Chapter 268: Spirit Control Technique On The Verge Of Master Level, Hanafuda Market Save Point Shocks With Change! Imagawa Clan’s Memory Orb!
Amidst the crimson shining spiritual light, spiritual energy nearly liquefied and dripping surged around Shangshan Che’s body.
Unprecedentedly dense and pure spiritual energy, under the manipulation of Spirit Control Technique, proficiently constructed the basic structure of the Flame Seed.
The condensation of the Flame Seed here had almost no delay or blockage.
Because the spiritual energy concentration was simply too high.
Instead, if he didn’t use condensing the Flame Seed as a channel to vent the spiritual energy, Shangshan Che’s body would burst first.
Splash, splash!
Semitransparent liquid spiritual power turned fiery red, becoming tiny dense characters that fell onto the surface and interior of the Flame Seed, then dyed black by Gūhuāniǎo’s qi.
This time, even condensing two Flame Seeds at once, the speed was more than just a little faster than yesterday.
After just one short hour, Shangshan Che, feeling like he had swum for the same amount of time, snapped his fingers to break through the liquefied spiritual power before him and took a heavy breath.
“Even though the spiritual energy has all been drawn to me, the concentration outside is still dozens of times higher.”
Shangshan Che exhaled, choking a bit, and looked at the prompt that had just popped up right after the third Flame Seed finished condensing—
【Due to condensing three Flame Seeds, Onmyōdō·Flame Armor rank has been elevated to “Minor Accomplishment”!】
【Due to your Flame Armor reaching Minor Accomplishment, your Physique +1!】
Body strength rose another half point due to the Flame Seed implanted in the heart; relative to his current steel-like body foundation, that was already quite a lot.
If placed at the initial stage when he had no power to truss a chicken, that would at least be a 【Physique +8】 level.
One Flame Seed in the heart allows tearing Kitsune-dog apart with bare hands.
“Moreover, the strength of Qi Circulation is also slowly rising because of this.”
With three Flame Seeds in position, they formed an exceptionally stable triangular shape as Shangshan Che had envisioned, creating another stable power source.
Thus, along the Cosmic Cycle Circulation, there was an added touch of fiery heat input into the Qi Circulation.
At the same time, the proficiency of Spirit Control Technique naturally increased quite a bit!
【Due to cultivating in an extremely high spiritual energy concentration environment, your skill Spirit Control Technique·Qi proficiency +300!】
【Note: Do not stay for extended periods or multiple times in extremely high spiritual energy concentration environments; too large a difference between internal and external concentrations may lead to unknown situations!】
Gaining a full three hundred proficiency points in one go, and that was still when Shangshan Che had put most of his energy into condensing Flame Seeds.
Shangshan Che turned his gaze to the panel for Spirit Control Technique.
【Spirit Control Technique·Qi（Expert 3678/4000）】.
Just a little over three hundred proficiency away, and Spirit Control Technique would break through the shackles of Expert Level, entering the unknown 【Master Level】 realm!
This was on the same level as Lili Zi’s sword technique, a technique level that could be called world-rare and divine.
Using sword technique as reference, it was roughly a realm only Sword Masters could reach.
Ordinary people might never see a single existence with Master Level technique in their lifetime.
If he had focused on operating Spirit Control Technique cultivation this time, he could have gotten at least four or five hundred proficiency, maybe even directly reaching Master…
But just as the 【Note】 said, it was still better not to linger too long in such an abnormally high spiritual energy concentration environment.
—In just this short hour, even with Shangshan Che’s body strength, he felt a subtle sense of breathing difficulty.
As for whether he could continue absorbing spiritual energy with Spirit Control Technique now that the Flame Seeds were condensed…
Of course, no!
The reason he stopped cultivation right after the two Flame Seeds finished wasn’t because Shangshan Che felt that was enough.
Rather, Shangshan Che had already been gritting his teeth and forcing himself to hold on until now.
—If he didn’t stop, he would suspect his body was about to be burst by the vast amount of indigestible spiritual energy.
Using Qi Circulation to send the surrounding spiritual energy to the corners of the room, Shangshan Che could finally breathe properly and scanned all the prompts before him again.
Besides that, the prompts had no extra or redundant explanations.
For the specific effect changes of Flame Armor, he would probably have to experience them himself for clearer, more practical understanding.
With a slight movement of thought, one black and two red Flame Seeds slowly emerged from his brow, left chest, and right chest respectively.
The red Flame Seeds were also dyed by Gūhuāniǎo’s power in the Cosmic Cycle Circulation, though it was hard to see with the naked eye.
For such a good thing, Shangshan Che naturally had no reason to stop it.
“Come out.”
