Demon Capital Slayer

Chapter 114: Eternal Cannibalism
Things change so fast.

Yujian sighed in his room on the fifth floor of the inn.

The Echigoya headquarters has five floors in total. The bottom three floors are a large shopping mall, while the top two floors offer high-end guesthouse (inn) services.

In normal history, only castle towers could probably reach this height, and that's with the added benefit of a stone base. Therefore, we don't need to be so clear about things in the real world…

Incidentally, this Edo castle tower in the real world is of an absurd height, appearing from a distance like a small mountain rising abruptly from the ground. It's completely different from the 40-50 meter towers of the historical ones; it might even be supported by some incredibly stubborn concrete. Judging from the building's height, it would be strange if it weren't.

On the other hand, Hattori Hanzo truly lives up to his title as the God of Ninjas. While it's not yet clear how skilled he is in ninjutsu, he is certainly very patient as a ninja.

The moment Akemi made her request as Chizuru, he nodded helplessly.

"Since Your Highness has said so, please allow me to take my leave for now so that I may convey this message to the Duke."

That's what he said.

Although his back looked forlorn, the ninja squad leader left quickly and decisively.

After that, Mitsurugi and the others arrived at the location of the inn on the rooftop of Echigo.

Akemi was sitting at her desk writing a letter. Influenced by what Mikasa had said earlier, she decided to tell her family her truest thoughts.

Meanwhile, Yujian and Milo went to the balcony, leaving her enough space.

"Therefore, don't project reality onto the mortal world. The Netherworld is a dimension of spirit and dreams. As a product of the fusion between the Netherworld and the mortal world, the mortal world is a hypothetical world line containing complex possibilities, and nothing is surprising here."

Seeing that there was no one else around, Inugami Milo simply spoke directly. Transmitting messages verbally required a high level of concentration and was not very efficient.

Right now, this dog is holding a pipe in its mouth, savoring a flavor of tobacco that was popular centuries ago.

Considering there were minors nearby, Milo deliberately sat downwind, crossed his hairy legs, and puffed on his pipe.

"Mr. Milo, you really know a lot," Yu Jian couldn't help but exclaim. Actually, he had another half-sentence left unsaid—"He's clearly a dog."

“It’s all common knowledge, things I’ve heard from other cultivators before. Most people don’t deliberately avoid mentioning a dog when they’re chatting.” Milo grinned and exhaled a smoke ring.

However, the sight of a fluffy Samoyed puffing away in front of him was truly surreal, so much so that even Yujian, who dislikes the smell of smoke, didn't immediately object.

Speaking of which, can spirits smoke?

Will a dog get its fur singed by sparks when it smokes?

Strange thoughts kept popping up, but that didn't stop him from taking further action.

Soon, Milo discovered that he could no longer pull the pipe.

The white Samoyed came closer and saw that the fire in the pipe had gone out, so it had to grunt and groan as it held the pipe to the candle flame to relight it.

After only a couple of puffs, it suddenly went out again.

It was lit, then extinguished.

what's the situation?
Milo was taken aback and stood the pipe upright, thinking that saliva had dripped into the bowl, causing incomplete combustion. However, after scraping out all the unburnt tobacco, he found no trace of moisture inside.

At this moment, Milo finally came to his senses. The dog looked at Yujian speechlessly, seemingly instinctively sensing the scent of a prank.

Faced with the dog sticking out its tongue, the latter calmly turned its head away.

At this moment, the white-haired boy was holding an ordinary folding fan, which he clearly hadn't had just a moment ago.

"Just say you hate the smell of smoke." Milo put down his pipe and sighed helplessly.

"Ahem." Yu Jian coughed lightly, pretending nothing had happened.

The Immortal Technique: Myriad Manifestations contains an aspect representing dragons and snakes, making him exceptionally sensitive to natural elements such as wind and water. By consuming spiritual energy, he can even influence the manifestation of related elements within a small area.

Although no corresponding imagery has yet emerged and the current operational limit is not very high, it is still possible to quietly extinguish one or two cigarettes.

The jokes stopped there. Yu Jian fanned himself with his folding fan, using the wind to shape the smoke into various forms, while Milo exhaled smoke rings to provide the raw materials.

The man and the dog seemed to be having a great time.

But the ninjas watching from afar were completely dumbfounded.

