Chapter 280: They Got What They Deserved, Slay Them All! Wish Power, Absorb It All! Quality Upgrade For Hachishaku Bodhisattva!
The weak and powerless Er Chi raised her head, gazing at the handsome, calm, and somewhat familiar face.
“Will he save me…?”
“It’s so strange.”
“I’ve gone through this so many times, and yet I’ve never met this man.”
“Why do I feel such a sense of kinship and familiarity with this stranger?”
In the silence, Er Chi closed her eyes, greedily feeling the warmth from the hands holding hers, and whispered hoarsely, “You’re such a strange person… I don’t even know you…”
“It doesn’t matter if you don’t know me,” Shangshan Che recalled the little monk with the eerie smile. “It’s enough that I know you.”
“Was Er Chi Adult’s memory in the Ksitigarbha Statue sealed by this little monk… or rather, by this Incarnation of Wish Power possessing self-will and stray thoughts?”
“So it’s okay, don’t be afraid.”
Shangshan Che placed his other hand on Er Chi’s damp, cold head and said gently and clearly, “I will take you home.”
“Home?”
Er Chi felt a sense of absurdity well up in her heart.
“When did I ever have something as luxurious as that?”
She strained to open her eyes, her blurry vision confirming that the man before her didn’t seem to be lying. She then glimpsed the little monk slowly getting up from the ground.
“—The one who, after my long life of suffering ended, would always stand before me, forcing me to relive the same ordeal time and time again. The culprit.”
“Countless times, countless times.”
“I’m so tired.”
Er Chi thought wearily in her heart.
“Home…”
“Something like that, which only exists in fantasy, is better left unfelt.”
“Rather than something like that, I’d rather just fall asleep and never see these sad things again.”
“If you’re here to save me…”
Er Chi coughed several times, slightly lifting her dirt-stained, slender neck, “Adult, could you please, truly kill me?”
“I don’t want to be tortured like this again and again.”
Shangshan Che sighed.
“Why do all those who have suffered want me to kill them?”
“When I’m clearly here to save people.”
“—And this time is completely different from the last.”
“This pain will be the last, I promise you.”
Meeting the girl’s hopeful gaze, Shangshan Che continued, “But I won’t kill you either.”
Hope froze, then rapidly turned into sadness and despair.
Er Chi’s pupils unfocused, and she murmured, vaguely and confusedly, “Why…”
“Because you are my Shikigami, Er Chi.”
Shangshan Che pinched the girl’s thin chin, using the Qi Barrier that still existed within his Sea of Qi to re-activate her consciousness, which was about to fall into darkness. He spoke word by word, earnestly,
“You are not allowed to die before I do.”
“And those men, those scums you met along the way, and that monk over there who has tormented you for so long.”
Shangshan Che asked sternly, “Er Chi, don’t you want them to pay the price they deserve?”
“Yes! Of course I do!”
With the help of the Qi Barrier, the girl, for the first time, shouted clearly.
But in the next moment, she lowered her eyes and said numbly,
“But I can’t do it… So many times, so many times… At first, I would still get angry, still be sad, but in the end, I still couldn’t do anything, only powerlessly repeat everything.”
After endless despair, the girl wailed, uttering a title and words she herself didn’t understand,
“—Che Adult, I can’t do it!”
Crystal-clear liquid blurred everything in her vision.
That face, which had been dry for so long, was finally moistened by the tears flowing from her eyes.
Then, Er Chi felt warm fingers brush across her teary eyes, wiping away the tears.
“Rest assured, because I am here.”
Shangshan Che smiled faintly, “You don’t need to worry about anything now, or think about anything. Just sleep well.”
Before her eyes closed, the girl fell into a deathly sleep, listening to his gentle words that sounded like a lullaby.
“—I will do everything you want me to do.”
Carefully laying Er Chi down on the ground, Shangshan Che turned and looked at the little monk, who was unharmed even after having Qi Barrier infused into his body.
The little monk maintained its mechanical smile, indifferently staring at Shangshan Che.
Whispers rose in its thoughts.
“Outsider…”
“Unstable factor… eliminate…”
“No… he is a more powerful, more suitable target…”
After a brief silence, the little monk, grinning eerily, fixed its gaze on Shangshan Che’s eyes and said in a seductive tone,
“Do you, crave power?”
Shangshan Che smiled.
