Chapter 100: One-and-a-half Star Special Salvage: Fishing Master!
Something had definitely changed inside Kisaragi Station that he hadn’t noticed.
Shangshan Che stared at the unwavering railroad track, gulping down spiritual energy, while feeling the “string” in his heart connected to Two-Foot Adult become increasingly solid.
He had a premonition that if his Spiritual Arts Attribute continued to grow, he might even be able to communicate with his shikigami through thought despite the separation between the Mortal Realm and Eternal World.
After pondering for a moment, Shangshan Che thought the change might have started from the last time he passed through Isanuki Tunnel without seeing the oni swarm.
Of course, it could also be earlier.
“But Ye Chun and the train haven’t come, which means Kisaragi Station hasn’t been restarted…”
Although there was no direct evidence, Shangshan Che believed Ye Chun was most likely somewhere in Kisaragi Station right now, and probably still alive.
All signs indicated that Ye Chun was the core of the Kisaragi Station instance, and this change was naturally related to her.
So, what place could allow an unarmed high school girl to survive for several days in a harsh environment surrounded by demons?
Shangshan Che entered the convenience store and found that many high-calorie foods had been haphazardly taken.
But there was no one, and no signs of life.
So only one place was left.
—Mountain Inn.
But this Mountain Inn, aside from its name, would be absolutely not easy to find.
What Shangshan Che could think of, besides getting lucky and directly discovering the inn, was only getting slightly lucky and encountering the driver from the main supernatural phenomenon story, who could take him to the inn.
Although he could find Katsumi and spend a lot of Soul Ash to get his help, Shangshan Che felt there was really no need.
After all, finding the location of the Mountain Inn wasn’t something urgent; once the map exploration progress got higher, Shangshan Che would naturally discover it.
For now, let Ye Chun keep staying there and test the risk of dying in a few days for him.
Dismissing the idea of going to find the inn and Ye Chun now, Shangshan Che played with his own fluffy soft tail for a bit, then decided to return to the Mortal Realm first.
—Now, let’s check out the new gacha pool first.
……
However, what popped up first wasn’t the gacha pool prompt, but the panel for the unviewed Spell Scroll.
【Spell Scroll】
【Quality: Rare】
【Effect: After use, provides 500 proficiency points to the specified skill.】
【—Time flies like a white steed passing through a crack.】
“It can provide 500 proficiency points, not bad.”
Shangshan Che raised an eyebrow, then suddenly noticed Two-Foot Adult, who was holding him, move a bit and let out a dazed murmur.
“Not bad… Che Adult, tastes good…”
Shangshan Che’s face darkened, and he immediately raised his finger to flick his shikigami’s forehead as a lesson, but after seeing her dazed and sweet sleeping face, he couldn’t bear to do it.
In the end, the sleep-talk Two-Foot Adult had just made was because of the “not bad” he said in his heart.
That’s right, after returning to the Mortal Realm, the “string” connecting Shangshan Che’s heart to Two-Foot Adult hadn’t faded with the decline in his Spiritual Arts Attribute.
Instead, due to the closeness of the distance, it became extremely sensitive.
Shangshan Che even suspected that if he shouted in his mind now, it could wake Two-Foot Adult.
So for now, better to have less mental activity…
Shangshan Che put the Spell Scroll into his Storage Bag; he couldn’t use this item for now, and it wouldn’t be too late to use it when Natural Reason School or Corona Breathing Technique reached the breakthrough threshold first.
【Special Salvage: Fishing Master!】
【First salvage costs 500 Soul Ash! Doubles each subsequent time!】
【Remaining salvage attempts: three】
【Note: High-quality item drop rate greatly increased within this special salvage!】
Special Salvage?
Shangshan Che’s interest was piqued, but no matter how he used his thought to click on these four prompt lines, no new prompts or explanations for this so-called “special salvage” appeared.
“Does it mean I have to try it myself?”
500 Soul Ash was quite a lot, and this special pool neither marked the rates nor listed what items, incarnations, or skills were in it.
