Miko Becomes a Demonic Cultivator

The more powerful the ghost, the more clearly it could be perceived in her Spiritual Sense.

In that Spiritual Sense comparable to radar, Yotsuya Miko truly realized just how rampant these ghosts were.

Whether at school or on the streets, her Spiritual Sense alerted her to a massive number of ghosts—even in the smallest corner, several crouched. Such a scene was hard to find even in the Xuanhui Realm described in the Nine Nether Profound Soul Treasure Record.

Though powerful ghosts existed in the Xuanhui Realm, they tended to gather in one place, forming a Ghost Domain. Scattered ghosts, meanwhile, would be accepted by what was called the "Netherworld" underground, where they were broken down into the most primal Spiritual Qi and returned to the earth.

But in this world, there seemed to be no such thing as the Yellow Springs. These ghosts neither feared sunlight nor dissipated from lacking the substance needed to maintain their forms while lingering on the surface. It was as if they had turned the mortal world into the underworld.

A bizarre world.

That was all Miko could say. In the common knowledge of the Xuanhui Realm she had inherited, this phenomenon defied common sense.

"I'm home."

Weaving through the flow of people and ghosts, ignoring those phantoms like any ordinary human, she returned to her home much faster than usual.

No one was inside. Her mother, Yotsuya Touko, and her younger brother, Kyosuke, hadn't come back yet.

But there was one ghost.

Yotsuya Miko slipped off her leather shoes, changed into house slippers, and walked to her room.

With a crisp click of the door, a twisted, oversized face appeared before her.

"Can you see me?"

A deformed ghost asked in a muffled voice that seemed to come from its chest. Yotsuya Miko paid it no heed, walking straight through its body. These beings were far more spiritual than she had imagined—only after confirming that she could see them could they materialize their bodies to interfere with and harm her.

Normally, they were intangible, like 3D projections.

Inside the room, even with the curtains drawn, many corners remained dim. The evening sunlight slanted through the window, cutting the room into three sections—two dark, one bright.

The boundary between light and shadow was stark, forming a sharp contrast.

Yotsuya Miko silently closed the door, hung her shoulder bag on the wall, and fell into thought.

She turned to face the full-length mirror behind her. It sat in the shadows, while she was bathed in the golden glow of dusk.

In the mirror, she looked radiant. The sunset painted her in a layer of gold, like the golden body spoken of in Buddhist teachings.

Her long black hair draped over her shoulders, her brilliant golden pupils, her delicate features—the girl's graceful form was all revealed in the mirror, save for the ghost that tirelessly harassed her.

"Can you see me?"

These ghosts seemed obsessed with pressing close to people's faces, using their twisted visages to block their view. As if doing so would make them seen.

This Malevolent Ghost was no exception. Its haphazardly assembled features obscured Miko's view of the mirror as it kept asking.

"...Sigh."

Yotsuya Miko suddenly let out a sigh and turned her gaze to the ghost before her.

"That's... enough."

It was the first time she had spoken to a ghost. She forced the words out.

Before the ghost could react, a jet-black light flashed from Miko's forehead, darting into the ghost's head like lightning.

At almost the same instant, the ghost's head shattered like a watermelon split on the beach.

"Shattered" might even be an understatement. Fragments flew everywhere across the room. Where the ghost's head had been, there was now nothing. Its twisted form, headless, froze for only a few seconds before collapsing backward, crumbling into pieces.

Having done all this, Yotsuya Miko still stared at herself in the mirror.

The sunset shifted lower, and the distinct boundary of light in the room moved as well. A line of demarcation had crept onto Miko's body, creating two starkly different halves.

One half still bathed in golden light, bright and luminous. The other, shrouded in gloom.

She stood frozen until the fragments on the floor were nearly dissipated before she finally snapped back to reality.

"My head... hurts so much."

Chapter 11: Change and the Unchanged

Her first kill of a ghost went far more smoothly than Yotsuya Miko had imagined.

She had merely clumsily manipulated the Spiritual Qi expelled by her Profound Nether Qi, cutting away a small piece of what was called "Spiritual Sense" from her mind like a butter knife, then wrapping that mass in Spiritual Qi to condense it into a black light shot from her forehead.

Her Spiritual Sense—or rather, her spiritual body—immediately transmitted the pain of being severed. It mirrored the searing agony of physical tissue being cut away, but unlike the flesh, it couldn't clearly indicate which part of her was afflicted. Instead, it dispersed the pain throughout her entire body.

