Chapter 99: Demonization Incarnation: Three-Tailed Fox (6k, please subscribe!)

Katsumi stared for a long time before taking out from his pocket the gold-inlaid pocket watch he had fished from the Factory Masters' hands, opening it and looking at the almost perfectly accurate time above.

The hour hand on the pocket watch had not even turned half a circle, was it a quarter circle?

In just a few hours, how exactly had this Walking Adult obtained hundreds or thousands of portions of Soul Ash?

If the time were stretched to two or three days, or even as short as twenty-four hours, Katsumi would not have been so shocked.

But a few hours...

Katsumi had been at this Kisaragi Station for two or three days, and had roughly figured out the characteristics of this special area shrouded in miasma.

So he naturally understood that it was very difficult to obtain Soul Ash from the "Chi" wandering around here.

But in such a short time, let alone using special methods to leave this area and search for scattered yokai in the wilderness, even if good luck brought that train, the round-trip time of the train would be longer than this, right?

And this Banruo Walker looked to be even less than two-star rank.

Such potential, such methods...

Katsumi pondered for a few seconds and had already made his calculations in his heart.

He immediately took out those two Cold Steel Arm Guards, smiling with narrowed eyes as he waved his sleeve to collect one thousand points of Soul Ash, bowing slightly and saying: "Thank you for your patronage, Adult, welcome to visit again~"

Uesugi Toru silently nodded, suppressing the joy in his heart as he was about to leave here and return to the Genjitsu to pull gacha.

He was about to step out of the shop doorway when he was stopped by that folding fan surging with waves.

"Adult—wait!"

Katsumi did not know when he had changed into a golden mask that looked somewhat festive, and facing Uesugi Toru's scrutinizing gaze, he took out from his sleeve a straw doll wrapped in white cloth with a blank label stuck on its head.

Katsumi handed over the doll: "This item, I gift to Adult."

Uesugi Toru touched the end of the doll, and a prompt immediately popped up before his eyes—

【Substitute Doll】

【Quality: Epic】

【Effect: After the user writes their real name in blood on the "Substitute Cloth," they can be resurrected once via the doll upon death. Invalid if killed by an existence of six-star rank or above. Cannot take effect across the barrier between Genjitsu and Chang Shi.】

【—Where the doll will be placed is a question.】

It was just resurrection; I can resurrect twice every day...

Uesugi Toru's gaze sharpened, seeing the last sentence after the effect column.

Wasn't this saying that this doll could take effect both in Genjitsu and Chang Shi?

Hiss—

This was completely equivalent to having an extra life.

"Adult naturally knows it best." Katsumi smiled, letting go so the doll fell into Uesugi Toru's hands, "Katsumi wishes to form a good bond with Adult using this item, and hopes Adult will not disdain it."

Correct, after realizing the meaning represented by these one thousand points of Soul Ash, Katsumi's decision was—to increase investment!

He had originally thought this Banruo Walker was just a walker with a conscience; conscience was a good thing, and Katsumi liked it, but that was all he liked.

Perhaps in the future, the two would meet again to trade, but that was the limit.

But being able to bring back relatively so many high-quality Soul Ash within just a few short hours made Katsumi's keen merchant nose discover that this person before him seemed to be more than just someone with a working conscience.

And more likely... a true dragon still swimming in shallow waters, not yet having met wind and clouds!

The waves were about to rise, and the golden great age was already right before their eyes.

At such a critical juncture, Katsumi naturally would not be stingy.

Anyway, it was just losing a slightly rare Substitute Doll.

But if he could form a good bond with one of the protagonists who might stand on the future stage, even if just letting him take note of himself once, the return on this investment could multiply tenfold or even a hundredfold.

"Thank you."

Although he did not understand what Katsumi had figured out in such a short time, the effect of this Substitute Doll was obvious.

So Uesugi Toru put away the doll, turned around, and placed the Ushi-oni no Kiba, the decayed Bushi Osode, and an extra Soul Ash Conversion Box on the counter: "Please, Boss Katsumi, appraise the price of these three."

Katsumi nodded and swept his gaze over the three items.

"A good-quality Ushi-oni no Kiba, counts as 40 portions of Soul Ash, but this large sleeve... is not very valuable, at most I'll give 10 portions of Soul Ash."

Getting 50 points of Soul Ash from two completely useless pieces of junk was already an unexpected joy, so Uesugi Toru naturally nodded and agreed to the trade.

