Chapter 41: Wash Up and Go to Sleep, Wait for the Nation

A wind swept through, reducing asphalt roads, steel-reinforced concrete skyscrapers, and metal streetlamps to dust, scattering on the breeze—everywhere lay devastation, the ground scarred as if clawed by ghostly hands, sliced by countless razor blades into grotesque wounds.

Even space bore its wounds, the void emitting mournful cries.

Then—

Before the two girls and the Sakura Group’s underlings, trembling in awe—

The demons, whom they had regarded as fearsome and terrifying monsters, shattered like rags caught in a grinder, exploding into countless fragments.

They didn’t even have time to scream.

The crimson wind came swiftly and vanished just as fast—in the blink of an eye, it was gone.

And with the wind, the demons who had spoken earlier…

All of them were killed, not even a speck of ash remained.

The scene was horrifying to mortals, terrifying even gods and spirits.

An abrupt crimson gale erupted, slaughtering nearly half the demons present—a spectacle of unspeakable horror.

Yet after the terrifying crimson wind passed—

Not a single demon fled.

The surviving demons trembled, their grotesque faces twisted with terror.

It wasn’t that they didn’t want to escape—they knew escape was useless; fleeing would mean instant death.

Because they couldn’t escape—they couldn’t outrun the adorable yet terrifying child. None among them could.

The audience shuddered, gasping in cold dread, their limbs numb with fear.

One second.

No!

Less than one second!

Half the demons were dead.

This sight chilled bones and skin, made legs tremble uncontrollably.

【Whose child is this? This is too terrifying.】

【So cruel—just for talking too much, this demon child slaughtered them all.】

【What kind of demon is this!!】

【No matter the race, children’s destructive power is always this horrifying.】

Countless viewers trembled—what kind of demon child was this? So powerful? It was incomparable, on an entirely different level.

For a moment, comments flooded the screen.

All were captivated by the horror of the demon child.

Many debated what kind of demon the child was, theories flying wildly.

Just as the demon child struck, sending ripples through the crowd—

One comment appeared, and viewers caught it.

The discussion halted.

【Tsuchimikado! The scholar is Tsuchimikado!!!】

The comment appeared, and the chat paused briefly.

Yunhu’s scenery couldn’t reflect sound, but that didn’t mean no one could read lips—many viewers were tech-savvy, some skilled in lip-reading.

He had read what the demons said.

【The dead demons called the scholar demon “Lord Tsuchimikado!”】

【Tsuchimikado! He’s Tsuchimikado!】

The lip-reader frantically hammered his keyboard, wild with excitement, on the verge of fainting, his soul alight with fervor.

At that moment, he was like Columbus discovering a new continent—ecstatic, unhinged.

The next second—

【Tsuchimikado? The famous Tsuchimikado?】

【Hey, don’t joke— are you sure the demon said “Tsuchimikado”?】

【What?! The scholar is Tsuchimikado?!】

Tsuchimikado, as one of Japan’s most famous demons, was known even to those who knew nothing of demons.

He was a great demon.

Suddenly—

Some viewers familiar with demon culture froze, their faces draining of color.

Wait—

If the scholar is Tsuchimikado—

And he’s following the carriage, attending it closely—

Then doesn’t that mean the master of the demons inside the carriage is…?

The comments exploded!

Like the lip-reader, viewers had connected Tsuchimikado to something else.

All at once, the audience fixed their eyes on the carriage in the livestream, typing comments at superhuman speed.

【No way… if he’s Tsuchimikado, then that means…】

【My god, I think I know who the master of the demons is.】

【It’s him! The master of the demons is him!】

Viewers unfamiliar with demons stared blankly at the flood of comments.

But their confusion didn’t last long—within the livestream’s barrage of comments, they suddenly understood.

Instantly, it wasn’t just the comments that exploded—

The entire livestream audience exploded.

…

Tokyo, Japan, Metropolitan Police Department conference room.

After the lip-reading translation revealed “Tsuchimikado”—

“What? He’s Tsuchimikado? Uh…”

Professor Nakata’s eyes bulged, he clutched his chest, and collapsed with a thud.

“Professor Nakata!!”

“Quick! Get him emergency aid!”

After frantic medical intervention—artificial respiration, pressing the philtrum, cardiac defibrillation—the medical team revived Professor Nakata.

The moment he came to, he acted like a madman.

He ripped off his oxygen mask, ignoring his still-weak condition, screaming wildly.

“I know!

I know who the master of the demons is!!

He’s one of Japan’s three legendary demons.

Shuten-dōji!

He’s Shuten-dōji!

The master of the demons is Shuten-dōji!”

Professor Nakata screamed hoarsely, incoherent with excitement, repeating it over and over.

Director Takahashi and Minister Saito, along with all senior officials present, turned pale, their faces shifting with shock.

“Shuten-dōji!!”

In Japan, countless demon legends exist—over a thousand kinds of demons, so even demon experts couldn’t claim to know them all.

But!

Among them, some demons were household names.

Even those ignorant of demons had heard their names.

Like Tsuchimikado, Yuki-onna, and others.

Among these, three demons stood out with thunderous fame—even three-year-olds knew them.

They were Japan’s three legendary demons, the supreme great demons!

And the Shuten-dōji Professor Nakata named—

Was one of them!

One of the three!

“Professor Nakata, are you serious? Not joking?”

Director Takahashi’s voice trembled as he swallowed hard.

If the master of the demons inside the carriage truly was one of the three legendary demons—Shuten-dōji—this would be catastrophic. Beyond proving demons truly existed…

It would elevate the horror of demons beyond imagination.

Remember, Japan’s three legendary demons were terrifying—but nowhere near as terrifying as the carriage’s procession in Yunhu.

A demon lord commanding yashin, upon appearing, the heavens and earth would bow, the sun and moon would circle…

Such power rivaled the gods themselves—capable of killing deities.

Demons slaughtering gods…

Just imagining it, everyone was chilled to the bone, trembling until their bodies convulsed.

To be honest.

At first, when they saw the carriage, they secretly believed it contained not a demon, but a deity.

It was only natural for a deity to rule over demon gods.

After all, the spectacle of the carriage’s emergence shook heaven and earth, moved ghosts and spirits—no demon could possibly rival it.

According to the Kojiki, the three most terrifying demons had been slain, though at great cost.

For instance, one of the three great demons: Yosuzume.

Emperor Toba had slain Yosuzume after deploying nearly six hundred thousand troops and nearly the entire nation’s onmyoji and monks.

One demon against six hundred thousand troops—such a feat was unprecedented.

But… this six-hundred-thousand-strong army was an ancient army, not a modern one.

To Takahashi and his team, an army without guns or cannons, no matter how large, was not particularly strong; with modern military power, any single division could easily sweep away six hundred thousand ancient troops.

Thus, Takahashi and his team held a sliver of hope—they might yet suppress the demons back into the demon world.

Unfortunately.

Their hopes were doomed to shatter.

The arrogant master of demons, who made heaven and earth bow, was not a deity at all—but one of the three great demons: Shuten-doji.

In other words.

The true power of the three great demons was not as recorded in ancient texts—or perhaps the ancient records were mistaken, misunderstood: perhaps those six hundred thousand troops were not human soldiers… but six hundred thousand divine soldiers?

The thought of fighting a demon who had made heaven and earth submit made Takahashi and his team want to curse.

This is bullshit. Let’s just wash up and go to sleep, waiting for the country’s fall.

…

(PS: Four updates today)