I Can See Health Bars in Real Life

Hidechika looked at someone a bit strangely, excitedly taking several photos from different angles of the miserable end of the Crow Tengu.

Even though she couldn’t understand what was going on, she vaguely felt that this person had again indulged in some mischievous interest, as she knew them well by now.

Of course—

This was just a small interlude.

After the attack by the Crow Tengu, it seemed the Demon Ghosts had fallen silent, no longer as lively as before, perhaps wiped out entirely. The three continued walking along the mountain path, which became more rugged and complicated, and likely had not been traveled in ages, making the trail barren and silent.

Nature began reclaiming its domain.

Everything became lush and verdant.

—To say that the path was almost unrecognizable is no exaggeration, as the group trudged through dense jungle.

And not far ahead, the faint outline of a village emerged.

It looked long abandoned, with wood thoroughly decayed, and plants climbing over the houses, barely suggesting the structures and layouts of the past.

However, it was evident that before being abandoned, the village had already undergone a calamity.

Many buildings looked transformed into ruins, only becoming like this through continued disuse, with deep-rooted greenery, trees hiding the houses, and vines crawling over the crumbling walls, unable to completely conceal the traces of past treatment.

"... Is this also a village destroyed by war?"

Kikyo raised an eyebrow, carefully sensing the surroundings but failed to extract any useful information from the environment.

The disaster that befell this village happened too long ago, not recent, nor within a year or two’s span. Under such circumstances, any residual information has long been eroded by time.

"Kind of, but you could also say... ’Calamities have no door; only people invite them.’"

Gu Mo casually scanned the area, his gaze penetrating the obstacles and settling on a dilapidated shrine on the other side of the village, and responded to the witch’s soft murmurs.

"Hmm? What do you mean?!"

The witch lightly raised her eyebrow, looking in his direction with an inquisitive gaze.

"Actually, it’s like this: This village ended up like this because it was a case of getting what they deserved. They believed that good people should have guns pointed at them..." Gu Mo explained with interest, having the advantage of foreknowledge of past events and the ability to review the history to confirm what transpired.

He naturally understood what had happened on this land.

Basically, it aligned with what he initially understood, just more detailed in specifics.

Specifically—

This village was once the residence of Ootakemaru. Because this man was tall and immensely strong, with horns on his forehead, villagers at the time revered and feared him as a "rare person." Respect and fear intertwined, the distant respect might have been the ideal interaction.

However, because Ootakemaru was extremely eager to help, he often took it upon himself to help villagers solve many difficulties and troubles, tasks that humans couldn’t accomplish on their own.

—Over time, he won the villagers’ goodwill and respect, dispelling their fear...

—Or you might say, the villagers came to see all this as taken for granted.

You can only say that habit is a fearsome thing. The story of a ’rise of a rice grain kindness, a bushel of resentment’ has long existed. After all, human nature is flawed, and people who remember the bad and not the good are common; helping others repeatedly often makes people think it’s expected.

The result is, when you help someone a hundred times, they may not feel any gratitude, but if they don’t get help once, they may become resentful.

They think others helping them is expected, have come to take it for granted.

Once others don’t help or fail to do well, they feel their interests are harmed and naturally harbor ill will towards those who harmed their interests.

One could say that the friction between the villagers and Ootakemaru accumulated because of this, as even with time, Ootakemaru couldn’t unconditionally meet all of the villagers’ demands. Without getting what they wanted, their dissatisfaction with him fermented into widespread resentment.

And when thieves came to loot the village and were killed by Ootakemaru, the villagers felt no gratitude and instead finally tore the mask off, making the act of killing thieves the true trigger for conflict.

—Although the thieves were there to plunder and kill, threatening their lives...

—And Ootakemaru was protecting the village, safeguarding their lives...

However, villagers who harbored long-standing discontent with Ootakemaru seized this opportunity to incite, declaring, "If they are not of our clan, their hearts will be different".... You can’t expect the ignorant villagers of this period to have high ideological awareness, just as obtuse folks are prevalent even in later generations.

Perhaps simply thinking that honest people are easy to bully, holding onto the belief that the other party is good, so they can be pointed at with guns.

