Chapter Twenty-Two: My apologies, Foreman, but please die for the sake of my new weapon!

"It wasn't the factory."

Uesugi Toru looked at the stunned foreman and heard him instinctively ask, "Mr. Hannya, do you know the inside story?"

"Of course."

Uesugi Toru nodded, extended his fingers, and a blood-stained firewood chopper clattered into his hand.

"Because I was the one who did it."

In the rumbling silence where only the factory operated, Uesugi Toru deliberately waited for two seconds, but he did not see the expected emotion in the foreman’s eyes.

The foreman merely looked at him calmly, a hint of realization in his gaze: "So it was you..."

Uesugi Toru tilted his head: "Aren't you curious about the reason?"

In truth, if the foreman had been able to relocate along with his workshop, Uesugi Toru would not necessarily have had to kill him; after all, the blacksmith simply wanted the noisy workshop gone. Facing a demon with rare personal aspirations, Uesugi Toru wouldn't have minded losing a few dozen or a hundred soul ashes. However, after exchanging words with the foreman, Uesugi Toru had already understood that the conflict between them could not be resolved.

*Sorry, Foreman. Please die for the sake of my new weapon!*

The foreman sighed. He took off his hard hat, revealing a ferocious, bloodthirsty expression for the first time in a long while: "The reason... it no longer matters."

Smiling Hannya nodded in agreement, a smile spreading across his face.

*Whoosh—*

Accompanied by a sound like a whale’s breath, in that very instant, the falling leaves in mid-air and the foreman’s chest and abdomen were slashed open simultaneously.

Gray-white blood splattered.

"One slash isn't enough."

Uesugi Toru’s palm felt numb from the impact against the foreman’s sternum. The health pool of this half-star elite was clearly on a different scale than that of minor mobs; even a surprise attack could not cripple him. In the split second he pulled back his blade, Uesugi Toru could already see the foreman’s arm moving.

It seemed that "Fearful Smile" only provided enough of a preemptive advantage for a single strike against enemies of the same rank.

However, that was enough.

The proficient-level Breath Technique did not show signs of fatigue after a full-force strike; a current of energy, far more sustained than before, flowed within Uesugi Toru. With this advantage, he could whittle the unarmed foreman down to death...

Just as Uesugi Toru thought this, the foreman abruptly raised his hand, and a heavy, cold gleam pierced through his waist.

The excruciating pain of flesh being torn apart made Uesugi Toru twitch. He quickly channeled his Breath Technique to retreat violently, looking back at the foreman.

*What is he holding? He doesn't have a storage inventory like I do.*

Uesugi Toru saw the weapon the foreman held. It was a long, bar-like object, thicker at one end and thinner at the other.

A crowbar?!

He had completely forgotten about this. Uesugi Toru had only been focused on blades, so he hadn't paid much attention to such tool-like cold weapons. After all, it was only reasonable for a foreman to carry a crowbar.

Uesugi Toru glanced at the two-finger-wide wound on his waist. After channeling a large amount of energy to successfully staunch the bleeding, he said faintly, "The foreman is truly meticulous."

The foreman kicked the hard hat beside his feet away: "Is Mr. Hannya not the same?"

*Stall. Just keep stalling!*

***

Chatting casually with the foreman, Uesugi Toru’s mind remained exceptionally clear under the influence of his "Inner Stillness."

The foreman had no way to stop his bleeding, so as long as he dragged the time out, the foreman would bleed to death even without him having to strike again. Given the size of the wound, this wouldn't take long. If he failed to kill the foreman this time, Uesugi Toru was certain the man would never give him a second chance. That would not only greatly prolong the time needed to clear the area, but he might even fail to obtain the weapon the blacksmith was crafting.

Therefore, he had to stay steady.

He could not show even a single opening to this devious foreman.

Time passed slowly. Uesugi Toru watched the foreman grow weaker bit by bit, while the energy within his own body had recovered to its peak state. With one side waning and the other waxing, the law of victory was almost certain!

Yet, instinctively, Uesugi Toru felt something was wrong.

Could the foreman, who had nearly landed a critical blow with a crowbar, not know what the correct choice was in a desperate situation?

Uesugi Toru gripped his firewood chopper, deciding to take the initiative.

*Bang!* A massive amount of energy erupted from Uesugi Toru’s skin. He shot forward like an arrow released from a bow, his chopper falling faster than ever before.

"Come on!"

