Chapter 107: There Sure Are A Lot Of Coincidences In This World
Tokyo, on the edge of Ota Ward.
In front of the unremarkable tour bus, the group of elementary school students on a Tokyo spring outing study tour bustled noisily.
The teacher wearing a bright yellow vest stood in the center, waving his hand and shouting: “Everyone—hurry and line up properly. We’ll do a final headcount and then we’re off.”
Among the group, a boy wearing a little yellow hat and carrying a backpack looked up and curiously pointed at the sky over Arakawa Ward,
“Chiyoko, Chiyoko, why is the sky over there so red?”
The girl called Chiyoko slowly opened her eyes, revealing a sly smile: “Who knows, maybe a really powerful yokai died, and its blood dyed the sky red.”
The boy’s words made him pause, and he scratched his head: “Do yokai really exist in this world?”
“They do, they do, of course they do.”
Chiyoko revealed a sweet smile as if she had eaten honey, making the boy’s face flush red. He turned awkwardly to the side.
—Even though he had long anticipated the deliciousness of Nanjo Emi’s heart, it was only when it was truly in his mouth that he realized he had greatly underestimated this unparalleled sweetness.
Chiyoko… or rather, the girl whose body had been taken over by Ai Bieli hummed a popular children’s song circulating through the streets and alleys.
Even though she had only tasted a trace that she had painstakingly coaxed out in the final moments, Ai Bieli felt that everything she had given was worth it.
—Based on the purest innocent thoughts of a ten-year-old girl, mixed with destiny-like confidence, arrogance, and pride as the main ingredients, plus the bewilderment of accidentally discovering the truth, the confusion of being deceived by a close relative until now, and finally a portion of utter loneliness.
Simply put, a supreme delicacy.
Just that trace alone allowed Ai Bieli to recover from zero-star, having exhausted everything and left with nothing, to two-star in an instant.
If he had been able to fully devour Nanjo Emi just now, he would surely have surpassed the ghost gods, riding the incoming tide to stand at the pinnacle of this mortal realm.
“But good things should be savored slowly, eating it all at once would be no fun.”
Ai Bieli held a spoon printed with a little bear pattern and took small bites of the cheesecake in his hand.
Tomorrow the tide would arrive, and then he could borrow its momentum to secretly sow seeds again, quietly absorbing the emotions of ordinary people in a low-key manner.
Although they were all bland, commonplace emotions, there were plenty of people in large quantities.
This bus seemed to be heading to Ninomiya Town in Kanagawa Prefecture. Hmm, let’s make that the base camp for now.
In less than one or two months, he should be able to recover his original strength or break through to ghost god, and then come back to play with Nanjo Emi properly.
Ai Bieli believed she wouldn’t disappoint him.
At the end of the group, Ai Bieli completely acted like an ordinary elementary school girl, chatting and laughing with the classmates around her, without showing the slightest abnormality.
Three minutes later the bus would start, and he could leave Tokyo, this city coveted by almost all demons, without alerting anyone.
Snicker—
A cold blade protruded half its length from Ai Bieli’s heart.
His heart and arteries were destroyed together, and blood instantly dyed the light-colored school uniform red. The originally noisy environment suddenly paused as if a button had been pressed.
Ai Bieli was slightly stunned and looked puzzled toward behind him.
But before he could turn his head, the cold yet blazing blade had already arced, severing the fragile neck of the elementary school girl.
He felt his head grabbed by someone, and then he saw a pale, stern Hannya Mask.
“Huh? How could it be Hannya? How did Hannya find me?”
Blood gushed from the severed neck, and Chiyoko’s little face showed an incomprehensible confusion, mixed with a hint of greed.
“Such intense, delicious anger… Have I met you somewhere, extraordinary Hannya?”
And this pain.
Ai Bieli carefully savored this melting-like agony that he had never experienced, whether in body or soul.
This sensation wasn’t bad either.
“Hey, where are you looking?”
Immense force erupted from Shangshan Che’s palm, making the small head in his hand creak, forcibly pulling Ai Bieli’s gaze back from the panicked crowd nearby.
Immediately after, Ai Bieli surprisingly saw the White Hannya in front of him suddenly turn into…
A three-tailed fox?
Not an illusion technique, no spiritual power reaction, not even any traces of body modification.
Unlike how he mimicked and sculpted his own body and soul into other demons, the three-tailed fox before him was undoubtedly the real deal.
“The emotional fluctuations in your heart also confirm it’s the same person…”
Ai Bieli murmured, his bleeding eyes bursting with unparalleled brilliance: “How did you do it?! Can you tell me how you did it!”
