Why can't humans do it too?

“But you don’t think that way, do you?” Without a doubt, having kept everything she had seen along the way in her heart, Yukari Yakumo had already realized that this youkai, transformed from a descendant of a god, was not without resentment or its own thoughts. “At the very least, you are resentful… towards your father.”

The fact that the Heavenly Grandson sees an army as capable of attacking Izumo and plundering more humans on his behalf is naturally a force that cannot be ignored. Yakumo Yukari, who aspires to become the ruler of all yokai, has also set her sights on such a force.

For her, this was perhaps an unexpected joy.

"Ah, perhaps," even though he had completely transformed into a demon, there was always a sense of despair about him, and his tall and burly body could not hide the silent message he conveyed—it doesn't matter anymore, let the world be destroyed, whatever.

“I didn’t even realize that my resentment towards my father was pointless. He wanted me to take control of the Ghost Clan’s power, but what good is that?” Huo Zhao said dejectedly, more like talking to himself than to Su Er and the others. “Nobody wants to stay here. Everyone wants to live on the surface. How can I possibly restrain that thought?”

"Meaning?" Kazami Yuuka noticed the strangeness in Hijiri's words, but he didn't say anything more, simply brushing it off with "You'll find out soon enough."

"You said before that you've been waiting for me?" As a youkai who could appear and disappear without a trace using the ability of gaps, Yukari Yakumo was still struggling with this question and couldn't help but ask, "How did you discover my existence?"

This is a matter concerning her dignity as a demon, and it must be taken seriously.

“Because when you curiously pushed open that door, I was right next to you,” Hizo, who seemed to find the story amusing, turned to look at Yakumo Yukari and smiled, revealing his sharp teeth. “I am that darkness, that shadow.”

Clearly, this is a special ability unique to Huo Zhao.

Yukari Yakumo was sulking—at herself.

"To be honest, when I discovered your existence, I should have woken the others... but I hesitated, which was wrong of me," Hizoki said, returning to her previous somber state. "I know it was wrong, but he was my father after all... I felt like I was waiting for some monster, some other god, to appear and stop us..."

"I can't muster any enthusiasm," Huo Zhao sighed deeply. "It's like flies buzzing around the smell of meat. What's the point of me doing all this? What would happen if I didn't do it?"

“From that day on, I have been waiting by that door. I never expected that you would return after so long—with such a powerful monster,” Huozhao turned and smiled at Suer.

As for Suer... he pretended not to see it.

Compared to the dilemmas and predicaments of these monsters, he was even more bewildered by his own situation.

It's easy to figure out with just a little thought that the place Huozhao is taking them to is the root of darkness in the entire Yamato City, and it's not hard to guess what kind of horrific scene will appear there—nothing more than massive deaths, human deaths, corpses, and wronged souls.

Of all Huo Zhao's words, there was only one point that Su Er agreed with: a kind of superficial confusion, wanting to do something, yet not wanting to do anything, and what would be the point of doing it or not doing it.

Even the most basic empathy is hard to evoke.

Suer finally admitted a fact—ultimately, he was nothing more than a visual creature that relied on what his eyes received.

Yes, he once held the position of the One God, but after relinquishing the Star Cup, his current physical body simply cannot withstand that superior perspective and all-knowing knowledge. The so-called legacy is truly just a legacy, merely enough to protect himself. Sull is still the same Sull as before.

A human being, not a god.

He knew that he and Rikuko were not the same kind of human, but because of the experience of being taken in and protected, their similar and aesthetically pleasing appearances, and his own need for survival, Sull still identified them as the same race, even though he came from a completely different world.

So what about those 'humans' we've encountered in this world, those we've met as we've journeyed from the surface into this underground world?

They weren't even like Sull and Riku, who came from the sea to land in ancient times and evolved from apes; they were real, even documented, 'humans' created by the gods.

Even their appearances were very different from his own, whether it was their short stature, their protruding cheekbones, their primitive habits, or their humble appearance—Sul felt no sense of empathy.

It was as if he were standing in front of the glass wall of a zoo, watching the monkeys inside eat bananas and fight each other over mates; he knew they were different.

No one can admit that it was the feeling of witnessing one's own kind.

