novelraw Chapter 289: Legendary+ Shikigami Nine-Tailed Fox, Calling the Gods
Chapter 289: Legendary+ Shikigami Nine-Tailed Fox, Calling the Gods
[The mountain forest is silent, with only the rustle of wind through leaves remaining.]
[You take out the Nine-Tailed Fox Tail Fur again and use the item.]
[As the pure-white fox fur dissipates, a beautiful barefoot woman steps through the air toward you.]
[The woman in pink robes has fluttering sleeves. Deep violet thunder, surging like a boundless sea, coils around her, and behind her appears the colossal phantom of a celestial fox, howling up at the sky.]
[The Origin-Tracing Nine-Tailed Fox surveys the surroundings. Seeing no imagined great enemy, she descends barefoot, disperses the thunder around her, and bows to you.]
[Seeing the doubt on the woman’s face, you take out a sharp tooth the size of a palm.]
[The Nine-Tailed Fox accepts the Fang of Huodou and examines it carefully. Suddenly she gasps in surprise, joy filling her face. ‘Lord Dragonborn, this suppression object comes from an extremely powerful yokai. The tiny Sakura Falls could never contain such a powerful yokai. A suppression object of this grade must come from the Vermilion Empire.’]
[The grade of this suppression object matches that of your servant and is sufficient to serve as the suppression object for taking me as a shikigami.]
[The woman cannot hide her excitement, not even noticing as her kimono’s shoulder sleeve slips.]
[You indicate to the Nine-Tailed Fox not to resist. You are about to begin the process of subduing a shikigami.][The woman obediently kneels before you and slowly closes her eyes, a posture of yielding herself to you.]
[You possess the Shell of the Fire-Worshipping Palace Master of Iya Palace.]
[You use the Fang of Huodou (Legendary+ Item).]
[Crimson light condenses on the surface of the Fang of Huodou and bursts forth, enveloping the Nine-Tailed Fox.]
[Then the blood light contracts, drawing the Nine-Tailed Fox back into the Fang of Huodou.]
[Subjugation check in progress.]
[…]
[The suppression object’s grade matches the quality of the Origin-Tracing Nine-Tailed Fox. Check successful.]
[The Fang of Huodou does not tremble in the least, calm as a dead thing, clearly because the Nine-Tailed Fox within is not resisting.]
[Soon, light flickers upon the surface of the Fang of Huodou.]
[You have successfully suppressed the Origin-Tracing Nine-Tailed Fox.]
[Holding the purification wand, you form seals and chant: Return your lives. Universal Vajras. Smash evil demonic hindrances. Bind ghosts and subdue yokai. Let all evils fall into the snare. All becomes pure.]
[Onmyo Arts: Exorcism Decree is activated.]
[Countless golden tadpole-script runes appear from thin air, surging into the Fang of Huodou.]
[Dimly, you hear the Nine-Tailed Fox breathing with a heavy nasal sound, as if enduring great pain.]
[Your powerful soul seems to meld like water with some strange soul, sealing a brand.]
[Do you wish to erase the Nine-Tailed Fox’s consciousness for subsequent command?]
Lin Xun, without the slightest hesitation, selected ‘No.’
[You have successfully taken the Origin-Tracing Nine-Tailed Fox as a shikigami.]
[Current Decree Slots: 3/5. Shikigami owned: Origin-Tracing Snow Woman of the Mountains, Origin-Tracing Nurarihyon, Origin-Tracing Nine-Tailed Fox.]
Lin Xun immediately opens the shikigami panel to check.
[Shikigami: Origin-Tracing Nine-Tailed Fox]
[Shikigami Level: 67 (-8)]
[Shikigami Quality: Legendary+]
[Shikigami Equipment: Small-Pattern Kimono (Fine Equipment): …]
[Shikigami Skill: Celestial Fox True Thunder (Legendary): The thunder-dharma true secret passed down through the Nine-Tailed Fox clan of the Vermilion Empire. This strange thunder contains soul force. When released, it deals massive damage that ignores part of the enemy’s defense.]
