Things Got a Little Out of Hand / A Little "Insurance" ...

"By the way, did Divine Gate give you the Life Energy extraction method?"

After scanning her surroundings with her Spiritual Sense and confirming the things around her, Yotsuya Miko looked at Yuria in front of her.

While this technique is far superior to Spiritual Power, it is still a crude one. Yotsuya Miko plans to make further revisions after dealing with the Divine Gate, gradually optimizing it into a better technique, or simply wait until she reaches the Nascent Soul Stage realm to pass on the Nine Nether Profound Soul Treasure Record to Yuria. After all, Zhang Qiudao didn't say she couldn't teach it to others. As for the Soul Devouring Tribulation problem, she also has a solution.

She's not a stingy person; she knows who to be kind to. Besides, if she can still be betrayed like this, then she'll just have to accept it.

"I've received it, but I haven't started cultivating yet."

"I see..."

Miko had put a hand on Yuria's shoulder,

"Close your eyes and relax your body."

Yuria did as instructed and soon sensed a strange energy flowing from Miko's palm into her mind, radiating a cool sensation.

"This is my spiritual energy, hmm, you can call it Profound Nether Qi."

The answer to whether spiritual energy can be infused into another person's body is yes. However, it's troublesome and doesn't provide much benefit. The Yotsuya Miko Profound Nether Qi infused into Yuria's body couldn't be sustained for long; it would eventually be depleted. Moreover, what she infused wasn't spiritual energy, but Profound Nether Qi, which meant a reduction in the amount of Profound Nether Qi within her own body.

However, the lack of this Profound Nether Qi did not significantly affect her cultivation level.

"I already told you about that technique; it was just something I used to appease the Divine Gate. Just use the Profound Nether Qi as the spiritual energy for the technique. They won't be able to tell anyway."

"Okay, I understand."

Yuria was already aware of Miko's actions; it was Miko herself who suggested dealing with Divine Gate. Yulia didn't have much affection for Divine Gate, especially given recent events.

Currently, another issue she is particularly concerned about is...

"Does Hua also possess such spiritual... Profound Nether Qi?"

"Ha?"

Chapter 179 is playing a bit too big a game.

"Here are the materials you requested, Ms. Yotsuya."

Today, the Yotsuya Miko was Vice-Minister One, a person who seemed much more composed.

Neither Okita Qishen nor the man named Oune Tatsu in front of them were very old, but they were already the head and deputy head of the Investigation Department in Divine Gate.

Okita Qishen is a smart man with a keen sense of opportunity, and Yotsuya Miko. However, without the support of someone behind him, he would have to wait a long time to accumulate seniority.

"It seems that Captain Okita is very busy today. I'm sorry to bother you."

She said this without much remorse. Yotsuya Miko used her spiritual energy to neatly pack the materials she had gathered in front of her into her shoulder bag. She wasn't surprised that Okita Qishen didn't come out to see her but instead sent Oune Tatsu.

It wasn't that Okita Qishen to see her; for this guy, having someone else contact him on his behalf was what he found troublesome.

Because Okita Qishen knew very well what kind of being he was talking to. In his mind, he probably already equated Yotsuya Miko with a nuclear bomb.

How could he allow his subordinates to easily approach such an extremely important figure? If anything went wrong, it would be the end of them.

"If I remember correctly, there are two more batches of materials left. I wonder when they will arrive?"

She looked at Oune Tatsu in front of her, and began to consider the position of vice minister.

Tail root is a good name; it still works in many places, and in some places it is particularly useful.

If we compare Divine Gate to a microcosm of a country, then it is not without its share of strange and monstrous elements. Apart from the conflict between the Investigation Department and the Special Affairs Department, and the division of powers between the Minister and the Chief of Staff, this organization is far from perfect. Or rather, Divine Gate did not initially envision such a complex structural design.

As Divine Gate developed, well, mainly due to the influence of certain events, Divine Gate's power was increased for a considerable period of time, particularly in terms of secular power. As a result, interests arose.

"I have not received any relevant notification, I am very sorry."

Compared to Okita Qishen, Oune Tatsu's attitude was not as humble, and he responded to Yotsuya Miko's question in a businesslike manner. He looked at the empty storage room, and his expression did not change much, as if he was used to it.

After the handover of the materials was completed, the man didn't say much, simply following Yotsuya Miko until Miko left. Compared to Okita Qishen, who was rather talkative, his attitude was somewhat puzzling.

After finishing a training session, Yuria paused for a moment when she caught Yotsuya Miko Oune Tatsu leave, before immediately throwing herself back into training.

