Chapter 171: Internal and External Stalemate

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A “buzz” rang in everyone’s mind. The protective divine light danced wildly like wild grass, and also like a candle in the wind, about to be extinguished at any moment.

The thunder dragon roared and swooped down.

Kamibayashi Miko spread her hands, her black hair flying. A golden python broke through the air and crashed into the thunder dragon.

The python and the thunder dragon merged and turned into a ball of thunder plasma.

The world turned white, and Haguro Kasen and the others were paralyzed.

The “Coral Demon Moth’s” three-colored divine light swept out, and the thunder plasma was instantly sucked away, like nectar being sucked clean.

Before everyone could be surprised, countless fierce ghosts and demons rushed out of the tornado, shrieking as they pounced.

“This is the Yellow Springs Spell. It will pollute the divine artifact!” Itomi Sayaka reminded loudly.

As soon as she spoke, Amatsumara had already thrown out his divine net. It was too late to retract it.

In the divine net, thousands of demons howled and roared. The net made of a town-level spider yokai was devoured in the blink of an eye.

The other Kasen who were preparing to attack were so scared they quickly stopped.

Amatsumara didn’t have time to feel heartache. He was so anxious he almost roared at Itomi Sayaka, “Quickly think of a way!”

Spells can’t be used, and divine artifacts will be polluted. What should we do!

“Reverend!” Itomi Sayaka shouted towards the “卍” light wheel. “You can purify it with the sound of the Buddha!”

Manjaku-shonin clasped his hands together, and his chapped lips opened and closed rapidly.

“Therefore, Subhuti! All Bodhisattvas and Mahasattvas should thus give rise to a pure mind. They should not give rise to a mind that abides in form. They should not give rise to a mind that abides in sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharma. They should give rise to a mind that abides in nothing.”

The “卍” light wheel shone brightly.

The sound of chanting was very small at first, then it became louder and louder.

On the demon-hunting ship, Itomi Yuki was the first to be infected and followed along, chanting the “Diamond Sutra.”

Soon, one after another, the practitioners below twenty subjugations all closed their eyes and chanted the sutra.

The demons wailed. Those in the front were instantly turned into nothingness by the Buddha’s light, turning back into a wisp of clear wind and returning to the heavens and the earth.

“Great! It’s working!” everyone cheered.

At this moment, the black Buddha sitting on the clouds smiled and said, “I speak the dharma with one sound.”

“…” Manjaku-shonin’s mouth was open, and he trembled all over, unable to make a sound.

On the demon-hunting ship, Itomi Yuki and the other low-level practitioners made the Buddha’s seal, their faces showing a peaceful smile.

“Reverend!” Minamoto Nagatoku shouted.

Manjaku-shonin took a sharp breath and said with both surprise and admiration, “Lord Kiyomoto’s Buddha is above us. In front of him, we can only chant the ‘Tathagata Sutra.’ Namu Daishi Henjo Kongo, he is indeed the World-Honored One in the world.”

“You can admire him after you survive!” the Taira clan cursed. “Run!”

The crowd reacted and quickly ran towards the horizon.

The demons shrieked and wreaked havoc on the human world, and the Buddha was opening the way for the demons.

The Taira clan appeared thousands of meters away in the blink of an eye. Himegami Izayoi ordered, “If you’re going to run, at least run in the right direction. Go after the Shinto sect!”

The crowd hurriedly turned around and flew towards the Shinto sect.

“Is there any way?” Kamibayashi Miko stood on Himegami Izayoi’s flaming phoenix.

“What else can we do? We’ll just have to wait for him to wake up,” Himegami Izayoi’s tone was leisurely, as if she were sulking.

The “Coral Demon Moth,” with the demons and the great mountains, followed them from behind.

The huge yokai body swept across the sea, and the sea surface was like being plowed, with huge ravines appearing.

Following the direction in which the Shinto sect had disappeared, they flew for dozens of miles and suddenly heard a strange “woo—” sound.

“Bang!” The sea surged, then exploded, and a giant turtle broke through the sea surface.

“What is that?” a thirty-two-time practitioner said in terror.

“A yokai, what else could it be!” someone replied angrily.

“No, look at the giant turtle’s back!”

