Chapter 322: The Eerie Black-skinned Book: My Name Is Shangshan Che; When You See This, I’ve Already Died
In an instant, an enormous bubble nearly the size of a person emerged from the boundless mud, thousands of times larger than ordinary bubbles.
Then, it burst with a pop!
Under the illumination of deep purple light, a massive blur of radiance shot into the sky, transforming into streams of prompts.
Shangshan Che watched the prompts jumping before his eyes, his gaze brightening slightly.
This ten-pull yielded a full nine types of materials.
Among them was a 【Super Epic】 quality 【Earth Vein Dragon Qi】, one of the core materials needed for Hundred-Eyed Demon to ascend to Ghost God.
With this, Shangshan Che had gathered two-thirds of the core materials, only missing the most precious 【Hirasaka Pupil Spring】.
Placing portion after portion of materials into the empty slots of the “Promotion Formation Plate,” Shangshan Che couldn’t help but smile.
His luck lately had truly been excellent; fortune had finally turned in his favor.
Or perhaps…
Shangshan Che recalled what Katsumi had said earlier—he was enveloped in Huo Jin’s “favor.”
Could it be because of that?
But Huo Jin doesn’t govern luck, right? It couldn’t be that reducing the disasters on him slightly caused his luck to skyrocket.
Hmm, probably not.
Shangshan Che smacked his lips, his gaze shifting slightly.
Of course… he hadn’t forgotten that this ten-pull only produced nine promotion consumables.
Besides that.
There was one more thing, something unexpected.
Shangshan Che looked at the Black Notebook in his Storage Bag, shrouded in thick gray light.
The moment he took it in hand, the gray light visibly dissipated at a speed the naked eye could follow.
The instant the gray light vanished, a prompt for an equipment item popped up.
【Black Book of Future Prediction】
【Quality: Legendary】
【Effect: By using the text that appears on the Black-skinned Book, pay a certain price to foresee a certain amount of the future.】
【—The future manifests upon it.】
Legendary item?
Shangshan Che was stunned.
A single ten-pull yielding one Legendary Grade and one Super Epic?
What a joke?
He examined back and forth the book in his hand, on whose cover was written 【Notebook】.
It looked completely like an unremarkable Black Notebook that could be bought for a few dozen or hundred yen at a Convenience Store.
If it had said 【Death Note】 on it, Shangshan Che might have thought this thing was something special.
“A tool for foreseeing the future… this seems a bit overpowered.”
Shangshan Che muttered to himself, about to flip it open, when his brows suddenly furrowed.
Because normally, the light from a ten-pull in the Gacha Pool is determined by the highest quality item among them.
If this notebook was a Legendary item, then the light just now shouldn’t have been deep purple, but at least pale gold, right?
Also.
Shangshan Che, who had just used the Heart of Yao Bikuni, recalled.
—【Heart of Yao Bikuni】 was emerald green.
—【Myriad Spirit Furnace Core】’s panel was brilliant gold.
Why was 【Black Book of Future Prediction】 this line ordinary white?
Ordinary white, identical to Epic and lower items?
After pondering this strangeness, Shangshan Che blinked and prepared to continue studying the notebook in his hand.
But then he discovered…
The name suffix of this notebook had already turned pale gold.
That’s right, the 【gold】 belonging to Legendary Grade items.
But Shangshan Che clearly remembered this line being white earlier—one pair of eyes might be mistaken, but Hundred-Eyed Demon’s dozens of eyes couldn’t all be wrong together.
Shangshan Che silently stared at the Black Notebook in his hand, narrowing his eyes slightly.
This notebook wasn’t quite right.
In his contemplation, he subconsciously rubbed the notebook’s cover with his fingertip, realizing the texture didn’t feel right either.
Not the cheap plastic or synthetic leather used in ordinary notebooks. But…
Parchment?
Shangshan Che thoroughly inspected the notebook up and down, his proficient and meticulous technique leaving Two-Foot Adult beside him stunned.
No.
Not parchment either.
He had touched parchment before; the 【Lin】 character formula, one of the Nine Syllable Mantra, was stored on a Parchment Scroll.
Compared to the texture of the Black-skinned Book’s cover, that Parchment Scroll had subtle differences.
An ordinary person might not notice, but to Shangshan Che, it was like night and day.
Exactly what it was, perhaps only flipping it open would reveal.
With this thought, Shangshan Che no longer hesitated and directly opened the somewhat heavy black cover.
After the cover, a slightly curled sheet of yellowish paper appeared before Shangshan Che’s eyes.
At this moment, the yellowish paper displayed several lines of writhing, eerie and ferocious blood-red characters!
【My name is Kujo Machi. When you see this sentence, I have already been killed by those things…】
What the hell?
Shangshan Che was slightly taken aback, but before he could finish reading the lines below, those blood-red characters rapidly faded and vanished from his sight.
