His First Shikigami: the Great Katsura Tree Mask!

Inside a sedan cruising along an elevated highway, Li Xia happily toyed with the piece of Soul-Nourishing Wood he had just acquired.

He was already imagining the wonderful future ahead.

Little did he know that the Smith Family in the United States had set its sights on him.

Though the family was not of purely indigenous Native American descent, some ancient blood still flowed through its veins. It was one of the seven biggest "thugs" to emerge after the Maya legacy declined during the End of Dharma Age.

As one of the seven giants of North America's cultivation world, the Smith Family was unquestionably beyond the ability of a reclusive family from a small place, such as the Peninsula Li Family, to provoke.

After all, theirs was a genuine, if incomplete, Maya legacy.

In its early days, the family had relied mainly on pillaging far and wide to patch up its own inheritance. Later, it developed a complete training system and clan culture tailored to its younger generations-the ultimate wolf-pack culture.

Thus, the family's members had a thirst for plunder and conquest in their blood. They were anything but decent folk at heart.

And now, having scented prey and locked onto their target, the wolves began to move.

After arriving home, Li Xia immediately locked himself in his meditation room.

Then he launched straight into the complicated process of contracting a Shikigami.

First, he needed to meet five basic requirements: a Ritual Altar, a Spirit Shrine, a Spirit-Sealing Talisman, a Demon Wraith, and the Contracting Formula.

The Ritual Altar could not have the slightest flaw or omission. The one the three Clan Elders had left him, which could still be used twice, certainly met that requirement.

As for the Spirit Shrine, with the Soul-Nourishing Wood in hand, he could carve and make it himself.

Plain and unremarkable as a Spirit Shrine might look, making one actually demanded a great deal of mental effort. Intricate patterns had to be traced and carved into many of its parts.

The better the Spirit Shrine and the higher the quality of the Spirit-Sealing Talisman, the greater the chance of successfully contracting a Demon Wraith as his Shikigami.

Of course, he could not do without a target for the contract.

And Li Xia's target was naturally the Flesh-Bodied Human Face, which had fallen into a state of suspended animation.

Finally, there was the Contracting Formula and the other necessary methods, which he had already learned from the Clan Elders!

In other words, everything was ready. All he needed was the final push!

By the time he finished making the Spirit Shrine, an entire day had passed.

Then Li Xia opened an alloy safe in the meditation room and took out a tin box. The premium Evil-Repelling Talisman attached to the tin showed no sign of losing its effectiveness. Neither did the Evil-Repelling Talisman attached to the mask inside.

In other words, the Flesh-Bodied Human Face was still sealed in a half-dead state.

Only after the two premium Evil-Repelling Talismans were removed did the faintest wisps of demonic energy leak from the mask.

That alone showed just how weak the Flesh-Bodied Human Face had become.

The next moment-

Li Xia recited the awkward, unfamiliar formula and "invited" the helpless Flesh-Bodied Human Face into the Spirit Shrine. Then he lightly cut his finger and sent a drop of his blood into the center of the Great Katsura Tree Mask's brow inside the shrine.

In an instant, the Spirit Shrine blazed with light.

He continued casting one formula after another until the entire Spirit Shrine, along with the Great Katsura Tree Mask inside, was absorbed into the Intermediate Spirit-Sealing Talisman bestowed by the Clan Elders. Only when the previously limp talisman paper had become a stiff cardstock card did he stop.

Sealed within the card was the hideous mask that embodied the Flesh-Bodied Human Face.

Its outward form was somewhat similar to the cards in Yu-Gi-Oh!

At this point-

The initial contract with his first Shikigami was complete.

Whenever he needed the Great Katsura Tree Mask's power, he only had to take out the card and channel a trace of magical power into it to activate it.

It was also extremely convenient to carry.

As for building rapport and a bond between them, that would require years of working together! If he wanted this Shikigami, the Great Katsura Tree Mask, to grow further and become even stronger, that would depend on his future methods and opportunities.

"Come forth, Great Katsura Tree Mask!"

