Chapter 169: Ruthlessly Complete the Breathing Technique

Pushing open the door, the scenery of the entire small courtyard was laid bare.

The two-foot-tall adult floating in mid-air, hugging a sword, was silent, merely opening her mouth slightly, revealing a complex and baffling expression.

Uesugi Toru also stood in place with a wooden expression, showing a look of deep thought.

As for the blacksmith shop's young apprentice, he knew his identity, what he should and shouldn't look at, and directly stood by the enclosure wall, directing his gaze at the other houses not far away.

Anyway, if it was something he could watch, Mr. Toru would speak up, and it wasn't a problem to wait a little longer.

Having received big figures at the blacksmith shop for several years, aside from memorizing their information, the most important principle the apprentice learned was "sense of propriety."

Sense of propriety, every fraction of an inch was extremely important.

When associating with those in high positions, one needed to know when to advance a fraction and when to retreat an inch.

In controlling this distance, the apprentice might not say he had reached perfection, but he could only say he was ten thousand li better than his mediocre forging skills.

And what kind of strange, bizarre "scenery" had appeared in this sufficiently spacious courtyard...

In Uesugi Toru's eyes, that tall, sturdily built, short-haired woman wearing very little cloth was actually just lying there with her eyes closed, unconsciously "swimming" in the center of the courtyard paved with gravel.

That woman lay sprawled on the gravel, covering herself with nothing, her wheat-colored arms and thighs continuously lifting and falling, sending piece after piece of gravel flying.

As for why it was called swimming...

That was naturally because uninterrupted "pu pu pu" water-striking onomatopoeia rhythmically emitted from the woman's mouth, marking a three-three beat for the surging waves.

"No way, is that the legendary Okabe Motonobu?"

After a good while, Uesugi Toru finally plucked his heartstrings and confirmed to the two-foot-tall adult who also wanted to ask this question.

Actually... he just wanted to find someone to complain to.

"There is no second person existing in the courtyard." The two-foot-tall adult blinked silently, "If the address is correct, then it should be her."

Actually, Okabe Motonobu not being the expected burly macho man, but instead a "fierce woman," though it startled Uesugi Toru a bit, wasn't too far outside expectations.

After all, even Imagawa Yoshimoto had become like this.

What truly stunned him was Okabe Motonobu's behavior, which could be called performance art.

Because at a glance, Okabe Motonobu in the courtyard had her eyes tightly shut, showing no reaction whatsoever to their arrival, undoubtedly asleep...

That is to say, all of this before his eyes was actually sleepwalked into existence by her.

"Two-foot."

Uesugi Toru moved his gaze away from those scarce three or two pieces of cloth, lowered his head and rubbed his temples: "Wake Okabe-sama up first, don't let her freeze to death out here."

—Tsk, don't the people here all eat poorly, how did she grow like this?

—Or is it forged through training? Can this thing even be trained to get bigger?

The two-foot-tall adult, who had compared sizes for a good while while standing in mid-air and then fell into self-doubt, landed on the ground and ran *dada da* into the courtyard.

She dodged the attacking fine gravel while turning her head, and said softly in a gentle voice,

"Okabe-sama? Okabe-sama? Please don't sleep here, you'll catch a cold."

The two-foot-tall adult called tirelessly for several minutes before Okabe Motonobu, backstroking in the gravel pile, twitched her eyelashes and opened her eyes with difficulty and exhaustion.

Amidst the cover of messy hair strands, a barely visible slit was revealed.

"Mm..."

Okabe Motonobu felt she had finally been fished out of the boundless, endless sea; she turned her head but saw no familiar face or figure.

Only this strange girl holding a vermilion uchigatana, wearing water-dried clothes.

She mumbled somewhat dazedly: "Thanks, little guy."

"But I'm so sleepy I can't open my eyes now, continuing to sleep here is fine too..."

Seeing Okabe Motonobu was actually about to fall asleep sitting there again, the two-foot-tall adult hurriedly said: "Okabe-sama! My master came precisely to solve your sleeping problem!"

This sentence gave Okabe Motonobu, who had just finished yawning, another shot of wakefulness.

She opened her eyes a sliver wider, turned her head again: "Is my eyesight bad? How come I don't see anyone else?"

The two-foot-tall adult looked at the woman before her who, even in deep autumn, dressed as lightly as midsummer, wanting to speak but stopping.

But in the end, she still pointed at the thin fabric on Okabe Motonobu's body.

