Miko Becomes a Demonic Cultivator Chapter 4

Even though she had no idea whether it would work...

She hoped alcohol or something similar could get rid of it. Otherwise...

She pursed her lips again. Otherwise, she could only place her last hope on the "Nine Nether Profound Soul Treasure Record."

Aiming the rubbing alcohol at Yurikawa Hana's chest, at the areas entangled by those ghost hands, Miko sprayed wildly.

"Wait, where are you spraying?"

Caught off guard by the icy sensation on her chest, Yurikawa Hana cried out and asked her friend in a slightly coquettish tone why she had suddenly done that.

But Miko, still seriously trying to exorcise the ghosts, simply kept spraying.

"Don't move. I can't aim properly like this."

"Ugh, it's so cold."

Unlike Yotsuya Miko, Yurikawa Hana was not wearing a beige jacket. The large amount of alcohol sprayed across her chest soaked her white shirt until it turned semi-transparent, revealing the pink bra underneath.

"That's enough already."

Yurikawa Hana finally could not stand Miko's behavior any longer and pulled away.

She touched her chest.

"Even my bra is wet..."

"It's completely soaked."

The ghosts that had been wrapped around her seemed to have sensed some sort of "stimulation." They suddenly released their grip and began flailing wildly again like dough figures.

Watching the scene before her, Yotsuya Miko thought it seemed to be working.

It worked?

It was moving so much.

Sure enough, some ingredient had finally taken effect. Hopefully, it would disappear like this...

However, reality was the opposite of what she had expected. After a bout of frantic trembling, a long-necked head emerged from the dough-like mass, wearing an indescribable smile.

"Miko, sorry about that, okay?"

Having recovered a little, Yurikawa Hana finally turned her gaze toward the friend who had pulled this prank. She roughly understood what this was about.

It was nothing more than Miko getting back at her for what she had said earlier.

"Sorry."

Giving a perfunctory reply, Yotsuya Miko's heart sank.

Even this didn't work? Then I really can only... rely on that?

I'm already... at my limit.

But absolutely not.

Miko took a deep breath and forced that dangerous thought from her mind.

Hearing that utterly insincere apology, Yurikawa Hana became a little annoyed.

"Fine. Since you disinfected me anyway, I'll forgive you. You can disinfect the stethoscope too, while you're at it."

As she spoke, she picked the stethoscope up from the counter again. (Note 2)

"Okay, then let's start over from the beginning."

Putting on the stethoscope, Yurikawa Hana decided to get her revenge.

"Let me examine you."

"Huh?"

Those words caught Yotsuya Miko off guard. Looking at the malevolent ghost on Yurikawa Hana, she instinctively took several steps back.

"No, it's okay."

"No need."

As she spoke, she clutched the rubbing alcohol and backed away several more steps.

"It'll only take a moment."

Naturally, Yurikawa Hana was not about to let her off so easily. She walked toward Miko, closing in step by step, until she backed Miko against the wall beside the door with nowhere left to retreat.

"Wait."

Hana continued pressing close, a mischievous smile on her face.

But she had no idea that what truly frightened Miko was the malevolent ghost closing in alongside her.

"Don't worry. I'll be gentle."

As she spoke, the long-necked ghost head stretched even farther and lunged straight at Miko, drawing close to her face.

It even... breathed out a murky vapor that smelled like something fermented in nuclear wastewater, turned into a biological weapon, concentrated again, and then mixed with all kinds of kitchen scraps. Just looking at its color was enough to imagine how foul it smelled...

Although Miko could not smell it, the combined assault of everything happening was already close to snapping the last thread of her sanity.

At this point, she... could no longer just stand by and ignore it.

Anything was fine—just do something already.

Note 1: As for Yotsuya Miko's chest, how should I put this... it felt pretty flat in the anime, but when Yurikawa Hana examined her in this episode, it suddenly... All I can say is that it was pretty ridiculous.

Note 2: There was not much to say, but with the disinfecting alcohol in Miko's hands, I really wanted to know how Yurikawa Hana disinfected the stethoscope. With **? (Shocked)

The Power of Demonic Path Cultivation Techniques

The Nine Nether Profound Soul Treasure Record was a mysterious cultivation technique.

It could make one's soul stronger, eventually reaching an indescribable realm. Yet Zhang Qiudao, its creator, had never attained such a realm from beginning to end. Due to the Heavenly Dao's restrictions on cultivation realms, Zhang Qiudao had remained trapped in the Enlightenment Realm for his entire life.

But none of that probably had anything to do with Miko right now. All she wanted was to find a way, within this bizarre thing in her eyes, to deal with the Ghost before her.

However, the moment she made up her mind to examine the Nine Nether Profound Soul Treasure Record, the very first sentence deeply shocked her.

"Consume Qi and never die; consume souls and never perish. Establish the foundation with the Nether, and Dark Nether Taste."

Though it was still a language and script she knew nothing about, she could somehow grasp the meaning of every word precisely. Put into words she could understand, it meant:

Devouring the mysterious substance known as "Spiritual Qi" that existed between heaven and earth could grant longevity. Absorb those Ghosts into her body and turn them into a kind of food called "Soul Qi"; eating it would keep her soul from vanishing. But before she could do all that, she had to sink her consciousness beneath the Nine Nether and become aware of the existence of those Ghosts.

Eat... eat those Ghosts?

Before Miko could react, the Ghost before her seemed to sense some terrifying presence, and its body began trembling violently once more.

"AAAAAAAHHHH—"

The piercing shriek nearly tore through her eardrums, making her want to cover her ears. Yet Yotsuya Miko, having no idea what was happening, did not dare to do so. She was afraid the Ghost would realize that she could see it.

