Chapter 224

"Picking up from where we left off, that Eirin Yagokoro is truly something else..."

Jia Ji took long strides to lead the way, with Yukari Yakumo on one side and Yuuka Kazami on the other. Neither interrupted as he introduced the information on the Sage of the Moon they were about to seek.

"According to reliable sources, Eirin Yagokoro is ten thousand, or even ninety thousand times older than the two of you combined, and yet at that age, she hasn't developed senility. She is truly the most astonishing elder and senior in this world..."

The bright moonlight filtered through the tall, dense bamboo leaves above, casting fine, silvery light.

The place they were currently in was a famous bamboo forest in the Gao Cao District. It was once renowned for the paper and ink made from its bamboo, but at some unknown point, it had become a place where one could enter but never leave. Having claimed hundreds of lives, it was known to the locals as the Demon Bamboo Forest—the Bamboo Forest of the Lost.

Its reputation was neither too big nor too small, blending perfectly into this era where strange legends, demons, and ghosts were rampant. The strong were not interested, and the weak could not discern the truth, so there were few signs of human life around the forest.

However, as long as the information expert Yukari Yakumo searched her own memory, she could quickly find this place.

Yet, her gaps did not seem to work well within this Bamboo Forest of the Lost; no matter how she searched, she could not find the Eientei that Jia Ji spoke of.

"According to unreliable sources, two hundred million years ago, during the Cretaceous period when dinosaurs roamed, Omoikane Yagokoro once guided the primitive human Pickle..."

"No, how do you even know about things like that?"

Seeing that Jia Ji had even dug up information of such absurd proportions, Yukari Yakumo felt once again that the amount of information she possessed was tragic compared to his.

As the surrounding environment gradually changed, white mist began to permeate and thicken. The bamboo in the forest grew at an incline, and the dense leaves obscured the sky. The forest was always filled with mist, appearing deep and mysterious.

They were far taller than ordinary bamboo; it was difficult to describe them as mere bamboo anymore, so they could only be called bamboo trees. Generally speaking, they were all Moso bamboo with tenacious vitality.

Although there were small paths between the overlapping bamboo, the ground was slightly tilted, making it easy to lose one's sense of balance. Even if one intended to walk straight, they would unknowingly return to their original spot. It was deep, quiet, shrouded in mist, and difficult to navigate.

This area seemed isolated from the outside world. The scorching heat of summer could not penetrate the forest, and the seasons here seemed disordered; not only did spring bamboo shoots grow, but one could also see wondrous glowing bamboo at night, and there was even...

"Bamboo flowers?! This, this is not good..."

At some unknown moment, pale bamboo flowers appeared in Jia Ji's field of vision, making him gasp in surprise.

They had actually happened upon bamboo flowers that only bloomed once every sixty years?

Oh, wait.

He glanced at Yuuka Kazami, who was admiring the flowers nearby. Sensing that she seemed to be in a good mood, he guessed that she must have used some ability to make the flowers bloom, causing this Bamboo Forest of the Lost to flower ahead of schedule.

No blade, safe to consume.

"This place is already... another world."

Yukari Yakumo was, after all, a Youkai Sage; no matter how lackluster she might be, she could still tell the reality of this place after stepping into the bamboo forest. Feeling it out carefully, she said quite definitively: "The universe here is different from the outside universe. Time is in a constant loop. The level of the caster might be even more formidable than ours."

"Need you ask? Of course!"

Although both were sages, the gold content of the Moon's prefix was far higher than that of a youkai.

They had tested it the moment they arrived: this bamboo forest had the ability to restore itself. Not only would destroyed objects be repaired and reset in the blink of an eye, but the space above, below, and all around was constantly changing. The laws of time and space from the outside world were ineffective in this bamboo forest.

Not to mention the power consumed, the calculations involved were completely beyond what a mortal could imagine. Even a Youkai Sage whose computational power was strong enough to calculate the length of the Sanzu River was secretly startled.

Eirin Yagokoro... she was definitely at the Frenzy Rank, no doubt about it.

Upon entering this Bamboo Forest of the Lost, all that met the eye was bamboo—boundless and endless, with no known end, far exceeding its proper scope.

When they stepped into this bamboo forest, they could immediately understand the unreasonable gap between the inside and outside. But at most, this would only cause them trouble, rather than leaving them helpless or waiting for death.

With Yukari Yakumo for mechanics, Yuuka Kazami for raw power, and Jia Ji for information, this team could not only traverse the bamboo forest, but even if they went directly to play a friendly match against Eirin Yagokoro, they could give the God of Wisdom a severe blow.

As for Yuuka Kazami, she had recovered her strength just minutes after leaving the Saigyouji mansion. Although she didn't have the Sunflower Field by her side, it was merely the loss of the skill to summon another Dream Yuuka and the lack of the Sunflower Field's support; her normal combat power remained at the peak.

"Shall we start breaking the barrier now?" Yukari Yakumo asked. With the methods of the three of them, they would at most be slightly hindered by this bamboo forest; it was far from enough to stop them.

Not to mention Yukari Yakumo's boundary power overturning the barrier, nor Yuuka Kazami using a super-wide light cannon to burst it, even Jia Ji could use his newly awakened pressure-point skill to find the earth veins and spiritual energy converging from all directions and shatter it with a single strike.

Although it was a bit difficult, if it were just to turn this node into a secret hole of this small world and break it, Jia Ji could still manage it.

But regardless of which plan it was, Jia Ji did not adopt it, but instead chose...

"Heading north all the way."

That large row of the Big Dipper was still shining in the sky.

Perhaps the presence of the star-using method was so strong that people often forgot that these stars had another widely known function in ancient times—guiding the way.

And for Jia Ji, since he could see the Big Dipper, it meant that the "Big Dipper" could also see him through the bamboo forest's barrier, so it was impossible to get lost again.

Walking forward for a while longer, Jia Ji suddenly stopped, his expression shifting. He extended an index finger, aiming it deep into the dense bamboo forest, where a hidden gaze was spying on them.

"Tewi Inaba, it's you watching us, isn't it!"

The white mist that obscured their vision and hid their figures suddenly shuddered, and a figure as fast as lightning flashed past, heading toward the deeper shadows.

However, with the dynamic vision of a martial artist and a great youkai, it was easy to discover that the black shadow was actually a little girl with rabbit ears.

After Jia Ji pointed her out, her figure turned in an instant, and the speed she burst out with was not even inferior to the two great tengu they had seen that day.

However...

Boom!

Thunder suddenly sounded in the bamboo forest.

"Aiya-iya-iya..." Sensing the huge figure rapidly approaching from behind, the rabbit-eared girl ran for her life while screaming: "You scared me to death!"

Tewi Inaba, who took the wrong turn in the bamboo forest and was pursued by a dark ninja (crossed out), a dark martial artist.

(End of chapter)