"Oh... this ah."

Okabe Motonobu waved her hand, smiling: "This is no problem, completely no problem, I don't mind."

The two-foot-tall adult confirmed once more, and received the exact same answer.

Since the person herself had said so, she had no need to say more, but waved her hand toward the doorway, calling Uesugi Toru in.

After Uesugi Toru walked closer, he discovered that Okabe Motonobu's whole body surprisingly also had a faint Gang Qi continuously flowing around it.

This was the first Breathing Technique practitioner who had completed Gang Qi Circulation he had encountered since coming to the Sengoku Period.

No, that's wrong.

His pupils contracted slightly; he stared carefully for two seconds before discovering Okabe Motonobu's Gang Qi Circulation was not faint at all.

On the contrary, it could be said to be extremely condensed and solid!

Because she had retracted and controlled all the Gang Qi Circulation originally surrounding her body onto her body surface, actively compressing it into an extremely tiny gap, it only appeared that the Gang Qi quantity was very small.

So, the real situation was that Okabe Motonobu's control over her own Gang Qi was extremely high, it could be said to surpass him by at least two levels.

—No wonder she dares to sleep outside wearing so little, turns out she has Gang Qi Circulation to insulate against cold and heat, completely unable to freeze to death.

Okabe Motonobu was likewise looking at Uesugi Toru.

Accurately speaking, she was looking at the Gang Qi Circulation on his body surface.

Gang Qi Circulation, in the Sengoku Period where Breathing Technique cultivation is the main path, can almost be called the "Proof of the Strong."

Because this can be said to be the first true chasm on the Breathing Method Road, a difficult barrier hard to cross even with vast amounts of time, hard to grind down.

Over a hundred years, it has stumped countless samurai of different origins and classes.

And before forging the Flesh Palace, one must certainly complete Gang Qi Circulation first, to be able to continue tempering the body and continuously become stronger.

A moment later, the woman stood up. Though her eyes remained half-lidded, her tone was no longer lazy as before, but deliberately straightened up a bit.

"May I ask who you are?"

"Toru." Uesugi Toru slightly raised his head to stare at the woman, who was taller than himself, and said, "An Onmyoji directly under Lord Imagawa, and nowadays can be counted as a samurai of the Imagawa Clan."

"Toru... sounds familiar."

Okabe Motonobu knit his brows with some distress, almost closing his eyes: "Lately, it seems I've heard this name in many places."

Only after she finished speaking did she realize that Uesugi Toru had just said the term "Onmyoji."

The woman was rare to be stunned for a moment, and asked back: "Onmyoji?"

Uesugi Toru nodded, extended a finger, and made a small flame dart out from his fingertip.

"The reason I came this time is also because of Lord Taichou's request, saying that Lord Okabe seems to have been troubled by sleep problems lately... Upon seeing you just now, indeed not in vain."

"Wow."

Okabe Motonobu almost let his nose tip touch the outer flame of the fire, not at all afraid of being burned.

She clapped her hands and praised: "Toru... hmm, that's what you're called, right? Mr. Toru's talent is truly something Motonobu has only seen once in his life."

"Really amazing."

Because being recruited by the lord with the identity of "Onmyoji" proves that compared to attainments in Breathing Technique, this Toru has definitely gone further on the path of Yin-Yang Technique.

—That was what Okabe Motonobu thought.

Uesugi Toru shook his head and put away the flame: "Trivial skills, not worth mentioning."

"Being too humble isn't good, it easily makes others think you're showing off."

Okabe Motonobu bent down again to approach Adult Ni Shaku, extended his hand to pinch her soft little face, and hehe-laughed: "Little sister is so cute... Mr. Toru, is this your Shikigami?"

Uesugi Toru turned a blind eye to the resentment constantly emitted by Adult Ni Shaku, who was completely unable to resist these demonic claws, in his heartstrings.

"She is called Adult Ni Shaku; Lord Okabe can just call her Ni Shaku normally."

—Heh heh, Ni Shaku, you bastard, you always ruad me when transforming into a four-tailed fox before, now let you experience this taste yourself!

"Mm-hmm, little Ni Shaku is so cute."

After speaking, Okabe Motonobu directly scooped up Adult Ni Shaku and held her in his arms, rubbing her all over like stroking a cat's fur, and she smiled with narrowed eyes:

"Then Mr. Toru, let's go inside first."

