A thunderous roar pierced through the forest, and the ground continuously cracked under the tremors. Yan Lanyu fell to the ground, a missile whizzing past his hair.
He stood up, gasped for a moment, and using the cover of night and the firelight, he ran to the edge of the mound. The demon dragon, at some unknown point, had stopped spewing its poisonous breath. Its ferocious body bathed in the moonlight, casting a huge black shadow on the mottled, rugged snowy ground.
Yan Lanyu scrambled up the mound, using both hands and feet, moving so quickly that he seemed oblivious to the sharp shattered rocks cutting his calves. With a slap, he grabbed the edge of the mound, and the blood seeping from under his fingernails immediately stained the gravel. Then, he used the leverage to pull himself up, his knees trembling slightly as he half-knelt on the ground.
After a moment, he stood up and looked towards the demon dragon. He saw three blood-red lanterns gather in mid-air, gazing at him. At that moment, scattered gunshots rang out from a distance, the muzzle flashes of the bullets flickering briefly in the night.
The swirling air seemed to solidify. Beneath the vast night sky, only the young man and the demon dragon stared at each other.
“Tenjin-kun,” Yan Lanyu said.
The giant dragon’s head lowered slightly. After its transformation into a demon, the powerful demonic nature had completely replaced the last vestiges of its personality; in truth, it could no longer distinguish who Yan Lanyu was.
“I know this will never end. The Tantric Sect will pursue me to the ends of the earth, forever and ever. Even if everyone disappears, as time passes, another Tantric Sect will be born.”
“But I’m already disgusted with this endless repetition, constantly bringing trouble to others, putting truly good people in danger, letting others bleed and sacrifice for me, only to be repeatedly drawn back into that absurd cycle by fate. If I don’t disappear, none of this will end.”
Yan Lanyu bit his index finger and used his heart’s blood to draw a series of characters on his palm. Then, he opened his hand, and the crisscrossing bloodstains on his palm immediately glowed red! The demon dragon seemed to sense some danger and suddenly reared its head.
“This is your Four Pillars and Eight Characters,” Yan Lanyu’s cold, pale face curved into a slight smile. “I never told you, thank you for your New Year’s gift. I’ve been indebted for so many years, today I’ll repay it all at once.”
The demon dragon suddenly roared, lunging forward. However, Yan Lanyu was faster. He pulled out his lighter, clicked it alight, and pressed it directly onto his bloody palm!
—Burning was actually the simplest way to activate a talisman. When Yan Lanyu drew the talisman with blood on his palm, he was temporarily creating a destiny talisman using the other party’s birth characters; although this talisman was so crude it didn’t even have half a proper incantation, it was, after all, made with birth characters. For some Onmyoji, mastering the other party’s Four Pillars and Eight Characters was almost equivalent to controlling half of their lifeblood!
A blast of green fire enveloped Yan Lanyu’s entire hand. Amidst the crackling flames, the demon dragon roared closer, its fangs snagging his clothes in the chaos, lifting him into the air and violently flinging him away!
Bang!
Yan Lanyu hit the ground hard, a terrible cracking sound coming from his chest as he rolled down the slope. The green fire on his hand, however, did not extinguish but intensified after the roll. The demon dragon let out a heart-wrenching roar, crushing countless trees as it came, biting him again and lifting him high!
Yan Lanyu let out a distorted scream. Large gushes of blood mixed with torn flesh poured from his mouth and chest. His bloodied hand, ablaze with green fire, desperately gripped the fangs!
—In a flash, he was suspended high in the air, with the demon dragon’s bottomless throat directly beneath his feet. The next moment, poisonous breath violently spewed from the demon dragon’s throat, instantly enveloping him completely!
Dizziness, suffocation, excruciating pain. The flames burned fiercely on one arm, but they couldn’t stop the chilling cold brought by rapid blood loss.
So cold… A thought flashed through Yan Lanyu’s mind in a daze. The familiar feeling of death, as icy and piercing as before, like falling into a bottomless abyss.
“Four Pillars of Year, Month, Day, and Hour for fortune-telling; Heaven Stem and Earth Branch for predicting good and bad fortune in the Eight Characters.”
“The overcoming and controlling of the Five Elements, their transformation, their punishments and clashes, their combinations and harmonies, these are the foundations of the Yin-Yang Path.”
Tenjin paused, poured a cup of yellow wine from a small red clay pot, and leisurely sat cross-legged. Outside the paper doors, heavy snow fell, blanketing everything in silver. In the distance, the footsteps of the night watchman crunched on the snow, and the lanterns in the night flickered and gradually receded. Inside the room, the floor heating was warm, like late spring. Several cherry blossoms branches were arranged in a glass vase by the paper window, and the faint fragrance of plum wine steamed gently from the brazier.
