This was perfectly normal, Yotsuya Miko thought.
"Huh?"
Kyosuke watched his sister clap her hands and stand up. He froze for a moment before realizing what she had just said.
"A cat?"
"Yeah. I saw a stray cat on the way here. It wouldn't eat the cat food I bought last time, so I went to buy it a fish."
"Is... that so?"
Kyosuke glanced behind Miko, but saw nothing.
"Where's the cat?"
"I told you, you scared it off."
Yotsuya Miko said this in an "annoyed" tone, then turned a questioning gaze on Kyosuke. He shouldn't have been here at this hour.
"Speaking of which, why are you here?"
"Huh?"
Yotsuya Kyosuke's expression changed abruptly, and he began to panic.
"Well, actually, I... just happened to be passing by, and then... I saw you, Sis."
As he spoke, he turned his head aside, telling a lie Miko could see right through.
"...Don't think you can get out of this. Tell me the truth."
Miko carried the bag over to Kyosuke and looked down at her little brother with her golden eyes, holding out a free hand.
As he watched her hand slowly descend, Kyosuke swallowed and gave in, telling her everything.
Including how he'd described his sister to his classmates, how he'd suspected she had a boyfriend, and even how he'd wondered whether she and her boyfriend had broken up.
With every sentence, Yotsuya Miko's expression grew darker, though a smile played at the corners of her mouth.
"...That's everything."
"Mm. I've heard enough. Carry this shopping bag for me."
"O-okay."
Kyosuke obediently took the bag. Once he had it in hand, Yotsuya Miko mercilessly twisted both his ears, using... a little force.
The pain shot from his ears straight to his head, making Kyosuke yelp.
"Ow, ow, ow... Sis, go easy! Go easy!"
"You really are a wonderful little brother, Kyosuke."
Just imagining how Kyosuke's stories might have twisted her image into something unrecognizable at his school was enough to make Yotsuya Miko want to disown her own brother.
"I told you not to make things up. If I catch you doing it again, you'll get more than this."
After giving him a mild punishment, Yotsuya Miko let go and took the shopping bag back from Kyosuke. Fortunately, the thick ink she'd already prepared was wrapped in spiritual energy, so it hadn't evaporated much. It would still be usable when she got home.
"I understand."
Kyosuke rubbed his red ears, but still couldn't resist asking,
"Do you have a boyfriend, Sis?"
"No."
"Then is there someone you like?"
"Hana."
"That doesn't count. I mean someone like that."
"Then... no."
"Really?"
"Mm. Really."
Yotsuya Miko shook her head, then picked up the unfinished supplies and headed home.
After all that commotion with Yotsuya Kyosuke, her plan to finish refining the Evil Banishing Talisman in one go had been completely ruined.
"Come on, we should head back."
"Mm. By the way, where's the fish you bought?"
"The cat took it."
Luckily, she'd bought a fish. That gave her a stray cat to use as a cover story.
"Those stray cats seem really skittish. I feel bad for them."
Remembering how she'd once tried to find an owner for a stray kitten, Yotsuya Miko sighed. The man covered all over with the Cat Evil Spirit, and the man with two Bakeneko perched on his shoulders, had both left a deep impression on her.
"Yeah, they really do."
Yotsuya Kyosuke agreed. The two of them headed home toward the sunset, their shadows stretching long across the road.
At last, Miko got home. She hurriedly slipped on her slippers and went straight to her room, locking the door behind her.
She was worried her little brother might barge in again while she was drawing the talismans.
Only after closing the door did she take a dish of thick ink, a calligraphy brush, and several dozen prepared sheets of white paper out of the shopping bag.
Preparing the materials for a talisman pattern wasn't difficult compared to drawing the talisman itself. That part was a real pain.
She laid a sheet of paper flat on the desk and began carefully tracing the pattern with a brush dipped in thick, blood-red ink. To keep the brushstrokes from splattering or becoming too heavy, Miko used a little spiritual energy to make small adjustments, while focusing most of her attention on the shape of the pattern. Even so, a slight tremor in her hand ruined the first attempt.
"This is harder than I expected."
She took a deep breath and steadied herself. Setting the spoiled sheet aside, Miko pulled out another and began again.
This one was even worse than the first. At least she'd gotten halfway through the previous one before ruining it; this one was wasted almost as soon as she began.
After taking a moment to compose herself, Miko took out a third sheet, then a fourth, then a fifth.
Talisman patterns weren't easy for beginners. It was like carving the face of a delicate anime character with a toothpick, or slowly peeling a raw egg with tiny tweezers without breaking the membrane and spilling the yolk and white.
