Chapter 24: Shintoism

Should I really go up alone?

Just as Minamoto Kiyomoto was about to rush out, this thought suddenly popped into his head.

Whether it was Konohanasakuya-hime or the foot of Mount Hakuba, he had fought under the protection of Kamibayashi Miko.

No matter how dangerous it was at that time, there was absolutely no danger of death.

If I go up alone now, what if I get killed?
The other party didn’t seem too strong, but a thousand-mile embankment could collapse due to a small anthill, let alone a fragile life.

Minamoto Kiyomoto thought of many things in a flash.

He suddenly laughed. These emotions were very similar to a person in the deep mountains at night, worrying about when the next demonic beast would appear, the fear in his heart, and his attachment to life.

But he had to face the demonic beasts sooner or later, and people had to die sooner or later. If he didn’t dare to go up this time, was he going to live under Kamibayashi Miko’s protection forever?

The Divine Miko had never lived past the age of twenty-five. She couldn’t even protect herself.

The fear disappeared, but adventure was not equal to recklessness. He sent a message to Kamibayashi Miko, who was currently in her evening class.

“Sometimes far, sometimes near, sometimes sinking, sometimes floating.”

Like a flickering candlelight, a golden divine power swelled in the night wind.

The night wind was blowing. Minamoto Kiyomoto’s whole body was boiling with hot blood, and his gaze shot towards the place where the gray divine power had disappeared.

◇

In his field of vision, the neon lights turned into strips of light. Hanyu deliberately chose the corners and flew forward with the wind.

This month’s intelligence summary had to be delivered to the team leader as soon as possible.

After running all the way, he could already see the wall in the distance and couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief.

He despised the overly cautious old people in the group for a while.

Of course, he knew the rule: except for the day when a demonic beast appeared, anyone who dared to use divine power in public would be treated as an anti-human cultivator, and anyone had the right to kill them on the spot.

For orthodox cultivators, who were busy cultivating every day and dealing with battles that could come at any time, where would they have the time to wander outside?

Cultivators who lived so leisurely had long since died.

Approaching the wall, Hanyu slowly stopped his wind control and was about to retract his divine power when a strong wind suddenly came from behind him.

He didn’t have time to turn his head. In his peripheral vision, he saw a golden divine power.

Divine Miko!

He was so scared that his heart almost jumped out of his mouth, and his face turned pale.

The divine power of cultivators came in various colors, but most of them were based on the seven colors of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet, either deep or light. But throughout history, only the Divine Miko had golden divine power.

Hanyu turned and ran, but the other party was coming on fiercely. In his haste, he was still hit in the back.

It’s over.

His qi and blood churned, and his back felt as if it had been hit by a giant log. He saw stars.

Hanyu rolled on the ground continuously. Although it was so painful that he had difficulty breathing, his heart was full of doubt and joy.

It’s not the Divine Miko!

After taking a blow from the Divine Miko, even a Kosen-level team leader would be seriously injured. If it were him, he would have long since become a pile of meat. How could he only have suffered minor injuries?

The other party should be like him, using the “False Form” curse.

But to dare to use the divine power color of the Divine Miko, did he not want to live?
A burning pain came from his back. Hanyu suddenly guessed the other party’s thoughts: to make him think of running first, not fighting back.

The moment he saw the golden divine power, he was indeed so scared that he only dared to run and had no thought of fighting back.

The wind from the fist was fierce, and the other party rushed over again.

“Stop! I’m an official!” he shouted.

“Official?” The voice was deep and sounded like a man in his thirties.

“That’s right! I have a special mission. Didn’t you receive the notice?” he was overjoyed, proud of his quick thinking.

At the same time, he secretly accumulated divine power. As long as the other party relaxed, he would immediately launch a thunderous counterattack.

“Then I can’t let you live even more!”

“What?”

Before the surprise could appear on Hanyu’s face, the golden divine power expanded like an exploding firework, and a huge fist rushed towards his face.

He didn’t have time to think and raised his hand to fight back.

“Boom!”

The nearby houses shook, and glass shattered all over the ground.

“Boom!” “Boom!” “Boom!”

