Miko Becoming a Devilish Cultivator

"Thank you, Hana."

The latter merely rolled her eyes before nimbly getting up from her.

"Miko, you're something else."

She said with disdain, yet extended her right hand and pulled up the fool in her eyes from the ground.

"Did you have to do this?"

Seeing the curious gazes of the girls around them, she felt ashamed, her earlobes even turning a little red. Those stares weren't just curious; there was excitement in them too.

"After all, I really don't want to lose you."

Miko ignored the appraising eyes around them and tightly gripped Hana's right hand, as if the owner of that hand would disappear the moment she let go.

"I really, really like you, Hana."

The pronunciation of "like" was clearly imprinted in the minds of every bystander, as well as Hana's.

Instantly, the onlookers stirred up a commotion, with sighs and cheers erupting one after another. Some of the more mischievous ones started egging them on.

"Hey, say yes, Hana! You two are too normal anyway."

"Say yes to what!"

Yurikawa Hana covered her head, trying to pretend she couldn't hear the voices. Her face had already turned pink, and she loudly refuted the teasing remarks.

"What on earth are you guys thinking! We just made up!"

However, with her flushed face, it was unlikely anyone would believe her words.

"What the..."

The female teacher, who had rushed over to quell the commotion on campus, finally understood what was happening.

"It's just a confession, is it really necessary..."

Then, she abruptly remembered that this was a girls' school and there were no boys, unlike in her high school.

Glancing again at the two standing in the center, she rubbed her eyes, confirming she wasn't mistaken.

Only then did she hesitantly walk over and pull out the two involved parties.

"This kind of thing is not allowed!"

She also dispersed the surrounding students.

However, inwardly, she suddenly felt a pang of nostalgia, thinking how wonderful youth was, to be so dramatic.

In the end, the misunderstanding was naturally cleared up, dashing the expectations of those who were watching, including the female teacher.

"My reputation..."

When Yurikawa Hana returned to her seat, she slumped onto her desk, utterly defeated. She looked at Yotsuya Miko beside her, who seemed completely unfazed, and puffed out her cheeks.

"It's all your fault."

"Yes, yes, it's all my fault."

Yotsuya Miko simply nodded with a smile, gazing at Hana and finding her incredibly cute.

Chapter 81: Troubled Times

The mountain, let's call it Kamikakushi Mountain.

Everything that happened on Kamikakushi Mountain was reported in detail to the superiors of the special action team and was also brought back to his temple by Sanryu. Soon, the investigation of Kamikakushi Mountain came to a complete end.

"Is this truly a god?"

On the street, in a tall skyscraper, a young man who had been drinking coffee for days without proper rest rubbed his head. The throbbing sensation, coupled with the newly submitted documents, made his headache worse.

He couldn't help but glance elsewhere at a colleague of similar age, who let out a sigh.

"There's no clue at all. Even trying to analyze the mysterious power within those Silver Balls is impossible. Those who attempted to track the source using spiritual power rituals received no response whatsoever."

"And,"

He continued, recalling the new documents and information he had just received.

"That mountain... the gate on it is gone, vanished forever."

"It seems the power of this god is truly fearsome."

The colleague nodded, his expression grave.

"Creations imbued with divine power alone could kill several or even dozens of Spirits. Spirits rated as wolf or tiger class were completely defenseless. Only Evil Spirits of dragon class or higher could resist. And now this god has annihilated the dragon-class Spirit on Kamikakushi Mountain, along with a higher-level Spirit underground that we were completely incapable of confronting. If it hadn't shown a benevolent attitude, the entire Divine Gate would have been filled with dread."

"...Indeed. They've ordered us to completely abandon the investigation into the Silver Ball God. It seems they were quite frightened."

The young man said, feeling sick even looking at the coffee in front of him, his tone full of complaint.

"It's not that we found nothing from the Silver Balls. The owner of the Silver Ball engraved with characters—Natsukawa Yuki—is a very worthwhile starting point. We discovered the origin of this Silver Ball from her. It was a Silver Ball abandoned by its previous owner, Tono Zen. Even after abandoning the Silver Ball, this gentleman's personality underwent a drastic change, and he was still protected by the Silver Ball. It's truly a miraculous power. Through Tono Zen, and his connection to the Silver Ball, is his student Yotsuya Miko, but Yotsuya Miko seems to have little connection to the Silver Ball."

He said, pulling out the materials he had painstakingly gathered, a trace investigation of the Silver Ball holders.

"I and some colleagues went to investigate and collect the trajectories of these Silver Ball holders, to see if we could find any other commonalities, besides the fact that they had all suffered misfortune before. This is a huge workload. Even if we obtained a specific date from their mouths, investigating within the timescale of a whole day is still arduous. Everyone had multiple contacts and a wide range of activities. Some individuals traveled tens of kilometers within a single day. After preliminary elimination, the scope began to narrow down. But..."

These materials were put back into the briefcase, ready to be sealed.

"We've reached this point and you're unwilling to investigate further? All our hard work for so long has gone to waste."

