Chapter 105: One Of Ai Bieli’s Ten Thousand Transformations
This possibility is quite high.
Rather… this is something that can already be anticipated.
The harm caused by tens of thousands of “seeds” that cannot be distinguished by conventional means and can rapidly infect others, mixed into the vast sea of people, is unimaginable.
Moreover, the current Arakawa Ward can be said to be a massive emotional petri dish.
Hongyuan Temple Cemetery is not far from the densely populated urban area, so even standing in the desolate cemetery, Shangshan Che could hear the constant sounds of unrest coming from the distance.
He was pondering his next move when he saw a bright red 【shelter notice】 pop up on his phone screen.
This should have been sent to everyone’s phones thirty minutes ago, when the unrest had just begun to show signs.
But it only arrived belatedly now.
No one needed this notice anymore.
Because just a casual glance at the street revealed buildings engulfed in fierce flames and crowds fleeing in panic like ants.
Everywhere.
Crying, blood, screams, and death playing out one after another.
Faced with such a decadent situation, Shangshan Che knew he couldn’t contain it.
Even if he transformed into the Three-tailed Fox and White Hannya, he could kill a hundred or even a thousand, but this tiny loss would have no impact on the Red Tide at all.
But could Sister Nanjo do it?
The spiritual power emanating from her just now was indeed far superior to his own, but it didn’t give him the feeling of “this is Four-Star.”
—Nanjo Emi had said that if one became a Four-Star comparable to Ghost God level before the tide arrived, they would exude an unparalleled presence.
But she didn’t have that now.
Clearly, Nanjo Emi was at most Three-and-a-half Star.
Three-and-a-half Star, like Great Officer Kondo.
But wasn’t he also deeply trapped in the Red Tide right now, struggling even to save people?
Shangshan Che looked at Nanjo Emi with hesitant eyes, meeting her indifferent gaze for a moment.
Nanjo Emi didn’t speak, just gazed toward the sky dyed crimson.
The next instant, patches of deep blue spell lights interconnected and lit up.
The barrier rose, illuminating the dark skies over the entire Arakawa Ward.
Lili Zi looked at Nanjo Emi with a puzzled gaze and said beside her, “This is the Starry Sky Barrier used to detect demons.”
The scattered spiritual energy was sucked in like a whale swallowing by these suddenly appearing super-large barriers. No matter where the Onmyoji in Arakawa Ward were, they all sensed this astonishing change and looked up in shock.
Then, faint indignation and confusion welled up in their hearts.
—The Starry Sky Barrier has a very short duration and becomes ineffective after one use, requiring an Onmyoji proficient in the Astronomy Path to lead it for maximum effect.
—Who came up with the terrible idea to activate dozens of Starry Sky Barriers at once?
Crowds on countless streets looked up, their eyes filled with confusion, fear, the red of flames, and the blue of spells.
Shangshan Che looked up and saw the sky filled with glaring bellflower seals and incantations he couldn’t yet understand, stretching thousands or tens of thousands of meters, still visible at the limit of his sight.
He remained silent.
Nanjo Emi… was she really going to manipulate such a barrier alone?
Although Shangshan Che didn’t know much about Onmyōdō and barriers, he knew that manipulating a barrier consumed spiritual power.
And to manipulate a barrier covering such a vast area, while marking out tens of thousands of “seeds” on top of that, how much spiritual power would it take?
Even draining ten Nanjo Emis dry couldn’t do it.
“Kondo was straightforward, handing Arakawa Ward over to me so irresponsibly.”
Nanjo Emi laughed pleasantly, extending five fingers toward the deep blue sky.
Then, she clenched her fist!
For that instant, Shangshan Che felt heaven and earth stagnate.
The spiritual power in the atmosphere he could sense vanished without a trace in a split second, and even the falling rain threads seemed to lose support, getting stirred into chaos and losing their original direction.
Everywhere in sight, all the barriers bloomed with points of light at once, like stars.
“Five minutes.”
Nanjo Emi suddenly spoke, scanning the two beside her: “Five minutes from now, all the ‘seeds’ and Ai Bieli’s clones in Arakawa Ward will be marked in the most direct way.”
Hearing this, Shangshan Che finally pulled his gaze from the sky and saw Nanjo Emi wrapped in substantialized spiritual power, her entire body emitting a fragile jade-like sheen.