Uesugi Toru nodded, and when he turned back he saw the apprentice had already walked far away waving at him, blinked an eye, and followed Okabe Motonobu into the house where she usually lived.

"It might be a bit messy, please don't mind~"

Just as he opened the door and entered the Earth Seat Area belonging to her personal resting quarters, Uesugi Toru's eyebrows twitched violently.

You call this a bit messy?

—Because, within this Earth Seat, apart from a small tatami-matted resting area, everything was occupied by scrapped wakizashi, uchigatana, tachi, various long spears.

Even broken bows and arrows.

Compared to Okabe Motonobu's home, Uesugi Toru was more willing to call this place "Abandoned Weapon Recycling Center."

However, although so many scrapped weapons were piled up randomly, the whole room was unexpectedly clean and tidy, with almost no obvious household garbage or filth.

This Lord Okabe is indeed not one to fuss over trifles.

"Because I don't return often, so I haven't tidied up much."

Okabe Motonobu kicked a large pile of weapons into the corner with one foot, himself holding Adult Ni Shaku with his back to the sword blades and sat there, gesturing for Uesugi Toru to sit on the safer side,

"Mr. Toru, please sit, please sit."

After sitting down, Uesugi Toru took some time to accept that Okabe Motonobu was not the "loyal and brave man" of history, but the person before his eyes.

Then he slightly organized his words and said: "This time is to solve Lord Okabe's sleep problem, but currently there are no good leads, so how to start solving it still requires you to tell me the details first..."

Uesugi Toru suddenly stopped speaking.

Not because he discovered any clue.

But because Okabe Motonobu, who was halfway through ruading Adult Ni Shaku, actually fell asleep just like that in front of him, tilting his head!

Uesugi Toru: "..."

It seems Okabe Motonobu has indeed been tormented to the point of being unable to stay awake these days.

Uesugi Toru called her name twice more before Okabe Motonobu suddenly woke up, straightened his body, and let out a long yawn.

"Sorry... I was just too sleepy and accidentally fell asleep, please Mr. Toru say it again."

She put on a look of serious listening.

So Uesugi Toru repeated once more, in short asking Okabe Motonobu to provide as much useful information as possible.

"Oh... is that so."

Okabe Motonobu narrowed his eyes, tilted his head to think for a good while before saying: "Apart from being woken up by inexplicable noises every midnight, there are no other strange places.

But when not asleep, there is no such noise."

"It's precisely because the cause can't be found that I'm getting more and more sleepy... leading to wanting to sleep now..."

Uesugi Toru did feel a demonic aura.

However, this demonic aura was extremely faint, and almost evenly distributed throughout the room, so much so that he couldn't accurately locate the source at once.

So Uesugi Toru first suggested: "If Lord Okabe wants to temporarily replenish your spirit, would it be possible to stay at the Imagawa Residence, or change to another place?"

"I'm afraid not... I have to do my daily training on a large empty space every day."

Okabe Motonobu pinched Adult Ni Shaku's little face flat and round: "More importantly, after I fall asleep I'm rather unrestrained, so it's inconvenient to sleep with others."

Uesugi Toru recalled Okabe Motonobu "swimming on his back" on the gravel ground in the courtyard just now, and thought this was indeed a problem.

"Then Lord Okabe, let's wait until late at night after you fall asleep here to talk again."

"Okay..."

Okabe Motonobu hadn't finished speaking when his abdomen let out a series of gurgling sounds.

"Ah, my body says it's a little hungry." She stood up, squinting with a smile as she asked, "Mr. Toru, Ni Chi, if you haven't had lunch yet, would you like to try my cooking?"

Usually, solitary cultivators with appetites as large as Okabe Motonobu's aren't bad at cooking.

Because almost no one can keep eating their own dark cuisine every day.

So Uesugi Toru lowered his head slightly: "Then I'll trouble Okabe-sama."

Ni Chi-sama, equally peckish, temporarily placed Kaga Kiyomitsu on the ground and followed Okabe Motonobu out the door.

She had to prevent Okabe Motonobu from falling asleep before he even started cooking.

Otherwise, lunch would be out of the question!

And not long after, Okabe Motonobu lived up to expectations and fell asleep.

But he didn't fall asleep before cooking; instead, after the dishes were done and while waiting for the rice to cook, he leaned against the wall and started snoring.

If Ni Chi-sama hadn't come back to check, that big pot of fragrant white rice would have all turned to charcoal!

On the oversized dining table.

