I transformed into a demonic spider lily.

That makes sense, though. With Feng's meager spiritual power, barely perceptible even without a magnifying glass, it's unlikely any demon would travel thousands of miles to cause trouble.

Sometimes being weak is a form of safety.

"I feel your eyes are full of malice."

Feng narrowed his eyes, a suspicious look on his face, and then continued, "You wouldn't be trying to trick my sister into going out with you, would you?"

Damn, is your family's "intuition" hereditary?

The other shore flower quietly shifted her gaze away, pretending not to hear Feng's words. The latter pouted and whispered again, "You're not allowed to do anything strange to my sister."

This is getting more and more outrageous!

The other shore flower could only rub Feng's head hard. Although what he said was a bit outrageous, it was surprisingly pleasing to the ear and made her very happy.

"Excuse my abruptness, Miss Yukiji, may I borrow your horse again?" Kikyo, who was about to leave, suddenly stopped and turned to ask Yukiji.

"Of course, I'd love to."

Xuelu nodded without hesitation.

It's best to get to the destination as quickly as possible, and then hurry back after resolving the matter. Xueji has been traumatized by the monsters lately, and he finally had a good night's sleep last night. Tonight, he will have to spend the night in a state of tension again.

……

Stepping outside, Kikyo led Xueji's white horse, its pure white color flawless, clearly a fine steed.

So she mounted the horse, pulled on the reins with a rather dashing air, and then said to the other shore flower, "Don't you plan to ride with me?"

"Don't joke around. Your horse was shaking just from my gaze. If I were to sit on it, it would probably faint on the spot."

With her chin slightly raised, the other shore flower smiled.

That's a real shame.

Kikyo said just that.

"Come with me, I'll show you the way."

The figure of the red spider lily transformed into crimson petals, and in the next instant, she stood on the treetop beside her. Why would she need to ride a horse when she already has exclusive VIP effects? Such a low-class mount should at least be a Flamehoof to highlight her status.

"You're hiding something from me, aren't you?"

However, Kikyo spoke up again.

"Huh? No, there isn't."

Upon hearing this, the figure of the red spider lily suddenly paused.

"Flower~ Don't treat me like an idiot. Although you have a talent for weaving lies, even I have to call it deceptive. But when you tell these lies, it's only to the extent of fooling a child. Your expression and demeanor are always so perfunctory. You didn't lie to me properly at all. How could I not notice the problem?"

Kikyo sounded somewhat annoyed, seemingly because of the perfunctory attitude of the Lycoris radiata when she was being coaxed.

No, wait a minute.

Your angle of anger is a bit tricky.

Suddenly, the red spider lily didn't know what to say.

"Regardless of the reason or excuse, I can deliberately ignore it and not pursue it anymore, but there is one thing you must answer me: Hua, when you were deceiving me, were the 'lies' you told fabricated out of thin air or were they true?"

The bellflower stares directly into the eyes of the spider lily.

"The news is true, but my purpose..."

"...No, you have no purpose."

Before the other flower could finish speaking, the kikyo interrupted her, saying, "Flower, remember, it's not because you have ulterior motives that you tricked me into coming here, but because I have an obligation to resolve this matter that I'm going with you."

"what?"

Did this erase her "evidence"? The other flower discovered that the bellflower always had a strange obsession in certain subtle ways.

"As for your opinion on 'things I have an obligation to handle,' I won't pry for the answer, because you would never do anything bad, right?" Kikyo believed that these were the only things she needed to know.

"Maybe, perhaps, things aren't that complicated. It's just that the things you used to take me to do are now being done by me taking you to do them."

"That's a really simple and easy-to-understand answer."

"It's such a simple thing, who knows what you're thinking?"

"So that's how it is. Was I just overthinking things?"

After the first round of communication, Kikyo chuckled and said, "In that case, Hana, please lead the way for me!"

"Ah."

……

Shimosa Province, a coastal region.

After traveling for two consecutive hours, the spider lily finally brought the bellflower here. She had flown here a while ago, but she was on the move and it was dark at night, so she didn't have time to appreciate the scenery along the way.

Upon revisiting the area, I discovered that the seawater was a clear, pristine blue, completely unpolluted, and even the shoreline was so clean that it would put even a monster at ease.

However, the local people had no time to enjoy nature's bounty. When they passed through a village, Kikyo noticed that the villagers all looked miserable, as if they had been suffering for a long time. Even the fishing nets drying nearby were knotted, indicating that they had not been used for some time.

This unusual sight immediately caught Kikyo's attention, and the group of distraught and dazed villagers, upon seeing her brightly colored shrine maiden attire, gradually showed a glimmer of hope in their eyes. They immediately surrounded her and asked, "P-Please, are you the shrine maiden?"

Chapter Sixty-Four: You Are Never Alone [Two-in-One Chapter]

Seeing this, Kikyo dismounted and was immediately surrounded by a group of villagers. The elderly man at the head of the group was probably the village chief. As he was about to bow to her, she quickly reached out to help him up and asked, "May I ask what happened here?"

