Page 376
Page 376
"you wanna die!"
Tamamo-no-Mae charged forward again!
The two clashed again, their claws and blades sparking as they collided. The clanging sounds echoed through the training ground, then transformed into distorted noises as they reached the high steel dome.
Since arriving here, Dou Tang's fighting style has changed, or rather, he is getting used to this young body again.
The two fought fiercely, seemingly without end.
………………
The outside world at this time.
The black fog seemed endless, spreading across the streets.
No one dared to touch the ominous fog, and could only let it spread. The curious onlookers gradually retreated, and the streets were now deserted.
As soon as Dou Tang and Tamamo-no-Mae stood facing each other, an endless thick fog suddenly began to emanate from Dou Tang's body, quickly rising to a height equivalent to two stories high, completely enveloping Dou Tang and Tamamo-no-Mae.
These black currents continued to surge out, forcing the ordinary onlookers to leave. Apart from the calm and collected Lu Zizhen and the three swordsmiths, there were no onlookers left on the street.
After being shrouded in black mist, it seemed that even sound was blocked. Although Lu Zizhen used magic to see through the mist, she finally felt puzzled after staring at the two people not far away for nearly ten minutes.
Tamamo-no-Mae and Tou-Tang have been standing facing each other for ten minutes.
Out of caution, Lu Zizhen did not rush forward to disturb them. Instead, she would occasionally take out talismans to suppress the spread of the black mist, confining the area covered by the black mist to the open space in front of the internet cafe.
"They seem to be... unconscious?" the swordsmith Longship suddenly said.
“I don’t know, but…” Lu Zizhen turned to look at the swordsmith Longship: “Shouldn’t you be leaving?”
"Don't you want us to finish watching this show?" The swordsmith Longship lit another cigarette at some point, puffing out some smoke. "That's a real shame, but it seems we've gotten into some kind of stalemate that outsiders can't understand. Well then, let's just leave it at that."
"Let's go." She waved and beckoned to the man in the black trench coat beside her.
The man in the trench coat nodded slightly and opened the car door for the knifesmith, Longboat.
After getting into the car, the swordsmith Nagafune rolled down the window. Her eyes gleamed with a light that could see through the black mist as she said, "I advise you not to rashly interfere in their battle. It won't be a good thing for you."
Lu Zizhen remained silent, only turning her head to continue looking at Dou Tang and Yu Zaoqian.
The standoff between Dou Tang and Tamamo-no-Mae, along with the strange conversation that had occurred before, made her uneasy.
Kiryu Toudou... just how much have you been hiding from me?
She pondered for a moment, and just then, the black sedan beside her suddenly started moving and headed out of the fog. It was foreseeable that the swordsmith longship, once he emerged from the thick fog, would be blocked by the crowd of onlookers.
And if Lu Zizhen wants to leave, she will most likely do so.
But after a moment's hesitation, she looked at the internet cafe behind her and an idea came to her mind.
Having made up her mind, she grabbed handfuls of talismans and strode toward Dou Tang and Yu Zao.
Upon getting closer, she suddenly realized that the shadow warrior had disappeared at some point, and Tamamo-no-Mae's wound had stopped bleeding, which meant that Dou Tang's previous deadly attack had been in vain.
Dou Tang, however, was somewhat different. Beneath the blue light of his helmet, there seemed to be faint, snake-like, pink light moving within it.
It's allure.
Lu Zizhen's heart leaped into her throat.
Chapter 336 Two Flowers Bloom
Seeing Dou Tang standing there dumbfounded like a wooden statue, Lu Zizhen felt a sense of foreboding. Dou Tang was clearly under Tamamo-no-Mae's illusion, but strangely...
She turned to look at Tamamo-no-Mae.
Tamamo-no-Mae, who was facing Tou-Tang, had her eyes closed and her face expressionless, as if she were asleep.
What's the situation with Tamamo-no-Mae?
Both Doutang and Yuzamo-no-Mae remained upright and motionless.
Lu Zizhen tentatively reached out and pushed Dou Tang, but found that Dou Tang was completely immovable. He seemed to be frozen in place. If it weren't for his steady breathing, Lu Zizhen would have thought he was dead.
After a moment's thought, Lu Zizhen decided to take action.
Dou Tang and Tamamo-no-Mae are clearly locked in a stalemate. She has never seen this situation before, but it feels strangely familiar. Dou Tang and Tamamo-no-Mae are like people who are possessed by vengeful spirits, trapped in a stiffness that makes their bodies uncontrollable, bound to the depths of their consciousness by hysteria and nightmares.
Lu Zizhen took out a lot of talismans, gently blew on them, and then opened...
It was first affixed to the bodies of Dou Tang and Yu Zao Qian.
