Inner Torment

There were no Yokai blocking the path from here to the shrine.

It was likely that the Yokai capable of controlling themselves, those with some intelligence, wouldn't approach this area. For example, the master of Perpetual Darkness above, that Rokurokubi, could it not find a way into the mountain? That was certainly impossible; it had simply controlled its instincts.

Knowing how brutal the struggle in the very center was, it chose to absorb the scattered Essence on the periphery instead of greedily joining the battlefield.

Even though it was tragically defeated in the end.

Therefore—

The Yokai near this source core were inevitably the type unable to control their instincts and greed. With countless vast amounts of Essence within reach, how could they suppress the greed and evil thoughts in their hearts? Just as humans are always unable to resist various desires originating from within.

One must know that many Yokai were once Human, only becoming corrupted through degeneration. It was only when the Aragami side completely overwhelmed the Wa-Spirit side that they transformed into the form of demons, their souls falling from the human world into the Naraku Tokoyo.

So... there was actually no difference. They were no simpler than humans, nor were they more hideous, because they were the embodiment of a part of human nature.

The black-haired girl also raised her Spirit to its highest degree. The vast and chaotic Yokai Energy indicated that a considerable number of Yokai had gathered here. Although they were losing their minds and fighting each other for the power of the Spirit Stones, which greatly reduced the pressure she would face, it still required careful handling.

"Hmm, I think this bridge should be repaired once a year..."

Covering his nose with his sleeve, Gu Mo followed behind the girl, crossing the last trestle bridge and approaching the shrine ahead. Seeing the bubbling green poisonous water below the trestle bridge, which looked like it was boiling, he couldn't help but instinctively quicken his steps.

He had no doubt that if he fell in, even his bones would be instantly corroded away, leaving nothing behind.

Gu Mo was very clear that he absolutely couldn't just walk through it like in a game, with a few symbolic red damage numbers appearing above his head, and then be perfectly fine. At most, it would be a problem that could be solved with a dose of antidote powder...

It was hard to say whether it was stronger or weaker compared to concentrated sulfuric acid, but there was no need to compare. The outcome would be the same anyway...

—This was poison from the Yatagarasu.

The Yatagarasu is a large serpent with horns in Japanese legend, which can be considered either a Yokai or an indigenous deity. It is recorded in the Hitachi Province Fudoki. Some believe that seeing this snake will bring disaster and ruin to one's home, while others believe it is the indigenous deity protecting the people living in valleys and wetlands.

Of course, it seems Saito Dosan believed in the latter, and the shrine built here was to worship the Yatagarasu.

However, the former rumor is not without reason. There might be a cause for gossip that isn't baseless. After all, in the original destiny, because Kashin Koji possessed Saito Yoshitatsu, he suddenly launched a surprise attack on Saito Dosan, ultimately leading to a scene of father (and daughter) killing each other...

And considering that Nohime, who was married off to Owari Province, later died with Oda Nobunaga at Honnō-ji Temple, even her daughter and son-in-law were wiped out, leaving only Axiu as the sole survivor... It's hard to say that the old man wasn't struck by the disaster of a ruined family.

While pondering these thoughts, Gu Mo noticed that the girl ahead had stopped.

The shrine's main gate at the end was open. Although the interior looked like a normal shrine, it was also in a mess. Furthermore, the innermost wall was identical to the secret door in the mansion above, having been violently broken through and smashed open, revealing a similarly narrow and long passage behind it...

The passage extended straight for dozens of yards, and then the area at the end suddenly opened up. It seemed to be a equally large natural cave space...

The existence of the shrine was not only to worship the Yatagarasu, but also served as a superficial cover like the mansion above. Its existence was solely to hide and seal the entrance leading to the true secret place!

—Of course, as the saying goes, these designs are meaningless now.

In the space at the end, because it was some distance away, Gu Mo couldn't see clearly, but he could hear tragic roars and thunderous bellows... Various scarlet, eerie blood colors and dazzling golden Essence light intertwined, the colors so vivid and saturated that they were a bit dazzling.

A frantic and terrifying struggle born of desire was taking place there, having long since reached a fever pitch.

Stopping here, Hidechiyo looked back at him.

"Don't worry, I know... I won't hold you back."

Gu Mo came back to his senses, blinked, and then gave her a thumbs-up, as always showing a brilliant smile, his eight teeth appropriately white and sunny.

The girl stared at him for a few seconds before retracting her gaze and turning back.

