Japanese Terrorist: What? I'll fight Hellstar!

Has it failed?

Amamiya Rin asked himself.

His body was entangled by layers of living beings, feeling as heavy as if he were carrying a thousand pounds.

No! There isn't!

His eyes turned cold, and he loosened his grip on the hilt with his left hand, abandoning the katana that was being held tightly by the power of the living creature.

His free left hand darted towards his waist in a flash.

Draw the gun, raise your arm, and aim.

The movements were so fluid that there wasn't a single gap, as if they had been rehearsed hundreds of times.

The dark muzzle of the gun replaced the still-pointing knife tip, aimed at the terrified Hongdou.

My lord, times have changed!

The fear on Hongdou's face froze, turning into astonishment.

"Bang--!!"

In an instant, the gun exploded, sparks flew, and the bullet tore through the air, spinning as it shot out of the barrel!

The bullet tore through several thin layers of spiritual barrier, carrying a scorching airflow, and pierced into Hongdou's legs!

With two bursts of blood, Hongdou screamed and fell to the ground.

"A gun? Why would there be a gun?"

A-ge was startled and, ignoring the screaming Red Bean, hurriedly ran behind the sofa in the living room.

Before the smoke from the gun had even cleared, Yu Gonglin had already sheathed his gun.

He didn't press his advantage—dead psychics are more troublesome than living ones, and one incapacitated target is enough.

For a moment, all of Yu Gonglin's attention was focused on his surroundings, on the densely packed creatures that were clinging to his face, back, and limbs.

Too much!

His vision was filled with blurry, illusory figures. They didn't need to do anything; their mere existence made the air thick and sticky. Every breath felt like it was pulling at the spirit body pressing against his chest, and the pressure he felt all over his body was as if countless hands were pulling him down.

Instead of advancing, Yu Gonglin retreated.

With his right toes twisting inward and his left foot simultaneously sliding half a step forward to the left, his shoulders hunching to the side and his right elbow sinking, he forcefully squeezed a narrow gap between the ribs of two creatures that were almost touching, and slid past them like a fish swimming upstream.

The creature on the left was moved by his movement, raised its arm to grab him, its fingertips brushing against the skin on the back of his neck, leaving a cool, numbing sensation.

Amamiya Rin kept moving, enduring the erosion of living beings as she ran towards the stairs.

His footwork was extremely tricky, combining the techniques of kendo and boxing to the fullest at this moment.

Sometimes sliding to the side, sometimes crouching, sometimes spinning, sometimes leaping backward, avoiding direct confrontation with living beings and escaping entanglement with them, the body weaves through them. The katana in the hand is not used to kill, but more like a long stick for probing, pointing, deflecting, parrying, and guiding, deflecting the pale arms that grab at him, without wasting a single bit of strength.

In the blink of an eye, the space between the entrance hall and the living room was only a dozen meters. While A-ge was hiding behind the sofa and peeking out, Amamiya Rin had already rushed up the stairs leading to the second floor.

"Don't even think about running away!"

A-gei's scream came from downstairs, hoarse and frantic.

"You're dead! You're absolutely dead! Nobody can save you!"

Her face was distorted and deformed in the dim light; her normally pretty features were now squeezed together, like the expression of a demon on a poorly made mask.

More living beings surged out from her body, erupting like a bursting dam.

Thousands of phantoms crawled out of the shadows behind her, dripped from the ceiling, and emerged from the cracks in the floor, like a swarm of bees that had been thoroughly enraged, sweeping toward the stairs with a low buzz.

The air was compressed and groaned under the strain.

Amamiya Rin didn't look back and continued upwards.

The staircase was narrow, and creatures attacked from behind, the sides, and above.

He brandished his katana, the blade cutting through the spirit as if gliding through viscous glue, the white light dissipating and then gathering again.

For every cleavage, twenty or thirty more would rush in from all around.

The pale fingers brushed against Amamiya Rin's back, left arm, and right leg one after another. There were no wounds on the places they touched, but they felt a stiffness as if the skin was being eroded.

A-gei and Hong-dou seem unable to effectively control the power of living beings. Each living being can only cause minimal interference to matter, but when the tiny interference increases to a certain level, the resulting damage becomes difficult to ignore.

Amamiya Rin pushed the Crimson Lotus Breathing Technique to its limit.

