Tokyo, but I'm a deceitful scumbag.

"Wuhu!"

"Long live the Onmyoji!"

Everyone cheered immediately.

Naoko Sakuragi, accompanied by her entourage, stepped forward, bowed, and said, "Thank you for your help, Onmyoji-sama..."

"No need to be polite. If you want to thank someone, thank yourselves. I saw you on my way here, and you played very well..."

Say so.

But judging from the girl's upturned lips, she clearly enjoyed the cheers and compliments.

Just as she was about to say something humble to maintain the facade, she suddenly noticed that behind the woman opposite her, there was a handsome young man winking at her.

"Um, who are you...?"

"I'm a huge fan of the genius and beautiful Onmyoji!"

"what?!"

Upon hearing these words, Asuka Tendo's twin tails instantly perked up, and she leaped to Hoshino Hideyuki's side, cupping his face in her hands and widening her eyes as she exclaimed:

"You...you're a fox...!"

Before she could finish speaking, Hoshino Hideyuki stretched out his index finger and covered the girl's mouth, saying in a muffled voice, "That's right, I am the wanderer from the Great Tang Dynasty in the East—Rukawa Makoto!"

The girl blinked, realizing that the fox was hiding its identity.

Indeed, it's a bit difficult to explain if you actually use the word "fox" to describe it.

At this moment, Naoko Sakuragi leaned over and asked, "Onmyoji, do you know Rukawa?"

Several of the Yukawa soldiers nearby were more direct, whispering among themselves:

"They're acting so intimately, are they a couple?"

"The man is handsome and the woman is beautiful. They look so well-matched, they must be a couple! Or even husband and wife!"

"No wonder the newcomer is so skilled. To be the Onmyoji's partner, he must at least be a master swordsman!"

Love, couple? Husband and wife?

Having unexpectedly witnessed a fox that shouldn't have been there, Asuka Tendo is still in a state of shock and agitation.

In this state, when she heard the whispers of couples and spouses around her, her heart started racing, and an inexplicable impulse welled up inside her.

So, instinctively, she slapped her forehead and echoed what the people around her were saying:

"Ah, ah...that's right...we, we're a couple!"

"Um, we have something to discuss privately, excuse me!"

After speaking with a flushed face, Asuka Tendo immediately pulled Hideyuki Hoshino to the edge of the woods and took several deep breaths to catch her breath.

Hoshino Hideyuki waited patiently for a moment, then spoke first:

"The fact that I can see you here means... this place is your family's trial grounds?"

Chapter 203 The Fox: Oh no, my one-track mind has become a double-edged sword.

"good."

Asuka Tendo readily accepted the fox's guess, then frowned and said, "So how did you get in? There shouldn't be any outsiders here!"

what……

That's a good question, and the good thing is that even I, the fox, don't know the answer!

Hideyuki Hoshino sighed and then quickly recounted his experience.

"This, how is this possible!"

After hearing this, Asuka Tendo's eyes widened: "You're not kidding me, are you?!"

"I, the fox, never lie about such important matters!"

Hoshino Hideyuki pursed his lips, and seeing that Tendo Asuka still looked hesitant, he said again, "Hey, hey, hey, I've already told you what I know, shouldn't you tell me in detail about your Tono Trial?"

"In that case, I can help you analyze it."

"Since I'm already here, there's no need to keep it a secret anymore, right?"

Asuka Tendo rubbed her temples, then sighed and slowly said:

“Our family has a powerful shikigami passed down through generations, named Tanlang.”

"The so-called Farfield Trial is a ritual to test whether the clansmen are qualified to form a contract with the Greedy Wolf."

"The trial itself is held in a secret realm called Tono, hence the name." As she spoke, Asuka Tendo glanced around at the people nearby and whispered, "You should know what they're going there for, right?"

Hoshino Hideyuki nodded and said, "Yes, to help General Hojo kill the long-haired devils."

"Yes, that's the main content of the trial."

"The Onmyoji of the Tendo family enter the Tono Secret Realm, help General Hojo defend Ashihara, and kill the Long-haired Demon King. In this way, they will have passed the trial."

"The divine jewel in General Hojo's hand is actually a magical artifact used to awaken the shikigami Tanrou. Once the trial is successfully completed, it will automatically determine who the most outstanding member of the Tendo clan is, and then fly to him to allow him to complete the contract with Tanrou..."