Several disciples knelt on the tatami mats, bowing their heads to indicate they had taken notes. One female disciple bowed her forehead deeply to the floor, then carefully looked up and asked, “Then, if one uses the other party’s Four Pillars and Eight Characters to create a destiny talisman, what effect would it have?”
“Many effects, primarily aimed at harming the soul.”
“Would it cause death?”
Tenjin teased, “Do you have such an intense grudge against someone that you’d go to such lengths, Yuko?”
All the disciples laughed, and the female disciple named Yuko quickly said she wouldn’t dare.
“Using the Four Pillars and Eight Characters to kill its owner requires a profound spiritual power as a foundation, and simultaneously, the caster would almost certainly have their soul scattered, making it a dangerous technique. In reality, there are many bloodless killing techniques, so this kind of curse, which harms a thousand while losing eight hundred of one’s own, has long been categorized as a forbidden curse.”
Yuko quickly affirmed this, and all the disciples took notes.
“As it’s freezing cold now, I will teach you the method of Eight Characters fortune-telling when spring arrives.”
Tenjin paused, a thoughtful expression on his face, his fingertips lightly rubbing the intricate patterns on the wine cup. Everyone fell silent for a moment, then after a while, they heard him lazily say, “That will be all for today… Lanyu.”
Behind him, a youth in purple robes rose and gently slid open the paper door. Everyone bowed in salute, then rose and filed out, walking backward. Yan Lanyu looked down at the ground with lowered eyes, waiting until the last female disciple had also retreated before almost silently closing the paper door.
Tenjin sat by the brazier, staring at the cup in his hand, seemingly suddenly taking a profound interest in the everyday polychrome glazed wine cup. Yan Lanyu was not surprised; this man, who had been the Tantric Sect’s Master for eight years, was typically like this. He would often suddenly become interested in something he saw every day, probing its depths. From the color of the freshly painted roof tiles of the mansion to the roundness of the pearls on a door curtain, he even once excitedly took out old, discarded written papers, sorted them, savored them for an entire afternoon, and then burned them all.
That was actually a sign that he was thinking about other things in his mind. Whenever he did this, he was usually pondering questions no one else could conceive. The Master’s actions and thoughts were always unexpected yet remarkably precise. His keen insight sometimes even gave people a chilling feeling.
Yan Lanyu, as usual, walked behind him and sat down on his knees. Just then, he suddenly heard him call out, “Little Lanyu—”
“Yes.”
“We’ve known each other for so long now. Thinking back, it’s truly a great destiny!”
“…”
Yan Lanyu looked up, seeing the Master turn his head and smile at him.
“…So?” Yan Lanyu asked calmly.
“Nothing, just a casual remark. Ah, the fate between people is truly wondrous. When you were a teacher at Tokyo University, you probably never dreamed you’d meet me, did you? So, for us to be sitting here today, it’s no exaggeration to say that fate is unpredictable.”
The candle flame crackled softly. Yan Lanyu quietly met Tenjin’s gaze. In the dimness, there wasn’t a hint of fluctuation in his eyes.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“…”
The Master blinked, sighed in disinterest, muttering a few words like “Not admitting it again,” and “Why always deceive yourself,” before taking a sip of wine.
Yan Lanyu lowered his eyelashes and picked up a hairpin from beside the lampstand to adjust the wick. That hairpin had actually been left there by Tenjin, probably as a subtle suggestion of “you should still keep your hair long.” In fact, it was normal for boys of that age to keep their hair long according to custom, but Yan Lanyu was indifferent, so the Master dropped the subject.
“Eh?” Tenjin placed his hand over the wine pot on the small brazier, as if he suddenly remembered something: “Speaking of which, we have such a strong bond, and we’ve been together for so many years, but there’s one thing we’ve never done.”
“Mm.”
“Don’t you want to know what it is?”
“…”
The Master waited for a moment, and when no response came, he sighed and said, “You’re truly a person with no curiosity… I mean, we’ve never had our fortunes told. Aren’t you curious about the results of our fortune-telling?”
Yan Lanyu put down the hairpin, staring unblinkingly at the candle flame, not speaking. After a long while, he almost silently took a breath and said, “Not really curious. Destiny is something that cannot be calculated.”
The room fell into silence. Besides the sound of the burning candle, there was only the faint rustle of goose-feather snow falling outside the window.
