[Current Favorability: 0 (Stranger)]
His eyes lit up.
But before he could rejoice, an additional prompt popped up at the bottom of the panel.
[Please select an unlocking direction:]
[Option 1: Purify a demon to unlock the 'naohi' favorability route]
[Option 2: Create human negative emotions to unlock the 'Magatsuhi' favorability route]
[Note: The two routes are mutually exclusive; once selected, it cannot be changed.]
Kobe Hikaru stared at these two lines, stunned for several seconds.
This was also his first time encountering such a situation... where favorability had different routes.
He naturally wouldn't forget the settings from the original work—the shikon jewel, formed from the souls of the strongest priestess Midoriko and hundreds of powerful demons hundreds of years ago, was composed of four souls: Aratama, Nigimitama, Kushimitama, and Sakimitama.
These four souls represented the four virtues of Courage, Friendship, Wisdom, and Love.
But at the same time, the demon's resentment was also sealed inside the jewel.
Those were also four souls.
They were Cowardice, Estrangement, Ignorance, and Indifference.
Good and evil, right and wrong—two forces were in eternal confrontation within the jewel.
If the holder's heart turned toward good, the jewel would lean toward 'naohi' and exert purifying power.
If the holder's heart turned toward evil, the jewel would lean toward 'Magatsuhi' and amplify demonic power.
This was the essence of the shikon jewel—it was like a mirror, reflecting the true face of the holder's heart.
"So this is actually... the system making me choose a side?"
Kobe Hikaru looked at the panel and fell into deep thought.
Option 1, purify demons, take the naohi route.
This meant he had to increase favorability by purifying demons.
It sounded a bit strange; after all, he was a demon himself. Using a demon's identity to purify his own kind... what kind of twisted operation was that? Although he had been killing demons all along, simple purification was different from extermination; the corpse had to be completely dissolved without leaving any pollution in the environment to be called purification.
He couldn't do that.
And Option 2, creating human negative emotions, taking the Magatsuhi route.
This was clearly asking him to increase favorability through evil deeds.
Killing, harming, making people suffer and fear.
This option sounded more in line with a demon's nature.
But... Kobe Hikaru frowned.
At his core, he was still human.
A person who transmigrated from modern times with basic moral concepts.
He could kill, but it was for survival and self-preservation, not for pleasure—he didn't have that kind of hobby.
He couldn't bring himself to actively harm people.
Moreover—
From a utilitarian perspective.
He was currently lying in wait, surrounded by seven or eight hundred demons, and the closest human was the strongest priestess of the Sengoku Period.
Choose Magatsuhi?
Create human negative emotions?
What was he supposed to do? Make a funny face at Kikyo and then get shot to death by an arrow?
Don't be ridiculous.
But if he chose naohi—purify a demon.
He lowered his head and looked around.
There were demons everywhere.
Living, dead, half-dead—as many as he wanted.
He could kill one easily and then use Kikyo's momentum, borrowing her arrow to achieve purification. Maybe it could actually work?
It was practically a freebie.
'So I actually have no choice at all.'
Kobe Hikaru thought to himself.
Besides, feeding the weapon with demon blood to increase favorability and gain abilities.
This was already his way of survival.
If he took the naohi route, he only needed to keep doing what he had been doing, at most trying to get closer to Kikyo; he didn't need to change much at all.
And—
He looked up, peering through the gaps in the corpses, and looked toward the Shrine direction again.
Kikyo fired another arrow; white light pierced through the murky Demonic Qi and penetrated the chest of a Bird-headed Monster.
The Bird-headed Monster's corpse fell from mid-air, hit the surface of the Barrier, and slid to the ground.
Kikyo had already started drawing the next arrow.
Her quiver was still more than half full, and her spiritual power was still abundant.
But the attrition from seven or eight hundred demons was real.
No matter how strong a priestess was, she couldn't output indefinitely—let alone Kikyo hadn't reached her peak yet. Her spiritual power might hold out, but her physical strength wouldn't, and she was still lacking in technique.
Maintaining the Barrier and shooting arrows simultaneously doubled the consumption.
Could she hold out?
Of course she could.
At least for now, it seemed so.
But if—the moment this thought crossed his mind.
Kobe Hikaru felt something strange.
It wasn't from the demon crowd in front of him, but from afar.
His body suddenly stiffened.
The instinctive warning of an Oni Samurai toward another Oni Samurai sounded an alarm frantically at this moment.
He turned his head and looked toward the mountain ridge to the west.
There—
Four distinct Demonic Qis were rapidly approaching.
Each one was an order of magnitude stronger than these surrounding small fry.
No, more than just one order of magnitude.
Those were—
Four high-level demons that could be called leaders.
They were racing from the western mountain ridge, their target clearly this besieged village.
More precisely—
The shikon jewel.
They must have followed the traces left by the shikon jewel all the way; the lingering aura on Kobe Hikaru's body was the best signpost.
They were just one step later than him.
And now, they had arrived.
Kobe Hikaru really wanted to curse under his breath.
Of all times, it had to be now.
He lay behind the demon corpses, holding the shikon jewel in his arms, ten zhang from Kikyo and about three hundred zhang from those four high-level demons.
A distance of three hundred zhang was just a matter of a few breaths for high-level demons.
Keep hiding?
Once those four high-level demons joined the battle, the demon crowd's offensive would multiply.
Whether Kikyo's Barrier could hold out would be hard to say.
Therefore.
"Option one."
He spoke the answer in his heart.
His hand was already gripping the hilt of muramasa.
"naohi."
Then—
He stood up from behind the pile of corpses.
The moment Kobe Hikaru stood up, the three closest Blue-skinned Oni were stunned simultaneously.
They turned their heads and saw a guy who had crawled out of the pile of dead bodies, wearing tattered red Gusoku armor.
Pale disheveled hair, a crimson oni mask, and a pair of eyes with inverted colors.
"Wha..."
The leading Blue-skinned Oni just opened its mouth.
A flash of sword light.
Its mouth was still open, but its head was no longer on its neck.
The head spun in mid-air; from the perspective of that flying head, it could still see its own body standing in place, blood gushing from the neck like a fountain.
Kobe Hikaru didn't look at the flying head.
His blade had already slashed toward the second one.
Kesa-giri.
From shoulder to waist, cut in two.
The third Blue-skinned Oni screamed and turned to run, but the tip of muramasa's blade was faster than its legs—
Thrust.
Piercing through the back of the neck.
Three Blue-skinned Oni, in less than two breaths.
[demon blade muramasa: Favorability +1]
[Current Favorability: 73]
Image: "Kikyo", Location: "Images/1769963065-100464952-114416213.jpg"
Volume 1: Chapter 10 - The True Purification (Revised)
Before the corpses of the three Blue-skinned Oni even hit the ground, the system panel popped up a new prompt.
But it wasn't the one he expected; it was still just muramasa's favorability.
Sure enough, he knew it wouldn't be that simple.
Killing and purifying were two completely different things.
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