Sunset Shrine stood atop a small hill within Tokyo.
Its history stretched back at least three or four hundred years.
It was home to the heroine, Kagome, and her family.
When Li Xia arrived, a wooden building within Sunset Shrine's cluster of courtyards appeared to have caught fire, and thick black smoke was billowing from it.
"What's going on?"
Li Xia froze for a moment, then hurried up the dozens of steps toward Sunset Shrine on the hill.
The fire was secondary. What mattered most was first confirming whether this really was the world of Inuyasha he knew.
After reaching the hilltop, Li Xia looked toward the rising black smoke.
A wooden building with one corner collapsed was gradually being swallowed by flames. The fire was still small, but left unchecked, it would soon consume the entire building and might even spread throughout Sunset Shrine.
At the sight, Li Xia immediately shouted, trying to alert the people inside the shrine.
Yet Kagome's family seemed to have all gone out. No one answered.
But he could clearly see that the front door of the small two-story house was open. Logically, someone from the Higurashi family should have been there. Who went out without closing their door?
There were also the limitations of this era.
It was currently 1996. Light, convenient communication devices like cell phones had yet to appear, so he naturally couldn't solve the problem with a quick call on one.
Without a cell phone, he would have to use a landline.
Without much hesitation, Li Xia skirted the wooden building enclosing a well and the half-collapsed one that was burning, then rushed toward the Higurashi family's two-story house.
On the way, he passed a Sacred Tree more than twenty meters tall.
And on its trunk, he clearly saw a "scar" that had yet to heal.
After seeing the Sacred Tree and the basin-sized scar on its trunk, he understood that the world he now inhabited really was the world of Inuyasha he knew.
That only filled his mind with questions.
What's going on? If this is Sunset Shrine from the world of Inuyasha, why would it catch fire out of nowhere?
If it wasn't an accidental fire caused by someone, was a demon responsible?
But I don't remember the manga or anime from my previous life ever showing the Higurashi home burning or being devastated by a demon attack like this...
As he puzzled over it, he entered the Higurashi residence through the open front door, quickly found the landline in the living room, and called the fire department, briefly explaining the situation.
After making the call, he soaked himself from head to toe in cold water, then grabbed an iron basin full of water and ran toward the burning wooden storehouse, intending to fight the fire in the most primitive way possible.
More precisely, he intended to save someone.
Unless he was mistaken, the Higurashi family wasn't absent. They were trapped inside the burning wooden storehouse.
By then, he had also more or less worked out where he was in the timeline.
The Centipede Hag and Yura of the Hair, two demons from the other world, had indeed attacked the Higurashi home before by passing through the Bone-Eater's Well. But those attacks hadn't caused any significant damage or casualties. A demon native to this modern world, on the other hand, had truly attacked Sunset Shrine.
That demon was Flesh-Bodied Human Face.
Sure enough.
When Li Xia approached the burning wooden building and threw out the basin of water, a mask hovered amid the flames. Swaying through the air, it abandoned its original target and came straight at him instead.
"Give me a body, give me a body...!"
This mask was the true form of the demon Flesh-Bodied Human Face.
The mask's face was stiff and sinister, with a long blade scar over its right eye and a split at the left corner of its mouth. It looked utterly uncanny.
"It really is this damn thing."
Li Xia's expression immediately grew grave when he saw it.
When he had watched the Inuyasha anime as a child in his previous life, this mask demon had left him with considerable trauma. For a long time afterward, even the sight of a mask had made him anxious.
Now that his childhood nightmare was actually coming at him, how could he stay calm?
If he remembered correctly, this mask demon's abilities were extremely lethal to ordinary people.
First, the demon could make its true form fly freely. Its agile flight alone gave it an unbeatable advantage against ordinary people.
Second, its face could split open down the middle along the bridge of its nose, revealing rows of sharp teeth. This was its main means of attack.
Third, it could attach itself to a living creature's face and eat its brain, taking control of the victim's body. Once it acquired enough bodies, Flesh-Bodied Human Face could do more than possess a single person. It could split and extend its slime-like flesh to devour more living beings.
