the surroundings. This was a desolate rocky mountain. No matter how he looked at it, it didn't meet either condition.

Wait, there seems to be another reason...

Hesitating for a moment, the Monkey buried his doubts in his heart. He had thought of something but couldn't be certain yet, planning to observe further before speaking. If he guessed wrong and unnecessarily exposed Lord Dosan's plan, that wouldn't be good at all.

"Clean up, sweep the battlefield, check the barracks for anything useful, then we move on."

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

"Oh, and if some bodies are relatively intact, I suggest you finish them off... Don't rush in. Stand back, fire a shot at their heads. Don't be stingy."

The Matchlock Gun's firing rate was painfully slow. Even standing still to shoot, most Matchlock Ashigaru could manage at most two shots a minute. Judging by the fight just now, it was unlikely the enemy would stand still for target practice while they leisurely lined up and executed volleys.

The only option was to pre-load the first shot, seize the initiative for a surprise opening volley, then draw blades and charge in...

With this approach, ammunition consumption wasn't a major concern. Gu Mo wouldn't hoard it either. In normal combat, most shots missed anyway—hits were the minority. Using one or two rounds for finishing blows wasn't wasteful. Keeping these soldiers alive was far more valuable than saving a few bullets.

In the mist-shrouded camp, the Matchlock Ashigaru split into small groups of three or five, fanning out in different directions to sweep the battlefield.

The strange fog didn't dissipate with the sunrise. Visibility remained low; distant scenery was blurred and hazy, hard to make out clearly. The mountain paths and forests far away were only faint silhouettes.

Gu Mo looked around. Under these conditions, he worried his own eyes might miss details. Even though he could see Health Bars, if his gaze didn't land on them, the bars might not appear. That's why he'd ordered the soldiers to finish off anything suspicious on their own.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the black-haired girl standing nearby, staring at the battlefield as if lost in thought. He blinked.

"Axiu, good work. Come, come, have some water and rest..." Gu Mo sidled up, grabbing the water pouch hanging from the horse to play the attentive helper. She was the real powerhouse—his mission's success depended on her. "Speaking of which, tired? Want a shoulder rub? No? Ah, what a shame..."

At Hidechiyo's helpless but firm repeated head-shakes, he sighed regretfully, unsure what exactly he was lamenting.

While waiting, he leaned against the gentle black Old Horse, slipped a hand into his pocket, felt the presence of his "Item Inventory," and began tallying his gains.

From the fight just now, he wasn't sure how many Yokai he'd killed—hadn't counted—but at least seven or eight Item Light Spots had dropped... Gu Mo instinctively glanced toward the source of warmth and heat only he could sense. In the air beside him, the invisible Great Fox stood guard, its nine tails slowly swaying like burning flames.

Some time had passed since he'd obtained the Guardian Spirit, but nothing particularly special seemed to have changed. The constant protection effects were hard to feel directly—things like increased fire damage or fire resistance weren't usually applicable or lacked a before-and-after comparison.

Only now did he realize the protection was real. Though he didn't understand what the "+70 Luck" stat meant, his gut told him the drop rate from kills had noticeably increased.

Quickly scanning the new items in his inventory, he found most were still materials like Spirit Stones and Oni Horns. Probably even with the luck boost, these small fry could only increase drop rates, not produce good loot beyond their tier.

But two novel items seemed usable.

--"Gunpowder Bomb."

One was a soot-black clay pot wrapped with a fuse, looking vaguely familiar... Huh, a Sengoku-era grenade, the so-called Gunpowder Bomb. Gu Mo sighed. Strange things could drop from anything, but it was better than nothing.

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

"Sacred Water."

Finally, he saw this familiar item. In the game, it was a common staple, but in this world, it seemed to have become rare... Come to think of it, he'd never seen "Elixir" at all—as if that ordinary, common, life-saving item simply didn't exist.