But the limited attempts and that last line “high-quality item drop rate greatly increased” still made Shangshan Che unable to resist trying it out.
Normally, a true limited pool might not necessarily yield good stuff, but it definitely had special items not found in other pools.
“How about trying it first?”
Anyway, the Wasteland Shrine pool had already disappeared just now, and the remaining Half-Star Card Pool Deep Bamboo Forest couldn’t draw anything good.
—Soul Ash must be used when available, quickly converting it into strength; just hoarding like a game would eventually get one taught a lesson by reality.
Shangshan Che used his thought to click on the surprisingly simplistic “special salvage pool” on the gacha page.
【Confirm consumption of 500 Soul Ash to start special salvage: Fishing Master?】
Another confirmation prompt?
Shangshan Che raised an eyebrow and selected “Yes”.
【Special salvage starting soon.】
【Before that, please select your accompanying shikigami.】
After selecting yes, instead of jumping into a gacha animation like the previous two pools, another prompt appeared, asking Shangshan Che if he wanted to bring a shikigami for the salvage.
Shangshan Che let out a surprised “Eh”: “This pool… doesn’t mean I have to ‘salvage’ personally, does it?”
That said, the Soul Ash was already spent, so there was no reason to back out now.
Shangshan Che selected Hachishaku-sama as the accompanying shikigami, and immediately after, he felt water pressure mixed with extreme dizziness assault him, and his vision went black.
When Shangshan Che opened his eyes again, what entered his view was a world of blue-green.
He opened his mouth and spat out a string of bubbles: “What the hell? Did I really go into the pool?”
So the gacha pool name “Fishing Master” was literally true.
The dazed Two-Foot Adult turned her head blankly, floated over after seeing Shangshan Che beside her, and also spat out a string of bubbles: “popopo… Che Adult, wasn’t I sleeping? Where is this?”
The prompt popped up again—
【Welcome to Special Salvage · Fishing Master!】
【Here, you must try your best to catch the fish swimming in the pond within the time limit.】
Shangshan Che touched her white hat and found that although they were in the pool, aside from restricted mobility, there weren’t many other effects.
“Sorry for waking you, but this is a treasure spot.” Shangshan Che said, “Trouble Two-Foot Adult to catch the little fish swimming around with me later.”
Two-Foot Adult was confused by this set of almost disconnected statements, but she understood “catch fish”.
She rubbed her sleepy eyes and nodded seriously: “po! I will work hard to catch fish, Che Adult!”
The prompts continued to pop up.
【At the same time, ensure you yourself aren’t caught by the angler.】
【Time ends or you are caught counts as one salvage ending.】
Shangshan Che stared in stunned amazement; he was catching fish in the pool, and someone outside the pool could actually hook him?
The one who designed this pool had truly wicked sense of fun…
【Current random era: Late Edo Period · Bakumatsu.】
【Remaining salvage time: five minutes.】
【Salvage, start!】
After the final prompt, Shangshan Che tsked, smoothly took out the Kappa Bowl from his Storage Bag and put it on his head, immediately feeling the surrounding water pressure hindering his movement lessen considerably.
Splash—
In the visible range, countless gray and white small shrimp and finger-sized small fish instantly swam everywhere; even standing still, the gray shrimp would bump into him.
Undercurrents surged, rolling up the gray-white fish and shrimp like water flow.
A white small fish bumped into Shangshan Che’s chest and slowly dissipated.
【Soul Ash+1】
Shangshan Che’s eyes lit up, then he casually grabbed a handful of shrimp, watching them slowly dissipate in his hand: “Gray… no reward pops up.”
In other words, the gray shrimp were obstacles to block their fishing and hide higher quality fish.
After spending a few seconds looking around, Shangshan Che found gray and white were the most numerous, green small fish relatively scarce, swimming faster and harder to catch.
As for the fish emitting blue light, they were even scarcer; Shangshan Che only saw two or three from afar.
