Chapter 160: Factory Owner Z, Second Ring Of The Main Quest Released!
“This guy who looks completely unremarkable, is he Shangshan Che?”
“Yeah, the big winner of the True Sword Match that just ended a few days ago in Yokohama City, hosted together with Obscure Moon Hall. He has mastery in Spear Technique, Natural Reason School, Lightning Magic, and broke through during battle, completing Qi Circulation in less than a minute, and he has a mutated Supernatural Phenomenon Hachishaku-sama.”
“—He’s undoubtedly a Hexagonal Warrior, and one of our biggest enemies in this Seed Battle.”
Tokyo, on the rooftop of a certain high-rise building in Shibuya Ward.
Within layers of barriers, a man and a woman were looking down at the blurry water mirror that surfaced on the complex Onmyōdō array patterns.
The young man wore a casual tracksuit with hands in his pockets, but a deep sea-like spiritual power slowly surged around him, maintaining the operation of the water mirror spell at his toes.
Clearly, he was an Onmyoji with very profound attainments in the Astronomy Path.
The girl simply tied her hair in a ponytail, carried a tachi sword almost as tall as her, wrapped layer upon layer in bandages, arms crossed, eyes showing a bit of doubt.
The main perspective in the water mirror was Two-Foot Adult.
—Because for some reason, trying to directly spy on Shangshan Che with Onmyōdō always failed.
So they could only target his shikigami.
At this moment, Shangshan Che sitting across from her was smiling mildly, pushing the juice handed over by the waitress in front of her.
This appearance didn’t look at all like a “terrifyingly talented all-rounder” or “one of the brightest new stars in the Eastern Region.”
Instead, he looked like an excessively young old father.
“Saito, asking me to be on guard against a guy who doesn’t even have the aura of a strong person in his spirit, energy, and vitality, that might be a bit difficult.”
The pale-faced girl said flatly.
The youth called Saito, whose full name was deliberately chosen as Saito Ryuichi, shrugged.
“I think before the True Sword Match started, the three from Obscure Moon Hall probably had the same idea as you.”
He winked at one of the direct daughters of the Minamoto Family and couldn’t help laughing: “So Minamoto Shizuka, guess who won that True Sword Match?”
Minamoto Shizuka was silent for a good while before frowning and saying,
“I’m not like those ordinary guys. A mere True Sword Match, I could defeat those three from Obscure Moon Hall too, and do it even better than him.”
“How are you different?” Saito Ryuichi countered, “I’d say you already have all the qualities to be a perfect stepping stone for a genius’s rise.”
He gestured with a smile: “Minamoto Shizuka, you’re just like an old general on stage right now, with flags symbolizing ‘defeat’ stuck all over your back.”
“…”
The girl herself had been praised as a genius by those around her since childhood, so Saito’s words really pissed her off.
Minamoto Shizuka’s chest heaved.
After a good while, she closed her eyes and said loudly: “I get it, I absolutely won’t underestimate him! What about that Tokugawa Ririko then? Isn’t she a Sword Master?”
“Sword Master, huh…”
Recalling the descriptions of “Sword Master” mentioned in ancient texts, even the resourceful Saito Ryuichi couldn’t help but twitch his eyebrow.
So-called Sword Masters were generally very pure people.
And precisely because of their pure strength, they were harder to deal with—no matter how many tricks he had, the opponent could break them with one sword.
And it was outrageous; beings worthy of the title “Sword Master” were rare even in his father’s generation, among the top-tier.
Now there was actually someone their age who became a Sword Master.
Though it seemed like only the realm was reached, the strength hadn’t touched the Sword Master domain yet.
But even so, it was pretty outrageous.
This wasn’t faintly comparable to the eldest direct heir of the Minamoto Family… What exactly was the Tokugawa family thinking, letting her roam outside and even join other influences?
Saito Ryuichi’s expression grew serious: “No great way around it, you’ll have to practice your sword more and defeat her head-on.”
He paused, pondering: “Maybe later I can go liaise with the Tokugawa family to see what’s going on…”
“No need.”
Minamoto Shizuka interrupted him.
She stared at Shangshan Che’s blurry face in the water mirror, her gaze unwavering as she said word by word,
“I’ll personally make those two stepping stones on my path to Sword Master.”
…
Why does it feel like someone’s peeking at me?