As expected, he took the bait.
Shangshan Che, wearing the exquisite face shaped by “Thousand Faces,” slowly approached the other, indifferently smiling: “After killing me, just extract my soul and look at it slowly, right?”
—Shangshan Che knew well that the best way to prevent Ai Bieli from escaping immediately was to pique his interest.
This way, the curious Ai Bieli would stay voluntarily, even if he fully understood it wasn’t the right choice. Even if it would lead to his death.
This was evident from how he had proactively approached Nanjo Emi earlier, forcibly interrupting the Red Tide process, and thus falling into his current near-death state.
“Ah, that’s not a bad method either…”
Before Ai Bieli could finish speaking, the entire head shot out like a cannonball, flying past the crowd that hadn’t fully escaped, smashing heavily into the nearby public toilet, buried under collapsed rubble and debris.
Shangshan Che glanced at the headless body in the pool of blood, swung Kaga Kiyomitsu, and shattered it into charred fragments.
Ai Bieli’s kill prompt still hadn’t appeared.
This was only natural—if Ai Bieli could be killed so easily with two or three slashes, Shangshan Che would instead suspect a trick.
“The crowd has mostly scattered, time for a quick fight.”
If it dragged on until the onmyoji here arrived, things would get complicated.
The three-tailed fox, draped in a priest’s robe but wearing cold steel armguards on both arms in a mismatched style, stared at the swaying blood-red prompt in the smoke and dust—
【Ai Bieli（Near Death）】
【Rank: Two-Star】
【Talent: Self-Knowledge, Mind’s Eye, Myriad Transformations, Shape, Red Tide（Unable to Use）, Void Escape（Unable to Use）, Ai Bieli（Unable to Use）.】
“It’s been showing near death for a while now, yet after decapitation and heart piercing, he’s still alive… Just how tenacious is Ai Bieli’s vitality.”
Shangshan Che donned the Hannya Mask, changing the attached talent to “Greed, Anger, Ignorance（Weak）”.
“Wrathful Gaze.”
Without hesitation, he softly murmured, feeling the power, spiritual power, and anger in his heart surging and boiling like heated water.
But at the same time, the doubled willpower attribute allowed Shangshan Che to methodically control everything, maintaining a mirror-calm state of mind.
Crimson bloodshot veins quickly crawled over the whites of his eyes, and the three-tailed fox’s originally snow-white long tails turned blood-red.
【Physique: 23→46】
【Willpower: 12→24】
【Charm: 14→28】
【Spiritual Arts: 32→64】
In the gradually dissipating smoke, a corner of long white hair emerged.
Shangshan Che snapped open the folding fan with a swish, and the spiritual power in his body, multiplied several times over, was nearly depleted in that instant.
“Heavenly Thunder.”
Beneath the clear sky, thunder roared in fury.
Azure-purple lightning slurry snaked down like a dragon, forming a dazzling pillar straight to the heavens, enveloping Ai Bieli’s vague figure.
Even the scattered star-like lightning alone had melted the public toilet ruins away, leaving only a thin layer of crystalline residue in place.
No spiritual power was reserved for bewitchment release as before—using mental manipulation tricks in front of Ai Bieli would only backfire.
The blinding pillar of light that nearly forced Shangshan Che’s eyes shut lasted several seconds before dissipating. He squinted and saw no change in the blood-red prompt in his vision.
The gunpowder smoke was blown away by a sudden gale, revealing Ai Bieli’s body tightly wrapped in a pitch-black shell.
As the lightning faded, the pitted, unevenly scorched yellow shell flowed like water over Ai Bieli’s flawless, paper-white skin, dripping to her fingertips.
Then, it transformed into ten entirely different weapons or limbs.
Slippery tentacles, double-sided scythes, densely packed eyeballs, even a giant maw dripping sulfuric acid…
“Little Fox~ That’s quite a nice greeting gift, it warmed me up.”
—She was stalling for time.
If near-death Ai Bieli could take this level of lightning strike unscathed, she had no need to flee here; staying to take out Nanjo Emi and the arriving Special Affairs Office reinforcements would be better.
Even in slightly poor condition, she should see his spiritual power depleted now—a prime ambush opportunity. Ai Bieli naturally wanted a quick fight too, avoiding the local onmyoji.
Otherwise, she couldn’t kill him and would waste her remaining power.
So there was only one truth—
Ai Bieli’s seemingly unscathed body was actually riddled with wounds and overburdened.
Maybe piercing the heart and decapitating again still wouldn’t kill her, but no matter.
