The Twelve Trials Starting from Zero

Suddenly, Kusata, who was lying on the ground, felt that the eyes of the people around him were sinister, as if they wanted to devour him alive.

"No!!" he hurriedly denied loudly, "Don't believe him! I didn't! I didn't!"

"Ah, sorry, I misspoke." Su Qi seemed to suddenly realize what he had said, glanced at the others, and frowned. "After this is over, you can move to the city. I will give you a settlement allowance."

"You bastard! I don't understand what you're saying at all! Don't slander me!"

"Alright, we'll talk about this later. Let's take care of business first."

He waved his hand, ignoring him, and walked straight to the middle-aged man who was watching coldly. Looking down at him, he said, "Choose one: either continue the game you were playing, or release them from the illusion."

Damn it... a bunch of useless idiots, this little bit of time they've stalled for isn't enough at all...

The middle-aged man harbored resentment. He had originally intended to retrieve his original body and then slip away, but he couldn't find an opportunity at all. As for releasing the person, he hadn't even considered it.

He hasn't killed me yet, so it seems he's not entirely indifferent to his companions. That makes it even more crucial not to hand him over. Otherwise, once I lose leverage over him, he'll kill me without hesitation… Right now, all I need to do is stall for time. I can sense that once that priestess dies in the illusion, my power will increase significantly… At that point, this guy will definitely be no match for me!

So he made up his mind and pretended to hesitate, saying, "If I let them go, will you let me go too?"

"Of course... I won't." Su Qi said with a puzzled look, "I, Zhizhi Xiong, am a man of strong will and a heart that hates evil. How could I possibly let a monster like you who commits such a heinous act go unpunished? Are you really an idiot?"

The middle-aged man was furious. "You're the one who's out of your mind! If they're going to die sooner or later anyway, why should I let them out?"

"So that I'll suffer less before I die."

"Hmph, don't joke around. You think a little pain can scare me?"

"I love enemies like you who are tough and resolute; it's really exciting to deal with you."

As Su Qi spoke, he suddenly grabbed one of his fingers and twisted it sharply.

"what!!!!"

The pig-like screams seemed to shake the entire worship hall, and then the middle-aged man rolled his eyes and fainted.

"Has the possession been dispelled and the body returned to its original form...?"

Seeing the foreign spiritual energy that had been lingering on the middle-aged man transfer back to the ancient mirror, Su Qi took a few steps over, picked it up, tapped the mirror surface, and said, "Hey, are you there? Don't hide inside without making a sound, I know you're home."

"..."

The ancient mirror remained silent, as if it were just an ordinary mirror.

Su Qi shook his head, flipped the mirror over, and pinched the Shikon Jewel fragment on the mirror's knob.

"Stop!!" A panicked voice rang out in his mind as spiritual energy surged, "Don't pull it out! Don't pull it out! If you pull it out, I'll lose the power to maintain the illusion, and your companions will die too!"

"Release them."

"If you let me go, I'll let them go!"

Unfortunately, one of the things I hate most is being threatened.

"Hmph, your companions are about to be swallowed by the illusion, do you still have time to dawdle with me?"

The mirror spirit's tone suddenly hardened, and then the mirror shone, projecting Kikyo's image onto the ground.

Chapter Sixty-Three: My Time is Very Valuable

The village was engulfed in flames, houses collapsed, and villagers fled.

Within the halo, Kikyo drew her bow and nocked an arrow, her eyes filled with hatred and rage, aiming at a half-demon boy in red robes and silver hair.

Su Qi immediately understood that this was the scene from fifty years ago when Kikyo shot an arrow at Inuyasha.

"Hehehe, I can sense that this woman's heart is filled with hatred and resentment, so all I need to do is use an illusion to entice her into obsession..."

The mirror demon chuckled mockingly, "How pitiful. She was once such a powerful priestess, yet she was deceived by a half-demon and has fallen into the abyss ever since... Look, once that arrow, filled with killing intent and resentment, hits that half-demon, that woman will be completely consumed by her fear and resentment. So... don't you want to agree to my conditions yet? In a little while, it will be too late."

"Is that so? Will Kikyo be consumed by her own resentment like this?"