Lili Zi drew her sword: “We protect you for these five minutes?”
“You need to get as far away from me as possible within five minutes.”
Nanjo Emi said coldly: “It won’t be long before Ai Bieli comes knocking. You two staying here will only cause chaos and hold things back.”
“Huh?”
Lili Zi opened her mouth to say something, but Shangshan Che grabbed her collar, lifting the girl holding the tachi, then scooped up the bewildered Shizuma Manatsu: “Sister Nanjo, take care.”
She turned back and said: “Little Ru, Hiyori Bo. You two go too.”
Water Ghost shook her head and hands in confusion, while Hiyori Bo showed a teary expression, making whimpering sounds.
Nanjo Emi stared at them indifferently for a moment, then closed her eyes helplessly: “I mean, go protect Shangshan Jun and the others.”
After some comforting, Water Ghost and Hiyori Bo finally accepted the sudden mission explanation and flew dejectedly to Shangshan Che’s side.
Seeing Shangshan Che turn and leave without another word, shadows surged at Nanjo Emi’s feet, erecting a twisted humanoid figure.
“Mm… he’s just like little Emi.”
“It’s just the correct judgment based on his own strength. Without that decisiveness, I couldn’t have split you out a second time.”
Hearing this, Shadow Woman sighed: “One of the famous Eight Sufferings is coming. Aren’t you going to retrieve that part from him?”
Nanjo Emi tapped the Ouija Board: “Thanks to Mafuyu, Ai Bieli hasn’t been promoted to Four-Star yet. She’s probably still recovering her power using the emotions brought by the Red Tide.”
“As long as it hasn’t reached the Ghost God realm, there’s no difference to me.”
Nanjo Emi said indifferently,
“Even if It’s one of the Eight Sufferings.”
……
“Shangshan Jun, are we just leaving like this?”
After being carried out of the cemetery, Lili Zi couldn’t help turning back to ask.
Shangshan Che countered: “Or what?”
If he could see the panel, Ai Bieli was probably Three-and-a-half Star, and of explosively high quality.
Even his “Laughing Hannya” had undergone many changes after reaching Epic quality. As one of the Eight Sufferings, an existence rampaging through the Mortal Realm and Eternal World since a millennium ago, how high would Ai Bieli’s quality be?
Legendary? Or above Legendary?
In any case, Lili Zi and Shizuma Manatsu definitely couldn’t stay there.
“Also, a correction.”
Shangshan Che pushed the dazed-looking Shizuma Manatsu, who wasn’t crying or scared, just stunned, to Lili Zi, then stopped, lagging a step behind.
“It’s you, not me.”
The one girl and two shikigami all turned back, seeing the vermilion daito now hanging at Shangshan Che’s waist.
“I’m stronger than you, Lili Zi.” Shangshan Che ignored the girl’s gaze and pointed to the chaotic street ahead. “And it’s not only facing Ai Bieli directly that counts as doing something.”
With that, he looked at the two shikigami with slightly shifting expressions: “You don’t want to disobey your master’s orders and make her show an opening in combat, right?”
Hiyori Bo showed an angry expression, then was quickly wrapped back by Water Ghost’s hair and held tightly in her arms.
She nodded firmly at Shangshan Che.
“Then, let’s split up here.”
Shangshan Che clapped once, finally resting his gaze on the frowning Lili Zi.
The girl clicked her tongue unhappily: “Stop looking. Manatsu won’t get hurt before I die. On top of that, I’ll try to kill as many infected monsters and save as many people as possible.”
With that, Lili Zi took Shizuma Manatsu’s hand and led the two shikigami into the burning streets.
Shangshan Che was silent for a moment, then summoned Two-Foot Adult after forming a vague plan in his mind: “Two-Foot Adult, will your curse mark work on demons much stronger than you?”
“po~ Absolutely effective, but if the opponent is proficient in Onmyōdō, the curse might be exorcised.”
A tall shadow appeared abruptly, completely covering Shangshan Che.
He was stunned for two seconds before realizing Two-Foot Adult had already recovered to One-and-a-Half Star.
Two-Foot Adult was about to show a “praise me quick” expression when she hurriedly shielded Shangshan Che behind her, narrowing her eyes.
Gunpowder smoke, blood, cries, and eerie spiritual power fluctuations.