Although she found it strange that Okita Qishen didn't meet with Yotsuya Miko today since he wasn't working, she figured it was probably unnecessary.

The pressure that Miko put on Minister Okita must have been immense.

This is what she thought: whenever Yotsuya Miko's name was mentioned, this department head, who wasn't exactly authoritative, would always look downcast and then look at her with a wronged gaze, filled with regret.

After Kawamori's deeds were reported, Yuria was promoted and entered Okita Qishen's faction. She could consider herself a member of the Investigation Department and therefore not an outsider.

For this reason, Okita Qishen had said everything he could. He mentioned that Yotsuya Miko's negotiating attitude was too tough, and that he couldn't justify his position. However, Yuria only let these words go in one ear and out the other, and had no intention of telling Miko. After all, she still needed to clarify her own position on this matter.

Miko's promotion to join Okita Qishen's faction was also a condition of Miko initial negotiations. It was to leverage Okita Qishen's position—actually that of Vice Minister Oune Tatsu —to avoid some unnecessary trouble. Yotsuya Miko was an outsider and couldn't be dealt with using methods from within the system, but Yuria was not. Whether Kawamori's matter was big or small, she couldn't avoid it.

On a smaller scale, she was the main force in closing a Gate of the Underworld. Her strength was undeniable, but at the time, her position within the Divine Gate was low. With a low position and no one within the system to help her, wasn't she an easy target to manipulate? On a larger scale, it's simple: her friend was Yotsuya Miko. This powerful backer was not to be trifled with, but if she were to be provoked, she would undoubtedly be the one targeted and used as a restraint.

At this point, it would be necessary to register with a force within the organization. Miko's idea was to register under Oone's banner, which would serve as a signal. Because it was just a signal, Yotsuya Miko herself remained independent, not siding with either side. This sounds far-fetched, but in other words, Yotsuya Miko could change Yuria's registration at any time, based on her strength.

Halfway there, after briefly sorting out recent events, Yuria realized that something was amiss.

Life Spiritual Qi Extraction Method.

This wasn't just something Okita Qishen had mentioned; on the way today, Miko had also specifically instructed him to inject a spiritual energy called "Profound Nether Qi" into his body.

She blurted out a sentence at that moment,

To everyone's surprise Yotsuya Miko didn't give one to Hua or anyone else. She gave one only to herself, because she was a member of the Divine Gate.

Yuria didn't have an answer to the question of how effective or useless spiritual energy was, but there was an example: Yotsuya Miko.

She relied heavily on the Straw Rope Doll given to Miko by Miko to boost her own strength. Miko herself, who created the Straw Rope Doll, possessed unfathomable power, and this being, comparable to a god, cultivated spiritual energy.

Even though the cultivation method given to the Divine Gate was not the Miko cultivated himself, it was still several times stronger than the meager Spiritual Power of the exorcist.

What does it mean to be "several times stronger"?

In Yuria's simple worldview, it's about dealing with more and stronger spirits and better protecting the normal real world. In the eyes of others, it's also very simple: profit, several times the profit.

After confirming the effectiveness of the exercise, the real issue arose.

Regardless, some people will always wonder if Yotsuya Miko possesses even better cultivation techniques. And after this transaction succeeded, will Yotsuya Miko continue to trade for even better techniques?

Their expectations will rise higher and higher until reason can no longer suppress their desires, causing them to instinctively disregard and ignore certain things, such as strength.

The timing of Oe Oune Tatsu to replace Okita Qishen in handing over the materials is quite interesting.

Of course, there are other things as well.

Yuria swallowed hard. Although she attended an ordinary girls' high school, she was, to be precise, a child from an upper-middle-class family and had some political awareness.

Through the information from Okita Qishen, Oune Tatsu, and Yotsuya Miko, we can analyze enough things. When Miko mentioned preparing to deal with Divine Gate, she thought it was something like how to handle Divine Gate's recruitment and suppression, but she never expected... it would be like this.

That's a bit much... (The rest of the text appears to be a nonsensical string of characters and symbols, possibly a result of OCR errors.)

Chapter 180 A "Small" Backup Plan

Yotsuya Miko doesn't consider herself a very good fisherwoman. She's even worried that this time the hook is too straight and the bait is too salty, and she's considering whether to continue using Blood Soul Nightmare Entry with some more ingredients.

But seeing Oune Tatsu today put her mind at ease.

There may indeed be intelligent people, but prudent intelligent people are too few. Those who rise to high positions never rely on intelligence, but on courage. Of course, it's also possible that they genuinely don't take her seriously.

Modern military weapons can't kill non-human beings, can't kill those invisible ghosts, and can't even kill a living person, let alone a living person with a family.

