"This is my shard of the Shikon Jewel! I'm going to become an immortal who lives forever!"
Seeing Kagetsu reach for the shard embedded in his abdomen, a crazed ferocity erupted in the Peach-Fruit Person's eyes.
Enduring the intense pain wracking his body, he raised the peachwood staff in his right hand, gathering strength to launch another attack.
"Wouldn't it be easier to just lie there and wait for death?" Kagetsu sneered.
His foot suddenly slammed down.
Crack,!
The sharp sound of bone shattering was drowned out by the rumbling of the ground splitting apart.
"AAAAAH,!"
A piercing scream tore through the air.
The Peach-Fruit Person's entire body convulsed violently. His eyes bulged wide, bloodshot from the overwhelming pain.
Kagetsu slowly lifted his foot.
In the shattered ground below, the Peach-Fruit Person's entire right arm had been crushed into a mangled mass of flesh and bone. Blood and fragments splattered across the peachwood staff, which rolled aside with a dull clatter.
Ignoring the creature's miserable howls, Kagetsu bent down and pulled the shard of the Shikon Jewel directly out of his abdomen.
The instant the shard left his body, it emitted a faint glimmer.
At the same time, the Peach-Fruit Person's aura visibly weakened.
"This man is no longer human," Kikyo said calmly as she walked over, her gaze fixed on the wretched figure lying in the crater. She accepted the Shikon Jewel shard from Kagetsu, her brows knitting slightly. "The stench of death around him is overwhelming."
"Yeah." Kagetsu nodded, glancing toward the nearby man-faced fruit tree.
"His aura feels similar to that demon tree. They probably share the same source."
He looked down again at the Peach-Fruit Person, who was still writhing and screaming.
"Still, I'm surprised. Even after removing the Shikon Jewel shard, he can still move and struggle."
"That may be related to this so-called 'immortality,'" Kikyo replied thoughtfully as she studied the creature more closely.
"I don't sense any demonic aura from him. The Shikon Jewel didn't strengthen him very much."
"That makes sense."
Kagetsu nodded.
The Peach-Fruit Person's aura was indeed strange. Beneath the thick layer of death energy was the demonic power of the man-faced fruit tree,something derived from natural energy.
It wasn't the power of a true demon.
Nor was it the spiritual power of a monk.
It was something twisted and unnatural.
Kagetsu's hands flashed through a series of seals.
"Wood Release: Tree Binding Burial!"
The moment the technique was completed, thick wooden vines erupted from the earth beneath the Peach-Fruit Person like a nest of venomous serpents.
In an instant, they wrapped tightly around his body.
The vines quickly expanded and fused together.
Within moments, a towering tree burst from the ground, its trunk enveloping the Peach-Fruit Person completely.
Only his head remained exposed.
"W-What is this?!"
His eyes filled with terror as he struggled desperately against the wooden prison,but the more he struggled, the tighter the tree constricted around him.
"Stay there for now," Kagetsu said indifferently. "I'll deal with you later."
The tree created by his Wood Release would continuously absorb the energy inside the Peach-Fruit Person's body, draining away any ability he had left to resist.
"You monster! Let me out!" the Peach-Fruit Person shrieked hoarsely. "I am the Immortal of the Peach Blossom Spring! I can make you immortal too!"
"Shut up."
Kagetsu frowned.
Looking at the creature's fanged mouth chattering endlessly, a thought crossed his mind.
A slender branch immediately grew from the trunk, wrapping around the Peach-Fruit Person's mouth like a rope.
His shouting instantly turned into muffled "mmph,mmph!" noises.
"Are you someone who escaped from the bonsai?"
Just then, a weak voice drifted through the air.
Kagetsu turned toward the sound.
While he had been dealing with the Peach-Fruit Person, Kikyo had already moved beneath the man-faced fruit tree.
Now she stood there with her bow drawn, her arrow aimed at a strange figure planted in a ceramic pot beneath the tree.
The voice had come from there.
Kikyo studied the creature carefully.
It was a small dwarf peach tree planted inside the pot. Only a few yellowed leaves clung weakly to its branches.
Yet on the tree bloomed a single, enormous peach blossom.
And from the center of that blossom,where the pistil should have been,grew the head of an old man.
White hair.
Long beard.
A human face growing from a flower.
The sight was deeply unsettling.
When the question was asked, Kikyo did not answer.
Instead, she tightened the bowstring, the arrow aimed directly at the old man's head.
"Who are you?" she demanded coldly. "Are you connected to that man?"
"I am ashamed to say… yes." The head sighed weakly. "I am the former master of the Peach-Fruit Person."
"Peach-Fruit Person?" Kikyo repeated in surprise. "You mean that thing covered in death energy?"
Her expression hardened.
"And you are his master?"
"Yes." The old man lowered his eyes. "It is a disgrace to admit… but I am indeed his master."
"I am the Immortal of the Peach Blossom Spring."
"The Peach Immortal."
Kikyo's expression instantly turned cold.
"As an immortal, you raised such a monster? Countless innocent people have died because of him!"
"It was not I who turned him into an immortal," the Peach Immortal said slowly. "It was the man-faced fruit tree."
"What do you mean?" Kikyo demanded. "Explain yourself."
By now Kagetsu had walked over to her side.
His gaze was sharp as he studied the Peach Immortal carefully.
Seeing him arrive, Kikyo slowly lowered her bow,but she kept her grip tight, ready to strike at any moment.
"That happened about a month ago," the Peach Immortal said quietly.
"At that time, the Peach-Fruit Person discovered a shard of the Shikon Jewel beneath the man-faced fruit tree. By accident, he dropped it onto the tree itself."
"After obtaining the shard, the tree's demonic power grew tremendously. It even began to speak."
"It lured the Peach-Fruit Person… and convinced him to eat one of the human-faced fruits."
"After eating it, his mind fell completely under the tree's control. He became its puppet."
The old man's voice grew bitter.
"Following the tree's commands… he turned me into nourishment for the human-faced fruit so it could produce the fruit of immortality."
"And then?" Kagetsu asked impatiently.
"You said you were turned into fertilizer. So how are you still alive?"
For a brief moment, an unreadable flicker passed through the Peach Immortal's eyes.
But it vanished just as quickly.
"To truly achieve immortality," he continued, "the fruit alone is not enough."
"The fruit must be refined into medicine."
"And I… am the only one who knows the method."
"I see."
Kagetsu nodded slowly.
A faint, ambiguous smile appeared on his face as he stepped toward the ceramic pot.
Kikyo glanced at him but remained where she was, bow still in hand.
"Then thank you both for defeating the Peach-Fruit Person," the Peach Immortal said with a forced smile.
"There is a path down the mountain on the other side of the cliff. If you follow it, you will be able to leave this place."
However, as Kagetsu approached, the old man's eyes betrayed an involuntary tension.
The young man in front of him wore a gentle smile.
But his eyes were utterly calm.
Cold.
Completely devoid of warmth.
It made the Peach Immortal's heart pound with an inexplicable sense of unease.
Kagetsu crouched down in front of the pot.
Looking directly into the old man's eyes, he asked calmly:
"And what about you, Immortal?"
"Do you want me to save you?"