Chapter 166: Ruthlessly Completing The Breathing Technique! The Unexpected Truth, 【yokai
After pushing open the door, the scenery of the entire small courtyard came into full view.
Two-Foot Adult, floating in mid-air hugging her sword, remained silent, merely slightly opening her mouth to reveal a complex and baffling expression.
Shangshan Che also stood motionless in place with a wooden expression, showing a thoughtful look.
As for the blacksmith shop’s young apprentice, he knew his own status and what he should look at and what he shouldn’t, so he directly stood to one side of the wall, directing his gaze toward other houses not far away.
Anyway, if there was something to see, Tetsu-sensei would speak up, so it wouldn’t matter to wait a moment.
Having received numerous big shots at the blacksmith shop for several years, the apprentice, aside from recording their information, had learned the most important principle: “sense of proportion.”
Sense of proportion, sense of proportion—every single fraction of an inch was extremely important.
When dealing with those in high positions, one must know when to draw a fraction closer and when to retreat an inch.
As for controlling that distance, the apprentice wouldn’t call it masterful, but it was certainly ten thousand miles better than his amateur forging technique.
And as for what bizarre and strange “scenery” had appeared in this extremely spacious courtyard…
In Shangshan Che’s eyes, the tall and sturdy short-haired woman wearing very little cloth was actually lying there with her eyes closed, unconsciously “swimming” in the center of the courtyard paved with gravel.
The woman sprawled openly on the gravel without covering herself, her wheat-colored arms and legs constantly lifting and falling, sending pieces of gravel flying one after another.
As for why it was called swimming…
Naturally, there were uninterrupted “puh puh puh” splashing sound effects rhythmically emanating from the woman’s mouth, adding a triple beat to the surging waves.
“Wait, this is that legendary Okabe Motonobu?”
After a good while, Shangshan Che finally stirred himself and confirmed with Two-Foot Adult, who clearly wanted to ask the same question.
Actually… he just wanted to vent to someone.
“There’s no second person in the courtyard.” Two-Foot Adult blinked silently. “If the address is correct, then it should be her.”
Actually, Okabe Motonobu not being the big burly tough guy he had imagined, but rather a “fierce woman,” left Shangshan Che somewhat stunned, but it wasn’t entirely unexpected.
After all, even Lord Yoshimoto had turned out like this.
What truly dumbfounded him was Okabe Motonobu’s performance that could be called performance art.
Because at a glance, Okabe Motonobu in the courtyard had her eyes tightly closed, showing no reaction to their arrival—she was undoubtedly asleep…
In other words, everything in front of him was actually produced by her sleepwalking.
“Two-Foot.”
Shangshan Che shifted his gaze away from those scant few pieces of cloth, lowered his head and rubbed his temples. “Let’s wake Okabe Excellency first. Don’t let her freeze to death outside.”
—Tch, aren’t the people here supposed to eat poorly? How did she grow like this?
—Or is it from training? Can this thing even be trained to get bigger?
Two-Foot Adult, who had been hovering in mid-air comparing sizes for a good while before falling into self-doubt, landed on the ground and trotted də də də into the courtyard.
She dodged the incoming bits of gravel while turning her head, softly calling out in a gentle voice,
“Okabe Adult? Okabe Adult? Please don’t sleep here; you’ll catch a cold.”
Two-Foot Adult tirelessly called out for several minutes before finally making Okabe Motonobu, who was backstroking in the pile of gravel, twitch her eyelashes and laboriously, tiredly open her eyes.
Amid the messy strands of hair, a barely perceptible slit was revealed.
“Mmm…”
Okabe Motonobu felt like she had finally been fished out from an endless sea. She turned her head but saw no familiar faces or figures.
Only this strange girl holding a vermilion daito and wearing a water-dry robe.
She mumbled in a daze, “Thanks, little fellow.”
“But I’m so sleepy I can barely keep my eyes open now. It’s fine to keep sleeping here…”
Seeing Okabe Motonobu about to fall asleep sitting up again, Two-Foot Adult hurriedly said, “Okabe Adult! My master came specifically to solve your sleeping problem!”
These words gave Okabe Motonobu, who had just finished yawning, another shot of wakefulness.
She widened her eyes a fraction and turned her head again. “Is my eyesight bad? Why can’t I see anyone else?”
