The Interrogation of the Heart

From there all the way to the shrine, not a single yokai blocked their path.

Perhaps any yokai capable of restraining itself possessed at least some intelligence and would never approach this place. Like the Lord of Perpetual Darkness above—could that Rokurokubi really have failed to find the way into the mountain? Of course not. It had merely restrained its instincts.

Knowing how brutal the fighting and struggle at the very center would be, it had chosen to linger on the outskirts and absorb the residual essence instead of greedily joining the battlefield.

Though it had still tragically been slain.

So—

The yokai near the core of this source were inevitably the type unable to restrain their instincts and greed. With countless masses of essence so close at hand, how could they possibly suppress the greed and evil thoughts within their hearts? Just as people could never resist the countless desires that arose from deep within them.

Many yokai had once been human. They had merely fallen into corruption, until the Aramitama side of their souls had completely overwhelmed their Wa-Spirit side. Only then did they transform into demonic forms, their souls falling from the human world into Naraku Tokoyo.

So... there was not really any difference. They were no simpler than humans, nor were they uglier than humans, because they were the incarnations of a part of human nature.

The black-haired girl also raised her guard to the utmost. The massive, chaotic Yokai Energy indicated that many yokai had gathered here. Even though they had lost their minds and were slaughtering one another over the Spirit Stone power, greatly reducing the pressure she would face, this still had to be handled cautiously.

"Mm, I think this bridge ought to be repaired once a year..."

Covering his nose with his sleeve, Gu Mo followed behind the girl and crossed the final trestle bridge toward the shrine ahead. Seeing the green poisonous water below, bubbling as though it were boiling, he could not help quickening his pace.

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

Gu Mo knew very well that he was definitely not like a game character who could simply wade through it, have a few symbolic red damage numbers pop up over his head, and come out completely fine. At worst, it would supposedly be something a dose of antidote powder could solve...

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

—This was venom from Yatagarasu.

Yatagarasu was a horned giant serpent from Japanese legend. It could be considered either a yokai or one of the Indigenous Gods, and it had been recorded in the Hitachi Province Fudoki. Some believed that seeing this serpent would bring disaster upon an entire household, while others believed it was an Indigenous God protecting those who lived in valleys and wetlands.

Naturally, it seemed Saito Dosan believed the latter, and the shrine built here was meant to worship Yatagarasu.

However, the former rumor was not entirely baseless either. Smoke did not rise without fire. After all, in the original fate, Saito Yoshitatsu had been possessed by Kashin Koji and suddenly turned against Saito Dosan, eventually leading to father and daughter slaughtering one another...

And considering how Nohime, who had married into Owari Province, later died hand in hand with Oda Nobunaga at Honnō-ji Temple, while even her daughter and son-in-law died with their entire household, leaving only Axiu as the lone surviving branch... it was hard to say the old man had not suffered the calamity of his household being wiped out.

Lost in such wild thoughts, Gu Mo noticed that the girl ahead had stopped.

The shrine gates at the end stood open. Though the inside still looked like an ordinary shrine, it was a complete mess. Moreover, the innermost wall was just like the secret door in the residence above: it had been smashed open and punched through by some violent force, revealing another long, narrow passage behind it...

The passage stretched straight for dozens of meters before opening up at its end. It seemed there was another enormous natural cavern over there...

The shrine did not merely exist to worship Yatagarasu. Like the residence above, it also served as a public-facing disguise, existing to conceal and seal the entrance to the true secret place!

—Though, as before, none of these designs meant anything now.

The space at the end was too far away for Gu Mo to see clearly, but he could hear miserable howls and thunderous roars... all kinds of scarlet, eerie blood-red hues mingled with the shining golden radiance of essence, the colors so vivid and saturated that they were almost blinding.

A frenzied, terrifying slaughter born of desire was unfolding over there, having long since reached its fiercest stage.

Stopping here, Hidechiyo turned back to glance at him.

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

Gu Mo came back to himself, blinked, then gave her a thumbs-up. As always, he flashed a dazzling smile, eight teeth showing just the right amount of whiteness and sunny charm.

The girl stared at him for several seconds before withdrawing her gaze and turning away again.

Perhaps. She still did not understand why this man insisted on acting together with her, but he had not really held her back. At least, he had never constantly fallen into dangers he could not handle and forced her to rescue him, which would have been exhausting. And ever since Thirteen Cherry Blossom Village, he had grown rather quickly.

