I became the Lord of the Eternal World in Tokyo.

Why was Ririko, who possessed expert-level peak swordsmanship, so terrified by a mere half-star fox-dog back then?

Ririko's answer at the time was—

"I killed those mere foxes and dogs with just a dozen sword strikes, okay? The real problem was that Prajna that appeared afterward!"

"That Prajna is stronger than me in terms of pure numerical values."

At that moment, Ririko rolled her eyes: "It's not like there's a sword domain now. I'm still using a bamboo sword... What do you care about my fancy sword techniques? If someone swipes at me, I'll lose too much blood, you know?"

Moreover, she was under the "no sword in hand" debuff at that time.

This short story made Uesugi Tetsu realize that weapons and mindset are also very important factors in the exertion of strength.

Uesugi Tetsu murmured to himself, "Expert-level swordsmanship, perfect embryonic heart, and qi circulation."

These are the three tickets to the path to becoming a strong person that Ririko spoke of.

Only by mastering these three elements can one complete the foundational accumulation of "skill," "mind," and "body," and stand on the threshold of the path to becoming a strong person.

The reason for these three points is that once a cultivator reaches this stage, even without subsequent techniques or external assistance, they can continue to grow stronger on their own.

Even if it's incredibly slow.

There are still over 300 proficiency points left.

It should be possible to complete the practice before encountering illness head-on.

It might have been full by the time the demons were exorcised at Yoshida Castle.

Outside the door, the blood-red sunlight fell on Uesugi Tetsuya's hand.

He retracted his thoughts.

It's almost time.

"Lord Yiyuan, I need to leave for one night."

Uesugi Tetsu opened his mouth and looked at Imagawa Yoshimoto, who opened his eyes two seconds later: "As I mentioned before, I want to find a way to deal with the suffering caused by the illness."

"Since it's something that has to be done, let's do it."

Imagawa Yoshimoto did not say "hurry up" aloud.

"it is good."

Uesugi Tetsuya wasted no more time and stood up directly, saying to the mountain whale king lying at the door, "Lord Whale Three, I need to go out alone for a while. As for Lord Yoshimoto's safety..."

"Humph."

The Mountain Whale King snorted coldly, still somewhat reluctantly saying, "You don't need to say more. I will do whatever Master Tiangong asked me to do, even if it costs me my life."

Uesugi Tetsu cupped his hands in thanks: "Thank you."

In the past few days, Whale Three has been very reliable and intelligent in many ways, and there is no trace of the stereotypes usually associated with this race.

The Zashiki-warashi has pretty good taste...

But Uesugi Tetsu was not reassured by this.

He took out the Komainu bell and poured his spiritual power into it without reservation, until almost half of the spiritual power was absorbed by the bell.

The next moment, three majestic two-and-a-half-star Komainu suddenly appeared in the courtyard, causing even the Mountain Whale King to look on in astonishment.

The Mountain Whale King could sense that these three armored, dog-like and wolf-like monsters were not weak at all, and were quite intelligent as well.

If all three are used together, it might cause it a lot of trouble.

"They are..."

"It's like a little shikigami of mine, meant to assist you, Lord Whale Three, so that you won't have to take action yourself when minor matters arise."

Uesugi Tetsu replied with high emotional intelligence.

Upon seeing the three imposing komainu dogs, the pink pig immediately turned around, licking its lips and sticking out its tongue in a fawning manner. The pig also nodded with a smile on its face.

"So good."

Uesugi Tetsu turned and left, disappearing into the sunset.

……

The water pressure remained steady.

Uesugi Tetsu opened his eyes, took out his phone, and found that exactly eight hours had passed.

He didn't bother with any of the time-consuming actions like checking out of the store or making a red dot on Line.

Instead, he simply opened the hotel window and jumped from the room to the rooftops in a few steps.

In just a few minutes, Uesugi Tetsuya, who was rushing at full speed, had already seen the familiar gate of the Arakawa Ward Special Affairs Office.

With another leap, he landed steadily at the entrance of the Special Affairs Office.

Snapped.

A pale hand emerged from the darkness beside them, accompanied by a somewhat dazed and weary voice.

"Uesugi-kun, it's been a long time."

Xiaoyuelan, feeling drowsy, even wore her mask askew.

Emerging from the shadows, she yawned and said, "Nanjo Daiju sent me... ha, let me deliver this to you."

Uesugi Tetsu blinked, looking at Bian Xiaoyuelan, who was completely different from the gloomy, landmine-like girl from a few days ago.

Is this a Xiaoyuelan?

How did Nanjo-nee turn into this state in just a few days?

Damn, no wonder Nanjo looked so smug; it turns out someone really is carrying the burden.

It's likely that because of Xiaoyue Lan's ability to move through the shadows, she was often asked by Nanjo Ai to run errands.

Including this time.

He remained expressionless, but chuckled inwardly.

Then Xiaoyuelan touched around and finally pulled out a small, cheap-looking box from under her skirt.

"Here, Nanjo Daiju will give you some pills."

After thanking him, Uesugi Tetsu accepted the box, opened it, and found a pill inside with shimmering blue runes on its surface.

【Compressed Spirit Gathering Pill - Ultimate】

[Quality: Rare]

[Effect: Upon consumption... immediately increases the proficiency of the skill "Spirit Control" by 300 points.]

