"My son?" Yasuo couldn't believe his ears.
He wanted to pretend he hadn't heard anything, and didn't even want to hear Hanako's explanation, but Hanako suppressed her inner pain, grabbed her own son's neck with her hand, raised her neck, and spoke very loudly.
"Yasuo!"
He cried out in anguish, "When you gave me to Abe no Haru, I became pregnant with your child. I dared not let the child be born, and I used a samurai's secret method to seal the child's vitality until last year when the child was safely born! You have wronged me and wronged the child. You cannot doubt the child's identity, and you cannot be so crazy!"
"My child..." Yasuo was still murmuring softly when he suddenly looked up, his face cold: "Why can't I be crazy! I am the king of billions of ghosts, and in the future, I will be the master of the entire world!"
"But have you ever thought about this?"
Hanako's hand tightened: "You led the demons to destroy the underworld, and then you wanted to kill all the living people in Japan and turn them into demons, but demons cannot reproduce, and Japan will eventually perish... You're insane, you must be insane, that's why you came up with the idea of making the entire Japanese population a soldier. Have you forgotten what happened seventy years ago? Are you going to repeat the mistakes of our ancestors?"
"Take back your words, because after I win, no one will be allowed to speak to me like that again, including you!"
Yasuo's voice grew colder and colder. Hanako stared at him, her face flashing with disappointment. Finally, she closed her eyes, raised her hand, and with a slight squeeze from her slender fingers, honed from years of swordsmanship practice, the baby's neck cracked.
That wasn't the end of it. Before the baby breathed its last, Hanako's palm unleashed a torrent of sword energy that shattered the baby's entire body, rendering it unable to even transform into a ghost.
Her chest heaved violently, and she wanted to let out a vicious laugh, but her delicate body suddenly went limp, and she fell into the arms of the middle-aged man beside her...
No! My child!
Yasuo staggered back, coughing up blood as he stared at the middle-aged man with bloodshot eyes, roaring, "Abe no Haru, you better unleash your fury on me!"
Abe no Haru ignored Yasuo and tenderly stroked Hanako's cheek.
He had known all along that the baby wasn't his child, but... he knew that Hanako harbored fantasies about Yasuo and treated the child like her own life.
He loved Hanako and was willing to let the child live for her sake, and now, finally, that eyesore is gone.
"It's okay, Hanako."
An Peichun smiled slightly: "From now on, it will just be you and me. We can have many children of our own."
"You knew all along, didn't you?"
"Yes, but... I love you."
Abe Haru's smile grew increasingly benevolent, yet the power emanating from him surged with ever greater terror: "Do you know, Hanako, I've lived for a very long time, and I've had many names, such as 'Abe Seimei'..."
"You?" Hanako's eyes widened.
"Hiss..." The ghosts outside also retreated one after another. Just one name was enough to make thousands of ghosts turn deathly pale.
Abe no Seimei was the most powerful Onmyōji (yin-yang master) in Japanese history. During his lifetime, he was highly regarded by the Emperor and powerful ministers, and at the age of 79, he was granted the title of "Hōsei-in." After his death, through the efforts of several generations of his descendants, he rose from a junior fourth-rank astronomer to the highest rank of junior first-rank minister, leading to the famous saying in the Edo period: "One may not know Minamoto no Yoshitsune, but one knows Lord Seimei."
He squinted at Yasuo outside and continued to Hanako, "You know, you look exactly like my first shikigami. You might think I'm using you as a substitute, but what does it matter? I still can't beat Yasuo and all those big oni. I'm going to die today. I'm telling you the truth before I die, so that our love can be a little purer."
"No! Don't!" Hanako grabbed Abe no Haru (Abe no Seimei).
"It's okay."
Abe Haru smiled as warmly as a spring breeze, "Just consider it as sacrificing yourself for the country. Your husband is a hero."
The scene before them was so moving that all the Onmyoji around them lowered their eyes and could no longer bear to watch.
Outside, Yasuo and the other ghosts were filled with rage—the ghosts disliked seeing human emotions, and Yasuo was unwilling to see the feelings between Abe no Haru and Hanako.
Yasuo still possesses the mind of a living person, but... this is practically cheating on him!
"You all, give this to me..."
Yasuo wanted to order the execution of Abe no Haru, the destruction of the underworld, and the slaughter of all the living, but he hesitated for a moment before saying, "Spare Hanako." Even though a woman had become the protagonist of this unprecedented war, while simultaneously turning him into a laughingstock, he still refused to kill Hanako…
He slowly retreated, making room for the surging giant ghosts, because the entrance to the inner world was very small, only able to accommodate an attack of less than a hundred people.
"Kill! Kill! Kill!" The giant ghosts became excited.
Suddenly, a long laugh came from behind: "Wonderful! Wonderful!"
The little ghosts behind them turned into wisps of green smoke, and some weaker monsters were beaten to a pulp and died beyond any hope of survival. A man wearing a black fitted trench coat and a silver-white mask was causing trouble everywhere, laughing and mocking others: "Does every major event have to be interspersed with romance? I say, do you little devils have to be so sentimental? You're acting like human beings."
"Who are you?" Yasuo and Abe asked at the same time.
The masked man completely ignored Abe no Haru and Yasuo's questions, and gave Yasuo a sneer: "And you, you want to turn all the living people in Japan into ghosts? Don't you know that ghosts are eunuchs, fathers-in-law, and mute things? Excuse me, I'm talking about Japanese ghosts, because although the ghosts in our country cannot reproduce, they can still be real male ghosts, unlike you who are all castrated."
Yasuo roared in fury: "What did you say?!"
"I said that ghosts are a race that cannot reproduce. Their biological parents are humans. If you wipe out all the living people, the ghosts will fight each other until only one is left... Tsk tsk, this scene is too beautiful for me to bear!"
Yasuo suddenly made a move, and the masked man also rushed over, raising his hand to clash head-on with Yasuo.
Neither of the two small worlds manifested; they collided in each other's palms. The masked man spat out a mouthful of blood and used the recoil to rush into the weaker group of monsters, leaving Yasuo standing in place.
Is that all you've got?
Yasuo made a sarcastic remark, then his expression suddenly changed drastically, and as he staggered backward, the veins on his body bulged out.
He had always possessed a dragon-like aura, but now it seemed as if a dragon's tendon had been pulled out.
"My secret weapon!" He watched in horror as the masked man wreaked havoc among the ghosts, shouting angrily, "This skill... you're Fang Zong!"
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