Becoming a god in a low-key way in the supernatural world

He subconsciously touched his stomach: "Why does it sound like I'm hearing a frog croaking?"

Half a day later, a dark shadow rolled over with a rumble, then stopped right next to Kotegawa, meeting his dumbfounded gaze.

The toad spoke up: "What? So it's Huanwu."

It continued walking forward, but suddenly noticed that the person opposite it seemed to swallow, followed by a blinding light, and then it found that the world had completely gone dark.

Chapter Forty-Seven: Venting One's Anger

Kotegawa felt inexplicably better after killing the giant toad, but unfortunately he didn't have any fire-starting materials right now, so he had to freeze them and wait until he found Yuka and went back to prepare them.

He continued walking. The Black Claw Forest seemed to stretch endlessly, but since there were no forks in the road and a giant toad was running out of it, it meant that the path was open. Also, the earlier comment, "So it was just a phantom," suggested that the phantom looked similar to a human.

That's good. If we keep walking like this, we'll eventually encounter one, and once we do, we'll be able to find their nest.

With that thought in mind, he instantly vaporized and accelerated his movement.

Although I don't know how much time has passed, it's certainly not short.

A gust of wind swept through the Ghost Claw Forest.

The falling black powder danced in the wind, increasing in number until it finally coalesced into a mass resembling a sandstorm.

The clouds that Kote River had transformed into gradually turned black.

This thing is really annoying.

After traveling for a while, he suddenly caught a whiff of something delicious. After a brief pause, he activated his Hunting Instinct and accelerated once more, this time without any attempt to conceal his presence.

Yuuka appeared here! Judging from this path, she might have even encountered that giant toad from earlier!

Damn it, we should have read the toad's memories first!

He was quite annoyed for a moment; all he was thinking about was eating...

He moved faster and faster, and gradually the sound of air being torn apart could be heard. Soon, he stopped abruptly, turned around and punched backward, scattering more and more black powder behind him. Then he touched a ghost claw tree.

There was a small footprint on the tree, which Jia had kicked.

He vaporized again. Although he couldn't quite understand why Yuka would kick a tree here, since the footprints were still fresh, Yuka might be nearby now.

Maybe the person is still safe.

Suddenly, two paths appeared ahead, one to the left and one to the right. He transformed into a cloud and swirled around the intersection for a while before rushing to the right.

Although it was very faint, the smell here became mixed up. Did Yujia encounter Genmu?

The murderous intent in his eyes intensified.

Once we find Yuuka, we'll go and kill that Genmu!

……

Yujia did indeed encounter Huanwu, and more than one.

Her teeth were still white, but she had been stained black by the powder of the devil's claw tree. She was slowly backing away until she reached the trunk of a devil's claw tree.

Before her, three creatures resembling humans in appearance, except for their pointed ears, withered skin like tree bark, and black claws, were approaching her with sinister eyes.

Yujia was so scared she almost lost her mind, and screamed, "Don't come any closer! Don't come any closer!"

The demon spirit hanging around her neck reappeared, revealing its true form. It stood in front of her, hissing at the three phantoms, then swung its two front claws with lightning speed, instantly severing one of the phantoms' heads.

Yujia was stunned by this sudden turn of events. Her mind went blank as she stared at the giant praying mantis blocking her way. At that moment, her thoughts were frozen, her body was frozen, and everything was frozen.

The two remaining phantoms were terrified and immediately turned and fled.

Seeing its prey run away, the mantis hissed and chased after it for a few steps. Yu Jia, whose mind was still blank, was caught off guard and dragged forward a few steps. However, after only a few steps, the mantis disappeared.

It is merely a demonic soul.

After a while, Youjia finally came to her senses. She was still lying on the ground, and reached into her clothes with her right hand, pulling out the exquisite mantis pendant.

It was a gift from Kotegawa to her.

I initially thought it was just an ordinary pendant...

She stared blankly, her lips pressed tighter and tighter, and then she burst into tears over the pendant.

A thousand meters behind her, Kotegawa was covered in golden flames, like a comet, and fell with a shrill whistle a few seconds later.

Layers of black powder spread silently.

Kotegawa let out a soft breath, extinguishing the golden flames in his eyes. He lowered his head, looking at Yuka, who was still lying on the ground crying loudly, and then glanced at the monster whose head had been chopped off not far away. He roughly guessed what had happened.

He watched Youjia cry silently for a while, then his tense heartstrings relaxed. He walked over, squatted down, and said cheerfully, "Don't cry, I came to find you."

Yuka, who was still sobbing, thought she was hallucinating. She subconsciously looked up and, through her blurry, tear-filled eyes, she seemed to see Kotegawa's face. She was stunned.

Kotegawa blew a breath on her, blowing away most of the black powder clinging to her.

Yuka squinted hard, finally saw clearly, and exclaimed in disbelief: "Furutegawa?"

Looking at her tear-streaked face, Kotegawa couldn't help but take out a tissue from his pocket and wipe her face before saying, "Don't doubt it, it's me..."

Yujia grabbed his leg and cried even louder.

