The afterlife blew up Gensokyo

"Ahem... Lolis get a special bonus, so basically all lolis will be SSR level or higher."

Shi Bai clenched his fist, coughed a few times, and whispered to the cunning rabbit beside him.

"However, in some ways, being a loli has its advantages. Hanate is at the same SSR level as Momiji, and as for Aya... she's definitely the highest UR level!!"

Emperor Inban: "..."

...As expected, I shouldn't have had too high expectations for the list produced by that awful person next to me.

It must be said that the home of that white wolf tengu was indeed extremely poor.

It was bad enough that all they had to offer guests were benches and plain water, but when Shi Bai glanced inside earlier, he couldn't find a single decent piece of furniture. The phrase "bare walls" would be the perfect description.

Completely unprepared for so many guests, the white wolf tengu, who was preparing to cook in the inner room, emerged with the black-haired girl, drawn by the aroma of food. They were quite dismayed to find that there weren't enough stools for everyone...

She had prepared five small stools, which was already considered a precaution, including the black-haired girl and Aya Shameimaru who would occasionally come to her house. But she never expected that one day so many guests would come to her house.

But for Shi Bai, this was no big deal at all.

He had deliberately stored dozens of sets of stones and wood blocks dug out by the pickaxe in the chest so that he would be prepared for the next time he built a house. In the current situation, he could be said to be making the best use of resources.

With the help of his innate talent [Heavenly Craftsmanship], he quickly produced more than a dozen exquisitely crafted rattan chairs, earning him a lot of admiring glances from the young girls.

—Oh, and there was also that disdainful look from a certain cunning rabbit who had already seen through his show-off nature.

P.S.: The second update will also be posted tomorrow during the day.

Chapter Ninety-Seven: The Floating Immortal of Cige

The wind howled fiercely, seemingly without end.

This is the highest point of the Monster Mountain, and some ordinary monsters are not even qualified to come here.

Weaker monsters might even be swept off the cliff by the strong winds in such a place. In the no-fly zone of Monster Mountain, this would mean death.

Amidst the swirling clouds and mist, a figure stood quietly atop a solitary rock barely large enough to step on, gazing into the distance. The brilliant sunlight bathed her, casting a pale golden glow upon her.

"Can we come down from there? Otherwise, I'm still a little worried that you haven't given up on the idea of ​​suicide."

Looking up at the figure standing atop the cliff, Hoshiguma Yuugi raised the sake bottle he had brought with him, his tone calm and composed.

"How about it? Come down and have a drink with me for a bit."

"........."

Her gaze swept over the hand of the figure below, and after a moment of silence, Ibaraki Kasen gently jumped down from the height.

"This amount of wine isn't enough for me. Couldn't you have brought more?"

"I think that's enough. After all, if we don't see eye to eye, even half a sentence is too much."

Hoshiguma Yuugi sat down directly on a large, jagged rock and spoke calmly.

"Also, this wine was brought for myself, I didn't intend to share it with you... Could you explain a little, how long have you been standing here?"

"I can't remember anymore. I've been here ever since I came back from hell... This is a spiritual practice to see my true self."

Shaking her head slightly, Ibaraki Kasen turned to look at the horizon.

“I know what you want to ask. I was watching over there the whole time, but it wasn’t necessary for me to be there then.”

"What, even after all this time, you still can't get over that knot in your heart?"

Hoshiguma Yuugi frowned slightly.

"Since you've been paying attention, you should have seen Suika's performance. Who do you think she's trying so hard for? I think you should know that very well. She's fully qualified to succeed as the Demon King."

“I am aware of that, but I cannot see her right now.”

Looking down at her right hand, Ibaraki Kasen's tone was extremely calm.

"The pendant he gave me was indeed very useful, helping me completely suppress those crazy and violent thoughts... but it was only a suppression. Once those things erupt again, I have a feeling that I will lose all my rationality and fall into a complete berserk state... can you stop me then?"

"How will you know if you don't try? Are you really that confident in your abilities?"

Hoshiguma Yuugi raised an eyebrow, his expression revealing an indescribable arrogance.

"How about this? Why don't we find a place now and have a proper match?"

"...No, I won't take action again for a long time."

After a moment of silence, Ibaraki Kasen shook her head.

"External things are ultimately just external things. Some things still need to be solved by oneself. I should have realized this sooner."

