Chapter 1 The Snowstorm in the Mountain Village

When Suren walked out of the Komike’s house, the midnight snowflakes were already densely blinding.

The whistling of the cold wind echoed in his ears, and the icy wind like a blade would pour in from any crack in his clothes, chilling him to the bone.

In the brief encounter in the house just now, he had clearly sensed the tidal wave of special aura.

This was the “demon qi” of the Yamain Youkai, a special kind of energy.

The [Shiranui] and [Kappa] he encountered on the sea had too weak demon qi, making it difficult to distinguish. But the aura of the [Momokugui King] sealed in the demon sword was clearly felt by Suren.

Because he had seen the descent of the divine will twice before, he had experienced that indescribable divine power, so he recognized it at once.

The monster just now gave Suren the same feeling.

Like a god, but much weaker.

He narrowed his eyes, looking at the snow-covered mountain village in front of him, and pondered, "So this is demon power, almost like a god. Heh, the Yamain Nation’s youkai, it seems they really are high-level beings nurtured by faith and some special energy."

...

He didn't think too much about it.

Suren stepped into the thick snow in the yard, and his deerskin boots sank halfway in.

At this moment, the moonlight sprinkled on the snow-covered mountain village, turning it into a silver expanse, but no longer a beautiful snow scene, instead carrying a strange, chilling atmosphere.

"Damn it, what the hell is going on!"

In the snow, "Tea Beard" Hans was roaring, "Everyone, come out and gather!"

The lion-like roar woke up the entire mountain village.

Suren walked out the door and happened to run into Sharp jogging over with a nervous expression, preparing to gather.

He saw Suren and greeted him, "Brother Joey, something seems to have happened. The boss told us to go over."

As he spoke, he looked at the house behind Suren, which was still silent, and his expression changed drastically.

He had just watched Polk and the others sneak in to steal a kiss, so naturally, he guessed the result.

A hint of disbelief flashed in Sharp's eyes, but he said, "Brother Joey, don't worry, I won't tell anyone. We were all on guard!"

Suren smiled lightly and nodded, not really caring.

He had been a little worried about being exposed, but now it seemed unnecessary.

He knew that tonight was just the beginning.

...

Suren followed Sharp to the center of the village, where many people had already gathered.

He didn't leave, because he was curious and wanted to see what interesting things would happen next.

Moreover, he had also discovered that demon qi could stir up the negative emotions within him.

This made him even more interested in youkai.

Besides, Suren had just appraised it, and that demon sword was indeed very evil, but it wasn't too fatal for him.

Since the person behind the scenes had chosen this method to secretly weaken the pirate group, their strength wouldn't be too outrageous.

Staying to watch the fun wasn't too risky.

Besides, in this snowy mountain village, it seemed the same wherever he went.

Outside the village's ancestral hall, "Tea Beard" Hans glared angrily, while several squad leaders and the pirates who had been awakened from their sleep by the screams stood uneasily in the snow.

The flares illuminated the entire village, making all the buildings clearly visible.

Suren also walked over, and from a distance, he saw a row of corpses laid out in the snow.

About twenty or thirty of them.

Their deaths were all very strange.

Their eye sockets were bloody pits, and their eyeballs were long gone.

There seemed to be more.

The pirates were carrying the corpses out of some of the houses in the village.

Seeing this creepy scene, Suren's expression didn't change at all, as if he had expected it. He quietly moved closer and saw that the "sword" on the altar in the ancestral hall was indeed gone. Only the tattered kasaya that had been used to wrap the sword was left.

In the crowd, the pirates looked at the corpses with pale faces, whispering to each other.

"Hiss... This is too terrifying. We didn't hear any noise. How did this happen?"

"It must be the youkai again! I always thought this village was eerie. Tim died, Cassilia died, Magitan died... We'll be next soon."

"I don't want to stay here for a moment longer. It's too scary. If I had known, I wouldn't have joined the vanguard team..."

"..."

Because of their previous experiences at sea, the crowd naturally reacted to the dozens of corpses with gouged-out eyes by assuming it was the work of youkai.

But knowing that only made them more frightened.