"Where am I? There are monsters everywhere!"

Kotegawa waited a while longer, letting her release all the emotions she had been suppressing. Only after she had cried her heart out did she say, "This place... this is a place we shouldn't have come to, but it's not your fault..."

He glanced at the mantis spirit that Yu Jia was holding, which had shrunk by two sizes, and then asked, "Did you encounter a monster in the club?"

Yu-Chia took a tissue and blew her nose hard, nodded vigorously, and recounted what had happened earlier in a halting manner.

"A female monster with short hair, bangs, and eyes that can split into two? And she still managed to escape? Looks like she has some strength..." Kotekawa narrowed his eyes.

He chopped down this mantis on a snowy mountain in Hokkaido. Its strength was at least on par with the former calamity, so ordinary monsters, even those of [Difficulty Level 4], might not be able to withstand a single slash from it.

He stood up, casually picking up Youjia as he went. Holding a long sword in one hand, he took out a 300-gram bag of cooked beef from his pocket and said nonchalantly, "Eat something first."

Youjia looked at the beef, then at him, and said, "Shall we go home first?"

Kotegawa pulled out another bag of cooked beef, casually tore it open, and said while eating, "There's no reason to go back feeling aggrieved. I'll eat this and vent my anger before I go back."

Yujia was stunned for a moment, and then cautiously asked, "Can you beat them?"

Perhaps fearing that Kotegawa might misunderstand, he quickly added, "What I meant was, I'm here too, and I might just be a hindrance..."

"Don't worry, I'm stronger than them with just one hand!"

Jia felt relieved; she had never felt more at ease than she did now. She took a deep breath and began to eat her beef.

She was exhausted and hungry after a long and frightening journey.

After finishing the beef, Kotegawa took out two small bottles of water, gave one to her, and drank the other bottle in one go.

Digesting beef requires water.

Yujia had cried for so long, so he shouldn't have given her beef, but this was all he had with him.

Kotegawa ate a little something to fill his stomach, while Yuka ate her fill and became quite cheerful.

After the girl had rested enough, and after he had finished checking the monsters in the illusion, he simply checked the direction and continued on his way.

On the way, Youjia said mysteriously, "You might not believe it, but I just encountered a giant toad monster, bigger than a car! Its flesh was plump and looked delicious, but unfortunately, I couldn't beat it..."

Kotegawa nodded repeatedly.

That big toad really did look delicious, otherwise he wouldn't have made such a silly mistake.

Chapter Forty-Eight: You're Teaching Me How to Do Things

After finding Yuuka, Kotegawa's mood calmed down, and his murderous intent lessened.

Yuka felt that today was more exciting than riding a roller coaster a hundred times in a row. She was so excited that she could hardly calm down and could only keep talking to Kotegawa.

This once-dead, lifeless Ghost Claw Forest was unusually lively.

"How much longer do we have to walk? Should we grab a big toad to get around?"

"But we have to find one first."

"Where is this place? I've never seen such strange trees grow anywhere before."

"...This might be a place we come to in the future."

"In the future? Why come here in the future? What for? To settle down? To work? No way, this place is so dark! And I don't see any jobs available, right? It's all monsters, nothing but monsters. Why not stay in Tokyo?"

"Yeah, it's definitely not as good as over there..." Kotegawa chuckled and continued on his way, saying, "Just bear with it a little longer, we're almost there."

"Are we almost there?" Yujia suddenly became nervous again. She said guiltily, "The other side is a monster, and there might be more than one. If we can't beat them, you have to tell me in advance before we run away."

Kotegawa glanced at her, and after confirming that she wasn't joking on purpose, he nodded: "I'll definitely take you with me."

A soft rustling sound suddenly reached his ears from afar, but he didn't react; he remained calm.

After a while, the rustling sound became more and more frequent, and even Youjia noticed that something was wrong. She looked back and forth and quickly tugged at his clothes: "Did you hear that? There's something strange."

The darkness in Kotegawa's eyes suddenly exploded, spreading like ink across the surroundings, and the dense, chaotic rustling sound immediately stopped.

Yujia was stunned for a moment, then became even more uneasy: "Huh? It seems to be gone again? Am I hallucinating?"

"Perhaps it's the wind?"

He offered a reassuring word, then pointed ahead: "They're out."

Youjia quickly looked over; she really didn't want to stay in this awful place for even a second longer.

With the black trees that were shedding powder no longer in front of them, they immediately perked up: "Great! We're finally out!"

Kotegawa looked around. Actually, they hadn't left; they had finally entered the Genmu Mountain. They would have to walk through the Ghost Claw Forest again before leaving.

Beyond the Ghost Claw Forest are bare rocks. A hundred meters directly in front, two dark green peaks rise abruptly from the ground like the fangs of demons, piercing the sky.

Behind the mountain peak, it was pitch black and nothing could be seen, but it vaguely looked like a canyon.

They walked over, and just as they reached the edge of the canyon and turned a corner, they bumped into three very ugly phantoms.

The three phantoms seemed startled when they saw them, and then their eye sockets turned into vortexes, as if they were about to use some kind of ability.