Chapter 165: Chiseling Ice

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The deck was full of people. The practitioners all ran out, and the scene was very lively, just like the grand occasion when the Love Research Society invited a female celebrity during the May Festival.

The crowd admired this incredible iceberg.

All the wooden windows of the demon-hunting ship were lit up. The entire giant ship was bright and spacious. In the night, it was like a pearl sunk at the bottom of the sea.

The salty sea breeze that hit their faces carried a strange coldness.

On the ship’s tower, Minamoto Kiyomoto, along with Kamibayashi Miko, Himegami Izayoi, and the Hokkaido Miko, were also watching the iceberg.

“Compared to nature, a person is smaller than a speck of dust,” Itomi Sayaka couldn’t help but sigh.

“But the things that a person’s head can hold, even nature has to marvel at; the power of all mankind, nature also has to yield,” Minamoto Kiyomoto said.

“Man can conquer nature?” Itomi Yuki asked.

“Man can conquer nature,” Minamoto Kiyomoto said jokingly. “A high school girl is still knowledgeable and knows this Chinese idiom.”

Itomi Yuki glared at him as if she were angry.

“You can’t be blindly optimistic,” Kamibayashi Miko reminded him. “Don’t look at the people on the ship who are all listening to you now. They are all for some kind of reward. Once the risk is greater than the reward, they will abandon you and refuse your orders. Only I will do my best for you.”

“Only you? I think the blind one is not Master Kiyo, but you.”

“For Kiyomoto-kun, I agreed to subjugate the Coral Demon Moth, and I even gave him my sister.”

“Sister!”

“As for my brother’s matter, no matter how difficult it is, no matter how unwilling my sister is, she can only agree.”

“Kiyomoto-kun is hope, a hope worth protecting with one’s life.”

Kamibayashi Miko turned a blind eye to the people who were satirizing and attacking her. She looked at Minamoto Kiyomoto. Her words were not aimed at anyone, but she just hoped that he would not get carried away.

The Hokkaido Miko looked at the crowd and nodded slightly, as if she had understood and learned something again.

“I know what you mean,” Minamoto Kiyomoto smiled slightly at Kamibayashi Miko, and his heart warmed up. “Don’t worry.”

He then said to the crowd, “Let’s go back first. We can’t see anything. There are still three hours until dawn. Let’s get some rest.”

“Didn’t you order the whole ship not to sleep tonight?” Itomi Yuki asked curiously.

“Who knows if you don’t say it?” Minamoto Kiyomoto said. “And that’s them. You’re different. You’re completely on my side. You must rest well and maintain your energy.”

“Me too?” the Hokkaido Miko asked.

“Before I answer, let me ask you a question—do you understand what I mean by ‘one of us’?”

“The same as them?” The Hokkaido Miko pointed at Kamibayashi Miko and Himegami Izayoi.

“…” Minamoto Kiyomoto was speechless.

The crowd burst into happy laughter. After spending some time together, they all experienced the wonder of this Hokkaido Miko, and the way Minamoto Kiyomoto was forced into silence by her was also very interesting.

The Hokkaido Miko looked at the crowd with confusion.

“What are they laughing at?” she asked Minamoto Kiyomoto as if she were a real insider.

“I don’t know. It’s probably a cerebrovascular disease. This disease has symptoms of crying and laughing for no reason.”

The Hokkaido Miko looked at Minamoto Kiyomoto with her eyes that were either as cold as snow or as pure as snow.

“What’s wrong?” Minamoto Kiyomoto asked.

“Humph,” the Hokkaido Miko turned her face away, pretending to be angry.

Himegami Izayoi didn’t laugh. The others laughed even more happily, all saying that her imitation was far from good.

Regardless of whether they could fall asleep or not, everyone returned to their respective cabins.

Minamoto Kiyomoto walked into Himegami Izayoi’s room. She was arranging her hair in front of the mirror—she had just tied it up casually, but it was still beautiful, with a more charming beauty.

“Is Doctor Minamoto here to see me?” she didn’t turn her head and looked at Minamoto Kiyomoto in the mirror.

“Are you sick?” Minamoto Kiyomoto walked over with a smile.

“I’ve been crying and laughing for no reason lately. Someone said I have a disease called cerebrovascular disease.”

Minamoto Kiyomoto laughed heartily and said, “What cerebrovascular disease? You’re in love.”

He took off the black haori embroidered with white cranes, threw it aside, and lay down on the bed comfortably, supporting his head with one hand, watching her arrange her hair in front of the mirror.

