Chapter 771

There was shock and only shock on Sawakita Mitsuo’s and Nagase Komi’s eyes.

This was… simply unbelievable.

They had suffered from Takemikazuchi’s lightning attacks earlier. Thus, they knew very well just how formidable the attacks were.

Just now, however, three lightning attacks had descended upon Chen Xiaolian simultaneously only for him to utterly erase them with but one sword swing.

Likewise, he only used one swing to decapitate Takemikazuchi, the same being that had remained unscathed after taking so many attacks from them.

Both of them were aware that Chen Xiaolian was very strong. They had estimated that Chen Xiaolian’s strength was above that of this Divine Master who was possessed by Takemikazuchi and that defeating Takemikazuchi would not be hard for him.

That said, they did not think that it would be such a one-sided battle.

The strength that Chen Xiaolian displayed earlier had far exceeded their expectations.

“Chen-san.”

Sawakita Mitsuo let out a few coughs before recollecting himself. He did his best to steady his voice. “Thank you for the assistance.”

After saying that, he bowed respectfully towards Chen Xiaolian again.

As for Nagase Komi, she was so shocked that no words could escape her lips.

“Enough with that. We’re already old friends. Why stand on ceremony?” Chen Xiaolian smiled, waving it off.

“I’m just making some points along the way. Alright, hurry up and lift the seal.”

After Chen Xiaolian decapitated the head of the Divine Master, he immediately received a prompt from his system.

[You have killed Amago Kimihisa, the Divine Master of Izumo-taisha while he was in Takemikazuchi mode. You obtained 3,000 points and one Takemikazuchi’s Spirit Link Jade.]

[Takemikazuchi’s Spirit Link Jade. An [A-] class one-time consumable prop that can be used inside instance dungeons to obtain the power to control lightning. Duration: 3 minutes.]

For the current Chen Xiaolian, the number of points on him no longer held any significance in the improvement of his strength. As for the Spirit Link Jade, it was completely useless.

However, while it was useless for him, once all this was over and he returned to his guild, his guild members would be able to use it.

Sawakita Mitsuo nodded before giving Nagase Komi a glance, gesturing towards the damaged mech some distance away. Then, he turned and walked to the centre of the hall.

Before him was a boulder, one that rose higher than an ordinary person. A tachi sword was inserted deep into the boulder. Faint bloodstains could be seen on the surface of the blade.

There were several straw ropes haphazardly tying up the boulder, all of which were covered in white strips of paper with complex patterns painted on them.

Sawakita Mitsuo arrived before the boulder. Without any hesitation, he reached out to grab the handle of the tachi before forcefully pulling it out.

The blade of the tachi had been inserted very deep into the boulder, but Sawakita Mitsuo was a veteran Awakened. He had enhanced his strength considerably. Thus, a grating sound came from the blade and boulder as the tachi – bit by bit – moved out.

When the tachi was finally pulled out, a red light immediately shone out from the fine hole left on the boulder. With a soft cracking sound, the hole kept expanding in size, growing to engulf the whole boulder in but the blink of an eye.

The boulder shattered apart with a bang, reduced into a pile of rubble. Amidst the rubble was a red-coloured magatama that shone with light [1].

Squatting, Sawakita Mitsuo then picked up the magatama, holding it in his palm.

“Teacher Sawakita, you must have received the prompt for the second phase of the quest, no?”

Seeing Sawakita Mitsuo remain silent, Chen Xiaolian spoke up. However, a prompt popped up in his own system at the same time.

[System: A Player has obtained one Gods of the Land’s mitama. By snatching the mitama, one can change the ownership of the mitama. The location of the mitama will be displayed in the personal system of every Player. The location will be refreshed once every 4 hours. Whenever the ownership of the mitama is changed, the location will be further refreshed once.]

Sawakita Mitsuo stood up. Releasing a soft sigh, he smiled at Chen Xiaolian and said, “Chen-san, this magatama’s location must already be displayed in your system’s radar, right?”

