Chapter 232: Demon King Bento? Demon King Nuke! Farewell To Kujo Shingo, Tide’s Aftermath, Changes To The Proof Of Walking!
Mud and malice flowed from above the rock strata, gathered, and then gradually formed a massive spherical black object like a slime.
Pop, pop pop, pop pop pop.
Accompanied by a series of viscous popping sounds from bursting bubbles, one small eyeball after another covered in scarlet bloodshot veins emerged, casting cold malice toward Shangshan Che.
On the mud mass embedded with hundreds and thousands of eyeballs, a black-red label suddenly popped up.
——【Mokumokuren Collective·Labyrinth Form（Three-and-a-half Star）……】.
The first half of the label was very clear, but the part including “Three-and-a-half Star” remained blurry, as if it was trying to change to the next stage.
“Looks like my luck is pretty good. I ran into another guy who’s ascending to Ghost God level…”
The brand-new White Hannya fit perfectly over the edges of Shangshan Che’s face, bringing him an indescribable terrifying qi power.
Hearing the footsteps of Tamamo and the others rapidly receding behind him, Shangshan Che focused all his attention on the Mokumokuren Collective in the center of the cave.
——If nothing unexpected happened, the Mokumokuren Collective in front of him would definitely ascend to Ghost God level by borrowing the aftermath of this tide.
If it were delayed a few more days and they came to this Mokumokuren Labyrinth after the tide, the Special Affairs Office would likely be completely wiped out.
——Unfortunately, it ran into him first.
Boom!
In the short burst of qi explosion sound, a stream of mud shot out from the surface of the Mokumokuren Collective, trying to bypass Shangshan Che to stop Tamamo and Yagyu Oshi and the others from leaving.
Moreover, judging from the direction of that mud tentacle’s flight, it might only need the eye pupils on it to frame the group in their line of sight for the Mokumokuren Collective to act against them.
White Hannya opened its eyes.
Sword light like an illusion bloomed in midair, mincing the mud, tentacles, and eye pupils over ten meters away from Shangshan Che into powder.
The scattered fragments fell entirely onto the damp rock walls amid the Mokumokuren Collective’s shrill shriek, swallowed up completely by the Pale Color.
Darkness Sword·Hidden!
The effects of Sorrow of Parting and Plague tried to surge toward the Mokumokuren Collective along the cut, but along with this severed limb, they were cut off by the latter and could only dissipate on the ground.
Shangshan Che raised Kaga Kiyomitsu again, grinning.
He released his own qi recklessly.
The might belonging to a Ghost God instantly filled the cave, making hundreds of eye pupils on the Mokumokuren Collective’s surface show a flash of fear at the same time.
Shangshan Che took the chance to glance behind him with his peripheral vision.
After incarnating as White Hannya, he could sense there were still quite a few demons coming from the path… but with that quality and quantity, Yagyu should be able to handle it completely.
So, there was no need for him to worry anymore.
Silently, footsteps overlapped once more.
A crack of over ten meters instantly bloomed across the ground surface due to imperfect technique!
Eightfold Fence, activate!
The slender pale blade light wrapped in purple-black lightning tore through the air, landing on it in the instant before the Mokumokuren Collective could react.
Kaga Kiyomitsu easily sank in like cutting through butter, slashing through.
The horrific deep wound was torn wider and spread in an instant, occupying more than half of the Mokumokuren Collective’s massive body.
“Hiss hiss hiss—!”
The shriek that made Shangshan Che slightly dizzy echoed repeatedly in the empty rock cave.
All the remaining eye pupils seized this brief gap to look toward Shangshan Che.
One, two… ten, a hundred.
Countless eye pupils emerged in the Clear Mirror in Shangshan Che’s heart, first blocking his predictive space, then staring straight into the depths of his inner self.
Normally, the deepest part of a person’s heart is their most vulnerable place.
Malice swelled.
Miscellaneous malicious thoughts enough to turn thousands or tens of thousands of ordinary people into dazed idiots in an instant poured entirely toward Shangshan Che’s heart like a flood.
If it were an ordinary onmyoji, even one who had trained their state of mind since childhood, they would probably only be able to struggle against these tens of thousands of evil thoughts at this moment, barely maintaining themselves.