Perhaps. While she still didn't understand why this person insisted on acting with her, he hadn't really held her back. At least, he hadn't gotten into dangers he couldn't handle and then needed her to rescue him, which was exhausting. Moreover, since Thirteen Cherry Blossom Village, his growth rate had been quite fast.

He had learned some sword skills, some Onmyodo techniques, and had the protection of a Guardian Spirit. Plus, he was always clever enough not to step into the most dangerous battlefields, but only stay on the periphery, picking on lone small monsters, so he could generally protect himself.

As her thoughts turned, she tightened her grip on the katana in her hand and was about to step forward.

"Wait."

At this moment, Gu Mo called out to her.

The girl turned back with a slightly puzzled look, and the man in front of her began to chatter, making arrangements without question.

"As the saying goes, before a big battle, there must be supplies... I know Axiu, I don't need to worry about you, but it's better to be safe than sorry, and it's always good to be cautious."

"Where's the Sacred Water I just gave you? Drink a few sips first..."

"And your sword? Give it to me, give it to me. Isn't it better to have an enchanted buff? Hmm, you don't want a Purification Binding Talisman? That's fine too, I still have Fire Summoning Talismans..."

With a barrage of words, Hidechiyo somewhat confusedly cooperated with his actions, feeling that not only was he chattering, but he was also saying things she couldn't quite understand. Or rather, she could actually understand what he meant, but some of the words were truly puzzling.

Anyway, by the time she came back to her senses, she had made as many preparations as possible according to Gu Mo's rich (dungeon crawling) experience.

She felt a slight surge of energy throughout her body, and a bag of Lesser Spirit Stones was tied at her waist, for her to use at critical moments since she could directly utilize the power of Spirit Stones. Moreover, she saw a faint red glow flowing on the blade of the katana in her hand, as if the steel material was strangely burning, with flames flowing over it.

The mystical power of the Fire Summoning Talisman was attached to it. As long as the fire enchantment buff didn't wear off and the fire attribute power residing in the weapon wasn't completely consumed, every strike she made would have additional fire attribute damage, causing the opponent to enter a scorched state.

"Not bad, not bad. Actually, Axiu, you could also consider applying the power of your Guardian Spirit to your weapon and directly activating a Living Weapon to kill everything..."

Gu Mo examined the effect and also gave a thumbs-up in praise.

Because of his own low magic strength, his talismans were just ordinary in power, so the effects were not particularly dazzling or cool. Whether it was the Purification Binding Talisman or the Fire Summoning Talisman, they only had a faint layer of light, not to the extent that they would be easily overlooked, but they were indeed not very conspicuous.

Gu Mo initially thought that his "effect brightness" setting was too low, but after exploring the settings panel, he found that this was not the case at all. It was simply because his magic strength was too low.

After all, his current stat points were all biased towards the Strength and Constitution of the melee build. He hadn't added a single point to Intelligence or Spirit. In this regard, he was just an ordinary person, and the techniques he mastered couldn't enjoy the powerful bonuses and enhancements brought by high attributes.

Living Weapon? What is that?

The black-haired girl, however, stared at him with some confusion, keenly feeling that she had heard something she was interested in.

"Oh, that's the secret technique that fierce, stinky woman knows. You can go learn it later. I've only seen her use this one so far, I'm not sure about others..."

Gu Mo touched his chin and explained.

Aside from summoning a Guardian Spirit, there seem to be two ways to directly utilize the power of a Guardian Spirit. One is to merge the Guardian Spirit's power with oneself, performing Possession Fusion, which is essentially Yokai Transformation... Examples like Asai Nagamasa and Shibata Katsuie in the future are like this.

The other method is to infuse the Guardian Spirit's power into a weapon, which is the so-called Living Weapon. Ordinary iron will become spiritual because of this, and plain Equipment will directly transform into pay-to-win weapons with dazzling effects. The stronger the Guardian Spirit's power that can be controlled, the stronger the Living Weapon will be for its duration.

However, it's a pity that in Axiu's story, the concept of Living Weapon doesn't seem to be widespread yet, and she herself hasn't mastered it.

It was sixty years later that the protagonist, William, relied on this to kill everything in his path. If we deduce historical changes from the perspective of this real world, perhaps it's indeed because at this time, this move was still an unknown secret technique?

So Gu Mo couldn't help but wonder, Axiu's ultimate move is Yokai Transformation, but she can actually do it herself and doesn't need to rely on the Guardian Spirit's power for Yokai Transformation like those Human examples...