Turning into a blank expanse of yellowed paper.
And just as he thought the phenomenon was over, new lines of blood-red characters replaced them, densely appearing out of thin air on the paper.
【My name is Shangshan Che. When you see this sentence, I have already died due to the hidden disaster planted during my ascension to Ghost God. This is important information left by my future self through unknown means. You must firmly remember what follows…】
Shangshan Che didn’t read further.
He focused his gaze, fixing all his vision on the first three formulaic lines, silently staring at the blood-red characters writhing like living things.
A long-lost sense of eeriness rose in his heart.
The last time he felt this was when he realized Old Man Ghost’s existence.
But the next moment, Shangshan Che suddenly grinned, his tone sinister.
“After killing so many demons, I’d forgotten I haven’t encountered many Supernatural Phenomena or traditional monsters…”
He licked his lips, as one by one, enormous black eyeballs emerged from the void beside him, their whites completely filled with twisted, bizarre bloodshot veins!
Even Two-Foot and Little Jia, who had been giggling beside him, were startled by the scene and fell silent.
Dozens of eyeballs floated, all surging toward the Black-skinned Book in his hand with excited, savage gazes.
In the areas Shangshan Che wasn’t looking at, the continuously emerging blood characters stopped, and the original ones ceased writhing.
Shangshan Che was deep in thought.
Of course he wouldn’t believe a single word from this book radiating inexplicable Qi; believing it would be the real ghost.
But in truth, he still had one doubt in his heart.
—How could something this eerie come out of the Gacha Pool?
This Black-skinned Book wasn’t something picked up off the street; it was drawn.
Since it was a drawn item, it must have some use for him…
Maybe this book did have some 【Prophecy】 power, but it probably needed to be 【used correctly】.
After a dozen or so seconds of silence, Shangshan Che made the dozens of ferocious eyeballs vanish, smiling expressionlessly at the Black-skinned Book: “Likes to deceive, likes to not say a single truthful word, huh.”
In his skin-deep, mirthless coldness, Shangshan Che said,
“In that case, come with me to the Assembly later to chat with our family’s Huo Jin.”
At these words, the blood characters on the Black-skinned Book changed dramatically, erasing the original text and turning into new words.
【After Shangshan Che does this to the Black-skinned Book, he will suffer backlash from his luck, gradually encountering misfortunes, and his friends around him will die mysteriously one by one…】
Misfortunes?
This Black-skinned Book was utterly mad.
Now Shangshan Che truly laughed, his tone kindly: “You can say that to our family’s Huo Jin later; let’s see if you can make me unfortunate or if She can make you unfortunate.”
The blood characters paused briefly, then abruptly changed.
【You will regret today’s Decision!】
Shangshan Che remained unmoved, merely sneering coldly.
A few seconds later, the Black-skinned Book seemed to realize threats were useless against Shangshan Che, and crooked, overlapping layers of blood characters appeared on its pages.
【Don’t! Don’t! Don’t…】
Amid countless ferocious, twisted 【don’ts】, Shangshan Che tossed it straight into his Storage Bag.
In an instant, all the blood characters froze, motionless.
“Spoiled you rotten; I spent 800 Soul Ash drawing this item, and now it’s threatening its Master.”
With a cold snort, Shangshan Che noticed the prompt on the Black-skinned Book beginning to change gradually.
From the original pale golden 【Black Book of Future Prediction】, it shifted to a murky gray 【Area Unlock Item·Black Skin Person Book】.
Completely different prompts popped up below the Black-skinned Book.
【Area Unlock Item·Black Skin Person Book】
【—Bring this item to the designated location to unlock a new area.】
“So it’s an Area Unlock Item; no wonder it came from the Gacha Pool.”
Shangshan Che nodded thoughtfully.
However, the prompt didn’t specify where the “new area” was; it might only give directions after he finished handling things in the Sengoku Period.
Next, he turned his gaze to the 【Black Skin Person Book】.
“It’s this skin, huh…”
Shangshan Che then realized what that familiar yet different-from-parchment texture was.
Turns out, it was this eerie Black-skinned Book that had hidden the original “person” character.
Not only that, it could even alter the panel prompts he saw based on his own thoughts…
It was the first time Shangshan Che had encountered such an item.
Its exterior was shrouded in gray light, not the previous golden light.
So whether it was the Legendary item’s panel, the suddenly changed golden name suffix, or the inexplicable blood characters above, they were probably all deceptions for some unknown purpose.
This Black-skinned Book was very eerie.
Not a single word it said could be believed now.
Its only function now was to serve as an Area Unlock Item to open the next map.
But there was still one very strange thing.
Shangshan Che closed his eyes, recalling the first sentence he saw upon opening the Black-skinned Book.
That 【Kujo Machi】, who was it?