Thanks to this nature, Yotsuya Miko didn't feel intense pain, only a numbing sensation all over. But her unskilled manipulation of Spiritual Qi instead affected her brain's normal function, sending a sharp, impact-like ache through her head.

Storing Spiritual Qi in the "Soul Repository" of the mind rather than the traditional Dantian naturally carried such risks. Otherwise, why would cultivators never have thought to store Spiritual Qi in the brain or other vital organs?

It wasn't that they hadn't considered it—it was that the risk of storing Qi in these areas was too great. It might be manageable at the Qi Refining or Foundation Establishment stages, but once one reached Core Formation, whether the formed Golden Core could function freely was another matter.

In simpler terms, a Golden Core was like a kidney stone.

But Yotsuya Miko didn't have to worry about growing a stone in her head, because she wasn't cultivating the Golden Core Path.

Having somewhat recovered from the headache, Miko looked at the ghost fragments on the floor and couldn't help but sigh.

She slowly sat cross-legged on the ground, drawing wisps of Spiritual Qi from her mind. These pale purple strands of Qi, like hunting dogs, pounced on the scattered fragments. The moment they touched the debris, they latched on and pulled back.

If anyone could see the traces of Spiritual Qi on Miko's body at that moment, they would likely be startled by the sight.

Though her Profound Nether Qi was only a thread, its capacity to store Spiritual Qi was remarkable. From Yotsuya Miko's head, nearly a hundred pale purple threads stretched taut, dragging the fragments on the floor. In an instant, these threads retracted swiftly, surging back into Miko's mind.

Then, Miko once again entered that pitch-black space.

Looking at the assembled ghost before her, she helplessly closed her eyes.

Just like the first ghost she had absorbed, this one disintegrated into gray-black particles outside her line of sight, then surged into her mouth without any say. Bitter, sour, fishy—a normal person's taste buds, upon contact with these particles, would only retch them up along with the remnants of food in their stomach. Yet Miko's body, influenced by the Nine Nether Profound Soul Treasure Record, urged her to swallow these particles.

It was a strange reaction. Though her tongue remained normal, her body did not reject these particles that her taste buds identified as unpleasant.

After completely devouring this ghost, the environment around Miko returned to normal. She was back in her room, and she could sense a small amount of new substance within her body—Soul Extract. The Nine Nether Profound Soul Treasure Record refined soul bodies into Soul Extract through this peculiar method.

If those fragmented substances entered a person's body through any other means, they would only cause deterioration. The sheer amount of impurities and the inherent rejection between Malevolent Ghosts and the human body made these substances poison to humans.

Of course, higher-grade soul bodies could enter a person's body directly without causing harm, and they didn't even need to be processed into Soul Extract this way.

Moreover, even extracting them through this method was not without danger.

That danger was quite straightforward—it gradually turned a person into a monster that devoured ghosts.

"I think I'm starting to get used to it."

Miko stood up, sensing the newly acquired Soul Extract within her, and circulated the Nine Nether Profound Soul Treasure Record to convert it into Profound Nether Qi.

When she entered that pitch-black space, her body had once again felt a strong craving for the Malevolent Ghost—even stronger than last time. Perhaps after a few more times, she might instinctively salivate at the sight of ghosts?

At that thought, Yotsuya Miko's expression darkened considerably.

This was not good news at all.

Going from prey to hunter sounded nice, but Miko was quite satisfied with her current diet and had no intention of changing her menu.

"Right now, I have two strands of Profound Nether Qi. I need to practice the Soul Collision Art."

She sensed the Profound Nether Qi in her mind. As she pondered, the Soul Extract had already been converted into Profound Nether Qi, nourishing her Spiritual Sense. Barring any surprises, it would take a few hours to replenish the Spiritual Sense she had severed.

"One wisp... probably means ten strands?"

The Nine Nether Profound Soul Treasure Record did not provide very clear unit definitions. Its division of realms was only by major stages—for example, Perception and Telekinesis were two different realms, corresponding to Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment on the Golden Core Path. Perception was the realm she was in, where she could sense the presence of ghosts through Spiritual Sense. Telekinesis, on the other hand, was when Spiritual Sense grew strong enough to move objects, with the standard being lifting oneself.

When one could manipulate their Spiritual Sense to lift their own body, that marked entry into the Telekinesis realm.