"So what are you going to do? Suika has been looking for you. You can't keep avoiding meeting her, can you? Don't forget, in some ways you are her teacher."

Seemingly sensing some changes in his close friend, Hoshiguma Yuugi frowned slightly.

"There's no such thing as escaping or not escaping. If I really wanted to escape, I would have left Monster Mountain long ago."

Turning back to look at Hoshiguma Yuugi, Ibaraki Kasen spoke calmly.

"Also, I plan to leave the Oni clan."

"...Are you crazy!?"

With his eyes fixed on Ibaraki Kasen in front of him, as if he suspected that she was someone else in disguise, Hoshiguma Yuugi's brows furrowed even more deeply.

"As the Demon King of the Demon Clan, you intend to leave the Demon Clan!?"

"Although you may find it hard to believe, this is the truth. I am no longer worthy to be the Ghost King, or even the Ghost Clan."

Ibaraki Kasen's tone showed not a trace of wavering.

“I was originally an anomaly among the demons. If it weren’t for her, I would never have thought of becoming the Demon King. If she were still here, I might continue to deceive myself, but now that she’s gone… I’ve been deceiving myself for too long, and it’s time to wake up.”

"Don't even think about it. Such a ridiculous thing as the Ghost King leaving the Ghost Clan could never happen in the history of the Ghost Clan!!"

No sooner had Ibaraki Kasen finished speaking than Hoshiguma Yuugi decisively expressed his strong refusal.

"This is not a request, it's just a routine notification."

Raising her head and squinting at the sky, Ibaraki Kasen's words revealed an unprecedented ease.

“Jin Jieluo saw through my true desires long ago, but you never did. Whether you say I betrayed the Ghost Clan or banished me from the Ghost Clan so I can never return... you should understand my character. Once I've made a decision, there's no possibility of changing it.”

"...So this is the answer you've given after being missing for so long?"

Hoshiguma Yuugi's words suddenly turned cold.

"I still remember the scene of that night when the four of us were drinking together on the mountaintop, but in the end it had to turn into this kind of falling apart?"

"Even if Jinjieluo were here now, what could he do? Those who are already dead are destined never to return."

Throughout the entire conversation, Ibaraki Kasen's tone remained largely unchanged.

“I was originally an anomaly among the demons. After she left, I deceived myself for many years, but now I don’t want to deceive myself anymore.”

Turning to look at Hoshiguma Yuugi beside her, her words were as calm as ever.

"Of course, you can force me to stay in your own way, but if you want me to continue to stay among the demons, you'd better be prepared to kill me first."

"Keep you here? Ha..."

Hoshiguma Yuugi coldly rose from the rock and walked past Ibaraki Kasen without looking at her, throwing the untouched sake jug he was holding forcefully off the cliff.

"Just like this jug of wine I threw away, it will never return. Since you've already resolved to leave the Oni clan, then you'd better never harbor the thought of coming back. The next time I see you, I will..."

"Oh ho ho, good afternoon, you two?"

Before Hoshiguma Yuugi could finish his sentence, someone emerged from the bottom of the mountain path, clutching his head and carrying a jug of sake.

"Yongyi, Huashan, did you two just see someone littering like that with absolutely no sense of public decency? Let me tell you, I was walking along the street when a jug of sake came straight at my head. If I hadn't reacted quickly, I would have been smashed in the head by that jug... What the hell are those faces on your faces?!"

Hoshiguma Yuugi: "..."

Ibaraki Kasen: "..."

...I have this feeling...the atmosphere that was just fine suddenly became extremely awkward with the appearance of this person...Is it just my imagination?

Five minutes later, a thick tablecloth for picnics was laid out on a relatively flat open space on the mountaintop.

"Hey, I thought it was something serious. Is it really necessary to make such a big fuss over something so trivial?"

Rolling his eyes, Shi Bai took out a box from his storage ring and placed it between the three of them.

"It's just a vulgar issue where one person wants to take a short break, and the other keeps harping on it, even threatening to split up. Is this really necessary?"

"...I will no longer stay among the demons."

After taking a sip of wine from the box, Ibaraki Kasen, who was sitting sideways on the tablecloth, calmly turned his head.

