As soon as Dan Oni Roku stepped out of the bushes, he froze.
The reason was simple: he was immediately surrounded by a group of burly men. Who wouldn't be intimidated by that? Not to mention there was one among them who didn't even look human.
"Disperse, disperse! Nothing to see here. It's getting dark, hurry back."
Washizu's voice came, and everyone immediately breathed a sigh of relief. Then they scattered, as if Dan Oni Roku didn't exist.
"Shall we go?" Ember patted Dan Oni Roku, who was still questioning his life, and followed the moving crowd forward.
"If I hadn't been injured, what would have happened if I had attacked you all?" Dan Oni Roku quickly followed. He ran behind Ember and Washizu, asking tentatively.
"Hehe, in that case, I imagine there'd be some new grass growing somewhere," Washizu said with a chuckle, pointing to the withered yellow grass beside them.
Dan Oni Roku looked up at Washizu. His arms were thicker than his own thighs, and with the two large sacks on his shoulders, the pressure he exerted was immense.
"Gulp!" Dan Oni Roku raised his hand to look at his own arm again. Although he was very muscular, that was only for an ordinary person. Compared to Washizu, he was far inferior.
"I was just saying, just saying, don't mind me." Dan Oni Roku looked at the equally robust men around him and couldn't help but marvel at Higi Village's abundant resources.
Even in peacetime, it would be difficult for a village to produce so many strong men, but what about Higi Village?
With Yashiori Island effectively isolated, they could still deploy such a group of strong men. How could their resources not be abundant?
To be able to feed ordinary people so well during wartime, Dan Oni Roku had never seen anything like it.
"Brother, give me one, I'll help." Seeing everyone silently moving forward, Dan Oni Roku approached a villager and pointed at the three sacks he was carrying.
"Can you do it?" The villager looked at Dan Oni Roku with some suspicion. These sacks were not ordinary.
To facilitate faster transport, these sacks were specially enlarged compared to regular ones. They didn't look different, but they already weighed over a hundred jin.
It wouldn't be impossible for an ordinary person to be instantly weighed down and collapse to the ground.
"Do I look like someone who can't do it?" Dan Oni Roku pointed to his purple armor and then flexed the muscles in his arm.
"Be careful after entering the village. Your attire isn't very popular." Seeing Dan Oni Roku's actions, the villager snorted, then tilted his body slightly and set down a large sack of grain.
Seeing the sliding sack, Dan Oni Roku immediately put away his spear, slinging it diagonally across his back.
From his demeanor, he seemed to intend to directly embrace the sack.
"Hah!" Soon, Dan Oni Roku realized the mistake of his decision.
The sack was heavier than Dan Oni Roku had anticipated. He tightly gripped the four corners of the sack with both hands, struggling to lift it.
He did succeed, but his flushed face, clenched teeth, and wide, Crab-like strides all indicated his immense struggle.
"Hey, hey, hey, don't overexert yourself right after recovering. Besides, compared to them, you're being a bit presumptuous."
Ember saw Dan Oni Roku struggling so much. He walked in front of him and lifted the sack from his hands with one hand.
It was exactly the same as when he had lifted Dan Oni Roku's body.
"Hoo… hoo… You… you…" Dan Oni Roku rubbed his numb fingers, panting heavily, seemingly trying to say something.
"Me what?" Ember shook the sack full of grain up and down, showing off to Dan Oni Roku.
"The bag in your hand is about to break!" Dan Oni Roku finally caught his breath and shouted, looking at the sack in Ember's hand.
The corner of the sack that Ember was holding was stretched long by the weight of the grain inside. It looked like it would completely tear apart soon.
"Can't you just say it all at once?" Ember instantly reacted and threw the sack back onto the villager's back.
As he spoke, he also gave Dan Oni Roku a flick on the forehead.
"I couldn't catch my breath, could I?" Dan Oni Roku mumbled, covering his head.
"That just means you still need to train," Ember heard Dan Oni Roku's mumbling and continued, pointing to the villagers nearby who were carrying large and small packages:
"Look at them. Although I'm not telling you to catch up to them, isn't it a bit unreasonable that you can't even reach one-third of their strength?"
"Who knows how they trained?" Dan Oni Roku's tone carried a mix of confusion and dejection.
One must know, he was a member of the tatarigami Seal Guard, and in terms of equipment and physical fitness, he was among the top tier of the Shogunate Army.
But he was first chased by the resistance, and then disheartened by the villagers of Higi Village, making him question his life.
Being chased by the resistance was still acceptable to Dan Oni Roku. After all, the resistance also had elites, and it was elite against elite, plus they were ambushed, so losing was normal.
But to be outdone by ordinary villagers, Dan Oni Roku found it unbelievable. If he didn't have such an ordinary background, Dan Oni Roku would even suspect that he was a scion of some noble family sent into the army to pad his resume.
Because only those playboys who indulged in pleasure and lacked exercise would have strength inferior to even old farmers.
However, Dan Oni Roku quickly shook his head, and his chest puffed out again. He had found his area of advantage.
"Although my strength can't compare to theirs, I know Onmyodo!"
Dan Oni Roku patted his chest, then drew a talisman inscribed with profound runes from his waist.
"You're an Exorcist too?"
Upon seeing this familiar scene, Ember immediately thought of that Chongyun fellow. Chongyun's sorcery was quite amazing, though useful only rarely.
"Exorcist? You must be referring to the term used in Liyue, right?" Dan Oni Roku was startled by the question but quickly reacted.
"Pretty much. Many Onmyodo techniques were inspired by Liyue's sorcery."
Dan Oni Roku explained, then began chanting and forming hand seals.
A bright pink light emanated from the talisman in Dan Oni Roku's hand. The light bloomed upwards from within the talisman, then gathered in the air, finally transforming into scattered petals.
Pink cherry blossom petals slowly drifted down from the Sky. Initially, the petals were a vibrant, tender pink.
As they fell from the Sky, it made people feel as if they had arrived at the time of cherry blossom Bloom.
By the time they reached head height, the Sky full of pink petals had already become dim and dull. It was like scattered cherry blossoms turning into carelessly tossed scraps of paper.
And when these dull paper fragments finally hit the ground, their color had become incredibly murky, making it impossible to distinguish whether they were light falling from the Sky or mud splatters from the ground.
As the light from the talisman changed, the surrounding air inexplicably became clearer. What was inhaled was no longer the stinging pain, but the freshness after rain.
The sudden purification invigorated everyone present. They seemed to have found the former aura of Yashiori Island.
Ember also took a few deep breaths, and he immediately felt refreshed and at ease.
"Not bad, I underestimated you before!"
Feeling the almost completely dissipated tatarigami aura in the air, Ember praised Dan Oni Roku a few times.
He hadn't expected this guy to be able to temporarily dispel tatarigami. Truly, one should not judge a book by its cover.
"That's natural, I am…"
"Bang!"
Dan Oni Roku was about to boast about his Onmyodo when a sharp pain suddenly shot through his palm.
Looking down, he saw that the talisman in his hand had exploded.
The tatarigami, accumulated for a long time, suddenly erupted. The intense and dense resentment was even visible to the naked eye.
As soon as the surging resentment appeared, it immediately found its target. It eagerly whistled towards Dan Oni Roku; it seemed it had had enough of Dan Oni Roku within the talisman.
"I take back what I said earlier, you're a rookie!" Seeing this, Ember couldn't help but complain.
"So when are you, the expert, coming to save me?!"
Actually, Dan Oni Roku did have one advantage: he ran very fast, so fast that even the tatarigami couldn't catch him.
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