Chapter 86 "This time it's Yan Sheng."...
Things have been a bit turbulent lately.
After exchanging for what he wanted, Yoriichi Tsugikuni received the news from a villager he knew.
The man said worriedly, "I went to visit friends in the next village before, and they said that bad guys have appeared there, specifically targeting sixteen- or seventeen-year-old boys and girls."
"Several people have gone missing, and the murderer has still not been caught."
"So the village has been under martial law recently, and we've told the children not to go out alone. Fortunately, apart from the army, no strangers have been seen approaching during this time. They probably haven't gone this way."
As he said this, he casually handed a bag of pine cones to Yoriichi, then looked behind him with a puzzled expression: "Isn't Aori with you today?"
He asked the question on a whim, but when he received no answer, he realized that Yoriichi Tsugikuni's expression had become serious.
Villager: "..."
Realizing he had asked a stupid question, he awkwardly scratched his head: "You live up in the mountains, you'll be fine."
These words were not merely meant to reassure Yoriichi Tsugikuni.
A year ago, the two cities began to fight, and the world suddenly fell into chaos. Ruthless bandits took advantage of the chaos to plunder, and the people suffered greatly.
However, because their village was very remote, it was not affected much until a group of bandits heard a rumor from somewhere that there was a treasure hidden on Sheyun Mountain, and they raided the entire village at the foot of the mountain in the dark.
Then they enslaved the entire village to start searching the mountain. They searched for two or three days in this frustrating way, but they still couldn't find the legendary treasure.
Villager: "..."
Just as the bandits were enraged and about to kill each other in revenge, Yoriichi Tsugikuni appeared as if a divine warrior had descended from the heavens.
He and Azhi were on the mountain when they saw an unusual fire suddenly breaking out down below. Listening closely, they could hear the cries of women and children, and they realized something was wrong.
After Yoriichi Tsugikuni left Ori in a safe place and went down to investigate, no one saw how he made his move, and the gang of robbers were knocked unconscious and tied up.
No kidding, the villagers thought they were dreaming.
In short, it was Yoriichi Tsugikuni, who quietly settled on the remote and sparsely populated Mount Setsun with Aori and was considered extremely strange by the villagers, who saved the entire village.
From then on, Yoriichi and Aori established a closer relationship with the villagers.
Attracted by the treasure, the bandits who robbed and plundered were unwilling to send anyone with the villagers to search the treacherous Sheyun Mountain. Instead, they simply held hostages and waited in the village.
This is enough to prove that, apart from Yoriichi and Aori, unless someone has a mental problem, ordinary people would not easily go into the mountains.
After the bandits were dealt with, for some reason, rumors suddenly spread that the villagers at the foot of Sheyun Mountain were incredibly powerful, and any thugs or bandits who went there would be doomed.
From then on, thugs and robbers avoided the village, and the villagers became much more honest and simple.
It was with these considerations in mind that the villagers said those words, but safety is something that cannot be taken lightly, and besides, everyone in the village can see how much Yoriichi cares about Aori.
The villagers, who had originally planned to invite Yoriichi and Aori to stay for a meal after not seeing them for so long, decided against it now.
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Actually, Yoriichi Tsugikuni originally wanted to bring Ori along this time. However, because he hadn't been home for over half a month, he had a lot of things to take care of once he got back.
First, the room needs to be ventilated by opening the windows. It's been so many days since anyone lived here that it's covered in a thick layer of dust. We also need to take a lot of things out to wash or air them out...
After cleaning the house, there's still a lot to do outside, such as cleaning the newly grown moss on the steps, trimming the grass that's growing haphazardly and affecting the path, and chasing away all sorts of small animals that are about to take over the house...
After all that, even though the work was done over two days, Aori was still exhausted from just running around Yoriichi and handing him tools...
So this time, she naturally took the opportunity to be lazy and stayed on the mountain.
At that moment, Yoriichi Tsugikuni was wiping her hands with a damp towel, while Aori sat lazily, panting, showing no intention of getting up: "You can go and come back quickly without me."
Seeing that she was really tired, and worried that her feet would hurt at night, Ji Guoyuan rubbed Azhi's head and didn't insist.
However, Azhi didn't stay idle afterward.
She was entrusted with a glorious and sacred task—Yoriichi had instructed her before leaving to watch over the small pot of fish soup that was bubbling away.
And I just told her to be careful not to let it burn dry.
Azhi can easily handle this task.
The firewood crackled and popped as she stirred the small pot with a wooden spoon from time to time. The warm firelight shone on her, making her look quite presentable.
Azhi took a small sip, her eyes immediately lighting up. She exclaimed happily, "The soup I made is so delicious!"
000: [...]
If I remember correctly, the task recipient did everything from preparing the ingredients to adding the seasonings to this soup, right?
Azhi was unhappy: "But in the end, I was the one watching the heat. You don't understand; the cooking time for soup is also very important."
000: [Okay, okay.]
