The feast celebrating his rise to chief had ended, and Mingye gazed absently at the bright moon in the night sky.
Over the past two years, he had grown rapidly, beyond anything the members of the Demon Wolf Tribe thought possible.
Demons had always grown slowly. Only some offspring with the blood of Greater Yokai could defy that rule.
Yet Mingye's father was no Greater Yokai. His growth had left his tribesmen dumbfounded, his aura strengthening almost every day.
Mingye's rapid progress was due to nothing other than his tireless training. He wasted almost no time that could be spent cultivating.
Moreover, he possessed knowledge from his previous life. He was not merely the fifty-year-old child his tribesmen saw him as.
His soul was mature, and he planned every step of his cultivation.
Demon Power was the foundation of cultivation for demons in this world. Increasing it could multiply their strength.
But Mingye had thought further ahead. He needed not only to increase his Demon Power, but also to gain complete command over it.
Not every demon could unleash their Demon Power flawlessly. Much of it would be wasted in the process.
Humans were much the same. Someone with a hundred units of strength could almost never put all hundred into a blow.
The power they unleashed was scattered, lacking sufficient control and focus.
Mingye had always trained to control his Demon Power, striving to use every bit of it perfectly without wasting even a trace.
Even now, however, he still struggled to achieve that. He needed to keep training his control.
Still, his control was undoubtedly better than that of most demons.
Of course, some demons were born capable of perfectly controlling their Demon Power. Sesshomaru, the son of Tōga, was one such example. With his perfect Demon Power, he could control it flawlessly.
He could condense his Demon Power into a whip to attack.
Most demons could never accomplish such a feat.
Perfect Demon Power—it was easy to imagine just how exceptional such an aptitude was among all demons.
Even Naraku, the main villain of the original story, had wanted to devour Sesshomaru and obtain his body.
"The blood of a Greater Yokai really is powerful..."
Mingye sighed softly. Watching as an audience member in his previous life, he had never felt much about it.
Only now that he had become a demon himself did he understand how extraordinary Sesshomaru's aptitude was.
Achieving perfect control over Demon Power through training required an immense investment of time and effort.
"But given enough time, I'm confident I can become a true Greater Yokai, or even surpass one!"
Mingye's eyes were resolute. He was certain he could reach that level.
He knew the course this world would take, and his previous life had been far from ordinary: he had been a martial artist.
His previous life had lacked such miraculous Demon Power. Drawing on his foundation in martial arts and methods of circulating qi and blood, he had tempered his own qi and blood.
In that life, he had lamented how fragile the human body was. Without supernatural power to aid it, becoming truly strong was all but impossible.
In this world, however, he was a demon with demonic power. That was the key to cultivation, neatly resolving the problem that had plagued him in his previous life.
Using his martial arts foundation from his previous life, Mingye had tempered and strengthened the qi and blood within his body. Once his physical body grew stronger, his Demon Power could advance more quickly as well.
That was the true reason Mingye had grown so rapidly over the past two years.
As for the preceding fifty years, Mingye had spent them experimenting with ways to combine his martial arts principles with demonic cultivation methods, while his body itself matured. All of that had taken a full fifty years.
It was precisely that enormous investment of time and effort in experimentation that had allowed Mingye to make significant breakthroughs, accelerating his growth over these past two years.
"Big brother, aren't you going to train tonight?"
A small figure approached, raised his head, and asked Mingye curiously.
Kōga's body had hardly changed. He was still too young and needed time to grow.
"No."
Mingye shook his head slightly and looked at Kōga, who was only ten years old. His appearance and height were those of a four- or five-year-old human child. Demons truly grew slowly, which was why they lived longer than humans.
Their minds matured slowly as well. In the original story, Inuyasha had still possessed a teenager's disposition despite being over a hundred and fifty years old.
Their mental development was far slower than that of humans.
"Kōga, do you want to train?"
Mingye asked because he knew Kōga would have become chief of the Demon Wolf Tribe in the original course of events. His aptitude should have been fairly good.
But no one had taught him the proper path of cultivation. Coupled with the boost provided by the Shikon Jewel shards, that had made him increasingly frivolous and arrogant.
Being king among the weak Demon Wolf Tribe had also given him an unfounded confidence. He thought himself powerful when he was actually very weak.
All of that had been the result of having no one to guide him.
"Train? Like you, big brother?"
All Kōga knew was that Mingye went out every night and returned exhausted. That was training.
But when he thought about how that would mean he could no longer play, he hurriedly shook his head.
"Big brother, I... I don't want to train."
Kōga's face was full of resistance. He truly did not want to train.
"Just as I thought..."
Mingye shook his head slightly. Asking Kōga to train at only ten years old, while he was still a young child, simply would not work.
At that age, he ought to be playing.
Mingye did not force him and told Kōga to hurry off to bed.
Mingye glanced over the Demon Wolf Tribe's territory. It consisted entirely of caves, without any houses or city walls.
Though they were demons, they had never considered building a city. Only Greater Yokai entertained such ideas.
That was because Greater Yokai had large clans, along with the strength and wealth needed to build cities.
Of course, some Greater Yokai had very small clans, or were even entirely alone. Such Greater Yokai had no need to build a city.
A place to live and cultivate was enough.
But Mingye's Demon Wolf Tribe had once been a large clan. If he were to lead the entire Demon Wolf Tribe someday, these caves alone would not suffice.
He would need to build a vast city as well.
That could only be put into practice once Mingye truly became a Greater Yokai who ruled over a region.
"A city is still too far off. I'll start with their clothes..."
Mingye thought of how all the Demon Wolf Tribe's members wore clothing made from animal pelts. There was no sense of style whatsoever. They looked like savages.
Even after living here for more than fifty years, Mingye still could not resist complaining about that and wanting to change it.
They should at least wear something decent. Wearing those ugly animal pelts all day really disgraces the Demon Wolf Tribe.
Mingye grumbled inwardly. Now that he had become chief, that had to change.
Then he took out the map the old man had given him, showing the route to the secret Demon Wolf Burial Grounds, where the Demon Wolf Tribe's Sacred Artifact, the Five Thunder Finger, was hidden.
While the old man can still hold on for a few more days, I have to get my hands on this treasure as soon as possible.
That was Mingye's plan. The old man was close to death, but while he could still protect the tribe, Mingye could travel to the Demon Wolf Burial Grounds and obtain the Five Thunder Finger.
He studied the map carefully again and committed it to memory several times. Once he was certain he had missed nothing, he burned it.
This was a secret of the Demon Wolf Tribe, a route known only to its chief.
Every chief had to burn the map after learning the route, then draw a new one to pass down to the next chief in the future.
Otherwise, this secret treasure would probably have fallen into outsiders' hands long ago.
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