The life of the Oni living on 'Onigashima' can be said to be very comfortable. There is wine delivered regularly by the human country, which they can hardly finish if they are frugal. As for how to be frugal?
It's simple: just have a fight. If the loser is knocked out, then they won't need to drink, right?
Of course, the fighting among Oni does not involve stopping at the right moment. The reason they can manage to just knock each other out instead of beating each other to death is thanks to the three Oni Kings sitting at the highest point.
According to the information obtained by the Onmyōji Bureau and the outside world, the 'Oni' are currently led jointly by three leaders. Naturally, everyone sees the three of them as being completely at odds, as a race's leader doesn't need a second person. But in reality, the relationship between the three is not as bad as the outside world thinks.
Conflict often comes from desire. So, do these three have any desires?
'Fine wine and fighting'
As long as these two are satisfied, they can selectively ignore other aspects. As for why rumors of discord among the three leaders spread before?
It would be truly strange if nothing happened when three battle maniacs gathered together. However, this situation has improved in recent decades. After all, they are all familiar with each other, whether it's 1V1 solo fights or 3-person free-for-alls. Without an explosive growth in their respective powers, they can be said to be extremely familiar with each other. In this situation, the so-called fighting has lost its 'unknown' and become a mere game of rock-paper-scissors, which is very boring, so they simply started living a somewhat lazy life (relatively speaking).
"Yuugi, have you found that Great Demon called 'Red Demon' yet?"
The dual-horned Loli lying on a tiger skin, while drinking from a sake gourd, asked the woman next to her, and Yuugi Hoshiguma, who was originally leaning on a stone stool watching the fight of her clan members below, raised an eyebrow.
"Suika, do you remember how many times you've asked me already?"
"I don't remember."
A normal person should feel a little embarrassed, but Suika Ibuki was full of confidence. In response to this —
"..."
Yuugi Hoshiguma just raised an eyebrow, then picked up the large sake dish in her hand, which was larger than an ordinary person's head, and stopped speaking.
Perhaps it was because she hadn't had a good fight in a while, she suspected that she might have accumulated too much stress recently, to the point where she didn't even want to talk.
'How about I find a random excuse to fight the two of them?'
Compared to the two bored individuals, the other 'girl' sitting next to them seemed to have not heard the two speaking at all. She was quite familiar with the two of them and knew this was just their routine, so she simply ignored it. For her, it was better to spend time reading the book in her hand than listening to the two of them bickering.
However, as a member of the Oni Clan, she was naturally not a literary girl. The book she was reading was actually a book about the country across the sea, sent by the Onmyōji Bureau.
Coincidentally, at this moment, she had just turned to the description of 'Immortals.'
'Truly amazing. I didn't expect that country to have such powerful individuals. Moving mountains and filling seas only requires the power of one person.'
And just as the three of them were doing their own thing, a commotion suddenly came from the distance, and the three of them simultaneously cast their gaze in that direction. But they quickly stopped caring about what exactly caused the commotion, because at this moment, they all unconsciously twitched their noses.
'This is... what kind of fragrance?'
——————
Lancer plan was flawless, but he overlooked an extremely important detail —————— the attitude of the Oni Clan towards wine.
There is no doubt that the Oni Clan absolutely loves 'wine,' to the extent that they will attack without hesitation upon seeing it.
When the boatman delivered him to Onigashima, he decisively took out a large barrel, which naturally contained the wine he had prepared beforehand.
Although the barreled wine was bought from the system, to ensure the quality of the wine (Gulp), he definitely didn't suddenly decide to taste it (Gulp) and open the barrel once...
In itself, this wasn't a problem. No one knew he had opened it since there was no seal. But the problem was that the system was truly honest. This wine was definitely good wine, and the rich aroma of the wine lingered around the opening, even though Lancer had only opened it once.
Undoubtedly, humans on 'Onigashima' are in an absolute position of weakness. So, what would happen when a 'weak, pitiful, and helpless' human carrying a barrel of fine wine that would trigger an alcoholic's craving appeared before an Oni?
"Give me the wine! And I will let you go."
This is the assertive type.
"You're delivering the wine to the leaders, right? I'll help you take it."
This is the rare, intelligent type among the Oni Clan.
"Wine!!!"
This one is clearly abnormal.
Almost immediately after Lancer carried the wine barrel onto the path leading to the Oni Clan settlement, 'unfamiliar' Oni constantly jumped out from the roadside to attack him. Their target was undoubtedly the wine barrel in Lancer hand, and Lancer response was very simple: a punch to the opponent's face.
The Oni Clan is naturally endowed with divine strength. In terms of strength, they are unmatched except by a few types of demons, and the number of those few types of demons that are naturally stronger than the Oni Clan is much smaller.
As for Lancer? When he uses his full power, his strength can even wrestle with a Kakuja SSS-ranked Ghoul. Unbeknownst to him, his strength had already reached an inhuman level. As for his boxing skills, simply put, if he dared to announce the name of his boxing master, he might be beaten to death one day.
However, this is only the consequence caused by his master's reputation and strict teaching attitude. In reality, Lancer unarmed combat ability is not weak, especially when combined with his increasingly exaggerated physical strength.
Lancer is not proficient in complex boxing techniques, but Bājíquán (Eight Extremities Fist) and Bājídàqiāng (Eight Extremities Great Spear) complement each other. Lancer always knew a few moves, especially after Li Shuwen noticed Lancer extremely quick talent, he also taught him some clever methods, such as ——————
'Just treat your arm as a spear. Punching is thrusting the spear, and retracting the punch is retracting it. Boxing is nothing more than the previous generations' summarization and distillation of combat. Just like I am proficient in all the moves of Bājíquán, but what I am best at is still 'Fierce Tiger Climbing the Mountain' . Since you focus on spear technique, and boxing is merely supplementary, there is no need to worry too much. You just need to find the path that suits you.'
As the saying goes, 'teach according to the student's aptitude.' Different people have different talents and paths. Li Shuwen did not force Lancer to learn his path; he merely taught him what he knew and pointed out the appearance of the peak. As for how to proceed later, that is Lancer own path.
Just like he himself, who, after finishing his apprenticeship, blazed a path through obstacles until finally achieving the reputation of 'Steel Fist, Second to None in Hitting, Divine Spear, Li Shuwen.'