“Chapter 484: Falling Sakura Like Blood (Part 8)”

Soma Kosuke spat out a mouthful of blood, his body tottering in mid-air.

He looked at the three terrifying figures below, yet a smile appeared on his face.

"From the very beginning, I never wanted to leave alive."

Looking at the weak Soma Kosuke, the sense of unease in Kujo Koji's heart grew stronger and stronger.

Something was wrong.

In the battle just now, Soma Kosuke had not suffered a fatal injury at all. With the vitality of an SS-Rank Professional, he shouldn't have been this fragile.

And that very active Insect Master of the Omiya Family.

He originally planned to solve Soma Kosuke while simultaneously dealing with that hiding-his-head-and-tail fellow.

As a result, the opponent didn't show up at all.

Kujo Koji's expression changed as he thought of a possibility.

He immediately shouted:

"Don't dawdle with him!"

"Kill him quickly!"

"He likely has the yata no kagami on him!"

Hearing the words "yata no kagami", the smile on the Man in White Suit's face vanished, and his expression turned solemn.

Bhadra's eyes flashed with greed.

Wada Hirayama let out a breath, re-assuming the posture of drawing his blade, and the Qi on his body erupted without reservation.

The three of them no longer tested the waters and attacked simultaneously!

"Die!"

Bhadra roared and rushed forward, his dark golden body bursting with light. With a simple and direct punch accompanied by a piercing sonic boom, it contained the power to shatter mountains.

"One-Sword Style: Moon Ring!"

Wada Hirayama's figure vanished from the spot, instantly appearing behind Soma Kosuke. The Katana in his hand slashed toward Soma Kosuke's neck.

On the ground, the Man in White Suit pushed up his glasses, raised his hand toward Soma Kosuke, and abruptly clenched his five fingers.

The space around Soma Kosuke instantly distorted, collapsing inward into a black dot to devour him.

The full-strength strike of the three sealed off all of Soma Kosuke's retreats.

This was a fatal trap!

Faced with the attack, Soma Kosuke showed not a shred of fear on his face, and even gave up resisting.

He floated quietly in mid-air, looking down at Kujo Koji with pity, as if looking at a clown performing on a stage.

"Boom!"

Bhadra's fist struck first, tearing open the ink-wash shield and slamming into his chest.

"Pfft!"

The fist punched straight through his back, leaving a large hole in his chest as his internal organs were instantly shattered.

Then, Wada Hirayama's blade light swept across his neck, and his head flew into the air.

Finally, the collapsing space devoured his headless corpse.

Soma Kosuke's health bar was completely emptied.

Dead beyond doubt.

But at the moment his head flew up, a bizarre smile hung on his face, filled with mockery and exhilaration.

The corpse and head fell from the air.

Kujo Koji looked at this scene, his brow tightly furrowed.

Something was wrong.

Soma Kosuke was dead, yet the sense of unease in his heart grew even stronger.

The evidence was that this World Within the Painting had not disappeared.

This was Soma Kosuke's Domain, and after his death, it should have collapsed.

But right now, this ink-colored world remained as solid as ever, without a single crack.

"Hmm?"

Bhadra also sensed something was wrong, and he abruptly raised his head to look at the sky.

"Hey."

He spoke in a muffled voice, pointing above his head.

"Why has that moon turned red?"

Hearing this, everyone looked up to see that the moon in the sky had turned blood-red at some unknown point.

It cast a heart-palpitating dark red light, shrouding the entire battlefield.

"It really… is red…"

"How could this happen? I feel… so uncomfortable…"

The surviving people of the Kujo Family broke into an uneasy commotion.

Wada Hirayama gripped the hilt of his blade, staring solemnly at the blood moon, his whole body's muscles tensing. From the blood moon, he felt a Qi that was even more dangerous and terrifying than Soma Kosuke's.

Kujo Koji stared fixedly at the blood moon, his guess confirmed, and his expression turned extremely ugly.

"Sigh…"

The Man in White Suit sighed softly, pushing up his glasses as the lenses reflected red light.

"That is not the moon."

"That is a Divine Artifact."

"The yata no kagami!"

Meanwhile, inside the ancestral hall of the Omiya Family.

