Chapter 32: Fushimi Inari Shrine
On the bed, drenched in sweat and on the verge of vomiting, Shangshan Che took a while to recover before looking at the prompt that burst forth.
Twisting and Turning dropped 132 points of Soul Ash that met the strength requirement.
This brought his Soul Ash reserves to a full 472 points.
Even if a One-Star Gacha Pool required 50 Soul Ash per draw, he could still do a solid ten-pull and drain the new small Gacha Pool dry.
Seeing the Side Quest completion prompt, Shangshan Che was slightly stunned, thinking that Twisting and Turning was indeed the “White Scarecrow”.
Then he discovered that the task reward pools could actually be accumulated.
【You have selected to accumulate task rewards.】
Laughing Hannya’s level up was just over 30 hours away, and Aragawa Ghost Village’s Exploration Progress had reached 62% thanks to his running around everywhere.
At that time, he would complete Side Quest One and the two Main Quests together.
Shangshan Che believed that the accumulated reward pool would absolutely not disappoint.
Finally, Twisting and Turning dropped a Special Item.
Shangshan Che casually tapped the item’s description page, and soon his eyes widened.
【Awakening Spirit Mist】
【Quality: None】
【Effect: Reduces Resurrection cooldown by 4 hours upon use; automatically refills each natural day.】
【Special Effect: Direct consumption. Upon consumption, moderately restores stamina and energy, slightly restores Spiritual Power, and provides a slight continuous healing effect for injuries. Each use consumes 2 hours of Resurrection cooldown.】
This item’s effect was ridiculously overpowered.
Although the 4-hour Resurrection cooldown reduction was indeed quite key in the mid-to-long term, improving efficiency in exploring maps and completing tasks, it was still a fairly standard “game item”.
But the special effect was truly broken—it could be taken orally directly in Reality, providing all-around recovery and healing effects without logic.
Just like a Blood Potion in the game.
Imagine, in a situation where both sides were gravely injured and near death, Shangshan Che pulls out Awakening Spirit Mist from his Storage Bag, downs it in one gulp, and is full of vigor in just a few minutes.
How much psychological trauma would that cause the enemy?
Thinking of this, Shangshan Che took the Awakening Spirit Mist out of his bag and found it was a small cup about the size of a wine cup.
The cup seemed to be made of fired ceramic, with exquisite craftsmanship and a faint glaze sheen on the surface.
Shangshan Che peered into the cup and saw two crystal-clear drops of Qing Se liquid inside.
Time to test the recovery effect first.
—The gash Futodama had slashed on his back that afternoon still hadn’t scabbed over; any big movement caused a bit of pain.
Back then, when Nanjo Emi used Great Memory Recovery on the two cultists, Hiyori Bo just disinfected his wound and tossed him a roll of bandages to wrap it himself.
It was the kind of treatment that just kept you from dying.
At this critical juncture, Shangshan Che didn’t want to go to the Hospital, a place rife with Supernatural Phenomena, and stir up trouble; this flesh wound would heal automatically in one or two hours after turning into Laughing Hannya.
Naturally, it had dragged on until now.
Now it seemed perfect, saving Shangshan Che from having to cut two gashes on his arm!
Shangshan Che opened his mouth and dropped one drop of liquid into it.
The next moment, his Spirit surged, and his senses suddenly sharpened.
The aftereffects from being killed by Twisting and Turning vanished moments later, and a warm, itchy sensation came from the wound on his back.
Shangshan Che tore off the bandage and stood up. Looking in the Mirror, the wound on his back had already begun to scab over.
At this point, he felt bursting with energy; if Old Man Ghost weren’t outside, Shangshan Che would have gone out for a ten-kilometer run long ago.
“Good, good, good.”
The effect of this Awakening Spirit Mist truly gave him endless surprises.
Allocating the remaining two hours to the Resurrection cooldown, Shangshan Che habitually pulled out his Mobile Phone—as per past patterns of returning to Reality with a Walker, someone was bound to message him.
Sure enough.
Let me see what the new message is.
