Why can't humans do it too?

"Alright, alright, you're really impatient. You don't seem like a great yokai who's lived for so long at all," Nurarihyon muttered. "In short, as I just said, in the history of yokai, there are always things that can make a yokai very strong in a short time. Although most of them are traps set by other yokai or onmyoji... Among these numerous treasures that can enhance strength, the Shikon Jewel is also a very special one."

"Hmm, if it were when I was young, I probably would have taken the bait too if I had known about the Shikon Jewel," Nurarihyon remarked. "Fortunately, I'm old now."

"It's strong? It can greatly enhance the power of monsters?" In an instant, Suer understood why the monsters that crawled out of the well had unleashed such frenzied energy when they saw the small pink jade stone and heard the name Shikon Jewel.

As mentioned before, in the world of monsters, power is everything.

"It can directly elevate the power of a small demon to that of a great demon, or even far exceed the level of a great demon, don't you think?" Nurarihyon retorted, "To be honest, if I didn't know that those demons who obtained the Shikon Jewel didn't end up with good fates, I would have been tempted to use my treasured sake to exchange for information from you so that I could give it to Rikuo... With your strength, you wouldn't need it, would you?"

"You even have such good wine?" Su'er's eyes lit up; this was an unexpected delight.

"Get lost!" Nurarihyon rolled his eyes in annoyance. To be honest, only when he was with this guy he couldn't beat did he feel like he wasn't a Nurarihyon. Why was he always the one getting taken advantage of?

This is a disgrace to Nurarihyon!

"That can't be right. That jewel can also produce a strong reaction in the hands of humans, and it even has an effective killing power against monsters," Xin Ke said, tapping the table as she appeared. As she spoke, Su Er also saw the image of the Shikon Jewel shining with white light in Kagome Higurashi's hands.

The fact that they discovered the Shikon Jewel would absorb those monsters was temporarily omitted.

“Ah, that was my oversight. I should have been more precise in what I said earlier,” Nurarihyon nodded and continued, “The correct statement should be that neither humans nor yokai have a good ending after obtaining the Shikon Jewel.”

"It's like a life-devouring evil creature, without its own stance or likes and dislikes. Perhaps at first, it can gain great power because of it, but in the envy of others, nothing can protect it, and so it devours the lives of its past masters as well." Recalling the rumors he had heard in his memory, even Nurarihyon's voice couldn't help but show a trace of fear.

"It constantly circulates between humans and demons. In the hands of humans, it grants the user greater spiritual power, even enabling them to directly destroy demons. However, in the hands of demons, it elevates the demon's power to an unimaginable level, along with the demon's desires and ambitions, until they die."

"Hmm, thinking about it that way, let's forget about giving it to Rikuo," Nurarihyon shrugged nonchalantly. "Have you guys figured out how to deal with it? Seal it up or just... Oh right, with your strength, can't you break it or destroy it completely?" Nurarihyon asked curiously.

When Sull asked about the Shikon Jewel, the old monster seemed to have already decided that it would fall into Sull's hands hundreds of years later.

Chapter 49 She Jumped Out

“No, as I’ve already said, I’ve only heard about this thing. It’s not actually in my possession right now. Why would I need to lie to you?” Suer said frankly.

"I see. I was thinking that even if I didn't know how to use it, I could at least take a look and broaden my horizons... You know, the Shikon Jewel is a story that many yokai have heard since they were young," Nurarihyon shook his head with some regret.

Without answering, Suer simply rested his chin on his hand, lost in thought. Although there was no clear evidence, he felt that the two things—that the portal to time travel could appear in the back mountain of Higurashi Shrine, and that Higurashi Kagome, who possessed the bloodline passed down from Higurashi Shrine, had the Shikon Jewel within her body—were not unrelated.

Could that energy, which lies between illusion and reality, be related to Kagome Higurashi?

"Is something big about to happen?" Nurarihyon asked, looking at Sue's solemn expression. The years had given him a keen sense of smell.

"Ah, maybe," Sue couldn't give a definite answer. "Tell the yokai under your Nura Clan to be more careful from today onwards. Aren't you supposed to be benevolent and righteous? During this time, try to send more people to patrol the city. This will also help protect the place where you live."

"Could you draw a boundary?" Without asking why, Nurarihyon simply nodded in agreement.

“No,” Su Er shook his head and smiled wryly, “If we really want to talk about the scope, it’s the entire city.”

Today, those ancient yokai, far more bloodthirsty than other yokai, all emerged from the ancient well behind the Higurashi Shrine. But just as the place they appeared in after passing through that portal was not where the well was in ancient times, what if those yokai appeared around the well, or in other parts of the city?

