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Join the ServerAbe Haruha’s expression froze for a moment after hearing the news, but the conflict between deities was beyond her intervention. Her immediate concern was a more pressing matter.
“If that’s the case, then it’s going to be troublesome. Oh, my opponent has arrived again. I didn’t expect to confront them so soon,” Abe Haruha remarked, offering a greeting to the evil spirit within the idol before vanishing from the spot.
His words stemmed from his recent detection of someone breaching the shrine’s barrier. The energy fluctuations were all too familiar to him.
In the most expansive area of the shrine, a lone figure descended from the sky, landing precisely there.
The person who entered the shrine was undoubtedly Bai Mengqi. The evil spirit didn’t require her attention; Kikyo had already declared her intent to personally purge this malevolent entity from the lives of the Japanese people.
****
The night was utterly devoid of light, with neither moon nor stars visible, completely obscured by heavy, oppressive clouds.
“I didn’t expect us to meet again so soon,” Abe Haruha’s voice echoed, as he, too, appeared in the open space.
Bai Mengqi merely cast a fleeting glance his way before leisurely surveying her surroundings.
“The malevolent aura within this shrine is truly formidable,” Bai Mengqi scoffed. “You, a supposed S-rank sorcerer, don’t you realize that worshipping an evil spirit inevitably brings retribution?”
Abe Haruha offered no comment on the matter.
“Our positions differ; further words are merely wasted breath,” Abe Haruha declared. “Were you one of Japan’s supernatural practitioners, viewing this from our nation’s perspective, our actions would be entirely justified. Come, let us resume the battle we left unfinished yesterday.”
No sooner had Abe Haruha spoken than intricate hand seals had already formed in his grasp.
At that very moment, all the lanterns within the shrine extinguished, plunging the entire space into profound darkness.
Bai Mengqi’s lips curved upward slightly. With a flick of her finger, nine runes, like shooting stars, encircled her, emitting a faint golden glow in the darkness.
Abe Haruha’s Onmyodo spell was already complete. This time, their battle would not unfold as it had yesterday.
“Onmyodo: Myriad Demons Unleashed!”
The ground suddenly fractured, opening into eerie, dark fissures as if tearing open a path to the underworld. Pale, skeletal arms of evil spirits clawed their way out of the earth, reeking of decay as they reached for Bai Mengqi.
Bai Mengqi scoffed, a powerful golden light emanating from her body. The moment the ghostly hands touched the golden radiance, they disintegrated into black smoke.
“Is that all you’ve got? Your ghost-summoning tricks are useless against me. Why don’t you summon that monster from yesterday to play with?” Bai Mengqi mocked.
As her words faded, she formed a hand seal with her right hand, and golden chains shot forth from the void, striking directly at Abe Haruha.
Abe Haruha’s form flickered, splitting into several afterimages, preventing the chains from locking onto his true body.
The first wave of chains missed their mark.
The real Abe Haruha had already leaped onto the shrine’s rooftop. Eleven talismans materialized before him, fanning out behind his back.
He chanted a silent incantation: *”Rin, Pyo, Toh, Sha, Kai, Jin, Retsu, Zai, Zen!”*
They ignited with an eerie blue flame, transforming into twelve Shikigami, each distinct yet similar in appearance, surrounding Bai Mengqi completely.
Each of these twelve Shikigami possessed immense power, capable of contending with ordinary S-rank practitioners.
A hint of surprise flickered in Bai Mengqi’s eyes.
‘To be able to simultaneously control twelve Shikigami comparable to S-rank… It seems he’s truly serious now.’
She dared not be careless. Immediately, she summoned her wooden sword from her spatial ring.
Golden lightning patterns illuminated the red sword blade, flashing with dazzling golden light in the darkness.
“Kill her,” Abe Haruha commanded.
Upon receiving the order, the twelve Shikigami simultaneously lunged at Bai Mengqi. Bai Mengqi’s sword moved with the grace of a dragon, each strike imbued with the power of thunder.
Though Shikigami were a type of spectral entity, Bai Mengqi’s power held a strong suppressive effect against such beings.
With a flash of golden lightning, one Shikigami was instantly struck. It let out a horrific shriek before turning to ash on the spot.
‘Her power has such a strong suppressive effect on spirits? While it differs somewhat from the Daoist arts of the Xia Kingdom, it possesses the same characteristics. What kind of power is this?’ Abe Haruha’s apprehension toward Bai Mengqi intensified as he watched his Shikigami obliterated.
He also sensed that after only a day, Bai Mengqi seemed even stronger than before.
He had initially believed the people he sent during the day could at least delay Bai Mengqi, or at worst, inflict some injury upon her.
In truth, had Bai Mengqi not broken through to the mid-stage of the Foundation Establishment realm, she might not have been able to withstand such a barrage of attacks.
One of the Shikigami, like a phantom, ambushed Bai Mengqi from behind. Facing so many powerful Shikigami, Bai Mengqi could not remain entirely unscathed.
With a sharp *crack*, the magical barrier at Bai Mengqi’s side was torn by the Shikigami’s power, leaving a wound on her left arm.
This was likely the first time Bai Mengqi had been injured by a supernatural practitioner in a long while. Even if the wound was minuscule, it was enough to demonstrate Abe Haruha’s formidable strength.
“Interesting. This is the first time I’ve been injured in my entire history.”
Bai Mengqi glanced at her arm.
She understood that she couldn’t engage in a war of attrition with her opponent, so she suddenly plunged her peach wood sword into the ground.
With the sword as its epicenter, countless electric serpents surged across the ground, instantly engulfing all the remaining Shikigami.
