Chapter 153: Natsuba Hanae’s Scheme
There was no response from Kamishiro Naraku from within his body.
Kujō Sujin: “…”
This guy.
Kujō Sujin cursed inwardly.
He eagerly seized every little benefit, but when it was time to put in the effort, he was nowhere to be found.
However, because Kamishiro Naraku and Kujō Sujin now shared a body, he could fully feel the extreme fear emanating from Kamishiro Naraku’s heart when he encountered the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain.
What he found strange was that the fear he had felt when encountering Natsuba Hanae at the Natsuba conglomerate was surprisingly similar to this fear.
He didn’t know what was going on.
But what puzzled Kujō Sujin was, was the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain really that strong, or was there something else that could make the usually cruel and cunning Kamishiro Naraku so terrified?
With the almost immortal nature of his blood ability, and the divine artifact Calamity and Fortune in his possession, perhaps he could give it a try.
To gather as much combat intelligence on the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain as possible, to prepare for the future.
And from the information from Kyoto, the strength of the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain’s main body was at the peak of A-rank. Then this clone, which had been formed in some unknown way…
From the aura he sensed…
Its strength was likely between early A-rank and mid-A-rank.
It was a fight he could take.
Kujō Sujin thought to himself, a hint of fighting spirit in his wine-red pupils as he looked ahead.
There, the being known as the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain was standing less than ten meters away, her arms crossed, a faint smile on her lips.
She didn’t exude any aura. If she were walking in a crowd, she would just be an ordinary masked girl.
It seemed that, just as she had said…
The Master of Summer Harvest Mountain had no intention of fighting him, but was just stopping him from going to help Natsuba Taiga.
But since the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain had appeared here…
It meant that she knew that the Natsuba and Kujō conglomerates had joined forces to deal with Summer Harvest Mountain. Faced with the siege of two conglomerates, by rights, shouldn’t she have eliminated the crucial figures of the two conglomerates?
For example…
—The head of the Kujō family!
That was him.
Natsuba Taiga now had an eighty to ninety percent chance of becoming the future head of the Natsuba conglomerate, but that was in the future.
Natsuba Taiga’s death would not throw the Natsuba conglomerate into chaos.
But if he, the current head of the Kujō family, were to die, the Kujō family would undoubtedly be without a leader, and the conglomerate would fall into a power struggle.
And the partner in the cooperation between the Kujō and Natsuba conglomerates was Kujō Sujin himself.
At that time, the Kujō family would most likely not acknowledge this cooperation. They would be in chaos for a while, until a new head of the family was chosen, and only then would they have time to deal with matters outside the conglomerate.
So, why would the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain choose to kill Natsuba Taiga, and not him?
A wise light appeared in Kujō Sujin’s eyes, and a confident and calm smile slowly appeared on his lips.
He took a step forward, and with a flick of his right hand, his entire right hand suddenly exploded, and a spray of blood appeared.
And transformed into countless sharp needles, which shot towards the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain like a storm of pear blossom needles!
There was only one truth!
The current Master of Summer Harvest Mountain didn’t have enough power to deal with him!
“Oh?”
A hint of confusion appeared in the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain’s tone. She clearly hadn’t expected his sudden attack.
And she hadn’t made any defensive or evasive movements.
All these signs undoubtedly showed that the power in this clone of the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain was even less than he had expected.
She couldn’t even react to his attack.
He had bet correctly!
The smile on Kujō Sujin’s lips widened.
Even if it was just a clone, as long as he destroyed it, he could boost the morale of the Kujō and Natsuba conglomerates. And in the future, because of this, the cooperative relationship would be vaguely led by the Kujō family.
More importantly, the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain had caused great damage to the Natsuba conglomerate, but the Kujō family had destroyed the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain’s clone.
In the eyes of the world, the Kujō family’s strength would be even greater than the Natsuba conglomerate’s.
He had hit the jackpot!
Just as Kujō Sujin was fantasizing, a terrified cry suddenly came from behind him from Kujō Kōta.
“Uncle Sujin! Watch out!!!”
Instantly, Kujō Sujin’s pupils constricted sharply. A sense of crisis rose from his instincts, and goosebumps appeared all over his body. A chill ran up his spine.
“!!!!”
He quickly looked behind him.