He had learned some swordsmanship, mastered a few Onmyōdō Mystic Arts, and had the protection of a Guardian Spirit. More importantly, he was always clever enough to avoid the most dangerous battlefield, only skimming around the edges and picking on isolated minor enemies. Under normal circumstances, he had no problem protecting himself.

As those thoughts turned in her mind, she tightened her grip on the tachi in her hand and prepared to move forward.

"Wait."

At that moment, Gu Mo called out to stop her.

The girl turned around with slight confusion, only for the man before her to start chattering away and arranging things without giving her any choice.

"As they say, before a great battle, there must be supplies... I know you don't really need me worrying about you, Axiu, but you can never be too careful. It's always better to be cautious."

"What about the Sacred Water I just gave you? Take a few drinks first..."

"And your sword, give it to me, give it to me. Wouldn't it feel better with an enchantment buff on it? Hmm, you don't want a Purification Binding Talisman? That's fine, I still have a Fire Summoning Talisman..."

After that rapid-fire barrage, Hidechiyo found herself cooperating with him in a muddled state. Not only was he endlessly talkative, but much of what he said was difficult for her to understand. Or rather, she could understand his meaning, but some of the words he used were simply impossible to make sense of.

In any case, by the time she came back to herself, she had already followed Gu Mo's extensive Dungeon-running experience and made every preparation possible.

She could feel her energy becoming slightly more active. A pouch of Lesser Spirit Stones now hung at her waist, for her to use at critical moments since she could directly harness Spirit Stone power. And when she looked at the blade of the tachi in her hand, a faint crimson glow flowed across it. The steel seemed to have begun burning in an eerie fashion, flames rippling over its surface.

The Mystic Arts power of the Fire Summoning Talisman had been attached to it. As long as the flame-enchantment buff did not expire and the fire-element power dwelling in the weapon was not exhausted, every slash she made would deal additional fire damage and inflict a burning state upon her opponent.

"Not bad, not bad. Actually, Axiu, you could also consider channeling your Guardian Spirit's power into your weapon and directly activating a Living Weapon to slaughter everything in your path..."

Gu Mo examined the effect and gave another approving thumbs-up.

Because of his own low spell power, his talismans were only of very ordinary strength, so their effects were not particularly dazzling or flashy. Whether it was a Purification Binding Talisman or a Fire Summoning Talisman, they only emitted a faint layer of light. They were not so inconspicuous that one might overlook them without paying attention, but they were certainly not eye-catching either.

At first, Gu Mo thought his "effect brightness" setting was too low. But after fumbling around with the settings panel, he discovered that was not the case at all. It was simply because his spell power was too low.

After all, his current stat allocation leaned toward strength and constitution for a melee build. He had not put a single point into intelligence, spirit, or anything similar. In that regard, he was just an ordinary person, and the Mystic Arts he had mastered could not benefit from the powerful bonuses and amplification brought by high attributes.

Living Weapon? What was that?

The black-haired girl stared at him in confusion, keenly sensing that she had heard something worth paying attention to.

"Oh, it's a secret martial technique that that fierce, nasty woman knows. You can go learn it later. So far, I've only seen her use this one. I'm not sure about anyone else..."

Gu Mo stroked his chin as he explained.

Setting aside Guardian Spirit Summoning, there seemed to be two ways to directly use a Guardian Spirit's power. One was to merge oneself with the Guardian Spirit's power and perform Possession Fusion, but that was essentially Yokai Transformation... Asai Nagamasa and Shibata Katsuie would both become examples of that later on.

The other was to merge a weapon with the Guardian Spirit's power, the so-called Living Weapon. Even ordinary iron would become spiritual because of it, turning basic gear straight into premium equipment with effects bright enough to blind people. The greater the Guardian Spirit's power one could command, the stronger the Living Weapon would be for its duration.

Unfortunately, in Axiu's story, the concept of Living Weapons did not seem to have become widespread yet, and she herself had not mastered it either.

Yet sixty years later, the first generation's protagonist, William, slaughtered his way through enemies using precisely this. Judging historical changes from the perspective of this real world, perhaps this technique truly remained an unknown secret at this point in time?

That was why Gu Mo could not help pondering it. Axiu's ultimate move was Yokai Transformation, but she could already do that herself. Unlike those human examples, she did not need to borrow a Guardian Spirit's power to transform into a yokai...

—Then while transformed, could she theoretically activate a Living Weapon at the same time?