The Master laughed: “Don’t be so pessimistic, little Lanyu. Please, go get my fate chart… it’s in that locked cabinet.”
Yan Lanyu rose and went to the inner room. A moment later, he returned with a wooden board resembling a zitan chessboard, with sixty intersecting lines inscribed with Heavenly Stems, Earthly Branches, and other calendrical notations. There were also some yellow paper talismans and ink brushes. The Master dipped a brush in ink and wrote a string of characters on a paper: “This is your birth chart.” Then he picked up another piece of paper and wrote, saying, “This is mine.”
Yan Lanyu’s pupils constricted in horror.
Tenjin, however, seemed not to notice. He smilingly crumpled the two yellow talismans into a ball. A flame spontaneously ignited at his fingertips, instantly burning the paper into black ash, which scattered onto the fate chart. Then he picked up another yellow talisman and wrote a string of complex calculation runes, tapping the fate chart with his knuckles. He seemed very serious, oblivious to Yan Lanyu’s pale face beside him.
After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, he finished his divination, writing the final result of the destiny on the fate chart.
“Hmm.”
“…How is it?”
The Master shook his head, seemingly filled with regret: “We have no marital destiny.”
Yan Lanyu’s nerves had been stretched to an extreme tension. Upon hearing this, he didn’t react for a moment, subconsciously letting out an “Ah?”
The Master laughed, his playful gaze scrutinizing him up and down for a long while. Despite the warmth in the room, that gaze sent a chilling, prickling sensation up Yan Lanyu’s spine, feeling like the casual playfulness of a feline predator before it kills its prey.
“Is there a need to be so nervous?” The Master said leisurely, “How about we make a pact?”
“…”
“Although the Eight Characters can kill a person, as long as you don’t touch my Eight Characters, I won’t touch yours. What do you say, fair?”
Yan Lanyu’s throat tightened, unable to utter a sound. The lamp wick crackled, and tiny sparks flew into the air.
“…Haha, seeing you so nervous.” The Master waved his hand, smiling as he took a sip of wine: “Just kidding. I’m such a good person, what reason would you have to kill me?”
In the forest, ancient towering trees lay uprooted in the snow. The dragon’s body convulsed and rolled violently from immense pain, crushing countless withered trees into splinters.
“Roar—!”
The demon dragon fiercely swung its head. Yan Lanyu’s body was slammed hard between several rows of sharp fangs! Ribs shattered, chest torn open by sharp teeth, thighs and arms bleeding profusely.
So cold.
Yan Lanyu struggled to lift his flaming hand closer, to try and get some warmth, but he could no longer feel its presence. He almost clearly felt the final moment approaching. Although he longed to embrace death, his last shred of consciousness forced him to cling to life. He had to persevere. The demon dragon’s soul had not yet suffered its most fatal injury. He had to hold on at least until the destiny talisman burned out.
Screech! Tires scraped against the ground, emitting a sharp, ear-splitting shriek. Then, the car door opened, and Yu Jingzhong shot out like an arrow, scrambling up the mound with his bare hands! Large chunks of shattered rock fell from above as the giant dragon struggled. Yu Jingzhong’s face and hands were scraped in several places, but he seemed to feel nothing, grabbing a protruding rock and leaping up, cleanly scaling the mound.
He took a breath, then looked up to see the giant dragon suddenly let out a furious shriek, its head raised high, then slammed violently onto the ground! With a boom, rocks cracked, the earth overturned, and trees flew into the sky. Yan Lanyu’s body was flung from between the fangs and crashed heavily onto the ground with a thud!
Yu Jingzhong exclaimed, “Yan Lanyu!” Then, amidst the violent tremors, he stumbled forward.
Not far away, Yan Lanyu’s body convulsed and trembled, blood pooling on the ground. His jeans were torn by shattered rocks, a long rip extending from his knee to his pocket. Two small yellow paper balls rolled out of his pocket. No one saw this, and Yan Lanyu, struggling and gasping in agony, was completely unaware. The next moment, the yellow paper balls touched the scattered blue flames on the ground, instantly igniting into two golden orbs of light—
Those were Zhou Hui’s good luck charms.
The giant dragon coiled its body, sweeping up several towering trees, and brought them crashing down on Yan Lanyu!
Yu Jingzhong roared, flashing through the rain of dirt clods and shattered rocks. However, he couldn’t make it in time amidst the violent shaking and cracking of the ground. He watched helplessly as the dark shadow descended from the sky. Just at this critical juncture, two incredibly brilliant golden meteors suddenly rose beside Yan Lanyu. Deputy Yu didn’t even realize what was happening when the meteors streaked across the sky and fiercely exploded beside the giant dragon!