There was a Song Dynasty ship in the distance. Using local materials, it should be said that it was ‘arranging her hair in the mirror.’

A warmth that arose spontaneously, a tenderness that could not be suppressed, surged from the bottom of Minamoto Kiyomoto’s heart, and his eyes also softened.

“Does love make people cry and laugh?” Himegami Izayoi asked.

“Weren’t you just crying and laughing?”

“Can this disease be cured?”

“No, it’s a terminal illness. Doctor Minamoto himself is also crying and laughing.”

Himegami Izayoi put down her comb, stood up, and walked to the bedside.

“I don’t believe it,” she pressed her upper body on Minamoto Kiyomoto, held his face, and said with a smile, “Cry for me.”

“The person I like likes me and is in my arms right now. How can I cry at this time? I can only laugh,” Minamoto Kiyomoto’s hand was on her slender and delicate waist, and he smiled mischievously.

“You’re always lying,” Himegami Izayoi gave him a charming and coquettish look, and her slender and soft hand touched his lips.

Minamoto Kiyomoto kissed her finger.

It tickled. Himegami Izayoi laughed and pulled it back.

He tilted his head slightly, sized up her hair accessory, and asked, “Is your hair okay like this?”

“I’ll fix it later,” her voice became low, gentle, and slightly hoarse. “It’ll get messy later anyway.”

“Messy?” Minamoto Kiyomoto was stunned, then explained, “I just came to return the clothes.”

“Is that so? Then I’ll continue to fix it,” saying this, Himegami Izayoi was about to get up.

“Since you’re here, stay,” Minamoto Kiyomoto pulled her back.

“Who’s here? This is my bed. The one who’s leaving is… ah!”

The curtains swayed like seaweed, and Himegami Izayoi’s silver-bell-like laughter, which was afraid of tickling, gradually turned into panting.

The two of them didn’t sleep all night. When it was almost dawn, Himegami Izayoi sat in front of the mirror again. This time, it was the fire fan who was combing her hair.

Last night, she had fixed it herself in front of the mirror. It was obvious that she had guessed that Minamoto Kiyomoto might come.

“That Rikka is so silly. To use a word I learned from Tokyo, she’s a natural airhead,” she said, looking at the mirror.

“Natural airhead?” Minamoto Kiyomoto put on his haori. “You mean she’s straightforward? That might be why she’s so strong.”

“You’ve fallen for her?” Himegami Izayoi stared at Minamoto Kiyomoto in the mirror and asked with a smile.

“Love has another symptom, which is to take some irrelevant words seriously, and then become unhappy and angry.”

Himegami Izayoi snorted noncommittally, then asked with a smile, “Am I beautiful?”

Minamoto Kiyomoto didn’t know what the relationship between the two was, but another symptom of love was that it didn’t need logic.

“Beautiful. You’re the most beautiful in the world,” he said.

“Perfunctory.”

“Fire fan, you say it.”

“Master has been glowing lately,” the fire fan replied.

“You mean I wasn’t glowing before?” Himegami Izayoi nitpicked.

Minamoto Kiyomoto felt her tenderness and love after her little tantrum.

He walked to her side, took the cherry blossom hairpin, and gently inserted it into her ink-black hair.

In the mirror, Himegami Izayoi’s eyes were as gentle as water.

The two of them did not speak anymore, looking at each other in the mirror, communicating their feelings with their eyes.

Any language was dull at this time.

After fixing her makeup and confirming that she was not wearing the wrong clothes, Minamoto Kiyomoto and Himegami Izayoi walked out of the cabin side by side. The morning light was just breaking through the sea.

The sea was golden, as if sprinkled with golden pearls, dazzling.

The iceberg was crystal clear, standing in the golden pearls, like a huge gem, each facet shining with a dazzling light.

A strange light flowed, as if there was a living spirit inside.

The strange and gloomy atmosphere of last night had transformed into a graceful and magnificent beauty. The crowd was conquered and intoxicated by it.

A sunny and cloudless day.

This day, as soon as she saw Kamibayashi Miko, Himegami Izayoi, who had been glowing just now, immediately yawned.

“So sleepy,” she said in a tired voice.

Kamibayashi Miko turned a blind eye to her yawn. She knew what she was thinking, or rather, what she was showing off.

“You look very well,” the Hokkaido Miko looked at Himegami Izayoi with confusion.

“I was pretending to be awake all night. I can’t let the people below know that we secretly slept,” Himegami Izayoi said as if it were true, and even lowered her voice.

