After breakfast, Miko and Tashi immediately set off for the next town. It was much bigger than the village they were at, so it would be better for business. It took an entire day to travel, but they eventually reached the building they would be residing in. It was two stories tall, and had white walls with rustic wooden beams for support. It had a brown roof of similar colour to the wood, and it looked magnificent in the moonlight. Miko and Tashi hiked up the steps, which were brown planks of wood hammered into the hardened soil. The residence held a courtyard, with bamboo trees and sakura blossoms. Miko took in a whiff of the air. It contained a faint trace of spiritual energy. It was a little weird, considering that the spiritual energy in the human realm was so thin that it could not be felt at all by even the most powerful of spirits. Miko immediately narrowed the cause of the energy. Either, there was another spirit here, or a spiritual beast had stayed here before. Or, there could be human cultivators.
Miko immediately raised her guard. She had learnt already that human cultivators were not kind here, and she was extremely weak still, only at second stage. Usually, if a spiritual beast were to venture out of the spiritual forest, they were usually around fourth to fifth stage. This was because as they became stronger from fifth stage onwards, trials and tribulations become much harder, and an overwhelming amount of spiritual energy is required to cultivate, which also increased with each stage. Since beasts did not kill their own kind unprovoked for these reasons, they usually come to the human realm to hunt spirits or evil manifestations. Doing so might take a long time, but it was much faster compared to sitting cross legged on a mountain slowly absorbing energy. However, for human cultivators, they are able to increase their strength much more easily, a fair trade for a shortened lifespan. This meant that cultivators were often stronger than the spiritual beasts. This wasn't a problem in the past, since humans still reverred them. However, in the current day, humans are blinded by greed, and the number of cultivators seemed to have doubled or even tripled from the past. Almost all nobles could cultivate, with many peasant families sprouting out children with such constitutions too.
"Lets enter," Miko suggested, keeping that smile on her face. She would investigate later on. Tashi nodded and entered first, before placing his bags down and unpacking his belongings. Miko followed suit, observing her surroundings carefully, but not releasing her aura, lest that source was malignant and powerful.
"Why so tense? Something wrong?" Tashi asked.
"No... its just... dosen't the house feel weird?" Miko answered.
"Haha, you mean like in haunted? I get it's in a more remote area, but it's cheaper too. My buddies and I pitched in to get a house here, so if you see other people its definitely them!" Tashi chuckled. Miko only smiled in reply.
Since it was already nightfall, Miko and Tashi headed straight to bed. Tashi held Miko in his arms as he slept, sleeping so soundly that Miko did not want to wake him up. She carefully removed herself from his grasps and tip toed out of the room.
Using her senses, Miko tried to find where most of the energy was concentrated in the house. She searched throughout the house on the first floor, but with no clues. She decided to head onto the second floor. Turning the knob to door of the room on the second floor, Miko discovered it was locked. Where could the key be? Miko searched around, under the front carpets, and every nook and cranny where a key could possibly fit. Nothing.
"I guess I would have to use my powers... Hopefully, it is not a strong foe..."
Gathering her powers and concentrating it by her finger tips, she tried to condense her energy into a solid ball. Miko weaved the wisps together, a pink energy trail following her fingers. Eventually, she pushed the ball into the keyhole, only for it to dissisipate...
"I guess my energy must be so weak to even be condensed... In fact, the only reason I am able to perform illusion magic is because of my fox bloodline which make such a complicated technique easy. Even the quality of my illusions have also dropped severely..." Miko thought, "Whatever, lets not go in there and check other rooms first."
After checking two or three rooms, Miko finally found one that could be opened. Inside, it was empty. The only thing that could be seent there was the pale moonlight glistening through the window. Besides that, there weren't any other items inside. Miko looked around, concentrating energy onto her palm once again. The small orb glowed a bright pink light, but it wasn't so bright to illuminate the whole room. At best, it was only capable of lighting a one meter radius around Miko herself. Miko walked around the room, using her energy to illuminate her way. She found it a little weird, considering how she had already exited the mortal stage, and coupled with her fox bloodline, she should have night vision which allowed her to see in the dark. After walking a whole round around the room, She finally spotted something. Engraved on the wall were characters she couldn't read. Spiritual beasts were fast and natural learners at the human tongue and language, so it was rather surprising to Miko, considering that she couldn't understand it.
Suddenly, it clicked. Transferring some energy to her eyes, her dark pink eyes glowed faintly, but noticably. The words she saw in the wall glowed as well, but a dark gold colour. Miko gasped in shock. There was something wrong with the house! Those carved words were none other than inscriptions - more specifically - inscriptions meant to be on a talisman. Why in the world were they here?! As if sensing her panic, a strong gust of wind blew by, slamming the door shut with a loud thud. Miko turned around in the direction of the window, only to see a single sakura petal floating gracefully in, but eminating a malicious, dark aura...