Chapter 712: The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter · Continued

"This one does not remember only under two circumstances—one is not wanting to remember, and the other is when these people committed dangerous acts against Gensokyo, so they were cleaned up and their reality corrected by that old hag Yukari."

Kaguya spread her hands and said: "But it's basically all the same, I guess."

"In the residual impressions, occasionally there are guys like those Hideyoshi-types, men and women alike, who came to Eientei with the purpose of 'conquering' me."

"Most of the time they were Yuyin Yonglin's patients. Some with decent temperaments and conduct, if they hadn't done anything wrong, were probably sent to the Outside World after recovering; a few stayed in the Human Village."

"The rest just provided games and manga that don't exist in the Outside World, or played along with things like King of Fighters. Occasionally I'd run into someone with special abilities who could be used to trigger an Incident."

How should one put it.

A sliver of sympathy appeared in Sayetsuki Rin and Su Lin's gazes toward that group of youngsters.

They were completely blinded by beauty, failing to notice that the combined age of the whole group wasn't even a fraction of Grandma Kaguya's age, and were being toyed with in the palm of this old and wicked woman without realizing it.

"'Conquer.' You still like playing games that much, huh." Sayetsuki Rin's mouth twitched.

"As one of the characters in Gensokyo with the most worldly experience and the highest 'conquest' difficulty, if I were this easy to conquer, the people who once pursued me madly—Imperial Prince Shikibu, and Fujiwara no Fuhito, that's Hotoke's old man—those people might be so angry their coffin lids couldn't hold them down, you know~?"

Kaguya chuckled teasingly and said: "Off topic. So the reason I don't remember Akarin might be the work of that youkai idler."

"Rorin, go back and take out that youkai idler," Su Lin said with considerable sympathy.

"So what the hell are Akarin and Rorin?! My full name is Sayetsuki Rin—even if I forgot, didn't I just tell you guys moments ago?!"

Thinking about these things now is meaningless.

Looking into the bamboo grove, at that Houraisan Kaguya from some unknown era maintaining her cool image, floating in midair, looking down at the crowd trying to climb the social ladder for passage permission.

Su Lin wanted to give the Kaguya beside him a suggestion: from now on just shut up and stay still like this, and she might still salvage a bit of her first-impression image in everyone's hearts in the group.

"The two of you don't seem any different?" Su Lin was somewhat puzzled: "Is this reproduced spacetime fragment really this real?"

Whether in speech and bearing or in the perception given off, it didn't resemble an image from a stretch of history—it felt as though they existed in the same state as these people.

Spacetime turbulence, or something like time travel?

"This one's Hourai moment can be infinitely divided and exist within every instant."

Kaguya said with considerable pride: "Within this eternal Hourai moment, it can perfectly be considered as having detached."

"Why don't you go up and chat with her?" Su Lin asked.

"No use."

Kaguya lightly stroked a strand of hair on her shoulder

?? laughed softly: "Hourai moments split from one another; she will never see me."

Eternity means a world without past or future that never ends. In such a world, any activity seems suspended in the river of time, leaving no trace in history.

The Hourai moment, by contrast, is the instant that opposes eternity.

Didn't expect the Hourai moment to have such a special aspect. After all, for Kaguya, in daily life she just wildly courts death relying on the immortality of the Hourai people.

"The moon in the sky is also false. We're probably in the period of the Eternal Night Incident right now."

Kaguya looked up, thought for a moment, and said: "Logically speaking, as the sixth-stage final BOSS, I shouldn't be appearing here. Let me think..."

To protect Reisen from being conscripted by the Lunar emissaries and taken to the Moon, Eientei at that time hid the real moon and replaced it with a false one.

Of course, that was only the original reason. Later on, triggering the Incident was just to blend into Gensokyo and hold an event similar to a fireworks show.

"Lady Kaguya! I brought you manga and games from the Outside World, please listen to me—"

Apparently weary of the endless chatter, 'Houraisan Kaguya' tilted her head, and several spell cards materialized in her hand.