These talismans come in two types: one is black paper with red characters, and the other is yellow paper with red characters. The black paper with red characters is used to suppress the souls of Dou Tang and Yu Mao Qian, protecting their souls from losing their spirits during the process of moving their bodies.
According to some local customs in China, the souls of children and those possessed by evil spirits become less compatible with their bodies. If you need to move someone or if someone falls into a deep sleep or coma, you must keep calling their name to ensure that their soul can stay in the body.
The black talisman paper used by Lu Zizhen achieved this effect.
The talisman with yellow paper and red characters is used to immobilize the person.
A huge amount of talismans were pasted all over Tamamo-no-Mae's body. To ensure the effect, Lu Zizhen went all out this time. Originally, one talisman was enough to immobilize the vengeful spirit, but now Tamamo-no-Mae was covered with them, making her look like a long-sealed monster that would appear in some strange book.
Although... aside from not appearing in the book, everything else is indeed true.
After covering Tamamo-no-Mae's entire body with talismans, Lu Zizhen took a deep breath and tentatively tried to move Dou Tang's body.
She gently lifted one of Dou Tang's hands. It was a little difficult for her to pick Dou Tang up completely, but if Dou Tang really didn't react, then dragging him away by his arm wouldn't be a big problem.
Lu Zizhen put her arm around Dou Tang's shoulder and led Dou Tang step by step toward the black car.
Reaching the car, she reached out and opened the door, laboriously tossing Dou Tang into the back seat, making him lie down obediently, before walking towards Tamamo-no-Mae.
The fog will dissipate soon; she needs to hurry.
Lu Zizhen quickly walked to Tamamo-no-Mae's side, raised her hand and used the same method to support her, and walked towards the car.
Tamamo-no-Mae was much lighter than Dou Tang, but Lu Zizhen's movements were much rougher than when he moved Dou Tang. In the end, he simply threw Tamamo-no-Mae to the foot of the back seat and let her lie on the foot mat, and that was the end of it.
Then, Lu Zizhen took out a large roll of dark black sunshade cloth from the trunk of the car and carefully clipped the cloth onto the car windows. Except for the windshield, all other windows had sunshade cloth.
Although the car already had one-way windows, Lu Zizhen still took an extra precaution just in case.
The black fog was slowly dissipating, and a sound came from the other end of the hazy smoke. Lu Zizhen continued to hurry and took out a lot of talismans, sticking them on various places inside the vehicle as if they were free, in case Tamamo-no-Mae suddenly woke up and started a fight, damaging her new car.
After doing all this, Lu Zizhen got into the car, fastened her seatbelt, glanced at Dou Tang who was still fast asleep in the back seat through the rearview mirror, and let out a long sigh.
Then she began to wait quietly for the thick fog to dissipate.
Voices from outside the fog gradually filled the street, accompanied by the screech of sirens and car horns. The black fog that had instilled a sense of coldness and fear gradually disappeared, revealing the street behind it.
With the help of the one-way glass, Lu Zizhen was able to sit comfortably inside the car and watch everything outside.
The streets were bustling with activity, the crowd chattering noisily, and those in the front row holding up their phones with excited expressions, as if they were there to witness a grand event.
There were very few police officers; they were hard to spot if thrown into a crowd. All you could see were police hats bobbing anxiously up and down – Nikko City’s previous experience was simply inadequate to handle such an incident.
Lu Zizhen didn't care about this at all. As long as the fog cleared and they found that Tamamo-no-Mae and Dou Tang were missing, these onlookers would soon disperse.
After the black mist dissipated, the empty streets surprised the people who had planned to continue watching. Where were Tamamo-no-Mae and the man in the red helmet now?
A bewildered crowd surged into the streets, searching through the rubble of the battle site, while police officers futilely maintained order.
A noisy crowd, flashing phone screens, chaos spread.
Looking at the crowd in front of her, Lu Zizhen's eyes flickered... She suppressed the urge to vomit, feeling that everything in front of her was disgusting.
...At the same time, he suppressed the malice in his heart.
………………
Ninomiya Yuki took a deep breath.
He had already finished drawing the entire third-floor corridor and was now heading downstairs. He was certain that there were no traces of vengeful spirits on the third floor.
An eerie and supernatural atmosphere permeated the abandoned building, but he was powerless to do anything about it and could only be trapped within the barrier, protecting himself by creating another barrier.
He is still unable to find Kurizaki Tsukikoto, which is making him extremely anxious.
As time went by, the moon that had been hanging high outside the window seemed to become even brighter.
All changes within the barrier are inextricably linked to the evil spirits themselves. Even after the barrier is completed, the emotional fluctuations of many vengeful spirits can affect its stability.
The moonlight grew even brighter at this moment, as if foreshadowing something.
