That was dangerous. My strength was nowhere near enough...
The road ahead was long and arduous; I would search high and low.
Good. Time to keep my head down and develop!
He raised an eyebrow slightly and casually slipped the blood-red jade bead into his pocket.
Sensing a pair of burning eyes fixed on him, Luo Shu turned with a smile and gently said to the beautiful girl in a sailor uniform:
"Miss Higurashi, let's go. I'll take you home."
"Mm... mm-hmm!!"
Kagome lowered her head guiltily, the blush on her face not yet faded.
He walked at her side, leisurely heading toward the city beneath the moonlight.
Their silhouettes gradually faded away.
Leaving only the devastated great forest behind.
Not long after...
"Thud, thud, thud, thud...!!"
Accompanied by synchronized footsteps, several hundred official personnel clad in dark orange uniforms arrived.
They were members of Chiba City's Disaster Countermeasures Bureau. Armed with demon-exorcising weapons, they wore solemn expressions and carried the air of people ready to die. The entire bureau had mobilized; even the clerks had been dragged out to make up the numbers.
Such a massive deployment made it obvious just how dangerous things were expected to become.
Then, the unit parted down the middle, opening up a broad path.
Isayama Yomina emerged from the passage. Wearing black thigh-high stockings and holding the Divine Blade Lion King, she was accompanied by the enormous spiritual beast Nue. Her entire body radiated a terrifying aura that sent chills down one's spine.
Yomina looked at the ravaged land and could not help furrowing her brows, her expression grave.
Then she bent down and squatted on the ground, wiping some dirt with her index finger before lightly sniffing it beneath her fair nose. Her eyes suddenly widened in disbelief, and she rose to her feet.
Though the soil retained a faint trace of an Evil Spirit's aura, it was rapidly dissipating like water flowing into an endless sea.
Without question, this could only happen after an Evil Spirit had been exorcised.
"An A-Class Evil Spirit... was destroyed?!"
Isayama Yomina stared in horror, her chest rising and falling sharply from shock.
From the moment the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau detected the spiritual fluctuations of the A-Class Evil Spirit to the time they assembled everyone and rushed over, less than half an hour had probably passed. Yet someone had eliminated the Evil Spirit in such a short time.
It was simply unbelievable!
That was a top-tier Evil Spirit capable of triggering a Ghost Disaster and endangering an entire city.
Japan ranked disasters by letters: A-Class, B-Class, C-Class, D-Class...
An A-Class Evil Spirit was already the strongest Evil Spirit known to the public.
Although Isayama Yomina was one of the foremost experts in Japan's demon-exorcising world...
Even she was not confident she could exorcise an A-Class Evil Spirit. Even if she joined forces with hundreds of Demon Exorcists, dying here was entirely possible.
She had long regarded this battle as the final battle of her life.
Yet...
This A-Class Evil Spirit had died for no apparent reason...
In an extremely short time, it had been killed by someone unknown.
She stared ahead in confusion, recalling the scent in the soil. Then her expression changed drastically, her face filled with alarm.
"No... this smell is wrong..."
"It's the scent of the Life-Killing Stone!!"
"Withdraw immediately! I'm reporting everything that happened tonight to headquarters!"
Isayama Yomina shouted sternly, her expression terrifyingly shocked.
Compared to the appearance of a new Life-Killing Stone, the emergence of an A-Class Evil Spirit suddenly seemed rather ordinary.
Everyone looked at one another, having no idea what had happened.
Still dazed, the members of the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau secretly breathed sighs of relief...
At least they probably would not have to face that terrifying Evil Spirit now.
Once the acting director's order was issued, everyone quickly ran back toward the bureau.
Isayama Yomina remained where she was, blankly gazing at the moon hanging in the sky.
For some reason, the mysterious person who had exorcised the Evil Spirit tonight reminded her of something.
It seemed that the Black Hole Phenomenon at Happiness Villa last time had also been resolved by someone just as inexplicably.
Could both incidents have been the work of the same person?
"Who exactly are you..."
The long-haired black-haired girl murmured to herself, her feelings more complicated than ever.
The gentle breeze lightly tousled the tips of her hair.
Tonight, the moonlight was clear as water.
Command Spell Resonance System, Heavenly Curtain Descends, Shocking the World!
Chiba City, Happiness Villa.
The long night stretched on as a pale glow gradually appeared at the horizon.
Inside the bedroom, the young man clad in the Moon-White Feather Robe scratched his head in frustration. He toyed with a smooth blood-red jade bead in his hand—the Life-Killing Stone.
"Seriously, what am I supposed to do with this thing?"
After escorting Kagome safely back to Higurashi Shrine, Luo Shu had returned to his rented apartment.
During the battle at Saw Mountain Great Forest, he had manifested the one-use skill Secret Sword: Swallow Return upon himself and easily slain the A-Class Evil Spirit threatening the city. However, it had cost him roughly seven hundred Divine Authority Jade.
