Chapter 275: Elimination Tournament Time After White Hannya’s Promotion! Spirit Control Technique Breakthrough, Nanjo Emi: Get Ready
?
What’s going on!?
Shangshan Che had originally wanted to use his mobile phone to record a certain someone’s blushing beautiful moment.
But before he could even take out his mobile phone, he himself was pulled over instead.
Shangshan Che didn’t even have time to say his first sentence before he felt two scorching soft arms wrapping around him tightly like snakes, locking him in place, with legs extending out to intertwine around his waist, forming a tightly fitted posture.
This exquisite posture could easily transition into a rear naked choke if continued backward, or turn to the side into an armbar.
With just this one move, Lili Zi’s equally powerful jujutsu skills were demonstrated to the fullest.
In this instant, Shangshan Che had already become Lili Zi’s “meal on the plate.”
“Elder Sister, you’re using me as a practice dummy…”
Before Shangshan Che could finish his words, he felt a surging qi and blood rushing into his body from every point of skin contact.
Making his body surface rapidly heat up as well!
“Don’t talk too much.” Lili Zi’s hoarse voice mixed with the high temperature rose from his neck, “Quiet your mind.”
Shangshan Che: ?
His thoughts, just disrupted by the incoming qi and blood, were suddenly stunned, feeling an extraordinary sense of disbelief.
No, you zero-frame initiation directly pulled me down and stuck to me.
And now you’re telling me to quiet my mind?
But in just a few seconds, the rapidly incoming qi and blood transformed into a considerable amount of power, which was quickly absorbed by Shangshan Che’s physique that already far surpassed Lili Zi’s.
Skin, blood, muscle, bone, fascia… qi and blood permeated everywhere, nourishing the physical body.
At the same time, Shangshan Che clearly felt this rapidly expanding qi and blood being consciously guided by someone.
This route and sensation were very familiar to Shangshan Che—it was Lili Zi guiding him in embracing the core.
Glancing back with his peripheral vision, Shangshan Che saw the girl who was clinging to him with all her might, turning into a backpack on his back.
He saw her breathing heavily with effort, sweat continuously flowing out and then rapidly evaporating.
Even in this state where she could barely manage herself, Lili Zi was still doing her utmost to provide him with all the help she could.
Shangshan Che stopped overthinking, forcibly clearing his mind as she said and quieting down, rapidly refining this excess qi and blood in this strange posture.
Until approaching noon.
The last strand of qi and blood was finally drawn back by Lili Zi into the great elixir in her abdomen that had expanded several times, becoming part of the power she had increased by several tenths that morning.
Shangshan Che also heavily exhaled, feeling as if he had been pulled out of water, completely soaked.
In the hot air, clothes soaked with sweat stuck to the skin.
The young boy and girl were drenched and pressed tightly together—this would normally be an ambiguous scene, but the high temperature sufficient to distort the air forcibly blocked all extraneous thoughts.
Even now, misty steam was still continuously rising under the sun’s scorching heat.
Not only himself, but Lili Zi’s condition hanging on his back was even more extreme.
Though he at least still had strength to move, she seemed to have reached her limit, unable even to twitch a finger.
The moment this thought arose, Shangshan Che felt the qi and energy in his body recovering at a clearly perceptible speed.
Raising his eyes, the prompt timely popped up under the sunlight.
【Due to absorbing and refining a large amount of incoming high-purity qi and blood, your physique +1!】
【Due to absorbing and refining a large amount of incoming high-purity qi and blood, your Dan Embracing Progress +30!】
【Embracing the Core（12/100）】→【Embracing the Core（42/100）】
【Due to absorbing and refining a large amount of incoming high-purity qi and blood, your Corona Breathing Technique·Muscle Refining Stage·Profound Flesh has been completed!】
【Due to completing the Profound Flesh stage, your physique +2!】
【Due to completing the Profound Flesh stage, your muscle strength has significantly increased!】
Heh.
A smile appeared at the corner of Shangshan Che’s mouth.
No wonder his stamina was recovering so quickly—not only had his physique increased by three points at once, but he had even conveniently completed the Profound Flesh stage.
This brought him one step closer to ascending the high mountain of the Palace of Flesh.
In just over ten seconds, Shangshan Che’s previously blurry and confused vision became exceptionally clear again; he could now even manipulate the flow of qi barrier through every muscle fiber.
Naturally, the qi barrier faced no more obstruction when passing through the muscles.
Thought manifests instantly, deeper fusion, less consumption, higher efficiency.
“Good thing not a bit was wasted…”
Beside his ear, Lili Zi’s intermittent sticky murmur drilled in.
