Chapter 23

The Miyagawa River, traversing the entire city, divides Fuyuki City into two parts with completely different architectural styles.

The eastern part is Shin-To, a highly modernized new city that has everything. The western part is Miyama-cho, an old city consisting basically only of residential areas, built against the mountain with slopes everywhere.

When walking through the shopping street, one can very clearly feel that this street is the divergence point of Miyama-cho's art style—

One side is the slope leading to the Tohsaka Mansion, lined with a residential area rich in Western atmosphere; the other side is a Japanese-style residential area with a completely different style, passing through the bridge to neighboring Shin-To, the school, the shopping street, and finally connecting to Ryuudou Temple on Yuan Cang Shan.

Xia Zhi saw through this simple and clear city layout at a glance, and silently gave a thumbs up in his heart.

Since the road to Yuan Cang Shan was already clear, the next step was to conduct an on-site survey and formulate the next action plan based on the actual situation.

He kept this thought deep in his heart, once again turning his gaze to the black-haired pigtail girl walking beside him with her head lowered, silently adding a part to the plan: he also needed to find a way to handle this Master Lady.

The two walked silently all the way to the school, not saying another word along the way.

Unexpectedly, Rin Tohsaka did not actually intend to return to the classroom, but seemed to be searching for someone in other classes with a clear goal in mind, yet failed to get her wish; after inquiring, she learned the other party had not come to school.

Her complexion grew even gloomier because of this, looking terrible as if someone owed her a huge debt.

She asked the teacher for leave directly, then stepped out the school gate again, her voice low: "Let's go. We'll go see the city now, so you can get a general understanding of the battle environment that might occur next..."

—Hm?

This made Xia Zhi look at her with slight surprise; he had thought this Master Lady truly couldn't distinguish priorities, planning to attend school normally during the Holy Grail War, but now it seemed not so.

Observing the girl's expression, combined with analysis of the previous series of situations, he couldn't help but frown slightly—

Could it be that she already believes victory in the Holy Grail War is hopeless deep down, foresees her tragic fate, and so came to the campus with the mood of bidding farewell to an important person, wanting to settle her affairs...?

She has too little confidence in herself...

Where is the trust between people...

Cough cough, but thinking carefully, even he himself couldn't avoid such thoughts; no matter how much the girl harbors wishful thinking, pessimistic psychology is inevitable, this situation is perfectly understandable.

Just, this matter is a bit strange... a mere ordinary classmate in the campus can make her so concerned?

Or perhaps, there exists some unknown deep connection between them?

Furthermore, she didn't choose phone communication but came to the school in person to search; besides possibly wanting to grasp the last chance to meet, could it also be because she has no way to contact the other party directly?

Recalling that Tohsaka Mansion which seemed luxurious but was actually cold and quiet, with only the girl alone inside, he remained impassive on the surface, silently noting this point in his heart again; this was equally important intelligence.

To successfully "persuade" this Master Lady into cooperating with his plan, he must gather as much relevant information about her as possible, figure out her weaknesses, and grasp her soft spots and leverage.

The more sufficient the intelligence grasped, the stronger the power of "persuasion"!

Xia Zhishen knows the way of making friends well, and firmly believes this without doubt.

While following the dejected Master Lady, he stared at her back, slowly thinking about the art of persuasion he might need to use.

"Speaking of which, I forgot to ask last night..."

After leaving the school some distance, walking onto the cold, quiet, empty streets of early morning, Rin Tohsaka seemed to recall something; she glanced around, didn't turn back, but asked in a whisper.

"You... what Class are you?"

Anyway, definitely not Saber.

After the series of blows last night, she no longer had such extravagant hopes, only hoping her luck wasn't particularly bad, that she wouldn't draw those two worst gutter Classes.

However...

"Oh, I'm Assassin." Xia Zhi answered calmly.

"..."

"..."

The girl thoroughly didn't want to speak to him anymore, just walking forward listlessly.

I'm done for...

This is probably the last chance I'll get to see Fuyuki City one more time, this city where I was born and raised...

With her will too despondent, she didn't even want to think about why she could summon an Assassin other than Hassan... the Assassin Class itself is a Catalyst; in the Fuyuki Holy Grail War system, a normal summoning can only summon Hassan-i Sabbah.

But there are exceptions to everything; for example, although the Holy Grail's Servant summoning system was made by Germany's Einzbern, so in principle only Western Heroic Spirits can be summoned, irregular summoning is not subject to this restriction.

So—

Miss Tohsaka had already prejudged that the source of this series of terrible things was her own erroneous summoning at the critical moment.

Whatever weird results appear, she can only swallow them bitterly herself.

"Hey, that's rude. Are you discriminating against the Assassin Class?"

