Honkai Impact

Yaeyoshi listened attentively.

"Isn't Rin useless?"

"how come"

"I have to trouble my older brother and sister with everything, and I can't even do something as simple as cooking."

"Don't think too much." Yae Ji put his arm around Rin's shoulder, letting her lean slightly towards him. "Your sister and I are here. Rin just needs to focus on getting better. Didn't your brother say he would find the best doctor to treat you?"

"But what about the doctors from the big cities?"

“Then I’ll go find a doctor in a bigger city.” Yae Ji interrupted Rin. “Alright, get some rest. I’ll go make your medicine.”

After letting Rin lie down to rest, Yae Ji stood up, turned around, and walked towards the door.

Clutching the blood-stained black handkerchief tightly in her hand, Yae Ji's expression turned quite gloomy.

storehouse.

"Juncus effusus. Juncus effusus. Where is the juncus effusus?"

Yaeji rummaged through boxes and cabinets, searching for a long time before finally finding two withered yellow herbs in a small box.

"What was the ratio of the mixed medicinal herbs again?"

half an hour.

After preparing the medicine, Yae Ji walked back to the house. At this time, Yae Sakura was at her father's place learning how to become a shrine maiden, so the task of preparing and feeding Rin's medicine had to be left to him.

Yaeji sat cross-legged to one side and blew on the medicine in the small wooden spoon.

"Here, have a bite and see if it's too hot."

"Ah."

Her once rosy lips had turned cherry white, and Rin now looked like a porcelain doll that would break at the slightest touch.

Rin's health fluctuated; when she was in the best condition, the three siblings even climbed up the hill behind the house to admire the cherry blossoms.

This wasn't the first time someone had coughed up black blood. Doctors from the big city had come to the village before, but even they couldn't determine what illness Lin was suffering from. They could only prescribe some medicine to strengthen his body and replenish his vital energy.

"Whoo~"

Aside from the sound of Yae Kifuku blowing out heat, the only other sound was Rin quietly drinking her medicine.

"Tap tap tap~"

A series of hurried footsteps sounded outside. Yaeji frowned. If he wasn't mistaken, the footsteps were heading towards...

"Click!"

The door was violently pulled open, and a middle-aged man whom Yae Ji didn't recognize was standing there with a look of terror on his face.

"Lord Ji! Something terrible has happened! Nozawa and the others have encountered a monster!"

"monster!"

Yaeji stood up instantly.

He ran to the knife rack where the knives were kept and picked up the katana that his father had given him before.

"Let's go! Take me there now!"

"Shouldn't we inform the Lord God?" The man was at a loss, unsure of what to do.

"It's too late. Father, there's no point in you going there. Just take me with you!"

Just as Yaeji stepped out the door, she turned and glanced back inside:

"Rin, you should rest first."

Confused by the series of events, Yae Rin was stunned for a moment, watching helplessly as Yae Ji ran away.

Rin struggled to sit up using her arms.

"No, I have to tell Father."

Have you ever seen what a monster looks like?

"I...I..." The man, panting heavily as he ran, gasped for breath. "It looked like a giant wolf! We were trying to go into town to buy some supplies, but we ran into that monster as soon as we entered the mountains! Kimura, Saburo, and Kuro are all dead! We managed to escape by splitting up and running away."

"I just happened to run into a patrol team, and they told me to go to the shrine and find Lord Ji!"

Seeing the man panting heavily, Yae Ji frowned deeply. "Tell me exactly which direction it is!"

"Over there on Dongshan Mountain! You can see them if you walk along the path! But I'm not sure right now."

After the man pointed in a general direction, Yaeji's eyes narrowed slightly. She took a few steps to overtake the man and ran towards the specific location.

The man ran for another dozen steps, and when he looked up, he could only see a dark shadow in front of him.

"Hurry up!"

Yaeji suppressed his restless heart, feeling excited and agitated. Ever since he killed the corpse demon, the blood that had been dormant had begun to boil again.

All he could think about was that bear demon that devoured strangers.

The eerie purple crystals reflected a pinkish light in the sunlight, making them exceptionally beautiful.

Chapter Twenty-Five: Slaying Demons

"Cough cough cough~"

Weakened, Rin leaned against the wall and walked step by step toward her residence at the innermost part of the shrine.

"Cough cough!"

Rin hurriedly covered her mouth with her sleeve; she could feel liquid coughing up.

When the cuff was moved aside, a black bloodstain stood out starkly against the white cuff.

Her already pale face became even more listless, her vision became slightly blurred, and she leaned against the wall with her small hands, walking step by step toward the place she remembered.

