"What did this snake do...?"
Xio whispered furiously from his hiding spot . his hands trembling slightly as he formed hand seals. "All I know is I need lots of shadow clones now."
He knew Kirihito was strong—terrifyingly so. The boy could defend himself against almost anything, unless... unless it involved insects.
Meanwhile, the marketplace had dissolved into pandemonium. The crowd scattered like frightened deer, screaming as they fled the stage where the dance had turned into a hunt. Nobody wanted to be the prey of the entity possessing the pale dancer.
"I said that dancer was the Yokai!!"
"He looks like a ghost with that open hair!!"
"Run for your lives before it kills us!!"
"Wùji Kùmsūn! Lìngxiāo Kùmsūn! Save us!!"
The Dark Voice's eyes glared at the fleeing mass, his pupils blown wide with a mix of predatory instinct and unwanted physiological heat.
"My game hadn't even started... yet that violet insect made things harder than before..." The Dark Voice's mind raced, his thoughts disjointed. "Or... is it myself here?? No, of course not me! It is this kid's body!"
His skin felt scorching hot. The sweet, cloying scent of the Yokai's mating mode filled the air, thick enough to taste. The silver glow on his skin seemed to shimmer with increasing intensity, a biological beacon calling out to the strong.
He pushed back his messy, unbound hair and cast a complicated look at Wùji. For a fleeting second, his eyes flashed crimson red—a darkness far deeper than Kirihito's usual gaze. He held back his full power; he didn't want a disaster, unless he decided he truly wanted one.
Opposite him, Wùji was still smirking faintly.
The Grandmaster held the pair of red ribbons he had ripped from Kirihito's hair and eyes. He ran the silk through his fingers like a sin formed in fabric. Then, strangely, deliberately, he tucked the ribbons into the inner pocket of his robe, right against his chest.
Like It was a claim.
Wùji drew his sword, the metal singing as it left the sheath. "Get ready for your death, clever Yokai," Wùji whispered darkly.
Suji leaped onto the stage, pointing his own blade. The remaining disciples followed suit, encircling the threat.
"Your performance ends here," Suji announced. His expression showed pure satisfaction at the discovery, even though he had no idea a separate entity was piloting the body.
Lìngxiāo jumped up as well, his movements light as paper but heavy with intent. He pulled several talismans from his sleeves, his eternal smile darkening into something sharp. "Your time is up..." he said, his voice soft but edged with fatality.
The Dark Voice swallowed hard. He felt as if he could burn this body to ash from the inside out.
God, that man will surely be the end of me, at least with this fucking horny body! he thought, enraged by the biological betrayal.
His expression darkened, masking the fact that his heart was pounding with unwanted arousal. He had never thought he would be this sensitive. His lower stomach actually ached with the intensity of it.
Two dangerous cultivators in front of him—Wùji and Lìngxiāo. He wasn't afraid, but his ego was bruised that Wùji had used such a trick to expose him.
His cruel smirk returned as he whispered, "I will turn this into a part of my mission too..."
The cultivators lunged.
Wùji and Suji attacked with synchronized swordplay, a wall of steel closing in. Lìngxiāo unleashed a dangerous curse from the flank.
The Dark Voice dodged effortlessly, his body moving like smoke, but the heat was distracting. He locked eyes with Lìngxiāo for a split second, sensing a different kind of danger there.
Suddenly, he let go.
Deal with this yourself, kid.
The Dark Voice retreated into the depths of the mind, shoving Kirihito back into the driver's seat.
Kirihito blinked, and instantly grinned. His energetic, chaotic character flooded back into his limbs. He dodged a lethal slash as if he were playing tag.
"Can Wèi kill now?! It is urgent!" Kirihito yelled out to the empty air, calling for Xio. His long black hair whipped around him, momentarily hiding his eyes.
Wùji and Lìngxiāo exchanged a glance. Wùji wondered if he was calling out to the masked man who had escaped Suji earlier. But they didn't stop their assault. The sound of hacking and slashing filled the market air.
Hidden in the shadows, Xio blinked behind his owl mask.
Should I answer?
If he said yes, Kirihito might slaughter them. If he said no, Kirihito might get hurt. Wùji was dangerous, but Lìngxiāo... Lìngxiāo was masterful in ways that were hard to counter. Battling him alone without lethal force raised the probability of capture.
Xio decided on strategic silence. Instead of speaking, he sent a fresh wave of shadow clones into the fray to create confusion.
Kirihito looked left and right, dodging a talisman. He pouted deeply because Xio hadn't responded. He hated being ignored.
"Wèi will not talk to you too!" he huffed like a petulant child.
But Kirihito's movements were nothing like a child's as he sometimes acts . They were blade-sharp. He pivoted on one heel, bending at an impossible angle to avoid Suji's thrust.
"Those are the same clones I fought with!!" Suji shouted, informing his older brother.
"They aren't normal clones... those are difficult to handle unless the main figure is harmed," Wùji replied, his sword never stopping its deadly rhythm.
"The curse technique is solid and mastered," Lìngxiāo added, controlling his curse energy to snap at Kirihito's heels.
Wùji nodded once. "Indeed... the cultivation may be young, but his techniques are masterful."