Xia Zhi followed calmly, offering chicken soup for the soul to comfort the girl—

"You can't deny yourself before you've even started; to change things, you must first change yourself; to make things better, you must first make yourself better..."

Next came such bewitching words as "Who says Assassin can't win the Holy Grail War", "Make it big and strong", "Create splendor again", endlessly brainwashing Miss Tohsaka over and over.

————

————

Fuyuki City's scale is just right—not too big, not too small.

At least for a hidden Holy Grail War, it's already sufficient, unless a vicious incident on the scale of ten years ago occurs...

Spending about a morning, the two set out from Suqun Yuan Academy, roaming and exploring the surroundings, roughly covering almost all of Miyama-cho, then began the second half of their site survey toward Shin-To.

"There's a port at the seaside to the north, the Church is on the mountain slope to the southeast..."

Near noon, standing on the new city's streets, the black-haired pigtail girl pointed in two directions respectively.

"When a Master is defeated, they can seek asylum at the Church; if they voluntarily want to quit the competition, they can also go there for help. The Church acts as a neutral judge, responsible for supervising these matters."

And for some reason, she emphasized the latter role of the Church, and explained the duties of the Holy Church.

"So—you want to be a deserter?"

The youth looked at her with a face full of disdain.

"You! What are you spouting!" Rin Tohsaka almost couldn't catch her breath, then glared at him; although she had indeed unintentionally revealed her subtle inner thoughts, his words were too piercing.

"Otherwise, why would you specifically mention these?"

"We've come all this way, haven't we! I have to make things clear to you!" The girl was fuming.

"No need to say it, I understand, I understand..." The other party waved their hand repeatedly, saying it perfunctorily.

"What do you understand!"

Rin Tohsaka's anger surged upward; she did not realize this was the other party switching to a provocation strategy, or perhaps she simply fell for this tactic, instantly igniting a fierce competitive drive, preparing to argue her case forcefully.

However, the very next moment——

"Wait a moment!"

The youth opposite raised his eyebrows slightly, and without hesitation grabbed her, the two instantly flashing into the nearby alley entrance, while he nimbly returned to Spirit Body state.

Rin Tohsaka's heart tightened, she almost instantly grasped the situation, and also swiftly concealed herself to the side. She cast her gaze toward the distant road, first with puzzlement, then after a good while, her brows immediately knitted tightly:

"Sakura?! Wait, damn it, what's the deal with that blond delinquent!"

On the slope descending to the southeast, on the road leading to the Church.

It was originally somewhat empty, but not long after, she saw the figure of a purple-haired girl appear; she seemed to be hurrying along, but was blocked by a blond man coming the opposite way, and they began talking.

The purple-haired girl appeared somewhat shrinking back, retreating continuously, while that blond man struck a menacing, aggressive posture. Although the distance was far and facial expressions couldn't be seen clearly, from their body movements one could easily judge the current situation.

Just seeing this scene, Rin Tohsaka nearly exploded with rage.

Where did this damn blond delinquent come from, how dare he bully my younger sister!

"Sakura? Is she the person you went to the School to find?" Xia Zhi watched all this calmly and steadily, utilizing the Presence Concealment Skill bestowed upon him to the utmost, perfectly masking his presence.

"Also take it easy... don't just look at the surface, the opposite side clearly has a problem."

"What problem? Could it be..."

Miss Tohsaka froze for a moment, then immediately reacted, but became even more vigilant.

"Is that blond a Servant? Or a Master?"

"Cannot confirm at present, doesn't look like it, but that level of Magic Power Reserve, I'm afraid it's not something an ordinary human can possess... Also, what I said isn't just about that blond, that Miss Sakura isn't simple either."

Xia Zhi shook his head; he used to indeed be a magic power insulator.

But after awakening, for some reason he became extremely sensitive to magic power.

The World in his eyes now presented a brand new appearance, as if every day revealed more light and color, every day making his vision clearer and more vivid, the veins of all things clearly discernible.

Therefore, under the scrutiny of these keen new eyes, those two "individuals" over there undoubtedly possessed some anomaly.

Even if forced to say, that seemingly frail, low-profile girl with a head of purple hair bore problems far exceeding that blond little delinquent.

From Xia Zhi's Magic Power Sense perspective, he could clearly perceive that his own Mana Circuit connected to the Master Lady beside him, then like a relay, another Magic Power connection extended from her toward the direction of Yuan Cang Shan...

Next, it was as if it underwent another formless transmission and turn.

The Magic Power connection quietly traced back in the void, ultimately landing on that purple-haired girl not far away, and not just one connection, but many strands of magic power, making one suspect whether she was a human-form Terminal of this Holy Grail War or something.

"Sakura? How could it be..."

Rin Tohsaka's complexion changed slightly, but very quickly she seemed to think of something, gritting her teeth tightly.

