Chapter 213: Yukari Yakumo? Interesting

Jia Ji and Yagumo Shizu left Yatsugatake, but the ripples from their actions were far from over.

Although Shi Zhangji had been present to prevent Yatsugatake from being obliterated on the spot by the two supreme powers, do not forget that Yatsugatake, like Mount Fuji, is a living volcano.

"Sigh, if only no more chaos arises from now on…" Shi Zhangji appeared atop the peak, gazing into the distance, letting her hands hang at the edge of the crater, her ten fingers pressed against the rock wall, channeling her divine power to suppress and neutralize the raging fire energy.

According to its centuries-long eruption cycle, Yatsugatake was due to enter its next eruption phase, but past eruptions had been mitigated by the immortal phoenix Shi Zhangji kept within the volcanic magma, continuously absorbing fire energy.

However, roughly three hundred years ago, after "an immortal being defying heavenly law" appeared in Mount Fuji, under her sister Ye Ji's jurisdiction, Shi Zhangji dispatched her pet phoenix to deal with the matter.

After that, it never returned.

Though unaware of exactly what transpired at Mount Fuji, this left Shi Zhangji now forced to handle everything herself.

All manner of textures and fissures, normally buried deep beneath the solid crust, were utterly visible to a deity's perception; divine power silently flowed from her fingertips into the mountain's core, and cracks along the crater wall glowed with brilliant light as stresses and irregularities gradually subsided.

Within a single day after Shi Zhangji completed her suppression of the volcano, hundreds, even thousands of demons from Da Jiangshan arrived, clashing with the tengu for territory.

Soldiers against soldiers, generals against generals, demon kings against great tengu.

One side had no retreat, defending their gathering ground even at the cost of abandoning flight, and their strongest warrior had recently been humiliated and crushed by someone, still wounded.

The other side possessed higher average strength, feared no death, and their strongest warrior had just broken through, even possessing fused techniques.

The two factions clashed with such ferocity that mountains shattered and the sun and moon dimmed.

Ultimately, after decisively overwhelming the mid- and low-tier forces—Cibohuashan defeating Iizawa Maruryu, Jin'kera defeating Reikyō Irin—the heavenly demons, under threat of the combined ultimate techniques of the four upgraded demon kings, reluctantly declared that the tengu would henceforth exist as vassals of the demon clan.

Yet…

Yatsugatake erupted at that very moment!

Vast flames surged into the sky!

Yatsugatake, already severely damaged by Jia Ji, finally erupted after repeated battles and destruction between the two apex yōkai races.

An unbearable fury, a tormenting eruption!

Breaking free from Shi Zhangji's restraint, alongside violent tremors as if tearing the earth apart, molten iron-like lava fell from the distant sky—a torrential rain of fire!

Several days later, the thick dust and black smoke finally began to disperse; Yatsugatake's once-beautiful scenery vanished, its surface within several kilometers buried under thick layers of volcanic ash.

Forests farther out disappeared entirely, leaving vast stretches of barren ground, blackened and scorching hot, scattered with volcanic debris and cooled basalt.

Yet while volcanic eruptions might be catastrophic for humans, for yōkai, as long as they weren't unlucky enough to be swallowed by lava, it was merely an exceedingly rare sight—or even a celebration.

The demon mountain's eruption, after centuries of dormancy, was turned by the victorious demons into a grand Fire-Suppression Festival, celebrated with great revelry.

In a human village far from Yatsugatake, a young girl named Hieda no Arale, with purple shoulder-length hair, witnessed the great eruption of the demon mountain.

She was the second-generation Miari no Ko.

To enable humans to overcome yōkai, the first-generation Miari no Ko begged Yama's permission before death; granted a reincarnation body and forced to labor under Yama's command in the underworld for over a century, she acquired the reincarnation technique, allowing rebirth between one hundred twenty and one hundred eighty years after death.

This grand eruption was recorded by Hieda no Arale, who possessed perfect memory, within the yōkai history she would spend her entire life—and countless reincarnations—compiling: The Origin of Gensokyo.

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"If you fought the heavenly demon again, who would win?"

The Sage of the Gap, not joining the demon mountain's festivities, asked Jia Ji.

"Of course me."

He answered without hesitation, utterly certain—this was the absolute confidence of a Hokuto Shinken heir.

"I'd win even if it happened a hundred times."

For what is the essence of Hokuto Shinken?

—Anger, sorrow, love…

In short: the ultimate state of emotion.

The heavenly demon's ability manipulates or suppresses desire; if she used it on Jia Ji—whether amplifying those emotions or stripping his will—he would inevitably lose.

Jia Ji, possessing both "Wuxiang" and "Youqing" countermeasures, would always find a way to defeat her.

Yet whether the heavenly demon saw the death star and then activated her ability, or activated her ability and then saw the death star, Jia Ji could not tell.

"If that's true, then her ability would be perfect for your training—doesn't your Hokuto's ultimate technique require you to comprehend sorrow? Let her give you a hit, wouldn't that be ideal?"

"Don't be ridiculous—if it were that easy, I'd have done it already."

Impossible (shakes finger)

"So you've fought every demon in Da Jiangshan and Yatsugatake, taken down every great yōkai alone—and still not reached 'Madness'?"

"Not enough, not enough, not enough… still a little short!" Jia Ji's gaze grew solemn. "I can feel it—just a little more… It's time to find that person."

"Are you certain?"

Now, nearly all major yōkai clans had joined—the tengu, the demons, every worthy great yōkai was in the alliance—except for that one…

The Sage of the Gap's brow tightened further; the "person" Jia Ji spoke of was, in her eyes, more difficult than any yōkai she had ever encountered—the hardest bone of all.

She had even considered abandoning the effort to recruit her, letting her live out her life in solitude.

"If not her… it won't work…"

——

Ripples stirred in empty space; someone suddenly appeared.

Before him lay a sea of gold.

—A golden sea composed of millions of sunflowers.

(End of Chapter)