After seven days had passed, Mingye left Dog Castle and headed back toward Demon Wolf Castle with Izayoi and Inuyasha.
All the Dog Demons of Dog Castle escorted them ten miles out as a show of respect.
Rather than make Izayoi travel on foot, Mingye ordered two lesser demons capable of flight to carry a carriage through the sky.
He did not sit inside the carriage. For one thing, it would be awkward for a man and woman to be alone together, especially since Izayoi had Inuyasha with her and occasionally needed to nurse him.
For another, he had reached a crucial stage of his transformation. The aura throughout his body was changing, and neither the carriage nor the two lesser demons could bear his weight.
A single drop of Mingye's demon blood could now shatter mountain rock. His entire body was like that of a primordial savage beast, as heavy as a mountain. His weight would simply crush the two lesser demons to death.
Mingye sat cross-legged on a cloud ahead of the carriage, his eyes closed, as they traveled toward Bluestone Mountain.
For him as he was now, demonic arts such as riding clouds required little study before he could use them with ease.
Dog Castle was a considerable distance from Bluestone Mountain, with many mountain ranges along the way. Much of the Western Country was covered in wooded mountains.
Humans also lived in these forests. This was an age of warring states, and demons were not the only ones fighting among themselves. Humans did the same.
Many human villages lay hidden in these wooded mountains, and their inhabitants often served as food for demons.
Flames rose into the sky from a run-down village. It was not a large settlement, just a small village of roughly a hundred