"...That truly is a sorrowful tale, Okita-kun."

Okita slumped onto the sofa behind him, feeling that his superiors were a bunch of idiots. If this Silver Ball deity possessed such immense power, and was truly angered by their investigation, then they would have all been eliminated days ago, long before they even started digging.

"Don't say anything else. All I want right now is a long leave. I'm tired."

Okita was indeed tired. Even though he had begun to gradually uncover a key figure during these past few days of investigation, he no longer intended to inform his superiors. After all, they were afraid of the Silver Ball deity and didn't want to continue investigating.

"Even if they don't approve, I don't want to come here anymore. What do these guys even think the Investigation Department is? A department for verifying urban legends? Whenever any rumor pops up, they immediately think of us, as if they wish those urban legends were true. If we hadn't debunked so many hoaxes, would we have dismissed the urban legend of the Guardian of Silver Pellets as nothing? Heh. At the time this thing surfaced, they probably thought it was fake too, but they didn't want the Investigation Department to be idle. In the end, when a deity actually appeared, they blamed the Investigation Department for being incompetent and demanded we fully investigate matters concerning the Silver Ball. Now they're backing down... It's infuriating!"

Muttering to himself, he glanced at his colleague in front of him, no longer wanting to say anything more.

"Don't sound so miserable... Your salary wasn't docked at all, was it? And didn't you buy a car and a house?"

"I bought them, but how many times have I driven myself?"

Okita retorted instinctively, and a knock on the door interrupted their idle chat.

"Director Okita, Deputy Director Neo, please review these new documents."

A woman wearing glasses entered from outside, placed the documents on the desk, and then turned to leave.

"Another new urban legend?"

Okita said, casually opening the seal and taking out the documents inside, glancing at them briefly.

Then, he felt a stomachache.

"Neo, quickly, give me the trash can."

The moment Okita clutched his stomach, Neo realized his old ailment had flared up again. He skillfully handed the trash can to him and, amidst Director Okita's retching, picked up the documents to examine them carefully.

Then, he glanced at the coffee on Okita's desk and paused.

"I think perhaps we should apply for an additional coffee subsidy."

"Is this something that can be solved with a subsidy?! It's those guys! Those perverts!"

Okita wiped his mouth, looking at Neo's still impassive expression, and the pressure caused his emotions to erupt onto his colleague.

He tightly gripped Neo's tie, shaking the Deputy Director who never changed his expression.

"If this isn't handled properly, the entire Investigation Department will have to be replaced! You, at least, show some reaction!"

However, Neo simply looked at him calmly.

"Calm down, Okita-kun. Proceed with peace of mind. My father will protect me."

"That protects you, not me, you bastard. You nepotistic brat."

"I'll promote you."

"..."

Okita broke free from his anger. The pressure of the past few days finally made him feel like he couldn't breathe. He kicked his legs, closed his eyes, and fainted.

Neo supported the overworked Director Okita, and seeing the dog-shaped logo on the document, he couldn't help but sigh.

"Truly an eventful period."

Chapter 82: A Shift in Combat Style

The Nine Nether Profound Soul Treasure Record was a cultivation technique that directly pointed towards the Great Dao; Zhang Qiudao was deeply convinced of this.

After resolving the misunderstanding with Hana and reconciling, Yotsuya Miko finally felt that her heart was filled with peace and tranquility. She sensed the Profound Nether Qi within her Soul Repository. The Profound Nether Qi gifted to her by the creations of the Nightmare Refining Art was already sufficient for her to enter a new realm. As her Spiritual Sense gradually grew stronger, the threshold, which wasn't much of a threshold to begin with, was naturally crossed.

She looked at the various small artifacts placed before her, manipulating her Spiritual Sense to attach to them, and then imagined her Spiritual Sense lifting these objects. The formless, intangible Spiritual Sense suddenly took shape, and following her thoughts, these artifacts inexplicably floated in mid-air. However, the power wasn't particularly great.

After multiple attempts, Miko had a rough idea of how much weight her Spiritual Sense could bear, approximately eighty pounds for a single object. Furthermore, the size of the object couldn't exceed twenty cubic meters, otherwise, her Spiritual Sense would become inaccurate.

"But, this should be enough, right?"

She mused while manipulating the artifacts. The manipulation of objects by Spiritual Sense included throwing and catching. This meant she could use her Spiritual Sense to block incoming objects, or launch an object like a bullet, albeit with limited force.

However, no cultivator would foolishly pit their Spiritual Sense against another. After all, compared to Spiritual Qi, Spiritual Sense, before reaching a certain level of qualitative change, was not as useful as Spiritual Qi. Those cultivators who frequently used Spiritual Sense were generally at the Nascent Soul, Spirit Transmutation, or Enlightenment stages.

For cultivators at lower realms, the tangible effect of a stronger Spiritual Sense was more acute perception, intuition bordering on divine, and more skillful manipulation of Spiritual Qi. This principle also applied to Miko. With the strengthening of the Profound Nether Qi and her current Spiritual Sense, the techniques that Yotsuya Miko couldn't previously use gradually opened up to her.