“It doesn’t look like it.”

Himegami Izayoi drew the folding fan from her waist and laughed, “Master Kiyo also told me that you are frank and straightforward. It’s really true.”

“Last night?” Itomi Sayaka led her sister and Hanyu Chika over.

“Yes,” Himegami Izayoi looked at her, but her eyes were on Kamibayashi Miko, and she replied with a grin.

Minamoto Kiyomoto held onto the railing and looked at the iceberg. A chill ran through his body, and he felt that his future was full of hardships.

After the sun had completely left the water surface, he ordered the ice to be chiseled and a boatman to be dug out.

The ice was very solid. The practitioners had to use their divine artifacts to dig out some ice chips.

Amatsumara’s heart moved. Just as he was about to ask his clansmen to collect the ice chips, those who were chiseling the ice were very smart and had already put them in their pockets.

Those who had originally avoided the iceberg couldn’t help but take the initiative to join in and help “chisel the ice.”

“This is like in ‘Aesop’s Fables,’ where no matter how strong the north wind is, it’s not as good as the sun spreading its sunlight, and the traveler takes off his coat himself,” Minamoto Kiyomoto said to Itomi Yuki. “Orders are never as good as benefits. This principle is the same in training. To train a spell, to get close to the divine energy, and even to fight, there must be a ‘benefit’ to be gained. Go with the flow.”

Itomi Yuki seemed to understand, but also didn’t. She felt that she understood something, but also seemed to understand nothing.

“You don’t need to understand it right away,” Minamoto Kiyomoto saw her confusion. “This is a summary. You just need to remember it in your heart and think about it occasionally. You’ll understand when you understand.”

“Mhm,” Itomi Yuki nodded.

Itomi Sayaka looked at Minamoto Kiyomoto and her sister with relief.

But there was one thing that made her very confused. She didn’t know whether to see this as a brother-in-law teaching his sister-in-law, or a boyfriend teaching his girlfriend.

She didn’t really want to give Minamoto Kiyomoto to her sister.

Under the greed of the crowd, a boatman was quickly dug out.

The boatman sat cross-legged, holding wine in his left hand and a whole roasted goose in his right, feasting. Although he was a boatman, he was 1.9 meters tall, like an iron tower, with a heroic expression.

The ice block wrapped around the boatman was not brought onto the demon-hunting ship, but was placed on the sea.

On the sea, in the sky, and on the deck of the ship, it was full of figures. The crowd was all watching.

Minamoto Kiyomoto stood on the side of the ship, flicked his finger, and a black flame flew out.

The ice block could barely be dug with a divine artifact. He actually wanted to melt the ice block with a single flame. Many practitioners were a little disdainful.

They didn’t disbelieve Minamoto Kiyomoto, but they felt that he had underestimated the hardness of the ice block.

Who knew that the flame hovered over the boatman’s head, and in just two or three seconds, the surface of the ice block had already started to drip water.

The people who had personally chiseled the ice just now were greatly surprised. They didn’t know what kind of spell this was. It looked inconspicuous, but it had such power.

I’m afraid that even a divine artifact made from the remains of a village-level yokai would be burned through, right?

Minamoto Kiyomoto controlled the temperature, trying to melt only the ice layer, like cutting raw materials when gambling on stones. He had to be careful.

Soon, the ice block melted, and the boatman’s hair was exposed.

The wind blew, and it even swayed slightly. However, the next moment, the boatman’s entire body dissolved into the air like incense and disappeared without a trace.

“What?”

“What’s going on? Did anyone see clearly?”

Cries of surprise rose from all around. The strangeness of the scene before them made people wonder if the ice block had frozen a person or a shadow of the past.

The ice block was still on the sea, but the person inside had completely disappeared.

Minamoto Kiyomoto retracted the Samadhi True Fire, pondered for a moment, and said, “Dig a hole and board the ship to have a look. Don’t expose the people on the ship.”

“Yes!” Amatsumara replied.

He glanced at the mold-like ice block and said to those with eager eyes, “This ice block, those who need it can take it and divide it.”

“Thank you for the reward, my lord!”

“Thank you, Lord Tsukushi-no-Kimi!”

The practitioners from Kansai and Kanto responded differently.

These ice blocks were useless to Minamoto Kiyomoto, but many people didn’t even have a divine artifact.

Even if they had a divine artifact, they could use it to forge other things, such as armor. They could also exchange it for money. Maybe it had some unknown effects. In short, the more the better.

