Chapter 46: The Mask of the White Prajna

Caught completely unprepared, Uesugi Toru took the full-force downward slash almost entirely with his face.

"Roar—!"

Releasing the farmer's corpse, which was now severed in half, it let out a miserable shriek.

"Didn't you say you had to kill me?" Uesugi Toru laughed loudly. Having been refreshed to his peak state upon entering the Eternal Abyss, he deployed the Terror Smile once again. "Now I'm standing right here! Why isn't Lord Shiro-hannya making a move?"

The weakness from having its projection destroyed, excruciating pain, combined with the hard-crowd-control of the Terror Smile—all three hit at once, reducing the Shiro-hannya to a state where it could only twist its body wildly in place, utterly incapable of putting up a decent defense.

*Wasn't this Hannya just in the waking world a moment ago? How could it possibly have pursued me into the Eternal Abyss so quickly...*

*And right in front of me, no less!*

*Clearly, crossing between the waking world and the Eternal Abyss is unimaginably difficult. Even after finding the peak of the tide and utilizing the convenience of the summoning ritual, it had barely managed to send a projection into the waking world.*

*And that alone had consumed an unknown amount of time.*

*Yet how many minutes had passed since just then?!*

Shiro-hannya's barren brain raced frantically, yet no matter how hard it tried, it could not comprehend the reality unfolding before it.

It struggled to its feet, and after taking yet another slash, roared furiously in the depths of its heart:

*—Could this damned Hannya be the Lord of the Eternal Abyss from the myths, able to enter and exit the realm at will?!*

"You despicable, damned Hannya! I swear, I won't let you die easily; I will strip the flesh from your bones piece by piece!"

Shiro-hannya's cold, enraged voice rang out. The moment the words fell, a faint black light emanated from its body, and Uesugi Toru felt several layers of heavy fatigue and weakness wash over him.

Yet another powerful auxiliary innate skill.

Uesugi Toru frowned. Just how many innate talents did this Shiro-hannya possess?

Elongated claws, mistification of the body, crying control, sonic wave attacks, and now this...

He could no longer afford to give it the opportunity to reveal any more hidden trump cards.

"Lord Shiro-hannya, speaking of things you cannot accomplish will only invite ridicule."

Striking a *Seigan* posture once more, Uesugi Toru had to admit that thanks to the blessing of Kaga Kiyomitsu, thrusting sword techniques were indeed his highest-damage moves.

Fortunately, this Shiro-hannya was foolish. Had his opponent been Ririko, he surely would have been decapitated the second time he employed this move.

"Inhale—Exhale—"

Swallowing the air like a whale, Uesugi Toru recklessly stimulated his inner Qi within his body.

In the Eternal Abyss, he did not need to fear exploding from over-stimulating his inner Qi—a burst of pain was nothing; he could simply grit his teeth and endure it.

As long as he could cut down this stubbornly resisting Shiro-hannya before him, it would be enough.

Even though the surprise attack had succeeded, Uesugi Toru did not harbor a single shred of contempt for his enemy. He spoke in a chilling voice, "One strike. It takes only one strike to kill you."

Shiro-hannya, however, would not grant its enemy the opportunity to gather momentum. It instantly assumed a sorrowful expression, while piercing sonic waves burst forth from its mouth.

"It's too heartbreaking..."

Uesugi Toru's voice trembled. Allowing Shiro-hannya's sharp claws to pierce clean through his lungs, he raised his voice by two octaves and roared in profound grief, "Why do you have to make me so sorrowful!"

As the words fell, all his inner Qi exploded in a single instant, forming a pale white shockwave around Uesugi Toru.

Amidst a teeth-gritting explosion, Kaga Kiyomitsu pierced through Shiro-hannya's mask and head in the blink of an eye. At such close range—face-to-face—it had no time to react, nor any possibility of evading.

"Why didn't you dodge?" Shiro-hannya's entire body trembled as it murmured incomprehensibly, "You'll die too... What good does this do you?"

The Hannya grinned at it, rasping, "Because, you see, I have a respawn coin."

Kaga Kiyomitsu was pulled out, then swung down once more.

Shiro-hannya's head, bearing a complex expression, slowly rolled off, only to be firmly stepped on by Uesugi Toru.