This kind of division might seem imprecise, even crude, compared to the many hurdles of Foundation Establishment requiring Foundation Establishment Pills on the Golden Core Path. But once Spiritual Sense underwent a true qualitative change, allowing the soul to leave the body, one could generally contend with Golden Core Great Cultivators, and even some Spirit Manifestation Cultivators who had begun Soul Condensing Spirit Manifestation above the Golden Core stage.

Zhang Qiudao, the creator of this technique, had never intended to map out the Golden Core Path's realms in such detail. When he created this technique, he was already a Nascent Soul cultivator. When he later switched to practicing the Nine Nether Profound Soul Treasure Record, he started from the Yang God realm, which corresponded to the Nascent Soul stage. After that, having no disciples, he never passed this technique on.

Yotsuya Miko was the second person fortunate enough to cultivate this technique, and probably the last.

"So, I still need to eat... no, kill eight ghosts?"

That wasn't difficult. At least for Miko, who was beginning to become a demonic cultivator, if she didn't worry about depleting her Spiritual Sense, she could just take a stroll down the street right now and gather the count.

"Eight ghosts..."

Miko looked out the window. The sunset had only its last glow left, and night was finally approaching. She watched the ghosts aimlessly wandering the streets, a strange expression flickering across her face.

"I've changed too."

"Thump."

She instinctively pulled out her phone from her pocket. On the lock screen, someone had sent a message.

"Tonight's dinner."

"[Image]"

Opening the chat with Yurikawa Hana, a smiling Hana was holding a fork spearing a thick piece of meat. On her table, as always, was a mountain of food.

Yotsuya Miko stared at the image, paused, and couldn't help but smile.

"Thanks."

I'll briefly explain the reason for the late update: I was revising a thesis. I'll add an extra chapter this weekend to make up for it.

As for Miko's cultivation technique and realms, I'll try to clarify: think of it as cultivating only the spirit, then shedding the body to become a deity. So it's not the path of Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, etc.

Regarding Spiritual Sense—to be precise, Miko's current Spiritual Sense isn't true Spiritual Sense. It's more like a sixth sense.

Chapter 12: The Troublesome Soul Devouring Sensation

"I'm heading out."

A bright noon, a crisp street—a refreshing and pleasant feeling arose naturally.

Yotsuya Miko put on a light blue hoodie and hurried out the door.

After walking a bit, she checked the time on her phone and realized her schedule was a bit tight.

"I'm going to be late."

She jogged toward the nearest station near her home.

Her luck was decent. A bus happened to be waiting at the stop, just about to leave.

She entered through the front door, tapped her phone to pay, picked a seat on the sparsely populated bus, and set down her shoulder bag, finally relaxing a little.

"Phew, made it."

She leaned back into the seat. Just as she was about to reply to messages on her phone, she suddenly sensed a fairly clear presence and couldn't help but glance at the person sitting diagonally to her right.

Seeing that they didn't seem intent on bothering her, she turned her attention back to her phone. Yurikawa Hana had just sent two messages.

"Let me confirm today's schedule."

"It's at two o'clock at Tea Buck, right?"

On her phone, the two messages were sent at 13:37—almost two in the afternoon.

"Two o'clock... that's a bit tight."

As she thought this, a presence drawing slightly closer within her Spiritual Sense made her lift her head for another look. She saw that the thing had indeed sat down a few rows behind her. Considering that Ghosts generally lacked any real intelligence and might simply be changing seats on a whim, Yotsuya Miko didn't bother with it.

She opened her phone and looked at the image of the Prayer Beads displayed on the screen, her resolve firming.

"I have to buy the Prayer Beads today."

Though she had little confidence that the Prayer Beads could purify the urge to devour the Malevolent Ghost lurking in her mind, since a thing like the Nine Nether Profound Soul Treasure Record existed in this world, it wasn't impossible for Prayer Beads to show some effect.

Thinking this way, she found the reasoning clearer and clearer.

Staring at the screen—the black agate women's lightweight Prayer Beads priced at ¥3,980 and the Pagoda Tree Wood women's lightweight Prayer Beads at ¥4,280—Miko sighed a little at the cost.

"They're both pretty expensive."

As she said this, she couldn't help but glance again at the Ghost that had fumbled its way into the seat in front of her.

If only this thing could be traded for cash, that would be nice.

"Pretty ridiculous, right?"

"What do you think?"

"Honestly hilarious."

"Hahaha..."