This was unbearable.

Yotsuya Miko could not help closing her eyes. The shrieks poured directly into her brain from close range, agitating every nerve in her body. The intense auditory stimulation rapidly turned into searing pain, drawing tears from her eyes.

It hurt... My ears hurt so much.

No, I have to endure it.

Her right hand clenched the hem of her skirt, her nails digging deeply into her palm through the fabric. Miko did not dare loosen her grip. She was afraid that, if she let her guard down for even a moment, both hands would fly up to cover her ears.

"Fssssss..."

Along with the Ghost's screams came the teeth-grating sound of concentrated acid being splashed onto flesh. Those horrific sounds surged into Yotsuya Miko's ear canals together with the shrieks, violently shaking her eardrums. She could even feel some warm liquid flowing from her ears.

What was happening?

Miko struggled to think, but soon another sensation came from her body.

Hana...

Unable to see or sense any of this, Yurikawa Hana pressed the stethoscope in her hand against Yotsuya Miko's chest beneath her clothes.

"Wow, your heart's beating so fast."

Yurikawa Hana remarked, then looked up at Miko. Seeing her friend's pale face drenched in cold sweat, even someone as slow on the uptake as Hana realized something was wrong.

"Miko? Miko? What's wrong? Miko!"

Hana hurriedly removed the stethoscope, placed both hands on Miko's shoulders, and gently shook her.

"Miko? Miko?"

Miko forced her eyes open, about to tell Hana not to worry, when a violent shock suddenly struck her mind.

"Dark Nether Taste, see the world through the spirit. No kind differs; no thing is without confusion."

The one who knew those Ghosts was your own [original self]. Upon reaching this realm, all things appeared the same to you, and all things appeared bewildering.

"All because they do not die, all because they should perish. To act in accordance with nature, one must replace the Dao."

Because they had not died and become Soul Qi, they should have been the souls of those dead creatures. When you wished to take the place of the Heavenly Dao and destroy them, that would be the beginning of your path toward becoming the Great Dao.

"Destroy the body, preserve the soul; draw the soul, refine the spirit. Become the Profound Soul, become the Nine Nether."

Cast away the shells of these dead things and leave behind their most original forms. Take their Soul Qi into your body as nourishment, and ultimately forge an unfathomable soul. That was the meaning of your path as the Nine Nether.

Struck by the violent mental impact, she felt her vision suddenly darken. Looking at Yurikawa Hana before her and the Ghost that had already been more than half melted away, she saw that, in an instant, the human and the Ghost had become the same thing:

A wisp of Soul Qi radiating a dim purple glow.

Then her vision went black, and she lost all feeling in her limbs.

"Miko!"

Yurikawa Hana anxiously caught Yotsuya Miko as she began to fall straight down. Without warning, Miko had suddenly closed her eyes and slumped into Hana's arms.

"What happened?"

Teacher Kido happened to be entering the Health Room at that moment. When he saw Yotsuya Miko collapsed against Yurikawa Hana, her face ashen, his expression changed drastically.

"Hurry and get her onto the bed."

"Honestly, didn't I tell you to come find me in the staff room if I'm not in the Health Room? If you'd come any later, who knows what might have happened to this child."

"I'm really sorry, but please, Teacher, you have to take a good look and find out what's wrong with Miko."

The two hurriedly helped Yotsuya Miko onto the sickbed. Teacher Kido walked over to the counter and began preparing medical equipment.

"Hm?"

She looked at the stethoscope still hanging from Yurikawa Hana, as well as the disinfecting alcohol discarded to the side, completely unable to make sense of what was happening.

"Honestly..."

Yet Yurikawa Hana merely stared at the still-unconscious Yotsuya Miko, tightly gripping her right hand.

"Miko..."

At this very moment, the unconscious Miko was facing another great calamity.

She stared at the malevolent ghost before her, trembling all over.

"This is bad, this is bad, this is bad..."

At some point, the malevolent ghost that had been clinging to Yurikawa Hana had left Hana's body and now stood directly before Miko, staring straight at her.

The environment around her had also abruptly changed. It was no longer the school Health Room, but another pitch-black space shrouded and enveloped in dark mist.

That alone would have been manageable. What truly terrified her was that her body was involuntarily walking toward the malevolent ghost, while her mouth uttered sounds she could understand but that were completely unlike Japanese.

"Dark Nether Taste..."

She recognized every single word clearly, because this passage had already flooded into her mind all at once earlier. This was precisely the effect of the Nine Nether Profound Soul Treasure Record cultivation technique.

This is bad, this is bad, this is bad...

With every step she took forward, Miko felt her hunger grow stronger. Both her mind and her abdomen were overwhelmed by a craving for food. By the time she reached the malevolent ghost, that hunger had reached its peak. Her mouth continuously secreted saliva, while her stomach and intestines felt as though they were being roasted over a fire.

Clearly, Yotsuya Miko did not know much about the Demonic Path either. If she had known how the Demonic Path operated, she probably would never have touched its cultivation techniques for the rest of her life. Though by now, it was already too late for regret.

As Yotsuya Miko's cherry lips parted, her mental state gradually worsened in tandem with her body, which she could not control at all.

She experienced an inhuman torment. The instant she drew near, the malevolent ghost transformed into ash-gray particles that were sucked into her body through her open mouth. Those ash-gray particles did not taste good—bitter, sour, and fishy. As they passed over her tongue, they even left behind a rough, scraping sensation. She wanted nothing more than to vomit all of it back out, but her stomach accepted the substance, sending her a feeling of fullness.

In the end, she devoured every last particle of ash-gray matter.