Chapter 112: The Altered Wraith Pearl
The little Nekomata shook its head and climbed back onto Ling's shoulder. It lowered its voice and asked, "Aren't you afraid of things going wrong?"
"Well—if they really want to deceive me, they'd have to make a poison that tastes and feels just like wine," Ling replied with a smile, shaking his head. Then he continued to eat the remaining food. "But it's not like things have never gone wrong for me...
The first time I came to the black market to earn some extra money, I was taken for an [easy target]. Fortunately, I got lucky that time. They wanted to sell me to some powerful noble as a slave. I was quite young then, and they were afraid of poisoning me too badly, so they didn't give me more drugs. They just locked me up. In the end, I managed to recover and killed them right on the spot."
"And then?"
"And then? Then I followed the trail to find out their hideout and reported them to my clan. (Note: In this fictional world, reporting to the clan is a common way for members to seek justice and deal with problems.)"
The little Nekomata said, "Normally, shouldn't you just storm in and kill them after finding out where they are?"
"Why risk it?" Ling didn't think there was anything wrong with asking his clan for help. "Thanks to those people, I got to see a lot of torture methods with the elders of my clan..."
"What about the guy just now?" The little Nekomata watched as Ling picked up the last fish fillet. Then it started to pat his face with its paw pads and asked, "Why didn't you kill him?"
"If I killed him, I'd have to wait till he took me out of the black market to act. Besides, it'd be easy to make enemies with his backers, and that's just too much hassle.
After all, my goal from the beginning was just to get some travel expenses. There's no need to poke the local forces in the eye," Ling said. As he turned his chopsticks towards the little Nekomata, he also raised his voice back to normal. "Boss, do you still have that wine?"
Hearing this, Tokishigawa Kyo, who was sitting inside the counter, slightly raised his eyes. His voice was as lazy as it was at the beginning. "That's for easy targets. You're not qualified anymore."
"What a pity..." Ling slightly shook his head, stood up, and asked, "Which room is mine?"
"Pick any unoccupied room. You're responsible for your own safety."
The little Nekomata wrinkled its nose in disgust again—it was that undisguised Malice again.
Ling responded with a nod. After greeting the [Hunters] around him, he walked upstairs. After randomly choosing a room and setting up a [Warning Jutsu], Ling took out the cloth bag that Uchiha Akihiko had asked Sanshu to bring.
Just by touching it through the bag, he could only feel that there were two beads inside. One was simply placed in there, while the other seemed to be wrapped in paper.
Ling frowned slightly. After a brief moment of thought, he removed the jutsu on the bag, untied it, and poured the contents into his palm. To his surprise, he wasn't pulled into that [Illusions Space]. This made him even more interested in the Wraith Pearl that wasn't wrapped.
"What's this thing?" The little Nekomata's voice was full of disgust. "It's so repulsive."
"It's a Wraith Pearl. I got it as a reward for a mission."
"A Wraith Pearl? Oni? Is it made from those disgusting things in the Ghost Country?"
The little Nekomata showed even more disgust. It climbed onto Ling's head, trying to keep away from the two beads. "What's the use of these revolting things?"
"I'm not quite sure right now," Ling put the wrapped Wraith Pearl back into the cloth bag and only held the unwrapped one. "If something happens outside, can I count on Miss Nekomata to let me know?"
"Humph~ You're having a pipe dream, kid." The little Nekomata tucked its paws back in and pressed its chin on Ling's annoying tuft of hair. "Why should I listen to you?"
Ling let out a soft chuckle and kept silent. He just adjusted his state, tightly grasped his staff sword, and tentatively infused his chakra into the bead in his hand. The moment the bead touched the chakra, it emitted extremely distorted chakra fluctuations, pulling Ling into an illusion.
But these chakra fluctuations startled the little Nekomata. Its heterochromatic cat eyes suddenly widened, showing obvious surprise. "This kind of chakra fluctuation... Is it from a descendant of that Indra kid?"
...
Ling thought he would see the huge and shocking figure of the Oni again, but found that the spiritual space he entered this time was completely pure white.
Just as he was dazed, a familiar voice came from behind him. "It's really hard to find you."
Ling turned around and saw a young man with short black hair. His features were handsome but carried a sharpness that was hard to look directly at. There was a hideous scar on his right cheek that stretched down to his jaw, giving an unapproachable aura.
But Ling wasn't afraid. Instead, there was a touch of emotion on his face. "Akihiko, long time no see."
"Yeah, I guess so," Uchiha Akihiko scratched the back of his neck, looking a little awkward. "This is the new usage of the jutsu I wanted to tell you about.
You can engrave your eye power using the Transcription Seal to leave your will in the pre - constructed spiritual space. However, I haven't figured out other applications of this jutsu apart from secretly transmitting information."
"Yeah, the Transcription Seal..." Ling raised his hand and stroked his chin. "It should be a jutsu that can only be used with at least a three - tomoe Sharingan, right?"
"Yeah, you need at least the eye power of a three - tomoe Sharingan to do it." Uchiha Akihiko nodded. "And besides the limitation on eye power, the fact that dividing your eye power will weaken your own strength is also a difficult point."
"Is your spiritual form here connected to your physical body?"
"No," Uchiha Akihiko shook his head. "We can only sense each other's positions, but we can't share thoughts. To share thoughts, we have to exchange chakra again - and staying here myself also consumes chakra. If I don't get a replenishment for a long time, this part of my eye power will be completely depleted."
"Being able to sense each other's positions? Isn't that an amazing ability?" Ling reached out and touched the white walls around him. "By the way, how did you do this? I remember that after entering, you should be able to see the Oni, and you'll be trapped in the illusion because of the negative emotions emitted by the Oni."
"Ah, that. It was being such a nuisance that I sliced it to death with Susanoo."
Ling: …?
Seeing the confusion in Ling's eyes, Uchiha Akihiko couldn't help scratching the back of his head. "Come on, don't worry. The rest of the beads weren't affected. Only this one has changed.
Although I've never seen what a real Oni looks like, at least the Oni inside the bead is just a paper tiger. Apart from emitting a large amount of negative emotions to influence others, it has no real capabilities. As long as you have a strong - willed mind, you can resist those negative emotions.
As for the changes here... After I killed it, I could use chakra to shape it as I wished. However, since it consumes too much chakra, I just kept it in the form that consumes the least chakra."
"Huh..." Ling curiously touched the solid - feeling wall and a smile curled up on the corner of his mouth. "It seems I'll have to maintain more contact with the Ghost Country in the future."