A Pawn's Passage

The Three Great Yokai were all deeply entangled with the royal family of Fenglin.

Strictly speaking, all three were slain by the royal family. The shogun had slain Ootakemaru. The Minamoto clan, a branch of the royal family, purged Shuten-Doji. Tamamo-no-Mae had also been slain by them.

Furthermore, the domains of these yokai were all connected to the throne.

Ootakemaru’s Mount Suzuka lay within Ise, whose Saio was an Imperial Princess. The Ise-jingu also had countless ties to the throne. Shuten-Doji’s Mount Oe was under the jurisdiction of Heian Capital, and Tamamo-no-Mae went further by infiltrating the royal palace.

It was well known that the Three Great Yokai were often counted as four, much like the Daoist Three Prodigies frequently included an inexplicable fourth.

The so-called Fourth Yokai was known as the Great Tengu.

The Central Plains also had tales of tengu that devoured the moon. The Classic of Mountains and Seas described them as foxlike hounds. However, Fenglin’s tengu was entirely different. They were tall figures with long red noses and powerful wings on their backs. They wielded feathered fans, wore wooden clogs and warriors’ armor, with swords hung at their waists. They also had straw capes to vanish at will. In some ways, they resembled Western angels, though the tengu were far more menacing and arrogant.

According to legend, after a certain emperor of Fenglin was defeated in battle, he cursed the world. He wished to become a Demon King and plunge the realm into chaos, commoners turned kings, and kings to commoners. He also cursed the Five Great Sutras for them to go on a wicked path. From then on, he refused food or cultivation and died in furious resentment. His corpse was twisted, and his vengeful spirit transformed into a tengu, wreaking havoc upon the world. He was then known as the infamous Great Tengu.

Unlike the Three Great Yokai, the Great Tengu was not unique. His curse was passed down like a lineage, so there were eight Great Tengu in total.

At this very moment, Mount Oe was locked in battle with the Fenglin royal family’s troops.

After several centuries, the two sides once again clashed, and the commander of the royal army once more hailed from the Minamoto clan.

Now the leader of Mount Oe, Ibaraki-Doji, stood atop a peak and surveyed the battlefield below.

Unlike the grotesque visages of many demons, this yokai’s features were delicate and androgynous. It was no wonder he had disguised himself twice as a woman to enter Heian Capital. Some whispered that he, or she, was the Demon King’s consort. Thus, if taken as a man, he was called Ibaraki-Doji; as a woman, she was known as the Demon of Rashomon.

The demon troops of Mount Oe were steadily falling back. However, the Demon of Rashomon remained calm and merely quoted an old Central Plains proverb. “A mountain may rise nine fathoms high, yet fail for want of a single basket of earth.

Drawing water with a bamboo basket ends only in emptiness.”

Suddenly, the skies above Mount Oe darkened.

The Demon of Rashomon looked up to see giant black wings blotting out the heavens, shrouding the land like storm clouds.

The wings folded in an instant, and a figure swooped down toward Mount Oe.

As it drew closer, the figure was revealed. It was clad in a warrior’s armor and wielded an enormous fan. It was none other than the eighth Great Tengu.

The Demon of Rashomon was at best on par with Suzuka Gozen, but without the Three Radiant Swords, so they were no match for the Great Tengu.

At that moment, another figure suddenly rose behind the Demon of Rashomon. Bare-chested, hair loose, with strikingly handsome features. He threw back his head and roared at the sky. Though his neck still bore the mark of a severed wound, his aura was no less fierce than the Great Tengu’s.

This was none other than the Master of Mount Oe, Shuten-Doji.

The Great Tengu crashed onto the earth, shaking the ground. His body grew exponentially until he towered over 30 meters tall. His wings unfurled like a colossal curtain, and his feathers gleamed as though forged of steel.

Shuten-Doji was not to be outdone. His body also expanded into a giant’s form, squaring off against the Great Tengu, brimming with raw power.

The Great Tengu swept his massive fan, summoning a raging storm.

Meanwhile, Shuten-Doji opened his mouth and spat out roaring flames.

Wind and fire entwined into a colossal fiery tornado that surged skyward, casting down showers of blazing embers. Countless demon soldiers and imperial troops alike perished beneath the fiery storm.

Shuten-Doji hurled a punch at the Great Tengu, unleashing overwhelming force.

The Great Tengu folded his wings before him like a shield, blocking the strike.

Then he beat his wings once more, shooting out countless black feathers like steel darts. They pierced Shuten-Doji’s flesh, leaving innumerable cuts from which blood streamed until he was completely drenched in red.

Shuten-Doji produced a wine gourd from thin air, took a swig of this liquor, then exhaled, breathing out billowing mist.

This strange vapor corroded everything it touched and ate away even at the Great Tengu’s steel wings. Wherever it spread, everything was consumed into nothingness.

Shuten-Doji inhaled once more, drawing the corrosive mist back into his belly. His wounds then knit together at a speed visible to the naked eye.

As the mist surged back into him, Shuten-Doji let out a strange, incomprehensible laugh, his body erupting in crimson flames.

The Great Tengu swung his fan, summoning a raging gale that scattered the encroaching mist.

