Going on a trip alone with Mai Sakurajima?
An excellent proposal that makes his two heads spin.
"No problem."
Seeing Ye Xing talking to thin air again, Rio Futaba's eyes showed a hint of helplessness.
Now, she naturally wouldn't think that the girl named Mai Sakurajima was an imaginary friend of his.
Most likely, due to some unknown reason, only Ye Xing could perceive her existence.
Rio Futaba was also very curious about this.
What kind of state was this entity in, that even Miko with her Mystic Eyes couldn't perceive it?
Was there any connection to quantum mechanics theories?
But curiosity aside, Rio Futaba didn't actively inquire.
Since Ye Xing hadn't mentioned it, he must have already found a solution.
When this so-called Mai Sakurajima senpai truly appeared before them, asking the person directly would clearly be a more scientific and rigorous approach.
"Alright, let's get ready to go. After visiting that place, you can properly enjoy your spring break."
...
An hour and a half later, the outskirts of Kyoto City.
"This is the place?"
Miko Yotsuya examined the somewhat dilapidated old shrine before her, its Buddha statues covered in thick dust, clearly untouched for a long time, and asked hesitantly.
"You're not planning to seek help from those so-called gods, are you? Didn't you write in your diary that if gods truly existed, they weren't kind and didn't want to help you?"
Ye Xing smiled.
"I still think that way now."
Miko was even more puzzled.
"Then why come to a shrine to pray—"
"You've misunderstood."
Ye Xing waved his hand and walked to the shrine's offering box, speaking calmly.
"This time, I'm not here to pray for anything."
As he spoke, Ye Xing took out several hundred-yen notes and a dozen coins from his pocket, dropping them into the wooden box.
The coins collided with the box's inner walls, producing a muffled yet strangely clear sound.
Miko Yotsuya and Rio Futaba, who had awakened her Soul Materialisation and gained the ability to see evil spirits, noticed the air within the shrine ripple like a lake's surface disturbed by a small stone.
Clap.
Ye Xing pressed his palms together and bowed his head, appearing to pray with utmost sincerity.
"Haa..."
Ding ling ling...
An inexplicably eerie breath accompanied by a crisp sound like wind chimes colliding rang out behind the members of the Supernatural Society.
Rio Futaba and Miko Yotsuya turned around to see a creature with a goat-shaped head, standing nearly five metres tall on all fours, its semi-transparent golden body silently observing them.
In that instant, both girls felt a surge of tension.
Whatever this thing before them was...
It was terrifying.
This fear differed from the twisted faces and malevolent aura of evil spirits.
It was more like...
An aloof indifference that utterly disregarded humanity.
"This thing... is a... god?"
No matter how she tried, Miko couldn't reconcile the monstrous goat-headed entity radiating silent pressure before her with any conventional notion of divine beings.
Ordinary people like Mai Sakurajima and Yui Yuigahama couldn't perceive the god's presence.
But unlike the oblivious Hana Yurikawa, they weren't completely insensitive.
Just from observing Miko and Rio's expressions changing and feeling the sudden dead silence where even birdsong vanished, they knew something extraordinary was happening.
"Finally showed yourself, huh?"
Ye Xing turned casually to face the semi-transparent golden goat-headed creature, smiling without concern.
"A psychic's soul must be quite tempting for you, isn't it?"
The goat god opened its mouth, uttering incomprehensible syllables.
"@@*＃＆￥!＃!"
Ye Xing's brows furrowed slightly as his smile faded.
"Speak properly."
"@＆*!＃"
As the goat god began speaking again, something unexpected happened midway.
"I said speak properly!"
Without hesitation, Ye Xing made a grasping motion with his left hand. The pale ghost hand materialised instantly and delivered a resounding slap across the goat god's face.
Smack!
The dull impact not only jerked the god's head sideways but made Miko and Rio feel as if the slap had struck their own hearts.
Their breath caught.
Then their pupils dilated in shock.
What had Ye Xing just done?
He'd slapped a god!?
This was an actual enshrined deity!
"Gibberish. Couldn't understand a word."
Still appearing utterly unbothered, Ye Xing strolled up to the goat god with a smile.
"Be sensible. Sign a contract and spare yourself unnecessary pain. Understood?"
The response came as the stunned god finally regained its wits and unleashed an earth-shaking roar.
"Such stubbornness."
Ye Xing shook his head regretfully as a black longsword materialised in his right hand.
"You brought this on yourself."
Despite his reluctant tone, Yui and the others clearly saw excitement flashing in Ye Xing's eyes.
Clearly.
Exorcising evil spirits was Ye Xing's usual trade.
But beating up an actual god offered unprecedented novelty.
It was fortunate Ye Xing became an exorcist.
With this mental state, he'd be nothing but trouble to society.
"Open your eyes, Hyakume!"
"Reveal your true form, Bone Woman!"
