The Sword Deity in Tokyo

Chapter 311: Shortcut

Chapter 311: Shortcut

Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio

Is seven to ten years considered a long time? No, it’s not. Besides, if one started learning it since young, he would be able to earn extra money by drawing and selling various types of Enchanted Talismans by the time he got into university.

Moreover, it was the era of the recuperation of reiki. As long as one could cultivate, it would be a piece of cake for him to reach the end of the Core Formation State, and it would not be a problem for him to live up to a few hundred years old.

On the other hand, it was actually considered a long duration for those from the Dharma Ending Age. After all, they could never break through the Metamorphosis Stage for their whole lives, and their lifespans were no different than that of ordinary people — not to mention the fact that they would get internal injuries from practicing and competing in kendo. In that case, their lifespans were technically shorter than any other human being.

“Do you still want to learn?”

Ikioi Ito looked at the demon-like smile on Kimura Kazuki’s face. When he heard the question, he could not help but grit his teeth and nodded his head. “Of course. I see no reason why I should not learn.”

The professionals in the Kendo families have been behaving like the sword servants of the Onmyojis. Isn’t it their sole purpose to obtain some miraculous possessions from the Onmyojis?

Enchanted Talismans were a big deal among all. The Onmyojis were not idiots. If you come for the Enchanted Talismans, of course I would seek something in return.

Now that Kimura Kazuki was willing to teach them how to draw talismans, they would not reject his offer, no matter how long it would take for them to learn. At the end of the day, they still had to consider their families. Besides, their future children and grandchildren could start learning the art since young, and would be able to master the art of drawing talismans when they were in high school or university.

Ikioi Ito and others calculated the price to pay in their mind, and thought that it was quite worth it.

Of course, as core members of the family and the head of the family in the future, they knew that it was unacceptable to simply take advantage of him. Hence, they were trying to figure out if they had something at home that could please Kimura Kazuki.

It came to Kimura Kazuki’s surprise that Ikioi Ito’s trio was so persistent about Enchanted Talismans. He thought these blokes would give up after knowing how long it would take. They were still high schoolers and immature after all. However, he had come to realize something after giving it some thought.

Kimura Kazuki fell into deep thought for a moment. It seemed that the Kendo families thought highly of Enchanted Talismans. Then, he recalled that Asuka Shigeru had kept biting back his words throughout the whole journey when they went looking for the dead body of Majin. It was obvious to him now that Asuka Shigeru had wanted to ask about the Enchanted Talismans.

In spite of that, he never voiced out about it in the end, and this proved the importance of the Enchanted Talismans. Only the people who thought highly of Enchanted Talismans would be embarrassed to ask about a new Enchanted Talisman. Owing to the reason that it was someone else’s findings, it would be tantamount to provocation if he were to ask someone whom he was not familiar with about the talisman. It could clearly be seen that the Onmyoji families in Japan really thought highly of Enchanted Talismans, and more so in the Ikioi family.

He did not pay attention to Enchanted Talismans as he had always held to the principle that one would only be truly powerful if he had great skills by himself. This was also the philosophy of the Cultivators during the era of recuperation of reiki. The so-called Enchanted Talismans were nothing but a worldly possession.

However, things were different during the Dharma Ending Age. The Japanese Onmyojis could not see hope in elevating their levels. As a result, they had developed shikigami to enhance their combat skills. As for Enchanted Talismans, as long as the talismans were powerful enough, anyone who obtained a stack of them could destroy people beyond their levels with ease.

For example, he was actually relying on the Lightning Attracting Talisman and the Art of Sword Summoning when he was at Akichi High School.

He would have died in Akichi High School if he did not have one of those talismans.

Kimura Kazuki glanced toward Ikioi Ito’s trio, he could sense their nervousness. The trio did not really have high hopes when they came to ask him. However, they knew that there would still be a slightest chance if they tried, and they would have no chance at all if they never opened their mouths and asked.

Now that Kimura Kazuki was really thinking of teaching them, they were of course excited, but also terrified at the same time. If Kimura Kazuki were to suddenly change his mind and decided not to teach them, there was nothing they could do, other than feeling helpless and glare at him.

“Actually, there is a shortcut to learning how to draw Enchanted Talismans. You don’t really have to spend ten years.”

Their breathing quickened upon hearing that, but they calmed themselves down very soon. Mizuki Sugawara suppressed his excitement and asked carefully, “Kimura-kun, if we go by the shortcut, will there be any consequences if we fail to draw the talisman?”

“Consequences?” Kimura Kazuki was confused.

“Like an explosion or something like that...”

Ikioi Ito and Tomoya Saito quickly nodded their heads in agreement with Mizuki Sugawara.

“Who told you that?” Kimura Kazuki was speechless. He continued, “You will only waste your reiki and time if you fail to draw talismans. The situations that you have mentioned will only happen when you research and develop new Enchanted Talismans.”

Researching and developing new Enchanted Talismans essentially meant combining different patterns. It was a dangerous experiment, because most patterns were contradictory. Among 20,000 patterns, they had to find patterns that would not contradict each other. It was an easy task at the beginning of the research, but the development work became difficult after a large amount of new Enchanted Talismans were found.

However, before Kimura Kazuki traveled in time, someone published a thesis about the possibility of developing new patterns to create more Enchanted Talismans. Above all, the 20,000 fixed patterns had almost been fully researched and developed. The only way out was to create new patterns.

The theory was still under debate, since creating patterns was different from creating a new written language.

As long as the officials approved the written language created, promoted it and spread it to the public, the general public would come to accept the written language a few years down the road.

In contrast, the process of creating new patterns was extremely hard. They must get the approval from the reiki of heaven and Earth and the other patterns. Otherwise, it would naturally lead to failure if it was incompatible with other patterns or disapproved by the reiki.

“Is that so?” Mizuki Sugawara scratched his head and laughed. “I thought drawing talismans is just the same as conducting experiments.”

Kimura Kazuki surveyed the trio and knew exactly what they were worried about. He explained calmly, “Don’t worry. There’s no problem with taking the shortcut.”

The so-called shortcut was actually about learning the fixed pattern of the Enchanted Talisman. They would have to memorize a few patterns and know them by heart through repeated practice day and night, then only could they draw the patterns on yellow paper.

Everyone from the recuperation of reiki took the shortcut.

They would be able to form an Enchanted Talisman after such practice. One would be overwhelmed by a sense of satisfaction, which was why people felt encouraged and interested in drawing talismans. Without that, it would practically amount to manslaughter to ask the learners to memorize 20,000 patterns from The Basics of Patterns.

Besides, what was the use of learning 20,000 patterns during the Dharma Ending Age? Ultimately, they could only draw a few basic Enchanted Talismans. If they wanted to draw other Enchanted Talismans, before even considering if they were capable of doing it, there was actually a certain expectation to the quality of reiki required by the Enchanted Talismans.

Ikioi Ito instantly saw the light when he heard the explanation. His eyes lit up. “Boss, when are you going to teach me then? Ahem... us?”

Both Mizuki Sugawara and Tomoya Saito had excitement written all over their faces as well.

“After this matter is settled.” Unlike them, Kimura Kazuki was in no hurry because he was suddenly struck by a thought. Could the Enchanted Talismans be used to conquer all the Onmyoji families in Japan at once? Thinking about the bigger picture, perhaps the Deity Rising Palace will fall under my control too. Then, I can gather all the resources in Japan for myself and greatly increase the chances of me undergoing metamorphosis.

As Kimura Kazuki pondered about it, his calm heart began to beat again. Maybe it can be done.