“A mere Wish Power, painstakingly accumulated by a wisp of Lotus Light, dares to talk to me about power?”
His smile vanished instantly, and Shangshan Che retorted mockingly,
“What right do you have to speak?”
The little monk remained silent.
Its chaotic, complex, yet utterly simple thoughts spun rapidly.
“True form… identified…”
“Capture him… also cast into reincarnation…”
“Confirmed, confirmed.”
After another two seconds, the little monk’s lips contorted into an eerie grin,
“You will crave me.”
Everything around them quickly blurred after these words. Shangshan Che, having prepared for this, knew that this Incarnation of Wish Power intended to use the same method it used on Er Chi Adult to deal with him.
It wanted to wear down his Willpower through endless cycles of reincarnation and suffering, ultimately forcing him to fuse with the origin.
Then, let’s do it.
Shangshan Che did not resist, and according to the countermeasures previously discussed with Huijue, he allowed his own thoughts to be drawn into it.
Just as everything was about to restart, Shangshan Che’s thoughts stirred, and using his Qi Barrier, he crushed the little monk’s body into imperceptible particles from afar.
A distinct stuttering sensation was felt, and only then did Shangshan Che’s past memories become obscured by a hazy veil.
…
Everything restarted once more.
However, unlike before, this time a boy who had lost his memory and had no family or friends appeared in this World based on Er Chi Adult’s memories.
This time, Er Chi and her Brother gained a companion.
This companion named himself “Che”.
The Edo Period, Keichō 8th year.
No matter how much Shangshan Che’s appearance changed things, the men who were destined to meet Er Chi and her Brother in this year, this month, and this day would still do so.
“Heh heh… With a face like that, and he’s still a guy.”
“Tsk tsk, what a beauty, interesting, interesting!”
“Get lost! Let go of me! Xiao Jiu, run! Run!”
Will it all repeat itself… again?
“—What do you want?”
The boy, carrying some dry firewood, a few coarse grain balls, and two or three pieces of Cloth, stood behind several men and spoke, causing the noisy environment to suddenly fall silent.
“There’s another one?”
One of the men turned, his eyes widening in surprise the moment he saw Shangshan Che, “There’s another one! Look!”
Hearing this, the boy, who was being held by several men, immediately yelled in terror,
“Che, run! Take Xiao Jiu and run!”
The boy named Che placed the items he was carrying on the ground, looked thoughtfully at the grinning men for a moment, and asked,
“What do you want?”
The men burst into laughter at this question. The relatively well-built man among them reached out a dirty palm towards Shangshan Che,
“What do we want? Heh heh… Of course, we want to do…”
Crack!
“Ah—!”
Shangshan Che, expressionless, gripped the man’s wrist tightly with his five fingers, grinding his bones to dust, “I understand.”
He released his grip, clenched his fist into a blade, nodded calmly,
“—Then, you all deserve to die.”
The man, filled with frantic regret, roared madly at his companions,
“Damn brat! Go, get this brat…”
Swish!
After the sound of something cutting through the air, there were no more annoying, ugly sounds.
Gurgle.
Viscous blood sprayed from those gaunt necks like small fountains, dyeing the scattered heads red.
“This is how it should be.”
Shangshan Che smiled and nodded at Er Chi, who was lying on the ground with her mouth slightly open, “To deal with these people, you need a sword.”
He then extended his hand towards the boy who had fallen into the pool of blood but was unharmed.
“Che… you killed someone…”
Er Chi’s Brother said blankly.
Shangshan Che blinked and asked strangely, “They all deserved to die. Is there something wrong with me killing them?”
Er Chi’s Brother was speechless.
At this moment, Er Chi slowly lifted her gaze from the sticky blood and asked the boy who had slain several people with one strike, yet whose clothes remained clean,
“Is killing people right?”
“It is neither right nor wrong,”
Shangshan Che said, “It’s just that in this world, some people deserve to die, but they didn’t, so I killed them.”
Er Chi asked, puzzled, “Then what is someone who deserves to die, and what is someone who doesn’t?”
“That’s an answer you’ll have to find for yourself.”
Shangshan Che grinned at her, “But don’t worry, just follow me for now.”
After a while, Brother recovered and gestured with his hand, “But how did you do it? You just… all these guys…”
“How did I do it?”
Shangshan Che scratched his head, finding the question difficult to answer.
