Miko Becomes a Demonic Cultivator

She looked back at the street once more, inexplicably feeling a bit agitated.

Hopefully, things weren't as bad as she imagined.

Meanwhile, on her way home, Hana walked along eating the dessert in her hands. As she walked, her stomach grew hungry again.

Probably due to her constitution, Yurikawa Hana got hungry especially easily, needing to eat a lot of food throughout the day. For her personally, this was also a troubling matter.

"I'm hungrier than usual today."

She took big bites of her dessert, finding it a little strange.

"Normally, I wouldn't be hungry at this time. And why was Miko hungry too?"

Chewing on her dessert, she pondered this question, then quickly gave up.

"Forget it, I don't understand anyway."

Walking down the road without a hint of caution, the Life Energy rapidly converted from the food she ate continuously emanated from her body, becoming a blazing torch for ghosts in the darkness.

Weak ghosts kept their distance from the torch, while slightly stronger ones tried to draw near, but were also disrupted by the Evil Banishing Talisman within Hana's Ram Rabbit, losing their direction. Except... one Kimono Ghost walked straight toward Yurikawa Hana.

Even the Evil Banishing Talisman did little to interfere with its advance, until the ghost finally reached within ten meters of Hana. It let out a roar, stopping just outside that ten-meter range. The large amount of Spiritual Qi that Yotsuya Miko had infused into the Evil Banishing Talisman took effect, firmly confining the ghost beyond ten meters—but that was all.

The ghost let out another roar, then hurled a nearby ghost like a shot put toward Hana's direction.

This move was quite clever. The Evil Banishing Talisman quickly redirected its resistance toward the ghost closer to the user, allowing the Kimono Ghost to close in by a few more meters. As the thrown ghost was forced back outside the range by the talisman's influence, the Kimono Ghost repeated the trick, grabbing another ghost and flinging it toward Hana. Once, then again.

Against these ghosts that charged into its resistance range, the Evil Banishing Talisman consumed large amounts of Spiritual Qi to drive them back one by one. However, with the Kimono Ghost's attrition, the talisman's power gradually began to wane.

Soon, the talisman could no longer resist the Kimono Ghost's intrusion.

This horrifying-faced ghost stared fixedly at the human before it, at the vast Life Energy flowing from her body, and let out another roar.

Like a roar of victory.

Yotsuya Miko, whose understanding of this world's ghosts was far from deep, could hardly have imagined that this ghost would find Yurikawa Hana again among the crowd, let alone that it would consume her talisman's power in this way.

At that moment, she was searching through the Soul Nourishing Artifact Path Understanding for techniques to better arm herself. After encountering today's ghost, Yotsuya Miko realized she was lacking in many areas.

Though she had learned several techniques for killing ghosts from the Soul Nourishing Artifact Path Understanding, she hadn't delved into tracking, concealment, or misdirection techniques. Now that she needed them, she found herself completely unable to use them.

"Learning these isn't enough..."

Yotsuya Miko sensed the Profound Nether Qi in her Soul Repository and the Spiritual Qi swirling around it, realizing a fundamental problem: her Profound Nether Qi and Spiritual Qi were still too scarce to support casting more powerful techniques.

"As expected, it's because I've been too lax. Since I hadn't encountered ghosts like today's before, I slacked off on cultivating the Nine Nether Profound Soul Treasure Record."

Thinking this, Yotsuya Miko began to regret it. The shadow of the Soul Devouring Tribulation still hadn't faded from her heart, causing her to repeatedly choose not to refine ghosts of decent strength into Soul Extract, instead ignoring them or turning them into talisman artifacts.

Clearly, her Spiritual Sense could now endure the Soul Devouring Tribulation through sheer willpower...

Taking a deep breath, Yotsuya Miko closed her eyes. When she opened them again, a cold glint flashed in her golden pupils.

Sensing her mother and younger brother already fast asleep, she dressed in her room, slipped on slippers, and looked out the window.

A few techniques flashed through her mind, and she leaped straight from the window down to the street, landing without a sound.

Originally, she hadn't planned to do this, but an inexplicable sense of crisis lingered in her heart, compelling her to strengthen herself tonight.