It was the sort of demon that grew stronger the more it ate.
Fortunately, this mask demon didn't yet have a body of its own, so it naturally couldn't split its flesh to devour living creatures. Its combat abilities were therefore very limited and straightforward. He could disregard the third point for now.
"Watch out! Don't let that mask attach itself to your face!"
A weak, elderly voice came from one corner of the wooden building.
It was Kagome's grandfather.
The old man had noticed that his storehouse was on fire and hurried over to investigate, only to discover that the culprit was the mask demon his ancestors had sealed away. For some unknown reason, their seal had suddenly failed, allowing the demon to escape and attack him.
During their struggle, a broken roof beam had pinned his legs, leaving him no choice but to wait for rescue.
He had thought he was doomed, never expecting someone to notice the fire and come over.
Although he couldn't see what was happening outside, he could hear some of the commotion. So he did what he could to give a warning.
Li Xia had neither the time nor the attention to answer. He only managed to pull six talismans he had made previously from inside his clothes and affix them to himself. These six talismans were the most basic kinds: Strength Talismans, Agility Talismans, Evil-Repelling Talismans, and Divine Wind Talismans.
As its name suggested, the Strength Talisman could greatly increase his strength. He stuck it to his right arm.
The Agility Talisman improved his reflexes and attack speed. He stuck it to his left cheek.
The Evil-Repelling Talismans could ward off evil to a certain extent. He stuck one to his right cheek in case he slipped up and Flesh-Bodied Human Face possessed him. He stuck the other to the iron basin. If his strength failed him and he couldn't defeat the mask demon, his only option would be to cover his face with the basin to protect himself. There was no shame in hiding like a turtle.
The last two Divine Wind Talismans could greatly increase his movement speed. He stuck them to his legs.
Using five talismans in one go showed just how seriously Li Xia took the first demon he had ever faced. At the same time, his heart ached over the expense. After all, nearly ten years of saving had left him with only a hundred or so usable low-tier talismans.
As the mask that formed Flesh-Bodied Human Face's true body closed in, he advanced instead of retreating. Facing the demon flying straight at his face, he swung the iron basin and smashed it at the mask without hesitation.
His talisman arts might not have reached a high level, but his physical fitness was anything but poor.
For one thing, the older generation of the Peninsula Li Family emphasized physical training alongside teaching their clansmen talisman arts. For another, Li Xia himself had understood the importance of a strong body since childhood and knew a spellcaster's weaknesses well. From the time he began laying his foundations at five or six, he had never slacked off, consistently following the Li Family's body-training methods. At twelve or thirteen, once his foundation was largely solid, he had increased his training appropriately.
He was no match for the elites of his generation in the Li Family when it came to spellcraft, but in terms of physique and fighting ability, he wasn't afraid of those so-called family elites at all.
And so.
Having only just escaped its seal and immediately fought a magical battle with Kagome's grandfather, Flesh-Bodied Human Face had little demonic power left and was at its weakest. The iron basin struck it squarely.
Bang!
The heavy blow battered the sinister mask out of shape.
The Evil-Repelling Talisman stuck to the iron basin instantly burned into a clump of ash.
But Flesh-Bodied Human Face suffered as well, letting out a low groan of pain.
"Give me... your body."
After weathering that attack, Flesh-Bodied Human Face struggled up from the ground and lunged at Li Xia again.
The sight made every hair on Li Xia's body stand on end.
At that critical moment.
He flipped the iron basin over, aiming its open side at the mask demon.
Then he slammed the basin down over it.
Next, he gathered strength in his right arm and punched the basin, forcibly caving in its bottom.
And he wasn't done yet.
He pulled several more Evil-Repelling Talismans and Strength Talismans from his pocket. He stuck all the Evil-Repelling Talismans around the rim of the dented basin and placed the Strength Talismans on his legs. Then, with one foot holding down the basin trapping Flesh-Bodied Human Face, he stomped furiously with the other.
"Fuck you, you bastard...!"
Inside, he was clearly panicking, yet he also felt an indescribable thrill!
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