Chapter 114: Xia Pingzhou's Second-Rank Celestial Drive and a New Chess Piece |
July 18th.
That evening, having nothing to do, Host Body Two, Xia Pingzhou, sat in the cafe and played a few rounds of playing cards with the members of the White Raven Brigade.
Xia Pingzhou played completely absentmindedly, making one foolish move after another—he practically tossed every trump card he had straight at his own teammates.
Even An Lunsi, the legendary British gambler, could not handle this style of play. Forced to play the fool, he ended up losing two rounds alongside him, shattering the undefeated card game record he had maintained within the Brigade overnight.
After Xia Pingzhou lost all his savings, Ayase Origami, who was sitting next to him, naturally took his place. With an expressionless face, she told him, "I will win it back for you. The kitten should go to sleep first."
And so, Xia Pingzhou dusted off his pants and logically retreated upstairs to the loft.
'I really should avoid these team-building activities in the future,' he thought to himself. As a model citizen and an upstanding youth, it was not that he did not want to win. Rather, even while embedded within a world-class criminal syndicate, he remained true to his original principles. He refused to participate in illegal group gambling, drawing a clear line between himself and all other forms of vice.
Controlling Host Body Two, he walked over to the window, stepped onto the sill, and leaped onto the roof of the loft.
It was worth mentioning that Xia Pingzhou's physical strength was only D-rank, an extreme contrast to his other two attributes. At best, he was merely slightly stronger than an ordinary human.
After climbing onto the roof, the evening breeze blew against his face. The cars on the street below resembled fireflies, merging into a continuous, flowing river of light. Xia Pingzhou found a spot to sit down, spacing out as he gazed at the night view of Tokyo. The outdoor air conditioning unit hummed beside his ear.
He thought of Kong Youling again. Every time he sat on the loft's roof, he recalled their days back at the orphanage. He sincerely wished that Kong Youling could sit here with him, enjoying the evening breeze together and looking at the brightly lit Tokyo beneath the night sky.
If he were not some Restricted-tier Superpowered Individual, and if Kong Youling were just an ordinary person, they could toss all those worries about the Salvation Society and the destruction of the world to the back of their minds. They could just sit here normally, looking at the sky, the cars in the city, and the people coming and going...
A moment later, Xia Pingzhou snapped back to reality and pulled up the "Celestial Drive Progress" on his character panel.
[Current advancement progress for Host Body Two's Celestial Drive "International Chess": 80%]
Looking at the red text on the panel, Xia Pingzhou thought to himself, 'Host Body Two's Celestial Drive is about to advance to the second rank. I should push for the advancement before the auction begins and see if I can obtain some valuable new mechanic from it.'
And so, he lay back on the loft's roof, tapped the skull icon on his mobile phone, and opened the Exorcist Association's internal application. A map materialized on the screen.
Resting his right arm behind his head, he closed his eyes and relaxed for a while. About an hour later, a rhythmic "beep-beep-beep" sounded next to his ear, indicating that the Exorcist Association's instruments had detected a demon appearing nearby.
Xia Pingzhou opened his eyes and glanced at the red dot on the map. He then stood up, dropped down from the roof, stepped onto the windowsill, and slipped back inside the loft.
At that exact moment, Ayase Origami came up from the first floor of the cafe. The kimono girl had drooping eyelids; she raised the ochre-red sleeve of her kimono to cover her mouth, letting out a soft yawn.
Subsequently, the Japanese yen she had just won from the other members slowly flew out from her kimono sleeve and tucked itself neatly into the pocket of Xia Pingzhou's hoodie. True to her word, she really had won back the money Xia Pingzhou had lost.
"A demon just popped up on the map."
Xia Pingzhou spoke while reaching into his pocket to pat the thick stack of yen. He then held up his mobile phone screen, expressionlessly pointing at the flashing red dot.
He could not help but think, 'I really am the ultimate pretty boy, having a sugar mommy help me win at cards and carry me through demon hunts... Oh, wait, she is a wealthy loli. I need to show a little more respect.'
"Played cards, sleepy..." Ayase Origami smacked her lips. "Takikage will take you."
After saying that, she tilted sideways and collapsed onto the bed. Closing her eyes, she used her supernatural ability to dismantle the pages of a haiku collection on the windowsill, linking them together into a paper blanket that draped over her body.