In the blink of an eye, the two had already exchanged more than ten punches, and the divine power waves scattered and swelled.

In this state, the “False Form” curse could not be maintained at all, just as an actor could not act out a whole play in one go. There would always be places where the emotions were not in place.

The gray divine power on Hanyu’s body faded, and a light green divine power enveloped his body.

“Earthquake! Earthquake!”

“Run!”

“It’s a small earthquake. Find a place to hide. It will pass soon!”

“Another earthquake, so annoying. I’m still playing a game.”

The nearby residents were in a commotion, turning a blind eye to the dazzling divine light.

After a few moves, Hanyu had already figured out this person of unknown origin.

Besides the Wind Control Curse, he didn’t use any other curses. He relied entirely on the strength of the Vajra-Glass Curse and his own divine power.

Now that a commotion had been caused, he had to fight a quick battle and kill this person.

Thinking of this, his curse changed. The fist that was originally like steel suddenly turned into a blade.

“Die!” his eyes widened, and he fiercely chopped at the wrist of the fist.

Minamoto Kiyomoto felt a sharp pain and subconsciously thought his hand was broken.

The thought that he might be crippled did not make him afraid. Instead, a violent impulse, like a crimson flame, ignited.

Kill him!

Minamoto Kiyomoto roared, and his arm, like a powerful bowstring suddenly released, swept forward.

Hanyu didn’t expect him to suddenly take a blow from his blade and not retreat at all. His own pursuit of victory had become a delivery to the door.

With a “boom,” Hanyu was swept away by the arm and crashed into a two-story office building.

The small building instantly collapsed. Fortunately, the people inside had already left work.

In the eyes of the residents, this building suddenly collapsed entirely due to the earthquake, and they quickly hid far away.

The crowd on this street waiting for the earthquake to pass disappeared in a blink of an eye.

Minamoto Kiyomoto looked at his wrist. A deep, bloody gash, from which blood was gushing.

If he hadn’t moved into Hakusan Shrine and could cultivate to his heart’s content every day, his divine power would not have improved by leaps and bounds;
If the Vajra-Glass Curse hadn’t broken through when he was building the house, his hands would have already fallen to the ground.

Anger erupted in his heart like a volcano, but his mind calmed down.

Staring at the dust raised by the collapsed building, Minamoto Kiyomoto waited with concentration, already planning to give up concealing his identity and directly use the thunder curse.

Just then, a flame suddenly burned all over his body, burning every muscle.

“Ah!” Minamoto Kiyomoto couldn’t help but groan in pain.

Just as he thought it was the other party’s curse, another stream of icy breath like snow water was poured on his muscles.

One hot, one cold, his body swelled and shrank.

Another hot, another cold, his body swelled and shrank again.

“Ah—” Minamoto Kiyomoto roared at the sky.

Over and over again, each time his body shrank, it grew a little larger, until the last time it shrank, Minamoto Kiyomoto had already become five times his normal size.

At the beginning, he was twice his size, barely like a one-story building. Now, at five times, he was taller than the two-story building he had knocked down.

Endless strength welled up. A golden divine power coated his solid body, like a Buddhist Vajra.

Minamoto Kiyomoto didn’t understand Buddhism and didn’t know that he had just entered the Buddhist “Red Lotus” by maintaining both anger and calmness at the same time.

At the foot of Mount Hakuba, Mansaku had just finished recounting the tragic experience of his wife and daughter, but that was already three years ago. Although he was still angry, he could already restrain himself a little.

In addition, in these three years, he had listened to Buddhist teachings from time to time. In addition, the environment was cold and snowy, and Minamoto Kiyomoto was not his opponent on the surface. His mentality was not flustered. All these coincidences led him to enter the unattainable “Red Lotus.”

Minamoto Kiyomoto had cultivated for less than a month, and the Vajra-Glass Curse had only been cultivated a few times, but he had easily surpassed Mansaku, who had cultivated for three years.

This was the difference in capacity.

Legend has it that when Shakyamuni was born, he could walk, pointing one finger at the sky and one at the ground, proclaiming, “In heaven and on earth, I alone am the honored one.”

This was a legend. The real situation was that his capacity was “in heaven and on earth, I alone am the honored one.”

