How did I, an Onmyoji, become the Lord of Yokai?

"Although I had heard that the ancient wine village was the most prosperous village near Kyoto, this is too prosperous."

The young student of Yin-Yang studies exclaimed in surprise, then slowly walked into the village.

About two hours later, Shimizu Asahi found a decent hotel to stay in.

He went into his room, put down his luggage, opened the closed window to let the air circulate, and then began to prepare for tonight's operation.

The task entrusted by the ancient wine village is to eliminate the monster that steals livestock.

Although the royal family does not encourage raising livestock, and even issued a law prohibiting the raising of livestock a few decades ago, now that it is decades later, and in a place as large as the ancient wine village, there are bound to be families that raise livestock.

There are seventeen households in Gujiu Village that raise livestock, but they are all small-scale farmers, with only about a hundred livestock in total.

On average, each household raises about seven or eight of them.

The incident of the monster stealing livestock happened a month ago.

Because the villagers raise relatively few animals, even if only one is missing, it will be noticed immediately.

At first, the family whose house was robbed thought it was someone from the village who stole it, so they searched house to house.

However, nothing was found.

The villagers were very unwilling to accept this, because Gujiu Village was such a large village that it was impossible for wild animals to run in. If it wasn't done by the villagers, then it could only be done by a monster.

However, the ancient sake village is protected by the great sage Ibuki, and the villagers have not seen any monsters for hundreds of years.

Therefore, it must have been done by villagers.

But with his outburst, the thief has probably already erased all traces, making any further searching pointless.

So he sighed and decided to let it go.

However, on the second, third, and fourth days, his livestock continued to decrease at a rate of one per day.

Now he couldn't sit still any longer.

On the fifth night, he secretly hid at home, watching the three or four livestock that remained in the wooden pen.

He waited from the second watch of the night until the fourth watch, but nothing happened. Just as he couldn't take it anymore and was about to go back to sleep, the monster appeared.

A fiery red demon, naked from the waist up and wearing only a grass skirt on its lower body, crawled in from outside the wall.

It landed silently, skillfully grabbed a livestock, jumped out of the yard, and left gracefully.

It took less than a minute... maybe even less than half a minute.

Those practiced movements and postures made it clear that it was the thief who came to his house to steal his livestock every day!

The man was so shocked by seeing a monster for the first time that he didn't react immediately. By the time he did, the monster had already disappeared.

The man was so angry that he gritted his teeth. It was bad enough that he came to my house to steal things, but he did it so skillfully, as if it were his own house.

This is intolerable, absolutely intolerable.

So on the sixth night, many young and strong villagers guarded around his house. Whenever the monster appeared, they would rush at it and kill it.

However, the monster did not appear that night.

The villagers waited until dawn, everyone was drowsy and yawning.

But just then, another family that raised livestock ran over and said that their livestock were missing.

Upon hearing this news, the villagers realized that the monster had not only stolen their things but had also tricked them.

"hateful!"

That was the only word left in the villagers' minds.

Without any discussion, everyone unanimously decided that they must capture that despicable monster.

The villagers organized several more arrest operations, but all of them were unsuccessful.

Completely at their wits' end, the villagers realized that simple methods wouldn't work against the monster, so they had no choice but to pay a sorcerer to solve the problem.

And because it happened to coincide with the Onmyo-ryo assessment, this task fell to Shimizu Asahi.

"This monster is quite clever; it even knows how to use feints."

Looking at the instructions on the order form, Shimizu Asahi showed a hint of interest.

Normally, when a monster senses danger, it will hide and wait for the danger to pass before making its move. However, this monster changed its target location immediately after sensing the danger.

If I'm not mistaken, this monster should have already become enlightened.

I just don't know what age group their IQ falls into.

However, on the other hand, the master really thought highly of him and gave him such a task.

After putting down the order form, Shimizu Asahi began to think about what she should do that night.

He wasn't a great Onmyoji after all; he couldn't just draw a talisman to find out where a monster was hiding, nor could he casually set up an array that would automatically activate upon sensing demonic energy.

Therefore, the first thing he did upon entering the ancient wine village was to observe the village.

Even if this monster has become civilized and has a certain level of intelligence, it is impossible for it to leave no trace at all. As long as you observe carefully, you will definitely be able to find its whereabouts.

Yes, that's what Shimizu Asahi thinks.

But as it turns out, he couldn't outsmart a monster...