The Flesh-Bodied Human Face's original mask body had been born on a great katsura tree. Calling it the Great Katsura Tree Mask was also a way to avoid letting its hideous appearance dredge up childhood trauma from his previous life.

The mask now possessed not only its own Demon Power, but could also hold Li Xia's magical power.

Its will would also be controlled by Li Xia.

It could just about serve as a passable fighter.

Once Li Xia put on the mask, he immediately gained several abilities.

[The first ability] was brief flight while carrying a person.

On its own, the mask could fly freely without any restrictions. But if it carried Li Xia along, its speed would drop drastically, and it would consume the Great Katsura Tree Mask's Demon Power. That was why this ability only allowed brief passenger-carrying flight.

[Another ability] was strength enhancement.

With the Great Katsura Tree Mask on, Li Xia's strength increased noticeably to more than ten times its original level. It was almost on par with the boost a premium Strength Talisman gave him.

It was worth noting that an ordinary Strength Talisman did not place much strain on the human body when enhancing its strength. But a premium Strength Talisman, upgraded in rank and quality through a Shikon Shard, provided more than ten times the enhancement of an ordinary one.

Precisely because of that, the human body struggled to withstand such explosive strength.

Using a premium Strength Talisman to enhance himself could easily cause his flesh to break down.

Now, the strength enhancement the Great Katsura Tree Mask gave Li Xia was almost equal to that of a premium Strength Talisman! Yet the strain it placed on his human body in various ways was nowhere near as severe!

For at least ten minutes, his body would suffer no irreparable damage from the excessive strain.

Considering the humans in the original story who had received Demon Power enhancements, both the swordsmith Dao Qiu and Black Miko Tsubaki had indeed undergone earthshaking changes in physical strength.

Thus, Li Xia ventured a bold guess:

This was probably happening because the Great Katsura Tree Mask Shikigami was imbuing his human body with its own Demon Power, thereby strengthening his body to a certain extent.

[The third ability] was an inexplicable sensitivity to Shikon Shards.

Originally, this special ability had belonged only to Kagome, Kikyo, and Naraku. Other humans and demons could not see the Shikon Jewel's exact location! But the Great Katsura Tree Mask had lain dormant alongside that Shikon Shard in the modern world for centuries, and a miraculous connection had long since formed between them!

When Li Xia put on the mask, he indirectly gained a mysterious connection to the Shikon Jewel as well.

Even when he locked the Shikon Shard inside the alloy safe, he could see the jewel fragment through the alloy steel plates.

[The fourth ability] was energy devouring.

It could strengthen itself by devouring energy of a different kind.

Commonly known as the "people-eating path."

For a simple example, both Li Zhun and his son Li Xia possessed magical power. Under normal circumstances, Li Zhun could not give his magical power to Li Xia. But if they used the mask's mouth to devour it, most of Li Zhun's magical power could become part of Li Xia's reserves and fuel for his growth.

[The fifth ability] was fine control over the body.

In the original story, the Flesh-Bodied Human Face could exert relatively fine control over the human bodies it devoured. In particular, once that flesh had turned into a mass of mush, the Flesh-Bodied Human Face could even stretch its temporary body into noodle-like strands, extending and contracting it in all sorts of ways.

Though this was no extraordinary combat ability, it was a support ability Li Xia valued greatly.

The human body was too fragile. Even someone as powerful as Midoriko or Kikyo could not withstand a demon's close-range strike!

Then couldn't humans compensate for their innate shortcomings by hardening their bones, increasing the density of their muscle fibers, adjusting their bodies' resilience, and so on, strengthening their physiques until they rivaled demons or even surpassed great demons?

Couldn't humans reach the point where they could tear steel plates apart with their bare hands and blow up tanks with a punch?

Well.

Without supernatural methods, they probably really couldn't.

But now, the Great Katsura Tree Mask had given him an opportunity!

An opportunity to strengthen and modify his body after birth!

With the Shikon Shard keeping him alive anyway, he had no fear of putting himself through all sorts of experiments!

At worst, after repeatedly hitting a wall, he could simply turn himself into a demon! Even as a demon, he could live an easy, comfortable life!

Perhaps, more accurately, his life might become even more pleasant!