[Shikigami Skill: Soul-Seizing and Spirit-Stealing (Legendary): The Nine-Tailed Fox clan’s charm arts possess extremely strong control. When used, this skill ignores part of the enemy’s control resistance and inflicts a prolonged control state.]
[Shikigami Skill: Alluring Bones by Nature (Legendary+): All control-type skills the Nine-Tailed Fox inflicts on the enemy transform into the Bewitchment control state. Any attack dealt to an enemy during Bewitchment will detonate the state, causing a massive increase in attack damage.]
[Shikigami Skill: Nine Tails Patrolling the Heavens (Legendary+): Unleashes the powerful yokai force stored in the nine fox tails, greatly increasing one’s own strength. Active damage skills are raised in grade, and even if active control skills are dispelled, the massive damage boost from the Bewitchment state remains.]
[After the burst of Nine Tails Patrolling the Heavens, the Nine-Tailed Fox requires an extremely long time to accumulate additional yokai force within the nine tails before this skill can be used again.]
“This is too strong.”
“No wonder Shuten Doji did not dare fight the Nine-Tailed Fox. From the start of the duel, it would be a controlled-to-death fight.”
The Nine-Tailed Fox’s shell quality reaches Legendary+. She has one attack skill, one control skill, one passive, and one burst skill, a very complete kit.
Both the attack and control skills are Legendary grade with the effect of ignoring part of the enemy’s resistances, which is very powerful.
The most outrageous are the two Legendary+ skills. The Bewitchment state attached to Alluring Bones by Nature greatly amplifies the damage of the next attack. Thus the Nine-Tailed Fox can both stand alone to duel a boss and support from the side by providing stable control and damage amplification.
As for the ultimate Nine Tails Patrolling the Heavens, there is no need to say more. It not only greatly boosts the Nine-Tailed Fox’s strength but also raises the grade of the attack skill Celestial Fox True Thunder. It even retains the Bewitchment damage boost after control skills are dispelled.
The only pity is that the Nine-Tailed Fox’s shikigami level has dropped by eight levels due to the limitation of Lin Xun’s own level.
But this also means that before Lin Xun reaches level 75, he does not need to spend Spirit Essence to level up the Nine-Tailed Fox.
“No wonder that back in the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons illusion, when encountering the hostile Shuten Doji and Nine-Tailed Fox, the cursed game gave the prompt ‘You feel a heavy pressure’.”
“With attributes like these to fight then even with the little dragonkin and earth giant, being massacred is the only path.”
After taking the Nine-Tailed Fox as a shikigami, Lin Xun’s pre-battle preparations were temporarily complete.
All that remained was to wait for the Fire-Worshipping Saio Chisoku-hime to finish purifying the Will of Enma’s Attendant.
Lin Xun put down his phone and tried to summon the Nine-Tailed Fox in reality.
Now his rental flat already had three summoned beings. It was very lively.
The Valkyrie and the Snow Woman squeezed together on the sofa to watch shows. What they liked was not idol dramas and variety shows, but Ultraman, watching the Giant of Light fight monsters with rapt attention.
The young Nurarihyon sat at the computer, holding a controller and playing Miyazaki the ‘Old Thief’s’ soulslike pain game. The ding-ding clanging of forging rang without end, and from time to time the screen displayed the big red words for ‘Noob.’
Although the young Nurarihyon did not recognize that character, he could sense the heavy humiliation behind it. He failed again and again but fought on with growing enthusiasm.
“This kid is like me, a pain-lover. No, indomitable.”
“It is a pity the Three-Headed Lion is too large to fit indoors, or I could let him out to get some fresh air.”
Lin Xun could not help wondering what the Nine-Tailed Fox’s interests and hobbies might be.
With a wave of the purification wand in his hand, a peerless beauty stepped through the air and arrived.
The woman had a head of white hair the color of fox fur. The neckline of her pink kimono opened rather deep, with a hint of round, snowy fullness faintly visible.