The scorching air surged through the lungs, rushing along the blood vessels to every part of the body. Blood flow accelerated, and the skin surface turned an abnormal pale red. The rising heat barely resisted the corrosive stiffness brought by the living creature, but at the cost of a rapid depletion of physical strength.

He could feel his heart pounding heavily in his chest, each beat carrying a weary exhaustion.

There are still too many living beings.

They filled every inch of the stairwell, like a silent white blizzard.

Amamiya Rin wasn't running; he was trudging through waist-deep snow.

All that remained in my vision were swaying phantoms and scattered points of light. In my ears were a mixture of Age's hysterical screams, the faint shrieks of creatures moving, my own heavy breathing, and the pounding of my heartbeat in my eardrums.

The pressure was mounting, and the katana was getting heavier and heavier. Every swing felt like wielding a heavy guandao (a type of ancient Chinese sword). His strength was rapidly waning, and he could no longer move normally while simultaneously annihilating all the creatures attacking from all directions.

There are still seven or eight steps ahead.

But the pale arms had already wrapped around his ankles, and more afterimages surged from the second-floor corridor into the stairwell, forming an impenetrable wall.

It felt as if... I was really going to be dragged into hell by this endless whiteness.

"puff!"

Just then, a soft sound was heard.

It wasn't an explosion; it was more like a bubble bursting.

No! That wasn't a sound you could hear, but a feeling, a sensation that something around you was being destroyed, something had exploded.

Even amidst the shrieks of other creatures, you can clearly hear that sound.

Immediately afterwards—

"Pfft, pfft pfft, pfft pfft pfft pfft pfft—!!!"

The cracking sounds, so dense they sent chills down your spine, erupted from the second-floor bedroom.

It was as if countless thin films filled with water were punctured at the same moment.

A bizarre scene unfolded on the second floor of the Saeki family's house.

Those creatures that had previously flooded in, densely packed together, were now exploding on their own without warning.

It was impossible to see what kind of external force had attacked them, and there was no violent collision between them.

It's as if bombs were planted inside them beforehand, and now they're detonating simultaneously.

The white light flickered, dissipated, and vanished wildly in the bedroom and in the hallway.

Each burst of life released a small mass of chaotic spiritual pressure. Thousands upon thousands of life forms were destroyed simultaneously, causing the entire bedroom space to tremble violently.

In the blink of an eye, the second-floor corridor was empty.

Within that burst of white light, something deeper and richer flowed out.

That was malicious.

It is resentment.

It is a curse that has accumulated over countless years, long since decayed and deteriorated, yet it remains incredibly persistent!

This invisible yet heavy malice, like thick ink dripped into clear water, spread throughout the space, enveloping the entire staircase and extending down to the first floor.

The pressure on Amamiya Rin suddenly disappeared.

The eerie and dense cracking sounds surged from the second-floor bedroom, like some kind of chain reaction, spreading rapidly along the corridor and now sweeping down the stairs.

Those pale arms that wrapped around his limbs and dragged his torso, those illusory figures that clung to his skin and brought a chilling sensation, disintegrated around him like sand paintings washed by the sea. All the swaying white outlines in his vision trembled and deformed, eventually bursting into tiny white sparks.

Amamiya Rin stumbled and nearly lost her balance.

The sudden removal of the burden gave his body the illusion of weightlessness, but muscle memory made him immediately lower his center of gravity, hold his katana horizontally in front of him, and adopt a defensive stance... No!

Defensive stances are useless, and the katana will likely be of no use in the upcoming situations. Against a curse like Kayako's, all talk of fighting desperately will be futile.

Amamiya Rin remained calm throughout, using rational thinking to judge everything around her from beginning to end.

While his body sensed danger and instinctively reacted to the peril, his rational mind had already instantly determined the best course of action.

With a flick of his wrist, Amamiya Rin slid the katana precisely into its sheath with a soft click.

He suppressed all his energy, including murderous intent, malice, and defiance; all emotional turmoil was forcibly calmed. His consciousness sank inward, like a pebble dropped into an ancient well, without causing a ripple.

His eyelids were slightly lowered, and his gaze was reserved.

Deep within the mind, a glimmer of self-nature shines like an ancient mirror suspended in the air, illuminating all directions.

The aura surrounding him changed; it was no longer a mindfulness that resisted the external world, but a pure and undefiled clarity, like a crystal vase, transparent inside and out, neither rejecting impurities nor being stained by dust. It was also like the Great Perfect Mirror Wisdom, reflecting things as they come and letting them go without leaving a trace, seeing everything without making distinctions.

