Too Many People, Too Little to Go Around!

The Peninsula Li Family had a long and storied heritage.

As early as the Qin and Han dynasties in Kyushu, they had established contact with the mainland.

Back then, the peninsula was called Silla, and it belonged to the Park Family.

During the Divine Land's flourishing Tang dynasty, exchanges between the two sides became even more frequent. By then, the peninsula was under the Kim Family's control.

Later, during the Song and Ming periods, those exchanges reached their peak.

The Li Family's ancestor, Yi Seong-gye, successfully seized power.

He founded a dynasty.

It was not until the twentieth century, when the neighboring Island Nation and the world's great kingdoms extended their influence into the peninsula, that the dynasty came to a less-than-satisfactory end.

It was now 1996, the end of the twentieth century. The three great cultivation families-the Park Family, the Kim Family, and the Li Family-had withdrawn from public view, resulting in the bizarre state of affairs where conglomerates shaped ordinary people's livelihoods.

Of the three great families:

The Park Family was the most mysterious and deeply concealed, with unfathomable reserves.

The Kim Family was the strongest on the surface, brimming with talent.

The Li Family had originally ruled the peninsula the longest, but the sudden arrival of the End of Dharma Age around 1500 had severely hampered its accumulation and development. As a result, it actually had the shallowest reserves of the three.

After all, before the End of Dharma Age, they could build up their resources; once it arrived, they were no longer accumulating anything, but living off what they had.

The Li Family, which had risen from humble beginnings, had only accumulated resources for three hundred years. The Park Family and the Kim Family were different: both were genuine thousand-year-old lineages in the cultivation world. The Kim Family in particular had ruled the peninsula for nearly a millennium during the most prosperous age of cultivation civilization-a solid millennium of rule. The cultivation resources and sacred cultivation grounds it had seized and stockpiled during that time were far beyond anything the late-blooming Li Family could match.

Fortunately, the Li Family's ancestor had been remarkably dependable.

By clinging tightly to the Divine Land's coattails, he had managed to use that powerful outside support to preserve the Spirit Spring, which showed no signs of drying up even now.

With the Spirit Spring sustaining even the most basic cultivation system, the Li Family's lineage of teachings would not be so easily severed.

Li Xia had returned to the clan for two reasons: first, to obtain the teachings for creating shikigami, and second, to get more Spirit Fluid.

The Li Family's ancestral grounds lay amid green hills and clear waters near the sea.

From the outside, it looked like a relatively remote village that was hostile to outsiders.

The many ordinary people who passed through never gave it a second thought.

How could anyone unable to discern its supernatural qualities imagine that this remote, impoverished, unwelcoming village actually concealed a colossal power?

Inside the ancestral grounds.

Father and son met.

"What's gotten into you, boy? It's only been a few days, and you're already running home?"

His father, Li Zhun, frowned. He wore Daoist robes and a pair of scholarly-looking glasses.

At a dining table meticulously carved from green jade, Li Xia slowly looked up from shoveling rice into his mouth. He took a small bottle from his belt pouch, handed it straight to the father he had inherited, and spoke with great seriousness:

"I found this in the Island Nation. Take a look and see if anything seems off..."

He had left in the morning and arrived home at noon.

That was how close the Island Nation was to the peninsula.

Li Zhun looked surprised at first, then took the little bottle and turned it over in his hand. He gave it a gentle shake to get a basic idea of what was inside. A sloshing sound followed. Unsurprisingly, it most likely contained some kind of liquid.

At first, his inherited father thought nothing of the liquid in the bottle.

He casually unscrewed the cap, intending to give it a quick look and be done with it. He knew his son's abilities and level perfectly well. Could the boy possibly produce anything that would impress him? What a joke!

But as the cap came off, a rich, fresh fragrance burst out.

A moment later, the unusual fragrance filled the room, soothing his entire body and stirring the magical energy within him.

"Hmm? What's this?"

The middle-aged Daoist's nose twitched, and his eyelids flickered. His casual expression vanished, replaced by uncertainty and surprise.

Seeing his son across the jade table smiling silently, his eyes full of meaning, the man immediately focused his attention and brought the bottle to his nose, taking a gentle sniff.

After two light sniffs, his expression grew even stranger.

Seeing this, Li Xia suggested:

"Dad, try a little. You'll probably understand why I rushed home."

The middle-aged man nodded. His son had no reason to harm him, and he genuinely was interested in the liquid, so he took a tiny sip.

As the liquid entered his mouth, its familiar taste invigorated him. There was no mistaking it: this was the Li Family's secret Spirit Fluid.

But why was its distinctive fragrance dozens of times stronger?

Its normally sweet, cool taste now seemed so intensely sweet that it had turned searingly hot, prickling his entire mouth and taste buds like needles.

He swallowed with a gulp, and his entire esophagus and stomach immediately began to spasm and tremble, singing hallelujah!

A wonderful sensation welled up, as though he could soar into the sky and stand shoulder to shoulder with the sun!

And that was only the taste. What truly left him dumbfounded was that the magical energy within him suddenly circulated more than ten times faster. It felt like a tractor abruptly accelerating to the speed of a train.

There was no doubt about it: the Spirit Fluid Li Xia had produced was precisely the fluid he had enhanced with the Shikon Shard.

"Third Son, how did our family's Spirit Fluid become so delicious and miraculous? Its effect on restoring magical energy has improved more than tenfold!"

His inherited father asked, his face full of amazement.

Li Xia set down his chopsticks, his expression becoming more solemn and earnest.