[By compressing a large amount of high-purity spiritual energy together and then sealing and softening it using Yin-Yang techniques, one obtains the Compressed Spirit Gathering Pill.]

Yes, that's exactly what he wanted.

Uesugi Tetsuya put the pills into his storage space with satisfaction.

Because he knew that the conversation with Kaga Kiyomitsu might get out of control later, he didn't plan to take it now.

"By the way, if you take this pill, Uesugi-kun, will you become incredibly energetic and strong, and then...?"

Xiaoyue Lan approached at some point, her eyes crinkling with sleepiness: "Isn't it said that you are what you eat? Uesugi-kun, I'm really lacking in energy right now."

Before Uesugi Tetsu could even take a half-step back, raise his hand, and refuse this smooth little combo, Kaga Kiyomitsu at his waist was already dissatisfied.

Buzz!

Kaga Kiyomitsu suddenly drew his sword, the silver blade illuminating Xiaoyue Lan's pupils, causing her to exit "power-saving mode" and squeezing out a little more strength to widen her eyes in surprise.

"Uesugi-kun, can your sword understand us?"

hum~

Kaga Kiyomitsu emitted a clear, short slash.

It's like saying -

"How could you, a foreign, flashy, cheap woman, possibly compare to us!"

“Miss Xiaoyue, even my knife isn’t satisfied.” Uesugi Tetsu continued, following the scene, “To be honest, I can’t really control it very well either…”

The implication was self-evident.

Xiao Yuelan shrank back, licking her lips, seemingly lost in thought.

She then took out an ordinary-looking document bag from inside her hoodie and handed it over.

But in Uesugi Tetsu's view, the Yin-Yang incantations flowing on the file bag were so numerous that they were almost overwhelming.

Even if a powerful being of god-like caliber were to suddenly appear, it would be difficult to forcefully open it.

"This is the information you requested. It has been sealed away by special Yin-Yang techniques and can only be opened by a specific person. It will also be automatically destroyed after the information is read."

Xiao Yuelan casually shrugged.

"So don't worry that I, an outsider, will secretly look at it first and then put it back."

She muttered to herself, "According to Nanjo Taishu, there's even a version that can erase memories. Onmyojutsu is really convenient..."

Just then, out of the corner of his eye, Uesugi Tetsuya, who had just received the document bag, noticed that the surveillance camera at the entrance of the Special Affairs Department changed, transforming into a small silver-white ball that slowly floated towards him.

Then, surprisingly, Nanjo Manami's hissing sound, full of electrical crackling, came from it.

"Hey, is my microphone going to explode?"

what's the situation?

Uesugi Tetsuya was deeply shocked to witness a surveillance camera being turned into a "microphone".

Xiao Yuelan was also confused; she had never heard of her superiors secretly supervising the work.

Uesugi Tetsu pointed at the small silver ball and asked in confusion, "Nanjo-nee, what is this...?"

"—Oh! This is the activated metal that Wujun researched!"

A familiar voice, full of vitality and spiritual energy, echoed back.

Uesugi Tetsu looked up and saw Kitano Runa running towards him, carrying a takeout bag with the "Special Affairs Department" logo on it.

Good morning, Uesugi-kun!

Despite having just pulled an all-nighter, Kitano Runa was full of energy, pointing at the small, silver-white ball track.

"Wu Jun is a kind of tale about the supernatural. He has a deep understanding of electronic devices and technology. He also helped a lot during the Red Tide incident."

He hastily created that 'Defense Battle' mini-game on his phone back then.

When she mentioned it, Uesugi Tetsu remembered it.

He was wondering which genius had come up with this, but it turned out to be a strange tale.

Pulling his thoughts away from his memories, Uesugi Tetsuya focused his gaze on Kitano Runa, whose body was constantly overflowing with spiritual energy.

The spiritual power within Kitano Runa surged once again.

Almost all of them are exactly the same as his body.

Uesugi Tetsu: "Kitano-kun, aren't you going to control your spiritual power?"

"It doesn't seem like that will work, because I can't learn any Yin-Yang techniques."

Kitano Runa scratched her cheek: "So I kept practicing the basic spirit gathering technique that Ririko taught me... and as I practiced, it turned out like this."

After hearing this, Uesugi Tetsu seriously doubted that in the future, Kitano Runa could simply use her spiritual energy waves to crush her opponents to death.

Kitano Runa buried her face in the handle of the takeout bag and said earnestly, "But I will study hard! Just like Aoyama Nanami from Sakurasou!"

"No, Kitano-kun, what do you have to do with the word 'ordinary person'?" Uesugi Tetsuya was speechless.

Kitano Runa herself understood this, of course, so she coughed twice and said,

"Although I know that my mediocre skills are definitely not enough to represent the Arakawa district in the seeding tournament!"

But guarding the gate for Ririko and saving her some training time—I can admit defeat if I can't win!

Uesugi Tetsu suddenly looked up.

Anticipating that if she waited for the other party to ask questions, she might be forcibly held in place for several more minutes, Kitano Runa decisively said,

"I'm not going to say anything more, Uesugi-kun, the cafeteria takeout is getting cold!"