Uesugi Toru looked at the small mountain of rice piled up not far ahead, and a large basin of pork stewed with radish that looked colorful and very appetizing, feeling somewhat surprised.

Because he remembered, wasn't there some hunting ban issued during the Sengoku Period, forbidding everyone from eating meat?

So the commoners of the Sengoku Period were all rather short in stature.

But the woman before him seemed to not know about this decree at all, eating large mouthfuls of meat at every meal.

Okabe Motonobu slammed his large basin heavily onto the table: "Eat as much as you can, and I'll finish every last grain of what's left!"

Seeing that Uesugi Toru still hadn't moved his chopsticks, she patted her chest to explain,

"Because I've been tempering my muscles all over recently, so I definitely need to eat more! As the saying goes, three parts training, seven parts eating! To train well, you first have to eat well, right!"

Tempering muscles all over... refining flesh?

Okabe Motonobu had actually almost completed the overall forging of the Flesh Palace?

This was truly, unexpectedly learning a major piece of news.

Uesugi Toru served himself a large bowl of rice, then used a wooden spoon to scoop up a pile of radish and pork and began wolfing it down.

The first bite of food entered his mouth, and his movements paused slightly.

Mm, the taste was unexpectedly good.

Soon, the mountain-like rice and the large basin of pork stewed with radish were completely finished.

Okabe Motonobu alone polished off seventy percent.

Uesugi Toru patted his round belly, finding it hard to imagine how she alone had stuffed so much food into her body,

"Then Okabe-sama, Ni Chi and I will pretend to leave, you sleep as usual, and we'll catch the culprit tonight."

"Okay, then I'll trouble the two of you."

Time flew by, and soon it was late at night.

Outside Okabe Motonobu's home.

Uesugi Toru, having almost completely concealed his own aura and spirit power, looked back at the "conspicuous" Ni Chi-sama and said,

"Ni Chi, you stay outside to keep watch."

"Then Toru-sama, be careful."

Ni Chi-sama stayed a hundred meters away from the courtyard, watching Uesugi Toru silently vanish into the darkness.

Soon, Uesugi Toru poked his head out from the courtyard wall and heard the faint rustling coming from inside the house.

The sound was very fine and very light; if one didn't listen carefully, it couldn't be discovered at all.

Then, not surprisingly, he discovered Okabe Motonobu with half his body hanging in the doorway, his expression looking somewhat tormented.

He was probably half-asleep and half-awake, muddled, but not fully awakened by the noise.

Uesugi Toru couldn't help but sigh,

—Sometimes, having too good hearing is also a mistake.

He held his breath, mixed into the darkness, carefully stepping over Okabe Motonobu who was lying limp on the ground constantly wriggling and murmuring in his sleep, and entered the Earth Seat.

Squeak, clink, hiss hiss...

Sparse and strange sounds occasionally came out, attracting Uesugi Toru's gaze.

Huh?

In the pile of discarded weapons?

Could it be that one of these trained-and-scrapped weapons had become a spirit?

With a curious mindset, Uesugi Toru walked to the side of the weapon pile without making any sound, then used his gaze to scan inch by inch, not missing any corner.

After a long time, Uesugi Toru finally discovered something wrong.

"It seems not to be a weapon becoming a spirit."

He thought in his heart, then leaned his face closer.

Uesugi Toru quietly gazed at the one mixed among the weapon pile, covered in dirt all over, holding a small rag, seriously and diligently wiping every notched blade weapon's...

Hamster?!

Hah?

The culprit who had made Okabe Motonobu unable to sleep well for quite some days—actually, was a palm-sized translucent hamster?

After a moment, an inconspicuous gray prompt popped up above the hamster's head.

—【Gu Chang (Zero-Star)】.

Gu Chang?

Uesugi Toru frowned and pondered for a full half minute before finding related knowledge about it from his memory.

Gu Chang is a type of youkai that looks filthy on the outside but actually loves cleanliness very much.

If humans are too lazy to tidy their living spaces, causing their living places to become filthy and messy, it usually leads to Gu Chang appearing to clean up the environment.

Uesugi Toru suddenly had a realization.

No wonder he had seen nothing but scrapped weapons in this Earth Seat before, yet the interior of the house was unexpectedly so clean.

It turned out to be because Gu Chang worked hard every night!

And the reason Gu Chang came every day was because Okabe Motonobu trained with such intensity that he basically ruined quite a few ordinary weapons in a day, then threw them here.