"Why don't you just leave the demon clan and go for a walk? You've been appearing and disappearing like a ghost for a while now, haven't you? Isn't being a chaotic demon king who's never seen again the same thing?"

Not foolish enough to challenge two ghost kings to a drinking contest, Shi Bai held a rather out-of-place bottle of orange juice in his hand, looking quite earnest.

"And another thing, you've all forgotten to consider. With the arrival of the new era, the demon race no longer needs to maintain the old mode of operation. You don't have any enemies, so wouldn't it be better to spend every day of your lives happily?"

"You probably didn't understand, did you? This guy wants to completely abandon his identity as a demon. Why should I be nice to someone who has betrayed the demon race?!"

Still clearly angry, Hoshiguma Yuugi sat cross-legged on the tablecloth with a cold smile on her face.

“You can kill me right now, and I won’t resist.”

Ibaraki Kasen's voice drifted over softly.

Do you really think I wouldn't dare?!

Hoshiguma Yuugi was so angered by Ibaraki Kasen's attitude that he instantly flew into a rage.

"Hey, can't you guys just talk calmly?"

Supporting his arm with the orange juice in his hand, Shi Bai tapped his forehead with a slight headache.

"At least give me a little face, for my sake, okay?"

“I have always been speaking properly.”

Setting down the empty wine bottle, Ibaraki Kasen reached directly into the box in the center of the three and took out a bottle of wine.

"There is no way I can change my mind."

"...Are you sure you want to get involved in this kind of thing?"

Taking a deep breath, Hoshiguma Yuugi turned to Shiro and asked him a question.

"As you've seen, there's simply no way to deal with things like this..."

"Can't you all try to see things from her perspective for once? She's a grown woman, yet she's acting like a child throwing a tantrum... Let's put this matter aside for today, it's my decision."

With a rather impatient wave of his hand, interrupting Hoshiguma Yuugi, Shibai decided to temporarily put an end to this matter.

"Right now, both of you are extremely agitated, and there is no way to communicate under these circumstances. So let's talk again when you've calmed down."

"I'm calm now."

Ibaraki Kasen has been professionally dismantling stage designs for a hundred years.

"I will neither go to hell nor stay among the demons. After today, I will leave the Demon Mountain and go elsewhere."

"Where are you going?"

Yuugi Hoshiguma spoke coldly.

"Go around and wander, until you're tired and come back, maybe never to return. It would be nice to die quietly in some corner of the world like that."

Turning her head to look at the scenery on the mountaintop, Ibaraki Kasen's eyes were slightly dazed, as if she vaguely saw a blurry figure standing there, laughing and raising a wine cup at her.

"In all the years since becoming the Ghost King, I've almost forgotten what I initially wanted to do. She bound me for too long, or perhaps I bound myself... I want to see the sea, to sail on the ocean at sunrise, to drift under the stars. I want to walk in the desert, to get drunk amidst the sandstorm. I want to explore those distant legends, to fall asleep to the sound of the wind on a stormy night..."

As if recalling some past event, Ibaraki Kasen revealed a very faint smile on her face. The last rays of the setting sun shone on the mountaintop, dyeing the entire world in a golden hue.

“I can’t be like her, willing to die for the glory of the Ghost King and the so-called pride of the Ghost Clan. I can’t be like Jin Jieluo, willing to spend the rest of my life in that dark and sunless hell for the future of the Ghost Clan. And I can’t manage everything in the Ghost Clan as well as you do… I was originally an anomaly among the Ghost Clan, but even though I hate war the most, I became the Ghost King for so many years because of her… You should know what my greatest wish was before, right?”

He tilted his head back and gulped down a mouthful of sake. It seemed as if he were offering a distant toast to someone who didn't even exist in front of him, before pouring the rest of the sake bottle onto the ground.

"She bound me for too long, and then so irresponsibly left. I wanted to die in the war like her, so that I wouldn't have to have so much trouble and struggle, but I failed."

Her words were so calm, as if she were recounting a past event that had nothing to do with her own life.

“She has bound me for so long, and you have deprived me of the chance to break free. Now that the war is finally over, are you going to continue to deprive me of my freedom? Khenkara is the one among us who sees things most clearly. She has completely seen through the nature of my inner demons, but I have never been able to see through her... She is the most mysterious one among us.”

Facing the setting sun, Ibaraki Kasen stood up from the tablecloth.