I transformed into a demonic spider lily.

Kikyo was clearly unable to accept this outcome. She hadn't expected that the spider lily would let the group of demon bats leave. What if other people were harmed in the future?

Just as Kikyo was about to step forward and say something, she saw Higanbana place her hand on her chest again, clearly telling her to keep quiet for the time being.

Kikyo still chose to believe in Higanbana's decision, and only after Tsukiyomaru left did she say, "Hana, I feel I need to hear your reasons. Why did you do this? Is it just because of the Blood Jade Coral in your possession?"

"No, those monsters can't take the Blood Jade Coral back from me. This is just a reason for me to let them go."

With her left hand supporting the blood jade coral, Higanbana's right hand remained on Kikyo's chest as she continued, "I know the question you really want to ask is why I let them leave."

"Yes."

Kikyo leaned forward, trying to force an explanation that would satisfy her, but this closeness led to unforeseen consequences...

Those who know, know; those who don't, there's nothing we can do.

It's because you lack knowledge.

"First, before answering your question, I need you to clarify your own understanding of this matter. It is true that the monsters that harm those humans are the Hyakki Bats, but they are definitely not the Hyakki Bat clan."

The other shore flower specifically pointed out this key point, and said: "It's like a family of you humans making a decision on a matter that involves many lives. It's divided into three factions: war, neutral, and peace. The clan leader is the leader of the war faction, but the successor is the representative of the peace faction. This is what you should know."

"As for the outcome of the resolution, it goes without saying that the clan chief, with his privileges and the support of his faction, forced the neutral fence-sitters to join in, and the pro-amity faction had no choice but to obey orders and do something bloody together."

"Now, as representatives of the government, we have determined that this matter was wrong and have begun to investigate the responsibility. As the clan chief and leader of the pro-war faction, Daigokumaru has already been held accountable by us. The remaining ones are the pro-war and neutral factions, the Hyakki Bats."

"The former is easy to identify. When Daigokumaru ordered all the Hyakki Bats to attack me, the Hyakki Bats who did not hesitate to do so were naturally his confidants. I have already eliminated them one by one."

"However, the latter is not easy to distinguish, but there is a difference between the neutral faction and the pro-negotiating faction, which is their attitude towards Ookumaru. The pro-negotiating Hyakki Bats follow their young master Tsukiyomaru, so they will naturally subconsciously stay away from the clan leader Ookumaru."

"Therefore, when your exorcising arrow strikes, the amicable Hundred Demon Bats are more likely to evacuate the scene. As for the final result, the fact that the Hundred Demon Bats chose to protect Tsukiyomaru is enough to explain their stance."

After saying that, Higanbana looked at Kikyo and continued, "In other words, you and I have each cleaned up a group of culprits, but there must have been some who were accidentally killed or escaped. However, considering that the Hyakki Bat Clan must exist in Shimōsa, we can only leave the follow-up handling to Tsukiyomaru."

"Why?" Kikyo asked.

Why must the Hundred Demon Bat Clan exist?

“The reason is simple. If the Hyakki Bat Clan did not exist in Shimosa, this territory would be occupied by other yokai clans. You can’t guarantee that the new ruler won’t be the next Daigokumaru, can you?” Higanbana replied.

"I see."

Upon hearing this, Kikyo nodded slightly. She had never thought about such a question before, only assuming that once the troublesome monsters were dealt with, there would be no more trouble. No wonder there were many monsters in various places that she had to repeatedly exorcise.

"Those who can harm one side can also protect the other side, so all I need to do is prove to you the reasons why Tsukiyomaru is a peacemaker."

That's right.

"I'll let you in on a little secret~ Don't let that guy's cold demeanor fool you, he actually has a half-demon daughter with a human woman from a nearby village."

The red spider lily whispered in the bellflower's ear.

Although the human woman has not yet been born, nor has the half-demon's daughter, the Spider Lily guarantees that she is absolutely not lying.

"Wow~"

Upon hearing this, Kikyo couldn't help but show a gossipy expression. It was the first time she had ever heard of the topic of half-demon, and this reason was one that she could accept.