Two-Foot Adult looked at the woman in front of her, who was dressed as coolly as midsummer even in late autumn, hesitating to speak.
But in the end, she pointed to the thin cloth on Okabe Motonobu’s body.
“Oh… this, huh.”
Okabe Motonobu waved her hand with a squinting smile. “This is fine, totally fine. I don’t mind.”
Two-Foot Adult confirmed once more and got the exact same response.
Since the person herself said so, there was no need for her to say more. Instead, she waved toward the doorway, calling Shangshan Che inside.
Only after Shangshan Che approached did he discover that Okabe Motonobu’s body was also surrounded by faint qi circulation constantly flowing.
This was the first breathing technique cultivator he had encountered since arriving in the Sengoku Period who had completed qi circulation.
No, not right.
His pupils contracted slightly. After staring carefully for two seconds, he realized Okabe Motonobu’s qi circulation wasn’t faint at all.
On the contrary, it was extremely condensed!
Because she had contracted the qi circulation originally surrounding her body to her body surface, actively compressing it into an extremely tiny space, it only appeared to have a very small amount of qi.
Thus, the real situation was that Okabe Motonobu had extremely high control over her own qi—surpassing him by at least two levels.
—No wonder she dared to sleep outside wearing so little; she had qi circulation for insulation and temperature isolation, completely impervious to freezing.
Okabe Motonobu was also looking at Shangshan Che.
More precisely, at the qi circulation on his body surface.
Qi circulation, in the Sengoku Period where breathing technique cultivation was paramount, could almost be called “proof of strength.”
Because this was the first true chasm on the path of breathing techniques—one that couldn’t be crossed or smoothed over simply by investing large amounts of time.
Over a century, it had stumped countless samurai of different origins and classes.
Moreover, before forging the Palace of Flesh, one absolutely had to complete qi circulation first to continue tempering the body to grow stronger.
Moments later, the woman stood up. Though her eyes remained squinted, her tone was no longer as lazy as before but deliberately more formal.
“May I ask who Your Excellency is?”
“Che.” Shangshan Che slightly raised his head to look at the woman who was even taller than him. “Onmyoji directly under Lord Yoshimoto, and now can also be considered a samurai of the Imagawa Clan.”
“Che, huh… Feels kinda familiar.”
Okabe Motonobu furrowed her brows in some distress, nearly closing her eyes completely. “Lately, it seems like I’ve heard this name in a lot of places.”
Only after saying this did she react to Shangshan Che having just said the term “onmyoji.”
The woman paused unusually and asked back, “Onmyoji?”
Shangshan Che nodded and extended a finger, letting a small flame sprout from his fingertip.
“I came this time at Yasutomo Excellency’s request, saying Okabe Excellency has been troubled by sleep issues lately… And indeed, it’s no exaggeration.”
“Whoa.”
Okabe Motonobu nearly touched her nose tip to the flame’s outer edge, utterly unafraid of being burned.
She clapped her hands in praise. “Che… uh, that’s your name, right? Tetsu-sensei’s talent is truly the most remarkable Motono has ever seen in her life.”
“So impressive.”
Because being recruited by the lord with an “onmyoji” identity proved that compared to his breathing technique attainment, this Che had definitely progressed much further on the path of onmyōdō.
—That was what Okabe Motonobu thought.
Shangshan Che shook his head and withdrew the flames. “Trivial skills, not worth mentioning.”
“Being too modest isn’t good; it can easily make others think you’re showing off.”
Okabe Motonobu bent down again toward Two-Foot Adult, reaching out to pinch her soft little cheek with a hey-hey laugh. “This little sister is so cute too… Tetsu-sensei, is this your shikigami?”
Shangshan Che ignored the resentful thoughts constantly emanating from Two-Foot Adult in his mind, who couldn’t resist those devilish hands at all.
“Her name is Two-Foot Adult. Okabe Excellency can just call her Two-Foot normally.”
—Heh heh, Two-Foot, you always rua’d me when incarnated as a four-tailed fox; now it’s your turn to fully experience this feeling!
“Mm-hmm, little Two-Foot is so cute.”
