Chapter 218: What, I’m Fighting Myself?! Two Shangshan Ches! Minamoto Shizuka Soon To Arrive
Shangshan Che stared at the Ootama Hoshi radiating Crimson Gold Radiance all over, waiting for an answer.
“Even if I haven’t yet sorted out my chaotic thoughts, how could I not recognize the person who sent me to the Yellow Springs?”
Scorching mountain qi flowed out from the Great Demon’s mouth.
It straightened its massive body, looking down at the person who had once killed it… or should it be said, the demon?
Whatever, such minor details didn’t matter.
Ootama Hoshi lowered his head in thought for a moment, then continued speaking in this silent white space: “The instant I saw you, I suddenly remembered many things…”
Seeing me restored his sanity?
Shangshan Che’s thoughts turned quickly.
Was it because he was the one who finally swung the blade to kill Ootama Hoshi, leaving such a profound impression that it triggered this “bug” in the Sengoku Projection Secret Realm?
He pondered for a moment, narrowing his eyes: “Then, how did you recognize me?”
—After all, he was now using Thousand Faces: Modified to transform into his original appearance, and there was no Hannya Mask hanging at his waist, so Ootama Hoshi shouldn’t have recognized him at a glance.
“Hahahaha!”
Rumbling laughter issued from the gaps between stone and wood, crimson gold sparks accompanying the airflow as they burst out; Ootama Hoshi raised his massive arm wrapped in gilded patterns, pointing at Kaga Kiyomitsu,
“I was killed by this Daito, so how could I not recognize it?!”
Hearing this, Kaga Kiyomitsu trembled slightly.
It was probably wondering if it had given itself away.
Shangshan Che then reacted.
—Although a long time had passed for him, for the Ootama Hoshi in front of him who had been imprinted, it was just an instant after death that he immediately woke up and saw him and Kaga Kiyomitsu again.
There was no possibility of not recognizing them.
“So… Che.” Ootama Hoshi’s gaze was deep; after glancing around, he asked in a heavy voice, “What happened, and where is this place?”
“A Secret Realm.”
Shangshan Che temporarily lowered his guard upon hearing the question, dropping the blade tip as he briefly explained: “It imprinted projections of many powerhouses from our era, then used them as challenges in later generations.”
After explaining the current situation, Shangshan Che spoke, giving the answer Ootama Hoshi most wanted to know,
“—You were indeed killed by me.”
Ootama Hoshi, whose body was like a mountain, was slightly stunned.
The bright fire deep in his obsidian pupils flickered.
The face composed of millennial wood and stone first showed astonishment, then a hint of disappointment.
Finally, everything returned to calm, like wood, like stone.
Rough and resilient.
“Is that so.”
Ootama Hoshi nodded: “It’s really a pity that I couldn’t strangle you in the cradle.”
But though he said this, there was not a hint of regret in his tone.
Only relief and ease after doing everything he should have.
Before Shangshan Che could speak, Ootama Hoshi continued: “What about Daruma? Did he escape back then?”
Shangshan Che replied: “He escaped.”
At this, Ootama Hoshi couldn’t help but show joy, even his silver-white brow bones lifting slightly.
“Don’t get too happy yet, old man.”
Shangshan Che raised his gaze, saying flatly: “It won’t be long before I send him to the Yellow Springs too, so you can have company.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
Unexpectedly, Ootama Hoshi didn’t get angry or sneer, but nodded pleasantly at him.
He lowered his head, gazing at Shangshan Che whose qi and threat were now more than one-and-a-half stars stronger than before,
“Since I’ve died and Daruma has escaped, he will surely wait until his cultivation is complete before appearing before you again, Che.”
Ootama Hoshi spoke with full anticipation,
“If there’s a chance, I really want to witness the two of you staking everything you’ve got so far in a fierce battle.”
At this point, he paused, sighing,
“Unfortunately, I can never see it no matter what.”
This time, Ootama Hoshi’s words were filled with genuine regret.
“Done with the nonsense?”