But Shangshan Che was different.
Even without special salvage, his state of mind was already protected by Technique·Afterimage, tempered by countless deaths.
Not to mention…
Hundreds of cold, cruel gazes peered into Shangshan Che’s heart.
Then, they saw Shangshan Che.
——Tens of millions of Shangshan Ches awakening as if from a dream, all looking toward it at once.
“Gurgle!!!”
Amid the Mokumokuren Collective’s terrified retreat, the bursting sounds of eyeballs rang out one after another.
“Thanks a lot.”
Shangshan Che, who had been dazed for a moment, looked up and gave it a delighted smile: “Thanks to you, I think I remember what I was doing when I was unconscious before.”
Without giving the Mokumokuren Collective a chance to regroup, the blade light of Kaga Kiyomitsu scattered down like falling snowflakes.
Whenever the Mokumokuren Collective tried to escape, Shangshan Che pressed step by step.
Until the former’s body suddenly swelled, as if about to self-destruct, then Shangshan Che used Eightfold Fence again and instantly retreated to the cave entrance.
And after the Mokumokuren Collective noticed the external attacks had stopped, it immediately returned to its original size.
Immediately after, the parts eroded and stained by the Eightfold debuff brought by Kaga Kiyomitsu were actively cut off, shed, and dropped to the ground from its massive body.
Shangshan Che indifferently watched this scene.
“Tricked, huh…”
He narrowed his eyes and noticed that, aside from this, the Mokumokuren Collective’s regenerative ability seemed extraordinarily strong.
After voluntarily severing nearly half its body, it not only didn’t weaken but recovered a small half in just a few seconds.
This was still under the condition where one slash from Kaga Kiyomitsu could bring so many negative buffs.
If it were another ordinary sword, Shangshan Che wouldn’t even be sure if his slashes had any effect on it.
“Greed, Anger, Ignorance doesn’t seem to work either.”
Seeing the Mokumokuren Collective had recovered to perfect condition, Shangshan Che clicked his tongue.
——This monster had only stable malice on it aside from malice itself; other emotions were pitifully scarce.
So, what about its resistance to high-intensity lightning?
The incarnation instantly switched to Four-tailed Fox, and Shangshan Che opened the folding fan in his hand.
Nearly half his spiritual power was drained.
Purple-black Lightning Slurry poured down like a sea current, enveloping the Mokumokuren Collective in an instant, making it shriek in pain on the spot, writhing and surging.
Shangshan Che didn’t attack during this chance but just opened the Eye of Interpretation to watch.
After over ten seconds, the watery Lightning Slurry fully dissipated. He looked through the flashing electric arcs in the air and clearly saw the Mokumokuren Collective’s current state.
——It was the same as before; after the lightning dissipated, it began rapid self-healing in just a few seconds.
Lightning Strike was useless too.
But the Mokumokuren Collective seemed to have understood through these exchanges that Shangshan Che was not to be trifled with, so it no longer actively attacked but just stared dead at him without moving itself.
“Those who can attempt to ascend to Ghost God level are indeed extraordinary.”
In the silent standoff, Shangshan Che thought somewhat puzzledly: “But up to now, I haven’t seen this Mokumokuren Collective’s【Haunted House】. Could it still count as a demon?”
Or rather, it was still some distance from that Black Phone Booth stage.
Whatever Shangshan Che was thinking, the current situation had reached a stalemate—though the advantage was on his side.
Because up to now, the only effective damage Shangshan Che had dealt to the Mokumokuren Collective was the backlash it suffered when peering into his heart.
All other injuries had fully healed.
Lightly tapping the ground with the tip of Kaga Kiyomitsu’s blade, Shangshan Che fell into a very brief contemplation.
It would definitely not be difficult for him to retreat unscathed, but the downside was that it would benefit the Ghost God level that Tamamo called afterward.
Whether it was the countless eyeballs on the Mokumokuren Collective’s surface or the Soul Ash and items it could drop, Shangshan Che didn’t want to just hand them over.
Activating “Anger” after opening Four-tailed Fox could indeed crush it with stats, but it wasn’t convenient to use now.
The 1.5 tide could arrive at any moment.