—The ultimate moves and advantages of two generations all concentrated in one person... Wouldn't that make her the Sengoku's greatest yokai, an absurdly enhanced version who could slay gods when she met gods and slay Buddhas when she met Buddhas?

The black-haired girl seemed to understand. She nodded, then gave him another deep look before finally turning and walking toward the shrine.

Watching the girl's back disappear into the passage, Gu Mo instinctively wanted to take a deep breath. But he immediately came to his senses and stopped that dangerous action in time. He warily glanced back, only to see bubbles still constantly rising from the green water.

A faint, strange smell permeated the air. It should have been the scent of poisonous vapors...

Even if he did not fall in, staying here too long would probably cause problems. With that thought, Gu Mo shuffled farther inside, putting as much distance between himself and it as possible. He hoped his 13 points of constitution would let him hold out a little longer... He was almost ready to level up. His Experience Bar from LV5 to LV6 had already been filled seven or eight tenths of the way.

Perhaps he could level up after this battle. That was also why he insisted on leeching experience.

Such an opportunity was truly rare. After leaving this Dungeon, he would probably never find someone as easygoing and powerful as Axiu again... Yet his leveling speed had clearly begun slowing down. Compared to rising several levels in one night before, this LV6 had stalled him for quite a while now.

Although there had been fewer battles later on, and many of the enemies had been defeated by his teammate, while the experience shared by teammates seemed to be only a small portion, Gu Mo still felt a faint sense of urgency.

Looking around at the unfamiliar yet familiar "Viper's Divine Realm," he sighed and quietly muttered to himself, "I've been out for so long. It's time to consider going back."

Even though he had already let go of it, stopped obsessing over it, and become more optimistic and open-minded, he still had to face an objective fact now—he had spent nearly a month in this Dungeon. No matter what, he had to go back and take a look.

There were no ripples, no sudden twists. Everything came to a natural conclusion.

Hidechiyo's strength was probably simply too overwhelming. Once she activated Yokai Transformation, she slaughtered everything on the field. Moreover, before the two of them arrived, those yokai had already been killing one another for some time, consuming a considerable portion of their own numbers. There was nothing surprising about this outcome.

Nor did a true final boss suddenly emerge at the end. For some reason, Yatagarasu never appeared at all.

Carefully passing through the secret passage inside the shrine and entering the immense natural cavern beyond, Gu Mo's expression slowly froze. It shifted a few times before he finally forced himself to hold it back, without retching.

—He felt that he had exhausted all the willpower he would have for the rest of his life.

Blood slurry covered the ground. Severed limbs and arms, chunks of flesh of every kind, formed little mountains of corpses. There was practically nowhere to set foot. The air was filled with an overpowering stench of blood that stabbed at his nose, making him feel as though even one breath filled his lungs with blood-scented particles. His stomach began to churn.

It was unimaginably gruesome. Who knew how many yokai had died here? It was more horrifying than any battlefield he had seen before.

There were too many corpse fragments, too much blood slurry. The sheer density had multiplied the gore several times over.

—I shouldn't have turned the "gore effects" all the way up before. I could have just disabled this...

He stared blankly ahead in despair, raising a hand to cover his forehead. He felt he was going to be left with a bit of psychological trauma from this.

Forcing aside those awful feelings, he gathered his thoughts and carefully examined the space. Unlike the incomparably empty boss arena from his memories, this place gave him the impression of... "piled high like mountains."

Not only were there mountains of corpses and seas of blood, there was also what had originally existed in this space—the thing that had drawn countless yokai here in a mad rush and made them slaughter one another in a brutal struggle over it—Spirit Stones!

An incomparably enormous quantity of Spirit Stones! These immense crystals bloomed with thick golden essence like honey. They jutted out from the ground like enormous thorns, while also resembling clusters of giant plants that had always grown densely throughout this space.

Besides those huge crystals, there were smaller ones, shattered ones, and even beneath the thick carpet of blood and flesh formed by the corpses covering the ground, it seemed to be like a densely packed rocky beach, littered with crystal fragments of every size.

Gu Mo came to his senses, but for a moment, his mind was completely seized. Even his gaze became somewhat sluggish.

"Long ago, there was a small village called Soyah in the Kanegasaki region. The village was famous for its forging techniques and for gathering a strange kind of stone called Spirit Stones. It was once an Oni Slaying Village..."

Inside the secret passage.

