Even more bizarrely, the surface of the peach bore a clear human face pattern, appearing extremely eerie. It was precisely the human face fruit borne by the demonic tree of Peach Blossom Spring from the storyline.
Retsu looked upstream along the river and indeed saw a mist-shrouded cliff in the distance, with dense vegetation faintly visible on its face.
"That should be Peach Blossom Spring. Finally found it." He casually tossed the human face fruit aside and said softly.
As soon as the words left his mouth, "Poof!" Retsu's figure suddenly exploded into a puff of white smoke and vanished.
Clearly, the figure just now was Retsu's Shadow Clone.
At the same time, the real Retsu, who was sitting on Kuro Maru's back with Kikyo, showed a slight change in expression, a smile curling at the corner of his mouth. "Found it."
"Found it? Then let's go." Upon hearing this, Kikyo immediately patted Kuro Maru's neck, steering the shikigami to gallop swiftly in the direction he indicated.
"Your Shadow Clone Jutsu is really useful. It pinpointed the location so quickly." As Kuro Maru raced through the forest, the wind whistled past their ears. Kikyo turned her head slightly to speak to Retsu behind her.
"When this jutsu was first invented, its original purpose was for gathering intelligence." Retsu explained.
As he spoke, he suddenly recalled the shikigami Kikyo created in the storyline: the two Child Attendants, Butterfly and Flying Bird, and her puppet, "Holy Lady."
That ability to remotely control and exert one's own power was equally miraculous compared to the Shadow Clone, somewhat similar to Nagato's ability to remotely control the Six Paths of Pain.
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but ask curiously, "Kikyo, can you create shikigami that carry your own power?"
"Yes." Although curious why he suddenly asked this, Kikyo nodded and answered truthfully, "Using my own hair, I can create shikigami capable of exerting a portion of my power."
"What about using my hair? Could it possess my abilities?" Retsu's eyes lit up as he pressed further.
He suddenly recalled the two junior sisters of the Black Miko, Tsubaki, from the storyline: Kouyou and Botan.
These two novice miko once used Kagome and Inuyasha's hair to create two giant shikigami that looked exactly like the two of them.
Although Inuyasha's shikigami couldn't use tessaiga, Kagome's shikigami could shoot Demon-Slaying Arrows with considerable power. It was quite miraculous.
He was very curious whether a shikigami made from his hair could use Ninjutsu.
Kikyo was taken aback for a moment upon hearing this. She turned to look at him, her eyes also showing a flicker of curiosity. "I don't know. Your abilities are rather special. But... we could try it later."
"Good! We'll try it when we return to the shrine." Retsu said with great enthusiasm.
Kuro Maru was extremely fast. While they were talking, they had already arrived at the river section where the Shadow Clone had discovered the human face fruit.
"What is this?" Kikyo also noticed the eerie fruits floating on the water. She dismounted from Kuro Maru, bent down to scoop one up, and frowned slightly. "human face fruit, borne by a demonic tree that uses humans as nourishment."
She looked up. The river surface was dotted with many such fruits, drifting downstream with the current.
Kikyo looked upstream, her tone grave. "So many human face fruits indicate that the demonic tree upstream must be a rather large tree."
"To bear this many fruits, many people have already become its nourishment."
"These human face fruits are related to the Peach Blossom Spring you mentioned, aren't they?"
Kikyo looked down at the fruit in her hand. Combined with the name "Peach Blossom Spring," she easily guessed the key point. "This peach tree demon that bears human face fruit must be growing within Peach Blossom Spring."
"That's right." Retsu nodded and said, "Let's go. Let's follow the river upstream to take a look and find the exact spot where the fruits are falling."
The two remounted Kuro Maru and proceeded upstream along the river, searching for traces of the demonic tree.
"Hmm? There's a shikon jewel aura." After walking along the river for a while, the surroundings gradually became enveloped in a faint mist. Sitting on Kuro Maru, Kikyo suddenly tensed up and spoke.
"Really? So there really is a shard of the shikon jewel in Peach Blossom Spring." Retsu's expression shifted, knowing they had arrived. In the storyline, Peach Fruit Person indeed had a shard of the shikon jewel in his abdomen.
Sure enough, not long after, Kuro Maru brought the two to the base of a cliff by the river.
At this moment, the river surface below the cliff and the grassy banks were scattered with a large number of human face fruits. Among the fruits on the bank, some were still fresh, clearly having fallen not long ago; others had already rotted and turned black, emitting an unpleasant odor, likely having fallen some time ago.
Whether fresh or not, each fruit's surface clearly bore a human face, appearing exceptionally eerie.
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