Bizarre Honkai, a Wife-Chasing Crematorium

Yae Sakura's eyes turned blood-red, and the world in her pupils was like a sea of blood and a purgatory, filled with wailing, withered, and shriveled hands of malevolent ghosts.

The ferocious ghost died under the blade, and the last hint of pink on Sakura Blizzard turned a vivid red.

Yae Sakura looked at the eerie green light in the surrounding darkness, tightly grasped the Crimson-Dyed Sakura in her hand, walked to the prostrate Li Mo, and knelt on the ground to support him.

The moment their limbs touched, the strange feeling in Li Mo's throat disappeared.

He no longer had the urge to bleat.

Am I back to normal? Li Mo looked down at his hands, feeling the bending of his fingers, the existence of his joints.

The courtyard had also returned to its true appearance—the high fence the shepherd used to confine his flock, as seen during the day.

"I can still fight, so... please don't abandon me."

She suddenly cried out to Li Mo, her self-address changing.

Two lines of clear tears flowed from her eyes, carving two deep tear marks on her delicate face.

Before Li Mo could ask, she rushed out.

Like a terrifying executioner, she slaughtered the ghost sheep in the pen that were trying to imitate living people over and over again.

At first, Li Mo didn't think much of it. Yae Sakura was slaughtering the ghosts in the sheep pen. She would calm down after she was done.

Gradually, Li Mo hesitated.

Yae Sakura's behavioral pattern seemed to have undergone a... deformed change?

The initial bleating in the sheep pen had turned into the sound of corpses being continuously cut and chopped.

When the clamor stopped, only the silence of the night remained.

The frenzied actions became the greatest terror.

The cursed blade, Crimson-Dyed Sakura, was completely black and red. Not a single trace of its original color could be seen. The blade pierced into flesh, cut through bone, penetrated, and minced, until the ghost sheep's corpse was unrecognizable.

What was she doing?

Li Mo took a step back, turned his back to Yae Sakura, and walked to the gate of the fence.

If it were before, Li Mo could have waited for Yae Sakura to finish killing the ghosts in the sheep pen and then tentatively exchange a few words. That might have yielded a lot of information.

But plans couldn't keep up with changes.

At this moment, Li Mo could no longer see Yae Sakura's current mental state.

From the clean and decisive ghost-killing at the beginning, where she ended every opponent with a single blow, regardless of who they were.

To the current pathological slaughter and torture, where even after the ghost sheep had lost all signs of life, she did not stop. She controlled Crimson-Dyed Sakura to cut and chop back and forth.

And during this process, she made no sound at all, only a strange, faint smile hung on her lips.

Li Mo didn't think a normal person, especially a twelve-year-old child, could do this.

Such a bloody scene would cause some physiological discomfort in any human being.

Except for those whose minds had been twisted by special experiences, giving birth to strange and twisted quirks.

Looking at Yae Sakura, it was hard to say. It was neither like she was enjoying it, nor like she was disgusted.

It was as if a person was doing something they neither hated nor loved, but for some reason, they were hypnotizing themselves to enjoy it, to find happiness in it to please themselves.

Otherwise, the boredom and dullness would eventually turn into loneliness, causing one to break down.

"I need to get out of here first," Li Mo thought to himself.

With Yae Sakura in this state, who knew if he would be next after all the ghost sheep were chopped into minced meat.

Having regained his human identity, Li Mo opened the fence gate. Just as he stepped out, he heard a faint call from behind.

"Mo-kun, what are you doing?"

Li Mo turned his head stiffly and replied calmly, "Going back to rest."

"Back where?"

"Grandma Chiyo's house."

"..."

"..."

Yae Sakura stood motionless in the sheep pen, which was flowing with blood, her blade in hand. Her gaze was dark and lowered, and the blood-red color in her eyes had faded slightly.

Li Mo didn't know if this change was good or bad.

Only after calming down did he realize that Yae Sakura shouldn't be here.

"Thank you very much for saving me."

"But shouldn't you be taking care of Rin? Why did you suddenly think of entering this sheep pen?"

Li Mo walked out of the sheep pen, his voice flat.

"..."

"..."

There was no answer. The two of them stood opposite each other, staring at one another.

After an unknown amount of time, when the blood-red eyes had returned to cyan, Yae Sakura slowly spoke.

"Mo-kun, I will take you home first."

Now it was Li Mo's turn to be silent, but at the moment, he had no reason to refuse Yae Sakura.

Because all around... were ghosts peeking at him.

On the eaves, in the alleys, at the corners...

The thermometer had already lost its effect. The Bizarre aura from all directions had caused the thermometer to shut down.

