"Run, quickly!"
"Ah! The Youkai is coming!"
The woman held her daughter tightly in her arms, huddled behind a wardrobe in the corner of the room. Outside the wooden door, the screams of villagers and the loud crashes of collapsing houses rose and fell, each sound striking her heart like a heavy hammer.
She pressed her daughter's face against her chest and covered the child's mouth tightly with her other hand.
In the hand holding her daughter, the woman clutched a scroll. Her husband had shoved it to her before leaving, saying it was a protective charm bestowed by the Mountain God. But at this moment, she only felt a chill throughout her body, her teeth chattering uncontrollably.
"Someone, please save us... I don't want to die..." She leaned against the cold wall, tears falling silently.
Suddenly, a massive roar that made the ground tremble pierced the sky—"Roar!"
The next second, a loud "Bang!" exploded!
A giant black club instantly smashed through the roof. Shattered wooden beams mixed with tiles poured down, and a wild wind carrying wood chips blew so hard it was impossible to keep one's eyes open.
The woman felt a massive force strike her; she was sent flying like a kite with a broken string, and the daughter in her arms tumbled away, landing in a pile of rubble nearby.
Though the girl was young, she bit her lip hard and covered her mouth with her small hands. Tears streamed down her cheeks, but she didn't dare make a single sound.
The woman slammed onto the ground, the intense pain nearly making her faint. Enduring the agony throughout her body, she looked up; the Village that once had smoke curling from its chimneys was now a wasteland of scorched earth.
Among the broken walls and ruins, blood stained the ground red. The bodies of villagers lay scattered everywhere, and unextinguished flames licked the remains of wooden houses. The air was thick with the smell of blood and charred burning.
And the perpetrator of all this stood in the center of the ruins. The Youkai was three meters tall, with knotted muscles under its blue-black skin. A hideous bull's head swayed slightly, with bits of shredded meat still hanging from its curved horns.
It opened its mouth full of fangs and was chewing on something, blood dripping from the corners of its mouth. The giant black club it dragged was covered in bloodstains and wood chips.
Perhaps the sound of the woman landing had attracted it; the Youkai's blood-red eyes suddenly snapped toward her, its pupils churning with bloodthirsty desire.
"Hu... man... food..." A low growl rolled from its throat as it slowly approached, dragging the giant club. Every step felt like it was stepping on the woman's heart.
"Youkai! Don't come over here!" The woman burst out with all her strength, scrambling to her daughter's side. She shielded the child tightly in her arms and stumbled backward.
But after only a few steps, she was tripped by a broken wooden stake. The scroll she had been clutching tightly fell to the ground, rolling twice in front of her.
The footsteps behind her grew closer. Looking at the scroll within reach, the woman suddenly felt as if she had grasped a final life-saving straw. She snatched the scroll into her hand and turned to face the approaching Youkai.
She actually had no idea what the scroll was for. She only remembered her husband saying that while cutting wood on the back mountain last month, this scroll had suddenly fallen from the sky and landed at his feet. Her husband thought it was a manifestation of the Mountain God and brought it home to worship on the shrine.
The scroll indeed possessed mysterious properties; their family had tried various ways but could not open it. When the Youkai suddenly attacked the Village, she had instinctively carried the scroll with her, and now she could only stake everything on this one desperate gamble.
"Go to hell!" Holding her daughter, the woman closed her eyes and violently threw the scroll at the Youkai.
The scroll struck the Youkai's chest heavily, then bounced off with a "clack" and landed on the ground. The Youkai didn't even pause; clearly, the blow had zero lethality.
But the moment the scroll hit the ground, the previously tightly closed scroll suddenly unfurled with a rustle, revealing black incantations spread throughout and the character for "Impure" in the center of the seals.
Seeing that the mysterious scroll caused no harm to the Youkai, the woman's heart sank to the bottom.
Her last hope was shattered. She slumped on the ground holding her daughter, her eyes turning ash-gray and lifeless, sitting motionless with the child in her arms.
Seeing her like this, the Youkai's mouth curled into a mocking arc. It glanced down at the scroll on the ground and raised its massive foot, stomping down heavily with a "thud."
The scroll was crushed out of shape, and the black incantations looked like squashed insects pressed against the ground.
Immediately after, the Youkai extended its hideous talons toward the woman. The claws were as sharp as knives, stained with dried blood, reaching straight for the woman's small and fragile head.
The woman closed her eyes in despair, waiting for death to descend.
But the expected pain did not arrive. Instead, it was replaced by a heart-wrenching scream: "Ah—!"
The scream sounded like the wail of a vengeful ghost, making the woman's entire body tremble.
She snapped her eyes open and saw the previously overbearing Youkai struggling painfully on the ground, unable to move a single step. Countless black incantations were spreading from the scroll the Youkai had just stepped on, crawling up its skin and soon covering its entire body.
Even more eerily, the surrounding grayish-white dust seemed to be summoned, gathering toward the Youkai. Starting from its feet, the dust bit by bit encased its massive body. The Youkai's screams grew weaker and weaker, finally disappearing completely into the white dust.
Holding her daughter, the woman was stiff with fear, her eyes staring unblinkingly at the pile of still-writhing dust. After a moment, the dust suddenly dispersed with a "whoosh." The Youkai was gone, replaced by a young man wearing strange clothing.
But the woman's heart tightened even more; this young man was definitely not a living person. His skin was as pale as paper, covered in spiderweb-like cracks, as if he would shatter with a light touch.
Just as the woman was at a loss regarding this series of changes, the eerily appeared man suddenly turned his head to look at her.
At the same time, the woman saw his face. His originally handsome features were tinged with the pallor of the dead, and his face was covered in cracks.
Even more terrifying were his eyes; the whites were pure black, while the pupils were blood-red, and in the center were blood-red pupils with eerie patterns.
The young man turned around, his gaze falling on the woman. The woman was so scared she didn't dare to breathe loudly, her breathing becoming cautious and shallow.
Just then, the young man spoke, his voice carrying a hint of the daze from just waking up: "Excuse me, what place is this?"
"Huh?" The woman was stunned, her mind going blank, completely failing to react.
---
At this time, sitting inside the room, Uchiha Lie looked at the woman kneeling opposite him and asked, "What place is this?"
He already knew this woman's name: Yuriko.
"It... it is a Village on the border of Musashi Province..." Although the Youkai had been eliminated, Yuriko's voice still carried a tremor from her lingering fear.
"Musashi Province?" Hearing this name, the suspicion in Uchiha Lie's heart grew stronger.
While performing missions in the Ninja World, he had been to almost all of the Five Great Nations, but he had never heard of this name.
"Then do you know of the Land of Fire? Or the Land of Earth? Land of Water? Land of Lightning? Land of Wind?"
Yuriko shook her head blankly, her eyes full of confusion: "My Lord, I have never heard of these places..."
"Then what's going on outside? Are there bandits?" Uchiha Lie pointed through the nearby window at the destroyed houses outside.
Hearing Uchiha Lie's words, her shoulders shrank back, and her voice dropped even lower: "The Village becoming like this... was the work of a Youkai."