Chapter 347

Uesugi Muneyuki didn't know just how powerful this Village Flower Palace was, but from Shirakawa Mai's expression, he could tell that being able to form a contract with such a superior existence was already a great gain.

However, when Arimura Hana truly "infused" him, injecting part of her power into Uesugi Muneyuki's body, he finally understood just how immense this power was.

The essence of the Rain Contract power is the control of communication between "water" and "spirit"; Arimura Hana's presence permeated Uesugi Muneyuki's body, forming the "Great Virtue Wisdom King" seated upon a water buffalo, bearing flames, holding halberd, bow, rope, sword, arrows, staff, and other weapons, riding the water buffalo; this venerable one possesses both authority and wisdom, able to move freely on water and land in the sea of life and death, just as the water buffalo moves freely on water and land; the six leaves, six paths of sentient beings, expressing the return to the root virtue of innate merit.

Uesugi Muneyuki gained the following abilities:

Deep Flow Perception: Passively greatly enhances perception range and precision for water vapor, water flow, and target emotional fluctuations; actively allows brief "resonance" with a body of water, perceiving strongly retained emotional fragments or event echoes from its history (e. g., sensing that a certain river once witnessed a drowning tragedy).

Purifying Rain Healing: Mobilizes rainwater or clean water sources for efficient bodily treatment and spirit power recovery (can also be used on others, with reduced effect).

Heart Tide Barrier: Creates a barrier of flowing water curtain or moist air composed of spirit/spiritual power, effectively resisting spiritual attacks, curses, and partial energy impacts; simply put, it's the spirit legion's plasma shield.

Summon Rain: In environments with existing clouds or high humidity, can slightly guide the range, intensity, or duration of rainfall (cannot create rain from nothing).

And the great power comes from Arimura Hana's "Spirit Vision":

To better sense external power, Arimura Hana greatly enhanced Uesugi Muneyuki's sensory abilities, especially vision; his eyes now can discern letters and numbers on a license plate from about 300 meters away.

At the same time, Uesugi Muneyuki also gained part of Arimura Hana's "vision"; from now on, he can see the flowing "spirit" (Inner World energy, resentment, natural spiritual light) in the environment, emotional residues on objects, and even briefly see through low-level illusions, without needing to form a cursed grudge to see clearly; besides, his Dead Soul Trace ability has been greatly enhanced.

Similar to the Todai Case, Tsuda's wife has already been fused into a few bone fragments, unable to communicate, but now, with the support of the Village Flower Palace, Uesugi Muneyuki might possibly find more clues from those few bone fragments.

Besides, the Village Flower Palace's power can actually be used in intense combat, but Arimura Hana dislikes humans and doesn't want to get involved in the "cockroaches'" relationships and grudges, so she didn't grant Uesugi Muneyuki combat abilities; however, if the situation becomes especially dire, he can ask her for help, emmm……if she's in a good mood.

Since Uesugi Muneyuki gained this, Shirakawa Mai naturally also gained similar abilities, just somewhat weaker than his.

"Grateful beyond words!" The birth of the third Wisdom King signifies that Uesugi Muneyuki's strength has largely increased!

"……Now I understand why you're so obsessed with her." After the power infusion entered Uesugi Muneyuki's body, Arimura Hana, in her plain white kimono covering her delicate figure, sat cross-legged, pondering: "Because you've excessively accumulated external energy in your reproductive system, you must engage in large amounts of reproductive behavior to exchange for internal energy balance."

Uesugi Muneyuki frowned upon hearing this, thought for a moment, and since Shirakawa Mai wouldn't understand their language anyway, he simply asked softly: "Honored Village Flower Palace, my Inner World energy has excessively accumulated here—is it because you implanted your sacral chakra into me, and are you intentionally trying to trap me?"

"…………" Arimura Hana pondered briefly, first nodded, then shook her head: "Yes, and no—she did intentionally implant her sacral chakra into you, but it shouldn't be to trap you."

"She should just be skilled in this cultivation method; in her spirit power circuit, XX is the engine and storage for all spirit power, but if she continues cultivating, then like you, she must balance excess Inner World energy, (deleted)."

"No wonder many shrine maidens in history also served as hosts." Uesugi Muneyuki finally understood completely.

Put simply, Shirakawa Mai neither wants to run around all day fooling around as a social butterfly like Kyoko Fukada or Rika Akana (the Rika Akana from the original Tōai work was extremely promiscuous, actively offering to spend the night with drunkards on the roadside to comfort them), nor does she want to repeatedly give birth as a breeding machine, so she simply transplanted this function onto herself, thus she can fix a single partner, as long as she regularly exchanges energy with Uesugi Muneyuki through their relationship.

She indeed has a bit of a trap herself, making her seek women after each Dead Soul Contract, but she truly isn't doing it intentionally—she only knows this!

Thinking this, Uesugi Muneyuki felt much more at ease, and recalling that Shirakawa Mai's first time was also his, the slight resentment in his heart dissipated.

"At the same time, she also left you a single weakness." Arimura Hana continued: "After implanting the sacral chakra into you, her spirit power circuit becomes an invulnerable existence; you each can purify spirit power to strengthen your strength, but……if the one who received her implanted sacral chakra incorrectly inputs spirit power elsewhere during reproductive acts, she will temporarily lose all Inner World power due to a spirit power circuit short, and her brain will be unable to think due to the short, causing full-body spasms and loss of bodily control."