Case solved!

Uesugi Toru reached out, gripped Gu Chang's slender tail in one go, and lifted it up into midair.

"Squeak squeak! Squeak squeak squeak!"

Gu Chang, holding a small rag, was instantly startled and panicked, wanting to shake off this big hand and drill back into the dark corner to work hard.

Uesugi Toru looked at this dusty, panicked little mouse and for a moment wanted to laugh.

"Although it was this little fellow who made Okabe Motonobu listless during the day, its intentions were still good...

As for how exactly to handle it, let's wait until morning to ask her directly."

"Alright, I won't do anything to you for now, so rest assured."

Uesugi Toru used Spirit Control Technique to communicate with Gu Chang for quite a while before letting it understand his meaning.

"Squeak."

Gu Chang sat on his hand holding a rag, looking somewhat at a loss.

Next afternoon.

Uesugi Toru brought Gu Chang to Okabe Motonobu's house again.

Just as he approached the door without knocking yet, Okabe Motonobu pulled open the room door in one go, stretched a super-large yawn with full spirit,

"Mr. Toru—I really haven't slept such a wonderful sleep in such a long, long time!"

Ten seconds later she recovered, heavily exhaled a turbid breath, and asked curiously: "Could the cause have already been found last night?"

Uesugi Toru extended his left hand, using Spirit Power to outline Gu Chang's shape, letting the mouse blinking its big eyes, still not knowing what had happened, crawl onto his palm,

"Here, Lord Okabe, it should be this little fellow who made you unable to sleep well for so long."

"It?"

Okabe Motonobu supported his chest with one hand and touched his chin with the other, obviously somewhat confused: "How did it make those strange ding-dang sounds?"

"And how could I possibly not have discovered it?"

For a strong person like Okabe Motonobu with sensitive perception, even if an ant disturbed her sleep, she should have caught it long ago.

Uesugi Toru said with a smile: "Because it is a small youkai called Gu Chang; if there is no Spirit Power within the body, one cannot discover this kind of weak and harmless youkai."

"Weak and harmless..."

Okabe Motonobu pondered for a moment, and used his finger to point at Gu Chang, who had a white cloth tied on its forehead,

"It indeed looks like this, completely lacking the fierce god evil appearance a youkai should have; instead it's quite cute."

Uesugi Toru, seeing this, added: "This Gu Chang's intentions are good; it wanted to help Lord Okabe clean the house, only it is both afraid of people and too weak to appear except at night..."

Therefore, it would only make the "cleaning sounds" when you were sleeping.

Okabe Motonobu drew out a long "oh," and clapped his hands in surprise,

"No wonder my house is so clean every day! Thank you!"

Pausing, the woman then said somewhat troubled to Gu Chang: "Although I'm very grateful, but could you please not disturb my sleep from now on, otherwise I really will get angry..."

Gu Chang was frightened by this aura and shrank all over, squeaking as it ran onto Uesugi Toru's shoulder.

Uesugi Toru put it back onto his palm, and seriously translated Motonobu's words to it once.

"Squeak? Squeak!"

Gu Chang tried to understand for a while, then nodded heavily.

Okabe Motonobu, seeing this scene, blinked his narrowed eyes: "Huh? It actually understands human speech?"

Uesugi Toru shrugged: "After all, it's a youkai that has stayed with humans for quite some time."

"In that case... Mr. Toru, can you always let it maintain a form where I can see it, so I can raise it?"

Uesugi Toru was slightly stunned, then after asking Gu Chang soon received an affirmative reply.

"It says it can."

So Okabe Motonobu smiled and took over Gu Chang, beginning to tirelessly and earnestly teach it some very basic precautions.

Uesugi Toru, standing in place, didn't expect things to be resolved so simply, and watched Okabe Motonobu teasing the little mouse for a while.

Then he realized that since the matter was already over, could he now go back to Imagawa Residence to "browse" those breathing techniques the Elders had given him?

Great!

But before that, he still needed to inform this future colleague of his about the Mikawa Uprising.

"Lord Okabe, regarding the Mikawa Region Uprising..."

"Mikawa Uprising?"

The voice, cold as a forest, made Uesugi Toru feel as if all the blood in his body had frozen for an instant.

He slightly turned his gaze and discovered Okabe Motonobu opening his eyes for the first time.

Those pupils were indifferent, like iron and ice.

As if reflecting the deaths of ten thousand enemy armies.

End of Chapter