With Minamoto Kiyomoto’s permission, a group of practitioners who had come to hunt yokai instantly changed their profession to stone masons.

At eleven o’clock in the morning, a tunnel leading to the jade tower was finally dug out. This showed the huge size of this Song Dynasty ship and the indestructibility of the ice block.

Everyone was ready to set off. Minamoto Kiyomoto said, “Before we go in, I have a few words to say first.”

Everyone gathered on the deck. Compared to the huge demon-hunting ship, they were like ants.

“Once you go in, you must obey my orders. Kasen and shrine maidens are no exception.”

He glanced at the position where the Kasen were standing and added, “If there are any good things on the ship, besides the things that affect the demon hunting plan, the rest will belong to whoever finds them first. No fighting is allowed.”

The low-level practitioners immediately relaxed, and then they became excited. The high-level practitioners were a little dissatisfied.

Some of them were here to join in the fun, some were here to see the world, and some were just because of their superior’s orders.

Why should I listen to you, kid? If I have to listen, I’ll listen to my own superior’s orders.

Just as they were thinking this, they heard Minamoto Kiyomoto continue:
“If you dare to disobey my orders, for those from Kansai, I will have the Ise Miko deal with you; for those from Kanto, I will hand you over to the Divine Medium; for those from Hokkaido, there is the Senso Miko.”

These people secretly glanced at the three shrine maidens and lowered their heads.

These three, the Divine Medium’s status in Kanto was transcendent;
The Ise Miko not only had a high status, but also had a criminal record of killing a Kasen:

As for the Hokkaido Miko, her relationship with the “Taiko” was very ordinary—in fact, her relationship with everyone was ordinary. But if she broke a few people’s legs, the “Taiko” couldn’t do anything to her. At most, he would punish her with confinement.

“A fox borrowing a tiger’s might,” Himegami Izayoi whispered in Minamoto Kiyomoto’s ear.

“I am a fox spirit,” Minamoto Kiyomoto replied with a smile, and even gave her a teasing glance.

Himegami Izayoi showed a disgusted expression, but her heart warmed up again.

Kamibayashi Miko looked at the two of them. Minamoto Kiyomoto coughed twice and said to Itomi Yuki, “Yuki, you don’t go this time. Stay on the ship.”

“Mhm, I know.”

“Sayaka, Michiko, Your Excellency Tazu, and Sister Mizu, you also stay and protect Yuki and the ship.”

“As you command,” Itomi Sayaka replied without being serious, imitating those people.

Yagyu Michiko held her pipa and bowed slightly.

The Izumo Miko nodded slightly.

“Be careful, little brother,” the Suitengu Miko instructed.

Minamoto Kiyomoto then looked at Hanyu Chika and asked her, “Are you going? Maybe you can find some good things.”

Hanyu Chika couldn’t make up her mind for a moment.

“Go,” Itomi Sayaka put her hand on her friend’s shoulder. “Kiyomoto-kun will protect you, right, my dear?”

“If you say ‘my dear’ again, I won’t even be able to protect myself,” Minamoto Kiyomoto said with a sigh.

“Am I that fierce?” Himegami Izayoi said irritably, then laughed again.

“Whoever answers is the fierce one. You know it in your heart,” Minamoto Kiyomoto said.

“Among us, Miko is the fiercest. Do you admit it?” Himegami Izayoi pressed her fan against his chest and made him speak his mind.

Minamoto Kiyomoto did not speak.

Although he was not afraid of death and was also an honest person, he was not stupid—Kamibayashi Miko was staring at him with gentle (a needle hidden in cotton) eyes.

Hanyu Chika finally decided to go.

Before leaving, Itomi Sayaka whispered in her ear, “Follow him closely. You don’t need to risk looking for treasures. Just go through the motions. If he finds anything, I’ll help you get it back later.”

Hanyu Chika was a little embarrassed. After all, Minamoto Kiyomoto had killed her brother. How could she take his things?

But she really wanted it. Itomi Yuki even had a divine artifact.

“Mhm,” she nodded slightly and decided to let go of her hatred and face. After all, the living were more important—including herself.

Kiyomoto-kun was just doing his duty. If anyone is to blame, it’s my brother.
I’ve warned him so many times not to use his divine power in the city, but he still didn’t listen and had to show off. As a result, he brought disaster upon himself.

Minamoto Kiyomoto didn’t know what she was thinking. He had invited her on board with the intention of finding some good things to give her and resolving their hatred.

He scanned the practitioners on the deck and ordered, “Board the ship!”