Shakyamuni became a monk at the age of 29 and cultivated for only six years before attaining enlightenment under the Bodhi tree.

Minamoto Kiyomoto couldn’t walk when he was born, let alone speak. His ambition was: in modern society, to marry ten wives, and his mother-in-law is now a junior high school student.

Such a capacity might not sound as grand as “in heaven and on earth, I alone am the honored one,” but who had the higher cultivation talent between him and Shakyamuni would only be known after a comparison.

Just as Minamoto Kiyomoto’s body had just stabilized, with a “whoosh,” a long spear condensed from divine power pierced through the dust.

Minamoto Kiyomoto was not afraid at all. He gathered his strength and threw a punch, aiming at the tip of the spear.

“Bang!” A wave of energy emptied the air, dust flew, and the houses trembled.

Hanyu’s body moved rapidly, the tip of his spear like a starlight, constantly scattering towards Minamoto Kiyomoto, whose body was like a small giant.

The Vajra-Glass Curse was only a medium curse. It had the effect of increasing one’s size, strength, and defense, but it also had the disadvantage of slowing one’s speed.

Minamoto Kiyomoto was occasionally hit by sneak attacks, but fortunately, he pursued relentlessly, and the other party did not dare to accumulate power for a long time to stab him, so he could not break through his protective divine power.

But he deliberately did not disperse the Vajra-Glass Curse.

Once one’s capacity was awakened, it would continuously affect one’s nature, or rather, restore one’s nature.

Minamoto Kiyomoto’s capacity was arrogance. He believed that as long as he worked hard, he could surpass everything and achieve anything.

The first time, the Vajra-Glass Curse was broken by Mansaku; the second time, his hand was almost cut off.

As a person with an arrogant nature, how could he tolerate such a thing!
The more he lost, the more he had to use it, until he won.

The two sides did not give in to each other and engaged in an astonishing battle.

The divine power in Hanyu’s hand sometimes turned into a spear, sometimes a hammer, and sometimes a dagger, seizing any opportunity to stab Minamoto Kiyomoto from various angles.

With every blow, Minamoto Kiyomoto felt a sharp pain in his body.

At the same time, he tried to use the Wind Control Curse in battle to speed up his punches and kicks, and occasionally he would ram into his opponent like a falling mountain.

In just a few minutes, the entire street was in ruins.

Although he had the upper hand, Hanyu was anxious. Time was not on his side.

What surprised him even more was that this guy’s speed, in just a few minutes, under such a huge body, could already slowly keep up with him.

‘No, I have to go!’ Realizing he couldn’t kill him, he immediately changed his mind.

He shouted, and his divine power turned into a hammer, and he hammered at the small golden giant.

“You’re courting death!” Minamoto Kiyomoto roared, standing with his legs apart like a Vajra warrior, and threw a punch.

A light green, a golden, like two powerful comets.

Just as they were about to collide, the divine power in Hanyu’s hand deformed like a water wave, and the giant hammer turned into a hexagonal shield.

“Bang!” The houses collapsed, and the rubble shot out like bullets.

A trace of blood seeped from the corner of Hanyu’s mouth, and his body was thrown out.

Taking advantage of this force, while Minamoto Kiyomoto’s strength was exhausted, he retracted his shield and rushed into the night with the wind.

A golden light flashed in Minamoto Kiyomoto’s eyes. He pushed off the ground with both feet and shot up into the sky, leaving a deep pit in his place.

“Breath of heaven and earth, tread the sea and rush to the clouds!” The voice was like a giant log hitting a bell, deafening.

The Wind Control Curse that Kamibayashi Miko had taught Minamoto Kiyomoto was a supreme curse. How could other nine-rate wind control curses compare?

Before Hanyu could react, Minamoto Kiyomoto was already above his head. His huge palm, wrapped in golden light, came down on him with the force of splitting heaven and earth.

He didn’t expect Minamoto Kiyomoto’s speed to be so fast. He didn’t have time to mobilize much divine power and hastily created a shield, but it was pierced like paper in an instant.

With a boom, Hanyu was directly slammed into the ground, unable to move.