With that, Okabe Motonobu directly scooped up Two-Foot Adult into her arms and began rua-ing her up and down like petting a cat, smiling as she said,
“Then Tetsu-sensei, let’s go inside first to talk.”
Shangshan Che nodded. After turning back and seeing the apprentice already far away waving at him, he blinked and followed Okabe Motonobu into the room where she usually lived.
“It might be a bit messy; please don’t mind~”
Just as he pulled open the door and entered the dōza area for personal rest, Shangshan Che’s eyebrows twitched violently.
You call this a bit messy?
—Because, in this dōza, aside from a small tatami mat rest area, everything else was occupied by scrapped wakizashi with curled blades, daito, tachi, various spears.
Even headless bow and arrow.
Compared to calling it Okabe Motonobu’s home, Shangshan Che preferred “discarded weapons recycling center.”
However, though so many scrapped weapons were casually piled together, the entire room was surprisingly clean and tidy, with almost no visible life trash or filth.
This Okabe Excellency truly didn’t fuss over trifles.
“Since I rarely come back, I haven’t tidied up much.”
Okabe Motonobu kicked a large pile of weapons into the corner with one foot, then sat there herself hugging Two-Foot with her back to the blades, gesturing for Shangshan Che to sit in the safer inner side.
“Tetsu-sensei, please sit, please sit.”
After sitting, Shangshan Che took some time to accept that Okabe Motonobu wasn’t the “loyal fierce man” from history, but rather the person before him.
Then he organized his words a bit. “This time is to solve Okabe Excellency’s sleep problem, but currently I don’t have a great lead, so to know how to approach it, I need you to first tell me the details…”
Shangshan Che suddenly stopped speaking.
Not because he found some clue.
But because Okabe Motonobu, who was in the middle of rua-ing Two-Foot Adult, had tilted her head and fallen asleep right in front of him!
Shangshan Che: “…”
It seemed Okabe Motonobu really had been tormented to utter exhaustion these days.
Shangshan Che called her name a couple more times before she suddenly jolted awake, straightened up, and let out a long yawn.
“Sorry… I was really sleepy and dozed off without noticing. Please repeat that, Tetsu-sensei.”
She assumed a posture of serious listening.
So Shangshan Che repeated himself, in short, asking Okabe Motonobu to provide as much useful information as possible.
“Oh… I see.”
Okabe Motonobu squinted her eyes and tilted her head in thought for a good while before saying, “Aside from inexplicable noises waking me up every night, there are no other strange things.
And no such noises when I’m not asleep.”
“It’s because I can’t figure out the reason that I’m getting sleepier… leading to wanting to sleep now…”
Shangshan Che did sense a strand of demonic energy.
But this demonic energy was extremely faint and evenly distributed throughout the room, so even he couldn’t pinpoint the source accurately.
So Shangshan Che first suggested, “If Okabe Excellency wants to temporarily recover your spirit, how about staying at the Imagawa Residence or somewhere else?”
“That probably won’t work… I need a large open space every day for routine training.”
Okabe Motonobu squished and kneaded Two-Foot Adult’s little face. “More importantly, I sleep quite unrestrainedly, so it’s inconvenient to share with others.”
Shangshan Che recalled Okabe Motonobu “backstroking” on the gravel in the courtyard earlier and thought this was indeed a problem.
“Then Okabe Excellency, we’ll wait until late night when you fall asleep here.”
“Okay…”
Before Okabe Motonobu finished speaking, her stomach emitted a rumble.
“Ah, my body says it’s a bit hungry.” She stood up, smiling with squinted eyes. “Tetsu-sensei, little Two-Foot, if you haven’t had lunch, want to try my cooking?”
Normally, the cooking skills of solitary cultivators like Okabe Motonobu, who required large amounts of food, wouldn’t be too bad.
Because almost no one could endure eating their own dark cuisine every day.
So Shangshan Che slightly lowered his head. “Then I’ll trouble Okabe Excellency.”
Two-Foot Adult, also a bit tempted, temporarily set Kaga Kiyomitsu on the ground and followed Okabe Motonobu out.
She had to prevent Okabe Motonobu from falling asleep before even starting to cook.
Otherwise, lunch would be up in the air!
And not long after, Okabe Motonobu duly fell asleep.
But not before cooking; rather, during the idle time while the dishes were done and waiting for the rice to cook, she leaned against the wall snoring.