Itomi Sayaka was flying. She followed the sound and looked over. Her head roared, and the blue divine power meteor suddenly stopped, revealing her trembling and delicate body.

The giant turtle was just a village-level yokai, but its shell was vast and boundless. On its shell, a barrier was enveloped, and countless Shinto sect followers were screaming for help, trying to break the barrier.

It was the people from Group Nine and Group Four.

“What are you waiting for! You might still live if you turn into a yokai!”

“If you’re lucky and don’t lose your mind, you can become an expert in one leap!”

On the horizon, Sanae Sara and the others flew out from the bottom of the sea again and said to the giant turtle.

Hearing their words, Amatsumara’s gaze swept over the people on the turtle’s back, and he said in a lost voice, “They’re holding yokai remains!”

“No, they’re going to turn into demon bodies!”

“Kill them!” A green light paused. The Kyushu Shinto Lord stood in the air and pressed his hands towards the giant turtle.

“Stop!” Itomi Sayaka threw out the golden wheel in her hand.

But the Kyushu Shinto Lord was not the only one who attacked. Kamibayashi Miko and Himegami Izayoi’s entire attention was on the “Coral Demon Moth.” It was too late to make a move.

Fortunately, there was a barrier, which gave the people on the turtle’s back some time to breathe.

“Damn it! Let’s do it!” On the turtle’s back, a Shinto sect follower, his face ferocious, swallowed the yokai remains in his hand.

“Heaven and earth are of the same root, and all things are one with me!”

That person’s whole body was shot with a divine light, and he let out a howl of extreme pain.

In the horrified eyes of the crowd, his face began to lengthen, his four limbs fell to the ground, and a tail grew from his buttocks.

“Neigh!” The wail changed, and a twenty-meter-tall giant horse raised its front hooves and neighed to the sky.

“Masaya! Masaya!” a woman shouted hoarsely.

The giant horse’s front hooves fell, and the woman was trampled into a pile of mud.

The giant horse rampaged on the turtle’s back. The attacks of the Kyushu Shinto Lord and the others were like a waterfall of aurora, about to pour down.

More and more people, with trembling, panicked, terrified, and angry voices, began to use the “Demon Body Spell.”

Mammoths stampeded, giants beat their chests and roared, swarms of bees buzzed, red-faced tengu soared into the air, three-tailed foxes spewed mist, and giant spiders spun silk…
The turtle’s back became a kingdom of yokai.

Rabbit, Yuka, Koi, Fatty, Monkey, and Horse Face hid at the edge of the turtle shell, desperately blocking the attack of a dream-eating tapir.

When Sanae Sara gave them the remains, she had said that she wanted Itomi Sayaka to kill them with her own hands.

They didn’t understand why the group leader had suddenly betrayed them, and why she hadn’t brought them along.

Although they didn’t know why, they would rather die than turn into yokai—they would rather die at the hands of yokai than make their group leader sad and difficult.

Fortunately, the remains that the Shinto sect had distributed to the crowd were mostly fragments of village-level yokai remains. The six of them could barely block them by joining forces.

The twenty Kasen-level yokai transformed from “town-level remains” tore through the barrier and fought with the Kyushu Shinto Lord and the others.

The scene was a chaotic mess. Itomi Sayaka wanted to rush in to save them several times, but in a great battle of nearly forty Kasen-level experts, let alone her, even Kamibayashi Miko couldn’t get close.

Rabbit and the others couldn’t leave either. The sea and the sky were filled with the vast aftershocks of divine power.

Only by staying on the turtle’s back, which was the eye of the storm, could they barely hold on.

“Where did the Shinto sect get so many town-level yokai remains!” the Kyushu Shinto Lord cut off one of the three-tailed fox’s tails and said angrily.

The Shinto sect was a group of rats who wanted the power of practitioners but didn’t want to subjugate yokai. By themselves, it was absolutely impossible for them to have such a number of town-level yokai remains.

There’s a traitor in the government—this thought appeared in everyone’s mind at the same time.

These yokai came from all over Japan. There were white horses from Mount Hakuba in Kanto, tengu from Kyoto in Kansai, and snow foxes from the snowfields of Hokkaido. It was impossible to guess who was helping the Shinto sect.

The only thing that could be confirmed was that this person’s status was extremely high. Otherwise, it would be impossible for them to have so many and such a complex source of remains.