The Ten Afflictions, she could now cast this technique multiple times.

Moreover, she could also begin to use other techniques that were more powerful or practical than this one.

For cultivators in the Xuanhui Realm, the gap between Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment was primarily in the number of techniques they could use, which could be seen from the amount of Spiritual Qi they possessed.

Many techniques had Spiritual Qi requirements, thus limiting the number of techniques available to Qi Refining cultivators. Many Qi Refining cultivators relied almost entirely on magic items or talismans for combat, as these could reduce Spiritual Qi consumption. But upon entering the Foundation Establishment realm, they would gradually consider techniques as fundamental, unless the magic items or talismans were of extremely high quality.

However, in Zhang Qiudao's view, Foundation Establishment was the true beginning for a cultivator.

Qi Refining cultivators merely needed to follow the steps to reach the Foundation Establishment realm. However, Foundation Establishment cultivators had a great many things to do to enter the next realm.

Techniques, artifact refining, talisman drawing, formations, and the like all needed to be learned. For a Foundation Establishment cultivator, their combat methods were far more varied compared to Qi Refining. Therefore, without knowledge of how to deal with various methods, the situation for such a Foundation Establishment cultivator would be quite dire. Overly pursuing the quantity and quality of Spiritual Qi could instead lead to trouble.

Zhang Qiudao spent five years in the Qi Refining realm before reaching Foundation Establishment. During those five years, he had exhausted almost all the cultivation knowledge he could acquire. For instance, his understanding of artifact refining and talisman drawing was comparable to cultivators who had been in the Foundation Establishment realm for decades. This was also why, after becoming a Foundation Establishment cultivator, his cultivation advanced rapidly, finally earning him the reputation of a genius.

This principle was also highly beneficial for Yotsuya Miko.

At the very least, her actions in dealing with the Mountain God could be considered a classic traditional cultivator's approach, or perhaps even less than that. Those traditional cultivators at least knew a thing or two about the Mountain God's background, whereas she had blindly thrown her entire arsenal at the Mountain God like a headless fly, and it was all for nothing.

If she had paid just a little more attention, she could have found a way to overcome the Mountain God, instead of directly confronting its highly resistant outer armor with her accumulated Talisman Iron Pellets.

Zhang Qiudao's requirements for his disciple weren't as high as his own had been when he was establishing his Foundation. He had given Miko a total of three cultivation methods: the Nine Nether Profound Soul Treasure Record, Soul Nourishing Artifact Path Understanding, and Soul Merging Artifact Casting Understanding, covering cultivation of the spirit, spellcasting, talismans, and artifact refining. However, he probably never imagined his disciple would be so incompetent. Even in talismans and artifact refining, she had barely produced any qualified items. Only a few puppet combinations were barely qualified, and a single Prison Spirit Remnant Soul Clothes for self-defense was half-qualified. Everything else was such shoddy quality that even Qi Condensation cultivators would shake their heads.

These shoddy items were naturally very effective against Ghosts that hadn't even reached Qi Condensation, but they weren't very useful against slightly stronger Ghosts. Of course, thanks to the theory of the new talisman system, they were almost as good as normal items after injecting a large amount of Spiritual Qi. However, normal items would also possess much greater power when injected with large amounts of Spiritual Qi.

After defeating the Mountain God, Yotsuya Miko finally understood that refining more shoddy items was useless. Furthermore, having just entered the realm of Spiritual Sense control, many new spellcasting techniques were very difficult to cultivate. It would be better to focus her efforts on these techniques. The current Spiritual Qi allowed her to skillfully use these techniques, and the resulting power was far greater than her previous Talisman Iron Pellet tactics.

Besides... the Ghosts within the sect would likely be difficult to damage with shoddy items like Talisman Iron Pellets. As for qualified talisman products and artifact products... she had none on hand, and essentially no suitable substitutes.

She thought silently, reminiscing about her past Talisman Iron Pellets.

Those astonishingly numerous Talisman Iron Pellets had once been her best means of combat, helping her kill countless Ghosts. Now, they were useless.

"Does this mean Silver Balls are also out of production?"

Miko suddenly thought that the legend of the Silver Ball could probably never be recreated. And she no longer needed to spend money buying fish to use as materials for refining Talisman Iron Pellets, nor did she need to continue fabricating stories about a cat to tell her mother and younger brother.

Thinking about it this way... that fifty thousand yen seemed to be extra?

Suddenly losing an expense, Yotsuya Miko silently opened her phone and checked her account balance. The prize money from the calligraphy competition had been sitting there untouched. Although she didn't defeat the Mountain God... she could still celebrate, considering it a narrow escape from death.

"Hello, Rom, first-"

So, she did.

Chapter 83: We Call It Efficiency

In the end, Rom treated them to a meal.

Although he looked like a down-on-his-luck magician, Rom had actually earned quite a bit of money from his exorcism shows.

"I really didn't expect to survive such a dangerous situation."