If once wasn’t enough, just keep slashing until this disgusting face was reduced to fragments on the ground.
Hanging the folding fan at his waist, a scorching hot surge lifted the three-tailed fox’s hair tips.
Corona Breathing Technique·Fifth Form!
Substantial pure white heat spread to every blade edge of Kaga Kiyomitsu, like flowing fire.
Shangshan Che’s figure vanished in an instant, leaving several real-and-illusory afterimages along his high-speed path.
Surrounding buildings and scenery blurred into colorful streaks, the howling wind overtaken in a flash.
Ai Bieli still wore her unchanged smile as the ten weapon limbs enveloped him like a heavenly net.
Kaga Kiyomitsu hummed, upward slash.
Blazing blade light flashed abruptly!
Shattering the dagger, slicing through limbs, piercing the giant maw…
The Greed, Anger, Ignorance effect had never been more pronounced; no matter what part of Ai Bieli it faced, Kaga Kiyomitsu cut through them more easily than paper.
Finally, surprise flashed across Ai Bieli’s face again: “Interesting… How did you do that?”
Shangshan Che didn’t pause for a moment, pushing the screaming three-tailed fox body to its limits.
He vanished again with unreasonable acceleration, bursting from the dispersing scalding white vapor toward the naked Ai Bieli.
The blade slightly raised, Shangshan Che assumed the three-stage thrust stance mid-charge.
But Ai Bieli simply turned her arms into blades, standing in place watching him charge.
“Something’s off…”
Before swinging, Shangshan Che stayed cautious.
Clang clang!
The rushing blade lights brutally severed Ai Bieli’s arms, then looped back to stab her chest.
Twist the blade, horizontal slash!
Crystal-clear blood sprayed violently, about to fall like rain.
Shangshan Che, preparing another swing, suddenly felt a chilling stab in his back.
This blood is problematic!
The folding fan at his waist glowed faintly, prepared spiritual power flowing into it.
Gentle Breeze!
Gentle Breeze activated so fast that even Shangshan Che himself couldn’t react, carrying him dozens of meters away.
Moments later, the blood droplets splattered to the ground but bizarrely didn’t seep into the soil, instead standing upright one by one.
Then, they floated into the air and returned to Ai Bieli’s body.
Seeing this, Shangshan Che’s eyebrow twitched, recalling Ai Bieli’s “Shape” ability.
If that blood had touched him just now, his life would probably have ended there.
“Even near death, so troublesome… How did Sister Nanjo deal with this kind of monster.”
Shangshan Che panted heavily, pouring two drops of Awakening Spirit Mist into his mouth: “But Ai Bieli has probably used up all her tricks now. Her only mental attack seems to have little effect on me.”
Right, from the moment Ai Bieli spotted him, an extremely subtle mental fluctuation had been influencing Shangshan Che’s mind.
Its content wasn’t obvious like making him give up resistance or not oppose Ai Bieli, but constantly hinting “he would freeze for an instant at the key moment.”
Without Afterimage, Jade Heart Incantation, doubled willpower, and kendo realm resisting together, Shangshan Che might have frozen in place just now, too late to activate Gentle Breeze.
Shangshan Che gripped Kaga Kiyomitsu tightly, staring at Ai Bieli, who even bisected and drained of blood still had her eyes open.
Her body was still writhing nonstop; left alone, she’d probably fully recover in minutes.
But now he stood here.
“Was that your last trick just now?”
Ai Bieli twitched her remaining shoulders: “Though I’d love to say it’s far from over… regretfully, yes.”
She playfully blinked: “My luck isn’t great. Too few people around, and they ran too fast. With more cannon fodder, I could’ve glimpsed your secrets.”
“And that strange power of yours, Little Fox!” Ai Bieli made a thoughtful expression. “That blade in your hand shouldn’t be able to cut my specialized limbs.”
“Also! I transferred here less than a minute ago and ran into you, and you happen to have the special power to kill me easily.”
She sighed pleasantly: “If these are all coincidences, then this world has sure got a lot of them.”
Listening to Ai Bieli’s chatter, Shangshan Che fell into brief contemplation.
Trap, or was she truly out of options?
But Shangshan Che quickly stopped overthinking.
Because no matter what lay ahead, he had to advance and swing again.
Shangshan Che carefully avoided all the blood along the way, staying maximally alert as he approached Ai Bieli, hearing her murmur regretfully,
“It’s just a pity I couldn’t taste all of Little Emi’s.”
Shangshan Che didn’t respond, merely indifferently swinging down Kaga Kiyomitsu.
