When they arrived, they saw a young monk running nonstop, his face pale with fright and his half-draped robe trailing on the ground, as though a raging flood or savage beast were chasing him.
At the sight of Xu Zhiqiu and Kikyo, he stepped on his own robe and pitched forward, treating Xu Zhiqiu to a face-first dive into the dirt.
Xu Zhiqiu stepped forward and crouched before the young monk. "What happened?"
The young monk raised his head, his eyes filled with terror, and said in a faintly trembling voice, "There's... there's a demon... and he's a man without a face!"
A faceless man?
Xu Zhiqiu looked up in the direction the young monk had fled from.
"Muso... he tore Master Muso's face off... it was horrible..." As he spoke, the young monk hurriedly scrambled up and stumbled away.
Xu Zhiqiu had been rather puzzled, but at the name Muso, long-buried memories suddenly attacked her. This seemed to be Naraku's sixth incarnation-the heart of Onigumo.
She frowned, her expression hardening, and rose with her hand on the Dragon's Roar Sword at her waist. As it happened, she still had an old score to settle with him.
"Qiu, do you know that person?" Kikyo asked, noticing the change in Xu Zhiqiu's mood.
Xu Zhiqiu came back to herself and said calmly, "No. But Kikyo, before we head back, let's deal with that demon who's slaughtering innocent people!"
"All right." Even without Xu Zhiqiu saying so, Kikyo would naturally have gone along to deal with that demon.
"So she went looking for him after all?" Inside the room, Naraku watched Xu Zhiqiu in the mirror as she headed toward Onigumo with that priestess, murmuring with a cold sneer.
"Would you like to go see Qiu yourself?" Kanna asked. Ever since Naraku