Su Qi turned the mirror, projecting the circular light onto the wall, and stared at Kikyo, unexpectedly saying, "Then let me see, let me see Kikyo's magnanimity, let me see what Kikyo's true feelings are."

"Wait! You really don't want to save her? It will be too late once that arrow is shot."

"It's never too late, as long as you die once. So shut up and let me see what choice she makes."

Before she finished speaking, Kikyo in the halo finally released the bowstring, and the arrow streaked through the air, instantly covering a distance of dozens of meters, shooting in front of Inuyasha, and then... suddenly disappeared.

The next moment, with a cracking sound, the ancient mirror in Su Qi's hand trembled and cracked. A feathered arrow broke through the center and shot out, instantly embedding itself in the opposite wall, its tail feathers trembling incessantly.

"Aaaaaaah!!" The mirror demon screamed in agony, filled with fear and resentment, "How is this possible!? That woman... actually... broke through... the illusion... from within..."

The sound grew fainter and fainter until finally, the spiritual energy exploded, a flash of light, and three figures and spheres of light-shaped dead souls were spat out by the ancient mirror. Looking at the mirror again, its surface was shattered, dim and lifeless, with only a wisp of spiritual energy remaining like a candle flickering in the wind, ready to be extinguished at any moment.

Su Qi pulled the Shikon Jewel shard off the mirror's knob. With that, the last trace of spiritual power dissipated, and the Rainbow Mirror, now a demon, finally died completely.

……

Not long after, in front of the shrine's torii gate, Su Qi and Kikyo bid farewell to the Komainu siblings.

"Lord Kenshin, Lady Kikyo, I truly don't know how to thank you both for your help." Shishimaru bowed with gratitude, "Perhaps our strength is not as great as yours, but if you ever need anything in the future, please don't hesitate to ask. We will do our best to help you."

"Um...that..." Du Le blushed and hesitated for a while before finally staring at the stone steps under her feet and saying to Su Qi in a voice as soft as a mosquito's buzz, "I'm...I'm sorry...you're a good person, I shouldn't have called you a bad guy before...and thank you for helping us defeat that mirror demon."

"No need, I only wanted the Shikon Jewel." Su Qi smiled gently and ruffled the cat-eared loli's fluffy curly hair. "But you'd better be careful from now on. Those villagers probably don't like you much now. If you get kicked out again, there might not be anyone who can help you."

"Please rest assured, we should be able to protect the shrine as long as it's just those people."

"Stop nagging... I won't be defeated by those weak humans."

……

After saying goodbye to the Komainu siblings, the two walked side by side through the village on the main road outside the village.

The sky above was a clear blue, and the sun shone brightly. On both sides were lush green farmland and fields, where several villagers were working. Occasionally, a gentle breeze would rustle the leaves and blow from the nearby woods, lightly tugging at their clothes and carrying a faint fragrance of grass and trees.

"Did you see the looks in the eyes of those villagers just now?" Su Qi said as they walked. "Even though we rescued them from the monsters, most of them hate us."

Kikyo didn't respond, but after a moment, she suddenly asked, "Why didn't you kill that man?"

That man refers to Sota.

Su Qi did not kill Kusa, but of course it wasn't because he suddenly became a saint and let him go. Rather, he thought that a clean and decisive kill would be too lenient on that scumbag, and it would be better to make him suffer a fate worse than death.

So Su Qi first appointed him as an inside agent in front of everyone, and then, when they left the shrine, he gave him a generous settlement fee in full view of everyone, and secretly instructed Du Le to find an opportunity to cripple that scumbag's right hand after he and Kikyo left.

The Japanese are most fond of forming cliques and factions, and they love to exclude and bully those who are different. They are also most afraid of becoming the object of exclusion and bullying. After Su Qi's arrangement, even if some people don't believe it, under the hatred and resentment of the majority, Sota will inevitably become the bullied outcast.

With his right hand crippled, and with crises raging everywhere and monsters rampant, his future life will naturally be worse than death.

However, Su Qi would not elaborate when facing Kikyo, and simply said: "Because I suddenly realized that in this era, living may be more painful than dying."