Though unsure of Ye Xing's thoughts, sensing the tense atmosphere, Rio Futaba and Miko Yotsuya didn't hesitate to summon their Soul Materialisations.
Yui Yuigahama and Mai Sakurajima couldn't see anything.
This was actually for the best.
For them, as long as they weren't struck by the long blade in Miko's hand, there was no risk of injury - they just needed to retreat to a safe distance.
"@@!＆＃!"
Clearly, the god wasn't deliberately speaking nonsense to Ye Xing.
This was simply its language.
As the god spoke, two fox-faced girls, small as children, appeared in the space.
The moment they materialised, they moved with perfect synchrony - one charging towards Miko and the other towards Rio.
"Hachishaku-sama, help Rio!"
At Miko's command, Hachishaku-sama immediately moved to stand with Bone Woman before Rio.
Though Rio had awakened her Soul Materialisation ability, this was only her second time using it. She hadn't yet undergone any exorcism training.
Let alone develop her mental fortitude.
No matter how calm and composed Rio normally was, she couldn't compare to Miko, who genuinely enjoyed slaying evil spirits and remained unfazed in their presence.
Thus, she needed Hachishaku-sama's assistance more.
"Oh? Adopting a divide-and-conquer strategy?"
Facing the goat god several times his size, Ye Xing merely chuckled dismissively.
"You overestimate both your own strength and that of your two divine messengers."
The goat god showed no intention of conversation, simply opening its massive maw. With an ear-splitting roar, it lunged viciously for Ye Xing's head.
Though this creature radiated an aura of superiority entirely distinct from evil spirits...
To Ye Xing, so-called gods were no different from evil spirits.
Just lowly beings lurking in darkness, coveting humanity.
"Come then!"
The pale ghost hand moved with unnatural agility, appearing instantly above the goat god's head. Its razor-sharp fingers plunged deep into the creature's neck.
The goat god howled in pain, its gaping jaws frozen less than a metre from Ye Xing, utterly unable to advance further.
"With such an enormous body..."
Ye Xing's face wore a benign smile as barbed serrations emerged along the blade of his black longsword.
"...you surely won't die easily, will you?"
As the words left his lips, he crouched low, gripping the sword with his right hand and dragging it across the goat god's abdomen.
The hooked serrations tore a ragged wound through its belly.
The agony far exceeded that of a normal blade's cut.
"ROAR!!!"
The goat god's translucent golden body flickered violently as it thrashed its head, desperately trying to shake off the ghost hand's grip.
Its maw stretched wider and wider until, surpassing any natural limit, it split into multiple segments - like some Cthulhu-esque evil god - each tooth-filled mouth forcing the ghost hand apart as they writhed grotesquely in the air.
"Finally revealing your true form, huh?"
Looking at the so-called god now showing its true face—radiating a holy aura yet with features more twisted than any evil spirit—Ye Xing wasn't the least bit surprised.
This thing was a monster from the start.
In the original storyline, Miko Yotsuya had received this 'god's' assistance, gaining three chances for divine intervention.
On the surface, it sounded like a benevolent deity protecting humans.
But what was the price?
The price was that after exhausting those three opportunities, Miko would become a divine servant just like those two little fox-faced girls.
And those two girls had once been human, too.
This was the so-called ritual of offering sacrifices to the gods in exchange for safety.
"Greedy for human souls, yet masquerading as some lofty, divine being..."
Ye Xing flicked the black longsword in his hand, staring straight at the distorted deity before him.
"What a nauseating existence."
The goat-like evil spirit revealing its true form meant it was going all out.
Its multiple maws lined with sharp teeth attacked simultaneously from all directions.
Two of them targeted the pale ghost hand floating mid-air.
The rest lunged straight for Ye Xing's body.
Clearly, this so-called god possessed human-level intelligence, much like great demons such as Tamamo-no-Mae.
Though it couldn't comprehend how a mere human—even if a psychic—could summon something like the pale ghost hand, it instantly made the tactical decision to focus on Ye Xing's fragile mortal body, which could be torn apart in a single strike.
Had it been facing Miko or Rio Futaba, this strategy of bypassing Soul Materialisation to attack the psychic directly would've been flawless.
The problem was...
Ye Xing was no ordinary psychic.
"Hungry?"
Ye Xing's grin widened as his right-hand blade intercepted the deity's snapping jaws.
Then, incredibly, he deliberately shoved his left arm straight into one of the gaping maws.
"Here, have a bite!"
Even the deity froze momentarily.
Voluntarily offering an arm to its jaws?
Was this its lucky day?
Without hesitation, it bit down hard.
Razor-sharp teeth pierced deep into Ye Xing's forearm.
Yet he showed no sign of pain, even chuckling softly as he asked,
"Well then... how does it taste?"
The instant he spoke, the deity's massive translucent golden form began convulsing violently.
All its segmented mouths retracted instantly as the towering figure collapsed, writhing on the ground with agonised howls.
Back on Sobu High School's rooftop, another evil spirit had tried to devour Ye Xing.