Using Anger now had too much uncertainty and might lead to losing more by gaining less.
Glancing with his peripheral vision at the Hundred-Eyed Demon eating heartily in the Gacha Pool, Shangshan Che felt even more that he couldn’t just retreat like this.
But his current means couldn’t kill this Mokumokuren Collective…
At this thought, Shangshan Che turned his gaze to the unremarkable-looking【Demon King handmade bento】 in his Storage Bag.
Seventy-eight debuffs…
This Mokumokuren Collective could withstand 8, but could it handle 78?
He observed the mud and the eyeballs swimming and flipping on its surface in detail again.
Hmm, this thing didn’t seem all that intelligent either.
Shangshan Che expressionlessly took out the Demon King bento and extremely carefully opened the aluminum lid with two fingers.
He stared in astonishment, eyes widening under the mask.
Because what was contained in this aluminum lunchbox was not some dark cuisine that could poison a giant from afar, nor did it match the “Demon King” name at all.
The contents of the lunchbox were no different from an ordinary bento—
Half white rice dotted with sesame and nori, a few pieces of golden tamagoyaki, a few cute octopus sausages with faces, plus some fried chicken chunks.
This thing was really that toxic?
Shangshan Che checked the bento’s panel description again to confirm, but still found it hard to imagine that this bento was extremely poisonous.
It clearly looked quite refined.
“Whatever, let’s test the waters with half first.”
A pure white qi barrier orb rose from Shangshan Che’s fingertip, then he carefully picked half of each ingredient and tightly wrapped them in the qi barrier.
Placed inside.
After completing this small action, Shangshan Che contracted the qi barrier again and again, plating several layers of extremely tough protective film on its surface.
Tossing the unremarkable white ball in his hand, Shangshan Che thought this should be about enough.
Next, he just needed to stuff this ball into the Mokumokuren Collective’s body.
Shangshan Che snapped his fingers.
Lightning crisscrossed and exploded one after another, blocking the Mokumokuren Collective’s senses.
He took advantage of the gap to step in front of the writhing massive mud body and thrust Kaga Kiyomitsu forward fiercely.
Sorrow of Parting and qi barrier surged, punching a fist-sized passage through the middle of the Mokumokuren Collective.
Realizing it wouldn’t suffer fatal injury, the latter didn’t care and casually lifted part of its body to slap toward Shangshan Che.
In the dodging gap, the qi barrier ball containing about half the Demon King bento was stuffed deep into the Mokumokuren Collective’s body.
Shangshan Che clenched his fist, making the qi barrier protective layer dissipate in an instant, letting the Mokumokuren Collective have an “intimate contact” with the Demon King bento.
Suddenly, Shangshan Che sensed the malicious gazes that had been enveloping him from all directions freeze entirely.
Then, these gazes immediately began to randomly deviate as if losing their target.
Rolling around nonstop, turning nonstop, turning nonstop.
Shangshan Che was stunned.
This bento took effect this fast?
As he thought this, the several-meters-tall Mokumokuren Labyrinth suddenly “spit” out a scarlet eyeball about the size of a glass bead.
In the next instant, countless eyeballs were sprayed out from that massive body amid shrill miserable wails, scattering onto the cold damp ground.
The Mokumokuren Collective’s body also rapidly shrank at a visible speed, shrinking, until it burst with a bang, exploding the remaining droplets of mud into the air.
No trace left.
【You killed Mokumokuren Collective·Labyrinth Form（Three-and-a-half Star）!】
Shangshan Che, who had just been about to act, twitched the corner of his mouth under the mask and could only twirl Kaga Kiyomitsu into a flower before sheathing it.
This was way too easy…
Unsure what to say, Shangshan Che used qi to collect all these eyeballs and stuffed them into his Storage Bag.
He actually understood that it wasn’t the Mokumokuren Collective that died easily.
Rather… this Demon King’s bento was just too outrageous!
It was clearly an item meant to apply debuffs to others, but now it straight-up poisoned a near-Ghost God level demon with absurd regeneration to death in seconds!
Thinking this, Shangshan Che realized he might have used too much of the bento.
A third of it probably would have been enough to poison this Mokumokuren Collective.
Suddenly, he felt a bit heartbroken.