Immediately after, Katsumi picked up the Soul Ash Conversion Box, examined it for a moment, and let out a sound of surprise: "This is an assembly-line product of the Yokai Guidance Society?"

Uesugi Toru was startled, and pretended to ask casually: "Boss Katsumi, do you know this organization called the Yokai Guidance Society?"

"Naturally I know." Katsumi spun the Soul Ash Conversion Box on his fingertip and slapped it down on the counter with a 'pa', "This box was designed by me at their request."

"The raw materials of the Conversion Box are not bad, counts as 200 portions of Soul Ash."

Uesugi Toru nodded: "Agreed."

After seeing his Soul Ash reserve change back to "1394", Uesugi Toru asked: "Boss Katsumi, how much do you know about the Yokai Guidance Society?"

This was equivalent to asking Katsumi for intelligence related to the Yokai Guidance Society with his cards face up.

However, Uesugi Toru estimated that since Katsumi had just gifted him a Substitute Doll, he naturally would not be stingy with some information floating on the surface.

Katsumi's tone was drawn out: "Before that, may I ask for Adult's name?"

Uesugi Toru: "Toru, just call me Toru."

"Then, Toru-sama." After pacing back and forth a few steps, Katsumi slowly said, "The so-called Yokai Guidance Society is just an organization spontaneously formed by a group of minor yokai who haven't amounted to much; although its history is fairly long, that's all there is to it."

"The leader on the surface... no, should I say the leadership group, is a council formed by Ghost Gods and Wilderness Gods who call themselves 'Master'."

Katsumi sighed as if he had finished singing a segment of a drama: "With this wave of waves coming, surely they have their own calculations too."

Ghost Gods, Wilderness Gods... minor yokai?

Ghost Gods commonly spoken of in Chang Shi are equivalent to four-star.

And Wilderness Gods, naturally, are above Ghost Gods, existences that truly establish shrines for worship and can absorb incense, with rank reaching five-star, super-terrifying Great Demons.

Uesugi Toru's complexion stiffened under his mask—but Katsumi actually called these four-star and five-star existences minor yokai who hadn't amounted to much?

Just how many terrifying existences has this store owner witnessed?

But this also gave Uesugi Toru a clear picture in his heart, letting him understand that the Yokai Guidance Association is by no means a top-tier existence in the present world; at the very least, there is still a huge gap between it and existences like the Aobozu or Shutendoji.

Uesugi Toru nodded: "I understand now, thank you for clarifying, Boss Katsumi."

"Not at all, being able to help Toru-sama with a few words is truly this humble one's honor."

Katsumi bowed slightly to Uesugi Toru as he walked out of the store, and chanted once more: "Toru-sama — then let us meet again after the grand era raises its curtain!"

Katsumi's farewell voice slowly dispersed, and after a surge of water pressure, Uesugi Toru returned to the present world once more.

……

The moment he opened his eyes, without even looking back, Uesugi Toru felt a gaze with an extremely strong sense of presence striking him from behind.

He lowered his gaze slightly, and saw the two-shaku Adult clinging to him like an octopus, sleeping soundly while sucking on a finger.

Naturally, he also saw the girl's long white legs under her skirt wrapped around his left leg like a clasp; who would see it goes without saying.

The two-shaku Adult is a Mononoke, so she most likely isn't afraid of the cold; therefore she didn't cover up with a quilt at all, and Uesugi Toru, whose whole body was warm and cozy from the healing of her embrace, naturally didn't realize he still needed to cover up with a blanket either.

After staring silently for a while, Shizuku withdrew her gaze and began carefully spreading a floor mat on the icy floorboards.

Uesugi Toru's scalp felt a bit numb; he thought for a moment, then took the initiative to speak: "Shizuku, the two-shaku Adult is just healing me……"

"Uesugi-kun, you really aren't asleep." Shizuku cut off his words, her tone flat, "Just now I felt the luck in your body fluctuate for a moment, and thought it might be my imagination."

"Also, no need to explain anything to me."

Shizuku glanced at him: "My heart isn't as narrow as you imagine; moreover, I'd quite like to see just how the Eight-Shaku Adult grew step by step from small to large."

"Must say, Uesugi-kun, contracting a Shikigami this blessed that lets you enjoy such fortune — I'm actually a little envious." Shizuku bit down heavily on the words 'enjoy such fortune'.