After patiently listening to all of Ootama Hoshi’s words, Shangshan Che asked in return.
He raised Kaga Kiyomitsu again, saying word by word: “No matter what happens to Daruma in the future, or whether I kill him or not, it has nothing to do with you anymore.”
“Yeah, it has nothing to do with me anymore.”
Ootama Hoshi took a deep breath, his body erupting with dazzling gilded patterns.
A surging roar issued from deep within his body, raising wave after wave of spiritual power tides.
This was the trump card and ultimate move he hadn’t used in life, interrupted by the Lightning Dragon and Kaga Kiyomitsu.
But this time, Shangshan Che let him unleash it.
“Come!”
A full minute later, with his Mountain God’s Heartstone completely overloaded, Ootama Hoshi spread his arms and boomed,
“Che—show me how much you’ve improved these days!”
Shangshan Che gladly replied,
“That’s more like it.”
He grinned, revealing two rows of stark white teeth; White Hannya’s Mask completely covered this human face,
“Old man, you should talk less…”
“And do more!”
In the 39th floor Trial space of ten thousand cubic meters, the opponents who had once fought to the death charged at each other with full force again.
Amid falling lightning, blade edges, and earth and stone, faint, utterly pleasant laughter echoed endlessly.
……
Sengoku Projection Secret Realm, 40th Floor.
Blind in one eye, missing one hand, most of his lower body gone, not a single intact spot on his body—Shangshan Che lay on the transparent floor.
Breathing thick with blood mist hit the Qi Circulation hastily re-established by his Sea of Qi, maintaining his basic life signs.
He rolled over, his blurry vision taking a good while to refocus.
His shattered thoughts coalesced back into a line, and Shangshan Che suddenly called out,
“Little Jia.”
Buzz?
Kaga Kiyomitsu, gripped tightly in his right palm, vibrated in confusion, making Shangshan Che feel like his organs were about to shatter.
He coughed heavily twice before hoarsely asking: “Ootama Hoshi, did we kill him?”
Buzz!
Kaga Kiyomitsu replied in his heartstrings,
“—Of course we did!”
“Is that so, we won…”
Shangshan Che murmured, a hint of joy involuntarily appearing on his shattered face.
Because,
—Ootama Hoshi was directly struck down by him without using “Wrath”!
Even though Little Jia had undergone several enhancements, he had gained the Void Qi Sea, Natural Reason School had advanced to Expert Level, and he’d learned the Darkness Sword Profound Meaning…
Even after so much growth, he’d only barely edged out the opponent by a hair.
“Ootama Hoshi was really strong.”
Kaga Kiyomitsu buzzed pleasantly, raising its hilt in agreement.
And if Ootama Hoshi was this strong, what kind of moves would Saito Ryuichi, who could easily kill it, have…
“Fight! Master! Little Jia wants to fight!”
Sensing Shangshan Che’s thoughts, the nearly unscathed Kaga Kiyomitsu couldn’t help flying into the air, shaking excitedly in anticipation.
Shangshan Che: “You guy, seeing your master in this state and not even worried?”
“You’re miserable now, but won’t you be fine in a bit?”
Kaga Kiyomitsu had the most experience with this—every time it saw its master go “poof” and die, he’d be completely fine gripping it again after a while.
At first, it would be scared, worried, concerned—emotions extremely rich.
But after dozens of times, Kaga Kiyomitsu stopped paying attention.
Shangshan Che helplessly closed his eyes; it seemed hopeless to expect Little Jia to become a caring little cotton jacket.
“Drag me over first, Little Jia.” With no strength left to speak loudly, Shangshan Che plucked his heartstrings. “Let me touch the mist.”
Kaga Kiyomitsu extended Sorrow of Parting from its blade tip, wrapping Shangshan Che’s wrist and dragging him over.
Seconds later, Shangshan Che raised his fingertip, gazing at the mist before him, no different from the first thirty-nine floors.
This 40th floor’s projection…
If he was right, this projection should bring him a big surprise.
He narrowed his eyes, speaking before touching: “Little Jia, get ready for defense.”