Hideyuki Hoshino blinked.

"I see."

"Wow, you've made quite a show of force."

"This secret realm, in my opinion, is at least the size of Hokkaido, right? If you gave this to an online novel author, they would have turned it into an empire by now. And you've just used it for holding trials?"

Asuka Tendo didn't quite understand what "online novel author" and "farming" meant, but she still shook her head and said:

"You misunderstand, the Tono Secret Realm is actually very small."

"The reason it looks so big is because this place is not only a secret realm, but also the dream of the shikigami Tanlang. In other words, we are essentially in a dream within a secret realm."

"The humans around us, the long-haired demons, and the Hojo shogun in Ashihara City are all fake people in a dream, not real, living humans."

"The land beneath our feet, apart from a few fixed locations like Ashihara, is merely a temporary evolution of the dream based on our actions. If you run too fast or too far, exceeding the limits of this evolution, you'll fall into a fog..."

Wow, this is really like a game!

It's just not an open-world map, but a miniature garden with some real-time generation mechanism?

Besides, are Sakuragi and the others just mannequins? Tsk, what a pity, they're all pretty interesting guys...

After a moment of sighing, Hoshino Hideyuki remarked:

"No matter what, this is quite an achievement. Is this the foundation of a thousand-year-old Onmyoji family...?"

Asuka Tendo then changed the subject, saying, "So, you absolutely shouldn't be here!"

"The structure of the secret realm nested within the dream realm is extremely complex, equivalent to a bank vault with two locks. Even for our family, it would take three years to send a dozen or so people in! Outsiders should have no chance of getting in!"

Hoshino Hideyuki shrugged: "Well, I just walked in anyway~"

After saying that, he pulled the girl to a more secluded spot, put down the box on his back, and transformed back into the corpse of the narrow-eyed Onmyoji.

"You see, that's just how it is."

"Tendo Sota?"

The girl recognized the deceased, and then she was plunged into even greater shock and doubt.

Hideyuki Hoshino continued:

"In short, someone must have been targeting you during this trial. They are powerful and ruthless, able to come and go as they please and kill anyone who discovers anything unusual... Hmm, but if that's the case, why did they send me in here?"

"...That was most likely an accident."

Faced with the stark reality, Asuka Tendo had no choice but to admit that Tono had been invaded by someone with ill intentions.

Furthermore, she speculated:

"If there really is such a group of people as you described, their original plan should have been simply to send Tendo Sota's body into the secret realm to keep it a secret."

Hoshino Hideyuki asked in confusion, "Is this place very secretive? Wait, doesn't anyone have an elder monitoring this trial remotely?"

"No, this place is basically a black box."

Asuka Tendo scratched her head and said:

"Greedy Wolf will remain asleep until the trial ends, maintaining his dreams only through his subconscious."

"During this period, people outside cannot explore the situation inside through the complex structure of the secret realm nested within the dream, not even with real-time communication—the flow of time inside and outside the secret realm is different."

"Once you're in, you'll have to rely on yourself for everything, at least that's what I know."

"The only thing our family can rely on is that no one dies in our dreams."

"For example, if someone were to stab me in the heart right now, my body would be ejected to the edge of the dream, where it would remain still and recover until the trial is over and I am teleported out with the others."

As she spoke, the girl glanced at Tendou Sota and said, "He's different. He was probably already dead before he came in, so he didn't trigger this mechanism."

After listening to the girl's explanation, Hoshino Hideyuki scratched his head.

"So, according to you, even if we know there's danger here, we can't get out in time or call for your support?"

"Ahhh!"

The girl tossed her pigtails in distress.

"It's true, even though I hate to admit it!"

"Because the essence of the trial is to gain the approval of the Greedy Wolf, the whole process has to be done according to that guy's whims, which is very troublesome and convoluted!"

"Besides, even if you had the ability to notify the outside world, it's hard to explain your situation!"

"I do believe you, Fox, even though I've been fooled countless times because of it... cough, but I'm still willing to believe you!"

"But in the eyes of the rest of our family, even if they patiently listen to what you have to say, they will only think that you killed Tendo Souta and then made up a story, right?"

Hideyuki Hoshino nodded.

Well, indeed.

and so……

"A dead end? A one-sided approach has led to a double impasse?"