Even though the Nura Clan had already dispatched personnel to deal with the increasing number of yokai, the yokai appearing now were not yet at the level that required them to be on high alert. If they were to approach them with this mindset and encounter those truly savage yokai that had traveled from hundreds of years ago...

Sull actually quite liked the humane yokai, big and small, in the Nura Clan; it was truly heartbreaking to see them lying dead in the streets.

"It's uncertain when it will end, and it's uncertain when danger will appear... Let's be careful," Suer sighed.

“I understand.” Nurarihyon wouldn’t joke about something like this. He planned to make arrangements as soon as the guys who went to school with Nurarihyon to cheer on Araragi Koyomi returned.

Troubled times.

--------------

Cherry blossoms, belonging to the subgenus Prunus of the family Rosaceae, generally live for about twenty to thirty years. Although in some places, due to ideal conditions such as sunlight, soil, and water, and proper care, they can live for over three hundred years, these are extremely rare exceptions.

So how long has this tree actually lived?

Even three of my outstretched arms couldn't reach that diameter, is this really the width a cherry blossom tree can grow to?

And most importantly, why hasn't a cherry tree that has lived for so long, far exceeding the lifespan of its kind, become a monster?

Whether it is good or evil, even if it cannot transform into human form, it should at least have a corresponding spirituality. However, no matter how much Suer sensed, he could not find anything unusual. It was as if it was just a simple tree that had lived long enough to far exceed the limits that its species should have.

It has to be said that when you choose to approach everything you encounter with a vigilant mindset, you can suspect that even a rabbit might transform at any moment.

The owner of this huge cherry blossom tree should be called the Saigyouji family, or rather, this is their ancestral home. However, the number of people living in this huge house is far less than its size. After making some inquiries, Su Er learned that the rest of the Saigyouji family are basically scattered in other parts of Japan, and this ancestral home is only used to house some troublesome or inconvenient family members.

In ancient societies with low productivity and scarce resources, infants born with disabilities were often drowned shortly after birth, before they had any understanding of the world. While this may seem cruel to modern people, it could be considered a form of mercy under the conditions of ancient times.

The Saigyouji family was an exceptionally kind family. Instead of drowning their disabled children, they cared for them well in their ancestral home until their lives ended naturally.

Even Suer had to praise their kindness, not to mention the illiterate ancient commoners around them. It was precisely because of this that the Saigyouji family had a very good reputation in this area... Although as a family of sorcerers who exorcise demons and protect humans from monsters, their reputation was already quite good.

They are not Onmyoji; their formal name is Hoshi. In Su'er's view, they are Buddhists dressed in monks' robes, or ascetics. They focus more on the practical effects of exorcising and destroying demons than on scriptures for praying for rebirth in the afterlife. They are practical people.

Well, although they have such a big house, they are indeed ascetic monks. Judging from the words and actions of the monks who were given the name Saigyouji that Suer saw, they really lived a simple life. When they had money, they would give away the rest to ordinary people, except for what they needed to survive.

They are good people, and they used real spiritual power when they drove away the demons. So it seems that it's not a problem that the cherry blossom tree growing in the ancestral home of a family that takes protecting humans as its mission did not turn into a monster.

With this relaxed mindset, Suer casually searched the surrounding area for anything unusual, centered on the portal, until he saw the long-lost blonde bewitching woman again.

"Yo~, long time no see~", without any sense of tension, the blonde female monster simply raised her hand to greet her casually, and even joked, "After all these years, if you don't change so much that you're unrecognizable, you should at least have grown a bit more beard, right?"

With a gentle smile, Yukari Yakumo reached out and tapped her chin, tracing the shape of her face in the air.

"Like, someone with a full beard?"

A bearded, muscular version of Suer.

“…Yukokumo Yukari,” Suer murmured the name of the female youkai in front of him, and began to have some doubts about this sudden encounter.

Chapter Fifty Changes

Does chance exist in the world of yokai?

Or rather... why did Yukari Yakumo appear in front of him?

There is some secret here that he and Xin Ke have not yet discovered, and Yakumo Yukari came for that secret, or perhaps there is something here that is very important to Yakumo Yukari, and she will show herself to him to prevent him from interfering or causing things to be exposed.

For other youkai, such speculation might be superfluous or an overreaction, especially considering that the green-haired flower fairy is a battle maniac like Jibril. However, when applied to Yukari Yakumo, it's worth considering carefully.

For humans, it only takes a dozen years, or a generation, to forget certain things. Even if the time span required for forgetting is magnified several times when it comes to monsters, it is generally only a few hundred or a few thousand years.

But how many centuries and millennia have passed since ancient times?

This is an exceptionally long period of time, even for a demon. As a result, a long memory is born. What was once feared will become blurred with the passage of time and the demon's own strength. The extinguished fire will also be rekindled.