The two yokai clashed once more, shaking the earth with their blows.

The flames around Shuten-Doji spread onto the Great Tengu’s body, while the Great Tengu sank his jaws into Shuten-Doji’s neck.

Upon touching the flames, the Great Tengu’s steel feathers melted and dropped one by one, becoming a fiery rain. Meanwhile, he tore a chunk of flesh from Shuten-Doji’s neck. It was a gruesome sight to behold.

For a moment, howling winds, fiery downpours, sudden frost, and tumbling clouds all raged at once. In the end, they merged back into the wine mist and were drawn into Shuten-Doji’s body, transforming into the crimson flames on his body.

More of the mist spread endlessly, filling the mountains like dense fog until their battle could no longer be seen.

Moments later, a gust swept through, strong enough to lift men from the ground and uproot trees. It blew away the mist to reveal the two combatants tumbling into a valley. The Great Tengu was pinned to the ground, and Shuten-Doji was straddling him, the latter’s fists pounding mercilessly into the former’s face.

By now, much of Shuten-Doji’s flesh had been torn away, with holes and wounds all over his body. Some places exposed writhing organs that healed slowly.

On the other hand, the Great Tengu was covered in scorch marks, and his wings had many bald patches.

Such was the brutal simplicity of the two yokai’s close combat.

In truth, the Great Tengu had underestimated his foe. Though both were demons who relied on their innate powers, the Tengu and Tamamo-no-Mae favored spells, while Shuten-Doji and Ootakemaru excelled in close combat. Choosing to grapple with Shuten-Doji was attacking with one’s weakness against another’s strength, like Zhang Yuelu trying to arm-wrestle Qi Xuansu, or Qi Xuansu insisting on playing the Holy Xuan Cards with Yao Pei.

The Great Tengu soon realized this. He swiftly shrank back to human size to slip free of Shuten-Doji’s hold, then soared into the skies again.

Shuten-Doji also returned to his original size. He tilted his head back and roared another boat of wine mist that enshrouded all of Mount Oe. The heavens and earth turned dark red.

The Great Tengu dared not touch the strange mist again. His wings thundered, stirring a massive storm. Rain glimmered in sheets, while dark clouds rolled outward. The skies were split into light and darkness.

Wind was the forerunner of rain. In the blink of an eye, the skies shifted and winds howled as several columns of towering tornadoes formed. They pierced the heavens, uprooted trees, and swept up boulders, looking like they would raze the mountain to the ground.

Shuten-Doji stood amid the storm. His hair and pants whipped wildly in the wind. Once again, he drew in a deep breath. However, this time, a spark of radiance flared at his throat, growing brighter and brighter as it rose.

The Great Tengu swung his fan, condensing the wind into countless blades that shot toward Shuten-Doji like a storm of knives.

Shuten-Doji leaped into the sky and tore through the tornado, unleashing a thunderous roar that surged outward in waves of sound.

The sound waves crashed against the wind blades, scattering golden wind in every direction. The clash rang out like endless clanging steel on a battlefield, unceasing and deafening.

The Demon of Rashomon merely watched from afar, silent and observant.

Not long ago, envoys from the Daoist Order had delivered Shuten-Doji’s severed head along with a condition. Mount Suzuka would serve as the staging ground for their assault on Ise-jingu, while Mount Oe was to stand guard over Heian Capital as a forward outpost.

To put it simply, Mount Oe was to guard Heian Capital on behalf of the Daoists and prevent the Fenglin royal family from sending reinforcements to Ise since Mount Oe lay directly along the route.

To show their sincerity, the Daoists returned Shuten-Doji’s head to Mount Oe. Or perhaps the Daoists deemed Shuten-Doji’s return a necessity because they did not believe Mount Oe could hold back the royal army without this Great Yokai.

Of course, Mount Oe could have chosen to break the pact and stay neutral after taking back Shuten-Doji’s head. But beyond their blood feud with the royal family, such betrayal would enrage the Daoists. Betrayal was the one sin the Daoist Order could never tolerate. One might refuse outright or remain neutral, but to deceive the Daoist Order was to invite vengeance. Even Shuten-Doji reborn would not be enough to defeat the Daoists.

Since the Daoists held the greater odds of victory, Mount Oe chose to honor the agreement.

Shuten-Doji, the Master of Mount Oe, did not once think of betraying the Daoist Order because he had been consumed solely by vengeance since his resurrection, leaving him barely capable of coherent speech.

As Tamamo-no-Mae once said, every resurrection came with a price.

Tamamo-no-Mae’s price was a sharp decline in cultivation, while Shuten-Doji’s was the loss of most of his sanity, along with the inability to leave Mount Oe’s vicinity. Otherwise, he would face heavenly tribulation. Fortunately, he still remembered the Demon of Rashomon and was willing to heed their words, sparing Mount Oe from being torn apart by his rampages.

......

Meanwhile, high above Donghai, Sage Qingwei was still conversing with Tamamo-no-Mae.

Sage Qingwei said, “Shuten-Doji’s condition reminds me of Yayu. The Daoist Order is very interested in this matter. I believe the Golden Tower Council will agree to a deeper investigation, and I hope you will lend us a hand.”