The Twelve Trials Starting from Zero

Then, she turned around, tiptoed behind Su Qi, lifted the large fish, and suddenly withdrew her hand above his head. The next moment, the tormented grass carp weakly flicked its tail, stared with dead fish eyes, and fell straight into Su Qi's arms.

Snapped! !

With a crisp sound, the large fish was sent flying by Su Qi, landing squarely on the face of a mischievous little girl. The girl, having failed in her attempt to steal a chicken, let out a meow and fell to the ground.

"Aren't you a dog? Why are you making cat-like noises?"

Su Qi got up at some point and came closer. He smiled as he watched Du Le lying on the ground, "entwined" with a slippery grass carp, and then reached out his hand.

"It's not a dog, it's a komainu! A komainu!"

The dog-eared loli angrily slapped her hand away, stood up, glared at Su Qi, and said with a look of resentment, "Damn it, I thought you were spacing out and I could play a trick on you, but I didn't expect you to be faking it."

"It's not an act. Even when I'm thinking, I don't let my guard down completely, so I knew as soon as you got close."

As she cleaned the fish scales and water stains off her clothes, she said, "Isn't that tiring?"

"Are you tired..." Su Qi paused slightly, then composed himself and said thoughtfully, "Du Le, are you afraid?"

"what?"

When you interact with others, are you afraid of betrayal or being hurt?

Du Le gave him a strange look. "Of course, nobody would like that kind of thing."

Even knowing this, would you still wholeheartedly trust your friends?

"Why ask such a question?" She was a little confused, but seeing Su Qi's serious expression, she frowned slightly and said solemnly, "Yes, I do. If someone is a true friend, you should at least give them the same level of trust. Isn't that basic etiquette in relationships?"

What if someone you trust betrays you?

"I will be very sad, but I will not regret it."

"Would you still trust other people wholeheartedly?"

"If you consider them friends."

"why?"

"Hmph, because I trust my judgment! People I consider friends can't be bad people!"

"You mistook me for Kikyo when we first met. Where did you get your confidence?"

"Oh, that was...that was an accident! The only accident!"

Du Le blushed, weakly argued a few words, and was defeated under Su Qi's teasing gaze.

After a while, she suppressed her shame and looked up at Su Qi, saying, "Anyway, although I don't know what's bothering you, but... laugh as much as you want, cry as much as you want, believe as much as you want, grieve as much as you want, experience happiness and misfortune as much as you want, feel love and hate as much as you want... I think that's what makes life real."

"That kind of life must be full of hardships."

"I'm not afraid at all!" The dog-eared loli clenched her fist and said confidently, "No matter what kind of hardships and dangers there are, I, Du Le, will never be defeated by them!"

"is it?"

As Su Qi spoke, he suddenly flicked his finger at Du Le's forehead.

Snapped!

With a crisp sound, the dog-eared loli meowed and instinctively covered her forehead and backed away, but accidentally stepped on a grass carp under her feet and fell to the ground with a thud.

……

A moment later, after dealing with the enraged, flailing little girl, Su Qi stood on the steps again, hands tucked into his sleeves, gazing at the starry sky alone, murmuring softly:

"To believe freely, to grieve freely... I'm sorry, with my personality, I can't live as simply and straightforwardly as you, but... just in terms of courage in the face of life, I, who can endlessly reload saves, have no reason to be inferior to a silly little girl, right?"

With a slight smile on his lips, he turned around and, bathed in moonlight, slowly made his way towards the direction where Kikyo lived.

The man's intuition told him that this training would definitely be successful.

My hand slipped and I typed too much...

Chapter 86 Naraku, I, Su Hansan, am back!

As Su Qi had expected, this cultivation was finally successful.

Afterwards, thanks to his powerful spiritual energy and control over it, the subsequent communication and reconciliation proceeded smoothly and seamlessly. Since channeling is merely one of the most basic techniques for applying spiritual energy, coupled with a skilled mentor and his own considerable abilities, this outcome was only to be expected.

At the same time, through the bridge of harmonized spiritual power, Su Qi and Kikyo finally touched each other's souls, and a subtle feeling emerged in their consciousness at the same time.