Shangshan Che then remembered the little backpack on his back—after hours of such close contact, he had subconsciously forgotten about it.
He helplessly rolled his eyes: “Next time you do something like this, at least say something.”
The girl murmured dreamily in a small voice: “The situation was urgent, where was there time to say… anyway… the result isn’t good, is it…”
In a few moves, he pried apart Lili Zi’s sticky, drenched body and placed her on the rooftop, then stood up and summoned Flame Armor with his thought.
In the black-red shining flowing flames, all the sweat disappeared in an instant.
Shangshan Che moved his body with a sense of relief.
Lili Zi lying on the ground struggled to open her eyes wide and exclaimed softly,
“What’s this, so cool…”
“A hard-to-master Onmyōdō.” After saying this, Shangshan Che paused and added, “It consumes spiritual power.”
“Tch…”
The girl, who couldn’t sense spiritual power at all, pouted and let her powerless self flop on the ground like a salted fish.
Shangshan Che flicked his finger, using qi barrier as an extension of his arm to sweep away all the sweat from Lili Zi’s body, condensing it into a small ball which he tossed onto the lawn below to nourish the flowers and grass.
Lili Zi was too lazy to say thanks, hummed and then asked: “I’ll go back to my room to lie down later, what are your plans, Shangshan Jun?”
Shangshan Che, enveloped in black-red flames, said: “This Flame Armor on me is just one step away from perfection, so I’ll take the opportunity to complete it.”
Lili Zi, struggling to regain control of her body, asked in self-doubt,
“Damn, after messing around all morning, you’re not tired…?”
“Rather than not tired, it’s more like full of energy.” Shangshan Che grinned at her.
Lili Zi sighed to the sky: “Shangshan Che, you’re not human at all…”
……
After about ten minutes when Lili Zi went downstairs to meet Tamamo’s strange gaze, Shangshan Che began to complete the final step of Flame Armor.
—Linking the five Flame Seeds into a pentagram circulation.
This principle was somewhat similar to qi circulation, and with the practical help from the memory orb, the difficulty for Shangshan Che was practically zero.
But using the method of completing Flame Armor to clear the last bit of residual spiritual energy deep in his body was Shangshan Che’s real purpose.
Under the blazing sun, the five Flame Seeds slightly detached from the body and hovered, deeply linking with each other under the guidance of extremely high-purity spiritual power.
Whoosh.
A barely audible sound like a flame flickering rose, then quickly subsided into the body.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Immediately after were four identical sounds.
Inside Shangshan Che’s body, invisible from outside, the five crystal-clear Flame Seeds were now tightly linked together, forming a black-red pentagram within.
Flame Armor, perfected!
Shangshan Che, with firelight glowing deep in his pupils, performed internal vision and laughed after sensing that all residual spiritual power he could detect had disappeared.
【Due to perfectly linking the five Flame Seeds, Onmyōdō·Flame Armor rank has been elevated to “Perfection”!】
【Due to your Flame Armor elevating to Perfection, your physique +1!】
【Flame Armor（Perfection）】
【Effect: Thought as flowing fire, flowing fire on body!】
【—An ancient Onmyōdō method created by someone at the end of the Heian Period but left incomplete. You have cultivated this method to the level of its creator, perfect and flawless.】
Perfected Flame Armor, only +1 physique this time.
As expected, the higher the attributes, the harder it gets to increase them—if his physique were over a hundred now, even completing a full set of Flame Armor would probably only give +1 attribute.
Accompanied by Shangshan Che’s thought, Flame Armor emerged, seemingly no different from before.
Perfected Flame Armor indeed didn’t offer much pure numerical improvement compared to the great accomplishment stage.
But due to the establishment of the circulation, Flame Armor could no longer be breached from any single point by external attacks.
To breach Flame Armor, one would have to exhaust all the spiritual power stored in the five Flame Seeds.
Besides that, the five Flame Seeds together absorbed heaven and earth spiritual energy much faster, allowing recovery to peak state in shorter time.
This way, to harm Shangshan Che, one would have to overcome the dual protection of “Flame Armor” and “Qi Circulation.”
Ordinary opponents couldn’t even make him bleed.
“Just Flame Armor is this impressive, I wonder what Heavenly Cycle Flame Armor will be like.”
Shangshan Che fantasized a bit—Heavenly Cycle Flame Armor, as an Onmyōdō useful even to Wild Gods, its power would surely dwarf Kujo Shingo’s fireball by far.
Moving mountains and filling seas would be commonplace.
And as long as he secured a high TOP position in this Seed Battle, obtaining the Heavenly Cycle Flame Armor method would be effortless.