This kind of crisis sense did exist for cultivators.

In the Xuanhui Realm, cultivators often experienced premonitions at certain moments for various reasons, warning them to guard against future events. This premonition came not from the Heavenly Dao, but from the cultivator's own unconscious calculations of various crises, with the answer derived through intuition. Zhang Qiudao had used this as a reference for the Sky Imprisonment Budget Scripture.

Naturally, Yotsuya Miko quickly understood the source of this crisis—the Kimono Ghost.

Its current strength was already troublesome, requiring considerable effort to kill, and this premonition seemed to suggest the ghost would threaten her life. What had happened to that ghost?

She stopped thinking, unable to find an answer. Miko looked at the large ghost before her and unceremoniously cast techniques to kill it.

Staring at the Soul Body on the ground, she resumed cultivating the Nine Nether Profound Soul Treasure Record after a long time, refining the ghost's Soul Body into Soul Extract, then converting it into Profound Nether Qi.

This was just the beginning. Sensing the Soul Devouring Tribulation beginning to stir, Yotsuya Miko quickly understood how many ghosts she could devour while still suppressing it. Having not devoured ghosts these past days, instead letting Profound Nether Qi nourish her Spiritual Sense, it had grown considerably stronger.

Three, huh...

Yotsuya Miko bit her lip. The fourth would risk losing control.

"If only I had Prayer Beads energy..."

Chapter 32: Troublesome Situation

"..."

At four in the morning, the sky barely showed a hint of light, rising slowly from the darkest hour.

Yotsuya Miko returned through the window to her room, gazing outside, her body carrying the chill of early dawn.

She watched, scanning every part of the street.

Her Spiritual Sense slowly extended outward from here, then gradually withdrew.

"I barely... devoured a fourth."

She pressed her right hand to her head, took a deep breath, and looked at her reflection in the floor-length mirror beside her.

Messy hair, eyes flashing with crimson light, and dew-dampened hair tips. She couldn't help but smile bitterly.

"Too risky... but... at least I can rest easy now."

She took off her coat, and the moment she leaned against the bed, she lost all consciousness, swaying and collapsing onto it.

To find a powerful ghost that could reduce the impurities in Soul Extract, she had scoured the surrounding area, yet never once discovered that Kimono Ghost.

Still, the forty-one strands of Profound Nether Qi and three hundred ninety-two strands of Spiritual Qi slowly surging within her body were enough to let her sleep peacefully.

The window, left open, cast faint light onto her, gradually brightening.

After four o'clock, the gloom resolutely gave way to clarity, and then... a new sun was born.

If one were lucky enough to watch the morning from four to eight while sitting on a train, that might be a wonderful thing—like bathing in rebirth, witnessing dawn defeat darkness.

Bathed in sunlight, the orange-haired girl struggled up from her dreams and glanced at the alarm clock beside her. Its hour and minute hands were stuck at midnight.

As if broken.

Without much concern, not even bothering to wash up, Yurikawa Hana walked into the living room. Her mother timely placed a hearty breakfast before her—a tall stack of pancakes drenched in thick syrup, looking appetizing enough to stir anyone's hunger.

"Good morning, this is my breakfast."

"Uh."

Looking at the pancake picture Hana sent, Yotsuya Miko suppressed the lingering Soul Devouring Tribulation and replied to her message. She checked her eyes in the mirror again—that red glow was completely gone—and let out a slight sigh of relief.

She looked at her friend's message and steeled herself for the worst.

"I hope it's not that."

To avoid triggering another backlash from the Soul Devouring Tribulation, she had to completely exterminate that Kimono Ghost, preferably before it grew beyond her ability to defeat.

As for her fears being unfounded... countless cases in the Xuanhui Realm stood before her; omens like this were mostly already set in stone.

On the other side, Hana, having finished her pancakes, tidied herself up. She tied her messy hair back, put on her going-out clothes, looked at her neatly dressed reflection in the mirror, and headed for the door. She had arranged to meet Miko today.

Ignoring her own flickering light—which also seemed broken—Hana stepped outside and greeted the bulldog Pochita downstairs. The dog, usually familiar with her scent, barked wildly at her. No, not at her—at the ghost beside her.