The red spider lily walked by nonchalantly. Since arriving near the village, she had stopped showing off her magic and walked like an ordinary person. Although her outstanding appearance and crimson pupils made her seem unlike a human, no one suspected that she was a monster because there was a priestess beside her.

At most, it's just a bit peculiar.

The deep wrinkles around his eyes revealed his profound sorrow. The elderly village chief, dressed in simple cloth, gazed at Kikyo with his dark brown eyes and pleaded, "My lady, you must help us! We don't know what to do if things continue like this!"

“Yes, yes, Lady Shrine Maiden,” another group of villagers echoed.

"Tell me everything first, then I can help you." The villagers were anxious, so their words were disjointed. Kikyo patiently communicated with them, her gentle voice like a soft drizzle, gradually extinguishing the flames of anxiety in their hearts.

Upon hearing this, the villagers exchanged glances and finally told Kikyo what had happened. It turned out that a nearby village had recently been attacked by monsters, a group of bat monsters that had surged from the sea and were called Hyakki Bats.

They have lived in caves in the sea for hundreds of years and never used to come to this area. Recently, for some unknown reason, perhaps there is no more prey in their previous habitat, or perhaps they simply wanted to come here.

In short, it wasn't just them; everyone in the nearby villages was also living in fear, lest the monsters come again. Fishermen didn't even dare to go out to sea, worried about encountering the monsters on the surface. That's roughly what happened.

"I understand……"

Upon hearing this, Kikyo nodded slightly, then turned her head to look at Higanbana, who was standing outside the crowd. This must be the incident the latter was referring to.

"Damn monsters, why aren't they all dead yet?!"

Another villager shouted angrily.

Perhaps emboldened by Kikyo, the villagers finally released their pent-up emotions, exclaiming, "Why do monsters exist in this world?"

“It’s because of monsters that our lives have become so difficult.” Say things like that, and you can just attribute all the bad things to monsters.

Emotions tend to spread outwards. Once the first person speaks out, there will be a second and a third, until they are completely vented before they can stop.

"……whispering sound."

The villagers' reaction grew increasingly intense, and Kikyo was the first to sense something was wrong. Sure enough, she heard a soft spitting sound coming from outside the crowd. She looked up and saw Higanbana leaving in the direction of the village entrance.

Seeing this, Kikyo quickly raised her hand to signal for silence, and then reassured the surrounding villagers, saying, "I will handle this matter, please don't worry."

"Then you must get rid of them!"

Only the village chief remained relatively calm.

"Well, definitely."

Having said that, Kikyo hurriedly led her horse to catch up with Higanbana. Noticing that the latter's face was expressionless, she asked, "Hana, are you angry?"

No.

The expression on the red spider lily remained unchanged.

"Really not?" Kikyo asked again.

"I said no, and that means no."

The other shore flower's tone was slightly hurried.

"Really, really not?"

Kikyo continued to press for an answer, enunciating each word clearly.

"Ah~ you talkative shrine maiden, if you ask me again I'll really get angry!" Enough is enough, and besides, Higanbana was already in a bad mood, so she unconsciously gripped Kikyo's shoulder tightly. The force she unconsciously applied might have been strong or weak, because when she came to her senses, she felt a sharp pain in her fingertips, and a wisp of green smoke rose—it was Kikyo's blood, imbued with spiritual power, purifying her demonic body. She quickly withdrew her hand.

Seeing a trace of blood on the other person's white robe, Higanbana said in a weak voice, "I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

Kikyo took out a handkerchief from her bosom and wiped the blood from Higanbana's fingertips. Then she said, "Does this make you feel any better? Higanbana, if you really have something bothering you, you can always talk to me, or like now, you can vent your unhappiness on me. The only thing you can't bear all this alone, and..."

"Although that's what they said, they definitely didn't include you. They were only talking about those hundred ghost bats. You should know that, shouldn't you?"

Kikyo spoke as if coaxing a child.

"I know, I know."

Because she accidentally scratched the bellflower, the spider lily naturally backed down for her sake, and said, "It's like when I said your soul was dead, I didn't mean to say your soul was dead. At that moment, your soul was no longer your soul, but a kind of consciousness. This soul is not just one, it has no concrete form, no feelings or meaning, it is nothing, right?"

"Ah, this..."

Should she say she's right or wrong?

Kikyo nodded as if she understood, then looked at the white horse beside her and said, "This horse belongs to Miss Yukiji."

“That’s right, that’s exactly what I mean!” said the spider lily.

So what exactly does this mean?

Kikyo didn't understand at all, but since Higanbana's emotions had stabilized, it didn't matter. Anyway, she often couldn't understand the other party's demonic words, so it wouldn't make a difference this time. So she took the latter's hand and said gently, "Let's go to the village that the villagers mentioned was attacked by a demon."

"Whatever you want," the spider lily said indifferently.

Holding the hand of the spider lily in her left hand and pulling the reins of the white horse in her right, Kikyo followed the direction provided by the village chief. Along the way, seeing the other party's expression of no resistance, she couldn't help but smile slightly. However, this smile was eventually suppressed after they arrived at their destination.

A complete mess...

This is the only description Kikyo can think of right now. It's clearly a place even bigger than her village, yet no smoke is rising from any chimneys.