The bright moon hung in the sky, the thick night enveloping Kyoto.
The completely silent Kyoto was plunged into the thickest darkness vortex, appearing from afar as a dark and remote forbidden zone, arousing slight fear in hearts.
Because of the barrier installed around Kyoto, the outside world's perception and observation were directly distorted, making them unconsciously believe that Kyoto was the same as usual, without the slightest change. Even if they felt slightly strange and distorted in their hearts, everything was ignored.
This was undoubtedly terrifying. Both the Gods and humans, in their perception, found no abnormalities in Kyoto, let alone knowing that all Kyoto residents had disappeared.
Meanwhile, inside Nijō Castle, which had a very long history in Japan.
It was currently enveloped by thick Yōkai aura. The level of thickness seemed to make people difficult to breathe. If at ordinary times, Onmyōji saw this scene, their knees might tremble. Unfortunately, now Onmyōji, exorcists... these supernatural existences among humans had all been swept away, and the main perpetrators were the Yōkai hiding here.
"It will succeed soon. I can feel the power continuously increasing."
On the upper floor of Nijō Castle, Abe no Seimei, who had just escaped from hell and been born through Hagoromo Gitsune, enjoyed the joy brought by increasing power with a happy face.
Seimei wore white Heian-era Onmyōji kariginu (hunting clothes), stepping on a profound and principled magic formation. That formation emitted dim light, and endless spiritual power flowed into his body, causing his power to continuously increase every minute and second.
However, the source of this continuously squeezed spiritual power was the Hanakai Family, enveloped by a barrier not far from Nijō Castle.
Around the Hanakai Family stood nearly ten Onmyōji from the Gokadoin House. If observed carefully, the family heads from every generation were among them.
Second generation family head: Abe no Yoshihira, Third generation family head: Abe no Orochi, Fourth generation family head: Abe no Ariyuki...
They maintained the barrier before them, imprisoning almost all of Japanese Onmyōdō's combat power within, and continuously squeezed the power of the Onmyōji inside, channeling it to Seimei at Nijō Castle.
Inside the Hanakai Family, two giants could be faintly seen, namely two nine-tailed foxes, one gold and one white, imprisoned by countless chains. The golden nine-tailed fox tried to struggle free. Unfortunately, the more she struggled, the more power was squeezed by the chains, which was then converted into spiritual power and channeled to Seimei. Everything was futile. While the white nine-tailed fox appeared slightly confused. Even if the chains absorbed her power, she showed no resistance at all.
"Heheheh... Seimei-sama, I have found the Devil King's Hammer for you."
Ōmagatsuchi, holding Devil King's Hammer in both hands, showing evil red eyes and appeared before Seimei with a strange smirk on his face.
Seimei took the Devil King's Hammer from Ōmagatsuchi's hands. He weighed the blade that looked slightly damaged in his palm. A satisfied smile appeared at the corner of his lips, and he said: "You've worked hard, Ōmagatsuchi. Devil King's Hammer is a good blade."
"Seimei-sama praises too much. Devil King's Hammer being able to reach its current level is thanks to the Dimensional List. The previous Basic Level Forging Refinement has improved Devil King's Hammer quite a lot."
"Divine Artifact List, huh..."
Hearing Ōmagatsuchi's words, Seimei also remembered that Devil King's Hammer's rank on the Divine Artifact List wasn't high. Although he was usually skilled in combat using Onmyōjutsu and didn't rely too much on weapons.
However, if he could obtain a Divine Artifact ranked in the top thirty, or even top twenty of the Divine Artifact List, it would also greatly enhance his power. Moreover, after he broke through and advanced to the Transcendent realm with this, Devil King's Hammer clearly wouldn't be worthy of his power, and it was indeed time to consider his weapon power.
What a pity, the top twenty Divine Artifacts on the Divine Artifact List all already had owners, and not one was easy to provoke. He could only face those difficult Gods and strong individuals after he fully stepped into the Transcendent realm. His current power was clearly not yet sufficient. But, soon...
He would soon become the second Transcendent among humans besides Emperor Shin!
At that time, the Gods would no longer dare look at him.
"Ōmagatsuchi, is there something else?"
Seimei looked at Ōmagatsuchi, who showed slight hesitation and wanted to say something, and asked...
"Seimei-sama, when you were in seclusion, I didn't dare disturb. I just received word that Kidōmaru and Ibaraki Dōji, who were pursuing the Onmyōji who escaped from the barrier, have been killed."
Ōmagatsuchi lowered his head and answered carefully.
Hearing that, Seimei frowned. As a cold-blooded person who could even use his own mother who gave birth to him as an offering to break through and advance, the death of two subordinates naturally wouldn't arouse much anger in his heart.
The only thing that worried him was, at this critical moment, whether there were others who discovered Kyoto's abnormalities and intervened.
It should be known that Kidōmaru and Ibaraki Dōji, in any case, had High-Class Devil strength. The probability that the person who could kill them was a Devil King-level strong individual was very high.
Devil King-level strong individuals, if not handled well and caused problems, were also quite a big problem.
"Should be that old man who escaped from your hands before, it seems he was called Ashiya Dōman..."
A voice carrying a playful tone suddenly sounded in Seimei and Ōmagatsuchi's ears, causing both their faces to change.
Ōmagatsuchi was even more panicked in his expression, trying to be as low as possible when seeing a middle-aged man who appeared playful emerge from the darkness.
This person was Vali's grandfather, son of the original Devil King Lucifer, Rizevim Livan Lucifer.