Clearly, this thing was drawn by him from the Gacha Pool and held in his hand, so why did it initially display a completely unfamiliar name?
Someone from the Kujo family?
Countless names flashed through Shangshan Che’s mind in an instant… but as one of the ancient Onmyoji Families that greatly rejected 【Heretical Paths】, how could it be connected to something this eerie like the Black-skinned Book?
He took out his Mobile Phone, not dialing Nanjo Emi’s number as before—now that she had just gone to Hokkaido, she must be extremely busy.
So Shangshan Che called Tamamo’s number, asking her to investigate this name.
Tamamo agreed energetically without hesitation, saying it had been so long since she did any proper work that her skills were getting rusty.
Shangshan Che checked the time, stood up from the bedside, and beckoned to the two whispering little ones nearby.
“Two-Foot, Little Jia, time to go.”
It was time to head to the Minamoto Family.
This trip to the Minamoto Family had an unknown destination, probably hidden in some Deep Mountain Forest, and they’d need to take the Special Affairs Office’s exclusive car, which would take quite some time on the road.
No point keeping them waiting any longer.
Shangshan Che fastened Kaga Kiyomitsu to his waist and led the bouncing Two-Foot Adult out the door.
He planned to summon the Wax Figure and White Bone after returning—going to the Minamoto Family, who knew what trouble these two might cause midway.
Better to avoid extra complications.
Scanning with the All-Seeing Eye, Shangshan Che easily located Lili Zi, who was sitting by a Room’s window, meditating in place of sleep.
Having Two-Foot Adult wait outside the door, Shangshan Che entered the Room.
On the other side of the Room, Shizuma Manatsu and Kitano Runa, worn out from playing, were sleeping soundly, completely unaware of the new presence.
Lili Zi opened her eyes, her gaze calm as autumn water.
“I’m heading to the Minamoto Family; use this for now.”
Without many words, Shangshan Che directly took out 【Goro’s Sword】 from his bag.
This thing had little use for him now, since he had already cleared the boy Kamizumi inside.
Better to give it to Lili Zi to study and exchange sword techniques with Kamizumi inside; who knew, she might have a big surprise for him upon his return.
Leaning close to her ear, Shangshan Che quietly explained how to use it and suggested she could guide Chisa together with Kamizumi inside when free.
“Okay.”
Lili Zi said no more, accepting the item that resembled a kendo pendant.
As Shangshan Che rose to leave, Lili Zi’s voice entered his ear, making it tingle pleasantly.
“Safe travels.”
In the Darkness, Shangshan Che nodded.
After stepping out, he dialed the number from the Special Affairs Office, leading Two-Foot Adult downstairs to board the heavy, pitch-black armored exclusive vehicle.
The Driver on the car was very taciturn, not saying or asking a single extra word.
Shangshan Che enjoyed the peace, leaning back in the rear seat and glancing at Two-Foot Adult, who had eagerly pulled out her Mobile Phone to play extensively, and Little Jia cozily snuggling up.
He sighed quietly.
The harm of electronic products to children is immeasurable…
Before closing his eyes, Shangshan Che instructed Two-Foot Adult via his heartstring that he was “sleeping” and to wake him if anything came up.
Two-Foot Adult, seemingly absorbed in her Mobile Phone, replied with three “yeses,” then sneaked a couple glances at Shangshan Che, her body starting to wriggle over slightly.
Without thinking more, Shangshan Che entered the Walking Assembly.
……
After some soft, watery pressure for unknown reasons, Shangshan Che opened his eyes in the empty Walking Assembly.
This time, Huo Jin didn’t come to sit by the Shrine to greet him.
Shangshan Che blinked and looked down, finding Huo Jin indeed sitting at the center of the Plaza, fiddling with her Controller, not having moved her butt an inch.
The only change was that the torn-open Chip Bags and empty Happy Water bottles beside her had multiplied.
Multiplied a lot, a lot.
Shangshan Che’s mouth twitched.
Looking again, the screen still showed the game “Snake,” but it had become a super invincible giant dragon.
The enormously long Snake made every turn in the crevices incredibly difficult, causing Huo Jin to lean forward slightly, beads of sweat seeping from her pale little forehead.
Better not disturb her for now…
Shangshan Che sat down silently and pulled out the Black-skinned Book from his Storage Bag, flipping it open without restraint.
The original dozens or hundreds of 【don’ts】 on it immediately vanished, replaced by a large line of blood characters thick with Taunt.
【Shangshan Che, it seems you already know that was a foolish and wrong choice…】
But this line of blood characters hadn’t fully manifested when it suddenly froze, as abrupt as a computer crash.
After a good while, a tiny line of ant-like blood characters appeared below.
【Shangshan Che… you…】
This line of blood characters was crooked and shaky, even scattering apart disjointedly.
【Where have you brought me!?】