No, there is, it's absolutely there for sure!

After interacting with Shizuku for this long, just from her tone Uesugi Toru could tell she was being sarcastic.

If it weren't for the fact that the two-shaku Adult really was healing him, the former would likely have already raised her bamboo sword and slashed down in one strike.

But with the excuse of healing, no matter what more the two-shaku Adult did, even groping about wantonly in front of Shizuku's eyes, she would only turn a blind eye.

The weight of the matter, what is light and what is heavy — Shizuku has always been able to distinguish very clearly.

Shizuku lay down, pulled the thin blanket over herself: "Go to sleep already, Uesugi-kun. And remember to cover up; metabolism drops after falling asleep, it's the changing of seasons now, don't catch a cold."

— She really does, I'm crying to death!

Even when directly encroached upon right now, she can still say such heartwarming words in the cold late night.

Compared to Shizuku, those romance anime novel heroines who get jealous and quarrel over the tiniest little thing are simply pathetic!

Uesugi Toru sighed in his heart; the inexplicable guilt that had just arisen was fiercely severed by him — I didn't do anything shameful at all, okay!

Shaking off the trivial thoughts, Uesugi Toru half-narrowed his eyes and, after a long time, opened the gacha page of the "Abandoned Shrine".

He stared dead at the biggest three-tailed fox in the gacha pool's phantom image,

"Third ten-pull already, you've made me pull all the goods in the pool and you still won't come out?"

After frantically chanting for a drop in his heart for a full ten seconds, Uesugi Toru finally used his mind to fiercely click "Ten-Pull Salvage"!

Gacha pull, activate——!

Rumble——

Vibrations came from within the shrine, growing larger as time passed.

Could it be, this is a sign that a drop is coming?

Uesugi Toru stared tightly at the trembling shrine, watching two three-tailed foxes continuously carry out one Soul-Returning Incense Ash after another from the shrine's depths.

"How come everything that comes out is junk experience bottles?"

Uesugi Toru laughed; the first eight items were all Soul-Returning Incense Ash, just with the difference of tiny, small, and medium — his face was black beyond description.

The last two items, even without a pity system, give me at least a blue……

Just as if it heard Uesugi Toru's inner voice, the three-tailed fox, running with slight panting, carried a blue orb emitting a faint glow to the shrine doorway.

Looks like, it seems to be a scroll.

"A Rare Quality Enactment Scroll?"

An Excellent Quality scroll can add 100 proficiency points; this higher quality one can no doubt add three or four hundred points at least.

"This one is actually pretty good."

Uesugi Toru raised an eyebrow, then held his breath, waiting for the three-tailed fox that ran into the shrine depths to bring out the result of the final pull.

Rumble——

The shrine continued trembling, but gradually, the entire shrine's phantom image actually faded away rapidly, finally taking the gacha pool interface with it and disappearing from Uesugi Toru's sight.

The Abandoned Shrine, disappeared.

"Ah?" Uesugi Toru put a question mark in his heart, "No way, a bug? It swallowed the last pull alive?"

Wait, that's not right.

Only now did Uesugi Toru remember, there was still one three-tailed fox that, after bringing out the Enactment Scroll, just stood there on top of that pile of white and green orbs, and didn't leave even after the shrine disappeared.

Could it be……

Uesugi Toru stared tightly at it; that translucent three-tailed fox seemed to sense his gaze as well.

It unhurriedly licked its tail twice, then raised its head, and after looking at each other with Uesugi Toru, its whole body burst forth with a massive deep blue light!

Whoosh——!

As if a sound effect of a flash appearing exploded beside Uesugi Toru's ear, that three-tailed fox residing above all the orbs slowly dispersed within the violent light.

Finally, it transformed into an exquisite card with the characters 【Bai Jin】 engraved on its border, wrapped in flowing mercury patterns.

On the card face, three huge fluffy tails occupied half the area.

A beauty wearing a magnificent Chief Priest Robe covered her face with a folding fan, slightly looking back from the card's upper end, revealing the upper half of a face seemingly meticulously carved by heaven's work, appearance peerlessly beautiful, gender indistinguishable.

【You have obtained a new Yokai Avatar·Three-Tailed Fox!】

A deep blue prompt spanned across Uesugi Toru's vision; he stared blankly for a good while before he reacted from the situation that had taken a sudden turn for the better.

Holy shit, it actually came out!