The firewood was almost burned out, the soup was just right, everything was perfect.
The room was warm and cozy from the heat, a temperature that made one want to relax and feel their eyelids grow heavier.
Such tranquility is easily shattered.
When the alarm suddenly lit up, the blood-red dot also exceeded the system's safe range.
This is a ravenous, cannibalistic monster.
000 shouted: 【—A-Zhi!】
Azhi was startled and abruptly straightened her slightly slumped body, not angry at all: 【W-What's wrong?】
She rubbed her eyes, glanced at the fragrant, steaming pot, and yawned: "The fish soup's fine."
She was so frightened that she thought the pot had overturned.
To be precise, Azhi didn't know that ghosts existed in this world.
000's voice was a little weak: "Do you remember, when I first brought you into this world, I mentioned that this world was very dangerous..."
Azhi blinked dazedly, then thought for a moment with her slow-witted little head: [Did you say that?]
000: Now is not the time to act cute.
It used to fantasize that the mission would end quickly so that Azhi wouldn't have to see the ghost, but it turned out that it couldn't, and it couldn't find a suitable time to tell her the truth.
Now is the right time.
But 000 doesn't know whether to tell Azhi directly that there are ghosts in this world, or not to tell her yet and let her witness it with her own eyes later. Which of these two approaches would be less of a shock to her?
Actually, rather than worrying about this issue, we should be more concerned about Azhi's safety. However, 000 is certain that Azhi is safe and sound.
Besides the red dot on the ghost, it also detected the rescue, and not just one person, so there was no doubt that A-Zhi's safety was assured.
Even if all else fails, there's still this.
In this situation, letting Azhi run out rashly would actually increase the chances of something going wrong and make her more likely to get injured.
Ultimately, it chose to be direct.
000, in a serious tone: 【Did you know that ghosts exist in this world!】
Upon hearing this, Azhi was completely bewildered. She didn't even feel much tension, and blankly asked, "What?"
There's no need to use 000 to answer.
Rather than seeing ghosts with her eyes, what Azhi smelled first was the stench of blood wafting from the crack in the door. Her sense of smell was only at the level of an ordinary person, and the fact that she could detect it was enough to explain the problem.
Then she watched as the heavy, solid wooden door, made by Yoriichi himself, was easily broken open and turned into fragments before her eyes.
—Is that a person?
No, it's definitely not human; at best, it's just a monster that barely retains a human form.
Although his body was hunched, he was still tall and his arms were asymmetrical, but his right arm was particularly thick. His lower body appeared as a shadow from a distance, but he actually had more than two legs.
On that terrifying face, the scarlet pupils shrank to slits like those of a beast, filled with cruel coldness.
From that mouth, filled with sharp fangs, a constant stream of viscous fluid flowed...
Even someone like 000, who had seen countless bizarre sights in her life, after such a long period of peaceful existence, couldn't help but silently think to herself upon seeing this: "It's truly disgusting!"
But Azhi wasn't so calm.
She was completely terrified.
Some people can react quickly and run away when they encounter danger, while others are so frightened that they lose their composure and their legs go weak.
Ah Zhi clearly belongs to the latter category.
The moment their eyes met, tears welled up in her eyes. She instinctively wanted to get up and run away, but she couldn't control her body at all and was too frightened to stand up.
Azhi felt her jaw trembling. She tried to bite her lip, trying to hear what 000 in her mind was saying, but she couldn't.
She could only grip the hem of her clothes with her fingers, her tear-filled eyes staring straight at the monster before her.
000 was frantic and could only awkwardly try to comfort her: "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, close your eyes, trust me, everything will be alright!"
【Ah Zhi, stop looking…】
【I'll burn it right away!!!】
In the end, they even started to speak recklessly.
As if having enjoyed the prey's final screams and struggles enough, the demon curled its lips and took a step forward.
But it only had time to take this one step.
The humming sound of swords is distinctive, as is the sound of swords cutting through flesh; both sounds represent killing.
A breeze blew in through the broken door, causing the candles and fire to flicker to varying degrees, further alternating the light and shadow in the room.
At the height of the light, Kokushiro Tsugikuni, dressed in samurai attire, charged forward and swiftly and decisively severed the intruder's head with a single stroke.
As he gazed at the unharmed girl sitting there, the deep furrows between his brows slowly disappeared.
Immediately afterward, without even thinking of sheathing his sword, Jiguo Yansheng couldn't help but step forward and hug Azhi tightly, as if he wanted to meld her into his very bones.
“…”
"Yan Sheng." Azhi was still crying, her voice choked with sobs, but this time she didn't mistake him for someone else.
“Oh, right.” Tsugikuni Iwakatsu embraced her with one arm, tenderly pressing Aori against his chest, his voice filled with obvious joy as he whispered firmly in her ear, “This time it’s Iwakatsu.”
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Author's note: Resolving some foreshadowing from earlier! ~(￣▽￣～)~
I didn't even know I had foreshadowing.
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