I became the Lord of the Eternal World in Tokyo.

"As long as the factory isn't destroyed by the previous explosion and attracts a bunch of factory owners, that's fine."

Without saying a word, Uesugi Tetsu closed his eyes and crossed the deep sea once again, appearing on the shrine that had been specially buried at the bottom.

He suddenly opened his eyes and looked ahead.

Chapter 263 Matsudaira Motoyasu bows to me, and what are you anyway? The Yin-Yang Technique Flame Armor, aimed directly at demons and gods!

The good news is that nothing has changed in front of Uesugi Tetsuya.

The Big Black Cube Factory still stands in the wilderness, and the factory owners who could kill him a thousand times over with a single glance have not appeared.

Even at the doorway, you can still see the old blacksmith's corpse, which has been there for who knows how long, now completely cold and unattended, along with the orb of light floating above it.

Entering the Hanafuda (flower card shop) from the Edo period again should still be no problem.

The bad news is that Uesugi Tetsu's intuition tells him that something crucial has changed.

And his intuition is generally very accurate.

Relieved but still uneasy, Uesugi Tetsu touched the memory orb again, triggering a cutscene.

I once again experienced the tedious life of a master blacksmith fixing screws.

After everything went black, Uesugi Tetsu could hear the same lively sounds entering his ears.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw the fox-faced woman who had been looking around staring at him—probably because he was also wearing a "fox mask," making him particularly conspicuous in the crowd.

Uesugi Tetsuya hadn't forgotten that his current identity was a six-tailed fox of the demon god level.

"Would you like to come in and have a game, sir?"

Ignoring the fox-masked woman's first attempt to recruit him, Uesugi Tetsu looked around, but even with his Eye of Insight, he couldn't find the slightest change from before.

It was as if the scene of everything being destroyed never existed.

This Edo-era neighborhood should be a kind of dreamlike existence, but in some ways it is different.

Because reality doesn't exist in illusions.

The "Memory Orb" is undoubtedly real.

Uesugi Tetsu wondered, "Strange... how exactly did this special region come into being?"

To be fair, the factory owners in this mortal world are indeed formidable. The things they created, even if they have long been abandoned and forgotten, are beyond my current comprehension, thanks to the combined efforts of a large group of beings at the level of ghosts, gods, and deities.

Without thinking further, he walked directly to the fox-faced woman and interrupted her every time she uttered just one word, quickly skipping the scene.

—Judging from the timing of the last bet between the Onmyoji who possessed Tokugawa Yugoro's memory orb, if I had arrived earlier, I might have been able to intervene and see how things went.

In the short time before arriving, Uesugi Tetsu had already memorized most of the waka poems, which meant he had grasped the basics of the karuta game.

"Alright, this isn't my first time at Hanafuda."

Uesugi Tetsu walked briskly through the crowd, the fox-masked woman following behind him, slightly taken aback. Hearing him say...

"Answer only what I ask, and keep quiet the rest of the time."

Arriving quickly at the place he remembered from last time, Uesugi Tetsu discovered that the purple memory orb belonging to Tokugawa Yugoro had just been taken out and was about to be placed on the scales.

The middle-aged Onmyoji and the young man from the Tokugawa family were kneeling face to face.

The betting game hasn't even started yet.

You came at the right time.

Beneath the mask, Uesugi Tetsuya's face showed a hint of joy as he asked the Onmyoji, "Onmyoji, do you have any other orbs of light similar to this memory orb? And where did this memory orb come from?"

He pointed to Tokugawa Yugoro's memory orb.

The middle-aged Onmyoji, who was resting with his eyes closed, opened them and his gaze fell on Uesugi Tetsu, whose aura was very conspicuous.

Big demon?

He calmly retorted, "Why should I tell a powerful demon I don't even know?"

Uesugi Tetsu replied matter-of-factly, "Because I also have one that's almost the same, so I wanted to make sure I have one."

After those words were spoken, Uesugi Tetsu could clearly feel the sharp, knife-like gaze of the Tokugawa youth falling on his mask, as if trying to cut it open to spy on him.

Uesugi Tetsu didn't care at all. He beckoned the fox-masked woman beside him to bring out the scales, and then carefully placed his fingertips on them.

Having learned from the previous experience of letting memories flow freely, which led to an "explosion," Uesugi Tetsu deliberately controlled the amount of memories flowing out this time.

Only the small part related to Tokugawa Yugoro will be released.

Then, a small purple ball materialized on one side of the scale—the other side corresponded to four purple and three blue chips.

"This is it."

Uesugi Tetsu picked up the memory orb and waved it in front of the Onmyoji and the samurai.

—Memories do not disappear when they are condensed into a memory sphere; only when they are lost to someone else will that part of the memory truly fall into the sphere and into the hands of that person.

"Oh?"

The Onmyoji looked slightly surprised, not expecting that what Uesugi Tetsu said was true.

The Onmyoji replied, "Unfortunately, I only have one, which I obtained through a gamble with someone else."

Uesugi Tetsu nodded; this was not unexpected.

As for the young samurai of the Tokugawa clan... they were already in a state of shock and rage.

If this had happened outside a flower card shop, he might have already drawn his sword in anger.

The young warrior took a deep breath to calm the shock in his heart.

—A copy of Lord Yugoro's memory has leaked out again. If it were the first copy, it would be fine; it might just be a pure accident.

But when the second one appeared before me, the meaning was completely different.

If there's a second portion, there could be a third, fourth, fifth, or even more.