Then, changing the subject, she asked, "And what about you? Why didn't the last arrow hit Inuyasha?"

Kikyo was silent for a moment, then said calmly, "It's pointless to shoot down a false phantom."

"Heh, it seems you haven't lost your mind because of resentment, otherwise that arrow should have hit that phantom."

She remained silent, simply looking ahead and moving forward at a leisurely pace.

A moment later, the two arrived at a fork in the road. Kikyo suddenly stopped and said coldly, "Let's stop here."

Su Qi stopped, and after a moment's thought, he realized, "You want to part ways with me?"

"There is no reason for us to travel together anymore."

Indeed, having obtained the undigested souls of the Mirror Demon, Kikyo has now fully recovered her power, so it seems that there is no longer any reason for her to travel with Su Qi.

"I don't think so." Su Qi was not going to give up easily, so he turned to look at her, his expression unusually serious. "I've done so much for you in the past two weeks, do you think I fell in love with you at first sight and want to be your lapdog? My time is very valuable and not meant to be wasted."

Kikyo remained expressionless, her eyes calm and indifferent. "But having already lost my life, I have nothing to give you."

"Naraku, the Shikon Jewel, as a victim, as a priestess guarding the Shikon Jewel, don't you think you should do something?"

"Now that I am dead, there is only one thing I want to do most."

"Take care of other things first, then it's not too late to do that."

"However, having been tormented by regret and resentment until now, I can no longer endure it."

"Is that so..." Su Qi narrowed his eyes slightly, pondered for a moment, and then suddenly chuckled, "Alright, in that case, I'll help you kill Inuyasha first, and then you can help me collect the Shikon Jewel and kill Naraku, how about that?"

Chapter Sixty-Four: Tears Flowed

Kikyo didn't answer, but instead said, "These past few days, I've been thinking about what your true purpose is."

"Purify the Shikon Jewel, kill Naraku..." Su Qi frowned slightly, "Didn't I tell you my purpose from the beginning?"

"What is on the surface is often just a cover-up."

“That’s true, but I’m different…” he said sincerely. “I, Kenshin Shishio, have always treated people with sincerity and spoken my mind. So my true purpose, as you can see, is simply to purify the Shikon Jewel and kill Naraku. You should know very well that I have always said this and done this, otherwise why would I have done so much for you?”

"You did do that, but you also did something else."

"what's up?"

"To exonerate Inuyasha."

Su Qi was slightly taken aback, then sighed softly, "Alright, it's normal for you to have doubts about this, but I was just telling the truth."

Kikyo didn't speak, she just looked at Su Qi.

"You suspect I have a relationship with Inuyasha, so you don't want me involved in your affairs with him?"

"I...can't completely trust you yet."

"Then at least it's okay for me to stay by your side, right?"

She shook her head. "I don't want to take any risks."

"What if... I insist on following them?"

Even though Su Qi was confident that the current Kikyo was calmer than the Kikyo from the same period in the original work, the one who truly wanted to perish together with Inuyasha, he still couldn't guarantee that she would really stop in time.

With her own butterfly effect that changes the world line, it's hard to say whether Kagome can still step in at crucial moments and save Inuyasha's life as she did in the original story.

Inuyasha is the male protagonist, and Kikyo is the second female lead. If they both die, the plot will completely fall apart. Then, only he, Kagome, Miroku, Sango, Sesshomaru, and others will be left to fight Naraku. In that case... wait, it doesn't seem like they can't fight him.

No…that's not right! If Inuyasha dies, Kagome will definitely be devastated and might even run away back to the modern world, which would make purifying the Shikon Jewel even more difficult. Besides, the male lead and the second female lead dying might affect the game's ending score. Furthermore…as a former Inuyasha reader, Su Qi doesn't want their fates to end this way.

Now that he, a time traveler, has intervened in the plot, even if the final ending is not as good as the original world line manipulated by Takahashi-sama, it can't be too far off, otherwise wouldn't it be a disgrace to the time traveler?

Therefore, it's best if Inuyasha and Kikyo are alive no matter what; therefore, Su Qi must ensure that the meeting between Kikyo and Inuyasha doesn't go awry.