Fushimi Inari Shrine

On the bed, drenched in sweat and on the verge of vomiting, Uesugi Tetsu took a moment to calm himself before looking at the bursting notifications.

The Twist and Turn had dropped 132 points of Soul Ash, matching its intensity.

With this, his Soul Ash reserves had reached a total of 472 points.

Even if a one-star gacha pool required 50 Soul Ash per pull, he could still do a powerful ten-pull and drain the newly appearing mini-gacha pool.

Upon seeing the notification that his side quest was complete, Uesugi Tetsu was slightly taken aback. He thought to himself, the Twist and Turn was indeed the "White Scarecrow."

Then he noticed that the quest reward pool could be accumulated.

[You have chosen to accumulate quest rewards.]

The Laughing Brahma's upgrade was just over 30 hours away, and the exploration progress in Arakawa Ghost Village had reached 62% thanks to his constant running around.

Once he completed side quest one and the two main quests together.

Uesugi Tetsu believed that the accumulated rewards from the gacha pool would not disappoint.

Finally, the Twist and Turn had dropped a special item.

Uesugi Tetsu casually opened the item's introduction page, and in no time, his eyes widened.

[Spirit Awakening Mist]

[Quality: None]

[Effect: Upon use, reduces the revival cooldown time by 4 hours. Automatically replenishes each calendar day.]

[Special Effect: Direct consumption. After consumption, moderately restores stamina and energy, slightly restores Spiritual Power, and provides a minor continuous healing effect for injuries. Each use consumes 2 hours of revival cooldown time.]

The item's effects were outrageous.

While reducing the revival cooldown by 4 hours was indeed crucial in the mid-to-long term, improving exploration and quest completion efficiency, it was still a relatively common "game item."

But the special effect was truly monstrous—it could be consumed directly in reality, providing all-around recovery and healing effects without any rhyme or reason.

It was just like a health potion in a game.

Imagine, in a situation where both parties were severely injured and on the verge of death, Uesugi Tetsu directly pulled out the Spirit Awakening Mist from his storage backpack, drank it down, and within minutes, he was back to his lively self.

What kind of psychological trauma would that inflict on the enemy?

With that thought, Uesugi Tetsu took the Spirit Awakening Mist out of his backpack and found it to be a small cup, about the size of a wine goblet.

The cup seemed to be made of ceramic, with exquisite craftsmanship and a faint glaze on the surface.

Uesugi Tetsu looked into the cup and saw two crystal-clear, cyan water droplets contained within.

Let's test the recovery effect first.

--The cut on his back from the Flying Head Monster in the afternoon had still not scabbed over, and any significant movement caused a slight stinging pain.

Back then, when Nanjō Emi used the Great Memory Restoration Technique on the two cultists, she only had the Hiyori Bō disinfect his wound and then gave him a roll of bandages to wrap it himself.

It could only be said that such treatment wouldn't kill him.

At such a critical juncture, Uesugi Tetsu didn't want to invite trouble at a place like a hospital, which was full of strange tales. This kind of superficial wound would heal automatically within an hour or two with the Laughing Brahma.

Naturally, it had been dragged on until now.

Now, it seemed like the perfect timing, saving Uesugi Tetsu the trouble of cutting himself on the arm!

Uesugi Tetsu opened his mouth and dropped one of the water droplets in.

The next moment, his spirit jolted, and his five senses suddenly became much clearer.

The lingering side effects from being killed by the Twist and Turn disappeared shortly after, and his wound on his back began to feel a tingly, warm sensation.

Uesugi Tetsu tore off the bandage and stood up. Looking in the mirror, the wound on his back was already starting to scab over.

He felt an excess of energy that had nowhere to go. If it weren't for Ghost Dad being outside, Uesugi Tetsu would have already gone out for a good ten kilometers.

"Good, good, good."

The effects of this Spirit Awakening Mist had truly given him endless surprises.

Allocating the remaining two hours to his revival cooldown time, Uesugi Tetsu, as usual, took out his phone—following the usual custom of returning to reality with the Walker Token, someone was bound to message him.

As expected.

Let me see what new messages I have.

[Work to Death]: Our company's annual leave will be approved in a few days. Are you free to meet offline?