She said warily: “Che Adult, what happened…”
“No time for full explanation. Anyway, it’s because of Ai Bieli—more importantly, Two-Foot Adult, can you turn into your smallest previous form?”
Shangshan Che took out the Hundred-Eyed Ghost Eyeball and said seriously.
Two-Foot Adult instinctively showed a slightly disappointed expression, but with a po sound, she turned back into the two-foot-tall girl.
Instantly reverting from her eye-catching size to unnoticeable.
Shangshan Che handed her the Hundred-Eyed Ghost Eyeball and an exquisitely crafted pair of binoculars, pointing to the tallest office building hundreds of meters away:
“Get to the top floor of that building as fast as possible, then aim this eyeball at the direction with the strongest spiritual power fluctuations. It’s equivalent to my line of sight.”
Nanjo Emi might not confront Ai Bieli at the cemetery, but “strongest spiritual power fluctuations” was sure to be correct.
“Finally, when I give the order, use the binoculars to observe Ai Bieli and mark her.”
Shangshan Che transformed into the Three-tailed Fox, took out the Koma-inu Bell and shook it, summoning three figures of Koma-inu Soldiers in black armor beside him.
Three, good luck.
With a thought, he made the Koma-inu understand that their next master was Two-Foot Adult, then said: “From now on, these three Koma-inu will obey your commands.”
“Two-Foot Adult, hurry.”
Shangshan Che said seriously, snapping Two-Foot Adult out of her stupor.
“po! I’ll definitely complete Che Adult’s orders!”
The girl saluted him like she’d been pumped with adrenaline, then flipped onto the back of one Koma-inu and headed for the tallest office building within a kilometer radius.
With that, all arrangements were complete.
Shangshan Che’s thinking was simple—even if Nanjo Emi’s strength skyrocketed like cheating and surpassed Ai Bieli, it would be extremely hard to kill the freely cloning Ai Bieli in a single encounter battle when she came knocking.
Ai Bieli defeated, Red Tide receding without swallowing all of Arakawa Ward—that was theoretically the best outcome.
But Shangshan Che aimed to do more.
He would go kill Ai Bieli and end this completely.
Two-Foot Adult’s curse mark differed from ordinary Onmyōdō tracking; it carried a conceptual element of supernatural phenomenon.
Supernatural phenomena differ from demons; the latter have existed in the Eternal World since ancient times, while the former—urban legends—become real through people’s word of mouth.
So they carry a bit of unreasonableness.
Perhaps Two-Foot Adult’s curse could indeed be exorcised by Onmyōdō, or maybe it couldn’t bridge the distance between original and clone to locate Ai Bieli.
But Shangshan Che had no other choice; he couldn’t give up without trying.
As for the risk of being killed by Ai Bieli…
Shangshan Che took out the Life-Replacing Doll from his Storage Bag, bit his left fingertip hard, and wrote “Shangshan Che” on the pale replacement cloth.
Then he temporarily put it in his coat pocket.
Shangshan Che exhaled, donned the hooded coat, transformed into the non-spiritual-power-consuming White Hannya, and stowed the vermilion scabbard.
Without the signature scabbard, aside from a few like Lili Zi or Kondo Yuya who recognized Kaga Kiyomitsu, no one would link a White Hannya to Shangshan Che just from a daito.
Suddenly, heaven and earth dimmed.
Shangshan Che looked up and found the Starry Sky Barrier that had covered all of Arakawa Ward had vanished.
Buzz.
His phone in the coat pocket vibrated.
Shangshan Che took out his phone and saw the once bright red warning icon overtaken by a game-like UI interface.
At the top were five big words—
《Red Tide Defense War》
“What is the Special Affairs Office doing?”
Shangshan Che frowned and tapped the screen, finding a detailed map of the entire Arakawa Ward pop up.
On the gray-white map, red dots were scattered everywhere—moving singly or densely to a terrifying degree.
The red dots were labeled—”Imposter.”
Then notes popped up.
【Imposter】: Man-eating demons disguised as humans. Unarmed civilians, please evacuate immediately!
There were also far rarer green dots on the map, usually clustered among red dots or at so-called “Safe Houses”— “Police/Special Police.”
【Police/Special Police】: They will protect everyone’s safety!