—Higher quality fish were farther from the “spawn point”; this could be inferred from current info.
“But the green small fish don’t have Hannya Incarnation speed; even with Kappa Bowl, I swim fast, but still a bit slower than Two-Foot Adult.”
Less than ten seconds into the salvage, Shangshan Che had already formulated a fishing strategy in his mind.
“Two-Foot Adult! Try your best to catch those green and white fish! Ignore the ones swimming faster than you!”
“po!”
Two-Foot Adult responded loudly, fully immersed in outsmarting the fish.
As for Shangshan Che himself, he naturally had to swim farther to try catching blue small fish, or even the purple fierce fish above them.
Two-Foot Adult secures the floor, Shangshan Che goes for the ceiling.
That was Shangshan Che’s fishing strategy!
No more time to hesitate, Shangshan Che immediately activated the fastest-moving Corona Breathing Technique Second Form, swimming rapidly toward the distance.
Along the way, many palm-sized green small fish swam by, but Shangshan Che didn’t specially turn back; he just casually grabbed two or three unlucky ones.
【Corona Breathing Technique proficiency+10】
【Soul Ash+10】
【Spiritual Arts+1!】
One of the small fish seemed deep green, actually giving Shangshan Che a bit of Spiritual Arts Attribute increase.
“Green fish add attributes; I don’t even dare imagine what blue and purple fish will drop.”
Shangshan Che’s gaze locked on the increasingly numerous blue fish schools in the distance, and the purple fierce fish nearly a meter long with sharp teeth and fangs wantonly biting and shattering the blue fish.
Every bite the purple fish took made Shangshan Che’s heart ache faintly.
“Since I can take out the Kappa Bowl, there’s no reason I can’t take out the folding fan.” Shangshan Che quickly thought, “Then after incarnating as Three-tailed Fox, I have one chance to release Heavenly Thunder.”
The key was how to use this chance.
Strike the blue fish school, or precisely hit that purple fierce fish?
Seeing Shangshan Che this huge monster approach, even the domineering purple fierce fish was startled, abandoning the small fish at its mouth and swimming into the distance.
Its speed was already a bit faster than Shangshan Che’s current speed.
“Two minutes left.”
Shangshan Che fully stimulated the Internal Qi in his body.
Corona Breathing Technique, Fifth Form!
Full speed swim!
Bursting with full power, Shangshan Che shot toward the now-dispersed blue fish school like an underwater arrow, arriving in moments beside a blue fish that seemed scared silly and motionless in place.
Grab it!
Snap!
But the blue fish didn’t dissipate like the others; instead, the moment Shangshan Che touched it, it exploded, turning into dye smeared on his face.
【You got tricked!】
“Damn it…”
Shangshan Che’s face twitched as he wiped the dye from his eyes and continued swimming toward the nearest blue fish, which was also in the direction the purple fierce fish fled.
In less than twenty seconds, feeling his Internal Qi nearly depleted, Shangshan Che finally grabbed the blue fish at the end of the group, making it emit a faint wail as it dissipated in his hand.
【You obtained, Time Reduction Card!】
Without hesitation, Shangshan Che directly incarnated as Three-tailed Fox.
He knew his Internal Qi was nearly exhausted; continuing to chase like this, he probably wouldn’t catch the next blue fish and might even let the purple fierce fish slip from sight.
So, no need to hesitate!
The Blessed Folding Fan unfolded in the water, the Three-tailed Fox’s pupils locked tightly on the purple fierce fish shaking desperately in a Z-pattern, sensing a life-or-death crisis.
“Heavenly Thunder roars!”
This Heavenly Thunder with 30 Spiritual Arts Attribute points, purple fish, can you take it!
As the words fell, a fist-thick deep purple lightning pillar struck straight down on the purple fierce fish, making its entire body stiffen straight, tremble wildly, then go completely still.
Liquid-like Lightning Slurry surged, electrocuting a large swath of nearby passing small fish during dispersion, making them flip white bellies and float upward.
