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The warrior could hardly believe his own eyes.

How could this be?

How could it be?

‘How could a head!’

There, on the neckless Ksitigarbha, was a newly sprouted head.

A head that looked to be made of the darkness of the forest, weaving together shadows in a chaotic formation.

Yet with eyes enhanced by Qi, he could clearly discern the shape—a head as black as night, with ears jutting out and grooves carved into its face.

“This, this….”

The warrior barely suppressed the terrified moan escaping his lips.

He clenched his jaw so hard it felt like his teeth might shatter, and with quivering lips, he forced himself to appear calm. But instinct was unavoidable; his jaw trembled, and with it, his teeth clacked together, producing a nervous sound.

*Clack.*

*Clack-clack.*

The warrior fervently wished for the scene before him to be a lie, invoking the deity of the shrine he had visited since childhood, praying to defeat the evil before him.

“Please, vanquish this evil. Lord, this wicked evil spirit…. Huh?”

Evil spirit.

A phrase that had passed through his mind while trembling in fear.

When the thought struck him that what lay before him could be an evil spirit, he felt the overwhelming fear that had filled him gradually fade away. Instead, he instinctively began to execute the “actions when encountering evil spirits and wicked ghosts” that he had learned in the Shiheng Style.

He raised his Qi, directing it through his head and eyes, wrapping his entire body in a coarse layer of Qi that he ignited and projected outward. Though he did not mind the rapid consumption of his Qi, he sent it out to prevent the evil spirit from approaching carelessly, using a brief moment to recover his focus by circulating some Qi in small loops.

Only after finishing all these tasks did he finally open his eyes.

Yet the difference from before was that, instead of pure terror, there was a flicker of courage now.

The ‘unknown entity’ had transformed into the clear presence of an ‘evil spirit.’

In Japan, fear of the unknown is often resolved by assigning names to such entities. By naming them, along with detailing their form, behavior, legends, and methods of exorcism, they transformed the fear of the unknown into a clear fear of a defined entity.

This was an act of turning ‘insurmountable fear’ into ‘overcomeable fear.’

In the dead of night, an unknown entity that knocks on the door can become a baby yokai with one eye, playing tricks as it roams the streets.

An unknown entity that mysteriously consumes the family’s dinner every night can masquerade as an uninvited guest yokai.

The flickering strange lights near the graves can be turned into a ghost wandering with a lantern, searching aimlessly.

Thus, for countless ages, Japan has overcome the fear of ‘unknown entities’ by personifying them as yokai.

And so it was with evil spirits, too.

Evil spirits originated from humans and were dangerous entities capable of deceiving and leading people to death.

But despite their danger, they were indeed concrete beings with defined existence and form.

Compared to the unknown entities of which one could not even ascertain what they were or if they even existed, they were not nearly as fearsome.

There was a solution.

There was knowledge imparted.

Although banishing an evil spirit might be difficult, driving it away or fleeing from it was within the warrior’s ability!

Thus, the warrior could throw away his fear and open his eyes.

“This cursed evil spirit!”

The warrior expelled the fear that had been lingering in his heart along with his shout. Plating his trembling feet firmly into the ground like stakes, he infused strength into his once-trembling hands and provided excessive tension to grip his sword. He repeated the motion of tightening and loosening his muscles several times, forcing his stiffened body to relax, glaring solely at the neckless Ksitigarbha without blinking.

‘It’s watching me.’

In the swirling darkness, the warrior felt an uncanny illusion that Ksitigarbha’s head was looking directly at him.

The head seemed to sway, distorting and flowing through the shadows, giving him an impression that Ksitigarbha was moving closer to him, swaying this way and that.

Even with his eyes enhanced by Qi, the black head that refused to reveal its substance appeared as if it was alive, staring straight at the warrior with real eyes.

It’s looking at me.

The warrior was staring at Ksitigarbha.

And Ksitigarbha was gazing back at him.

The warrior’s Qi-clad eyes pierced through the darkness, locking onto Ksitigarbha, while the void-like gaze from the hollow eyes of Ksitigarbha shot straight back at him.

The difference was that the warrior saw Ksitigarbha through the light.

Whereas Ksitigarbha was watching him through the darkness spilling from its hollow eyes.

The warrior, taking a larger stride as usual, darted toward Ksitigarbha, raising his wooden sword as if to glide through the air.

*Snap!*

He gritted his teeth, fearing that any shout he might emit would cause the fear to seep back into him, and thus he charged with all his might to overcome his dread.

Then he swung the overcharged wooden sword down with all his strength.

*Slash!*

The wooden sword infused with Qi.

The Shiheng Style’s ultimate strike.

And the warrior’s will, imbued with a will to survive.

All combined, the wooden sword cleaved through Ksitigarbha’s body like tofu.

Ksitigarbha was split cleanly in half, the unnatural black head upon its neck cracked down the center and shattered like sand, falling to the ground. Those fragments were carried away by the winds enveloped in the night, drifting far away.

Thus, the Ksitigarbha that had engulfed the warrior in fear vanished completely.

