Guardian

"Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!!"

Blinding white light flashed dazzlingly, a massive explosion shook heaven and earth, a powerful impact swept through everything, and the ground visibly trembled amidst this astonishing explosion, causing the villagers waiting in confusion to nearly fall.

"W-w-what... what happened!" The terrified old village chief nearly fell, supported by the surrounding villagers. He and all the villagers stared with wide-open mouths at the thick smoke rising from the direction of Morita's mansion in the distance. All the children cried from fright, and many villagers even knelt directly on the ground, believing that the gods were angry and had sent divine punishment.

After a moment, someone realized that this might have been the work of the Onmyoji master from Kyoto. After discussing amongst themselves for a while, led by a few brave villagers, a group of people rushed towards Morita's mansion.

Inside the makeshift trench, Miketsu felt the turbulent airflow, mixed with dust, rushing overhead. She was immensely grateful for her foresight in preparing such a trench beforehand, otherwise, she would most likely have been blown far away.

After the commotion above had mostly subsided, Miketsu put her tall black hat back on and climbed out of the trench. As soon as she returned to the surface, she was greeted by a sky full of dust.

"Cough, cough, cough, cough..."

Covering her mouth with her long sleeve, Miketsu continuously fanned away the dust in front of her. Realizing the dust was too thick, she had to retreat temporarily. Only after the dense dust had initially dispersed did she cover her nose and continue to approach the center of the explosion.

At this moment, the wicked merchant Morita's mansion had completely vanished from the surface. Not a single main structure remained, replaced instead by a large, deep crater. Shattered stones and wood splinters were scattered everywhere, blown apart beyond recognition of what they once were. Trees close to the mansion were directly snapped into several pieces by the shockwave and blown far away, while more distant trees were simply toppled.

Seeing this scene, Miketsu nodded in satisfaction. Although these mass-produced Exploding Talismans lacked a soul, they certainly had destructive power.

"How is it? Tsuruha, isn't the effect quite good~"

"This... this power truly exceeded my expectations, Tsuruha. Under a spiritual power explosion of this magnitude, that evil spirit will have nowhere to hide!"

"To be able to devise such a safe and reliable method to eliminate evil spirits, truly worthy of Lady Uka!"

Receiving praise from her divine messenger, Miketsu felt a little proud. She continued to walk towards the blasted crater, to see if she could find any lingering traces of the evil spirit, to confirm whether it was utterly destroyed.

Performing the Yu-step and raising her guard, Miketsu moved through the ruins, gradually descending to the center of the pit. There, she saw a large area of shattered human bones.

It seemed these were all victims dragged into the house, Miketsu thought, while continuing to observe her surroundings with spiritual vision. Finally, she saw faint black energy clinging to one of the bone fragments. Approaching it, Miketsu observed closely and found it was a shattered skull, only a quarter remaining.

"Hate... so much... hate... so much... hate..."

A resentful whisper emanated from the faint black energy, but it was very weak. This skull fragment should have belonged to the evil spirit's body, but now it had been blasted into this state.

This intense resentment of the evil spirit was now at the point of dissipation.

"Morita... I... hate... so much..."

Finally, under Miketsu's silent gaze, the black energy entwined around the skull fragment dissipated into nothing.

"Although I don't know what kind of treatment you suffered in life to generate such immense resentment, transferring that resentment to others and killing innocents is unforgivable..."

"Rest in peace, alongside those you slaughtered..."

Watching the black energy dissipate, Miketsu sighed, saying, and in that instant, she suddenly felt a sense of compassion for all beings.

Just then, the old village chief arrived with the villagers. They stared at the crater before them, too astonished to speak. They had never heard of any monk or sorcerer exorcising a yokai by blowing its entire lair sky-high.

Is this the power of the Onmyoji masters from Kyoto? Are these the methods of official exorcists? As expected, it's different from those unofficial practitioners; they can cause such a huge commotion.

After confirming that the evil spirit had dissipated, Miketsu informed the villagers of the news, then returned to the village amidst enthusiastic cheers. The next order of business was to collect her reward and ask the village chief for proof of mission completion. At this moment, Tsuruha again questioned Miketsu through their bond.

"Lady Uka, are we returning now?"

"Ah, that might be a little later."

"Later? Hasn't the mission already been completed? There's no need to stay here, is there?"

"Yes... the mission is complete, but I still have a few things to confirm."

After the massive explosion carried away the resentment from Morita's mansion, Shenmu Village quickly returned to its former tranquility. As the sun set and the moon rose, with stars filling the sky, Shenmu Village welcomed another night. On this night, all the villagers could sleep peacefully.

In the forest beside Shenmu Village, a pair of eyes emitting a captivating glow stared from the darkness at the distant village, where fires had been extinguished and lights put out.

"Resentment... has dissipated..." From the darkness came a deep, low male voice.

"Dis... dissipated? Master, do you mean that evil spirit has been destroyed?" Matching the male voice was another, slightly high-pitched voice.

"It seems so. It appears those humans have finally invited an exorcist capable of completely subduing that evil spirit. The huge sound during the day must have been caused by their battle."

"That huge sound? Could that actually have been caused by humans? Even the cave where we hide felt the tremor..."

"This is Kinki, and within Heian-kyo, there are powerful humans we have never seen before..."

After the voice finished, silence fell. The pair of eyes gazing at the village shifted their gaze away, turning backward, seemingly about to leave.

Just then, a gentle female voice spoke.

"Are you just going to leave?"

"Who's there!" Fully alert, sharp eyes darted towards the source of the voice. Standing there was the figure of a young girl.

Under the moonlight filtering through the trees, Miketsu, wearing a black hat and hunting attire, smiled at the being before her, her expression relaxed.

Standing before her was a giant dog, roughly two to three meters tall. Its muscular body bore sharp fangs and claws, its pure white fur gently flowed around it, and its fluffy tail swayed slowly like a cloud.

This was a dog yokai beast, majestic yet beautiful, Miketsu judged in her mind.

"Who exactly are you!" The white dog yokai adopted a vigilant stance, staring intently at Miketsu, who, with a slight smile, replied.

"My name is Asakura Hao, and I am an Onmyoji."

"Like you, I protect these humans..."