Unexpectedly, the foreman roared, his skin turning deep crimson in an instant, and he raised his crowbar to deflect the strike.

The sheer force sent Uesugi Toru stumbling back two steps, a sharp pain radiating through his right arm—likely a hairline fracture. At that moment, a red tag reading [Jade Shatter] appeared above the foreman’s head, and the mist around him shifted from white and yellow to a crimson color symbolizing extreme danger.

[Jade Shatter: Gradually consumes life force to accumulate power. The more life force consumed, the greater the accumulated power. Life force cannot be recovered.]

*So that’s what he was waiting for,* Uesugi Toru thought.

If he had been any more cautious just now and waited another three to five minutes, he might have been smashed apart by a single blow from the foreman. He had no desire to experience what it felt like to have his upper body exploded.

Seeing the foreman clearly struggling for breath after that single swing, Uesugi Toru seized the fleeting opportunity and stepped forward.

As he charged, he roared as well: "I will be the one to win!"

The techniques of the Tennen Rishin-ryu thrust that Ririko had once demonstrated flashed through Uesugi Toru’s mind. He followed his instincts and thrust the chopper forward.

The rusty blade expertly slipped through the wound, piercing the heart with ease.

The foreman’s momentum, which had been like a rainbow, stalled abruptly and dissipated like mist. As Uesugi Toru withdrew his blade, the foreman fell heavily into the mud.

The battle was decided.

In the silence, the foreman’s weak voice emerged with difficulty.

"Mr. Hannya..."

He exerted his remaining strength to roll onto his side, gazing at the half-hidden, gray-hued sky: "That factory..."

Phantoms of the past flashed before the foreman’s eyes—the golden rice fields that once covered the mountains of Arakawa Village, and the people laughing as they worked in the fields.

It was a pity that the past had shattered and dissipated like bubbles.

He closed his eyes and whispered: "Please, you must destroy that factory... the one that brought filth and oppression."

***

Uesugi Toru looked down at him, his eyes pitch black. Even if the foreman hadn't said it, he would never have let that factory, which gathered a massive number of demons, remain.

However, after a moment’s thought, Uesugi Toru nodded gently and promised: "I give you my word."

The foreman smiled happily, relieved of his burden.

"Thank you..." the foreman said.

The [Jade Shatter] tag above his head dissipated bit by bit until nothing remained.

A notification appeared before Uesugi Toru’s eyes at the right moment.

[You have killed the half-star obsession "Worker Foreman" and gained 75 soul ashes.]
[You have obtained: Foreman’s Crowbar (Rare).]
[You have engaged in combat; Breath Technique (Fragment) proficiency +25!]
[You have engaged in combat; you have gained some insight, Tennen Rishin-ryu proficiency +76!]

Uesugi Toru let out a heavy sigh, sitting on the ground and staring at the gradually brightening twin moons. *That was incredibly dangerous,* he thought.

He had used "Fearful Smile" at the very beginning, his energy had been completely drained by the final two strikes, and even his physical strength was nearly spent... This was truly a narrow victory.

It was laughable to think he had once considered a half-star enemy, no stronger than a sturdy farmer, as something he could finish in two or three slashes. It seemed there were gaps even among half-star entities. He owed the foreman a debt of gratitude for the lesson.

After catching his breath for a while, Uesugi Toru remembered to check the previous notifications carefully.

The soul ashes were generous, which was expected given the foreman’s strength. What surprised Uesugi Toru, however, was that the crowbar had dropped.

[Foreman’s Crowbar]
[Quality: Rare]
[Effect: Exceptionally durable; deals significantly increased damage to all door-type objects.]
[—Since I am the foreman, isn't it reasonable to carry a crowbar with me at all times?]

A special weapon, or perhaps a utility item.

Uesugi Toru looked at the "exceptionally durable" effect. No wonder his own chopper had developed several chips during their clash while the crowbar remained unscathed. Fortunately, with the foreman dead, his new weapon was on its way, so the tattered chopper could go rot in his storage.

Beyond that, the proficiency in Tennen Rishin-ryu had surged—almost equivalent to practicing with Requiem Incense Ash twice.

"Combat really is the fast lane to getting stronger..."

It was just a pity that Uesugi Toru rarely encountered such evenly matched fights. It was either him killing them in a second, or being killed in a second; there was no fun in it.

After sitting on the ground a bit longer to recover his strength, Uesugi Toru stood up, just in time to notice something in the withered fields not far away.

He squinted, realizing it was a writhing white shadow.