Under the silent gaze of the little monk in the distant mountain forest, the Shangshan Che who had not recovered his memories played with the Qi Barrier at his fingertips and said with a pleasant laugh,
“Perhaps, I was just born with it.”
For the next ten-plus years, countless samurai, rōnin, bandits, natural disasters, and beasts attempted to do evil, harass, and torment Che, Er Chi, and Er Chi’s Brother.
It hardly seemed like a peaceful beginning to the Edo Period.
But all were slain one by one by Shangshan Che.
Er Chi followed him, learning bit by bit about Cultivation, life, and the art of killing.
Unknowing, Er Chi was growing.
Only Er Chi’s Brother, upholding his kind heart and a vastly different philosophy from Shangshan Che, never truly killed anyone.
Finally, upon returning to the Ruined Temple, the three individuals, full of vitality and health, once again encountered the little monk maintaining its stiff smile.
Seeing the little monk again, Shangshan Che’s memories, which had been painstakingly sealed, naturally returned in their entirety.
He spent some time digesting the experiences of the past decade, first smiled at the stunned Er Chi Adult behind him, and then looked at the somewhat transparent little monk,
“Your chances are running out.”
Unlike the ease with which Er Chi Adult’s memories were sealed.
As Huijue had said, if one wanted to obscure his memories, having experienced Myriad Branches, the little monk, as an Incarnation of Wish Power, would have to expend a significant amount of its autonomous consciousness.
If this happened a few more times, it would become an un-owned Wish Power.
This was why Huijue said that the higher the State of Mind Cultivation of the person entering, the better.
If it were Lili Zi, her memories might not be sealed even once, or perhaps only after one or two attempts.
In that case, there would be no question of wearing down Willpower through reincarnation.
The little monk stared intently at Shangshan Che.
In the end, it merely said,
“Your luck ends here.”
And so, everything began anew.
—But no matter where Shangshan Che was placed in this dream World, or what obstacles he encountered, he could not prevent Shangshan Che from saving Er Chi and her Brother.
The dream within the Ksitigarbha Statue was based on Er Chi Adult’s weakest memory, before she became a ghost bound to the land, so its scope was limited, and it could not spontaneously generate beings who had come into contact with the Supernatural.
The result was that Shangshan Che fought his way through, and again and again, he saved and taught Er Chi.
After repeating this more than ten times.
Following the guidance of his heart once more, Shangshan Che returned to the ruined temple. He looked up and saw the little monk, who had stopped smiling, tightly clenching his fists.
“Why… how do you always find me!”
Shangshan Che, who had instantly recalled everything, couldn’t help but laugh aloud. “Intuition? Or perhaps, it’s because I’ve become proficient.”
The little monk had no reply.
The method that should have obtained a new vessel for this great power had not assimilated them; instead, it had caused their individual willpower to dissolve.
The little monk sighed deeply and lowered his gaze.
His body slowly dissipated, replaced by a pure white wish power that floated in mid-air, devoid of distractions, upright, and peaceful.
【 Unclaimed pure wish power】.
The last trace of power that had clouded the past and memories vanished here.
Nishaku’s pupils trembled slightly, their original brilliance returning.
However, she had not forgotten the long experience within the Ksitigarbha Statue’s dream.
She suddenly raised her head, gazing at the back of the figure too familiar to be more familiar, and asked with a tremble,
“Che Adult?”
Hearing the familiar tone and address, Shangshan Che breathed a heavy sigh of relief in his heart. He turned around as if nothing had happened and smiled at her,
“Long time no see, Nishaku.”
He winked,
“See, I didn’t break my promise, did I?”
“Wuwuwu!!! Che Adult!!!”
A cry of joy, impossible to quantify, rang out.
Nishaku Adult cried loudly, looking up, and was about to run over but, having lost her sense of direction, plunged headfirst into the large mass of unclaimed wish power.
Under the speechless gaze of Shangshan Che, who had already opened his arms, prompts appeared one after another,
【Your Shikigami “Hachishaku-sama” is absorbing “Unclaimed pure wish power”…】
【Your Shikigami “Hachishaku-sama” is absorbing “Pure wish power within the body”…】
【As your Shikigami “Hachishaku-sama” has absorbed a massive amount of pure wish power, her quality has been enhanced, and she has now broken through her Rank limit!】
【As your Shikigami “Hachishaku-sama” has absorbed a massive amount of pure wish power, she has become a special Shikigami—”Hachishaku Bodhisattva”!】