"Eternal Senior Ye Fan · Morning Mist"

"Eternal Senior Ye Fan · Daybreak"

Bizarre and otherworldly sights continuously emerged from the void; dense, rain-like barrages of attacks fell one after another from the dome above—gorgeous yet no less intimidating.

If this were any other time, taking a couple hits wouldn't matter, but now the Spell Card game had become a survival game. All participants had gained the possibility of defeating the strong, but injuries would deduct existence points in the resurrection match—no one dared to step forward and take the risk.

Some had decent positioning, but those who couldn't dodge in time were hit by light bullets, their health bars immediately bottoming out, and amid wailing they dissolved into fragments scattered across the sky.

"They came out with ultimates right away..." Su Lin watched the barrage that could give one trypophobia and sucked in a cold breath.

Even viewed as a computer game, the Touhou Imperishable Night before their eyes was hell difficulty—probably one's fingers would have to smoke from pressing before finding a gap to slip through.

It wasn't that no one began to counterattack; some even joined forces, firing barrages with their spell cards to launch attacks, and there were even spatial-type skills that struck the basically undefended Houraisan Kaguya.

Yet her gaze held no concealment whatsoever, as if long-suppressed emotions had been released, her excitement cast toward the crowd.

"Eternal Senior Ye Fan · Morning Star."

"Eternal Senior Ye Fan · World of Light."

A fleeting dream, supremely resplendent—as if day had come at the end of night, light about to arrive. Not a treasured collectible, but the strongest attack, replicated using the power Houraisan Kaguya herself possessed.

"I remember now. After this Great Barrier reset, I was very bored, had no interest in games or manga,

and didn't want to follow the route as the final BOSS, so my aggression was relatively high, and the battle-lust BUFF was in a stacking state."

Su Lin, hiding in the bamboo grove and listening, suddenly noticed 'Houraisan Kaguya's' peripheral gaze flick toward this direction.

"Holy shit!?"

The barrage boiled, rapidly expanding, as if suns upon suns were breaking through the eternal night. In the gradually fading eternal night, they descended slowly yet resolutely from the sky, covering every spot of the bamboo grove.

"Buddha Sign · Sole Supremacy!"

The declaration fell, golden lotuses bloomed. Su Lin, with a clear meritorious halo of light behind his head, one hand pointing to the sky, the other supporting the earth, eyes filled with compassion, sat cross-legged in the void.

A Buddha's golden body stood towering; billions of Buddhist rays blossomed; the sky-covering glazed swastika seals filled every remaining gap. Accompanied by a single 'Namo,' the Buddha was everywhere and yet nowhere to be seen.

With a thunderous roar, deep Zen intent, carrying the Buddhist radiance that slaughtered all things and purified the world, the barrage scattered, and the eternal night returned once more.

【Existence -3%, continuously recovering】

Although the 'Buddha Sign' designed by Su Lin had a dense barrage and clearing effect, in the name of fairness its drawback was that one couldn't move and could only serve as a target. In this dark Spell Card game where lives were staked, it was a double-edged sword.

The outsiders whose health bars hadn't yet bottomed out went pale. 'Houraisan Kaguya' descended from the sky, her mood seemingly a bit better: "One more round?"

You think this is Gwent?!

"Hm?"

Noticing Su Lin's gaze, 'Mount Penglai Kaguya' swept her eyes over him from head to toe, looking somewhat impatient.

"Although with my beauty, it's not impossible for a Buddha to break his precepts," she said with a hint of mockery:

"But this master, surely you won't be like them, claiming to know me well?"

Su Lin tugged at the corner of his mouth, his gaze drifting aside. The 'Mount Penglai Kaguya' of this spacetime was completely ignoring the person beside her who was laughing uproariously without a shred of decorum.

"If it weren't true love, who would willingly be a simp?"

Kaguya egged him on: "At this point you should flatter me a few times, she might just let you pass."

