The Trap

Accompanied by animalistic screeches, several leopard cat yokai rushed towards Yura. Yura threw talismans, which flew with the wind and ignited upon sticking to the leopard cat yokai, setting their fur ablaze.

For a moment, many leopard cat yokai were set alight, but the flames were not fatal and could be extinguished by rolling on the ground. Thus, Yura's attack was extremely weak against the numerous leopard cat yokai. As more of them surrounded her, Yura's maneuvering space dwindled. If this continued, it was only a matter of time before she was overwhelmed.

Stepping onto stairs formed from ice crystals, Torin arrived on the platform. The first thing he saw was Yura, barely surviving the siege of leopard cat yokai with just a few fire talismans. Seeing this subordinate who could be dealt with by his own men at any moment, Torin couldn't help but sneer disdainfully. He ignored her and, with the leopard cat yokai by his side, walked directly into the rock cave leading to the Vermilion Bird Seal.

Amidst her desperate struggle, Yura saw Torin enter the rock cave. Several seconds later, just as she was about to give up, she finally threw the white paper figures she had been clutching for a long time. Three white paper figures ignited in the wind, rising into three white infernos in mid-air.

"Tanrou! Wuqu! Rokuzon!"

A giant blue-furred wolf burst from the flames, directly biting through the waist of the nearest leopard cat yokai with its massive maw. An armored warrior, clad in heavy armor and wearing a mask, emerged from the fire. After severing the head of one leopard cat yokai with a single stroke, his relentless blade swept down, taking off the right leg of another leopard cat yokai nearby. A sturdy stag charged through the flames, sweeping its massive antlers at the surrounding leopard cat yokai, forcefully knocking several of them off the high platform.

With the appearance of the three shikigami, the situation instantly reversed. Yura swiftly cleared the nearby leopard cat yokai, then immediately led the three shikigami to the cave entrance and blocked it.

"Come on! From now on... none of you will get in!" Yura drew a talisman and shouted sternly, looking at the leopard cat yokai forming a circle around them.

...

Inside the dark cave, Torin led over ten leopard cat yokai, moving along the descending stairs. Thanks to their excellent night vision, they could clearly see the path without needing extra illumination.

According to the information previously given by the human Onmyoji, the weapons that the dog yokai clan secretly planned to forge were being crafted deep within this cave. Torin's objective for this trip was not only to kill Toga, the lord of the dog yokai, but also to completely thwart the dog yokai's plans by destroying or seizing the items they were secretly forging.

Torin and his subordinates continued their descent. Finally, after a long walk, the downward stairs turned into flat ground, and the narrow surrounding space gradually widened. Slowly, the once small cave suddenly transformed into a vast cavern.

At the edge of the cavern, within a natural recess in the rock wall, Miketsu, clad in a black robe, half-crouched, silently watching Torin lead a group of leopard cat yokai into the wide, massive cave before her.

They've arrived...

Miketsu watched the leopard cat yokai below slowly venture deeper into the massive cave. When they reached a certain point, Miketsu's expression hardened, and she feigned forming an Earth Release hand seal.

Then, from beneath rocks, behind stalactites, within puddles, and buried in sand, a pile of exploding talismans, already placed beforehand, erupted in dazzling light.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!!!"

A series of explosions rang out one after another, the deafening roar echoing throughout the massive cave. Intense energy shook the ground, causing countless stalactites from the cave ceiling to fall. A powerful blast wave swept through the entire space, engulfing Torin and all the leopard cat yokai in an instant. Dust filled the entire cavern.

Under the air pressure circulating within the rock cave, the pervasive dust quickly dispersed. The scene after the explosion was utter devastation, with countless shattered rocks, severed limbs, and dismembered bodies strewn across the ground. All the leopard cat yokai accompanying Torin had perished in the recent explosion, their deaths gruesome, not a single body intact.

In the center of this grim scene, several massive ice blocks, emanating an eerie chill, stood tall. These ice blocks were fragmented and riddled with cracks from the previous explosion, yet they barely maintained their basic form without collapsing, firmly protecting whatever was behind them.

"A... trap..." Realizing he had been outmaneuvered after the massive explosion, Torin's face was terrifying, his leopard cat yokai vertical pupils narrowed, and he forced out the words.

Seeing that the enemy's leader was still alive, Miketsu flinched. She then pulled out many paper cranes, inscribed with incantations, from her sleeve.

"Go... my birds..."

The paper cranes in Miketsu's hand seemed to come alive, flapping their wings and flying rapidly towards Torin. These were paper shikigami created by Miketsu.

Paper shikigami was an Onmyojutsu that Miketsu had copied from the Spell Archives along with Planchette last time. Originally, it was just an ordinary Onmyojutsu that could make folded paper figures and animals move. Due to its very simple and easily modifiable structure, this Onmyojutsu had many different revised versions. For example, Miketsu found a deity-summoning version of paper shikigami.

Normally, paper shikigami created by this technique are very small and weak, possessing no offensive capabilities; they can't even serve tea or water. Therefore, it is usually only learned as a basic introductory shikigami spell, a technique for Onmyodo beginners, and even regular Onmyo-sei disdain to use it.

However, such a basic technique was an excellent aid for Miketsu, because she could fold exploding talismans into paper shikigami and use them as flying bombs!

The paper cranes flew through the darkness, directly charging at Torin. Torin's keen Leopard Cat senses detected the unusual movement flying towards him. His vertical pupils locked onto a few inconspicuous flying objects in the darkness. Knowing that the ice defense around him had reached its limit, Torin shattered the surrounding ice blocks, performed a backflip, retreated several meters, then gripped his blade and immediately followed with an upward slash. Accompanying his upward sword movement, several ice walls formed before him. The leading paper crane crashed into the ice wall, exploding with a 'boom.' Although this first ice wall was cracked by the explosion, it did not shatter.

Seeing his ice wall successfully block the explosion, Torin felt a moment of relief, but quickly tensed up again. He saw that the remaining paper cranes made a turn, bypassing all the ice walls in front of them, and continued to fly directly towards Torin from various angles, ready to explode.

Torin pointed his blade directly at the flying paper cranes. A biting cold wind, mixed with fine ice, erupted extensively from the tip of Torin's blade. The swarm of paper cranes was instantly enveloped. Many were hit by the flying ice and exploded immediately, many lost control of their flight in the cold wind and plummeted to the ground, exploding, and many, being directly in the center of the cold wind, were frozen solid, not even exploding.

Seeing this, Miketsu immediately relinquished control over most of the paper cranes, focusing all her energy on one paper crane that was outside the cold wind. She manipulated it to bypass the blowing cold wind and charge towards Torin at an even faster speed. Torin noticed and immediately diverted his blade, which was emitting the cold wind, towards it.

Intense wind and countless fine ice fragments assailed the paper crane, which vibrated with spiritual energy as it flew. Miketsu painstakingly controlled this last paper crane, making it maintain its direction in the strong wind and maneuver to dodge one flying ice fragment after another. Like a bomber diving through dense anti-aircraft fire, it flew directly towards Torin, and the roar of an explosion once again echoed throughout the entire cave.