She glanced back at the street once more. For some reason, she felt uneasy.
She hoped things weren't as bad as she feared.
Meanwhile, Hana walked home, eating the dessert in her hand as she went. Her stomach had started growling again.
Perhaps it was because of her constitution, but Yurikawa Hana got hungry very easily and had to eat a lot throughout the day. It was something that troubled her, too.
"I'm getting hungry more easily than usual today."
She took a big bite of her dessert, feeling puzzled.
"I don't usually get hungry at this time. And why was Miko hungry, too?"
She chewed as she pondered the question, but soon gave up.
"Forget it. I don't understand it anyway."
Walking along without a care in the world, she became a beacon in the night to the Ghosts. The food she ate was rapidly converted into Life Energy, which endlessly welled up within her body.
The weaker Ghosts stayed far from the beacon, while the slightly stronger ones tried to approach it. But the Evil Banishing Talisman inside the Ram Rabbit beside Hana disrupted them and made them lose their way. Only one Ghost, dressed in a kimono, walked straight toward her.
The talisman barely interfered with its movements. The Ghost finally reached a point ten meters from Hana, then let out a roar and stopped just outside that range. The vast amount of spiritual energy Miko had infused into the Evil Banishing Talisman took effect, firmly restraining the Ghost beyond ten meters—but that was all it could do.
The Kimono Ghost roared, then hurled a Ghost beside it toward Hana like a shot put.
It was a rather clever trick. The Evil Banishing Talisman quickly redirected its resistance toward the Ghost that had come closer to its user, allowing the Kimono Ghost to advance a few meters. The Ghost it had thrown was driven back by the talisman, and the Kimono Ghost repeated its trick, grabbing another Ghost and hurling it toward Hana. Again and again.
The Evil Banishing Talisman expended a great deal of spiritual energy to drive back each Ghost that rushed into its range. But as the Kimono Ghost wore it down, the power of its inscriptions began to fade.
Before long, the inscriptions could no longer hold back the Kimono Ghost.
The hideous Ghost stared fixedly at the human before it, watching the great quantity of Life Energy flowing through her body. Then it let out another roar.
It was almost like a roar of victory.
Miko, who hadn't studied the Ghosts of this world in any depth, could hardly have imagined that this Ghost would find Hana again among the enormous crowds. Even less could she have guessed that it would wear down her talisman in this way.
At that moment, Miko was poring over the incantations in Soul Nourishing Artifact Path Understanding, searching for better ways to arm herself. After encountering the Ghosts today, she had realized just how many shortcomings she had.
Although she had learned several incantations for killing Ghosts from Soul Nourishing Artifact Path Understanding, she hadn't studied the tracking, concealment, and misdirection incantations in any depth. Now that she needed them, she didn't know how to use them at all.
"Learning those isn't enough..."
Miko sensed the Profound Nether Qi in her Soul Repository and the spiritual energy swirling around her, and realized the fundamental problem: she still had far too little Profound Nether Qi and spiritual energy. There was no way she could sustain more powerful incantations.
"After all, I've been too lax. I hadn't encountered Ghosts like today's before, so I let up on cultivating the Nine Nether Profound Soul Treasure Record."
At the thought, Miko began to regret it. The shadow Soul Devouring Tribulation had left over her still hadn't faded from her mind. Even when she encountered fairly powerful Ghosts, she had repeatedly chosen not to refine them into Soul Extract, instead ignoring them or turning them into talisman artifacts.
And yet, if she steeled herself, her Spiritual Sense was strong enough to endure the Soul Devouring Tribulation now...
Miko took a deep breath and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, a cold glint flashed in her golden pupils.
After sensing that her mother and younger brother were sound asleep, she got dressed in her room, slipped on her slippers, and looked out the window.
A few incantations flashed through her mind, and she leaped straight out the window toward the street without making a sound.
She hadn't planned to do this, but an inexplicable sense of danger had been lingering in her heart, forcing her to strengthen herself that very night.
For cultivators, such a sense of danger was real.