Many people might think that she has too many weaknesses that are on the surface, which could easily make people complacent.

"But this is for the best, at least we won't be watched by a pack of wolves."

Before revealing her stance, Yotsuya Miko's biggest concern was patience. She genuinely worried that those high-ranking leaders were all incredibly opportunistic, slowly and gently trying to uncover her true bottom line, and then extracting tangible benefits from her.

Ultimately, these guys might truly lack morals, but Yotsuya Miko still had some. Faced with their constant displays of goodwill and weakness, even if she really wanted to do something, it would be difficult for her to convince herself.

She is a good demon cultivator, but she is lawful evil [Yi Qi (?) San 2-Moon Chair.

Murder is fine, manipulating people's minds is fine, but it all needs a reason. That's how she dealt with Divine Gate. Once Divine Gate was truly lured in, then getting rid of him was his own fault.

As for not catching anything, she doesn't plan to dwell on it; there will be plenty of opportunities.

If Divine Gate makes no move during her lifetime, then she won't try anything with him. Peaceful transactions and negotiations are perfectly fine with Yotsuya Miko Divine Gate.

The choice was in Divine Gate's hands. As for her? She was just an innocent, pitiful "demonic cultivator" forced to rebel.

"Even though I was almost starting to believe it."

While grumbling like this, let's put the matter aside for now. Fishing can wait; with this new batch of materials arriving, Miko will have a ton of things to do again.

Originally, she planned to find a place to refine Magic Tool, but there was very little lightning this season, and she couldn't find a good place for earth fire either. So, she had no choice but to focus her efforts on cultivating her magical techniques and dealing with the contingency plans for the Divine Gate.

Back home, she finished her normal day and began her underworld time. At one in the morning, after packing the pile of beads she had refined—for ease of shaping—into her shoulder bag, Yotsuya Miko then pulled out a national map from the bag.

This is a map she drew based on a map on her phone. Because of her spiritual energy and Spiritual Sense, drawing such a map is not difficult.

On this map, there are hundreds or even thousands of defined nodes, a small portion of which have been marked with a bright red "", indicating that the nodes have been completed.

Looking at the remaining nodes on the map, Yotsuya Miko couldn't help but rub her head, feeling exhausted for having come up with this backup plan.

"Even if I know the Falcon Spirit Wind Control Incantation, it will still take a long time to fly. It's so troublesome."

Before she mastered the Falcon Spirit Wind Control Technique, completing the nodes on the map would have been impossible for her, as it would have been too time-consuming and risky. However, after finally mastering the Falcon Spirit Wind Control Incantation, her speed has increased. Although it's not incredibly fast, the country isn't that large, so traversing the map is no problem for her.

Flying and walking on land are two completely different experiences, and flying is much more subtle. With current technology, it's unrealistic to detect her in the sky because she's too small and has various spells to shield her from senses and body temperature. On land, however, the dust and wind she kicks up at high speed are enough to make her noticeable. Shielding herself from the dust and wind would consume too much spiritual energy, so it's much easier to just fly.

Having mastered the ability to fly, Yotsuya Miko's mobility skyrocketed. It was precisely because of this that she wanted to set up a massive contingency plan within the country, and the use of cultivation techniques in the trade could support her in doing so.

Once this backup plan is complete, she will not only be able to deal with the Divine Gate, but even confront this country head-on. Of course, she will only have one chance. This is not a formation after all, and there is no spiritual energy in this world. Miko is a one-time pseudo-formation that takes advantage of the Soul Nourishing Artifact Path Understanding and Soul Merging Artifact Casting Understanding. Its original source is the Soul Merging Artifact Casting Understanding Formation that attracts heavenly thunder and earthly fire.

After letting out a sigh, Yotsuya Miko cast an illusion spell to prevent anyone from entering her room. Then, as usual, she leaped out of the window, her body enveloped in a blue vortex that propelled her into the sky.

There was no sound barrier, no strong airflow changes; as Yotsuya Miko took to the air, she had already used a spell, combined with the effect of the Falcon Spirit Wind Control Incantation, to erase the influence of these physical rules. Therefore, no one knew what had happened, even though this was not the first time.

Yotsuya Miko, her body levitating in this peculiar form, felt no wind. Just as the technique was named "Wind Control," it manipulated wind or air currents in ways impossible in the real world. Miko glanced at the map in her hand, locked onto her location again, and sped off. One reason she didn't use a phone was that phones have GPS. So she used the simplest method: drawing a map for herself.

