Chapter 97 Cruelty
The wind howled in her ears, and the seawater churned beneath her feet. Shinobu
Kochō snapped out of her daze and looked up.
Mr. Aomura Kazuhiko, with his black hair and golden eyes, was incomparably handsome, with a pair of enormous black wings behind him, like a demon from legend.
She had always known Mr. Aomura Kazuhiko was powerful, but what she saw and heard today still shook her to her core.
However,
Shinobu's attention was quickly diverted.
A faint smell of blood filled the air, growing stronger as they approached the village. In the distance, she could even see several corpses.
*Splash!
* Aoki landed on the roof of a building with Shinobu, looking down.
The village wasn't large, with only one main street, and houses scattered along both sides.
At this moment, the entire street was almost entirely stained red with blood, and limbs were scattered on the ground. Most horrifyingly, in the center of the street, there was a huge vase, inside which stood a pillar made of countless corpses.
Arms and legs, like tree branches, were stuck around the pillar, their surfaces inlaid with faces twisted in terror.
A nauseating stench of blood hung in the air above the street.
The entire village was eerily quiet, utterly silent.
Aoki also noticed that almost none of the corpses on the street were children.
Doma had a penchant for eating women, while Gyokko had a particular fondness for children.
Shinobu's face grew paler and paler, then she abruptly turned away, her stomach churning.
"Ugh!"
Aoki pulled out a bottle of water. "Here you go!"
He had anticipated this possibility, but Gyokko's actions were far more cruel.
Shinobu took the bottle and gulped down two large mouthfuls of water, her complexion improving slightly.
She considered herself to have witnessed many gruesome scenes, having remained calm even when faced with the Yoru-hime shrine, a place of rivers of blood and piles of hundreds of corpses.
However, the scene on this street was still beyond her limits.
The corpses in the Night Princess Society were just corpses, representing only simple death, but this was a cruel and bloody hell created by twisted and ruthless monsters.
Taking a deep breath, Shinobu asked, "Mr. Aomura Kazuhiko, is anyone still alive here?"
"I don't know. Even if there are, they're hiding and won't show themselves for a while."
Aoki said, then suddenly grabbed Shinobu's arm.
The two of them flashed and arrived at the end of the street.
Broken corpses were piled up into a small mountain, and in the middle was a woman with a high ponytail. Most of her body had disappeared, and even her head was incomplete, but the tattered character "滅" could still be seen on her clothes.
"It's one of our team members!" Shinobu's small face tightened, and her expression was cold and stern.
"It should be the team member who found the Gyokko."
Aoki observed the surrounding environment: "She must have seen the Gyokko's evil deeds and couldn't hold back, so she rushed out."
Shinobu's chest heaved rapidly, and the killing intent in her eyes was almost tangible.
"I must find the Jade Pot and kill him!"
Aoki turned around. "Let's go!"
"Go? What about here?"
"The man is already dead. There's not much we can do. Even if we need to deal with him, it should be 'Hidden' who handles it.
Now we only have one task: to find the Jade Pot as soon as possible and prevent him from causing more casualties."
Shinobu Kochō gradually calmed down, realizing that Mr. Aomura Kazuhiko was right.
"That's right, the most important thing now is to find the Jade Pot! What should we do?"
Aoki said, "Let's split into two groups and act separately!"
"Okay!" Shinobu Kochō had no objections.
This was precisely why she had insisted on coming.
The two quickly separated. Aoki headed east, and Shinobu Kochō headed west.
Whoosh!
Aoki flapped his wings and soared into the sky.
The weather was fine today, the view was excellent, and there were few obstructions by the sea, offering a clear view of the scene below.
However, finding Gyokko's trail wouldn't be easy. If he intended to hide, he could easily find a place to conceal himself, increasing the difficulty of the search several times over.
"Gyokko's personality, would he choose to hide?"
Aoki pondered, switching between searching and deep thought.
"Gyokko has encountered members of the Demon Slayer Corps, so he must know his whereabouts have been exposed and will attract their pursuit.
My cooperation with the Demon Slayer Corps shouldn't be a secret among the Upper Moons.
If Gyokko has any sense, he should be able to guess that I will definitely come after him.
So, will Gyokko choose to hide out of fear of me, or simply run away?"
Aoki wasn't sure.
They had clashed in the Infinity Castle, and Gyokko had suffered a loss.
Logically, Gyokko wouldn't encounter him alone; he would definitely stay far away.
However, Gyokko is cruel, arrogant, and has a twisted personality; it's hard to say whether he thinks like an ordinary person.
Suddenly, Aoki's movements froze, stopping in mid-air.
Why would Gyokko leave that disgusting human pillar in the village?
Was it just to satisfy his "artistic hobby"?
That was certainly possible, but other possibilities existed as well.
Aoki tapped his fingers: "Could Gyokko be deliberately provoking me? Is this another trap?"
He had no doubt about Muzan Kibutsuji's murderous intent towards him.
Last time it was Akaza who used as bait; this time, Gyokko was a plausible alternative.
After a moment, Aoki shook his head, dismissing the guess.
First, having just failed, he didn't think Muzan Kibutsuji could find another way to counter "space travel" so quickly.
Second, if it were a trap, there should be a clear clue; otherwise, how long would it take for him to fall into it while running around aimlessly?
A trap seemed unlikely.
But the possibility of deliberate provocation remained.
Gyokko was cruel, arrogant, twisted, and mentally unstable; perhaps he could derive pleasure from this.
Following this line of thought, how could he find Gyokko?
Aoki pondered silently.
If it was a provocation, Gyokko would definitely not stop there and might continue to commit crimes in the vicinity.
The target he chose wouldn't be too close to the village they had just visited, because that would be too dangerous, but it also wouldn't be too far, otherwise the provocation wouldn't be as effective.
A map immediately appeared in Aoki's mind.
He hadn't wasted the past month; he had not only created a large number of spatial imprints but also memorized the entire map of the surrounding area.
There were many small villages along the coast; not many met this criterion, but there were still quite a few.
Aoki quickly locked onto a few targets and decided to prioritize their reconnaissance.
However, this was only his guess.
No one knew Gyokko's true intentions and thoughts.
Analysis or speculation was just to increase the probability of success.
It was better than blindly stumbling around like a headless fly.
"I need to tell Kochō Shinobu about this guess first."
Aoki spread his wings, and his figure quickly disappeared.
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(End of this chapter)