Uesugi Toru had originally prepared to throw another ten-pull into the pool, but he never expected that after this ten-pull the gacha pool would directly vanish.

Even more unexpected was that this new yokai avatar had actually transformed from the gatekeeping three-tailed fox.

Thirty pulls — do you know how I got through saving up these whole thirty pulls!

Uesugi Toru reached out, carefully pinching this card as elegant as it was thin as a cicada's wing, scrutinizing its information —

【Three-Tailed Fox (Youth Body)】

【Quality: Rare】

【Rank: One-Star Half】

【Rank Limit: Two-Star Half】

【Talents: Thousand Faces, Bewitch, Divine Roaming, Angry Eyes】

【——Thousand Forms, Seemingly Illusion Yet Not False.】

Four talents! One more than Hannya's talents!

Although Hannya's "Kishin (Jakku)" talent is equivalent to three talents combined into one, for a "Rare" quality, the three-tailed fox having four talents is absolutely not bad.

What's more, among these four talents there isn't a single one that's just making up the numbers!

【Thousand Faces: Consume Spirit Power, can mold appearance and height into arbitrary shapes.】

The first talent is a heavyweight.

After obtaining the "Thousand Faces" talent, Uesugi Toru almost no longer needs to worry about the problem of his cover being blown, and no longer needs to buy a hooded coat to stupidly cover himself up.

Not to mention, men, women, old, and young can all be transformed into by this talent; as long as you give Uesugi Toru a sufficient period of time, he can pinch out countless brand new identities.

【Bewitch: Consume Spirit Power, cause target to fall into a confused state. The higher your Charm and Spirit Technique Attribute, the stronger the effect.】

The second talent is a hard crowd-control type skill; just looking at the description it seems standard.

However the specific effect still has to wait for actual combat to test just what kind of effect this "confusion" is, and how much of a role it can play.

Uesugi Toru thought he could make another trip to Chang Shi later and experiment on this talent's effect against the Chi.

And after the appetizer passes, the next two talents are even more heavyweight!

First is "Divine Roaming".

【Divine Roaming: When transformed into three-tailed fox, consume Spirit Power to actively detach this yokai avatar and place it in the external world for free control; as time passes, Spirit Power consumption gradually increases.】

【Note: After yokai avatar death, need 48 hours before it can be used again.】

This talent paired with "Thousand Faces", Uesugi Toru would call it the underlying logic of the three-tailed fox avatar.

Because as long as the two combine, they can let Uesugi Toru easily create something from nothing, obtaining a whole bunch of "friends" and "yokai friends" to take the fall for Uesugi Toru.

Some things that Uesugi Toru himself cannot explain, can also be solved through this "Divine Roaming" talent by having the three-tailed fox and Uesugi Toru himself appear together before everyone.

Not to mention, even if it dies in Genjitsu, a yokai avatar that can revive in just 48 hours can explore various dangerous places for him, or fight with one mind and two uses in battle...

But this one mind two uses point still needs a question mark.

Although theoretically there's no problem, whether Uesugi Toru himself can battle enemies while controlling the three-tailed fox avatar is hard to say.

If it were Shizuku there would absolutely be no problem, but for Uesugi Toru this is currently still not too realistic.

Daily speaking and walking is fine, but in life-and-death slaughter, even hesitating 0.1 seconds, or even shorter time, is a huge flaw, could directly cause the battle situation to collapse, leading to death.

"Sword Heart Penetration, huh..."

As long as he can reach the realm of Sword Heart Penetration, never mind one mind two uses, even three uses four uses five uses wouldn't have too much pressure.

But Sword Heart Penetration is still too far away for the current Uesugi Toru; better to first think of a way to achieve Jinken Gōitsu or get used to the "Divine Roaming" talent and try to shorten the distraction time.

Finally, there is the burst talent that can be called a hidden trump card.

【Angry Eyes: During skill duration, Physique doubles, Will doubles, Spirit Arts doubles, Charm halves, lasts two hours. After skill ends, for 24 hours all attributes fixed at 1.】

Aside from being easy for passing small monsters to steal the kill after the duration ends, "Angry Eyes" is a perfect talent.

Pure numerical values, pure power.

Satisfied, Uesugi Toru is very satisfied.

Compared to Hannya whose talents are all combat power enhancements, the three-tailed fox's talents lean more toward support and functionality, but "Angry Eyes" compensates for this point very well.

