I became the Lord of the Eternal World in Tokyo.

That Yin-Yang Power Assistance team is really willing to spend a fortune!

Uesugi Tetsuya, who originally wanted the Wanxiang Folding Fan, is now conflicted again... It's probably hard for everyone to choose between the fan and the knife.

Firstly, it can immediately enrich Uesugi Tetsu's Yin-Yang techniques—with this fan, he even knows more Yin-Yang techniques than many great Yin-Yang masters.

But a katana like the Spider Cutter, with its mythical aura and worldwide fame, must surely possess supernatural powers that he could not have imagined.

As for the subsequent audience with the Sword Saint, Uesugi Tetsu felt it was just an extra bonus.

He was indeed very interested in the sword saint who could single-handedly subdue the three major families and those ancient Onmyoji clans, making everyone sit down and negotiate obediently.

I want to see for myself what kind of person he is.

But that only extends to the level of mere interest.

The Sword Saint was too tall, and he himself was too short; the enormous gap made Uesugi Tetsuya feel the reality of the situation.

Rather, the current Sword Saint is more of a "symbol" for Uesugi Tetsuya.

"The champion, or the runner-up."

The rewards for first and second place are both exceptionally generous, making it difficult for Uesugi Tetsuya to choose.

So no matter what, we must get into the top two.

This is the bottom line.

Defeating Minamoto Shizumizu is indeed very difficult, but so far Uesugi Tetsu has not seen a second character who can compare to him.

Thus, a simple goal was set.

"If only Ririko were in the competition too," Uesugi Tetsu sighed softly. "Wouldn't it be wonderful if my brother and I took first and second place?"

The official seeding and knockout stage will not begin until the end of June at the earliest, but the exact date has not yet been determined.

It depends on when the preliminary rounds and the Swiss rounds end; there's still about half a month left, which can be considered as warm-up time for the knockout stage.

Tokyo is about to truly start to "live up".

Uesugi Tetsu spent a few minutes reading through all the rewards, then opened the comments section and found a series of shocking comments.

Many people are also asking what the terms "Demon God Level" and "Wild God Level" mean in the rewards, what kind of powerful individuals they are, and how they compare to Uesugi Tetsuya and Minamoto Shizumi.

Soon, a kind-hearted veteran officer stepped forward to answer.

[It's 3:30, time for tea: These seeded geniuses are indeed formidable, capable of easily defeating a hundred of us with one hand... but to compare them to these real talents is a far cry.]

[At 3:30, let's have tea first: Ghosts and gods possess the power to reverse yin and yang, and to move mountains and fill seas. As for the powerful beings at the level of the Desolate God... I've lived for decades and have never seen one in person, nor can I even imagine it.]

To be conservative, I could easily defeat ten demons with one hand.

The comment immediately went viral, with new agents from the Special Affairs Department and some outsiders posting wildly.

[Be conservative! Aragami can beat ten Oni-gami, Oni-gami can beat ten Uesugi Tetsu, and Uesugi Tetsu can easily beat a hundred of me—doesn't that mean Aragami can easily beat ten thousand of me!]

Good heavens, I just recently went through so much trouble to finally get a two-star shikigami!

[The person upstairs is dreaming. Ten thousand of you? Even a hundred thousand of you probably wouldn't be taken seriously by such a big shot!]

Wow, our Special Affairs Division is this awesome!

Afterwards, the comments section was filled with either marveling at the power of the demons and gods, or expressing envy for the rewards of the elimination rounds...

Uesugi Tetsuya was somewhat surprised to see that the comment section had surpassed tens of thousands of comments in less than ten minutes.

This blew all the guys who usually stay underwater out of the water.

If you didn't know better, you'd think the rewards in the picture above were for a giveaway by sharing in the comments section.

Uesugi Tetsuya took the original piece of iron out of his pocket and found that it had changed from an ordinary black iron material into a crystal clear crystal.

The texture is much more premium.

His name is still on the back, while a large "5" is engraved on the front.

In summary, this is 【TOP 5·Uesugi Tetsu】.

Uesugi Tetsuya tested the crystal's strength again with Thunder and found that it was surprisingly high after the change.

Even though he used 30% of his power to unleash the Five Thunder Technique, the crystal crystal remained completely unharmed.

Even if you exert all your strength, the result probably won't change.

With that thought in mind, Uesugi Tetsu placed the crystal chip in the lining of his clothes near his chest.

In this way, it's like getting a breast protector for free!

After returning home in disguise, Uesugi Tetsu returned to his original form and greeted Ririko.

He asked, "Ririko, are you interested in the ranking rewards for seed battles?"

"tell me the story."

The girl, who looked no different from any other high school girl, opened her eyes and rested her chin on her hand.

Uesugi Tetsu didn't say anything more.

—If she were interested, she would have already gone to find out for herself, just like how she is eager to advance on the path of cultivation day and night, as long as she opens her eyes.

So he shook his head: "Forget it, there's not much of a reward... it'll just be so-so. I might as well practice my swordsmanship for a couple more days."

"Alright then." Ririko sighed and looked at the clear sky outside, asking, "What do you want to eat tonight?"

"We'll have to wait until I wake up."

Uesugi Tetsu yawned: "I went to get struck by lightning at noon to break through, and I'm so sleepy."

Upon hearing this, Ririko gave him a slight smile.

"Waiting for you."

"Alright, I'll finish the task as soon as possible!"

"There's no such thing as a quick sleep..."

"No, you absolutely have to eat dinner!"

