Winter snow drifted down, silently dusting Bluestone Mountain.
Darkness filled the world, concealing the white snow.
Clusters of light shone from Bluestone Mountain in the night, driving back the encroaching darkness.
Before a cave several dozen feet across, Mingye sat cross-legged on a slab of bluestone. He wore furs, his long hair hanging loose about him.
He had a handsome face, with a snowflake mark between his brows that seemed to accentuate his cool, aloof appearance.
Mingye quietly watched the snowflakes outside the cave. He was not human, but a demon-a member of the Demon Wolf Tribe.
The night could not obstruct his ink-black eyes; every detail of the scenery passed through his gaze.
"Fifty years..."
Mingye let out a quiet sigh. He had been in this world for fifty years. Demons lived long lives, and fifty was terribly young-the equivalent of only five years old for a human.
As he sighed, a world utterly different from the one before him surfaced in his mind.
It was the Earth he remembered. He had originally been from Huaxia on Earth, but through a strange twist of fate, he had come to this world.
Demons abounded in this world, and wars raged without end. There had never been a moment of peace; conflict seemed to erupt at every turn.
It was not just strife among demons. Humans fought among themselves as well. This world was steeped in chaos, an age of endless warfare.
Though he had arrived in a world of supernatural powers, the names he heard were both familiar and strange.
The Western Country, the Dog General, Ryūkotsusei, the Panther Tribe Leader—almost every demon in this world knew of these renowned Greater Yokai and their domains.
Mingye realized that he had entered the world of an anime he had watched in his previous life: Inuyasha.
It was a world whose main story followed the growth of the Dog General's sons. How extraordinary that he, too, had become part of it.
And not only was he a member of the Demon Wolf Tribe, he was also Kōga's older brother in the original story.
That last point left Mingye rather speechless. He had never liked Kōga's personality, yet now he had become his older brother.
Fate truly played tricks on people.
Tap, tap, tap.
Footsteps sounded behind Mingye, and a small figure approached.
"Big brother, aren't you going to sleep?"
Little Kōga rubbed his eyes as he asked Mingye curiously.
"No. Go back to sleep."
Mingye did not turn around. He merely uttered a few words, his voice cool and detached.
"Oh, okay."
Little Kōga nodded, walked back, and lay down again.
He was only eight years old and needed plenty of sleep. He fell asleep the moment he lay down.
Mingye's parents had died in battle not long after Kōga was born.
Mingye had not taken part in that war-or rather, he had been too young to be allowed to go.
After all, to the tribal elders, someone only a few decades old was a mere brat who would only get in the way on a battlefield.
In this world of demons, someone a few decades old was indeed little more than a child. Though his body already resembled that of a youth, both the quantity and quality of his Demon Power fell short of an adult demon's.
Even though Mingye had begun training diligently as soon as he had gained enough strength after coming to this world, his current strength only surpassed that of demons with a hundred years of cultivation.
Anything beyond that posed a deadly threat. Just recently, he had secretly gone out to hone his skills and encountered a Beast roughly a hundred and twenty years old.
Beasts were different from demons. They could not speak human language, and though their strength and intelligence far exceeded those of wild animals, they lacked the greater spiritual awareness of true demons.
Yet just such a Beast had nearly cost Mingye his life.
From that encounter, Mingye judged his strength to be roughly equivalent to a demon with a hundred years of cultivation.
Of course, years of cultivation alone could hardly measure a demon's strength. Demons from powerful races could kill others with several hundred more years of cultivation, even if they themselves had cultivated for less time.
Only the offspring of truly powerful Greater Yokai could accomplish such feats. For instance, the toad in the original storyline had cultivated for a full three hundred years, yet was no match for the hundred-and-fifty-year-old Inuyasha.
Though Inuyasha was a half-demon, he still carried the bloodline power of a Greater Yokai like the Dog General. He could not be underestimated.
"Sadly, the Demon Wolf Tribe has declined. With no Greater Yokai to hold us together, we're scattered across the world..."
Mingye shook his head and sighed. The Demon Wolf Tribe was still a major race in the demon world, with members living in both the Eastern Country and the Western Country.
But without a true king, they had fragmented into many separate tribes.
The tribe Mingye belonged to had a thousand demon wolf clansmen, along with another three or four thousand demon wolves.
Those three or four thousand demon wolves merely possessed a little more spiritual awareness than ordinary wolves. Their strength was nothing remarkable.
As for the thousand clansmen, the strongest, in Mingye's estimation, was merely an old wolf with four hundred years of cultivation. In a world like this, that strength was barely adequate.
Thinking of how weak the Demon Wolf Tribe had become, Mingye could not help shaking his head. Once, they too had been a tribe held together by a Greater Yokai, yet now they had fallen to this state.
The Dog Tribe had the Dog General to bear their banner, and the panther demons had Michinaga. Only his wolf tribe stood on the brink.
"I'm still too weak. I have to grow stronger as quickly as possible!"
Mingye clenched his fists. Though Kōga had survived safely into adulthood in the original storyline, this was a real world.
Mingye would not leave anything to luck. Only by growing stronger himself could he become safer.
After glancing at the sleeping Kōga, Mingye stepped out of the cave.
Wind and snow battered him, but Mingye barely felt the cold. His own Demon Power carried the power of ice.
Thus, the cold of the night could not hinder Mingye's steps.
His talent was fairly good, granting him the power of ice, while his younger brother Kōga possessed a trace of wind power.
That was also why, in the original storyline, Kōga could turn into a whirlwind after obtaining the Shikon Jewel.
The power of the Shikon Jewel shards strengthened Kōga's wind power, enabling him to do so.
Mingye's talent, however, was considerably greater than Kōga's, and he had already begun tapping into the potential of the icy Demon Power within him.
His figure darted through the darkness like an assassin of the night, searching for prey.
Time slipped past, and the darkness gradually faded, replaced by brilliant light that spilled over the mountains, turning the thickly snow-covered peaks into a chain of golden mountains.
Amid that beautiful scenery, Mingye was stained with blood, his face weary. His eyes remained sharp as he watched his surroundings warily.
That night, he had fought battle after battle. Behind him lay a dead black bear many times his own height and weight.
Mingye had bound it with vines and was dragging it toward the Demon Wolf Tribe's territory.
Of course, that black bear demon was not the only creature he had fought. He had eaten the others. The fierce battles had drained a great deal of his stamina, and he naturally needed to replenish it.
This black bear would also serve as proof to the tribe that he was strong enough now, and that they no longer needed to treat him like a child.
After all, he needed to grow stronger as quickly as possible, which meant fighting many battles to temper his body and Demon Power.
That was not something he could accomplish in a day or two. It would take time.
P.S. Regarding power levels, since the original work had no specific tiers, this book generally gauges demons' strength by their years of cultivation. Of course, some exceptionally gifted demons or demons born under unusual circumstances may not have cultivated for long, yet still possess considerable combat strength.
The next higher level for demons is that of Greater Yokai, such as Tōga and Ryūkotsusei.
Beyond that are ancestor demons.
The original work really had no specific ranking system, so this will have to do.
Before you continue