Clutching his chest, Shangshan Che silently looked at the popped-up prompt.
【You killed Mokumokuren Collective·Labyrinth Form（Three-and-a-half Star）, obtained 1211 Soul Ash!】
【You obtained Mokumokuren Eyeball×872!】
【You obtained Malice Crystal（Special Material）!】
Nearly nine hundred high-quality eyeballs, completely different quality from those Zero-Star Shijie Worm eyeballs.
This should be enough for the Hundred-Eyed Demon to snack on as little treats for a long time.
Without pouring the eyeballs into the Gacha Pool, Shangshan Che first looked at the only item dropped by the Mokumokuren Collective, “Malice Crystal”.
【Malice Crystal（Special Material）】
【Quality: None】
【Effect One: Consume directly. Produces unknown effect.】
【Effect Two: As forging material, adds unknown effect to equipment items.】
【Effect Three: Place in front of the plaque of a God Bestowal Path shikigami, produces unknown effect.】
【——Pure collection of malice.】
All three effects unknown, huh?
Shangshan Che rubbed the pure black sixteen-sided crystal in his hand, thoughtfully examining it.
Before, the【Wish Power Crystal】 he got from Lotus Light had a similar description and effects to this thing.
After toying with the crystalline clear crystal for a while, Shangshan Che decided to wait until the next time he saw Katsumi or Huijue, who might know something about this, to get answers.
For now, better check the Hundred-Eyed Demon in the Gacha Pool first.
Opening the Gacha Pool page, Shangshan Che stared at the Hundred-Eyed Demon loli who was walking around those white bone pillars while eating Mokumokuren Eyeballs, like patrolling her territory, and watched for a bit.
The progress bar above her head hadn’t changed, still at 0%.
But with the Eye of Interpretation, he could still make out some changes in the background color.
Without thinking more, Shangshan Che dumped all the obtained eyeballs into it at once, leaving only one in his hand as a memento of killing the Mokumokuren Collective.
This time, the eyeballs didn’t rain down but piled up like sand into a tower into a tall “Eyeball Tower” in front of the Hundred-Eyed Demon loli just as she was about to step forward.
She extended her slender jade finger to poke at the quantity a bit, froze in place, then looked up.
Her puzzled gaze mixed with a hint of inquiry.
——Why be so good to me?
Shangshan Che gave a kindly gaze, looking forward to the Hundred-Eyed Demon crunching through all these eyeballs, converting them into a sprinting progress bar.
“Eat up, eat up, eat more to grow up fast.”
The Hundred-Eyed Demon said nothing, just sat cross-legged on the damp muddy ground and reached for the eyeball at the tower’s top.
……
“Kujo Your Excellency! It’s right here! Shangshan Che is still inside!”
Tamamo shouted at the top of her lungs, waving vigorously at the sky before pointing at the Mokumokuren Labyrinth.
The half-black half-white haori draped down, and the chaotic heaven and earth spiritual energy disrupted by the tide suddenly became tame, steady and quiet.
Kujo Shingo landed silently on the ground and glanced at the deep cave mouth of the Mokumokuren Labyrinth.
He smiled: “Looks like I came at a bad time.”
This choked back Tamamo’s remaining words; after a moment, she spoke: “Your meaning is…”
Kujo Shingo shrugged.
“The little trouble inside has already been resolved.”
As his words fell, Shangshan Che appeared at the cave mouth with only a bit of mud on his shoe soles, muttering to himself,
“Less than five minutes and he already came out, so does that mean this Mokumokuren Labyrinth itself counts as an illusion?”
Good thing he nipped it in the bud.
Otherwise, if this thing actually ascended to Ghost God level, it would definitely be a major disaster plaguing the area.
Shangshan Che looked up and saw the demon corpses around that had broken through the barrier and fallen under swords and Onmyōdō spells.
Turning his head, he then noticed Kujo Shingo standing beside Tamamo, smiling at him.
Not far away, his shikigami “Yakushi Doji” was squatting, healing several injured agents.
The Ghost God level coming to support was… Kujo Shingo?
How could it be him? And so quickly.
Wasn’t Kujo Shingo clearly a Ghost God level affiliated with the Onmyo-ryo?