What kind of youkai was it?

Where was it hiding?

How did it kill these people so silently?

Countless questions popped up, and fear spread rapidly through the crowd.

The Mafia weaponry that had just been issued to the pirates gave them no sense of security, and some of the timid ones were already overwhelmed with fear.

Waves of attacks kept coming, but without finding the root cause of the problem, even an idiot would know that there was a problem here.

At this moment, everyone looked at the village, at the dark green mountains around them, as if any place could be where the youkai was hiding.

The next moment, they might be the ones to die.

...

The icy look on "Tea Beard" Hans's face could drip water, and his gaze was like a knife, staring at the corpses on the ground. He had thought he had landed a good vanguard assignment, but now he realized the danger involved.

He had assumed that the North Sea Fleet had the strength to crush the Yamain Nation, and that these natives wouldn't be able to cause much trouble. He thought this tax collection trip would be like a vacation.

But now it seemed more like a minefield.

Hans knew that things had come to this point, and there was no turning back.

He scanned the surroundings and shouted, "Guards! Did you see anything unusual just now?!"

"Guard Post One didn't find anything unusual."

"Guard Post Two neither."

"Guard Post Three neither."

"..."

Suren and Sharp's guard post at the end of the village was Number Four.

Listening to everyone's reports, Sharp glanced at Suren and also reported, "Number Four didn't find anything unusual!"

The guards hadn't seen anything, but people had died in their houses, and a strange sense of suspicion filled the air.

Just then, the guide Matsunaga Hisahide ran over in a disheveled state, wearing a coat and looking terrified. "Lord Hans!"

Hans looked at this guy and felt a surge of anger. He grabbed Hisahide's collar, lifted him up, and questioned him furiously, "Damn it! You're the one who led us to this village. What the hell is going on now?!"

Even if he was slow, he understood the problem now.

Whether at sea or on land now, the route had been arranged by this guy.

If this guide hadn't been sent by Lord Peon, the fleet commander of the Ninth Fleet, he would have suspected that this guy was deliberately leading them to their deaths!

When Hisahide saw the corpses on the ground without eyes, his face was filled with terror, and he quickly said, "This... This might be the work of the youkai Momokugui (Hundred-Eyed Demon)!"

When Hans heard "youkai" again, his eyes glared like copper bells, and he roared, "You knew there were youkai here, and you still brought us here? So many of my brothers have died. If you don't give me an explanation, I'll kill you right now!"

"Lord, please spare me!"

Hisahide looked terrified and explained frantically, "Lord, I didn't know either. Youkai usually don't enter villages. Especially youkai that receive incense offerings, they not only won't attack the villagers, but they'll even protect them..."

Suddenly, he thought of something and asked with a grim expression, "Did... Did you gentlemen not touch any taboos in the village?"

"..."

When Hans heard this, his eyes twitched, as if he had guessed something, and his anger suddenly subsided.

Before entering the village, the guide had warned them about some of the customs of Yamain, and with this question, he immediately felt that it was possible that his subordinates had touched something. After all, they were pirates, and there were all kinds of people, and it was normal for them to be light-fingered.

Hans felt that he was getting close to the truth of the matter. He looked at a squad leader in the crowd and questioned him, "Kahn, Magitan and the others died right next to you. Didn't you hear anything at all?"

The dead were all concentrated in a few houses, which made people suspect why it was them.

"That..."

The squad leader named Kahn shuddered at the murderous look in Hans's eyes.

He hesitated and looked at Hans's murderous gaze, knowing that he couldn't hide it. He could only truthfully explain, "Before, Magitan and the others saw that the village woman they were borrowing from was quite attractive, and they couldn't help themselves... I warned them, but they didn't listen to me. Then, they accidentally killed her. Fearing that the captain would find out, they threw her in the well in the backyard."

Hearing this, everyone immediately understood what had happened.

In the crowd, Suren narrowed his eyes slightly.

He had previously thought that killing people was as easy as cutting grass, and he still had some resistance to youkai. But now that he heard this, these guys deserved to die...

Hearing this, Hans's face froze, and he suddenly felt that his anger had been directed at himself.

