Blood Sacrifice

"Hmph..."

Inside the cave, Torin leaned on his sword, gasping for breath. His body was covered in shattered ice fragments, his armor and clothes were tattered, and blood dripped from his arm.

Moments ago, he had been hit by Miketsu's exploding talisman at almost point-blank range. Torin had managed to form a layer of ice armor on his body and extend his left arm to block, resulting in the ice armor being shattered and his left hand injured.

Seeing this, Miketsu, hidden in the darkness, was startled. The opponent had taken a direct hit from her exploding talisman with almost no protection, yet only sustained minor injuries. Was this yokai's vitality really that strong?

Without thinking further, Miketsu quickly took out several more paper cranes, preparing for a continuous attack. However, this time Torin did not choose passive defense.

"Cold Blizzard..."

Cold and fierce demonic energy wrapped around his blade. Torin swung his sword in mid-air, and the demonic energy transformed into a wide-ranging ice and snow storm that swept out in the direction Torin had first sensed the paper cranes flying from.

The ice storm, much larger in scope than before, swept towards Miketsu. The paper cranes she had just released were instantly frozen and fell to the ground. Seeing the biting cold wind approaching, Miketsu extended her hand, aiming her sleeve at the cold wind.

"Tsuruha!"

Golden foxfire erupted from Miketsu's sleeve. The scorching spiritual flames collided with the biting demonic cold wind, evaporating into large clouds of steam as they canceled each other out.

Realizing her position had been discovered, Miketsu quickly jumped down from the wall niche she had been in. The moment she landed, several ice spikes had already pierced the spot where she had been.

"It's you!" Seeing the attacker finally reveal herself, Torin's eyes narrowed. He recognized the person before him; it was the mysterious guest he had encountered at the Cat Izakaya during his first visit to Choyo-machi.

Because all the attacks he had encountered before were spiritual abilities, Torin had initially thought he had met a powerful Onmyoji. He never expected the opponent to be the one he had once considered a yokai.

Although he recognized her, Torin had no intention of reminiscing. Driven by his demonic power, countless ice spikes continuously condensed in mid-air and shot towards Miketsu.

Facing the myriad of ice spikes shooting at her, Miketsu performed the Yu-step, constantly dodging and weaving under her causal vision. While evading, Miketsu flicked her hand, and the divine fox Tsuruha burst from her sleeve, instantly returning to its original size.

"Suppress him, Tsuruha!"

"Understood, Lady Uka!"

Under Miketsu's command via their contract, Tsuruha unleashed a wide-range torrent of crimson-gold foxfire at Torin. Seeing the approaching foxfire, Torin immediately stopped condensing ice spikes, flicked his blade upwards, and conjured several ice walls in front of himself.

The flames crashed against the ice walls, generating vast amounts of steam. One by one, the ice walls began to melt rapidly under Tsuruha's foxfire. Torin was momentarily trapped behind his ice walls by the flames.

Seeing this, Torin decisively began to gather demonic energy onto his blade. The cold demonic power concentrated intensely on the blade, and the biting, fierce cold demonic energy continuously condensed, emitting a brilliant ice-blue glow. Torin intended to gather demonic power and unleash a powerful strike to break through the flames and eliminate the opponent as soon as the ice walls completely melted.

Torin thought this, and so did Miketsu. At this moment, she was silently chanting a spell. On her fingertips, spiritual energy converted from divine power was rapidly gathering. Facing Torin, who was suppressed behind the ice walls, Miketsu's attack could not miss.

Finally, the accumulated power of both sides reached its limit almost simultaneously.

"Cold Tremor Demonic Light Slash!"

"Divine Golden Light Demon Subjugation Spell!"

...

At Ogura Pond, on the shore of the island, although most of the leopard cat yokai had followed the yokai general to attack the Vermilion Bird Seal, a small portion remained here. They guarded several carts pulled by sturdy, two-headed oxen, covered by thick ice sheets.

A group of leopard cat yokai, wearing various animal bone masks, bare-chested, and dressed distinctly from their companions, stood in a circle on the shore, chanting in an unknown language.

The one-armed, burly leopard cat yokai gazed at the crimson flames and blade claws constantly erupting in the sky, lost in thought. He turned around and shouted to his subordinates behind him.

"What are you dawdling for?! Is it not ready yet?!"

"It's all prepared, we just need the living souls and living blood now," a subordinate quickly replied beside the burly leopard cat yokai.

