Don't force me to use my right fist.

The finger pointed in Sōyū's direction, and the mind-reading monster gleaned a chilling thought from his mind, instantly sending a cold sweat down his spine.

How come it's still alive?

This is the only question that Sawa is currently pondering.

Even without the demon needing to think, it was clear that Sōyū was referring to it. But what had it done before this thought suddenly popped into its head?

The ugly monster, looking down to check if there was anything wrong with its body, helplessly realized that it seemed to have lowered its head too much.

Why does it feel like my head is already down to my feet?

It was only when it saw the familiar body and the neck that was gushing blood because it had lost its head that it finally realized what was happening.

With its last question lingering, the monster felt a wave of darkness engulf it, ultimately causing it to lose consciousness completely.

As the person directly involved, Saya certainly knew what had happened, but Kikyo, standing next to him, stared wide-eyed in disbelief. From her perspective, Saya had just taken a direct hit from the demon's attack, yet almost without her noticing, he had appeared beside her as if by teleportation.

Then came the scene before her: the monster that had been troubling her for so long had its head fall off as if it were being staged for an accident.

The scene was so shocking that she wondered if she was seeing things.

"It's dead?"

Kikyo sheathed her wooden bow, which she had been holding ready to fire, and turned to look at the black-haired boy beside her with a relaxed smile. She asked him in a slightly questioning tone.

"Otherwise, even if it's a monster, not many can survive after their head is cut off. If you're worried, you can go and deal with this thing's corpse." (The sound of something falling off.)

The experience alone leveled Zuoyou up two levels, and he even dropped a precious crystal of karma.

Now that the materials have been revealed, Zuoyou really doesn't think there's any way to make it rise again.

Saya, fiddling with the tooth-like material that had fallen from the monster, shrugged at Kikyo beside him. The rest was unwanted; she could do whatever she wanted with it.

It's true that it's one of the final boss Naraku's clones. Although it seems rather weak, at least the loot is really plentiful. "Hmm."

Kikyo didn't refuse or try to be polite to Saya. She simply squatted down and started drawing strange symbols with a twig next to the headless corpse of the demon.

A moment later, a flash of white light appeared from the symbols she had drawn, and the hideous monster's corpse finally turned into dust and vanished into the world.

Even though it was just the corpse of Naraku's clone, Kikyo still wouldn't let her guard down.

Regardless of whether it will revive as Saya said, if it is left here unattended, who knows what uncontrollable consequences might occur if it is swallowed by some wild beast or other monster.

Furthermore, there is another very important point: Naraku possesses a fragment of the Shikon Jewel, so to revive him, all that is needed is to find his corpse.

Chapter 434 Do You Know Dogs?

"What exactly happened just now?" the questioner wondered.

Even with her abilities, she was completely unaware of what happened in that instant. However, considering the words the demon spoke before he died, the only thing she could tell was that Saya had definitely used some strange special ability.

"It was very simple. It attacked me, and I fought back, giving it a good beating with the knife in my hand."

Zuo You watched Kikyo finish her work with a relaxed and carefree expression. Only when she asked him did he reveal the truth.

"What I mean is, did you use some special ability? Otherwise, at human speed, there's no way you could have accomplished what you just said, right?"

Kikyo calmly looked at Saya, trying to see something in his eyes.

Kikyo, not wanting to press for details, quickly added that directly asking about someone's abilities was extremely impolite, something she was well aware of.

However, curiosity still compelled her to ask the question. After all, this mind-reading monster had been bothering her for some time, and its strange ability meant that all she could do was retreat in front of it and she couldn't kill it.

This guy, who had given her such a headache, was taken down by Saya without even lasting a single round?

She found it hard to accept.

"Hmm, it's alright. If I said I have the ability to stop time, would you understand?"

Sōyū didn't intend to keep time stop a secret, nor was it his last trump card. If anything, his strongest trump card right now is definitely Creation Mode.

Furthermore, Kikyo wasn't some kind of demon who would fight him, which made Saya even more at ease.

Kikyo's pupils narrowed slightly as she finally remembered what the demon had said before he died, and she agreed with it.

Is this ability truly something a human could master? Moreover, Sawa seems to have paid no price for it whatsoever.

"Yes, to be more specific, I froze this entire space-time and its mind, and then it became a piece of meat on the chopping board."

Sōyū shrugged, as if he had done something insignificant.

"Speaking of which, this demon is also one of Naraku's incarnations, right? That means it was tracking you here?"

Saya pinched his chin. Now that he had already explained the principles behind his abilities to her, he might as well change the subject.

"Yes, it's been following me around and causing me trouble for a while now."

Kikyo nodded. Because of this yokai's ability to read minds, she had never been able to completely destroy it. Not only that, it even prevented her from going to the nearby villages for a time.

After all, if it followed him to the village, it would undoubtedly be a disaster.

"Did something happen between you and that Naraku demon? I have a feeling that you two are connected in some way."

Having finally found a way to understand the specific plot, Saya decisively asked the question, while curiously looking in Kikyo's direction.

Even if he can still barely recall the plot that was the source of the tragedy in the anime Inuyasha, the problem is that the world may not necessarily follow that script.

After all, to be honest, Kikyo should have been dead by now; how could she still be standing so beautifully in front of him?

"Naraku? Just think of it as a fight to the death between us. You could say that one of my missions now is to completely destroy this monster."