Kikyo seemed to see a mountain. The mountain was majestic and vast, with countless ravines and cliffs, shrouded in clouds and mist, and covered in ice and snow. From a distance, the mountain's shape was ever-changing and indistinct. Although it existed among the mountains, it also stood out from the world, giving people a sense of seclusion, coldness, pride, and etherealness.

Su Qi seemed to see a moon. The moon was neither full nor empty, pure and flawless, cold and high, hanging in the sky, its pale light illuminating the surrounding fields. The moonlight was like frost, gauze, water, and jade. It looked inconspicuous, yet it existed silently, but inexplicably made people feel a little empty and desolate.

For a moment, he was immersed in this wondrous atmosphere until Kikyo broke the spell, at which point he opened his eyes and asked, "What was that?"

"After sensing the other person's spiritual power from one's own perspective, the image that is naturally projected in one's mind, or it can be said to be a manifestation of the other person's mind, is just that due to the limitations of one's own perspective and understanding, such an image cannot fully reflect the other person's mental state."

Kikyo's expression remained as serene as ever, much like the moonlight he had just seen.

"Is that so..." Su Qi recalled the imagery he had just seen and compared it with the bellflower in front of him, asking with some curiosity, "Then what is my mental imagery in your eyes?"

The latter glanced at him and said calmly, “A mountain, a high mountain that is difficult to approach and stands alone on the edge of the world, that is the image I see.”

“What I see is a bright moon…” Su Qi gazed into Kikyo’s eyes and said meaningfully, “A bright moon hanging alone in the night sky, equally high and unapproachable. But compared to a mountain standing alone, at least the moonlight can illuminate people at night.”

"But even the highest and most distant mountain can eventually be reached, while the moon can never be touched."

Kikyo's eyes were clear and calm. She simply replied with a single sentence before bringing the conversation back to the main topic, "You have already learned to communicate with spirits. Next, you can begin your training in spiritual absolution."

Seeing this, Su Qi put aside the topic of manned lunar landing five hundred years from now, his expression turned serious, and he asked, "What should I do?"

"According to the miscellaneous notes left by that Onmyoji, the reason why monsters like Kaku can read minds is because their spiritual power is very sensitive and changeable, and they also have special abilities. They can identify the spiritual quality of others the moment they touch their spiritual power, and then imitate themselves into the corresponding spiritual quality to communicate and interpret the spirits of others one-way, thereby obtaining the thoughts of others."

It sounds a lot like a hacking incident...

Just as he was inwardly complaining, Kikyo continued to explain: "The spiritual energy that naturally dissipates is extremely subtle, and even cultivators like us find it difficult to completely contain it. As for the supernatural abilities of the Satori, they are bestowed by heaven and cannot be easily broken. Therefore, if we want to resist their mind-reading ability, we can only interfere with it when the spiritual energy comes into contact, and isolate it to a certain extent. That is called Spirit Absolute."

"The method of cultivating the Spirit Absolute is actually not complicated. It only requires two people to communicate with each other at the same time, while constantly resisting each other's communication during the communication process. In such cultivation, your spiritual power will become more sensitive, the range of your spiritual imitation will become larger and more varied, and you will become accustomed to interfering with other people's communication. Until you can immediately detect when someone is being communicated with, and at the same time interfere with and block the communication, the cultivation can be completed."

Simply put, it means setting up a firewall and disconnecting the connection, right?

While thinking, Su Qi asked, "So, generally speaking, how long does it take to cultivate a unique skill?"

"Depending on the applicant's qualifications, it can take anywhere from ten days to a month."

"Okay, let's begin right away."

Afterwards, in order to avoid spending too much time on cultivation and to give Naraku room to grow, Su Qi used the time-rewinding ability to reuse time. In reality, he spent five days but mastered the Absolute Spirit in just one night.

He then immediately reverted to a previous save file. Since he hadn't experienced any battles during that time, the save file returned him to the night he first found Hitomi Castle.

"Naraku, I, Su Hansan, am back."

Standing outside the city, Su Qi gazed into the distance towards the inner city, his eyes flashing with murderous intent. Then, he calmed his mind and skillfully infiltrated the city, arriving once again outside the side hall where Naraku was.