Breaking precepts?

Yeah, it's about time to start harboring murderous intent.

Seeing the other party take out the Hourai Elixir Branch, as if about to launch the next round of spell card battle

"I am Fujiwara no Fuhito, Kaguya, don't you remember me?"

"?"

Mount Penglai Kaguya froze, along with the few nearby competitors who had begun to retreat or were unwilling to give up their rematch.

Su Lin stepped out from the bamboo forest that served as cover, coming into the light. His features were sharply defined, his eyes harboring deep sorrow.

"The turkey will hunt you down for ten days and ten nights"

Ignoring the words at his ear, Su Lin raised his right hand,

Reaching out from afar as if to touch her, but the motion stopped abruptly and he pressed his palms together.

"From the Nara period until now, over a thousand years have passed."

He took a deep breath and said wistfully: "I cultivated ceaselessly just to see you one more time. Now my cultivation has borne fruit, and I have finally become an immortal, regaining my youth and taking on the appearance of my younger days. Don't you really remember me?!"

Having said this, he sighed long and wept, unable to contain himself, tears streaming down his face.

"No," Mount Penglai Kaguya's eyelid twitched twice: "I do indeed remember Fujiwara no Fuhito."

"Really?" Su Lin said joyfully.

Completely not expecting Su Lin to give such an answer, after a brief daze, the corners of her mouth rose unconsciously.

"But aren't you a monk?" Mount Penglai Kaguya asked: "Attaining Buddhahood and becoming an immortal are two different things, aren't they?"

"Uh"

Su Lin lowered his head to glance at the Buddhist greeting he was maintaining, and said nonchalantly: "Buddha is originally the Dao, Buddha and Dao are one family. I recently went to Tianzhu to study abroad from the heavenly realm, just got back and I'm not quite used to it yet."

Where did this divine being come from now?

The surrounding spectating competitors were dumbfounded. The 'Fujiki Kiichi' who had been hit by Su Lin with a dump truck earlier but had not gone to another world hurriedly jumped out:

"Princess Kaguya, don't be fooled by him. He's an outsider, he was just driving a truck to hit me!"

"I opened a Fujiwara tofu shop in the outside world, recently came back to Gensokyo to expand business, that was the tofu delivery truck."

Su Lin said without changing expression: "My daughter is also in Gensokyo. Thanks to your Elixir of Immortality, we were able to reunite. I'll have her drive up the mountain to deliver a portion to you another day."

Is this man insane?!

How could he utter such an obviously fake line?!

"I do remember the history of Fujiwara," Mount Penglai Kaguya said with a playful smile:

"But your appearance differs greatly from my memory. After you were caught back then for sending someone to craft a fine jade branch to pass off as the Hourai Elixir Branch, and fled from home, where did you go to cultivate?"

"I didn't go anywhere to cultivate back then. I stayed behind closed doors at the Fujiwara household the whole time. Later, shamelessly, I had Mokou deliver a letter to you, with a poem inside." Su Lin said shamefacedly:

"At that time, every man under heaven wanted to see you day and night. Even just one glance would leave them sleepless all night."

Hearing these words, Mount Penglai Kaguya opened her mouth in surprise.

【Hurry up, what else can prove I am Fujiwara no Fuhito.】

【Why should I help you trick myself?!】

So she said, but next, as Su Lin spat out details from the past, the smile on Mount Penglai Kaguya's face gradually faded, her expression turning strange.

"Mm, it really does look like Lord Fuhito"

Visibly, the surrounding crowd seemed to all be

Typing question marks.

"There are too many people here, let's go inside. I can tell you about my experiences over these years."

【Harem System prompt: Mount Penglai Kaguya Affection +1, Curiosity +15 (Man, you've successfully caught my attention)】

Setting aside the suspicious data sent through the chat group, the 'Mount Penglai Kaguya' before him was clearly not easy to deal with, to put it mildly, she was a handful.

