Duan Mu woke groggily. He had had a nightmare, but he had already forgotten what it was about. He only felt inexplicably irritated.
His opened black eyes were lifeless, like those of a corpse. After a while, his scattered gaze gradually focused, regaining its luster and a little vitality.
He had not had a nightmare in a long time.
He lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling in a daze.
After a long while...
Duan Mu let out a long breath. The negative emotions accumulated from the dream dissolved into the air with it.
"the Heaven-Shattering Whirlwind Crest?"
Duan Mu sat up and looked at the patterns carved into the wall. He immediately realized where he was.
Judging from the furnishings, this appeared to be a bedroom, and the air was filled with the scent of medicinal herbs.
"Safflower, spirit reeds, prison buckwheat..."
Although he had not concocted medicinal herbs much, his low-level Kido still allowed Duan Mu to easily distinguish the herbs mixed into the medicinal fragrance.
He lowered his head to look at the bandages wrapped around his chest and nodded. Judging from the knowledge of Kido he had acquired, they had been wrapped very well, and the medicine had been applied. He should be completely recovered in a few days.
Just then, the bedroom door was pushed open. Two people entered one after another—the Shiba siblings.
"You're really awake?"
Iwao poked his head out from behind Kūkaku, speaking in astonishment. "It's just like Big Sis said."
Kūkaku, meanwhile, pulled over a chair and sat beside the bed with great ease. After taking a puff from her smoking pipe, she said, "You're quite the good actor, kid. How do you feel?"
"Huh?"
Duan Mu froze. What did she mean by calling him a good actor?
"Exactly."
Unlike him, Iwao, standing behind Kūkaku, nodded in strong agreement. Looking at Duan Mu, he said, "How exactly did you hide your spiritual pressure?"
The combat strength Duan Mu had displayed in the earlier battle had truly shocked him.
Especially the strength of his spiritual pressure. This guy had continued acting in front of him as though he were only about as strong as a student from the Soul Reaper Academy.
If he had merely fooled Iwao, that would have been one thing. But Big Sis had even said that if Duan Mu had not gone all out, she would never have known that his spiritual pressure had actually reached a level comparable to that of low-ranking seated officers in the Thirteen Court Guard Squads.
So that was how it was?
Duan Mu smiled bitterly. "I wasn't deliberately hiding it from you. I don't know what's going on myself. Maybe it's because of my constitution. As long as I don't fully exert myself and don't let my spiritual pressure leak out through my body, other people can't detect its fluctuations."
He was not lying to them. Since he had already been exposed, there was no need to keep hiding it. Besides, he had never intended to deceive the two of them in the first place.
"You don't need to explain yourself to us."
Kūkaku waved her hand. "If not for you this time, that brat Iwao would have been in danger."
"Big Sis, I..."
Bang!
"..."
Watching Iwao get punched to the floor, a large bump visibly swelling on the back of his head, Duan Mu instinctively shrank back onto the bed.
"You what? If Duan Mu hadn't been there, you might have been fine, but have you ever thought about what could have happened to Hawk and the others?" Kūkaku scolded him while stomping on Iwao's head again and again. It was obvious that Iwao's unauthorized trip to the later-numbered area had truly enraged Kūkaku.
Duan Mu had originally wanted to step forward and intervene, but he swallowed his words.
Besides...
Duan Mu was also somewhat angry with Iwao. If he had known how dangerous the later-numbered area was, he would still have gone with Iwao, but he definitely would not have gone as unprepared as he had this time.
If Shiba Kūkaku had not secretly followed behind them, he might already have died at the hands of that large man.
It seemed he really should accumulate more experience points to deal with all kinds of unexpected situations.
"I've already had Koganehiko notify the workers at your shop. Stay here and recuperate for the next few days." After finishing her lecture to Iwao, Kūkaku turned to Duan Mu.
Duan Mu did not refuse. In his current condition, even if he returned to the shop, he would still need several days of rest and be unable to work. Compared with staying alone at the shop, being cared for here was obviously more suitable for recuperation.
As for Uzuki...
Although she looked like an old woman, she could not even cook. She had spent her decades in Soul Society living with the attitude of "mooching off others until death." Having her take care of him might very well make his injuries worse.
"Sorry for the trouble, Big Sis Kūkaku."
