There were five request forms on the desk.
Strictly speaking, however, they only represented two supernatural incidents.
After Gin Tsumugi finished assigning tasks, Iwanaga Kotoko took Kasugano Sora and left the White Fox Office before the sky went fully dark. Night was the most convenient ti for Kotoko to move. The monsters under her command could slip through alleyways, rooftops, drainage channels, and forgotten corners of the city far more freely after sunset. If there were traces to be found, the dark would help them more than hinder them.
Gin watched them leave, then leaned back in his chair and let the office fall quiet.
He had to admit it.
During the short ti he had been away from the White Fox Office, Sora had grown a great deal.
At first, she had only been able to help with simple clerical work. Now she could assist Kotoko in handling supernatural cases directly. In several incidents Kotoko had resolved over the past few days, Sora had apparently contributed quite a lot.
More importantly, her control over her ghostly form had improved quickly. She no longer drifted through the world like sothing half-dissolved, half-present. With more ti and enough spiritual nourishnt, she might eventually be able to exist independently without constant support.
"If the Taizan Fukun Rite could be perford normally, Sora could be perfectly resurrected."
The thought surfaced in Gin's mind, quiet and heavy.
He had once made her that promise.
But now, after personally touching the forbidden rite, he understood the true difficulty far better than before. The greatest obstacle was not the ritual itself, nor even the sacrifice, nor the danger of the procedure.
It was the resistance of the Underworld's order.
A dead soul did not simply return because soone wished it so.
That was why Taizan Fukun was a taboo.
Gin let out a soft breath and shook his head.
"Unfortunately... that promise may take a long ti."
At the very least, from where he stood now, forcing open a path through the order of death was still too far away.
He sat silently for a mont, then pushed those thoughts aside.
"Forget it. That can wait. There are more important things to do right now."
Gin rose from his chair and walked to the bookshelf.
With a light press of the hidden chanism, part of the shelf shifted inward and slid aside, revealing the entrance to the secret room behind it.
He stepped inside.
Whether at the Tsuchimikado family estate or the Agency, Gin had deliberately suppressed the advancent of his role-playing system.
There were too many eyes in both places.
If sothing unusual happened during the advancent, he would have had no clean way to explain it. A sudden fluctuation in spiritual power, a change in aura, an abnormal phenonon—any of those could have attracted unnecessary attention.
And in the world of Onmyodo, unnecessary attention often ant unnecessary trouble.
Gin was eager for the strength the advancent would bring, but not so impatient that he would risk exposing himself for no reason.
Inside the secret room, the air was still.
The walls were layered with talismans and concealed spell formulas, isolating the room from outside perception as much as possible. Gin sat cross-legged on the ditation mat in the center, straightened his back, and slowly cald his mind.
Then he called up the role-playing system.
[Abe no Seii — Founder of Onmyodo]
[Role-Playing Progress: Youth Stage — Ready to Advance]
[Character Abilities:]
[—Basic Talisman Compendium: Minor Accomplishnt]
[—Shikigami Contract: Minor Accomplishnt]
[—Five-Pointed Star Incantation: Minor Accomplishnt]
[—Spirit Word Technique: Proficient]
[—Uho: Proficient]
[—Immovable Binding Technique: Proficient]
[—Fire Boundary Spell: Proficient]
[—Ghost-Averting and Evil-Dispelling Incantation: Advanced]
Gin looked over the familiar panel.
It had not even been a month since his last advancent.
Compared to the ti it had taken to accumulate progress during the childhood stage, this speed was almost absurd.
But when he thought about everything he had experienced in that single month, the absurdity faded.
The grotesque tree spirit.
The Wedding Dress Tree.
Zenki and Goki.
Hokuto.
The Taizan Fukun Rite.
The Senji Ryakketsu.
His Onmyodo Frawork.
One incident after another had crashed into him with barely any ti to breathe between them. If anything, the past month had been more crowded and more dangerous than an ordinary onmyoji's entire year.
Gin lowered his eyes.
He needed strength.