Shangshan Che looked left and right, but didn’t detect any suspicious people or spiritual power fluctuations within a hundred meters nearby.
“Strange…”
Quietly watching Two-Foot Adult earnestly finish the children’s set meal without leaving a single grain of rice, Shangshan Che stood up and silently took her to hail a cab.
But just as they got in the car and before he could speak, Shangshan Che clearly felt that faint peering sensation abruptly vanish.
What does this mean?
Knows I noticed the peeking, so simply stopped looking?
Shangshan Che was silent for two seconds, then casually gave the driver a subway station address, and had Two-Foot Adult return to the Ksitigarbha Statue.
After blending into the crowd at the subway station, Shangshan Che immediately transformed into a Four-tailed Fox and casually reshaped himself into a stranger’s appearance.
He first took the subway to the station, then boarded the Shinkansen and left Tokyo.
Along the way, Shangshan Che felt no trace of being peeped at again, as if the earlier sensation was just an illusion.
He casually checked into a hotel and took out the Divine Fortune Stick Cylinder to check the fortune of this matter.
Soon, a slender and smooth fortune-telling stick fell into his palm.
Shangshan Che flipped over the bamboo stick, and the words “Minor Fortune” appeared before his eyes.
【Fortune-Telling Stick·Minor Fortune】
【—Curiosity satisfied, nothing happens.】
Shangshan Che raised an eyebrow.
—This means the guy who probably used Onmyōdō to peep at me from somewhere did it purely out of curiosity?
There are people like that… Never happened before.
Most likely caused by the True Sword Match a few days ago.
Looks like being too famous isn’t all good.
But since the fortune-telling stick says so, it means the matter is settled, no need to dwell on it.
Shangshan Che stopped thinking about it and lay directly on the bed, closing his eyes.
Splash—
Heavy water pressure wrapped around Shangshan Che layer by layer, sending him to the Arakawa Ghost Village he hadn’t visited in a long time.
Boom! Boom!
Before even opening his eyes, Shangshan Che heard the massive engine and motor roars from giant machines working outside the thatched cottage.
Of course, it was far more than that.
Thick dust and the smell of hot fresh engine oil seeped into the house through the gaps, now filling Shangshan Che’s mouth and nose, erasing the original thatch scent completely.
Arakawa Ghost Village had undergone a drastic change.
And the culprit, Shangshan Che didn’t need to guess, was the factory not far from the village.
He transformed into White Hannya, pushed open the dilapidated wooden door, and his pupils involuntarily contracted.
—Because besides that factory, how could local demons and monsters produce these bipedal walking, several meters tall robots full of dieselpunk vibe.
That’s right, these!
Under Shangshan Che’s silent gaze from the rooftop, one massive robot after another strode through the crisscrossing streets.
Some uprooted thatched cottages, others filled road potholes like workers… In short, every robot was transforming the original Arakawa Ghost Village.
Even with dust everywhere, it didn’t slow the robots’ work efficiency at all.
If they encountered stray contaminated farmers along the way, these robots wielding various huge iron tools would swing their arms and smash them into meat patties effortlessly.
Perhaps because they were inanimate objects, Shangshan Che didn’t see prompts pop up above the robots’ heads.
So after deliberate observation, he found these huge but somewhat clumsy robots had combat power around normal Two-Star level.
So many Two-Star iron lumps cleaning a mere Arakawa Ghost Village was effortless.
Shangshan Che didn’t rashly attack the robots to alert them, but headed toward the original factory direction, concealing his qi while advancing quickly.
Along the way, he saw that the ruined temple where Two-Foot Adult once lived had been leveled, with two robots slowly clearing the rubble.
But the townhouse of the old blacksmith and Zashiki Warashi remained unscathed—seemingly the only building standing abruptly amid the ruins in the whole village.
“Looks like these robots or their manipulator behind them have considerable intelligence.”
Shangshan Che recalled the forging tools Zashiki Warashi left in the house; that must be why the townhouse was spared.
In a few minutes, with his greatly enhanced leg strength, Shangshan Che arrived outside the factory walls, which were unexpectedly quiet compared to inside the village.
Only faint, sporadic voices slowly transmitted out.
As for the workers he saw wandering the outskirts last time, now none were visible, as if they’d all vanished.
Shangshan Che thought for a moment, held his breath and climbed the wall, then followed the pipes to a high point on the factory, slowly heading toward the sound source.