The remaining eleven Shikigami were all caught, screaming in agony as they were electrocuted. Ultimately, they reverted to their original forms and vanished into ash.
These constructs, after all, were not true evil spirits and possessed virtually no resistance to Bai Mengqi’s power.
Abe Haruha’s expression shifted slightly. He hadn’t expected his methods to be so easily broken.
Just as he hesitated, wondering whether to continue, Bai Mengqi’s figure suddenly vanished.
As he prepared to form another hand seal, Bai Mengqi’s figure abruptly disappeared from her original position.
“Don’t even think about casting another spell!”
Abe Haruha hastily looked up at the sound, only to see Bai Mengqi descending like a deity. Her peach wood sword, charged with immense lightning, cleaved directly downwards.
In a critical moment, Abe Haruha bit his finger, drawing a blood-red barrier before him. The barrier instantly shielded him.
The two powers collided at close range, immediately unleashing a resounding roar.
“Boom!”
The shockwave generated by the clash of their two forces shattered everything around the shrine.
After the dust settled, Abe Haruha staggered back several steps, while Bai Mengqi landed lightly, a trace of blood seeping from the corner of her mouth. In a direct confrontation, she was still slightly weaker than Abe Haruha in terms of raw power.
The Great Immortaless’s judgment was correct; Bai Mengqi would need to absorb at least three more Immortal Crystal fragments to truly overpower Abe Haruha.
“It seems you’re still a step behind me,” Abe Haruha remarked, a confident smile gracing his lips.
Just then, a clear ringing of bells suddenly echoed from the darkness.
The sound made Abe Haruha involuntarily look toward the shrine’s entrance.
There, a gaunt figure, shimmering with golden light, had appeared at the Yasukuni Shrine, holding a bow and arrow.
The power emanating from her body dispelled all the evil forces in the area.
With a look of cold indifference, she gazed at the idol, then drew her bow and aimed at it.
A dense divine power permeated her arrow.
“Evil spirit entrenched over the people, today is the day of your demise,” the gaunt figure stated coldly.
The evil spirit within the idol seemed to sense the threat, letting out a piercing shriek.
“Miko, we knew all along this had something to do with you! You, a revered Japanese deity, helping a foreign national against us? Do you still care about this country?” A terrifying evil spirit surged forth from the idol.
These evil spirits resembled a mass of flesh, fused together. As the monstrous evil spirit emerged from the idol, the entire shrine began to tremble violently.
On the other side, Abe Haruha, feeling this surge of power, immediately tried to rush past, but Bai Mengqi intercepted him.
However, Bai Mengqi would not give him the chance. With a flick of her wooden sword, a golden lightning bolt stretched across Abe Haruha’s path.
“Your opponent is me. You’d best focus on fighting me.”
Abe Haruha certainly did not want the evil spirit within the idol to be killed. Although he had long anticipated Bai Mengqi’s arrival to deal with the evil spirit, he hadn’t expected the legendary deity to appear as well.
A hint of anxiety flashed in his eyes. He was no longer in the mood to fight Bai Mengqi. He quickly formed hand seals: “Ghost Art: Shadow Clone Jutsu!”
This Abe Haruha truly seemed to dabble in a variety of techniques.
Of course, Japanese sorcery originally evolved from Daoist arts; only the methods of execution differed, but the underlying principles remained the same.
Instantly, three clones separated from Abe Haruha’s main body. Two of them lunged at Bai Mengqi, while the original continued to charge towards the idol’s location.
Bai Mengqi scoffed, lightly tapping her sword tip on the ground. A golden light shot up, intercepting both clones. These clone techniques were too crude; they couldn’t possibly deceive Bai Mengqi’s divine sense.
“I told you, your opponent is me,” Bai Mengqi reiterated, transforming into a golden streak of light and attacking Abe Haruha directly.
Abe Haruha was once again blocked.
Meanwhile, the evil spirits within the idol had almost completely engulfed the entire pavilion. They seemed intent on devouring Kikyo in this manner.
However, if the sealing formation hadn’t been broken, Kikyo might truly have been unable to kill them. But today, the evil spirits had lost most of their power.
The evil spirits’ current strength was truly no match for Kikyo’s divine power.
“Vanish!” Kikyo’s arrow had already left the bowstring.
The arrow, gleaming with sacred light, tore through the darkness, striking directly at the heart of the idol.
The black aura on the idol’s surface surged wildly, forming a thick barrier to block the attack.
The arrow collided with the black aura, erupting in a blinding flash of light. The entire shrine swayed precariously under the impact of this force, roof tiles scattering and falling.
On the other side, Abe Haruha’s face grew even more anxious as he sensed the idol was about to be destroyed.
“No!” Abe Haruha let out a heart-wrenching cry.
He watched helplessly as cracks began to appear on the idol’s surface, with black energy constantly oozing from them.
In his desperation, Abe Haruha once again summoned the Eight-Headed Serpent.
That same evil gate reappeared. Once it swung open, the Eight-Headed Serpent, its body exuding negative energy, writhed into Bai Mengqi’s view.
This time, however, the Eight-Headed Serpent was noticeably more powerful than yesterday, and it possessed its own will.
“Little girl, you had a good time beating me up yesterday, didn’t you, Abe? Can I do whatever I want today?” the Eight-Headed Serpent asked Abe Haruha, speaking human words after its emergence.
“Kill her. Do not let her leave Japan. I grant you one day of freedom,” Abe Haruha said coldly.
With that, the chains binding the Eight-Headed Serpent snapped.
This entity had unleashed seventy percent of the Eight-Headed Serpent’s power, making it significantly stronger than yesterday.
Bai Mengqi immediately felt the pressure intensify.
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