Adam carefully examined the exterior of the house. The walls were darkened by the fire but appeared to grow lighter by the second.

"Hmm…" Adam raised his hand and drove his fist into the wall.

When Adam pulled his hand out, there was an indentation of his fist in the wall. The hole slowly closed and the wall reverted to its original state after a while. That explained how the house was able to survive the fire.

"Does that mean what we did was all for nothing?" Nezuminosuke tugged on his whisker.

"No, not quite." Adam rubbed his chin. "If the house was repairing this slowly earlier, the fire would have done the job. Whatever is causing this house to repair itself is almost at its limit."

"Shall we start another fire then?" Nezuminosuke rubbed his hands together.

Adam was tempted by the idea. He still had plenty of fire talismans left.

"It's worth a shot." Adam nodded.

Once more, the two of them got to work and covered the walls of the house with fire talismans. This time, Adam used up all of the talismans and they retreated to a safe distance away from the house. As he formed a hand seal and uttered an incantation, the fire talismans burst into flames and the fire rapidly engulfed the walls.

"Arrgghh!" After a while, a howl filled with despair came from within the blaze and the walls of the house began to crumble.

Adam and Nezuminosuke retreated further away from the house to avoid the falling debris and the ensuing dust cloud. Once the dust settled, Adam moved closer to the ruins and observed the pile of rubble with a thoughtful expression. If they had gone in without getting rid of that yōkai, they could have been trapped inside.

"Edamu-sama?"

"That was a yōkai, a tsukumogami like the oboroguruma." Adam squatted down and picked up a piece of rubble. "That's why it could repair itself."

"I see, but I didn't feel any yōki though?" Nezuminosuke scratched his head.

Adam shrugged. Neither did he. However, he wasn't too surprised since Pumpkin could conceal his yōki as well.

Adam and Nezuminosuke ventured into the smouldering ruins of the house but they didn't find a single soul after searching the entire place. There wasn't any sign of their target nor anyone else for that matter. After the commotion they caused, Sadako and her subordinates should have responded to their presence. Yet, they haven't encountered any other being other than the silhouette Adam spotted after their arrival.

"Are you sure we're at the right place?" Adam eyed Nezuminosuke with suspicion.

Adam didn't receive any update on his main objective, so Sadako was most likely still alive. If she had been inside the house during the fire, the heat would have killed her. Even though the fire didn't manage to spread into the building the first time, the scorching temperature inside the house would have been more than enough to incinerate any spirits within.

"Of course, her followers were spotted entering this house numerous times." Nezuminosuke rubbed his chin. "Hmm, why don't we look around a little more carefully for any hidden passages?"

The two of them split up and inspected every nook and cranny. Adam summoned Izumi and made her participate in the search as well. After a while, he heard Izumi calling for him.

"Adamu-sama, there's a trap door over here."

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

When Adam rushed over to Izumi's location, she was hovering above a trap door with a burned rug in her hand. They lifted the trap door and saw a flight of stairs leading into the darkness. Moments later, Nezuminosuke rejoined them.

"Hmm, it's too dark down there." Adam rubbed his chin.

As a Kyūso, Nezuminosuke didn't rely on his sight but on his sense of smell and hearing. Meanwhile, Izumi was a spirit and no longer depended on physical senses to perceive the material world. Unlike the two of them, Adam would have issues navigating in the darkness.

"Hang on..." Adam took out a volume of the Onmyōdō Fundamentals and began learning the spell on the spot. Seconds later, he uttered an incantation and an orb of light appeared in his palm. Glowing Orb was usually one of the first spells an onmyōji would learn but he forgot all about it since he didn't need to use the spell until now.

Adam controlled the orb of light and sent it down the stairway. The orb illuminated the dark passage and kept on going until it was only a speck of light in their eyes. He considered sending Izumi ahead to scout the path ahead but quickly dismissed the idea. Unlike the monastery where the monks didn't know they were coming, there was no way Sadako and her subordinates wouldn't be prepared for them.

As such, the group proceeded down the stairs together. At the bottom of the stairs, they followed a dimly lit corridor that led to a cavern. From inside, they could hear the voices of a group of people squabbling with each other. They quietly made their way closer to eavesdrop on them.

"Kabetarō-sama is done for!"

"We'll be done for too if we stay! We need to get out of here!"

"B-but where can we go?! There's only one way out of here!"

"How could you cowards think of escaping while Kabetarō-sama is protecting us!"

"Hah, if you're that brave, why are you hiding down here with us?!"

Adam was surprised to find humans down here. Seeing as both the kuchisake-onna and Sadako were onryō, he was expecting to encounter a horde of onryō. Closing his eyes, he sensed the ki of the people inside and deduced none of them had the ability to detect spirits. After telepathically instructing Izumi to slip inside, he started observing the scene inside through her eyes.

Inside the cavern, over a dozen men dressed in suits had gathered. Most of them were armed with revolvers but a few of them carried assault rifles in their hands. None of them noticed Izumi hovering over their heads.

"What's there to be afraid of? Didn't Kuroda-sama mention there are only two of them?"

"Ha! If you want to get yourself killed, go right ahead. One of them is an onmyōji, while the other is a yōkai!"

Just then, an elderly man dressed in an ornate kariginu stepped into the cavern. From his appearance, Adam initially mistook him for an onmyōji. However, he quickly sensed that the man's ki was only slightly higher than the average human and incomparable to someone like the monk, Kaien. On the other hand, he was more concerned with the human skull oozing with yin energy that was hanging from the man's neck.

"Ahem!" The elderly man cleared his throat.

"Kuroda-sama!"

"Kuroda-sama!"

"Kuroda-sama!"

"I can hear you all the way from my room." The elderly man, Kuroda, eyed them with discontent on his face. "What's all this commotion about?"

The men looked at each other but none of them said a word. Seeing the rest didn't want to step forward, a man with a scar running down his cheek picked up the courage and answered Kuroda.

"Kuroda-sama, the assailants have returned and they've started another fire. I'm afraid Kabetarō-sama wouldn't be able to stop them this time. We need to—"

"Hmph, Suzuki, are you doubting Kabetarō-sama?"

"N-no, I wouldn't dare! I—" Suzuki backed away in horror.

"Enough! " Kuroda held his hand out and a woman dressed in white with long hair covering her face emerged from the skull hanging from his neck. She crossed the room in the blink of an eye and stopped in front of Suzuki. Reaching for his neck, she started draining the life out of him. Suzuki tried to break free from her grip but his face became paler by the second.

In the eyes of the rest of the men, it appeared as if Kuroda was strangling Suzuki just by holding out his hand. When the woman finally released Suzuki, his lifeless body collapsed to the ground.

"Does anyone else have any objections?" As Kuroda's gaze fell upon them, the men hurriedly looked away.

Meanwhile, Adam observed the woman dressed in white. He had a feeling that she was the silhouette behind the curtain he saw earlier. Seemingly sensing his gaze, she abruptly looked in Izumi's direction.

"Hmm?! Who's there!" Kuroda backed away while tightly clutching the skull hanging from his neck. While he aimlessly scanned the ceiling, the woman returned to his side and hovered behind him while keeping an eye on Izumi.

"Stop the intruders while I inform Sadako-sama!" Kuroda frantically ran into a passage.

"Izumi, go after him but don't get too close!" Adam summoned the nure-onna before burrowing into the ground. He controlled the nure-onna to rush toward the men. At the same time, Nezuminosuke circled around them and attacked from the flank.

"T-they're here! Shoot! Shoot!"