“I have banished the evil spirit….”

With a sigh of relief mixed with the warrior’s calmness following the banishment of the spirit.

* * *

“What?!”

He cut Ksitigarbha.

The Shiheng Style master could not help but raise his voice.

“Th, that—!”

The master’s face turned pale as he glared at the warrior bowing before him, his face turned bright red. Veins stood out on his forehead, and his arms trembled as if ready to strike something.

But soon he closed his eyes, struggling to calm his heart, and managed to ask in a voice that, though not entirely normal, resembled something close to his usual one, “If I’m not mistaken, are you saying…?”

“Yes!”

“So, you caught a college student who had an astral projection experience, and that student told you a ghost story about Ksitigarbha?”

“Yes!”

“And then you trembled almost like a girl because of that ghost story and patrolled in that state?”

“Yes. Yes!”

“And on the Ksitigarbha, which should be headless, there was a head sprouting?”

“Yes!”

The master glared at the warrior at that point.

Then he seemed to try to say something but bit his lips instead, letting out a deep breath and twisting his words with noticeable anger.

“And you thought, *huff*, that was an evil spirit and swung your sword with all your might?”

“Yes!”

“And you’re hunched up like a girl who just broke a vase because you think that’s wrong?!”

“Yes!”

The master could no longer contain his rage; his face reddened as he shouted, veins popping out.

“You cowardly fool, who can’t even act like a man—–!!!”

*Slap!*

The master struck the warrior’s cheek.

*Thud thud thud!*

The warrior, overwhelmed by the impact, tumbled to the ground.

“Get up—-!!!”

“Y-Yes!”

The master, seeing the warrior’s pitiful state on the floor, roared even louder; the warrior stood as pale as a sheet in the same place as before.

*Slap!*

*Thud thud thud!*

The master hit the warrior’s cheek again as he fell back to the ground.

“Get up again!”

“Y-Yes!”

Thus began the ‘corporal punishment.’

*Slap!*

*Thud thud thud!*

“Again!”

“Y-Yes!”

*Slap!*

*Thud!*

“On-ly—again!”

“Y-Yes!”

The master struck and the warrior fell, the master’s shouted reprimands echoing as the warrior returned to his place.

This horrific cruelty repeated over and over again.

Finally, when the warrior’s face was so swollen and bruised from the slaps it was a complete mess, the master stopped the whipping.

But even then, while his anger had not fully subsided, he bellowed with veins bulging in his neck:

“Do you know why you got hit?!”

“Y-Yes!”

“Why?!”

“Because I cut Ksitigarbha!”

*Slap!*

The master slapped the warrior’s head with his palm.

“Do you think that’s all I’m angry about?!”

“N-No!”

“Then why do you think you were hit?!”

“I—I don’t know!”

The master’s voice grew loud enough to almost pop the warrior’s eardrums.

“Because you’re not acting like a man!”

“Y-Yes!”

“Ksitigarbha? I could slice that rock ten or a hundred times and it would be fine! If you wanted, I could even set up a spell and use it as practice for your sword! Managing it? It’s just a rock, how important could it be? Does it help your training?”

The master firmly grabbed the warrior’s head with hands that resembled a pot lid and growled fiercely.

“And you thought it looked like an evil spirit? That shouldn’t be a problem! If you think it resembles an evil spirit, what’s the problem with that?!”

“Y-Yes!”

“What angered me is not that! It’s that you got so wrapped up in a strange story, got scared to death, and ended up seeing phantoms! If you’re going to see phantoms, at least have the guts to own it! Why are you showing me this pathetic behavior?!”

*Swack!*

The master struck the warrior’s chest with moderate force.

“A Shiheng Style warrior!”

“Y-Yes?”

“You idiot! A Shiheng Style warrior!”

“Should never know fear!”

“And!”

“Must be braver than anyone else!”

“What does it mean to be brave?!”

“Not trembling over insignificant things! Not fearing to leap into battle where blood and swords are clashing! To enjoy a day as if it were a lifetime!”

The master, seeing the warrior recite the Shiheng Style’s principles he always emphasized, finally seemed to calm down and nodded.

“Right. You know this well. But why couldn’t you practice it?”

“I’m sorry!”

“If you had trembled and returned from fear, I wouldn’t have let you go easily. But I’m letting you off this easy since you did cut down Ksitigarbha. Got it?”

“Y-Yes! Thank you!”

“If you show me that kind of behavior again! I’ll personally chop off your lower half and turn you into a woman! Got it?!”

“Y-Yes!”

“Now go!”

“Understood!”

The master dismissed the warrior and began to resume his usual tasks.

But just for a moment.

The irritation and anger that hadn’t dissipated completely consumed the master.

“Damn it.”

With that frustration and anger, he stepped outside the training hall.

Wandering through the path in the woods, which he could traverse with his eyes closed, he headed toward the neckless Ksitigarbha.

He intended to relieve his emotions by at least getting a glimpse of the Ksitigarbha that the warrior claimed to have sliced in half.

But….

“What the hell is this.”

 

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