Chapter 90: A Little More Than Ruthless
But in just an instant, Lili Zi said sinisterly,
“If you don’t reach Clear Sword Heart by age eighteen, obediently roll back to the family and marry some useless second-generation heir from another great family, hehehehehe……”
Seeing Shangshan Che’s strange look, Lili Zi spread her hands,
“Isn’t that how it’s written in script games? Most stories are terribly clichéd.”
Shangshan Che was too lazy to respond to her; she’d clearly read too many light novels and Dragon King Returns stories, and it was incurable.
“By the way, Shangshan Jun, when we leave the school gate, want to come back to the Special Affairs Office with me?” Lili Zi leaned over, raising her fist, the muscle lines on her forearm clearly defined. “We can even do an extra training session tonight.”
“If you think I didn’t beat you enough this afternoon, just say so.”
Shangshan Che gave her a blank look: “I’m going straight home to sleep soundly later.”
——Entering Edo Castle to grind Soul Ash hard also counts as sleeping soundly, no problem.
Lili Zi tsked, turned back around, and continued walking beside Shangshan Che.
Only this time, the distance wasn’t a clear half-meter divide, but a somewhat blurry two-fist gap.
“Sister Mafuyu is already waiting for us at the doorway. What’s up, get in the car?”
Shangshan Che answered with action.
In no time, the two at the school gate saw that battle-scarred van.
The van’s window was rolled down, so from far away they could see Shizuma Mafuyu in her OL outfit sprawled over the steering wheel snoring away, with a can of black coffee placed beside her hand.
Lili Zi scoffed: “Drinking coffee and then sleeping, fighting poison with poison? If you can’t sleep well, you won’t perk up either—that’s just pure self-torment, right?”
“You can tell you’ve never been a coffee-drinking corporate slave worker.”
Shangshan Che sighed in empathy, “You know, in that initial period after drinking coffee, sleeping is the most efficient thing. You’ll wake up feeling super spirited.”
“I don’t care, Sister Mafuyu driving this sleepy is definitely dangerous.”
Lili Zi frowned, and just as she reached the car, Shizuma Mafuyu suddenly snapped her head up, staring fixedly at her with two incredibly prominent dark circles under her eyes.
“There won’t be any danger, Miss Tokugawa.”
Shizuma Mafuyu said somewhat dazedly, then pulled out a Nanjo Doll from her pocket that Shangshan Che recognized—it was a bit rough and frayed at the seams.
Just as the two outside the car thought she was about to perform some Onmyōdō, Shizuma Mafuyu poked the doll on the forehead with her finger.
Then, as if triggering some mechanism, the doll slapped her across the face with two sharp smacks!
The sound was crisp and loud, striking without mercy.
It was hard to imagine how the doll used its two soft, powerless little stubby hands to deliver such a ruthless, resounding slap.
The two outside the car were both stunned.
Lili Zi swallowed the “That’s not convincing at all!” that was already at her lips and couldn’t help giving two thumbs up: “Sister Mafuyu, you’re a real tough one.”
Shangshan Che’s eyebrow twitched wildly as he watched, his face even feeling phantom pain: “Pure werewolf, even tougher than tough.”
The two got in the car.
After deciding to drop Shangshan Che off first, the girl in the passenger seat couldn’t help but speak up: “Sister Mafuyu, why don’t you learn the Breathing Technique from me too? Otherwise, with your fragile little body, I see you keeling over from sudden death in the early hours of overtime someday.”
Shizuma Mafuyu pursed her lips and focused on driving: “I’ll pass on that……”
It would affect Junior Officer Nanjo.
“It would affect Junior Officer Nanjo—Ms. Shizuma, that’s what you’re thinking, right.”
Shizuma Mafuyu gripped the steering wheel tightly with both hands, while Lili Zi looked at Shangshan Che in the back seat fiddling with the battle-damaged seatbelt with a face full of confusion.
Lili Zi first stared at Shizuma Mafuyu’s profile for a moment, then turned her head in shock to ask: “Don’t tell me you learned mind-reading Onmyōdō too, Shangshan Jun?”
After discovering the seatbelt buckle was broken, Shangshan Che didn’t bother with it, yanked it off and tossed it on the seat before saying: “It’s just because Ms. Shizuma has her thoughts written all over her face.”
“Oh, oh!”
So Lili Zi turned back, and during a 100-second red light, she grabbed Shizuma Mafuyu’s hand earnestly: “Don’t worry about this, Sister Mafuyu. Junior Officer Nanjo won’t care about something this minor, and I’ll handle Great Officer Kondo on that end.”
“—If you really end up in the emergency room from an all-nighter, Manatsu would definitely cry too.”
“Ah……”
Bringing up Manatsu, Miss Tokugawa is too sly!
Shizuma Mafuyu rarely let irritation show on her face; she ruffled her hair hard, feeling her thoughts tangled into a mess.
So she pulled out the Nanjo Doll again and repeated the trick.
After two crisp slaps, Shizuma Mafuyu felt the swelling on her face and nodded silently: “I’ll learn.”
Because if she couldn’t toughen up her constitution a bit, she wouldn’t even be able to take a couple more slaps from the doll Lord Nanjo gave her.
At this rate, how could she keep helping Lord Nanjo share the workload!
Lili Zi glanced at the dumbstruck Nanjo Doll, then at Shizuma Mafuyu who looked energized after the slaps, and secretly thought, so Sister Mafuyu likes this kind of play.
“In that case, I’ll teach you properly, Sister Mafuyu!”
“Mm! I’ll work hard at it, Miss Tokugawa!”
Shangshan Che was baffled—how did the mood suddenly get all fired up after the doll slapped again?
……
Waving goodbye to the two, Shangshan Che realized that even Lili Zi, with her incredibly sharp senses, hadn’t detected Old Man Ghost’s presence in his home at all.
This showed Old Man Ghost still had plenty of substance; it was just that Sister Nanjo was way stronger than these newbies.
Nanjo Emi had only ever deployed shikigami to fight right in front of him, never lifting a finger herself… so exactly how much Onmyōdō she mastered, or whether she cultivated Breathing Technique at all, was pure unknown.
“Until my strength hits Three-Star, I’ll be counting on you, old man.”
Shangshan Che had just pushed open the door when he caught a faint fishy smell—not like blood, but thick with demon qi.
——Had Old Man Ghost caught another demon trying to break in for robbery and murder?
After some routine activity, Shangshan Che found evidence of that pitiful demon—or rather, the pitiful Ox Demon’s sole remaining trace—under the kitchen faucet.
In the sink, a pair of pitch-black Ox Demon horns covered in spiral patterns lay in the corner; Shangshan Che picked them up—
【Ox Demon Horn】
【Quality: Excellent】
【Effect: Grinding and consuming it slightly enhances constitution.】
Shangshan Che grinned. Old man, old man, keeping you around was the right call.
The difficulty of getting extra demon materials like this was like logging into a game daily to idle and collect veggies.
Besides that, on the strainer still clinging with stray veggie leaves, a dozen or so snow-white teeth remained.
