Kanbe Hikaru hadn't just happened to rush back; from start to finish, he had been monitoring the movements in Kaede Village.
It wasn't intuition, nor was it some kind of precognition.
It was blood.
His blood.
Long before leaving Kaede Village, Kanbe Hikaru had used Blood Transformation to leave extremely faint traces of blood mist in every corner of the village—seeping into the cracks of the soil, clinging to the wooden planks of the eaves, and even mixing into the patterns of the stone slab he often sat on under the shrine's corridor.
The concentration of that blood mist was so low that even Kikyo's Barrier would not perceive it as a foreign object.
But they were his eyes.
If it were anywhere else, at such a distance, Kanbe Hikaru's Blood Transformation would have been difficult to maintain.
But Kaede Village was different.
He had favorability with everything here.
Although those things were unconscious, their'spirituality' would actively help him maintain the existence of the Blood Transformation.
In other words.
As long as he wished, even from hundreds of miles away, he could sense abnormalities within the village through those fragments of blood mist scattered throughout Kaede Village.
While he couldn't see clearly, he could vaguely perceive things.
So, the moment the Barrier was triggered, the moment those twisted figures of evil spirits that did not belong to demons flooded into the village—
Kanbe Hikaru knew.
He abandoned the Imagawa Clan retainers he was still handing over affairs to in Suruga, left behind the small demons being settled, activated Thunder Muscle to its full extent, and sprinted north all the way.
Wrapped in lightning, with blood mist clearing the path.
A distance of hundreds of miles was compressed by him into less than an hour.
And when he arrived, the scene he saw made him raise an eyebrow under his Oni mask.
The seven piles of ash had long since dissipated. Kikyo stood in the clearing, longbow in hand, her expression calm.
In front of her was little Kaede with her arms spread wide, and behind her were the villagers who had gathered voluntarily. Ten paces away, two young girls in priestess robes were frozen in place, looking bewildered.
Further away on the rocky slope, a figure in white robes and red hakama was kneeling on one knee—covered in mud, hair disheveled, her beautiful face written with distress and fear.
And what concerned him most was that the woman's spiritual power had been sealed.
Sealed by Kikyo.
Across thirty yards, silently and imperceptibly sealed.
Kanbe Hikaru watched this scene, the corners of his mouth curving slightly beneath the Crimson Oni Mask.
He had always known Kikyo was strong.
The power of her Sacred Arrow, the exquisite nature of her Barrier techniques, and the depth of her spiritual power—even if her human constitution was a bit of a burden, she was still undoubtedly the strongest among priestesses. He had seen all of this before.
But what he saw today was not just power.
It was her heart.
This girl hadn't explained a single word from beginning to end.
No rebuttal, no vindication, no argument. Faced with the accusations of two brainwashed young priestesses and the framing of a silver-tongued conspirator—
She simply stood there.
She fired an arrow to force out the rat in the shadows.
She sealed the spiritual power and, in turn, shattered the opponent's state of mind.
Clean and efficient.
As always.
This kind of clarity that refused to fall into the trap of self-justification, this composed state of mind that didn't even bother to give a response—it was definitely not something that could be obtained through cultivation alone.
It was self-affirmation, and also confidence in her own existence.
She didn't need others to believe she was innocent.
Because she knew she was innocent.
That was enough.
Simply incredible.
If this weren't a battlefield, he would really want to walk over right now and, in front of everyone, pick her up and spin her around three times.
Of course, he wouldn't do that.
Because Kikyo would 'hit' him.
"Big brother!"
Kaede's voice interrupted his thoughts.
The little girl with twin tails looked at Kanbe Hikaru: "You're back! That bad woman was scared stiff by Sister!"
"I saw."
Kanbe Hikaru patted her head and then turned his gaze toward Tsubaki on the rocky slope.
She truly lived up to being the 'conspirator' from the original story.
Drawing demon blood, summoning evil spirits, calculating the timing to let her fellow disciples witness 'evidence'—if this entire process had been used on anyone other than Kikyo, she might have actually succeeded and truly influenced their state of mind.
A priestess's state of mind was crucial; once she fell into self-doubt, even her control over spiritual power would weaken.
But she ran into Kikyo.
She ran into a powerful priestess who didn't even deign to give her an explanation.
So she lost, lost completely.
At least—on the level of rhetoric and schemes.
The things Kanbe Hikaru had prepared in advance also seemed to have no place to be used.
[Nekomata Claws: favorability 72]
[All talents unlocked]
[First Talent: Undead Affinity—All low-level undead without self-awareness will show goodwill toward you.]
[Second Talent: Soul Summoning—Within a short time after an undead dissipates, its remaining consciousness fragments can be temporarily condensed, allowing it to briefly 'return'.]
This talent was unlocked after the favorability surged past fifty on the Jentaigahara battlefield.
The souls of the dead and the death energy everywhere on the battlefield allowed this originally unconscious dead object to wake up further.
If needed, he could use this at any time to summon the souls of dead 'witnesses'.
This was also the necessary means he had prepared in case Kikyo's state of mind was affected.
But looking at it now, it wasn't needed.
However, Kanbe Hikaru looked into Tsubaki's eyes.
In those eyes, which had become somewhat vacant after her spiritual power was sealed—there was no look of admitting defeat.
There was only anger and, hidden deeper within that anger, madness.
"She still has a trump card."
Kanbe Hikaru said in a low voice.
Kikyo glanced at him, not doubting him.
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