Her health fluctuates, and it has nothing to do with the medication. Rin knows this best. Two years ago, when she was at her best, she went to see the cherry blossoms in the back mountains with her older brother and sister. Last year, around March or April, her health deteriorated rapidly; she vomited a lot of dark blood, and it wasn't until this year that she was barely able to recover. Although she can't go out, she can still do what she can at home.

But this time it just so happens to be at this particular time.

Rin has an inexplicable fear of monsters; her only impression of monsters is that they took her mother's life.

Rin knew her brother was a genius; her sister often told her how much their father praised him. Her sister said that she and her brother had been born into the wrong family; if the child named Sakura were a boy, it would have been better for him to become the next Yaejin.

But no matter how strong my brother is, can he be stronger than my mother?

Rin's previously listless eyes focused again, and she quickened her pace toward her father's residence.

"Father~ Father~"

"cold!"

Yae Sakura, who had just come out of the house, exclaimed in surprise and caught Rin, who was about to collapse.

Hearing the sound, Yaejin also came out of the house.

"Father, my brother has gone to the monster's place!"

"A demon?" The Eightfold God Lord's eyes narrowed slightly. "Where is it? Which direction did Ji go?"

"Cough cough~ I...I don't know." Rin said weakly, her voice tinged with fear. "A villager said that Nozawa was attacked by a monster, and my brother ran away with him."

"Nozawa?" Yae no Kami recalled the patrol member in his mind. He had long been detached from village affairs, yet he still held tight control over the patrol team. In just a moment, Yae no Kami remembered which squad Nozawa belonged to and what their usual patrol route was.

As Yae no Kami took the samurai sword from the creature, his aura became slightly more imposing.

"Sakura, keep an eye on your sister."

Dressed in black, Yae no Kami ran towards the outside of the shrine. Seeing the dark figure disappear into the corner, Yae Sakura couldn't help but be stunned.

This was the first time she had ever seen her father so anxious.

"Rin? Rin? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, I just want to sleep for a while. When my brother comes back, he must wake me up."

Having traveled throughout the villages with patrol teams, Yaeji knew the routes in every area like the back of his hand. The middle-aged man was referring to the Higashiyama Trail, which should be correct; Nozawa's squad usually patrolled that area.

After entering the mountain, Yaeji bent over, his left hand pressing firmly against the katana hanging diagonally at his left waist.

The katana was longer than a regular samurai sword, not to mention that Yae Kijiro's body was still developing, and the length of the sword was so long that he couldn't quite control it.

As you sneak along the path, the mountains are filled with withered wild grass and trees, with only a few extremely resilient shrubs still taking root.

"Its belly isn't as hard as the rest of its body! Find a way to cut open that beast's belly!"

The howl of Ye Ze came from not far away, accompanied by the responses of other men and the howls of the wolf demon.

Yae Ji, who was almost at the edge of the battle zone, finally calmed down and, using the bushes and other dead trees for cover, looked into the battle zone.

A wolf, a giant wolf that is more than two meters tall and more than three meters long!

Strange purple crystals grew from the green wolf's eyes, refracting a pinkish light when viewed against the sunlight!

The wolf demon's forehooves and hind tail are adorned with long, golden lines, and these crystals and unusual lines are undoubtedly symbols of its demonic nature.

Yaeji showed no fear whatsoever. Compared to the bear demon that had once tossed outsiders around at will, this so-called wolf demon was nothing.

Two meters tall? That's only about a head taller than Ye Ze. Some enormous mountain beasts are only slightly smaller than this wolf demon. No wonder this patrol squad dared to confront this "monster" alone.

Yaeji shifted her gaze from the wolf demons. The scattered corpses on the ground were mostly ordinary wild wolves, while the patrol team had only lost one. Continuing to look into the distance, she saw that there weren't many wild wolves, only about a dozen, with some uneaten scraps of flesh and bones piled up to the side.

Torn pieces of cloth lay scattered to one side, and several shreds of cloth still clung to the gaping mouths of many wolves.

The wolves bared their teeth, displaying their most ferocious side to everyone. They accompanied the wolf demon, ambushing patrol members; even if they couldn't kill humans wielding weapons, they could leave bloodstains on their arms or other parts of their bodies.

Yaeji remained expressionless, quietly crouching beside the bushes, the lingering scent of blood providing him with natural protection.

His right hand reached around his abdomen and rested on the hilt of the knife at his left waist.

From the previous battles, he had noticed that the wolf demon's fur was exceptionally hard; when swords and blades struck it, they only produced sparks.

Aside from the relatively soft abdomen, which Nozawa pointed out, only the pair of wolf eyes were the most vulnerable.

Above the wolf's eyes grew strange crystals unique to yokai, leaving Yae Ji unsure of what to choose.

"Clang!—"