Chapter 125: The Strength of a Nation, Against Tamamo-no-Mae

"The modern era is still better."

A maid watching the livestream's blood-and-floating-corpses scene sighed.

Likui glanced at the fearful yet relieved expressions of her fellow maids beside her and could not help but smile wryly and shake her head.

Now you finally know, don't you, how wonderful your world is.

Others may not know what a fantastical world where everyone is extraordinary is like, but Likui does, because the Void Demon Realm is exactly such a world.

Only by living there and coming into contact with it does one realize that such a world holds no beauty—its cruelty means living in constant dread every day.

To live without dread, one must keep growing stronger and stronger, but the process of growing stronger is hardly easy—it is even more cruel, filled with countless tribulations and thorns; one careless moment and you may become another's stepping stone, and there is no time to rest, for the moment you rest you are doomed to be overtaken by others and left behind by those ahead.

A very bitter world, saturated with tribulation.

This is also why Likui, upon coming to this world, came to love this world, came to love the two-dimensional realm.

Because the two-dimensional realm is beautiful—even if the story worlds within are cruel, there is beauty; the protagonists have companions who never abandon them, have opportunities obtained with ease, and watching it all is so beautiful, so joyful, making one envious and intoxicated.

Subconsciously, Likui's gaze fixed on the hazy figure in the livestream; she shrank her neck in fear, her eyes filled with thick timidity and awe.

Ever since witnessing Master Konghai, she had known this world was powerful, and after seeing the War God lead three hundred thousand elite troops, she confirmed this world was extraordinarily remarkable and immensely powerful, but regarding the hazy figure, she was stunned—she had not imagined anyone in the world could be powerful to such a degree.

Having lived in this world for some days now, she had come to learn it had many histories of monsters and extraordinary legends, and she was very curious who this hazy figure might be.

While guessing, she did not notice the change in expression on her fellow maids beside her.

Obviously.

Many people, while trembling at the terrifying hazy figure, had also guessed who it was.

They knew who that haze was!

"Tamamo-no-Mae!!!"

Professor Zhongtian's voice, like a moan, shrieked out the name.

Everything came back—Tochigi Prefecture, the annihilation of a hundred thousand troops, the withering of three hundred thousand troops to half, and then the hazy figure's graceful form; every clue pointed to the identity of that haze.

It was her!

One of the three great monsters of ancient Japanese legend, and the only woman among the three great monsters, hailed as the unrivaled talent across all ages—Tamamo-no-Mae!

"So this is one of the three great monsters, the three supreme beings who stand above all ten thousand yokai."

Someone's breathing grew heavy to the point of suffocation.

Indeed, only the three great monsters could reach such a terrifying level—flipping a hand to destroy over forty extraordinary beings like heavenly soldiers and divine generals.

Once again, people felt that a fantastical world was not something beautiful—not only must one live in cruelty, but one must also constantly fear the intrusion of terrifying monsters.

No, can't think about it anymore.

Thinking further would make one's scalp tingle and bring on crushing suffocation.

To shift their attention, they focused again on the rivers-of-blood carnage, the tragic scene like the fall of heavenly gods.

Professor Beishan could not help but sigh with emotion.

"So the legend was true."

Legend has it that Tamamo-no-Mae once fought a heaven-shaking great battle at that place called the Continuing Wilds—the location of present-day Tochigi Prefecture; this battle was tragic, the dead beyond counting, with a hundred thousand dying in the very first wave alone, followed by a second wave, a third wave…

Wait!

Countless people suddenly realized—if the hazy figure was Tamamo-no-Mae, then according to the legendary records, the withering of most of the three hundred thousand troops was not the end.

The next moment.

Just as Professor Rubeishan and the others had thought, things were not over; the fall of the three hundred thousand troops was only the second wave, and humanity's crusade against Tamamo-no-Mae still had a third wave.

Like a jade-white hand turning over and descending, the three hundred thousand troops withered to less than half, on the verge of following the hundred thousand warriors into oblivion, all to be buried here.

"Tamamo-no-Mae!"

From the distant direction of Heian-kyo, the heavens were pierced through—there stood a valiant man wreathed in terrifying black-and-white radiance, his eyes flowing with yin and yang, untouched by the passage of time, unbending even as heaven and earth pressed upon him.

One step forward, and the sun, moon, Shanhe all retreated.

He was far too powerful, carrying yin and yang as he moved, making one feel dazed, as if this one step spanned not only distance but also endless years and the boundary between real and illusory, breaking through illusion and reality, transforming from that illusory branded memory into truth, stepping out from those distant thousand years into the present world.

This scene made one's heart pound with terror.

"He couldn't be Abe no Seimei, could he…"

Professor Beishan saw the valiant man's attire—it was the same onmyoji garb as that of Abe no Mitaka Maro.

Without a doubt, the valiant man was an onmyoji!

"Not Abe no Seimei." Professor Zhongtian shook his head; the valiant man's features bore a seven-tenths resemblance to the legendary Abe no Seimei, but he recalled that Abe no Seimei gave people a feeling that was not one of martial valor: "It should be Abe no Yasukuni."

Abe no Yasukuni, one of the three famous onmyoji of the Abe family, later the progenitor of the Tsuchimikado family, lived in the very Heian era in which Tamamo-no-Mae existed.

An onmyoji in no way inferior to Abe no Seimei!

Just at this moment.

With the appearance of the valiant man, people saw that from distant directions—the location of Heian-kyo, the location of Osaka, the location of Shikoku, the location of Hokkaido, and other places—pillar-like lights shot up to the heavens, like giant pillars supporting this world.

One could see that from the direction of Heian-kyo, an incomparably magnificent and resplendent grand palace rose, suspended in the nine heavens, bathed in the wind and thunder of the nine heavens, wreathed in earth, wind, water, and fire, as if what rose was an entire world.

"Heian-kyo!!!"

Everyone shrieked, eyes wide.

Wasn't this the Heian-kyo seen in the Supernatural world during the Yunhu Incident? The two were identical in size and shape.

Indeed, the earlier guess about Heian-kyo during the Yunhu Incident was correct—this was the true Heian-kyo; the Heian-kyo recorded in ancient texts was merely an outlying border town of the real Heian-kyo.

At this moment someone cried out.

"That light's location seems to be where Senso-ji stands."

The pillar-like beams of light shooting skyward seemed to follow no pattern, but upon careful observation one would discover that the locations of these lights corresponded precisely to the sites of ancient temples and shrines passed down through the ages—Senso-ji, Atsuta Shrine, Inari Shrine, Tennō-ji, and so on.

The next moment.

Under the gaze of countless eyes, over two hundred thousand troops surged out from Heian-kyo, merging with the remaining, blood-soaked three hundred thousand troops; the supreme killing formation that had been on the verge of collapse coalesced once again.

This time, the killing formation's power was far greater than before.

Because the number of troops forming the killing formation this time was not three hundred thousand, but reached five hundred thousand!

At the same time.

Beams of towering, heaven-piercing radiance from every direction were moving—one step, one realm.

Those were the transcendent beings from the ancient shrines and temples.

At this moment.

At this very moment.

Those who knew the legends and records understood that the most brutal great battle had come. Tamamo-no-Mae had forced out five hundred thousand elite troops, had forced every transcendent being from all the shrines and temples of Japan to act together!

This battle, the full might of the nation.

This battle encompassed every transcendent being of that era in Japan striking out at once.

……