He abruptly threw the guide on the ground and shouted at the row of corpses on the ground, implying something, "Damn it! I told you to not mess around, but you couldn't hold back for one night?! It's fine to fool around on normal days, but now, you've killed yourselves and implicated us!"

Being scolded like this, the pirates lowered their heads and dared not look directly at him.

In the huge village, only the sound of wind and snow falling could be heard.

But now that things had come to this, Hans knew that there was no use in scolding them. The most urgent thing was to solve the current predicament.

...

After all, he was a veteran pirate, and Hans wasn't an easy person to deal with.

Now that he couldn't find the reason, he would just eliminate all the unsettling factors!

His eyes darted around, revealing a ruthless glint, and he shouted sternly, "Come on, gather all the villagers and kill them! I want to see where that youkai is hiding!"

He was a fifth-tier professional, which was considered a master in any place.

In the current situation, whether someone was plotting something, or it was really youkai causing trouble, if they really had the strength to kill them all, they wouldn't be acting secretly.

By capturing and killing everyone, the youkai would naturally have to reveal itself!

Hearing this, the guide Hisahide quickly pleaded, "Lord, you can't kill them! That youkai has received the incense offerings of the 'Swordsmith Village' villagers and will protect them. Anyone who harms the villagers will surely be punished."

Hearing this, Hans was unmoved and shouted, "Do it!"

"Yes, Captain!"

The pirates obeyed and prepared to search every house and bring people out.

At this time, someone discovered that the things enshrined in the ancestral hall were gone.

"Captain Hans, the sword is gone!"

"What sword?"

"The sword that was previously enshrined in the ancestral hall!"

"Damn it, who the hell took that broken sword? Hand it over now!"

"..."

Under questioning, no one responded for a moment.

But just then, a strange "jie jie jie" laugh suddenly rang out in the crowd, and a terrifying voice like a ghost echoed in everyone's ears.

"Are you looking for this sword?"

...

The sudden response made the hundreds of people in the snow feel like a venomous snake had crawled up their spines, and goosebumps erupted all over their bodies.

They looked in the direction of the voice and saw a person in the crowd draw the long sword in his hand.

It was "Rain Sword" Arcos, the captain of the Ninth Squad, one of the four squad leaders who had come, with a bounty of 41 million Liso, a somewhat famous fourth-tier swordsman.

Seeing this, Suren in the distance quietly retreated. Black Tooth on his shoulder cawed, and he smiled slightly, closed his right eye, and watched with interest as the interface in front of him became more and more interesting.

Hans shouted, "Arcos, what are you doing?!"

"Aren't you looking for me?"

Arcos squeezed out a few cold words from between his teeth.

He tilted his head and looked at the crowd with an increasingly strange smile, flicked his finger, and with a "clang" sound, the sword was drawn from its scabbard.

In an instant, it was as if the gates of hell had been opened, and an evil aura suddenly descended around them.

Everyone's gaze seemed to be drawn to the sword by a mysterious force.

Looking closely, they noticed that there were eye-like patterns on the sword. Just as it was drawn, the eye patterns on the sword opened strangely!

It was as if someone had suddenly woken up from a dream and abruptly opened their eyes!

It was a living person's eye!

In that instant, the long sword was completely unsheathed, and countless eyes could be seen densely packed on the sword. Those large and small eyeballs seemed to come alive, turning frequently, staring at everyone in the crowd.

At this moment, Suren saw the full appearance of this "demon sword" for the first time.

[Onimaru Momomeisou]

Description: The third-ranked famous sword among the twelve finest craftsmen; made from extraterrestrial meteorite iron, sealed with the great demon Momokugui King; has the characteristics of bleeding, armor-piercing, toughness, and non-destruction;

Characteristics: 1. [Blindness] The user will cause vision restriction to targets within a certain range, causing absolute blindness to targets suppressed by realm; 2. [Visible Hell] Powerful demon power can arouse the most evil side of people's hearts, induce the most terrifying and evil side of people's hearts, see the realm of hell, and confuse the mind; 3. [Transparent Vision] The user has Momome vision sharing; 4. [Great Demon Sword Qi] Has Momokugui Sword Qi, the intensity of the sword qi is affected by the user's swordsmanship; [Demon Slayer] Can cause slashing damage to special spiritual bodies, to the target's soul;

Detailed explanation: This sword has been worshiped with incense for a hundred years, and has become a hell realm ghost blade, containing the swordsmanship, sword intent, and sword qi of past users; Famous weapons have spirits and choose their own masters. If they cannot obtain the approval of the demon sword, carrying it will be eroded by demon qi, leading to lifelong blindness, bloodthirsty nature, and mental madness...