In the Xuanhui Realm, cultivators often received premonitions for various reasons, warning them to prepare for future events. These premonitions didn't come from the Heavenly Dao; they were the results of people unconsciously calculating various dangers and reaching an answer through intuition. Zhang Qiudao had used this as the basis for the Sky Imprisonment Budget Scripture.
Miko naturally soon understood the source of her unease: the Kimono Ghost.
It was already troublesome enough that she needed to expend considerable effort to kill it. Now, her premonition seemed to warn that it would threaten her life. What had happened to that Ghost?
She stopped trying to figure it out. She wouldn't find the answer by thinking. Looking at the massive Ghost before her, Miko unhesitatingly cast an incantation and killed it.
Looking at the Soul Body on the ground, she cultivated the Nine Nether Profound Soul Treasure Record once more after a long pause, refining the Ghost's Soul Body into Soul Extract, then converting it into Profound Nether Qi.
This was only the beginning. Sensing the Soul Devouring Tribulation starting to stir, Miko quickly understood how many more Ghosts she could devour while keeping it in check. She hadn't devoured any Ghosts in recent days, letting Profound Nether Qi nourish her Spiritual Sense instead. Her Spiritual Sense had grown quite strong.
Three, then...
Miko bit her lip. If she took a fourth, she would risk losing control.
"If only I had rosary energy..."
### Chapter 32: A Complicated Situation
"..."
It was four o'clock. A faint glimmer had just appeared in the sky, and she rose slowly from the darkest hour of night.
Miko climbed back through the window into her room and gazed outside, the chill of early morning clinging to her.
She watched, looking over every part of the street.
Her Spiritual Sense slowly reached out from there, then gradually withdrew.
"I... barely managed to devour a fourth one."
She pressed her right hand to her head and took a deep breath, looking at herself in the full-length mirror nearby.
Her hair was a mess, her eyes gleamed red, and dew clung to the ends of her hair. She couldn't help smiling wryly.
"That was too risky... But... at least I can relax now."
She took off her coat. The moment she leaned against the bed, she lost consciousness completely and fell onto it.
She had searched all around for powerful Ghosts whose impurities would produce less contaminated Soul Extract, but she had never found the Kimono Ghost.
Still, the forty-one strands of Profound Nether Qi and three hundred and ninety-two wisps of spiritual energy slowly surging through her body were enough to let her sleep in peace.
The window remained open, and a faint shaft of light fell on her as the sky gradually brightened.
After four, the gloom steadily gave way to brightness, and then... a new sun rose.
If you were lucky enough to watch the dawn from four to eight while sitting on a train, it might be a wonderful experience, like bathing in new life and watching the dawn defeat the darkness.
Bathed in sunlight, the orange-haired girl struggled up from her sleep and glanced at the clock. Its hands had stopped in the middle of the night.
It seemed to have broken.
She paid it little mind and didn't even have time to wash up before heading to the living room. Her mother promptly set a hearty breakfast in front of her. It was a tall stack of pancakes drenched in thick sauce, and it looked delicious.
"Good morning. This is my breakfast."
"Uh..."
Looking at the pancake photo Hana had sent her, Miko replied while struggling to suppress the Soul Devouring Tribulation that had yet to fade completely. She glanced at her eyes in the mirror again. The hint of red had vanished entirely, and she finally breathed a little easier.
She read her friend's message and prepared herself for the worst.
"I hope that's not what happened."
To keep the Soul Devouring Tribulation from striking back again, she had to completely destroy the Kimono Ghost—preferably before it grew beyond her ability to defeat.
As for the possibility that her worries were unfounded... countless cases from the Xuanhui Realm had shown that premonitions were, for the most part, already established facts.
Meanwhile, after finishing her pancakes, Hana tidied up her appearance, tying her unruly hair back and changing into clothes for going out. Seeing herself neatly dressed in the mirror, she headed for the door. She and Miko had arranged to meet that day.
Hana once again ignored the light in her home, which also seemed to have broken, and stepped outside. She greeted Pochita, the bulldog downstairs. The dog, which usually recognized her scent, barked furiously at her. No, it wasn't barking at her—it was barking at the Ghost beside her.