Watching the continuous stream of notifications pop up before him, he closed his eyes contentedly. "With this, they've all been exorcised."

Uesugi Toru slowly collapsed amidst the alarmed cries of the sprinting Two-Footed Lady, watching in the end as the white-hatted girl was forcibly pulled back by the Jizo statue.

Uesugi Toru opened his eyes to find himself lying on a hospital bed.

An unfamiliar ceiling greeted his vision.

The pungent smell of disinfectant filled his nasal passages, causing him intense discomfort, but the consecutive prompts popping up quickly swept away that displeasure.

【You have killed the incomplete two-and-a-half-star malicious ghost, "Severely Wounded Shiro-hannya," and obtained 327 Soul Ash!】

【You used Kaga Kiyomitsu (Replica) to slay "Severely Wounded Shiro-hannya." The quality of Kaga Kiyomitsu (Replica) has moderately increased.】

【Your skill, Fragment of the Art of Qi Harmonization, proficiency +70!】

【Your skill, Tennen Rishin-ryu, proficiency +45!】

【Main Quest 2: Exorcise the one-star urban legend, Severely Wounded Shiro-hannya, has been completed!】

As expected of the final boss of the eerie Arakawa Village, it dropped over three hundred Soul Ash all at once. Counting what he had left over previously, it wouldn't be long before he could afford another tenfold draw.

At this thought, Uesugi Toru couldn't help but wear a smile of bountiful harvest.

"Uhm... Uesugi-kun, what are you thinking about to smile so creepil—ahem, happily?"

Just then, Uesugi Toru realized that standing right beside his hospital bed was a young girl.

Kitano Runa.

Her expression currently carried three parts worry, three parts surprise, and four parts hesitation—a textbook palette of conflicting emotions.

Uesugi Toru blinked, and amidst Kitano Runa's gasp of surprise, he sat straight up. "Kitano-san, are you alright?"

"I... You! You shouldn't be moving around recklessly in a hospital bed when you don't even know your own physical condition! Surely you have that much basic common sense?" Kitano Runa pressed her palm to her forehead and sighed. "Is now really the time to be worrying about me?"

"I'm different from you, Kitano-san."

Uesugi Toru leaped straight out of the hospital bed, saying to Kitano Runa, whose hands remained suspended frozen in mid-air, "After seeing my sword technique descending from the heavens, do you really still take me for an ordinary person?"

"So that scene wasn't just a dream?!"

"The gloomy shut-in from the next-door class is actually a superhero who can leap four stories high in a single bound? Am I losing my mind, or has this world gone completely mad?"

Kitano Runa opened her mouth in a daze, momentarily plunging into an unspeakable state of shock.

Taking advantage of this window, Uesugi Toru browsed his notifications—

【You have obtained Shiro-hannya's Mask (Special Item)!】

【Shiro-hannya's Mask】

【Quality: Rare】

【Effect 1: Equip. Equipping "Shiro-hannya's Mask" reduces Charm by 10. Grants the skill "Death Scream."】

【Effect 2: Can be used on a very small number of Hannya-type demons. Upon use, if the Hannya-type demon's quality is below "Rare," its quality is immediately upgraded by one tier.】

【——A lonely life, a solitary death.】

Uesugi Toru's breathing paused abruptly. Staring at the glowing "Effect 2," he thought to himself that Shiro-hannya was truly far too generous—not only delivering itself to be killed, but even thoughtfully bringing along such a heavy gift to bestow upon him.

This almost made Uesugi Toru feel a bit bad.

【You have completed Main Quest 2. Would you like to settle the rewards?】

【Settling in progress...】

【Main Quest 1: Explore the Eerie Arakawa Village, completed!】

【Main Quest 2: Exorcise Shiro-hannya, exceeded expectations!】

【Side Quest 1: The Damaged Jizo Statue, exceeded expectations!】

【Side Quest 2: The White Scarecrow, completed!】

【Filtering rewards for you...】

【Filtering complete!】

【You may select two rewards from the following five options.】

【1. 800 Soul Ash.】

【2......】

Wait.

Uesugi Toru suddenly remembered something.

He averted his gaze from the ever-present notifications and asked Kitano Runa with a stern expression,

"Kitano-san, could you tell me how you ended up running into Shiro-hannya?"