The Legend of Tokyo Taoist

Chapter 76 Urban Legend Part 9 ()

In the undead taxi, Qian Xiaoyi leaned weakly on the front seat, yawning continuously as if he hadn't slept for days. He rubbed his face and tried hard to stay awake. Although he defeated the Slit-Mouthed Woman, they were still in the ghost realm and who knows what might happen. If he fell asleep now, it would be too late to regret if something unexpected happened.

In the back row, Ken and Inuyama Heita were huddled together. It seemed that because they were in the ghost realm, Ken was now temporarily in a tangible physical state, but his body was a little pale, like a ghost.

Oh, he was a ghost.

Inuyama Heita was very curious about what had just happened, and soon he couldn't help asking, "Brother O, um, did you really destroy the legendary Slit-mouthed Woman?"

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Qian Xiaoyi yawned loudly, rubbed his eyes and said, "How can a monster created by decades of accumulated terrifying cognition be eliminated so easily? To eliminate a monster of this level, we need official cooperation and local religions to hold large-scale blessing ceremonies similar to water and land ceremonies to completely eliminate this cognition. The most important thing is to stop the spread of this legend, otherwise who knows what kind of exaggerated appearance this thing will develop into in the end?"

"So what happened just now..." Ajian asked, "Could it be that I was really caught by you with the Master Ball like Pokémon?"

Qian Xiaoyi waved his hand and explained, "It's a seal. I took advantage of her weakness and used a spell to cut off her connection with those cognitions, directly cutting off her access to power. The Slit-Mouthed Woman we faced just now is actually just the embodiment of those legends, and cannot be considered her entirety."

Inuyama Heita asked: "Then can we just destroy the woman with the slit in the seal?"

"Yes, but it's useless." Qian Xiaoyi said: "I've said it before, they are the product of cognitive convergence. The slit-mouthed woman we just saw is like a bunch of magnets gathered together to form a large magnet with super strong suction. As long as this large magnet is still there, the other small magnets will only be attracted by the large magnet. Now I have covered it with a cover, and the large magnet can still attract the small magnets, but they cannot merge. If this large magnet is thrown away, the other small magnets will attract each other and gradually converge into another large magnet again."

Inuyama Heita nodded: "In other words, to truly destroy it, we must destroy all the small magnets!"

"This is the scary thing about rumors," Qian Xiaoyi said. "It's like a child throwing a snowball from a snowy mountain. It starts out small, then gradually snowballs and gets bigger, and eventually it may even turn into an avalanche... Unless all the snow on the mountain is cleared away, this kind of thing is almost impossible to avoid."

Ah Jian shook his head: "That's probably impossible. Associations are legal in Japan, and doing that would offend many religious groups."

Qian Xiaoyi looked at Ajian in surprise through the rearview mirror: "Wow~ You, a mere otaku, actually know about this kind of thing? That's amazing."

Ah Jian said proudly: "Hehe~ It's not like I don't know everything... Wait, what do you mean by 'just a dead otaku'? Don't look down on otakus!"

As they chatted along the way, the taxi stopped. Qian Xiaoyi took out a stack of paper money from her bag and handed it to the driver as usual, then got out of the car with the other two.

The taxi went away and disappeared around the corner. Inuyama Heita took out a crumpled business card and looked at it. This was what Qian Xiaoyi got after tempting the driver with money many times. In reality, it was completely invisible. It was just an inconspicuous blurry business card, as if it had been soaked in rain, and the words on it could not be seen clearly. But the magical thing was that once the business card arrived in the ghost realm, a phone number would appear. As long as you dial this number, you can call the driver and the taxi over. However, the prerequisite is that you must have (paper) money, otherwise Inuyama Heita doesn't know what the consequences of riding a pirate car will be, anyway, it is estimated to be very bad.

Qian Xiaoyi had just instructed him in advance to call a taxi and have it ready to pick him up at any time. This taxi can connect different ghost realms, and Inuyama Heita doesn't have to tell the destination. He just needs to let the driver drive forward, and Qian Xiaoyi will run to the pick-up location by himself, and then the previous scene will happen.

