"You don't have to be so serious. I was just saying. The Outer Boundary Gate can reinforce the passage between the two worlds. Unless you're extremely unlucky, you'll never encounter Koryu," Yamabuki explained to his two teammates.
Then he found his two teammates were keeping their distance from him.
"What do you mean by this? Am I really that unlucky?" Yamabuki questioned.
"I heard someone lost a month and a half's salary playing mahjong. I wouldn't dare to gamble on luck with such a person," Batsu'unsai Katori said the most hurtful words in the gentlest tone.
However, their luck today was quite good; they didn't encounter Koryu and arrived in the Human World very smoothly.
"This is the Human World from a thousand years ago? It's too desolate, isn't it?" Yamabuki frowned at the scene before him. It was spring, which should have been the time for farmers to cultivate, but the fields were completely barren, and half-human-high weeds had grown in the cultivated land.
The sky was gloomy, and an ominous light filtered down from above.
In the middle of the cultivated land was a small, long-abandoned straw hut, a scene of desolation.
"Hey? Is the Human World really this desolate?" Yamabuki asked.
"This is my first time here too." Kinroku Izuhara already felt the atmosphere around them was off. He gripped the sword in his hand tightly, ready to draw it immediately if anything happened.
The three cautiously explored. Suddenly, Yamabuki felt his foot trip over something. He looked down and saw it was a skeleton.
"There's cultivated land, which means there's a village nearby. Let's split up and search," Batsu'unsai Katori said.
"How can we split up at a time like this? Haven't you seen horror movies? Monsters always go for people who are alone. I'm in charge of this operation. Listen to me; we absolutely cannot separate." Yamabuki shuddered at the thought of the horror movies he had watched in his previous life. He pushed aside the weeds in front of him, wondering if he would suddenly see a bloody face.
Batsu'unsai Katori and Kinroku Izuhara had no objections. While Yamabuki was usually unreliable, he was quite dependable in critical moments. The three of them cleared a small path through the weeds and, as expected, discovered a small village not far away.
The three hurried over, but before they even got close, they were hit by a pungent stench.
It was the smell of decaying corpses!
Batsu'unsai Katori covered her nose with her hand, her delicate brows furrowed.
Kinroku Izuhara, however, seemed unfazed.
Yamabuki's heart sank. He walked over and saw that, indeed, all the villagers had been slaughtered.
Moreover, it looked like these people had been dead for some time, as their bodies were already in an advanced state of decomposition.
Such a scene would either be caused by bandits or enemy armies. In this chaotic world, such a sight was not surprising.
Kinroku Izuhara calmly examined the wounds on the bodies and found that they were all caused by sharp blades. He also noticed something very strange.
"So many people have died, yet I haven't found any of their souls?" Kinroku Izuhara asked.
After death, souls separate from the body. The weaker the obsession, the easier it is to enter Soul Society. The stronger the obsession, the greater the chance of becoming a Hollow. Logically, these villagers died violent deaths, so their resentment should be immense. It wouldn't be surprising if they all turned into evil spirits.
But now, besides the corpses scattered everywhere, there wasn't a single soul in this area.
Where did all the souls go?
Yamabuki's expression grew increasingly grim.
There are three ways for souls to completely disappear.
First: Those who commit grave sins will open the gates of Hell after death, and Hell will take their souls, subjecting them to eternal torment.
Second: There are Hollows lurking nearby, and all the souls have been consumed by them.
Third: Quincy. Quincy possess the ability to completely destroy souls, but their primary targets are Hollows and they generally don't target the souls of ordinary people.
The reason Quincy hunt Hollows on a large scale is because the spiritual pressure of Hollows is highly toxic to Quincy. To eliminate their natural enemies, Quincy indiscriminately slaughter Hollows. If this continues, the balance of the Three Realms will inevitably be disrupted.
"Yamabuki, what do you think?" Kinroku Izuhara asked.
"First, it can't be Hell. Hell only takes the souls of the extremely wicked. Is it possible that there wasn't a single good person in this entire village? That's too absurd, isn't it? And as for Quincy, these people, though cunning, shouldn't target ordinary souls…"
"So, a Hollow came here, and all the souls have been eaten?" Kinroku Izuhara's face turned ashen.
Yamabuki remembered that there should have been a Shinigami responsible for guiding souls in this area, but according to reports, that Shinigami suddenly lost contact with Soul Society and had most likely met a tragic end.
And now, they had no clues at all, which was a headache.
Suddenly, a very faint sound came from the house behind them. Yamabuki instantly drew his sword.
Could it be that the Hollow didn't leave after eating the people, but stayed here?
"You two go! I'll cover you from here!" Yamabuki shamelessly declared.
There was nothing he could do; the strength of these two powerhouses far surpassed his own.
Kinroku Izuhara walked at the front. His naginata was too long and difficult to wield in a narrow room, making it hard to deal with sudden situations.
They eventually discovered that the faint sound was coming from a box.
Kinroku Izuhara drew his sword and flicked it, instantly cutting open the box. A small boy, six or seven years old, fell out of the box, trembling with fright.
"A straggler?" Yamabuki exclaimed in surprise.
The little boy's face was filled with terror, probably mistaking the three sword-wielding individuals for bandits.
Batsu'unsai Katori, seeing the child, was overcome with maternal affection and gently said, "Little brother, don't be afraid. We are not bad people."
"Mhm mhm mhm! We are all good people. Tell us what happened here?" Yamabuki asked.
The little boy looked at Yamabuki, then at Kinroku Izuhara, and finally chose to hide in Batsu'unsai Katori's embrace.
"You don't look like a good person at all," the little boy said, pointing at Yamabuki.
Then he pointed at Kinroku Izuhara: "He looks like a pervert! This big sister is the best!"
"You're a good judge of character," Kinroku Izuhara said with a forced smile.
"What are you talking about, kid?" Yamabuki rolled up his sleeves and flicked him on the head, letting him know the harsh realities of society and that he shouldn't speak carelessly.
Batsu'unsai Katori gently asked, "What exactly happened here? Why did so many people die? Why were you hiding in the box?"
The little boy cried, his face twisted: "It was bandits. Bandits suddenly attacked this village and killed everyone. Thanks to hiding in the box, I managed to escape…"
"Escape? What nonsense are you talking about? If you had escaped, you wouldn't be able to see us. Look behind you, what is that?" Yamabuki said.
The little boy turned his head and saw his own corpse lying on the ground.
....
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