After a brief exchange, Uesugi Tetsu went upstairs and lay down on the bed.

He certainly wasn't going to sleep.

Instead, based on the timing of the seeding battle and recent arrangements, Uesugi Tetsu felt that he could finally do something.

—【Unknown Core Factory Map】.

Activating this epic-level map, which is guaranteed to contain an unknown "super epic" quality equipment or item, requires a "factory core".

In Arakawa Village, there happens to be a factory built by factory owner Z.

The aftershocks of the wave have slowly receded, and factory owner Z probably can't stay in this desolate wilderness for long.

So, there's nothing more to say.

Sprint towards the heart of the factory in Arakawa Village!

Chapter 252 Factory Core Acquired, Epic Map Launched! [Component 028]

In the depths of the sea, treacherous undercurrents surge.

In Arakawa Village.

Uesugi Tetsuya was still groggy when he first opened his eyes.

Since he achieved something in his mental state, he has rarely been confused after entering the mortal world.

This is the first time in recent days.

He twitched his nose slightly, but what Uesugi Tetsu smelled was not the familiar mixture of moldy thatch and sulfur.

Instead, it was a foul stench mixed with a strong smell of engine oil and a whole host of other indescribable industrial odors.

"vomit……"

Even Uesugi Tetsu couldn't help but feel nauseous for a moment.

After a few seconds, as Uesugi Tetsu's vision gradually cleared, he finally understood why the smell was so strong and pungent.

—Because he appeared directly in an open sewage ditch!

Uesugi Tetsu looked down and saw that greasy, bluish-black sewage was gushing between his calves.

It flows from the rumbling sound, flowing into the silent, eternal earth.

Looking up again, you can see that the sky above has been turned into a colorful spectacle by the smoke.

Despite the subtle discomfort, Uesugi Tetsuya did not immediately pull himself out of the sewage tunnel, which was dug deeper than his own height.

The first thing he did was bend down to find the shrine that had vanished.

Yes, a shrine.

Since I was able to revive in this sewage ditch, it means that the shrine must be nearby.

Uesugi Tetsuya then dipped his hands into the sewage, which contained heavy metals at levels that were many times higher than the standard, and began to stir it around.

After some groping, I found something with sharp edges and corners.

Uesugi Tetsuya pulled it out with a little effort and found that it was indeed the shrine that had sunk to the bottom of the sewage channel.

However, under the constant exposure to sewage, the originally simple shrine has turned completely blue-black, and a strong, fermented smell of sewage emanates from both inside and out.

He had barely taken a second to examine it closely when the smell made Uesugi Tetsuya's eyes sting.

"This shrine is truly unusable..."

Holding his breath, Uesugi Tetsu used his inner energy to cleanse the surface of the shrine—as for the interior, which had already absorbed the flavor, there was nothing he could do.

After a simple "cleaning", Uesugi Tetsu used his qi to dig a pit in the soil and rocks next to the sewage channel, perfectly embedding the shrine in it, and then covering it with a layer of fine soil.

"In that case, we shouldn't have to worry about the shrine being washed away by sewage."

After doing all this, Uesugi Tetsuya first used the triple qi circulation to isolate himself from all connections with the outside world, and then used the Thousand Faces and Jade Heart Technique to suppress all outward aura.

Only then could he quietly peek out from the top of the two-meter-high sewage channel.

The expected crisscrossing industrial production lines did not appear, nor did the towering robots I saw on my last visit.

What appeared before Uesugi Tetsu was only an extremely desolate land, where not even a single weed could grow.

However, if you look down from a height of 100 meters, you can see countless sewage channels, some wide and some narrow, stretching into the endless distance.

The entire village of Arakawa has been leveled and turned into a sewage discharge channel.

Sewage pollutes the earth.

This is why not a single blade of grass grows here.

"However," Uesugi Tetsuya said, his gaze settling on the still intact townhouse after looking around, "thankfully the shrine wasn't washed away by the sewage to dozens or hundreds of kilometers away."

Uesugi Tetsuya, finding nothing in his field of vision or perception, stepped out and used his internal energy circulation to shake off all the dirty water from his body.

He instinctively wanted to inhale some spiritual energy from the mortal world, but soon his face turned ashen and he began to cough.

This damned factory has polluted the surrounding spiritual energy, turning it into a highly toxic gas.

Uesugi Tetsu looked out at the towering, dark steel forest two or three thousand meters away. His Eye of Deciphering narrowed, and he saw the densely packed machine workers moving through it.

At such a great distance, these logistics units, which were almost entirely incapable of combat, naturally could not detect his spying.

[Logistics Sequence Type I (Half-Star)], [Logistics Sequence Type II (Half-Star)], [Logistics Sequence Type III (Half-Star)]

Most machine workers bear these three labels.

As for the original, crazy, exploited workers, they have all disappeared without a trace, and no one knows where they have been driven away.

Perhaps because the cost of working and raising them was too high, they were humanely destroyed by factory owner Z.

After thinking it over, Uesugi Tetsu first went to the machiya where the blacksmith used to live.

The townhouse and the surrounding fifty meters remained unchanged, but when Uesugi Tetsu floated into it, he found no trace of anyone having been there.

The shelves that once held many fine weapons, and the wooden table where the blacksmith slept all day, were now covered with a thick layer of dust.

If you walk further into the inner room, you can see the field where the zashiki once planted a patch of spirit grass.

However, due to the sewage, these fields, which were originally rich in spiritual energy, have long since deteriorated, and even the vital grass seedlings within them have withered and died.