That was only because the Fate/stay night promotional video had aired, giving many people a clear impression of Sasaki Kojiro's Swallow Reversal.
Otherwise, it would have cost at least three hundred more Divine Authority Jade.
Although the expenditure had been great, after a night of accumulation, more and more people around the world had entered Observer Net and become devoted fans of Fate/stay night, contributing a great deal of Divine Authority Jade through their belief and admiration.
At this moment, his accumulated Divine Authority Jade had reached 7,256.14!
And with the snowball effect, its growth rate was getting faster and faster.
It had reached the threshold for creating the Heavenly Curtain.
However, he first needed to decide how to deal with the Life-Killing Stone.
Using it himself was definitely not an option. The Life-Killing Stone possessed deep demonic power and would gradually turn him into a murderous madman.
Although he could use Divine Authority Jade to remove its side effects, a treasure that touched upon the Fourth-Order Domain would require tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands, of Divine Authority Jade.
That would be far too extravagant, especially since he was still so poor.
The young man crossed his arms over his chest and fell into thought. Then he suddenly asked Silver Ripple.
"Void, if I want to use the Life-Killing Stone as an energy source to create Heroic Spirits from the Fate series, is that feasible?"
"Bzzz, bzzz, bzzz... (Calculating.)"
To the left of his vision, the silver ripples surged excitedly and quickly gave him an answer.
Feasible!
The essence of the Life-Killing Stone was an aggregate of energy.
It inherently contained the concept of positive and negative poles. It not only carried the deep resentment of the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon at the time of its death, but also stored vast amounts of harmless, pure energy.
This was also why holders of the "Life-Killing Stone" so easily fell into madness.
When using the power of a dragon, scales grew backward along one's neck as well.
The two were intertwined, nearly inseparable.
Trying to perfectly separate the baleful energy from the pure energy was exceedingly difficult.
But Void had an alternative solution!
Luo Shu could spend two thousand Divine Authority Jade to implant a Heroic Spirit system into the Life-Killing Stone!
Once the implantation succeeded, he could use the baleful energy within it to summon Heroic Spirits. After a Heroic Spirit died in battle, the baleful energy would dissipate into heaven and earth, leaving behind pure energy that could be recovered and then used to elevate himself.
At the smallest cost, he could obtain a powerful bodyguard comparable to the Fourth-Order Domain.
And when the bodyguard died, it would still drop loot!
Awesome!
It was simply killing two birds with one stone.
The corners of Luo Shu's lips rose slightly, his smile as gentle as a spring breeze.
But then, as if he had thought of something, he fell into contemplation again.
Wait...
Since he was already planning to use the Heavenly Curtain to reveal the Holy Grail War in a "Parallel World"...
Why not play the role of a mastermind for once and start a Holy Grail War in the real world as well?
While shocking the world, he could also increase people's faith in the Fate series!
Under normal circumstances, creating seven Servants in reality would cost him several million Divine Authority Jade at the very least.
But things were different now.
He could get them for free!
He could use reality's abundant resources to stage a grand Holy Grail War.
Luo Shu might not have several million Divine Authority Jade, but other people had Life-Killing Stones too!
He remembered that in Ga-Rei: Zero, there were a total of nine "Life-Killing Stones" scattered throughout the world.
A total of five people had possessed Life-Killing Stones.
They were Kagura's father, Kagura, Mikawa To, Yomina's older sister, and Yomina.
Although Kagura and her father had possessed the same Life-Killing Stone, Mikawa To had one of his own, and Isayama Yomina and her sister had possessed the same Life-Killing Stone—meaning a fourth Life-Killing Stone never appeared in the anime...
Theoretically, reality could summon up to nine Heroic Spirits.
Whoever obtained a Life-Killing Stone could summon a Heroic Spirit.
Once the Heroic Spirits descended one after another and began slaughtering each other upon reality's grand stage, it would definitely terrify the entire world!
All he needed to do was calmly act as the scheming puppet master and sit back with a fishing rod in hand.
Whenever a Servant died, he could simply collect the pure energy.
He would earn Divine Authority Jade while gaining enormous resources.
He would be winning so hard it was absurd!
Luo Shu rubbed his chin with his index finger and smiled faintly, the corners of his mouth unconsciously curving upward.
However, all of this depended on whether he could use the Life-Killing Stone in his hand to influence the other Life-Killing Stones scattered around the world.
He softly asked:
"Void, while implanting the Heroic Spirit system into this Life-Killing Stone, can you also make a resonance system so the other Life-Killing Stones gain the same effect?"
"Bzzz! (Yes, but it will consume an additional two hundred Divine Authority Jade.)"
The silver ripples swayed obediently.
"Then okay. Do it according to that plan."
Luo Shu nodded in satisfaction.
After receiving the order, Void began consuming Divine Authority Jade. An invisible glow enveloped the blood-red jade bead and seeped into it, beginning to reshape its internal structure as strands of profound energy drifted out.
Before you continue