【Wine Ci】Ksitigarbha Statue

After crossing the river, the fog became heavier.

Ibaraki squatted on the ground, his ghostly hand turned into a human, holding a branch to draw a topographic map on the sand.Shuten folded his arms and leaned against the dead wood beside him to watch.They all restrained their evil spirits, and an unconscious crow babbled and flew over, stopped on the treetop and hoarsely called.Jiu Tun thought it was noisy, picked up a stone, weighed it, and threw it up without looking at it.

It was quiet for a moment.

Ibaraki has an unusually keen memory for terrain.He is like a natural beast, knowing the way and hunting are instincts.What was Shuten thinking when he first saw Ibaraki draw the terrain of the easily defensible and difficult-to-attack mountains? —he didn't quite remember it himself.Is it "this guy is such a general" or "what a pity"?

But why should it be a pity?

——If it wasn't for turning into a ghost, this guy would have become a great human general.

The thought glides over like dew that is instantly evaporated.Even Shuten felt that the fleeting thought of the previous moment was extremely ridiculous.There is no freedom for ghosts as humans.What's more, in today's Ping'an Dynasty, there are few wars, no matter how capable the generals are, they are like caged birds trapped in Ping'an capital, and there is no freedom to fight like ghosts.

Straight to the point, advocating strength, belongs exclusively to the fight between demons and ghosts.

So Ibaraki Doji only drew the topographic map once.This is the second time.He briefly sketched all the mountains, rivers, ravines, abyss, towns, farmlands, and then turned his head to Shuten and said, "According to the location of the accident that I learned from Abe Seimei, the source of the shock of the evil spirit may be the following—"

He drew a circle in each of those places.

"There is also this valley, because of the relationship between the terrain and the wind, as long as you hide a little bit of breath, you can be completely undetected; there is a shrine on the mountain here, and a temple here, and there may be a repulsion reaction with the evil spirit here. .”

Jiu Tun said: "You remember it really clearly."

The branches that were still sketching stopped for a while.With Ibaraki's back turned to him, Shuten could only see Ibaraki's white hair and sprawling ghost horns growing like trees; Ibaraki's voice sounded a little arrogant, but also seemed extraordinarily indifferent: "I've been to every corner of this place— —I didn't try to remember it."

Alcohol just laughed.He walked over, casually glanced at the topographic map drawn by Ibaraki, and made a judgment in his heart.

"Here." He pointed to a forest between mountains and villages, and not far away is the shrine extending upwards, "Narrow and wide, but it is not far or close to the places where the accident happened—if the monster and my uncle If the plan is the same, he can only hide here."

After Shuten finished speaking, he found that Ibaraki hadn't moved.He glanced at Ibaraki strangely, but saw the ghost squatting on the ground, looking up at him in a daze, with a focused and silly expression.

"...Why are you looking at me like this?"

"I just think that my friend who is decisive is extraordinarily attractive. He really deserves to be my friend! Every gesture is like standing on the top of the ghost clan! Such a wise and decisive friend, making a decision is enough to make all living beings tremble, hahahaha, Even I feel scared by the decisiveness of my best friend!"

"Hey, you really don't feel comfortable if you don't say such disgusting things for a day. Also, Ibaraki, what are you afraid of me?"

"It's not that I'm afraid of my friend! It's just an expression of my admiration for my friend! It means that my friend is very, very, very powerful!"

"...I really don't know who taught you how to speak."

When we got to the forest, the fog seemed to be getting heavier.

Trees are extended from the periphery.It was relatively sparse at the beginning, but after reaching the depths, it seemed that even the moonlight could hardly penetrate through the layers of intertwined leaves.Monsters—especially ghosts like them, who often hunt at night, have pretty good night vision.But the fog along the river stretched all the way, and even intensified, enveloping the entire night airtightly.

The fog reflected an eerie whiteness in the sheer darkness.

"My friend."

"Ok?"

Ibaraki took a sniff.The cold damp hit his face, he said, "I don't smell any other monsters."

"I don't have either." Jiu Tun said calmly, "It's better to say. The smell in this forest is too clean—there's not even insects here."

"It looks like this is indeed here. Ah, as expected, my favorite Shuten-douji can tell at a glance—"

"Okay, shut up."

Once they stopped talking, it seemed that the only sound left in this foggy world was their trampling on the rotten leaves.Ibaraki was barefoot, and the sound of the copper bells on his ankles was particularly obvious-they seemed to be walking in a barrier, the copper bells rippling away like water waves, and then floated back far away.

Shuten took the first step.Ibaraki went from walking side by side with Shuten to half a moment behind Shuten.Jiu Tun seemed to sense something, and the ghost gourd floated up to prepare for battle, but the moment he took a step, Jiu Tun's figure was instantly swallowed by the rising mist.

