"Um, is that so...?"

Hiri was slightly taken aback, then forced a smile. She couldn't shake the feeling that something was odd about that statement.

"I'm serious, you guys showed up really just in time this time. Otherwise, dealing with that giant Slime would have been quite troublesome..." Gu Mo coughed twice, cleared his throat, and spoke in a seemingly sincere tone.

Indeed, this was the case. The Wild Soul transformed from Taira no Kiyomori was quite formidable, primarily due to its gigantic size, thick skin, and massive reserves of Spirit Stone Essence, with a long health bar and quick recovery. Although not unbeatable, it would have taken time and was quite vexing.

According to the original situation, Gu Mo thought that either it would take more effort to wear down and kill the giant Umibozu, or Miss Saito might be unable to suppress her demonic bloodline during battle and enter a Demonized state to quickly end the fight—

After all, back then, even including Minamoto no Yoshiie, there were three half-demons.

Trying to maintain humanoid combat strength doesn't reflect true capabilities. In reality, it's just the tip of the iceberg, with a larger portion hidden beneath the surface. Usually, one remains rational and won't easily use the transformative power unless in a dire situation.

Probably only Miss Saito, who would likely lose control due to a bloodline rampage, might break the stalemate with a more ferocious Demon Power.

— That's what he thought at the time.

Of course, the current result is also good. It's best to leave it to the witches, who are most adept at exorcising demons. Specialization leads to efficiency, and using attribute restraint cleverly saves time and effort.

"Glad I could help..." the Demon Hunter Girl nodded, glancing at the others, still feeling an inexplicable thrill. She had long sensed a giant whirlpool around this person and was always careful not to get sucked in.

This was no realm for humans!

But why was she so unlucky, inadvertently finding herself on the edge of an abyss, trembling and fearing another fall... Hiri gritted her teeth, determined to learn her lesson and be more cautious next time.

Taking a deep breath, the white-haired Demon Hunter Girl feigned curiosity, glancing at Hidechika and her sister, and asked, "By the way, who are these two..."

No matter what, she couldn't let the atmosphere turn awkward or worse, and could only brace herself and go on, casting a resentful glance at someone. Why was she doing this when it had nothing to do with her, she thought.

"Oh, I forgot to introduce you to each other..."

Gu Mo laughed heartily, as if just remembering, stepping forward to stand in the middle and introduce everyone—

"This witch is called Kikyo, as you saw earlier, a very powerful witch... This is Miss Hiri, a quite skilled Demon Hunter and Source Mage, and here are the two daughters of the Saito Family..."

Calmly introducing Kikyo and the others, he then turned to the half-demon sisters, gesturing to introduce them, allowing everyone to acquaint themselves with each other.

After a slight hesitation, he seemed to recall something and solemnly added—

"Speaking of which, Ah Xiu is someone I knew long ago, when I was still an ordinary person. She really helped me a lot back then. If not for her, I would probably have died in this world..."

Of course, that's dying once.

However, his words had an immediate effect; the witch's gaze subtly changed, while Hidechika, slightly embarrassed, turned her head aside. As for Miss Saito, she was wide-eyed with surprise, just like Hiri.

At this moment, the thoughts in the two girls' minds were largely similar.

Both incredulous and utterly amazed.

"..."

"..."

A brief silence.

As the group fell into relative tranquility, the first raindrop fell with the howling wind.

It was as if a switch had been flipped, the rain fell in torrents amid thunder and lightning, and massive waves rose one after another on the dark sea beyond the island.

"Ah, it's raining... You guys should take shelter over there, don't get wet." Gu Mo looked up at the sky, raised his hand and gently pointed up. Instantly, a soft, flowing light spread in an arc, shielding them from the heavy downpour with ease.

Although the wind blew, causing their clothes to flutter and hair to whip about.

Yet only the dense rain was thwarted by the transparent glass-like barrier, completely unable to get through, thoroughly keeping the water out.

"Aren't you coming?"

The witch gently brushed a lock of hair off her shoulder, calmly asking.

"Something was left behind there, I forgot to retrieve it. I'll be back soon..." Gu Mo pointed to the seemingly raging sea, where even from the mountain of Yashima one could sense the violent side of nature and its astounding energy.

"Then I'll go with you..." Kikyo also glanced toward the sea, then withdrew her gaze.

"This... that's not necessary, I can go by myself." Gu Mo tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"You can fly now?" the Witch asked indifferently.