“This is why you don’t electrofish…”
Shangshan Che grinned, switched back to Hannya Incarnation, and leisurely swam toward the electrocuted fish school, waving his hand to touch all the fish.
Instantly, dense prompts popped up; though mostly small numbers like 1 or 10, the sheer quantity made up for it.
Just these fragmentary gains alone, Shangshan Che figured, could recoup the 500 Soul Ash entry fee, not to mention the heavier rewards.
Thinking this, Shangshan Che grabbed the tail of the shock-resistant king purple fish, which was still trembling but not dead.
The purple fish slowly dissipated in the water.
【You obtained, Pity Card!】
One minute left, but Shangshan Che’s Internal Qi was fully depleted.
He wanted to find a few green fish to see if he could get more attributes, but was shocked to find the surrounding fish schools had somehow vanished, leaving only useless gray small shrimp everywhere.
The nearest white fish was at least over a hundred meters away.
“What’s going on? The angler came?”
Shangshan Che looked around but found no trace of a fish hook.
He drew Kaga Kiyomitsu and slashed the surrounding shrimp swarms, then carefully searched bit by bit.
Then, at the river bottom, he spotted an extremely faint red glow hard to detect.
Red glow?
Shangshan Che was slightly stunned.
Red, what quality was that?
Purple Epic, gold Legendary… red, was it above that?
Though he felt such extreme luck was impossible for him, Shangshan Che still couldn’t resist swimming toward that faint red glow at the river bottom.
After all, salvage time was almost up; trying wouldn’t hurt.
Shangshan Che observed for a moment; even with his eyesight, he couldn’t tell if the red glow contained a fish or something else.
Anyway, touch it first.
Shangshan Che slowly reached out…
“—You’re hooked!”
The moment he touched the red glow, a young man’s extremely pleasant voice rang out.
Immediately after, Shangshan Che saw the red glow vanish instantly, turning into an unremarkable earthworm, then felt himself uncontrollably pulled upward, yanked out of the pool in the next instant.
Once out of the water, the swaying Shangshan Che felt everything around blur indistinctly, people and objects alike.
But the voices were still clear.
Boisterous laughter rang out: “Soji-kun, you caught a big fish! Your fishing skills are amazing too; teach me next time!”
The youth laughed a bit guiltily: “Serizawa Mister, I didn’t expect grabbing random bait from the ground would catch a fish…”
Another mild male voice said: “Okita-kun’s luck has always been good; how about you draw lots next time? The Demon Guide Association matters have Kondo quite headache lately.”
Shangshan Che felt himself grabbed in someone’s hand, but he wasn’t panicked; instead, he was shocked by the information in the conversation.
Soji? Okita?
Though the other names were unfamiliar, “Okita Soji” was a household name.
Because the Kaga Kiyomitsu in his hand was a replica forged from the sword wielded by Okita Soji, the Natural Reason School grandmaster.
Realizing the one holding him was Okita Soji, the surrounding blurriness seemed to lighten a bit.
Shangshan Che strained to turn his head, glimpsing through the fingers a blue-white kimono and furnishings of a spacious courtyard.
An inexplicable sense of familiarity rose in his heart, but before Shangshan Che could think more, he was tossed with a plop into a wooden bucket.
Everything before his eyes rapidly receded with the light’s disappearance.
But before consciousness fully sank into darkness, Shangshan Che vaguely felt Okita Soji notice something, then look at him with a strange gaze and lean down.
“Yamanami Mister, come look at this fish…”
……
Dazedly back on Lili Zi’s bed, Shangshan Che looked down and met eyes with Two-Foot Adult holding him.
She bared her white teeth in a smile at him; presumably the harvest was plentiful.
Dense prompts popped up before his eyes, but Shangshan Che didn’t look at them, instead recalling the bizarre experience after being hooked out.
What just happened?
Shangshan Che originally thought being hooked out would lead to an uninfluenceable death CG, but in the end, it seemed not.