"What trouble? Just treat this place like your own home." Kūkaku bent down, grabbed Iwao—who was barely breathing—and dragged him out of the room.
Watching Kūkaku's back disappear, Duan Mu withdrew his gaze and sighed inwardly. As expected, the attitudes associated with a favorability rating of '9' and one of '30' were worlds apart.
In the past, when he visited the Shiba Clan, he had not exactly been driven away, but Shiba Kūkaku had always treated him coldly. She had never been this warm toward him.
Although this incident had been dangerous, the gains had been extraordinarily rich.
Current experience points: 18,600.
Looking at the experience value on the system interface, Duan Mu's eyes reddened. In the nearly four years since he had come to Soul Society, this was the first time he had accumulated so many experience points!
Moreover, after Kūkaku's favorability reached 30, gaining a single additional point of favorability had directly awarded him 2,400 experience points.
How much would he get at 40 points, 50 points... or even after breaking through 60?
Duan Mu shook his head and extinguished the dangerous thought that had arisen in his mind.
"I'd better first figure out how to turn this experience into combat strength."
Duan Mu opened the detailed Kido page, a contemplative look appearing in his eyes.
Kido: Hado: Low-Level Hado 'Numbers 1–29': Hado #4: Byakurai — Intermediate (3320/10000); Hado #11: Tsuru Raiden — Low-Level (213/1000); Hado #12: Fukuhi — Low-Level (154/1000); Hado #26: Honō Sai — Low-Level (432/1000). Intermediate Hado 'Numbers 30–59': Hado #31: Kakka Hō — Low-Level (643/1000); Hado #33: Sōkatsui — Low-Level (432/1000) Bakudo: Low-Level Bakudo 'Numbers 1–29': Bakudo #1: Sentō — Low-Level (215/1000); Bakudo #8: Kyaku — Low-Level (843/1000); Bakudo #9: Geki — Low-Level (432/1000); Bakudo #21: Sekienton — Low-Level (89/1000); Bakudo #26: Kyokkō — Low-Level (14/1000) Intermediate Bakudo 'Numbers 30–59': Kidō: Bakudō #30 - Shitotsu Sansen — Low-Level (143/1000); Bakudo #39: Enzansen — Low-Level (142/1000) ※Unactivated Kido: 37 (Please enter the activation interface to activate them.)
Through "teaching" students, Duan Mu had collected a great deal of Kido over the past six months. However, many low-level Kido had overlapping functions and little practical value, so Duan Mu had abandoned them. Even with sufficient experience points now, he had no intention of activating them.
The low-level Kido he had activated, whether Hado or Bakudo, were all the most practical among the low-level Kido, and were also several of the types most frequently used by members of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads.
What he lacked now was not Kido, but intermediate Kido.
However, among the intermediate Kido known by the students and capable of being fully released before Duan Mu, there were only four. Unless a member of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads came to him to study Kido, the possibility of learning "new intermediate Kido" from the "Soul Reaper Cram School" was extremely low.
As for high-level Kido, that was even more absurdly wishful thinking.
Besides, even if a student really brought "high-level Kido" to him for guidance, Duan Mu's spiritual pressure was not strong enough to meet the standard for releasing "high-level Kido."
Duan Mu looked at the detailed Kido page, a conflicted expression appearing on his face. "As expected, all these low-level Kido are worth investing experience into." After all, these Kido were the "finest products" he had carefully selected from among a pile of low-level Kido. Even after learning intermediate Kido, these low-level Kido could still play a role in battle.
"Hmm, I should first raise the four intermediate Kido to 'intermediate' level. At least then I won't end up like this time, with no offensive abilities other than 'Byakurai.'"
Duan Mu had considered whether he should directly spend a large amount of experience points to raise Byakurai to a high level, but after thinking it over, he gave up on the idea.
Although Byakurai was practical, it was ultimately a low-level Kido. Once his mastery reached a certain level, its power would depend entirely on the strength of his spiritual pressure. Even if he raised it to high level now, the power he could bring out would still be extremely limited.
With the strength of spiritual pressure and level of mastery being the same, the upper limit of intermediate Kido was obviously higher than that of low-level Kido.
Of course...
The main reason was that he did not have enough experience points. Eighteen thousand seemed like a lot, but aside from Kido, Duan Mu also needed to consider Hakuda, Shunpo, spiritual pressure, and his other abilities. He could not invest everything into Kido.
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