A faint light immediately bloomed from deep within the Flame Seeds, flowing fire like water wrapping around Shangshan Che’s entire upper body, finally adhering seamlessly.
Except for his legs, forearms, and palms, his entire body was wrapped in Flame Armor!
And the strength of the Flame Armor had significantly improved.
This could be checked as usual by condensing all the flowing fire into one Armor Plate and observing with Eye of Interpretation—roughly doubled in strength.
Now, relying solely on the Flame Seeds’ automatic spirit absorption, it could probably withstand Kaga Kiyomitsu’s normal slashes and thrusts.
If supplied with unlimited spiritual power, the strength could multiply several times on top of that.
Not to mention directly resisting Minamoto Shizuka’s slash, it should be about even with a Onmyōdō from “Takizawa Kai” in the same district as Saito Ryuichi whom he saw before.
Shangshan Che clenched his fist, turning the Flame Armor into completely opaque “Glass Beads” the size of fingernails.
Potent spiritual power fluctuations emanated from them, then forcibly compressed back by Shangshan Che using Spirit Control Technique.
Tsk tsk, if this thing were thrown out…
“But turning it into a ball feels like it wouldn’t be very practical.”
Shangshan Che stared at the Glass Bead, pondering for a long time before slowly stretching it longer and longer.
Finally, turning this one Glass Bead into a thin thread about twenty meters long, so fine that even Shangshan Che couldn’t detect it without focused perception!
Shangshan Che commented,
“As long as any point of the thin thread touches the enemy’s wound or pierces their body, it can make the full power of the Flame Armor explode directly inside the enemy.”
To achieve this, just instantly condense the extremely compressed spiritual power throughout the long thin thread to that “touching” point.
This might be somewhat difficult for Expert Level Spirit Control Technique.
But for 【Master Level】 Spirit Control Technique, it would surely be effortless.
Shangshan Che, having developed a new use for Flame Armor, showed a smile but soon shook his head in disappointment: “But this move is really hard to control; once it explodes, it’s probably impossible to save them.”
After all, how do you save someone who’s been blown into charred fragments?
So the “Flame Thread” playstyle could only be used on demons and Supernatural Phenomena; it probably wouldn’t work well in Seed Battles.
Shangshan Che manipulated the new Flame Armor with his thoughts for a good while longer before satisfactorily retracting this bottom-card Onmyōdō back into his body.
All these moves would surely get a massive boost once he condensed all five Flame Seeds!
—Due to absorbing the Memory Orb, Shangshan Che only needed spiritual power to quickly condense Flame Seeds.
Without that Memory Orb from the Nameless Onmyoji, even after learning Flame Armor Technique, the time to improve his reputation would be dozens of times longer than now.
Because in the normal process, Shangshan Che would need to first study and understand the thousands of Astronomy Path characters and dense characters in the Flame Armor Technique.
Then figure out how to use spiritual power to engrave these dense characters onto the semi-finished Flame Seed.
This process required extreme caution; one mistake in uneven force and the Flame Seed would explode.
But now Shangshan Che didn’t need to worry about anything; he just had to suck in spiritual power hard.
So, Memory Orbs really were good things.
Breathing somewhat labored, Shangshan Che pushed open the secret room door and breathed in the fresh outside air with relief.
Then, he saw several Onmyoji in the waiting area turning back in shock simultaneously.
—This spiritual energy concentration, how was he not suffocated!?
“Hm? On me…”
Before the doubt settled, Shangshan Che realized these Onmyoji had looked over due to a tiny bit of spiritual energy leaking from the barrier.
Of course, this “tiny bit” was relative.
“It’s nothing, everyone, don’t mind me.”
After banging the secret room door shut, Shangshan Che waved smilingly at the Onmyoji and walked out of the first floor hall.
Seeing Sister Nanjo’s “at work” message sent early on line, Shangshan Che didn’t go disturb her.
After spending a good while calming all excess qi fluctuations on his body, Shangshan Che left the Special Affairs Office Building.
Next up, either go watch Lili Zi’s match or go home to cultivate and play cards—pick one.
Though the match itself wasn’t much to worry about…
Shangshan Che tapped Tamamo and sighed in relief after getting her “all normal” reply.
Makes sense; that old Tokugawa family guy had just met Sister Nanjo today, so he couldn’t possibly go straight to Lili Zi at the venue.
If his guess was right, that old guy wanted to probe Sister Nanjo’s attitude toward Lili Zi before formal contact.
Out of caution, perhaps…
If so, Motoyasu would probably meet quite a few more people before approaching Lili Zi.
Shangshan Che had already decided in his heart.
But for safety, he still described Motoyasu and Ryuji’s features and sent them to Tamamo, telling her to take Lili Zi away if she saw these two after the match.