“Ryūgen Jun, long time no see.”
Kujo Shingo withdrew his attention from the exquisite Qi Circulation on Shangshan Che’s body surface, inwardly praising it a bit, and nodded friendly to him.
“Long time no see, Kujo Your Excellency.”
Shangshan Che nodded and asked: “Aren’t you from the Onmyo-ryo…”
“Tide aftermath is imminent, the second Eternal World invasion is coming soon. I’m here for this tide and the Seed Battle.”
Kujo Shingo said amiably,
“If I can act as a bridge between the Onmyo-ryo and the Special Affairs Office during this, letting them set aside prejudices and join hands to get through it, that would be ideal.”
Shangshan Che cupped his hands: “Kujo Mister’s righteousness.”
Though he hadn’t personally been to the Onmyo-ryo to see,
Just from what Nanjo Emi said and the Special Affairs Office APP, he knew most people in the Onmyo-ryo quite disliked the Special Affairs Office.
Not to mention a Ghost God level high-up like Kujo Shingo… it was obvious without thinking how much exclusion he faced usually.
“Just a small matter, and my motives aren’t entirely pure either.”
Kujo Shingo pointed at the boy running around on short legs: “Yakushi Doji sensed a herb very useful to him growing here that might mature after the tide, so I came to check.”
Shangshan Che followed his finger and saw the verdant Yakushi Doji, even more vibrant with life than last time they met.
Sensed?
Shangshan Che pondered briefly and spoke to the man before him: “Kujo Your Excellency, I recently need Wood Attribute Defining Objects. If you have any leads…”
Shangshan Che didn’t finish.
Kujo Shingo stared at him for a moment, then nodded readily.
“Five Elements Qi Sea, and Metal and Fire Attribute Defining Objects… Ryūgen Jun, you sure have a big appetite.”
“I’ll keep an eye out for you.” Kujo Shingo paused before continuing, “But don’t expect too much. After all, the Defining Objects you need are all high quality, right?”
Shangshan Che bowed slightly: “For that, I am already endlessly grateful.”
Kujo Shingo looked back and saw Yakushi Doji still scurrying around hurriedly, so he continued slowly to Shangshan Che,
“Ryūgen Jun, your current strength is very good, which confirms what Nanjō Great Officer said to me before…
But if it’s just this, it will still be far from enough to win the Seed Battle, or even enter the top three.”
Shangshan Che replied: “I’ve met Minamoto Shizuka and Kyuuketsuin Kin, and I know full well that’s the case.”
“You’ve met them, that’s even better.”
Kujo Shingo’s gaze became a bit kinder.
But the next moment, he raised a finger, his expression turning serious: “Ryūgen Jun, wanting to solidify your foundation and be the strongest among your peers is good.
But in the years after the tide, the world changes extremely fast—day by day isn’t an overstatement. In the future, even Nanjō Great Officer might not be able to protect you.”
“I’ll give you a piece of advice.”
He spoke solemnly,
“——Without becoming a Ghost God, you are but duckweed.”
Shangshan Che’s heart tightened.
“Only by achieving Ghost God level do you have the capital to stand in this era of great strife unseen in a millennium, no longer drifting with the ups and downs of the tides.”
Kujo Shingo’s voice softened,
“I believe in Nanjō Great Officer’s eye, and my own. In the future—Ryūgen Jun, you will definitely become a Ghost God.”
By now, he had no doubt at all about what Nanjo Emi said that day.
“But when to become a Ghost God, and how much you want after becoming one, the trade-offs are for you to grasp yourself.”
Finally, Kujo Shingo warned,
“Don’t lose the big for the small.”
After several seconds of silence, having listened quietly throughout, Shangshan Che bowed again: “Che thanks Kujo Your Excellency for the warning.”
Kujo Shingo stroked his chin thoughtfully and looked around.
Finally, his gaze settled on the area where most demons had been cleared, but the Mokumokuren Labyrinth still needed sweeping afterward.
“Ryūgen Jun, let me show you.”
The man in the black-and-white haori smiled, unfolding a simple Onmyōdō spell at his fingertip that shot out a small crimson fireball,
“The power of a Ghost God.”