And saw, in his own shadow on the ground, a massive, dark bird’s head with a cloudy, crimson vertical pupil, filled with a cruel, greedy appetite. It opened its beak, which was filled with countless sharp teeth, and emerged from the shadows, lunging at him!
“Crunch————!”
The massive beak snapped shut, swallowing Kujō Sujin whole, blood splattering everywhere.
Then, a Kōsei, the star-hooking bird, emerged completely.
It had a massive bird’s head and an incredibly disproportionate, small body. To make a comparison, it was like an elephant’s head attached to a jackal’s body, utterly bizarre.
It wagged the bird feathers on its rump, and like a puppy, it trotted over to the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain.
As for Kujō Sujin’s earlier attack of blood-water needles, Natsuba Hanae had simply reverted her body to the phantom form she had previously constructed from divinity.
The countless blood-water needles passed through her.
She then reformed, completely unharmed.
She extended her slender hand and gently stroked the massive bird’s head. A look of mercy appeared in her beautiful eyes, and Kōsei’s crimson vertical pupils, no longer cruel, closed, and the bird feathers on its rump wagged even more happily.
This scene made Kujō Mien, who was watching from afar, incredibly envious.
A faint blush appeared on her cheeks, and she put her slender index finger to her mouth and lightly licked it.
She murmured softly,
“Ah~”
“I’d love to replace that bird. It would be great if Mom were stroking my head. And if it were other parts, it would be even better~!”
—Stroking her face would be nice too.
However, a single drop of blood, splattered from before, floated up. From various organs to muscle outlines to skin covering, in just a moment…
A grim-faced Kujō Sujin reappeared.
“What a powerful summoned beast. No one ever told me the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain was known for summoning.”
After all, although the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain had made a lot of big moves…
She had actually acted very little, and all had been extremely secretive events.
The attack on the Natsuba conglomerate was only made public because she had appeared in the sky, and the giant bird and the falling black and red lotus had been seen by too many people for the Natsuba conglomerate to cover it up.
If it hadn’t been for such a conspicuous arrival, with the Natsuba conglomerate’s ability to cover things up, a simple gas explosion could have explained it away.
And the incident in Kyoto was similar, except the one handling it was the Kamishiro imperial family.
However, on second thought…
Whether it was the Natsuba conglomerate incident or the Kyoto incident, there had indeed been reports that the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain had summoned a giant bird.
The one at the Natsuba conglomerate was a black giant bird, and the one in Kyoto was a crimson giant bird.
Could it be…
The Master of Summer Harvest Mountain’s main fighting style was to summon bird-like beasts, and her own combat power and physical strength were average?
The more Kujō Sujin thought about it, the more he felt this was a possibility.
And the black strange bird just now, although it had sneak-attacked him, from what he had sensed, its strength was also between peak B-rank and A-rank.
Around the B-rank critical point.
But its physical strength was clearly also very strong, otherwise it wouldn’t have been able to bite through an A-rank like him with one bite.
In that case, he had to find a way to bypass the black strange bird and attack the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain directly.
And his earlier blood needle attack had been unable to harm the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain. It seemed he had to use pure bloodlust and directly consume her energy.
Although his rank was a result of a shortcut, Kujō Sujin was also an old monster who had lived for decades and had fought many battles.
In a short time, he had thought of many possibilities and was putting them into action.
At the same time, he was still continuously prodding Kamishiro Naraku.
“Kamishiro Naraku, Kamishiro Naraku!”
“Just because you were defeated by the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain once, you’ve completely lost your will to resist her?!”
“With this kind of mentality, how will you improve your character in the future, how will you advance to a higher level? Do you want to be stuck at peak B-rank forever?!”
However, even though Kujō Sujin used various ways of speaking to try and arouse Kamishiro Naraku’s fighting spirit…
Kamishiro Naraku was as silent as a still lake, as if he were dead. If not for the fact that Kujō Sujin could personally feel his presence…
He would have thought he had left or died.
However, since there was no effect, Kujō Sujin’s face became incredibly ugly.
He cursed inwardly.
“Damn it!!”
Then, his target was the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain herself. His hands suddenly shattered, and a vast amount of bloodlust spread, continuously expanding and forming a massive blood-red hand.
And like swatting a fly, it covered the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain and the black strange bird.
“Boom——————!!”
A muffled, fierce sound echoed through the area.