Tamamo didn’t ask much.
【Tamamo（On Vacation）: Got it!】
Shoving his mobile phone back in his pocket, Shangshan Che headed home.
……
“Tokugawa Ririko, victory!”
“Competitor Tokugawa Ririko from Arakawa Ward still didn’t draw her bamboo sword from her waist, relying only on fists and legs like unstoppable raging waves, directly entering the winners’ group with a terrifying record of twelve straight wins in a day!
We still don’t know how powerful she will be when she draws her sword and grips the True Sword!”
On the arena stage of Arakawa Ward’s venue, Lili Zi, with slight sweat on her forehead and flexing her slender fingers, shifted her gaze from the opponent lying unconscious on the ground,
“This is way more satisfying than hitting sandbags…”
Lili Zi exhaled a slender solid white stream, turning away only after seeing the professional medical team quickly carry the opponent off stage.
“Group matches, a pretty good warm-up for the day.”
She muttered, ignoring the embarrassed commentator who had been snubbed after trying to invite her for a few words of comment, and the reporters swarming up.
Lili Zi waved her hand, and Qi Barrier pushed everyone back.
—Today, she faced four Three-Star, six Two-and-a-Half Star, and two Two-Star opponents from the participant list, totaling twelve.
Lili Zi had originally prepared for tough fights upon seeing “Three-Star.”
But when facing them head-on, she realized that even within the Three-Star range, the strength difference between people could be described as worlds apart.
Not to mention compared to Shangshan Jun, these opponents probably couldn’t even handle the temporarily residing Ryūgen Jun if they all rushed at once.
Moreover, most opponents couldn’t even treat their weapons as extensions of their bodies… With such poor basics, why compete and waste time?
Lili Zi, somewhat puzzled, looked up and smiled at Tamamo and Chisa, who had come recently, in the front row of the spectator area.
Tamamo, feeling speechless, gave her a thumbs up, then stared thoughtfully at her own fist, about the same size as Lili Zi’s.
—You, looking the same size as her, but how come you don’t even have a tenth of her power!
—Fist, speak to me!
“Hiss—”
Tamamo punched the wall twice and immediately winced, sucking in a cold breath from the pain.
Also, hadn’t she heard Lili Zi was a Sword Master? How was she winning with just punches and kicks?
Such performance, and she’s not even one of Arakawa Ward’s seeds?
Knowing Akechi Yuya was ranked at the bottom, Tamamo propped her reddened right hand on her cheek, suspecting some invisible big hand was at work in the dark.
Chisa beside her had been watching with sparkling eyes ever since sitting down, quietly cheering.
—Didn’t expect Sister Tokugawa to look so slim and similar to Chisa, but actually be this strong!
And in the middle of fights, she would smile and encourage opponents, very polite too.
Cool! Cool! Cool!
After several matches, Chisa’s eyes were practically sparkling with little stars.
But at the same time, she didn’t forget the message that big brother asked her to pass to Sister Tokugawa.
Chisa silently recited Ryuji’s words word-for-word in her heart again.
The girl patiently waited until Lili Zi left the crowd’s sight and reached a less crowded backstage area before trotting to her side, drawing Lili Zi’s gaze,
“Something up, Chisa?”
“Um, Sister Tokugawa.” Chisa looked up, meeting that gaze that instantly turned from Blazing to calm, and spoke, “A big brother asked me to pass a message to you.”
“Hm?”
Lili Zi was a bit puzzled: “Go ahead.”
Chisa said,
“—She’d better give up the Seed Battle and leave Tokyo quietly.”
In that instant, Chisa could clearly see Lili Zi’s expression no longer calm.
That was an expression she hadn’t shown in any of the previous fights.
Silence, sudden.
Lili Zi lowered her eyes until the girl was almost holding her breath, then asked: “What was that big brother’s name?”
“Tokugawa, Tokugawa Ryuji.”
Chisa answered softly but exceptionally clearly.
Lili Zi sighed silently.
“I got it.” She patted the girl’s head and said seriously, “Thanks for passing it on, Chisa.”
Chisa shook her head immediately: “No problem, Sister Tokugawa!”
Keeping her unchanged expression, Lili Zi pointed at Tamamo, who had just come over after doing who-knows-what,
“Chisa, your sister is here.”
So the girl responded and ran toward Tamamo.
At this moment, Lili Zi slightly lowered her head and closed her eyes.
These were Eldest Brother’s words to Chisa.
That meant Eldest Brother had come to Tokyo.
Why would Eldest Brother come to Tokyo? He wouldn’t come alone for no reason… Let alone leave so many affairs to find her—that was absolutely impossible.
In this short time, the only answer had surfaced in Lili Zi’s heart.
“Miss Lili Zi, let’s go!”