Saito Dosan's expression turned stern. In a voice so low it was almost inaudible, he spoke as if muttering to himself, yet also as if recounting an old tale to the person beside him.

"Spirit Stones are strange stones. Some believe they are simply rocks from the mountains, but in truth, they are essence condensed from the Bloodshed Land. They were never anything good... Most people simply do not know that. Even if they do, they do not care. Instead, they only become obsessed with the power Spirit Stones bring."

"Even someone who knows nothing will naturally understand what these stones can do upon touching one for the first time. They can bewitch the human heart... And the more numerous and larger the Spirit Stones are, the stronger their allure becomes. The things they can accomplish likewise increase, regardless of what ambition or desire one might have."

The armored warrior beside him, Akechi Mitsuhide, whom Saito Dosan trusted and valued most, nodded lightly and softly agreed. "But this is power that defies reason. It will only bring distortion to this world."

"Exactly. That is why I have spent these years gathering Spirit Stones from all over and hiding them here—to prevent others from abusing them..." The Viper's eyes gleamed. "So no matter whom I entrust Mino to in the future, it will mean handing these Spirit Stones over to him as well. I must make sure what that person thinks about this matter."

This was Saito Dosan's test, a question that any heir who wished to inherit Mino could never avoid.

If someone would stop at nothing to achieve their goal and use the power of Spirit Stones without hesitation, then they stood opposed to Saito Dosan on this matter. He would absolutely never approve of such a person.

The old man unconsciously clenched his fist. "I hope that boy will not disappoint me... Faced with so many Spirit Stones, he must be undergoing the interrogation of his heart right now. Before his own heart, he cannot lie, because Spirit Stones reflect the desires within people and reveal their most urgent wishes."

"He must want to reclaim everything he lost, so that is what he will see. If he decides that the Spirit Stones can truly fulfill his wishes, that he should use their power and stop at nothing to achieve his ambitions, then he is not the person I intend to choose..."

Before Saito Dosan could finish, his eyes suddenly widened—

"Wait, that brat outside has already awakened?! How could it be so fast?!"

That had happened half a minute earlier.

—"Use."

—"Use."

—"Use."

He selected the same option repeatedly. Prompt feedback continued ringing by his ears, and it was all more or less identical—"Obtained 100,000,000 essence, converted proportionally into experience..."

With an utterly bored expression, Gu Mo chose the "Use" interaction option before a massive Spirit Stone crystal. Then he listened to the pleasant voice informing him that he had obtained an enormous amount of experience, while the huge crystal before him quietly turned into light and vanished as though melting away.

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

—"Level Up."

Opening the most familiar page and seeing that his Life Level had reached LV78, he twitched the corner of his mouth.

From just now until this moment, he had been doing this over and over. After all, this was everything he had dreamed of—Spirit Stone Essence could be used as leveling experience, just like in a game. Then, in the later stages, super Spirit Stones containing hundreds of millions of essence apiece would make his character level soar by leaps and bounds.

How should he put it? It was truly satisfying. Crush a huge Spirit Stone, turn tens or hundreds of millions of essence into experience, and watch his level rise madly... Then, bit by bit, his expression changed from excited exhilaration to complete calm, until he was even staring with dead fish eyes.

"If only it weren't an illusion..."

He closed the Status Panel with an utterly disinterested expression.

At first, Gu Mo had not noticed when he had fallen into the illusion. This illusion had indeed used what he currently yearned for most, and once it succeeded, it directly suppressed his awareness of the surrounding environment.

But he had tested it before. Spirit Stone Essence could not be directly converted into the experience required by the system panel. Moreover, he had come to deeply understand that his Idiot System could not be used so conveniently. Its prompts were not so crisp and efficient, much less could it be summoned with a mere thought...

And even setting aside those doubts—

Gu Mo walked over to another huge crystal cluster and stopped before it. Looking at the clear reflection on the surface of the translucent golden crystal, it was not especially sharp, but it was enough. He saw the familiar option on it and opened the level-up page he had opened before.

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

The strange nature of the Idiot System seemed to make it appear even in the reflections he saw within this illusion. It was a flaw that could not be concealed.

"At least let me enjoy it a little longer. I can't even have my fun properly. This illusion is really trash..." Nothing described life's greatest ups and downs better than this. With a twitch of his mouth, the newly awakened Gu Mo silently raised his middle finger toward the ceiling.

The next moment, a crisp shattering sound seemed to ring in his ears, and the entire illusion broke apart.