Dim candlelight flickered, illuminating rows of solemn ancestral tablets.

Hundreds of Elders wearing traditional attire sat cross-legged with eyes closed and minds focused, emitting faint energy fluctuations from their bodies as they maintained a connection with some distant existence.

Outside the ancestral hall, Omiya Hideki stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the tightly closed doors with a solemn expression, his heart anxious and uneasy.

Suddenly.

"Pfft—"

Inside the ancestral hall, a suppressed muffled sound rang out abruptly.

Omiya Hideki's heart tightened, and he slammed open the doors and rushed inside.

The scene before him made his eyes split with rage.

He saw that the leading Elder sitting cross-legged at the very front trembled violently, suddenly spitting out a large mouthful of fresh blood that dyed the floor in front of him red.

His complexion instantly turned like golden paper.

This seemed like a signal.

"Pfft!"

"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!"

The sounds of coughing up blood rose one after another within the ancestral hall.

Elders fell one after another, their bodies trembling uncontrollably as blood gushed wildly from their mouths, their Qi decaying at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In just a few breaths.

The hundreds of Family retainers, whose Qi had originally been profound and concentrated, had now all become listless, as if their vitality had been instantly hollowed out.

"Elders!"

Omiya Hideki let out a mournful cry, hurrying over to the side of the leading Elder to support him.

Seeing this scene, he already had the answer in his heart.

The yata no kagami had been activated.

With life as the price and the Soul as the guide.

This terrifying backlash force was transmitted to these voluntarily sacrificed Elders through some mysterious connection.

This also meant…

Teacher Soma Kosuke was already dead.

"Clan Chief…"

The leading Elder slowly opened his eyes, his voice as weak as a candle in the wind.

Looking at Omiya Hideki, who was full of grief, a relieved smile appeared on his face.

Omiya Hideki knelt on both knees, bowing deeply toward everyone in the ancestral hall, his forehead heavily slamming against the cold ground.

"Hideki… is incompetent!"

His voice was filled with pain and self-blame.

"Thank you, Elders, for sacrificing yourselves to this extent for the Omiya Family!"

"Cough, cough…"

The leading Elder coughed up a few more mouthfuls of blood, waved his hand, and smiled weakly.

"Clan Chief need not be like this."

"Our willingness to sacrifice is not just for the Omiya Family."

He paused, a stunning brilliance bursting forth from his eyes.

"It is even more for… the tens of millions of innocent commoners of Sakura Country."

"As long as we can kill that madman Kujo Koji and stop his ambition."

"All of this is worth it!"

After finishing these words, the final light in the Elder's eyes abruptly dimmed.

His head hung down limply, with no more sound or breath.

He passed away suddenly.

"Grand Elder!" Omiya Hideki cried out mournfully.

It was as if it were a chain reaction.

The remaining Elders fell one after another.

The fires of their lives completely extinguished at the exact same time.

The large ancestral hall plunged into dead silence in an instant.

Only Omiya Hideki remained, kneeling among the cold corpses, his fists tightly clenched, his fingernails digging deep into his palms as blood dripped down the gaps between his fingers.

World Within the Painting.

Kujo Koji slowly raised his head to look at the bizarre blood moon in the sky, sighing softly.

"I didn't expect Soma Kosuke to actually use that item."

His voice carried a trace of complex emotions that even he himself had not noticed.

There was surprise, solemnity, and a trace of… admiration.

"I still underestimated the Omiya Family too much."

"And I underestimated Omiya Hideki's determination to kill me."

The Man in White Suit sighed with emotion:

"I didn't expect that the first time the yata no kagami was used, it would be used on us."

"I don't know whether this should be considered a blessing or a misfortune."

Beside him, the tower-like giant Bhadra spoke in a muffled voice: "What on earth is the function of this yata no kagami?"

The man in the suit patiently explained:

"Legend has it that the yata no kagami masters the power of illusion and reality."

"When fully activated, it can completely transform an area into a Domain existing between reality and illusion."

His gaze swept across everyone's dubious and uncertain faces, a faint arc hooking at the corners of his mouth.

"In other words."

"From the moment we saw that red moon appear in the sky."

"We had already fallen into… an endless illusion created by it."