Kamibayashi Miko shot out a ball of golden light, and two identical Kasen-level yokai wailed and flew backwards. Their silver scales shot off like a rain of arrows, and their bodies were covered in blood.

Just as she was about to chase after them and eliminate them with one strike, she suddenly sensed something and turned her head to look in the direction she had come from.

The sky was filled with dark clouds, and a huge black Buddha slowly revealed itself from the dark clouds.

The demons roared and flew over with a few great mountains.

“Mmm—”

Everyone’s heart trembled, and their faces darkened.

The yokai that had been rampaging just now all let out a mournful cry. The white horse yokai from Mount Hakuba spread its hooves and fled towards the horizon.

The black Buddha in the dark clouds reached out its hand.

“Neigh!” The white horse yokai let out a painful and miserable cry. The giant hand that covered the sky grabbed the horse’s body.

The coral horns spewed out a three-colored divine light, wrapping around the white horse.

The divine energy of the snow mountain was sucked away. The follower named “Masaya,” along with a yokai fragment, turned into powder and flew in the air.

The three-colored divine light did not stop and swept across the battlefield, sucking away all the aftershocks.

After that, it did not move and hovered in mid-air, looking down on the crowd and the yokai, as if waiting for the crickets to continue fighting.

The Ashiya clan leader let out a sharp breath. He had forgotten to breathe just now. He said in a state of shock, “Why did it stop? Did Lord Tsukushi-no-Kimi succeed?”

“No,” Amatsumara was well-informed and explained, “that coral horn can absorb divine power, but it seems to consume power to draw it from its master. Once it is released, it can be easily absorbed.”

“You mean, it’s waiting for us and the yokai to be mutually wounded?” Minamoto Nagatoku said in surprise.

“How can a yokai have such wisdom!” the Ichijo clan leader questioned.

“A yokai can’t use spells either!” the Nara immortal, who was riding a white deer, said in a deep voice. “It’s not just a yokai now. The one controlling this body is also Lord Tsukushi-no-Kimi’s instinct!”

Everyone looked at the black Tathagata who was smiling and holding a flower in the sky. In their ears was the roar and miserable laughter of the “Yellow Springs Spell” demons.

Five great mountains were suspended in the air, ready to be thrown over at any time.

In the silence, Itomi Sayaka avoided the gazes of the yokai, found a hidden angle, and secretly flew towards the turtle’s back.

“Goo—quack!” A small mountain-like toad didn’t see her at all and didn’t dare to make a move at this time. But based on instinct, it spat out its tongue at her.

A foul smell assailed her nostrils, and a strong wind rolled over. Itomi Sayaka’s right index finger pulled towards her left shoulder, and the golden wheel with a blue light, with a “hiss,” cut off the giant tongue.

“Your Excellency, Itomi, what are you doing?! Come back quickly!” Amatsumara shouted in a lost voice.

However, it was already too late. The demons, as if provoked, attacked Itomi Sayaka together.

“Sayaka!”

“Group—” Rabbit and the others wanted to shout, but the demons attacked together. Under this momentum, let alone speaking, they couldn’t even breathe.

Twenty Kasen-level yokai, and hundreds of yokai at least at the level of twenty subjugations.

Itomi Sayaka first saw a ball of dazzling neon light, then her vision went black, and she couldn’t see anything.

A fishy sweetness rushed up her throat. Her chest felt like it was about to explode, and also like it was about to be crushed.

She wanted to fight back, but a strong wind hit her face. She was like an ordinary person who couldn’t breathe in a storm, and she couldn’t mobilize her divine power.

“Mmm—”

In the darkness, she vaguely sensed a golden and blood-red light in front of her, and the pressure slowly disappeared.

The others on the side watched as this world-destroying huge divine energy was intercepted by the “Coral Demon Moth” and slowly digested and fused.

The demons seemed to be scared and all stopped.

The mammoths and other hoofed yokai kicked restlessly on the turtle’s back.

Taking this opportunity, Himegami Izayoi opened her mouth and spat out a firebird that grew from small to large. It swooped down and caught Itomi Sayaka, who was about to fall into the sea.

Kamibayashi Miko placed her hand虚 on her head, and the “Young Thunder” continuously repaired her injuries.