Right before Shangshan Che’s eyes witnessing it, the fireball at Kujo Shingo’s fingertip expanded and grew in an instant, repeating so under newly overlaid spells.
In the blink of an eye, the small fireball, originally no different from a lighter flame, had reached a terrifying diameter of dozens of meters.
And even more terrifyingly, even standing so close to this massive fireball, Shangshan Che felt not the slightest heat or excess spiritual power fluctuation.
Amid Tamamo’s difficult throat gulps nearby, Kujo Shingo spread his five fingers, letting another Onmyōdō spell that even Shangshan Che could understand at a glance fall before the fireball.
——It was a spell to turn the “fireball” into a “fire laser”.
Snap.
Kujo Shingo closed his five fingers.
Thus, a crimson torrent like it could destroy heaven and earth shot out from before Shangshan Che’s eyes.
In less than half a blink, it directly erased the entire small hill including the【Mokumokuren Labyrinth】.
Right, not shattered, not melted.
But erased.
Erased without leaving a single point, drop, pebble, or speck of dust.
The serene destruction turned this Supernatural Phenomenon labyrinth that had given Tamamo and the others endless headaches just days ago into the hot air rising in the distance.
The next moment, pattering rain fell from the sky, extinguishing the last bit of environmental heat from that casual act.
Shangshan Che stared at the empty space ahead, unable to recover for a long time.
He didn’t even notice when Kujo Shingo and Yakushi Doji had already left.
In the long silent pause, having witnessed the meaning of “Ghost God” in reality for the first time, Shangshan Che understood a deeper saying.
——Those with the might to move mountains and fill seas are Ghost Gods.
So-called Ghost Gods were powerful existences that could easily do such things.
Letting out a long breath, Shangshan Che internally viewed his current two demon cards.
White Hannya had just reached Two-and-a-Half Star, and Four-tailed Fox still needed some time.
And afterward, he could obtain an even higher quality, higher star Hundred-Eyed Demon Incarnation.
With various incarnations stacked, plus his own cultivated sword technique, Breathing Technique, Onmyōdō, Rin Character Technique, and other secret arts…
He would become stronger than Kujo Shingo imagined.
And if one day in the future he could do the same, wouldn’t that mean rivaling a Ghost God with a sub-Ghost God body?
Shangshan Che laughed happily.
That would surely be interesting.
A good while later, Otomo Ken and the others who were injured during the retreat arrived before Shangshan Che and bowed deeply to him in apology.
For dragging him down.
Shangshan Che shook his head: “No one could predict so many Mokumokuren would form into one. It wasn’t anticipated beforehand, nor were there cases to reference.
No one is at fault.”
After he finished, Tamamo marveled: “We were supposed to do cleanup work, but now it’s not needed…”
The girl glanced at Shangshan Che, who was as clean as ever, and couldn’t help but show a flash of envy and shock in her eyes.
“Elder Brother Shangshan.” She asked, “After claiming the scale armor reward, are you heading back to Arakawa Ward?”
“No, I have an agreement with Apprentice Master.” Shangshan Che replied, “Probably won’t leave for another week.”
Tamamo let out a heavy sigh of relief: “That’s great…”
Meeting Shangshan Che’s odd gaze, she stuck out her tongue.
“Who knows how dangerous this tide aftermath will be, but with Elder Brother Shangshan here, it’s like a stabilizing divine needle, reassuring.”
Having personally seen Shangshan Che successively resolve the Tunnel Hundred Ghosts, Black Phone Booth, and Mokumokuren Labyrinth, Tamamo saying this was no issue.
Tamamo tapped her phone a few times: “With endorsements from Nanjo and Kujo Your Excellencies, we can probably head straight there now and get the scale armor at the Shizuoka City Special Affairs Office Headquarters.”
Shangshan Che hummed and looked at Yagyu Oshi: “No time like the present, let’s head out now?”
“No objections.” Yagyu Oshi was silent for a few seconds before continuing earnestly, “In the days with Ryūgen Jun, I benefited greatly.”
“That’s because Ryūgen Jun you’re skilled yourself.”
Shangshan Che thumbed at Tamamo beside him, who was humming an old tune while waiting for the car: “This one stayed with us too, but where’s her benefit?”
