Deep underground, Uehara was travelling underneath the earth at breakneck speeds. After spreading his chakra, his found Shikibu’s chakra signature a few hundred kilometres from him.

[She should be by the territory of the bison-bears.]

Bison-bears were six-legged five-metre tall brown bears with sharp horns on their head that had their territory on the plains.

As he neared closer, he couldn’t help but recall how he was instantly taken out. He still couldn’t stomach the fact that someone weaker than him managed to render him into an unconscious, defenseless state.

He couldn’t wash of that shame even if he were to throw himself in a river.

[I must know how she did it.]

Arriving directly underneath her, he instantly rose up like a geyser. Breaking through the ground, he appeared right in front of her.

Shikibu, who was playing a chinese zither underneath the shade of a tree was momentarily shocked when Uehara suddenly emerged from the ground.

Remembering what Sakura said before, she tried to placate him.

“Ao-”

“How did you do it?”

Uehara interrupted her. His eyes turned golden as leaned forward, nearly touching noses with her.

“How did you, who is weaker than me, cause me to lose consciousness?”

His gaze was unwavering as he stared right into her crimson eyes. Shikibu was truly stunned. Knowing the pride of surins, she expected to get beaten up.

Swallowing her saliva, she quickly formulated some words.

“It wasn’t intentional.”

Being careful not to step on her zither, Uehara stepped back. He sensed that she wasn’t lying but he wasn’t convinced. Although he wasn’t sure how she did, the amount of emotions she exerted were much higher than what normal entities can absorb.

Looking at her confused expression, he frowned.

“The amount of emotions you released were too abnormal. How did you manage to do that? Is it an ability exclusive to yokai or is it attributed to you being part of a species of kitsune specialising in illusion? It an ability you unlock after you reach a specific number of tails? Can other demon races learn this technique?”

Faced with his barrage of question, she carefully pondered before shaking her head.

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“I’m sorry Aoki. But I really do not know the answers. I only have one guess.”

Although she wasn’t completely sure what happened, she had a rough guess.

Seeing Uehara waiting for her to continue, she could only sigh.

“Were your senses heightened to their maximum and focused on me?”

“Yes.”

She gulped.

“Then, in my state of excitement, I overloaded your senses, causing you to fall unconscious.”

Uehara’s face became slightly ugly.

“I know that. What I want to know is HOW did your emotions reach that state? Not even a man who’s engaged to a thousand beauties releases that much emotions.”

Shikibu coyly smiled.

“And how would you know?~”

Uehara didn’t even bat an eye.

“Simple calculations. Quantify the joy a man has when he get’s engaged to the love of his life by a thousand. But enough about that. Since you say you don’t know how you did it, then I won’t ask anymore.”

Black tear marks suddenly appeared on Uehara’s face as his eyes turned into yellow slits. As Shikibu watched the horns protrude from his head, she suddenly got a bad feeling in her heart.

Standing up defensively, she swallowed her saliva.

“W-what are you going to do to me?”

Uehara exhaled a plume of mist as two tri-bladed bone chains came out of his palms.

“I’ll help you trigger that same phenomenon again.”

…

Sakura was currently meditating in the forest with a bowl of water in front of her. After Chizuki had told her about how the second path of death drastically changes the mindset of anyone who opens it, she was interested in further understanding more about the paths. There are currently eight paths that one can unlock. Each of these eight paths is situated within a specific region of the body.

Breathing in, she began to recall the knowledge she had about the first three paths.

[The first path of life is situated in the stomach. Since the stomach produces the vitality for the body, it also affects one’s lifespan. Once the first path is opened, one’s lifespan would increase by three times.

The second path of death is situated in the heart. Responsible for distributing vitality, damage to it will only bring one closer to death. When one opens the second path, their heart (emotions) becomes harder than steel, their body becomes more vigorous, increasing their strength considerably and their lifespan increases by two times.

The third path of joy is situated on the right side of the brain. Responsible for one’s sanity, it further enhances the benefits given by the second path by a multiplier of two. There’s also the added benefit of gaining a massive increase in energy reserves as well as increased compatibility with chakra and increased resistance against ki and the same goes for the opposite.]

While still keeping her eyes closed, she tried using her chakra to feel the water in the bowl in front of her. Making her chakra cover the bowl, she tried to truly feel the water but each time she tried to manipulate it, she would fail.

Feeling stressed, her chakra became unstable, causing the bowl of water to tip over and spill.

“Ah! I give up! Stupid water doesn’t want to listen to me!”

Clenching her teeth in rage for a while, she finally decided to calm down.

“Enough of this. I’ll just wait until I unlock the third path before I play with this stupid water.”

Extending her hand, hundreds of tiny flames covered the vicinity. With a twist of her hand, the flames converged to form a portrait of Uehara with half his face covered by the collars of his coat.

“My control over fire has increased a lot. I have to show Aoki-sama the new techniques I made.”

Suddenly, her eyes sparkled in excitement.

“I have to try to get him to show me his new awesome sage-transformation! Hehehehe. If I can get it as well, we’d look super cool together!”

Then a determined smile displayed on her face.

“Then maybe, Aoki-sama will finally choose to sleep on my lap instead of nee-san’s”

An aura of flames covered her.

“Hihihihihihi-”

BOOOOOOOM

Then cries of pain followed after.

“AAAAH! I’M SORRYYYYYYYY!!!! I TOLD YOU I DON’T KNOW HOW!!!!!!”