The one who knew his combat habits best was, of course, himself.
Only after Sorrow of Parting’s domain unfurled and layers of Qi Barrier shields stacked overhead did Shangshan Che thrust his palm fiercely toward the mist’s edge.
The mist high wall vanished in a flash!
……
【One Saito Ryuichi 39th Floor】
【Two Anonymous Person No.666 39th Floor】
The Top 100 Ranking’s real-time changes instantly stirred a huge uproar in the Special Affairs Office forum.
—The top Saito Ryuichi discovered that even anonymized, one still had a unique number, so he canceled the pointless anonymization again.
【Did You Promote to Junior Officer Today?: A second 39th Floor appeared! Doesn’t that mean this mystery person is on Saito Ryuichi’s level?!】
【Anonymous: Who the hell is this Anonymous No.666? Heavy rewards for info!】
【Needle Doesn’t Poke, Out for a Stroll Needle Doesn’t Poke: Won’t the upstairs guy look it up himself? This guy’s in Hamamatsu City right now, maybe hasn’t even left the Secret Realm— just block him and done.】
【Been a Shadow for 300 Years: I’m already en route for an offline meetup. Anyone who wants to know, reply 1 below; when I find him, I’ll DM one by one.】
Instantly, over a hundred “1” replies appeared under the post.
“Little Ru, why’d you reply 1 too?”
In the “highway” formed of elongated shadows, the Shadow Woman holding her Special Mobile Phone turned back to the Nure-onna behind her, whose dangling long hair covered the phone screen entirely.
Hiyori Bo glowed silently beside Nure-onna’s forehead— with a light source, Sister Ru wouldn’t hurt her eyes looking at the phone.
Nure-onna replied faintly: “Shadow Sis, if you can hold back from replying 1 in this situation, your family would need an expert exorcist.”
What did that mean?
The Shadow Woman scratched her head in confusion, first answering her earlier question about “why find this Anonymous No.666,”
“You might not know, but for genius Competitor matches like Seed Battles, there are underground betting fights everywhere…
Knowing about No.666 ahead of others at this point is like making a fortune early.”
The experienced Shadow Woman had earned who-knows-how-much with her sharp eye.
Suddenly, Nure-onna exclaimed: “Shadow Sis, look! Saito Ryuichi posted?”
The Shadow Woman looked down and saw the golden verified name.
【Saito Ryuichi: First, please everyone stop @-ing me everywhere.】
【Saito Ryuichi: Next, about that No.666 powerhouse… embarrassingly, the 40th floor’s powerhouse projection was insanely strong and one-shot me in a few moves.
So, this No.666 isn’t just about my level, but possibly much stronger than me, since I only barely scraped through the 39th Floor.】
After Saito Ryuichi spoke, hundreds more replies appeared under his comment.
—Hearing Saito Ryuichi himself admit it stunned everyone; the already heated atmosphere boiled even hotter.
—【Saito Ryuichi: Anonymous Person No.666 Is Stronger Than Me!】
A post with that title instantly topped the search rankings.
Nure-onna muttered hesitantly: “Shadow Sis, do you think Saito’s telling the truth?”
The Shadow Woman chuckled: “Like hell I believe that kid. Little Ru, you’ve seen him before—you know he was full of bad ideas as a kid, and grown up it’s doubled.”
“In my view, he didn’t scrape by the 39th Floor; he nearly cleared the 40th.”
As if to confirm the Shadow Woman’s words, someone replied under the top post.
【Don’t Enter the■■Room!: Not quite.】
【Don’t Enter the■■Room!: Saito humblebrags, fine, but you guys actually believe it?
Just a Secret Realm challenge—think about all Saito’s done before.
He even single-handedly revived the crumbling Saito Family… A Strategist personally fighting can blast the 39th Floor? Can that No.666 compare?】
This rational post from the shielded “■” high-security person quickly gained much agreement.
Soon, comments like “Fair point, yeah” and “Saw Saito as a kid, ■ bro’s right” appeared below.