Itomi Sayaka’s blood-stained eyes, her eyelashes trembled, and she slowly opened them.

“Rabbit! Yuka!” As soon as she opened her eyes, she struggled to look at the turtle’s back.

“Group leader!” Rabbit, Yuka, and the others were panting heavily. Fatty, who had the lowest cultivation, had already fainted.

But they were all so happy they wanted to cry. The group leader had not betrayed them, had not given up on them.

“The subordinate would rather not turn into a yokai for the sake of the group leader; the group leader would rush into a yokai’s nest for the sake of the subordinate. It’s so touching.”

“What’s so touching about not dying? Only when someone dies can it be touching.”

Sanae Sara and the others sneered from the horizon.

The crowd looked at the Shinto sect with anger, wishing they could rush up and dismember them.

But the “Coral Demon Moth” was on the side. Once they made a move, they would be replenishing its divine power.

If Minamoto Kiyomoto succeeded, it would be fine. But if Minamoto Kiyomoto failed, their divine power would be exhausted, and the “Coral Demon Moth” would recover. What awaited them would only be a dead end.

What’s more, the demons on the turtle’s back could riot again at any time.

The Shinto sect also didn’t dare to act rashly. The yokai only had instincts. They would attack the kind Divine Medium, and they would also attack the evil them.

In addition, there was a “Coral Demon Moth” that no one dared to provoke.

Between the sea and the sky, a strange silence appeared.

The “Coral Demon Moth’s” huge eyes, like those of Amatsumara, stared at the crowd. Suddenly, its two pairs of giant wings closed with a “boom.”

With a “boom,” a blood-red, black, and golden light exploded in the yokai group.

A few bat dragons transformed from the fragments of village-level yokai let out a mournful cry before they could, and were blown away.

The wind and thunder raged, and the demons boiled with fear, pouncing on everyone.

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Minamoto Kiyomoto threw away the “Coral Demon Moth’s” corpse and pondered what Tamahime had just said.

According to her, sixteen years ago, she had relied on the Divine Medium’s spell and used the qi of the living to seriously injure the “Coral Demon Moth.”

Just as divine energy only belonged to yokai, the qi of the living only belonged to humans. The “Coral Demon Moth” had no way to heal this injury.

The yokai only had instincts. In its anger, it subconsciously followed its habits and ate Tamahime.

After eating her, it discovered in Tamahime’s capacity that there was something that could mobilize the qi of the living, so it tried to eat that thing.

That was the Divine Medium’s spell.

In the sea of capacity, Tamahime and the “Coral Demon Moth” started a great battle again. Similarly, one died and one was seriously injured.

What the “Coral Demon Moth” didn’t expect was that after absorbing a part of the incomplete Divine Medium’s spell, it actually couldn’t continue to harm Tamahime.

Tamahime also relied on this miracle, the principle of which was unknown, to survive.

In these sixteen years, she had tried her best, and even researched a spell similar to the “Demon Body Spell.”

But her physical body had already been lost, and her capacity had become water without a source. It was a hundred times more difficult than Minamoto Kiyomoto’s “Demon Body Spell.”

Minamoto Kiyomoto didn’t even dare to use the “Demon Body Spell” casually, let alone a spell that was a hundred times more difficult.

Under no other choice, Tamahime thought of a way, which was to let go of herself and take the initiative to let the “Coral Demon Moth” absorb her, trying to make it become an alternative Divine Medium, no longer harming humans, and even protecting humans.

The two fused, and the “Coral Demon Moth” did indeed possess the Divine Medium’s spell.

But it, which could not use the qi of the living, was also not bound by the Divine Medium’s spell. What was worse was that it had actually healed the injuries that were originally impossible to heal.

At this point, Tamahime interjected, “But when it was dying just now, the qi of the living, for some reason, actually took the initiative to help it.”

“Is it helping it, or helping you?” Minamoto Kiyomoto asked back.

Tamahime’s mouth opened, and she couldn’t speak.

She relied on fusing with the “Coral Demon Moth” and even stole a tenth of the “Coral Demon Moth’s” power.

If the “Coral Demon Moth” was an alternative Divine Medium, then she was an alternative “Coral Demon Moth.”

“If I hadn’t taken the initiative to fuse with it back then, you would have already killed it,” Tamahime squatted down and covered her face with her hands.