If Two-Foot Adult hadn’t come back to check, that whole pot of fragrant white rice would have burned to charcoal!
On the super-sized dining table.
Shangshan Che looked at the rice mountain piled up nearby and a large basin of colorful, appetizing-looking pork and radish stew, somewhat surprised.
Because he remembered the Sengoku Period had issued some hunting ban, prohibiting people from eating meat.
So the people of the Sengoku Period were generally short in stature.
Yet the woman before him acted like she was completely unaware of the decree, casually devouring meat in large mouthfuls per meal.
Okabe Motonobu slammed her own large basin onto the table. “Eat as much as you can; I’ll finish every last grain of the rest!”
Seeing Shangshan Che hadn’t picked up his chopsticks yet, she patted her chest and explained,
“Because lately I’ve been tempering my whole body muscles, I definitely need to eat more! As the saying goes, three parts training, seven parts eating! To train well, you first have to eat well, right?”
Tempering whole body muscles… muscle refining?
Okabe Motonobu had actually nearly completed forging the overall Palace of Flesh?
This was truly an unexpected bombshell piece of information.
Shangshan Che filled a large bowl with rice and scooped a heap of radish pork with a wooden spoon, beginning to devour it voraciously.
On the first bite entering his mouth, his movements paused slightly.
Hmm, the taste was surprisingly better than expected.
Soon, the rice mountain and large basin of pork radish stew were completely gone.
Okabe Motonobu alone had polished off seventy percent.
Shangshan Che patted his rounded belly, hardly able to imagine how she fit so much food into her body alone.
“Then Okabe Excellency, Two-Foot and I will pretend to leave. You sleep as usual, and we’ll catch the culprit tonight.”
“Sure, then I’ll trouble you two.”
…
Time flew by, and soon it was late night.
Outside Okabe Motonobu’s home.
Shangshan Che, having fully retracted his qi and spiritual power, turned back to the “conspicuous” Two-Foot Adult and said,
“Two-Foot, you stay outside on alert.”
“Then be careful, Che Adult.”
Two-Foot Adult stayed a hundred meters from the courtyard, watching Shangshan Che silently slip into the darkness.
Soon, Shangshan Che poked his head over the courtyard wall and heard faint noises from inside the room.
The sounds were very soft and light; without paying attention, they would be completely undetectable.
Then, unsurprisingly, he spotted half of Okabe Motonobu’s body slumped at the doorway, her expression somewhat tormented.
This was probably the half-dreaming, half-awake, groggy state from being disturbed but not fully roused.
Shangshan Che couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.
—Sometimes, having hearing that’s too good is also a mistake.
He held his breath, blended into the darkness, carefully stepped over Okabe Motonobu who was sprawled on the ground constantly wriggling and murmuring in her sleep, and entered the dōza.
Squeak, ding, zzz…
Sporadic and strange sounds occasionally emanated, drawing Shangshan Che’s gaze.
Hmm?
From the pile of discarded weapons?
Could one of these training-worn scrapped weapons have gained a spirit?
Out of curiosity, Shangshan Che approached the weapon pile without making a sound, then scanned every inch with his eyes, missing no corner.
After a long time, Shangshan Che finally spotted the anomaly.
“Seems not a weapon gaining a spirit.”
He thought to himself, then leaned his face closer.
Shangshan Che quietly stared at the thing mixed in the weapon pile, covered in grime all over, holding a small cloth, earnestly and diligently wiping every curled blade weapon…
Little hamster?!
Ha?
The culprit that had kept Okabe Motonobu from sleeping well for days—actually a palm-sized translucent hamster?
Moments later, an inconspicuous gray prompt popped up above the hamster’s head.
—【Yokai（Zero-Star）】.
Yokai?
Shangshan Che frowned in thought for a full half minute before recalling related knowledge from his memory.
Yokai are yokai that appear dirty on the outside but actually love cleanliness extremely.
If humans get lazy and don’t clean their living spaces, leading to filth and mess, yokai usually appear to help clean the environment.
Shangshan Che suddenly realized.
No wonder earlier he saw the dōza full of scrapped weapons, yet the room was surprisingly so clean.
It was because the yokai worked diligently every night!