Suren had seen the almost gorgeous attributes of this demon sword in the room before.

Now that he saw its full appearance, he still felt amazed, even though the shape was a little creepy.

The attributes of this demon sword definitely qualified it as a [Sealed Object].

Blindness, enhanced vision, damage to spiritual bodies...

Each characteristic was a god-level attribute for a swordsman.

It could be said that even a pig holding this sword could instantly become a master of swordsmanship.

However, the cost of using it was also high.

Suren had heard about it from Senjo before. A truly good sword had its own "temper", and not just anyone could use it.

Seeing the "Hell Realm" description identified by the All-Knowing Eye, he felt that he was definitely not suitable.

But Senjo was a Rakshasa, so he wondered if she could use it?

...

Just as the long sword was drawn, a phantom of a giant centipede appeared behind Arcos, the sword wielder!

This centipede was snow-white, dozens of meters long, with densely packed eyes on its abdomen and back, and its thousands of legs were like sharp sickles. It had a terrifying appearance that made people feel daunted.

"Is that the demon soul of [Momokugui King] that was sealed?"

Suren raised his eyebrows, his left eye reflecting the shadow of the snow-white centipede.

He hadn't been prepared before, and his vision had been stripped away, but now he was just watching the show.

But those pirates weren't so lucky.

The moment the demon sword was drawn, those who were close immediately went blind and screamed.

"Ah... I can't see!"

"Damn it, what's wrong with my eyes..."

"..."

Ordinary people weren't like Suren, who had other means of perception even if his vision was stripped away.

These ordinary pirates instantly became "blind men with open eyes".

Moreover, they couldn't just see, they must be seeing "Hellscapes".

Suren knew very well that the impact of those negative emotions could instantly break down those with weak wills.

Those affected by the demon sword had ferocious and painful expressions.

They drew their knives and guns and began to slash at the people around them, as if everything in their eyes had become the most evil thing that must be killed...

Then, the slaughter began!

Arcos, the "Rain Sword", was already a fourth-tier veteran swordsman. His court swordsmanship was as dense as rain. Now with the demon sword in hand, his aura instantly exploded, from swordsman to sword master, to great sword master... and still continuing to rise!

Around his body, snowflakes condensed into a vortex, visibly forming a layer of sword qi tornado.

In that instant, those pirates who had their vision stripped hadn't had time to figure out what was happening, and their bodies were covered with dense, fish-scale-like wounds, as if they had been cut open by countless blades...

When Arcos swung his sword, the sword qi stretched for hundreds of meters, killing or maiming dozens of pirates along the way!

This sword qi wasn't something that his rank could unleash.

Even Suren in the distance clicked his tongue in wonder.

But while he was amazed, he also noticed that Arcos's mental state had completely fallen into madness. He thought, "The person has been completely controlled by the sword's demon qi. As expected of a 'demon sword'."

...

Perhaps to wait for the pirates to gather in this pile to be slaughtered, "Arcos" suddenly launched an attack. First, he blinded them, then used area sword qi to kill them. This method was almost unsolvable.

When the swordsmithing master Munemasa Kanehisa forged this sword, he probably wanted to create this effect.

The pirates below the third tier didn't have any chance to react. Six or seven hundred pirates were instantly cleared out by a few sword qi tornadoes. The snow was covered with severed limbs and arms. The previously vast expanse of white snow was now a sea of scarlet red...

"Damn it, Arcos, stop it!"

"The boss has been possessed by a youkai, brothers, stop him!"

"Don't be naive, kill him, or we'll all die here..."

"..."