The biggest hurdle in cultivating Heavenly Cycle Flame Armor, “spiritual energy,” posed little difficulty for him with master-level Spirit Control Technique imminent.
But speaking of Spirit Control Technique…
Shangshan Che took out his mobile phone, quickly fully charged the battery with effortless Five Thunder Technique, then dialed Sister Nanjo’s number.
“Sister Nanjo, can I reserve tomorrow’s 200x Spirit Energy Room OK?”
“Spirit Energy Room?” Nanjo Emi’s tone rose a bit, “Didn’t you just come a couple days ago? Not full?”
“A couple days ago was for cultivating a new Onmyōdō that needed lots of spiritual energy, this time is different.”
Shangshan Che said: “My Spirit Control Technique is about to break through.”
“Oh?”
Nanjo Emi was first surprised, then laughed: “Then come over tomorrow.”
Her tone was subtle: “I’ll prepare it… nicely for you.”
Shangshan Che raised an eyebrow: “Prepare?”
“Right, we already set the Seed Battle Elimination Round time this morning.”
Shangshan Che was speechless: “Sister Nanjo, since when did your topic-shifting skills get as bad as Lili Zi’s.”
Nanjo Emi oh-ed, drawled: “So do you want to hear this firsthand info or not?”
“Yes.”
“Heh… Time is June 30th, starting at 10 AM.” Nanjo Emi hung up without waiting for reply, “Hanging up now, see you tomorrow.”
June 30th?
Shangshan Che put down his mobile phone, opened White Hannya’s panel, and looked at the remaining promotion time above.
He was right.
White Hannya’s promotion to Three-Star was exactly on June 30th, around 6 AM!
This timing was perfectly spot-on like never before!
What a wonderful opening!
Shangshan Che even wanted to cheer, but since the Seed Battle hadn’t started, he refrained from popping champagne early.
But no matter what, the Seed Battle starting at this time was greatly advantageous to him!
Under the sunlight, Shangshan Che gazed at the Incarnation Card faintly glowing with light and whispered: “Minamoto Shizuka, Saito Ryuichi, Kitada Kei… come, let me see your limits…”
……
That night, on the rooftop of Shangshan Che’s house.
With experience opening the Sunday Acupoint, Shangshan Che more familiarly opened the Moonlight Acupoint, feeling a clarity in his spiritual platform.
【Your skill, Corona Breathing Technique proficiency +150!】
【You have completed Sea of Qi cultivation·Moonlight Acupoint!】
【Your Palace of Flesh Cultivation·Muscle Refining Stage·Heavy Blood progress has increased!】
【Due to opening Moonlight Acupoint, your qi barrier storage limit has increased, your qi barrier recovery speed has increased!】
【Due to opening Moonlight Acupoint, Human Divine Treasury progress has increased!】
【Current progress: 2/108】
【You have gained trait·Moonlight!】
【Moonlight】
【Effect: When bathed in moonlight, your spirit recovery speed and spirit strength slightly increase.】
“After qi barrier enters flesh, it’s the blood.”
Feeling his blood throughout his body become heavier and more substantial, Shangshan Che, like having taken cheap Soul Incense Ash, comfortably enjoyed the moonlight’s embrace.
Sunday Acupoint and Moonlight Acupoint, these two effortless acupoints opened, meant the beginner buffs were used up.
From here on, not only did difficulty spike, but there were no fixed sequence acupoints for them to open.
In theory, the remaining 106 acupoints could be opened freely.
And in countless people’s cultivation over long ages, the Tokugawa family summarized in the Life River Breathing Technique, dividing into Minor Divine Treasury, Major Divine Treasury, and Complete Divine Treasury three stages.
Likewise, in each stage, they provided many different “recommended routes” for opening acupoints.
Minor Divine Treasury, i.e., opening the first twenty-eight acupoints, had three recommended routes to choose from.
Shangshan Che pondered for a bit but didn’t decide.
But this wasn’t urgent; he could figure it out slowly with Lili Zi after Spirit Control Technique broke through.
He looked at the girl shrouded in faint silver glow.
Under the moonlight, Lili Zi with eyes lightly closed and even breathing stilled was as serene as the night, pure and flawless like a fairy fallen to the mortal realm.
But as she opened her eyes, this serenity was instantly shattered by the Sword Heart felt clearly even from afar.
Sword Heart shone brilliantly, unaffected in the slightest.
The so-called Moonlight and serenity were merely insignificant backdrops to the Sword Heart.
“Feeling refreshed.”
Lili Zi raised her hands in a lazy stretch, pleasantly curling her lips toward Shangshan Che,
“Now, I can’t sleep at all.”