And the reason the yokai came every day was because Okabe Motonobu trained with such intensity that she could wreck quite a few normal weapons in a day, then toss them here.
Case closed!
Shangshan Che reached out and grabbed the yokai’s slender tail, hoisting it into mid-air.
“Squeak squeak! Squeak squeak squeak!”
The yokai holding the small cloth startled, panicking to escape the large hand and burrow back into the dark corner to continue working diligently.
Shangshan Che looked at the disheveled, panicked little rat and suddenly felt like laughing.
“Though this little guy is what’s making Okabe Motonobu listless during the day, its intentions are still good…
As for how exactly to handle it, better to ask her in the morning.”
“Alright, I won’t do anything to you for now, so relax.”
Shangshan Che communicated with the yokai at length using spirit control technique before it understood his meaning.
“Squeak.”
The yokai sat on his hand holding the cloth, somewhat at a loss.
The next afternoon.
Shangshan Che brought the yokai back to Okabe Motonobu’s home.
Before he could even knock after approaching the door, Okabe Motonobu yanked it open, stretching a super-wide lazy yawn with full energy.
“Tetsu-sensei—it’s been so long since I slept such a wonderful sleep!”
After ten-odd seconds, she recovered, heavily exhaling turbid air and asking curiously, “Did you find the cause last night?”
Shangshan Che extended his left hand, using spiritual power to outline the yokai’s form, letting the blinking big-eyed little rat, still unaware of what happened, climb onto his palm.
“Here, Okabe Excellency. This little guy is probably what’s kept you from sleeping well for so long.”
“It?”
Okabe Motonobu rested one hand on her chest and touched her chin with the other, clearly puzzled. “How did it make all those clanging strange noises?”
“And how could I possibly not notice it?”
For a powerhouse like Okabe Motonobu with keen senses, even an ant disturbing her sleep should have been caught long ago.
Shangshan Che smiled. “Because it’s a lesser demon called yokai. Without spiritual power in your body, you can’t detect such weak and harmless yokai.”
“Weak and harmless…”
Okabe Motonobu pondered for a moment, poking the yokai on the forehead bound with a white cloth scarf with her finger.
“It does look like that—no ferocious yokai vibe at all; rather pretty cute.”
Seeing this, Shangshan Che added, “This yokai has good intentions; it wants to help clean Okabe Excellency’s house, but it’s both afraid of people and so weak it can only appear at night…”
Hence, it only makes “cleaning noises” when you’re asleep.
Okabe Motonobu let out a long “oh” and clapped in surprise.
“No wonder my place is always so clean! Thanks!”
Pausing, the woman then said to the yokai somewhat troubled, “Though I’m grateful, can you please not disturb my sleep anymore after this? Otherwise, I really will get angry…”
The yokai shrank in fright at her aura and squeakily ran to Shangshan Che’s shoulder.
Shangshan Che put it back on his palm and earnestly translated Motono’s words to it.
“Squeak? Squeak!”
The yokai tried to understand for a bit, then nodded vigorously.
Okabe Motonobu saw this and blinked her squinted eyes. “Eh? It actually understands human speech?”
Shangshan Che shrugged. “After all, it’s a yokai that’s been around humans for quite some time.”
“In that case… Tetsu-sensei, can you keep it in a form I can see so I can keep it?”
Shangshan Che was slightly taken aback, then after asking the yokai quickly got an affirmative response.
“It says yes.”
So Okabe Motonobu smilingly took the yokai and began earnestly instructing it on some very basic precautions.
Shangshan Che, who hadn’t expected things to resolve so simply, stood there watching Okabe Motonobu play with the little rat for a bit.
Then he realized since the matter was settled, could he now head back to the Imagawa Residence to “browse” those breathing techniques the elders gave him?
Great!
But before that, he still needed to brief this future colleague on the Mikawa Uprising.
“Okabe Excellency, regarding the Mikawa Region Uprising…”
“Mikawa Uprising?”
The icy cold voice made Shangshan Che feel his blood seemingly freeze for an instant.
He slightly shifted his gaze and found Okabe Motonobu had opened her eyes for the first time.
Those pupils were indifferent, like iron, like ice.
As if already reflecting the deaths of thousands of enemy troops.
Monthly votes at month-end, please!!