【Work to Die】: Our company’s annual leave got approved in a few days. Got time to meet up offline?
【Work to Die】: I’ve always heard Fushimi Inari Shrine is super popular but never had time to go. I have friends who know people there; they say there’s a chance to see the Legendary “Deity”.
Shangshan Che’s hand shook while holding the Phone—how had mythology become reality in less than half a day?!
In a couple days, no one would tell him the moon hanging in the sky was actually Tsukuyomi’s true form, right?
But he thought again: if there really was a so-called “Deity” at Fushimi Inari Shrine, that god would never allow outsider Demons and Monsters to approach the Shrine.
—In other words, it was a Safe House for when the First Wave arrived.
His Corporate Slave netizen was someone who could casually pull out a Ki-Gong Technique Fragment; the odds of bluffing were low.
So, going to Fushimi Inari Shrine… was undoubtedly the safest choice!
“—But for such cowardly fleeing with tail tucked, I refuse!”
Shangshan Che swiftly typed his reply.
【Moon Sand Sauce】: We have midterms coming up soon, so probably no time to go out… Also, best not to contact anyone acting strangely during this time.
【Work to Die】: Ah, alright then. Get some sleep. I’m off to overtime.
—As expected, unwilling to flee; was this the pride of a genius?
—After tapping the Phone Screen, Nanjo Emi, sitting cross-legged amid the pile of corpses, bit into a lukewarm chicken sandwich and asked while chewing:
“Shizuma, anything missed outside?”
Shizuma Mafuyu, pale and fighting nausea, turned her head tremblingly and replied: “Miss Hiyori Bo has finished her work, but Ms. Water Ghost still has two or three left.”
She could hardly imagine what mindset allowed Nanjo Emi to casually eat in a semi-sealed room, sitting on a pile of fire-charred, foul-smelling corpses.
“Then the work’s basically done, yay…”
With dark bags under her eyes, Nanjo Emi wolfed down her dinner in a few bites and weakly flashed a peace sign at her little sidekick.
The moment she stepped out and faced the other colleagues—she transformed from a listless office worker into the powerful, calm, and reliable Onmyo Junior Officer.
Nanjo Emi expressionlessly shook hands with the fire brigade leader: “We’ll leave the cleanup to you all.”
The leader: “Tomorrow, this will just be a chemical explosion incident.”
She nodded, turning back to smile at Shizuma Mafuyu: “Let’s go.”
But Shizuma Mafuyu couldn’t smile.
Whenever she closed her eyes, the gruesome deaths and pleas of those people flashed before her.
“I need to adapt to the new job quickly.” Shizuma Mafuyu thought silently. “Once I survive the three-month internship and get permanent, everything for little Xia will smooth out.”
Even for little Xia’s sake, she had to persevere!
“You got this, Shizuma Mafuyu! Just like all those exams in the past!”
She pumped herself up.
Then, Shizuma Mafuyu was sleepless the entire night.
……
The next day.
Shangshan Che arrived at school, skipped class as usual to train with Lili Zi at the Kendo Hall; after over three hours, Lili Zi was soaked in sweat, radiating youthful energy everywhere.
But Shangshan Che turned a blind eye; he only cared when his two skills would level up again.
【Your skill, Ki-Gong Technique Fragment proficiency +31!】
【Ki-Gong Technique Fragment（Proficient 201/300）】
【Your skill, Natural Reason School proficiency +15!】
【Natural Reason School（Beginner 280/500）】
Though both skills were close to Promotion, there was still a solid several-day gap in proficiency.
“I’m going to shower.” Lili Zi’s voice came.
—At a time like this, it was time to gamble; see if he could fish something good out of Edo Castle with one life.
Anyway, before Laughing Hannya leveled up, he had no confidence against Hachishaku-sama or White Hannya, so even if this life gained nothing, it wasn’t a loss.
Thinking it over, Shangshan Che simply closed his eyes.
Laughing Hannya pushed open the Room Door and familiarly walked into Edo Castle.
But before taking two steps, Shangshan Che with the Walker Token felt something trip his ankle.