In the bulldog's eyes, a blurry figure appeared.

That Kimono Ghost, after breaking the Evil Banishing Talisman Miko had made last night, had been following Hana ever since. Just following wouldn't be too bad, but this ghost had clearly noticed the Life Energy on Hana and was trying to find a way to obtain it.

The Little Old Man by the roadside was grabbed by its long, sharp claws and thrown toward Hana. Only after the weak ghost was scorched to near death by the Life Energy did it put it into its mouth. This method also consumed a fair amount of Hana's Life Energy, making her hungry again.

"Grrr..."

Uh, just pancakes aren't enough.

Hana clutched her stomach, pulled a bagged bread from her backpack, tore it open, and took a big bite.

After eating, the Life Energy on her body flared up again.

Just as Granny Saegusa had thought, with such powerful Life Energy, even if a ghost got close, it would be hard to do any real harm to Hana—especially since she was an ordinary person who couldn't see ghosts.

Still, even such Life Energy couldn't be said to never weaken.

After eating the bread, Hana checked the time. Leaving this early, she probably wouldn't be late this time.

But just as she was thinking about what she and Yotsuya Miko would do today, she heard a child crying nearby.

"Kiko, Kiko..."

Hana walked slowly over to the child, crouched down, and looked at him.

"What's wrong? Are you lost?"

The child stopped crying a little and told Hana what happened.

"Kiko's collar came loose, and then it ran away."

"Kiko? Is that a dog?"

"Yeah."

The child nodded, looked at the building in front of them, and pointed.

"It ran inside there."

Hana looked at the "No Entry" sign in front of the building and quickly remembered what this place was.

I remember this place... it's the abandoned "Cursed Building."

She finally got a clear look at the building's exterior—graffiti with strange words and symbols, a dilapidated structure, broken windows, and visible layers of dust, all telling the story of its abandonment.

Going in to look for it was really...

Hana felt a bit of fear. She was originally someone who was afraid of ghosts, but glancing at the still-crying child beside her, she hesitated.

In the end, her determination to help others overcame the fear in her heart.

"Alright, leave it to big sister. Big sister loves dogs the most."

As she spoke, she put on a cool expression for the child.

Seeing the little guy finally stop crying, Hana felt there was nothing to be afraid of.

She stepped tremblingly into the legendary "Cursed Building," and right behind her, the Kimono Ghost followed closely.

Not long after Hana went in, another person walked up to the outside of the Cursed Building.

"A whole building full of ghosts... what a staggering number. That girl went in too?"

While waiting for Yurikawa Hana, Yotsuya Miko was once again warned by a sense of crisis. She walked uneasily toward Hana's house, using her Spiritual Sense to probe the surrounding Ghosts. Her now-strengthened Spiritual Sense quickly noticed a conspicuous target, and... a Life Energy signature she knew all too well.

"Little one, have you seen an orange-haired big sister? Did she go in?"

A smile appeared on Yotsuya Miko's face, but her hands were clenched tightly into fists.

The worst-case scenario had happened after all.

Her urge to kill this thing grew stronger, so strong it couldn't be any stronger.

Hana... you idiot.

Chapter 33: The Battle Begins

The Cursed Building—to put it bluntly, a haunted building.

Yurikawa Hana carefully made her way through the building's ground floor, dodging clutter carelessly discarded on the floor. Even accidentally brushing against an aluminum can sent a sharp sound echoing through the silent building, terrifying enough to make Hana shudder.

"Kiko? Where are you? Kiko..."

She called out her pet dog's name, her voice trembling.

In the end, she had overestimated her own willpower. Faced with the eerie, terrifying scene before her, even her legs felt as heavy as lead, barely able to move.

If I'm scared... Kiko will be scared too...

She hugged her arms to her chest, but her mind was still fixated on that pet dog. After all, she had promised that child she would bring "Kiko" out.

Taking a deep breath, just as she was about to suppress her fear by humming a song, a sound suddenly came from outside.

"As expected, this is a calamity."

"Who... who's there?"

Yurikawa Hana didn't recognize the owner of that familiar voice. Startled and frightened, she looked toward the entrance, finally realizing who it was.