Kikyo shook her head at Saga, clearly not wanting to mention this past event, and walked towards the entrance of the house, not forgetting to call out to Saga at the same time.

"Weren't you going to Higurashi Shrine with me? Now that the pursuers have been dealt with, it's time to set off."

Kikyo turned and walked down the mountain without even glancing at Saku again. Clearly, hearing the name Naraku had a significant impact on her.

When she brought it up, Sawa naturally didn't refuse. After promptly collecting the loot dropped by the monster, she followed the black-haired woman.

"So, are we going straight to Higurashi Shrine? Or do we need to deal with some more monsters? You can call me anytime along the way—no, you absolutely must call me. I'm very particular about dealing with monsters."

Given Kikyo's aloof and cold beauty, the task of breaking the somewhat awkward silence between the two fell to Saya.

Saku felt like he was going crazy if he didn't chat for half a day. He took the initiative to greet Kikyo, indicating that he was willing to be a tool.

"No, we need to go to the nearest village to resupply first. If you can't wait, then there's nothing I can do."

Kikyo didn't object to Saya's initiative in asking to deal with the demons. She simply explained to him that she needed to go to a nearby village to resupply first, and then gave him the choice again.

"Huh? Do you need any supplies? Could it be that the village can replenish your arrows?" Sōyu looked at the quiver on her back with some doubt. If he remembered correctly, the arrows in it were specially made anti-demon arrows. Ordinary villages definitely wouldn't have such supplies.

"Naturally, it's food and some daily necessities. These things may not be very important to me, but I'm not the only one living in the Higurashi Shrine. These things are necessary for survival."

Kikyo answered Saya's question, and perhaps because she had mentioned someone she cared about, a rare smile appeared on her perpetually icy face.

"Oh, right, now that you mention it, I remember. Do you know a dog demon? The half-human, half-demon kind?"

Upon hearing this, Sōyū suddenly snapped his fingers and asked another crucial question.

Chapter 435 You're not short of food either.

Ultimately, that dog was one of the key figures who triggered the Shikon Jewel incident, and even Kikyo's death was definitely related to him.

If things were going according to the normal procedure, with Naraku already out, Kikyo would have no reason not to recognize him.

"A dog demon that is half human and half demon? Why would you suddenly ask about such a thing? I haven't encountered or dealt with as many demons as you think. In most cases, I just eliminate them directly."

Kikyo frowned. Just as she said, most yokai are beings that endanger the lives of others, and most of the time she comes into contact with them in order to get rid of them.

Demons like Tamamo-no-Mae are always a minority, and as for the dog demon that Saya mentioned, it is even more unknown what kind of being it is.

At least in her experience, there shouldn't be any monsters of this type.

"In other words, even that Er Gouzi might not exist in this world, so it's not impossible for you to survive."

Saya pinched his chin, muttering under his breath about her answer.

If Inuyasha didn't exist, Naraku truly wouldn't have had a disguise to approach her. Girls who haven't been in love are all incredibly clever; fooling them isn't so easy. Just as Saya was thinking about how to warn her to be careful about her future boyfriends, Kikyo had already led him to the front of a village.

"Would you like to come with me to buy some necessities, or just stay where you are?"

Kikyo glanced at Saku, who didn't seem like a wealthy person at all, and she couldn't even tell if he was capable of normal communication with other humans, so she decided to ask for his opinion.

"Well, if you're going to buy things, you'll need someone to help you carry them, right? I don't have anything to prepare, but helping you carry them is no problem."

Sōyū glanced down at his backpack. He didn't really have anything he needed to buy, and there didn't seem to be anything in this village that could attract him.

"Alright then, can you guarantee you won't hurt the villagers without permission? If you do, I won't stand idly by."

After hearing what Saya said, Kikyo could only offer him one piece of advice: the most common problem with someone as capable as him is that he uses his strength to bully others.

"Uh, what kind of person do you think I am? I'm human too, okay? And I'm not completely detached from humanity. I know very well what I should and shouldn't do."

Saku immediately understood the meaning hidden in her words, rolled his eyes, and then helplessly made a comment.

I hope so.

Kikyo nodded and then led Saya into the village, which was more prosperous than the village where Shibata Ai lived.

The guards standing at the village entrance stopped her and Zuoyou, and only let them in after she handed over a few copper coins.

"Seriously? You, a shrine maiden, have to pay to enter a place like this?"

As Saku watched Kikyo's incredibly practiced money-pulling movements, he was at a loss for words.

It's ridiculous that a shrine maiden who's always protecting others has to charge people to even enter a village.

But Kikyo seemed to have taken it all in stride, glancing at Sakumo with her head turned.

"Every place has its own rules, and so what if I'm a shrine maiden? We're all human, so giving special treatment is a very bad thing."

After leading Saya to a shop that resembled an exchange, Kikyo took out some plants that looked like herbs from her small bag and handed them to the shop owner while explaining to Saya.

Many monsters do not intend to harm people, but this is why they still cannot coexist peacefully with humans. Humans always have too many rules, which are completely contrary to the way monsters live a free and unrestrained life.

"Boss, how much grain can I exchange for here?"

Kikyo, no longer chatting with Saya, turned to the elderly man in the shop, whose attire was noticeably more affluent than that of the average villager, and asked him a question.

These medicinal herbs were collected by her while dealing with monsters in the wild. Because the places where monsters dwell are usually remote and sparsely populated, the herbs there are much more abundant and of higher quality than those in other places.