“Yes. Looks like, from now on, Teacher Sawakita is going to become public enemy number one.” Chen Xiaolian nodded. His current location was clearly shown within Chen Xiaolian’s radar.

At present, though, this did not affect Sawakita Mitsuo much. Although his location was displayed in the radar, the Izumo-taisha was originally the location of their quest objective.

The real issue here was that his location would be updated every 4 hours, lasting up to 24 hours.

Although there was no way to tell how many participants there were in this instance dungeon, he believed that there should be more than five teams. Only the team with a Gods of the Land’s mitama would be able to enter the second phase. Too many monks and too little porridge to go around. The teams who failed to snatch over the mitama could only turn their attention to those who did.

“I have an unkind request… I wonder if Chen-san will be willing to accept it.” Sawakita Mitsuo kept the mitama and moved to stand before Chen Xiaolian, bowing slightly.

“Great Teacher, there is no need to hesitate. Just tell me about it.” Chen Xiaolian smiled.

“According to the system prompt that I received earlier, the ownership of the mitama is something designated to the team,” Sawakita Mitsuo slowly said. “This means Chen-san do not actually need to obtain a second mitama. Since this mitama is something you let me have to begin with, why not… join our team temporarily?”

“Oh?” Chen Xiaolian smiled at Sawakita Mitsuo. “Great Teacher, this is a very smart move from you.”

Sawakita Mitsuo smiled as well. He then leaned closer to Chen Xiaolian and said in a hushed tone, “Although I do not know what kind of adventures you encountered after our last meeting, it seems… … your strength has far exceeded that of normal instance dungeon monsters and other participants. For you, successfully clearing this instance dungeon must no longer be an issue. If it weren’t for that, you would not so casually let us have this mitama. But…”

He checked Chen Xiaolian’s expression before continuing, “But the shrines for this instance dungeon’s quest are too far apart. Chen-san, you gave up on Izumo-taisha’s Gods of the Land’s mitama. Naturally, obtaining another one will not be difficult for you, but running around will still involve expending some effort. Why not join my team for now?”

“Fine.” Chen Xiaolian did not hesitate to nod.

Sawakita Mitsuo was indeed a shrewd and experienced fellow.

The last time the two of them met was in Romania, within the special instance dungeon occupied by Cheng Cheng and Gabriel.

Before they could say goodbye, though, Sawakita Mitsuo’s team was teleported out of the instance dungeon. Given Sawakita Mitsuo’s experience, it was only natural for him to conclude that Chen Xiaolian had been pulled into a complicated relationship with some bigshots.

Moreover, Chen Xiaolian had – just now – displayed an astonishing power. It also informed Sawakita Mitsuo that Chen Xiaolian was not worried at all about the dangers within this instance dungeon, or even the possibility of failing to clear this instance dungeon.

Tying Chen Xiaolian to his chariot basically meant that they were guaranteed a 100% rate of safety.

“Teacher! Please wait!”

Nagase Komi had only just pulled open the jammed hatch of Naito’s mech, allowing Naito to crawl out. When Naito heard Sawakita Mitsuo inviting Chen Xiaolian into the team, his face contorted and he shouted.

His heart was aching.

His full name was Naito Toyo. It hadn’t been all that long since he became an Awakened. He had only been through three instance dungeons since Sawakita Mitsuo brought him into his guild.

He was quite lucky. On the first instance dungeon after joining Sawakita Mitsuo’s guild, he accidentally obtained a high-grade mech.

Although his physical strength was not great, with this mech, Naito became the third strongest in the Fourth Shogunate Guild2.

For this instance dungeon, a team required a minimum of three participants. Due to that, Sawakita Mitsuo decided to bring Naito along.

And yet, just one lightning attack from a minor boss in the early stage had reduced his mech to such a terrible state.

While he could repair the mech through the Exchange System after leaving this instance dungeon, it would not be cheap. Given the amount of points Naito currently possessed, there was no way he would be able to fully repair the damaged parts.