"..."

"..."

...

The previously extremely oppressive harsh weather had finally broken out completely at this moment.

The sea was surging with waves, undercurrents swirling, and within the low-hanging heavy lead clouds, there was also the wild dance of shocking serpents. After the dazzling lights flashed by, there followed the deafening thunder, which swept across the sea, incessant roll of thunder resounding.

The scene was like the end of the world descending, with such weather no one would want to go out to sea.

Except for Minamoto no Yoshiie and his followers, who had already led the fleet to continue pursuing the remnants of the Taira clan... Here at Yashima, things had naturally returned to a temporary calm, as there were no living people left on the island. The Taira clan entrenched there had already exhausted themselves in the previous battle, leaving nothing in reserve.

In such a heavenly phenomenon, Gu Mo braved the storm and ventured out to sea, traveling through the flashes of thunder.

He excused himself by pretending to contemplate the phenomena, but in reality, he was ready to recover the floating item light point above the sea surface, which was the "treasure chest" dropped by the giant Umi-bozu...

Although he wasn't sure if there would be anything good, it was his war loot, and he definitely wasn't going to let it go easily. Besides, this was the first instance of killing a monster and dropping a treasure in his current form, making it a commemorative item worth taking seriously—

After all, he initially thought that avatars, projections, and divine spirits, such "alt accounts" born from his true self, would almost have no system permissions, only able to receive some passive effects at most.

For example, the skill badges equipped in the skill bar by his true self, as extensions of thought and power, allowed even the "alt accounts" to enjoy the same effects.

Other than this, there was practically nothing more...

But now it didn't seem like that was the case, for example, he could brush up skill proficiency and gain benefits from killing monsters. Like now, the Umi-bozu dropped a light point, and just now his true self had even directly settled the reward for this scene. These are clear evidence.

So, in the previous scenario at the Blacksmith's Village in Tabei Mountain, was it actually the level difference that was too great, resulting in no rewards?

This thought flashed through his mind as Gu Mo flew swiftly through the storm and reached out to gently grab the light point floating on the sea surface.

Opening treasure chests is always a joyful process, even if there aren't many items.

Moreover, to his astonishment, he suddenly found himself able to sense the presence of an independent dimension, as if the inventory function had suddenly been unlocked.

Could it be that he needed to personally acquire something recognized by the system to unlock the corresponding function? He couldn't help but wrinkle his brow, suddenly feeling it might just be such a step, which felt a bit subtle.

The inventory was empty, with only the existence of the war loot he'd just acquired and stored.

It seemed not to share with the inventory of his true self, he wondered if it was inherently such a mechanism, or if the different worlds had caused a barrier in storage space.

The spoils dropped comprised of three parts, the first was a giant spirit stone chunk, not the golden yellow essence glow, but showing a particularly concentrated, particularly crystalline, and dazzling bright blue glow, like a very large and high-quality gemstone ore.

Perhaps due to the same reason, he now discovered he could also view the corresponding annotation descriptions.

According to the system annotation, this was a "Marrow Spirit Stone", obtained from a high-concentration colossal core crystal compressed from essence for some reason, a product made through a large-scale ritual, containing an unusually huge power within.

Its uses were similar to those of spirit stones or small spirit stones he had obtained before, only at a much higher level.

Gu Mo was quite satisfied, now he had many ways to utilize this broadly-conceptual magic power resource, unlike the time as a novice when he felt helpless, finding no way to directly convert it to power through the system made him feel it had low value.

It couldn't be said that the thought back then was wrong, just that the demands at different stages were different.

The second part of the spoils was the expected monster materials, transparent thin-wing-like bizarre blade claws, odd gelatinous slime-like substances, etc., all common drops; who knew when they might come in handy, so just collecting them was fine.

As for the final piece of loot, it was an ancient-style sword.

It contained enormous spirit power, and the sword's edge gave a heavy feeling.

——"Kusanagi no Tsurugi".

Gu Mo was slightly taken aback and quickly thought of a side quest, saying that when the Taira clan retreated from Kyoto, they took one of the three Divine Artifacts, the Kusanagi no Tsurugi, and because the political situation couldn't stabilize, Minamoto no Yoshiie hoped that Hidechika, who could travel back to the Heian Era, would help retrieve the sword.

So now... has this thing fallen into my hands?

Speaking of which, doesn't this also correspond to that strange history Gudah mentioned in the last scenario?