"That's exactly what I wanted to talk about! Dad, only the clan's upper ranks should know the Spirit Fluid's formula, right? Then why did I find the same Spirit Fluid in the Island Nation? More importantly, why is the Spirit Fluid they've prepared so much better than what our Li Family makes?!"

"Could the clan's upper ranks have improved the formula?"

At Li Xia's words, his inherited father's expression immediately changed.

"Impossible! If the higher-ups had improved the formula, we would definitely know something about it! Even if this high-quality Spirit Fluid is scarce and reserved for the geniuses of the main lineage, those of us in the branch families should still have heard something! The main lineage wouldn't hide information like this!"

"Wait, are you saying some treacherous bastard leaked our clan's Spirit Fluid formula? And that the scoundrel even improved it before selling it in the Island Nation?"

Li Zhun's eyes gradually widened.

The uncertainty and anger in them deepened.

"Dad, this is all I managed to get, and the trail went cold while I was dealing with a little girl's ghost.

What should we do now?

Should we report this to the higher-ups?"

Li Xia deliberately asked those questions.

Li Zhun fell into a long silence of contemplation.

First, his son had produced this high-quality Spirit Fluid and confirmed that he had obtained it in the Island Nation. This intelligence had to be taken very seriously. It was both important and valuable to the clan.

Second, considering that his son was a complete novice and could not possibly prepare Spirit Fluid of such high quality himself, he naturally ruled out the possibility that the little brat was misleading him.

Finally, there was the question of how to bypass whoever had leaked the formula and deliver the intelligence to the higher-ups without alerting the culprit.

"You only went to the Island Nation to attend middle school. How did you get caught up in something this big?"

His inherited father's feelings were complicated.

Li Xia shrugged and began telling the story he had prepared:

"Dad, I ran into a demon in the Island Nation."

"Oh? What kind of demon?"

"It came out at night. Its whole body was golden, its tail looked like an ear of wheat, and it was shaped like a balloon. When it moved around at night, it always floated in the air with its eyes shut. Oh, and children's ghosts were always around it."

Li Xia described it.

It was precisely a demon Kagome had encountered in the modern world over the past two days.

Although Li Xia had not seen it himself, that did not stop him from using it in his story.

After hearing his son's description of the demon, Li Zhun narrowed his eyes.

"What you encountered was probably a [Demon-Worshipping Child Spirit]!"

"What's a Demon-Worshipping Child Spirit?"

Li Xia pretended to know nothing.

Seeing this, Li Zhun offered a brief explanation:

"A Demon-Worshipping Child Spirit is a demon born from the souls of children. It plays a soul-soothing flute while keeping newly deceased children company and playing with them, protecting them from other demons at the same time.

Until those children ascend to heaven.

"As a matter of fact, a Demon-Worshipping Child Spirit is very gentle as long as its eyes remain closed. But if those children's souls are too burdened by hatred and other negative obsessions to find peace, and remain unable to ascend... the originally gentle Demon-Worshipping Child Spirit opens its eyes and becomes a vicious, violent soul-reaper of hell, sending those wandering ghosts consumed by resentment down to hell."

"So that was it! That seemingly bottomless abyss led to hell..."

Li Xia put on a look of lingering fear.

"What? You even saw the Demon-Worshipping Child Spirit open a passage to hell?"

His inherited father raised his eyebrows.

Li Xia nodded firmly.

"Yes. I almost jumped in after that child to save her."

"You foolish boy. Don't be so kindhearted in the future."

His father spoke, visibly moved.

"So, Dad, does bringing back this information count as a major contribution?"

"Yes! Of course it does! You've done the clan a great service this time! Both this high-quality Spirit Fluid and the news about the Demon-Worshipping Child Spirit warrant the clan elders going in person. Don't worry, those old fellows at the top won't shortchange you. Your dad will benefit too..."

"You'll benefit from it too, Father?"

"Of course!"

Seeing his refined father looking so confident, Li Xia immediately broke into a broad grin.

Wasn't that exactly why he had brought out this small amount of Spirit Fluid enhanced with the Shikon Shard—to use this false yet undeniably important intelligence to obtain enough Spirit Fluid from the clan's higher-ups in one go? With that Spirit Fluid, he should be able to make it through this most difficult stretch.

Revealing that a [Demon-Worshipping Child Spirit] had appeared in the Island Nation was meant to draw the attention of some of the clan's powerful Clan Elders.

These days, demons had all but vanished, and powerful ones were exceptionally rare.

Although a Demon-Worshipping Child Spirit was not particularly dangerous, it could open a passage to hell and bind its targets.

A demon like that, with modest strength but highly practical abilities, was ideal for subduing and turning into a shikigami.

Some of the clan's reclusive old fellows would very likely emerge as soon as they heard the news and go subdue the demon.

An opportunity to watch them demonstrate how to subdue a demon and bind it as a shikigami was undoubtedly exceedingly rare.

A few pieces of news, one true and several false, would not only help him achieve his goals, but also benefit the Clan Elders, strengthen the clan, and let his inherited father gain something along the way. It was killing several birds with one stone.

He had no reason not to try something so advantageous.

Sure enough, that very afternoon, after the news was passed up, three old relics over eighty years old arrived at their door together.

"Is the news about the Demon-Worshipping Child Spirit true?"

All three elders looked exhilarated.

In this End of Dharma Age, finding a demon to subdue as one's own shikigami was simply too difficult.

There were too many people and far too little to go around!