The result? It exploded from within.
At that time, Ye Xing had consumed somewhere between several hundred and a thousand evil spirits.
Now, with the Reverse World as his ultimate all-you-can-eat buffet, that number had grown exponentially in an impossibly short timeframe.
Six or seven thousand?
Seven or eight thousand?
In any case, the number of evil spirits Miko Yotsuya had seen in her lifetime probably didn't compare to the number Ye Xing had devoured.
It truly lived up to the old saying:
"I've eaten more evil spirits than you've ever seen."
This god was much stronger than ordinary evil spirits, but even it couldn't contain the power fused from thousands of evil spirits within Ye Xing's flesh.
Right now, it felt like a person who had been force-fed over ten pounds of bread, then chugged two buckets of mineral water.
Its body was on the verge of bursting.
"Heh, you like to eat?"
Ye Xing suppressed his smile, watching the god writhing in agony on the ground, and shook his head.
"Daring to eat even me—you've really overstepped your bounds."
By now, Miko Yotsuya and Rio Futaba had already defeated the divine envoys attacking them.
These divine envoys were, admittedly, a bit peculiar.
Like Soul Materialisation, the two fox-faced little girls didn't truly vanish after dissipating—they could reappear.
Perhaps the principle was the same.
Hyakume and Bone Woman's power originated from Miko and Rio themselves, which was why users of Soul Materialisation would be utterly exhausted after their manifestations were destroyed.
These two divine envoys might not possess any power of their own, instead borrowing the strength of this god.
Regardless, after this brief battle, only one thought remained in Rio and Miko's minds:
So weak.
These two fox-faced little girls were really, really weak.
Take Hachishaku-sama as an example.
If Hachishaku-sama's power was a ten, then Hyakume was a twelve. Bone Woman, though not fully grown yet, leaned more towards pure combat ability compared to Hyakume, so she was around a thirteen.
As for the two divine envoys…
Four? Five?
Giving them such a rating would already be generous.
Moreover, as they watched the faint golden glow of the god fade, revealing its grotesque true form—its massive body rolling pitifully on the ground—Rio and Miko exchanged a glance, sharing the same thought:
That's it?
This is what a so-called god is like? So weak?
Just then, the god sprawled on the ground suddenly extended several gaping maws, lunging to tear into Miko and Rio where they stood.
"Come out."
The pale ghost hand slammed down, pinning the god's body in place.
Meanwhile, the split maws were seized mid-air by another ghost hand that had abruptly appeared, gripping them tightly.
"Another one?"
Not just the victimised god, but even Rio and Miko hadn't anticipated this.
There were two ghost hands?
The first ghost hand they'd seen was the opposite of the pale one—its skin a deep black, its nails a bone-chilling white.
Just like the pale ghost hand in its early stages.
This black ghost hand had only grown up to roughly the wrist.
"What… is this?"
Rio furrowed her brows slightly, murmuring to herself.
From her Bone Woman and Miko's Hyakume, it seemed that by continuously devouring evil spirits, the power of Soul Materialisation could gradually grow.
Hyakume had started with only two eyes.
Now she had thirteen, one of which was even an eyeball from the Slaughter Demon—a top-tier modified component.
Both Rio Futaba and Miko Yotsuya had assumed that the pale ghost hand would grow sequentially - first one arm, then the shoulder, head, and finally the other arm.
Yet before the shoulder even appeared, another hand emerged instead, and in a completely opposite colour?
Just what kind of species was the true form of Ye Xing's Soul Materialisation?
To be honest.
Even Ye Xing himself hadn't anticipated this development.
Unlike Futaba and Miko, who had known the true names of their Soul Materialisations upon awakening.
Even now, he still didn't know the true name of the ghost hand.
The End of Eight Million wasn't the ghost hand's name.
It was the true name of his other Soul Materialisation.
As a transmigrator who had lived two lives.
Having two Soul Materialisations was perfectly reasonable, right?
But here was the question.
Judging by the current pattern, the ghost hand didn't seem to have a lower body.
What kind of being had only an upper half but no lower half?
Many answers flashed through Ye Xing's mind.
The Gedo Statue that Nagato first summoned.
Tengen Uzui, the Sound Hashira.
And the most heavyweight of all—
"Will we win, Gojo-sensei?"
"We will."
"Sorry, Sukuna-sama, we couldn't make you go all out."
5 divided by 2 equals 2.5.
Ye Xing dismissed his increasingly absurd train of thought, deciding it didn't matter what the ghost hand's true form was.
As long as he kept devouring the souls of evil spirits and wicked people, it would eventually reveal itself.
Then, Ye Xing slowly approached the Goat-Headed Deity, a warm and friendly smile on his face.
"Now..."
Hearing that familiar tone, Hachishaku-sama in the distance shuddered involuntarily, recalling that fateful night that had changed her spiritual existence.
"Which part of you should I eat first?"