Although the three-tailed fox main body doesn't have many attack methods, Uesugi Toru still has a pile of equipment that has supported him from the past to now.

Chief Priest Robe, Blessed Folding Fan, Komainu Bell...

From now on, the lightning released by the folding fan is finally not used to merely stiffen the enemy for a moment at a critical moment, but can directly open with heavenly thunder and instant kill the opponent.

The komainu summoned by the shaking bell also who knows how much its strength increased, half-star, or an even more absurd one-star?

"Also, Spirit Control Technique can finally be cultivated."

Uesugi Toru looked at the considerably changed Spirit Technique Attribute, murmuring in his heart.

【Uesugi Toru】

【Physique: 20】

【Will: 9】

【173】 【Charm: 9】

【Charm：9】

【Spirit Arts: 1→7】

That originally pitiful "1" point Spirit Technique Attribute, at this moment increased by 6 points at once, immediately letting Uesugi Toru perceive the thin Spirit Qi dissipating in the surrounding atmosphere.

He casually breathed two mouthfuls, and could feel the pitifully small Spirit Power in his body continuously growing.

7 points Spirit Technique Attribute is like this, then what about 29 points?

Uesugi Toru couldn't wait a bit, directly closed his eyes, and once again returned into Kisaragi Station.

——Yokai Avatar · Three-Tailed Fox!

—Wearing it, the Hannya Mask!

Clack.

Gao Mu Lü with peach-wood grain lightly stepped onto the platform of Kisaragi Station, his snow-white robe adorned with cherry blossoms trailing down, a golden Shaking Bell hanging from the red sash at his waist, three snow-white furry tails poking out lightly from the seams of his robe, swaying slightly in midair.

Uesugi Toru held a blessed Folding Fan, drawing a deep breath with his still-tough flesh.

Thus, like a whale swallowing, a small Spirit Power vortex rapidly spun around him in an instant.

Feeling his dried Spirit Power within his body rapidly increasing, Uesugi Toru smiled, surveying the magnificently complete Attribute Panel before him—

【Uesugi Toru (Three-Tailed Fox Incarnation)】

【Physique: 20→31】

【Will: 9→11】

【Charm: 9→14】

【Spirit Arts: 7→29】

The sum of the four attributes had shockingly reached 85 points, exceeding the sum of the four attributes during Incarnation Prajna by a full 18 points!

Naturally, this also owed some credit to the special equipment "Hannya Mask," obtained only after the quality of the Laughing Hannya reached Epic.

Uesugi Toru savored the wonderful taste of Spirit Power gradually filling his flesh and circulating together with Internal Qi, then somewhat awkwardly shook the three tails behind him.

These tails were still a bit strange.

It was like a normal person suddenly growing three extra fingers—he could control them, but it just felt weird, as if everything was off.

And this outrageous 14 points of Charm.

Uesugi Toru's own 9 points of Charm made him wake up handsome every day, so this 14 points was practically…

He curiously raised his head and glimpsed his current appearance in the reflective glass of the Convenience Store.

Uesugi Toru was stunned for an instant.

Damn, he almost drooled over himself.

Uesugi Toru quickly raised his hand and gave his reflection in the glass the middle finger.

Only now did he carefully lean close to the glass and examine himself from top to bottom.

It turned out that not only were three big white fox tails wagging behind him, but even his hair and eyebrows were snow-white.

"Dude actually turned into a white-haired fox demon…"

Uesugi Toru clicked his tongue, pinching this face that was charming enough to almost make one unaware it was a man's.

This smooth face was far too easy to lead people into error, wasn't it?

This was not Uesugi Toru boasting; rather, he felt that if he had seen this face on the manga cover of some pink or white app in his past life, he would definitely have clicked in to savor it carefully.

"No, this won't do!"

Uesugi Toru removed the Hannya Mask from his waist, put it on his face, and after examining it once more, withdrew his gaze with satisfaction.

This was what was called, majestic and elegant!

After lingering at the platform to admire himself for several more rounds, Uesugi Toru reluctantly prepared to return to Genjitsu, to see what new Gacha Pool had been unlocked after obtaining the One-Star Half Three-Tailed Fox.

Uesugi Toru was preparing to return to Genjitsu when he turned his head and saw the empty Station, only then suddenly reacting.

Why hadn't the Train come?

Where was Ye Chun Ren?

End of Chapter