They saw the large white dog exhaling a cloud of smoke, while the white-haired boy beside it used his fan to shape it into a gray smoke dragon. Although the shape was not very detailed, it could move its body flexibly and freely, as if it were swimming and shuttling in the air.

"Is...is it a ninja technique?"

"I've never seen it before, but you need props to release smoke and mist, right? I've never heard of being able to directly control smoke."

"By the way, why is it shaped like a dragon?" "..."

The monitoring team suddenly fell silent. Similar conclusions flooded their minds: they were all witnesses to the previous battle. Because their defensive zone was the outermost, they hadn't been turned into living corpses by the vampires. Therefore, they had all witnessed the dazzling moment when the young swordsman's body was covered in transparent scales.

Of course, there was a small misunderstanding involved.

The reason why Yujian shaped the smoke into this form is the same as a child playing with playdough for the first time: long strips are the easiest to shape, you just need to knead them.

As the smoke gradually dissipated, the figures of the man and the dog were obscured.

"Cough cough, I'm choking a bit."

"Woof, that's true."

"But that way we won't be monitored from a distance."

"makes sense."

"Improve your strength as soon as possible. Once you master telepathy, you won't need to go through all this trouble. There aren't many cultivators who can eavesdrop on telepathy silently."

"A formal psychic, huh? I don't know what they're called by traditional terminology?"

"No."

"What's not there?"

"There's none of that in the traditional schools, at least not in the Upper Kingdom. Anyway, everyone's still in the apprenticeship stage, so we just call them all apprentices. As for Onmyoji or other lineages, they do have names like New Moon or Waxing Moon, but I guess you wouldn't be interested in those, would you?"

"really."

"Let me share my own feelings. They may not be entirely accurate, nor are they necessarily applicable to humans. Just take them as a reference."

"Thank you."

"No need to thank me. If your strength can be improved, it will also help with the upcoming operations." Milo waved its paw, its movements resembling those of a seasoned veteran bragging to a junior at a street food stall.

If Shiraishi Kazuki from the Countermeasures Division were to see this, he would immediately understand from whom the young detective Sakurai Toshio learned his slippery, elusive skills.

That's so dog-like, did you learn it from a dog? Yes, that's right, absolutely correct!

"That's a very realistic way of putting it." Yu Jian smiled, finding the conversation style quite down-to-earth and giving off a sense of being grounded and reliable.

"That's how our dogs are."

"Okay, please continue."

"To become a formal spiritual practitioner, the most important thing is to understand yourself, so that every thought in your soul can be settled, and you can achieve true tranquility without distraction. Only then can the practitioner be qualified to mobilize all their spirit and beliefs to shape a true spiritual body, which is to practice visualization."

Milo crossed his legs and wagged his tail, looking half human and half dog.

"I see." Yu Jian fell into thought.

"However, don't be too hasty. At least in the early stages, a cultivator's realm does not equal their absolute combat power. For example, I am theoretically a formal psychic, but do you think I am very good at fighting?"

As he spoke, Milo grinned, revealing a mouthful of canine teeth that looked like they would hurt if biting someone.

Yu Jian smiled but didn't say anything.

To date, aside from its manned flight capability, this veteran dog god, in its normal state, exhibits combat power roughly equivalent to that of a large dog, or simply, a dog, except for its bipedal muscular stance.

"So, there's not much to worry about in the first three levels. Ritual, secret techniques, and even magical artifacts can change the balance of power between them," Milo concluded.

"Let me tell you about the knowledge of the eternal world."

"Hmm, where to begin? Never mind, kid, is there anything you want to ask?" Milo looked at Yujian.

"What is the essence of the 'shell'? Why does the world assign related identities to outsiders?" Yu Jian asked thoughtfully.

“As I said before, we are intruders on this stage. The director needs to maintain the stability of the regular program, so we have to make the outsiders look the same as the locals, hence the ‘clothing shell’.”

“But have you ever thought about what would happen if outsiders could never shed this ‘shell’?” Milo raised his tail and became serious.

“…Localization,” Yu Jian murmured his guess.

“Yes.” Inugami opened his mouth, revealing his sharp canine teeth.

"We will be swallowed up by the eternal world."

(Also, I'm out of drafts and writing this now.)
(End of this chapter)