Seeing how casual she was being, Xia Pingzhou sighed helplessly. He picked up a thin quilt from his own mattress and covered Ayase Origami with it, then carefully removed her paper blanket and draped it over a rack in the loft.
This way, when Ayase Origami wanted to read tomorrow, she could just use her supernatural ability to revert the paper blanket back into the haiku collection.
He then went downstairs and saw Oda Takikage tidying up the cafe. Xia Pingzhou immediately asked, "Number Four, can you take me out to kill a couple of demons?"
His tone was as remarkably casual as if he were asking, "Can you play a round of mahjong with me?"
Oda Takikage lowered his face, glancing at him over the rim of his reading glasses. He then walked into the kitchen to take off his apron, returned to the cafe counter to remove his glasses, and placed them in their case before slowly asking,
"Is it far from here?"
Xia Pingzhou shook his head. "Not very far, but I do not know the demon's rank yet. The Exorcist Association system has a half-hour delay before it can calculate a demon's level. By the time that updates, some other Exorcist will have already beaten us to it."
"Understood, let us go then." Oda Takikage nodded. "Show me the map first."
Xia Pingzhou handed over his mobile phone with the open application. Oda Takikage took one look at the flashing red dot's location and immediately placed his right hand on Xia Pingzhou's shoulder.
At that moment, Xia Pingzhou felt the ground beneath his feet suddenly transform into a swamp. A bizarre gravitational pull surged forth, causing his entire body to sink unstoppably downward, as if being swallowed by the bloody maw of the shadows.
In no time at all, Host Body Two, Xia Pingzhou, and Oda Takikage sank together into the Shadow Lake beneath their feet.
The cafe was left completely empty, completely devoid of people.
Because their movement speed could only be described as blindingly fast, Xia Pingzhou could neither see nor hear anything. Squinting, he could only barely make out a bizarre, kaleidoscopic grey veil.
Oda Takikage hauled Xia Pingzhou's body along, taking him on a high-speed sprint through the world of shadows.
In less than a minute, the two of them had already arrived inside a large shopping mall.
After breaking free from the shadows, Xia Pingzhou leaned against a railing, hunching his back and gasping for air. He thought to himself, 'The Young Miss's paper dragon provides a much better travel experience. I am afraid only a highly trained ninja like Uncle Takikage can stomach the feeling of walking through the shadows.'
"How many people can you take with you at most with this move?" Xia Pingzhou slowly lifted his head, asking casually. "Currently, my limit is bringing one person into the shadows. Otherwise, it is highly likely that everyone would become lost within the shadow world," Oda Takikage answered honestly.
Xia Pingzhou turned his head and surveyed his surroundings. At this hour, there were no longer any open stores in the mall, and all the corridor lights were extinguished.
Only one fashion boutique stood out. A sizable fire was currently spreading within it, the bright flames radiating outward to illuminate the walkway, violently spewing tongues of fire. This raging inferno had already reduced all the clothing and mannequins inside the boutique to charred ash. From time to time, one or two eerie laughs echoed from the depths of the flames.
"Number Twelve, wait for me here."
After saying that, Oda Takikage rolled up his sleeves, condensed a shadow katana in his right hand, and advanced toward the fashion boutique.
Meanwhile, Xia Pingzhou released his Celestial Drive. He reached out to touch the black-and-white circular path surrounding his body, summoning the Queen golem.
The Queen golem, adorned in luxurious silver-white attire, followed Oda Takikage into the fashion boutique.
The boutique was engulfed in a roaring blaze. Within the inferno, three patches of exceptionally bright red fire were emitting those bizarre laughs.
Even more bizarrely, these three patches of flame all possessed eyes and mouths. They stuck their tongues out at Oda Takikage and the Queen golem, which reminded Xia Pingzhou of Alphonsa from "Howl's Moving Castle".
The battle was on the verge of erupting as Oda Takikage and the three fire demons stood in a tense standoff.
The katana he had condensed from shadows could not touch the bodies of the three demons; physical attacks appeared to be completely useless against them.
The first fire demon opened its mouth and spat out a massive pillar of flame;
The second demon churned its fire into a blazing vortex that swept toward Oda Takikage; the final demon devoured the surrounding flames while charging at Oda Takikage with its claws bared.