This meant that… he had been set all the way back to his previous state.

All of this was caused by Chen Xiaolian.

According to Sawakita Mitsuo’s original plan, in the first phase, they would not need to fight at all to obtain the Gods of the Land’s mitama.

While Divine Master Amago Kimihisa was not someone from the real world, the fact that the system gave him the position of someone under the Shinto religion when creating this instance dungeon meant that Sawakita Mitsuo’s identity could be used here.

The moment the instance dungeon began, Sawakita Mitsuo had decided on what to do. He immediately brought Nagase Komi and Naito with him on the helicopter arranged by the Imperial Household Agency. They were thus able to arrive at the Izumo-taisha first.

By virtue of his status as the Vice-Grand Steward of the Imperial Household Agency, Sawakita Mitsuo did not face any obstruction. He was able to smoothly make his way to the main hall in the back mountain. After giving them a bunch of lies in the name of the Emperor, he managed to persuade Amago Kimihisa to lift the seal and hand over the Gods of the Land’s mitama to him.

The first phase’s quest was about to be completed without any bloodshed only for the sudden appearance of this Chen Xiaolian to wreck it all apart.

If it weren’t for his appearance, these fellows from the storyline would never have become hostile. There would have been no need for a battle and his mech would not have become damaged.

Back then, he had been trapped inside his mech. All the monitors and sensors had stopped working. So, he had failed to see Chen Xiaolian finish off Divine Master Amago. And now, right after emerging, he heard Sawakita Mitsuo inviting Chen Xiaolian into their team.

Naito could not accept it.

He was absolutely incapable of accepting it.

Pointing at Chen Xiaolian, he gnashed his teeth and said, “Great Teacher, it would not be an exaggeration to say that my mech was destroyed due to him. And now, you are actually…”

Pa!

A loud sound rang out and Naito’s figure flew several metres away before slamming into the ground. Half his face became swollen. He clutched his face in disbelief as he looked at Nagase Komi, who had helped him out from the mech’s cockpit earlier.

Nagase Komi’s right hand shone with a silvery radiance. It had transformed into its liquid metal state. That slap earlier was from none other than Nagase Komi.

At that very moment, she was looking at Naito with eyes filled with killing intent.

She jumped down from the mech, strode towards Naito and dragged him by his hair towards Chen Xiaolian.

“Great Teacher, your instructions?”

Her right hand pressed Naito’s head firmly on the ground. She had one knee half bent while her other leg pressed down on Naito’s back.

Naito did not have a particularly high level of body enhancement. Thus, in the face of Nagase Komi’s actions, he was incapable of stopping his body from being pressed down to the ground at all. All he could do was to let out some vague noises from his mouth.

He was utterly dumbfounded.

Even if he did say something wrong…

Was there a need for Nagase-senpai to suddenly bitch slap him?

“Chen-san, the young are ignorant. I think… … there is no need to be too harsh.” Naito then heard Sawakita Mitsuo’s voice speaking slowly from behind him.

“Naturally, if Great Teacher says so, there is no problem.” Chen Xiaolian smiled and waved his hand.

“Thank you for your magnanimity, Chen-san.”

Hearing Sawakita Mitsuo’s words, Naito felt happy. He had wanted to get up only to realize that Nagase Komi was still firmly pressing him down.

Suddenly, a cold sensation swept over his left hand and a painful feeling came from the base of his pinky finger.

“Argh!”

Only then did Nagase release her grip. The blade on her left hand retracted, transforming back into her five-fingered palm as she coldly observed Naito, who was kneeling on the ground and gripping his left hand while howling non-stop in pain.

On the ground, the freshly-severed pinky finger was still twitching, a result of the instinctive response of its nerves.

1 A magatama is a religious object, usually made from jade, shaped like a comma or half of a yin yang symbol.

2 Sawakita Mitsuo’s guild is named the Fourth Shogunate Guild.

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