However, what appeared before Kujō Sujin’s eyes was that the black strange bird’s wings had turned into human-like hands, its muscles swelling.
The power that surged from it, like a mad python, fiercely held up the blood-red hand, preventing it from advancing an inch.
And the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain was unharmed, her expression calm, her hands crossed over her chest as she stood there leisurely.
Her fingers lightly tapped her right arm, and she pursed her lips, saying softly,
“Lord Kujō.”
“I said before, I don’t intend to attack you.”
“As long as you stay quietly in the distance and wait for Natsuba Rinrei and Natsuba Taiga to decide the victor.”
“If…”
“You insist on continuing to fight me.”
“The price you have to pay will probably be a bit heavy for the Kujō family.”
Just then…
A drop of blood appeared on Natsuba Hanae’s right side, and it suddenly expanded, transforming into a blood-red vortex. And in front of Kujō Sujin, another blood-red vortex appeared.
Kujō Sujin’s fists were wrapped in bloodlust, and he fiercely swung them at the vortex in front of him.
A flurry of swift punches rushed towards him.
And suddenly appeared from the blood-red vortex on Natsuba Hanae’s right side.
Kōsei transformed its hands into wings, wrapping Natsuba Hanae below it, and bore the brunt of Kujō Sujin’s attack.
But its body was ultimately only B-rank. Under Kujō Sujin’s bombardment, its wings showed dents, and many places began to crack.
Black feathers mixed with black blood fell to the ground.
But the flesh and blood on Kōsei’s wings writhed, and it began to slowly regenerate its previous injuries.
Kujō Sujin’s gaze was sharp. He immediately moved,
“I won’t give you a chance to regenerate!”
“Burn the blood!”
This time, Kujō Sujin’s fists slammed into Kōsei’s wings and didn’t pull back, but self-destructed.
And the moment they broke…
The two fists suddenly shattered, transforming into countless drops of blood that scattered on the black wings, and instantly began to burn violently.
The blood fire burned and spread, quickly engulfing its entire body. For a hairy monster like Kōsei, fire was a very effective counter.
Not to mention, this fire was burned with the blood of an A-rank supernatural user.
In Kujō Sujin’s eyes, the original black strange bird was now covered in flames. It wouldn’t be long before his blood fire could burn it to death.
At that point, dealing with the Master of Summer Harvest Mountain would be easy.
His lips curled upwards slightly.
“Snap—”
The Master of Summer Harvest Mountain snapped her fingers, and a deep black Sanctuary Flame also ignited on Kōsei’s body.
But in Kujō Sujin’s eyes, it was completely different.
Because that Sanctuary Flame was not burning Kōsei…
“Using fire to burn fire?!!”
“How is that possible?! Your fire is completely superior to my blood fire?!!”
A look of horror appeared in Kujō Sujin’s eyes. His wine-red pupils were filled with shock, and the wrinkles on his old face were even more pronounced.
His ability was a blood ability, an extremely dangerous ability!
Even Natsuba Rinrei’s previous Aosagi no Hi’s flame and the Red Dragon’s flame, after he had sensed them, even if he fought them, he could only slightly suppress the blood fire, but to burn the blood fire…
No matter what, it was absolutely impossible.
However, Natsuba Hanae pursed her lips, her voice filled with a deathly stillness and calmness.
“My mercy towards outsiders has ended.”
“Next, I will make you feel pain, Kujō Sujin.”
Natsuba Hanae discreetly exchanged a glance with Kujō Mien.
Then, an incredibly massive white bird’s claw suddenly emerged from the rippling void, and a heavy blow slammed down on the ground where Kujō Sujin was.
Kujō Sujin quickly dodged.
The ground instantly couldn’t bear it and shattered inch by inch, leaving a large hole.
The white bird’s claw pierced through several times, and completely pierced through the ground below the Hero Association.
Kujō Mien and Kujō Kōta, unable to dodge in time, in the face of the white bird’s claw’s divine, prison-like sweeping gale, continuously fell downwards.
Until they reached the bottom.
And Natsuba Hanae’s figure suddenly became a crimson phantom for a moment.
Summoning the complete claw of Inpi had consumed a considerable amount of this clone’s energy.
She looked up at the sky and saw that Natsuba Rinrei was now at an advantage, beating Natsuba Taiga. She murmured,
“The preparations are complete.”
“When will Susanoo appear?”