—Then, while she's undergoing Yokai Transformation, can she theoretically also activate Living Weapon at the same time?

—Combining the ultimate moves and advantages of two generations... this might just be a super-enhanced version of the Sengoku period's greatest Yokai, capable of killing gods and buddhas.

The black-haired girl seemed to understand and nodded. Then she took another deep look at him before turning around and walking towards the shrine.

Watching the girl's back disappear into the passage, Gu Mo subconsciously wanted to take a deep breath, but immediately reacted and stopped this dangerous behavior in time. He cautiously glanced back and saw that the green water was still bubbling continuously.

A faint, strange smell permeated the air. This should be the scent of spreading poison...

Even without falling in, just staying here for too long would likely cause problems. With this thought, Gu Mo shuffled further inside, trying to put as much distance between them as possible, hoping his 13 Constitution would last a little longer... He was about to Level up, and the Experience Bar for LV5 to LV6 was already nearly filled.

Perhaps after this battle, he could complete the Level up, which was why he had to leech Experience.

Such an opportunity was truly rare. After leaving this Dungeon, he probably wouldn't encounter such an easy-going powerhouse like Axiu again... What's worse, his Leveling speed had started to slow down significantly. Compared to Leveling up several times in one night before, this LV6 had been holding him back for quite a while.

Although the number of battles he encountered later decreased, and many of the monsters were cleared by his teammates, and the Experience shared by his teammates seemed to be only a small portion, it still gave Gu Mo a sense of urgency.

Looking around at this strange yet familiar "Viper's Divine Realm," he sighed and muttered softly:

"I've been out for so long, it's time to consider going back."

Even though he had come to terms with it before, no longer dwelling on it, and his mentality had become optimistic and open-minded, he now had to face an objective fact—he had already spent nearly a month in this Dungeon, and he needed to go back and take a look no matter what.

Without any ripples or sudden changes, everything naturally came to an end.

Perhaps it was because Hidechiyo's power was too strong, and activating Yokai Transformation was a complete massacre. Coupled with the fact that the Yokai had been fighting amongst themselves for a while before the two arrived, significantly depleting their numbers, the outcome was not surprising.

There was no sudden appearance of a true final BOSS either; for some reason, Yatagarasu didn't appear at all.

Carefully walking through the secret passage inside the shrine and entering the vast natural cave space on the other side, Gu Mo's face slowly solidified, then changed several times, but he still managed to hold back and didn't retch.

—He felt like he had used up all the willpower for the rest of his life.

The ground was covered in blood, severed limbs, and various pieces of flesh and blood piled up into small mountains of corpses. There was literally nowhere to step, and the air was filled with a strong, pungent smell of blood, making him feel as if his lungs were filled with blood molecules after just a few breaths, and his stomach began to churn.

It was unimaginably gruesome. Countless Yokai had died here, making it more shocking than any battlefield he had seen before.

There were too many body parts, too much blood, completely multiplying the level of gore by density.

—I shouldn't have set the "gore effects" to maximum earlier. I could have turned this off...

He stared blankly, feeling a bit desperate, and simultaneously raised a hand to cover his forehead, thinking he would be left with some psychological trauma from this.

Trying to shake off these terrible emotions, he composed himself and began to examine the space carefully. Unlike the impression of an empty BOSS battlefield, this place felt like... "piled high."

Not just mountains of corpses and seas of blood, but also the things that were originally in this space, attracting countless Yokai to flock here and brutally slaughter each other for them—Spirit Stones!

An incredibly vast number of Spirit Stones! These large crystals, glowing with a thick golden Essence like honey, seemed like countless thorns piercing out of the ground, or like clusters of some giant plants that had originally grown densely in this space.

Besides these large crystals, there were also smaller, broken ones, and even beneath the thick carpet of corpses and blood covering the ground, it seemed to be a dense expanse of scattered rocks, covered with crystal fragments of all sizes.

Gu Mo reacted, and his mind was momentarily captivated, his gaze becoming a little sluggish.

"A long time ago, there was a small village called Soyah in the Kanegasaki area. The village was famous for its forging techniques and for collecting strange stones called Spirit Stones. That was once the Oni Slaying Village..."

Inside the secret passage.

Saito Dosan's expression turned grim. He spoke in a voice almost too low to hear, as if talking to himself, or perhaps recounting a past story to the person beside him.

