Filial Piety Between Father and Son

This human, how did he suddenly turn into a Brahma that even ghosts avoid!

"Mother" and "Sister" stood frozen in place, their bodies stiff. This was partly due to the effect of "Terrifying Smile" forcing control, and partly because the simple minds of evil spirits couldn't process it.

The two semi-transparent evil spirits wanted to turn and flee the haunted house immediately, but could only watch as Uesugi Tetsu walked towards them, utterly unable to move.

"Mom, long time no see."

Uesugi Tetsu eagerly embraced the evil spirit that resembled his original mother. His arms clasped together, Ghost God Power surged through him, twisting the evil spirit into a pretzel bit by bit.

"Ugh... Ugh..."

Under the horrified gaze of "Sister," the "Mother" embraced by Uesugi Tetsu couldn't bear the strain and exploded into a pile of gray mist with a bang.

[You have killed a scattered wandering soul, obtaining 10 Soul Ash]

Uesugi Tetsu shook his head regretfully. "Old hag, didn't you pay into your pension for twenty years? How come you only dropped this little bit of gold?"

"Then, next..."

Staring at "Sister," who had slightly regained her ability to move and was trembling, Uesugi Tetsu asked suspiciously, "Little sis, didn't I say I wanted to live a quiet life alone? Why are you still bothering me?"

"Go... Go! I'm leaving right now!"

"Sister" bled from its eye sockets, letting out a low sob. It frantically turned and tried to float out of the room.

"Accept what has come, and be at peace."

A dark green claw landed on "Sister's" shoulder. The terrifying pressure rendered the weak evil spirit helpless no matter how much it struggled.

Watching "Sister" struggle incessantly, Uesugi Tetsu mused.

--With his current strength, he seemed to no longer fear the so-called scattered "wandering souls," the common ghosts people encountered, or spirits.

The effect of Terrifying Smile was also good, capable of hard-controlling scattered wandering souls for nearly fifteen seconds, and it was a large-area AOE.

Let's try something else...

Uesugi Tetsu's mind moved, and he equipped the Hundred-Eyed Demon's pupils onto the [Laughing Brahma] card.

Instantly, his vision blurred.

When he could see clearly again, Uesugi Tetsu discovered that his field of vision had increased from 180° to approximately 270° in front of him!

A subtle feeling of nausea washed over him.

Facing the sudden increase in his field of vision, even Uesugi Tetsu in his Laughing Brahma form felt a bit dizzy.

But this minor ailment could be overcome with more adaptation.

Standing still and turning his gaze around a few times, Uesugi Tetsu couldn't help but feel disappointed--was this all the Hundred-Eyed Demon's pupils could do?

It would be better to let it fly around as a scout.

He shook his head, but narrowed his eyes slightly as he refocused his gaze on "Sister."

Because, above "Sister's" head, a faint white mist with a hint of yellow was now floating.

This mist had not appeared before equipping the Hundred-Eyed Demon's pupils.

But what did this mist represent...

Uesugi Tetsu pondered for a moment, then took out the cloth doll he had "accidentally" wrapped his eyes with a large wad of tissues on the way. He saw nothing above its head.

It had no effect on inanimate objects, even extraordinary ones.

"You stay here, don't move for now."

After informing "Sister," who dared not even breathe loudly, Uesugi Tetsu walked onto the balcony and looked out at the street through a gap in the curtains.

Coincidentally, under a streetlight not far away, a phantom figure floated by. A ball of white mist also floated above its head, but it was much fainter than "Sister's," and had no yellow hue.

So that's how it is.

"Little sis, thank you for your hard work."

After giving "Sister" a quick end, Uesugi Tetsu, who had once again gained 10 Soul Ash, thought:

--The second effect of equipping the Hundred-Eyed Demon's eyeballs to the Demon Incarnation is probably to distinguish the opponent's strength.

Although it's not yet clear whether this "strength" is an objective power level similar to star ratings, or a subjective strength relative to his own power.

But in any case, the effect of the Hundred-Eyed Demon's eyeballs was quite satisfactory.

He retracted the Laughing Brahma mask and leaned back on the soft sofa.

He didn't plan to use the newly acquired 20 Soul Ash to draw from the half-star card pool [Deep Bamboo Forest]. Instead, he intended to save it up and draw after unlocking the one-star card pool in the future.

After all, the drop rate from the half-star card pool was too low.

Even if he got lucky and drew good cards like Laughing Brahma or Hundred-Eyed Demon's pupils with multiple uses, it couldn't hide the fact that most of the time he only drew [Anima Ash (Minor)].

Those were the small experience bottles that polluted the card pool.

As for how to unlock the one-star card pool...

One only needed to possess one one-star Demon Incarnation card.

The simplest method currently was to cultivate the half-star Laughing Brahma to one-star. As for directly drawing a one-star Demon Incarnation, the probability of less than one in a thousand made Uesugi Tetsu abandon that idea entirely.

Even if he had enough soul ash, Uesugi Tetsu wouldn't waste it like this.

It was more realistic to upgrade the cards he already had.

He selected [Laughing Brahma (Young Form)] on the interface.

Then, he could feed the slightly glowing [Soul Soothing Incense Ash (Minor)] from his inventory to it.

Uesugi Tetsu tried it out. The maximum feeding limit was 10 portions, and he currently had 12 portions.

["Laughing Brahma (Young Form)" is upgrading: 0%]

Gazing at the spinning Laughing Brahma mask on the exquisite card, Uesugi Tetsu couldn't help but lament:

Damn you, greedy game developers, did you even predict this!

Pulling a pile of Soul Soothing Incense Ash from the gacha pool, feeding it to the Demon Incarnation, and then using the upgraded Demon Incarnation to open more expensive new card pools...

This was simply a perfect mechanism for internal recycling and digestion.

However, the feeling of being able to visually see the Laughing Brahma slowly growing stronger was still quite good.

After all, if the Laughing Brahma got stronger, wouldn't that mean he, Uesugi Tetsu, was getting stronger too!

He just didn't know if the Laughing Brahma could actually level up by just eating these 10 portions of Soul Soothing Incense Ash...

Looking at the progress bar, which hadn't moved at all after tens of seconds, Uesugi Tetsu estimated it would take at least two to three days to finish, or even more than a week if it took longer.

Considering the sudden appearance of his "mother" and "sister" in his house tonight, and what Nanjo Aimitsu had said earlier, even though supernatural events weren't common, they didn't seem to be extremely rare either.

So, while the Laughing Brahma was upgrading, he also needed to develop quickly.

That meant if he met Ririko tomorrow, he'd have to tell her not to investigate that club for now, as it might attract trouble from the "Taigun."

As Uesugi Tetsu was contemplating, the sound of a football match from the television suddenly reached his ears.

He fell into a daze, and warm memories of spending time with his "father" flooded his mind.

Then, Uesugi Tetsu smiled at the person beside him and asked, "Dad, why are you still awake so late?"

Beside Uesugi Tetsu, the middle-aged man didn't reply, silently staring at the football match playing on the TV screen.

"Sigh, forget it." Uesugi Tetsu shook his head. "You just stay up all night watching the game, I'm going to sleep."

With that, he got up and walked towards his room. Midway, he didn't forget to remove the "restraint" from the doll's eyes.

Then, he found a small rope in his room and hung the doll by his doorway.

He'd use the doll Sister Nanjo gave him as a guardian, and carry it with him when he went out.

Bang.

Uesugi Tetsu stared at the suddenly appearing [Enter Tokoyo] option before him and eagerly closed his room door.

Outside the room, the doll hanging in mid-air spun lightly, its dark eyes reflecting the middle-aged man's empty face.