As she breathed a sigh of relief, Kikyo suddenly felt something was off in her chest. She glanced down at it, then looked up at the spider lily and said, "That's all I have to say, but could you put your hand down first?"

"Ah, no! Listen to me, I only intervened to prevent you from doing anything reckless. You were the one who moved closer to me." The Spider Lily quickly removed her hand and then explained several times.

"I know, it's just that I feel a tightness in my chest."

Kikyo indicated that she didn't care at all.

"It's probably because you're binding your chest, anyway, it has nothing to do with me," the other flower continued to argue, then glanced down at her hand and suddenly clenched it slightly...

"I didn't say it was your fault."

Kikyo didn't understand what the other flower was afraid of; at least her thoughts were still very pure. She just looked at the blood jade coral in the other's hand and sighed, "Unexpectedly, there are such sturdy treasures in the world. But, flower, why did you specifically ask to keep this?"

"To prevent them from using this thing to do wrong again."

The red spider lily provides a standard reason for the bellflower.

However, without the Blood Jade Coral, the Hundred Ghost Bats, especially with the new clan leader's lack of strength, will probably be in trouble. Hopefully, those guys can hold on.

Anyway, she couldn't care less about that anymore.

……

Meanwhile, in the caves of the isolated island.

Tsukiyomaru was also very distressed. His clan had gone from being powerful to being in decline in just one night, no, it should be said that it was only a quarter of an hour. He even had to hand over the Blood Jade Coral. If the other yokai clans around knew about this, they would definitely come to challenge their status in Shimosa.

There is only one way to get through this ordeal.

The blood pool left behind by Ookumaru...

This became the opportunity for Tsukiyomaru to rapidly become stronger.

Chapter Sixty-Nine: Blood Jade Coral ground into powder tastes absolutely delicious!

……

As it turns out, it is extremely difficult to bypass the rules for treasures that can only be used under specific conditions. After obtaining the Blood Jade Coral, the Other Shore Flower tried to use it three times in a row, but the result was failure each time.

There was not even the slightest reaction.

The third time was the limit, so the other shore flower immediately abandoned the idea of ​​using the blood jade coral. Unexpectedly, in this era, there was something similar to DNA verification.

However, despite giving up, the other shore flower still wanted to do something else with this thing. Before that, she should take a look at the introduction of the blood jade coral.

[Blood Jade Coral (Fragment): Can release a protective barrier that grants immunity to all attacks below level 30. It is formed from the demonic power of successive Hundred Demon Bat Clan Chiefs and can only be used by the bloodline successor of the Hundred Demon Bat Clan Chief.]

Because it was a defective product, the Spider Lily didn't know what the full version would be like, nor did she need to know, since she couldn't release that barrier at all. However, please note the sentence following the protective barrier—

It was formed from the demonic power of the successive leaders of the Hundred Demon Bat Clan.

In other words, this is a very low-end version of the Shikon Jewel. However, the Shikon Jewel also includes a soul that erodes the mind, while the Blood Jewel Coral is simply an experience pill. However, only the Hundred Demon Bats can fully absorb this experience; the demonic power of other monsters is not compatible with it.

it's fine!

Who is this other shore flower?

It's not even human!

What's this about the mismatch in demonic power? Just transform the Blood Jade Coral into her shape, and that'll be fine. If she can get even 30% of the full demonic power, she'll have made a killing.

However, the flawed blood jade coral itself had already leaked a lot of demonic power; if it were intact...

[Repair Requirements: All demonic power of the current leader of the Hundred Demon Bat Clan (0/1).]

"I understand. I'll go back and take care of Tsukiyomaru too." That was Higanbana's first thought, but she quickly shook her head, rejecting the suggestion.

Holy crap, this is way like Paradox Interactive!

Defective products are defective products, they're all pretty much the same anyway.

Then, how did she absorb its demonic power? The spider lily attached its demonic power to its hand and squeezed the blood jade coral hard, causing the already cracked object to shatter instantly, leaving only a pile of powder scattered on the ground.