“Okay.”
Responding nonchalantly to Tamamo’s invitation, Lili Zi reopened her sharp, bright eyes possessing an unshakeable will like the blazing sun.
This did sound like something Eldest Brother would say.
From childhood, Eldest Brother was always like this, giving what he thought was, and usually indeed was, the optimal solution.
This was Tokugawa Ryuji’s kind intention.
But Lili Zi had no intention of accepting.
—Since the past had caught up, it was time to face it.
She told herself; her mirror-clear Sword Heart told her so.
……
Back home in under two minutes, Shangshan Che in good spirits didn’t waste time and practiced Rin Character Technique before sunset.
【Rin Character Technique（9.78%）】.
Gained 0.5% mastery level in one go, just one step away from crossing the 10% threshold.
But after comprehending this far, his spirit was nearing its limit.
This was still because his spirit was exceptionally abundant after condensing Flame Seeds.
Normally, one Soul Incense Ash comprehension gaining 0.2% mastery would be considered a lot.
He glanced out the window.
Lili Zi probably still needed quite some time to return.
So, time to go into Hanafuda Market and play cards.
Just in time, both Eternal World resurrection chances had refreshed.
Deep sea like passing clouds, effortlessly, Shangshan Che once again stood before the desolate Karuta III Factory.
As per usual process, formulaically incarnate Ghost God Six-tailed Fox, touch blacksmith corpse, watch white light orb CG.
But this time, the familiar greeting from the Fox-faced Woman didn’t come.
In its place was the Nameless Onmyoji’s carefree departing figure.
“Farewell, Your Excellency Six-tailed Fox… Remember, next time you win, it won’t be so easy for me!”
Along with these words came the chaotic, noisy ambient sounds of the Hanafuda Market.
Shangshan Che sat stunned, blinking several times before reacting.
The node for entering this Hanafuda Market had updated?
He looked up at the Fox-faced Woman standing beside, understanding the situation in just a few seconds.
—In other words, this Karuta Under Heaven First Tournament was indeed the so-called “Main Quest”; probably every round won would update the entry save node to that moment.
Shangshan Che felt a bit regretful for a moment.
This way, he couldn’t repeatedly farm rewards from already defeated opponents.
Crucially, couldn’t farm rewards hard from Nameless Onmyoji and upcoming opponents—roadside players’ Memory Orbs were mostly white-green ordinary stuff, not interesting.
Looking at too many Memory Orbs isn’t good; excessive long-term others’ real memories blur one’s own, causing a series of troubles.
Though dozens of Memory Orbs posed no pressure to Shangshan Che, he didn’t want to waste energy and time on garbage.
“What a pity.”
Shangshan Che sighed.
“Is the guest unsatisfied with something?”
The Fox-faced Woman immediately asked softly; after passing the first round, her service tone and attitude seemed much better.
“Nothing.” Shangshan Che stood. “Take me to the next round’s opponent.”
“Please follow me, guest.”
—The second round opponent’s hand only had blue-green Chips, no particularly attractive Memory Orbs for Shangshan Che.
So he proposed choosing any three Memory Orbs, and the opponent agreed.
Shangshan Che’s stake was, naturally, the memory of Tokugawa Yugoro he couldn’t possibly give.
“Duel, begin!”
Fifteen minutes after the Fox-faced Woman called start, Shangshan Che naturally claimed victory.
The opponent’s strength as a fellow Onmyoji wasn’t strong; he could beat them by a large margin on first sight.
Not to mention second round with mastered opponent techniques, card logic, and full information perspective.
Having won by a huge margin, Shangshan Che lifted his chin: “Bring out all the Memory Orbs; let me see.”
The opposing Onmyoji’s skill wasn’t great, but he didn’t try to welch.
He showed a pained expression, lining up over a dozen blue-green Memory Orbs before Shangshan Che.
From the labels, these Memory Orbs were mostly useless, insignificant memories.
Only the Onmyoji specially took out one blue orb containing metal-element Onmyōdō, barely passable.
Otherwise, Shangshan Che wouldn’t agree to trade just three blue-green orbs for the orb in his hand that could fiercely cut the Tokugawa family deep.
“Uh… how about pick any one.”
As Shangshan Che’s gaze swept over, thinking this, a light blue Memory Orb in the corner caught his eye.
The label prompt popped up above the orb—
【Imagawa Clan·Ii Naomasa’s Memory Orb】!
Ii… Naomasa?
Wasn’t this the little brother he met in the Okōshazam Trial, who was also initially disguised as a man by Imagawa Yoshimoto!?
5.8k, begging for monthly votes!
Didn’t notice today, wrote too much outline, leaving less time for main text.
Tomorrow more words, paying in installments orZ