Contrasting sharply with Agents who thought Anonymous No.666 could thrash a Saito Family heir, sparking heated mutual flaming.
Soon, crowds started @-ing the un-@-able Anonymous No.666, urging him to blast the 40th Floor and shut the other side up.
……
At this moment, Projection Secret Realm 40th Floor.
The instant the mist dissipated, a cyan-purple Lightning Dragon descended from the sky without warning!
But Shangshan Che, prepared with a hundred thousand countermeasures, wasn’t hurt at all.
He looked up at the all-too-familiar lightning and spiritual energy fluctuations, subconsciously muttering,
“Damn, it really is… with Wrath activated, it’s on a whole different level from Ootama Hoshi.”
Shangshan Che turned to see the Four-tailed Fox clad in Priest’s Robe, shaking a folding fan, four scarlet tails swaying behind, with a breathtakingly beautiful face.
And in the next instant, in the blink of an eye while the heavily injured Shangshan Che couldn’t react, that face he knew all too well was already at point-blank range!
Natural Reason School’s Three-stage Thrust bloomed suddenly!
Then, the pre-instructed Kaga Kiyomitsu appeared in the predetermined spot, blocking it perfectly.
“Hm… Kaga Kiyomitsu?”
The Four-tailed Fox, radiating cold killing intent, blinked.
He crouched down, frowning as he examined the Kaga Kiyomitsu that was stronger, more beautiful, and more spirited than in his memory.
The Four-tailed Fox reached out to touch Kaga Kiyomitsu’s hilt.
But then, a dry, hoarse voice rang out.
“Little Jia, come back.”
So the slightly puzzled Kaga Kiyomitsu whooshed away from the fingers nearly gripping it, returning behind Shangshan Che.
Precisely, behind the heavily injured wreck that was Shangshan Che.
With Kaga Kiyomitsu’s help, Shangshan Che arduously sat up, grinning at the projection before him who was frowning in deep thought,
“Hey there, me.”
“What’s the situation?”
The projection touched his chin, tilting his head in confusion: “A second me appears, half-dead? What kind of plot twist is this?”
Seeing the projection no longer launching mad attacks, Shangshan Che also breathed a sigh of relief.
Good thing seeing himself still triggered the Secret Realm bug.
Otherwise, facing his “Wrath”-activated, peak-state self, his defenses were practically nil—he’d be charred to ash in two or three seconds at most.
“To be precise, I’m the real Shangshan Che.”
Shangshan Che raised his charred finger, smiling as he explained,
“Though you’re Shangshan Che too, you’re just a mere projection.”
The projection was stunned at first, then couldn’t help laughing.
He pointed at himself, asking back: “Me? A projection?”
“Yes.”
Shangshan Che continued: “You’re just this quest Secret Realm’s stage BOSS, imprinted from the Sengoku Period for later generations to Strategy.”
The projection laughed heartily: “The current me is just a stage BOSS? Don’t joke; how many powerhouses were there in the Sengoku Period? I was just doing…”
Halfway through, the projection suddenly glanced at the transparent space in his peripheral vision, a flash of shock in his eyes.
He finally began looking around.
Shangshan Che raised a brow: “What are you doing? Can you still say it?”
“I… I…”
The projection opened his mouth several times but couldn’t say what followed.
After a brief silence, the projection stared straight at Shangshan Che, utterly serious,
“I forgot.”
So Shangshan Che understood.
—Things about the system and quests weren’t imprinted along with ordinary memories in this Secret Realm.
Shangshan Che shook his head: “No rush; forgetting is normal. It just proves you’re a real projection.”
The projection stared coldly at him,
“Then how can you prove you’re not like me, just a more wretched projection?”
“You didn’t even notice Little Jia…”
Shangshan Che snapped his fingers, floating Kaga Kiyomitsu before the projection: “Take another look at your waist.”
The projection drew the “Kaga Kiyomitsu” from his waist, laying it flat in his hand.
He looked down, then up, finally clicking his tongue in displeasure: “This in my hand… is actually a dead object. Why didn’t I notice before?”