A world of crickets, where crickets fight, and crickets wear gloves.

Suer felt as if he had stepped into the African savanna, where lions were hunting zebras and hyenas were hunting buffalo, the only difference being that the zebras and buffaloes were replaced by monkeys.

He was shocked by his own thoughts and even began to wonder if his past experiences had left him with something else—something he might not need.

An unparalleled barrier.

Is he sick?

It's as if they are still standing on the clouds, looking down at the earth.

You are afraid.

Xin Ke's voice rang out from the bottom of my heart, bringing a warmth that felt real.

Are you feeling lonely?

Speak softly.

Chapter Thirty-Two: Medicine

'Ah... I am terrified of myself...'

Even though his steps on the ground were perfectly steady and his gaze remained fixed straight ahead, Suer murmured to himself.

Is it because of arrogance?

No... he was indeed humble.

No matter how many beautiful words one says or thinks, only the emotions in one's heart will never deceive oneself, and Su Er cannot deny his current confusion.

How about we give it to the coin? You told me that before.

'coin?'

Yes, when faced with a difficult decision, all you need to do is flip a coin—regardless of whether it lands heads or tails, when you flip the coin, you'll know what your truest feelings are.

'...Alright then.'

The so-called coin was just a euphemism; Suer simply quickened his pace, and Huozhao, noticing that he had quickened his pace, also quickened his pace.

The 'coin' he wanted was right below.

Suer had petted cats before. These adorable felines would purr continuously when they squinted their eyes and breathed. The thunderous roar of tigers and leopards in various literary works was exactly this sound, but that was definitely not the sound he was hearing now.

It was as if some enormous beast was snoring below, not cute at all, but incredibly evil. With the airflow blowing out or inhaling from the passage, Suer could even smell a faint stench of decay, which grew stronger the further down he went.

With Huo Zhao, an insider familiar with the underground city, leading the group, Su Er and his companions perfectly avoided all the patrolling and living demons. Even some guards stationed at fixed points were temporarily dismissed by him under his own name, allowing them to pass through without hindrance.

Then he saw what he had expected, and understood why Hizo was so dejected and said that nothing mattered—all because of his father, that man named Ten'er Qizhi Guonian Qizhi Tianjin Hidaka Zifan Nengeryi Ming.

“Actually, at the beginning… everything was fine…” Huo Zhao’s voice choked as she stared blankly at the colossal object at the end of her vision, “but the more he ate, the more irritable and confused Father became…”

Beside the twisted mountain of flesh at the end of the line of sight, there was something even more attractive to Sul: piles of fleshy spheres that looked like rolled-up balls, but upon closer inspection, it became clear that they were not individual chunks of flesh.

On the surface, limbs were fixed in irregular twists and turns, and heads with half or all of their faces showing between the limbs and the body were frozen in the moment before death. Pain, sorrow, despair, fear, like the most vivid oil painting, all were imprinted and shaped into a sphere by the translucent, solidified liquid, forever entangled with those he knew or did not know.

medicine.

Even though it was the first time they had seen it, the same words popped into the minds of Suer, Xinke, and the two banshees. Only these words could connect with the disgusting scene before them, information unintentionally revealed by the arrogant humans who only acted arrogantly in front of their own kind.

The monster, as massive as a mountain range, was groaning from its countless lips, large and small, not from comfort, but from endless pain. Even though it sat in the position of the aggressor, the flesh and blood flowing from its body spread like ever-growing vines, yet they were also white bone spikes and creaking crimson thorns.

Contrary to its clumsy appearance, this enormous monster possesses an agility that extends from the pillars of flesh flowing from its veins. It picks up a dripping ball of flesh from the pile of 'medicines,' just as a smiling maiden gazes at you and gently plucks a flower.

That is undoubtedly the god who established the entire Yamato Kingdom, who extended his own bloodline and that of the auxiliary gods who followed him to the mortal realm to the entire country, and who is also the most powerful god in the entire Ashihara no Nakatsukuni, ruling over the land protected by Amaterasu.

Ten'er Qizhi Guo'er Qizhi Tianjin Ri Gao Zifan Neng Er'er Yiming—this is the enormous fleshy monster whose entire body exudes endless wailing.