"It's wonderful to see an old acquaintance from those days, but so much time has passed now. Lord Fuhito and I aren't as familiar as we once were. The old difficulties remain unresolved, and Eientei today has no reason to invite you in as a guest."

Mount Penglai Kaguya pulled out a few spell cards and said with great interest: "How about keeping me company for a bit of fun?"

In the bamboo forest not far away.

Kaguya spread her hands and shook her head, "So even if he really is Fujiwara no Fuhito, it's useless~"

"You really do have a lot of suitors." Saigetsu Rin, who had heard about the current situation in Gensokyo earlier, watched that group and said with a twitch of her mouth: "Seems like quite a few people in there are utterly devoted to you?"

"Most likely they were won over by my beauty during the encounter." Kaguya waved her hand as if it were nothing, saying:

"The five difficulties are already from the early tenth century version. Back then I also had too many suitors and, given my status at the time, couldn't refuse them outright, so I posed five difficulties as a test. However, those items are actually all in my hands, and there are no second copies."

"If it were now, I'd have to think... I'd also add a condition that the person must be able to spend tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years of daily life with me and still be alive at the end, because whether yokai or human, they are all so fragile."

"A thousand flowers in riotous bloom, memories as well"

"Desires too."

The corners of her mouth bearing a faint smile, she slowly sat down leaning against the green bamboo, gazing up at the false bright moon and stars. The surroundings gradually fell silent, only the weeping of cicadas remaining.

"All the tangible things in this world, the sorrowful times of this life, including my own appearance, are actually just like this moon."

"Therefore, for the one true but equally fragile emotion, one must choose where to entrust it even more carefully."

Kaguya slowly raised her hand as if trying to touch the moon. Her bangs, longer than her brows, tilted slightly, her eyes lowered. The hanafuda 'Susuki and Moon' on her right sleeve slid down along her arm.

Boom—!

A muffled sound came from behind.

"No need to wait, my lord, you—"

"Hard work pays off. After all these years of cultivating on Penglai Immortal Island, I've never forgotten what happened back then."

Huh.

Kaguya blinked, tilted her head back, grabbed Saegetsuki Lin's clothes and scrambled up from the ground, looking out beyond the bamboo grove.

The Jeweled Branch of Hourai, the Treasury of Heaven, the Buddha's Stone Begging Bowl, the Fire-Rat Robe, and the Dragon's Neck Jewel spun out one by one in clockwise order.

That looked like something she had left behind?

Hold on—could this person possibly want to—

"I've found every treasure." Su Lin displayed them in turn. "Now can we go in and talk about the past?"

It was plainly visible that the 'Kaguya of Mount Hourai' at this point in time gradually grew a vacant look, her eyelids twitching wildly, as she swept a dazed gaze over those items.

After quite a while, the other party finally raised her head to look at Su Lin.

"To be honest, the old difficulties are already outdated—now there are new ones."

Kaguya of Mount Hourai inexplicably took half a step back, the odd look in her eyes growing thicker, yet still maintaining a smile: "If you could find the Moon's Titanium Ore, the Philosopher's Stone, the entire ceiling of Kinkaku-ji, and a mysterious substance—"

"What a coincidence—I just picked these up over there." Su Lin pulled out the gemstone he'd snatched from Hoshi, then produced three more treasures.

"."

Kaguya of Mount Hourai was speechless for a moment, a faint, ambiguous smile curving her lips: "Please."

"Wait a moment, I'll go start the car." Su Lin nodded.

"Then has he already met the first condition?" Saegetsuki Lin in the bamboo grove turned her head and asked: "Just the last condition left—how long have you two known each other—"

"All done." Su Lin walked over and gave a thumbs-up: "You—"

He stopped mid-sentence, because Kaguya was at this very moment repeatedly slamming her head against the ground.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Again and again, until she finally raised her head, blood streaming down from the top of her scalp.

'Kaguya… be careful not to get yourself played into a corner…'

Yuyin Yonglin's words from several days ago suddenly rang out.