The Holy Grail War was initiated by the Three Families; regardless, as long as the Three Families still exist, none of them would be absent.

But just like her situation, already being the Tohsaka Family's only choice, then what about the Matou Family's situation? It seems indeed only the adopted Sakura is the only choice, otherwise could one still count on that seaweed-head?!

Subconsciously, she thought what her own Servant meant by "not simple"——

Was that Sakura might also have participated in the Holy Grail War, becoming a Master, only this.

The distant conversation had already ended, the purple-haired girl seemed to walk away somewhat lost and dejected, while the blond delinquent swaggered off in another direction with hands in pockets, a smug look, like he was patrolling his own territory.

"Want to go check on that Miss Sakura?"

Xia Zhi made the suggestion opportunely.

"... No need, not necessary." Rin Tohsaka was silent for a while, then still refused.

If Sakura also became a participant, then this time wasn't suitable to go find her; this isn't a problem that can be solved by dialogue, sisters can't return to the past, facing the cold reality would only make both parties embarrassed.

"Then let's continue scouting." Xia Zhi naturally had no objection; he actually didn't want to expose himself this quickly either.

Along this journey they actually encountered several waves of suspected participants, but relying on his overly keen Magic Power Sense, he could always avoid them in advance, just like that interlude just now, he had already known before those two even ran into each other.

Just at the time he thought two groups might collide, but the result was not so, truly letting him rejoice in vain.

………………

By the time they had basically scouted the main parts of Fuyuki and returned to the Tohsaka Family's Western-style Mansion, it was already evening.

Rin Tohsaka was also sleepy to the point of no return, but hearing a certain someone say they were preparing to go out and investigate again, she still stared wide-eyed in shock.

"What's so strange about this, isn't Assassin a Class specializing in covert operations and assassination techniques? If I don't act now, do you really plan to wait a few days and have me go head-on against other Servants fair and square?"

Xia Zhi argued forcefully and righteously about this.

The girl was speechless; it seemed that was indeed the logic, that's how Assassin is used.

"Rest assured, if any problem arises, you just use a Command Seal to teleport me back... though I'm more inclined for you to go find another base, don't stay in this Western-style Mansion all the time, it's too conspicuous."

Xia Zhi made the suggestion; he really felt this Western-style Mansion was unreliable.

Admittedly, as the Headquarters of one of the Three Families, its defense level is actually not bad, with Bounded Fields and defensive Jutsu set up generation after generation, capturing this position isn't considered easy.

But no matter how impregnable, it's already been through this many seasons...

A cunning rabbit still has three burrows; to prevent targeting, and to avoid having the Headquarters locked onto before fighting even starts, one must make some other preparations.

Rin Tohsaka's expression instantly became very complex; she admitted the other party had a tiny bit of reason, but the problem is... where's the money.

Once money's involved, there's no way around it.

Xia Zhi simply patrolled the Western-style Mansion once, searched the surroundings, confirmed there was no threat for the time being, then went out the door in a relaxed and happy mood.

A ghost with zero presence, under the cover of the dim evening sky, headed straight for Yuan Cang Shan. He never planned to investigate other participants' clues, nor did he plan to do that opportunistic assassination routine.

Efficiency too low, success rate too low.

Yuan Cang Shan under the night curtain was pitch black; the astonishing Mana Vortex in his field of vision made even him frown incessantly; despite prior mental preparation, he was still somewhat shocked by the Magic Power Reserve of this scale.

Worthy of being the core hub of the magic power flowing beneath the land of Fuyuki City; merely a slight overflow of Earth Vein Qi has such vast and astonishing scale; the quality of this Leyline must be extremely astonishing.

Circling around the mountain several times, the sky had completely darkened.

Unable to easily enter it, Xia Zhi was not disappointed; this place could be said to be the core of the entire Holy Grail System, and if it had no defenses at all, that would be strange. He did not expect such good fortune to happen, but simply waited to take advantage of it himself.

Then—activate the B Plan.

That is, gradual encroachment, nibbling away at this leyline bit by bit, eating into it bit by bit from the outskirts.

He had already observed that, under the nourishment of abundant Earth Vein Qi, the entire mountain and a large area of surrounding land had soil and rocks filled with spiritual power, perfectly suited for the Stone Boiling Technique to take effect.

Using some gems he had quietly "borrowed" from Master Lady, along with some simple tools and materials, he found a secluded place and set up a magic array around it, simulating a simple "Alchemy Furnace," one full of symbolic meaning.

Cast magic, cook the earth.

In his vision, the land inside the "furnace" boiled, a phenomenon of earth qi being steamed and cooked, concentrated and extracted drop by drop...

Finally, large swathes of earth qi disappeared, leaving only a few flashes, round like a pill.

(Chapter End)