Although he didn't know what kind of battle Qian Xiaoyi had with the Slit-mouthed Woman before, Inuyama Heita knew that the process must have been very difficult. He had never seen Qian Xiaoyi look so tired.

Qian Xiaoyi took out the compass, took a look at it, and said casually: "The exit... go this way."

The three of them walked on the street for a while, and unknowingly walked out of the ghostland and returned to the real world. "Don't go! Minister, let's go back! I beg you!"

"No, isn't Mr. Qian still there? I'll be fine! Let me go! And Inuyama is missing too, I'm going to go find him!"

"Wait...that's it! Mr. Qian and Inuyama are back!"

Seeing Qian Xiaoyi and Inuyama Heita walking back together, Kawasaki's eyes lit up with excitement. He held Qian Xiaoyi's hand and asked loudly, "Teacher Qian! Slit-mouthed woman! Is it the Slit-mouthed woman? Did you see the Slit-mouthed woman just now?"

Qian Xiaoyi shook off his hand in disgust and said, "Slit-mouthed woman? I've never seen one. Don't ask."

Kawasaki looked at Sato, who stammered in panic, "But...just now you clearly...that...was real! Slit-mouthed woman, Teacher Qian saved me, I clearly heard his voice..."

Sato was talking incoherently. Kawasaki looked at Qian Xiaoyi again. Qian Xiaoyi replied impatiently, "What nonsense are you talking about? Are you dreaming? What slit-mouthed woman? Judging from your appearance, go home and have a rest."

Kawasaki asked, "Sato saw it with his own eyes. Teacher Qian, did you really not see the slit-mouthed woman?"

"No comment." Qian Xiaoyi said unhappily, "Our commission has already made it very clear. I am only responsible for ensuring your safety. I will not answer any other questions. Have you completed today's activities? Please settle the money. I'll check the time. The total is... one hour and thirty-six minutes. I'll give you one and a half hours, 36000 yen. Thank you."

Kawasaki's eyes lit up. This attitude, plus what Sato said, meant that something must have happened, but the other party just didn't want to tell him. This meant that what he was looking for definitely existed! And if it weren't for him, he might have lost another member. This showed that the money was definitely worth it!

After paying the money, Qian Xiaoyi looked at the bills in his hand and shook his head. If future commissions were of this intensity, he would suffer a huge loss.

Looking at Kawasaki talking to others in the distance, Qian Xiaoyi smiled. The more courageous people are in pursuit of such things, the less likely they are to see them. Only those who are truly afraid and don't want to see those things have the chance to see ghosts. This is a paradox. Anyway, I will be watching him in the future, so that guy is destined to be in vain.

Qian Xiaoyi took out the iron box with the talisman from his bag, opened it and took a look. The scissors with the yellow talisman wrapped around the handle were just lying inside, just like ordinary junk. After confirming that they were correct, Qian Xiaoyi closed the lid and put it back into his bag, then turned to Inuyama Heita and said, "Let's go back. I need to have a good rest."

Inuyama Heita nodded and pushed Qian Xiaoyi's motorcycle over. Qian Xiaoyi was really too sleepy and was afraid that he would have an accident if he rode the motorcycle back, so he could only ask Inuyama Heita for help.

Sitting on the back seat of the motorcycle and enjoying the cool breeze, Qian Xiaoyi thought vaguely: "I was careless... Who would have thought that an urban legend could be so powerful? I almost capsized in the ditch. It seems that my ability is still lacking. I must be cautious in the future and not be too reckless. Master is right. There are always people better than you. I must not be arrogant and think that this is just a remote island and be careless. What happened today is a wake-up call..."

Just as they were going home, time went back half an hour. In a temple somewhere in Tokyo, a middle-aged monk who was chanting in the house suddenly opened his eyes. He looked up at the sky and seemed to see countless black auras surging. He was familiar with this feeling and would never forget it!

"This feels like... a slit-mouthed woman!" The wooden mallet in the monk's hand fell to the ground, and he looked at the sky and muttered, "Who is challenging that monster?!"

(End of this chapter)