[Work to Death]: I've always heard Fushimi Inari Shrine is quite popular, but I haven't had the time to visit. I have a friend who knows someone there, and apparently, they can give us a chance to witness the legendary "god."

Uesugi Tetsu's hand holding the phone trembled—how could myths become reality in less than half a day?!

Will someone tell him in a couple of days that the moon hanging in the sky is actually the true form of Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto?

But then he considered, if there truly was a "god" in Fushimi Inari Shrine, then this god would absolutely not allow any foreign demons or monsters to approach the shrine.

—In other words, this was a safe house during the First Wave.

It was unlikely that his fellow office worker netizen was bluffing and pretending to be someone he wasn't, being a descendant of a prominent family who could casually produce fragments of the Great Onmyō Art.

Therefore, going to Fushimi Inari Shrine... was undoubtedly the safest course of action!

"--But, I refuse to run away alone like this, to live with my tail between my legs!"

Uesugi Tetsu quickly sent his reply.

[Moon Sand-chan]: We have midterms coming up soon, so we might not have time to go out... Also, it's best not to interact with people who seem to be acting strangely during this time.

[Work to Death]: Ah, okay then. You should sleep. I'm going to work overtime.

--So you really don't want to run away. Is this the pride of a so-called genius?

--After tapping on his phone screen, Nanjō Emi, who was sitting cross-legged on a pile of corpses, took a bite of a lukewarm chicken sandwich. While chewing, she asked:

"Shizuma, are there any areas outside that we missed?"

Shizuma Mafuyu, fighting the urge to vomit, turned her head with a pale face and replied tremblingly, "Miss Hiyori Bō has finished her work, but there are still two or three left for Ms. Wet Oni."

She couldn't imagine what kind of mindset Nanjō Emi possessed to be able to eat so nonchalantly in a semi-enclosed space, sitting on a pile of charred corpses that had been roasted by fire.

"Then the work will be finished soon, hooray…"

With dark circles under her eyes, Nanjō Emi swallowed her dinner in a few bites and weakly made a scissors gesture to her little follower.

The moment she stepped out of the room and faced her other colleagues—Nanjō Emi transformed from a listless office worker into that powerful, calm, and reliable Onmyo Junior Official.

Nanjō Emi, with a blank expression, shook hands with the fire department supervisor: "We'll leave the rest of the cleanup work to you all."

Supervisor: "Tomorrow, this will just be a chemical explosion incident."

She nodded and turned to Shizuma Mafuyu with a smile: "Let's go."

Shizuma Mafuyu, however, couldn't smile.

As soon as she closed her eyes, the tragic scenes and pleas for mercy from the dying would involuntarily appear before her.

"I need to adapt to my new job quickly," Shizuma Mafuyu thought silently. "As long as I get through the three-month internship and become a regular, everything will be smooth sailing for Xia from now on."

Even for Xia's sake, she had to persevere!

"You can do it, Shizuma Mafuyu! Just like all those exams in the past, you can do it!"

She encouraged herself.

Then, Shizuma Mafuyu was unable to sleep for the entire night.

The next day.

Uesugi Tetsu arrived at school and, as usual, skipped class to train with Ririko at the kendo dojo. After more than three hours, Ririko was drenched in sweat, her entire being exuding the scent of youth.

However, Uesugi Tetsu was oblivious. He only cared about when his two skills would level up again.

[Your skill, Ki-ai Technique Fragment, proficiency has increased by 31!]

[Ki-ai Technique Fragment (Proficient 201/300)]

[Your skill, Tennen Rishin-ryū, proficiency has increased by 15!]

[Tennen Rishin-ryū (Novice 280/500)]

Although both skills were close to leveling up, there was still a gap of several days' worth of proficiency.

"I'm going to take a shower," Ririko's voice came.

--This is the time to become a gambler again and see if I can find anything good in Edo Castle with just one life.

Since he had no confidence against Yao-Shaku-Sama and White Brahma before Laughing Brahma leveled up, even if this life yielded nothing, it wouldn't be a loss.

As soon as he thought of it, Uesugi Tetsu closed his eyes decisively.

Laughing Brahma pushed open the door and, familiar with the way, entered Edo Castle.

But before he could take two steps, Uesugi Tetsu, who had hung up his Walker Token, felt something trip his ankle.