I Became a Monk in Japan and Exorcised Demons of Other's Housewives-Chapter 48 - Record of the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons!
Chapter 48: Record of the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons!
“How much is this book?”
Lu Jin directly picked up the book and asked for the price.
“This one?”
The half-bald shop owner in his sixties glanced nonchalantly at the book.
Just as he was about to quote a price, he caught a glimpse of Lu Jin’s expression. His eyes flicked, and he immediately quoted a high price.
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“One million yen!”
He had bought this book for 100,000 yen from a guy who claimed to be a descendant of a fallen onmyōji family.
The item was old, but not particularly ancient, and more importantly, it was native to Japan.
The book was filled with tales of gods and ghosts—clearly the kind of stories old folks would make up to entertain children.
So, its value wasn’t considered high.
“I’ll take it.”
Lu Jin didn’t even bother haggling; he swiped his card and had the shop owner wrap the book up.
“These monks really are dumb and rich.”
The shop owner looked at the payment confirmation on his phone with satisfaction and muttered to himself.
This kind of book wasn’t even worth 500,000 yen.
He’d only shouted such a high price to give the guy room to bargain.
Who would’ve thought this foolish monk wouldn’t even try to negotiate and just bought it outright?
He’d made a killing.
On the other side, Lu Jin walked out of the antique shop, looking at the illustrated book in his hands.
He hadn’t expected to find something this good just by wandering into a random antique shop.
In the eyes of ordinary people, this book probably wasn’t even worth 10,000 yen.
But to him, not to mention one million yen—even a hundred million yen wouldn’t have made him bat an eye.
Lu Jin looked at the book’s cover.
There were only five large characters on the surface: Record of the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons*.
[*Record of the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons. “Hyakki Yagyō” is a Japanese folklore concept describing a night when a horde of supernatural creatures (yōkai) parades through the streets. The book’s title suggests a catalog or compendium of these creatures.]
Opening the book, a wave of rich spiritual energy and yin aura rushed out.
A somewhat grotesque image of a ghost came into view, with lines of small text written underneath.
It detailed the ghost’s habits, abilities, weaknesses, and preferences.
It could be said to be quite thorough.
This book wasn’t just an ordinary old tome.
It was a monster compendium written with blood and spiritual energy by a powerful sorcerer.
It contained records of many evil spirits and monsters from Japanese folklore.
Among them were detailed entries on creatures like the Slit-Mouthed Woman and Zashiki-warashi.
Lu Jin flipped through the pages until he found the section on the Slit-Mouthed Woman.
The illustration showed a tall, beautiful woman—but her face bore a grotesquely wide, gaping mouth.
[Slit-Mouthed Woman]
[Usually the vengeful spirit of a once-beautiful woman, cursed or mutilated, transformed by deep resentment.]
[Appearance: A tall, alluring woman whose mouth appears to have been sliced open from both corners to the ears with a sharp tool. She often hides her face with some object.]
[Weapon: Wields a pair of extremely sharp red scissors, capable of cutting through anything with ease.]
[Abilities: Extremely fast and incredibly strong. Uses her eerie smile and terrifying mouth to confuse and frighten enemies, plunging them into fear and panic.]
[Weakness: Afraid of strong light; under intense light, her movements slow down.]
[Usually appears in dark and silent environments, holds strong resentment toward attractive men and women, and likes to use scissors to slice their mouths—so that everyone ends up just as ‘beautiful’ as she is.]
Lu Jin studied the entry in the compendium.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman wasn’t a specific individual, but rather a type of spirit.
The vengeful ghost that Tanaka Saya had become was actually one of this type.
Lu Jin compared the details in the compendium to what he’d seen with Tanaka Saya.
While not an exact match, the similarities were almost uncanny.
As for the slight differences, they were likely just personal variations.
In other words, this book was essentially an encyclopedia of Japanese spirits, demons, and ghosts.
Lu Jin flipped through a few more pages and noticed that the handwriting varied, and the book had clearly undergone multiple revisions.
It documented the habits and weaknesses of hundreds of different supernatural beings—far beyond the scope of what one person could accomplish.
Clearly, more than one sorcerer had poured their heart and soul into this compendium.
That would explain the dense spiritual energy it emitted.
“With spiritual energy this strong, I wonder what’ll happen if I enhance it.”
Remembering that he still had one enhancement opportunity left, Lu Jin decided to use it on the Record of the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons.
He didn’t expect much.
After all, the stronger the spiritual energy in an object, the lower the chance of enhancement success.
Although this book wasn’t a magical artifact, enhancing it would hardly be easy.
He figured it would probably fail three to five times before it succeeded.
He saw it as a warm-up.
As he thought this, the compendium suddenly emitted a faint, eerie glow.
Wait, it worked?
Lu Jin raised an eyebrow—he hadn’t expected to succeed on the first try.
As the enhancement completed, the book’s cover was suddenly covered in dense, glowing incantations.
The symbols writhed slightly, shining with a dim light.
A chilling and strange aura surged forth, as if the book connected to some eerie dimension.
Lu Jin opened the first page of the compendium.
He found it covered in vividly detailed illustrations of various ghosts and monsters.
Each one looked so lifelike, it seemed they could leap off the page at any moment.
The second page, however, was completely blank.