It couldn’t be described as a grenade or a sniper cannon; the yield of a high-energy rocket launcher was no more. Half the night sky instantly became dazzlingly bright. For several seconds, Yu Jingzhong’s retinas were strongly bleached white; he couldn’t see anything, and even sound was absolutely still.
Then, the entire piece of ground collapsed, the mound sinking into a giant pit, and trees silently turned to dust in the intense light. Afterward, Yu Jingzhong completely couldn’t remember what he had done. His memory for those few seconds was blank, completely empty. When he regained consciousness, he found himself lying tightly on top of Yan Lanyu. All around them was thick, eye-stinging dust, and the ground was still subtly trembling from the aftershocks.
He lay numb for a long time before he could barely lift his head, his neck bones cracking crisply with every movement. He saw that the surroundings had been flattened into an earth pit. He and Yan Lanyu lay at the bottom of the pit, thick layers of debris mixed with withered branches, wood chips, rocks, and dirt covering the ground. The air was filled with the choking smell of a fierce explosion.
Yan Lanyu’s eyes were closed tightly, his face ashen, making it impossible to tell if he was alive or dead.
“…” Yu Jingzhong wanted to call his name, but his throat was hoarse from inhaling too much dust, preventing him from making a sound. He stretched his trembling fingers to Yan Lanyu’s nostrils, then tightly pressed his pulse for a long moment, finally letting out a distorted roar that sounded like a huge weight had been lifted from his heart, tinged with a sob.
Crackle, crackle—
A noise like electricity passing through sounded from behind him. Yu Jingzhong propped himself up on his bloodied elbow, looked back, and only then realized why he had survived such a violent explosion unharmed.
In the air behind him, a golden, shield-like light barrier had risen, forming a huge hemisphere three or four meters in radius, completely shielding him and Yan Lanyu. Electricity crackled across the translucent golden shield, and a burning five-pointed star symbol was imprinted on its surface. Yu Jingzhong, having studied this field, immediately knew what the symbol represented—
It was the Yata no Kagami.
It was the mysterious power of the Heart of the Yata no Kagami that Yan Lanyu had placed within his soul!
Yu Jingzhong stumbled to his feet, panting violently, and reached out to the light shield. With a whoosh, the light retracted, crawling from his fingertips to his palm, condensing into a dazzling five-pointed star. Each point appeared to be radiating, with intricate, indistinguishable runes inscribed outwards.
Yu Jingzhong clenched his hand and leaned down, holding Yan Lanyu tightly in his arms.
“Don’t… don’t be afraid,” his voice was hoarse and unrecognizable, he murmured: “Don’t be afraid, I’m taking you home now.”
The rough wind left a persistent, knife-like pain on his face. The sharp gravel on the ground pierced through the soles of his shoes, each step pressing heavily on his feet. Yet, he seemed to feel nothing, walking slightly unsteadily forward amidst the slight shaking of the ground.
Just then, the bushes at the edge of the pit moved. Then, half of a mutilated dragon’s head rose from the shadows, almost completely shredded, its fangs splayed and its huge maw open.
Yu Jingzhong stopped, facing the dragon’s head. At that moment, his heart was unusually calm, without the slightest fear, even a sense of composure. Yan Lanyu’s life in his arms was rapidly fading. They would either escape together before the final moment arrived, or they would die here together. There was nothing to fear; the worst outcome was no more than this.
The dragon’s head had three blood-red eyes, all of them now dim, except for the middle one, which suddenly lit up in the darkness, emitting a ferocious red glow. Then, the red light projected a figure into the void, initially very blurry, slowly becoming clearer within a few seconds, its features, clothing, and build all revealing familiar contours.
Yu Jingzhong’s breathing hitched. He saw the person fall from the red light to the ground, steady their feet, and wave a hand casually, saying with a laugh, “—Yo.”
He was about thirty to forty years old, wearing a simple, loose kimono yukata that revealed his strong neck and chest. There were bloodstains on his body and sleeves, making him look slightly disheveled, but his smiling demeanor still appeared very relaxed and at ease.
“Tsk, tsk, little Lanyu.” He shook his head, seemingly with a hint of regret, and said, “You broke your promise after all, you know.”
Yu Jingzhong narrowed his eyes coldly.
—He recognized him. The man before him was the only Tantric Sect Master in the history of Japanese Onmyodo who had become a demon while still alive, the soul of the demon dragon, Tenjin-no-Mikoto!