If Yukari Yakumo was secretly spying from her hidden space and only came out to greet her after being discovered, Suer wouldn't think there was anything wrong with it. But for her to come out so openly and directly to reminisce was really a bit... making Suer suspicious.

Or has Yakumo Yukari's personality become almost like that of a different person after growing up for so long?

Suer thought this was unlikely.

So... the mass exodus of monsters to their deaths and the appearance of the Time Gate are related to this blonde female monster?

"Hmm...you're not thinking about something profound, are you? It's a bit too much to speculate about a friend you haven't seen in a long time like this," Yakumo Yukari said, pulling out a fan from somewhere and snapping it open to cover half of her face, preventing Suer from seeing her expression except for her eyes.

"...Leaving aside my changes, yours are completely different," Su Er retorted, squinting.

Although it was said to be a long separation, for him it was actually only a few months, which was less than half a breath for an immortal being. However, this was only from his perspective. For Yakumo Yukari, it was undoubtedly a reunion after tens of thousands of years. She was surprised that the man looked exactly the same as she remembered him.

The woman in front of me, Yukari Yakumo, looks more mature than before. If she could still be called a girl back then, she can now be called... I mean a mature woman, but she doesn't look old at all.

Compared to her simple image back then, where she only had long golden hair and wore a simple purple robe, the Yakumo Yukari we see again tens of thousands of years later has even grown her hair into a slightly curly style, as if she secretly got a perm. Her clothes have also changed to a white and purple Eastern-style Taoist robe, but with several layers of skirts.

Well, should we say that demons undergo many transformations as they grow older? Even this old demon has developed a love of beauty.

Perhaps the most significant change is the calm and composed attitude she displays in conversation now. Having weathered the passage of time and the trials of life, Yukari Yakumo speaks in a very different way. She is no longer the respectful and somewhat dependent person she was tens of thousands of years ago, out of fear of the power displayed by Sull, nor does she have that restrained feeling.

She acted as if she were genuinely greeting a long-lost friend, neither humble nor arrogant, and she was indeed reminiscing about the past.

Suddenly, I gained a direct understanding of the imposing aura of the great yokai that Nurarihyon had mentioned. This composure, refined by the passage of time, was indeed extraordinary.

“You’ve grown up too…” After realizing this, Suer suddenly let out a long, neurotic sigh.

Yakumo Yukari: “?”

"I remember you wanted to build a kingdom inhabited only by monsters, right? How's it going now?" Su'er was genuinely curious about this. "With the power of monsters, their execution is usually very efficient, isn't it? After all these years, you should have built a very prosperous kingdom by now."

Yakumo Yukari: “…”

Suer wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt that the female monster opposite him, who had just been smiling and raising her eyebrows, suddenly drooped down. Uh, the hand holding the fan handle was also tightening, so much so that he could see the bones clearly.

You've hit a nerve.

Xin Ke has a keen eye for human nature.

"The City of Yokai... no longer exists." With half her face covered by a fan, Yukari Yakumo's expression was completely obscured. The new skills this blonde female yokai had learned over the years were quite useful. All Suer could hear was her extremely strained and low voice, "It's all in the past."

"...Looks like you've been through a lot too..." Knowing he had touched a sore spot, Su'er was a little embarrassed and could only offer a dry compliment to ease the tension.

"Enough of that. So you're here to stop us for more than just a reunion, right? Tell us your purpose and don't try to hide anything." Jibril spoke so bluntly and directly, laying bare what Suer had been secretly speculating about. Her raised right hand was faintly glowing with white light, giving off a "I'll punch you if you dare to utter a word" attitude.

If there was some connection between Suer and Xinke and Yakumo Yukari, then Jibril and this beautiful female monster were not familiar with each other at all. Even though she vaguely remembered that a golden-haired monster had come to pay homage when she brought Suer back to the modern world, she easily dismissed those boring things and did not want to waste a second glance on them.

"Lady Jibril is still as straightforward as ever," Yakumo Yukari said with a smile, her composure impeccable. "Seeing you again reminds me of some interesting things. If you gentlemen have the leisure, you might want to visit the Ise Grand Shrine... Haha, although it's said to be a place for worshipping Amaterasu Omikami, the actual deity enshrined in this shrine is..."

She seemed hesitant to speak, but just by looking at Yukari Yakumo's smiling eyes that kept glancing at Jibril, you could tell what she meant.

The one who receives incense offerings and worship under the name of Amaterasu at Ise Grand Shrine is... Jibril?!

Chapter Fifty-One Threat

"Huh? Jibril was mistaken for Amaterasu?" Sue raised her voice in disbelief.