The grotesque tree spirit case had already begun to spread. The shadow behind it was likely connected to a Great Yokai. If he wanted to interfere, he could not afford to remain where he was.
"Role-playing system," Gin said softly.
"Advance."
The mont the words fell, the world changed.
The secret room lost its color.
The walls, the door, the bookshelf outside, even the talismans layered over the room—all of it faded like ink washed away by rain. Solid objects beca distant, weightless, and translucent. Darkness gathered around him, not as empty space, but as a thick, silent void.
Then Sanskrit characters began to appear.
One after another, ancient and obscure symbols erged from the dark, drifting around Gin's consciousness in slow, solemn orbits. They did not shine brightly, but they carried a weight that seed older than the room, older than Tokyo, older than the na Gin Tsumugi.
His consciousness was pulled away.
Across a thousand years.
Across the boundary between mory and dream.
Across a ti both real and illusory.
When Gin opened his eyes again, he was no longer sitting in the White Fox Office.
He had returned to that ancient age.
A thousand years ago.
An era when yokai and specters road without fear. An era when Great Yokai were not distant legends, but living disasters that could cast their shadows over human settlents. At night, yokai ruled. During the day, humans struggled to carve out fragile spaces for survival beneath courtly elegance and ritual law.
It was an age modern onmyoji romanticized from the safety of textbooks and restored scrolls.
A brilliant age, yes.
An age when countless schools of Onmyodo collided, fused, argued, and burned brighter than any era that ca after.
But also a cruel age.
The best of tis.
The worst of tis.
And in that familiar dreamlike state, Gin beca Abe no Seii once more.
He experienced it as mory, yet also as life.
After completing his studies at the Onmyoryo, Seii began exorcising demons in Kyoto.
His na spread among the nobility.
A teenage genius.
A prodigy whose spiritual sight and talent seed almost unnatural.
From his teacher, Kamo no Tadataka, he received the inheritance of the Kamo family's Onmyodo. Alongside Kamo no Yasunori, his teacher's son, he discussed and proposed broader principles for the structure of Onmyodo, earning praise from both his teacher and the Onmyoryo.
Zenki and Goki ca into his life.
Then ca his own Onmyodo Frawork.
Gyodō.
The Path of Governance.
Ti moved forward.
The elegant youth underwent his coming-of-age ceremony and beca a young man. His reputation no longer belonged only to whispers in the Onmyoryo. His na rang through Kyoto's noble circles, becoming one of the most sought-after nas beneath the capital's painted eaves.
He stood alone against an attacking Great Yokai.
For that feat, he received comndation from the Imperial Family.
He t Imperial Princess Ryōyū, who had slipped out from the palace in secret.
Then ti began to thin.
The ancient capital faded.
The dreamlike state slowly broke apart, and Gin's consciousness was drawn back across the long river of a thousand years.
In the secret room, Gin opened his eyes.
He was still sitting cross-legged on the ditation mat.
For a few seconds, he did not move.
His gaze carried the haze of soone who had crossed an impossible distance and not yet fully returned. The weight of ancient Kyoto still clung to his mind. The voices, the rituals, the sll of incense, the pressure of monsters beyond the torchlight—it all lingered behind his eyes.
He exhaled slowly.
The breath felt heavy.
After a while, the confusion in his eyes receded. Clarity returned.
Yet if one looked closely enough, a faint trace of that distant bewildernt still remained.
"The stronger he becos, and the richer his experiences grow, the easier it becos for to get lost in them," Gin murmured.
Each advancent was not rely an increase in power.
It was imrsion.
Assimilation.
The system did not simply hand him techniques. It forced him to experience a life. A person. A path.
And that person was Abe no Seii.
"To digest all of this completely will take ti."
Gin settled his breathing, then called up the system again.
