Chapter Thirteen: Three Men Make a Tiger

[Current Area Unlocked: Arakawa Haunted Village (One Star)]
[Main Quest 1: Explore at least 80% of the Haunted Village; Current Progress: 0%]
[Main Quest 2: Exorcise the One-Star Monster Tale: The Gravely Injured White Hannya]
[Side Quest 1: The Damaged Jizo Statue — When was the Jizo statue in the southern part of the village damaged?]
[Side Quest 2: The White Scarecrow — In the fields corroded by chemical wastewater, a scarecrow sways in the wind.]

A one-star map.

It was surprisingly almost the same level as his current rank.

Uesugi Toru took a deep breath, suddenly finding the pungent sulfur scent in the air strangely pleasant.

The main quest was only to exorcise a mere one-star monster tale. To think, on the other side, the Edo Castle demanded he slay a demon samurai who had achieved ten thousand kills.

So, the minor monsters in this haunted village must mostly be half-star or even zero-star little calamity demons, right?

That meant the entire place was crawling with walking soul ashes—just right for saving up for a ten-pull in the upcoming one-star card pool in a couple of days.

Uesugi Toru rubbed his hands in excitement and pulled out the decayed woodcutting knife he had obtained earlier.

Though this woodcutting knife was no match for the katana or tachi wielded by the wandering samurai in Edo Castle, and its length was less than ideal, it was still handy for slaughtering weak foes—far better than having no weapon at all.

Also, the “White Hannya” in the main quest was the evolved form of his own “Smiling Hannya.” He wondered if there might be additional rewards after defeating it.

Without further delay, Uesugi Toru hung the walking token at his waist.

This time, instead of opening the door first, he used the woodcutting knife to carve a small hole near the bottom of the hut and silently rolled out the eyeball of the Hyakume Oni.

With a faint spiritual wave, the Hyakume Oni’s eyeball silently flew up, circling the thatched hut once.

Uesugi Toru narrowed his eyes and discovered a humanoid figure lying sideways at the hut’s entrance.

It wore a straw raincoat, looking like a farmer on the surface but definitely not human.

He sneered. Sure enough, it was waiting for him here.

If he had stepped out unguarded, thinking this was just a one-star map, he would most likely have stepped on this thing and been killed upon opening the door.

Uesugi Toru retracted the Hyakume Oni’s eyeball and silently moved behind the door, mentally recalling the position of the creature’s head.

He gripped the handle tightly, activated his Qi technique, and thrust the knife forward with a fierce stab!

A sudden thrust!

The rusty blade pierced through the wooden board without resistance, and the feedback from the woodcutting knife told Uesugi Toru that the blade had deeply embedded itself into the creature’s skull.

But no kill notification popped up.

Such vitality?

“Roar... roar...”

A chilling hoarse roar slowly sounded from outside the door. Uesugi Toru frowned slightly, his dark blue-black left hand exerted force, and he tore the thatched hut’s door apart in one swift pull.

The face of the Smiling Hannya suddenly appeared from inside, stretching out a sinister smile toward the struggling demon.

A terrifying smile!

The roar abruptly ceased, and Uesugi Toru seized the moment to draw his blade, decisively severing the creature’s neck before plunging the blade deep into its heart and twisting fiercely.

Black-red blood gushed out, splattering onto the cold Hannya mask.

[You have slain the half-star grudging spirit “Polluted Sturdy Farmer,” earning 30 soul ashes.]

This door monster was quite tough—stabbing it in the head didn’t kill it outright.

But it dropped a decent amount of soul ashes, equivalent to three incense sticks for calming spirits.

Without wiping the blood from his blade, Uesugi Toru casually chose a direction and began exploring Arakawa Haunted Village, moving from one thatched hut to the next.

With a 270-degree ultra-wide field of vision, unless a demon suddenly tore through a wall to ambush him inside a hut, Uesugi Toru had practically full map visibility, allowing him to detect any danger in advance.

The Arakawa Haunted Village was unusually quiet. In contrast, a constant rumbling noise came from outside the village.

Uesugi Toru knew what that sound was. In his previous life, whenever he passed by chemical plants or construction sites on his way to school, there was often such a loud commotion.

“But the monster density here is a bit low.”

After walking for over ten minutes, Uesugi Toru encountered a second “Polluted Farmer.”

Compared to the wandering samurai, these farmers were no match. With his skilled backstab technique, Uesugi Toru decapitated it in just a few strokes and collected the soul ashes.

[You have slain the scattered wandering soul “Polluted Farmer,” earning 5 soul ashes.]

Five soul ashes... well, every little bit counts.

The more he walked, the more Uesugi Toru became convinced that the era of Arakawa Haunted Village was around the Meiji period, since the advanced farming tools occasionally placed by the roadside were clearly not something Japanese farmers could have made.

“So that means, over by the factory, there must be Westerners armed with guns standing guard?”

Uesugi Toru thought bitterly to himself, when suddenly three farmers wearing straw hats and raincoats appeared at a nearby crossroads, wandering together while holding broken farming tools.

He squinted at their heads, and all three “Polluted Sturdy Farmers” simultaneously sprang up.

Uesugi Toru’s face brightened, and his woodcutting knife twitched eagerly in his hand.

The sturdy farmers were only a bit stronger than ordinary farmers—just tougher and a bit harder to kill. Three of them together posed more of a challenge.

But it was only a challenge, nothing more.

He couldn’t let these 90 soul ashes slip away.

With that thought, Uesugi Toru quickened his pace, making no effort to conceal his movements.

To him, it didn’t matter if he died here. As long as he killed these three farmers first, it was a gain.

“Hey, big brothers, I’m right here!”

Uesugi Toru shouted loudly, instantly drawing the attention of the three sturdy farmers.

“Roar! Roar roar!”

Upon seeing Uesugi Toru’s Western-style school uniform, the three farmers seemed highly provoked, charging at him wildly.

“Just what I wanted!”

Uesugi Toru suppressed a rising smile, unleashing all the Qi in his body in one explosive burst.

The Smiling Hannya’s already powerful physique surged to a new level; muscles bulged on his dark blue-black arms, and as he sprinted forward, streaks of wind howled around him.

Before the three somewhat clumsy sturdy farmers could react, Uesugi Toru dashed into their midst like a shadow, using his momentum to drive the woodcutting knife deep into the neck of the middle farmer.

Wait, something felt off about the blade’s feedback this time.

Not withdrawing the knife immediately, Uesugi Toru sensed trouble and noticed that all three sturdy farmers bore the same blood-red suffix above their heads.

[Three Become a Tiger: When the number of farmers within a certain range increases, all farmers’ physiques are enhanced. Current Count: 3]

Uesugi Toru did not regret this. Instead, he lifted his face, tracing a merciless smile.

At the moment all three farmers were tightly controlled, Uesugi Toru pinned the front one to the ground and then summoned all his strength to snap the neck—tougher than a tree trunk—cleanly in two.

Before he could crush the skull, a heavy attack landed from behind.

Looking down at the sickle blade piercing through his chest, Uesugi Toru coughed up blood. Trembling, he stepped on the skull and abandoned the woodcutting knife, which was useless at such close quarters.

The blue-faced, fang-toothed Smiling Hannya opened his mouth in a sinister grin and lunged at the nearest farmer.

“Die for me!”