Although the thermometer sometimes couldn't observe abstract ghosts, it had no problem observing concrete, tangible ghosts, and it had never failed before.

So the reason the thermometer had lost its effect now was...

Li Mo walked back to the ghost sheep's corpse and bent down to pick up the bizarre coin on the ground.

A faint, familiar aura, belonging to Pardofelis, still lingered on it.

When he stood up again, Li Mo saw the tragic state of the ghost sheep on the ground in its entirety.

The skeleton supporting its body was shattered, its flesh was mangled, and its brain and organs were mixed together into a disgusting pulp.

"Let's go."

Li Mo called out.

Yae Sakura walked behind Li Mo, and the sound of footsteps coming downstairs from the nearby houses came to an abrupt halt.

Ghosts did not have human consciousness, nor did they fear death. The only thing that could change their rules was another bizarre rule.

Was that bizarre rule on Yae Sakura, or on Crimson-Dyed Sakura?

As he pondered, Yae Sakura had already escorted Li Mo to the gate of Grandma Chiyo's courtyard.

What came into view were still the two garish door god graffiti. When he pushed open the gate to enter, a faint resistance appeared, hindering Li Mo's entry.

This should be the real courtyard.

Li Mo overcame the resistance and entered the courtyard gate. As he closed the gate, he looked back at Yae Sakura.

Her cherry-pink lips moved slightly, as if she were saying something.

Her head was lowered, her bangs covering her eyes, making it impossible to tell if they were blood-red or cyan.

The Crimson-Dyed Sakura in her hand had turned back into Sakura Blizzard.

"Mo-kun."

Yae Sakura suddenly called out to Li Mo. When Li Mo had completely turned around and was facing her, she added, "Three days later, the shrine will hold a festival. Please take good care of yourself during these three days, and don't let a situation like tonight happen again."

With that, she hurried away, not giving Li Mo a chance to question her.

"A festival?"

"There was a festival in the game, but I don't know what the difference is between the two."

Li Mo stood there, recalling the distant memories in his mind.

In the original work, Yae Sakura's younger sister, Yae Rin, died in the festival.

After personally killing her younger sister, Yae Rin, she closed off her heart and turned herself into a murderous blade for performing the festival, unconditionally fulfilling the villagers' wishes—this was the fate that had been decided for her before she was born. As Yae Sakura grew up in accordance with the villagers' expectations, her self was gradually eroded by the "responsibility of a miko."

Shinano, due to a lack of rivers, was plagued by drought for a long time. In one of its villages, Yae Village, a god was worshipped—the Fox God. As long as sacrifices were offered to it, the Fox God would show its power and provide rain for the village.

The village once again faced a long drought. The villagers collectively demanded that the Guji hold another festival. The elders of the village believed that the festival a month ago had failed because the sacrifice was not a virgin, so they proposed offering a sacrifice with the bloodline of a miko, using the festival from ten years ago as an example. Thus, the Guji chose Yae Rin as the sacrifice and entrusted the festival to Yae Sakura to preside over.

As her older sister, Yae Sakura did not want her younger sister to be a sacrifice. She packed her luggage and prepared to secretly take Yae Rin away.

However, the Guji, who had already anticipated this, held the festival ahead of schedule and, while Yae Sakura was not by Yae Rin's side, cut Yae Rin's hamstrings, causing Yae Sakura's plan to fail.

Perhaps it was because she knew her tragic fate was inevitable, or for some other reason.

At the festival, Yae Rin comforted her sister, hoping that she would become an outstanding miko. The Guji, not wanting to miss the auspicious time, grabbed Yae Sakura's hand, which was holding the blade, and killed Yae Rin. After the festival, it began to rain. The villagers cheered excitedly in the rain. Only Yae Sakura knelt beside Yae Rin's corpse, crying...

"Three doubts."

Li Mo bypassed the peach orchard and walked along the wall to the attic on the east side. He leaped up and entered the second floor of the house through the east window.

The room was pitch black. Li Mo deliberately made no sound so as not to disturb little Chiyo and her grandmother.

He quietly went down the stairs to the first floor.

The moment one of his feet landed on the first-floor floor, his mind suddenly went blank. A sharp, piercing rooster crow resounded in his ears, unceasing.

By the time Li Mo came back to his senses, the tip of his nose was only a fist's distance from the floor.

Fortunately, Li Mo reacted quickly and avoided the risk of falling.

He looked back at the peach wood rooster above the table. It was full of spirit and majestic, not afraid of any evil things.

Li Mo extended his finger and flicked it lightly. The majestic peach wood rooster instantly lost its balance and fell onto the table.