The villagers probably did not expect, or perhaps never even considered, that even an honest person would eventually reach their limit of patience.

"After enduring cruel treatment from the people, Ootakemaru finally couldn’t bear it anymore. He slaughtered the entire village... Then the official army came to slay demons, but the story recorded by later generations differs slightly in details."

Gu Mo briefly introduced the origins and unfortunate fate of this village.

Despite happening long, long ago, it could indeed be considered a case of seeking disaster and achieving it. Their demise was not due to others but their own path to self-destruction. If they didn’t stop their self-destructive behavior, who else would die? Their persistence indeed led to success.

"I see..."

The witch couldn’t help but sigh.

Such a tragedy is truly lamentable, yet inevitable, because she had witnessed many similar occurrences. Sometimes, it wasn’t just demons or ghosts—she herself, possessing great power but being particularly easy to talk to, could sometimes be discreetly excluded by the villagers.

In Maple Village, naturally, such incidents never occurred.

But during her travels and training, she had seen similar situations in other villages and experienced similar treatment.

This happens when a person exhibits great ability and is easy to talk to. Others may place excessive and often unreasonable hopes on that person’s shoulders, expecting them to fulfill all reasonable or unreasonable demands unconditionally.

Once people believe their demands must be met, the nature of the incident changes completely.

Yet, this tragedy could have been avoided.

"..."

The black-haired girl did not comment, instead pondering earnestly over what Gu Mo said. She was not unfamiliar with Ootakemaru; the former Layman Guoxin had caused considerable trouble, reportedly due to Ootakemaru’s evil thoughts from his Wild Soul.

She lowered her head, examining the Chuye Sword in her hand, then looked at the land before her.

So—

Was this demon-slaying divine weapon first forged here in this place?

The current appearance of such phenomena—the continuous and resonant sword cries—was due to the divine weapon’s spirit, wanting to return home from afar? That... didn’t seem possible, yet this fellow acted mysterious, saying nothing.

Hidechika glanced at the young man with white clothes and black hair, sensing there should be some deeper meaning, perhaps regarding the mention of Suzuka Imperial Lady and Ootakemaru.

Very likely, it’s a hint of something.

In the past, he would usually directly tell her about matters. Why act like a riddle master this time? Is it because he can’t say it directly, or... there’s no need to explain too clearly because she’ll soon find out for herself?

The black-haired girl thought deeply and swung the Chuye Sword a few times before walking toward the village.

The source of the resonance was not far ahead.

The witch glanced at her and Gu Mo, then turned to follow. He smiled briefly but took no action, calmly surveying the land. Reflected in his eyes was the river of history; his consciousness continually traced back up a single timeline.

Spanning several hundred, nearly a thousand years, and without the Time Gem, relying purely on his control over the Time Domain proved somewhat taxing.

From this era, tracing back to the early Heian Era, the time length and difficulty posed challenges significant enough for even his Divine Spirit to handle.

But it wasn’t a major problem. Without the Time Gem, he had other supports. With a thought, an illusory Guardian Spirit appeared, circling and spinning around him like planets orbiting a star. Looking closely, it was an Anma Tengu possessing space-time attributes.

Meanwhile, on Earth’s other side, the moon was gently rotating.

The god-like calculation engine fluctuated slightly, completing a critical process calculation, as the True Body Machine God’s clone support was consistently reliable.

Almost instantly, he pinpointed the exact time. Gu Mo again looked forward, sensing the Power of Space-Time blooming and releasing strange, nameless fluctuations, instantly triggering his time travel. His figure faded like wiped rubber, disappearing into the air.

......

...

Like traversing the long river of time, yet going upstream rather than downstream.

The history and eras swept forward like a whole world striking towards him, finally bringing back the feeling of a mortal riding a roller coaster.

The surrounding environment rapidly morphed, only his vision could make out these blurred visions—as if thousands or tens of thousands of scenes flashed by per second. Overlapping, they transformed into chaotic imagery, shimmering in vivid blacks and radiant whites...

As time and space alternated, ultimately they slowed like a speeding train arriving at a station, coming to a final halt.

—The surrounding scenes became clear again.