"What happened?"

A-ge shivered, and Hong-dou, who had just been dragged behind the sofa by A-ge, also looked bewildered.

That was panic, panic tinged with fear.

Because something incomprehensible happened.

Hundreds and thousands of lives were destroyed in an instant, without even knowing why!

A-gei and Hong-dou had encountered so-called evil spirits and so-called spiritual beings. No matter how confident or arrogant they were, they would eventually be exhausted and flee in defeat when faced with their seemingly endless spiritual power.

Annihilating thousands of lives in one fell swoop—no enemy has ever been able to do such a thing.

"What did she do? How did she do it?"

Shock, bewilderment, and a tinge of fear spread through their hearts. A-gei and Hongdou had the same thought about this unknown phenomenon.

It's not that they believe the evil spirits above are so powerful that they are invincible. Even if tens of thousands of lives are wiped out, it would only be a loss of one in a thousand to one in ten thousand for them.

That fear is simply a reaction to the unknown.

lol...

Giggle...

Hehehehe...

Suddenly, a sound like joints grinding or bubbles being squeezed out of the throat came from the bedroom on the second floor.

One sound after another, unhurried yet carrying a chilling coldness that pierces the soul.

Age and Hongdou felt the hairs on the back of their necks stand on end instantly, not out of fear, but out of heightened alertness.

She's here! She's here!

The clucking sound grew closer.

Thick, inky darkness flowed out of the bedroom, and then a hand with unusually twisted knuckles gripped the door frame.

The nails are bluish-black.

Next, the other hand.

Clinging to the door frame with both hands, a figure crawled out of the bedroom in a posture that no human could possibly do—with joints completely twisted in the opposite direction—and climbed to the top of the stairs.

Amamiya Rin saw her.

Coconut.

She was contorted in a way that was extremely contrary to human anatomy, her neck bent at a right angle, her cheek pressed against the steps, her black hair cascading down like seaweed, covering most of her face, revealing only one swollen and bloodshot eye. Her limbs were bent backwards, like a spider, using her knees and elbows to brace against the steps, stiffly and slowly crawling down.

Click... Click...

It was the sound of bones rubbing together, accompanied by a never-ending gurgling sound.

With each step she climbed down, the air around her grew colder and the light dimmed.

An oppressive aura, far beyond that of any living being, a pure manifestation of malice, pain, and endless curses, emanated from her and swept across the first floor.

Amamiya Rin remained motionless, her eyelids lowered, her gaze fixed on Kayako in front of her.

Kayako tilted her head back, her eyes filled with resentment meeting Amamiya Rin's eyes, conveying her intense resentment and curses to Amamiya Rin's consciousness through their gaze.

Die! Die! Why are you still alive? Why must I die? Why can you have happiness? Why can't I?! It's not fair! It's not fair! Die, all of you! Those who are happy, please experience my pain!

Amamiya Rin seemed to hear Kayako's inner voice, which was the malice she was conveying to the living.

The anger of betrayal, the pain of torture, the resentment of being killed, and the hatred for all living beings.

That was pure malice, a malice far beyond what any living being could match, and it needed no other rhetoric to describe.

Amamiya Rin remained unmoved as he calmly gazed at Kayako, emanating an indiscriminate compassion that flowed like moonlight, illuminating the source of all suffering equally.

Kayako's resentment has never encountered such a target before.

There was no fear, no disgust, no resistance, only a desolate peace, and beneath that peace, a compassion that encompassed all suffering.

This compassion is not feigned sympathy, nor deliberate comfort, but rather the natural expression of Yu Gonglin's years of cultivation and realization of the suffering in the world, free from attachment, discrimination, and delusions.

Of course, this compassion is not directed at Kayako, who, as an extension of the curse, indiscriminately slaughtered innocent people.

It is not about the meaning of curse, but about Kayako in her previous life.

The so-called curse is a curse cast by people who die with resentment. Their accumulated resentment and anger form a misfortune that others cannot escape. The birth of each curse means the tragic death of an innocent person.

Kayako in her lifetime... though her past is somewhat abstract, the past is the past. She did not commit any heinous crimes. Her death was just a misunderstanding and her cruel husband.

Although the malice extended by Ju-on must be eliminated, Ju-on and Kayako are pitiful and pathetic, and Amamiya Rin's pity for them is genuine.