"It's been a long time since I've met someone like you who cultivates natural energy. You must taste incredibly delicious when 'eaten'!"
The middle-aged man's ferocious face was filled with greed; he looked at Jigen as if he were a 'food'.
At this moment, the middle-aged man's pupils had completely turned into an eerie purplish-black, and foul saliva dripped from the corners of his mouth. Though he should have been an ordinary person, his entire body was covered in evil energy, making him look less like a human and more like some kind of monstrous demon.
"You… you are Chimi!"
Jigen covered his chest with one hand and tried to push the middle-aged man away with the other, but with his heart pierced, his efforts were futile; even speaking took considerable effort.
"Not bad, I didn't expect you to have heard of my name. In that case, I'll grant you a complete corpse!"
The middle-aged man let out a sinister laugh, and a mass of purplish-black, smoke-like energy overflowed from his head, transforming into the shape of a ferocious demon. After a silent roar, it lunged, aiming to burrow into Jigen's body.
As the Chimi demon left his body, the middle-aged man seemed to lose his life, collapsing to the ground, his fate unknown.
"My… Buddha is merciful!"
Jigen looked at the Chimi about to burrow into his body. There was no fear on his face, only regret. If he hadn't been so severely injured, he might have been able to fight Chimi to a standstill using natural energy. But now… Jigen looked at the dagger plunged into his chest. As his life rapidly drained away, he instinctively recited a Buddhist invocation, then immediately sat cross-legged. All the natural energy stored within him rushed towards Chimi. Even if he couldn't eliminate it, he had to try his best to consume its energy before it occupied his body. Perhaps he could even severely wound it…
Jigen fought Chimi with such resolve, in his dying moments!
"A mantis trying to stop a chariot!"
Upon seeing Jigen's actions, Chimi immediately let out a piercing sound, like a metallic needle scraping on an iron plate, unsettling the mind and causing ringing in the ears and throbbing pain!
The next moment, Chimi directly swallowed the natural energy that surged from Jigen, then let out a satisfied burp. Its purplish-black, sinister eyes looked at Jigen as if he were merely a clown!
How could a mere low-level human cultivating natural energy be a match for a demon of its caliber?
Seeing this, Jigen's expression became even more complex. As a preacher, his ascetic power was like a toy before this demon, which undoubtedly shattered his past beliefs of saving the suffering. Despair, unwillingness, regret, and other negative emotions immediately surged forth!
It turned out—
He was still the person who couldn't change anything…
With these feelings of despair, unwillingness, and regret, Jigen's vacant eyes widened a bit more, and his life force gradually dissipated.
"I'll take your physical body!"
Seeing this, Chimi excitedly muttered to itself, then burrowed into Jigen's body.
But the next moment, Chimi fled from Jigen's body as if it had seen something terrifying. Its ferocious demonic face strangely showed human-like fear and terror!
A large number of black lines emerged from Jigen's body, covering him almost instantly, then his physical body and physique were transformed under a strange energy…
In a moment, Jigen transformed into the likeness of Ōtsutsuki Isshiki, with pale skin and hair, an odd long curved horn on his head, and a pair of distinct eyes slowly opening. Immediately, an invisible, terrifying pressure spread, causing the floating Chimi to involuntarily prostrate itself on the ground, its body trembling instinctively, as if from a crushing force at a higher level of existence!
"I feel like I've slept for a long time."
A faint murmur came from 'Jigen's' mouth, then he slowly opened his eyes. The Chimi prostrate on the ground immediately caught his attention.
"A demon?"
'Jigen' murmured again, then extended his right hand into the void, pointing at Chimi. The next moment, an irresistible suction force emanated, and the Chimi floating in the air was uncontrollably pulled over, and in the blink of an eye, it was firmly grasped in 'Jigen's' hand.
"So weak!"
'Jigen' felt Chimi's physical condition, speaking from the heart while also feeling a bit surprised. In his memory, demons shouldn't be this weak.
Chimi struggled frantically in 'Jigen's' hand, and purplish-black evil energy spewed from its body, but it was all absorbed by 'Jigen' and transformed into energy to repair the wound on his chest.
Immediately, a faint 'sizzling' sound emanated from 'Jigen's' chest, accompanied by steam-like smoke. The wound on his chest healed at a visible speed, and his powerful physical body directly pushed out the dagger stuck in his chest.
"Hey, can you understand me?"
After briefly adapting to his physical body, 'Jigen' asked the Chimi in his hand.
"Lord, this humble one understands, understands!"
The struggling Chimi, realizing it had kicked an iron plate, understood that the creature before it was definitely a 'demon' far more powerful than itself. Especially the distinct pair of eyes in its eye sockets made it tremble uncontrollably. So, facing an existence of a higher rank than itself, it immediately expressed submission, not daring to show any resistance.
After all, this worldview of the strong preying on the weak and clear hierarchy was deeply ingrained in the hearts of demons like Chimi.
"Tell me what happened just now…"
'Jigen' stared at Chimi and spoke faintly, while a terrifying pressure fell upon the latter, making it feel as if it had been struck hard, and increasing its already fearful reverence for 'Jigen'.
So, it immediately recounted the previous events without missing a single word, even telling 'Jigen' its origins, abilities, and purpose in one go…
Upon hearing this, 'Jigen' immediately understood the whole story, almost perfectly.
Chimi was originally a demon from another world, but for some reason, it was drawn by the negative energy of humans, thus descending from its world into the Ninja World. However, because it expended most of its energy during its descent, its power became exceptionally weak, and it could only slowly absorb human negative energy to recover its strength through gradual consumption…
Finally, after several years, Chimi's strength gradually recovered considerably, which made it begin to hunt humans recklessly in the Ninja World. And previously, it had noticed Jigen, a special monk who cultivated natural energy, which is why it secretly possessed a middle-aged human in advance, waiting for Jigen, its 'prey', to arrive…
The rest of the story was easy for 'Jigen' to understand; it was merely a hunter's pursuit. The only difference was that Chimi enjoyed the negative energy humans emitted before death, especially from special monks like Jigen who cultivated natural energy. They were already beyond the scope of ordinary humans, and their negative energy could definitely restore Chimi's strength significantly. Therefore, compared to directly killing Jigen, it preferred to savor his expressions of despair, unwillingness, and regret…
"Can you also absorb natural energy?"
'Jigen', understanding everything, asked Chimi again.
"Yes, Lord, this humble one has initially adapted to this world's energy and can absorb natural energy through a human body, but cannot directly absorb the surrounding natural energy…"
Chimi dared not conceal anything and quickly replied, which was also the reason it wanted to devour and occupy Jigen's physical body.
"By the way, do you know 'Mōryō'?"
After 'Jigen' nodded, he changed the subject and asked Chimi.