Could it be that there was more to the story of Lord Yugoro back then?

“Great demon,” the young warrior said coldly, “Don’t leave. Come and fight me later.”

Uesugi Tetsuya held the orb of light above his fingertip: "If we use similar memory orbs as stakes, then it's possible."

"I know whose memory orb this is; don't think you can fool me."

A faint voice emanated from beneath the mask.

Even though they both practiced the Tokugawa family's Myokawa Breathing Technique, Uesugi Tetsu wanted Tokugawa Yugoro's version more.

Because he was not only a genius who could fully understand this breathing technique, but his attention to detail during cultivation was also terrifying.

As Uesugi Tetsu read through the document, it was almost as if he had undergone a spiritual practice in his dream.

If it were another mediocre Tokugawa samurai who followed the established training methods, he probably wouldn't even have been taught the complete Myokawa Breathing Technique.

"impossible!"

The young samurai glared angrily and slammed his katana heavily onto the ground with a loud clang.

For a moment, the surroundings fell silent.

He originally came to a place like the Hanafuda shop, a den of iniquity, to retrieve Lord Yugoro's memory orb, so why would he take such a huge risk to gamble?

Not to mention that he doesn't even have a memory orb related to Lord Yugoro!

Staring at the unmoved fox-faced demon, the young warrior's thoughts were in turmoil. In a moment of impulsiveness, he blurted out, "I can't believe my voice!"

"Great Demon, I advise you to give me this memory orb now, and you can exchange it for something useful!"

He declared in a stern voice, "Otherwise, once you leave this place, the Tokugawa family will not let you go!"

Upon hearing this threat, Uesugi Tetsu laughed.

Use the Tokugawa clan to pressure him?

Don't say this is just a mere illusion; even if it were real, so what?

Putting aside the fact that all of this takes place in the Edo period, which is hundreds of years away from the present day, it would be impossible to catch him...

“Just over two hundred years ago, I saw that chubby boy Takechiyo change his name to Matsudaira Motoyasu at the Imagawa family’s coming-of-age ceremony. He also bowed to me and greeted me.”

Uesugi Tetsu lowered his eyes, six snow-white fox tails extending from behind him, his icy gaze flowing out from the gaps in his fox mask: "Even your ancestors were like this..."

"Who do you think you are, daring to speak to me like that!"

Staring at the frozen young samurai, Uesugi Tetsuya scoffed, "You've changed your mind. No matter what you do or what you bring out today, don't even think about taking this memory orb back."

Having said that, Uesugi Tetsuya turned and left under the furious gaze of the young samurai.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!"

The young samurai gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, not believing that what Uesugi Tetsu said was true.

So what if the other party is a ghost or a god?

He also practices the Life River Breathing Technique like Lord Yugoro, and has the clan's trump card, which makes slaying a mere demon a piece of cake.

However, "no physical actions are permitted inside the flower card shop."

This is the rule, a rule that even legendary gods or the current head of the Tokugawa clan must abide by.

Moreover, he was just one of the more outstanding figures among the younger generation of Tokugawa.

The young warrior was consumed by rage and could not calm down at all.

In the end, he was easily defeated by the middle-aged Onmyoji who was only surprised once from beginning to end, and he did nothing.

They lost everything.

But this is all for later.

……

After leaving the familiar match, Uesugi Tetsu wandered around the Hanafuda shop for a long time.

He examined hundreds of memory orbs laid out on the scales, but still couldn't find a second one that belonged to Tokugawa Yugoro.

There wasn't even a memory orb marked with the name of a Tokugawa samurai.

While it's somewhat regrettable, it's also quite normal.

Because any Tokugawa samurai with pure blood and a slightly higher status would likely have their memory orbs related to the Myokawa Breathing Technique.

As the Four Extremes Breathing Technique is the foundation of the Tokugawa family's existence, it is almost impossible for it to be passed down.

The last time I encountered Tokugawa Yugoro's memory orb was purely by sheer luck.

Since that's the case, then let's just participate in this song competition as usual.

It would be better to find more memory orbs related to the Myokawa Breathing Technique, but it doesn't matter if you can't find them.

Because even with just the current Sea of ​​Qi and Palace of Flesh chapters, I don't know how long it will be enough for me to cultivate.

—I haven't practiced the Small Heavenly Circuit, and I haven't even connected the 108 major acupoints, let alone formed a Star River Qi Sea and completed the four ultimate forms.

Uesugi Tetsu stopped and said to the fox-masked woman, "I want to participate in this competition, please make the arrangements for me."

"As you wish, sir."

The fox-faced woman smiled.

Within two minutes, she led Uesugi Tetsu to an Onmyoji whose face was obscured by the flickering firelight.

The fox-faced woman said softly, "The World's Number One Song Competition consists of five rounds. This is your opponent in the first round, sir."

"Only five rounds?" Uesugi Tetsu asked, somewhat puzzled. "That only allows a limited number of participants."

The fox-faced woman continued to smile: "This decision was made because of your status."

That's a very simple statement.

Because Uesugi Tetsu is a demon, he only needs to fight five rounds to win, without having to worry about the other weaklings.

"That's a good feeling."

Uesugi Tetsu readily agreed and sat down opposite the pair of Onmyoji who were incredibly skilled in manipulating fire.

As soon as he sat down, Uesugi Tetsu could clearly sense that the other party was someone who was extremely close to a great Onmyoji, and only one step away from becoming a four-star demon god.

In reality, judging solely by ability, he would be a strong contender for a top-three seed in the seeding tournament.