Back in his room, which served as his stronghold, Ninomiya Yusuke looked at the little bit of the golden short rod left in his hand and sighed.
Nearly one million yen just vanished like that.
But before she could even lament how quickly her money had vanished, Ninomiya Yuki quickly rummaged through her bag again and finally pulled out a wakizashi short sword with gemstones as decoration and a handle and sheath made of precious mahogany.
He slightly drew his longsword, the cold light emanating from its blade casting shadows on his face.
A patch of light illuminated his grim, serious face.
Seemingly having made up his mind about something, he slid the wakizashi into its sheath, tied it to his lower back, and then took out some gold powder and smeared two lines on his eyelids.
The two streaks of gold powder, like striking eyeshadow, began to shimmer as he muttered incantations.
Chapter 337: Each Has His Own
After casting the spell on himself, Ninomiya Yusuke took out a vest from his pocket, put it on underneath his suit jacket, and put it on. The vest had many small compartments, which were stuffed full, as if they were filled with things.
“This vest was a gift from Yueqin… She said it was from a famous designer… What was his name again?” Ninomiya Yujing muttered to herself, seemingly trying to vent her nervousness. “Oh right, his name is Iwabuchi Mei.”
"I will definitely bring you back... and Yu Luosang, wait for me." He put his suit jacket back on, drew his sashimi from his lower back, held it upside down in his right hand, and stood at the door of the room.
At this moment, he was more like a killer who appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the night than an exorcist, holding a short knife and his eyes filled with murderous intent as if he was about to raise his weapon and cut someone's throat at any moment.
Ninomiya Yusuke stormed out of the room and strode towards the stairwell.
Meanwhile, on the first floor.
In the quiet, deep corridor, echoes of mournful cries reverberated. The cries were plaintive and ethereal, clearly not human.
Ringo walked cautiously behind her, with the photographer and the senior photographer each holding one side of her clothes and holding a camera and a phone in the other, following her nervously.
Ringo Shinzen took a deep breath, growing increasingly irritated, and said, "Can't you guys have some self-respect? How can you call yourselves men if you're grabbing a girl's clothes like that?"
"Whether a man is a man or not has nothing to do with paranormal events!" the senior retorted.
The three of them walked slowly forward, gradually approaching the source of the crying.
Suddenly, the senior colleague let out a small gasp: "Ah!"
Ringo Shinzen abruptly turned her head, her eyes blazing with fury as she looked at her senior. Clearly, if her senior didn't explain what was going on, she was about to take action.
Since entering this barrier, the senior has acted as if his courage had been suddenly taken away, becoming extremely timid and hesitant.
The senior looked at Ringo Kanzaki, then pointed to the phone in her hand, covering her mouth as if to tell Ringo Kanzaki that this couldn't be said.
After all, Ringo Kanzaki told him not to interact with the audience.
Ringo Kamisama sighed helplessly and looked at the various comments in the live stream on her phone screen.
Besides the majority of the discussions about this place, quite a few people were also mentioning things on the other side of Nikko City.
"Will the senior film the battle between Tamamo-no-Mae and the Red Helmet?"
"There's a huge black fog over the Nikko City Hall area. Is the senior in the vicinity?"
"Stop joking, Senior is just a comedic streamer. Someone next door is live-streaming what's happening near the city hall. I heard the police are almost losing control of the situation."
Ringo Shinzen frowned deeply, somewhat puzzled.
What kind of nonsense are these people talking about?
City halls and black mist, Tamamo-no-Mae... and so on.
Tamamo-mae? !
Her eyes widened suddenly. She threw the phone used for the live stream back to her senior, then took out her own phone and quickly searched for information about Nikko City and Kurogiri.
Soon, she saw a video that was freshly uploaded just five minutes ago.
The video title is simple.
[Tamamo-no-Mae engages in street battle with man in red helmet]
Ringo immediately clicked on the link, and saw a man wearing a black trench coat and a red Kamen Rider helmet wielding an ancient longsword, fighting fiercely with a woman with red and blonde hair dressed in a gorgeous kimono on the street.
The woman with reddish-gold hair moved nimbly and gracefully, dodging and weaving like a fox spirit. Her sharp claws, gleaming with a cold light, sliced through the air, creating a whistling sound, as she reached for the man.
The man wearing the red helmet remained calm and stood still, raising his sword to block. His superb swordsmanship made his arm and sword become a blur. With a series of crisp clanging sounds, he blocked all of the red-gold woman's attacks.
On the ground where the two were fighting, wisps of black mist seeped from the man's trousers, flowing like a deadly swamp that would devour anyone who dared to approach, inspiring fear in all who beheld it.
The battle, so fierce it was barely visible in the video, was a pure delight for a martial arts exorcist like Ringo Kamizen.
met free