Chapter 16: Heavenly Demon

The room grew silent under Master Shitori's words, each giving the young man a calculating glance. The red skinned Oni, reached for his tree size tetsubo. If this boy had tried to scam them…

Nurarihyon only gave Yasaka a pitying gaze, if she didn't resist in the apprehension of this man then he would let this matter die. She was desperate and some fraudster had tried to take advantage of her. It was understandable. The kitsune had gotten soft over the years after decades of peace, this should be a good lesson to bring back that ruthless fox from before.

But despite receiving the weight of all these ancient and powerful Yokai, Iori still only serenely sipped at his tea. He looked completely unbothered by the acquisition, looking more like a still pond than a person in that moment.

Setting the cup to the side, his bland features cracked slightly and a small lazy smile appeared.

'Finally,' Iori thought, a giddy feeling bubbling up in his chest,' The classic faceslapping troupe!'

"I must admit," He drawled, ignoring the kitsune as she barely held in her own giggles," That I am not aware of your Mountain Shattering Sect. Nor am I aware as why using my own name would have any consequences I couldn't personally handle?"

"Arrogant little-" Shitori positively bristled under the youth's clear lack of respect before calming dangerously," The Mountain Shattering SCHOOL, is a place of learning for those who wish to learn Senjutsu. We are famous for our 'Heavy Ki' technique. Which allows us to bypass the limitation of Ki when it comes to physical destruction of objects."

As Ki was a life energy to begin with, by itself it can only affect things that are considered living. Meaning practitioners were generally without many options when facing foes who lack Ki, like golems or other automatons. Anyone could see the benefits to having a technique that can completely forgo this weakness all together!

'It's an interesting idea,' Iori thought, applauding their ingenuity,' While that problem would be mostly addressed after finishing the Expelling stage, it's good they've found a way around it.'

"But such a technique is reserved for our most loyal and talented students," Shitori added smugly, seeing the nod of appreciation from the youth," So learning would be impossible for someone in your situation."

Indeed, if Iori was just a fraud who tried to scam the entirety of the Yokai Council then he certainly wouldn't be able to leave this room alive.

'I'll get it out of him later,' He internally shrugged, who was he to scoff at some of these new age techniques. If such a method existed back in his early days, breaking down walls would've been so much easier!

"As for the reason why you couldn't handle the consequences of using that name?" He sneered, running gnarled fingers through his beard," That's simple. Yamato Iori didn't exist. He's a fairy tale. There has never been any historical documented proof that a Senjutsu Practitioner, Ancient or not, could ever achieve his level of prowess. The most powerful Senjutsu Master could, at most, be on equal footing as a Peak High Class being."

'Wow.' Now it was Iori to be slightly taken aback, sending a glance at his disciple,' The factions really neutered the arts that much. Really?'

"Not only that!" The old continued on, seeing as no one had spoken up and seeing it has the go ahead," Even if such a person existed, they would be long dead! Humans, even with high level Senjutsu skills, can only live a maximum of 200 years! Those legends of Ancient Practitioners being capable of living longer is just that, stories. Stories we tell our youngsters."

"And the feats of the man alone exposed you!" Now that he got started, the man just kept on going. Wanting to scold this kid before he was ripped apart by these Yokai," Full unassisted flight? Healing wounds that exposed indestructible bones? Creating an entire forest out of nothing but a single seed? Leave behind curses that resisted any form of healing? Casually slaying High Class Devils, Angels and Fallen Angels left and right? Refining corpses to then turn into puppet-"

"I've never refined corpses." Iori declared, a look of disgust etching itself on his face," Do not attach such disgusting techniques to my name."

When he was younger, he believed necromancers were awesome and had spent many of days daydreaming about raising an entire army of undead under his command. But after acquiring Senjutsu? It made that dream infinitely more repulsive. First there were a lot of restrictions surrounding the process, not just social constrains but also those put in place by nature itself.

While undead had some form of Ki, it wasn't something that could be recovered naturally. Usually they had take the life energy from other living things and convert into what was called, Corpse Ki. Such an energy was slow and thick like molasses, resisting most forms of manipulation from any practitioner. Did he mention it was absolutely toxic to the living? Just a single strand was enough to outright kill a mortal.

If that wasn't bad enough, the process itself wasn't something to scoff at either. Not only did they had to find fresh corpses, allow them to turn into wild undead, capture them and extract their Corpse Ki before using said substance to kill another practitioner or supernatural entity before imprinting their own personal Ki signature onto the awakening Undead.

And to add more insult to injury, if you were caught doing such a thing without a permit it wasn't strange for the entire collection of Orthodox to come down blades at hand on your head! And if you somehow survived the endless onslaught of zealous do-gooders, the chances of your own undead seeing you as its next snack was high!

So in simplest terms, Iori was not a huge fan of such a head ache inducing technique. But he would love to know who spread that little rumor about him.

"It matters not," Shitori waved his hand dismissively," It is a matter of course that Yamato Iori was an adept Corpse Practitioner. What other technique would be vile enough for the Heavenly Demon himself to use?"