Even though he was twisted to this extent, even someone like Suer, who was seeing him for the first time, would not mistake him for someone else, simply because of the light that illuminated this dark underground world that should have been untouched by torches.

Like a blazing white flame, it was the light of the sun, existing within this ugly and disgusting monster, or perhaps shattered into stardust, both inside and on its surface. It was the power inherited by the Heavenly Grandson from Amaterasu, the power of the sun.

His current pain stemmed from this power; the light was constantly burning his body, like flowing ribbons of light entwining and intertwining with the burn marks on every inch of his flesh, like a black fishing net binding him.

Even Xin Ke had never imagined that evil and holiness could coexist so harmoniously on the same life, even though the life itself was weeping and wailing because of this intersection, it still existed.

Tears streamed continuously from the protruding faces on those bodies, yet even the tears of such monsters were crystal clear. The flesh with various faces stretched out like snakes, soft and flexible, yet intertwined with each other, as if trying to strangle themselves.

They were celebrating, eagerly stuffing the 'medicine ball' into the huge crack in their bodies, closing their mouths tightly, wriggling, chewing, swallowing... Then, pale purple smoke with blurry human shapes spewed from nearby faces, even the smoke seemed to wail, but was then inhaled with each breath—burp.

A satisfied burp.

On this final journey, Su Er had thought countless times about what he would feel when the coin fell, and what the answer would be when he tossed the coin. However, he did not expect that when the moment actually came, he would still be at a loss.

The coin is just one method, and a method... is just a method.

Countless corpses lay scattered in front of the monster, and Suer only needed to look down to see the nearest, still-unrotted corpse.

His short, hunched body, arms that almost reached his knees, and thick, wild-like fur, along with protruding cheekbones and buck teeth, all contributed to his striking appearance.

Chapter Thirty-Three: The Power of Suer

Is this one of my kind?

Can I call him one of my kind?

Even if one cannot feel even a trace of empathy for others suffering in the same way at this moment?

As he kept asking himself questions, Suer felt as if he were seeing the corpses of sparrows and cattle, but no matter what he did, he could not connect them to himself and could not feel any fear.

The resulting disgust, nausea, and even murderous intent all stemmed from the fact that the monster in front of them violated their aesthetic sense. It was simply aversion to the twisted form of flesh and blood, but that was all it went on to.

It's like seeing a cockroach sneaking into your house, or a bird eating a caterpillar, or a spider sucking the bodily fluids from its prey...

“Initially, I took this medicine to make myself less pure... As long as the gods are not divine enough, the curse will be dispersed,” Huo Zhao’s voice continued to ring in Su’er’s ears. “When he saw that this theory had a significant effect on his third brother, his father couldn’t wait to take it himself.”

“The curse of Ooyama Tsumi was dispersed by the humans who had infiltrated Father’s body, and Father was able to relax a lot because of it.” Recalling the pleasant memories, Hizo’s voice became cheerful, but it soon fell silent again. “Unfortunately, those happy days did not last long. I don’t know if Ooyama Tsumi noticed Father’s actions, but the situation quickly took a turn for the worse.”

“The curse was devouring my father’s life, so he devoured the blood medicine in a more frenzied manner, even though all he could get was a brief moment of peace after taking the medicine… My father’s wisdom was also disappearing,” Huo Zhao’s voice became more and more sorrowful, “Those humans who were swallowed seemed to be reborn in my father’s body, and even his divine body was transformed.”

"To avoid Amaterasu's wrath, Father led us to dig downwards, never daring to see the sunlight again. As time went by, Father's ability to maintain his sanity became less and less... Most of the time, he looked like this ugly mess," Hizuru sighed repeatedly.

"So?", seemingly asking a question, but a tangible excitement shone on Kazami Yuuka's face. She had roughly guessed why Hizuru had brought them here, and at the same time, she was excited about the enemy she was about to face.

That was a true god. Even though his bloodline had been corrupted, he was still a god, not a hybrid or degraded deity. Wasn't this the powerful enemy she had been longing for, and the one she had even followed Suer all the way to wait for?

“Ah, that’s right,” Hizo, the demon who seemed to have no interest in anything, sighed and spoke frankly, “Could you please send my father back to Takamagahara? I really can’t do it.”