"Spirit Stones are strange stones. Some people think they are just stones from the mountains, but they are actually Essence condensed from Bloodshed Land. They have never been a good thing... It's just that most people don't know this, and even if they do, they won't care, only becoming infatuated with the power that Spirit Stones bring."

"Even those who know nothing will naturally understand what these stones can do the first time they touch them. They can corrupt people's hearts... And the more Spirit Stones there are, and the larger they are, the stronger their corrupting power becomes, and the more things they can achieve, no matter what kind of ambition or desire it is."

The samurai in armor beside him, Akechi Mitsuhide, whom Saito Dosan trusted and valued the most, also nodded slightly and softly echoed, "But this is an unnatural power that will only bring distortion to this world."

"Exactly. That's why I've been collecting Spirit Stones from various places and hiding them here all these years, so that others won't misuse them..." The Viper's eyes were sharp. "So no matter who I hand Mino Province over to in the future, it's like handing over these Spirit Stones to him along with it. I must confirm what that person thinks about this."

This was Saito Dosan's test, an unavoidable issue for the heir receiving Mino Province.

If someone would stop at nothing to achieve their goal, not hesitating to use the power of Spirit Stones, then this would be contrary to Saito Dosan's principles, and he would absolutely not approve.

The old man subconsciously clenched his fist. "I hope this kid won't disappoint this old man... Facing so many Spirit Stones, he must be undergoing an internal struggle right now. Facing his own heart, he cannot lie, because Spirit Stones reflect the desires of the heart and will mirror his most urgent wishes."

"He must be wanting to reclaim everything he has lost right now, so that's what he will see. Once he thinks that Spirit Stones can indeed fulfill his wishes and that he must use their power to achieve his ambitions by any means necessary, then he is not the person this old man will choose..."

As he said this, Saito Dosan's words were not yet finished when he suddenly widened his eyes—

"Wait, that kid outside is already awake?! How is that possible so quickly?!"

That happened half a minute ago.

—"Use."

—"Use."

—"Use."

Repeatedly selecting the same option, he constantly heard timely feedback, essentially all the same—"Obtained 100,000,000 Essence, converted proportionally to experience points..."

Gu Mo looked bored as he selected the "Use" interaction option in front of the giant Spirit Stone crystal. Then he heard the pleasant sound, indicating he had gained a massive amount of experience. The giant crystal in front of him then quietly turned into light, melting away as if disappearing before his eyes.

Immediately after, with a thought, a Status Panel appeared before him.

—"Level Up."

Clicking open the most familiar page, he saw that his Life Level was already displayed as LV78, and he twitched the corner of his mouth.

From just now until now, he had been doing this. After all, this was the scene he had always dreamed of—the Essence of Spirit Stones could be used as experience for leveling up, just like in a game. And in the later stages, there were super Spirit Stones containing hundreds of millions of Essence, allowing his character's level to increase by leaps and bounds.

How should he put it? It was really satisfying. Crushing a large Spirit Stone, converting tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of Essence into experience, and then watching his level skyrocket... Then his expression gradually changed from excited and thrilled to completely indifferent, even starting to stare with dead fish eyes.

"If only this wasn't an illusion..."

He closed the Status Panel with a look of disinterest.

At first, Gu Mo didn't realize when he had fallen into the illusion. This illusion did indeed exploit the things he was currently preoccupied with, and upon success, it directly suppressed his attention to the surrounding environment.

However, he had already tested it before. Spirit Stone Essence could not be directly converted into the experience needed by the System Panel, and he was deeply aware that his Idiot System could not be used so conveniently. The prompt sounds were not so crisp and clear, and it was even less possible to summon it with just a thought...

And not to mention these suspicious points—

Gu Mo walked to another large cluster of crystals and stopped in front of them. He looked at the clear reflection on the translucent golden-yellow crystal surface. Although not particularly clear, it was enough. He saw the familiar options on it and opened the leveling page he had opened before.

It was still LV5 progress, mercilessly shattering his beautiful dream...

The peculiar nature of the Idiot System seemed to appear on the mirror image he saw, even within this illusion. This was a loophole that couldn't be covered up.

"At least let me enjoy it a bit longer. I can't even have my fill. This illusion is really garbage..." The ups and downs of life were no more than this. He twitched the corner of his mouth, and Gu Mo, who had come to his senses, silently gave a middle finger upwards.

The next moment, he seemed to hear a crisp cracking sound by his ear, and the entire illusion shattered.