In the bulldog's eyes, a hazy human figure appeared.
The Kimono Ghost had followed Hana ever since breaking through the Evil Banishing Talisman Miko had made the night before. Following her alone wouldn't have been too bad, but the Ghost had clearly noticed the Life Energy within Hana and was trying to find a way to obtain it.
It snatched up a Little Old Man by the roadside with its long, pointed claws and threw him at Hana. Only after the weak Ghost had been scorched by her Life Energy until it was on the verge of death did the Kimono Ghost put it into its mouth. This drained a fair amount of Hana's Life Energy and made her hungry again.
"Grrr..."
Uh, just pancakes weren't enough after all.
Hana held her stomach and pulled a bag of bread from her backpack. She tore it open and took a big bite.
After she ate, the Life Energy around her grew strong once again.
As Granny Saegusa had thought, such powerful Life Energy meant that even if Ghosts approached, it would be hard for them to do any real harm to Hana. Besides, she was an ordinary person who couldn't see Ghosts.
Still, even Life Energy like hers could weaken at times.
After finishing the bread, Hana checked the time. Since she'd left so early this time, surely she wouldn't be late.
But as she wondered what she and Miko would do that day, she heard a child crying nearby.
"Kiko, Kiko..."
Hana slowly walked over to the child and crouched beside him.
"What's wrong? Did you get lost?"
The child's crying eased a little, and he told Hana what had happened.
"Kiko's collar came loose, and then she ran away."
"Kiko? Is she a dog?"
"Mm-hm."
The child answered and looked toward the building in front of them, pointing at it.
"She ran in there."
Seeing the "No Entry" sign in front of the building, Hana quickly recognized the place.
I remember this place... It's the abandoned Cursed Building.
At last, she took in the whole building. The strange graffiti and symbols, the decrepit structure, the broken windows, the layers of dust visible to the naked eye—all told the story of a place long abandoned.
Going inside might be a bit much...
Hana felt a little frightened. She was already scared of Ghosts, but when she glanced at the child beside her, still crying, she hesitated.
In the end, her determination to help someone won out over her fear.
"All right, leave it to big sister. Big sister loves dogs!"
As she spoke, she struck a cool pose for the child.
Seeing the little boy finally stop crying, Hana felt she had nothing to be afraid of.
Trembling, she stepped into the infamous Cursed Building. The Kimono Ghost followed close behind her.
Not long after Hana entered, another person arrived outside the Cursed Building.
"A whole building full of Ghosts... That's an astonishing number. Did she go inside, too?"
Miko had been on her way to meet Hana when another wave of danger warned her. Uneasily, she headed toward Hana's home, using her Spiritual Sense to search the surrounding area for Ghosts. Her newly strengthened Spiritual Sense soon noticed a conspicuous target and... the unmistakable marker of Life Energy.
"Little one, have you seen an orange-haired big sister? Did she go inside?"
Miko smiled, but her hands clenched into fists.
The worst had happened after all.
Her urge to kill it grew even stronger—stronger than ever.
Hana... you idiot.
### Chapter 33: The Battle Begins
The Cursed Building was, in plain terms, a haunted building.
Hana cautiously made her way through the building's ground floor, avoiding the clutter strewn across the floor. Even the sharp clatter of an aluminum can she accidentally touched sounded terrifying in the silent building, making her shudder.
"Kiko? Where are you? Kiko..."
She called out her pet dog's name, her voice trembling.
She had overestimated her own willpower. The gloomy, terrifying scene before her made her legs feel as if they were weighted with lead, and she could barely move.
If I'm scared... Kiko must be scared, too...
She hugged herself, but she couldn't stop worrying about the dog. After all, she had promised the child she would bring Kiko back out.
She took a deep breath and was about to use singing to quell her fear when a sound suddenly came from outside.
"Just as I thought. This is a tribulation."
"W-who's there?"
Hana couldn't place the owner of the familiar voice. Terrified, she looked toward the entrance, and only then did she finally understand.
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