Additionally, the gray-white map clearly marked red high-risk zones, yellow danger zones, and blue Safe Houses.
Then a prompt popped up on the phone screen—
【Shangshan Che! Your strength meets the standard. Do you choose to become Police/Special Police?】
Shangshan Che realized the Starry Sky Barrier had been successfully activated by Nanjo Emi.
All seeds and Ai Bieli clones in Arakawa Ward had been marked.
Instead of sharing this intel only with Special Affairs Office agents, it was shared via unknown means in an easy-to-understand game format to everyone’s phones in Arakawa Ward.
It even marked Special Affairs Office agents’ and police positions, zone danger levels, preventing ordinary people from fleeing aimlessly.
“Genius!”
Shangshan Che couldn’t help exclaiming: “Whose brilliant idea was this?”
……
At the same time, Special Affairs Office Headquarters.
Kitano Runa nervously pulled out her phone, fumbling several times without unlocking it. She picked up the dropped phone while asking the boy in pain clothes beside her,
“How’s it going, Satoru-kun? Did it succeed?!”
“S-succeeded!”
The boy called Satoru-kun slumped on the ground, showing the 《Red Tide Defense War》 on his phone.
“Yay!”
The girl raised her hands in joyful cheer, making half the clerks on the floor cheer simultaneously.
Many couldn’t help removing their headsets, applauding and praising Kitano Runa, who proposed the idea.
But in this joyful atmosphere, someone suddenly stood up and said, “Ai Bieli is here.”
—It was the Junior Officer staying at Special Affairs Office Headquarters.
Everyone’s smiles froze.
Satoru-kun, who had just relaxed, struggled to his feet and ran toward the man with pigtails, only to be slapped down.
“Satoru-kun, stay here. Didn’t you like that guy a lot?”
Higashino Junior Officer said flatly. The vivid red Evil Spirit tattoo on his back peeled off, transforming into a nearly three-meter-tall ferocious Red Ogre.
The Red Ogre knelt on one knee, offering the long tachi in its hand.
“Everyone, I won’t be back after I leave. Don’t let that errand boy’s death be in vain.”
In the heavy silence, Higashino Junior Officer took the tachi, shrugged off his heavy haori, and nodded to several Onmyoji: “You lot, activate the barrier.”
Without waiting for their reply, he took the elevator down alone.
Then, at the Special Affairs Office doorway, he saw Kondo Yuya supporting Junior Officer Sakata, both badly wounded and bloody, with Junior Officer Sakata looking on the verge of death.
“Higashino—”
Before Kondo Yuya could finish, the tall ferocious Red Ogre roared and pounced at him.
“You two are glowing bright red. Can’t you see it yourselves?”
Higashino Junior Officer pursed his lips and drew his tachi.
……
With three Koma-inu Soldiers escorting, Two-Foot Adult encountered almost no obstacles along the way.
Even dozens of people’s worth of seeds blocking the road ahead could be torn through easily by two Koma-inu Soldiers.
These not-quite-human things felt to Two-Foot Adult like the chi at Kisaragi Station, just with average strength and aggression a whole level higher.
Especially aggression—these guys were fiercer than hounds smelling blood.
Pulling her gaze from the ground covered in crimson limbs and severed arms, Two-Foot Adult glanced at the children crying by the roadside.
She sighed, didn’t intervene, just urged the Koma-inu to run faster.
Soon, the Koma-inu Soldiers carried Two-Foot Adult up the stairs to the rooftop of the dozens-story office building.
The Koma-inu bit through the rusted chain, and Two-Foot Adult hurried to the rooftop, scanning around before aiming the Hundred-Eyed Ghost Eyeball at the place with the densest spiritual power fluctuations.
She plucked the “string” in her heart twice.
……
Amid terrified screams, Shangshan Che indifferently drew Kaga Kiyomitsu from the pile of minced meat.
He consumed spiritual power to access the immobile Hundred-Eyed Ghost Eyeball’s view.
Shangshan Che quickly found Nanjo Emi in the Hundred-Eyed Ghost Eyeball’s vision.
Opposite her stood an ordinary-looking businessman in a suit.
Moments later, a prompt appeared above his head—
【Ai Bieli·One of Ten Thousand Transformations（Three-Star）】
End of volume was too hard to write… took eight hours for this much
Only 5.3k, sorry meow