Oda Takikage moved with blistering speed. He darted through the boutique, his feet kicking off the walls as he repeatedly ricocheted out of harm's way.
The fire demons' attacks failed to touch his body, but the fire inside the boutique was burning brighter and brighter. The aura of the three fire demons grew increasingly ferocious as their bodies continuously expanded.
If the inferno they provoked spread to the entire shopping mall, then these three demons might just transform into towering fire giants rivaling skyscrapers.
Xia Pingzhou silently touched his circular path, summoning three Silver Soldiers. He had the Silver Soldiers swiftly drop the heavy shields in their hands and then head toward three different fire extinguisher cabinets scattered across the corridor.
With a sharp crack, the soldiers smashed the glass using their greatswords. Then, amidst the showering clatter of falling glass, they dropped their longswords and retrieved the fire extinguishers from the cabinets.
The three Silver Soldiers then hefted the fire extinguishers and marched briskly toward the boutique. Unfortunately, their builds were simply too cumbersome, so it would still take them some time to arrive.
At this very moment, the three fire demons inside the boutique inhaled in unison, spewing walls of flame at Oda Takikage.
Oda Takikage seemed intent on taking a gamble, wanting to see if his shadow blade could harm the demons after being imbued with fire. Thus, he mixed his shadow blade with the flames, forming a bizarre, pulsating red-and-black substance that resembled both fire and shadow.
Immediately after, a pair of long wings forged from shadows suddenly sprouted from Oda Takikage's back. He bent his knees slightly and violently flapped the shadow wings, seeming prepared to break straight through the wall of flames and charge the three fire demons head-on.
But right at that moment, the Queen golem beside him suddenly placed her hand on his shoulder and released "Etherealization". As a result, both Oda Takikage's and the Queen golem's bodies turned completely transparent.
The flaming walls spewed by the demons hit nothing but empty air, striking the ground and scorching it into pitch-black streaks.
Oda Takikage retracted the shadow wings on his back, raised an eyebrow slightly, and turned his head to look at the Queen golem. The Queen golem gave him a gentle nod, as if to say, "You do not need to take such risks." Cold blue flames burned intensely within her slender eye sockets.
At this moment, Xia Pingzhou's three Silver Soldiers arrived at the scene with the fire extinguishers.
The soldiers triggered the fire extinguishers, and a white mist sprayed forward from the nozzles. Like handheld fountains, they doused the massive fire inside the store at a visibly rapid pace.
The three fire demons howled in unison. Clutching their faces in panic, they seemed desperate to escape the store. However, Oda Takikage swung his shadow blade to conjure a fierce gale, forcefully blowing their bodies back and exposing them directly to the mist of the fire extinguishers.
It was not long before the flames on their bodies were entirely extinguished, revealing only palm-sized demonic heads. The three pitch-black heads drooped on the ground like withered seeds, left completely at the mercy of others.
The Queen golem leaned forward and dashed in with a lunging step. Wielding both her short dagger and long dagger, she slashed the three heads on the ground into countless pieces in the blink of an eye.
Immediately following that, a series of notification windows popped up before Xia Pingzhou's eyes.
Leaning against the railing, he quietly reviewed the spoils of this battle.
[Detected the slaying of three C-rank or higher demons. The cumulative kill count for the "Winter of the Wild Hunt" system has been updated: 17/18 (Only 1 kill remaining to complete the quest).]
[Current advancement progress for Host Body Two's Celestial Drive "International Chess": 80% → 100%]
[Congratulations! Host Body Two, Xia Pingzhou's Celestial Drive "International Chess" has advanced to the second rank!]
[Advancement Reward 1: Acquired a new skill: "King-Rook Switch".]
[Advancement Reward 2: Acquired a new chess piece: "Bishop".]
[Advancement Reward 3: Acquired an empty Celestial Drive slot for forming a pact with a demon.]
[Current number of demons this Celestial Drive can form a pact with: 1 (Currently pacted demon: Shadow Demon)]
Staring at the text on the panel, Xia Pingzhou thought to himself in satisfaction, 'Not only did I get a new skill, but I also got a new chess piece... Next, I should figure out where to scout for a demon to form a pact with.'