The demonic wind evenly dispersed the powder throughout the sea of ​​flowers. Vines sprouted from the ground, constantly eroding the powder. This was the first step in absorbing demonic power, breaking down the crystalline blood jade coral back into its original form—pure demonic power. Then the second step began…

By removing the impurities from this demonic power, only 30% of the pure demonic power remains. This portion of demonic power is then extracted and fed back into the body of the spider lily.

The entire process took a month, but the flower sea operated automatically, while the spider lilies simply received experience without any intervention.

-

[True Name: Spider Lily (SR)]

[Level: 25]

-

Not only did she level up, but she also gained half the experience required to reach level 25. However, considering that the Blood Jade Coral was originally an extremely powerful defensive treasure, it only increased her demonic power by one level in her hands. The Other Shore Flower couldn't help but feel that she was wasting a precious treasure.

But there's nothing we can do about it.

It's like she owns a Maserati but can't start it because she doesn't have the key. In the end, she has to dismantle it, sell all the parts for money, and leave the unusable car in the warehouse, but she can use the money she gets as she pleases.

Although, that car wasn't originally hers...

(*￣3￣)╭?? I'll shower you with little flowers.

A month has passed, and the Spider Lily has not been idly waiting for the Blood Jade Coral to decompose without doing anything. During this time, she has accompanied Kikyo on several missions and has also systematically conquered three forests and seven mountain ranges at night. The number of monsters under her jurisdiction should be around 15,000.

There are at least over a hundred R-rank monsters.

However, she is still the only SR-level monster.

By the way, the competition that the tree spirits had to compete in last time also ended today. The figure of the spider lily floated directly above the forest of tree spirits. The originally empty plain has now become a real forest. Although there are still cracks between the different areas, we can gather some more monsters tonight and move the three forests that we conquered some time ago.

Taking the initial forest area as one, the mountain range of the Demon Wolf Clan is equal to three, and the territory expanded this time is at least the sum of the first two places.

It doubled again.

In addition, the group of twenty tree spirits with the largest expansion area will be rewarded by releasing her demon blood. Anyway, the other shore flower is used to cutting her wrists, so she will just splash it on that land and let it seep into the ground, where it will be absorbed by the roots of these tree spirits. The distribution will not be uneven due to the distance.

Afterwards, not only did her demonic body feel slightly unwell, but the other shore flower also felt her soul was even weaker. She had bled too much and felt like her body had been hollowed out. It seems that she needs to be more restrained in this kind of thing in the future.

In this listless state, the spider lily returned to the sea of ​​flowers. Tu Bi was about to greet it, but upon seeing its expression, it immediately wanted to turn around and run away. Its intuition told it that if it didn't run away now, it would definitely be tortured again later.

"Tu Bi, where are you going?"

With her eyes slightly narrowed, the red spider lily asked.

Upon hearing this, Tu Bi froze on the spot, even though it was originally a stone wall. Then, after quietly observing the reaction of the spider lily, it scurried back.

"I don't want to move anymore, just carry me back."

After saying that, the red spider lily sighed and leaned lazily against a tree next to her.

With a hand outstretched, Tu Bi carefully lifted it onto its shoulder and walked step by step to the summit, until they reached the magnificent sea of ​​flowers in front of them.

After staring blankly for a moment, the spider lily jumped off Tu Bi's shoulder. Her front foot landed, and her back foot followed suit, landing in the sea of ​​flowers. Surrounded by blossoms, her eyes suddenly regained their focus, but she still didn't stand up; her demonic body simply rolled and rolled…

Only after rolling to the center of the flower field did the spider lily sit up, holding two pieces of clothing in her hands. One of them was her "Yamabushi Cloth Robe," and the other was the shrine maiden's robe that she had taken from Kikyo.

Tu Bi tilted his head slightly.

"Hehehe~ Nurikabe, you must want to ask me what I'm going to do, right?" To be honest, ever since Higanbana brought back this shrine maiden outfit from Kikyo's house, she has only tried it on once, and finally concluded that she was not suitable for wearing this kind of clothing, because the chest area was too tight.

I'm a little out of breath.

Although flower fairies don't need to breathe either.