Even if she succeeded, there was no telling when she'd succeed again. It would still take a bit of luck.
Miko didn't seem to have that kind of luck. After failing more than a dozen times in a row, she felt the urge to give up.
Looking at the discarded sheets off to the side, Miko rubbed her tired head, worn out from concentrating, then took out another piece of paper.
After drawing the pattern over and over, she'd gained some insight: when drawing a talisman pattern, she couldn't spend too much time on it. She had to reproduce its shape quickly and precisely.
So, before putting brush to paper again, Yotsuya Miko closed her eyes and recalled her earlier attempts and the pattern's original form. She traced it in the air with her finger.
After tracing it four or five times, she finally had it clear in her mind. She slowly picked up the brush, dipped it in the thick ink, and then drew the pattern in one fluid motion. This time, she didn't use spiritual energy to maintain the ink strokes. She focused all her attention on drawing.
In that state, the pattern came together almost naturally.
"Is it done?"
She channeled a little spiritual energy into the pattern. Seeing it glow red, Yotsuya Miko finally let out a breath of relief.
"Thank goodness."
The Evil Banishing Talisman referred not to the paper, but to the talisman pattern.
Orthodox cultivators were accustomed to drawing talisman patterns on specially made Talisman Paper, using them as disposable tools. In the eyes of Zhang Qiudao and other demonic cultivators, this was an enormous waste.
Even before Zhang Qiudao joined the Demonic Path, the orthodox sects had been suppressing the Demonic Path for ages. Naturally, the orthodox sects claimed all the best resources, while demonic cultivators often fought over even the smallest scraps. They would stop at nothing to wring every bit of potential out of what they had.
In the eyes of these traditional demonic cultivators, nothing should be used carelessly. They envied the orthodox cultivators for having stacks of talismans to use as disposable tools, but scoffed at the wastefulness of it. This way of thinking inspired a group of demonic cultivators to put forward the idea that "what Heaven grants should be treasured and used for as long as possible." They sought to make all kinds of implements, formations, and talismans more durable while still maximizing their power, so that even descendants several generations later could use them.
Zhang Qiudao was one of them. Building on the ideas of his predecessors, he and the great demonic cultivators of his time developed a new system of talismans centered on "talisman patterns." These patterns relied more heavily on infusions of spiritual energy and repeated maintenance, but their number of uses increased dramatically. More importantly, the new talismans didn't need Talisman Paper as a medium. Their patterns could be added to all kinds of objects, making the new talismans more discreet and secure.
After the new talismans appeared, the old system, which used Talisman Paper as a medium and consumed vast amounts of it, was quickly replaced. Not long after the new system's development, some exceptional demonic cultivators took its capabilities to new heights. They added talisman patterns to all kinds of objects, often inscribing one object with several or even dozens of patterns. This gave rise to "Talisman Patterned Artifacts," distinct from the old artifacts, which had no other functions and relied entirely on their crafting materials.
Under the leadership of demonic cultivators like Zhang Qiudao, the balance between the orthodox sects and the Demonic Path shifted. The demonic forces that had been the first to complete the "new talisman and new artifact reform" grew greatly in strength. The orthodox sects soon found themselves unable to keep up and had no choice but to complete the reform as well.
This reform marked the first shift in power between the orthodox and demonic forces in the Xuanhui Realm.
The later reforms could wait. For now, back to Miko.
Miko looked at the Evil Banishing Talisman drawn on the white paper. She guided spiritual energy to peel the pattern off the paper, then, following the method in the Soul Nourishing Artifact Path Understanding, slowly pressed it into the body of the doll "Eye-Eye." Since the process had already been systematized, it didn't require much complicated manipulation, and was soon complete.
"So the real time sink is drawing the pattern."
Holding the doll in her hand, Yotsuya Miko didn't immediately try out the Evil Banishing Talisman. Instead, she gathered up all the spoiled sheets of paper and used spiritual energy to wipe away the lingering bloody smell.
Drawing on her own experience, Yotsuya Miko finally understood why people said the "new talisman" had marked a turning point in the balance between the orthodox and demonic forces. It was simple: a single talisman pattern was incredibly difficult to draw.
On top of that, the patterns of the time had to be drawn on specially made Talisman Paper to enhance their effects. That made the materials needed for drawing a pattern prohibitively expensive.