That CG… hundreds of years ago in the Late Edo Period, Bakumatsu historical figure Okita Soji, actually seemed to notice something different about him and took real action.
Thinking reversely, could he also influence the other side?
Many thoughts churned in Shangshan Che’s mind; he took a deep breath to calm down, silently patted Two-Foot Adult’s head to signal her to keep sleeping.
—Anyway, first check this salvage’s rewards.
After all, his current strength wasn’t high; even if he could briefly influence the other side, he couldn’t do much.
Clearing stray thoughts, Shangshan Che checked the salvage gains—
【Soul Ash+187】
【Natural Reason School proficiency+210】
【Corona Breathing Technique proficiency+170】
【Spirit Control Technique proficiency+80】
【Willpower+1!】
【Spiritual Arts+3!】
Just these Soul Ash, proficiency, and basic attribute gains had fully recouped the entry fee and then some.
Because attributes were truly hard to raise.
Now, among Shangshan Che’s four attributes, “Charm” had become the weakest; the other three had all reached double digits.
And most of that was from Two-Foot Adult’s hard work catching them.
Shangshan Che thought: “Later, find a way to reward her.”
Besides these ordinary gains from white and green small fish, he also touched one blue and one purple big fish, obtaining somewhat impressively named 【Time Reduction Card】 and 【Pity Card】.
【Time Reduction Card】
【Quality: Rare】
【Effect: Use on specified Demon Incarnation to reduce 48 hours of upgrade time. Can only be used on Demon Incarnations below two-star.】
【—The lowest quality Time Reduction Card.】
Shangshan Che blinked, glancing at the remaining time for Laughing Hannya incarnation to upgrade to one-and-a-half star.
Just under 48 hours.
If he used the Time Reduction Card now, he could immediately promote Laughing Hannya to star-up and evolve into White Hannya.
“This card’s name is too plain…”
Shangshan Che suppressed his constantly rising corners of the mouth; no one could stay expressionless after repeated strength gains in just a few hours.
Next was the Pity Card from the purple fierce fish he had high hopes for.
【Pity Card】
【Quality: Epic】
【Effect: Use on specified gacha pool to guarantee the next ten-pull obtains an incarnation or item of same quality as the Pity Card. Can only be used on pools below five-star.】
【Note: If the pool has no incarnation or item of same quality as Pity Card, automatically obtain two of the pool’s highest quality incarnation or item.】
【—Pity, activate!】
Pity guarantees one Epic item; with luck, directly get an Epic incarnation from future pools.
Wonderful, too wonderful.
Though unusable directly now, when two-star or higher pools open, it’ll be its time to shine.
Placing the Pity Card beside the Life-Replacing Doll, Shangshan Che slowly got up from the bed, preparing to go outside the Special Affairs Office building to let Laughing Hannya complete the one-and-a-half star promotion.
Otherwise, who knows what commotion it would cause.
Leaving Two-Foot Adult to wait obediently on the bed, Shangshan Che tiptoed past Lili Zi’s feet and let out a mental “Eh”.
He had prepared a draft in his mind to respond to Lili Zi’s questions, but unexpectedly she was still asleep, completely unaware of his movement.
Shangshan Che gazed at the girl’s exhausted sleeping face and her breathing technique cultivation that had finally stopped unconsciously, sighing silently.
“Lili Zi can finally get a good night’s rest.”
Slipping silently out the door, soon Shangshan Che arrived alone at a park not far from the Special Affairs Office, sitting on a bench.
“No shikigami presence.”
Though Shangshan Che could hear some special noises from a young couple, it shouldn’t matter for his promotion.
He took out the plain-styled Time Reduction Card from his Storage Bag and gently snapped it.
—Laughing Hannya, promote!
Seeing some reader adults say updates are too few, only one chapter
Not really; we combined three 2k-word chapters into one 6k-word chapter, equivalent to three updates daily!
Hope everyone votes more monthly votes; if it breaks a thousand, we’ll burst update next month!