“It’s not your fault. The result is that you wanted to sacrifice yourself to eliminate the Coral Demon Moth. No one can blame you.”

Saying this, Minamoto Kiyomoto glanced at the palace dress skirt that was dragging on the ground.

Tamahime’s initial majesty and sanctity were all an act—in order to use a twenty-four-year-old’s psychological age to leave a great image of a mother in front of her twenty-year-old daughter.

She gave birth to Kamibayashi Miko at the age of twenty and fused with the “Coral Demon Moth” at the age of twenty-four. In these sixteen years, besides trying to kill the “Coral Demon Moth,” she had either watched it hunt at sea or slept with it at the bottom of the sea.

Her mentality had not changed at all.

Just like that, in a muddle, just as she was about to give up, the “Coral Demon Moth” had already recovered from its injuries and appeared on Yomijima Island.

There, through the “Coral Demon Moth’s” eyes, she saw her daughter.

When they parted, Kamibayashi Miko was only four years old, but her appearance, the Divine Medium’s spell, and the connection between mother and daughter made her recognize that it was Miko, her child, at a glance.

Seeing that the “Coral Demon Moth” had come to take revenge on her daughter, she frantically fought for control, but it had no effect.

Until the future Minamoto Kiyomoto, with a dead body, stepped into the human world and seriously injured the “Coral Demon Moth” with one move. At the same time, he left a black divine power in its body.

This black divine power did not have the qi of the living, but for some reason, it circled in the coral horns and was not absorbed.

She went forward curiously and heard that sentence—Mother, you’ll be able to see Miko soon.

She was startled, but no matter how she tried after that, that black divine power no longer made a sound. It just continuously offset the divine energy that the “Coral Demon Moth” absorbed, preventing it from recovering.

Until Minamoto Kiyomoto appeared here, that black divine power, as if it had been calculated, was just used up.

“Can you let Miko in?” Tamahime released the hands that were covering her face, stood up with a “thud,” and asked crisply.

“If I could, I would also like to go out,” Minamoto Kiyomoto sighed and sent the resurrected “Coral Demon Moth” flying.

Tamahime didn’t give it a second look. In this short time, the “Coral Demon Moth” had been killed four times. She had gotten used to this impossible scene.

Back then, when she had just come in, she had almost died herself, and had only seriously injured the “Coral Demon Moth”—she hadn’t killed it even once.

Tamahime let out a long sigh, her tone full of despair:
“If it were Miko, I could fuse with her and give her a tenth of my power.

“With this tenth, she can then use the Divine Medium’s spell to continue to fuse with the Coral Demon Moth. With Miko’s more complete Divine Medium’s spell than mine, she can snatch another half of the power. At that time, she can control this body—in your words, it’s turning into a demon body.”

“Can’t I?” Minamoto Kiyomoto asked.

“You don’t have the Divine Medium’s spell,” Tamahime replied perfunctorily, her tone full of powerlessness after giving up.

“Do you have to have the Divine Medium’s spell?”

“Without the Divine Medium’s spell, my power can be given to you, but how can you continue to snatch the remaining power?”

“If the Divine Medium’s spell can do it, I should be able to do it too.”

“Impossible…” Tamahime was about to deny it, but seeing him send the “Coral Demon Moth” flying again, she changed her words, “Even if you can snatch it, without the qi of the living, you can’t achieve stability—assuming you really snatch sixty percent, but without the qi of the living to maintain this balance, you can only continue to fight. But at this time, you no longer have the strength to…”

“I have the qi of the living.”

Minamoto Kiyomoto opened his mouth, and a flaming meteor flew out, turning into a mirror. On the back of the mirror, the landscape of the entire Kansai region was printed.

“The Lord of Kyoto?!” Tamahime said in a lost voice. “You are the Lord of Kyoto?”

“No.”

“Absolutely! Only the Lord of Kyoto can control the Yata no Kagami!”

“This is my wife’s.”

“Hmm?” Tamahime tilted her head in confusion and looked at Minamoto Kiyomoto. “You call me mother. Isn’t your wife Miko?”

“…It’s a long story.”

“Then tell me slowly. I must know your situation! I won’t let Miko repeat my path. If you are the same as her father, I won’t give you the power of the Coral Demon Moth!”