Even the relatively loose robe could not conceal the woman’s astonishing waist-to-hip ratio. Ample bosom and slim waist, generous hips and long legs was a perfect description.
The Nine-Tailed Fox stepped barefoot onto the floor. Her eyes flowed with charm, dewy and alluring.
The gaming Nurarihyon and the show-watching Snow Woman seemed to sense something and turned their heads in unison.
Seeing the Nine-Tailed Fox, one of the top great yokai in legend and one of the leaders of a hundred yokai, both immediately knelt in salute.
The Nine-Tailed Fox, however, acted as if she had not seen them, walking gracefully to Lin Xun and bowing. “My lord, this servant stands ready to obey your commands.”
When the woman bent, from a bird’s-eye angle one could glimpse that deep and high cleft.
Lin Xun thought to himself: ‘No wonder King Zhou was muddled and lacking in virtue. Anyone in his place would be the same.’
He used same excuse from the ‘Divine Kingdom’ again and soon settled the Nine-Tailed Fox.
The Nine-Tailed Fox, however, was somewhat different from the others. Perhaps because her elder sister had died and hatred lingered in her heart, she remembered the matter of slaying the Great General. Whenever she had free time she would sit cross-legged to cultivate.
Lin Xun had to give his bedroom bed to the Nine-Tailed Fox and tightly drew the curtains.
When the Nine-Tailed Fox cultivated, nine fluffy snow-white tails appeared behind her hips. If gossiping onlookers saw it, they would be shocked.
Ordinary people insert one tail as a novel plaything. Who inserts nine all at once?
Time slipped by. Three days passed in a flash.
During his three free days, Lin Xun went around several maps of Sakura Falls again, killing many small monsters he had missed before.
It was a pity that he did not find any more hidden maps.
[…]
[After issuing your military orders, you dismiss your retainers and generals.]
[You go alone to the top floor of the Tenshukaku. By your command the roof of the tower is cleared of all things, and the guards are forbidden to set foot here.]
[You walk to the railing. The howling cold wind lifts your sleeves. Before your eyes lies the bustling splendor of all Thousand Orchid City.]
[You possess the Shell of the Fire-Worshipping Saio Chisoku-hime.]
[Under your constant purification, you can sense that the Will of Enma’s Attendant in your mind has become pure and clear. The aura of the evil god upon it has dissipated completely.]
[Do you wish to attempt to call an unknown god?]
Lin Xun took a deep breath and pressed ‘Confirm.’
[You take out the Vermilion Ceremonial Scepter and gaze at the firmament. Your eyes seem to pierce the layered sea of clouds and reach the far side of the void.]
[You slowly close your eyes, raise the Vermilion Ceremonial Scepter in your hand, and silently recite the attendant’s complex prayers.]
[The attendant’s will guides your divine sense through some unknown barrier. Dimly, you can sense a great existence hidden within the void.]
[It is as if you see an extremely fine thread upon the body of that great existence, connecting to the land beneath your feet known as Sakura Falls.]
[In the unseen, there are other great existences. They are simply too far away, each connected to more distant continental plates.]
[Countless light points like fireflies travel along the threads toward the great existences.]
[You attempt to call the great existence connected to the land of Sakura Falls.]
[Again and again you call and bow in reverence, hoping to elicit a response from the great existence.]
[…]
[Yet the only response is the cold and loneliness of the void.]
[You feel somewhat fatigued.]
[You open your eyes, your mind returning to your body. You feel sore all over and dizzy.]
[Do you wish to call an unknown god again?]
Lin Xun had located surviving gods, but whether because his call was too faint to be heard or for some other reason, the god did not respond.
He pressed ‘Yes’ again and continued to call the god.
[You slowly close your eyes, raise the Vermilion Ceremonial Scepter in your hand, and silently recite the attendant’s complex prayers.]
[…]
[Again and again you call and bow in reverence, hoping to elicit a response from the great existence.]
[…]
[Yet the only response is the cold and loneliness of the void.]
[You feel extremely fatigued.]
[You open your eyes, your mind returning to your body. You feel utterly weak, with a splitting headache.]