“Wah! Elder Brother Shangshan, how can you say that about me! How can I compare to Yagyu!”
Tamamo was displeased and ran over waving her small fists to tickle Shangshan Che: “I’m just an ordinary person!”
……
Less than two hours later, the Special Affairs Office’s large shuttle bus arrived, picking up all the agents at the camp.
Because of that small fireball Kujo Shingo released, all the Special Affairs Office agents in the camp were “unemployed” together.
The shuttle bus first passed the Numazu City Special Affairs Office, dropping off the other agents, then carried Shangshan Che and the other two unhurriedly toward Shizuoka City.
Shangshan Che sat by the window with eyes closed resting, while also dying once more at Sword Saint Kamizumi Nobutsuna in the Projection Secret Realm.
With Eightfold Fence, the Sword Saint now needed a full extra sword to behead him, rather than just changing a move.
Indicating delightful progress.
Thanks to the shuttle bus’s excellent shock absorption, the dozing Shangshan Che arrived in Shizuoka City amid near-zero vibration.
Suddenly, the entire shuttle bus shook violently.
Shangshan Che opened his eyes.
Beside him, the soundly sleeping Tamamo jolted awake, doing a carp flip from the soft seat and immediately pulling out her phone from her pocket in alarm,
“Elder Brother Shangshan, the tide aftermath is here!”
She immediately pressed her small face to the shuttle bus’s one-way window, looking toward the sky that had at some point turned dark as ink.
But right then, a massive barrier dotted with starlight rose from the ground, enveloping all of Shizuoka City seamlessly.
Tamamo patted her chest in relief: “Heh heh, I knew the Special Affairs Office was prepared. The phone just shows a yellow tide alert—everyone stay indoors and it’s fine.”
——Shizuoka Prefecture was the first target probed by the Eternal World Factory Owners.
Shangshan Che recalled this info and said flatly,
“I doubt it.”
Almost as if to confirm Shangshan Che’s words, before Tamamo could retort, a dark vortex appeared on a nearby street with not too many people.
Appearing out of thin air.
Utterly unreasonable.
Caught off guard, the civilians mostly didn’t yet understand what happened… the ensuing tragedy was self-evident.
Shangshan Che naturally saw it too.
“Stop the car.” He said.
The driver, once an active frontline Special Affairs Office agent, naturally recognized the vortex meant at least a dozen demons, so his voice was tense:
“Stopping in a place like this might not be good…”
“Just stop briefly, it should be fine.” Shangshan Che opened the door and placed his hand on the slightly trembling hilt.
“Give me thirty seconds.”
Under the driver’s hesitant gaze, Shangshan Che walked alone to near the vortex.
He didn’t cross the street because the light hadn’t changed.
The vortex flickered and spat out a large pile of brass biomechanical mechs extremely familiar to Shangshan Che, then abruptly closed, completing its task.
“One-Star, total of thirty-two combat units.”
Before the surrounding civilians could comprehend the situation and scream, Shangshan Che brutally interrupted the process.
He lazily raised his eyes.
Kaga Kiyomitsu unsheathed.
Pale sword light shot to the sky, bisecting all thirty-two biomechanical mechs from head to tail in the same instant.
One slash out, slaying evil and subduing demons.
A breeze blew, sweeping the ground’s pale powder into the sewer.
“Now, no need to wait for the light.”
Shangshan Che quickly returned to the car, leaned into the cab to check the time, and grinned at the driver:
“Twenty-two seconds… under thirty. Please continue driving.”
“Yes, yes, Your Excellency.”
The driver sighed in relief and nodded heavily.
The shuttle bus closed its doors and sped toward the Shizuoka City Special Affairs Office Headquarters.
Shangshan Che returned to his seat, not disturbing the serious-faced Tamamo rapidly tapping her phone screen, or Yagyu Oshi on the phone with worried eyes.
He opened the vibrating Storage Bag and curiously looked inside.
He found the change wasn’t anything else.
But the Proof of Walking he obtained not long ago!
In the bag, that envelope-sized Proof of Walking with a white jade texture was now emitting bright light due to the tide aftermath!
8.6k!
I deliver as promised, made up some of the last two days’ word count!
Monthly votes please!
