Dragon Country, Jizhou, Longjing.
Su Yueqing had just finished cleaning Mochuan's dormitory. He took off his apron and hung it on the hanger, then walked out of the dormitory carrying a bag of garbage.
As he locked the door, a pocket of a jacket hanging in the bedroom, belonging to Mochuan, shone slightly. Then, a beam of light flew out of the window from the dormitory, broke through the barrier of Longjing University, and flashed towards the east.
"Oh! Right! Forgot to close the window!" Su Yueqing slapped his forehead and reopened the door, intending to go upstairs to close the window.
...
"Why... why didn't the Yata no Kagami mirror respond to my summons? I clearly have half of its fragments in my hand?"
Toujou Kiyoshi's face became extremely twisted. He gritted his teeth and used his ability to cut off another piece of finger from the Emperor's corpse and threw it into the brazier. Then he sprinkled some unknown powder, muttering an incantation for a while.
The blood began to boil again.
"Hahaha! This time it will definitely..."
Buzz—
The jade fragment, stained with dark red blood, rose into the air, then transformed into a beam of light and ascended.
"Toujou Kiyoshi..." Itagaki Seishiro said, his face dark as he looked at the small hole in the ceiling. "Is this your so-called guarantee?"
But before Itagaki Seishiro could finish, two beams of light emanated from the magic circle, and countless points of light slowly solidified in mid-air.
"This is..."
"That's right..." A hint of madness flashed in Toujou Kiyoshi's eyes. "We have successfully communicated with the realm of the gods..."
...
All the rebels immediately gathered at the entrance of the Crown Prince's mansion, but they were not there to deal with Crown Prince Hongde, but to face something else—the miasma of ghostly energy that enveloped the entire Ping'an Street.
As a native son of Neon, the rebels knew very well what they were about to face. This level of ghostly energy was probably enough for a large-scale Hyakki Yako.
"Why haven't we contacted the ability user guild yet? Without ability users who are skilled in exorcism or specifically cultivate ghosts, how can we deal with this natural and man-made disaster with firearms?" The leading officer's face was dark. Although his tone was majestic, his slightly trembling legs and hands gripping the katana clearly indicated that not fleeing was already his limit.
The reprimanded deputy, with a mournful face, replied, "Major General Yamashita, Grand General Toujou Kiyoshi sealed all external communication signals in Tokyo before our uprising. He also sent naval units to block the cross-sea bridge and the sea. Now we can only contact the ability user guild in Tokyo..."
"Damn it... Why is there suddenly a Hyakki Yako..." Thinking of the troop of spectral Yamato cavalry that had just galloped past (this guy might have vision problems), Yamashita Fengwen could still recall the tragic fate of the eighth-level ability user of the Zhishang Yunshui style—his chest was directly trampled by a ghostly horse, leaving a large indentation, and he was now lying behind, barely breathing.
"Did Master Toujou Kiyoshi reply?"
"No..."
"Hurry up and urge the people from the Tokyo ability user guild! Tell them that if they don't want Tokyo to become a Rashomon, they must come to Ping'an Street immediately, right away!"
Suddenly, ghostly energy began to gather and swirl at the westernmost end of Ping'an Street.
"They're coming! All units, be alert!"
...
Shuten Doji felt the surge of ghostly energy and said, "The time has come! We will now absorb ghostly energy and display the authority of the Oni King!"
"I never expected it... The dragon slayer has become the evil dragon..." Mochuan shook his head, said nothing, directly activated [Hellwalker: Crimson Moon] and deployed [Endless Hell].
The moment the evil ghost mask appeared, the surrounding temperature immediately began to drop, and dew immediately formed on the leaves and flowers.
And with the appearance of [Endless Hell], the previously silent Ping'an Street gradually became a breeding ground for evil spirits and great demons. Countless ghosts, tsukumogami, great demons, and魍魉 began to appear from every corner of Tokyo.
Crows flew and danced in the sky, gradually polluting the pure black sky into a chaotic color filled with wailing.
The extremely dense ghostly energy caused most of the people, who were mainly ordinary humans, to gradually lose their minds and finally collapse on the spot. Only ability users and those with strong willpower could barely maintain consciousness.
"Oni-kuruma, welcome the lord." Shuten Doji patted Mochuan's lantern. Then, as Mochuan lifted the lantern's prohibition, a large number of ghosts were released from the lantern. Thousands of spirits densely gathered, forming an additional dark red mist within the purple mist of ghostly energy.
A black wooden carriage inlaid with gold, with a giant鬼面, slowly emerged from the mist. The鬼面 nodded slightly at Mochuan and said, "Welcome, Oni King."
The dark red mist followed the Oni-kuruma and spoke in unison: "Welcome, Oni King!!!"
"Is this the power of an Oni King..." Mochuan felt a more peculiar sensation under these circumstances. Although his [Hellwalker]'s passive had dropped by three to four hundred levels, he felt that he had established a connection with these hundreds of ghosts. All the ghosts were continuously channeling spiritual energy and ghostly energy to Mochuan, constantly feeding back to Mochuan's spiritual energy and abilities.
Mochuan stepped onto the Oni-kuruma step by step, while Shuten Doji picked up the reins and whip of the Oni-kuruma, flicking them forcefully: "Hitch up!!!"
At the other end of the reins, various strange and twisted ghosts and demons appeared at some unknown time. They either pulled or dragged, bit or pushed, carrying the entire Oni-kuruma forward.
The miasma of ghostly energy and the netherworld green flames within [Endless Hell] followed the hundred-ghost procession eastward along Ping'an Street...
(Mochuan's plan was simple: during this coup, after the military eliminated the Emperor and Prince Mingde, when everyone was gathered on Ping'an Street, he would launch the Hyakki Yako and take them all down at once.)
...
Meanwhile, in Nishikōji, Tokyo.
Zhang Hanshan was pulled ashore by He Lanxin from a small fishing boat. The two of them breathed a sigh of relief as they looked at the warships heading towards a burning ship on the sea.
Zhang Hanshan and He Lanxin had finally been sent to Tenkō Port under the secret protection of the Zhang and He families. However, when they arrived in Tokyo, they found the entire city surrounded and patrolled by small squadrons of warships, and any approaching ships were turned away.
Finally, the two of them came up with a plan: they bought a dilapidated fishing boat in Nagoya, set it on fire, and when the warships were attracted to it, they took a fast boat to the port.
However...
Both Zhang Hanshan and He Lanxin had spent some time on the front lines against demonic beasts and in conflict zones. As they saw the smoke and heard the sounds of gunfire emanating from the city, they seemed to understand something instantly.
"We've come at a very bad time..." Zhang Hanshan scratched his head.
"Let's contact Mochuan first and ask what's going on. If that doesn't work, we'll go find him."
Just as Zhang Hanshan was about to pick up his phone, it suddenly trembled, and then he looked up in the direction of Ping'an Street.
"This dense ghostly energy..."
"Hyakki Yako?"