"From this perspective, humanity's suspicious, deceitful, selfish, and hypocritical lowly nature truly only manifests when one genuinely trusts another."

From this point of view, humanity, this suspicious, deceitful, selfish, and hypocritical lowly race, truly only shows such behavior when they genuinely trust someone.

"OSHIRI……" Arimura Hana, as an Inner World being, fundamentally has no concept of gender; she merely consumed the original host's soul and body, then solidified her form as a human female, being very straightforward.

"Alright, alright, I get it!" Uesugi Muneyuki hurriedly said he understood, you don't need to say more!

Well, well, I know now! Uesugi Muneyuki quickly indicated that he understood, you don't need to say it!

"No, just lose all abilities due to spirit power short-circuit, not directly fatal……and only you can do this."

Thinking this, Uesugi Muneyuki glanced sideways at Shirakawa Mai with ill intent.

"??? Muneyuki, what's with that look?" Shirakawa Mai, in her pristine white nightgown now changed into the white suspenders silk Uesugi Muneyuki likes most, her exquisite, flawless face like ice carving and jade polishing, her pair of deep, icy, clear eyes like cold stars fixed on Uesugi Muneyuki, wanting to know what he said to the Village Flower Palace: "What did you all talk about?"

??? Sōsetsu, what kind of look is that? Mai Xuejie, dressed in a pure white nightgown and having changed into the suspender white silk that Uesugi Muneyuki liked most, her exquisite, flawless face, as perfect as ice sculpture and jade carving, showed a hint of curiosity, her pair of deep, clear, cold, translucent eyes like icy stars fixed on Uesugi Muneyuki, wanting to know what he had said to that Village Flower Palace: "What did you all talk about?"

Nothing, Mai-sama……can we rest now? Uesugi Muneyuki smirked wickedly as he slowly drew near, embracing Shirakawa Mai into his arms.

……………………

The next morning, Shirakawa Mai didn't get up; Uesugi Muneyuki enjoyed the private morning bath alone: soaking in the hot spring while enjoying in-room morning coffee.

Then in the morning he played at the Kusatsu specialty experience, watched the broth-kneading performance, then went to the western riverbank park for a snow-covered secret patrol, crossed the ice-hanging tunnel, and by noon he returned to the inn, when Shirakawa Mai finally regained consciousness.

"Ugh! I didn't expect……to be discovered!" Shirakawa Mai lay helpless on the tatami, unable to exert any strength, glaring angrily at Uesugi Muneyuki and Arimura Hana: "Was it her who told you?"

"Hehehe, Mai's secret weakness, got it!" Uesugi Muneyuki laughed wildly, lifting his goddess senior and letting her lean against him: "Who let you bully me all the time?"

"Damn it!" Shirakawa Mai clung to Uesugi Muneyuki's embrace, her face flushed with shame and annoyance, while also secretly feeling fear and unwillingness.

She had previously monopolized all interpretation rights over the Inner World, naturally able to manipulate Uesugi Muneyuki at will, since he didn't understand, some things he didn't ask, and she didn't need to explain, like her sole weakness.

I had previously monopolized all authority over explaining the Inner World, so naturally I could easily manipulate Uesugi Muneyuki—after all, he doesn't understand, and if he doesn't actively ask, I don't need to volunteer information, such as my sole weakness.

Weakness……weakness completely controlled!

Shirakawa Mai realized the tables had turned, she felt quite angry and frustrated, thinking indeed the Kurosawa Shinai shouldn't have been visited!

She's going to be manipulated by the junior student! She's going to be manipulated by the junior student……this kind of thing, don't want it!

Fortunately, her previous deep emotional investment, Inner World guidance, and Uesugi Muneyuki's infatuation with her played a big role; Uesugi Muneyuki didn't do anything to Shirakawa Mai; at noon, the two ate together a Kusatsu medicinal soup curry; the Shirakawa Mai suffering from short-circuit aftereffects couldn't even lift her arm, fully enjoying Uesugi Muneyuki's service.

In the afternoon, the originally planned Kusatsu International Ski Field activity, due to Shirakawa Mai's condition, was truly impossible to go, changed to making flower-scented broth bags in the room, and finally at night in the inn they enjoyed a winter mountain-sea feast—charcoal-grilled Shinshu rainbow trout, melted tofu tile bake, Shinretta scallion tempura.

After finishing dinner, it was already the night of January 3rd; Shirakawa Mai finally recovered a bit; Uesugi Muneyuki thought they'd been out for two days and two nights, so he politely declined her suggestion to stay another night, and the two drove back to Tokyo.

When driving Shirakawa Mai's Mercedes-Benz S600 out of the Gunma mountains, Uesugi Muneyuki suddenly felt as if he had crossed into another world.

The transition between Inner and Outer Worlds is indeed beyond ordinary people's adaptation; this feeling is very strange, as if entering an unreal world, where things don't belong to oneself, people are fake, things are also fake.

But Uesugi Muneyuki has indeed already had rich experience in dealing with this, he can adapt.

Moreover, this trip to Kurosawa Shinai was indeed a bountiful harvest!

With the help and support of the Village Flower Palace, coping with pressure from Kansai has become somewhat more assured.

What comes next is to continue expanding one's influence, strengthening one's abilities, and……with the aid of Kanto's forces here, prepare to face more challenges!

Future Action is to continue expanding one's influence, strengthening one's capability and… leveraging the power of Kantou, preparing to face more challenges!