The pirates were instantly stunned, but they quickly gathered around, preparing to kill him.

But "Arcos" was already strong, so how could he be killed so easily? With the demon sword in hand, he seemed to have hundreds of eyes. This allowed him to easily avoid attacks from all directions, and any sneak attack was completely useless.

Even "Tea Beard" Hans, who was at the fifth tier, was now forced into a very difficult situation, dodging and hiding.

He was the strongest, and "Arcos" was chasing him and slashing wildly.

After his vision was stripped, Hans could only rely on his hearing to evade attacks.

Originally, he had advanced to the fifth tier, so he should have had absolute tier suppression against a fourth-tier professional.

But now, it was a one-sided situation.

"Arcos" used his exquisite swordsmanship to completely "overcome strength with skill". The armor-piercing effect of the demon sword allowed the blade to easily cut through elemental barriers, causing fatal damage to Hans.

If it weren't for the fact that the fifth-tier advancement had merged with the Void Armor, giving Hans the ability to teleport through space, he would have been killed long ago.

Seeing this, Suren knew that the situation was already set.

Originally, there were hundreds of pirates, so they still had a chance.

Although "Arcos" had the demon sword in hand, he was only one person after all.

Unfortunately, the opponents were too weak.

The pirates were lazy and hadn't trained in any specialized combined tactics. They mostly only knew two tactics: "rush up together" and "scatter and run".

Suren shook his head, seeing that it was several levels lower than the combat power of the Judgment Legion that he had seen before.

These guys had been traumatized by the youkai at sea before, and their morale wasn't high to begin with. Now that they were stunned and realized they couldn't win, they thought about staying far away to protect themselves.

In the end, after "Tea Beard" Hans's confidants were killed, he was also unable to support himself and was slashed several times by "Arcos".

Seeing this, the pirates from the other squads knew that the situation was hopeless.

They had been terrified by the youkai. Someone shouted, "Run!" and the remaining one or two hundred pirates scattered and fled out of the village.

...

"It's over..."

Suren looked at the fleeing people, with a slight hint of strangeness in his eyes.

The person behind the scenes had never shown his face. He just relied on some youkai and a demon sword to stop this group of pirates at the gate of the Yamain Nation.

But it seemed that the person behind the scenes didn't intend to kill them all. Leaving these people to escape could exaggerate the terrifying situation here and attribute it to "youkai causing trouble". This wouldn't completely break the facade, and the subsequent troubles would be much smaller. At that time, if anyone wanted to come to Yamain again, they would have to think twice. The North Sea King would also know Yamain's attitude and weigh the pros and cons before considering the tax collection again.

Suren's mind raced, and the battle in front of him was coming to an end.

In the huge village, only corpses remained.

After "Arcos" had killed everyone who could breathe, he suddenly turned his head and saw Suren holding an umbrella in the snow.

The two looked at each other.

The guy's eyes were white, and the white centipede phantom behind him had soaring demon qi.

In that guy's eyes, he seemed to see the endless torments of hell.

But there was no fear on Suren's face.

He was no stranger to this situation.

Suddenly, he grinned, his eyes full of ghostly laughter. "Seeing hellscapes, tsk tsk, demon qi really does trigger the most evil and terrifying thoughts in people's hearts..."

Suren looked at the sword in the guy's hand, tilted his head, and prepared to be ready to meet the other party's attack at any time.

But the two sides' momentum clashed, and "Arcos" suddenly avoided it.

Then, under Suren's gaze, the man suddenly went crazy!

After slashing wildly in the snow, he then gouged out his own eyes and stabbed his heart with a knife.

Suren looked at the corpse in the snow and murmured, "Demon sword."

He walked over.

He harvested the soul fragments from the piles of corpses along the way, and then, Suren stopped at Arcos's corpse. As if he was thinking about something, he hesitated for a moment, and finally reached out and stretched his hand to the [Onimaru Momomeisou] inserted in the corpse.

...

At the same time, in a certain house.

From the beginning of the slaughter, a pair of eyes had been coldly watching everything.

Seeing Suren preparing to extract the demon sword, the man sneered, "Heh, overestimating yourself!"