"—my friend?!"

no respond.

Ibaraki looked around vigilantly for a moment, but the surroundings were still so quiet that it was as if the entire forest had died.The ghostly aura in his palm swam out, but there was really nothing around.In just a split second, Shuten-douji's aura completely disappeared - just like a drop of water melting into the ocean, disappearing without a trace.

Ibaraki Doji turned around for a while, and searched for it with his vague memory for a while.Finally, he squatted down, twisted a little soil on the ground with his fingers, and tasted it in his mouth.

"Tsk... I really met my opponent. This place is no longer in Ibaraki Prefecture."

It wasn't until dawn that Ibaraki-douji smelled an unusual smell from the blank and clean air.

It's the smell of blood. ——There is also a very faint smell of Shuten-douji mixed in with the smell of blood.

The source of the bloody smell is a dwelling in the mountain.Several corpses were scattered on the ground, they were human beings.They died as if their throats had been bitten open by some monster, but the strange thing was that Ibaraki didn't smell the breath of other monsters from the remaining air.

There was not much blood left on the ground.But the smell of blood in the air was too strong for ghosts; Ibaraki licked his lips.He didn't have time to examine the human corpses, and he didn't have time to find out the source of the smell of alcohol mixed with the fragrance of blood.Not far away, the flames of lanterns floated unsteadily, and the sound of chaotic and noisy footsteps got closer.Ibaraki raised his eyebrows and turned over to hide his figure.

Most of the people who came were dressed as warriors; the others were monks.The one at the beginning, wearing a white safari suit, is well-dressed—maybe an onmyoji, or maybe just an arty ordinary nobleman.

The monks let out a suppressed cry when they saw the corpse on the ground.The samurai had already drawn his sword at that moment.The leading onmyoji shook his head slightly at them after inspecting the corpse.

He stood on the spot decently, made a formula and drew a talisman.Ibaraki, who was hiding in the tree, felt that his movements were somewhat similar to Abe Seimei's; he thought about Seimei's ability, and tentatively let out a ghostly aura.However, the Onmyoji just walked around the spot a few times, and said to everyone in a serious manner: "Don't worry, everyone, I have expelled the evil spirits and crooked ways."

——Oh, it's an idiot.

Ibaraki Doji, who can be regarded as a crooked demon, took back his ghostly energy a little bit disappointed.

Others were quite convinced of this Onmyoji who Ibaraki considered a fool.They quickly dispersed and searched around under the eyes of the big ghost unconsciously.The movements of the monks were even more strange. They quickly twirled the beads in their hands and chanted words, but it seemed that they were not looking for salvation, but looking for someone.

"Found it! Here it is!"

Everyone rushed over immediately.

Ibaraki leaned against the branch, lowered his eyes, and casually condensed the ghost energy into the palm that had turned into a ghost hand again.The ghost's sharp claws picked out traces of black and gold ghost aura, as if playing with an unpleasant toy.

It took only an instant to kill this group of people who were in the way.But it's also boring because it's too easy.Izuku wasn't in a good mood.Of course he was not happy, the sudden disappearance of Shuten-douji and the sudden change of region clearly showed that they had suffered a lot.He was eager to find Jiu Tun by following that vague aura, and he was also anxious to fight back the calculated anger a thousand times on that unknown guy with his best friend.

He didn't have much patience himself, he was about to cast his ghost energy with a hook of his finger.However, at this moment, the smell of the wind in the air changed.

"Master Shenzi—it is Lord Shenzi!"

"That's great, that's great! Lord God bless you, if something happens to Lord Kamito, what should Ibuki-san do..."

"My lord has been hurt so badly..."

"Amitabha."

"Master, what should we do next...?"

The headed monk, Lao Shenzai, replied: "Naturally, I will send my younger brother back to Echihou Temple. Since he survived this catastrophe, he is blessed by my Buddha. But there is no need to hurry back. Exhaustion. The son of God is merciful, if the younger brother is still awake, he will definitely let us save the dead first. Watch the truth, watch the mind, and save the dead as I do."

The found and seriously injured "Master God Son" who was revered and respected by these people was put aside in the open space indifferently.

This is still a boy who looks thirteen or fourteen years old.He was terribly wounded indeed—it was as if any further delay would have interrupted that thin breath.Blood stained most of the moon-white monk's robe.But the scars and blood stains on his face, his bruised lips, and his pale face due to fainting could not conceal the radiant appearance of this young man.This appearance is too handsome, but it is also extraordinarily high and unreachable, like clouds drifting past in the dark night.

It wasn't the boy's appearance that stopped Ibaraki Doji from killing him.

When Ibaraki's curious but hot eyes fixed on him, the young man seemed to sense it, and his long eyelashes moved in displeasure.

This little monk...has the smell of Shuten-douji.