Of course, she didn't actually need a map. Her powerful Spiritual Sense was also enhancing her memory and information comprehension abilities. But the thought of all her hard work going to waste if this backup plan went wrong made her less inclined to rely on her memory and opted for a map on a fixed medium.

With a thought, Falcon Spirit Wind Control Incantation used the Wind Riding Technique to fly to the location where the node had not yet been completed. After glancing at the map again and confirming that the location was correct, Yotsuya Miko slowly landed on the ground, standing on her mutated feet.

Since acquiring the Heavenly Devil False Body True Understanding, she no longer needs to prepare shoes for going out at night, saving herself the trouble.

With a practiced spell, a large hole appeared in the ground where they stood. Miko took a bead from his shoulder bag, dropped it into the hole, and then filled it with a spell.

"This milestone is complete."

To prevent the beads from being dug out, these magically created holes are very deep, and they are not easy to dig out unless an excavator digs through the mountain. Moreover, when she was considering it, she chose high mountains or wilderness areas where there would be no construction work.

He cast another spell, and his Spiritual Sense detected a faint connection to the bead. Only then did he use the Falcon Spirit Wind Control Incantation again to move towards the next node.

Through the Mountain God and the Xuanming Python, Yotsuya Miko has indeed changed a lot, especially with her current practice of laying traps.

No one knows what these nodes mean, but in terms of quantity, it's terrifying, or rather, it's like using a double-edged sword to kill a chicken.

The gods are self-proclaimed, the inner demons are hidden: I have something to do today, I'm very sorry.

My schedule is packed with classes today, from morning till night. I haven't had a single moment to write. I usually start writing around 8:30 PM, but...!

Today, I had nucleic acid testing at my university campus in Nan'an District, Chongqing. It's a second-tier university. Since the entire city of Chongqing is required to undergo nucleic acid testing, and the university planned to handle it all at once, the testing started this afternoon.

From 8:30 until now, I've spent an hour and thirty minutes just queuing on campus. By the time I got back it was 10:00. The campus network is cut off at 11:00, and the lights are turned off at 11:00 too. Tomorrow morning I'll still be among the dignified 8:00 AM students, and it's university mathematics. Plus... my usual stomachache, I'm completely numb.

The negative buffs are stacked up on the e r equipment? So.

I'll write one chapter later while I have some free time, and I'll finish the other one over the weekend.

I'm very sorry, if there's no update today, just consider it because the author is tired.

Honestly, I don't want to lose my perfect attendance record either. (And lose my spotlight)

Chapter 181 Seeking Only a Clear Conscience

While setting up a simple formation to deal with the Divine Gate, Yotsuya Miko did not neglect her existing techniques. Rather, after dealing with the Xuanming Python, she gained a clearer understanding of her imbalance in techniques.

In the past, due to either limited resources or the nature of the techniques themselves, she didn't possess a wide variety of techniques, which proved inadequate in many application scenarios. For example, with the Xuanming Python last time, if she had even one technique that could reduce spiritual energy, she could have significantly reduced the Xuanming Python's lethality.

For this reason, Yotsuya Miko also used her spare time to review her existing techniques.

First, there was the Soul Collision Art, followed by the Eye-Penetrating Incantation, the Light Body Sharp Eyes Exhausting Strength and Resilient Body Technique, and four other body-enhancing techniques. After the Heavenly Devil False Body True Understanding was obtained, these four body-enhancing techniques were replaced by the Heavenly Devil False Body True Understanding.

Needless to say, the monsters created by the Nightmare Refining Art still roam the outside world, their whereabouts completely unknown. As for the other technique, "Ten Afflictions," which hasn't appeared for a long time, it was replaced by the Soul Splitting Flesh Crushing Nail due to their formidable power.

Nowadays, techniques like Soul Splitting Flesh Crushing Nail, Falcon Spirit Wind Control Incantation, Xuanming Tribulation Fire, Blood Soul Nightmare Entry, Hiding Concealment Technique, and Heavenly Devil False Body True Understanding have become the main methods for Miko. These techniques are superior to the original techniques, naturally making the original techniques take a backseat, and they are only used occasionally in normal times.

However, these techniques are not very versatile and can only handle a limited number of scenarios.

Techniques used for disguising injuries, techniques to impersonate wounds, techniques to manipulate minds— Yotsuya Miko originally hadn't intended to consider such techniques. Firstly, she felt these techniques were too peculiar and not intended for harm; secondly, some techniques were indeed too bizarre or malevolent. At the time, she was still relatively naive and instinctively rejected these techniques that seemed specifically designed to target righteous cultivators.

However, after being taught a lesson by the Xuanming Python, she learned her lesson and realized that many things cannot be accomplished simply through direct military intimidation.