“Damn. They are completely ignoring me.”
Lin Xun felt that the friendly god was playing dead and deliberately ignoring him.
It made sense. If he were in that position, with gods one after another dying from responding to believers’ calls, if he were a surviving god he would also feign deafness and indifference.
“Is this monkeys scattering when the tree falls, or knowing the times and being a wise man?”
Ancient Heavenly Enma was nearly gone. In such a camp, one or two gods playing dead was understandable. Not defecting openly to the evil god was already devout.
“Not right either. If defection were possible, I reckon these surviving gods might already have betrayed.”
“Perhaps the evil god never intended to take them in. To corrode and eliminate all gods and become the only true god is the Extreme Delusion Fruit’s goal.”
With the only surviving Sakura Falls god closing it’s eyes and playing dead, if Lin Xun went to duel the Great General with only the allied forces at hand, it would be certain death. The chance of victory was pitifully small.
But with that god set on not responding, there was truly nothing he could do.
It was like calling to borrow money and the other party made a perfect prediction, refusing to answer calls or read messages. No matter how persuasive your words and reasons, you could not borrow a thing.
“What should I do? Blow up their phone with calls and messages?”
“That will not work. What if they simply turn the power off and go out of service?”
Lin Xun pondered long and hard but could not find a solution. The current situation felt like an unsolvable dead end.
Without the help of a god, he could not defeat the Great General. If he could not kill the Great General, he could not clear the chapter, amounting to being stuck.
“Could there still be a location in Kyoto I missed, causing a key item to be lacking?”
Lin Xun considered and soon rejected the idea.
He had gone everywhere possible in three days, carefully searching every corner and confirming nothing was overlooked.
If there was any place not fully explored, it could only be the Kyoto Imperial Palace.
But since the young emperor’s death, the Imperial Residence had been on high alert. The Great General secluded himself in the palace without taking a step away, likely not even interested in soaking in a hot spring.
To infiltrate the Imperial Residence under such circumstances would be tantamount to declaring war directly on the Great General.
“No. I must obtain the help of a god, or I will be stuck.”
After much thought, Lin Xun’s gaze fell on an item in the Inventory.
[Great General’s Omamori (Item): … Using this item, you will have a very high chance of drawing the gaze of the Extreme Delusion Fruit.]
In a moment he narrowed his eyes. Anger rose in his heart and boldness grew by his ribs.
“Playing dead, are you? Hiding like a turtle, are you?”
“You want me stuck? Fine. No one gets to live.”
[You take out the Great General’s Omamori and are about to crush the black seed within the amulet and call the surviving god again.]
[Suddenly, a wrinkled hand reaches from the side and presses down on your hand.]
[Startled, you look up to see a white-haired old woman, who at some point appeared on the roof of the Tenshukaku.]
[The old woman is hunched, her expression kindly. Slowly she says, ‘young man, do not be so hasty. Perhaps it is only that the old one’s ears are momentarily hard of hearing and did not react.’]
[You have discovered the Incarnation of Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto.]
[Looking at the kindly old woman before you, the shell’s memories gradually revive.]
[As the highest-ranking shrine miko who serves the gods, the Saio, you are familiar with many gods under Enma.]
[In particular, you are most familiar with Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto.]
[She is an inconspicuous lesser deity under Enma, the Dance Goddess in the mouths of the people. Legend has it that the first Kagura dance served to the Supreme God was created by Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto.]
[Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto has no divine power like the Three Pillar Gods, nor does she hold the authority over thunder and flame. She is merely an inconspicuous Dance Goddess. Apart from shrine miko who perform Kagura, no one specifically offers incense to her.]
[It is said that this weak Dance Goddess did not even participate in the ancient divine war. It was not that she was unwilling, but that she was unworthy.]
[The fragmented memories end there.]
Lin Xun finished reading the memories, a look of utter resignation on his face.
Well, the god had been summoned.
But this great existence seemed even inferior to Amateru Sakiina, at the very bottom of the divine food chain.
“Cursed game, are you playing me again?”