This time, relying on a technique called "Spirit Absolute," Su Qi disguised his spiritual energy fluctuations as inanimate objects like wood and stone, temporarily deceiving Wu Xin Gui and successfully getting close. However, not knowing how long he could remain in the dark, he immediately launched a surprise attack after confirming the location of the two people inside the house.

Inside the hall, Naraku was talking with Goshinki when suddenly there was a loud bang, the side wall shattered, and a figure shot out.

*Sizzle!*

Before he could react, a flash of cold light appeared, and his head was split in two diagonally.

"who!?"

Wu Xin Gui, who was standing nearby, was startled, but did not hesitate. He swung his arm out and smashed it towards Su Qi.

The latter swung his knife diagonally, and with a flash of light, a ghostly hand with a forearm fell to the ground with a thud, splattering a foul-smelling spray of blood onto the tatami mat.

"How is this possible?! My mind-reading technique failed?"

Unable to anticipate his opponent's actions, Wuxin Gui's pupils contracted, and he was greatly shocked.

Su Qi ignored him and chopped off Naraku's hand that was holding the Shikon Jewel with another slash, then reached out with his sword to pick it up.

But at this moment, Naraku, who should have been lying dead, suddenly swelled up and grew larger, tearing his clothes. Long, scythe-like spider legs shot out from the air, their tips flashing with cold light, and stabbed straight at Su Qi.

"Hmph, I knew you were faking your death, you old sly fox!"

The latter was prepared and swung his sword wildly. In an instant, sword waves burst forth, blood splattered, and several spider scythe legs were cut off in mid-air. The giant spider that Naraku's body had transformed into was also blasted away by the sword waves and crashed heavily into the wall with a bang.

Then, Su Qicai flicked the tip of his knife, picking up the Shikon Jewel from Naraku's severed hand and holding it in his palm.

"Shishi Kenshin, why are you here!?"

Naraku's upper head lay on the ground, his eyes fixed on Su Qi, while his lower head, even though it had been separated from the rest of his body, could still speak.

"Of course it's to bring you warmth."

As Su Qi put the Shikon Jewels into his bag, he took out the original four jewels and held them in his hand. He walked to the man's head, raised his foot without hesitation, and stomped down hard.

*Pfft!*

Blood splattered, and Naraku's upper half of his head was stomped into a bloody pulp.

Chapter 87 Naraku Can't Die

"Hmph, you think you can kill me, Naraku, with just this?" The other half of his head was still intact, and he said coldly, "Goshinki, aren't you going to make a move?"

The next moment, a strong wind howled from behind, and Wuxin Ghost crashed directly into him.

Su Qi activated his Mind's Eye, which revealed no blind spots, and immediately dodged, simultaneously striking his body and sword with the Shikon Jewel.

In the original work, Naraku was able to corrupt the Shikon Jewel in other people's hands with the Shikon Jewel in his own hands. If he used a corrupted Shikon Jewel, he might become corrupted again. It was because of this that he did not use the Shikon Jewel shards at the beginning.

Now that Naraku has taken the Shikon Jewel, he no longer needs to worry about anything.

boom!!

After receiving the buff, Su Qi slashed down, shattering the floor and splitting Wu Xin Gui and half the room in two, causing his intestines and internal organs to spill out onto the ground.

After losing his troublesome mind-reading ability, the Mind-Reading Demon is nothing more than a monster with decent speed and strength to him. He might have been able to hold his own against him before he was enhanced, but now he can only be killed in one hit.

He then swung his sword again, unleashing a wave of energy that cleaved the ground, shattering Naraku's remaining half-head into pieces.

"It's over already? It doesn't feel real at all."

Su Qi narrowed his eyes and turned to look at the giant, headless spider that was crawling up not far away. He felt no regret, but rather took it for granted, "Sure enough, I knew you wouldn't die so easily."

As he spoke, he shattered the ground with a single step, rushed to the spider, and with a few flashes of his blade, instantly tore it to pieces, slicing it into several huge lumps of flesh.

"It's useless." The outline of Naraku's face emerged from a nearby lump of flesh, and then quickly turned into a living head, which sneered: "My body, Naraku's body, is made up of thousands of demons. Unless you can eliminate all thousands of demons in an instant, no matter how you kill them, I, Naraku, will continue to live."