"Then hurry! Don't keep Lord Torin and Lady Kaen waiting!"

"Yes!"

Amidst a commotion, the leopard cat yokai uncovered the cloths on the carts. Inside were countless humans, bound hand and foot, their mouths gagged. They were men and women, old and young, and from their clothes, they appeared to be ordinary villagers from towns surrounding Heian-kyo.

Amidst countless terrified whimpers, several leopard cat yokai grabbed more than a dozen desperately struggling humans from the carts, casually threw them into the circle of strange leopard cat yokai, and then stepped on them to prevent them from wriggling away.

"Mph! Mph mph!! Mph!" As if knowing what was to come, the humans stared with wide eyes, struggling desperately and hopelessly, but they were completely unable to break free from the leopard cat yokai's strength, pinned firmly underfoot.

Completely ignoring the terror and pleas of the humans beneath them, the leopard cat yokai extended their sharp claws and savagely struck downwards. Instantly, blood splattered everywhere. In a brief moment, only a dozen corpses remained on the scene.

Under a mysterious power, the blood flowing from the corpses did not stain the ground but transformed into wisps of blood mist, floating upwards and slowly gathering to form a growing cloud of blood mist.

Watching the blood mist cloud condense in the air, the one-armed leopard cat yokai nodded in satisfaction, then shouted to his subordinates again.

"Keep preparing! The next batch will be soon!"

Seeing this, the remaining people in the carts were terrified. They struggled with all their might, but it was completely futile. Many others simply lay weakly in the carts, tears streaming down their faces; among those just executed were their relatives.

Women, children, elders... Unable to speak, all they could do now was pray loudly in their hearts, praying for a miracle from the gods.

...

Above the island in the lake, violent flames raged everywhere, and explosions echoed one after another. Kaen and Toga's battle continued.

Enveloped in a shimmering demonic energy shield, Toga charged into the flames like a beam of light. After accurately locating his target, he struck downwards violently.

"Soul-Scattering Iron Claw!"

The sharp demonic claws tore through the fire cloud. The agile Kaen this time could not evade Toga's attack; she was struck directly from the air, crashing diagonally and heavily into a tree on the ground, the immense force snapping the tree.

Kaen awkwardly stood up on the ground. At this moment, five deep claw marks had appeared on her chest, and blood dripped rapidly. Her face was extremely distorted, and she looked utterly miserable.

"You... despicable... wild dog... Ugh!"

Kaen had barely spoken two sentences when a yellow-glowing whip of light wrapped down from mid-air, tightly constricting Kaen's neck and lifting her from the ground.

"This isn't Harima... Without the power of blood sacrifice, you are nothing..." Toga said coldly, hovering in mid-air, the whip in his hand strangling Kaen and lifting her. At the same time, his other hand also began to gather demonic energy, preparing to deliver the final blow to his enemy.

Looking at Toga in the sky, Kaen, whose neck was being squeezed, forced a cruel smile onto her ashen face.

"...Heh... How... do... you... know... we don't... have... the power... of blood sacrifice..."

"What!"

Sensing something was wrong, Toga immediately pulled Kaen towards him. His prepared sharp claws lashed out, an attack that would be enough to tear the opponent in two.

Suddenly, a surge of demonic energy, imbued with endless misery and resentment, erupted from the newly formed blood cloud on the shore, rushing directly towards Toga and Kaen. Toga's pupils contracted as he sensed the familiar aura, and he quickly distanced himself from Kaen. Kaen was instantly enveloped by the despair-filled blood cloud, which then rapidly merged into her body.

"Boom!"

Violent and surging demonic flames erupted from Kaen's center, instantly incinerating the light whip that bound her. Now free, Kaen was surrounded by demonic flames far more powerful than before, and the large wound on her abdomen rapidly healed within seconds.

"Oh my... what a long-lost feeling..." Feeling the familiar and powerful demonic energy swirling around her, Kaen's face revealed a cruel smile. The power she now possessed was greatly enhanced compared to before.

"You people, this is Heian-kyo!" Toga shouted angrily at Kaen. He clearly understood what the opponent had just done; such things were commonplace when fighting leopard cat yokai in Harima.

"What about Heian-kyo? The flesh and souls here are no different from those in Harima." With a mocking expression, Kaen looked at Toga again.

"Anyway, after tonight, we're going back to Harima. If those Onmyoji are capable, let them come and subjugate us!"