The rooster crowing that had been ringing in his ears finally stopped.

The soul-shaking rule disappeared.

"It specializes in dealing with the ghosts in Yae Village that have partial human consciousness, but unfortunately, the effect is a bit poor. The peach wood is severely decayed, so the evil-warding objects made from it naturally cannot exert their full effect."

"But even an evil-warding object with 100% effect can only stop a few ghosts."

"In the end, the peach wood rooster is just a bottom line. The peach orchard, the threshold, and the layout of the house are the main barriers."

Li Mo talked eloquently. He put the peach wood rooster back in its place and sat on the stairs to think.

The peach wood rooster only targeted "standing on the first floor." Once a ghost entered, it would cause the other party's thoughts to stagnate.

Combined with Li Mo's Bizarre pistol, as long as the ghosts that came were not too outrageous, he could barely handle them.

Since he had agreed, he still had to do something.

Yae Village had become more and more strange because of his arrival. It was only natural for Li Mo to act as Chiyo's bodyguard at night.

But even if he hadn't come, Yae Village seemed to be getting more and more strange. Otherwise, Grandma Chiyo wouldn't have been so anxious to have him take little Chiyo out.

Something must have happened that would make the outsiders who continued to live in this village become strange.

"Three doubts about the festival: the Fox God, the requirements of the festival, and Yae Rin's actions before her death."

Li Mo began to dissect and analyze the nature of the festival based on his own experience.

Everything has a corresponding price. If someone lives a peaceful life, then someone must be carrying a heavy burden.

If a mortal wants to seize the power of a god, then the destruction of the body and the collapse of the will are just one of the costs.

This is the law of all things in the world.

To exist is to lose.

Then, in the Middle Ages, an era with underdeveloped productivity and a shortage of resources.

A natural refuge that could avoid "Impostors," a village where every household was well-fed and clothed. The price to pay was probably the so-called festival, offering loyalty to the Fox God.

"Yae Sakura didn't elaborate much on the festival, but it's highly likely that a 'Fox God' exists. The Fox God is just a symbol. It may not be a Fox God, but a rule, a twisted phenomenon."

"The requirement for the festival in the original work was to offer a virgin, but this requirement does not exist. Otherwise, Yae Sakura would not have told me to protect myself when she left."

"Because I am not a virgin."

"...Strange."

When Li Mo analyzed this point, he had a strange feeling.

He always felt that he should be smiling foolishly with the corners of his mouth upturned, but in reality, he was not.

His gloomy face, in the darkness, was like the silhouette of a fierce ghost.

"Changing my train of thought. The requirement is not a virgin, and it's a condition I can meet..."

"An outsider."

Li Mo quickly came to a conclusion.

"No, that's too general. There's too little information. A single sentence of information is not enough to support a final conclusion."

"But if there really is a so-called festival..."

"The price should be an 'outsider' who has completed a certain specific ritual."

"Not like tonight? Yae Sakura said this. If she hadn't arrived in time tonight, what would have happened to me?"

"Wait..."

As his thoughts extended, Li Mo assumed that if Yae Sakura had not appeared, then he would undoubtedly have become a sheep in the sheep pen, and then that ghost sheep would have replaced him and become Li Mo.

Would the festival kill people? If that were the case, Grandma Chiyo, who had lived in Yae Village for so many years, would definitely have told him.

She didn't, which proved that the festival was very normal in her eyes.

What was normal?

For a living person.

Using pigs, sheep, chickens, and ducks as sacrifices was normal.

But what if those pigs, sheep, chickens, and ducks were transformed from humans?

Li Mo's eyes narrowed slightly. He seemed to understand the nature of this village a little.

In this way, it seemed to explain why the ghosts he encountered tonight had the behavioral patterns of living people.

Because everyone was a ghost imitating a human.

They only revealed their true forms at night.

Thinking of this, Li Mo got up and went to the second floor. With his special eyes, he could move freely in the darkness.

He came to Chiyo's room and found her sleeping soundly, hugging a pillow. The blanket covered her whole body, with only her small head peeking out.

Then Li Mo went to Grandma Chiyo's room and found nothing unusual.

It was no different from the daytime. They both looked like living people.

But come to think of it, a ghost wouldn't set up so many evil-warding layouts in its own residence.

"Then there's only one last doubt left."

"Why did Yae Rin say those words before she died?"

Li Mo began to dissect the nature behind Yae Rin's behavior in his mind.

On the other side, Yae Sakura entered the sheep pen again with her blade in hand and saw a black goat holding a rope and wearing a shepherd's clothes.