Shangshan Che spoke,
“You’re a projection.”
“I am indeed a projection.”
The projection nodded helplessly, but then reached out,
“By the way, how’d Little Jia get so pretty? Let me touch…”
Kaga Kiyomitsu flew back behind Shangshan Che without a word, making the projection squint displeasedly.
But Shangshan Che knew he wasn’t one to make a fuss without reason.
So he sat waiting; not ten seconds later, the projection sat too, casting him a glance,
“—So, explain the current situation in detail to this memory-lacking projection.”
Two minutes later.
“I get it.”
The projection shook the Blessed Folding Fan in his hand, snapping it shut: “So you’re going to chop me now for the 40th Floor reward?”
“You willing to just die like that?”
The projection countered: “Have I ever truly lived?”
Shangshan Che paused, thought for a while, then looked up seriously: “But if you just die simply like this, it’d be quite a pity.”
“Great minds think alike.”
The projection smiled: “As you said, Proficiency grows massively in this Secret Realm. Pure cultivation doesn’t raise Proficiency, but sparring wasn’t ruled out.”
Shangshan Che touched his exposed jawbone: “I don’t think this Secret Realm would make such a low-level mistake.”
“Even so, two selves with slightly different thoughts and experiences sitting face-to-face is a rare situation.”
“True enough.”
The two Shangshan Ches smiled at each other, speaking in unison: “In that case, what are we waiting for?”
In the Sengoku Projection Secret Realm’s 40th Floor, Shangshan Che and his projection sat discussing the Dao.
……
Only after being begged many times did Shangshan Che take Kaga Kiyomitsu and behead the projection with one stroke, kicking it out of the Secret Realm; by then, it was morning the next day.
Shangshan Che, with bountiful gains, looked up, muttering inwardly,
“Time flow is the same on both sides, what a pity.”
He glanced around, noting the crowd around the Silver Vortex had more than tripled.
—Even with the “Pass” screening, it couldn’t stop the enthusiasm of geniuses surging from all directions.
“Shangshan Jun, you finally came out.”
Yagyu Oshi’s voice pulled Shangshan Che’s gaze back.
Though he’d pulled an all-nighter, the still energetic Yagyu Oshi asked: “I still don’t know your…”
Shangshan Che knew he was asking about his progress.
He first checked the Top 100 Ranking changes; dozens had reached 36th Floor and below, pushing Yagyu Oshi to around 60th.
“37th Floor,” he said. “I was defeated by the 38th Floor projection.”
37th Floor was higher than most, but only 11th on the Top 100 Ranking.
Later, he might be squeezed down to dozens by gathering heroes, like Yagyu Oshi.
Hearing this, Yagyu Oshi felt oddly both happy and disappointed.
He couldn’t figure out why his mood was so complex.
So he just nodded, saying he knew.
“Ryūgen Jun, walking together?”
Hearing Minamoto Shizuka would arrive soon from nearby, Shangshan Che immediately wanted to leave.
—Good thing he could enter the Secret Realm remotely; otherwise, meeting Minamoto Shizuka at the entrance would mean trouble.
Trouble not from her, but the nosy crowd around for sure.
Yagyu Oshi shook his head: “No, I’ll look a bit more.”
Shangshan Che didn’t insist, walking alone through the now crowded, bustling streets back to his inn Room.
Swish.
After closing the door, Shangshan Che saw Tamamo sleeping in the corner, sprawled in a twisted “big” shape, having kicked off the blanket with her little feet.
“Is this guy still a Child…”
Shangshan Che sighed, quietly approaching Tamamo, carefully covering her with the blanket and tucking in the gaps to prevent drafts.
—Unlike them, Tamamo was a true ordinary person.
Not covering her could really lead to catching a cold, or even a high fever if careless.
Done, Shangshan Che tiptoed to the luxury bathroom with its independent Window, locking the door behind him.
He rubbed his hands, looking at the dense prompts from battles, ones he hadn’t checked yet, and the unrestrained exchange and discussion with his “Wrath”-using projection.