—Anyway, dying in the Eternal World doesn’t matter.
Facing this unknown situation now, gathering information is most important.
Soon, Shangshan Che climbed onto a discarded water barrel, silently poked his head out from behind the iron railing, and looked down at the unexpectedly spacious plaza below.
On the plaza, rows of workers he hadn’t seen outside were arrayed in perfect order.
But these workers weren’t standing; without exception, they bowed their heads to the ground in a soil-seiza pose, listening to the man on the foremost platform speak.
Shangshan Che’s gaze skipped over the identical 【Oppressed Factory Workers】 to a bit further ahead.
In front of the workers stood four sturdy, robust men wearing yellow vests and white helmets.
—【Factory Inspector（Two-Star）】.
Shangshan Che realized.
These four were the “factory inspectors stronger than her” that Two-Foot Adult mentioned when he first met her.
Now it indeed seemed so.
This factory was undoubtedly a hidden map in Arakawa Ghost Village.
If he’d impulsively tried to clear the factory back then, he probably would’ve been beaten to death strip after strip by these inspectors teaming up.
But now, these inspectors were a bit lacking.
But these four inspectors weren’t the speaker.
Shangshan Che narrowed his eyes and looked further up.
Then, a handsome face wearing gold-rimmed monocle glasses and a mild smile came into view.
Just then, he closed his mouth and stopped his speech.
Then, the man in a clean suit suddenly cast his gaze toward Shangshan Che’s position without warning.
The next instant, that mild yet chilling voice gently sounded by Shangshan Che’s ear.
“How did a little bug sneak in? I’d like to ask the few of you, what are those three security teams doing, the ones leading high salaries and supposed to be patrolling at this time?”
Dead silence.
No resistance, no escape, no negotiation.
Shangshan Che only felt his thoughts solidify from some inexplicable external force, unable to move a muscle, as if his soul and this body were forcibly separated.
The world spun.
Finally, darkness and a puzzled voice came together, then quickly faded away.
…
On the hotel’s big bed, Shangshan Che abruptly opened his eyes.
“Huff… huff…”
He panted heavily; in that instant, cold sweat had already soaked his back, even leaving a deep mark on the white mattress.
Shangshan Che couldn’t remember how long it had been since he’d been insta-killed so helplessly and without warning.
Completely unable to resist.
The last time seemed to be when he first entered the Eternal World, pushed open the Edo Castle room door, and happened to encounter the final boss Fang Xiang Shi.
“Factory Owner…”
It took Shangshan Che a long time to recover from that bizarre state of spiritual-physical separation.
He recalled the huge tag, red to almost black, that he saw in that instant.
—【Factory Owner·Z（Five-Star）】.
The Factory Owner above the Two-Star inspectors had actually reached the terrifying Five-Star, even surpassing Ghost God level!
No… perhaps this factory in Arakawa Ghost Village was just one of Factory Owner Z’s small factories underlings, and he only came to inspect because of this unknown major construction.
This matched what Two-Foot Adult said back then, that the Factory Owner only returned once every few months.
Shangshan Che sat on the bed, calming his palpitations with breaths.
—For now, he couldn’t act against the factory next to Arakawa Village.
As long as Factory Owner Z was there, he wouldn’t have enough lives even if he had a hundred or a thousand.
But perfect timing; he could focus on the Sengoku Period strategy first.
Shangshan Che rested a bit more, confirmed his condition fully restored, then took out the blood-red Key of History from his Storage Bag.
He slowly injected spiritual power into it.
In an instant, the Key of History burst into blinding blood-colored light, swallowing all of Shangshan Che’s conscious mind!
Under the blood-colored light, massive prompts gushed out like a sea current—
【You have used Special Item·Key of History·Second Ring!】
【You are entering Late Muromachi Shogunate Period·Mid-Sengoku Period…】
【Your Special Item·Key of History·Shrine has returned to normal status.】
【Detected you have completed Main Quest First Ring·Entrance Ticket!】
【Reviewing completion status of “Main Quest First Ring·Entrance Ticket.”】
【You joined under the great daimyo Imagawa Yoshimoto…】
【Your degree of influence on history has reached 0.5%…】
【Your Late Muromachi Period·Sengoku Period reputation exceeds 1000 points…】
【Review complete!】
【Note: Current Main Quest Second Ring·Lord of Tokaido has been unlocked!】