Kirihito grew bored of dodging. He leaped over a sweep of Suji's blade and countered with the same move he had once used on Xio—a physical leg attack enhanced by raw strength, not just spiritual power.
As he spun, his long, loose black hair acted like a living whip. The strands wrapped around the blade of Wùji's sword.
Crack.
With a sharp tug and a surge of Yokai strength, the high-grade steel shattered into pieces.
Wùji clenched his jaw, staring at the hilt in his hand. "My sword! He—"
Before he could finish, one of Xio's shadow clones lunged at him. Wùji furiously dodged, discarding the broken hilt and summoning his Guqin. He strummed a series of dissonant, aggressive notes that echoed his rising anger.
Kirihito chuckled like a dove, dodging the sound waves as if dancing. He moved incredibly fast. The floor beneath them trembled and cracked under the force of his landings, but Kirihito was a storm personified.
"Since Butterfly didn't answer... Wèi will take it as a yes!" Kirihito announced in dark excitement.
No you creep! xio screamed into his mind which didn't reached out of his mouth.
Kirihito turned his attention to Suji. With a swift kick and another lash of his hair, he snapped Suji's sword like a dry twig.
Suji growled, looking at his broken weapon. "I just had a fake bet about breaking swords if Brother really danced with this lunatic!"
"But it became the truth... Happy now?" Wùji said dryly, his fingers flying over the Guqin strings.
"Of course! Both of our swords are broken..." Suji snapped, a mix of annoyance and stubbornness.
Lìngxiāo chuckled faintly at their banter. The Lan brothers' bickering was famous across the clans. But while his lips smiled a little brighter then usual, his eyes never stopped analyzing. He didn't stop weaving his curses.
"Wèi is not a lunatic! You silver-blue insect is!" Wèi yelled back mockingly.
Wèi looked around for backup but couldn't find the Dark Voice's friends.
You call those friends? Heh... nowhere to be found when the disaster starts, Kirihito mocked the Dark Voice internally.
None of your business... the Dark Voice growled back in his head. Just fight and escape as quickly as possible before the violet insect heats up this stupid body again.
Hm... fine... Kirihito answered, sounding almost lazy.
On the battlefield, Lìngxiāo was thinking three steps ahead of even Wùji. Instead of focusing on how to attack this Yokai, he was analyzing Kirihito's behavior to find a psychological weak point—fear or desire.
At first, he found nothing. Just a smooth, dangerous predator starving for a fight.
But then, he noticed it.
Kirihito was skipping across the stage debris. A small, common beetle was crawling aimlessly near his landing spot. Instead of ignoring it or crushing it under his boot like he did the wooden planks, Kirihito mid-air adjusted his trajectory to avoid it entirely.
He landed awkwardly just to miss the bug.
"Di-disgusting insect! Why is it still running under Wèi's feet?!" Kirihito hissed. He parted his mouth ,his jaw unhinging slightly to reveal a snake-like snarl. His eyes turned fully red—no white visible, like an albino snake.
Lìngxiāo heard the faint hiss and the genuine tremor in the voice — the confirmation of his theory.
If he is not even willing to touch a tiny beetle accidentally... it means he fears them deathly.
Lìngxiāo had many curses. Insect-type curses were one of his specialty.
He smirked, a chilling expression that promised psychological torture he mastered by himself . "Mò Qīn," Lìngxiāo called out softly, not looking down.
Around his neck, the the curse looked up , red eyes glamming . Mò Qīn, his bonded curse spirit, nodded against his skin.
"Yes, Dàozǔ," the spirit whispered.
It untangled itself from Lìngxiāo's neck, leaped onto the floor, and began to expand.
Crunch. Squelch.
In seconds, the small spirit transformed into a massive, chitinous horror. A giant insect curse, its body segmented and glistening, mandibles clicking.
Mò Qīn hissed loudly, its tail rattling like a king cobra.
Suji blinked, and even Wùji looked on in amazement.
"What a weird curse..." Suji muttered, breathing raggedly from the fight.
"Stunning... he definitely would shine in our Hangwō more..." Wùji whispered, admiring how commanding Lìngxiāo looked with the dangerous curse.
Xio, watching from the shadows, blinked rapidly behind his mask.
Oh no.
He knew how catastrophic insects were to Kirihito.
Great timing, boy... I knew it... The Dark Voice thought, bracing himself.
Kirihito's hot blood ran ice cold.
His skin, already pale, turned the color of dead rice paper. He froze solid at the sight of Mò Qīn. His hissing hair stopped moving and fell lifelessly over his hips.
"I... I-INSECT?! NOO!! BUTTERFLY SAVE ME AGAIN!!"
Kirihito cried out, a scream of pure, unadulterated terror. His earlier confidence dropped to absolute zero.
His heart pounded not like a warrior, but like a caged bird about to burst. His mouth filled with the bitter taste of bile. The sudden drop from the high of the Yokai hormones to this crushing pressure of fear made him physically sick. Special Grade Yokai were incredibly sensitive to such rapid emotional shifts.
His head spun. The world was ending.
Xio felt his own heart jump into his throat at the terrifying scream. He couldn't think of hiding anymore. Instinct overrode strategy.
"COMING!!" Xio yelled back, his voice cracking with urgency as he burst from the shadows.