Minamoto Kiyomoto slowly landed, his body slowly shrinking. By the time his feet touched the ground, he had already returned to his normal size.

◇

The Itomi family.

“You look impatient after just a few words.”

Opposite Itomi’s father, Itomi Sayaka’s slender fingers tapped impatiently on the sofa, her face full of impatience.

Itomi Yuki sat on the side, holding a cup of tea, observing her sister.

Since the earthquake just now, she had been looking out the window.

“That’s enough,” Itomi’s father finally got tired of talking. “Since you’re satisfied with Kiyomoto-kun, then get along with him properly.”

“I know,” Itomi Sayaka picked up her bag. “I have something to do, so I’m going back to Tokyo first.”

“Not staying for the night?” Itomi’s mother stood up with her.

“No.”

“What could you possibly have to do?” Itomi’s father said with dissatisfaction.

The door opened, and just as Itomi Sayaka was about to step out, a huge boom suddenly sounded between heaven and earth.

Heaven and earth suddenly lit up, and the whole of Chiba Prefecture turned into daytime.

“Ah!” Itomi’s mother was so scared that her heart pounded. “What a loud thunder!”

Itomi Sayaka’s face was pale. She raised her head, her sharp gaze shooting towards the sky.

The sky had already darkened. A golden lightning bolt pierced the long sky, like a fiery tree, standing between heaven and earth.

The light dimmed, and then the thunder boomed, as if it wanted to deafen people’s ears.

“It’s going to rain. It’s dangerous to drive at night. You can go back tomorrow,” Itomi’s mother said to her daughter.

Itomi Sayaka retracted her gaze and said to her mother with a smile, “Alright.”

“I’ll have the maid prepare a room for you.”

“Thank you, mother.”

In the living room, Itomi Yuki looked at her sister, vaguely feeling that her expression was not right.

◇

Golden lightning crisscrossed, and Chiba Prefecture was a sheet of white.

The lightning faded, revealing a golden, divine figure that slowly landed in front of Minamoto Kiyomoto.

“Miss Kamibayashi, your entrance method finally gives me the feeling that you are a Divine Miko,” Minamoto Kiyomoto said with a smile, sitting on the guardrail of the driveway.

The figure that had descended like a goddess was none other than Kamibayashi Miko.

She was wearing casual clothes and no mask, and she was also using her signature “Great Thunder.”

At this moment, all the cultivators in Chiba Prefecture probably knew that the Divine Miko had arrived in this city.

Minamoto Kiyomoto knew in his heart that she was worried that the anti-human cultivators had reinforcements, so she had made such a grand entrance.

Their relationship was very strange.

He tried every means to make her fall in love with him, wanting to see her curse broken and her miserable appearance, but he would believe whatever she said.

If a knife were to stab him, he might subconsciously block it. It didn’t matter if they died together.

Kamibayashi Miko first glanced at Minamoto Kiyomoto to confirm that he was fine, then looked around.

In the middle of the road was a deep pit, and the person inside was of unknown life or death.

A commercial street leading to this road seemed to have been ravaged by a tornado, with some buildings collapsed and some damaged.

At this time, several divine powers landed one after another. It was not that they were slow, but that Kamibayashi Miko was too fast.

Minamoto Kiyomoto had just sat down and hadn’t even had time to catch his breath. It had been less than six minutes since he sent the text message, and she had already rushed from Tokyo to Chiba.

“Lady Divine Miko,” the newcomers saw Kamibayashi Miko and all bowed.

“This person used divine power in public. You deal with it,” after a simple instruction, Kamibayashi Miko rolled up Minamoto Kiyomoto, and a golden lightning bolt streaked across the sky. The two of them disappeared in an instant.

Several people jumped into the pit and found a bronze plaque on Hanyu’s body.

On the front was a picture of a torii gate, and on the back was written: “Shintoism, Ninth Group, Code Name: Gray Mouse.”

“It’s someone from Shintoism.”

“It’s no surprise it’s these beasts. Take the body back and see if we can find any intelligence.”

“Yes!”

“Notify the government and have them come and clean up.”

Thank you to [Tongtian Shenge] for being a patron.

Thank you all for your rewards, monthly tickets, and recommendation tickets.

(End of Chapter)