[Abe no Seii — Founder of Onmyodo]
[Role-Playing Progress: Young Adulthood — 24%]
[Onmyodo Frawork: Myriad Laws — 20%]
[Character Abilities:]
[—Basic Talisman Compendium: Great Accomplishnt]
[—Shikigami Contract: Great Accomplishnt]
[—Five-Pointed Star Incantation: Great Accomplishnt]
[—Spirit Word Technique: Minor Accomplishnt]
[—Uho: Minor Accomplishnt]
[—Immovable Binding Technique: Minor Accomplishnt]
[—Fire Boundary Spell: Minor Accomplishnt]
[—Myriad Demon-Subduing Mantra: Advanced]
[—Crucifix Sutra Thunder Technique: Advanced]
[—Marīci Heavenly Mantra: Advanced]
[—Ghost-Averting and Evil-Dispelling Incantation: Minor Accomplishnt]
[—Acala Demon-Subduing Mantra: Advanced]
[—Fudō Myō-ō Fire Boundary Mantra: Advanced]
[—Trailokya-Vajra Heart Mantra: Advanced]
The list had grown much richer than before.
Not only had his available Onmyo Arts expanded significantly, but the completion level of his Onmyodo Frawork had now been digitized as well. That was convenient. At least now he had a clearer grasp of how far Myriad Laws had progressed.
"Basic Talisman Compendium, Shikigami Contract, and Five-Pointed Star Incantation all went from Minor Accomplishnt to Great Accomplishnt."
Gin's eyes moved down the panel.
"Spirit Word Technique and Uho also advanced from Proficient to Minor Accomplishnt."
At first glance, it looked like only a single rank of improvent.
But Gin understood perfectly well that the difference between those stages was not small.
Take the Basic Talisman Compendium as an example.
His understanding of the talismans he already knew had deepened dramatically. More importantly, the compendium now included certain talismans that could be called forbidden spells. Their effects and destructive potential were in a completely different category from standard talisman craft.
The Five-Pointed Star Incantation had also changed.
Its ability to subdue yokai was no longer inferior to the arts wielded by National-level onmyoji. In so respects, its unique properties might even surpass them.
These were qualitative changes.
Gin continued reading.
"Three professional-class Onmyo Arts have been added. Myriad Demon-Subduing Mantra. Crucifix Sutra Thunder Technique. Marīci Heavenly Mantra."
One was specialized for suppressing yokai.
One was a powerful thunder art.
One was another mantra art with its own particular uses.
His toolkit had beco far more complete.
Then his gaze fell to the final additions.
"Three National-level arts as well. Two from the Acala lineage—the Acala Demon-Subduing Mantra and the Fudō Myō-ō Fire Boundary Mantra—plus the Trailokya-Vajra Heart Mantra."
His eyes lingered on the Ghost-Averting and Evil-Dispelling Incantation.
"That one jumped straight from Advanced to Minor Accomplishnt."
Which ant its power had risen again.
For a National-level Onmyo Art, that increase was not trivial.
Of course, the techniques displayed by the system were not the entirety of what Gin knew.
There were techniques like the Seven-Point Barrier, as well as the Acala Mantra and Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya Mantra he had learned through Myriad Laws during his fight with Amami Daizen.
But human energy was limited.
Even with Myriad Laws, even if he could learn all Onmyo Arts he encountered, learning was not the sa as mastering. Every spell formula contained its own structure, history, logic, and hidden principles. Understanding the surface was easy. Digesting the profound mysteries beneath it required ti.
The techniques displayed by the role-playing system were different.
They were the ones that belonged to the direction he was truly specializing in.
His foundation.
His path.
The indispensable pieces of his Onmyodo.
"Myriad Laws has reached twenty percent completion."
Gin's finger tapped lightly against his knee.
"Only eleven percent away from the threshold of a National Second-Class Onmyoji like the old man."
More importantly, after the advancent of the role-playing system, his own spiritual power had fully reached the level of a National-level onmyoji.
In other words, Gin Tsumugi was now a genuine National-level onmyoji.
He was no longer rely close to that realm.
He had arrived.
"As for updating my onmyoji certification... that can wait."
Gin was not in a hurry to walk into the Agency and throw more oil onto the fire.
The storm caused by his recent actions had not died down yet. If he went back now to update his license, the entire Agency would probably explode again. Besides, it would be far too high-profile. A sudden surge in spiritual power of this scale was not sothing he could explain cleanly.
