The Legend of Tokyo Taoist

Chapter 411 Urban Legend Part 3 ()

"Next, I will teach you an advanced technique of the cognitive school." Qian Xiaoyi said seriously: "- Reverse cognitive assimilation."

Inuyama Heita listened quietly to Qian Xiaoyi's words, not wanting to miss a single word.

"As for the so-called reverse cognitive assimilation, you have actually experienced it before." Qian Xiaoyi said, "Cognitive assimilation is easy to understand. Your previous experience of saving the soul of the vengeful spirit was a kind of cognitive assimilation, where you output your own cognition and emotions and affect other things in the outside world. Reverse cognitive assimilation is similar to possession. You should be familiar with this, right? Ah Jian often possessed you. Do you remember that feeling?"

Inuyama Heita nodded, then asked, "But wouldn't that mean the enemy's cognition would invade your body? What good would that do?"

Qian Xiaoyi said: "That's why I said that it is a technique 'similar' to possession. Rather than actively letting the other party's cognition invade your own cognition, I prefer to call this behavior 'stealing'."

"steal?"

"That's right." Qian Xiaoyi said, "When you were possessed by Ajian, you had this feeling, right? It was clearly your own body, and you could clearly feel the surrounding environment, but your body just moved on its own. Under Ajian's possession, you could become a game master and a glutton, which were things you couldn't do before."

Inuyama Heita's eyes lit up: "So, reverse assimilation of cognition is a technology that allows me to steal cognition from the enemy and turn it into my own strength?"

"It seems you understand." Qian Xiaoyi nodded and said, "The reason why it is called an advanced skill is because this behavior is still very risky. If you are not careful, you will lose control of the degree and let the 'stealing' behavior become actively allowing the enemy to invade your cognition. That would be dangerous. The key is to grasp the degree. You can only steal cognition that does not exceed your own cognitive strength, and then let it assimilate part of you without affecting your own cognition. The most important thing is that you must be ready to peel it off at any time."

Inuyama Heita hesitated and said, "It sounds... a bit complicated."

Qian Xiaoyi waved his hand and said, "The theory is like this. It sounds complicated, but in fact, if you become proficient in it, you will find that there are only a few steps. But you should understand the general principle, right?"

Inuyama Heita nodded: "Well, to put it simply, it is to actively steal the enemy's cognition into the body, and then let it assimilate part of your cognition without affecting its own safety, so as to use the enemy's power, and then peel it off when it is not needed. Brother Otsu, you used this technique to use Turbo Granny and Taxi to seal a powerful monster like the Slit-mouthed Woman, right?"

"It seems that you really understand, so I feel relieved." Qian Xiaoyi said: "Then, let's start special training."

Inuyama Heita was about to agree, but when he turned around, he saw the human-faced dog rummaging through the garbage and was stunned.

"Wait..." A drop of cold sweat dripped down Inuyama Heita's head: "Brother Otoko, the special training you mentioned... wouldn't it be that I can use 'steal' on this old man's human-faced dog? Let its cognition assimilate my cognition?"

Seeing the disgusting human-faced dog, Inuyama Heita shuddered and said quickly: "No, no! This is absolutely impossible!"

When he thought about how he had assimilated part of the human-faced dog's cognition and turned into a middle-aged Mediterranean man with a face like the human-faced dog, he felt physically uncomfortable and resisted.

"Why are you so picky?" Qian Xiaoyi said dissatisfiedly, "Do you know how rare it is to find a harmless and unkillable ghost like the human-faced dog? I was lucky to find it this time. I may not be able to encounter it next time. Do you want to train with ghosts that can kill you from the beginning? Life is more important than face, right?"

"This is not a matter of face, right?" Inuyama Heita argued: "It! It's rummaging through the garbage! And it's the gathering of resentment of middle-aged office workers. It's disgusting! By the way, we can use other things as targets. It doesn't have to be an urban legend, right? For example, Ajian, such as Xiaobai." Qian Xiaoyi said: "This kind of cognitive stealing is destructive. Do you want to hurt Ajian and the fox? The human-faced dog is undoubtedly a perfect target. It doesn't have much lethality, and it won't be hurt by your cognitive stealing... except that it's a bit disgusting."

"Brother Yi, you also know that's disgusting!" Inuyama Heita said, "By the way, can we change to a special training project? Like Mr. Kong, train yourself instead of relying on the power of others. Stealing or something is still too tricky, isn't it?"

Qian Xiaoyi retorted: "Do you think you have so much time? Exercising your own cognition is indeed the right way. After all, if you have enough strength, you don't need to borrow the strength of others. However, this right way cannot be achieved in a short period of time. You must practice hard day after day for a long time before you can see slight progress.

The enemy won't give you a few years to practice peacefully. You never know when they will attack. Stealing the power of ghosts is the best way to improve your strength. When your own strength is insufficient, borrowing the power of the outside world is also a wise choice. Even the classical school often borrows the power of gods and monsters. So it is reasonable for us cognitive school to borrow the power of urban legends, right?"

Inuyama Heita was almost convinced. He looked at the human-faced dog and felt despair in his heart. In the despair, an idea flashed in his mind and he grabbed the last straw.

"In that case..." Inuyama Heita gritted his teeth and said, "Please be sure to show me how to do it! If I just teach you verbally without any examples, I won't know how to put it into practice."

"I refuse!" Qian Xiaoyi immediately said firmly: "It's disgusting!"

"Hey!!!"

Inuyama Heita couldn't hold it in any longer: "That's too much. He just told others to do it but he didn't even want to show them how to do it."

Qian Xiaoyi sneered, "I don't need special training. Hurry up, Heitaro, don't dawdle. If you miss it this time, it will be difficult to encounter it next time."

"Then... at least tell me what to do, okay?" Inuyama Heita gave up struggling and asked desperately, "How can I steal the cognition in its body?"

Qian Xiaoyi said, "Do I need to teach you this? Didn't you do this before when you fought the Inuki Shikigami? Use your own cognition to change the opponent's cognition. And what you need to do next is to output your own cognition, not to cut off the connection, but to carefully pull it back and bring out the enemy's cognition, just like fishing. Anyway, go and try it, I will watch you from the side and will not let anything happen to you."

Inuyama Heita looked at the human-faced dog hesitantly, but finally sighed, walked over there, and stood behind the human-faced dog.

He turned around and looked at Qian Xiaoyi desperately. Qian Xiaoyi said impatiently: "Hurry up, it's getting late. You don't have much time. You must learn this simple technique today."

So Inuyama Heita turned his head with a numb and tragic expression and stretched out his hand to the human-faced dog. The human-faced dog also noticed the person behind it. It turned its head and looked at Inuyama Heita with a confused look on its uncle's face.

Then, Inuyama Heita's fingers touched the forehead of the human-faced dog.

(End of this chapter)