In two hours, aside from learning that the village's livestock had been eaten by it yesterday and that no one had been killed, there was nothing else to be found.

Qingshui Chaoyang is slightly injured.

However, after that, he began to worry about whether the monster would attack humans.

There is no mutual predator-prey relationship between monsters and humans. Humans do not have a disease that will kill them if they do not eat monsters, and monsters do not have a disease that will kill them if they do not eat humans. Therefore, under normal circumstances, monsters will not attack humans because they want to eat them.

But if it exists... then Shimizu Asahi will definitely not let it go!

The kind of yokai he cared about were 'yokai that could potentially become friends with humans,' not 'yokai that treat humans as prey'! Chapter 3, Section 3: The Girl?

At the second watch of the night, Qingshui Chaoyang was awakened by a sudden sound in his ear.

He yawned as he got out of bed and then pushed open the window he had closed before going to sleep.

Looking at the bright moon that had already climbed into the sky, he patted his cheeks to quickly clear his head.

Time to get to work.

Since he couldn't find any trace of the monster, Shimizu Asahi couldn't move during the day, so he could only wait until night to ambush it.

If he wants to act at night, then he needs to be well-rested during the day.

After deciding on their plan for the evening, Shimizu Asahi promptly lay down on the bed to rest.

And in the blink of an eye, it was already past midnight.

Although the mission order indicated that the monster's action would take place between the fourth and fifth watch of the night, Shimizu Asahi could easily sleep until the third watch, but he personally felt that the third watch was a bit late, while the second watch would be just right.

Hmm... In this era where everyone finishes dinner at four o'clock and goes to bed at seven or eight o'clock, the third watch of the night is indeed a bit late.

Ah, of course, there's no need to worry about oversleeping. He set up a talisman for himself that would make a sound to wake him up when the time came.

Yes, an ancient version of an alarm clock.

My older sister, Shimizu Mio, taught me.

After regaining consciousness, Shimizu Asahi drank some water, ate something, and then crept out the window.

At this time, the store is already closed, so it's impossible to walk in through the main entrance openly.

So the only option was to climb through the window.

Qingshui Chaoyang followed the window to the rooftop, and then used Yin-Yang magic to conceal his figure.

His plan was to wait for the rabbit to run into the tree stump, so he only needed to stay here.

The demonic energy will tell him the exact location of the demon.

There are many kinds of monsters, including not only superhuman monsters such as humanoid demons, evil spirits, tengu, and kappa, but also monsters that evolved from natural phenomena such as torrential rain, ocean waves, and strong winds.

But no matter what kind of monster it is, it will always have a demonic aura.

While powerful demons can perfectly conceal their demonic aura, demons that have only recently awakened obviously cannot do so. Therefore, as soon as the opponent appears, the demon can sense the demonic aura and then take action.

As for why we don't follow the demonic aura during the day, well... that's because the clear water and rising sun can't detect the remaining demonic aura.

The monster wasn't very strong, so its demonic aura in the air was very weak and would dissipate after a few hours. Also, Shimizu Asahi wasn't born in the Year of the Dog and didn't have a keen sense of smell, so this method wouldn't work.

.....

.....

Time passed quietly, and Qingshui Chaoyang sat quietly on the roof of the hotel, his eyes constantly scanning the surroundings.

He has been sitting here for five or six hours, from the second watch of the night to the fourth watch, and now it is almost the fifth watch.

But nothing happened.

However, he wasn't in a hurry. The fifth watch of the night was the time when humans were most tired, and also the time when monsters were most likely to make their move. He could just wait quietly.

However, another hour passed quietly, and a third of the night had gone by, but there was still no sound.

Sitting on the rooftop, Shimizu Asahi looked puzzled. Could it be that the monster wasn't coming?

impossible.

The idea had barely formed when Shimizu Asahi dismissed it.

The monster was unaware that it had come to the Ancient Wine Village, so it would definitely act according to its own rules.

After all, once he realized he had been exposed, this guy became arrogant and no longer satisfied with one a day, but two or three.

Otherwise, it would have been impossible to resolve the issue of the hundred or so livestock in Gujiu Village within a month.

Hmm... it's also possible that the villagers contributed some effort, preferring to eat it themselves rather than leave it for the monster.

But no matter what, that monster would definitely take action every night at dawn.

If it really doesn't come... then there's only one possibility.

The Yin-Yang student's eyes lit up slightly.

It has left the ancient wine village!