Better to wait.
He lowered his gaze in thought.
"Co to think of it, the Onmyodo Frawork I ford is almost identical to his."
Seii had called his Frawork Gyodō.
Gin had nad his Myriad Laws.
The nas were different, but the essence was nearly the sa.
He was not surprised.
The role-playing system existed to bring him closer and closer to "him." Gin's Onmyodo had, for the most part, been inherited from Abe no Seii's path. It was only natural that the Frawork he ford would resemble Seii's own.
"Next is the Senji Ryakketsu."
A trace of anticipation appeared in Gin's eyes.
"If possible, I should use it to strengthen myself again. It would be best to push both my role-playing progress and Myriad Laws past thirty percent."
He closed his eyes.
In his mind, the Senji Ryakketsu he had obtained from the Tsuchimikado family slowly opened.
The mont he began to read, profound mysteries unfolded before him.
Back at the Tsuchimikado estate, he had only managed to reach around the ninetieth page. Beyond that point, much of the content had been obscure, tangled, and difficult to comprehend. It had felt like staring into a sky full of stars without knowing how to read constellations.
Now it was different.
The barriers that had blocked his understanding before were gone.
The principles that had once seed distant now opened themselves clearly.
Ten minutes later, Gin reached the hundredth page.
The first ti he had seen this section, it might as well have been written in the language of heaven. Not a single part had been truly comprehensible.
Now, the mysteries on the page seed alive.
They flowed into his mind, layer upon layer, drawing him deeper into a vast and wondrous sea of knowledge. Spell formulas, ritual structures, spiritual principles, and ancient interpretations of Onmyodo unfolded in sequence. Gin absorbed them greedily, but not recklessly.
He read.
He understood.
He digested.
Half an hour later, he reached page one hundred and twenty.
There, resistance appeared again.
The text no longer unfolded smoothly. The anings began to blur at the edges. Certain principles beca dense and difficult, refusing to be forced open by his present level of comprehension.
This ti, Gin did not push.
He decisively closed the Senji Ryakketsu in his mind.
"One-third."
He opened his eyes.
"I've finished one-third of the Senji Ryakketsu."
Then he called up the system once more.
[Abe no Seii — Founder of Onmyodo]
[Role-Playing Progress: Young Adulthood — 35%]
[Onmyodo Frawork: Myriad Laws — 30%]
[Character Abilities:]
[—Basic Talisman Compendium: Great Accomplishnt]
[—Shikigami Contract: Great Accomplishnt]
[—Five-Pointed Star Incantation: Great Accomplishnt]
[—Spirit Word Technique: Minor Accomplishnt]
[—Uho: Minor Accomplishnt]
[—Immovable Binding Technique: Minor Accomplishnt]
[—Fire Boundary Spell: Minor Accomplishnt]
[—Myriad Demon-Subduing Mantra: Advanced]
[—Crucifix Sutra Thunder Technique: Advanced]
[—Marīci Heavenly Mantra: Advanced]
[—Ghost-Averting and Evil-Dispelling Incantation: Minor Accomplishnt]
[—Acala Demon-Subduing Mantra: Advanced]
[—Fudō Myō-ō Fire Boundary Mantra: Advanced]
[—Trailokya-Vajra Heart Mantra: Advanced]
Gin looked at the two lines that mattered most.
Role-playing progress: thirty-five percent.
Myriad Laws: thirty percent.
Only one step remained before Myriad Laws reached the thirty-one percent threshold associated with National Second-Class onmyoji.
Gin gave a satisfied nod.
At his current level, even if he had to face the Great Yokai hidden behind the grotesque tree spirit case alone, he could not say he would certainly win.
But contend with it for a ti?
That should be possible.
The Agency's standard was that three National-level onmyoji were required to contend with one Great Yokai.
But that was the Agency's standard.
Not his.
A thousand years ago, Abe no Seii had stood alone against a Great Yokai during his youth.
And now—
Gin Tsumugi could do the sa.
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
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