The orthodox sects, in their focus on [missing text] and their mistaken approach, had been fixated on improving the success rate of drawing patterns. They had failed to significantly increase the output of old talismans. The Demonic Path, however, had taken a different approach. Because of their concern about scarcity, they focused first on reducing how much [missing text] they used. They tried all kinds of ways to cut the cost of making Talisman Paper, and through repeated experimentation, discovered the relationship between the quality of the paper and the effect of spiritual energy. This led them to a conclusion: using lower-quality paper and increasing the amount of spiritual energy was better than using higher-quality paper. After all, [missing text] couldn't be produced, but spiritual energy was everywhere. This way of thinking gave birth to the concept of using no Talisman Paper at all—in other words, not making specialized paper. On that foundation, they shifted their focus to the talisman pattern itself, and began working toward patterns that could be used again and again, or even indefinitely.
The second key point was mass production. Yes, it was hard to imagine that the idea of mass production came from impoverished demonic cultivators. Once the concept of using no Talisman Paper had taken hold, the talismans made by a group of demonic cultivators became more abundant. This led them to consider whether they could make them repeatedly. After all, permanent talismans hadn't been invented yet. Their talismans could only be used three or four more times than those of the orthodox sects, or at most a dozen times. So a group of demonic cultivators with a practical streak began exploring how to make large quantities of talismans at once. They quickly found a solution by building on the idea of using no Talisman Paper: copying. Since they no longer had to worry about the quality of the paper, they had also solved another problem that had plagued cultivators making talismans at the time: the person drawing the pattern couldn't let their concentration slip, or the pattern wouldn't bind to the paper.
And so the method of copying a large number of patterns from a single master copy was born. This technique didn't require a cultivator to be involved in drawing every pattern from start to finish. They only had to make one master copy, then use it as a reference and apply the various copying spells cultivators had developed to copy and paste it directly. This technique brought about a revolution in the productivity of talisman-making in the Xuanhui Realm.
Afterward, demonic cultivators focused on permanent talismans, replacing their mediums, and many other areas of research and development.
All in all, much like the revolutions in productivity that had taken place in Western countries in this world, the Xuanhui Realm had experienced its own revolutions in productivity—and more than once.
As everyone knew, a change in power brought about by a revolution in productivity inevitably led to questions of redistribution. In other words—it meant war.
"Miko? Time for dinner."
Her mother's voice outside the door interrupted Miko's thoughts. She stood up and pinned the doll back onto her schoolbag.
"Okay, I know."
After learning a little about the history of the Xuanhui Realm, Miko realized that her master was no ordinary person. Like Newton's classical mechanics, her master's theory of "new talismans" had been the main driving force behind a revolution in productivity. That said, demonic cultivators were still pretty evil.
Looking at the Demonic Path in her mind, which made no effort to conceal itself and had bluntly described its own despicable deeds in several wars between the orthodox and demonic forces—all of them incredibly dangerous—Miko could only twitch the corner of her mouth.
After thinking it over, she decided that the only word for these demonic cultivators was probably "crazy."
Like the Heaven Imprisoning Desire Calculation Scripture, whose creator had given it an absurdly confident title but failed to live up to it, Yotsuya Miko couldn't quite understand what the demonic cultivators were after.
But the Nine Nether Profound Soul Treasure Record did have one saying:
"To follow nature is to take the place of the Dao."
So, in truth, everyone was a demonic cultivator—because "intelligence" was a bug. (Laughs.)
Morning came, and the seven o'clock alarm woke Yotsuya Miko from her sleep.
She rubbed her head, looking a little sleep-deprived. Drawing the talisman patterns the day before had taken a lot out of her.
But she'd be able to put them to use today.
She got up and went to the window, then drew back the curtains as usual.
Nothing had changed. Ghosts still mingled with the streets, becoming part of the scenery.
Just as the demonic cultivation knowledge in her mind had made clear, the Ghosts were still plainly visible, annoying as ever.
"I wish I could drive them all away."
Yotsuya Miko stared out and sighed.
These things were such a nuisance. Never mind—she'd think about something happy instead.
Oh, right. That Chestnut Distinct Pudding she'd bought earlier...
After changing into her uniform and heading downstairs, she finally thought of something that made her a little happy.
Miko rubbed her head again as she looked at the people chatting around the dining table and the pets.
"And then Sis went to the market and bought a fish to feed the cat. She said it wouldn't eat cat food."
Yotsuya Kyosuke was telling their mother about what his sister had done after school. Their father, Masamori, looked over from his newspaper.
"Oh, speak of the devil."
Their mother, Touko, had also spotted Miko coming downstairs,
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